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Excavation results have been published for a salvage dig at Zanoah, a site located near Beth Shemesh and mentioned in Joshua 15:34 and Nehemiah 3:13 and 11:30.

Jerusalem Post: “A scroll unearthed in the Judean Desert is shedding light on the ancient practices of astrology and mysticism in a discovery that has intrigued historians and archaeologists alike.”

Haaretz: “Archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of a Canaanite temple built to greet the rising sun atop the mound of Azekah.”

“Archaeologists have discovered about 8,600-year-old bread at Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic settlement in central Turkey.”

“The Pompeii Archaeological Park is launching a 100-million-euro project aimed at regenerating the archaeological and urban landscape of the ancient Roman city. As well as reimagining the way visitors interact with the site, the project will carry out the largest archaeological campaign at Pompeii in more than 70 years.”

Jason Borges shares highlights from his recent trip through Caria, including stops at Magnesia, Bodrum (Halicarnassus), Tlos, and Oenoanda.

A professor at Columbia University is leading the Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments project.

Haaretz (subscription): Roman routes are an “unexploited tourist opportunity” in Israel.

In conjunction with the “Legion” exhibit now at the British Museum, Mary Beard writes about the role of women in Roman military life.

“The Louvre’s Department of Near Eastern Antiquities is hosting ten major works from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, whose Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art is currently closed for renovation.” Now through September 2025.

Webinar on April 18: “Amorites, Their Origins, and Their Legacy,” by Aaron Burke ($7-13)

Aren Maeir shares three of his more popular lectures now on YouTube.

New release: 1 & 2 Kings: A Visual Commentary, by Martin O’Kane (Sheffield Phoenix, $47.50 with code “scholar”). “With its over one hundred and seventy-five full-colour images, from Christian mediaeval manuscripts and Persian and Ottoman miniature paintings to contemporary Jewish art, the volume shows why stories from 1&2 Kings feature so prominently in the artistic and cultural worlds the three religions have helped to shape.”

The Lexham Geographic Commentary set is now on sale for Logos Bible Software at 55% off. For $108, you get three volumes that have already been released and three that are forthcoming.

Bible Mapper Atlas has posted a collection of map links for Holy Week, including two for Sun/Mon, two for Tues/Wed, and two for Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Keith Keyser

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“Researchers say that a small vial of deep red paste found in Iran’s Jiroft region is likely an ancient tube of lipstick.”

“A scarab, a scroll and an ancient tomb are this month’s top reports in biblical archaeology.”

Biblical Archaeology Review has posted their annual roundup of excavation opportunities. They also offer scholarships.

New from Lingua Deo Gloria: A Child’s Biblical Hebrew book. Available on Amazon in print and as a free pdf on the publisher’s website. A Child’s Koine Greek book has just been announced.

The Narmer Catalog is a comprehensive database, gathering in one convenient location all available information about archaeological objects with inscriptions related to Narmer, the first king of Ancient Egypt, and his regional predecessors from Dynasty 0.”

New article: “Gold and Silver: Relative Values in the Ancient Past,” by James Ross and Leigh Bettenay, in Cambridge Archaeological Journal (open access)

New release: Archaeology and the Bible: 50 Fascinating Finds That Bring the Bible to Life, by Tom Meyer. The author was interviewed this week on CBN News.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Gordon Dickson

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The oldest gold artifact discovered in Jerusalem attests to Phoenician presence in the city in the time of King Solomon. Writing for Haaretz, Ariel David disagrees.

“The discovery of numerous plants in two temples unearthed at [Gath] unraveled unprecedented insights into Philistine cultic rituals and beliefs – the food ingredients in their temple, the timing of ceremonies, and plants for temple decoration.”

A new multi-level sunken entrance pavilion opens this month for the Tower of David Museum.

Abigail Leavitt provides a report on the short excavation season at Fazael (Phasael) in the Jordan Valley.

Israel’s Good Name reports on his visit to the Lod Mosaic Center.

Shmuel Browns has posted a few drone photos taken around Israel.

Carl Rasmussen’s video series “Encountering the Holy Land” for Logos Bible Software is on sale ($18).

Course registration is now open for Spring online courses at the Jerusalem Seminary, including Biblical Feasts, Biblical Hebrew, Israel Matters, and Jewish Life: Then and Now. Scholarships and discounts are available.

I will be speaking next month in Jerusalem University College’s Culture Counts online series on “The Psalms of David and Solomon.” Registration is free and includes access to the recording.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Gordon Dickson, Gordon Franz, Steven Anderson

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Şanlıurfa Archeology and Haleplibahçe Mosaic Museum complex, the largest museum in Turkey, has reopened after last year’s flood disaster.

A new study claims that the King Prism of Sennacherib was sold illegally to the British Museum.

A 12-year-old student build a small-scale version of Archimedes’s “death ray,” and he concluded that it would have worked.

The Greek Reporter explores the connection of the Greek alphabet to Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The “Digital Coin Cabinet of the University of Trier” includes 500 coins, mostly from the Roman era, available for free use in teaching and publications.

Oxford “is offering a free, online semi-intensive course in Phoenician, which will take place on 8-13 April 2024.”

The new electronic Babylonian Library is the topic of discussion in the latest episode of Thin End of the Wedge.

Sargon II is the subject of the latest archaeological biography by Bryan Windle.

New release: Was There a Cult of El in Ancient Canaan? Essays on Ugaritic Religion and Language, by David Toshio Tsumura (Mohr Siebeck, €129).

Now on Academia: Tom Lee’s PhD dissertation “Nabonidus: The King of Babylon (556-539),” completed in 1990 under W.G. Lambert

Open access: On the Way in Upper Mesopotamia. Travels, Routes and Environment as a Basis for the Reconstruction of Historical Geography, edited by Adelheid Otto and Nele Ziegler (Gladbeck, 2023)

Jan Assmann died this week.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken

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Archaeologists believe they have uncovered the 1st-century villa where Pliny the Elder watched Mount Vesuvius erupt.

“Archaeologists conducting extensive excavations in the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu, now known as Tello in southeastern Iraq, have unearthed twin temples built on top of each other.”

Egypt’s “project of the century”—a reinstallation of the granite cladding on one of the pyramids of Giza—has been cancelled.

Turkey will be expanding its “Night Museums” project with the goal of setting new records in tourism every year.

“Archaeologists working in Saqqara recently unearthed three funerary masks at least 1,800 years old.”

A new study claims that “ancient Romans used the poisonous nightshade Black henbane as a hallucinogenic drug.”

New release: Teaching Ancient Egypt in Museums: Pedagogies in Practice, edited by Jen Thum, Carl Walsh, Lissette M. Jiménez, Lisa Saladino Haney (Routledge, $40-$170)

Hybrid lecture on May 23: “From Ground to Page: Wrapping up the University of Michigan/University of Minnesota Excavations at Kedesh,” by Andrea M. Berlin

Revelation Media is creating an animated Bible project comprised of seven-minute episodes that will eventually cover the entire Bible.

Carmen Joy Imes writes about some connections to the Old Testament that she observed during a recent tour of Egypt with James Hoffmeier.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Arne Halbakken

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I am thankful that I was asked to join an outstanding team of scholars contributing to the latest volume in the Lexham Geographic Commentary series. I noted last week one of the articles I wrote, and I wanted to do the same for my second article. I’m excited about what I learned, and I know that not everyone will be able to purchase the volume. This post will give you a little taste for the nature of what an investment in this work will provide.

The official name for my article is “The ‘Land’ Given to Abraham and His Descendants: A Geographic and Socio-spatial Analysis,” and the listed references are Genesis 15:18–21, Exodus 23:31, Numbers 32:1–33, and 34:1–12. In short, my goal was to untangle the apparently contradictory border descriptions given in various passages in the Pentateuch.

A good way to introduce my article to you, I believe, is to give my five “Key Points,” with a brief explanation for each.

1. The land where Abraham’s descendants live corresponds to the land that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob walked and claimed (from Dan to Beersheba).

This is a helpful observation when one considers that the Lord promised Abraham the land “from the River of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates” (Gen 15:18). Abraham, however, lived in and traveled through only the southern portion of this area, essentially between Shechem and Beersheba. The same is true for Isaac and Jacob. When the Israelites returned from Egypt, they settled in this same area, not in northern lands such as Zobah or Ugarit, though technically they are within the territory delimited in Genesis 15.

2. By identifying the territory promised to Abraham as from the river Euphrates to the River of Egypt, the Lord provided that sufficient land would be available as the Israelites increased in size and demonstrated covenant loyalty.

A smaller nation needs less land than a larger one, and the Lord anticipated that Israel’s population would expand and so would their need for more territory. In Deuteronomy 7:22, Moses said that “the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little,” and the law required that three additional cities of refuge be set aside when Israel’s territory increased (Deut 19:8-9). Under David and Solomon, Israel’s land increased beyond the “Dan to Beersheba” holdings, and this was in keeping with God’s design. Similarly, the tribe of Reuben “occupied the land up to the edge of the desert that extends to the Euphrates River, because their livestock had increased in Gilead” (1 Chr 5:9).

3. In giving certain land to Abraham and his descendants, the Lord also excluded certain land from their inheritance.

The most obvious lands excluded from the promise are the lands of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Abraham and the people of Israel had been called by God out of those lands and given territory between them. But Israel was also excluded from land that the Lord gave to the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites (Deut 2:5, 9, 19). In addition, Jacob’s treaty with Laban suggests that the land of the Arameans was outside of the territory intended for Israel (Gen 31:45-54). Thus, even in the most ideal circumstances, Israel was never intended to fully occupy all the land between the Euphrates River and the River of Egypt.

4. Within the broader border descriptions given, Abraham and his descendants were to displace Canaan and his descendants and to rule over other nations.

It was God’s intention not merely to give Abraham’s descendants land but to give them land occupied by other people groups. This required that they remove them, an act of divine judgment on people who had defiled the land. The list of the ten people groups in Genesis 15:19-21 provides further definition to the land where Israel was expected to settle. Other people groups submitted to Israel’s kings and were allowed to remain in their settled lands.

5. A built-in tension exists between wider and narrower boundary descriptions of the land. This tension reflects the patriarchal travels, the possibilities of expansion, and ultimately the messianic hope.

As with my other article, my favorite point is my last, as this is where I came to see how the “contradictory” descriptions actually point to Israel’s eschatological hope. The most expansive border descriptions align neatly with prophecies in Genesis 22:18, 49:10, Psalm 2:8, 72:8, Isaiah 11:6-9, Zechariah 9:10, and elsewhere to fuel an expectation that Messiah would establish his righteous reign over all of this land for the peace of all people and the worship of their faithful God.

This gives you a taste of two of the articles in the new Lexham Geographic Commentary on the Pentateuch. I would like to write some summaries of articles written by others, but I will make no promises. If you purchase either the print (hardcover; Amazon) or digital (Logos) formats, you can pick and choose from all 47 articles as well as enjoy the maps and photos.

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