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From a story posted by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary:

Less than a year after acquiring three fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, has added three more biblical fragments, making it the largest collection of an institution of higher education in the United States. The new fragments were obtained from a private collector in Europe through the generous gift from a friend of the seminary. “The acquisition constitutes another significant milestone in the development of our programs in biblical studies and archaeology,” said Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern. “We are especially grateful for the friends of Southwestern who have made these acquisitions, as well as three other fragments, possible and for Mrs. Patterson and Candi Finch who worked so tirelessly to get them to Fort Worth.” The set of six fragments is one more than the set owned by Azusa Pacific University near Los Angeles, which acquired five pieces in 2009. The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago also owns a fragment. Steven Ortiz, associate professor of archaeology and biblical backgrounds and director of the Charles D. Tandy Archaeology Museum at Southwestern, noted that having one fragment would be just as important as owning six. “It is not a race to see who can collect the most fragments,” Ortiz said. “The goal is to get these out of the hands of private collectors and make them available to the public, especially scholars. […] Early analysis shows the new fragments include portions of Deuteronomy 9:25–10:1, Deuteronomy 12:11-14, and Psalm 22:4-13. Psalm 22 is known as a prophetic messianic psalm that describes the brutality of Jesus’ death 1,000 years before he was crucified.

The full story is here.

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Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg has written a summary of major archaeological stories in September.

Aren Maeir critiques an article in the current issue of BASOR in which three geologists argue that
Hezekiah’s Tunnel took about four years to dig and was constructed not by Hezekiah but by his son Manasseh.

Leen Ritmeyer has just released “The Ark of the Covenant: Its Journey from Sinai to Jerusalem” digital image collection.  I’ve used a number of these images from the slide set over the years, but now Leen writes that so much has been added that the CD is “an entirely new presentation.”

I received some criticism for daring to suggest that last week’s 60 Minutes report on the excavations in the City of David would be one-sided.  But according to this eight-point critique by CAMERA, I was right.  Another website responds to the claim that there is “no evidence” of King David in
Jerusalem.

Carol Meyers will be lecturing this week in Fort Worth.  Her title is “Holy Land Archaeology: Past Meets Present” and tickets are $20.  Details are here.

Claude Mariottini points out National Geographic’s slideshow on “12 Ancient Landmarks on Verge of Vanishing.”  The photo of Nineveh is striking, but I can’t agree with the inclusion of Hisham’s Palace (Jericho) in the list.  It is surprising to me that the description of the ruins of Famagusta in Cyprus does not mention the city’s ancient name, Salamis.  Barnabas and Saul (Paul) landed here on Paul’s first missionary journey (Acts 13:5).

The photograph in the blog header was taken twenty years ago this week.  I was with a group of students from the Institute of Holy Land Studies excavating with Amihai Mazar at Tel Beth Shean. 

Even in late October that place is hot!

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The Israel Antiquities Authority is collaborating with Google to put all of the Dead Sea Scrolls online for free.  From Device Magazine:

As part of the celebrations on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its establishment, the Israel Antiquities Authority is launching a unique project – The Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library – to document the entire collection of  the Dead Sea Scrolls. A major lead gift from the Leon Levy Foundation, with additional major funding from the Arcadia Foundation and the support of Yad Hanadiv Foundation, will enable the Israel Antiquities Authority to use the most advanced and innovative technologies available to image the entire collection of 900 manuscripts comprising c. 30,000 Dead Sea Scrolls fragments in hi-resolution and multi spectra and make the digitized images freely available and accessible to anyone anywhere in the world on the internet.  This is the first time that the collection of Scrolls will be photographed in its entirety since the 1950’s. The IAA announced this morning that it is collaborating with the Google R&D center in Israel in this milestone project to upload not only all of the digitized Scrolls images but also additional data online that will allow users to perform meaningful searches across a broad range of data in a number of languages and formats, which will result in unprecedented scholarly and popular access to the Scrolls and related research and scholarship and should lead to new insights into the world of the Scrolls.

The full story is here.  Many other similar articles can be found here.

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National Geographic has a beautiful seven-shot photo gallery of King Herod’s tomb, including good information about the recent discoveries.  The Book and the Spade discusses the tomb in its current radio broadcast (direct link from this page).

Leon Mauldin has posted a beautiful aerial photograph of Aphek/Antipatris

No, I didn’t watch the 60 Minutes piece on the excavations in the City of David.  After a while, dishonest reporting is no longer even entertaining.

The Jerusalem Post has a short article on the stones of Jerusalem, including mention of the British
Mandate law requiring that buildings in the city be faced with it.

Logos 4 was released a year ago, but I waited until recently before installing it on my computer.  I’ll add my voice to the chorus praising the program.  If you didn’t already know, each of the base packages includes a module entitled “BiblePlaces.com Image Library,” which features 350 selected photographs from our collection.

The new Holman Christian Standard Bible Study Bible arrived in the mail Saturday.  I am impressed by the attractiveness of the pages (full color) and the selection of writers for the notes.  I like the appropriately chosen photos of biblical sites and artifacts, and I was usually pleased with what was written about the controversial issues I checked.  Apparently the whole Bible is online at mystudybible.com, but it was a bit slow when I tried.

Last week my family welcomed another son into our home.  He missed the 10-10-10 date by one day, but otherwise he is perfect.

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Construction of a new parking lot underneath the Jewish Quarter was reported to require the first breach of the Old City walls of Jerusalem in more than a hundred years.  Well, not quite.  First, the architect clarified that he was only going under the walls and not through them.  Then Leen Ritmeyer explained that the walls were not breached a hundred years ago for Kaiser Wilhelm II’s visit.  The walls are safe, for now.

A program on the “New Finds in Jaffa Gate” will be held on Oct 12, 2010, 6-8 pm at Jerusalem’s Yad Ben Zvi Institute.  Ofer Sion and Shahar Poni will lecture on the discoveries, including the channel leading to Hezekiah’s Pool.  The lecture notice (in Hebrew) can be found here and here (pdf). 

HT: Joe Lauer

A statue of Hathor disappeared from a temple at Serabit el-Khadim and was discovered in the Sinai desert five days later.  Authorities are questioning the site’s security guards.

Following Friday’s report that the Syrian army has a Scud missile base near Damascus, Jay Baggett (Land of the Bible) created a flyover tour to the “hidden” base where the missiles can be easily seen on Google Earth.

Steven Lancaster and James Monson have completed the Geobasics Study Guide, an outstanding and unique work that deserves a post of its own.  In the meantime, you can get a copy for yourself.  The guide is in pdf format and is free.  The accompanying map book is (only) $15.

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