The Israel Museum has relocated some of its significant archaeological artifacts to a secure location. A few photos are posted on Facebook.

Excavations at Emesa (modern Homs, Syria) “reveal the slow transformation of a powerful pagan city into a Christian and then Muslim one.”

Margreet L. Steiner explains why the Assyrian presence in the Levant in the 9th-7th centuries BC left its mark not in material culture but in economic transformation.

Carl Rasmussen shares a link to his recent online seminar on “The Early Church’s Encounter with the Roman Imperial Cult.” His post includes timestamps for each topic.

Hybrid lecture on March 11 at Harvard: “The Future of the Ancient Egyptian Afterlife,” by Rune Nyord (in-person registration; online registration)

ASOR webinar on March 11: “Anatolian Futures: Archaeologies of Anatolia within the Larger Mediterranean,” by Müge Durusu-Tanrıöver

New release: Sex and Sexuality in the Ancient Near East, by Stephanie Lynn Budin (Cambridge Elements; open access through March 10)

New release: For Those Who Sleep in the Dust: Essays on Archaeology and the Bible, by William G. Dever (SBL Press, $56)

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Charles Savelle, Alexander Schick