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13th Annual Batchelder Conference for Biblical Archaeology

The conference began yesterday and runs through tomorrow. From the Omaha World-Herald:

The University of Nebraska at Omaha is hosting the 13th annual Batchelder Conference for Biblical Archaeology on Thursday through Saturday at the Thompson Alumni Center.
James Charlesworth, professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Princeton Theological Seminary, will deliver the key address Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Charlesworth will describe how researchers continue to uncover mysteries in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Since 1990, UNO has led a group of institutions in uncovering and studying artifacts at the ancient city of Bethsaida on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. It is one of the most frequently mentioned towns in the New Testament. At least three apostles were born there, and it is purported to be the site where Jesus performed several miracles.
Rami Arav, the archaeologist who discovered the site and directs the excavation each summer at the 20-acre site, will speak Friday night at 7:30. Arav teaches in the Department of Philosophy and Religion and the Department of History at UNO.
The addresses by Charlesworth and Arav, as well as 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. sessions Friday and Saturday, are open to the public. A $5 donation is suggested at the door.

Did Arav discover the site of et-Tell, or should this read that Arav is the most vocal proponent of its identification with Bethsaida? The NEAEH article, written by Arav, says that “Bethsaida was first identified with et-Tell…by…U. J. Seetzen…and again in 1838 by E. Robinson” (5:1611). The imprecise wording must originate with the newspaper and not the University.

The full schedule of the conference is available as a Word document.

Tagged Galilee, Lectures

Weekend Roundup

Ancient Israel: Highlights from the Collections of the Oriental Institute University of Chicago is a new 127-page publication written by Gabrielle Vera Novacek and illustrated with 66 beautiful photographs and diagrams. The book is available for pre-order from Amazon or as a free download (pdf).

Six lectures in Hebrew are now online from the 12th Studies of Ancient Jerusalem conference held in September in the City of David. The speakers included Israel Finkelstein, Ronny Reich, Gabriel Barkay, Asher Grossberg, Eli Shukron, and Yosef Garfinkel.

“Libya’s famed ancient Roman sites, including the sprawling seaside ruins of Leptis Magna, were spared damage by NATO during the recent airstrikes, says a London-based Libyan archaeologist.”

Muslims continue to bury their dead next to the eastern wall of the Temple Mount, according to the Committee to Prevent the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities.

The head of the Supreme Committee of the Grand Egyptian Museum was fired this week.

“Ultra-Orthodox young men curse and spit at Christian clergymen in the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City as a matter of routine.” Last week a judge ruled in favor of an Armenian seminary student who fought back.

HT: Daniel Wright, Jack Sasson, ANE-2, AWOL

Tagged Egypt, Jerusalem, Lectures, Museums, Resources, Temple Mount, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

A miniature prayer box from the 6th-7th centuries was discovered recently in the excavations in the Central Valley south of the Dung Gate of Jerusalem.

Haaretz: “The High Court of Justice yesterday criticized the agreement by which a private association, Elad, operates the City of David national park in Jerusalem, but said the agreement was legal.” One potential change to the agreement would open the site to tourists on Shabbat. The Jerusalem Post covers the story here.

A local watchman of the lower Herodium sued archaeologist Ehud Netzer days before his death.

Recent court proceedings rejected all of the plaintiff’s claims and observed that the watchman had been extorting the archaeologist for years. The article is in Hebrew, with a Google translation here.

China will help build a railway to Eilat. Israeli officials hope that this boosts tourism to the Red Sea resort city.

Time Magazine gives five reasons to visit Beirut.

“The largest collection of biblical artifacts ever displayed outside Israel” opened yesterday in New York City.

Shmuel Browns gives readers a tour of the four sites run by the East Jerusalem Development Company: Ramparts Walk, Roman Plaza, Zedekiah’s Cave, and the Davidson Archaeological Park.

Joe Yudin recommends hiking to Ein Akev in the Negev Highlands. (Am I the only one offended that the Jerusalem Post publishes material with very basic mistakes in English grammar?)

Peter Williams’ lecture on “New Evidences the Gospels Were Based on Eyewitness Accounts” primarily discusses data from recent studies of names, but he also includes a geographical section in minutes 36-42 of this Lanier Library Lecture now posted at Youtube. (He shares a photo from BiblePlaces.com, but by using a low-res web version his viewers have a hard time making out what he’s trying to show.)

HT: Joseph Lauer, Yitzhak Sapir, A.D. Riddle

Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Lectures, Museums, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Wednesday Roundup

Writing on the Malta Independent Online, Mark Gatt reviews Robert Cornuke’s The Lost Shipwreck of Paul and concludes that it is “fraught with mistakes and manipulated facts.”

Alan R. Millard will speak on “Are there Anachronisms in the Books of Samuel?” at Trinity
Evangelical Divinity School on Monday, Nov. 14. For details, see this flyer (pdf).

The International Women’s Club English Lecture Series at Tel Aviv University has some interesting topics slated for the coming months. The semester theme is “From Copper to Bronze: the
Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages.”

The Israel Exploration Journal is among a new group of journals available in JSTOR.

A Swiss architect is trying to save the mosaics of Hisham’s Palace near Jericho.

Work has resumed in the project to lower the ground water threatening five Egyptian temples in Luxor.

Wayne Stiles’ weekly column explains how Scripture uses water imagery to teach valuable lessons.

Eisenbrauns has conference discounts posted online for the benefit of all. Among the deals are two books by Eilat Mazar and one by Ronny Reich. Amnon Ben-Tor’s Back to Masada is 20% off.

Logos Bible Software is taking bids for Austen Henry Layard’s Nineveh and Its Remains (2 vols). Projected price is currently $20.

El Al is quietly cutting their luggage limit on international flights to one bag.

HT: A.D. Riddle, Jack Sasson, Gordon Franz

Tagged Lectures, Resources, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

Jezreel is one of my favorite biblical sites and I’m happy to see that excavations will begin again under the direction of Norma Franklin of Tel Aviv University and Jennie Ebeling of the University of Evansville. A new website has the details.

The Sea of Galilee dropped nearly a foot last month and is now 17 inches below the red line.

Shmuel Browns went on a Photo Walk in Jerusalem and would like our feedback in deciding which image he should submit to the competition.

Browns is also offering a free guided tour of Khirbet Qeyiafa on October 14 at 9 am.

A volunteer at the Gezer excavation this summer writes of her experience on the ASOR blog, noting that they ended the season on what they believe is a 10th-century floor.

The Virtual Amarna Project is now online. “This archive resulted from the 3D digitisation of objects from the ancient Egyptian city of Amarna using a Konica Minolta Vivid 9i system. Data includes images, 3D PDF files, meshes (obj) and point clouds (ascii).”

Another resource is the Amarna Tablet Photograph Database Online where you can view the inscriptions held by the Vorderasiatisches Museum of Berlin.

Aaron Burke is interviewed about the excavations in Jaffa (Joppa) on the LandMinds radio show (part 1, part 2).

Jimmie Hardin will be lecturing on the archaeology of David and Solomon at the University of Mississippi on October 26.

One million visitors viewed the Dead Sea Scrolls in their first week online.

HT: ANE-2, Jack Sasson

Tagged 10th Century, Egypt, Jerusalem, Jezreel Valley, Lectures, Museums, Shephelah

Bible and Archaeology Fest #14

I don’t believe I’ve mentioned the 14th Annual Bible and Archaeology Fest that is coming up next month. I attended the conference several years ago and found it to be very instructive and enjoyable.

You can go to the website for a complete list of speakers and their topics, but I’ll just note a few I would not miss.

James Charlesworth, Does the Gospel of John Accurately Describe Jerusalem Before 70 CE?

Aren Maeir, The Horned Altar of Gath: Recent Discoveries from Tell es-Safi

Jodi Magness, Roman Jerusalem: Hadrian’s Aelia Capitolina

Alan Millard, Folk Tales and Biblical History

Rami Arav, Twenty-Five Years of Excavations at Bethsaida: How Bethsaida Has Helped Shape Biblical Research

Many other well-known scholars will be speaking, including Mark Wilson, Steven Ortiz, Eric Cline, and Ben Witherington III. All the details are here. I know of no better forum for non-scholars to learn the latest in archaeological and biblical research than this one.

Tagged Lectures