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“A rare and mysterious, multi-compartment stone container dating back to the days of the Second Temple that serves as evidence of the destruction of Jerusalem two millennia ago has been put on display for the first time at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.”

Aaron Goel-Angot writes about the ancient site of Wadi Hamam and its first-century synagogue, located below Mount Arbel.

Excavations at the foot of Mount Tabor “provide a rare glimpse into the merchant market that functioned for centuries in the area between an adjacent fort and the khan” during the Mamluk and Ottoman periods.

Bryant Wood explains how the discovery of donkey dung supports the historicity of the Bible.

What do archaeology specialists do? Bible History Daily asked that question of ceramicists, zooarchaeologists, spatial archaeologists, marine geoarchaeologists, conservators, and osteologists.

The Spring 2024 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review includes articles on the cave of Salome, an Iron Age building in the Givati parking lot excavations, the Jerusalem ivories, and Azekah’s Canaanite temple.

Stamp seals from the southern Levant are the focus of the latest issue of Near Eastern Archaeology.

John DeLancey and Gordon Govier discuss ten important recent archaeological discoveries related to the life of Christ, with lots of illustrations.

Oded Lipschits is telling “The Untold Story of the Kingdom of Judah” in a new series of podcasts produced by Tel Aviv University.

Paul Evans is a guest on the Biblical World podcast to discuss his new book, Sennacherib and the War of 1812: Disputed Victory in the Assyrian Campaign of 701 BCE in Light of Military History.

The latest Jerusalem Tracker rounds up the news, publications and media about the city. It is amazing how much has been produced in the last three months.

This summer’s excavation season at Tel Shimron has been cancelled.

A trailer has been released for “Following the Footsteps: Walking Where Jesus Walked.”

Bryan Windle reviews the top ten archaeological discoveries of 2023 on the latest episode of Digging for Truth.

In a piece related to his recent book on the subject, Yaron Z. Eliav explores how Jews could have participated in Roman bathhouses. The article begins with a beautiful reconstruction drawing of a large Roman bathhouse.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken

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A group of students used “computer vision, machine learning, and hard work” to translate a portion of a scroll from Herculaneum and win a $700,000 prize. “This is a complete gamechanger,” said one scholar.

A reservist hiking in Galilee discovered a scarab made of carnelian and dating to about 800 BC, possibly related to the Assyrian conquest.

“Egypt’s antiquities ministry said Saturday it was setting up a committee to review the restoration of Giza’s Menkaure Pyramid after a public outcry over the project.”

“Excavations have given proof of a flourishing wine industry in the Byzantine and early Arab period, especially at sites like Shivta, Halutza, Nitzana, and Avdat.”

The latest episode of This Week in the Ancient Near East looks at the use of artificial intelligence to translate Mesopotamian texts.

Bryan Windle joins John DeLancey to talk about the top 10 archaeological discoveries related to Jesus.

Now online: Deborah Hurn’s dissertation, “Identifying and Delineating the Geographic Regions of the Israelite Migration from Egypt to Canaan Using a Hydrological Approach”

Hybrid lecture on Feb 29: “A Queen, her Son, and her Chamberlain. Seal Imagery and Socio-Administrative Hierarchies at Persepolis,” by Mark Garrison

Walking The Text’s recommended resource of the month is The Essential Archaeological Guide to Bible Lands, by Titus Kennedy.

Appian Media has released a trailer for “Out of Egypt.”

Abigail Leavitt shares some photos from her recent explorations in Jerusalem.

HT: Agade, Gordon Dickson, Arne Halbakken, Ted Weis

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My longtime colleague William Varner has traveled to Israel more than 50 times, and a few years ago he worked with a team to film a complete tour. The resulting video series has been used with great effect in several courses at The Master’s University, and now TMU’s Center for Thinking Biblically has made the entire series available for free—no tuition required!

Here is a quick index of the eight sections, with notes to help you navigate to specific episodes.

Old Jerusalem (12 episodes, including the topography of Jerusalem, Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Christ Church, and the Tower of David Museum)

City of David (15 episodes, including Hezekiah’s Tunnel, Pool of Siloam, Davidson Museum, Kidron Valley tombs, and Southern Steps)

Temple Mount and more (19 episodes, including Mount of Olives, Jerusalem model, the Shrine of the Book, Western Wall Tunnel, Bethlehem, Herodium, and four episodes on Hebron)

Mount Zion and more (14 episodes, including Burnt House, Temple Institute, Via Dolorosa, Pools of Bethesda, Schindler’s Grave, and Garden Tomb)

Benjamin and Jericho (12 episodes, including Michmash, Wadi Qelt, High Place of Gibeon, and the Mount of Temptation)

Negev and more (22 episodes, including Gezer, Azekah, Lachish, Beersheba, Arad, Tabernacle Model, Masada, and Qumran)

Nazareth and more (17 episodes, including Caesarea, Mount Carmel, Megiddo, Jezreel, Mount Tabor, and Sepphoris)

Galilee and more (21 episodes, including Capernaum, Gamla, Caesarea Philippi, Dan, Beth Shean, Ai, Shiloh, and Mount Gerizim)

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Excavations conducted during the laying of a water pipe not too far from Lachish revealed the “most ancient gate ever discovered in Israel.” They are dating it to about 300 years earlier than the Early Bronze gate at Tel Arad. The gate has already been backfilled.

Archaeologists excavating Tel Shimron announced the discovery of a massive Middle Bronze monument that was 15 feet tall and covered the entire acropolis. The monument was very well-preserved because soon after its construction it was filled in with gravel.

A beautiful Herodian ceiling panel was discovered in secondary use in the Ophel excavations (YouTube).

One of the arches in Caesarea’s Roman aqueduct collapsed on Friday.

A suspension bridge crossing the Hinnom Valley is now open to pedestrians (YouTube).

Zedekiah’s Cave (aka Solomon’s Quarries) reopened earlier this month, and Zahi Shaked gives a 30-minute tour.

Some Jews and Christians are arguing over the right to pray in the area of a possible tomb of Elisha at Stella Maris on Mount Carmel.

Israeli officials are considering loaning the Megiddo Mosaic, which comes from an early Christian building, to the Museum of the Bible. (Ilan Ben Zion’s AP article is a disappointment.)

WUNC interviews Jodi Magness upon the completion of her 11-year excavation of the Huqoq synagogue.

Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am write about some of the many ritual baths that have been discovered throughout Israel. The article includes many photos.

Abigail Leavitt recounts various sites she visited this summer in Jerusalem. She has another post about a tour of the Shephelah.

“The Jewish National Fund, KKL-JNF, recently welcomed guests to visit the ancient Jewish synagogue in Ma’on, located in Israel’s southern Negev desert.”

Tour Caesarea virtually with DIVE (Digital Interactive Virtual Experiences) on August 30 ($20).

Joel Kramer goes to Mamre in the latest episode from Expedition Bible.

There are a number of late-summer festivals being held around Israel.

New release: The Changing Landscape of Israeli Archaeology: Between Hegemony and Marginalization, by Hayah Katz (Routledge, $42/$136).

The latest Jerusalem Tracker has been posted, with a roundup of news, publications, and media.

It may be hard to believe, but apparently there are unscrupulous shopkeepers in the Old City of Jerusalem.

HT: Agade, Gordon Dickson, Al Sandalow, Will Varner, Arne Halbakken, Roger Schmidgall, Keith Keyser, Wayne Stiles, Explorator

With the Israeli military gone, there are no obstacles to visiting Hyrcania in the Judean wilderness.

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In the 11th and final season at the Huqoq synagogue, Jodi Magness discovered additional sections of the Samson mosaic panels along with a new mosaic section with an enigmatic Hebrew inscription and an Aramaic inscription identifying the synagogue’s donors or artists. The site will now be developed into a tourist attraction.

“Skulls and lamps found in the Twins Cave in the Jerusalem Hills indicate that the cave was used for necromancy rituals” in Hellenistic and Roman times.

A new study has determined that Caesarea was destroyed by a giant tsunami in the aftermath of the AD 749 earthquake.

Tim Chaffey follows up his introductory article on the location of the temple with a more extended study, arguing that Ernest L. Martin and Robert Cornuke “are highly selective in their use of source material, even to the point where they remove the most relevant details from passages of Scripture.”

Nathan Steinmeyer describes how the Central Timna Valley Project conducts experiments to determine how people in the Chalcolithic period smelted copper.

Jamie Fraser has been appointed to be the new director of the Albright Institute in Jerusalem.

New release: The Excavations at Khirbet el-Maqatir: 1995–2001 and 2009–2016. Volume 2: The Late Hellenistic, Early Roman, and Byzantine Periods, edited by Scott Stripling and Mark A. Hassler (Archaeopress, £85; free download)

Chandler Collins writes about the “Russian Compound Plateau” in Jerusalem, including the recent excavation of a portion of the Third Wall there.

Carl Rasmussen has posted a new photo of the Methuselah date palm tree.

Ferrell Jenkins shares a new photo he took of the village of Nain, where Jesus raised a dead boy back to life.

Abigail Leavitt writes about her visits to the excavations at Tel Burna.

Israel’s Good Name provides a well-illustrated report on his visit to Ein Harod.

Your humble roundup writer teaches a Bible chapter a week nearly every Sunday morning (with photos), but he generally stays away from the pulpit. With the pastor on sabbatical and the situation desperate, my church lowered the standard. There’s not much geography or archaeology in a sermon on “Jesus the Servant,” but it is a subject I love very much.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Explorator

These men are hard at work restoring an ancient mosaic in the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fish at Tabgha.

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“Israeli archaeologists have been left scratching their heads over the discovery of a large tomb containing dozens of skeletons, many of them women, who were buried more than 2,500 years ago in the midst of the Negev desert, at an ancient crossroad far from any known settlements at the time.”

According to Yosef Garfinkel, five sites in Judah indicate that Judah was expanding into the Shephelah already in the 10th century. The underlying journal article is here.

Chris McKinny provides an overview of all of the excavation areas at Tel Burna after their first week of their 13th season.

The Greek Reporter has a well-illustrated story on the Bird Mosaic and the sigma-shaped glass-gold table found in Caesarea.

Martine van den Berg reports on the first-ever “Friends of ASOR Tour to Israel and the Palestinian Territories.” They had quite a few experiences that the average tourist doesn’t get.

After a three-year renovation, Solomon’s Quarries/Zedekiah’s Cave has reopened to visitors. It now includes a multimedia show. The article includes a video report by i24 News.

Ron Simkins discusses “Creation and Ecology in Ancient Israel” on the Biblical World podcast.

Lisa LaGeorge gives a good answer to the question, “What difference does it make if I go to Israel?”

Ferrell Jenkins shares a photo of a beautiful view that he took in the Judean hill country between Bethlehem and Hebron.

Zoom lecture on July 12: “The King is Dead, Long Live the King: Murder, Poetry, and Scribal Culture in Ancient Egypt,” by Margaret Geoga ($7)

The NY Times reports on Christian tourism to Saudi Arabia, though the reporting seems limited to a single tour group.

A large Roman-period mosaic discovered near Homs, Syria, depicts Greek soldiers in the Trojan War as well as the god Neptune and forty of his mistresses.

A conference will be held at Oxford on July 5 entitled “The Aramaeans B.C.: History, Literature, and Archaeology”

The oldest completely hand-sewn boat in the Mediterranean dates to the Iron Age I and is remarkably well-preserved.

A fresco newly discovered at Pompeii looks like a pizza but is more likely a focaccia covered with fruit.

Bryan Windle reports on the top three stories in biblical archaeology for the month of June.

What do real archaeologists think of Indiana Jones?

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Ted Weis

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