Jerusalem Archives - Page 105 of 195

Weekend Roundup

Miriam Feinberg Vamosh has written an article on the little-known Church of St. Mark near the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. According to tradition in the Syriac Orthodox church, this was the place of the Last Supper.

A Byzantine winepress has been excavated at Hamei Yo’av near Kiryat Gat. High-resolution photos are available here (zip).

If you’re traveling to the Middle East, it’s worth preparing not only for the sites, but also for the food.

Debra Kamin has four rules for eating hummus.

The LMLK Blogspot has a “modern ancient art mystery” for savvy biblical archaeology sleuths.

The AP has more about the new excavations in the city of Ur.

Scientists are studying a battering ram found in a Greek or Roman ship sunk off the coast of Libya.

The ruins of ancient Palmyra are being threatened by the fighting in Syria.

Some new maps of the ancient world are now going online at the Encyclopedia of Ancient History.

Aren Maeir will be lecturing on “The Search for Goliath” on April 18 at William Jessup University.

Yesterday’s quotation was by William Dever, long-time crusader against biblical archaeology. It’s
from page 14 of Archaeology and Biblical Studies: Retrospects and Prospects. Evanston, IL:
Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, 1974.

HT: Jack Sasson

Syrian Orthodox Church, St Mark's Convent, traditional house of Mark and Upper Room, tb010312374

Entrance to Church of St. Mark
Photo from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands, Jerusalem volume (available at Amazon for $220 or at BiblePlaces.com for $39)

Tagged Challenge, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Lectures, Mesopotamia, Tourism

Weekend Roundup

The Israel Prize for the Land of Israel, Geography, and Archaeology “will not be given because the prize committee attempted to award it to two candidates, in violation of ministry rules which state that each prize may be given to only one winner.”

The Garden Tomb is now suggesting a $5 donation.

The Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem is recommended for children, according to this article in Haaretz.

A couple of Russian tourists climbed to the top of the Great Pyramid and took some photos.

Ted Weis (Living the Biblios) has written a Garden of Gethsemane Devotional and illustrated it with a number of helpful photos.

New excavations at Ur in southern Iraq have revealed a palace or temple.

David Amit, deputy director of the Excavations and Surveys Department of the Israel Antiquities
Authority, died last week.

The Vatican has asked Israel’s Chief of Police to protect Christians in Israel after criminals halted restoration work of the chapel in Nain.

Jerome Murphy-O’Connor’s new book, Keys to Jerusalem: Collected Essays, is reviewed by Joshua Schwartz in the Review of Biblical Literature.

The commercial heart of the ancient city of Thessalonica is in the way of a new subway station and
that’s a big problem.

Give SourceFlix two minutes and they’ll give you “Passion Week Archaeology.”

HT: Jack Sasson, Explorator

The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem
Photo from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

Tagged Greece, Jerusalem, Mesopotamia, Museums, Resources, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

The last week of ASOR’s March Fellowship Madness is here, and one donor be randomly selected to receive a copy of The Photographs of the American Palestine Exploration Society, which features over 150 pictures taken at sites around the Near East in 1875.

Here’s a very high-resolution panoramic shot of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives.

Popular Mechanics has a story on the value of 3-D modeling for archaeology.

A 3-D model of the Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak has been created with the help of the UCLA team who created one of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Archaeologists working at Tel Habuwa east of the Suez Canal have found evidence for battles between the Egyptians and Hyksos.

A well-preserved sundial from the 13th century BC was discovered in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor.

Turkey is demanding Germany return more ancient artifacts.

The 1862 Middle East tour of the future King Edward VII is the subject of a new exhibition in

Edinburgh.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle, Explorator

Tagged Egypt, Jerusalem, Museums, Technology, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Passover Sacrifice Reenactment

From Arutz-7:

Jewish groups held a mock Passover sacrifice on Thursday opposite the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The ritual slaughter was not merely a historic reenactment, but, they say, practice in advance of the reconstruction of the Temple. The practice sacrifice has been held annually for the past several years. This year organizers were unpleasantly surprised by a veto from Israel’s Veterinary Services, which refused to authorize the event. Organizers took the matter to court, and were able to quickly get a ruling permitting the ritual. The various groups involved in the event were represented by Rabbi Yehuda Glick, who told Arutz Sheva that the ritual was carried out with as much Biblical accuracy as possible. “We took the goat, as the Torah commands, we had an altar built like the real one, and a cooking pit built according to halacha [Jewish law],” he said. “We slaughtered the goat with Leviim singing and priestly clothing, just like in the real Passover sacrifice.”

The full story includes a one-minute amateur video. Another video from a similar service several years ago was produced by SourceFlix.

Tagged Holidays, Jerusalem

The Place in the Temple Courts Where Jesus Taught

There’s an article in the Italian press (with a Google translation in English here) in which Dan Bahat allegedly claims that he knows the exact place where Jesus taught the rabbis at the age of 12 (HT: Explorator). He identifies an area on the south side of the Temple Mount where he says that excavations have uncovered the scales on which the teachers stood.

A few comments:

1. It’s always a tenuous matter to discern something that has been mediated through a journalist, particularly through an article written in a language I don’t know. The Italian article was published on March 6, but to date no other reports are showing up in Google.

2. I’m not familiar with the excavations that Bahat is referring to. There are no excavations on the Temple Mount itself, and if he’s thinking of Eilat Mazar’s recent work south of the Temple Mount, it’s hard to believe that he is making the announcement and not Mazar herself.

3. The New Testament says of the location only that Joseph and Mary “found Jesus in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers” (Luke 2:46). I assume that Bahat knows of some rabbinical source which speaks of a particular location where rabbis taught. If so, several questions come to mind: Is that source accurate for about the year AD 10? Was there only one place in the enormous temple complex where rabbis taught?

4. The article notes Bahat’s credentials as a long-time district archaeologist of Jerusalem. I’ve read his Atlas of Jerusalem and have concluded that I cannot trust what he writes unless I have corroboration from another source I do trust. On this matter, I will keep my eyes open to see what reality there might be behind the hype.

Jerusalem model showing the Temple Mount and on “Solomon’s Colonnade” (John 10:23; Acts 3:11; 5:12). Model now at Israel Museum. Photo from the Pictorial Library, volume 3.

Tagged Analysis, Jerusalem

Weekend Roundup

At Petra, LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging laser) scanning and balloon-based 35mm photography are being used with other technologies to facilitate research and conservation.

Exploring Bible Lands is doing a series on the travels of the Ark of the Covenant, beginning at the Plains of Moab, crossing the Jordan River, and continuing on to Jericho, Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, and now Shiloh.

JPost: “Wild animals will soon be able to safely cross bustling Route 1 when the Israel National Roads Company completes work on an ecological corridor at the Sha’ar Hagai interchange.”

This 40-second video clip with Eilat Mazar describing her discovery of the seal impression of a biblical figure could be a good way to get attention at the start of a lesson. The Jehucal bullae was discovered in 2005.

Popular Archaeology has a lengthy feature this month on the Egyptian fortress in Joppa.

Some very well-preserved leather shoes worn 2,000 years ago were recently discovered in Egypt.

Egyptian officials have rejected a proposal to rent out five of the country’s archaeological sites to international tourism companies.

For the broader world of archaeology, see the Archaeology Weekly Roundup at the ASOR Blog.

HT: Jack Sasson

Tagged Egypt, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Technology, Weekend Roundup