Archaeologists working in Saqqara recently rediscovered the tombs of senior officials, an offering chapel, limestone sarcophagus, and untouched mummy.

Archaeologists working at Apollonia on the Rhyndacus discovered an unusual tomb while excavating the theater.

“A necklace of at least 24 tiny charms, given to Roman children as a protective amulet, was among the finds from a wooden cupboard sealed for almost 2,000 years in Pompeii.”

“Much like the Roman city of Pompeii, which was destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 C.E., Akrotiri was preserved beneath the ash…. This created a rare time capsule that provides an unprecedented look into the daily life of this Middle Bronze Age Cycladic civilization.”

A Jordanian-French project to “conserve, document, and showcase archaeological discoveries in the southeastern Jordan desert” has been completed.

Mark Wilson writes about his recent visit to Damascus.

Helen Dixon has written an archaeologist’s guide to the Bardo National Museum in Tunis.

Matthew Larsen discusses the archaeology and experience of Roman prisons on the Biblical World podcast.

“The Digital Editions of Aramaic and Phoenician Sources (DEAPS) has now made available editions of 329 Phoenician and Punic textual objects. The new material is the first substantial body of Phoenician sources freely and digitally available for researchers and the public.”

New release: Eclipses, Volcanoes, and Eponyms: New Perspectives on the Chronology of the Early Second Millennium BC in Mesopotamia, edited by Werner Nahm and Michael Roaf (Peeters, 125 euro; open access)

New release: Discovering the Moabites: Archaeology, History, and Culture, by P. M. Michèle Daviau, Margreet L. Steiner (SBL Press, $49; Amazon)

New release: Alexander: God, King, Man, by Edmund Richardson (St. Martin’s Press, $23)

Matt Glassman discusses the possible locations for Ur of the Chaldeans on the latest episode of Digging for Truth.

An aspiring archaeologist shared her experience on a three-week excavation near Pylos, Greece, with People magazine.

HT: Agade, Keith Keyser, Explorator

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A 12th-century BC Canaanite or Egyptian fortress in the Guvrin Forest has been restored and reopened to the public.

Rabbi Daniel Rowe writes about the search for Ai.

Marek Dospěl gives an introduction to Amihai Mazar’s article in Biblical Archaeology Review on “Tell Qasile: Harbor Town from the Days of the Judges.”

“An ancient residence [of Marcus Fabius Rufus] believed to be the grandest in the Pompeii archaeological site is being restored with the entire 1.4 million euros ($1.6 million) cost being covered by a private sponsor.”

Asaf Peled explains why “Rome is one of the best places to understand Jewish history.”

New release: Landscapes of Memory: The Old Testament’s Sensory Engagement with Nature, by Emma M. Austin. The foreword was written by Paul Wright, longtime president of Jerusalem University College (IVP Academic, $29)

New release: Biblical Forgery and Academic Authentication: Persisting Patterns of Guile and Gullibility, by Jonathan Klawans (Oxford University Press, $45; Kindle: $15)

Hybrid lecture at the Albright on Nov 11: “Jericho, the Biblical Bias, and Historically Founded Archaeology,” by Lorenzo Nigro

Digging for Truth has a new studio, and the first episode filmed in it looks back with Scott Stripling at the history of excavations conducted by the Associates for Biblical Research.

Chandler Collins has begun a new series reviewing Jerusalem guidebooks, beginning with Jerome Murphy-O’connor’s venerable The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide.

Leen Ritmeyer has written a couple of articles about the ark of the covenant. In the first, he considers the question of where the ark is today. In the second, he discusses the family of Elizaphan, their service in the temple, and where they may have lived.

HT: Agade, Explorator, Alexander Schick

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A new study based on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 will allow scholars to more accurately date other ancient volcanic eruptions.

“The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan (U-M) has opened its first new permanent gallery in nearly two decades:  The Byzantine and Islamic Worlds: 400–1800.”

CBN News has produced a 25-minute special on the first-century street from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple Mount.

CBN News has created a 10-minute video on the special exhibit of the Great Isaiah Scroll at the Israel Museum.

The Colosseum in Rome was closed for two days after a worker fell to his death.

Elon Gilad surveys the major views on the origins of the Samaritans.

Indiana Jones is the best and worst thing to happen to archaeology.

James Hoffmeier talks about the historical and archaeological context of the exodus on The Week in Bible Prophecy.

Steven Notley is on The Book and the Spade to discuss finding Bethsaida.

Free hybrid lecture at Harvard on Oct 21: “The Many Lives of Theban Tomb 16,” by Suzanne Onstine

The program is online for last week’s conference, “The Medes: 25 Years Afterwards.” The recordings are posted on YouTube.

New release: Bible Mapper Atlas, Volume 1 (Old Testament) – includes nearly all the online maps along with 90 photographs and a timeline. A second volume will include all of the New Testament maps.

Jason Borges has posted an updated version of his “Public Inscriptions at the Seven Churches of Revelation: A Historical Introduction for Guides, With Translations and Explanations.”

Bible Odyssey has published some new short articles:

If you are planning to be at the Annual Meetings in Denver, I’ll be giving a couple of papers and would be happy to see you:

HT: Agade, Alexander Schick, Explorator

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Archaeologists in Turkey have identified another fragment of the treaty between pharaoh Ramesses II and the Hittite king Hattusili III. A larger photo is here.

“An ancient fortress that guarded Egypt’s western frontier more than 3,000 years ago has yielded a rare horse burial, inscriptions linked to Ramesses II and evidence of military and daily life.”

Underwater explorers are returning to the submerged Phoenician and Roman remains off the coast of Tyre.

Laser scans of ancient temple walls at Kition Kathari revealed 23 previously unrecognized ship carvings that are nearly invisible to the human eye.

On the Biblical World podcast, Jason Borges interviews Turkish archaeologist Prof. Ilker Mimiroglu about the excavations at Lystra.

Restoration of Istanbul’s Museum of the Ancient Orient has been completed after three years.

“Excavating Antioch: The Archaeology of an Ancient City” is a new exhibition at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College.

The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is offering three excavation and conservation opportunities for students next year: (1) Agora excavation; (2) archaeological conservation; (3) Corinth excavation.

Greece’s Ministry of Culture is beginning three projects to protect and display archaeological remains at Olympia.

An upcoming exhibition, “Athena, the Stage is Yours: The Parthenon Puzzle,” will attempt “to document a new, archaeologically sound proposal for the complete reconstruction of the sculptures on the east pediment of the Parthenon.”

A four-year project to improve the visitor experience at Athens’s Kerameikos archaeological site has been completed.

“Charles K. Williams II, the renowned American archaeologist who devoted more than three decades to excavations at Ancient Corinth, died on September 16, 2026, at the age of 96.”

“A new study of nearly 300,000 kilometers of Roman roads shows how geography and major cities shaped movement across the empire. The findings challenge the old idea that Roman roads formed a simple system leading toward Rome.”

Recent release: Ancient Persian: A Linguistic History, by Kevin T. van Bladel (Cambridge University Press; open access)

A new project has been announced for the digital encoding of the Leningrad Codex.

Scientists working to decipher the Herculaneum papyri are burning modern papyrus scrolls to test methods for reading the ancient carbonized texts.

A mathematician is challenging the idea that the Parthenon’s subtly curved stylobate was designed to make the building appear straighter to the human eye.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Explorator

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“The tomb of an ancient Egyptian royal chamberlain was discovered in Sector A of the Bubasteum necropolis in Saqqara during its first excavation season.”

The Pyramid of Menkaure is now closed to visitors following the reopening of the Pyramid of Khafre. The closure allows for the maintenance and preservation work.

BBC Science Focus discusses the latest theories for how the Giza pyramids were constructed.

Jerusalem University College is opening their graduate field studies to Egypt and Greece to individuals who are not enrolled in the accompanying semester courses.

“More than 3,000 people gathered at the historic site of Mukawir (Machaerus) on 12 September for a sunset performance of Handel’s Messiah.”

The largest Roman wall mosaic ever found, together with a colorful fresco, was opened in Rome to the public for the first time, thirty years after its discovery.

A multiyear underwater archaeology project studying ancient harbors in the Mediterranean determined that ports were larger than usually assumed because of anchoring areas beyond the built walls of the harbor.

Konstantinos Politis, excavator of the “Sanctuary of Lot” on the eastern side of the Dead Sea, died last month.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Explorator, Alexander Schick

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“Archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Adramytteion in western Türkiye have uncovered an unusually personal trace of Roman domestic life: a cat and a dog depicted in a mosaic from the villa’s 2nd–3rd-century AD phase, accompanied by inscriptions giving their names.” Adramyttium is mentioned in Acts 27:2.

The AFP reports on archaeological discoveries in Lebanon in recent years.

The British Museum Blog looks at wigs and hairstyles in ancient Egypt.

On Digging for Truth, Bryan Windle gives an archaeological biography for Sargon II.

New release: Babel and Bible: The Impact of Mesopotamia on Biblical Studies 1872-1924, by Rannfrid I. Lasine Thelle (Bloomsbury; $76–$108)

Hybrid lecture on Sept 16 at the Albright: “The Site That Broke the Clock: Radiocarbon Dating, Pottery, and Rewriting the Early Bronze Age ‘Collapse’ in Jordan,” by James Fraser

Zoom lecture on Sept 23: “The Wondrous Phenomenon of the Artesian Spring – New Excavations at Tall Zirāʿa,” by Dieter Vieweger

An Italian man who constructed his own “ancient Greek theater” and charged tourists to see it is now in jail.

HT: Agade, Explorator, Paleojudaica

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