Archaeologists working in central Israel unearthed the Middle Bronze predecessor of Rodin’s “The Thinker.” High-res photos and a video are available here.

Archaeologists are speaking out against the construction of a mixed prayer area in the Jerusalem Archaeological Park south of the Western Wall prayer area.

“A necropolis and residential settlement were uncovered Tuesday in Abydos in Sohag, almost 400 kilometres south of the temple of the New Kingdom pharaoh Seti I.”

Divers have discovered the world’s oldest harbor in the Red Sea along the coast of Egypt.

The Kom Al-Shoqafa catacombs in Alexandria were not flooded, as some reports claimed.

A writer for The New Yorker visits the full-size replica of King Tut’s tomb in Egypt.

“The Egyptological museum search is a PHP tool aimed to facilitate locating the descriptions and images of ancient Egyptian objects in online catalogues of major museums.”

“Objects Come to Life is a physical and digital exhibition of the Eton Myers Collection of Egyptian Art, on loan to the University of Birmingham, which explores the importance and intrigue of private collections of ancient artefacts.”

An Israeli court has ruled that the names of Israeli archaeologists working in the West Bank can stay secret.

Luke Chandler has opened registration for next summer’s tour of Israel. He also reports on some sessions he attended at the recent ASOR conference.

Accordance is running a Black Friday sale through Monday. One new e-resource is the Satellite Bible Atlas. This version features all of the hyperlink and search enhancements you would expect from Accordance.

Wayne Stiles is running a Black Friday audio blowout through Sunday night.

Carta is offering a 25% discount on the forthcoming The World’s Oldest Alphabet: Hebrew as the Language of the Proto-Consonantal Script, by Douglas Petrovich, with code 25-off.

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

Alexander Schick sends along a photo of a newly discovered mikveh (ritual) bath at Herod’s palace at Macherus.

Machaerus Mikweh Schick P 4973
Mikveh at Macherus
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Teenagers working in an excavation in Galilee discovered a rare gold coin from the 8th century.


The New York Times has a story on the recent exposure of the burial bed inside Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Carl Rasmussen found some unique photos of the excavations here.

With the release of the editio princeps, Christopher Rollston has posted some more thoughts on the (possibly forged) Jerusalem Papyrus. The IAA is defending the inscription’s authenticity. Shmuel Ahituv is interviewed on Rejuvenation podcast.

Israel HaYom looks at early Muslim sources that acknowledge the Jewish history of the Temple Mount.

Shem Tov Sasson shares his experience of the first day of a new excavation at Tel Kedesh.

Ynet runs a story on the Qeiyafa exhibition at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem. Haaretz has a similar story.

King University in Tennessee is hosting a conference on Nov 13-14 entitled, “What’s Going on with Biblical Archaeology?”

Timothy P. Harrison shares an appreciation of the life and work of John S. Holladay Jr.

TouristIsrael recommends five unique places to stay in Israel.

Wayne Stiles provides an interesting overview of Nazareth past and present.

Excavations on Mount Zion this summer uncovered a destruction layer from a Crusader battle in Jerusalem in AD 1153.

Accordance 12 was released this week, along with a new free version called Accordance Lite.

Upgrades are also very affordable.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Agade, Charles Savelle, Mark Hoffman

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“For the first time in centuries, scientists have exposed the original surface of what Christians traditionally believe to be Jesus’s tomb in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, as part of a restoration project.” National Geographic has a video and photos. Justin Taylor interviews Leen Ritmeyer about the specifics of Jesus’s tomb as known from the biblical record and archaeology. The first-ever artifacts discovered in situ from the time of the First Temple have been unveiled in Jerusalem. Haaretz’s story includes a photo of a structure that was revealed. The protective cover of an enormous mosaic in Hisham’s palace in Jericho was removed for a day in advance of the construction of a protective roof. Excavations have begun in the Umayyad palace at Khirbat Al-Minya on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Ancient tombs were discovered north of the Old City of Jerusalem during recent road maintenance. Aren Maeir suspects that the Jerusalem Papyrus may be fake. An ancient Muslim inscription indicates that the original name of the Dome of the Rock was the “House of the Temple.” The TMSP blog comments on some of the reports at this week’s conference on the Archaeology of Jerusalem, including notice of a new study that the spring house over the Gihon in the City of David dates not to the Middle Bronze Age but to the 9th century BC. The Mount of Olives cemetery was ranked #8 on Bloomberg’s list of most beautiful burial sites in the world. HT: Joseph Lauer, Steven Anderson, Agade, Charles Savelle, Ted Weis, Paleojudaica

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Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of the Roman breach of Jerusalem’s “Third Wall” in AD 70.
Some high-res images are available here.

Excavations around the “Ramesses Gate” in Jaffa have revealed a massive destruction layer that attests to a battle between Egyptians and Canaanites.

Researchers have discovered two secret chambers in the Great Pyramid of Giza.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project shares some finds related to the feast of Sukkot.

Scientists have recently discovered the two components that gives frankincense its distinctive odor.

An archaeologist has created a 3-D model of the Heraion at ancient Olympia using photogrammetry.

An AP article describes the work and accomplishments of Robert Bewley and David Kennedy in documenting archaeological sites in Jordan from the air.


The New York Times profiles the early farming village of Ain Ghazal in central Jordan.

A new pleasure cruise line is carrying travelers between Haifa and Acco.

The National Museum of Beirut has opened its basement to the public for the first time in 40 years.

Touch Point Israel has compiled a list of 13 “must-see museums” in Israel.

This week in New York City a new photo exhibition opened: “The Day Memory Dissolved: an artistic perspective on endangered archaeological sites in the Middle East.”

Progress is being made on the National Campus for the Archaeology of Israel. The Jewish Press article includes photos and a 2-minute video.

According to UNESCO, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has nothing to do with Judaism.

Carl Rasmussen shares several photos from one of the least visited places in Jerusalem, the Tomb of the Royal Steward.

Wayne Stiles looks at the ancient and modern significance of Gideon’s battle in the Harod Valley.

The Associates for Biblical Research are having a big sale on the complete archive of Bible and Spade.

New book: The Five-Minute Archaeologist in the Southern Levant. (Out of stock at Amazon)

The schedule for next month’s Bible and Archaeology Fest XVIII is now online.

HT: Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer, Agade, Steven Anderson

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Digital imaging technology has virtually opened an ancient scroll from En Gedi to reveal the first two chapters of Leviticus. The publication in Science Advances includes a number of photos. Another article published in Textus is also online. The portions deciphered so far exactly match the Masoretic Text, but the radiocarbon date of 3rd-4th centuries AD differs from the paleographer’s date to the 1st or 2nd centuries.

The discovery of a menorah at Abila provides the first evidence of Jewish presence at this city of the Decapolis.

2,000-year-old human skeleton remains have been found buried at sea near a shipwreck at Antikythera, Greece.

A fisherman’s house from the Ottoman period was discovered along the beach in Ashkelon.

Bedouin youths have helped to excavate Byzantine-era farm buildings in the Negev.

A new virtual reality tour in Jerusalem takes “visitors” inside the Temple. There’s a short video clip here.

Archaeologists plan to finish reconstruction work on Laodicea’s Hellenistic theater within three years.

The Malawi Archaeological Museum in Minya was reopened this week after three years of renovation.

Omar Ghul, an epigrapher at Yarmouk University, discusses important inscriptions discovered in Jordan.

Laïla Nehmé is interviewed by Ancient History Etc. about the history of the Nabateans.

Ferrell Jenkins concludes his series on Iznik (Nicea) with a post on the modern city and its vicinity.

Wayne Stiles considers the history and the lessons from Hezekiah’s Tunnel.

Chris McKinny will be lecturing at Texas A&M Corpus Christi on October 3 on the Late Bronze finds from Tel Burna.

On sale for Kindle for $2.99: Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith?, edited by James K. Hoffmeier and Dennis R. Magary. I require several of the chapters for at least one course I teach.

Mordechai Gichon died this week.

Ferrell Jenkins remembers Erle Verdun Leichty on the announcement of his passing.

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

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A stone weight from the first century with the name of the high priest has been discovered in Jerusalem. Ynet has more photos and a video in Hebrew.

Israel’s largest archaeological garden was opened this week on a military base in Tel Aviv.

Archaeologists working at Petra have discovered two statues of Aphrodite.

“Excavations in the volcanic desert of Jordan have uncovered three surprisingly advanced fortified settlements with artificially irrigated terraced gardens, dating to 6,000 years ago.”

Someone is claiming to have discovered one of the stones from the high priest’s breastplate.

“Excavations at Tatarlı Mound in the southern province of Adana’s Ceyhan district have unearthed an impression seal from a monumental Hittite-era structure.”

Aviv and Shmuel Bar-Am provide a virtual tour of the excavations of Ramat Rahel.

Israel’s Good Name describes a recent visit to Chorazin (Korazim) and the first century Galilee boat.

Wayne Stiles suggests that the Transjordanian tribes settled for “second best” and he applies that principle for us today.

Leen Ritmeyer analyzes the paving stone tiles released by the Temple Mount Sifting Project and
suggests they came from “the interior of some of the many buildings that surrounded the Temple and/or from under the colonnades around the smaller courts.”

The Hebrew Music Museum opened earlier this year in Jerusalem and features 260 instruments.

This week Southern Adventist University opened a new exhibit entitled “A World in Miniature:
Creation, Cosmos, and Ecology on Seals from Biblical Times.” The museum’s website does not appear to have information yet on this new display.

The ASOR Blog identifies their five most popular posts of the summer.

The British Institute at Ankara has published nine volumes in the series Roman Roads and Milestones of Asia Minor, all available without charge in pdf format.

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

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