Last month Eisenbrauns released a new book that looks fantastic. Unearthing Jerusalem: 150 Years of Archaeological Research in the Holy City has a rich collection of articles authored by those who know the subjects best [with one glaring exception]. I have not read the book, and will not be able to for several months, but I know that some of the readers here will want to get this on their Christmas list. GALUNEART

The Eisenbrauns website has the publication details, but more helpful than the two-paragraph description is the table of contents. I’ve re-formatted that below for easier reading.

It should be noted that the book is based on a conference held in 2006 and thus those looking for the latest results from excavations will want to check elsewhere.

Frank E. Peters, Where Three Roads Meet: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Pilgrimage to Jerusalem


Part 1: The History of Research

Shimon Gibson, British Archaeological Work in Jerusalem between 1865 and 1967: An Assessment

Ulrich Hübner, The German Protestant Institute of Archaeology (Deutsches Evangelisches Institut für Altertumswissenschaft des Heiligen Landes)

Joan R. Branham, The American Archaeological Presence in Jerusalem: Through the Gates of the Albright Institute

Dominique Trimbur, The École Biblique et Archéologique Française: A Catholic, French, and Archaeological Institution

Michele Piccirillo, The Archaeology of Jerusalem and the Franciscans of the Studium Biblicum

Ronny Reich, The Israel Exploration Society

Jon Seligman, The Departments of Antiquities and the Israel Antiquities Authority (1918–2006): The Jerusalem Experience


Part 2: From Early Humans to the Iron Age

Ofer Bar-Yosef, Prehistory of the Jerusalem Area

Aren M. Maeir, The Archaeology of Early Jerusalem

Israel Finkelstein, Jerusalem in the Iron Age: Archaeology and Text; Reality and Myth
Part 3: The Roman Period

Joseph Patrich, The Location of the Second Temple and the Layout of its Courts, Gates and Chambers: A New Proposal

Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets, Has the Adiabene Royal Family “Palace” Been Found in the City of David?

Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron, The Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem of the Late Second Temple Period and Its Surroundings

Zvi Greenhut, A Domestic Quarter from the Second Temple Period on the Lower Slopes of the Central Valley (Tyropoeon)

Donald T. Ariel, Coins from Excavations in the Domestic Quarter of the City of David, Jerusalem

Hillel Geva, On the “New City” of Second Temple Period Jerusalem: The Archaeological Evidence

Jodi Magness, Aelia Capitolina: A Review of Some Current Debates about Hadrianic Jerusalem
Part 4: The Byzantine Period

Oren Gutfeld, The Urban Layout of Byzantine-Period Jerusalem

Leah Di Segni, Epigraphic Finds Reveal New Chapters in the History of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the 6th Century

Jon Seligman, The Hinterland of Jerusalem during the Byzantine Period


Part 5: The Early Islamic and Medieval Periods

Gideon Avni, From Hagia Polis to Al-Quds: The Byzantine–Islamic Transition in Jerusalem

Donald Whitcomb, Jerusalem and the Beginnings of the Islamic City

Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, Early Islamic and Medieval City Walls of Jerusalem in Light of New Discoveries

Mahmoud Hawari, Ayyubid Jerusalem: New Architectural and Archaeological Discoveries

Robert Schick, Mamluk and Ottoman Jerusalem

One last comment: the natural choice for the presentation/article on Iron Age Jerusalem is Gabriel
Barkay. He knows the city and this period far better than Israel Finkelstein and he does not suffer from the biases that make the latter’s work unreliable. Perhaps a logistical reason made Barkay’s participation impossible.

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Museums:

The Museo Egizio di Torino has recently posted 11,000 objects from ancient Egypt online.

Six new galleries for ancient Egypt and Nubia opened today at the Ashmolean Museum. The Ashmolean is the most popular free UK museum outside of London.

The British Museum will close its Department of the Middle East to visitors from December 12, 2011 to January 20, 2012.

John E. Curtis will be lecturing on “Babylon: A Wonder of the Ancient World” at the Met on December 19.


Resources/Sales:

The latest production by SourceFlix is now available. You can watch the trailer of “The Sacrifice” at their site. It looks great.

The Logos version of Austen Henry Layard’s Nineveh and Its Remains will close in community bidding on Friday. It’s now at $18 but may well go down to $16 or $14.

BAS has dozens of items for sale this weekend only, including 50% off Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, Freeing the Dead Sea Scrolls, The Copper Scroll, and Scholars on the Record.

Glo Premium is available for only $35 through Monday. The special includes a free DVD.

Accordance is selling all Carta modules and combos for 20% off through December. The sale includes Ritmeyer’s The Quest, Rainey and Notley’s The Sacred Bridge, and Eusebius’ Onomasticon.

Tyndale Tech explains why Perseus, now available for free in Logos, is the best collection for studying backgrounds of the New Testament.

HT: Jack Sasson

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Christianbook.com (CBD) has some Black Friday specials that may be of interest to readers here.

255727: Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Old Testament, 5 Volumes Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary Old Testament, 5 Volumes. Hardcover. List is $250, on sale for $120 (Amazon: $175)
613176: Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds NT Commentary,  4 Volumes Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds NT Commentary, 4 Volumes. Paperback. List is $130, on sale for $35 (Amazon: $69)
939580: NIV Archaeological Study Bible Renaissance Fine Leather, Venetian Brown 1984 NIV Archaeological Study Bible Renaissance Fine Leather, Venetian Brown 1984. List is $110, on sale for $50 (not listed at Amazon)

The best deal above is the 4-volume ZIBBC NT set.

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This one won’t wait for tomorrow’s roundup because it’s a “Deal of the Day” at Eisenbrauns. I’ve mentioned before (many times) the incomparable value of The Sacred Bridge, by Anson F. Rainey and R. Steven Notley (2005). This work sells for $135, but if you do not need the original languages printed in the text (Hebrew, Greek, Egyptian, Akkadian), you can save half by purchasing the Carta’s New Century Handbook and Atlas of the Bible for $70.

If you don’t mind bent corners and you make up your mind before noon today (and before they sell out), you can save more than half again and get the book for $25. I wonder if there is a book published in the last 10 years in the field of biblical studies that has more packed into 280 pages than this one.

Eisenbrauns also has a non-bent-corner edition for less than Amazon at $50.

You can see the publisher’s information sheet, including the table of contents, in this pdf file. My previous assessment of “The Sacred Abridgement” can be found here.

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More than once I’ve been asked to put together a book with my photos. Even if I had the time, I could not do better than others have done. The most recent work features 200 photos from my collection in A Verse by Verse Trip through the Holy Land. Written by Rob and Lisa Laizure, this new book takes the reader on a tour of 27 sites in Israel, guiding them with interesting facts, large doses of Scripture passages, and 1-3 photos on nearly every page. The reader is taken as far north as Caesarea Philippi and as far south as En Gedi, from Capernaum to Bethlehem. Jerusalem is given extra attention.

The book is available from www.ConnectingTheDotsMinistries.com for $25. Those leading a tour can purchase larger quantities at a discount.

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Ancient Israel: Highlights from the Collections of the Oriental Institute University of Chicago is a new 127-page publication written by Gabrielle Vera Novacek and illustrated with 66 beautiful photographs and diagrams. The book is available for pre-order from Amazon or as a free download (pdf).

Six lectures in Hebrew are now online from the 12th Studies of Ancient Jerusalem conference held in September in the City of David. The speakers included Israel Finkelstein, Ronny Reich, Gabriel Barkay, Asher Grossberg, Eli Shukron, and Yosef Garfinkel.

“Libya’s famed ancient Roman sites, including the sprawling seaside ruins of Leptis Magna, were spared damage by NATO during the recent airstrikes, says a London-based Libyan archaeologist.”

Muslims continue to bury their dead next to the eastern wall of the Temple Mount, according to the Committee to Prevent the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities.

The head of the Supreme Committee of the Grand Egyptian Museum was fired this week.

“Ultra-Orthodox young men curse and spit at Christian clergymen in the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City as a matter of routine.” Last week a judge ruled in favor of an Armenian seminary student who fought back.

HT: Daniel Wright, Jack Sasson, ANE-2, AWOL

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