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(Post by A.D. Riddle)

Aryn Baker wrote a piece for Time Magazine entitled “Saudi Arabia to Tourists: We Are Just Not That Into You” in which she describes how Saudi Arabia has put out a “do not disturb” sign for foreign tourists. Thus, it would seem, there are few opportunities for people to gain access to the archaeological finds from this country. That is what makes the “Roads of Arabia” exhibition so significant. “Roads of Arabia” showed in several European museums before coming to the United States. The exhibition just finished up at the Smithsonian Institution’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and is now headed to Pittsburgh. The exhibition has a website with hi-resolution photographs of exhibition highlights, including this pedestal or altar discovered at Tayma (biblical Tema [Job 6:19]).

Here is the schedule for upcoming shows of the exhibition:

Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Pittsburgh, PA
June 15 – Nov 4, 2013
The Museum of Fine Arts
Houston, TX
Dec 22, 2013 – Mar 9, 2014
Asian Art Museum
San Francisco, CA
Oct 17, 2014 – Jan 18, 2015
Previous posts about the exhibition can be found here and here
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Several articles this week are related to King Herod and the new exhibit at the Israel Museum. With a lengthy list for tomorrow’s roundup, I thought a separate post might be worthwhile.

Herodium, home of the most reviled monarch in Judea – Miriam Feinberg Vamosh writes about Herod’s fortress in a free article in Haaretz.

A King on Exhibition: Herod is Ready for His Close-Up – Karl Vick gives some background on the new exhibit in Time. There are errors.

In Search of Herod’s Tomb – This article by the Herodium’s excavator, Ehud Netzer, was published posthumously in Biblical Archaeology Review.

Herod the Great—The King’s Final Journey – Suzanne F. Singer describes the museum exhibit in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. A slideshow is included.

Over the years, I’ve written about sites important to King Herod, including Masada, Herodium, Caesarea Maritima, Caesarea Philippi, and Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. See also King Herod: Ten 
Things You Didn’t Know.

HT: Jack Sasson

Jerusalem model Herod's Palace from southwest, tb020101208
Model of Herod’s Jerusalem palace, now on display at the Israel Museum. Photo from Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.
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The Times of Israel takes its readers into the new Herod exhibit at the Israel Museum one week ahead of its opening. The article includes many photos, but may be slow loading.

Wayne Stiles has put together some great visual resources of Caesarea, including photos, video, map, and Google Street View.

City Lights over the Middle East – NASA has posted a short video taken from the International Space Station.

Air pollution has been a problem since the days of ancient Rome.

The Oriental Institute has launched its Integrated Database. Phase II will include images.

Metro publishes the “Top 10 archaeological finds of all time.”

Yosef Garfinkel will be lecturing on “Sanctuaries and Cult at Khirbet Qeiyafa” at the Southern
Adventist University’s Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum Lecture Series.

Keith Schoville is retiring from The Book & The Spade radio program.

I am excited to announce that our photo collection Views That Have Vanished is now available as a
module for Accordance. The collection now has all the bells and whistles you would expect from Accordance.

HT: Daniel Wright, Aren Maeir, Charles Savelle, Jack Sasson

views-vanished-bivin-accordance
Screenshot from Views That Have Vanished
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The Israel Museum’s largest and most expensive archaeological project will open on February 12 and run for nine months. From Phys.org:

Israel’s national museum said Tuesday it will open what it calls the world’s first exhibition devoted to the architectural legacy of biblical King Herod, the Jewish proxy monarch who ruled Jerusalem and the Holy Land under Roman occupation two millennia ago. The display includes the reconstructed tomb and sarcophagus of one of antiquity’s most notable and despised figures, curators say. […] Herod’s final grandiose project was to prepare for death. Curators believe Herod constructed an extravagant, 25-meter-high (80-foot-high) tomb. Israeli archaeologist Ehud Netzer spent 35 years of his career searching for it. In 2007, Netzer drew international attention when he announced he had found what he believed was the tomb at the Herodion, the ruler’s winter palace, located on a cone-like hill that still today juts out prominently in the barren landscape of the Judean Desert, near the West Bank city of Bethlehem. In 2008, the archaeologist approached the Israel Museum about creating an exhibit that would display artifacts from one of the greatest finds of his career. While surveying the Herodion site with museum staff, Netzer fell to his death. Museum staff pushed forward with planning the exhibit. In 2011, the museum used a crane to remove dozens of half-ton columns and the roof of what Netzer identified as the top floor of Herod’s tomb, which he thought held his sarcophagus. Each stone was affixed with an electronic chip so it could be more easily be put back together at the Israel Museum. Three sarcophagi were found at the site, and curators believe one was Herod’s. Though it bears no inscription, it is made of a special reddish stone, found smashed into hundreds of pieces. The Jewish zealots who took over the Herodion after Herod’s death likely smashed the sarcophagus to pieces, destroying the symbol of a man who worked with the empire they were rebelling against, curators said.

The full story is here. Barry Britnell also notes a 60-second promo video made by the Israel Museum. In related news, The Times of Israel reports:

As part of a new plan, a replica of his tomb at Herodium, situated outside the West Bank city of Bethlehem, will tower to 83 feet and will be visible from Jerusalem.

Herodium Herod's tomb, tb051708036 Remains of Herod’s tomb at the Herodium.
Photo from Judah and the Dead Sea.

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From Art Daily:

The British Museum today announces that one of its most iconic objects, the Cyrus Cylinder, will tour to five major museum venues in the United States in 2013. This will be the first time this object has been seen in the US and the tour is supported by the Iran Heritage Foundation.

You have to skip to the end of the article to see where and when the object will be on display:

  • Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 9th March – 28th April 2013
  • Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 3rd May – 14th June 2013
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 20th June – 4th August 2013
  • Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, 9th August – 22nd September 2013
  • J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Villa, Los Angeles, 2nd October – 2nd December 2013

What is the Cyrus Cylinder?

The Cylinder was inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform (cuneiform is the earliest form of writing) on the orders of the Persian King Cyrus the Great (559-530BC) after he captured Babylon in 539BC. It is often referred to as the first bill of human rights as it appears to encourage freedom of worship throughout the Persian Empire and to allow deported people to return to their homelands. It was found in Babylon in modern Iraq in 1879 during a British Museum excavation and has been on display ever since.

Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, gave an interesting 20-minute talk on the Cyrus Cylinder at TED last year. The museum has posted a full translation of the inscription.

One caveat: visiting this exhibit does not excuse you from visiting the British Museum! (And before you go, you should purchase this excellent guide.)

HT: Jack Sasson

Cyrus Cylinder, tb112004173
The Cyrus Cylinder in the British Museum
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An exhibit at the Western Science Center in Hemet, California, and sponsored by La Sierra University, has a display of military equipment from Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria open through the end of the year. Two lectures will be given this Thursday by university professors:

Kent Bramlett, “Ride that Chariot: The Rise and Fall of Chariot Warfare in the Ancient Near East.”

Douglas Clark, “Burn that Building: The Rise and Fall of a Village in the Early Iron Age.”

For more information about the lectures, see this article in The Press-Enterprise. For details and photos of the museum exhibit, see the university’s press release.

Ramses II on chariot, dg041901630
Ramses II in chariot, Abu Simbel
Photo from Pictorial Library of Bible Lands
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