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From Haaretz:

Painted tiles from an impressive ancient synagogue in Syria, along with other archaeological artifacts, went on display on Mount Scopus last month – after a 63-year delay.
The exhibits were originally intended to be shown to the public on Mount Scopus in 1948, but the outbreak of the War of Independence froze plans to open the nearly-completed museum built there. The exhibits were placed in drawers for decades and became accessible to the public only last month.
Among the artifacts are tiles from the ancient synagogue discovered in the city of Dura Europos, which is located in the Syrian desert above the banks of the Euphrates. To this day – about 80 years after its discovery – this 3rd century synagogue is considered one of the most complete and impressive examples of Jewish religious structures from that period.

The article gives more of the story behind the long delay in opening the exhibit.

HT: Joseph Lauer

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Egyptian mummies are cool again.

Eretz magazine recalls the magnificent discovery fifty years ago of the Cave of the Treasure with its 429 copper objects from the 4th millennium BC.

Leon Mauldin has been circling the Old City of Jerusalem, posting photos and descriptions about each of Jerusalem’s gates: Golden Gate, Herod’s Gate/Flower Gate, St. Stephen’s Gate/Lion Gate, Zion Gate, and most recently, the Huldah Gate.

Al-Ahram Weekly reviews the major finds of the season in Aswan, Luxor, and Alexandria.

U.S. officials have broken up a ring of smugglers that was bringing Egyptian antiquities into the U.S.

The ASOR Blog has its weekly review of major archaeological stories around the world.

All journals published by the University of Cambridge are open for free access to the public for the next six weeks.

Israel is opening its baptismal site on the Jordan River. Again. I’m sure we’ve had this story at least twice before. Maybe this is a brilliant marketing strategy: keep faking the grand opening.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

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From Haaretz:

Have the Tourism Ministry and the Jerusalem municipality buried treasures from the Second Temple under a giant lavatory? That possibility is just one of the problems cited by opponents of a plan to improve a spring in the city’s Ein Karem neighborhood, at one of Israel’s most important Christian tourism sites.
The spring is the fourth most important site in the Holy Land to Christian pilgrims, after Jerusalem’s Old City, Bethlehem and Nazareth, and about one million people visit it each year. According to Christian tradition, this is the place where Elizabeth, John the Baptist’s mother, and Mary, Jesus’ mother, met when both women were pregnant. But for the last two years, these visitors have been greeted by the adjacent sight of a huge, sealed building that, according to the approved plan, is supposed to serve as a public lavatory and a municipal warehouse for gardening tools.
[…]
But perhaps worst of all was the handling of the site’s archaeological relics. A salvage dig conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority discovered ancient water systems that carried water from the spring to terraces on the wadi. This led the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Naomi Tsur, to call a meeting in November 2009 to discuss how these relics could be preserved. The meeting, attended by Tourism Ministry and Antiquities Authority representatives, decided to freeze construction of the building and look into building an archaeological park there instead.
But on the very day the meeting was held, the tourist corporation’s vice president, David Mingelgreen, sent the municipality a letter saying that, for reasons unknown, all the archaeological findings had been buried under tons of earth the day before. Thus, by the time the meeting occurred, there was nothing left to salvage.
From his letter, Mingelgreen appeared to view the findings as a nuisance. “The goal is to refrain as far as possible from work that will require archaeological digs,” he wrote.

There is more here.

HT: Joseph Lauer

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From the Jerusalem Post:

The word Philistine has come to denote boorishness, an underdeveloped sense of beauty and sophistication, and vulgar materialism.
But remnants of an ancient Philistine hub now being excavated in the ancient city of Gath tell a different story: one of an advanced society boasting sophisticated architecture and an advanced political life.
Excavators of Tell es-Safi/Gath, one of Israel’s largest archeological sites, resume work this week in search of further remnants of a Philistine temple believed to have been toppled by an earthquake in 8th century BCE – an event familiar to millions the world over through the biblical story of Samson.
The temple was discovered a year ago by a team led by Prof.
Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan’s University’s Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology. Dating back to the Iron Age (10th century BCE), it features two central pillars in accordance with the image described in the story of Samson in the Book of Judges: “He pulled the two pillars together, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it.”
The team has also uncovered collapsed walls that appear to date from an earthquake in the 8th century BCE – an event that could be identical to the earthquake prophesized by the prophet Amos.

The full story is here. On his blog, Aren Maeir is posting daily updates of the excavations.

HT: Joseph Lauer

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Archaeologist Aren Maeir is interviewed on Fox News about the significance of his excavations of Philistine Gath.

Eilat Mazar is interviewed on the Book and the Spade about her discovery of the “walls of Solomon.”

Joe Zias has responded to Simcha Jacobovici’s 46-page defense of his “nails of the cross” “documentary.”

Leen Ritmeyer explains why he finds implausible the recent proposal by Finkelstein, Koch, and Lipschits that ancient Jerusalem was centered on the Temple Mount.

Some people are unhappy over an amendment to the Antiquities Authority Law which will allow the government minister to appoint the board members.

The famous city of Capernaum is explored in the most recent column by Wayne Stiles at the Jerusalem Post.

The excavations of Sidon are profiled in the Daily Star.

According to the New York Times, Egyptian antiquities minister requires $15,000 per speaking engagement and makes up to $200,000 a year as an “explorer-in-residence” for National Geographic.

I don’t know what workers under Hawass earn, but he probably makes more than the collective salaries of hundreds of them.

A Polish visitor to Israel has successfully “walked on water” after four days of practice and fifty failed attempts using a kite and surfboard.

HT: Jack Sasson

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The “Passages” exhibit in Oklahoma City (noted here in May) has announced a series of free lectures weekly on Tuesday evenings, to be held in the Noble Theater at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. on the days listed.

• July 19: David Lyle Jeffrey, Ph.D., Baylor University, “Beyond the Renaissance: Critical Texts and Bible Translation.

• July 26: Peter Flint, Ph.D., Canada research chair in Dead Sea Scrolls studies, “The Contents and Challenges of the Dead Sea Biblical Scrolls.”

• Aug. 9: Gordon Campbell, Ph.D., University of Leicester, United Kingdom, “The Making of a Bible Classic: The Translation of the King James Bible.

• Aug. 16: Edwin Yamauchi, Ph.D., Miami (Fla.) University, “The Greatest Archaeological Discoveries and the Old Testament.

• Aug. 23: Scott Carroll, Ph.D., director of the Green Collection, “The Green Collection: Scientific Breakthroughs and Bible Translation.

• Sept. 6: Scot McKendrick, Ph.D., British Library, “Manuscript Discoveries and Bible Translation.

• Sept. 13: Dirk Obbink, Ph.D., Oxford University, “Papyri Discoveries and Bible Translation.

• Sept. 20: Alister McGrath, Ph.D., King’s College, United Kingdom, “What Do William Tyndale and C.S. Lewis Have in Common.

• Sept. 27: Ralph Hanna, Ph.D., Oxford University, “Richard Rolle’s Impact on the English Bible.

• Oct. 4: Jerry Pattengale, Ph.D., director of the Green Scholars Initiative, “Answers to New 
Theories Regarding How We Got the Bible.

• Oct. 11: Robert Cooley, Ph.D., Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, “The Greatest Archaeological Discoveries and the New Testament.

More details are available in this article at NewsOK as well as at the official website.

HT: Jack Sasson

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