Haaretz reports on Steven Fine’s study that the reliefs of the Arch of Titus were originally painted in full color.

“The Arch of Titus – From Jerusalem to Rome and Back” is a new exhibition opening this week at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan.

Have scientists discovered the body of Pliny the Elder?

Scientists at a university in Rome have determined what causes ancient parchments to develop purple spots and deteriorate. The journal article is here.

Mark Hoffman has created a list of free online Bible resource sites and downloadable Bible apps and programs.

Carl Rasmussen explains that the apostle Paul visited the area of modern Albania, probably on the Via Egnatia.

The Biblical Archaeology Society has a new streaming video site, with a 75%-off introductory offer.

The deadlines are approaching for many funded fellowships at the Albright Institute in Jerusalem.

Letters from Baghdad will be screened at the Oriental Institute Museum in Chicago on October 11.

The event is free, but registration is required.

Now free (pdf): The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago

Now free (pdf): The City of Ebla: A Complete Bibliography of Its Archaeological and Textual Remains. (Click the small pdf icon to download).

Early reviews of Lois Tverberg’s forthcoming book are very positive, including my own.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Agade

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A Babylonian tablet contains a completely accurate trigonometric table more than 1,000 years before Pythagoras lived.

A donation to the Israel Museum has more than doubled the total number of gold coins on display in Israel.

James Davila has been doing a series on the Jordanian lead codices: Part 1 (the materials test); Part 2 (the inscriptions); Part 3 (the Abgar-Selaman epitaph).

Though most tour groups don’t make it to Eilat on the Red Sea, Wayne Stiles explains why it is important in the Bible.

David M. Weinberg argues that the Israeli government should fund the Temple Mount Sifting Project so that it can continue.

Carta has published some great new books (and maps) recently. I plan to recommend some of them here when I get a chance, but you can take a look at the latest offerings now.

Texas International Bible Institute has created a series of 360º videos on-site at various locations in Israel. You can start here and select from the list on the side.

Eisenbrauns has announced a forthcoming festschrift entitled Studies in the History and Archaeology of Ancient Israel in Honor of Israel Finkelstein (Nov 2017).

Eric Cline is on The Book and the Spade discussing his latest book, Three Stones Make a Wall.

The 20th Annual Bible and Archaeology Fest will be held this year in Boston.


The Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions is reviewed positively here (but it’s expensive; I don’t think I’ve seen a Kindle book for $408 before).

HT: Joseph Lauer, Agade

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A 6th-century mosaic discovered near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem has a Greek inscription mentioning Emperor Justinian. A 1.5-minute video is here.

At Neve Tzuf, an 8-year-old girl discovered a coin from the Jewish Revolt inscribed “Holy Jerusalem.” (But I’ve heard doubts that the coin is genuine.)

Haaretz: “The discovery of masks and more cultic vessels has bolstered confidence that ritual activity was taking place 3,200 years ago at Libnah, a Canaanite city that would become Judahite in the biblical era.”

Ahramonline: “An Egyptian archaeological mission from the Ministry of Antiquities has uncovered five Roman tombs during excavation works carried out in Beir Al-Shaghala site in Dakhla Oasis in Egypt’s Western Desert.”

The pottery restorer of the Gath excavations shows how to restore an ancient pot in in a 1.5-minute video (but you might want to turn the sound off first).

Authorities have frozen plans to build a new neighborhood over the abandoned Arab village of Lifta.

Those who know the history here may get a kick out of Rami Arav’s declaration that “Archaeologists should be led by the evidence, and not force the evidence into their theories.” His new piece entitled “Bethsaida Controversy” is a frontal attack on the recent el-Araj claims.

Check out the latest www.HolyLandPhotos.org Newsletter from Carl Rasmussen here.

If you like this blog and you use Facebook, you might consider joining the “Nerdy Bible Backgrounds and Bible Geography Majors” group.

“Ancient Babylonians living almost 4,000 years ago could have predicted Monday’s total solar eclipse.” Here’s how.

Two of my partners on the new Photo Companion to the Bible witnessed the eclipse in different parts of the United States. Steven Anderson shares his experience here, and the photo below was taken by A.D. Riddle.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Mike Harney, Ted Weis, Agade

Total solar eclipse, totality, from center line in Makanda IL, adr1708215777
Total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017
Photo by A.D. Riddle
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Archaeologists have recently identified the presence of child slaves in Amarna, Egypt, from shortly after the traditional date of the Israelite exodus.

A team from Yale and Royal Museums of Art and History has discovered the oldest known monumental hieroglyphics in Egypt.

An Egyptian Slab Lost in Berlin During World War II Has Been Found—in Michigan.”

It’s not easy excavating and conserving a second solar boat of Khufu next to the Great Pyramids of Giza.

Researchers have published a study concluding that the DNA of ancient Egyptians was closer to the inhabitants Turkey and the Levant than to Africans.

Dahshur is now free of encroachments made in the aftermath of Egypt’s 2011 revolution.

Archaeologists have reported the discovery of a large ritual bath (mikveh) at Macherus. (See the photo we posted here last November, and see another posted by Ferrell Jenkins.)

A recent ACOR lecture by Glenn J. Corbett entitled “Archaeology in the Attic: Preserving Archival Treasures of Jordan” is now online. He discusses the recent donations of the photo collections of Jane Taylor and Rami Khouri.

A Roman villa on the coast of Libya has been unearthed with numerous treasures, statues, and mosaics.

Smithsonian has produced a breathless video revealing a tablet depicting the ziggurat of Babylon.

(The suggestion that Nebuchadnezzar built the tower of Babel is silly.)

HT: Joseph Lauer, Agade, Steven Anderson

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High school students excavating in Ramat Beit Shemesh have uncovered remains of a Jewish village from the first century AD.

Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am describe the recently opened Mikveh Trail south of the Temple Mount.

“Did archaeologists find the royal banqueting complex of King Herod the Great in Jerusalem?”

Carl Rasmussen shares an unusual photo of a cross in Jerusalem.

The predators center (walk-through exhibit) at Hai Bar Yotvata is now closed.

Israel’s Good Name recently paid a visit to the Jerusalem Bird Observatory.

John DeLancey has a wrap-up of his latest Israel tour. You may resonate with some of his concluding observations.

This week on The Book and the Spade, Clyde Billington and Gordon Govier discuss the Jebusite and Roman walls of Jerusalem.

Simon Gathercole lectured recently on “The Journeys of Jesus and Jewish Geography” at the Lanier Theological Library.

Gary Shogren suggests his favorite 5 New Testament archaeological discoveries of recent years.

Appian Media is getting closer to reaching its fundraising goal so they can finish the “Following the
Messiah” series.

Douglas Clark of LaSierra University will be leading a team of scholars to create the Madaba 
Regional Archaeological Museum.

Construction workers have discovered a tomb from the Neo-Assyrian period in Erbil, Iraq.

Restoring the Mosul Museum will not be easy without any remaining artifacts.

A new walking trail and viewing terraces have been created to attract more tourists to the Titus Tunnel near the ancient port of Seleucia.

Archaeologists have discovered 38 graves in an ancient Jewish cemetery in Rome.

The tourist company Roma Experience now offers visitors to Domus Aurea an augmented reality experience with 3-D glasses that brings to life Nero’s palace as it was in the first century.

In a new article “The Old Testament and the Ancient Near East: Profits and Losses” published on the ABR website, Eugene Merrill identifies “five clear profits,” “three claimed profits,” and “two mixed blessings.”

The National Post loves Eric Cline’s 480-page tome, Three Stones Make a Wall: The Story of Archaeology. An illustrated excerpt discussing the antiquities trade has been posted on the ASOR Blog. The Bible and Interpretation has posted his Megiddo chapter.

Karl Katz, the first curator of the Israel Museum, has written an autobiography entitled The 
Exhibitionist, which is reviewed by Asher Weill.

Eisenbrauns has published another valuable study (at a much more affordable price than many academic publishers): The Shephelah during the Iron Age, edited by Oded Lipschits and Aren M. Maeir, with articles about Gezer, Beth Shemesh, Azekah, Qeiyafa, Gath, Zayit, Burna, and Halif. Maeir’s chapter on Gath is online.

William Kelly Simpson and Louis H. Feldman died recently.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, BibleX

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A new McDonalds in Italy incorporates a 150-foot section of Roman road that dates to the 1st or 2nd centuries BC.

Film footage from excavations of Nineveh in the late 1920s and early 1930s has been digitized by the Royal Asiatic Society.

Carl Rasmussen asks if the house of Jesus has been found in Nazareth.

Shmuel Browns provides the history of Naharayim and its short-lived hydroelectric plant. Naharayim gets its name from the junction of two rivers: the Jordan and the Yarmuk.

Israel’s Good Name took a walking tour of the abandoned village of Lifta and shares many photos.

John DeLancey, director of Biblical Israel Ministries & Tours, is now offering a “Physical Settings of the Bible” weekend seminar for local churches.

Aren Maeir has posted the schedule for this week’s conference at Tel Aviv University entitled, “From
Nomadism to Monarchy? ‘The Archaeology of the Settlement Period’—30 Years Later.”

The director of the Met has apparently been forced to resign.

ASOR’s March Fellowship Madness is underway and they are only $5,300 short of their $50,000
goal.

The Associates for Biblical Research have a $10,000 matching gift for the Shiloh Excavations for donations made this month.

We post a photo and verse/caption every weekday on Facebook, Twitter, and now Instagram. If you’re on any of those, we invite you to follow us.

HT: Explorator, Joseph Lauer, Agade

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