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

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.

Did the synagogue save Judaism? Paul V. M. Flesher answers the question in a new essay at the Bible and Interpretation, observing that “Judaism is the only Mediterranean religion that was practiced in 50 BC that still flourished in 500 AD.” He also addresses the “two-hundred-year gap” when there were allegedly no synagogues in the Holy Land.

NUMIDAT is a new one-of-a-kind online database of ancient coins, containing nearly 90,000 records.

Wayne Stiles hears echoes of Rosh Hashana in the ruins of the Temple Mount. Yoni Cohen recommends a six-hour hike in the Negev.

Now that 1,200 mines have been cleared, excavations have begun at ancient Carchemish. The team is comprised of 25 Italian and Turkish archaeologists who hope to transform the site into an archaeology park. One official eager for tourists said, “I hope [the excavation] does not take very long.” (Background and photos here and here.)

Leen Ritmeyer notes upcoming lectures at the Palestine Exploration Fund in London.

The Preserving Bible Times Collection (5 vols) for Logos Bible Software quickly received the minimum number of orders and is now under development. The discount is valid until the collection ships.

The Israel Museum is selling some of its artwork.

If you are looking for results for an excavation in Israel, particularly of a smaller site, the search page for Hadashot Arkheologiyot is the place to start. The content is all free.

ASOR has a roundup of stories in the broader world of archaeology.

I thought that the photo below was hilarious. If you’ve always wondered what that combustible city of Nablus looks like, you can find the answer in William A. Simmons, Peoples of the New Testament World (Hendrickson, 2008). (To see what they cropped out of the photo, compare it with this one.)

HT: Benj Foreman

"Nablus"

“The city of Nablus”

There is so much going on that I need to make an early start on the Weekend Roundup. There will be more tomorrow.

Ferrell Jenkins and Leon Mauldin are now traveling in Israel, with the goal of visiting places they have never seen before. Ferrell’s first post shows a well-preserved Roman road in the western hills of
Judah and Leon’s features a Roman milestone.

Shmuel Browns posts his list of “Top Ten” Jerusalem Sites. You might bring this list on your next visit to Jerusalem (or hire Shmuel to guide you around).

Joe Yudin guides his readers on a tour of significant tombs in Jerusalem, including “King David’s tomb,” the so-called family tomb of King Herod, the Muslim cemetery in Mamilla, and Jason’s
Tomb. I think an illustration or two would enhance the article.

A group of archaeologists and students in Israel have submitted a petition to lawmakers to drop support for a law that would allow the continuation of excavations in the City of David that are funded by Elad.

If you missed the “Office Hours” interview with Carol and Eric Meyers on Thursday, you may watch the video online. In the 50-minute interview, they discuss both professional and personal aspects of their lives in archaeology, including vandalism of sites, their children’s presence on digs, middle-of-the-night excavations, how to get a start in archaeology, and forthcoming books.

Reuters has a brief story about tunnel systems carved by rebels during the first and second Jewish
revolts.

Jason's Tomb through entrance arch, tb100102

Jason’s Tomb in Jerusalem

The Memory and Identity Working Group, University of California, Berkeley is hosting a lecture entitled “Mining for Solomon” by Professor Steven Weitzman (Stanford University) on Tuesday, September 6, 2011, 4:00 pm, 254 Barrows Hall.

After a century-long search for traces of the historical King Solomon, archaeologists have recently claimed to locate the possible source of his fabled wealth in southern Jordan. Has scholarship at last found evidence of the real King Solomon? Weitzman’s presentation will address this question by exploring the pre-history of the archaeological quest for Solomon, a quest with surprisingly important historical consequences that go beyond our understanding of the biblical past.

For other upcoming lectures sponsored by the group, see their website.

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School invites the public to a lecture by William G. Dever entitled “The Golden Age of Solomon: Fact or Fancy?” The lecture will be held on Monday, October 3, 2011 at 7:00 pm in Hinkson Hall, Rodine Building. A flyer may be viewed here (pdf).

HT: Jack Sasson, A.D. Riddle

September 21: Steven M. Ortiz, Gezer: The Search for the City of Solomon

October 12: Michael G. Hasel, The 2011 Excavation Season at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Israel

February 15: Martin G. Klingbeil, Ancient Near Eastern Passports: Two Stamp Seals from Khirbet Qeiyafa

March 21: Daniel Master, Transformations in the Twelfth Century BC: The Coming of the Philistines to Ashkelon

All lectures begin at 7:00 p.m., are free of charge, and are open to the public. For more information, see the website of the university’s Institute of Archaeology. SAU is located in Collegedale, Tennessee. Previous lectures may be ordered on DVD for $10, including shipping. (The above information is taken from the Institute newsletter, as the website has not yet been updated with this year’s schedule.)