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Weekend Roundup, Part 1

An 86-year-old guide hiked the Nabatean Spice Route from Petra to Avdat over five days. On the last day they discovered a lost portion of the route.

The process of clearing mines from the area around the baptismal site on the Jordan River has begun.

A new study reveals that “pigeons played a central role some 1,500 years ago in transforming the Byzantine Negev into a flourishing garden.”

Philippe Bohstrom provides a good summary of where things stand with the seal impression of Isaiah.

Itzhaq Shai and Chris McKinny explain Canaanite religion at Tel Burna in the 13th century BC.

Israel’s Good Name recently spent the day at En Gedi, taking photos around the area and visiting the ancient synagogue.

An Israeli shepherdess is raising sheep so she can sell pricey shofars.

Passion Week begins tomorrow and Wayne Stiles is making available a free video series tracing

Jesus’s final days from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday.

50% off retail price on the entire inventory of Wipf & Stock! They have some great books! Use code INV50 through April 3. Here are three of their books I love:

Or search their 300-page catalog here. (Sale includes books not listed in that catalog.) Or find Biblical Studies here.

HT: Agade, Charles Savelle, PaleoJudaica

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Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Excavations of Ein Hanya in the Judean hills have concluded with an announcement of the discovery of an Israelite royal capital (proto-Aeolic?), a 4th century Greek drachma, and a Byzantine pool system. The site is associated in tradition with Philip’s baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch. The site will soon open as an archaeological park.

Eilat Mazar has returned to the Ophel to excavate, and this video shows a large cave she believes was in use during the First Temple period. An interview with Mazar includes an aerial photo with the excavation sites labeled.

A Roman tomb complex has been discovered in the northern Gaza Strip.

The ancient temple at Ain Dara, Syria, which is the closest parallel to Solomon’s temple, was heavily damaged in recent Turkish air strikes.

A radar scan is underway in King Tut’s tomb to determine if there are any hidden chambers.

Egypt announced the discovery of a 4,400-year-old tomb in good condition at Giza.

A man carrying a metal detector around the Nabatean ruins of Halutza was arrested for looting more than 150 Byzantine coins.

Five ancient statues stolen during Lebanon’s civil war are back on display in its National Museum.

The Museum of Ancient Greek Technology recently opened in Athens.

“A new exhibition showing at the Carthage National Museum highlights the links between the Carthaginian and Etruscan civilisations before the Mediterranean came under Roman dominion.”

Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities is launching a project to document rare petroglyphs throughout the country. 

HT: Ted Weis, Agade, Joseph Lauer

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Weekend Roundup

“Excavations are being carried out to make an underground pedestrian passageway, leading from beneath the Church of All Nations at Gethsemane to a private area on the other side of the Jericho
road.”

Scientists have discovered evidence of Byzantine agriculture in the Negev on the basis of bones of a gerbil.

Popular Archaeology considers whether there was an “iron throne” in the void of the Pyramid of
Cheops.

“Egyptian and American archaeologists unveiled two new discoveries in Aswan, including a royal administrative complex in the ancient Egyptian city of Tel Edfu and a collection of artefacts in the Kom Ombo temple.”

Scott Stripling reports on Week One of processing objects from ABR’s excavation of Khirbet el-Maqatir.

The lecture schedule for the Albright Institute for January and February has been released.

The Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem has posted its spring lecture schedule.

The National Geographic Museum has opened a new exhibit now through August: Tomb of Christ: 

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre Experience. Samuel Pfister at the Biblical Archaeology Society provides a solid review.

Episodes 6-10 of “Following the Messiah” were released yesterday. All are free.

John DeLancey of Biblical Israel Ministries and Tours has created a 17-minute video on “Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus.”

Crossway has announced its Bibles coming in 2018, including the ESV Archaeology Study Bible.

Leon Mauldin has been visiting the British Museum and shares photos of a golden diadem and the 

Israel’s Good Name had a successful trip looking for wildlife in the Huleh Valley.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle

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Weekend Roundup

Noam Chen has produced a photo essay of the “hidden gems of Jerusalem,” including the Kishle, Siebenberg House, the Italian Synagogue, Jason’s Tomb, Helena’s Well, Little Western Wall, Church of St. John the Baptist, and the Mamluk Halls inside the Western Wall Tunnels.

Israel’s Good Name recently participated in an excavation of the Upper Aqueduct south of Jerusalem.

“More than half a dozen lost Bronze Age cities have been tracked down in Turkey through a mathematical analysis of the accounts left on 12,000 clay tablets by ancient Assyrian traders.” (Registration required.)

“An international seminar about the recently discovered gap in the Great Pyramid of Giza will be held in the upcoming period.”

Golden sheets from Tutankhamun’s tomb will be on display for the first time ever at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. There are more photos here.

An exhibition of the photographs of the excavation of King Tut’s tomb has opened at The Collection in Lincoln, UK.

Michael Press challenges the notion that Palestine was “desolate” in the 19th century. (I observe that his essay does not include any photos.)

For those who have long been wondering: eggplant arrived in Jerusalem just over 1,000 years ago.

Excavations at Ein Hatzeva, home of the “Biblical Tamar Park,” are summarized.

What can we learn from the cities of refuge?

The Museum of the Bible is now open and The Times of Israel gives some highlights. The Washington Post calls it “an up-to-date version of an old-fashioned museum.” World Magazine reviews some of the controversy associated with the museum.

New release: Walking through Jordan: Essays in Honor of Burton MacDonald, edited by Michael Neeley, Geoffrey Clark, and P. M. Michèle Daviau (Equinox, 2017).

Accordance has a big sale going on now in conjunction with the annual meetings of ETS/ASOR/SBL.

Karl Katz, founding curator of the Israel Museum, died this week.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer

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Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Scientists have discovered a void in the Great Pyramid of Giza that is 100 feet long.

Archaeologists excavating in the Timna Valley have discovered remains of a pregnant Egyptian woman.

A swimmer in the Sea of Galilee found a Byzantine-era “chicken-shaped object.”

Young Gazans have begun a campaign on social media to stop the destruction of Tall es-Sakan.

An international team from Spain, Portugal, and the Palestinian Authority conducted excavations at Tirzah (Tell el-Farah North) last month in order to “1. to evaluate the state of conservation of the site in order to implement a program of protection and restoration; 2. topographical survey; 3. archaeological sounding on the Iron Age II sector.” (Not online, as far as I can tell.)

A paper in Astronomy and Geophysics by Colin Humphreys and Graeme Waddington dates the oldest solar eclipse yet recorded to October 30, 1207 BC and suggests this is the “sun-standing-still” event mentioned in Joshua 10. But this connection was proposed last year by H. Yizhaq, D. Vainstub, and U. Avner. The biblical texts, however, date Joshua’s conquest a couple of centuries earlier than this eclipse.

New research suggests that about 80% of antiquities available for sale online are looted or fake.

This week marked the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration and the 100th anniversary of a significant Australian victory over the Ottoman defenses at Beersheba.

A new release on an important subject with many nice photos: The Old Testament in Archaeology and History, edited by Jennie Ebeling, J. Edward Wright, Mark Elliott and Paul V. M. Flesher. Waco, TX:
Baylor University Press, 2017.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle

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Weekend Roundup

A large 4th-century AD winepress has been discovered and excavated in the Ramat Negev region.

The IAA has posted a 1-minute video in Hebrew.

A new study argues that everything we knew about the origin of the Philistines is wrong.


The Times of Israel reviews discoveries made in excavations at Magdala, with an eye on priestly inhabitants.

A new DNA study indicates that the modern-day Lebanese people are descended from people who
lived in the area 4,000 years ago.

Wayne Stiles reflects on a lesson Jesus taught when he walked on the Sea of Galilee.

The Tempe Mount Sifting Project has begun a video series that tours the Temple Mount, beginning with Solomon’s Stables, including footage of the destruction in 1999.

Steven Ortiz is on The Book and the Spade discussing the 10th season of excavations at Gezer.

On the 75th anniversary of his death, Sir Flinders Petrie is profiled in The National, with the focus on his support of eugenics.

The inaugural issue of Archaeology and Text is now online.

The Tell es-Safi (Gath) team got real creative for their season-end group photo.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Agade, Charles Savelle

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About the BiblePlaces Blog

The BiblePlaces Blog provides updates and analysis of the latest in biblical archaeology, history, and geography. Unless otherwise noted, the posts are written by Todd Bolen, PhD, Professor of Biblical Studies at The Master’s University.

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