Hezekiah’s Pool is now clean, for the first time in decades if not centuries. Tom Powers gives the report and includes many photos. He suggests that the workers found a paved or plastered floor.

(Background here.)

Biblical Archaeology Society has a brand spanking new blog that includes an RSS feed and welcomes readers with a new 140-page ebook entitled the “Ten Top Biblical Archaeology Discoveries.” The new site also allows readers (upon sign-in) to control which email subscriptions they receive. The blog is part of a complete re-design of the BAS website.

Olof Pedersén has posted his list of ANE Placemarks for Google Earth.

Foreign Policy has posted a photo essay entitled, “Once Upon a Time in Damascus.” More than a dozen photos from the American Colony/Eric Matson collection are featured.

The work of Gustaf Dalman is being celebrated in a program to be held at the Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem on August 18-19. I’ve been working on publishing a Dalman project myself but I will not be finished in time for the 70th anniversary of his death.

Restoration work is scheduled to be restarted at the Stepped Pyramid of Djoser (Zoser) at Saqqara (with photo). The article notes that already a second successor to Zahi Hawass is in office.

The Pantheon in Rome may have been built as a massive sundial.

In recent weeks, Wayne Stiles has visited En Gedi and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

CBN News has a 30-second video of the tunnel where they discovered the Roman sword and etching of a menorah. Ynet News posts a two-minute video of the tunnel with English subtitles (to start you may need to click the smaller button on the right side of the screen).

HT: Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

From the Associated Press:

Egypt’s antiquities minister, whose trademark Indiana Jones hat made him one the country’s best known figures around the world, was fired Sunday after months of pressure from critics who attacked his credibility and accused him of having been too close to the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.
Zahi Hawass, long chided as publicity loving and short on scientific knowledge, lost his job along with about a dozen other ministers in a Cabinet reshuffle meant to ease pressure from protesters seeking to purge remnants of Mubarak’s regime.
“He was the Mubarak of antiquities,” said Nora Shalaby, an activist and archaeologist. “He acted as if he owned Egypt’s antiquities, and not that they belonged to the people of Egypt.”

The story reviews why the media loves him and why some others do not.

If this sounds all too familiar, see this March report. Be watching for word of a book deal.

Egyptian mummies are cool again.

Eretz magazine recalls the magnificent discovery fifty years ago of the Cave of the Treasure with its 429 copper objects from the 4th millennium BC.

Leon Mauldin has been circling the Old City of Jerusalem, posting photos and descriptions about each of Jerusalem’s gates: Golden Gate, Herod’s Gate/Flower Gate, St. Stephen’s Gate/Lion Gate, Zion Gate, and most recently, the Huldah Gate.

Al-Ahram Weekly reviews the major finds of the season in Aswan, Luxor, and Alexandria.

U.S. officials have broken up a ring of smugglers that was bringing Egyptian antiquities into the U.S.

The ASOR Blog has its weekly review of major archaeological stories around the world.

All journals published by the University of Cambridge are open for free access to the public for the next six weeks.

Israel is opening its baptismal site on the Jordan River. Again. I’m sure we’ve had this story at least twice before. Maybe this is a brilliant marketing strategy: keep faking the grand opening.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Archaeologist Aren Maeir is interviewed on Fox News about the significance of his excavations of Philistine Gath.

Eilat Mazar is interviewed on the Book and the Spade about her discovery of the “walls of Solomon.”

Joe Zias has responded to Simcha Jacobovici’s 46-page defense of his “nails of the cross” “documentary.”

Leen Ritmeyer explains why he finds implausible the recent proposal by Finkelstein, Koch, and Lipschits that ancient Jerusalem was centered on the Temple Mount.

Some people are unhappy over an amendment to the Antiquities Authority Law which will allow the government minister to appoint the board members.

The famous city of Capernaum is explored in the most recent column by Wayne Stiles at the Jerusalem Post.

The excavations of Sidon are profiled in the Daily Star.

According to the New York Times, Egyptian antiquities minister requires $15,000 per speaking engagement and makes up to $200,000 a year as an “explorer-in-residence” for National Geographic.

I don’t know what workers under Hawass earn, but he probably makes more than the collective salaries of hundreds of them.

A Polish visitor to Israel has successfully “walked on water” after four days of practice and fifty failed attempts using a kite and surfboard.

HT: Jack Sasson

Archaeologists are saying that they found the best-preserved Israelite building in excavations at Tel Shikmona near Haifa. In addition to the 9th-8th century BC four-room house, excavators also found a seal with an inscription in Hebrew or Phoenician. The University of Haifa press release has more photos.

That oil spill in Nahal Zin has become Israel’s worst-ever environmental disaster. This week the government ordered the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company to halt clean-up because they were only making the problem worse.

Tel Burna Archaeological Project has some post-season balloon photos of the site and excavations.

Click on the images for high-resolution. It’s amazing what lies just below the surface.

Several significant discoveries were made in Egypt in recent days, including the first Roman basilica in Alexandria, a gate from 700 BC near the Karnak Temple, and a depiction of the king from Dynasty 0.

The PEF has posted several dozen photos of Qumran from the excavations in the 1950s. The collection posted at Flickr combines old views with their modern counterparts. More details about the images are posted at the PEF site.

HT: Paleojudaica

The outgoing chairman of UNESCO’s Israel World Heritage Committee discusses the value and potential problems of adding historic sites to the World Heritage list. The Jerusalem Post has updated their article on the Miriam-Yeshua-Caiaphas ossuary with a 2.5 minute video, including an interview with the archaeologist. They expect to put the ossuary on display in a museum in the near future. Hundreds of decorated blocks were found recently at Tanis, Egypt, the site where Indiana Jones found the ark of the covenant. After five years of restoration work, the 1.6-mile (2.7-km) long Avenue of the Sphinxes connecting the Luxor Temple with the Karnak Temple will be opened in October. In his May/June edition of the Archaeology in Israel Update, Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg reviews the excavations of 10th century “Bethsaida,” the 70th anniversary of the Hebrew University Museum, the discovery of a Byzantine building in Acco, a salvage excavation at the Austrian Hospice in Jerusalem’s Old City, and the arrest of an American professor for selling antiquities in Israel. Eisenbrauns has posted notice of publication of Unearthing Jerusalem: 150 Years of Archaeological Research in the Holy City. Edited by Gideon Avni and Katharina Galor. 520 pages! Due out in November. Also listed but without an expected publication date is a new work by Eilat Mazar, Discovering the Solomonic Wall in Jerusalem. Like most of this archaeologist’s books on Jerusalem, it is self-published. The IAA continues to post back issues of ‘Atiqot online. The winery of Psagot north of Jerusalem stores its barrels in a cave used for wine-making in the first century. Ray Vander Laan has a new website featuring clips from his most recent Faith Lessons videos.