Galilee Archives - Page 12 of 84

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Newly discovered Byzantine-era mosaics with four inscriptions have been discovered at Hippos. This Haaretz article by Ruth Schuster has many beautiful photos.

“A new museum at the Armenian Monastery [in the Old City in Jerusalem] offers displays of stunning mosaics and artworks, artifacts and architecture, going back to Armenia’s 4th-century roots in the Holy Land.”

A Qumran cave will be opened to the public for the first time, with a path being created to lead from the site to Cave 61. (I do not have a link at this time.)

The search of a home of a man using a metal detector at an archaeological site revealed a trove of ancient coins including a rare coin of Antiochus Epiphanes.

Yonathan Adler suggests that “Judaism as we know it became a mass religion relatively late, possibly only when Judea was ruled by the Hasmonean dynasty” (subscription).

Michael Hasel is on The Book and the Spade discussing the ivory comb alphabetic inscription.

The program and abstracts for the 2022 ASOR meetings in Boston are online.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Dead Sea Scrolls, Discoveries, Galilee, Jerusalem, Museums, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

A seven-word inscription on an ivory comb discovered at Lachish and dated to about 1600 BC is the earliest Canaanite sentence ever found. “The inscription is a plea, a wish, or a desire that the small comb be successful in getting rid of the irritating lice.” The press release is here, and the underlying journal article is here.

Christopher Rollston: “Restorations are *not* a Good Foundation for Dramatic Proposals: Reflections on the New, So-called, “Hezekiah” Inscription.”

Two episodes have been released in Legio 2022, a documentary series about one of the excavations in the Jezreel Valley Regional Project.

Museum of the Bible and DIVE are hosting a virtual tour of Caesarea on December 7 ($20).

“A new multi-faceted project by the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies introduces the Samaritans to a wide and varied audience, and explores how they have managed to survive for millennia despite efforts by conquering powers to erase them.”

The Tel Burna Excavation Project has unveiled their 2023 season poster.

Yuval Gadot will give this year’s Howard Lecture at the University of Georgia on November 14 on “New Revelations from Zion: the Archaeology of Jerusalem from the Great Age of Reform.”

Mordechai Aviam will lecture on “Finding Bethsaida: From Biblical Jewish Village to the Church of the Apostles” on November 15, 7 pm, in New York City.

“Jerusalem: City of Change: New Archaeological Work, New Views, New Issues” is the title of a conference to be held at Boston University on November 16.

Friends of ASOR webinar on Dec 1: “Something from the Time of Jesus? Tourists, Souvenirs, and Buying the Holy Land,” with Morag M. Kersel ($12).

Jodi Magness will be giving the Schweich Lectures on Biblical Archaeology at The British Academy on December 5, 6, and 8, on the subject of “Ancient Synagogues.” The lectures will be recorded and posted and will also be published in book form.

New from Eisenbrauns: Tel Miqne 10/1: Tel Miqne-Ekron Excavations 1994–1996, Field IV Upper and Field V, The Elite Zone Part 1: Iron Age IIC Temple Complex 650, by Seymour (Sy) Gitin, Steven M. Ortiz, and Trude Dothan (30% off with code NR22).

The ASOR Blog has preliminary results of the Academic Genealogies of Near Eastern Scholars (AGNES) Project.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Joseph Lauer, Jared Clark, Wayne Stiles, A.D. Riddle, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Galilee, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Jezreel Valley, Lectures, Resources, Samaria, Shephelah, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

A fragment of a monumental inscription discovered in Jerusalem may preserve the name of Hezekiah and a reference to a “pool.”

“Archaeologists in Israel discovered the base of a massive [limestone] Roman column [base] at the foot of Mount Hermon” during a salvage excavation in a Druze village.

Who needs pottery typology when you have archaeomagnetic dating? A new study by Israeli scientists and archaeologists argues that this new technique will provide secure dating for archaeological material previously difficult to date. This is especially useful for the Hallstat Plateau (800-400 BC) when radiocarbon techniques are less helpful. The TAU press release is here.

A one-minute film shot at the Jaffa Gate in 1897 has been restored and colorized with AI.

David Moster created a video showing Jews from around the world reading biblical Hebrew. Some of the readers were born in the 1800s.

Daily Bread has released a new 7-minute video, “Mt. Hermon: Getting God Completely Wrong by Mistake,” with Jack Beck.

Webinar on Nov 22 jointly sponsored by The Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society and British Friends of The Hebrew University: “Recent Advances in DNA Technology and Their Contribution to Archaeology in Israel.”

Christian Locatell, Chris McKinny, and Itzhaq Shai recently published an article on “The Tree of Life Motif, Late Bronze Canaanite Cult, and a Recently Discovered Krater from Tel Burna.” The article is available to subscribers to the Journal of the American Oriental Society or by purchase.

“In October 2022, the top three reports in biblical archaeology were about a stunning mosaic in Syria, a suspected synagogue at Chorazin, and a new geomagnetic study that affirmed biblical battles.”

After a writing hiatus, Israel’s Good Name returns with an illustrated post of the wetlands of the Poleg Marshes.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Alexander Schick

Tagged Discoveries, Galilee, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Lectures, Shephelah, Technology, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

“Forty-four pure gold coins were recently found hidden in a wall during excavations at the Banias archaeological site.” The coins were minted in the reigns of the last two Byzantine emperors before the Muslim conquest in AD 635.

Mahmoud Hawari has a brief report on the Khirbat al-Mafjar Archaeological Project at Jericho.

As a follow-up to his previous post about a 1st-century synagogue at Chorazin, Carl Rasmussen shares some photos taken earlier this week on the current restoration project.

Leen Ritmeyer shares a number of reconstruction drawings from the Double Gate in Jerusalem, which he identifies with the Beautiful Gate of Acts 3.

The Museum of the Bible and DIVE (Digital Interactive Virtual Experiences) are hosting a virtual tour of the Kidron and Hinnom Valleys on November 9. The cost is $20.

Ferrell Jenkins provides some history and photos of Tirzah, the second capital of the northern kingdom of Israel.

Zoom lecture on Oct 26: “One Site, Two Peoples: Phoenicians and Jews at Kedesh of the Upper Galilee,” by Andrea Berlin

Bryan Windle has written another well-illustrated archaeological biography, this one on Hazael, the Aramean king who boasted of defeating Israel and the “house of David” in the famous Tel Dan Inscription.

New release: Encyclopedia of Material Culture in the Biblical World. A New Biblisches Reallexikon, edited by Angelika Berlejung with P.M. Michèle Daviau, Jens Kamlah, and Gunnar Lehmann (Mohr Siebeck, $223).

Eretz Magazine has created a new travel guide to the Herodium, lavishly illustrated with photos, maps, and reconstructions.

New subscribers to Approaching Jerusalem (Chandler Collins) receive a free e-booklet, “Golden Heights: Five Accessible Panoramas of Jerusalem.”

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Alexander Schick, Ted Weis, Explorator, Paleojudaica

Tagged Discoveries, Galilee, Jerusalem, Jordan Rift, Judah, Lectures, Resources, Samaria, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Geomagnetic surface surveys at Khirbet al-Minya on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee have revealed an earlier Jewish or Christian settlement.

A new study of the Solomonic-era copper mines at Timna reveals that the enterprise came to a sudden halt around 850 BC because the miners overexploited the sparse desert acacia and white broom trees used to fuel their furnaces (Haaretz subscription).

Carl Rasmussen links to a video that shows evidence for a first-century synagogue at Chorazin. He also shares a photo of the synagogue in 1967 before reconstruction began.

Here is a video of the 7th-8th century AD shipwreck recently discovered off the coast of Israel.

“Hundreds of ancient decorated toga pins, earrings, rings and figurines of animals and idols were found in the home of a man who used to be an antiquities dealer in northern Israel.”

Albright Institute lecture on Oct 27: “The Austrian Expedition to Tel Lachish (2017-2022),” by Katharina Streit & Felix Höflmayer. Register to join by Zoom here.

Marc Zvi Brettler explains the Hakhel Ceremony, in which the assembly gathers together every seven years to read the Torah. This event will be celebrated at the Western Wall on October 11.

Ferrell Jenkins shares a photo of sheep grazing near Tirzah, the second capital of the northern kingdom.

HT: Agade, Keith Keyser, Arne Halbakken

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Discoveries, Excavations, Galilee, Holidays, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Lectures, Negev, Samaria, Shephelah, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Archaeologists discovered an intact burial cave from the 13th century BC on the Palmachim Beach south of Tel Aviv. Unfortunately the cave was plundered while it was being excavated.

Scientists have identified the earliest use of opium in a 14th century BC burial pit at Tel Yehud.

Here are many more photos of the beautiful Byzantine mosaic floor discovered in the Gaza Strip.

“An ancient shipwreck found off the shore of Israel and loaded with cargo from all over the Mediterranean shows that traders from the West still came to port even after the Islamic conquest of the Holy Land.”

Drew Longacre answers nine common questions about the Dead Sea Scrolls.

John DeLancey and Kyle Keimer discuss the excavations at Tel Dan (40 min).

Rocco Buttliere built a model of Jerusalem in the 1st century using 114,000 Legos.

“Five perfectly red heifers, required for the ritual purification of those who have touched a dead body, arrived in Israel from a ranch in Texas on Thursday, as the Temple Institute continues preparations to lay the ground for the construction of the Third Temple in Jerusalem.” There is hope that they will produce a herd that will be a tourist attraction for Christians.

New release: The Social Archaeology of Late Second Temple Judaea From Purity, Burial, and Art, to Qumran, Herod, and Masada, by Eyal Regev (Routledge, 2022; $128; eBook $39)

Bryan Windle has written an archaeological biography for King Pekah, one of the last kings of Israel.

I had what may be a unique experience in my life this week – three articles I wrote were published within a few days of each other. Rather than pass over them briefly here, I’ll plan to say more in separate posts in the next few weeks.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Wayne Stiles, Charles Savelle, Keith Keyser

Tagged Dead Sea Scrolls, Discoveries, Galilee, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Resources, Weekend Roundup