Excavations Archives - Page 2 of 92

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

A couple of 12-year-old boys hiking in the hills west of Jerusalem discovered a coin from the time of Herod Agrippa I.

An analysis of fingerprints on Late Bronze pottery discovered at Tel Burna suggests that the potters were mostly young females.

Haaretz has a story about the miniature Jeroboam seal impression that a new study claims is genuine. (It was real before it was fake before it was real again.) Some, I suspect, may grow only more suspicious of the authentication methods in use. BHD has a brief response from Christopher Rollston.

Lawrence Schiffman discusses the recent research that supports the existence of a centralized government during the time of David and Solomon.

Biblical Archaeology Society has released its 2024 digs list, featuring 20 excavations mostly in Israel and Jordan. They do us a great service by compiling this list every year. They are also offering $2,000 dig scholarships.

David Moster has created a video telling the story of Ruth using beautiful images from the American Colony photo collection.

Approaching Jerusalem looks back at three topographical disagreements in the middle of the 19th century between Edward Robinson and George Williams, including the route of the Second Wall.

Jewish Press has a rare article on the important biblical site of Beth Horon. I don’t think I was aware of the lookout point that he mentions.

Leon Mauldin shares a couple of aerial photos of Joppa.

The 125th anniversary celebration of the German Protestant Institute for Archaeology has been rescheduled to March 4-7.

Israeli guide Dan Mossek is guest on the GTI Tours podcast discussing Hanukkah and Jesus’s declaration that he is the light of the world.

John DeLancey has posted a 1-minute non-narrated video walking into the Chapel of the Shepherds at Shepherds’ Field in Beit Sahour.

Nathan Steinmeyer looks at why it is so difficult to determine what the star of Bethlehem was.

Bryan Windle lists the top ten archaeological discoveries related to Christmas. They are quite interesting, and I was unaware of a couple of them.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Gordon Dickson, Arne Halbakken, Paleojudaica

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Excavations, Holidays, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Judah, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

Haaretz has an update on the season at el-Araj (Bethsaida?) that just concluded. “The archaeologists are not saying they found the house of Peter. They are saying they found a Byzantine basilica that goes back earlier than thought, to the late fifth century, that was built over a ‘venerated wall’ that the builders presumably thought had belonged to the house of Peter. It didn’t, but the wall next to it may have.”

According to a new article in the latest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review written by Chris McKinny and friends, the Millo of Jerusalem was not an earth filling on the slopes of the City of David but the “Spring Tower” guarding the Gihon Spring. The full article is currently available online to all.

Leen Ritmeyer reports on some inscriptions recently discovered inside the Golden Gate in Jerusalem.

Now on Academia: Leen Ritmeyer’s article, “Imagining the Temple Known to Jesus and to Early Jews,” published in The Temple of Jerusalem: From Moses to the Messiah, edited by Steven Fine (Brill, 2011, $227).

The latest issue of Tel Aviv is now available, with several open-access articles including:

An Early Iron Age Moat in Jerusalem between the Ophel and the Southeastern Ridge/City of David, by Yuval Gadot, Efrat Bocher, Liora Freud and Yiftah Shalev. This is a significant discovery that will affect how we think about ancient Jerusalem.
A Seal Impression of ‘ShemaꜤ Servant of Jeroboam’, by Shmuel Aḥituv, Avner Ayalon, Mira Bar-Matthews, Yuval Goren, Michael Magen, Eliezer D. Oren & Orit Shamir. They argue that it is not a modern forgery.

In the final episode of the Flora & Faith series, Brad Nelson goes to the wilderness and considers the role of the rotem tree in the story of Elijah. A free study guide for the entire series is also available.

Up to 50,000 bronze coins from the 4th century AD have been discovered off the coast of Sardinia. The coins are in excellent condition.

“Investigators say they have figured out how bronze statues from a shrine built 2,000 years ago in Asia Minor to venerate the emperors of Rome ended up in museums around the world.”

The second set of fully lemmatized Amarna letters has been released on Oracc. “The online edition of the Amarna Letters aims to make transliterations, translations, and glossaries of the letters and administrative texts available to both scholars and the wider public. At this time, the project comprises 305 texts.”

Jonathan Tubb, archaeologist and curator at the British Museum, died in September.

New release: Representations of Writing Materials on Roman Funerary Monuments: Text, Image, Message, edited by Tibor Grüll (Archaeopress, £16-40)

The Albright has a number of fellowships, awards, and internships available for next year. The application deadline is December 1.

This week we released two new volumes in the Photo Companion to the Bible series: Ezra and Nehemiah. These historical books have all kinds of illustrative potential, such that we have on average nearly 200 slides per chapter. They are on sale right now as a set for only $59. We are grateful for the positive response by many, including Luke Chandler, Leon Mauldin, and Charles Savelle.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, G. M. Grena

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Excavations, Galilee, Jerusalem, Photo Resources, Resources, Sad News, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

New excavations at Hyrcania have already turned up an inscription in Greek adapted from Psalm 86.

“A cave containing the remains of a young woman who was likely a courtesan during the Hellenistic period has been discovered near Hebron Road in Jerusalem, along with a well-preserved, rare bronze mirror.”

Gershon Galil claims that he has deciphered a fragmentary inscription from the time of Hezekiah that was discovered in Jerusalem forty years ago (Hebrew version here). (I wouldn’t recommend trusting Galil’s judgment on anything these days. So far the story is only covered by Ynet; if other outlets cover this, they will surely include responses from other scholars.)

Archaeologists have made new and interesting finds at the ancient submerged Egyptian city of Heracleion.

This one-minute video shows how cuneiform tablets were formed from clay and inscribed.

In the newest episode in the Flora & Faith series, Brad Gray explains the symbolism of the almond tree in Scripture.

The latest episode in “Faith Journeys with God in the Land” with John DeLancey was filmed at the Pool of Siloam earlier this year.

Erez Ben-Yosef was on the What Matters Now podcast to discuss his theory about the beginnings of the United Monarchy. The Times of Israel article includes a transcript.

Zoom lecture on Oct 5: “Maritime Viewscapes and the Material Religion of Levantine Seafarers,” by Aaron Brody ($13). Brody has written an article on the ASOR Blog on the same topic.

Zoom lecture on Oct 19: “Archaeology of Jesus’ Nazareth,” by Ken Dark. Registration required.

Biblical Archaeology Report has a rundown on the top three discoveries of the month.

Ferrell Jenkins shares some experiences and photos from his visits to Mount Nebo.

Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, the seventh and final commemoration in the biblical calendar, begins today. TheTorah.com has an article on the etrog as the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Excavations, Galilee, Holidays, Jerusalem, Jordan, Judah, Lectures, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Archaeologists discovered a Second Temple period stonemason’s workshop near Jerusalem.

“A United Nations conference voted Sunday to list ruins of the ancient West Bank city of Jericho as a World Heritage Site in Palestine.”

The Temple Mount Sifting Project blog provides a glimpse into the difficulties of protecting the debris that is the focus on their study.

“The ongoing excavation of Horvat Midras/Khirbet Durusiya (Israel) provides an opportunity to study changes in the ethnic and religious makeup of a rural settlement in the ancient southern Levant.”

David Moster explains how tall the Jerusalem temple was by comparing it with other large monuments including the Dome of the Rock. He even found a classical-style building with very similar dimensions to Solomon’s temple.

Jerusalem Post: “Is the biblical ark of the covenant hidden in an Ethiopian church?”

Zoom lecture on October 24: “The Austrian Expedition to Tel Lachish 2017–2023,” by Katharina Streit and Felix Höflmayer.

Registration is open for next year’s excavation season at Shiloh.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken

*Middle Bronze gate at Gezer during reconstruction. Photo taken by John Black on Tuesday.*

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Jerusalem, Lectures, Samaria, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Bible Scenes has released a beautiful 3-minute video showing a 3D model of Herod’s Temple. The video was nearly two years in the making, with the assistance of Leen Ritmeyer (who gives some background here). The website has a number of free scenes, and generous permission usage is granted. You can help them create more scenes by becoming a subscriber.

Chandler Collins writes about “some unexpected architectural fragments” discovered in the Jewish Quarter in the 1970s.

The Jerusalem Post has stories about the archaeological site of Magdala and its tourist facilities.

Nate Loper surveys “the historical and archaeological connections between Israel and the Egyptian empire” in the latest episode of Digging for Truth.

Online lecture on Sept 21: “Fact & Fiction in the Empress Helena’s Travels to the Holy Land,” by Julia Hillner. Sponsored by the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society. Free.

A full recording of the “Conrad Schick and His World” conference is now online. You can find the conference booklet with abstracts here.

Abigail Leavitt reports on the lectures and field trip for a recent conference at Ariel University entitled “Boundaries and Influences in the Archaeology of Israel and the Eastern Mediterranean.”

Today is the Feast of Trumpets, the first day of the significant seventh month in the Jewish calendar. Your calendar probably identifies it as the Jewish New Year (Rosh HaShanah).

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Arne Halbakken, Keith Keyser, David Padfield, Will Varner

Tagged Egypt, Excavations, Galilee, Jerusalem, Resources, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Two sets of large channels uncovered in the City of David (Givati Parking Lot) and dating to the time of King Joash (ca. 800 BC) have stymied investigators as to their purpose. Barnea Levi Selavan interviewed archaeologist Yiftach Shalev on location (15 min).

About 1,000 feet of the Upper Aqueduct bringing water to Jerusalem was discovered in a neighborhood south of the Old City. This is the longest section of this aqueduct ever discovered.

Bryan Windle highlights the top three reports in biblical archaeology in the month of August.

“The Western Wall Heritage Foundation conducted its biannual examination of the Western Wall stones on Tuesday in preparation for the influx of visitors expected around the Jewish High Holy Days.”

The Albright Institute has just opened applications for fellowships, awards, and internships for the next academic year.

The toilets of Iron Age Jerusalem are the subject of the latest episode of This Week in the Ancient Near East podcast.

Seetheholyland.net has added an article on the Church of St. John the Baptist in the Muristan, the oldest intact church in Jerusalem, built around the year 1070. The article includes photos of this rarely open church.

Mitchell First has written a short biographical article on Josephus.

John Delancey shares a video shot from the top of the Redeemer Lutheran Church in Jerusalem.

Brad Gray looks at the viticulture context behind Jesus’s words in John 15.

Leen Ritmeyer shares several reconstruction drawings and a photo of the Middle Gate of Jerusalem mentioned in Jeremiah 39.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Alexander Schick, Will Varner, Ted Weis, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Jerusalem, Tourism, Weekend Roundup