Samaria Archives - Page 22 of 36

Weekend Roundup

Israeli authorities seized dozens of stolen ancient artifacts in Acco recently.

January’s “Find of the Month” for the Temple Mount Sifting Project is a murex trunculus.

Wayne Stiles considers the history and geography of Bethsaida and makes a present-day application.

Philippe Bohstrom looks at the history and biblical connections of the Amorites in the first part of a series for Haaretz (premium) on the Peoples of the Bible.

Yonatan Adler investigates the archaeological evidence for Jewish ritual purity in the time of Jesus, focusing on ritual baths and chalkstone vessels.

A new exhibition at the Onassis Center in NYC begins on March 9: “A World of Emotion in Ancient Greece, 700 BC – 200 AD.”

The half-shekel Temple tax is once again being collected.

The ASOR Archive Photo of the Month shows the excavations at Bethel (Beitin) in 1934.

After decades of travel in the Holy Land, Ferrell Jenkins made it to biblical Ibleam and its water tunnel.

HT: Charles Savelle, Agade, Paleojudaica, Gordon Franz

Tagged Galilee, Jerusalem, Samaria, Temple Mount, Weekend Roundup

Scott Stripling provides an account of the 21st and final season of excavations at Khirbet el-Maqatir, possible location of biblical Ai. They found a Bronze Age stele in the final week of excavations.

Breaking Israel News provides an illustrated report of Noam Arnon’s exploration of the caves below Hebron’s Machpelah 35 years ago.

A medieval building constructed atop the Byzantine-era synagogue at Huqoq may also have served as a synagogue.

Carl Rasmussen links to some new excavations in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Shem Tov Sasson brings his readers along on the annual two-day Bar Ilan University’s Archaeology tour, this year to the Aravah (part 1, part 2).

A large display of Greek ceramics is now on display at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem.

The Louvre is planning to display some of its antiquities in Iran this spring.

“The European police have arrested 75 people and recovered about 3,500 stolen archaeological artifacts and other artworks as part of the dismantling of an international network of art traffickers.”

Iraqi authorities discovered more than 100 Assyrian artifacts in the home of an ISIS leader.
“Critical Perspectives on the Practice of Digital Archaeology” is the title of a conference being held
on Friday and Saturday at Harvard.

The Center for the Study of Christianity at the Hebrew University is sponsoring a conference in June with the theme, “Origen’s Legacy in the Holy Land—A Tale of Three Cities: Jerusalem, Caesarea and Bethlehem.”

“Students should study Egyptology and Assyriology.”

If Israel was compared to the playing board of Monopoly, Wayne Stiles identifies “Boardwalk” as Tel Megiddo.

I recently returned from a great study tour led by Dr. Mark Wilson. If you’re looking for an outstanding opportunity to learn the biblical lands outside of Israel, he’s leading a May walking tour in Turkey and a September-October tour of Malta and Italy.

The latest episodes at The Book and the Spade include The Library at Herculaneum, with Brent Seales; Jesus and the Remains of His Day, with Craig Evans; and the Top 10 Biblical Archaeology Stories of 2016, with Clyde Billington.

There will be a one-night showing next month of the new documentary, “Is Genesis History?”
Leen Ritmeyer notes a special offer by Carta Jerusalem that includes a discount as well as a free copy of a new biblical archaeology map of Jerusalem. I plan to post more on that map shortly.

We’re now on Instagram, posting a photo every day. We continue to do the same on Facebook and Twitter.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Excavations, Galilee, Jerusalem, Judah, Lectures, Movies, Museums, Negev, Samaria, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

If you’re interested in excavating in Israel next year and need a scholarship, the Tel Burna team has compiled a list of opportunities.

A new exhibit on Khirbet el-Maqatir opens next month at the University of Pikeville.

Translation is the focus of an exhibit showing through March, 2017 at the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations (MUCEM) in Marseille, France.

An Iranian archaeologist who has cataloged nearly 50,000 ancient paintings and engravings across Iran, many featuring the ibex deer, is hoping newfound access to the Western resources will reveal more insight into these works.

The British Museum has finished phase one to digitize their collection of Hebrew MSS.

K. Lawson Younger explains why he wrote a book on the Arameans.

Richard Averbeck has started a series of posts at the Carl F. H. Henry Center’s blog on Gen 1. The first and second posts are about the comparative method.

The ASOR Blog has a photo update on Nimrud following its liberation from ISIS.

HT: Ted Weis, A.D. Riddle

Tagged Excavations, Mesopotamia, Museums, Samaria, Shephelah, Syria

Weekend Roundup

Archaeologists have finally discovered the port of ancient Byblos.

Philippe Bohstrom looks at the history of the city of Dan and the tribe of the Danites in a well-illustrated Haaretz article.

Wayne Stiles beat me to the new Virtual Reality tour at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and I asked him to write about it. He did.

Albawaba has a short slide show of the pre-Islamic Middle East.

New tests on the (probably fake) lead codices from Jordan suggest that the lead is ancient.

The Jewish Virtual Library posts a list of significant archaeological discoveries in Israel from 2004 to present. The list seems to be more complete for the last two years than for earlier ones.

Leon Mauldin visited the largely ignored site of Tirzah on his recent trip to Israel.

The Jewish Press posts a 15-minute video entitled “Secrets of the Machpela in Hebron.”

Amazon has a $5 off code good through Sunday on any book(s) that total $15 or more. Enter GIFTBOOK at checkout. Here are three books that qualify:

Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, ed. John Walton and Craig Keener
Biblical Turkey, by Mark Wilson
Jerusalem: The Temple Mount, by Leen and Kathleen Ritmeyer

HT: Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer, Agade

Tagged Discoveries, Forgery, Galilee, Jordan, Judah, Lebanon, Samaria, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

A stone seal discovered this summer at Abel Beth Maacah suggests Israelite presence at the site in the 9th century.

Luke Chandler has collected a number of photos of floor tiles from Herod’s Temple Mount that have been restored by the Temple Mounting Sifting Project. The Jerusalem Post has more details. There are more photos here. A 20-minute video of the press conference is online, with English starting at about 3 minutes.

Archaeologists have uncovered a Byzantine-era stable at Avdat in southern Israel. High school students joined in the sifting of hundreds of buckets of organic material left behind by donkeys, sheep, and goats. Five high-resolution photos are available.

There’s now an island in the Sea of Galilee. It’s near the southern shore and is the result of the low water level. Artillery shells from WWI have also been discovered nearby.

A mosaic from the Huqoq synagogue may depict Alexander the Great meeting the high priest of Jerusalem. Another interpretation is that it shows the battle between Antiochus VII and John Hyrcanus I. The National Geographic article has photos.

Israel’s ancient capital of Samaria has been vandalized. A video in Hebrew shows some of the damage.

Exploring Bible Lands continues its series on “Walking like Jesus” with a photo of a Roman road in Galilee.

Wayne Stiles explores why Kiriath Jearim is ignored, and why it shouldn’t be.

Thursday’s Archaeological Conference in the City of David entitled “Digging for Truth — Jerusalem,
Archaeology & UNESCO” may be watched online. Parts are in Hebrew and other parts in English, with the whole lasting 4.5 hours. The program may be viewed here. The Jerusalem Post reports on the talk by Dore Gold.

Olive pits discovered at Khirbet Qeiyafa receive special attention at a new exhibit at the Bible Lands
Museum Jerusalem.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle, Agade, Ted Weis

Tagged Discoveries, Galilee, Jerusalem, Judah, Negev, New Exhibits, Samaria, Temple Mount

Weekend Roundup

A high school student found a ballista ball from the Bar Kochba Revolt during recent excavations of Beitar.

Excavators working at Abel Beth Maacah discovered one of the earliest silver hoards ever found.

There’s more information about the excavation of the chariot race mosaic in Cyprus.

To make the looting of Syrian artifacts more difficult, the US State Department announced emergency import restrictions.

“Oxford University researchers say that trees which grew during intense radiation bursts in the past have ‘time-markers’ in their tree-rings that could help archaeologists date events from thousands of years ago.”

Wayne Stiles explains how the Herodium testifies to God’s sovereignty.

The New York Times is no fan of the Ben-Hur remake.

The Associates for Biblical Research are beginning to recruit for their first season of excavations at Shiloh next summer.

Leon Mauldin posts on the end of wicked Queen Athaliah and shares a photo of a model of Jerusalem at the Bible Lands Museum.

If you wanted to know a little more about Enoch’s journey through the world (referenced in
Thursday’s survey results), Paleojudaica explains.

The new NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible is being released on Tuesday. It looks impressive, and you can flip through the entire books of Genesis and Matthew online to see for yourself.

Hundreds of photos, maps, and charts accompany study notes edited by John Walton (OT) and Craig
Keener (NT). The promotional website also includes videos and infographics.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Joseph Lauer

Our most re-tweeted photo of the week was this aerial photo taken by Bill Schlegel of Jerusalem from the southwest. The Citadel of David is in the foreground and the Mount of Olives is in the distance.

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Discoveries, Excavations, Galilee, Herod's Tomb, Jerusalem, Judah, Resources, Samaria