A stone bowl inscribed with the name “Hyrcanus” was discovered in the City of David. Since the name was common in the Hasmonean period, it is not clear if it belonged to one of the two rulers with this name. High-res images are available here.

A bronze coin with the image of Antiochus Epiphanes was discovered during maintenance work in the Citadel of David Museum in Jerusalem.

Mary Shepperson, a free-lance archaeologist working on five projects in Iraq, describes work in the new excavations of Charax Spasinou.

Archaeologists have discovered a large “lost city” about 150 miles north of Athens.

The Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes (CAMEL Lab) at the Oriental Institute of the
University of Chicago would like to announce that a substantial subset of its digital holdings of maps and geospatial data are now available for online public search and download.”

The Temple Mount Sifting Project is asking readers to Name That Find!

The IAA has completed a detailed survey of the village of Lifta ahead of its planned replacement by a new neighborhood.

Before and after photos reveals the significant war damage in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Ferrell Jenkins recounts his 2002 visit to Aleppo and its museum.

New research suggests some ancient Egyptians believed a deceased woman had to briefly become male in the afterlife in order to be reborn. Reader Ted Weis notes that this theory corresponds with saying #114 in the Gospel of Thomas.

Egypt is trying to stop the auctioning of Egyptian relics around the world.

A stolen relief of Queen Hatshepsut has been restored to Egypt.

Bricks of ancient Babylon have been used in rebuilding houses in the area.

The Tower identifies “seven fascinating discoveries Israeli archaeologists made in 2016.”
Kudos to Dr. Chris McKinny!

Carl Rasmussen describes an “unknown” Christmas site near Bethlehem.

We wish all of our readers a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! We’ll be traveling for several weeks and roundups will return when we do.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Agade, Charles Savelle, Ted Weis

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Palmyra has fallen to ISIS. The fear now is for the safety of the monuments and museum.

This CNN slideshow features 19 monuments destroyed in the war.

“Cyber-archaeologists” are working to virtually restore what has been destroyed.

Archaeologists were baffled at a meticulously excavated Byzantine-era winepress in Jerusalem until they learned it was exposed by local teenagers.

Catacombs are being constructed in Jerusalem to bury the dead. The first stage of the underground necropolis will hold 22,000.

This weekend’s celebration of Shavuot/Pentecost may be the largest in Israel’s history.

Donald Brake is on the Land and the Book discussing Jesus: A Visual History.

A 20-year-old female tourist died at Masada after she suffered heat stroke and fell from a cliff.

UPDATE: More details here.

What would be at the top of your list of yet-to-be-discovered finds in biblical archaeology? Steven Anderson lists his top ten.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Agade, Ted Weis

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The oldest complete copy of the Ten Commandments is going on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem for a brief time. No articles provide the dates of the display. High-resolution images of this Dead Sea Scroll are available here.

Archaeologists have discovered an Egyptian army headquarters from the New Kingdom at Tell Habwa.

“The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) and the Digital Library Technology Services (DLTS) in the New York University Division of Libraries have redesigned and relaunched the Ancient World Digital Library (AWDL) online portal.” The new ADWL includes 121 titles from Brill.

65 titles from ASOR are now available online including works by Charlesworth, Cross, Glueck, King, Lapp, Levine, MacDonald, Meyers, and Pritchard.


Forward has photos of this year’s Samaritan Passover sacrifice. The Daily Mail has many more.

Ten mosaics in the museum in Antioch on the Orontes have been seriously damaged during restoration.

Wayne Stiles: Why I Don’t Use My Holy Land Photos on My Blog

This week on the Book and the Spade, Clyde Billington draws a connection between Khirbet Qeiyafa and the heights of David mentioned in Pharaoh Shishak’s inscription.

The ancient synagogue of Meiron was recently vandalized.

Theresa Howard Carter has died.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Charles Savelle

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The Holy Fire ceremony was celebrated in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher today.

It snowed on Mount Hermon this morning. The annual precipitation in Israel this year is close to average.

Hershel Shanks is a guest on The Book and the Spade talking with Gordon Govier about 40 years of publishing Biblical Archaeology Review.

Leen Ritmeyer is interviewed on the Voice of Israel about his involvement in the archaeology of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

The Mujib Biosphere Reserve (biblical Nahal Arnon) is open for another adventure season.

Wayne Stiles provides a spiritual lesson from the skeleton that today stands on ancient Gibeah.

New Bible atlas: The Historical and Geographical Maps of Israel and Surrounding Territories, by
Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, with $10 off the $89 price through April 30.

We’re sharing our favorite 12 sites in Galilee on Facebook and @BiblePlaces.

HT: Steven Anderson

Holy fire ceremony from dome, mat14517
The Holy Fire ceremony in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher
Photo from The American Colony Collection, ca. 1941
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The Passover sacrifice was reenacted recently by Jewish priests-in-training. The Times of Israel article includes a graphic 3-minute video.

Wayne Stiles explains how God connected Passover, redemption, and the Holy Land. He also shows how archaeology helps us to understand the Passion Week.

BibleX shares how one can illustrate the triumphal entry using photos from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project found a finger from an Egyptian statue last week.

Leen Ritmeyer was recently interviewed on “Cry for Zion.” His blog lists some of the questions he was asked.

The Gazelle Valley Urban Wildlife Park opened in Jerusalem last week.

A.D. The Bible Continues airs Sunday evening on NBC. A trailer is online.

David Laskin visits sites related to King Herod in a travel piece in the New York Times.

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient Egyptian brewery in Tel Aviv.

Passages opened yesterday in Santa Clarita, California.

The Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, has re-opened after a five-year restoration. This is the only museum entirely devoted to Egyptian culture outside of Egypt.

A new technology will reduce the length of time required for carbon-14 dating from six weeks to two days.

Accordance’s 20% off sale ends on Monday (with code Celeb2). That discount applies to our own photo collections, including The American Colony Collection ($30 off), Views That Have Vanished, and the new ones: Cultural Images of the Holy Land and Trees, Plants, and Flowers of the Holy Land.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Joseph Lauer

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Just before Palm Sunday, Jesus made the trek from Jericho to Jerusalem. What did he see?

A good book to read this week in the days leading up to Good Friday is The Final Days of Jesus, now $3.99 on Kindle.

The Temple Institute has built a sacrificial altar to be used in the Third Temple. Leen Ritmeyer comments.

Who is buried in the Prophetess Hulda’s tomb on the Mount of Olives? Miriam Feinberg Vamosh considers the question in a premium article at Haaretz.

The city of Afula plans to preserve its archaeological remains which span from the Chalcolithic to the Crusader periods.

Aren Maeir visited Hebron and took some photos of the ancient fortifications.

Leon Mauldin is in Athens now and shares some photos from the acropolis museum.

A large underground city has been discovered in Cappadocia.

You can vote for your favorite excavation photo in this year’s AIA Photo Contest. (No registration required.)

Now $0.99 on Kindle: The World and the Word: An Introduction to the Old Testament, by Eugene H.
Merrill, Mark Rooker, and Michael A. Grisanti. Also $0.99 on Vyrso.

HT: Agade

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