Archaeologists have discovered the tomb of an unknown Egyptian pharaoh who ruled during the Second Intermediate Period.

“An Egyptian archaeological mission from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has discovered the tomb of a high-ranking military commander dating back to King Ramses III, along with a collection of mass and individual graves from the Greek, Roman, and Late Periods at Tell Roud Iskander in the Maskhouta area.”

A new study by Nicholas Brown of Yale University argues that clay trays found near the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamun were used for libations in the Osirian funerary rite.

The presence of iron shackles at an Egyptian gold mine suggests that some of the workers in the Ptolemaic period were slaves.

A team using radar technology claims that they have discovered a vast underground city more than 6,500 feet beneath the Giza pyramids. Egyptian authorities deny this is true.

Joel Kramer (Expedition Bible) has posted a new video about the tomb of Amenhotep II, the possible pharaoh of the exodus.

The Antalya Archaeology Museum will be reconstructed on its current site, with its completion scheduled for the end of 2026.

The Hagia Sophia History and Experience Museum presents the history of the church and Istanbul, including artifacts never before displayed.

Jay Jean Jackson imagines what the ancient Greek pilgrimage along the Sacred Way to the temple of Apollo in Didyma would have been like.

The exhibition “Gobeklitepe: The Mystery of a Sacred Place” in Rome’s Colosseum has attracted 5 million visitors so far.

Archaeologists found four fragments of the Book of the Dead in the archives of a museum in Italy.

Smithsonian Magazine runs a feature story on Rome’s underground aqueducts.

The assassination of Julius Caesar was reenacted on location on the Ides of March.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Ted Weis, Explorator

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Underwater archaeologists have discovered infrastructure of an ancient port at Asini in Greece.

Archaeologists have excavated a “grand ancient Greek tomb site” near Corinth.

“A recent study offers new insights into the pigments used by ancient Roman artists in Pompeii, revealing how they mixed raw materials to achieve a wide range of color tones.”

Persepolis’s ancient underground channels prevented flooding and destruction during a severe rainstorm.

Restoration work on Jerash’s northern theater continues.

Artnet highlights three interesting artifacts discovered in the tomb of Thutmose II.

Turkiye Today describes seven must-see cuneiform tablets in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums.

The ASOR Punic Project Digital Initiative “will provide digital files of individual stelae that can be viewed on screen or 3D printed at any scale.”

New release: Against Moab: Interrogating the Archaeology of Iron Age Jordan, by Benjamin W. Porter. (Cambridge University Press, open access)

Hybrid lecture at Penn State on March 27, 5 pm (EDT): “In the Steps of a Babylonian King: A Scholar’s Adventures in Jordan and Lebanon,” by Rocío Da Riva (Zoom registration)

“After 1,700 years the first ancient Greek temple opened in Arcadia, Peloponnese over the weekend.” The Greek Church is not happy. The site manager defends the project: “There are tens of thousands of people in Greece and abroad who believe in their ancestral gods and do not have a place to worship.”

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Explorator

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Archaeologists working at Rome’s port city of Ostia discovered the oldest ritual bath (mikveh) known outside the land of Israel.

“A team of researchers identified and mapped a vast network of irrigation canals near Eridu, considered the oldest city in history.”

“Artificial intelligence has discovered ancient civilizations over 5,000 years old hidden beneath some of the world’s largest deserts, including one in the heart of the Dubai desert, without the use of a single shovel.”

The recently renovated Side Museum in southern Turkey has more than 3,000 artifacts and 9,000 coins on display.

“The 2,000-year-old lighthouse in the ancient city of Patara, built by Roman Emperor Nero in CE 64, is set to illuminate once again after centuries, as restoration efforts reach their final stages.”

The excavation director at Pisidian Antioch wants artifacts taken to the Istanbul Archaeology Museum in the early 20th century to be returned.

A German tourist was arrested when he tried to leave Greece with an ancient Greek marble column hidden in his car.

The Greek Reporter suggests the top 20 archaeological sites in the country.

A portion of the famous Torlonia Collection, locked away for most of the 20th century, will be displayed in North America for the first time, beginning with Chicago and then heading to Fort Worth and Montreal. The 58 sculptures in the exhibition largely date to the Roman Imperial Period.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

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The ancient harbor of Adramyttium, mentioned on Paul’s voyage to Rome (Acts 27:2), became visible when the Aegean sea receded. Photos are posted in the Turkish article.

Recent excavations in Perga have uncovered five statues.

Egypt has begun restoring the Ramesseum in Luxor.

MrBeast spent 100 hours inside the Giza pyramids, including visiting areas not open to the general public.

Mark V. Hoffman notes a temporary exhibition entitled “In the Footsteps of Paul” that is at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki through April and then will be in Athens.

Mark V. Hoffman also gives an introduction to MARBLE (Modular Aggregation of Resources on the Bible), a UBS project that includes biblical texts, semantic dictionaries, images, and videos.

New release: Tel Dover (Khirbet ed-Duweir) on the Yarmuk River: The Late Bronze and Iron Age Levels, by Amir Golani and Samuel R. Wolff (Ägypten und Altes Testament 130; Zaphon; €75).

New release: Slavery and Servitude in Late Period Egypt (c. 900–330 BC), by Ella Karev (Ägypten und Altes Testament, €70)

New release: Scribes and Language Use in the Graeco-Roman World, edited by Sonja Dahlgren, Martti Leiwo, and Marja Vierros (The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, free pdf).

Color paintings made by Joseph Lindon Smith in an Egyptian tomb remain valuable today.

An archaeological exhibition entitled “From Sharjah to Rome via the Spice Route” is currently on display at the Colosseum in Rome.

Lawrence Schiffman is giving two lectures on the Dead Sea Scrolls at Penn State University on February 19:

  • 12:15 to 1:30 pm: “Temple City: Jerusalem and its Temple in the Urban Planning of the Dead Sea Scrolls” (register for Zoom here)
  • 6:00 to 7:30 pm: “The Dead Sea Scrolls and the History of Judaism” (register for Zoom here)

The Itinerarium, written by the anonymous Piacenza Pilgrim circa 570 and translated by Andrew S. Jacobs, is now available online.

Colleen Morgan explains how AI imagery could be used to develop fake archaeology.

Chris McKinny and Kyle Keimer discuss the best archaeological finds of 2024 on the Biblical World podcast.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Arne Halbakken, Explorator, Paleojudaica

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“A town approximately 3,500 years old was discovered in Kom el-Negus, Egypt, located about 27 miles west of Alexandria.”

After 14 years of war, Palmyra is finally at peace, and plans are underway to rebuild.

A rare Egyptian blue ingot weighing five pounds was discovered in Nero’s grand palace in Rome.

Greece is planning to restore the Kladios Baths in ancient Olympia. The complex was first built in AD 100 and occupies 400 square meters.

Basilica B in Philippi has been partially restored.

Last year 886 artifacts were added to the inventory of the Antalya Museum.

When the Syrian government collapsed, one lone guard protected the National Museum in Damascus from looters.

The Louvre “has requested urgent help from the French government to restore and renovate its ageing exhibition halls.”

The Rijksmuseum has taken possession of an impressive ancient hoard of Roman and British coins found in 2023.

Tyndale House is hosting a one day conference on “The World of the Bible” on March 22, with sessions led by Tony Watkins, Peter Williams, and Dirk Jongkind. Streaming tickets are available.

A new version of Archibab is now online.

Leon Mauldin has posted a photo of a milestone on the Via Egnatia.

The first spotted hyena seen in Egypt in thousands of years ate two goats and was promptly killed.

Bible Land Passages has created a new video of the city of Athens and what Paul experienced when he visited. The 10-minute video includes on-site footage as well as new 3D models of the buildings on the acropolis.

The amazing Persepolis reliefs have been brought to life by artificial intelligence (30-second video).

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Gordon Franz, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

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“In the ancient city of Metropolis, located in İzmir, Turkey, archaeologists uncovered approximately 2,000 fragmented bronze statues in an area believed to have been used as a junkyard in ancient times.”

A monumental structure excavated at Assos in western Turkey is not a fountain but a tomb. They also uncovered “one of the first mosaics with polygonal tesserae from the Hellenistic period found in Anatolia.”

“A new study published in the journal PLOS One has shed light on the diverse origins of the approximately 2 million pieces that make up the Alexander the Great mosaic from Pompeii.”

The National Museum of Underwater Antiquities in Piraeus, Greece, is under construction and set to open next year.

Carl Rasmussen shares a number of photos taken in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara, Turkey related to the Neo-Hittites at Carchemish and the bull-men and griffin demons of Carchemish.

On a double episode of Digging for Truth, Gary Byers talks about the Amarna Letters and their relationship to the Exodus and Conquest.

On the Biblical World podcast, Chris McKinny and Mark Janzen discuss the sites of Pi-Ramesses, Pithom, and Succoth.

Webinar on Feb 5: “Women’s Work in Abydos: Margaret Murray, Amice Calverley, and Myrtle Broome,” by Kathleen Sheppard

New release: Thutmose III and Hatshepsut, Pharaohs of Egypt Their Lives and Afterlives, by Aidan Dodson (AUC Press, $35)

New article: “Archaeology as Cultural Heritage in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq: Developing an Integrated Approach beyond Narratives of Catastrophe and Emergency Response” (open-access)

Researchers have reconstructed a minute-by-minute account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and its destruction of Pompeii. The article includes many graphics. The underlying journal article is available to subscribers.

Carl and Mary Rasmussen are leading an 18-day Bible tour of Turkey and Greece in May.

Ferrell Jenkins has posted photos of Jerusalem, the Horns of HattinHazor from the air, Mount Hermon from Syria, and a sunset over the Suez Canal,

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Ted Weis, Arne Halbakken

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