Gordon Govier lists his top 10 discoveries in biblical archaeology in 2016.
The Biblical Archaeology Society has selected its top 10 biblical archaeology discoveries of the year.
LandMinds has a one-hour video podcast discussing the list.
Haaretz provides a list of the best archaeological finds in Israel in 2016.
Live Science suggests the 9 biggest archaeology findings of 2016. And they identify 5 big archaeology stories to watch for in 2017.
Brandon Marlon writes about 18 interesting sites that most tourists to Israel miss.
ASOR is offering a free e-book of the “5 Most Popular Biblical Archaeology Articles from The Ancient Near East Today” to subscribers to the weekly newsletter.
Recent excavations in Paphos, Cyprus, have discovered fortifications and a thick layer of crushed murex shells. “Team leader Maria Iacovou noted that this is the first time that archaeological evidence for the production of the highly valued purple dye from murex shells has been found in
Cyprus.”
A marble sculpture of a Roman noblewoman was discovered by a farmer in Crete following a recent storm.
Twelve tombs from the 18th Dynasty have been discovered in Gebel el Silsila.
A study of a toy Roman chariot reveals that ancient charioteers affixed an iron strip to the right wheel in order to improve their chances of winning.
As tourism in Egypt continues its lull, officials are trying new ways to attract visitors.
There is only one archaeobotanist in Egypt, but he is hoping this will change.
Ongoing work at Laodicea has uncovered the sacred agora.
Robert Alter will be lecturing in Nashville on January 30.
The Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society has a lecture series scheduled for the coming months.
HT: Ted Weis, Agade, Joseph Lauer, Explorator, Paleojudaica
3 thoughts on “Weekend Roundup, Part 3”
I was just at Laodicea in early January 2017, and it is indeed remarkable the work they've been doing there. (I was there in January 2011 for comparison.) They are excavating the skene of the West Theater. The link you provide to the "sacred agora" does indeed point to an area that was buried 7 meters deep in 2011. I thought it a bit odd to call it a "sacred agora," but–if I understand correctly–the area was originally part of a temenos for Temples to Zeus and Athena (thus the sacred part), but later it served as an agora. Here's a pic of the western portico (and one column of the West Propylon) taken at the juncture of the cardo (Stadium St) and decumanus (Syria St). https://flic.kr/p/QdxJKq
Hi Mark – we must have just missed each other – I was there on the 1st! (Not too many tourists in Turkey these days.) It's amazing what they've done in recent years!
That would have been fun to cross paths! There were only a few other people at Ephesus when we were there. No one else but our group of 15 at Miletus, Aphrodisias, Laodicea, Sardis, Philadelphia, Thyatira, or Assos. There were 2 other small Korean groups at Hierapolis. We did run into a few others when we got into Greece (there was a group from Calvin College running a similar itinerary), but tourism is down there as well.