Todd Bolen, Author at BiblePlaces.com

Farming in Negev Highlands More Extensive Than Thought

For thousands of years, different groups of people have lived in the Negev desert, building stone walls and cities that survive to this day. But how did they make their living?
The current thinking is that these desert denizens didn’t practice agriculture before approximately the first century, surviving instead by raising animals, said Hendrik Bruins, a landscape archaeologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
But new research suggests people in this area, the Negev highlands, practiced agriculture as long ago as 5000 B.C., Bruins told LiveScience. If true, the finding could change historians’ views of the area’s inhabitants, who lived in the region in biblical times and even before, he added.

Bruins found that the area had been farmed in three periods.

He found three distinct layers in the earth indicating that the field had been cultivated, corresponding to three different periods of activity, with long gaps in between. The first one dated from 5000 B.C. to 4500 B.C., followed by another from 1600 B.C. to 950 B.C. and a final layer dating from A.D. 650 to A.D. 950.

The full story is here.

Experimental farm near Avdat
Photo from Pictorial Library of Bible Lands, volume 5.

Tagged Negev, Technology

Weekend Roundup

The last week of ASOR’s March Fellowship Madness is here, and one donor be randomly selected to receive a copy of The Photographs of the American Palestine Exploration Society, which features over 150 pictures taken at sites around the Near East in 1875.

Here’s a very high-resolution panoramic shot of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives.

Popular Mechanics has a story on the value of 3-D modeling for archaeology.

A 3-D model of the Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak has been created with the help of the UCLA team who created one of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Archaeologists working at Tel Habuwa east of the Suez Canal have found evidence for battles between the Egyptians and Hyksos.

A well-preserved sundial from the 13th century BC was discovered in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor.

Turkey is demanding Germany return more ancient artifacts.

The 1862 Middle East tour of the future King Edward VII is the subject of a new exhibition in

Edinburgh.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle, Explorator

Tagged Egypt, Jerusalem, Museums, Technology, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Passover Sacrifice Reenactment

From Arutz-7:

Jewish groups held a mock Passover sacrifice on Thursday opposite the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The ritual slaughter was not merely a historic reenactment, but, they say, practice in advance of the reconstruction of the Temple. The practice sacrifice has been held annually for the past several years. This year organizers were unpleasantly surprised by a veto from Israel’s Veterinary Services, which refused to authorize the event. Organizers took the matter to court, and were able to quickly get a ruling permitting the ritual. The various groups involved in the event were represented by Rabbi Yehuda Glick, who told Arutz Sheva that the ritual was carried out with as much Biblical accuracy as possible. “We took the goat, as the Torah commands, we had an altar built like the real one, and a cooking pit built according to halacha [Jewish law],” he said. “We slaughtered the goat with Leviim singing and priestly clothing, just like in the real Passover sacrifice.”

The full story includes a one-minute amateur video. Another video from a similar service several years ago was produced by SourceFlix.

Tagged Holidays, Jerusalem

The Place in the Temple Courts Where Jesus Taught

There’s an article in the Italian press (with a Google translation in English here) in which Dan Bahat allegedly claims that he knows the exact place where Jesus taught the rabbis at the age of 12 (HT: Explorator). He identifies an area on the south side of the Temple Mount where he says that excavations have uncovered the scales on which the teachers stood.

A few comments:

1. It’s always a tenuous matter to discern something that has been mediated through a journalist, particularly through an article written in a language I don’t know. The Italian article was published on March 6, but to date no other reports are showing up in Google.

2. I’m not familiar with the excavations that Bahat is referring to. There are no excavations on the Temple Mount itself, and if he’s thinking of Eilat Mazar’s recent work south of the Temple Mount, it’s hard to believe that he is making the announcement and not Mazar herself.

3. The New Testament says of the location only that Joseph and Mary “found Jesus in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers” (Luke 2:46). I assume that Bahat knows of some rabbinical source which speaks of a particular location where rabbis taught. If so, several questions come to mind: Is that source accurate for about the year AD 10? Was there only one place in the enormous temple complex where rabbis taught?

4. The article notes Bahat’s credentials as a long-time district archaeologist of Jerusalem. I’ve read his Atlas of Jerusalem and have concluded that I cannot trust what he writes unless I have corroboration from another source I do trust. On this matter, I will keep my eyes open to see what reality there might be behind the hype.

Jerusalem model showing the Temple Mount and on “Solomon’s Colonnade” (John 10:23; Acts 3:11; 5:12). Model now at Israel Museum. Photo from the Pictorial Library, volume 3.

Tagged Analysis, Jerusalem

Weekend Roundup

The Times of Israel recommends five places to visit on your next trip to Jaffa (Joppa).

National Geographic is calling all adventurers and explorers for a new adventure series.

Yes, locusts are kosher. They’re apparently good pickled, dried, smoked, boiled, roasted, barbecue grilled, fried, and stir fried.

No, locusts are not kosher. The problem is that the biblical locust may not be the same as the modern ones.

In an op-ed at the Los Angeles Times, John J. Collins provides a brief history of controversy surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls and concludes with a summary of why the scrolls are important.

Eisenbrauns’ Deal of the Weekend is Ugarit at Seventy-Five, edited by K. Lawson Younger Jr. (Reg. $39.50; now $15.80).

ASOR’s Archaeology Weekly Roundup links to 14 other stories.

HT: Charles Savelle, Jack Sasson

View of the Mediterranean Sea from Jaffa (Joppa)
Photo from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands, volume 4

Tagged Dead Sea, Israel's Coast, Resources, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Khufu’s Solar Barge Threatened

From bikya.news

Egyptian antiquities officials have confirmed to Bikyanews.com that a pipe has burst inside the museum holding one of pyramid builder Khufu’s boat. The ancient boat has been restored and is a major pull for tourists heading to the Giza Pyramids.
Khufu is also the 4th dynasty King who erected the largest of the three pyramids, which has been named after him.

One official said late Monday night that the “sewage pipe in the building has exploded. We are looking into the situation and are not sure if any damage has happened.”

HT: Jack Sasson

Solar Barge of Khufu (Cheops)
Photo from Pictorial Library of Bible Lands, volume 7

Tagged Egypt