The Cura Aquarum in Israel will be held next week at Neve Ilan. Many of the lecture topics are of interest.

Monday October 15, 2012 (Neve Ilan Hotel)


Session A: 09:00 – 10:30 Ancient water systems in Israel 1
Chairperson Jim Parker

1. Is There Light at the End of the Tunnel? The Gezer Water System Project – Dan Warner, Tsvika Tsuk, Jim Parker and Dennis Cole

2. A New Assessment of the Upper Aqueduct to Jerusalem: its Date and Route – David Amit and Shimon Gibson

3. Dating and engineering of Siloam Tunnel, Jerusalem – Amos Frumkin and Aryeh Shimron


Session B: 11:00 – 12:50 Ancient water systems in Israel 2
Chairperson Dennis Cole

4. The Inverted Siphon Pipelines to Tel Bet Yerah/es-Sinnabris – Yardenna Alexandre

5. The “’Otzar” in Ancient Ritual Baths: Second Temple Period Innovation or Anachronistic Interpretation? – Yonatan Adler

6. When were the Qanat Systems introduced to the Holy Land? – Yosef Porath

7. The Early Islamic aqueducts to Ramla and Hebron – Amir Gorzalczany and David Amit


Session C: 14:15 – 15:15 Ancient and modern water systems in Israel 3
Chairperson Ronny Reich

8. Touring Israel’s ancient water systems – Tsvika Tsuk

9. Water in Israel and in the Middle East – past, present and future – Shimon Tal


Session D: 15:35 – 17:00 Turkey 1
Chairperson Werner Eck

10. Grundwassernutzung in der hethitischen Hauptstadt Hattusa um 1600 v. Chr. – Hartmut
Wittenberg

11. Ancient Water Systems of the Lamas Çayi and the surrounding hinterland – Dennis Murphy

12. Die Datierung der römischen Kaikos- und Madradag-Kanalleitungen in Pergamon – Henning Fahlbusch


Session E: 17:20 – 18:50 Turkey 2
Chairperson Henning Fahlbusch

13. Das städtische Abwassersystem von Pergamon – seine Entwicklung in hellenistischer und römischer Zeit – Kai Wellbrock

14. The aqueducts and water supply of Tralleis – Eddie Owens

15. Antike Wasserbauten von Antiochia (Tuerkei) – Mathias Döring

Tuesday October 16, 2012 (Neve Ilan hotel)


Session F: 08:30 – 09:30 The Military
Chairperson Mathias Döring

16. Das Heer und die Infrastruktur von Städten in der römischen Kaiserzeit – Werner Eck

17. Water as weapon and military target in Ancient Mesopotamian warfare – Ariel Bagg


Session G: 09:50 – 11:20 Groundwater and Roman Aqueducts
Chairperson Eli Dror

18. Ground water use and understanding in ancient times: lessons for today and tomorrow – Michael Knight

19. Sinter deposits in Roman aqueducts – Gül Sürmelihindi and Cees Passchier

20. The Atlas Project of Roman Aqueducts (ROMAQ) – Cees Passchier, and Gül Sürmelihindi
Session H: 11:50 – 13:15 Greece and Spain – Sanctuaries, Mills and Aqueducts
Chairperson Dennis Murphy

21. The role of water in ancient sanctuaries. The Sanctuary of Amphiaraos – Anna Androvitsanea

22. When Ceres commands her nymphs – An investigation of the relation between mills and aqueducts in the antique Mediterranean – Stefanie Preißler

23. The Glass kiln (Horno de Vidrio), a drop tower in the water supply to the city of Toledo (Spain) during the Roman era – Marisa Barahona

More details about the conference are available here.

HT: Jack Sasson

Hezekiah's Tunnel, tb110705559
Hezekiah’s Tunnel in Jerusalem 
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Charles Jones has put created an excellent Roundup of Resources on Ancient Geography. Bookmark this one!

There are enough scholars who have serious doubts about the authenticity of the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” that when a report circulated that Harvard Theological Review had decided to not publish the article, many scholars believed it. Brian LePort has some of the back and forth.

Mark Hoffman excavated at et-Tell (Bethsaida?) this summer and is sharing his photo book of the dig. (No account is needed to flip through it, and full screen provides the best view.)

Jodi Magness is interviewed in the WAMC Academic Minute about her excavations of the Huqoq synagogue.

Cornell University has received a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for dendrochronology and radiocarbon dating research in the Near East.

A conference at Tel Aviv University in late October will focus on Ancient Greece and Ancient Israel:
Interactions and Parallels (10th to 4th Centuries BCE). The details are available here.

SourceFlix’s latest short is called “Fishers of Men.”


Biblical Archaeology Review is now available as a digital subscription, with the bonus that you get last year’s digital issues.

Robert Mullins gives a day-by-day account of the first season at Abel-beth-maacah. His excitement is justified.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Abel Beth Maacah from northwest, tb062900201
Abel Beth Maacah from the northwest
Photo from Pictorial Library of Bible Lands
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The Fall 2012 Lecture Series of the California Museum of Ancient Art (Beverly Hills) is entitled

“The ‘Exodus’ and Settlement of the Land of Israel: Examining the Literary and Archaeological Evidence.” Four Monday evening lectures are scheduled:

Oct 15, 2012: “The Exodus from Egypt in Biblical Literature and Tradition” by Dr. P. Kyle
McCarter, Jr., Johns Hopkins University

Oct 22, 2012: “The Exodus Narrative — Did it Really Happen? An Egyptologist’s Perspective” by Dr. Donald Redford, Pennsylvania State University

Oct 29, 2012: “The Israel Stela of Pharaoh Merenptah: Earliest Extra-Biblical Reference to Israel” by Dr. Peter Brand, University of Memphis

Nov 5, 2012: “The Settlement of the Hill Country of Canaan around 1200 BCE” by Dr. Robert Mullins, Azusa Pacific University

I do wish they had asked someone to present the biblical view. Whether or not it’s “extremist,” it is at least as defensible as any other view. (If you attend, I’d appreciate knowing if anyone acknowledges the problem of Merneptah Stela.)

Lectures are $22, or $76 for the whole series, payable with a mail-in form and a check. More details about each lecture is available at the website. The recordings will be available on CD and DVD.

HT: G. M. Grena

Wadi Shagg and Jebel Catherine from northwest, tb062005823
The mountains of Sinai (photo source)
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From The Temple Mount Sifting Project: On Thursday evening this week, September 6, 2012, the City of David will be hosting their 13th Annual Research Conference sponsored by the Megalim Institute. The program begins with an open house from 16:00 to 18:30 to give you an opportunity to visit the City of David and see all the newly excavated areas including the Second Temple Period street and water channel from the Siloam Pool up to the Temple Mount. The formal part of the program begins at 18:30. Admission is free and no registration is required, but space is limited. During the open house from 16:00 to 18:30, the Temple Mount Sifting Project will host an exhibit of finds recovered during the past 7 years of work.  The display, in the courtyard just inside the entry gates of the City of David, will include ancient seals and coins, personal items such as hair combs and jewelry, arrowheads, dice and game pieces, clay idols, weights, Herodian architectural elements and paving tiles that were once part of the Temple Mount plaza. This is the first time that these artifacts have been available for public viewing. Later in the evening as part of the Conference, at about 21:00, we will give a presentation [in Hebrew] of the Sifting Project’s important finds since our last Research Conference report, given in 2007. We will also be updating the public on our ongoing research and our new understandings about the Temple Mount’s past. Please stop by the City of David on Thursday evening to view this amazing exhibit of artifacts that helps tell the history of the Temple Mount. More information about the City of David Archaeological conference is here. HT: Joseph Lauer Sifting Temple Mount debris, tb110906729 Temple Mount Sifting Project

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Subway construction has revealed two ancient roads from ancient Thessalonica.

Iraq will not cooperate with the US on archaeological exploration because Washington has not returned the Jewish archives.

A lecture by Tom Levy at TEDx on his excavations at Khirbet en-Nahas is now online.

Eleven sections of the Israel Trail are briefly described in this article at JPost.

The bronze statue of a she-wolf feeding the founders of Rome is actually 1500 years younger than previously thought.

HT: Al Sandalow

Capitoline she-wolf suckling Remus and Romulus, tb112102016
She-wolf suckling Remus and Romulus
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The first season of excavations at Tel Azekah in more than 100 years begins in a few weeks and the directors have announced an impressive schedule of guest lectures:

The Lautenschläger Azekah Expedition and its Directors—Prof. Oded Lipschits, Prof. Manfred Oeming and Dr. Yuval Gadot—are proud to present the program of the guest academic lectures for the coming excavation season, starting July 15th. The lectures will be held at 6:00 p.m. in the academic hall of the Nes-Harim Guesthouse. Scholars and students are warmly invited.

Monday, July 16th, Prof. Aren Maeir (Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan) The Excavations of Philistine Gath

Wednesday, July 18th, Prof. Shlomo Bunomovitz (Tel Aviv University) The Excavations of Beth-Shemesh

Monday, July 23rd, Prof. Yosef Garfinkel (The Hebrew University, Jerusalem) The Excavations of Kh. Qeiyafa

Wednesday, July 25th, Mr. Ido Koch (Tel Aviv University) The Judean Lowland under Judahite Hegemony: The Great Eighth Century BCE

Monday, July 30th, Dr. Izhak Shai (Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan) The Excavations of Tel Burna

Wednesday, August 1st, Dr. Erez Ben-Yosef (Tel Aviv University) Iron Age Copper Production of the Southern Levant

Monday, August 6th, Dr. Yuval Shahar (Tel Aviv University) Late Hellenistic and Early Roman Period Hideout Systems in the Judean Lowland

Wednesday, August 8th, Ms. Shirley Ben-Dor Evian (Tel Aviv University) Egypt, Philistia and the Judean Lowland during the First Millennium BCE

Monday, August 13th, Dr. Ran Barkay (Tel Aviv University) The Pre-History of the Judean Lowland

Wednesday, August 15th, Prof. Bernard Levinson (University of Minnesota, USA) The Neo-Assyrian Influence upon Deuteronomy

Monday, August 20th, Prof. Manfred Oeming (Heidelberg University, Germany) David against Goliath (1 Sam 17) – an Old Fight in Modern Research

Wednesday, August 22nd, Prof. Konrad Schmitt (Zurich University) [TBA]

See the Azekah website for more information.

HT: Jack Sasson

Shephelah view southwest from Jarmuth panorama, tb030407652
Shephelah of Judah from Jarmuth (Yarmut)
Azekah is visible on horizon on right side
(photo source)
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