Galilee Archives - Page 61 of 84

Weekend Roundup

Leen Ritmeyer discusses the restoration work on the building that sits over the location of the Antonia Fortress and hopes that they don’t damage the important archaeological remains. (He has an illustration showing where he believes Paul addressed the crowd in Acts 22.)

The Herodium—A Monument to…whose sovereignty? Wayne Stiles provides a surprising twist on this one.

“The greatest church in the world” has been undergoing excavation since 2006 and I had no idea.

Amihai Mazar and Emanuel Tov were among a group of scientists inducted into the Israel Academy of the Sciences and Humanities this week.

The newest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review is the first to carry a photo of the Samson mosaic showing the fox tails on fire. I am disappointed that Samson himself was not preserved. You’ll need a subscription to either the print or digital version to see the photo. For the original press release, see here.

New book: The Photographs of the American Palestine Exploration Society, by Rachel Hallote,

Felicity Cobbing, and Jeffrey B. Spurr. “This volume includes over 150 never previously published photographs of archaeological sites in the Middle East (Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Israel) taken in 1875 by photographer Tancrede Dumas for the American Palestine Exploration Society.” 368 pages, $90.

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible exhibit at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth closes in one month. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend it (and I challenge you to find the large
Jerusalem photograph printed in mirror image). Groupon has a 2-for-1 deal, but you’ll have to act fast as these sold out before I could mention it last time.

HT: Jack Sasson, Mark Vitalis Hoffman

Renovation of building over the location of the Antonia Fortress. Photo by Alexander Schick.

Tagged Galilee, Jerusalem, Judah, Museums, Photo Resources, Weekend Roundup

Vamosh: On the Jesus Trail

Miriam Feinberg Vamosh describes her journey on the Jesus Trail in Galilee:

If you’re a pilgrim in Israel interested in Christian history, consider devoting a chunk of your visit to the Jesus Trail, an approximately 60-kilometer trail that begins in the northern city of Nazareth and ends at the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The trail allows hikers to follow the landmark sites of the Galilee Ministry of Jesus as the ancients did – on foot.
Traversing the classic Jesus Trail takes four days, although that can be extended to five for walkers with less stamina. Additional sites can also be added farther afield, such as Mount Tabor, the site of the transfiguration of Jesus.
“As they walked,” is a very common expression in ancient Jewish as well as Christian sources. People walked everywhere, and it wasn’t just the destination that mattered; so too did the journey. There was plenty of time on the way to talk about what mattered. The Jesus Trail was born out of a desire to get people to walk the Galilee just as in biblical times, taking in first and foremost all the highlights of the region’s New Testament sites and also enjoying Israel at eye level, at its multi-cultural best, where it overflows with history and natural beauty.
The first day of the trail usually begins in Jesus’s hometown of Nazareth and continues down to Sepphoris National Park, the main Roman city when Jesus was growing up. At the time, Sepphoris was the hub of Roman life. From here, trekkers continue on through the town of Meshed to Cana, where a beautiful church marks the traditional site where Jesus turned water into wine.

The story continues here.

Galilee north of Horns of Hattin, tb041003207

On day 3 of the hike, you’ll climb up the Horns of Hattin and have a splendid view of the hills of Galilee. (Photo from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

Tagged Galilee, Tourism

Wednesday Roundup

Leen Ritmeyer has photos from Alexander Schick of a wooden version of the formerly Holyland Hotel model of Jerusalem, now on display at Ben Gurion Airport.

Haaretz has a story about a Canaanite banquet hall discovered at Tel Kabri.

The Samaritans are using genetic testing (and abortion) to reduce the chances of birth defects caused by inbreeding.

The first snow of the season has fallen on Mount Hermon.

Vandals have attacked the Monastery of the Cross in Jerusalem for the second time this year.

You can now purchase the high-resolution artwork from the ESV Study Bible. The maps, illustrations, and charts/diagrams are available in packages for $10, or you can download everything for $25.

Eisenbrauns has a 30-50% off sale on the 4 volumes of the Ashkelon reports.

HT: Jack Sasson

Model of Jerusalem at Ben Gurion Airport.
Photo by Alexander Schick.

Tagged Discoveries, Galilee, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Photo Resources, Resources, Samaria, Weekend Roundup

Recent IAA Excavation Reports

An agricultural complex one mile northeast of the Church of the Nativity of Bethlehem in Khirbet el-Qatt was in use during the Roman period and included cisterns, terrace walls, watchman’s huts, winepresses, olive presses, and a coin from the time of Herod.

Some ancient pits excavated in Ramat Aviv in Tel Aviv had remains of mountain gazelle, dogs, and a donkey.

A quarry of unknown date and sections of plastered wall and floors from a Byzantine monastery were excavated along Nablus Road north of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Two squares were excavated on the western slope of Jonah’s hometown of Gath Hepher, revealing remains from the Early Bronze, Middle Bronze, and Iron II. If the excavators were a little more media-savvy, they could have made their fame and fortune showing off the cooking pot and jar that were certainly used by Jonah’s mother.

Excavations on the edge of Tel Yafo (biblical Joppa) revealed lots of Iron Age pottery (the canteen Jonah dropped on his way to the boat?) as well as finds from the Hellenistic, Early Islamic, Crusader, and later periods.

Vandals excavated a winepress in Horbat Pezaza but they left a second one untouched for those paid by the day rather than the piece. The archaeologists dated the winepresses to the Late Roman and Byzantine period.

Winepress in Horbat Pezaza. Photo by IAA.

Tagged Excavations, Galilee, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Judah, Shephelah

Road Found at Bethsaida from Time of Jesus

From the Christian News Network:

Archaeologists have uncovered what they believe is a road that was traveled by Jesus and the disciples in the ancient town of Bethsaida.
In conducting a dig near the Northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel, which was originally meant to serve as a mission to find artifacts from the Roman period, archaeologists came across a distinctive discovery.
“We uncovered a paved street from the time of Jesus’s disciples, which runs westward through the residential area from the corner of the Fisherman’s House down toward the Jordan valley,” Nicolae Roddy of Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, one of the leaders of the dig, told the publication Popular Archaeology. “I tell people that Andrew, Peter and Phillip almost certainly walked on it because they would have had to have gone out of their way to avoid it!”

The article does not include a photo, and I don’t see any other reports on this besides this brief one.

HT: Joseph Lauer

Newly discovered road ran from the “house of the fisherman” shown above toward the Jordan River. Photo from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.

Tagged Discoveries, Galilee

Wednesday Roundup

Google Maps now includes floor plans of dozens of museums around the world, including the British Museum and the Smithsonian.

A couple of museums in Israel moved treasures to the vault because of danger from rockets from Gaza.

You can wait years to see an article about the New Testament city of Nain. Miriam Feinberg Vamosh ends the wait.

David Bivin thinks that the Nain where Jesus raised the boy from the dead is near Jerusalem in the upper reaches of the Wadi Qilt (subscription req’d for full article).

Joe Zias attempts to clear things up with regard to his role with the James Ossuary.

Perhaps you didn’t know: Wayne Stiles’ weekly column is available each Monday at the Jerusalem Post, but the edition on his personal site includes more content and higher-resolution photos. This week he travels to Chorazin (“Capernaum with a View”).

The PowerPoint presentation for Itzhaq Shai’s recent lecture on Tel Burna is available for download.

It is interesting to look through even without the audio.

Ferrell Jenkins shares some of his observations from the recent annual meeting of the Near East Archaeological Society.

The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit formerly at Discovery Times Square and Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute has now rolled into Cincinnati.

A golden brooch from the treasure of King Croesus is returning to Turkey after the museum director sold it to pay off his gambling debts.

The National Museum of Iraq is scheduled to have a grand re-opening early next year.

Conservation efforts at Herculaneum are more successful than at its sister site of Pompeii.

HT: Jack Sasson, Joseph Lauer

Herculaneum Cardo IV from west, tb111405666

Ruins of Herculaneum from the west
Photo from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

Tagged Dead Sea, Galilee, Italy, Mesopotamia, Museums, Shephelah, Turkey, Weekend Roundup