December 2012 - BiblePlaces.com

Weekend Roundup #2

SourceFlix’s latest video shows a shepherd seeking out a lost sheep.

Matthew Kalman has a summary of the recent dust-up between Amos Kloner and Simcha Jacobovici.

The Israel Museum will be hosting an exhibition on King Herod next year.

Shmuel Browns posts some of the earliest photos taken in the Holy Land.

A court ruling will preserve antiquities near the Roman aqueduct in Caesarea.

We now have a better understanding of the gruesome details of the murder of Ramses III.

A five-minute clip of General Allenby in Jerusalem is online. For a longer version without the
Hebrew annotations, see here.

HT: Jack Sasson, Joseph Lauer

Allenby entry 1917, troops entering Jaffa Gate, mat02225

Entrance of General Allenby through Jaffa Gate
Photo from The American Colony and Eric Matson Collection

Tagged Egypt, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Museums, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup #1

The Times of Israel is reporting that Muslim authorities moved tons of illegally excavated earth from the Temple Mount into a city dump.

Aren Maeir posts an astounding video of a flood in the Harod Valley this week.

Frankincense has returned to Israel after 1,500 years.

More tourists visited Israel in 2012 than in any year before.

An Israeli committee will review modern prohibitions against mixed prayer at the Western Wall.

Jean Perrot died this week. Among other things, Perrot excavated several Chalcolithic sites near
Beersheba.

Marked down to $1.99 for Kindle: The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the
Pursuit of an Ancient Bible, by Matti Friedman. These sales are brief.

HT: Jack Sasson, Joseph Lauer

Western Wall prayer area from south, amd042108530

Segregated prayer areas at Western Wall.
Photo by Austen Dutton (source).

Tagged Jerusalem, Jezreel Valley, Resources, Temple Mount, Weather, Weekend Roundup

Haaretz: Aphek and Antipatris

Miriam Feinberg Vamosh writes about the biblical site of Aphek in Haaretz (free subscription required).

The lumbering fortress that crowns the ancient mound at Yarkon Sources-Tel Afek National Park is just one of many must-see sights and a good place to start an approximately two-hour visit that effortlessly combines nature and heritage.
From the northwestern tower of this 16th-century compound you’ll get a breathtaking view of the coastal plain. From the southeastern corner of the fortress you can peer down at remains of the Roman road, built by Herod the Great who named it Antipatris after his father. The road recalls the New Testament story of Paul the Apostle, who spent the night here with his Roman guards as they marched him from Jerusalem to Caesarea (Acts 23:31). But the road is a virtual historical toddler compared to the other antiquities you’ll see.
The city of Afek, straddling a strategic pass on the ancient highway from Egypt to Mesopotamia (the Via Maris) was founded in the fifth millennium BCE and is first mentioned in Egyptian writings some 4,000 thousand years ago. Among the finds unearthed in excavations of the Egyptian governor’s palace are documents written in hieroglyphics, Hittite, Akkadian, and Sumerian.

The story also notes the biblical connection as well as some modern history. The four-minute video does not include narration.

For more photos and history of the site, see the BiblePlaces page on Aphek and Antipatris.

Lake and Turkish fortress at biblical Aphek.
Photo from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.

Tagged Israel's Coast, Tourism

Mysterious Package for Indiana Jones Now on Display

From UChicago News:

The mystery began Dec. 12, when a package addressed to “Henry Walton Jones, Jr.” arrived at the University of Chicago Admissions Office.
A student worker realized that the package was meant for Dr. Indiana Jones, the famous archaeologist of Raiders of the Lost Ark fame. Inside the package was a journal of Abner Ravenwood, the fictional UChicago professor who trained Indiana Jones.
Six days after its arrival, the mystery was solved. The package, a collection of replica props from the Indiana Jones films, had been purchased online and shipped by its maker from Guam to Italy.
The original packaging was lost in transit in Honolulu, Hawaii, leaving only the parcel addressed to Henry Walton Jones Jr. of the University of Chicago, which the postal service then forwarded. Paul Charfauros, who created the journal, donated it to the University of Chicago.
Some suggest that two real-life pioneering scholars of the Oriental Institute—James Henry Breasted and Robert John Braidwood—inspired the fictional characters of Abner Ravenwood and Indiana Jones. Unlike some Hollywood depictions of archaeologists, Breasted and Braidwood were not treasure hunters.

The package and its contents will be on display in the lobby of the Oriental Institute Museum through March 2013.

HT: Jack Sasson

Photo by Robert Kozloff

Tagged Museums

Judean Temple Discovered Near Jerusalem

A Judean temple from the 10th-9th centuries BC has been discovered four miles northwest of ancient Jerusalem. The structure has massive walls, faces east, and contained a cache of sacred vessels. The site of Tel Motza may be the town of Mozah mentioned in the city list of Joshua 18:26 and some believe the Emmaus mentioned in Luke 24 was located nearby.

Location of Moza in relation to Jerusalem.
Map from Google Earth.

Archaeologists have dated the building to the Iron Age IIA, a period dated by most scholars to 980–830 BC, contemporary with the reigns of Solomon, Rehoboam, Asa, and Jehoshaphat. Each of these kings was faulted for not “destroying the high places” (1 Kgs 11:7; 14:23; 15:14; 22:43). Few such illicit worship sites are known from the land of Israel; the best preserved ones were excavated at Dan and Arad.

According to Anna Eirikh, Dr. Hamoudi Khalaily and Shua Kisilevitz, directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The ritual building at Tel Motza is an unusual and striking find, in light of the fact that there are hardly any remains of ritual buildings of the period in Judaea at the time of the First Temple. The uniqueness of the structure is even more remarkable because of the vicinity of the site’s proximity to the capital city of Jerusalem, which acted as the Kingdom’s main sacred center at the time.”

The site was excavated as part of road construction works on Highway 1, the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road.

The press release of the Israel Antiquities Authority is here and six high-resolution photos are available from this link. The story is reported by the Jerusalem Post, Arutz-7, and other sites.

Aerial view of excavation site. Photograph: Skyview, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Figurines of bearded men. Photograph: Clara Amit, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Figurine of horse. Photograph: Clara Amit, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Tagged Discoveries, Judah

Top Stories of 2012

Weekend Roundup #2

Weekend Roundup #1

Haaretz: Aphek and Antipatris

Mysterious Package for Indiana Jones Now on Display

Judean Temple Discovered Near Jerusalem