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Second Inscription from Qeiyafa Published

For the short summary, check out Luke Chandler’s post. He includes a photo and discusses the biblical mentions of the name Ishbaal/Eshbaal.

The publication details are as follows:
Yosef Garfinkel, Mitka R. Golub, Haggai Misgav and Saar Ganor, “The ʾIšbaʿal Inscription from Khirbet Qeiyafa.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, pp. 217–33.

The article may be downloaded from academia.edu now (requires registration) or from JStor in the near future.

Here is the article’s abstract:

A new West Semitic inscription from Khirbet Qeiyafa is presented. It was incised in Canaanite alphabetic script on a pottery storage jar before ﬁring. Radiometric dating of the relevant layer has yielded a date of ca. 1020–980 B.C.E. The last few years have seen the publication of several new Semitic alphabetic inscriptions dated to the late 11th–10th centuries B.C.E. and originating at controlled excavations in Israel (Khirbet Qeiyafa, Beth Shemesh, Tell eṣ-Ṣâﬁ, and Jerusalem). The new inscription is an important addition to this corpus.

HT: Joseph Lauer

UPDATE (6/20): Luke Chandler has posted a follow-up, focusing on the word before Ishbaal.

Central part of the inscription
Photo by Tal Rogovski

Tagged 10th Century, Discoveries, Shephelah

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

The lighthouse of Alexandria is to be rebuilt near its original location.

An ancient Egyptian temple has been discovered at the Gabal Al-Silsela quarries.

One of the earliest complete copies of the Ten Commandments (from the Dead Sea Scrolls) will be on display at the Israel Museum two days a month for the next seven months.

Wayne Stiles: The Mount of Olives—Where to Stand and What to Read

A PEF lecture by James L. Starkey’s son: Not for the Greed of Gold: A Tribute and Biography of the Life and Career of J.L. Starkey, Director of the Wellcome-Marston Archaeological Expedition to Palestine, 1932-1938.

A new aerial panoramic photo from SourceFlix: Where David fought Goliath.

The Museum Center at 5ive Points in Cleveland, Tennessee, is hosting an exhibition with artifacts from Khirbet el-Maqatir.

Vandals have painted Palestinian flags on the ruins of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Haluza in southern Israel.

The Israeli government has approved a five-year plan to upgrade the Western Wall plaza.

HT: Agade, Paleojudaica

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Jerusalem, Lectures, Museums, Negev, Shephelah, Temple Mount, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Palmyra has fallen to ISIS. The fear now is for the safety of the monuments and museum.

This CNN slideshow features 19 monuments destroyed in the war.

“Cyber-archaeologists” are working to virtually restore what has been destroyed.

Archaeologists were baffled at a meticulously excavated Byzantine-era winepress in Jerusalem until they learned it was exposed by local teenagers.

Catacombs are being constructed in Jerusalem to bury the dead. The first stage of the underground necropolis will hold 22,000.

This weekend’s celebration of Shavuot/Pentecost may be the largest in Israel’s history.

Donald Brake is on the Land and the Book discussing Jesus: A Visual History.

A 20-year-old female tourist died at Masada after she suffered heat stroke and fell from a cliff.

UPDATE: More details here.

What would be at the top of your list of yet-to-be-discovered finds in biblical archaeology? Steven Anderson lists his top ten.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Agade, Ted Weis

Tagged Discoveries, Holidays, Jerusalem, Resources, Syria, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Jerusalem Lower Aqueduct Section Discovered

A new section of the Lower Aqueduct built by the Hasmoneans to bring water to Jerusalem has been exposed near Har Homa between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. A press release from the Israel

Antiquities Authority gives more details.

The Israel Antiquities Authority conducted an archaeological excavation there following the discovery of the aqueduct. According to Ya’akov Billig, the excavation director, “The Lower Aqueduct to Jerusalem, which the Hasmonean kings constructed more than two thousand years ago in order to provide water to Jerusalem, operated intermittently until about one hundred years ago. The aqueduct begins at the ‘En ‘Eitam spring, near Solomon’s Pools south of Bethlehem, and is approximately 21 kilometers long. Despite its length, it flows along a very gentle downward slope whereby the water level falls just one meter per kilometer of distance. At first, the water was conveyed inside an open channel and about 500 years ago, during the Ottoman period, a terra cotta pipe was installed inside the channel in order to better protect the water”.
The aqueduct’s route was built in open areas in the past, but with the expansion of Jerusalem in the modern era, it now runs through a number of neighborhoods: Umm Tuba, Sur Bahar, East Talpiot and Abu Tor. Since this is one of Jerusalem’s principal sources of water, the city’s rulers took care to preserve it for some two thousand years, until it was replaced about a century ago by a modern electrically operated system. Due to its historical and archaeological importance, the Israel Antiquities Authority is taking steps to prevent any damage to the aqueduct, and is working to expose sections of its remains, study them and make them accessible to the general public.
The Umm Tuba section of the aqueduct was documented, studied, and covered up again for the sake of future generations. Other sections of the long aqueduct have been conserved for the public in the Armon Ha-Natziv tunnels, on the Sherover promenade, around the Sultan’s Pool and additional projects are planned whose themes include the Lower Aqueduct.

The story is reported by the Jerusalem Post, Arutz-7, and The Times of Israel. A more complete report of an earlier excavation of this aqueduct is available in Excavations and Surveys in Israel 2011.

The Pictorial Library of Bible Lands includes a 50-slide presentation on the entire ancient aqueduct system.

UPDATE: Joseph Lauer sends along a link to three high-res photos.

Lower Aqueduct section recently discovered
Photo courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority

Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem, Judah

Weekend Roundup

The oldest complete copy of the Ten Commandments is going on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem for a brief time. No articles provide the dates of the display. High-resolution images of this Dead Sea Scroll are available here.

Archaeologists have discovered an Egyptian army headquarters from the New Kingdom at Tell Habwa.

“The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) and the Digital Library Technology Services (DLTS) in the New York University Division of Libraries have redesigned and relaunched the Ancient World Digital Library (AWDL) online portal.” The new ADWL includes 121 titles from Brill.

65 titles from ASOR are now available online including works by Charlesworth, Cross, Glueck, King, Lapp, Levine, MacDonald, Meyers, and Pritchard.

Forward has photos of this year’s Samaritan Passover sacrifice. The Daily Mail has many more.

Ten mosaics in the museum in Antioch on the Orontes have been seriously damaged during restoration.

Wayne Stiles: Why I Don’t Use My Holy Land Photos on My Blog

This week on the Book and the Spade, Clyde Billington draws a connection between Khirbet Qeiyafa and the heights of David mentioned in Pharaoh Shishak’s inscription.

The ancient synagogue of Meiron was recently vandalized.

Theresa Howard Carter has died.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Charles Savelle

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Galilee, Holidays, Museums, Resources, Sad News, Shephelah, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Archaeologists have uncovered a monumental entrance to the Herodium that was apparently buried by King Herod. The short video is more informative than the article.

Russian archaeologists have discovered portions of the walls of Memphis, capital of ancient Egypt.

The US has returned 123 artifacts smuggled out of Egypt.

Mathematicians at Tel Aviv University are developing algorithms to recognize ancient Hebrew letters inscribed on potsherds (or here).

The Temple Mount Sifting Project has a brief report about and many photos from the carpet job in the Dome of the Rock.

The Shrine of the Book opened 50 years ago this week.

The Plains of Moab remind us to remember what God has done in our lives.

Besides a Beretta, what else is in Aren Maeir’s dig bag?

Menahem Haran died recently at the age of 91.

HT: Ted Weis, Agade

The Plains of Moab from Mount Nebo

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Discoveries, Egypt, Excavations, Jerusalem, Jordan Rift, Judah, Museums, Sad News, Temple Mount, Weekend Roundup