Museums Archives - Page 60 of 102

Weekend Roundup

Teenagers working in an excavation in Galilee discovered a rare gold coin from the 8th century.

The New York Times has a story on the recent exposure of the burial bed inside Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Carl Rasmussen found some unique photos of the excavations here.

With the release of the editio princeps, Christopher Rollston has posted some more thoughts on the (possibly forged) Jerusalem Papyrus. The IAA is defending the inscription’s authenticity. Shmuel Ahituv is interviewed on Rejuvenation podcast.

Israel HaYom looks at early Muslim sources that acknowledge the Jewish history of the Temple Mount.

Shem Tov Sasson shares his experience of the first day of a new excavation at Tel Kedesh.

Ynet runs a story on the Qeiyafa exhibition at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem. Haaretz has a similar story.

King University in Tennessee is hosting a conference on Nov 13-14 entitled, “What’s Going on with Biblical Archaeology?”

Timothy P. Harrison shares an appreciation of the life and work of John S. Holladay Jr.

TouristIsrael recommends five unique places to stay in Israel.

Wayne Stiles provides an interesting overview of Nazareth past and present.

Excavations on Mount Zion this summer uncovered a destruction layer from a Crusader battle in Jerusalem in AD 1153.

Accordance 12 was released this week, along with a new free version called Accordance Lite.

Upgrades are also very affordable.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Agade, Charles Savelle, Mark Hoffman

Tagged Excavations, Jerusalem, Lectures, Museums, Resources, Shephelah, Temple Mount, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Wayne Stiles explores the 8 (present) and 12 (future) gates of Jerusalem.

Ferrell Jenkins shares some beautiful photos and helpful information about the Citadel of David in Jerusalem.

David Hansen provides an introduction to the significance of biblical geography that could be useful in many Bible classes. Note, in particular, the two important questions he suggests.

Jennifer Ristine, coordinator of the Visitors Center at Magdala, provides an explanation of the various symbols on the Magdala Stone.

Bryant Wood is on The Book and the Spade this week talking about “The Conquest and Archaeology.”

A 1500-year-old copy of the Ten Commandments is being auctioned off by the Living Torah Museum. There’s more here.

The Toledo Museum of Art is selling part of its Egyptian collection.

Five Dead Sea Scroll fragments have been put up for sale.

On November 15 in London, Sotheby’s is auctioning rare and early photo albums of the Holy Land,
including a rare hand-coloured subscriber’s copy of David Roberts’s Holy Land and Egypt.

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

Tagged Dead Sea, Egypt, Exodus-Conquest, Galilee, Jerusalem, Museums, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of the Roman breach of Jerusalem’s “Third Wall” in AD 70.
Some high-res images are available here.

Excavations around the “Ramesses Gate” in Jaffa have revealed a massive destruction layer that attests to a battle between Egyptians and Canaanites.

Researchers have discovered two secret chambers in the Great Pyramid of Giza.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project shares some finds related to the feast of Sukkot.

Scientists have recently discovered the two components that gives frankincense its distinctive odor.

An archaeologist has created a 3-D model of the Heraion at ancient Olympia using photogrammetry.

An AP article describes the work and accomplishments of Robert Bewley and David Kennedy in documenting archaeological sites in Jordan from the air.

The New York Times profiles the early farming village of Ain Ghazal in central Jordan.

A new pleasure cruise line is carrying travelers between Haifa and Acco.

The National Museum of Beirut has opened its basement to the public for the first time in 40 years.

Touch Point Israel has compiled a list of 13 “must-see museums” in Israel.

This week in New York City a new photo exhibition opened: “The Day Memory Dissolved: an artistic perspective on endangered archaeological sites in the Middle East.”

Progress is being made on the National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel. The Jewish Press article includes photos and a 2-minute video.

According to UNESCO, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has nothing to do with Judaism.

Carl Rasmussen shares several photos from one of the least visited places in Jerusalem, the Tomb of the Royal Steward.

Wayne Stiles looks at the ancient and modern significance of Gideon’s battle in the Harod Valley.

The Associates for Biblical Research are having a big sale on the complete archive of Bible and Spade.

New book: The Five-Minute Archaeologist in the Southern Levant. (Out of stock at Amazon)

The schedule for next month’s Bible and Archaeology Fest XVIII is now online.

HT: Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer, Agade, Steven Anderson

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Greece, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Jordan, Lebanon, Lectures, Museums, Resources, Technology, Temple Mount, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

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.

Tagged Dead Sea, Discoveries, Excavations, Greece, Jordan, Mesopotamia, Museums, Negev, Shephelah, Turkey

Weekend Roundup

A stone weight from the first century with the name of the high priest has been discovered in Jerusalem. Ynet has more photos and a video in Hebrew.

Israel’s largest archaeological garden was opened this week on a military base in Tel Aviv.

Archaeologists working at Petra have discovered two statues of Aphrodite.

“Excavations in the volcanic desert of Jordan have uncovered three surprisingly advanced fortified settlements with artificially irrigated terraced gardens, dating to 6,000 years ago.”

Someone is claiming to have discovered one of the stones from the high priest’s breastplate.

“Excavations at Tatarlı Mound in the southern province of Adana’s Ceyhan district have unearthed an impression seal from a monumental Hittite-era structure.”

Aviv and Shmuel Bar-Am provide a virtual tour of the excavations of Ramat Rahel.

Israel’s Good Name describes a recent visit to Chorazin (Korazim) and the first century Galilee boat.

Wayne Stiles suggests that the Transjordanian tribes settled for “second best” and he applies that principle for us today.

Leen Ritmeyer analyzes the paving stone tiles released by the Temple Mount Sifting Project and
suggests they came from “the interior of some of the many buildings that surrounded the Temple and/or from under the colonnades around the smaller courts.”

The Hebrew Music Museum opened earlier this year in Jerusalem and features 260 instruments.

This week Southern Adventist University opened a new exhibit entitled “A World in Miniature:
Creation, Cosmos, and Ecology on Seals from Biblical Times.” The museum’s website does not appear to have information yet on this new display.

The ASOR Blog identifies their five most popular posts of the summer.

The British Institute at Ankara has published nine volumes in the series Roman Roads and Milestones of Asia Minor, all available without charge in pdf format.

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

Tagged Discoveries, Galilee, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Jordan, Museums, New Exhibits, Resources, Temple Mount, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Survey Results: Favorite Museum

We had fewer responses for this survey than previous ones, perhaps because the nature of the survey is more geared to scholars and well-traveled tourists than to others. The lower participation may also account for why many excellent museums were not represented in the survey, including the Louvre, the Oriental Institute, and the Met.

The most popular museum of our survey was, not surprisingly, the Israel Museum (and/or Shrine of the Book). Among the enthusiastic explanations were these:

Hard to beat the archaeological section of the Israel Museum for the sheer number of outstanding and biblically significant artifacts. (And then you add the Jerusalem model and Shrine of the Book too!)

The museum is laid out chronologically. Each exhibit is concisely written and easily understood.

And specifically of the Shrine of the Book:

Coolest Hebrew manuscripts ever.

Three other museums in Israel were recommended:

House of the Anchor Museum (En Gev)

It’s so small one can describe it as cute, yet it’s dedicated to such a unique and important topic most of our information of 1st century fishing and fishermen comes from the studies from this museum.

Hecht Museum (Haifa)

While it may not have the main historically significant artifacts like the Israel Museum (e.g., the Tel Dan stele), it has one of the best displays of a wide variety of artifacts from the biblical period and some really unique exhibits like the Hellenistic shipwreck, Phoenician dye working, and treasure hoards.

Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem

amazing collection, great graphics, free parking

I’d gladly pay for parking if they let me take some pictures!

Outside of Israel, three museums were suggested from neighboring countries.

Museum of Egyptian Antiquities (Cairo)

Amazing collection

The Jordan Museum (Amman)

Historical and Biblical artifacts

The Istanbul Archaeology Museums

Who doesn’t love Hittite memorabilia (and guards with mustaches that can kill)?

Two European museums were proposed, with the British Museum getting the second highest number of votes of all (after the Israel Museum).

So many excellent collections

Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser 3 showing king Jehu and other Jews

The other was the Pergamon Museum in Berlin:

Just great in everything 😉

Before you buy your ticket to Berlin, you should know that some parts of the museum are closed for
renovation.

The only museum in the US that received a vote was the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California. That is a bit disappointing, especially given how many of our readers live in the States. Perhaps I might encourage our American readers to visit some of these outstanding museums.

We’ve made a list and are soliciting suggestions for any that we may have missed.

If I had three votes to spend on three continents for the best museums related to biblical studies, I’d pick the Israel Museum (Asia), British Museum (Europe), and the Oriental Institute (North America).
But there are some great ones that I have not yet visited that could earn my vote in the future!

Thank you for participating! It’s fascinating to read what interests you and why.

Tagged Museums, Survey