The Lebanon Daily News runs a story on the Alan and Muriel Pense Biblical Archaeology Museum at the Evangelical Seminary. The collection was curated for many years by David Dorsey and is now under the direction of his son-in-law Phillip Bollinger. From the LDN:

The museum has a collection of small, bowl-shaped olive-oil lamps made from clay, through more elaborate closed lamps of metal. The lamps date from the earliest periods of Canaan’s history, including the Neolithic and Chalcolithic eras to the early Bronze Age, or sometime before 3200 B.C. to 2200 B.C. "It helps people to see how styles change over time," he said, and added, "When you’re digging at an excavation, that’s one of the things that helps you date what you’re finding." Other items in the collection include various types of clay storage jars, which were probably used for water, wine or grain. "These were the kitchen cabinets of the Old and New Testament periods," Sarah [Dorsey] Bollinger added. "The strength of our collection is in what everyday life was like. We don’t have lots of extraordinary or exceptional types of things. We do have a lot to do with writing." […] The museum is divided into two rooms, one for the Old Testament and one for the New Testament. In the hallways between the two rooms there are many artifacts to see as well. One of the oldest pieces in the collection is a tiny arrowhead that dates to the sixth century B.C. "It’s a flint arrowhead from Jericho; it’s 8,000 years old," Phillip Bollinger said. "Probably used for hunting very small game." Other interesting objects include a 4,000-year-old milk churn, make-up containers made of bone or metal, garment holders, jar handles with King Hezekiah’s seal, as well as weapons such as slingshots of the type that David used to slay Goliath.

The full article includes a slideshow and video. The official website is here. For other museums in the U.S. with artifacts related to the biblical world, see our list here.

A replica of Solomon’s Temple has now opened in Sao Paulo. But since it has the capacity to seat 10,000 people (and Solomon’s could seat exactly zero), one has to wonder in what sense it is a “replica.” This Forbes article has more info and a computer image. Google has more images.

Results of excavations at Tell Jemmeh in southern Israel from 1970 to 1990 have now been published.

G. M. Grena shares a list of lectures and abstracts of interest from the ASOR 2014 meeting in San Diego in November.

Wayne Stiles highlights some ancient tombs in Israel that you can visit.

Bible History Daily has a roundup of articles related to summer excavations.


The Times of Israel has a good collection of photos of mosaics from the Huqoq synagogue.

The NY Times has more on the destruction of the tomb of Jonah in Iraq.

ArtDaily: “Scientists at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia have re-discovered an important find in their own storage rooms, a complete human skeleton about 6,500 years old.”


Haaretz runs a profile on 5,000 years of strife in Gaza: “Gaza’s history reads like an encyclopedia of misery – war, destruction, earthquakes, plagues and floods. It has been destroyed and rebuilt, conquered again and again. But it also enjoyed periods of prosperity, when pagan, Jew and others lived together in harmony.”

Last call for the lowest price on Logos’ Archaeological and Theological Studies of Jerusalem (10 vols.) Some of the works I’m not familiar with, but the two Warren volumes are classics. The  more
who order, the lower the price goes for all of us.

I recommended ScrollTag several years ago, but if you missed it then, you should check it out now.

The program now includes the Trainer, a unique tool that will help you learn (and remember!) Greek
and Hebrew word forms. The package price is a great deal.

HT: Jack Sasson, Charles Savelle

Tell Jemmeh and Nahal Besor view northwest, tb050701349
Tell Jemmeh and Nahal Basor
Photo from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands,
volume 5

SourceFlix has a new video with fly-overs of nine important biblical sites.

A Nebuchadnezzar Cylinder recently sold for $605,000. (That’s an interesting number given that Nebuchadnezzar came to the throne in 605 BC.)

BibleX shares a report from the 1880s of a visit inside the traditional house of Simon the Tanner.

Robert Mullins is on The Book and the Spade this week discussing the recent season of excavations at Abel Beth Maacah.

That recently discovered Iron Age gate at Lachish is neither a gate nor is it from the Iron Age. Luke Chandler explains.

Ferrell Jenkins explains the importance of the Tenth Roman Legion in Jerusalem, and he follows it up with a number of photographs.

Five haredim were arrested this week for attempting to block entrance to an excavation site near the Old City.

IAA Director General Yehoshua (Shuka) Dorfman died on July 31 after a long illness.

HT: Ted Weis

Jaffa, house of Simon the Tanner, mat06522
Interior of House of Simon the Tanner
Photo from Northern Palestine

A new museum has opened at Hisham’s palace (Khirbet al-Mafjar) in Jericho.

A temple to the Urartian god Haldi has been discovered in northern Iraq.

A painting from the tomb of a priest in the Old Kingdom was discovered near the Giza pyramids.

You can read an update on the recent developments at the Temple Mount Sifting Project. The summary includes a series of photos of various sets of objects found.

The Tel Burna team ended their season by taking photos from a helicopter drone. The post shows the whole process.

Roman roads and milestones in Judaea and Palaestina are the focus of a new website produced by the Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee and the Israeli Milestone Committee.

Raphael Golb will spend two months in the slammer for his crimes of criminal impersonation and forgery.

“The Archaeology of Music” is the subject on this week’s episode of The Book and the Spade.

Biblical Archaeology Society has a summer sale, including the entire BAR Archive on DVD for $99.95.

HT: Jack Sasson, Ted Weis

Hisham's palace gate from east, tb051106670
Hisham’s palace gate
Photo from Samaria and the Center
(Post by A.D. Riddle)


A friend and I recently took a 24-hour road trip to Kansas City, Missouri to see the “Roads of Arabia” exhibition. We have been following the exhibition on this blog since just after it began showing in 2010 (see here), and it looks like Missouri is about as close as it was ever going to get to where I live.
The exhibition was larger than I had envisioned and it took about four-five hours to explore most of the exhibit (we had to skim over some parts). It begins with stone tools from the Lower Paleolithic and works its way up to the modern kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I learned a lot of interesting things, and there were a few surprises. Writing the curator in advance ensured I was able to take photographs, but that did not stop guards and docents from stopping us several times and telling us photography was not permitted. If you visit the exhibit, do not assume you will be able to take pictures—find out ahead of time, if that is something you want to do.

My interest in going was motivated by (1) the difficulty (or impossibility) of ever visiting Saudi Arabia to see these objects and sites, and (2) the occasional connections to Arabia sprinkled throughout the Bible. In particular, the exhibit displayed a number of objects from these biblical sites/kingdoms:

  • Midian
  • Dedan
  • Kedar (Qedar)
  • Sheba/Sabeans
  • Tema
  • Nabateans
Stela of Babylonian king Nabonidus from Tema.
The exhibition catalog was available in the museum store for $70, and after him-hawin’ over the price tag, I decided to get it. It was well-worth the cost.
Al-Ghabban, Ali Ibrahim;  Béatrice André-Salvini; Françoise Demange; Carine Juvin; and Marianne Cotty, eds.
2010 Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Paris: Somogy Art Publishers and Musée du Louvre; Washington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
The volume is 607 pages long, and it is far more than a catalog. Not only does it have high-quality color photographs of all the objects on display, it has chapters on archaeology and history, each accompanied by maps, site plans, drawings and photographs. The chapters that caught my eye were:
  • “Geographic Introduction to the Arabian Peninsula,” by Paul Sanlaville
  • “The Story of the Origins,” by D. T. Potts
  • “Antiquity,” by Christian Julien Robin
  • “Languages and Scripts,” by Christian Julien Robin
  • “The Frankincense Caravans,” by Françoise Demange
  • “North-Eastern Arabia (circa 5000-2000 BC),” by D. T. Potts
  • “The Kingdom of Midian,” by Abdulaziz bin Saud Al-Ghauzzi
  • “The Oasis of Tayma,” by Arnulf Hausleiter
  • “Dedan (al-Ula),” by Said F. Al-Said
  • “The Kingdom of Lihyan,” by Hussein bin Ali Abu Al-Hasan  
The full table of contents is available in pdf here.

The book does not appear to be affordably priced at Amazon ($221), but it can be ordered from the Smithsonian ($79.50 including shipping) or from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art ($82.50 including shipping). One blogger gives something of a book review here with several snapshots of pages.

Here is a list of stops the “Roads of Arabia” exhibition has made since it opened in 2010.

2010
Jul 14–Sep 27 Musée du Louvre, Paris
Nov 12–Feb 27 CaixaForum, Barcelona

2011
May 17–Sep 4 The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

2012
Jan 26–Apr 9 Pergamon Museum, Berlin
Nov 17–Feb 24 Smithsonian Institution’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, DC

2013
Jun 15–Nov 4 Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh
Dec 22–Mar 9 The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

2014
Apr 25–Jul 6 Neslon-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
Oct 17–Jan 18 Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

I continue to see notices that the exhibition will show in Chicago and Boston, but no locations or dates have been given yet.

Wayne Stiles recommends 3 Sites To See Along the Mediterranean and 3 High Points to Visit in the Golan. As always, he has lots of photos.

Lois Tverberg has a new e-book out: 5 Hebrew Words That Every Christian Should Know. Only $3.99 and a free sample is available.

After Israel, the next country Bible students should visit is Turkey. Why? Ferrell Jenkins explains.

Tom Powers provides the history of “the bridge that never was.” His post includes illustrations of Robinson’s arch and inaccurate reconstructions.

The Bible and Interpretation features a well-illustrated summary of crucifixion in the ancient Mediterranean world based on a recent monograph by John Granger Cook.

This article explains why museums hate ancient coins.

The “endless archaeological park” also known as Greece is now on Google Street View after overcoming five years of government resistance.

Bible History Daily has a new post on Map Quests: Geography, Digital Humanities and the Ancient World.

Satellite imagery is helping officials monitor looting of sites in Egypt. The New York Times reports on other actions the Egyptian government is taking against antiquities theft.

Work continues in the effort to establish an archaeology park at Carchemish.

For more, see the ASOR Archaeology Weekly Roundup.

HT: Explorator, Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Termessos Hadrian propylon and Artemis temple, tb062506813

Temple of Artemis in Termessos, Turkey
Photo from Western Turkey