Jerusalem Archives - Page 110 of 195

Weekend Roundup

Archaeologists working at Acco have discovered harbor remains and four shipwrecks from the early 19th century.

Deane Galbraith summarizes a new article in which Yigal Levin rejects the identification of Khirbet Qeiyafa as Shaaraim and proposes instead that it is the Israelite encampment.

Bible History Daily has a short story on a new exhibit about Famous Americans Who Made Holy Land Tours. Featured tourists include Mark Twain, Herman Melville, and Theodore Roosevelt.

The Muriel and Jeremy Josse Collection of Holy Land Maps includes more than 250 maps of late 19th- and early 20th-century Palestine and the African continent.

Harvard University is returning to archaeology in Iraq after nearly a century, but they’re doing so without touching the ground.

National Geographic has word (and photos) of the Oldest Pharaoh Rock Art Rediscovered in Egypt.

Bible History Daily posts more than a dozen high-res images of “King David’s Tomb.” You need a subscription to read Jeffrey Zorn’s related article, but the images are available to all. And if you ever teach about the subject, you should grab the nicely colored drawings from Weill’s excavations while they’re available (below the photos).

The city of Jerusalem has approved plans for rebuilding the second of two domed synagogues in the Old City. Both were destroyed in the 48 war, and the Hurvah Synagogue was rebuilt several years ago. A donation of $12 million is launching the rebuilding of the Tiferet Israel Synagogue.

For a look at what’s going on in the broader world of biblical studies in the past month, head over to the Carnival.

HT: David Coppedge

Tiferet Israel Synagogue in Jerusalem
Photo from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands

Tagged Egypt, Jerusalem, Mesopotamia, Shephelah, Weekend Roundup

The Captain, the Witch, and the Tunnel

One of the most head-shaking stories of early explorers in Jerusalem is that of Montague Parker’s expedition to discover the Ark of the Covenant. Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg tells the story in the Jerusalem Post, and if you haven’t heard it before, it’s worth the read. Here’s an excerpt:

With the help of his two Turkish supervisors, Parker and his men claimed an area of ground near the entry to the Gihon water system, known at the time as the Virgin’s Spring, which was then fenced off and guarded by Turkish troops, who did not allow entry to any locals or other visitors. The Jerusalem Pasha Azmey Bey had been suitably bribed to turn a blind eye to the work.
Parker’s activity naturally aroused the intense concern of the local archeological community. The Germans, French and British all had their missions in Jerusalem, but Parker would give out no communication and allow no inspection. His men proceeded with the digging, but they were amateurs and it went slowly and with little result.
Back in London, the Finnish scholar Juvelius had hired an Irish medium, who studied the documents and sent directions to the team about suitable locations. He advised Parker to search the long water tunnel, so Parker sent to London to obtain the services of two mining engineers who had worked on the Metropolitan Railway, the first line of the London Underground. Then he made another excellent move.

The full account is here. If you like stories like this, I recommend Neil Asher Silberman’s Digging for God and Country. The book is out of print, but still available in used bookstores.

HT: Joseph Lauer

The Gihon Spring of Jerusalem

Tagged Jerusalem

Top 5 Best Alternative Ways to See Jerusalem

The title of this article at the Jerusalem Post will get your attention, but it’s a bit misleading. If you think of it primarily as ways to leave Jerusalem, it’s more accurate. The top 5 are:

Segway
ATV
Bike Tours
Jeep Tours
Horse-riding

The article gives more details and includes phone numbers. If you want to see Jerusalem, you really need to walk.

HT: Charles Savelle

Tagged Jerusalem, Tourism

New Excavation Planned for City of David

Israel’s left-wing newspaper, Haaretz, reports on an agreement between Tel Aviv University and the Israel Antiquities Authority for a new excavation in the City of David.

A right-wing organization active in settling Jews in controversial parts of East Jerusalem, is providing the funds for excavations by Tel Aviv University archaeologists on a contentious site near the City of David.
The excavations funded by the Elad organization have drawn the ire of Palestinian residents, as well as international and Israeli left-wing organizations. Some archaeologists say that the methodology – tunneling under village houses, and the speed at which the excavations are to be performed – violates accepted professional norms.
This is the first time a university has decided to formally take part project in such an excavation. The dig will be conducted by Tel Aviv University’s Institute of Archaeology in coordination with the Israel Antiquities Authority, which will transfer funds from Elad to the university.
[…]
The excavation plans envisions work in what is known as area E, in the lowest part of the park, adjacent to the El-Bustan neighborhood of Silwan, where the Jerusalem Municipality is planning to establish a park called “King’s Garden.”
Critics question the role of Elad in the dig. “It’s hard to believe that the Antiques [sic] Authority, with its meager budget, has suddenly found sources to fund someone else’s projects,” says archaeologist Yoni Mizrachi of Emek Shaveh.
TAU archaeologist Prof. Rafael Greenberg, another Emek Shaveh activist, is more outspoken: “This is a clear politicization of research. Whoever is familiar with the area is aware that all the diggings are annexed to Elad, supervised by Elad, and separate from the site of the City of David. In practice, the project is to become part of Elad’s settlement drive.”

You can decide who is guilty of the “politicization of research.” Greenberg is wrong to imply that the archaeologists working in the City of David are forced to produce results compatible with a right-wing agenda. But you can understand why it’s driving the left-wingers nuts that one of their own would join the “enemy.”

The full article provides responses by Tel Aviv University and Elad.

Area E in the City of David. View to the north.
Photo from the Jerusalem volume.

Tagged Excavations, Jerusalem

Wednesday Roundup

SourceFlix has just released a new video short, “Follow Me,” with some great footage of sheep and shepherds.

Hezekiah’s Pool (aka Patriarch’s Pool) in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem has long been a swampy dump. The area was cleared last year and recently it held what Tom Powers believes is the first public gathering in its history.

Wayne Stiles: Beersheba epitomizes the faith God required to live in the Holy Land….God used this unassuming, barren place to shape some of the most significant lives in the Bible.

Heavy rains in the Eilat mountains and southern Aravah led to flooding of the Hai-Bar Yotvata Nature Reserve. Workers safely evacuated animals in danger of drowning.

Peter James answers some difficult questions about the Step Pyramid of Saqqara and the Bent
Pyramid of Dashur based on his years of repairing damaged structures in Egypt.

The Penn Museum is opening to visitors its conservation process of ancient Egyptian mummies.

Back issues of Christian History magazine are available as free pdf files.

Here is what looks to be like an interesting lecture this evening (in Hebrew): “The Tomb of David on
Mount Zion? Pierotti’s Cave?”

Amit Reem, IAA. At the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, 7:30pm. Free with museum admission.

HT: Jack Sasson

Dashur Bent Pyramid northeast corner, tbs102049811

The Bent Pyramid of Dashur

Tagged Egypt, Jerusalem, Lectures, Museums, Negev, Resources, Weekend Roundup

The Date of the Olive Trees in the Garden of Gethsemane

The olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane are about 900 years old and were all shoots of a single tree, according to a three-year study by the National Research Council announced last week in Rome. From TerraSanta.net:

The research results show that three of the eight olive trees (the only ones on which it was technically possible to carry out the study), as dating from the middle of the twelfth century. Hence, the trees are about nine hundred years old. But one point needs to be made clear: the date indicated refers only to the aboveground part of trees – the trunk and foliage. In fact, the same research has shown that the part below ground, i.e. the roots, is certainly more ancient.
The outcome of the investigation must also be put in relation with ancient travel chronicles of pilgrims, according to which the second of Gethsemane basilica was built between 1150 and 1170 (the period during which the Crusaders were engaged in the reconstruction of the great churches of the Holy Land and Jerusalem in particular). It therefore seems likely that, during the construction of the Basilica of Gethsemane, the garden was rearranged, creating a renovation of the olive trees present at that time.

The rest of the story describes the genetic relationship between the trees. Pat McCarthy (seetheholyland.net) informs me that radiocarbon tests carried out by the University of California in 1982 dated some of the tree roots to 2,300 years old. I have not been able to locate a reference for that study yet. Reuters covers the story here.

Garden of Gethsemane olive trees, tb051906423

Ancient olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane

Tagged Jerusalem