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
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SourceFlix has posted a video taken by drone of the Old City and Temple Mount of Jerusalem.

Excavators at Jezreel discovered an amethyst scarab that likely came from Jezebel’s homeland.

Amnon Rosenfeld died in a car accident in Israel last week. Earlier this month he wrote “The Antiquities Game – Behind the Trial of the Century.” The article is long but has a number of valuable insights.

With Gaza in the news again, Ferrell Jenkins discusses its biblical significance.

The excavators at Gath had a very interesting day on Thursday.

Abram K-J has found a free digital Greek edition of Eusebius’s Onomasticon.

Rik Wadge and Steve Shermett host a series on biblical archaeology entitled Rocks, Shovels, and 
Manuscripts on God’s Learning Channel. The most recent episodes focus on the seven churches of Revelation.

Caves in Israel—Manmade and God-made: Wayne Stiles explains and illustrates. He also offers a free download of a book he recently wrote for the Israel Ministry of Tourism, 100 Off-The-Beaten-Path Sites.

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Aren Maeir reports on the highlights of the 2013 excavation season at Gath (Tell es-Safi).

A statue of a Phoenician priest dating to the 6th century BC has been discovered in Sidon.

The Pope has arrived in Jordan and heads to Israel soon.

Some religious Jews are afraid that if Catholic mass is permitted in the Upper Room that they will be unable to pray at the Tomb of David downstairs.

A new study suggests that some of Petra’s structures were intended to align with the solstices and equinoxes.

Archaeological work in Jerusalem indicates that it was the Roman construction of Aelia Capitolina that triggered the Bar Kochba Revolt (and not the other way around).

Have you ever wondered how Jonathan defeated the Philistines by climbing the cliff of Michmash?

Wayne Stiles explains it all with maps and photos.

Ferrell Jenkins and Leon Mauldin are traveling in eastern Turkey. They have recently visited Haran
and the Zeugma Mosaic Museum.

Muslims in eastern Syria have apparently destroyed a statue from the Neo-Assyrian period looted from Tell Ajaja.

The 2014 excavation season has begun at Tel Jezreel.

The PACE (Project on Ancient Cultural Engagement) online database has moved.

Judith McKenzie’s black and white photographs taken in 1982-1986 for The Architecture of Petra
(1990) are now all available online at the Petra Digital Archive. Other collections are also online, in high-resolution and free for use in educational and academic publications and research.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

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A Bone to Pick: Why Did We Hear Only One Side of the Camel Argument?

In advance of the pope’s blessing of the tabernacle from the boat altar, the New York Times profiles the excavation and resort of Magdala.

Ferrell Jenkins recently visited the new excavations at Derbe.

ArtDaily: “Egypt unveiled Thursday the 3,000 year-old tombs of two senior pharaonic military men in the famed Saqqara necropolis, one of them decorated with well-preserved reliefs depicting the afterlife.”

Aren Maeir’s recent lecture at the Oriental Institute on new directions in the study of the Philistines is now online.

The only museum of biblical archaeology in Latin America is in Sao Paulo, Brazil.


Haaretz: Archaeologists are protesting construction at Tel Shiloh.

“Aerial images taken by Corona satellites in 1960s help archaeologists locate unexcavated towns and roads across Middle East, but few gems remain unsurveyed in Israel.”

On Logos pre-pub discount: Biblical Archaeologist / Near Eastern Archaeology (1992–2011) (20 vols.) (74 issues)

Yale University Press launches Roman architecture enhanced e-book. $9.99 at Amazon.

HT: Ted Weis

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Aren Maeir will be lecturing on the Philistines in Kansas City and Chicago later this month.

Carl Rasmussen ran into a pack of wild boar at Caesarea Philippi and some in his group managed to get photos. (I’ve managed the former but never the latter.)

Israeli police arrested five Jews attempting to sacrifice a goat at the Temple Mount for Passover.

A couple of tombs from the 26th Dynasty were discovered in Pr-Medjet. Luxor Times has photos.

The ruins of Palmyra have suffered from the Syrian civil war, and the New York Times provides an update.

The ASOR roundup has more stories from archaeology around the world.

Bibles-Online is a new site that allows you to view every page of rare and antique copies of the Scriptures, including the 1521 Erasmus Greek NT, the 1535 Coverdale Bible, the 1549 Matthew-Tyndale Bible, and others.

Wayne Stiles is offering a significant discount on his new audiobook this weekend before it is available at Audible.com. I’ve highly recommended the print version of Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus in the past and now the audiobook is available for less than $7.

HT: Jack Sasson, Charles Savelle

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There are many Biblical archaeology programs scheduled for the Washington DC area.

Haaretz provides a review of the significance of Magdala and the recent excavations.

Paleojudaica links to the latest “bad-news articles on the Middle East for the last couple of weeks.”

St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mount Sinai has closed due to the security situation in Egypt.

Shmuel Browns provides the latest Israel Roundup.

Aren Maeir announces that a new exhibit is opening at Bar-Ilan University entitled “The Rise and Fall of Philistine Gath (Tel Zafit).

Some Palestinians are claiming that the golden treasure recently announced by Eilat Mazar is a fake.

Wayne Stiles provides a very good overview of the Garden of Gethsemane.

St Catherine's Monastery, mat02025

St. Catherine’s Monastery, circa 1915 
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