Billing itself as “the largest touring exhibit of sacred text and artifacts in history,” the From Abraham to Jesus includes more than 240 artifacts and a multimedia presentation. The traveling exhibit includes some Dead Sea Scrolls and the ossuary of Simon the Cyrene. I confess that some of the breathless wording turns me off, and my general impression is that this is something to take your Sunday School group to visit, but not your college class. Someone who visits can comment about their experience below. The first exhibit will be in Atlanta, beginning on September 15, then moving to Grand Rapids, Columbus, Nashville, Tulsa, Boston, Charlotte, Hampton Roads, Charleston, Mobile, Schaumburg (IL), Des Moines, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, San Jose, Dallas, and more in 2008.
Microsoft Live Labs is working on a photo recognition system that will compare photos with each other to create 3D images. This will also allow tagged items on photos to 
be shared from photo to photo. Imagine, for instance, comparing your photos of Jerusalem to a worldwide database, with the result that your pictures are automatically identified and labeled. Maybe that day is not so far off. In Microsoft’s words:
Photosynth takes a large collection of photos of a place or object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed 3-Dimensional space. With Photosynth you can:
- walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle;
- seamlessly zoom in or out of a photograph even if it’s gigapixels in size;
- see where pictures were taken in relation to one another;
- find similar photos to the one you’re currently viewing;
- explore a custom tour or see where you’ve been; or
- send a collection to a friend.
Here’s a video about Photosynth.
Haaretz reports on a variety of abuses taking place in a nature reserve in the Judean wilderness. Turned over to the Palestinian Authority in the late 1990s, the upper end of the beautiful Nahal Arugot is being subjected to quarrying, building, dumping, burning, and hunting.
“Nothing can grow in these places,” says Amos Sabah, a biologist with the National Parks and Nature Reserves Authority, referring to vast swaths that have been covered with quarry dust. Plant researcher Oz Golan, notes that these areas are on the edge of the desert and have a rich variety of flora, including some rare plants. The wild fauna and flora in the area are disappearing due to systematic hunting and cutting of plants for heating by Bedouin. Adjacent to the nature reserve, pillars of smoke are occasionally visible. These are pirate waste sites where the Palestinians are forced to dump waste, in the absence of organized waste sites.
In addition, archaeological sites are being pillaged.
Inside the nature reserve and at an adjacent archaeological site, the systematic plundering of antiquities continues unabated. National Parks and Nature Reserves Authority rangers last week did a brief survey of a site that was a large fortress during the Byzantine era. In every corner, they found evidence of feverish digging by thieves.
Read the whole article, but it sounds like there’s plenty of blame to go around on this one and that the situation is only going to get worse.
Nahal Arugot near Tekoa, September 2005We’ve commented previously on the summer excavations at Hazor, Gezer and Gath. There’s more information now on the status of other summer digs. Ironically, this was the first summer in quite some time in which everyone thought the violence had abated and there were no obstacles to a full program. Unfortunately, a decade without a war in Israel seems impossible.
The big dig wrap-up is provided by the Biblical Archaeology Society, with brief summaries by the archaeologists at the sites of Bethsaida, Yavne, Apollonia, Dan, Dor, Hazor, Megiddo, Tel Kabri, and Hippos. You can also read a local newspaper report about the excavation at Dan, pre-evacuation.
Another article reports on the completed season at Gezer (and another here). In the south of the country, the Gath dig continues full speed.
The most popular archaeology magazine for biblical discoveries is Biblical Archaeology Review. Another magazine that covers similar topics is Bible and Spade. Produced by the Associates for Biblical Research and edited by Dr. Bryant G. Wood, Bible and Spade has a much more conservative perspective than BAR. I recommend a subscription (sample pdf issue here).
This week Galaxie Software announced an electronic collection of all back issues of Bible and Spade. All 31 years (1972-2005) are available for $80, but until July 31, there is a special of $50.
So for the cost of a 3-year subscription, you get all 31 years. And the electronic edition is of course much better. To get the deal you have to order it from this page and enter code 5454. Not later than July 31.
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Recent claims that Robert Cornuke discovered the Ark of Noah in Iran are questioned by several people who believe that the flood of Noah was a historical event, but doubt that Cornuke has found evidence of it.
Dr. John Morris of the Institute for Creation Research comments on the “petrified wood” that Cornuke believes is from the ark. The article is brief and worth reading in full. Among other things, Morris notes:
The claim is made that the material is petrified wood, and it may be. But petrified wood is found in thousands of places around the world. Finding it here means nothing. Perhaps the ark is petrified, but this would necessitate conditions and a sequence of events which hardly seem likely here. Wood is best petrified when buried in volcanic ash, but the team have asserted that the region of their discovery is not volcanic. Without precise maps and study, it would be impossible to refute this claim.
Rick Lanser of the Associates for Biblical Research has written a much more detailed article, questioning in particular the Iranian location of Cornuke’s find. He concludes:
For the above and other reasons which space does not allow me to deal with, it appears that Bob Cornuke’s “filters” have prevented him from dealing fairly with much information which does not fit into his “Ark in Iran” hypothesis. When such data is considered, it raises great doubt that he has found anything related to Noah’s Ark on Takht-e Suleiman. I would love to see his find hold up to close scrutiny so it can be used as a witness to the world of the trustworthiness of the Bible, but if I – who, as a brother in Christ, am “on his team” – can come up with this many problems in identifying the find on Mount Suleiman with the Ark, we can be sure that an unfriendly, secular world full of dyed-in-the-wool skeptics will find many more reasons to reject it. The best I think he can hope for is that many will want to hear his story as an adventure tale – but that may be enough for him, an expected benefit of the aggressive promotion of the site at the beginning. I just hope that in view of the many problems that have come to light, he presents his audiences with the FULL story, warts and all.
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