Antiquities Trade Archives - BiblePlaces.com

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

The first season of excavations have begun at Ashdod. Aren Maeir visited and notes that the focus is on understanding the gate’s function, dating, and plan. Abigail Van Huss reports on her experiences as a volunteer in week 1 and week 2.

“The ‘Secrets of Huqoq’ exhibition is now featured at the Yigal Allon Center Museum at Kibbutz Ginosar. The Samson mosaic is on display along with photographs of other mosaics.

Aren Maeir gives an update on two controversial matters related to archaeological authority in Israel.

Rafi Glick proposes that two tunnels in the Judean wilderness were designed to manage flash floods and recharge local groundwater reserves.

Jo Elizabeth tells the story of how the Great Isaiah Scroll (and three others) traveled 12,000 miles on its way from a Qumran cave to a Jerusalem museum.

Homeland Security agents in Tampa seized 12,000 ancient artifacts that came from the eastern Mediterranean.

Open-access: Ancient Technologies, Methods of Production and Installations in Israel—Essays in Honor of Rafael Frankel, edited by M. Eisenberg, U. ‘Ad, and E. Ayalon (Zinman Institute of Archaeology, 2025)

New release: Researching a Rigged Game: Digital Approaches to Tracing the Illicit Trade in Cultural Objects, edited by Emiline Smith and Summer Austin (Springer Nature, open-access)

New release: Thinking, Speaking and Representing Animals in Western Asia, edited by Laura Battini (Archaeopress, £16-55)

The latest issue of Tel Aviv includes a few open-access articles.

The schedule is online for this past week’s “Bringing Ancient Greek and Hebrew Literature into Conversation: An International Conference.”

Kiersten Neumann, ISAC Museum Curator, ISAC Research Associate, and Lecturer in Department of Art History, delivered this year’s commencement address for her alma mater, the Department of Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures at the University of California, Berkeley.

HT: Agade, Wayne Stiles, Explorator, Paleojudaica

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Dead Sea Scrolls, Excavations, Israel's Coast, Judah, Lectures, Museums, Resources, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

Archaeologists found two well-preserved marble busts from the Roman era in a Byzantine winepress near the coastal town of Binyamina.

Ariel David writes about the recently published mother-of-pearl seal found at Tel Hadid. Zev Stub reports on the artifact for The Times of Israel.

Avraham Faust has proposed that a massive cultic stone (massebah) at Tel ‘Eton was toppled as part of Hezekiah’s reforms.

Abigail Van Huss reports on the final week of excavations this year at Shiloh.

Lauren K. McCormick writes about the 1st-century synagogue at Tel Rekhesh in Galilee.

This week’s Jerusalem Tracker identifies the latest blog posts, digital resources, developments, and upcoming events.

David Begoun describes his first visit to see the Madaba Map.

Clinton Moyer gives an overview of Lawrence H. Schiffman’s BAR article on the temple in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The second international “Archaeology and Site Conservation in Judea and Samaria” conference was more controversial than the first one.

Conference at the Albright on July 7-9: “The Eleventh Century CE: Archaeology and History: An International Conference.” Register here.

On the Biblical World podcast, Jason Borges talks with Chris McKinny about his book, Christian Life in the Greco-Roman City.

On Digging for Truth, Ted Wright discusses ancient creation myths.

Following the death of a US citizen, his family returned to Egypt “a granite sphinx head, a bronze hippopotamus figurine, a double bronze statue of a king, and a bronze statue of the Egyptian deity Sobek.”

“The Israeli government on Tuesday approved designating Route 60 — the highway stretching from Nazareth in the north to Beersheba in the south and passing through some of the most significant sites in history—as the ‘Biblical Highway.’” This includes the ridge route known to students as the “Road of the Patriarchs.” When looking for more information, I found a 2023 movie entitled “Route 60: The Biblical Highway.” It’s curious to me that the trailer never once shows any part of the ancient route.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Dead Sea Scrolls, Discoveries, Egypt, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Jordan, Judah, Lectures, Samaria, Shephelah, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

“Archaeologists working in Egypt have discovered a remarkable combination of Homeric epic and Egyptian ritual: a 2,000-year-old mummy with a papyrus fragment of the “Iliad” sealed in a clay packet outside its wrappings.” (gift link)

“An Alexandria archaeological discovery in the Muharram Bek district has uncovered a rare circular public bath from the late Ptolemaic period and a Roman villa decorated with mosaic floors.”

“A collection of artifacts dating from the Ptolemic to the Byzantine period were discovered during excavations in the Muharram Bek neighborhood of Alexandria.”

“A sixth century mass grave located in the Jordanian city of Jerash has been identified as the oldest genetically confirmed plague-related burial and the first of its kind in the Eastern Mediterranean.”

Jason Borges writes about the tombstone of Abercius, the “longest and most explicit early Christian inscription.” The 22-line autobiographical text was written in AD 190.

ManuscriptShop sells museum-grade replicas of the earliest surviving biblical manuscripts, including 𝒫46, 𝒫52, and 𝒫66.

The Atlantic: “How did $65 million of allegedly stolen antiquities wind up in two of the world’s greatest museums?” (subscription)

HT: Agade, Alexander Schick

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Discoveries, Egypt, Jordan, Museums, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

An impressive 50-meter long tunnel, of unknown date and purpose, was discovered near Ramat Rahel south of Jerusalem. The tunnel is well-built with a staircase and entrance, and it probably dates to the Roman period or earlier.

An 8-year-old boy found a Roman-era statuette fragment while on a family hike in Makhtesh Ramon.

The Great Isaiah Scroll exhibition re-opened to the public yesterday and will be on display for the next four months.

Two rare and ancient coins allegedly smuggled out of Israel were returned by the US this week. The Persian-era tetradrachm is only the second known of its kind.

Adele Berlin writes about Psalm 122’s perspective of ancient Jerusalem.

Danny Jones discusses new research on the origins of the Philistines on Digging for Truth.

New release: The Names of Jerusalem: Jewish, Christian and Islamic Traditions, by Aaron Demsky, Christophe Rico, Iraj Sheidaee (Polis Institute, $32)

Westminster Books is running a sale on the five available volumes of the Lexham Geographic Commentary. (One volume is yet to come.) They are excellent.

First time on sale for Kindle: The Realia Jesus: An Archaeological Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, by David A. Fiensy ($2.99; paperback $34; Logos $22)

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Arne Halbakken

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Dead Sea Scrolls, Discoveries, Jerusalem, Museums, Negev, Philistines, Resources, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

A ship that wrecked off the coast of Dor circa 600 BC was carrying chunks of iron after they had been smelted, providing the first evidence that iron was traded in this form.

“Dozens of rare coins dating to about 2,000 years ago were seized from a Palestinian doctor attempting to smuggle them through the Hizma checkpoint between the West Bank and Jerusalem on the first Friday of Ramadan.”

Oded Lipschits and colleagues have published an article in Palestine Exploration Quarterly about a mass grave of young children from the Persian period at Tel Azekah.

Ruth Marks Eglash writes about the politics of Israelis excavating in the West Bank.

Yesterday’s Jerusalem Tracker lists the latest books, book chapters, and articles about the Holy City.

“T’OMIM (Tanakh Observable Matches of Intertextual Mimesis, from Hebrew תאומים meaning “twins”) is an open-access dataset of labeled parallel passages in the Hebrew Bible, compiled for computational and literary research on inner-biblical intertextuality.”

The long-awaited Gospel Companion from Biblical Backgrounds has arrived. The resource is on sale now until the end of Passover ($29.50).

The first two episodes of Season 1 of The Sacred Thread was released this week. Remaining episodes will release one a week through April on Angel Studios.

“A new theory is drawing attention to Malaita Island in the Solomon Islands as a potential hiding place of the Ark of the Covenant.”

Chris McKinny and Kyle Keimer discuss the best archaeological finds of 2025 on the Biblical World podcast.

Denny Sissom will be teaching a new online class entitled “Revealing the New Testament through the History, Politics, and Customs of the Inter-Testament Period.”

New release: The Raging Torrent, 3rd edition, by Mordechai Cogan (Carta; $88)

New release: When Israel Was Young: A History of the Jewish People from the Beginnings to the Roman Conquest of Jerusalem, by Lester L. Grabbe (Bloomsbury, $25-$90; Amazon)

Legends of the Lost Ark will be in movie theaters on April 12, 14, and 15. A richly illustrated companion book by Chris McKinny and Roy Brown will soon be available. The pre-order sale price is $32.

HT: Agade, Explorator, Paleojudaica

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Lectures, Movies, Resources, Samaria, Shephelah, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

Archaeologists have unearthed a Byzantine church with colorful mosaic floors at Nitzana (Nessana) in the Negev.

A lead sling bullet with the Greek word for “learn” was discovered in excavations at Hippos (Susita). The inscription “represents local sarcastic humor on the part of the city’s defenders, who wished to teach their enemies a lesson with a wink – ‘Learn your lesson!’” The underlying journal article is here.

Lauren K. McCormick writes about Byzantine baptismal halls at Hippos.

Rujm el-Hiri, the structure in the Golan Heights with concentric rings, is not unique, as scientists have identified 28 large circular structures within a 16-mile radius of the site.

“Archaeologists working off the coast of Libya have identified an underwater ‘ship graveyard’ near the ancient Greek city of Ptolemais.”

“Researchers are painstakingly reconstructing the oldest-known map of the night sky – previously thought lost forever – by X-raying parchment that contains the star catalog hidden beneath other text.”

“Amid rocket sirens and interceptions, two antiquities thieves were apprehended at the Horvat Hermesh site, which houses the remains of an ancient settlement from the Roman and Byzantine periods.”

“U.S. border officials in Philadelphia have seized a cache of 4,000-year-old Bronze Age swords and arrowheads, believed to be looted antiquities from Iran.”

The British Museum has released a video in the Curators’ Corner series about a monumental structure in Girsu that turned out to be the oldest bridge in the world.

The Greek City Times makes an argument for calling them the “Parthenon Sculptures,” not the “Parthenon Marbles.”

Military strikes have caused damage to historic sites in Isfahan, Iran.

“Lebanon has placed blue shields on 34 archaeological sites across the country to protect them during the ongoing war.”

ASOR webinar on March 25: “Lions, Rams, and Kings: Interpreting Animals at Persepolis,” by Neville McFerrin

BAS online course in August: “Historically Confirmed Figures in the Hebrew Bible,” by Lawrence Mykytiuk ($189)

BAS online class in October: “Ancient Texts and Scribes,” taught by Alice Mandell

The latest volume of Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology is now online.

On Digging for Truth, Bryan Windle discusses the “problems with using archaeological discoveries to interpret Scripture, instead of the other way around.”

HT: Agade, Explorator

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Discoveries, Galilee, Golan Heights, Lebanon, Lectures, Museums, Negev, Persia, Weekend Roundup