Weekend Roundup, Part 3

The Albright Institute is hosting an exhibit entitled “Gateway to the World: Jerusalem Airport 1948-1967” from Oct 28 to Nov 28. Eldad Brin has written an article for the Jerusalem Quarterly with the same title.

The Israel Oriental Studies Annual has been relaunched after a two-decade hiatus.

Mordechai Cogan laments the closing of the Department of Bible at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and especially the manner in which it was done.

“The University of Haifa is establishing the first-of-its-kind School of Archaeology in Israel, which will integrate all archaeological activities and endeavors undertaken by the university—on land and at sea.” It will be headed by Israel Finkelstein.

An antiquities dealer in New York City has confessed to manufacturing thousands of fraudulent antiquities after authorities discovered an assembly-line process in the gallery’s back rooms.

A podcast argues that a 2018 photograph of Kim Kardashian with a 1st century BC Egyptian gold coffin at the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art provided an essential clue toward determining that the coffin was looted and illegally sold.

Zoom lecture on Oct 27: “Old, but Still Topical: The Dispute Between Driver and Sayce on Biblical Archaeology,” by Hugh Williamson.

Zoom webinar on Nov 1: “Virtual Workshop: Jerusalem in Roman-Byzantine Times,” hosted by the Albright Institute with discussions in response to Jerusalem II: Jerusalem in Roman-Byzantine Times, edited by Katharina Heyden and Maria Lissek.

Author panel webinar on Nov 3, hosted by Eisenbrauns, with Seymour (Sy) Gitin, author of The Road Taken: An Archaeologist’s Journey to the Land of the Bible; Martin Heide and Joris Peters, authors of Camels in the Biblical World; and Larry G. Herr, Douglas R. Clark, and Lawrence T. Geraty, authors of The 2004 Season at Tall al ‘Umayri and Subsequent Studies.

Zoom lecture on Nov 4: “Guarding Archaeology: Everyday Labour in the British Mandate Department of Antiquities,” by Sarah Irving.

Zoom lecture on Nov 11: “Work and Worth: Women’s Household Activities in Ancient Israel,” by Carol Meyers.

Robert Mullins is interviewed on Patheos about his archaeological work in Israel and his new book, Atlas of the Biblical World.

Ferrell Jenkins writes about his “longest trip,” the 66-year journey with his wife that ended earlier this month.

Do all roads lead to Rome? It’s a little complicated.

ASOR has dozens of digital maps of the ancient world available for free use.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Ted Weis, A.D. Riddle, Paleojudaica, Explorator, BibleX

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Weekend Roundup

Archaeologists discovered a Second Temple period quarry in northwest Jerusalem.

Regarding the recent story about the ancient Jerusalem weight which was falsely labeled to facilitate cheating, some scholars have observed that it was actually labeled correctly as an 8-gerah weight.

A secret tunnel under the slope of Mount Zion that was used by Israelis after Jordan captured the Old City in 1948 has now been opened to the public.

Israel has an “ark museum” of sorts, and Israel’s Good Name describes his visit to the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History in Tel Aviv in a well-illustrated blog post.

Dozens of installations used for the large-scale production of salt have been identified along the northern coasts of Israel.

The Ketef Hinnom silver amulets are the subject of an article in the most recent issue of Ink magazine, published by Tyndale House (pages 12-14).

Egypt is preparing to open the world’s largest open-air museum in Luxor.

“Using a leaf uncovered from the archaeological site of an ancient Egyptian temple, researchers . . . have successfully determined the ancient hybrid origin of some date palms.” The underlying journal article is here.

The National Museum of Beirut has reopened after a $175,000 restoration.

Excavations in eastern Turkey have revealed an unusual tomb belonging to an Urartian ruler who was buried with his dog, horses, cattle, and sheep.

“Out of the ashes of Pompeii, archaeologists recently pulled up a time capsule, though only the bronze hinges remained of what is being described as a ‘sorceress’ toolkit.’”

On December 6 and 13, John J. Collins will be giving a virtual lecture on “The Dead Sea Scrolls: The Light They Shed on Judaism and Christianity.” Registration is required and free.

Coming soon: Excavations in the City of David, Jerusalem (1995-2010), by Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron (Penn State University Press, 712 pages, $99.95).

This Week in the Ancient Near East wraps up the summer with a round-up episode.

The indoor model of 1st-century Jerusalem that was located at the Holy Land Experience in Orlando will be part of a new exhibit at the Ark Encounter. There’s a nice photo of the model here. And some others here.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Andy Cook, Charles Savelle, Arne Halbakken, Keith Keyser, G. M. Grena

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Weekend Roundup

Ruth Schuster has a photo essay of finds from the summer’s excavations of the temple at Motza (Moza) near Jerusalem.

A new study suggests that the site of Qumran was not a permanent settlement but a place where the Essenes came on pilgrimage once a year (Haaretz premium).

Brent Nongbri has a note about some little-known Dead Sea Scrolls fragments in the Vatican Museums.

Aren Maeir has posted his short summary of the Philistines, written for the Koren Tanakh of the Land of Israel: Samuel.

Ukrainian travel photographer Alexander Ladanivskyy has captured some unique photos of the Great Pyramid of Giza using a drone.

Madeleine Muzdakis writes about the remarkably well-preserved statue of Ka’aper, with its beautiful rock-crystal and copper eyes.

“Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs, an exhibition of Ancient Egyptian artifacts opens at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on November 20.”

Appian Media has released a teaser trailer for Trial & Triumph, a feature-length documentary on the seven churches of Revelation.

Phys.org has an article about the underwater archaeological park at Baiae, near Naples, Italy, where villas of the Roman emperors are now submerged under 15 feet of water.

A New York City antiquities dealer has been charged with selling antiquities that he mass-produced.

Philip Zhakevich looks at the ancient evidence for writing and scribes in ancient Israel. For more, see Zhakevich’s recent Scribal Tools in Ancient Israel: A Study of Biblical Hebrew Terms for Writing Materials and Implements. (60% off at Amazon now; my guess is that that price is very temporary.)

The fall issue of Biblical Archaeology Review includes articles on a Canaanite temple at Lachish and a Byzantine church near Beth Shemesh. An article on the importance of public scholarship is based on a recorded Zoom conversation with Eric Cline, Melissa Cradic, and Jodi Magness, available online here.

You can catch up on the top three reports in biblical archaeology for the month of August with Bryan Windle’s overview.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Explorator, Ted Weis

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

The latest skeleton discovered at Pompeii sheds remarkable light on an individual named Marcus Venerius Secundio.

“A team of Polish researchers has discovered evidence of a well-planned Christian settlement dating to the sixth century in the ancient Egyptian port city of Marea.”

“Archeologists in northwestern Turkey discovered a relief on Monday depicting a war between the Greeks and Persians from the fifth century B.C.” (No photo)

A gouge in the eyes of a coin of Julian the Apostate may have been an intentional “act of erasure.”

Here are much better photos to go with the previously mentioned story abut Egyptians struggling to keep alive their craft of making papyrus.

The theater at Ephesus is reopening to visitors after being closed for the last three years.

Malta is planning to bury ancient cart ruts in order to build a new roundabout.

Jesse Millek asks, “Why did scholars choose 1200 BCE . . . as the year when civilization collapsed in the Eastern Mediterranean?”

The Getty Research Institute interviews Waleed Khaled al-As’ad, director emeritus of antiquities and museums at Palmyra and son of the site’s longtime director, Khaled al-As’ad. They also have a story about the history of Palmyra.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Andy Cook, Ted Weis, Explorator

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A massive boundary stone marking the city limits of ancient Rome in the 1st century AD was discovered near the mausoleum of Augustus during construction work.

“The monumental entrance gate of the Zeus Temple’s sanctuary in the ancient city of Aizanoi, located in the Çavdarhisar district of western Kütahya province, Turkey, was unearthed during recent excavations.”

The latest discovery from the submerged ancient city of Thonis-Heracleion are fruit baskets from the 4th century BC.

Egypt moved the 4,600-year-old solar boat of Pharaoh Khufu from its old home near the Great Pyramid to the soon-to-open Grand Egyptian Museum.

A new study concludes a tablet from the Old Babylonian period is the oldest example of applied geometry.

17,000 looted artifacts were returned to Iraq from the Museum of the Bible and Cornell University.

A 3-min clip from a BBC documentary on the Persians focuses on the ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil, one of the best preserved ancient ziggurats.

Zoom lecture on August 11: “From Sanctuary to Synagogue,” by Robert Stieglitz.

On pre-publication sale at Logos: Biblical Illustrator Treasury

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Arne Halbakken, Charles Savelle, Andy Cook, Roger Schmidgall, Explorator

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

“Researchers in Saudi Arabia have discovered a sixth-century B.C.E. rock carving of the last Babylonian king, Nabonidus” along with a lengthy cuneiform inscription.

“Beneath the murky waves of the Venice Lagoon, researchers have discovered the remains of an ancient Roman road and other possible port facilities, like a dock, that may predate the founding of the Italian city.”

“A spectacular ancient mosaic floor that was part of a building from the Hellenistic period is among the important finds from excavations carried out recently at Fabrika Hill in Kato Paphos, Cyprus.” The photo is apparently not of the newly discovered mosaic.

NPR has a story on what lies below ground in Istanbul.

“Work has begun to refurbish the old Acropolis Museum near the iconic Parthenon temple and turn it into an exhibition space.”

“Held annually on [Turkey’s] Aegean coast, the Selcuk camel-wrestling festival is part of a nomadic legacy rooted in ancient Turkic tribes.”

“Between the years 193 – 235, the Roman Empire was ruled by a series of emperors who were originally Phoenicians.”

The new director of Michigan State University’s excavations at Isthmia has developed a new website to share both old and new research with the public. The website is here.

The US government has seized the Museum of the Bible’s Gilgamesh Tablet, declaring that it was illegally deported from Iraq.

Death by stoning is not so common these days, especially in the United States. But that’s how a gunman in Texas recently died.

Zoom lecture on August 29: “From Standing Stones to Sacred Emptiness: Textual and Visual Portrayals of Israel’s God,” by Theodore Lewis.

University College London and King’s College London are co-hosting an eLecture series in August, entitled Ancient Near Eastern Languages in Contact (ANELC). The first eLecture will take place on Wednesday 4 August from 16:00 until 17:00 BST (London), when Dr. Ohad Cohen of the University of Haifa will be speaking on “The Canaanite Melting Pot – The Theoretical Implications of ‘Languages in Contact’ to the Understanding of Late Biblical Hebrew.”

New release: The City of Babylon: A History, c. 2000 BC – AD 116, by Stephanie Dalley

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Wayne Stiles, Joseph Lauer, Ted Weis, Explorator, Mark Hoffman, Roger Schmidgall, Paleojudaica

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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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