Archaeologists in Turkey have identified another fragment of the treaty between pharaoh Ramesses II and the Hittite king Hattusili III. A larger photo is here.

“An ancient fortress that guarded Egypt’s western frontier more than 3,000 years ago has yielded a rare horse burial, inscriptions linked to Ramesses II and evidence of military and daily life.”

Underwater explorers are returning to the submerged Phoenician and Roman remains off the coast of Tyre.

Laser scans of ancient temple walls at Kition Kathari revealed 23 previously unrecognized ship carvings that are nearly invisible to the human eye.

On the Biblical World podcast, Jason Borges interviews Turkish archaeologist Prof. Ilker Mimiroglu about the excavations at Lystra.

Restoration of Istanbul’s Museum of the Ancient Orient has been completed after three years.

“Excavating Antioch: The Archaeology of an Ancient City” is a new exhibition at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College.

The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is offering three excavation and conservation opportunities for students next year: (1) Agora excavation; (2) archaeological conservation; (3) Corinth excavation.

Greece’s Ministry of Culture is beginning three projects to protect and display archaeological remains at Olympia.

An upcoming exhibition, “Athena, the Stage is Yours: The Parthenon Puzzle,” will attempt “to document a new, archaeologically sound proposal for the complete reconstruction of the sculptures on the east pediment of the Parthenon.”

A four-year project to improve the visitor experience at Athens’s Kerameikos archaeological site has been completed.

“Charles K. Williams II, the renowned American archaeologist who devoted more than three decades to excavations at Ancient Corinth, died on September 16, 2026, at the age of 96.”

“A new study of nearly 300,000 kilometers of Roman roads shows how geography and major cities shaped movement across the empire. The findings challenge the old idea that Roman roads formed a simple system leading toward Rome.”

Recent release: Ancient Persian: A Linguistic History, by Kevin T. van Bladel (Cambridge University Press; open access)

A new project has been announced for the digital encoding of the Leningrad Codex.

Scientists working to decipher the Herculaneum papyri are burning modern papyrus scrolls to test methods for reading the ancient carbonized texts.

A mathematician is challenging the idea that the Parthenon’s subtly curved stylobate was designed to make the building appear straighter to the human eye.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Explorator

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A final report on the Italian excavations in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher revealed a clear sequence: from stone quarry to farmland to cemetery to church. The final report requires subscription.

Authorities used a huge crane to lift a 25-ton Jewish ritual bath from the ground in Kiryat Gat in order to protect it from ongoing construction.

A four-year restoration of the traditional tomb of Jesse and Ruth at Hebron has been completed.

A new virtual exhibition, From Trash to Treasure: Nahal Omer“ highlights how the remains of everyday life in a remote desert settlement can illuminate long-distance trade and cultural connections across the medieval world.”

Elizabeth Shanks Alexander and Abigail Snyder write about four early rabbis you should know: Rabbi Akiva, Rabban Gamaliel, Rabbi Yohanan, and Resh Lakish.

ASOR Zoom lecture on Sept 30: “Current Research on the Holy Sepulchre and Faunal Remains,” by Luca Brancazi

New release: Aspects of Judean Life: Elephantine in Its Persian Imperial and Administrative Context, by James D. Moore (Eisenbrauns; open-access)

On Digging for Truth, Tim Lopez talks about a monumental building at Shiloh that he helped to excavate that may be the foundation of a permanent tabernacle structure.

We released 12 new volumes in the Photo Companion to the Bible series this week.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Explorator

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During excavations of the agora at Smyrna, archaeologists discovered three rooms with wall paintings and mosaics.

“For nearly 180 years, archaeologists studying Nimrud in northern Iraq have focused on palaces, temples, and royal buildings. A new project is shifting attention to the vast lower city, where most of the Assyrian capital’s people lived.”

Archaeologists have discovered at Saqqara the tomb of a judge who heard the appeals of ordinary people.

“A scientific journal has retracted a study that claimed satellite radar could reveal hidden structures inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, finding ‘serious methodological flaws and statistical errors’ that undermined its conclusions.”

“The Egyptian Museum in Cairo completed restoration work on a stele of Ramesses II.”

Scientists are stomping grapes in an ancient reconstructed winepress in order to determine “whether ancient Judean winemakers let the juice flow directly into the adjacent collection vats to ferment, or instead left it to ferment on the treading floor itself.”

ASOR has teamed up with the Libyan Department of Antiquities to restore the archaeological site of Cyrene. The article includes many photos.

Turkish Archaeological News rounds up the top stories for the month of August.

The Museum Fine of Arts, Boston, is presenting the exhibit “Maverick Kings,” highlighting the reigns of three Egyptian rulers of the 18th Dynasty: Hatshepsut, Amenhotep III, and Akhenaten.

New release: The Animals of Ancient Egypt: Then and Now, by Richard Hoath and Salima Ikram (AUC Press, $22)

On Digging for Truth, Ted Wright discusses a panel from Sennacherib’s palace that may depict Jerusalem.

Friends of ASOR Webinar on Sept 24: “Digging into The Odyssey: An Epic Reimagined or a Misinterpretation of Epic Proportions?,” with Eric Cline, Kim Shelton, and Alex Joffe

Zoom lecture on Oct 6: “When Worlds Collide: Mediterranean Mercenaries and Israel’s Genesis,” by Aaron Burke (BAS Scholars Series, $10)

Writing for Bible History Daily, Robin Gallaher Branch explores the significance of Cornelius and his conversion.

Carl Rasmussen explains how to easily find images on his website.

The Friends of ASOR Tours is offering a 15-day tour of Tunisia, led by Andrew G. Vaughn.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Explorator

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An almost-complete ancient Egyptian funerary set was discovered during excavations of Heliopolis.

The exhibition “Lives and Literacy in Ancient Egypt” is on display at the University of Texas at Austin until August 3. “A highlight of the exhibition is one of the world’s earliest New Testament fragments—the St. John’s Fragment (P52)—on view in the United States for the first time. Additionally, visitors can see early adaptations of The Odyssey by Homer, as well as early writing palettes, and panel paintings.”

“Excavations at the ancient city of Olympos on Türkiye’s Mediterranean coast have uncovered a monumental tomb containing a richly decorated sarcophagus believed to belong to an aristocratic woman from the Roman period.”

Turkish Archaeological News lists the top stories in the month of May, including:

Terry Madenholm has written a lengthy and interesting article in Haaretz about taxes and tax evasion in the Roman empire.

New article by Mark Wilson, “The Archaeology of Biblical Sites in Asia Minor: Its Symbiosis with Archaeobiblical Tourism.” Religions 17, no. 3 (2026). Open-access.

HT: Agade, Explorator

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Bible Archaeology Report lists the top ten discoveries related to Ezra and Nehemiah. Every discovery is illustrated by at least one photo, and the post has 27 footnotes pointing to additional resources.

Don Binder gives a little history of the Nea Church in Jerusalem, its excavation in the 1970s, and its inaccessibility ever since.

Bible Mapper has released a clickable, searchable Hebrew calendar that includes festivals and seasonal activities.

Lauren McCormick summarizes a recent article by Mark Wilson that argues that the Ethiopian eunuch may have been a Jewish administrator.

“Bread baked according to an ancient Roman recipe was sold for the first time in 2,000 years at Pompeii.”

According to a new study, the stadium at Perga was repurposed into a gladiatorial and execution arena, and five “Gates of Death” were designed to release animals into the combat area.

A exhibition on Troy will open in June at the Colosseum in Rome.

Significant changes are being made at four temples in Luxor to improve the visitor experience.

Three 18th-dynasty tombs in Luxor are being reopened after conservation work.

A new theory proposes that 16 ramps were used to build the Great Pyramid of Khufu in a period of as little as 14 years.

Christopher Rollston is on The Book and the Spade talking about Dead Sea Scrolls research related to the current exhibit at the Museum of the Bible.

The Vanderbilt Divinity Library is soft launching the new Art in the Christian Tradition website.

HT: Agade, Explorator, Roger Schmidgall

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Archaeologists have found evidence of a visitor from India in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.

“A reassessment of damaged 3,500-year-old statuary adds to evidence that Queen Hatshepsut wasn’t the villain that scholars long took her to be” (gift link).

A new study suggests that the destruction of the Jewish temple on Elephantine Island was caused by the same Hananiah, a descendant of Sanballat, who had been the governor of Samaria. The underlying journal article is here.

“An American archaeological mission from New York University has completed the restoration of a granite head of Ramesses II at his temple in Abydos.”

“The restoration of the gateway of King Ramesses III at the Karnak Temples has been completed, alongside the discovery of a rare stone stela dating to the reign of the Roman Emperor Tiberius.”

The exhibition “Ramses and the Pharaohs’ Gold” is now on display in London.

A special exhibition entitled “A Bestiary of Ancient Nubia”opens next month at the ISAC Museum.

“Iranian archaeologists have launched an interactive map that geolocates cultural sites in the country that have been damaged during the war.”

New release: Ancient Iran in the ISAC Museum: From Prehistory to the Achaemenid Period, by Abbas Alizadeh (ISAC Museum Publications 3; $30 print; open-access)

Expedition Bible’s latest video goes looking for the traditional location where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea.

HT: Agade, Explorator

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