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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A bronze shield thought to belong to a king of Urartu has an inscription mentioning a previously unknown nation.

Archaeologists discovered a tavern dating to 2700 BC in the ancient city of Lagash.

“Two ancient clay tablets discovered in Iraq and covered from top to bottom in cuneiform writing contain details of a ‘lost’ Canaanite language that has remarkable similarities with ancient Hebrew.”

“The ancient Egyptians employed a host of exotic ingredients – some apparently imported from as far away as Southeast Asia – to mummify their dead.”

“A battleground fought over by ancient Egyptians and the Ptolemaic Kingdom and mentioned on the Rosetta Stone has been discovered.”

Papyrus conservator Helen Sharp explains how ancient Egyptian papyri have survived for so long.

Julien Cooper writes about the travels of Khety in the Sinai Peninsula during the 11th Dynasty.

On the Tikvah Podcast, Israeli rabbi and biblical scholar Joshua Berman talks about leading tours to Egypt. (“Things that you see from there you don’t see from here.”)

“Life and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection, on view at the Michael C. Carlos Museum from February 4 to August 6, 2023, is an exhibition about the power of ancient Egyptian objects to engage and inspire.”

Jason Colavito argues against displaying mummies in museums.

Webinar on Feb 8: “Secrets of Egypt’s Middle Kingdom Capital: el-Lisht,” by Sarah Parcak

“The 20th edition of the Annual Symposium on the Iranian Archaeology will take place in the National Museum of Iran,” with presentations of the latest archaeological research.

Zoom lecture on Feb 8: “Mercenary Soldiers in the Achaemenid World,” by John W. I. Lee

New release from RevelationMedia: Polycarp. Free to view if you enter your email address. (I don’t see another viewing option.)

“Nominations are invited for the 2023 Biblical Archaeology Society Publication Awards, for books published in 2021 and 2022.”

ASOR is offering 40+ scholarships of $2,000 each for participation on ASOR-affiliated projects during the summer of 2023. The deadline to apply is February 15.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Lectures, Mesopotamia, Museums, New Exhibits, Persia, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Bryan Windle highlights the top three reports in biblical archaeology in January 2023.

Expedition Bible’s latest video considers whether the archaeological evidence supports the authenticity of the traditional tomb of Lazarus in Bethany.

Carl Rasmussen shares some musings from his recent tour of Israel.

In preparing a map for the Bible Mapper Blog, David Barrett identified the hill of Ammah in the pool of Gibeon story (2 Sam 2) with el-Qubeiba, which has also been identified as the Emmaus of Luke 24.

Antiquities police caught a couple of thieves at the bottom of a pit, after they had already caused irreversible damage to a 1st-century winepress in western Galilee.

Antiquities thieves who had discovered an ancient sarcophagus at the site of Samaria were caught by authorities.

Aren Maeir has collected a number of videos where he discusses the Philistines and his excavations of the city of Gath.

The Israel Antiquities Authority has begun moving into its new home at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of the Land of Israel in Jerusalem.

The Great Isaiah Scroll arrived at what is now known as the Albright Institute on February 19, 1948. To celebrate the 75th anniversary, Marcello Fidanzio will be lecturing on Qumran Cave 1 and the Great Isaiah Scroll on February 21 at the Israel Museum.

“The Tel Shimron Experience is a 5-day, 6-night archaeological excursion in Israel where you will have the opportunity to participate in a real archaeological dig.” The price is similar to a 3-week half-season, so you are effectively paying for the privilege of a shorter commitment.

A heygo tour of “The Colosseum Inside” is planned for tomorrow morning.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Discoveries, Excavations, Galilee, Italy, Jerusalem, Lectures, Philistines, Samaria, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Archaeologists have now finished a chronological mapping of Megiddo, with radiocarbon dates for the two dozen layers of habitation from the Early Bronze Age to the end of Iron II.

Archaeologists excavating a deep rock-hewn moat along the northern side of Jerusalem’s Old City walls have discovered a handprint carved into the stone.

Not all scholars agree that the name of David is on the Mesha Stele.

The Technion and the University of Haifa’s School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures have launched a joint initiative to support cooperation between the two institutions in archaeological sciences, especially microarchaeological research.

“Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly promised King Abdullah II that the status quo on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem will be preserved.”

“Jerusalem’s Tower of David was never built to be accessible.” The Times of Israel gives the backstory on the ingenuity required to make the ancient fortress accessible to those with disabilities.

Chandler Collins writes about a significant geographical feature in Jerusalem that he calls the “Fortress Saddle.” This was the city’s most vulnerable area on its most vulnerable side.

The Mardigian Museum has opened in Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter, documenting the community’s history and serving as a memorial to the Armenian Genocide.

“A riveting new exhibition, titled ‘Peace and War: The Assyrian Conquest of Lachish,’ will open on January 30 in the Lynn H. Wood Archaeology Museum on Southern Adventist University’s campus.” I’m not sure how much “peace” was involved in the Assyrian conquest.

Excavations at ancient Capitolias, a city of the Decapolis in modern Jordan, are shedding light on the production of glass in the Roman, Byzantine, and Umayyad periods.

A former director of the Citadel Museum in Amman, Jordan, was convicted of stealing 6,000 ancient coins and replacing them with forgeries.

Oded Lipschits will be giving a series of lectures in the UK in honor of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society’s Diamond Jubilee between February 20 and March 6. One of them will be online: “New Light on Jerusalem and its Surroundings during the Reign of King Manasseh,” on March 2. Registration required.

Preserving Bible Times has released The Bible: Its Land and Culture, Session 4, including Galilee aerial videos, cultural vignettes, and biblical culture.

Nathan Steinmeyer gives advice on finding the right archaeological dig to join. This is also the topic of an OnScript Biblical World podcast with Steinmeyer, Chris McKinny, and Kyle Keimer.

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

Excavations at the Pool of Siloam this week; photos by John Black

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Jerusalem, Jezreel Valley, Jordan, Lectures, Museums, New Exhibits, Resources, Temple Mount, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Spring Courses at Jerusalem Seminary

I’ve just been alerted to the spring course schedule at Jerusalem Seminary that begins in March, with some low early-bird pricing through February 1. They have some excellent courses taught by outstanding professors, all available online.

Jerusalem Seminary is also offering a Pastors/Seminarians field study course in May that is designed for those who have already been to Israel, with a number of off-the-beaten-track stops, plus a dozen unique lectures by veterans in the land. Here are the spring courses:

Biblical Hebrew as a Living Language (Level 1), taught by Talia Podkamenski and a second JS-H4N teacher

Biblical Hebrew as a Living Language (Level 2), taught by Crystal Ovadia and a second JS-H4N teacher

Celebrating Biblical and Messianic Feasts in Early Christian Traditions, taught by Petra Heldt

Faith, Politics, and Ministry in the Middle East, facilitatedby Philip Lanning

The Gospel of Matthew in its First Century Jewish Context, taught by Noel Rabinowitz

Unfolding the Psalms, taught by Murray Salisbury

Biblical Hebrew Tutoring (1-on-1, or group)

All the details are here.

Tagged Jerusalem, Lectures

Weekend Roundup, Part 5

“Two 3,800-year-old cuneiform tablets found in Iraq give first glimpse of Hebrew precursor.”

Asshur, the ancient religious capital of Assyria, will be flooded once construction is completed on a dam on the Tigris River.

Arab News looks at evidence of early Christianity in the Arabian Peninsula.

Mohy-Eldin Elnady Abo-Eleaz looks at how kings of the Late Bronze Age dealt with various kinds of “fake news.”

A Greek blacksmith is creating replicas of ancient armor for display in museums. I saw about a dozen of these last week in the Museum of Ancient Greek Technology in Athens.

Mark I. Pinsky reviews Eric M. Meyers’s autobiography, An Accidental Archaeologist: A Personal Memoir. Only $9.99 on Kindle.

Eric Meyers is interviewed by Eve Harow on the Rejuvenation podcast.

Alex Joffe grew the readership of ANE Today from zero to 42,000 over the last decade, and now he is stepping down. This provides him with the occasion to reflect on the challenge of getting archaeologists to write for normal people.

The Met has closed its galleries for Ancient Near Eastern and Cypriot Art for a two-year, $40 million renovation project.

“The H.A.P.S. summer scholarship is possibly the first crowd-funded grant aimed at helping humanities Ph.D. students – specifically, those studying the Ancient Near East.”

New release: City of Caesar, City of God: Constantinople and Jerusalem in Late Antiquity, edited by Konstantin M. Klein and Johannes Wienand (De Gruyter, 2022; $127; free download).

New release: Naming and Mapping the Gods in the Ancient Mediterranean, edited by: Thomas Galoppin, Elodie Guillon, Max Luaces, Asuman Lätzer-Lasar, Sylvain Lebreton, Fabio Porzia, Jörg Rüpke, Emiliano Rubens Urciuoli, and Corinne Bonnet (De Gruyter, $196; free download)

New release: The Scribe in the Biblical World: A Bridge Between Scripts, Languages and Cultures, edited by Esther Eshel and Michael Langlois (De Gruyter, $100)

New release: The Solid Rock Hebrew Bible – “this edition prints the entire Hebrew text (in a traditional two-column layout and an easy-to-read 13-point font, with vowel points included for readers’ convenience) and includes adjustments made to the base text (the Leningrad Codex) in over 2,500 places.” $35 per printed volume, and free download.

ASOR webinar on Jan 26: “Antiquities Trafficking in the Age of Social Media: How Big Tech Facilitates and Profits from the Digital Black Market,” featuring Katie A. Paul and moderated by Eric Cline ($12).

Video recordings from the “Yahwism under the Achaemenid Empire” conference are now available (also on YouTube).

Speakers at the online Spring Bible & Archaeology Fest 2023 include Erez Ben-Yosef, Shimon Gibson, James Hoffmeier, Chris McKinny, Gary Rendsburg, Sarah Parcak, and others.

Amélie Kuhrt died on January 2.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Gordon Dickson, Ted Weis, Wayne Stiles, Mondo Gonzales, Alexander Schick, Charles Savelle, Keith Keyser, Explorator

Tagged Arabia, Discoveries, Greece, Jerusalem, Lectures, Mesopotamia, Museums, Persia, Resources, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

“Accumulated disquiet among Israeli archaeologists over the widespread publication of sensational claims regarding ostensibly newly deciphered, once-in-a-lifetime biblical inscriptions in Jerusalem has spilled over into an open letter.”

A recent episode of This Week in the Ancient Near East discusses the way in which new alleged inscriptions in Hezekiah’s Tunnel were announced.

Israeli archaeologists discovered the oldest hoards of silver, attesting to its use as currency some centuries earlier than previously thought. The underlying journal article is here.

Excavations at Khirbat el-Masani revealed the remains of a Byzantine monk whose neck, hands, and feet bore heavy iron rings, perhaps as a symbol of his ascetic lifestyle.

“Newly uncovered remains of fabrics from the Far East dating to some 1,300 years ago in Israel’s Arava region suggest the existence of a previously unknown ‘Israeli Silk Road.’”

The United States has returned an 8th century BC cosmetic spoon, probably taken from the region of Hebron, to the Palestinian government. This the first such repatriation of an antiquity by the US to the Palestinian Authority.

The Palestinian Authority is apparently planning to construct homes on the area of the altar on Mount Ebal.

Walking The Text has begun a mini-series on Ruth, with a number of helpful maps and illustrations.

El-Araj, possibly Bethsaida, is the latest site featured in the “Digging In” series of the Biblical Archaeology. The article includes a 6-minute video taken on location.

Hybrid lecture on Jan 26: “Byzantine Bethsaida and the House of St. Peter,” by R. Steven Notley and Mordechai Aviam, at the Museum of the Bible.

New from Eisenbrauns: Yotvata: The Ze’ev Meshel Excavations (1974–1980) The Iron I “Fortress” and the Early Islamic Settlement, by Lily Singer-Avitz and Etan Ayalon

Aaron Demsky provides a extensive discussion of the location of Rachel’s tomb, concluding that it was near the border of Benjamin and Ephraim.

GTI Tours is offering a study tour specifically designed for those who have visited Israel before, with a variety of experiences most tourists don’t have.

The BAS Scholars Series includes four lectures, with a discount for purchase of all four:

Mar 5: “Holy City Hotspot: Exploring Jerusalem’s Acropolis,” with Andrew Lawler
June 4: “A Wise Woman and a Bearded Man: Ten Seasons of Excavation at Tel Abel Beth Maacah,” with Nava Panitz-Cohen
Sept 28: “Free Health Care Is a Miracle: Psalm 8, Jesus, and the Jerusalem Temple,” with Amy-Jill Levine
Dec 6: “The Life of Jesus Written in Stone: The Earliest Commemorative Churches in Roman Palestine,” with Jordan Ryan

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Gordon Dickson, Ted Weis, Wayne Stiles, Mondo Gonzales, Alexander Schick, Charles Savelle, Keith Keyser, Explorator

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Discoveries, Galilee, Jerusalem, Lectures, Negev, Resources, Samaria, Weekend Roundup