Jerusalem Archives - Page 104 of 195

Weekend Roundup

Tom Powers has created a map identifying visible remnants of the ancient aqueducts in Bethlehem.

“Thessaloniki’s Pompeii” will be preserved.

Israel Knohl speculates that a second Gabriel Stone may exist. The display of the first Gabriel Stone at the Israel Museum has produced a number of articles.

The Lowell Thomas Travelogues are now featured in an exhibit at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

A new exhibit open until July: Mapping the Holy Land: Cartographic Treasures from the Trevor and Susan Chinn Collection in the Israel Museum.

A video of Aren Maeir’s recent lecture on Gath at William Jessup University is now available along with his PowerPoint presentation.

“Issa is the Name, Basketball is the Game” – If you’ve seen the signs in the Old City and wondered what the story was, this article explains it all.

HT: Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Issa is the Name, Basketball is the Game, sign in Old City, tb010310723

“Issa is the Name” sign in the Old City
Photo from “Signs of the Holy Land”

Tagged Greece, Jerusalem, Judah, Lectures, Museums, New Exhibits, Weekend Roundup

Research Plan Posted for New Jerusalem Excavations

When Tel Aviv University announced plans to excavate in Jerusalem’s City of David, some liberal voices responded with anger. What is the most liberal archaeological department in Israel doing working in an area associated with a history they deny? The apparent (but unconfirmed) funding of the dig by the conservative organization Elad grated all the more, for as the liberals know, the Bible-confirming results that come out of excavations in the City of David are controlled by these radical Jewish settlers.

More details about the planned excavations are now online. Yuval Gadot has posted his research plan for excavating on the eastern slope south of the Gihon Spring in Shiloh’s Area D3. He plans to excavate six squares in the first four-month-long season.

Gadot hopes to discover houses as well as the eastern wall of the city in order to address two questions: (1) How does household archaeology illuminate social order and cultural identity? (2)

What was the size and growth pattern of Jerusalem? In regard to the second question, Gadot wants to determine if the massive wall that Reich and Shukrun found in the Kidron Valley was a city wall or a revetment wall.

Before excavation begins, the archaeologists have to remove the dump of previous excavations. The area will be open to visitors and a 24-hour webcam will broadcast the work on the site.

HT: Joseph Lauer

City-of-David-aerial-from-east,-tb010703201

City of David from east with excavation area marked
Photo from Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

Tagged Excavations, Jerusalem

Weekend Roundup

Plans to reconstruct Herod’s tomb at the Herodium have been scrapped.

The same article reports that the Herod exhibition at the Israel Museum has been extended to January 2014.

Tuesday’s Samaritan Passover ceremony is described in a Haaretz article. (I believe the first photo caption is wrong, for the animal is not slain until sunset.)

105 million euros is not enough to save Pompeii from deterioration, according to a New York Times video.

Ferrell Jenkins is back in Israel and he recently spent a morning with Shmuel Browns.

The Spring 2013 season at Tel Burna is over and they have found evidence of a destruction in the 9th century. There are still a few days left to sign up for the summer season.

Haaretz’s “Tourist Tip #218” describes the significance of the Broad Wall of Jerusalem.

The temporary bridge to the Mughrabi Gate next to the Western Wall still stands, but next month a committee is going to meet in Paris to discuss its replacement.

FoxNews reports on apps for archaeology.

Berlin’s Pergamon Museum has a new exhibition on the Mesopotamian city of Uruk. Better photos are available here.

Christianbook.com is now selling The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols.) for only $99.99. (That’s 75% the $400 list.)

A rare, original set of the 13 volumes of the Survey of Western Palestine has just been listed by a UK bookseller for $6,400. For $35 more, you can pick up a digital copy of the oversized maps.

HT: Jack Sasson

Key Map for the Survey of Western Palestine. All 26 maps (plus one from Transjordan) are for sale here.

Tagged Excavations, Holidays, Italy, Jerusalem, Judah, Mesopotamia, Museums, Resources, Samaria, Shephelah, Weekend Roundup

Royal Architecture Found Near Jerusalem

Joseph Lauer has passed along word of a report in the Hebrew daily Makor Rishon that is currently available in English only in The Jewish Press. Specifics are limited, perhaps because of fears of vandalism or political maneuvers.

The article mentions an “ancient column with a crown,” but the photo in Makor Rishon shows a proto-Aeolic capital. More than three dozen of these royal capitals have been found throughout Israel, including one in the City of David and ten at Ramat Rahel. They clearly date to the time of the kings of Israel and Judah and the quality of construction indicates that these capitals are part of royal architecture.

The capital was found in a cave between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Yaron Rosenthal believes that an entire building from the time of Judah’s monarchy may be waiting to be unearthed.

The story in The Jewish Press mostly focuses on the political angle, reporting on the allegation that the Israel Antiquities Authority has known about the discovery for the last year and a half but is ignoring it for political reasons.

Photo by Yossi Aloni, Makor Rishon

Proto-Aeolic capital at Ramat Rahel, tb031905802

Replica of Proto-Aeolic capital on display at Ramat Rahel excavations

Ramat Rahel excavations, Proto-Aeolic capitals, tb113002564

Reconstruction of Judean palace with Proto-Aeolic capitals at Ramat Rahel

Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem

Weekend Roundup

A sonar survey has identified a large stone structure on the floor of the Sea of Galilee. It may be related to the contemporary third-millennium BC site of nearby Beth Yerah (Khirbet Kerak). The scientific article includes illustrations.

Archaeologists have discovered a port on the Red Sea from the time of Pharaoh Cheops.

Admission to the Israel Museum is free on Independence Day, April 16.

Sharks are rare in the Mediterranean Sea but not in the Red Sea. One came close to swimmers in Eilat last week.

Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania, has inaugurated its Archaeology Museum Gallery.

If Israel was ever mapped out on the game of Monopoly, Megiddo would be Boardwalk.

Kyle Pope has written a good article on “The Hinnom Valley and Jesus’ Teaching on Final Punishment.” Barry Britnell shares a photo of the valley.

Details for volunteers for this summer’s dig at Tel Burna are now available. Apply before May 1.
zmetro has four 360-degree panoramas of Laodicea. The excavators and restorers are making great progress at the site.

HT: Charles Savelle, Tony Lawrence, Jack Sasson, Joseph Lauer

Stone structure under the Sea of Galilee

Illustration by Shmuel Marco

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Galilee, Jerusalem, Museums, Shephelah, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Unique Ritual Bath Complex Excavated in Jerusalem

Archaeologists working for the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) recently excavated a unique ritual bath (mikveh) in the Kiryat Menachem neighborhood of Jerusalem (southwest of the Old City). Three separate collecting tanks (otzar) were carved into the rock in order to collect as much rainwater as possible.

The IAA press release quotes Benyamin Storchan, director of the excavation:

Numerous ritual baths have been excavated in Jerusalem in recent years, but the water supply system that we exposed in this excavation is unique and unusual. The ritual bath consists of an underground chamber entered by way of steps. The miqwe received the rainwater from three collecting basins (otzar) that were hewn on the roof of the bath, and the pure water was conveyed inside the chamber through channels.
The ritual baths known until now usually consist of a closed cavity that was supplied with rainwater conveyed from a small rock-cut pool located nearby. The complex that was exposed at this time is a more sophisticated and intricate system. The bath was apparently associated with a settlement that was situated there in the Second Temple period. Presumably, due to the rainfall regime and arid conditions of the region, the inhabitants sought special techniques that would make it possible to store every drop of water.
It is interesting to note that the bath conforms to all of the laws of kashrut, like collecting the water in it naturally without human contact, and ensuring that the water does not seep into the earth which is why the bath was treated with a special kind of plaster.

The full press release is here, and three high-res photos are available in a zip file. The story is also reported by the Jerusalem Post and Arutz-7.

Archaeologist Benyamin Storchan stands in the immersion chamber of the mikveh.

Aerial view of the excavations

Aerial view of three storage tanks and channels

All photos courtesy of the IAA. The second and third are by Skyview.

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Jerusalem