Todd Bolen, Author at BiblePlaces.com

Conference: Eighth Century Judah and Its Cultural Context

The Tan Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University is hosting a symposium to honor Professor Oded Borowski on Tuesday, February 4. Full details are here.

It appears that the conference proceedings will be published, and the first three chapters I plan to read are:

Christopher A. Rollston, Judean Foreign Policy in the Eighth Century BCE: Epigraphic Evidence for Political Engagement with the Great Empires

Andrew Vaughn, Should All of the LMLK Jars Still Be Attributed to Hezekiah? Yes!

K. Lawson Younger Jr., The Assyrian Impact on the Levant in Light of Recent Study

The website includes a full list of lectures along with a statement honoring Oded Borowski. His most popular books are well known to those who love ancient Israel:

Agriculture in Iron Age Israel (1987, 2009)

Every Living Thing: The Daily Use of Animals in Ancient Israel (1997)

Daily Life in Biblical Times (2003)

HT: LMLK Blogspot

Tagged Lectures

Weekend Roundup

With the cooperation of local landowners, a new national park may be established at Tal al-Umayri (el-Umeiri) in Jordan.

Archaeologists have discovered what may be the oldest Roman temple at the foot of Capitoline Hill in Rome.

“The remains of a bustling port and barracks for sailors or military troops have been discovered near the Giza Pyramids.”

Archaeologists working at Tell Abu al-Kharaz in the Jordan Valley believe they have evidence that some of the Sea Peoples settled there ca. 1100 BC.

A new computer system in use by the Israel Antiquities Authority will enable archaeologists to create “a national database of sherds, a kind of sherd Google.” (Haaretz; registration required)

Some of Syria’s historic sites are being destroyed for political reasons.

A Study Guide of Israel: Historical & Geographical, by Arnold Fruchtenbaum is on now on sale at ~~Logos~~ ~~for $18. ($52 used at~~ ~~Amazon~~.)

The HCSB Study Bible is on sale for the Kindle for $3.

This diagram shows Paul’s missionary journeys in the form of a London subway map.

Leona Glidden Running, co-author of a biography of W. F. Albright, has died.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson, Mark Hoffman

Port and barracks excavated near Giza pyramids.
Photo by AERA.

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Jordan, Resources, Syria, Technology, Weekend Roundup

Israel Tourist Statistics

The latest Caspari Center Media Review includes a brief summary from the Hebrew-language Yerushalayim Shelanu of tourism to Israel in 2012.

56% of the 2.88 million tourists who visited Israel were Christian. Of these, 90% visited Jerusalem, 68% visited the Dead Sea, 62% visited Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee, and 60% visited Bethlehem. Most Christian tourists come from Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Poland, Mexico, Russia, Romania, and Nigeria.

A photo of a flock of tourists all wearing floppy orange hats would fit right here.

Tagged Tourism

IWC Spring 2014 Lecture Series

In my estimation, perhaps the most interesting lecture series related to biblical archaeology is that held each year by the International Women’s Club at Tel Aviv University. They bring in outstanding lecturers who discuss topics of broad interest.

This year’s theme is “In the Eye of the Storm—‘Jerusalem in History and Archaeology Through the Ages.’” The schedule is as follows:

February 18: Dr. Gabriel Barkay, Jerusalem of Kings and Prophets

February 25: Prof. Avraham Faust, Jerusalem and Sennacherib: The City, before, during, and after the Assyrian Campaign of 701 BCE

March 4: Dr. Joe Uziel, Recent Excavations in Jerusalem and Their Importance for
Understanding the First Temple City

March 11: Dr. Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg, “The Hezekiah Tunnel.” How Was It Built and Why Was It Built?

March 18: Dr. Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg, The History and Archaeology of the Book of Esther

March 25: Dr. Guy Shtibel, “By Far the Most Famous City of the East” – Herod and Jerusalem

April 1: Dr. Guy Shtibel, The Eagle and the Flies – The Roman Siege of Jerusalem

April 8: Dr. Guy Shtibel, “Between Two Cities” – From Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina

April 29: Dr. Yonatan Adler, Mikva’ot (Ritual Baths) in Late Hellenistic and Early Roman Jerusalem

May 13: Dr. Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, Jerusalem (Aelia Capitolina) in the Roman Period: The Foundation of the Roman Colony and the Bar-Kokhba Revolt

May 20: Dr. Oren Gutfeld, From Aelia Capitolina to Hagia Polis Hierosalima: Changes in the Urban Layout of Jerusalem

June 10: Mr. Perez Reuven, The Umayyad Building Project on the Temple Mount and Its Environs

Individual lectures cost 50 NIS; the entire series is 400 NIS. The lectures will be held 9-11:30 am in the Gilman Building, Room 282, Tel Aviv University. A flyer with contact details is available here.

Tagged Jerusalem, Lectures

Weekend Roundup

Excavations in Hebron have already revealed an Iron Age house, artifacts from the 10th century, and Second Temple period items.

Nadav Shragai writes in Israel HaYom on recent Temple Mount discoveries that have not been publicized.

Plans are underway for a new museum at Petra.

The Rapid City Journal recounts how a collection of cuneiform tablets came to be in the collection of Black Hills State University in South Dakota.

National Geographic presents “Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology,” a new exhibition coming to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.

Ferrell Jenkins has posted several entries recently in his Visualizing Isaiah series: a skirt of sackcloth, trusting in horses and chariots, and a booth in a vineyard.

Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo has welcomed a new male lion to replace the one who died last year.

ASOR has a roundup of stories from around the world.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle, Jack Sasson

Tagged Excavations, Jerusalem, Jordan, Judah, Museums, New Exhibits, Temple Mount, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Lecture Series: History and Archaeology of the Three Jerusalems

The American Jewish University in Bel Air, California, is hosting the Simmons Family Charitable Foundation’s Twenty-Fifth Annual Program in Biblical Archaeology on Sunday, February 16, 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. The registration fee is $55. The schedule includes the following lectures:

Carol Bakhos, The Idea of Jerusalem in the Hearts of Those Who Call Out “Lord” or “Allah” or “Adonai”

Shimon Gibson, Christian Jerusalem: From Constantine the Great in the 4th Century to Emperor Heraclius in the 7th Century

Shimon Gibson, Jerusalem under the Moslems: from Caliph Omar to Saladin

Gabriel Barkay, When the Second Temple Stood

Gabriel Barkay, The Footprints of Kings in Jerusalem

The website includes more details about each lecture and provides a link for online registration. Gibson and Barkay are both excellent lecturers, and Jerusalem is a fascinating subject.

HT: G. M. Grena

The Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque, early 1900s
Photo from the American Colony Collection

Tagged Jerusalem, Lectures