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As good things tend to do, this is a reminder of how much remains to be done and how much has already been lost in the rest of the country.  As announced by the author through the Agade list:

The Ramat Bet Shemesh Regional Project: The Gazetteer.

Author: Yehuda Dagan

IAA Reports 46, Jerusalem, 2010, 351pp. Topographical map $30.

This is the first of several volumes to be published in the near future documenting The Ramat Bet Shemesh Regional Project.

Following the decision to construct a new town in the hills of the Judean Shephelah, south of the modern city of Beth Shemesh, the Israel Antiquities Authority undertook a comprehensive archaeological–environmental study of the entire area during the years 1994–2000, prior to construction of the new town. As construction of the new town would change the cultural and natural landscapes entirely, the Ramat Bet Shemesh Project aimed to document ALL remains, both ancient and modern, before the bulldozers began their work. This was accomplished through archaeological and environmental surveys of higher resolution than any similar studies carried out to date in the southern Levant within the context of a regional archaeological project. The surveys were accompanied by archaeological excavations of ALL ancient remains in the areas fated to be destroyed. Our final aim was to reconstruct the settlement landscapes of each period, from the Paleolithic era to the recent past, through the integration of the archaeological surveys and excavations and the interdisciplinary environmental studies, with the aid of GIS technology to enable cross-referencing between the different databases.


The Gazetteer comprises a detailed description of all the survey sites and the final reports of 100 small-scale excavations. The following volume, now in press, Landscapes of Settlement: From the Palaeolithic to the Ottoman Period, presents the methodology, field techniques, and the ecological and environmental studies, as well as a reconstruction of the settlement patterns of each period, from the Paleolithic to the Ottoman periods, as revealed in our surveys and excavations. The final volume, in preparation, will comprise the final excavation reports of the major archaeological excavations conducted within the framework of this project.

The book can be ordered through the Israel Antiquities Authority online shop.

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From the Circle of Iranian Studies:

The Cyrus the Great Cylinder, described as the world’s first Charter of Human Rights returned to the British Museum on Monday, following the seven-month loan to the National Museum of Iran (NMI).
The priceless Cylinder arrived in the UK just after the cultural authorities in Iran severed ties with the Louvre over the French museum’s decision not to lend Iranian antiquities to NMI.
The British Museum said the artefact would go back on display in its ancient Iran gallery (Room 52) on Tuesday.
[…]
In addition, a number of Iranian academics and oppositions objected the loaning of the cylinder to Iran, since the safety could not be guaranteed; a four-month loan was eventually agreed in September 2010. The cylinder was escorted by a British delegation headed by Dr John Curtis to the exhibition site, where it was displayed for the first time after 40 years during the 2,500 Year Celebration of Iranian Monarchy in 1971.
The duration of the loan was extended in December 2010, due to the exhibition’s popularity. Over two million Iranians have viewed this priceless artefact while it was on display in NMI.
The presence of Cyrus the Great Cylinder in Iran has proved immensely significant, as it was provided an opportunity for the majority of Iranians and non-governmental cultural establishments to promote a ‘nationalist narrative’, which predates Islam for thousands of years, once again since 1979 without fear of prosecution. Therefore, the bete noir of the artefact was the highest echelons for the Mullahs in Iran, as they boycotted the exhibition and called it the ‘work of Zionists’.

The full article contains more details.

HT: Paleojudaica

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In a Passover article for the Jerusalem Post, Stephen Rosenberg searches for indirect evidence connecting the Israelites to Egypt.  He finds some significant connections:

The Torah is full of references to Egyptian geography and religious cults and customs, and it is clear that the compiler was speaking to an audience familiar with Egypt. When Lot parted from Abraham, he chose the plain of the Jordan because “it was well watered… like the Land of Egypt” (Genesis 13:10). The Tower of Babel in Mesopotamia was built of brick, because “they used brick for stone” (Gen. 11:3), it being necessary to explain this to the Israelites, who only knew monuments built of stone, as in Egypt.
[…]
With reference to temples, one can see that the description of the Tabernacle of the Wilderness, the Mishkan, is based on Egyptian models. The Ark of the Covenant is made of three layers, a wooden chest overlaid with gold inside and outside, like the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun. It is protected by two cherubim, just like that of Tutankhamun, except that he had four. Much of the furniture from his tomb was fitted with carrying staves, like those of the Tabernacle.

But then he goes further and suggests that the Israelite tabernacle was in fact the battle tent of King Tutankhamun, stolen by the escaping slaves.  That leads him to propose a 14th-century date for the exodus.

In that case Akhenaten, who had started his reign under the official name of Amenhotep IV (1350-1334 BCE), was the persecutor of the Israelites, “the Pharaoh who knew not Joseph” (Exodus 1:8). He was the one who ordered the male babies to be drowned, from which fate Moses was saved to become a prince at his court, as Sigmund Freud suggested 80 years ago. When Moses saw his brothers slaving at the building of the city, he reacted as described in the Torah and eventually, on the death of Akhenaten, saw a chance to lead them out of Egypt.

The “suspicious circumstances” of the deaths of both Akhenaten and Tutankhamun later “perhaps gave rise to the idea of the slaying of the firstborn.”  Rosenberg seems serious when he suggests that the story of the tenth plague originated from the life of Akhenaten who “had six daughters and two sons who seem to have died young.”  I wonder if there was a single Pharaoh who did not have some children die young, and I doubt that the Israelites required such an occurrence to prompt them to make up such a story.

Rosenberg then proceeds to propose a chronology, but since he refuses “to take the biblical figures at face value,” he must admit that “all this playing with figures is speculative.”

He concludes:

Sitting around the Seder table we like to believe the full biblical account of the Exodus, the 12 brothers, the slavery, the Ten Plagues, the national release and the gaining of our freedom. The historians and archeologists think it is all a wonderful folk-tale but hardly one founded on any historical fact. Proof there is none, but information based on equating the battle tent of Tutankhamun with the Tabernacle of the Wilderness can, when put together as above, make a credible narrative.

I doubt the anti-supernaturalist historians find this approach credible, and I certainly prefer to accept the biblical account over the latest attempt to create a new story by admitting certain evidence and excluding the rest.  Nevertheless, I appreciate Rosenberg’s presentation of data that may be understood in several different ways.

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Riccardo Lufrani counters the proposal of Amos Kloner that the tombs of St. Etienne were originally the resting places of the last kings of Judah.  He essentially addresses the translation of Josephus’s “royal caverns.”  He does not mention the fact of that these tombs are located in the midst of an Iron Age cemetery.

Zahi Hawass gives his side of the story and explains why he will not be going to jail.  Hershel Shanks has a lengthy interview with Hawass to be published in the May/June issue of Biblical Archaeology Review and now online here.  Shanks writes of his time with Hawass, “I found him confident, overbearing, domineering, brash and loud. But he was also sometimes reasonable and often even charming.”

A four-minute video gives some insight into the revived chariot races in Jerash (Gerasa), Jordan.

Italy has announced a major restoration of Pompeii, following the recent collapse of an ancient house.

Christians celebrated Palm Sunday in Jerusalem yesterday.

Bible Gateway has a complex graphic that illustrates the chronology and geography of events during the week leading to Jesus’ crucifixion.  “Follow the lines in the chart to see at a glance what people were doing, where they were, and whom they were with at any point during the week.”

We wish a happy Passover to all of those celebrating this evening.

HT: Explorator, Jack Sasson, Carl Rasmussen

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From AhramOnline:

[Egyptian] Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs Zahi Hawass has been sentenced to one year in jail on Sunday for refusing to fulfill a court ruling over a land dispute.
The Egyptian criminal court also said Hawass must be relieved of his governmental duties and ordered him to pay a LE1000 penalty.
Hawass failed to adhere to a ruling in favour of his opponent over a land dispute when he was in charge of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).

Another source reports that he was sentenced to a year of hard labor. 

HT: Explorator

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This will be a busy week in Israel, with Passover beginning Monday evening and Good Friday and Easter a few days later.  From the Jerusalem Post:

More than a quarter of a million tourists are expected to visit Israel during the Passover and Easter holidays, the Tourism Ministry reported on Saturday. Of these tourists, at least 100,000 are expected to visit Jerusalem alone. The seven-day Passover holiday begins on Monday evening and is one of the main periods of the year for tourism to Israel, along with the High Holidays in the fall. About a week after, Easter will begin, bringing tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims to Israel. One of the highlights of the pilgrimage for Orthodox Christians is the Holy Fire Ceremony, to be held next Sunday in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem. The ceremony brings thousands of worshippers into the alleyways of the Old City as the fire is passed among the masses.

The story continues here. For a fascinating description of the Ceremony of Holy Fire, to be observed on Saturday, see here.

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