Turkey Archives - Page 12 of 58

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

The Antioch Seminar on Paul and Peter will be held from July 9 to 16, 2023. Mark Wilson is the program director, and the program includes visits to Antioch, Tarsus, Cyprus, Perga, and Antalya. This is a great opportunity to go deeper on an area of Turkey and Cyprus that is not on most tours.

Construction workers discovered a beautiful Roman mosaic in Hatay (near biblical Antioch on the Orontes).

The first four shrines of King Tut are now in their permanent location in the Grand Egyptian Museum.

“An analysis of the remains of a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy found that she may have suffered from nasopharyngeal cancer.”

“The reliefs at the Camel Site [in Saudi Arabia] thus provide unique insights into the yearly rhythm of the seasons and their symbolism for Neolithic populations.”

Webinar on August 28: “Columns as Cultural Capital: The Jordanian Practice of Gifting Archaeological Objects,” by Elizabeth R. Macaulay

“HebrewPal (the Hebrew Palaeography Album) is a fully-searchable online database of Hebrew palaeography.”

Carl Rasmussen went to McDonalds near Rome in order to see a Roman road branching off from the via Appia. He shares photos. Also, Carl will be leading one large 33-day Bible Study Tour next year, divided into three segments.

Bible Mapper has created more free maps for everyone:

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken

Tagged Arabia, Discoveries, Egypt, Italy, Lectures, Museums, Resources, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Remains of a bridge over the Tiber built by Emperor Nero have been exposed by historically low levels of the river.

“Archaeologists have unearthed the ruins of what they believe was one of the greatest fire temples in Iran during the Sassanid age.”

A recent study of three Roman amphorae taken from a shipwreck revealed how Romans made wine.

Turkish Archaeological News posts a roundup of stories from the month of June.

“The mania for touring sites and treasures along the Nile is nearly as old as the pyramids of Giza. A recent wave of archaeological discoveries and museum openings has made the experience feel novel.” (subscription)

The new Archaeological Museum of Alexandroupolis has opened. The city is located near Greece’s border with Turkey.

The Met is now one of the most expensive museums in the world. The article lists other contenders.

“Two exhibitions at the Getty Villa explore the links between the Assyrian and the Persian Empires, which both revolved around powerful monarchs.” (subscription)

Zoom lecture on July 13: “Riddle of the Rosetta,” by Diane Josefowicz ($7)

New release: Moving on from Ebla, I Crossed the Euphrates: An Assyrian Day in Honour of Paolo Matthiae, edited by Davide Nadali, Lorenzo Nigro, Frances Pinnock (Archaeopress, 2022)

Carl Rasmussen shares photos of four emperor statues that were discovered in the cult room of the Augustales chapel at Herculaneum.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Lectures, Museums, Resources, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Archaeologists working at Pompeii discovered the remains of a pregnant tortoise with her egg.

“Archeologists at the ancient Greek city of Kelenderis on the Turkish coast have, for the first time, discovered burial gifts, including glass bracelets, at a child’s grave along with a furnace for tile production.”

The National News has an illustrated story about a beautifully decorated tomb discovered a few years ago in the Decapolis city of Capitolias.

Asshur, the ancient capital of Assyria, will be flooded if construction work on a nearby dam is completed.

Hierapolis’s Plutonium (aka “gate to hell”) is now open to tourists for the first time. The vapors are still deadly, but visitors can approach the gate “from a safe distance” to peek into the portal to the underworld.

The Biblical Language Center is offering a number of live video classes in biblical Hebrew and Koiné Greek in the coming months.

Zoom lecture on July 14: “Food and Alcohol in the Hebrew Bible,” by Rebekah Walton

UCSD received a gift of $1 million to expand its program of archaeological studies of Israel and the eastern Mediterranean (subscription). Much of the money will go toward supporting cyber-archaeology.

Carl Rasmussen shares more photos of the only completely preserved building dedicated to the worship of Roman emperors in the 1st century.

Bryan Windle identifies the Top 3 Reports in Biblical Archaeology in the month of June as “stories related to the ancient empire of Mitanni, a Roman emperor, and a Jewish proselyte.”

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Italy, Jordan, Lectures, Mesopotamia, Tourism, Turkey

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Archaeologists have excavated two Late Bronze tombs belonging to wealthy families near Hala Sultan Tekke on Cyprus.

“New excavations of the ancient complex of Girsu in Iraq, led by the British Museum, have the potential to rewrite accepted histories of the development in Mesopotamia.”

“The pyramids in Egypt are more famous, but the ones in Sudan hide royal burial sites that archaeologists can explore—as long as they don’t mind swimming.” (National Geographic; requires email registration)

“The Lost Heritage Atlas initiative is dedicated to collecting the history and memory of those archaeological sites, monuments, sacred places or cultural items that have been completely destroyed.

A rapid change of climate did not cause the fall of the Akkadian empire.

New releases: The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East: Volume II: From the End of the Third Millennium BC to the Fall of Babylon and The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East: Volume III: From the Hyksos to the Late Second Millennium BC, by Karen Radner, Nadine Moeller, and D. T. Potts. $150 each (slightly cheaper at Amazon)

thetruesize.com allows you to easily compare the sizes of countries. Israel, for example, is smaller than any of its neighbors.

“Jordan’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry plans to encourage visits to Madaba after the Arab League designated the city as the Arab Capital of Tourism” for 2022.

The Greek Reporter lists six lesser-known archaeological sites to visit near Athens.

Carl Rasmussen shares about a funny thing that happened on his way to the temple of Apollo at Didyma.

Mark Hoffman reports on the creation of three new Pauline pilgrimage paths in Greece to open in the next couple of years. Anyone want to go hiking?

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Greece, Jordan, Mediterranean Islands, Mesopotamia, Resources, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Carl Rasmussen reports that the Classical Archaeology section of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum has reopened after a long closure, though the all-important upper floor is still not open. On his visit he discovered the “Assos Tablet” that he’s long been looking for.

Babylonian cuneiform texts are shedding light on the life of the ancient Judeans who were living in exile in Babylon.

Emlyn Dodd shares the ancient Egyptian recipe that he used for making olive oil.

A British tourist was given a 15-year jail sentence in an Iraqi prison after picking up a few potsherds as souvenirs.

“New York prosecutors have seized five Egyptian [antiquities] from the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of an international trafficking investigation involving the former head of Paris’s Louvre Museum.”

Hybrid workshop on July 1: Performing Tutankhamun: One Hundred Years of Retellings

Turkish Archaeological News has a roundup of stories from the month of May.

Clyde Billington is on The Book and the Spade to discuss Jewish perspectives on the exodus, including recent research by Lawrence Schiffman and Joshua Berman.

Accordance Bible Software is offering their best deals ever on graphics collections, including our Cultural Images of the Holy Land and Trees, Plants, and Flowers of the Holy Land. I would also recommend The Virtual Bible: 3D Reconstructions of the Biblical World ($20) and the bundle of five resources (including tabernacle and temple) from Rose Publishing ($40). See all the discounts here.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Egypt, Lectures, Mesopotamia, Museums, Photo Resources, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

“Egypt has unveiled a major new archaeological find of 250 sarcophagi, 150 small bronze statues of gods and goddesses and other antiquities at the Saqqara necropolis.”

One of the more remarkable finds from the excavations of Satala in Turkey is an ornate bronze belt from an Urartian warrior.

Turkish authorities raided sites in 38 provinces in culmination of a yearlong investigation of an antiquities theft ring.

“The lost [Mittanian] city of ‘Zakhiku’ has resurfaced after spending decades underwater in the Mosul reservoir on the River Tigris in Iraq.”

Joel Kramer has found lots of sulfur balls at Numeira, a possible location of biblical Gomorrah.

Elon Heymans looks at the factors that led the use of silver and other precious metals as a form of currency at the beginning of the Iron Age in the ANE.

Greek Reporter: “Antioch on the Orontes, an ancient Greek city on the eastern side of the Orontes River, was one of the most glorious of all the Greek cities in the world.”

The Unsilencing the Archives Lectures from Badè Museum “explore the often-overlooked contributions made by Middle Easterners to archaeological excavations during the period of the British Mandate in Palestine.” The full series of 11 lectures is now online.

A 21-year-old punk broke into the Dallas Museum of Art and caused $5 million in damage, including the destruction of three ancient Greek vessels.

“Like us, the Romans were adept at scrolling — except they used actual, unwieldy scrolls. They would have loved OmnesViae, a handy online route planner, just for Roman roads.”

The Babylon Bee: “Archaeologists Have Just Discovered CONCLUSIVE PROOF Of The Bible.”

New release: Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of P. Kyle McCarter Jr., edited by Christopher Rollston, Susanna Garfein, and Neal H. Walls (SBL Press, $99). Free pdf download here (via AWOL).

BibleTelling’s Christian Storytelling Conference is being held in Jacksonville, Illinois, on June 23-25. The Story Concert will be broadcast live on Friday evening.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Ted Weis, Arne Halbakken, Deborah Hurn

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Discoveries, Egypt, Jordan, Lectures, Mesopotamia, Museums, Resources, Technology, Turkey, Weekend Roundup