Egypt Archives - BiblePlaces.com

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Excavations in central Turkey have uncovered more than 50 Hittite seal impressions from royal family members.

The Times of Israel reports on the sword engraved with the name of Ramses II that was recently discovered in ancient military barracks in the Nile Delta.

An ancient papyrus fragment is the earliest petition from a Jew to an Egyptian king.

Restoration work at the Temple of Edfu has enabled researchers to identify “traces of gold leaf, colorful painting remnants and graffiti.”

Recent articles at Bible History Daily introduce the Amarna Letters and the Amarna Revolution.

“Ancient frescoes like that of the Greek monkeys on Santorini suggest Europe and south Asia had trade links as long as 3,600 years ago.”

The latest episode in Walking The Text’s current series is about brothels and pubs in the Roman world.

“The Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East now has a public searchable database for its collections. The museum cares for over 40,000 items, including pottery, cylinder seals, sculpture, coins, and cuneiform tablets.The database is a work in progress and will be augmented periodically.”

Hybrid lecture on Oct 16 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston: “Rediscovering Sculptures of King Menkaure at the Giza Pyramids,” by Mark Lehner. Advance registration is recommended: online or in-person.

Now available: The Treasure of the Egyptian Queen Ahhotep and International Relations at the Turn of the Middle Bronze Age (1600- 1500 BCE), edited by Gianluca Miniaci and Peter Lacovara (Golden House, free pdf)

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Arne Halbakken

Tagged Egypt, Italy, Lectures, Museums, Resources, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

A new study claims that the Romans built the siege wall and ramp at Masada in 11-16 days and the siege as a whole took not more than a few weeks. The Romans’ motivation was not ideological but economic: the holdouts were a threat to balsam production in En Gedi. The underlying journal article is available here.

Archaeologists working in Egypt have discovered the oldest astronomical observatory ever found.

“On the Italian island of Pantelleria, located between southwestern Sicily and the coast of Tunisia, a team of archaeologists . . . has discovered a ‘tesoretto’ of 27 Roman silver coins.”

An article by Kathleen Abraham explores how to recognize Hebrew names “in cuneiform garb, what they might reveal about their bearers, and some of the challenges involved in this process.”

Italy’s Via Appia (Appian Way) has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The Tel Dan Inscription will be on display in Oklahoma from September 22 to November 25.

Sotheby’s is auctioning a Hebrew Bible from AD 1312, and they have created a beautiful video about it (4 min).

The W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research has opened applications for 2025-2026 fellowships and awards.

New release: The Neo-Assyrian Empire. A Handbook, by Simonetta Ponchia and Giovanni Battista Lanfranchi (De Gruyter, $182)

New release: Luxor Illustrated, Revised and Updated, with Aswan, Abu Simbel, and the Nile, by Michael Haag and Aidan Dodson (AUC Press, $25)

Mark Wilson has just finished a second updated edition of Biblical Turkey. Purchasers of previous editions can find the new material in a pdf on Mark’s academia page.

The latest episode of Biblical World podcast addresses a recent proposal about locating Sennacherib’s war camps in Judah.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Gordon Franz, Alexander Schick, Joseph Lauer

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Italy, Judah, Museums, Resources, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Ancient prisons are hard to find in the archaeological record, but archaeologists have identified one in Corinth’s Roman forum, dating to the 4th-5th centuries AD, based on graffiti found on floor tiles. Prior to that the area served as a market, and according to a local guide, there’s a tradition that Paul’s shop was here, based on fresco remains still barely visible. The underlying journal article is available to subscribers and for purchase ($20).

New archaeological research has found evidence that Pompeii was destroyed not only by the volcanic eruption but by a powerful earthquake.

Turkiye Today reports on irregularities in an excavation in Tarsus. The story alleges high security for a dig where nothing of significance was found. And yes, there is a dead policeman.

An article in Smithsonian Magazine explains who looted ancient Egyptian tombs and how they did it.

The latest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review includes four primary articles (subscription required):

“Jews of Arabia: Ancient Inscriptions Reveal Jewish Diaspora,” by Gary A. Rendsburg
“Gath of the Philistines: A New View of Ancient Israel’s Archenemy,” by Aren M. Maeir
“Letters to Pharaoh: The Canaanite Amarna Tablets,” by Alice Mandell
“Too Good to Be True? Reckoning with Sensational Inscriptions,” by Christopher Rollston

As Biblical Archaeology Review prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary, it is asking its readers to share stories and memories.

ASOR has launched a new website for The Ancient Near East Today (ANE Today), their “open-access digital platform for public scholarship, disseminating the latest research, insights, and news about the ancient Near East and beyond.” You can read more about the changes and new features here.

With his archaeological biography on Ashurbanipal, Bryan Windle has written about all six Assyrian kings mentioned in the Bible.

HT: Agade, Mark V. Hoffman, Gordon Franz, Gordon Dickson, Arne Halbakken, Keith Keyser, Paleojudaica

Tagged Egypt, Greece, Italy, Mesopotamia, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup – Egypt, Jordan, Mesopotamia, Persia

“An ongoing excavation in Damietta, Egypt, has uncovered 63 tombs from more than 2,500 years ago, alongside a trove of gold artifacts, coins and pottery.”

“During a diving expedition in the Nile River, archaeologists in Egypt discovered rock carvings featuring depictions of several ancient Egyptian pharaohs, along with hieroglyphic inscriptions.”

A new theory proposes that the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids using “a hydraulic lift device that would have floated the heavy stones up through the middle of Egypt’s oldest pyramid using stored water.”

“Scientists have used state of the art 3D imaging technology to piece together the life—and probable death—of a 2.2 meter-long crocodile mummified by the ancient Egyptians.”

Smithsonian Magazine has a feature story on the ancient Egyptian port of Berenike and the latest discoveries.

Women have played an important but largely unrecognized role in Egyptology, writes Kathleen Sheppard. She has written an article for the BBC, looking at three female travelers who visited Egypt in the 1800s.

Twenty-six years after first retiring, Egyptologist Donald Redford has retired again.

Konstantinos Politis writes about Ghor al-Safi, the location of biblical Zoar.

A new Mesopotamian board game called Akkad is now raising support on Kickstarter.

You can play the Royal Game of Ur online.

Various theories have been proposed to identify a creature depicted on the staircase at Persepolis.

Bryan Windle is on Digging for Truth to discuss the archaeological evidence for Belshazzar.

BiblePlaces.com has created photo collections for Egypt, Jordan, and Persia (but not Mesopotamia). We do have a Photo Companion volume for Daniel, which includes both Babylonian and Persian material.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Arne Halbakken, Ted Weis, Steven Anderson, Gordon Dickson, Mark V. Hoffman

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Jordan, Mesopotamia, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

“The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities on Monday announced the discovery of 33 archaeological tombs, dating back to the . . . the Greek and Roman eras near the Aga Khan Mausoleum in Aswan governorate.”

Mohy-Eldin E. Abo-Eleaz writes about foreign visitors to Egypt depicted in tombs in the reign of Thutmose III.

The Smithsonian Magazine has a feature article on the discoveries at Berenike on the shore of the Red Sea.

A new study shows that ancient Egyptian scribes suffered occupational bone damage.

The new study of radiocarbon dates from Jerusalem is the subject of the latest episode of This Week in the Ancient Near East.

Jodi Magness is on the Great Books podcast, produced by National Review, to discuss the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The latest issue of the Israel Exploration Journal includes articles on the Millo in Jerusalem, unique figurines from Judah, and forgotten papyri of the Judean desert. You can see the full table of contents here.

The May issue of BASOR has been released. The table of contents is online, but most of the articles require subscription.

New release: Eretz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies, volume 35, The Hillel Geva Volume (Israel Exploration Society, 775 pages, ₪400). The IES website has posted the table of contents, but the Hebrew articles are listed in Hebrew and I haven’t found an online listing in English (but here’s a text file). A few of the Hebrew articles I searched for were previously published in English. Geva’s contribution has been immense, and he is rightly honored by a whole host of scholars.

The Bible in Its Traditions is a website created by the École Biblique et Archéologique in Jerusalem that intends “to create the most extensive and helpful set of notes for the entire Bible” with “significant differences between different versions of the text of the Bible in the text itself, rather than in footnotes.”

Pool of Siloam, taken on June 23, 2024 by John Black

There will be no roundups in the month of July.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Keith Keyser, Ted Weis, Gordon Franz

Tagged Dead Sea Scrolls, Discoveries, Egypt, Jerusalem, Resources, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Philippe Bohström provides a primer on the Nuzi Tablets and their parallels to the Bible.

The painting on an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus lid depicts 12 high priestess each representing an hour of the day surrounding a woman who looks uncannily like Marge Simpson.

“An amateur brewer in Utah gathered rare figs and a strain of yeast from 850 B.C. to make a sour, fruity concoction inspired by ancient Egyptian recipes.”

Bryan Windle has written an illustrated archaeological biography for the Assyrian king Esarhaddon.

In a new book, Courtney Friesen looks at the relationship of Christians and Jews to the ancient theater.

Some former students and colleagues have written obituaries for Alan Millard.

Gabriel Barkay celebrated his 80th birthday yesterday. Many friends and colleagues honored him with a festschrift entitled Gabriel: Tell This Man the Meaning of His Vision: Studies in Archaeology, Epigraphy, Iconography and the Biblical World in Honor of Gabriel Barkay on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday. Robert Deutsch has posted one of the articles, including the book’s table of contents, on his Academia page.

Carl Rasmussen is leading a tour in October to all the important places in Turkey most tours don’t go to, and at a very reasonable price. I’d like to be on this one…

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Gordon Franz, Ted Weis

Tagged Egypt, Greece, Syria, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup