Researchers have uncovered graffiti from the Middle Ages in the traditional Upper Room in Jerusalem.

Bryan Windle has written an archaeological biography for Caiaphas the high priest.

Leen Ritmeyer shares photos of the cave of Gethsemane where Jesus may have spent the night with his disciples.

Jeffrey P. Arroyo García wonders whether Jesus was hung from the cross, not nailed.

On a double episode on Digging for Truth, Dr. Jonathan Moore discusses the anatomy of crucifixion and especially how their feet were positioned on the cross.

Biblical Backgrounds has announced the “Gospel Companion,” a 44-page book with unique 3D maps and interactive map marking illustrating the Way of the Cross. They also have released new wall maps.

The latest episode of This Week in the Ancient Near East looks at the recent excavations at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Ynetnews suggests five excursions in Israel that recall the twelve tribes’ departure from Egypt.

A royal purple dye was being produced at Tel Shiqmona at industrial levels during the time of the Israel’s monarchy, according to a new study.

A new article “examines how vassal kingdoms, elite consumption, and imported luxury goods shaped Iron Age Lachish and Jerusalem.” And I’m not sure what’s going on at The Jerusalem Post, when the headline on the article, now more than a week old, misspells Jerusalem.

The NY Times runs a story on the recently deciphered Bar Kochba-era papyrus that documents a “tax-evasion scheme involved the falsification of documents and the illicit sale and manumission, or freeing, of slaves — all to avoid paying duties in the far-flung Roman provinces of Judea and Arabia.”

Jacob Sivak addresses two frequently asked questions about Roman-era synagogues: how were Jews able to thrive under Roman oppression, and why were the synagogues decorated with pagan iconography?

“Hezekiah” is a new documentary miniseries, and its first episode premieres this weekend.

In Jerusalem in Brief, Chandler Collins writes about two pools that have been filled in and two books of interest.

Archaeologists have discovered a quarry that may have supplied the construction of Darius’s palace in Susa.

Reconstruction of the 87-foot tall Roman lighthouse at Patara has been completed. AI was used to identify the original locations of the 2,500 stones.

Construction will begin next year on an Alexander the Great theme park at Amphipolis in northern Greece.

Italian authorities levied $22 million in fines on ticketing agencies for buying up tickets for the Colosseum to resell to tourists.

A new study suggests that the gears of the Antikythera Mechanism jammed frequently, making the device not very useful.

Aaron Burke writes about avoiding the ethnicity trap in a new article entitled “The Amorites: Rethinking Approaches to Corporate Identity in Antiquity.”

A new exhibition opened this week at the ISAC Museum: “Staging the East: Orientalist Photography in Chicago Collections”

Members of the American Oriental Society have voted to change the society’s name to “American Society for Premodern Asia” (ASPA).

John Van Seters, a biblical scholar known for his minimalist approach, died last week.

HT: Agade, Keith Keyser, Gordon Franz, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

Share:

A new study of a Bronze Age tomb in Turkey reveals that female teenagers were the victims of human sacrifice.

Two almost lifesize sculptures of a man and woman, who was believed to have been a priestess, have been found during the excavations of a huge tomb in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.”

Scientists are arguing over the claims that technology has identified chambers far below the Giza pyramids.

Zoom lecture on April 7: “Jesus’s Parables as Jewish Stories,” by Amy-Jill Levine

Hybrid lecture at Harvard on April 23: “The Daily Lives of Ancient Egyptian Artists,” by Hana Navratilova (Zoom registration)

New release: The Amarna Letters: The Syro-Levantine Correspondence, by Jacob Lauinger and Tyler R. Yoder (Lockwood, $100-$125)

Farmers in Sicily are cultivating a resin that some identify as biblical manna.

Bryan Windle summarizes the top three reports in biblical archaeology in the month of March.

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

Share:

Underwater archaeologists have discovered infrastructure of an ancient port at Asini in Greece.

Archaeologists have excavated a “grand ancient Greek tomb site” near Corinth.

“A recent study offers new insights into the pigments used by ancient Roman artists in Pompeii, revealing how they mixed raw materials to achieve a wide range of color tones.”

Persepolis’s ancient underground channels prevented flooding and destruction during a severe rainstorm.

Restoration work on Jerash’s northern theater continues.

Artnet highlights three interesting artifacts discovered in the tomb of Thutmose II.

Turkiye Today describes seven must-see cuneiform tablets in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums.

The ASOR Punic Project Digital Initiative “will provide digital files of individual stelae that can be viewed on screen or 3D printed at any scale.”

New release: Against Moab: Interrogating the Archaeology of Iron Age Jordan, by Benjamin W. Porter. (Cambridge University Press, open access)

Hybrid lecture at Penn State on March 27, 5 pm (EDT): “In the Steps of a Babylonian King: A Scholar’s Adventures in Jordan and Lebanon,” by Rocío Da Riva (Zoom registration)

“After 1,700 years the first ancient Greek temple opened in Arcadia, Peloponnese over the weekend.” The Greek Church is not happy. The site manager defends the project: “There are tens of thousands of people in Greece and abroad who believe in their ancestral gods and do not have a place to worship.”

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Explorator

Share:

Archaeologists excavating Azekah found a new type of female figurine that comes expected forms with new elements.

Radiocarbon dates for the Huqoq synagogue place its construction in the late 4th or early 5th centuries AD, lending support to those who advocate a late date for Galilean-type synagogues.

Ruth Schuster has written a lengthy article for Haaretz (subscription) about various interpretations of the iconography on the Magdala Stone, including the proposal that it depicts God’s chariot in the temple.

Bible Mapper Atlas has published a new poster map of the tribal territory of Zebulun, and the accompanying article explains why the map extends Zebulun’s border to the sea.

The Torah.com has posted an eight-part series on the Amarna Letters, written by Alice Mandell.

David Jacobson and Nikos Kokkinos’s 2022 paper on Agrippa II’s royal triclinium in Jerusalem further strengthens the case against those who want to move the temple to the City of David. I’m told that a book is forthcoming with the conference papers, but this article is already available on Academia.

The Biblical Archaeology Society is now accepting nominations for its 2025 Publication Awards.

New release: Megiddo VII, the Shmunis Excavations of a Monumental Middle Bronze Tomb and its Environs, edited by M.J. Adams, M.D. Cradic and I. Finkelstein (Eisenbrauns, $125)

Hybrid lecture at the Albright on April 16: “‘Trowel Blazers’ in the Archaeology of the Levant & Near East during the Early 20th Century,” by Kathleen Nicoll

The recently announced discoveries in the City of David of the big grooves and standing stone are the subject of the latest episode of This Week in the Ancient Near East.

Jerusalem Seminary is running a 10-day study tour in May entitled “Discovering Jesus in His Jewish Context.”

Bryan Windle summarizes the top ten archaeological discoveries related to Jeremiah in the latest episode of Digging for Truth.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Explorator

Share:

In the second season of excavations at Hyrcania in the Judean wilderness, archaeologists uncovered a colorful Byzantine mosaic and two Jewish ritual baths.

A tourist who came to Shiloh to pray for a child found a rare Second Temple period coin when he returned to give thanks.

The discovery at a Byzantine monastery near Jerusalem of a female skeleton wrapped in heavy metal chains is raising questions about women’s participation in extreme asceticism.

Ferrell Jenkins has posted a photo of Gibeah of Saul from circa 1970.

New release: After the Tomb: The Unexpected Encore, by Stephen Austin. In a series of 50 vignettes, this book imagines what may have happened in the 50 days between Jesus’s resurrection and Pentecost. My first impression is very positive.

New release: Scribal Representations and Social Landscapes of the Iron Age, by Mahri Leonard-Fleckman (Oxford University Press, $99)

A conference on the archaeology and history of Jerusalem will be held at the Schloss Beugen in Rheinfelden, Germany, on April 27th to 29th, 2025. Aren Maeir has posted the schedule.

Accordance Bible Software is running a sale of up to 67% off image collections, virtual tours, biblical atlases, and more. There are a number of offerings that are the lowest prices I’ve ever seen.

Behind the Scenes of the New Testament, edited by Bruce W. Longenecker, Elizabeth E. Shively, and T. J. Lang, is Walking The Text’s recommended resource this month.

Gesher Media has just released an Ark of the Covenant poster. Regularly priced at $34, you can use coupon ARK20 to get it for only $20 through February 28.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Gordon Franz, Keith Keyser

Share:

The ancient harbor of Adramyttium, mentioned on Paul’s voyage to Rome (Acts 27:2), became visible when the Aegean sea receded. Photos are posted in the Turkish article.

Recent excavations in Perga have uncovered five statues.

Egypt has begun restoring the Ramesseum in Luxor.

MrBeast spent 100 hours inside the Giza pyramids, including visiting areas not open to the general public.

Mark V. Hoffman notes a temporary exhibition entitled “In the Footsteps of Paul” that is at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki through April and then will be in Athens.

Mark V. Hoffman also gives an introduction to MARBLE (Modular Aggregation of Resources on the Bible), a UBS project that includes biblical texts, semantic dictionaries, images, and videos.

New release: Tel Dover (Khirbet ed-Duweir) on the Yarmuk River: The Late Bronze and Iron Age Levels, by Amir Golani and Samuel R. Wolff (Ägypten und Altes Testament 130; Zaphon; €75).

New release: Slavery and Servitude in Late Period Egypt (c. 900–330 BC), by Ella Karev (Ägypten und Altes Testament, €70)

New release: Scribes and Language Use in the Graeco-Roman World, edited by Sonja Dahlgren, Martti Leiwo, and Marja Vierros (The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, free pdf).

Color paintings made by Joseph Lindon Smith in an Egyptian tomb remain valuable today.

An archaeological exhibition entitled “From Sharjah to Rome via the Spice Route” is currently on display at the Colosseum in Rome.

Lawrence Schiffman is giving two lectures on the Dead Sea Scrolls at Penn State University on February 19:

  • 12:15 to 1:30 pm: “Temple City: Jerusalem and its Temple in the Urban Planning of the Dead Sea Scrolls” (register for Zoom here)
  • 6:00 to 7:30 pm: “The Dead Sea Scrolls and the History of Judaism” (register for Zoom here)

The Itinerarium, written by the anonymous Piacenza Pilgrim circa 570 and translated by Andrew S. Jacobs, is now available online.

Colleen Morgan explains how AI imagery could be used to develop fake archaeology.

Chris McKinny and Kyle Keimer discuss the best archaeological finds of 2024 on the Biblical World podcast.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Arne Halbakken, Explorator, Paleojudaica

Share: