A few weeks ago I mentioned that the new Ancient Jerusalem Revealed: Archaeological Discoveries, 1998-2018 has been published, but I lamented the difficulty for many readers in ordering it from Israel. Now I have received word that you can order it direct from the Biblical Archaeology Society. (Two other options: Amazon or the Israel Exploration Society)

I have not yet read the book (my order is going in after I write this), but my expectations are very high given (1) the excellent quality of the two previous books in this series (the first published in 1975, and the second published in 1994); (2) the editorship of Hillel Geva; and (3) the fact that the latest reports from Jerusalem archaeology are bound to be amazing! I’ve told a number of groups touring Jerusalem, as we’re trying to peek behind some protective curtain to see what’s going on – watch for this to be published. Well, here it is, in a single book covering the last 20 years. The price is $60 for a hardcover, and shipping is free.

Here is the official description from the publisher:

Ancient Jerusalem Revealed, Archaeological Discoveries 1998–2018, presents the results of archaeological research conducted in Jerusalem over the past twenty years. xvi + 319 pages + profusely illustrated in color, 27.5 x 21 cm., hardcover.
Image result for Ancient Jerusalem Revealed: Archaeological Discoveries, 1998-2018

The major results of the numerous excavations presented in the current volume cover all parts of the ancient city: the City of David, the Ophel, the Temple Mount, the present-day Old City, and adjacent areas beyond the urban limits of ancient Jerusalem. The articles were written by archaeologists who conducted the excavations. Contents include: The Bronze Age to the Iron Age, The Second Temple Period, the Late Roman to Ottoman periods, and multi-period excavations.

And here’s the table of contents, with an * next to the articles I plan to read first.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Archaeological Research in Jerusalem from 1998 to 2018: Findings and Evaluations— Hillel Geva

JERUSALEM—THE BRONZE AGE TO THE IRON AGE

*Recent Discoveries in the City of David—Ronny Reich, Eli Shukron, and Omri Lernau
Excavations at the Summit of the City of David Hill, 2005–2008—Eilat Mazar

*The Royal Quarter Built by King Solomon in the Ophel of Jerusalem in Light of Recent Excavations (2009–2013)—Eilat Mazar

A “Governor of the City” Seal Impression from the Western Wall Plaza Excavations in Jerusalem—Tallay Ornan, Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, and Benjamin Sass

JERUSALEM—THE SECOND TEMPLE PERIOD

*The Second Temple Period Siloam Pool—Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron

*Second Temple Period Finds from the New Excavations in the Ophel, South of the Temple Mount—Yuval Baruch and Ronny Reich

Research in the Western Wall Tunnel—Dan Bahat

Wilson’s Arch and the Giant Viaduct West of the Temple Mount during the Second Temple and Late Roman Periods in Light of Recent Excavation—Alexander Onn and Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah

*A Herodian Tricilinium with Fountain on the Road Ascending to the Temple Mount from the West—Alexander Onn, Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, and Joseph Patrich

*First and Second Temple Period Fortifications and Herod’s Palace in the Jerusalem Kishle Compound—Amit Re’em

Discoveries from the First and Second Temple Periods near the Mamilla Pool in Jerusalem—David Amit

JERUSALEM—THE LATE ROMAN TO OTTOMAN PERIODS

*A First Temple Period Building and the Roman Eastern Cardo in the Western Wall Plaza—Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah and Alexander Onn

A Pool from the Period of Aelia Capitolina in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem—Ofer Sion and Yehudah Rapuano

Wilson’s Arch: 150 Years of Archaeological and Historical Exploration—Tehillah Lieberman, Avi Solomon, and Joe Uziel

The Legio X Fretensis Kilnworks at the Jerusalem International Convention Center—Haim Goldfus and Benny Arubas

Roman Period Workshops at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Givat Ram—Ron Beeri and Danit Levi

Excavations at Saint John Prodromos Church in the Old City—Jean-Baptiste Humbert

A Gold Hoard Containing Jewish Symbols and the Byzantine Ophel Neighborhood of Jerusalem—Eilat Mazar

Excavations East of Herod’s Gate, 1998—Yuval Baruch and Gideon Avni

New Excavations and Studies in the Holy Sepulcher Compound—Jon Seligman and Gideon Avni

Excavations at Ohel Yizhaq in the Suq al-Qattanin Quarter, Jerusalem—Tawfiq Da‘adli and Hervé Barbé

A New Look at the History of Solomon’s Stables—Dan Bahat

JERUSALEM—MULTI-PERIOD EXCAVATIONS

*The Givati Excavation Project 2007–2015: from the Iron Age to the Early Islamic Period—Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets

The Line of the Southern City Wall of Jerusalem in the Early Periods—Yehiel Zelinger

Excavations at the Hurva and Tiferet Israel Synagogues in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of

Jerusalem—Hillel Geva, Oren Gutfeld, and Ravit Nenner Soriano

New Excavations on Mount Zion—Shimon Gibson, James Tabor, Rafael Y. Lewis, and Steve Patterson

Share:

A Greco-Roman building uncovered in northern Sinai was used as a seat for the ancient Senate.

King Tut’s gilded coffin has been transferred from Luxor to the new Grand Egyptian Museum where it will be restored before being put on display. New images have been released before the restoration begins.

Sara Ahmed reports on the Egyptian Collection at Leiden’s Rijksmuseum.

A salvage project in Cyprus has uncovered a large Hellenistic-era sanctuary.

The new archaeological museum at Troy has opened, and Carl Rasmussen has photos.

A statue of Alexander the Great, long lost in a museum storage room, has recently been re-discovered.

Gordon Franz has posted a new article: The apostle Paul and Dr. Luke on the Island of Cost: Sin, Sickness, and Death.

Sarah Parcak’s new book, Archaeology from Space, looks at the use of technology in archaeology.

Bryan Windle’s latest in the Footsteps series is “Three Things in Babylon Daniel Likely Saw.”

HT: Ted Weis, Agade

Share:

Madeleine Mumcuoglu and Yosef Garfinkel explain how a shrine model discovered at Khirbet Qeiyafa may help us to better understand Solomon’s Temple.

Samuel Dewitt Pfister asks whether the latest claim about Bethsaida and the Church of the Apostles should be trusted.

ABR has announced the discovery of three altar horns in their excavations at Shiloh this summer. (Press release not online as of this writing.)

Applications for excavating at Shiloh in 2020 with the Associates for Biblical Research are now being accepted.

“Hamas has done little to protect Gaza’s antiquities and in some cases actively destroys them.”

Though rare and significant, few people know about a First Temple period cistern discovered near the Western Wall of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Joe Zias looks at ancient crucifixion, considering the difficulties of the lone archaeological bone and arguing that crosses were shaped as a T.

Clyde Billington reviews the latest archaeological news on this week’s The Book and the Spade.

A slideshow/video on the work of M. G. Kyle at Tell Beit Mirsim’s excavations from 1926 to 1932 is on YouTube. The photos have captions, and if you read faster, you can advance more quickly through parts. The video clips may be the earliest from an excavation in the Holy Land. Near the end, there are scenes from a grain harvest as well as footage from Jerusalem in 1930.

HT: Ted Weis, Agade, G. M. Grena

Share:

New excavations in Perga have revealed the well-preserved(!) foundation of the Tomb of Plancia Magna. And Carl Rasmussen also has photos of new reconstruction work at Thyatira.

Pat McCarthy’s newest page at Seetheholyland.net is about the Sisters of Nazareth excavation, including a church possibly built over Jesus’s childhood home.

Aaron Demsky explains how the Samaria Ostraca shed light on the names of Zelophehad’s daughters and Israel’s settlement in Manasseh.

Mark Barnes draws out some lessons from Shechem, including how conflict, covenant, and choice defined its history.

In a new podcast, Clint Burnett discusses the background of the Nazareth Inscription as well as assessing whether it provides evidence of Jesus’s empty tomb (Apple).

Peter grew up in Bethsaida and ended up in Rome. Wayne Stiles explains how he got there by a series of “hard left turns.”

Shemesh Online reports on the compromise reached that will allow for the construction of the highway over the tell, the reduction of the width of that road, as well as the building of a pedestrian overpass to connect the two sides.

Kristina Killgrove gives five reasons why you shouldn’t buy that ancient artifact.

Cathie Spieser looks at the theology of birth and rebirth in ancient Egypt.

Chapter 8 of The Gospel of Mark in the LUMO Project has been dubbed in Koine Greek.

On The Book and the Spade, Clyde Billington and Gordon Govier discuss some recent stories, including Macherus, Melchizedek, and the Philistines.

In his ongoing Footsteps series, Bryan Windle identifies three things Paul likely saw in Corinth.

Ferrell’s Favorite Foto #24 is of Gibeon.

HT: Agade, Jared Clark, Joseph Lauer

Share:

Excavations in Alexandria have revealed a well-preserved mosaic floor from the Roman period.

An artificial reef and underwater museum is being created in the Red Sea waters of Aqaba from old military vehicles.

The Tetrapylon avenue at Aphrodisias will open soon, following the completion of excavations.

Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities June 2019 Newsletter provides the latest updates.

Four ancient Babylonian tablets at the British Museum were apparently used to calculate the motion of Jupiter.

An exhibition of looted archaeological artifacts is now on display at the Capitoline Museums.

A man who made more than half a million dollars by selling to a museum an “ancient Egyptian figurine” he made in his garden shed is sorry.

Mastic, from the island of Chios (cf. Acts 20:15), is getting a fresh look as a possible super-drug.

In an excerpt from her new book, Sarah Parcak asks, “Will the future of archaeology not require moving dirt?”

Jimmy Hardin discusses the latest discoveries at Macherus on The Book and the Spade.

In the final post in his series on Paul’s shipwreck on Malta, Carl Rasmussen shares photos of a more likely place than the traditional bay.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Agade, Charles Savelle, Mark Hoffman, Steven Anderson, Explorator

Share:

With summer excavations wrapping up, some dig directors are calling up journalists to report their prize discoveries…

Excavations at Gath this summer uncovered portions of an earlier Philistine city, with massive fortifications suggesting that this period was the city’s actual heyday (=time of David and Goliath). This story by Ariel David is reported in Haaretz (premium), and Aren Maeir provides a pdf version. The Jerusalem Post has a brief account here. The Times of Israel write-up is here.

No, they didn’t find the archive at Hazor, but they did discover a staircase.

Excavators working at Hippos have discovered well-preserved mosaics in the “Burnt Church” that include poorly spelled inscriptions.

Tel Shimron in Galilee has a daily blog for its summer excavations. Here is yesterday’s post.

You have only two more seasons to volunteer in the excavations at Gath before they put the shovels into the shed for good.

In a video posted yesterday, David Moster looks at seven types of rare verses, including the longest and shortest verses in the Hebrew Bible. You can see a list of the rare verses in the notes below the video.

Madeline Arthington writes about her tour of the tabernacle model in southern Israel (with lots of photos).

A new documentary goes in search of the “Apollo of Gaza,” a bronze statue discovered in 2013 that disappeared shortly thereafter. The 47-minute video will be posted online until August 14.

The temperature at the southern end of the Dead Sea last week broke a record at 122° Fahrenheit (49.9° Celsius). That’s still under the national record of 129°F (54°C ) in June 1942 near Beth Shean.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Agade, Charles Savelle, Keith Keyser, Explorator

Share: