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Hershel Shanks: Authentic or Forged? What to Do When Experts Disagree? His example: Geologists vs. philologists on the Jehoash Inscription.

Michael S. Heiser recommends the archive of ISIS, the journal of the ancient chronology forum.

Charles E. Jones lists titles relating to antiquity from the Brooklyn Museum Publications now available online.

A husband and wife team have been leading an excavation of  ‘Ayn Gharandal in southern Jordan.

“A new ancient city considered to be the Zeugma of the West and thought to be one of the lost cities of Anatolia has been unearthed in İzmir.” (Hurriyet Daily News)

The Exhibition Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology is now open at the Discovery Science Center in southern California.

Israel: Seeing is Believing – This six-minute film has some nice footage. The focus is as much on the modern as on the ancient.

At only $8.54, the ESV Study Bible for the Kindle is a great deal. Note that the index feature does not work with Kindle 1, Kindle Fire, or the Kindle apps.

HT: Charles Savelle, Jack Sasson, G. M. Grena

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Frank Moore Cross died this week. Hershel Shanks has written some reflections on their relationship.

James Davila describes his experience as a student. Eisenbrauns has a 50% sale on a volume of 55 key articles he wrote. Chuck Jones has created a list of his articles available on JSTOR. And Frank 
Moore Cross: Conversations with a Bible Scholar is available as a free ebook.

A two-part interview with Robert Mullins on the new excavations of Abel Beth Maacah is now available at The Book and the Spade.

The Smithsonian Channel delayed the release of the documentary on the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife.”

Hershel Shanks disagrees with Harvard Theological Review’s decision to delay publication of the article.

The historic souk of Aleppo, Syria, is a battleground today.

The Dead Sea will live again: Wayne Stiles explains and includes a slideshow, a video, and a map.

The 200th anniversary of the rediscovery of Petra is celebrated in a new exhibition in Basel.

“From Papyrus to Print: A Journey through the History of the Bible” is the central exhibit at the new 
Bible and archaeology museum at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Rachel Hallote will be lecturing on “Not-So-Innocents Abroad: The Beginnings of American Biblical Archaeology” on October 28 at Emory University.

Manfred Bietak will be lecturing on “Recent Discoveries at the Hyksos Capital, Tell el-Dab‘a
(Egypt)” on November 12, 7:00 PM in Hinkson Hall, Rodine Building, Trinity Evangelical Divinity
School.

HT: Al Sandalow, Jack Sasson, Joseph Lauer

Petra Siq, df072007322
The Siq of Petra
Photo from Pictorial Library of Bible Lands
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From The Temple Mount Sifting Project: On Thursday evening this week, September 6, 2012, the City of David will be hosting their 13th Annual Research Conference sponsored by the Megalim Institute. The program begins with an open house from 16:00 to 18:30 to give you an opportunity to visit the City of David and see all the newly excavated areas including the Second Temple Period street and water channel from the Siloam Pool up to the Temple Mount. The formal part of the program begins at 18:30. Admission is free and no registration is required, but space is limited. During the open house from 16:00 to 18:30, the Temple Mount Sifting Project will host an exhibit of finds recovered during the past 7 years of work.  The display, in the courtyard just inside the entry gates of the City of David, will include ancient seals and coins, personal items such as hair combs and jewelry, arrowheads, dice and game pieces, clay idols, weights, Herodian architectural elements and paving tiles that were once part of the Temple Mount plaza. This is the first time that these artifacts have been available for public viewing. Later in the evening as part of the Conference, at about 21:00, we will give a presentation [in Hebrew] of the Sifting Project’s important finds since our last Research Conference report, given in 2007. We will also be updating the public on our ongoing research and our new understandings about the Temple Mount’s past. Please stop by the City of David on Thursday evening to view this amazing exhibit of artifacts that helps tell the history of the Temple Mount. More information about the City of David Archaeological conference is here. HT: Joseph Lauer Sifting Temple Mount debris, tb110906729 Temple Mount Sifting Project

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Objects from a 13th-century BC cultic pit discovered in 2010 near Jokneam go on display this week at Haifa’s National Maritime Museum. More than 200 items were found in a favissa near Tel Qashish during construction of a pipeline. From the Jerusalem Post:

The treasure trove contains pottery vessels from the Late Canaanite Age IIB (1300-1200 BCE), which were stored in an elliptical pit of limestone rock – 3 meters high by 1.5 meters wide by 3 meters deep – containing more than 200 items, mostly previously unknown and quite rare, according to a statement from the exhibition. Inside the pit were items made locally, in Mycenae and in Cyprus. The locally-made products presumably for cult use included goblets – one with a man’s face sculpted on it – tall cylindrical stands, small stands, incense burners and chalices for libation, burning oil and incense. According to the exhibition, they indicate that the trove belonged to a local temple that has not yet been discovered and were items brought by worshipers. However, researchers have neither been able to identify the specific deity nor the worshipers themselves. “The pottery was either buried in haste for fear of damage by enemy forces, or stored in the pit when there was no more room elsewhere, or discarded,” the statement from the exhibition said. Among other more common local items were bowls, jugs, juglets, cooking pots, oil lamps, Canaanite jars and cup-andsaucer sets. From Cyprus, the favissa contained bowls of white-slip and base-ring wares, as well as white-shaved juglets.

The full story is here. We noted the original discovery in June 2010. The IAA press release includes a few photos and six high-resolution images are available here. The original audio slideshow is still available at Discovery News. HT: Joseph Lauer 1 Cultic objects at time of discovery.
Photo by Assaf Peretz, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

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Twenty-five years of excavations at et-Tell on the northeastern side of the Sea of Galilee are being celebrated with a fundraiser and photographic exhibition at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Celebrating 25 Years of UNO’s Biblical Excavation Project:
Artifacts from the Dig & Hanan Shafir: Photographs of Bethsaida In recognition of the 25th anniversary, the UNO Art Gallery will host a collection of photography from Bethsaida by Hanan Shafir. Showing in the Weber Fine Arts Building on UNO’s Dodge Street campus, the exhibition will run from Aug. 24 to Sept. 27. The gallery is free and open to the public. Hours are Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Groups are welcome to schedule an appointment outside of these times by calling 402.554.2796. Pre-Opening Fundraiser & Reception: Come see the place, the people, and the artifacts, meet the photographer, and listen to UNO Professor Rami Arav, lead excavator at Bethsaida. The event is Thursday, Aug. 23, from 6 to 9 p.m. All members of the public are welcome. Tickets are $40 in advance and $50 at the door. Proceeds will help faculty and students travel to Bethsaida and continue this important archeological study in coming years. Several gift items including commemorative pottery shards from Bethsaida will be raffled and Shafir’s photographs will be for sale by silent auction.

For more information, see the university’s website. HT: Jack Sasson Bethsaida Iron Age gate with stela replica, tb011412616 Iron Age gate of Bethsaida

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On Monday, the “Dead Sea Scrolls & the Bible” exhibit opens at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. I confess having a jaundiced view towards such American exhibits because they typically charge a high price for a glimpse at a handful of scraps of ancient writing. This display appears to be different, offering a wealth of materials as well as 22 manuscript fragments. This week’s article in the Baptist Press convinced me to plan to spend a day at the exhibit. Some excerpts:

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary hopes to … give more people than ever a chance to see manuscripts that reveal the faithful transmission of the biblical texts over thousands of years through its Dead Sea Scrolls & the Bible exhibition, which will run from July 2012 to January 2013….
Weston Fields, guest curator for the Dead Sea Scrolls & the Bible exhibition and executive director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation, said that while the ancient scroll fragments do not “prove” the Bible is true, they prove, more or less, that the Bible Christians use today, including 66 books from Genesis to Revelation, is the Bible God intended Christians to have, even thousands of years after He first inspired its writing….
Owning more Dead Sea Scroll fragments than any institution of higher education in North America, Southwestern plans to showcase seven of its fragments together with others on loan from the Kando family of Bethlehem, Hebrew University, and the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, for a total of 22 manuscript fragments in the exhibit.
The exhibit also will contain archaeological artifacts, early copies of Scripture, and equipment used in excavations, including the Jeselsohn Dead Sea Stone, or “Gabriel’s Vision”; the first published Greek New Testament; a page of the Gutenberg Bible; the Luther Bible; New Testament papyri; and tools from the excavation of Qumran, as well as a nearly 16-foot-long display of a portion of the St. John’s Bible.
[…]
McCoy said the exhibition will offer a child-friendly component as well, where young visitors can experience the archaeological aspects of the Dead Sea Scrolls and learn about them alongside their parents, both through kiosks placed throughout the exhibit and through a simulated dig site located outside the exhibit hall.
At the dig site, visitors will have the chance to excavate and dig for ancient artifacts. A child may then take home a shard discovered in his digging.

And a bullet list, for those who prefer the short version:

In The Exhibit:
— Murals of Dead Sea region
— Artifacts such as coins, pottery and sandals
— Replica Wailing Wall
— Authentic Bedouin tent
— Tent from Qumran dig site
— Scroll stylus and ink well
— Replica of Cave 4
— Dead Sea Scroll fragments and other manuscripts
— Dead Sea Scrolls film
— iScroll kiosks
— Portion of St. John’s Bible
— Early Bibles and texts
— Gift shop
— Interactive dig site

The story includes two free high-resolution photos. The official website is here. A few weeks ago I noted the excellent lecture series. In 2010 Southwestern purchased some of the Dead Sea Scroll fragments that will be on display.

Qumran Cave 4 from 4b, tb051106117
Cave 4 at Qumran (from the other side)
-buy this photo and 1,547 others for $40-
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