The LMLK Blogspot has posted a video tour of the new “Motherland of Religions: The Eastern Mediterranean in Late Prehistory” exhibit at El Camino College, including displays of artifacts from Hebron and Khirbet el-Qom.

Wayne Stiles explains how the ordinary becomes extraordinary in the Valley of Elah.

In a recent Israel Roundup, Shmuel Browns looks at the Rockefeller Museum, the BBC, and the Jerusalem Botanic Garden.

Haaretz is doing its best to embarrass the left-wing Tel Aviv University by showing its indirect connections to the right-wing Elad in its excavations in the City of David. (And unlike most of their articles, they’ve made this one free for maximum exposure.)

Shimon Gibson reviews Eilat Mazar’s The Walls of the Temple Mount in a BAR article now online.

We don’t plan to write much on this blog for the next couple of weeks, but we’ll try to catch up on the most important stories when we do.

HT: Joseph Lauer

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Gary Byers summarizes the result of the first week of excavations at Khirbet el-Maqatir. He thinks it may have been the best first week of finds at the site. Shimon Gibson will be resuming his excavations on Mount Zion from June 16 to July 11. Volunteers are welcome. A list of papers for the Noah’s Ark conference at Sirnak University in Turkey has been announced. Among the list is this one by Gordon Franz: “Did Sennacherib, King of Assyria, Worship Wood from Noah’s Ark?” Don Wimmer, director of excavations at Tall Safut in Jordan, died last week. Worsening conditions at the Cairo Museum are causing concern. The Green Scholars Initiative Series on Early Jewish Texts is a new book series to be published by Brill and led by Emanuel Tov. Scholars are using artificial intelligence programs to help reassemble more than 100,000 manuscript fragments from across the Mediterranean world. Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg has written the latest Archaeology in Israel Update—April 2013. Luke Chandler is leading a tour of Italy this fall. The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols.) is now marked down 78% to $90. Until Friday. HT: Jack Sasson, Bill Soper Pompeii Consolare Street and Modesto Street intersection, tb111505131 Preserved ruins of Pompeii
Photo from Pictorial Library, Italy and Malta

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Matti Friedman posts new photos and information about the royal (proto-Aeolic) capital discovered in a water tunnel not far from Bethlehem.

The first official Israeli exhibit in the Louvre is the Lod Mosaic. It opens tomorrow and runs through August 19.

Wayne Stiles explains why Nazareth Village is not just another tourist trap.

The Jewish Voice suggests 13 Must-See Museums in Israel.

Jerusalem Experience has a new video of the Pools of Bethesda.

All of the articles of the latest issue of Atiqot are now online.

Ferrell Jenkins recommends the new Satellite Bible Atlas for tours anywhere in Israel.

Rockefeller Museum entrance, tb042403209
The Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem
Photo from the Pictorial Library, volume 3
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Plans to reconstruct Herod’s tomb at the Herodium have been scrapped.

The same article reports that the Herod exhibition at the Israel Museum has been extended to January 2014.

Tuesday’s Samaritan Passover ceremony is described in a Haaretz article. (I believe the first photo caption is wrong, for the animal is not slain until sunset.)

105 million euros is not enough to save Pompeii from deterioration, according to a New York Times video.

Ferrell Jenkins is back in Israel and he recently spent a morning with Shmuel Browns.

The Spring 2013 season at Tel Burna is over and they have found evidence of a destruction in the 9th century. There are still a few days left to sign up for the summer season.


Haaretz’s “Tourist Tip #218” describes the significance of the Broad Wall of Jerusalem.

The temporary bridge to the Mughrabi Gate next to the Western Wall still stands, but next month a committee is going to meet in Paris to discuss its replacement.

FoxNews reports on apps for archaeology.

Berlin’s Pergamon Museum has a new exhibition on the Mesopotamian city of Uruk. Better photos are available here.

Christianbook.com is now selling The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols.) for only $99.99. (That’s 75% the $400 list.)

A rare, original set of the 13 volumes of the Survey of Western Palestine has just been listed by a UK bookseller for $6,400. For $35 more, you can pick up a digital copy of the oversized maps.

HT: Jack Sasson

Key Map for the Survey of Western Palestine. All 26 maps (plus one from Transjordan) are for sale here.
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Several significant excavation reports will be published in the next couple of months and Eisenbrauns is offering major discounts on pre-orders.

Megiddo V: The 2004-2008 Seasons

Gezer VII: The Middle Bronze and Later Fortifications in Fields II, IV, and VIII

Sepphoris I: The Pottery from Ancient Sepphoris
MegiddoVcover.indd
With the ongoing debate over the chronology of the Iron Age II, the Megiddo volumes may receive the most attention from scholars.

Eisenbrauns has a number of other excavation reports on sale, including volumes on Bab edh-Dhra, Lahav (volumes I-II), Tell el-
Hesi (volumes II-V), Gezer (volumes I-III, V), and Dothan. For those interested in a popular work, the Timnah volume is now marked down 50% (to $15).

There doesn’t seem to be a direct link to the sale page, so go to the home page, read about their phenomenal new “Online/Offline
Backup Service” (announced on April 1), and follow the link to the sale from there.

A couple of recently published excavation reports are reviewed in the current issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. In the article now available online, William G. Dever reviews Ashkelon 3: The Seventh Century B.C. and Hazor: The 1990–2009 Excavations: The Iron Age.

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