British and Egyptian archaeologists working in Aswan have discovered a long causeway leading to the tomb of a Middle Kingdom nomarch.

The Kom Aushim Museum in Egypt’s Fayoum has re-opened after 10 years of renovation.

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is celebrating its 114th anniversary by staying open every Thursday and Sunday evening.

Juliette Desplat describes the founding of the Iraq Museum.

Satellite imagery reveals the destruction of the ziggurat of Nimrud and remains at Dur-Sharrukin that is related to ISIS and the ongoing battles near Mosul.

The IBTimes shows what’s left of Nimrud after its destruction by ISIS.

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens is celebrating its 150th anniversary with a special display of 200 artifacts.

The renovation and expansion of Berlin’s Pergamon Museum is $288 million over budget and will be finished four years later than anticipated (in 2023).

Visitors to Rome’s Circus Maximus can now see the ancient latrines and a portion of a triumphal arch of Titus.

A 4th-century AD Samaritan tablet inscribed with the Ten Commandments has sold at auction for $850,000.

The PEF has issued a call for papers for next year’s conference in Jerusalem on “The Anglo-German 
Exploration of the Holy Land, 1865-1915.”

Mark Wilson will be leading a tour for BAS next September and October of Malta, Sicily, and Italy.

Eisenbrauns has extended its ASOR/AAR/SBL exhibit sale to a virtual booth where all can benefit.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle, Agade, Ted Weis

Share:

An ancient Christian “crossword puzzle” has been discovered in the agora of Smyrna.

A sewage system in the Urartian city of Van that dates to 800 BC has been fully excavated.

You missed the first-ever “Swim the Corinth Canal” event, but perhaps you can join next year.

Greece’s National Archaeological Museum is celebrating its 150th anniversary.

At the ASOR Blog, the executive producer of a new documentary about Gertrude Bell provides some background. You can also watch the trailer.

New paper at Academia: “Computer Experiments on the Khirbet Qeiyafa Ostracon,” by Eythan Levy and Frédéric Pluquet.

Nigel Fletcher-Jones considers the ethical problem of the public display of mummies and alternative approaches.

A French-Egyptian citizen turned over a golden mummy mask to the Egyptian government.

The November/December issue of Biblical Archaeology Review is now online.

If you’re a subscriber to the Wall Street Journal, you can read Roger Toll’s “The Real Adventurer’s Guide to the Ancient City of Petra.”

I made it into Wayne Stiles’s post this week about the Dead Sea Scrolls. Check out the great quote by Frederic G. Kenyon.

Shmuel Browns shares a couple of photos he took at Machtesh Qatan.

The extraordinary Bible collection of the late Charles Ryrie is being auctioned off by Sotheby’s.

HT: Charles Savelle, Agade, Joseph Lauer, Ted Weis, Paleojudaica

UPDATE: Next weekend’s roundup will be delayed by several days.

Share:

A couple of Israeli scholars are suggesting that the Hasmonean Hall (aka “Hall of the Freemasons”) in the Western Wall Tunnels may have served as a triclinium for Jerusalem’s city council.

Scientists working in Galilee have discovered caves used by rebels in the Jewish Revolt. For a more academic study, see this journal article.

The eastern temple of Ramses II at Karnak has been opened after restoration.

Excavations at Petra have revealed new information about the water systems that kept the city alive 2,000 years ago.

Municipal workers in Turkey’s Çanakkale province discovered gold jewelry in an 8th century BC sarcophagus.

Russia is sending a team of scientists to investigate World Heritage sites in Syria allegedly destroyed in the civil war.

The Basrah Museum is opening soon in a former palace of Saddam Hussein.

The Archaeological Museum of Kos re-opened up last month after renovation.

A competition is being held for the architectural design of the new Cyprus Museum in Nicosia.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague has ruled that destroying cultural antiquities is a war crime.

Wayne Stiles’s new post on the history and significance of Eilat is filled with lots of photos I really like.

Ferrell Jenkins shares a photo of a beautiful sunrise over the Sea of Galilee.


Haaretz reviews the best of archaeology in Israel this past (Jewish) year.

John S. (Jack) Holladay died last week. He was a long-time professor at the University of Toronto and he was involved in excavations at Gezer and in the Wadi Tumilat Project.

HT: Agade, Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer

Share:

Haaretz (premium) has a story on the Mamertine Prison now that it has been renovated and re-opened. The history of the site goes back to the 8th century BC and was considered to be one step away from hell for its captives.

A refurbishment of the kitchens of Pompeii reveals much about ancient Roman cooking practices.

Continued restoration of the Parthenon now moves to the building’s west side.

Archaeologists working in Hala Sultan Tekke have discovered one of the most magnificent tombs ever found on the island of Cyprus. It dates to the Late Bronze Age and contains Egyptian scarabs, a diadem, and beautiful jewelry.

Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities will begin offering an annual pass to all of the country’s sites and museums.


The Times of Israel suggests the top five Jewish spots to visit in Saudi Arabia.

“Between 1,300 and 800 BC, large quantities of metal objects, including tools and weapon-like swords, daggers and arrow heads, were produced at Saruq Al Hadid” in modern Dubai. The site and its new museum are profiled in The National.

Iraq is seeking to add Babylon to the World Heritage List.

Logos users can now pre-order Barry Beitzel’s New Moody Atlas of the Bible.

HT: Ted Weis, Joseph Lauer, Agade

Share:

Forty-five shipwrecks, many dating back to ancient times, have been discovered off a Greek archipelago that is one of the Mediterranean’s richest underwater archaeological sites.”

A large and Roman mosaic has been discovered in Larnaca, Cyprus. A short video shows the excavation.

“A large number of expansive rock tombs which could constitute part of the world’s largest necropolis have been discovered during work carried out by the Şanlıurfa Municipality around the historic Urfa Castle in southeastern Turkey.”

“Excavation teams at an ancient site [Side] in the southern province of Antalya are struggling to find sponsors after it emerged that the site contains an ancient brothel.”

The Lion of Babylon is not faring well in part because of the visitors that keep climbing on its back.

The oldest writing found on papyrus is now on display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Scholars believe that have identified an ancient security system that protected the pharaoh’s burial chamber in one of the pyramids of Giza.

Philippi is in the latest group of sites to be named a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Some British MPs are proposing the return of the Elgin Marbles to smooth Britain’s departure from the EU.

Two Hellenistic marble sculptures from the Pergamon Museum in Berlin will remain on loan for the next two years at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The ancient Mamertine Prison in Rome will soon be open after three years for restoration and excavation.

After a $73 million renovation, Yale will soon be re-opening the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

“Dendrochronological and radiocarbon research by an international team led by Cornell archaeologist Sturt Manning has established an absolute timeline for the archaeological, historical and environmental record in Mesopotamia from the early second millennium B.C.”

Ben Witherington III has more than 20 posts on his recent trip to Turkey. Highlights include visits to the Miletus Museum, the Izmir Museum, and the Zeugma Museum (which has a splendid mosaic).

New book out from Eisenbrauns: “Did I Not Bring Israel Out of Egypt?” Biblical, Archaeological, and Egyptological Perspectives on the Exodus Narratives, edited by James K. Hoffmeier, Alan R. Millard, and Gary A. Rendsburg.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Ted Weis, Charles Savelle, Explorator, Daniel Wright

Share:

Archaeologists working at Jerash (biblical Gerasa) have discovered part of a life-size statue of Aphrodite.

“American and Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a rare structure called a nilometer in the ruins of the ancient city of Thmuis in Egypt’s Delta region.” It was built in the 3rd century BC and used for 1,000 years.

British archaeologists have identified the remains of a 16- to 18-week-old mummified fetus that was found in Giza nearly 100 years ago.

The Antiquities Ministry of Egypt has completed a project to lower the groundwater at the Edfu Temple.

A plan has been approved that will remove all the mines around the traditional area of John’s baptisms on the Jordan River.

Haaretz (premium) visits the site of Tell el-Ajjul, once a prosperous Canaanite city south of Gaza but today at risk of complete destruction.

“Those who trust in the Lord are as Mount Zion which cannot be moved but abides forever” (Psalm 125:1). Wayne Stiles uses photos to explain what this means today.

Two archaeology students have crowdsourced images to create a VR reconstruction of the Mosul museum. The article includes a cool YouTube 360 video.

The Palestinian Museum opened this week in Bir Zeit, but it has no exhibits.

The enforcement of a new antiquities law is making it harder for black market antiquities to be sold in Israel.

Israel will be returning two Bronze Age wooden anthropoid sarcophagus lids found by IAA agents in an Old City dealer’s shop.

Of 28 Egyptian obelisks standing today, only 6 are in Egypt. That’s one of many interesting facts about obelisks in a WSJ article that is based on a book by Bob Brier entitled Cleopatra’s Needles.

Allison Meier reviews the new exhibition in NYC, “Gods and Mortals at Olympus: Ancient Dion, City of Zeus.” The article includes many photos.

Charles Jones has recently updated the list of titles in JSTOR which focus on Antiquity. It now includes 243 titles.

Dubgallu is a new forum for scholars of the ancient Near East. Registration is free, and open to anyone who academically studies the ancient Near East.

There’s a sale on for various electronic editions of the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, Old and New Testaments Logos, Accordance, and Olive Tree.

The Atlas of Palestinian Rural Heritage looks interesting. Some themes covered: Tilling – Harvesting – Moving the Harvest – Threshing – Sifting – Grinding – Making Dough – Baking Bread – Cooking – Making Grape Syrup – Sesame Oil – Olives and Olive Oil – Storage – Bard – Domestic Birds – Honeybee Farming – Milk – Shepherd – Washing – Water – Gathering Rainwater.

If you have a passion for biblical geography, perhaps you would consider supporting Seth Rodriquez to go to Zimbabwe to teach future pastors about the land of Israel. This is a great opportunity to help others learn about what we love.

I’ll be traveling for a few weeks and the regular roundups will resume when I return.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Steven Anderson

Old City from west, db6605212212
On this day 50 years ago, David Bivin took this photo while standing on the edge of no man’s land looking toward the Old City of Jerusalem, then occupied by Jordan. Photo from Views That Have Vanished.
Share: