Discoveries Archives - Page 117 of 154

Wednesday Roundup

ABR is putting the word out for volunteers to join them for the 10th season of excavations at Khirbet el-Maqatir, a possible location of Joshua’s Ai.

IBEX students discovered a beautiful seal this week in excavations at Tel Burna (Libnah?).

Excavations have resumed in Egypt at Tell el-Amarna.

One place that most tourists to Israel never visit is the southern wilderness where the Israelites wandered. Wayne Stiles gives his readers a good feel for the landscape, with several scenic photographs, in his weekly column at the Jerusalem Post.

CITYsights takes viewers on a four-minute video tour of the Herodium in search of Herod’s tomb.

Satellite imagery is being used to identify ancient settlements in the Libyan desert.

Elsewhere in Libya, thieves drilled through a concrete ceiling in the National Commercial Bank and carried off the Treasure of Benghazi. An expert described the loss as “one of the greatest thefts in archaeological history.”

Carl Rasmussen has been uploading photos from his excellent Zondervan Atlas of the Bible to the Holy Land Photos website where they can be downloaded for free.

The Book and the Spade radio program features an interview with Eilat Mazar (and a forthcoming profile in Christianity Today). To listen, go here.

A hyena was caught in an illegal trap near Modiin (about halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv). Aren Maeir has the details, a video and some advice.

Now that it has been admitted to UNESCO, the PA is going to sue Israel “for systematically destroying and forging Arab and Islamic culture in Jerusalem.”

It’s been a year now since the American consulate in Jerusalem relocated from East Jerusalem, but since I missed it, someone else may have also. If you lose your passport or need a birth certificate, you’ll need to head to the new facility in Arnona, south of the Old City not far from Ramat Rahel.

Friday (11/11/11) is the last day to vote for the Dead Sea as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. The lowest and saltiest body of water on earth is in the top ten but the Israeli Tourism Ministry is asking everyone to vote.

HT: Jack Sasson, Joseph Lauer

Tagged Dead Sea, Discoveries, Excavations, Herod's Tomb, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Discoveries at Khirbet Summeily Announced

The most dramatic discovery from the first season of excavations at Khirbet Summeily is a unique sculpted animal head. Archaeologists are not sure if the head is of a sheep or a lion, but they say that it is the first of this type they have seen.

Excavations of the site this summer also uncovered an Egyptian scarab, stone figurines, a collection of loomweights, as well as the remains of several buildings. Khirbet Summeily is located near the border of ancient Israel and Philistia, 3 miles (4 km) west of Tell el-Hesi and about 5 miles (8 km) southwest of Qiryat Gat.

Tim Frank has posted the full press release and photograph from Mississippi State University. You may want to check out Frank’s blog “Archaeology and the Bible” while you’re at it, including a recent series of posts on “Life in the Holy Land,” surveying the remarkable work of Gustav Dalman (until now available only in German and Hebrew).

Blog readers may recall Daughter of Lachish, a captivating work of historical fiction written by Frank and published earlier this year by Wipf and Stock (now available from Amazon).

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Judah, Philistines

Wednesday Roundup

Joseph Patrich provides a great survey of what we know about Caesarea Maritima from archaeological excavations.

Ferrell Jenkins has written a couple of illustrated posts on Saint Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula.

The IAA has more information about the Byzantine prayer box discovered in the City of David (aka
“Walls around Jerusalem” National Park).

The West Semitic Research Project has made three RTI images available to BAR readers to view without requiring registration. (Background here.)

Wayne Stiles transports his readers to the Mount of Beatitudes in the spring.

You can now register for the 2012 season at Gath. This is one of the most popular excavations in the world.

The ancient mikveh discovered near Zorah is the subject of a 1.5 minute video at the Jerusalem Post.

A bill submitted to Israel’s parliament “aims to preserve the Dead Sea and its internationally treasured natural resources, maintain the salty waters for the benefit of the next generation, curb the plunging water levels of the northern basin and determine new terms of management for the region, which will provide for continued reasonable extraction of minerals while protecting the ecosystems and biodiversity.”

Israel’s Knesset has refused to declassify the Temple Mount Report. “Shin Bet officials argued the report should remain confidential on the grounds its contents were sensitive and its publication could result in confrontations and geopolitical changes at the site.”

A scholar claims that the number of ancient stone wheels visible only from the sky may number more than a million. Google Earth is now being used to identify these throughout Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

Iraq has budgeted $8.5 million to develop the infrastructure at the ancient city of Babylon.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Tagged Dead Sea, Discoveries, Egypt, Galilee, Jerusalem, Shephelah, Technology, Temple Mount

Weekend Roundup

A miniature prayer box from the 6th-7th centuries was discovered recently in the excavations in the Central Valley south of the Dung Gate of Jerusalem.

Haaretz: “The High Court of Justice yesterday criticized the agreement by which a private association, Elad, operates the City of David national park in Jerusalem, but said the agreement was legal.” One potential change to the agreement would open the site to tourists on Shabbat. The Jerusalem Post covers the story here.

A local watchman of the lower Herodium sued archaeologist Ehud Netzer days before his death.

Recent court proceedings rejected all of the plaintiff’s claims and observed that the watchman had been extorting the archaeologist for years. The article is in Hebrew, with a Google translation here.

China will help build a railway to Eilat. Israeli officials hope that this boosts tourism to the Red Sea resort city.

Time Magazine gives five reasons to visit Beirut.

“The largest collection of biblical artifacts ever displayed outside Israel” opened yesterday in New York City.

Shmuel Browns gives readers a tour of the four sites run by the East Jerusalem Development Company: Ramparts Walk, Roman Plaza, Zedekiah’s Cave, and the Davidson Archaeological Park.

Joe Yudin recommends hiking to Ein Akev in the Negev Highlands. (Am I the only one offended that the Jerusalem Post publishes material with very basic mistakes in English grammar?)

Peter Williams’ lecture on “New Evidences the Gospels Were Based on Eyewitness Accounts” primarily discusses data from recent studies of names, but he also includes a geographical section in minutes 36-42 of this Lanier Library Lecture now posted at Youtube. (He shares a photo from BiblePlaces.com, but by using a low-res web version his viewers have a hard time making out what he’s trying to show.)

HT: Joseph Lauer, Yitzhak Sapir, A.D. Riddle

Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Lectures, Museums, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Largest Mosaic Discovered in Antioch

The largest mosaic discovered to date in Turkey has been unearthed in the ancient city of Antioch.

The mosaic measures 9,150 square feet (850 sq m) and will be preserved within the hotel being constructed on the site. Antioch, located in southeastern Turkey today, was the home of a significant first-century church that sent Paul out on his three missionary journeys (cf. Acts 11:19-30; 13:1-3).

The construction of the hotel is still continuing under the protection and controls of museum officials, said Yastı. The officials constantly control the drilling process and preserve the new artifacts unearthed, she added. The 850-square-meter mosaic is not damaged and in very good condition, she said, adding that it is the first time a mosaic like this has been unearthed in Turkey.
There was also a 3,000-square-meter marble floor discovered during the drilling process, she said, adding that the construction process never damaged the artifacts.
Businessman Necmi Asfuroğlu who owns the construction project said they did not want to damage the artifacts discovered during construction. There will be a 17,000-square-meter museum to exhibit those artifacts, he added. The hotel, on the other hand, will have 200 rooms.

The full article is here. Some photos are included in articles in Turkish including one showing the construction site and another with a small photo of the mosaic.

Last month we noted that the museum in Antioch currently has on display a total of 906 square meters of mosaic. The present find nearly equals that.

HT: Jack Sasson

Tagged Discoveries, Turkey

Mikveh Discovered near Biblical Zorah

The Israel Antiquities Authority has announced the discovery of a Jewish ritual bath 1.2 miles (2 km) north of Kibbutz Zorah. Biblical Zorah is about 1.2 miles northeast of the kibbutz.

A plastered building, probably a ritual bath (miqve), dating to the Second Temple period (first century BCE-first century CE) was exposed in an archaeological excavation the Israel Antiquities Authority conducted prior to the installation of a water line by the Mekorot Company at an antiquities site, c. 2 kilometers north of Kibbutz Zor’a.
The excavation revealed a square structure that has three walls treated with a thin layer of plaster that facilitated the storage of water. A channel used to drain water into the ritual bath was installed in a corner. In addition, a plaster floor and three stairs that descend from it to the west (toward the hewn openings in the bedrock) were exposed.
According to archaeologist Pablo Betzer, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “This is the first time that any remains dating to the Second Temple period have been exposed in this region. We knew from the Talmud and from non-Jewish sources that on this ridge, as in most of the Judean Shephelah, there was an extensive Jewish community 2,000 years ago that existed until the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Yet despite the many surveys and excavations that have been carried out to date no remains from this period have been discovered so far”. According to Betzer the name of the Jewish settlement that the ritual bath belonged to is still unknown.

There’s a lesson here too about the limitations of archaeological surveys.

Samson was born and buried between Zorah and Eshtaol (Judg 13:24-25; 16:31). This new discovery dates to about 1,000 years after the period of the judges.

The link for high-resolution photos is now working. The link to the press release is here.

The Sorek Valley separates the modern city of Beth Shemesh (bottom) from the tree-covered ridge where biblical Zorah was located. Kibbutz Zorah is located in the valley on the left side.

Tagged Discoveries, Shephelah