Shephelah Archives - Page 13 of 68

Weekend Roundup

Ruth Schuster has a photo essay of finds from the summer’s excavations of the temple at Motza (Moza) near Jerusalem.

A new study suggests that the site of Qumran was not a permanent settlement but a place where the Essenes came on pilgrimage once a year (Haaretz premium).

Brent Nongbri has a note about some little-known Dead Sea Scrolls fragments in the Vatican Museums.

Aren Maeir has posted his short summary of the Philistines, written for the Koren Tanakh of the Land of Israel: Samuel.

Ukrainian travel photographer Alexander Ladanivskyy has captured some unique photos of the Great Pyramid of Giza using a drone.

Madeleine Muzdakis writes about the remarkably well-preserved statue of Ka’aper, with its beautiful rock-crystal and copper eyes.

“Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs, an exhibition of Ancient Egyptian artifacts opens at the Houston Museum of Natural Science on November 20.”

Appian Media has released a teaser trailer for Trial & Triumph, a feature-length documentary on the seven churches of Revelation.

Phys.org has an article about the underwater archaeological park at Baiae, near Naples, Italy, where villas of the Roman emperors are now submerged under 15 feet of water.

A New York City antiquities dealer has been charged with selling antiquities that he mass-produced.

Philip Zhakevich looks at the ancient evidence for writing and scribes in ancient Israel. For more, see Zhakevich’s recent Scribal Tools in Ancient Israel: A Study of Biblical Hebrew Terms for Writing Materials and Implements. (60% off at Amazon now; my guess is that that price is very temporary.)

The fall issue of Biblical Archaeology Review includes articles on a Canaanite temple at Lachish and a Byzantine church near Beth Shemesh. An article on the importance of public scholarship is based on a recorded Zoom conversation with Eric Cline, Melissa Cradic, and Jodi Magness, available online here.

You can catch up on the top three reports in biblical archaeology for the month of August with Bryan Windle’s overview.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Explorator, Ted Weis

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Dead Sea Scrolls, Egypt, Italy, Judah, Philistines, Shephelah, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Archaeologists working at a construction site in a Tel Aviv suburb discovered a mosaic-floored winepress, a chandelier chain, and a hand-signed Byzantine gold coin.

The “Shema, servant of Jeroboam” seal impression announced last year is a fake. Yuval Goren claimed the seal was authentic after “years of strict laboratory testing,” but the object is in fact a common tourist replica.

A new study reveals that olive oil production in Philistia and the Judean Shephelah began earlier than thought and was significant in Judah after Sennacherib’s invasion. The journal article is available for purchase here.

“A large Roman-era sarcophagus dating to the 2nd or 3rd century CE excavated illegally at an unknown location in Israel has been returned to the Israel Antiquities Authority.”

In the OnScript Biblical World podcast, Chris McKinny and Kyle Keimer discuss the excavations of Tel Burna, including destructions by Shishak, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar.

Leen Ritmeyer’s latest post surveys Jerusalem and the Temple Mount in the Hellenistic period.

A lecture that Nancy Lapp gave in 2019 at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary is online. Entitled “Adventures and Discoveries from Half a Century of Life as an Archaeologist,” Nancy focuses mostly on her explorations with her husband Paul in the 1950s and 1960s, including driving from England to Shechem and on to India.

New release: Tel Reḥov, A Bronze and Iron Age City in the Beth-Shean Valley, Volume IV, Pottery Studies, Inscriptions and Figurative Art, by Amihai Mazar and Nava Panitz-Cohen (Qedem 62) (The Institute of Archaeology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2020). To order, contact the IES.

Now available: The Road Taken: An Archaeologist’s Journey to the Land of the Bible, by Seymour (Sy) Gitin. Save 30% with code NR21.

Navot Rom has a unique job, working the night shift as an archaeological inspector in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The Tell es-Safi team was doing more than digging this year, answering the “Jerusalema Challenge” with an impressive video showing off the team’s dancing skills.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, G. M. Grena, Ted Weis, Explorator, Charles Savelle

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Lectures, Philistines, Resources, Shephelah, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

A curious tour guide found a stash of ancient coins all lumped together on the beach of Atlit.

An Israeli girl found a Byzantine-era coin at the ancient site of Chorazin during a scavenger hunt game.

Haaretz (premium) posts some photos of recent finds made in the excavations of Azekah.

Construction has begun on a controversial elevator at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

“New research based on the analysis of dozens of pottery vessels has suggested has shown that in the period between the Assyrian conquest and the Babylonian destruction, a new cultural group emerged in the biblical Kingdom of Judah.”

Live Science has a follow-up article on the 8th-century earthquake evidence found in Jerusalem with responses from scholars who agree with the earthquake conclusion.

Chris McKinny and Kyle Keimer discuss the site of Khirbet er-Ra‘i/Arai, including the “Jerubbaal” inscription and whether the site should be identified as biblical Ziklag.

The latest episode in This Week in the Ancient Near East podcast considers the significance of the “Jerubbaal” inscription.

There are more archaeological connections to the reign of King Jehoash than you might think, as Bryan Windle shows in his latest archaeological biography.

If you’re in Jerusalem this month or next, you can try out the ropes course or the zip line at the Tower of David Museum.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Arne Halbakken, Joseph Lauer

Tagged Discoveries, Galilee, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Judah, Shephelah, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Archaeologists working in the City of David believe that they have found evidence of the 8th-century BC earthquake that occurred in the reign of Uzziah (Amos 1:1; Zech 14:5).

Archaeologists believe they have discovered the place where the Aramean king Hazael breached the walls of the Philistine city of Gath.

Israel will not renew the contract for Elad to run the Davidson Archaeological Park south of the Temple Mount (Haaretz premium).

Ruth Schuster gives the case for identifying el-Araj as the New Testament site of Bethsaida.

Haim Silberstein lists “10 of the best underground attractions in Israel.”

Bruce Chilton writes about “Herod, His Progeny, and the Cutting Edge of Power.”

The current issue of Adventist Review has a number of articles related to biblical archaeology.

This week on The Book and the Spade: “Wet Sifting or Not, An Archaeological Dilemma” with Jimmy Hardin.

Online conference on Sept 30: Jerusalem and Other Chosen Places

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Arne Halbakken, Charles Savelle, Andy Cook, Roger Schmidgall, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Galilee, Jerusalem, Lectures, Philistines, Shephelah, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Cambridge Symposium Lectures Online

A number of lectures related to the archaeology of Jerusalem have now been posted from the Cambridge Symposium held in March 2019.

The official title of the gathering was “The Ancient City of David: Recent Archaeological Exploration of Jerusalem. An Academic Symposium co-organized by Megalim: The City of David Institute and Von Hugel Institute of St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge.”

I’ve organized the available recordings in chronological order by topic. The lectures range in length from 13 to 45 minutes, with most approximately 25 minutes.

Jerusalem in the Old Testament era:

Ronny Reich: The Controversy over Jerusalem’s Fortifications in the Middle Bronze Age

Gabriel Barkay: An Egyptian Temple in Canaanite Jerusalem?

Dan Gil: The Enigmatic Subterranean Waterworks of Biblical Jerusalem

Hagai Misgav: Considerations in the Publication of Epigraphical Finds: The Bulla of “Isaiah the Prophet” – A Case Study

Jerusalem in the New Testament era:

Eyal Meiron: Were the Remains of the Seleucid Akra Fortress Found in Jerusalem?: An Alternative View

Nahshon Szanton: The Dating of the Stepped Street in Jerusalem in Light of the New Excavations in the Tyropoeon Valley

Ronny Reich: Jerusalem as a Pilgrimage City in the Early Roman Period

Avi Solomon, Joe Uziel and Tehillah Liebermann: Jerusalem as Seen from Above – and Beneath – Wilson’s Arch in the Early and Late Roman Period

Hillel Geva: The Upper City in Second Temple Period Jerusalem on the Eve of the Roman Destruction

Additional lectures:

Yosef Garfinkel: The Enigma of the United Monarchy in the 10th Century BC: A View from Hurvat Qeiyafa

Moran Hajbi: A Recently Discovered Monumental Structure from post-70 AD and the Pre-Aelia Capitolina Period at the Stepped Street Excavations in the City of David

Gabriel Barkay: Highlights from the Temple Mount Sifting Project in Jerusalem

HT: G. M. Grena

Tagged 10th Century, Jerusalem, Lectures, Shephelah, Temple Mount

Weekend Roundup

‘Atiqot 103 (2021), now online, includes articles about Iron Age pottery at Tel Eton, a fishpond at Illut, and Crusader remains at Acco.

Richard Elliott Friedman argues that Solomon’s temple was destroyed by the Edomites, not the Babylonians (Haaretz premium). An underlying journal article is available here.

David Ben-Gad HaCohen questions the standard identification of the Nahal Zered as Wadi al-Hasa.

Excavations are underway at Tel Burna (Days 1-2, Days 3-4).

A new study suggests that disruption of copper trade in the ancient Near East was not as severe as thought at the end of the Bronze Age.

The collection of 264 gold coins known as the Givati hoard were apparently minted as emergency coinage by Byzantine authorities in Jerusalem shortly before the Persian invasion in AD 614.

Archaeologists found remains of an Urartian castle dating to the 8th century BC in eastern Turkey.

A harpist has created a playable replica of the iconic Gold Lyre of Ur (25 min video).

Kyle Keimer and Chris McKinny conclude their podcast series on the Archaeology of Passion Week with part 2 and part 3. Accompanying visuals are available for each episode.

Zoom lecture on June 22, 11:30 am Eastern: Archaeological Sites of Iraqi Kurdistan as Tourism Destinations (Zoom link)

Zoom lecture on June 23: “What Recent Excavations Reveal About the Formation of Ancient Israel,” by James W. Hardin, Mississippi State University.

Zoom lecture on July 8, 12:00 pm Eastern: The Story of Tell Qasile: A Philistine Outpost in Northern Tel Aviv, by Amihai Mazar

The Bible Mapper Blog has posted some new maps, with downloadable high-res versions:

If you’ve ever wanted to go horseback riding on the Golan Heights, you can experience it through the report and photos of Israel’s Good Name.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer

Tagged Excavations, Golan, Jerusalem, Jordan, Lectures, Philistines, Resources, Shephelah, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup