Egypt Archives - BiblePlaces.com

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A discovery at Tanis indicates that Shoshenq III was buried not in his own tomb but in an unmarked sarcophagus in Osorkon II’s tomb.

“Researchers in Istanbul have confirmed the existence of an underwater copper mine near Heybeliada (Greek: Χάλκη, Latinized: Halki) island, providing rare archaeological evidence for a description recorded by Aristotle more than 2,300 years ago.”

Excavations in Tunisia have uncovered the second largest Roman olive oil mill in the Roman empire.

A monumental staircase leading to nowhere may give evidence that a large villa in Pompeii had a viewing tower.

Alex Joffe writes about the use of animal dung as fuel in ancient Mesopotamia.

Zoom lecture on Dec 9: “From Pasargadae to Neyrīz, ca. 500 BCE: The View from the Persepolis Fortification Archive,” by Rhyne King

Students who climbed onto the roof of a temple of Apollo in Cyprus have been criticized.

Mick Boersma, a longtime professor at Talbot School of Theology and faithful friend to me and this ministry, is with the Savior he loved so much and served so well.

HT: Agade, Explorator, Paleojudaica

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Lectures, Mesopotamia, Sad News, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A Roman sarcophagus was discovered in Hungary, “untouched by looters and sealed for centuries … with its stone lid still fixed in place, secured by metal clamps and molten lead.”

“Five theatrical mask reliefs have been discovered during excavations in the theater area of Kastabala, an ancient city in Osmaniye, southern Türkiye.”

Excavations at Ugarit have resumed after a 14-year hiatus.

Remember the Jordan Lead Codices? A new scientific analysis provides some answers about their dating. (James Davila gives some background.)

“A stunning replica of an ancient trireme will be displayed as the centerpiece of the new Greek Underwater Archaeology Museum” in Piraeus, opening next year.

The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition opens at The Museum of the Bible this weekend. “The exhibition will feature biblical texts and scrolls from the community at Qumran, as well as hundreds of artifacts that reveal details about life and Judaism during the Second Temple period.”

“More than 40 precious artifacts from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem are currently on display at the Frick in New York City.”

The Metropolitan Museum of Art just launched a virtual reality tour of the 1st-century BC Egyptian Temple of Dendur.

New release: Assur 2024: Continuing the Excavations in the New Town and Other Research across the Site, edited by Karen Radner and Andrea Squitieri. Exploring Assur 2. (PeWe-Verlag; 59 €; open-access)

New release: Excavating Ancient Egypt: Fifty Years of Archaeological Memories, by Jeffrey Spencer (Archaeopress; £16-£32)

In the latest episode on the Biblical World podcast, Mary Buck explains the importance of the Achaemenid Empire, including figures like Cyrus and Darius.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Alexander Schick, Gordon Franz, Ted Weis, Explorator

Tagged Dead Sea Scrolls, Discoveries, Egypt, Jerusalem, Jordan, Mesopotamia, Museums, Persia, Resources, Syria, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

“Archaeologists in Gölyazı, Turkey, have uncovered a Greek inscription carved into a seat in a Roman-era theater, revealing the name of a female priestess who lived nearly two thousand years ago.”

“Examination of an ancient alabaster vase in the Yale Peabody Museum’s Babylonian Collection has revealed traces of opiates, providing the clearest evidence to date of broad opium use in ancient Egyptian society.”

Six archaeological artifacts were stolen in a burglary of the Damascus National Museum.

“One hundred years after Tutankhamun’s body was first unwrapped, the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford launches a new database bringing together every archaeological record from the tomb’s discovery.”

Itiner-e is a new digital atlas of Roman roads. “Itiner-e aims to host the most detailed open digital dataset of roads in the entire Roman Empire. The data creation is a collaborative ongoing project edited by a scholarly community. Itiner-e allows you to view, query and download roads.” The Times of Israel and Gizmodo have stories about this new resource.

New release: Scenes from a Provincial Life: Memoirs of a Biblical Scholar, by David J.A. Clines (Sheffield Phoenix Press, $30)

New release: Contacts of Languages and Peoples in the Hittite and Post-Hittite World, Volume 2, The 1st Millennium and the Eastern Mediterranean Interface, edited by F. Giusfredi, A. Matessi, S. Merlin and V. Pisaniello ($109; free pdf)

New article: “The New Swedish Cyprus Expedition: The 2023 and 2024 excavations at the Late Bronze Age cemetery of Hala Sultan Tekke,” by Peter M. Fischer and many others (free pdf).

The latest DigSight, a newsletter from the Southern Adventist University Institute of Archaeology, reports on the museum’s 25th anniversary, a study tour to Cyprus and Greece, the temple model from Khirbet Qeiyafa, and more.

The AP has many nice photos of the Parthenon without scaffolding.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Ted Weis

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Greece, Mediterranean Islands, Museums, Resources, Syria, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

The NY Times has a well-illustrated story about the exhibits in the Egypt’s newly opened Grand Museum (gift link). The AP reports on the grand opening event.

There is no evidence that the short-lived capital of Akhetaten was abandoned because of a catastrophic plague.

A new study indicates that ancient Egypt’s gold production was much higher than previously believed.

Did the Egyptians built the Great Pyramid with a hidden pulley system?

“Egyptian authorities opened a criminal investigation after a 4,000-year-old limestone relief vanished from the Sixth-Dynasty mastaba of Khentika in the Saqqara necropolis.”

The Netherlands will return a statue of Thutmose III that was apparently stolen from Egypt during the 2011 Arab Spring.

“A tablet made in ancient Babylon around 1500 B.C.E. may be the earliest known depiction of a ghost.”

A large and intricate Roman-era mosaic has been discovered in Iznik, Turkey.

Turkish Archaeological News rounds up the top stories for the month of October, including:

The authentic restoration of tombs in the northern necropolis of Hierapolis
The opening to the public of a cave with a fresco of St. Paul opening near Antalya
The remains of a hippodrome discovered in Kayseri in Cappadocia
On-going discoveries by the American archaeologists working at Sardis

“The top three reports in biblical archaeology in October 2025 featured a tomb in Egypt, a necropolis in Turkey, and an inscription in Israel.”

BibleStock has released a new coaching video for Thanksgiving based on Psalm 100.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Ted Weis, Explorator

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Discoveries, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Museums, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

The Grand Egyptian Museum officially opened yesterday. The $1 billion project began in 2005.

There are no threatening cracks in King Tut’s tomb, according to the Egyptian authorities.

The sun lit up King Ramses II’s statue at Abu Simbel for 22 minutes last week.

Egyptian emergency personnel carried out “one of the most complex rescue missions carried out in closed archaeological sites” in rescuing an injured woman inside the Bent Pyramid.

A tourist fell off the perimeter wall of the Pantheon in Rome and died.

Erosion is a risk to monuments in southern Iraq, including the Ziggurat of Ur.

The International Association for Assyriology has posted links to a number of video and audio presentations related to ANE archaeology, history, culture, and cuneiform.

New release: Yearning for Immortality: The European Invention of the Ancient Egyptian Afterlife, by Rune Nyord (University of Chicago Press, $115; open-access)

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Explorator

Tagged Egypt, Italy, Mesopotamia, Museums, Resources, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Archaeologists have found remains of 95 dolmens from the Early Bronze Age in the Madaba region of Jordan.

“Archaeologists have discovered a 3,500-year-old military fortress with a zigzag-style wall in the north Sinai Desert of Egypt.”

Egyptian officials are worried about a ceiling crack in the tomb of King Tutankhamun.

“Greece said on Thursday it had agreed with Egypt on the future of St. Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Egypt’s Mount Sinai.”

Archaeological work is progressing on a large, “circular, labyrinthine building [that] has no known parallel in prehistoric Crete or the wider Aegean region.”

Expedition Bible’s latest video is about the Amarna Letters, which Joel Kramer states in the introduction are “the most powerful evidence outside of the Bible for the Israelite conquest of the Promised Land.”

Clinton Arnold and Sean McDowell discuss the recent excavations at Colossae on the Think Biblically podcast. Fox News has some new photos of the excavation.

The first results have been published from “Pompeii Reset, a non-invasive program that used three-dimensional recording and modeling to re-examine the House of the Tiaso.”

“3D models of the Sela inscription of the Neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus (556-539 BCE) can be seen at the Sketchfab’s page of the GRACPE-UB research group.”

Hybrid lecture at Harvard on Nov 12: “Decoding the Pyramid Statues of King Menkaure,” by Florence Dunn Friedman

The ESV Archaeology Study Bible Notes are available for pre-order at Logos.

Amazon is listing for pre-order two long-awaited volumes in the Lexham Geographic Commentary series – Historical Books, volume 1 (Joshua–Ruth) and volume 2 (1 Samuel–Esther). They are also available for pre-order on Logos (vol 1, vol 2).

Open-access: The South Palace Archives in Babylon: Administrative Records in the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, by Olof Pedersén (Harrassowitz)

The Johns Hopkins University Archaeological Museum has re-opened after a three-year renovation.

HT: Agade, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Italy, Lectures, Mediterranean Islands, Museums, Resources, Turkey, Weekend Roundup