Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Italian scientists have confirmed a large underground complex beneath the Giza Plateau using satellite data.

Turkish Archaeological News rounds up the top stories for the month of November.

Reporters were invited to view renovation work in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Some areas will reopen in 2027.

The Times of Israel interviewed Thomas Levy in connection with the release of his graphic autobiography.

Ben and Ann Witherington are hosting a tour of Egypt in early 2027.

Appian Way has produced a 7-minute video explaining why the Madaba Map is so important for biblical studies.

New release: Jehu’s Tribute: What Can Biblical Studies Offer Assyriology?, edited by Jeffrey L. Cooley and Rannfrid I. Lasine Thelle (Eisenbrauns, $100, or cheaper at Amazon)

New release: Narrating Archaeological Sites and Places: Fifty Years of the Madaba Plains Project at Tall Hisban, Tall al-‘Umayri, and Tall Jalul, edited by Douglas R. Clark, Øystein S. LaBianca and Randall W. Younker (Equinox, $120; Amazon)

New release: Past Perfect? The Archaeologies of Mandate Palestine 1917-1948, by Raz Kletter (90 euros)

The Biblical Archaeology Society is offering several classes in 2026:

A seminar of Ancient and Medieval Middle East (AMME) at the University of Helsinki will feature two talks on ancient waste:

  • “Trash and Treasure: Con-textualizing Trash at Oxyrhynchus,” by AnneMarie Luijendijk (Zoom)
  • “Down the Drain: What Trash Reveals about Bathing Culture in Late Antique Jerash,” by Louise Blanke (Zoom)

The Ancient Near East Today lists the top archaeological discoveries of the year.

Archaeology Magazine identifies the top 10 discoveries of 2025.

The AP posts drone footage of the Colosseum of Rome.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Alexander Schick, Explorator

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A new study using two radiocarbon dates puts Ahmose’s reign later than previously believed and places the Thera eruption 60-90 years earlier.

New excavations in Pompeii reveal that some slaves ate better than ordinary people.

A cuneiform tablet dating to the end of the 4th millennium BC was discovered at the Sumerian city of Niĝin (Tell Zurghul).

Archaeologists working at Blaundus in western Turkey have discovered a Roman stadium, temple, and more.

The Luwian Studies Foundation has published an up-to-date map of Luwian sites from the Middle and Late Bronze Ages.

“A pioneering robotic system is set to revolutionise the painstaking task of reassembling Pompeii’s ancient Roman frescoes.”

Iraq is planning a $14 million renovation of the ancient city of Ur.

New release in open-access: The Social Context of Writing Practices in Late Bronze Age Ugarit, by Philip J. Boyes (Oxbow, £50; open-access)

A one-minute BBC video explains that the reason why Roman buildings last for millennia is the type of concrete they used.

Tickets to the Louvre are increasing sharply for non-Europeans.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Explorator, Baruch Kvasnica, Paleojudaica, Wayne Stiles

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A discovery at Tanis indicates that Shoshenq III was buried not in his own tomb but in an unmarked sarcophagus in Osorkon II’s tomb.

“Researchers in Istanbul have confirmed the existence of an underwater copper mine near Heybeliada (Greek: Χάλκη, Latinized: Halki) island, providing rare archaeological evidence for a description recorded by Aristotle more than 2,300 years ago.”

Excavations in Tunisia have uncovered the second largest Roman olive oil mill in the Roman empire.

A monumental staircase leading to nowhere may give evidence that a large villa in Pompeii had a viewing tower.

Alex Joffe writes about the use of animal dung as fuel in ancient Mesopotamia.

Zoom lecture on Dec 9: “From Pasargadae to Neyrīz, ca. 500 BCE: The View from the Persepolis Fortification Archive,” by Rhyne King

Students who climbed onto the roof of a temple of Apollo in Cyprus have been criticized.

Mick Boersma, a longtime professor at Talbot School of Theology and faithful friend to me and this ministry, is with the Savior he loved so much and served so well.

HT: Agade, Explorator, Paleojudaica

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

The Grand Egyptian Museum officially opened yesterday. The $1 billion project began in 2005.

There are no threatening cracks in King Tut’s tomb, according to the Egyptian authorities.

The sun lit up King Ramses II’s statue at Abu Simbel for 22 minutes last week.

Egyptian emergency personnel carried out “one of the most complex rescue missions carried out in closed archaeological sites” in rescuing an injured woman inside the Bent Pyramid.

A tourist fell off the perimeter wall of the Pantheon in Rome and died.

Erosion is a risk to monuments in southern Iraq, including the Ziggurat of Ur.

The International Association for Assyriology has posted links to a number of video and audio presentations related to ANE archaeology, history, culture, and cuneiform.

New release: Yearning for Immortality: The European Invention of the Ancient Egyptian Afterlife, by Rune Nyord (University of Chicago Press, $115; open-access)

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Explorator

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Archaeologists have found remains of 95 dolmens from the Early Bronze Age in the Madaba region of Jordan.

“Archaeologists have discovered a 3,500-year-old military fortress with a zigzag-style wall in the north Sinai Desert of Egypt.”

Egyptian officials are worried about a ceiling crack in the tomb of King Tutankhamun.

“Greece said on Thursday it had agreed with Egypt on the future of St. Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Egypt’s Mount Sinai.”

Archaeological work is progressing on a large, “circular, labyrinthine building [that] has no known parallel in prehistoric Crete or the wider Aegean region.”

Expedition Bible’s latest video is about the Amarna Letters, which Joel Kramer states in the introduction are “the most powerful evidence outside of the Bible for the Israelite conquest of the Promised Land.”

Clinton Arnold and Sean McDowell discuss the recent excavations at Colossae on the Think Biblically podcast. Fox News has some new photos of the excavation.

The first results have been published from “Pompeii Reset, a non-invasive program that used three-dimensional recording and modeling to re-examine the House of the Tiaso.”

“3D models of the Sela inscription of the Neo-Babylonian king Nabonidus (556-539 BCE) can be seen at the Sketchfab’s page of the GRACPE-UB research group.”

Hybrid lecture at Harvard on Nov 12: “Decoding the Pyramid Statues of King Menkaure,” by Florence Dunn Friedman

The ESV Archaeology Study Bible Notes are available for pre-order at Logos.

Amazon is listing for pre-order two long-awaited volumes in the Lexham Geographic Commentary series – Historical Books, volume 1 (Joshua–Ruth) and volume 2 (1 Samuel–Esther). They are also available for pre-order on Logos (vol 1, vol 2).

Open-access: The South Palace Archives in Babylon: Administrative Records in the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar II, by Olof Pedersén (Harrassowitz)

The Johns Hopkins University Archaeological Museum has re-opened after a three-year renovation.

HT: Agade, Explorator

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Archaeologists excavating Colossae found 60 Hellenistic-era tombs.

New details on Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, have been gleaned from ongoing deciphering of the carbonized papyri from Herculaneum.

A new study provides insights into the origins of the Karnak Temple.

“Research shows that women might be represented in Mycenaean iconography instead of men, changing the interpretation of Mycenaean society.”

The ancient site of Persepolis is threatened as “the surrounding ground is dropping by several inches to over a foot each year.”

For the first time in 20 years, the Parthenon in Athens is not obstructed by scaffolding. For one month.

“For the first time in nearly 2,000 years, visitors to Rome’s world-renowned Colosseum will have the opportunity to walk through a hidden imperial passage that once allowed Roman emperors to reach the ancient amphitheater unseen.”

A Roman gravestone of a sailor has turned up in an overgrown backyard in New Orleans.

More volumes are available in open-access for the Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period and Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Babylonian Empire series.

Mohr Siebeck has made some books available as open-access.

The Lawrence T. Geraty and Douglas R. Clark Center for Near Eastern Archaeology (CNEA) at La Sierra University is hosting its 17th annual Archaeology Discovery Weekend on November 15-16, with both in-person and online registration options available (all free).

The ICR Discovery Center is hosting a Biblical Archaeology Conference on November 8, with presentations by Titus Kennedy and Randall Price ($15/$30).

The Friends of ASOR are hosting a tour next spring: “From Carthage to Djerba: The Archaeology of Tunisia.”

Mary and Carl Rasmussen are leading a “not for credit” study tour of Turkey and Greece next April and May.

Phillip J. Long reviews Archaeology and the Ministry of Paul: A Visual Guide, by David A. deSilva, positively, recommending that it be required reading before visiting the sites.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Ted Weis, Alexander Schick, Explorator

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About the BiblePlaces Blog

The BiblePlaces Blog provides updates and analysis of the latest in biblical archaeology, history, and geography. Unless otherwise noted, the posts are written by Todd Bolen, PhD, Professor of Biblical Studies at The Master’s University.

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