A gold ring with a red gemstone dating to the Hellenistic period has been discovered in the Givati Parking Lot excavations in the City of David. It is quite similar to another ring found at the same place last year.

Yosef Garfinkel recently completed excavation of Ophel’s “Water Gate” area, removing several Byzantine walls in order to highlight the Iron Age walls. The report includes numerous pictures and a video interview.

All Israel News has created a 5-minute video showing some of the archaeological evidence for a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount.

A visitor center telling the story of tekhelet (biblical blue color) opens in the Judean wilderness later this month.

Leon Mauldin posts a photo and a map of Taanach by the Waters of Megiddo.

Denny Sissom has a new series of videos explaining each chapter of his book, The Bridge to the New Testament: A Comprehensive Guide to the Forgotten Years of the Inter-Testament Period, in detail.

BibleStock has released a new coaching video, explaining how to use video footage in teaching the story of David and Goliath.

With this week’s release of the Photo Companion volumes for Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs, we’re offering both for the price of one. Luke Chandler calls the Photo Companion to the Bible his “favorite overall Bible study resource.”

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

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An Israeli team began excavations of Samaria-Sebaste this week. Some consider the excavation of ancient Israel’s capital to be a hostile takeover of Palestinian heritage.

Archaeologists working at the Roman cemetery at Legio near Megiddo have uncovered the jaws of thirteen pigs in what they believe was remains of a funerary banquet.

Jewish veterans from the Roman army — and not Shimon Bar Kochba — may have initially led the 2nd-century Jewish rebellion against the Romans commonly known as the ‘Bar Kochba Revolt.’”

“Two enigmatic 1,500-year-old human figurines carved in rare ebony wood from India or Sri Lanka and likely made in Africa have been uncovered in the Negev.” The underlying journal article is here.

A new study has found that “the Kingdom of Israel had much greater name variety than the southern kingdom, hinting at deeper social differences.” The underlying journal article is here.

“Police arrested nine Jewish men who tried to smuggle a sacrificial goat onto the Temple Mount in Jerusalem Monday afternoon.”

The Jerusalem Post runs a short article about the road between the Pool of Siloam and the Temple Mount.

New release: Readers of the Lost Ark: Imagining the Ark of the Covenant from Ancient Times to the Present, by Kevin M. McGeough (Oxford University Press, $35; Amazon). Free chapter here.

Bible Mapper Atlas has created a (free) poster map of the tribe of Manasseh (west of the Jordan) and its surroundings, circa 1200 BC.

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

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“Archaeologists in southern Jordan have uncovered a hieroglyphic inscription bearing the royal cartouche of Pharaoh Ramesses III.”

Egyptian authorities “announced the discovery of the tomb of Prince Weser Khaf Ra, son of King Userkaf, the founding monarch of Egypt’s Fifth Dynasty, in the Saqqara necropolis.”

“A California research collective known as Noah’s Ark Scan says it will begin the first controlled excavation of the Durupınar Site on Mount Ararat’s southern flank.”

The NY Times has posted a beautiful photo essay of the mostly open Grand Egyptian Museum.

A new genetic study reveals that the people of Carthage were not significantly related to the Phoenicians.

Brent Nongbri writes about the recently discovered mikveh at Ostia as well as some of the Jewish material on display in the Ostia Museum.

Smithsonian magazine asks if “Talos, the bronze automaton who guarded the island of Crete in Greek myth [was] an early example of artificial intelligence.”

Leon Mauldin has posted some recent photos of Istanbul’s ancient water system.

New release: Archaeology and the Ministry of Paul: A Visual Guide, by David A. deSilva (Baker, 320 pages, full-color, $33; also on Logos)

New release: Populus: Living and Dying in Ancient Rome, by Guy de la Bédoyère (University of Chicago, 500 pages, $24)

New release: The Aegean and Cyprus: Interaction Between Two Distinct Cultural Mediterranean Areas from the Third Millennium to ca 1200 BC, by Giampaolo Graziadio (free download)

New release: The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and Scribal Scholarship in Antiquity: Studies in Honor of Arie van der Kooij on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday, edited by Wilson de Angelo Cunha, Martin Rösel, and Michael N. Van der Meer (Peeters, 65 euros, free download)

The WSJ reviews Toby Wilkinson’s new book, The Last Dynasty: Ancient Egypt from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra ($29 at Amazon).

Leslie C. Allen, longtime professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, died on April 10.

Bible Passages has just released two short videos (7 min ea):

  • Secrets of the Arch of Titus – goes beyond the well-known menorah and table of showbread to investigate scenes of military conquest, dedicatory inscriptions, and the depiction of a deified emperor.
  • Erastus: Did Paul Get It Right? – considers the inscription for its insight into the social and economic standing of early Christians as well as how this archaeological discovery supports the historicity of Romans 16:23.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Keith Keyser, Ted Weis, Arne Halbakken, Explorator, Paleojudaica

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A new study contrasts the construction of hundreds of churches in Israel in the Byzantine period with the building of synagogues. “Christian elites built numerous private churches, while Jewish donors appeared to pool their resources in a communal synagogue.”

In Approaching Jerusalem, Chandler Collins looks at four cases where Jerusalem’s terrain was reshaped by the cutting of vertical bedrock scarps.

Authorities seized hundreds of antiquities, including coins, arrowheads, and jewelry, from a private home in southern Israel.

Andrew Lawler writes about the origin of the pork taboo.

The final episode in the Biblical Images of God series is the “Humble King.”

The Biblical Archaeology Society provides highlights from their recent Spring Bible & Archaeology Fest.

Olive Tree Bible Software is offering the 7-volume Baker Illustrated Collection on sale for $100 (list price: $280).

New release: Ethics in Archaeological Practice, edited by Sarah Kielt Costello and Sarah Lepinski (Annual of ASOR 78, $30-$75)

Nancy Lapp died last month.

You don’t hear too many wedding stories where the archaeologist walks the bride down the aisle (a balk) and the guest book is a large potsherd.

It’s not archaeology or geography, but I think the articles by my students in the second volume of The Master’s University Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies are quite good.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Keith Keyser, Ted Weis, Arne Halbakken, Explorator, Paleojudaica

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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

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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

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