The big story of the week is the discoveries made in excavations at Caesarea, including the altar of Herod’s temple, an inscribed menorah, and a statue of Asclepius. You can read the press release here or download high-res photos here. Haaretz has the best illustrated story. The Times of Israel emphasizes the discovery of an inscribed menorah. The Jerusalem Post focuses on the $27 million project. Art Daily provides another brief summary.This 3-minute video includes English subtitles.

A colossus of Ramses II has been re-erected in front of Luxor Temple’s first pylon.

Ten nations have created an “Ancient Civilizations Forum” to work together to protect ancient heritage from Islamic extremism.

Israeli police arrested a man in Hawara and confiscated hundreds of antiquities they discovered in his house.

A petition is now circulating to save the Yale Babylonian Collection.

A first-century AD bust of Drusus Minor will be returned to Italy by the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Should Egypt sell some of its artifacts to raise money?
BBC: “Madain Saleh isn’t as well-known as Petra, but the Nabateans’ second-largest city played a
crucial role in their mysterious empire.”

Simon Gathercole looks at the historical evidence for Jesus’s life and death.
BAS has published online a web-exclusive chart of 53 biblical people who have been confirmed in inscriptions.

Wayne Stiles’s recent post on Mount Carmel includes photos of its beauty and its burning.

Leon Mauldin visited Bethphage yesterday.

What happened to the cross that Jesus died on?

Mark Hoffman suggests that you may want to download Google Earth before it’s gone.


The Corinth Excavations Archaeological Manual has been published and a pdf has been made available for free. The post includes a link to previously published archaeology manuals.

The four-volume Dictionary of Daily Life in Biblical and Post-Biblical Antiquity is available on
Logos at a pre-pub price of $51. I recommend it.

I’ll be traveling much of May and June, so I probably will not be able to do many roundups.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Agade, Ted Weis, Charles Savelle

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“An Egyptian archaeological mission in Luxor has announced the discovery of a major tomb in the city’s west bank area dating back to the 18th Dynasty and containing priceless artefacts.”

Israeli archaeologists have begun to study an ancient Jewish pyramid near Khirbet Midras in the Shephelah.

Archaeologists have discovered an estate of Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the mountains of southwestern Turkey.

Symbols found on the the Vulture Stone at Gobekli Tepe in Turkey has led researchers to propose the earth was struck by a devastating comet around 11,000 BC.

Shots were fired near St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai, but there are different explanations of what happened.

The Qumran and Bible Exhibition is now online with an audioguide and with a video introduction.

The latest edition of The Holy Land Magazine is online and includes tourist articles on Nazareth Village, Yad VaShem, Neot Kedumim, and more.

Tom Powers considers David Bivin’s recent post on the deteriorating road to Emmaus and adds some observations of his own.

Elizabeth Sloane, writing in Haaretz, asks, “Did the Egyptian goddess Hathor originate with Semitic miners from Canaan?”

The Temple Mount Sifting Project must meet its fundraising goal or it will receive none of the pledged funds.

The Amarna Letters are the topic of the week on The Book and the Spade with guest Alice Mandell.

The Khirbet el-Maqatir exhibit in Pikeville, Kentucky is drawing visitors.

Eisenbrauns is offering the Victor Avigdor Hurowitz memorial volume at a savings of 40% for a few more days: Marbeh Ḥokmah: Studies in the Bible and the Ancient Near East (2 vols). List $139.50; sale: $83.70.

HT: Charles Savelle, Ted Weis, Joseph Lauer, Agade

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Gabriel Barkay believes that they have discovered one of the capitals from Solomon’s Colonnade on the eastern side of the Temple Mount. Leen Ritmeyer seems inclined to agree, but he clarifies an issue with a measurement.

An excavation last month of Qumran Cave 11 resulted in the discovery of an upper chamber, linen textiles, medicinal plants, and leather and wooden artifacts. An international workshop on Cave 11 will be held later this month.

An underground tunnel network from the Bar Kochba period has been discovered in the Hebron hills.

The dating of donkey dung supports a Solomonic-date for a mining camp at Timna Valley in southern Israel.

Construction has begun on the “Sanhedrin Trail,” running from Beth Shearim to Tiberias. It will be a “smart” trail that “will communicate with the hikers using an innovative, augmented reality-based application.” The project also includes the building of a visitor’s center in Tiberias.

After the Temple Mount Sifting Project sent out an urgent plea for funds, the Prime Minister of Israel stepped in to restore the lost funding. Or did he?

The Egyptian Antiquities Ministry announced the discovery of a 13th dynasty pyramid, currently being excavated in Dahshur’s royal necropolis.

A Roman bath complex has been inaugurated in Alexandria.

Magnetometers and ground-penetrating radar has been used to discover the concession stands, taverns, and souvenir shops that surrounded a Roman amphitheater in Austria. (If you substitute “NFL” for “gladiator,” it will all make perfect sense.)

“Colorising the Arch of Titus: The Spoils of Jerusalem” is a new 4-minute video that reveals the results of a recent study led by Steven Fine of the original design and colors of the famous panel.

Ferrell Jenkins shares a couple of photos of the view from Mount Nebo.

Joel Pless suggests a biblical connection in his recent interview on Pompeii and Herculaneum on The Book and the Spade.

Israel’s Good Name recently visited Solomon’s Quarries, the Jerusalem Archaeological Park, and more.

Later this month, New College of the University of Edinburgh will be hosting a conference entitled “Coins and the Bible: Understanding Ancient Coinage.”

This month, Logos is offering Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels, by Kenneth E. Bailey for only $1.99.

Winged Bull Press released several new titles on April 1. And their new shipping service is a hoot!

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Mike Harney, Ted Weis, Charles Savelle, Alexander Schick

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Haaretz (premium): “Archaeologists in Rome have uncovered the [very fragmentary] remains of a second triumphal arch dedicated to the emperor Titus and his success in putting down the Great Revolt of the Jews in the first century C.E.”

“The remains of a huge Roman temple, the size of St Paul’s Cathedral in London has been found by a Cambridge University archaeological team in central Italy.”

Philippe Bohstrom has written an interesting and well-illustrated article on the Greek site of Poseidonia (Paestum) in southern Italy.

“The location where the Greek naval forces had gathered before the historic sea battle of Salamis against Persians in 480 BC has been discovered.”

“A unique statue, possibly of Queen Tiye, the wife of King Amenhotep III and grandmother of King Tutankhamun, has been unearthed at her husband’s funerary temple in Kom El-Hittan on Luxor’s west bank.”

The intact tomb of the brother of a 12th Dynasty Elephantine governor has been uncovered, containing a range of funerary goods.”

Antiquities dealers in the US imported $100 million in artifacts from Egypt and Turkey last year.

In order to thwart the plundering of antiquities, Syrian archaeologists have begun painting their treasures with a clear, traceable liquid.


The New York Times previews the new “Mummies” exhibit at the American Museum of Natural
History in Manhattan.

The ABWG has a roundup of links for Awards for Books in Classics, Ancient Near East, and Antiquity.

HT: Ted Weis, Charles Savelle, Steven Anderson, Agade, Joseph Lauer

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Archaeologists have discovered a Crusader ship that wrecked in the harbor of Acco.

A replica of a 2,500-year-old ship discovered at Ma’agan Michael launched yesterday from Haifa.

That colossus they recently dug up belongs not to Ramses II, but to Psamtik (Psammetichus) I of the 26th Dynasty.

High-tech imaging is revealing the text of erased and recycled parchments at St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai.

Carl Rasmussen has visited the Archaeology Museum of Nazareth and shares photos of Crusader capitals that depict scenes from the New Testament.

Philippe Bohstrom considers the problem of diving thieves who are looting antiquities from the ocean floor.

The Huis Marseille Museum of Photography in Amsterdam is hosting a spring exhibition about 19th-century photography in Egypt.

A World of Emotions: Ancient Greece, 700 BC – 200 AD has opened at the Onassis Cultural Center in New York.

The founder of Elad, the City of David Foundation, has been awarded the 2017 Israel Prize.

You can get caught up on what happened in the Gezer excavations last year by watching a 16-minute video.

How do you do math in Roman numerals?

After a successful fundraiser and launch of the initial episodes of “Following the Messiah,” Appian Media kicked off a new campaign to raise funds to complete the series. In the first few days, they’ve already raised more than half of their goal. You can pitch in here.

Jodi Magness will be lecturing on “The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls” at William Jessup University on March 23. You can register here.

This week’s program on The Book and the Spade is an interview with Clyde Billington entitled, “Dead Sea Scrolls and the Sinai Inscription.”

Wayne Stiles is leading a trip to Israel this fall and there’s an early-bird discount if you sign up soon.

HT: Ted Weis, Charles Savelle, Agade, Joseph Lauer, Paleojudaica

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A new study concludes that the Roman siege ramp of Masada was never completed and thus was not used to conquer the site.


The Times of Israel has more on the latest discoveries at Omrit.

Syrian troops have recaptured Palmyra from ISIS and the latest damage is being assessed.

The site of the ancient temple of Artemis in Ephesus is suffering from neglect.

The Museum of Archaeological Excavations on Elephantine Island in Aswan has been re-opened after a six-year closure.

The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo was opened to the public last week.

2,000 libraries around the world will receive true color photographs of the Sistine Chapel.

“A 19th-century view of the Egyptian temple complex of Karnak is to go on display at the British Museum for the first time this week.”

Wayne Stiles provides a brief history of the Temple Mount, with lots of photos.

John DeLancey of Biblical Israel Tours now has posts up for every day of his recent tour of Israel and Italy.

Gordon Govier interviews Randall Price about “Qumran Cave 12” on The Book and the Spade.

Gary Byers has written a well-illustrated post on the use of mudbricks in the Bible.

Steve Mason’s A History of the Jewish War, A.D. 66-74 is positively reviewed on the BMCR blog.

LandMinds interviews Guy Stiebel on his return to excavating Masada (40 min).

Eisenbrauns is offering 70-80% off dozens of feschriften, including The Fire Signals of Lachish (now
$21) and Exploring the Longue Duree (now $23).

The new issue of Biblical Archaeology Review includes articles on Laodicea and a banquet hall near
the Temple Mount.

BAS has launched a new video streaming site, with a special introductory offer of 75% off.

David Rubinger, photographer of the iconic scene of Israeli paratroopers at the Western Wall, has
died at the age of 92.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Paleojudaica

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