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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A massive statue believed to represent Ramses II has been discovered at Tel Faraoun.

An Egyptian stela features a rare depiction of the Roman emperor Tiberius in full Egyptian regalia, standing with two Egyptian gods.

Archaeologists discovered a well-preserved statue of Athena in excavations of Laodicea’s Western Theater.

David Kertai discusses the palaces of Assyria in the latest episode of Thin End of the Wedge.

Ted Wright talks about the Epic of Gilgamesh on the latest episode on Digging for Truth.

New release: The Emperor’s Treasurer Hunters: German Archaeologists and the Plundering the Orient, by Jürgen Gottschlich and Dilek Zaptcioglu-Gottschlich (Lockwood, $20-$25)

New release: A Short History of Assyriology, 1850-1970, by Benjamin R. Foster (Zaphon, 89 €)

New release: The Rise of the Babylonian Empire, by Jinyan Wang (De Gruyter Brill, $116)

New release: Profiling Cleopatra: A Psychosocial History, by Sally-Ann Ashton (Cambridge Elements, $23; open-access until May 8)

New release: Ancient Egypt: New Technology, by Stefania Mainieri (UniorPress, open-access)

“Athens cannot operate as if it were a giant hotel,” said the mayor of the city.

HT: Agade, Andreas Heimbichner, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, Resources, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

“A newly conserved ritual bath from the Second Temple period has been opened to the public at Tel Hebron.”

Forty-two pages of Paul’s letters in the 6th-century manuscript Codex H have been recovered using multispectral imaging to recover “ghost” text.

The latest issue of Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology is now online (open-access). One of the articles is about a new Hebrew ostracon from Lachish.

A recent book recounts a story of an archaeology professor who saw golden vessels from the temple in a basement in St. Anne’s Church.

Bryan Windle highlights the top three reports in biblical archaeology for the month of April.

The NY Times looks at the challenge museums face in securing artifacts from theft while at the same time maintaining a feeling of openness (gift link).

New release: Hippos (Sussita) of the Decapolis: The Civic Basilica and the Southern Bathhouse, by Arleta Kowalewska and Michael Eisenberg (Eisenbrauns, $130, but 30% off with code ANE26).

Claire Pfann, co-founder with her husband Stephen of the University of the Holy Land, died in March.

It’s not biblical archaeology or geography, but as the faculty editor, I am pleased with volume 3 of the TMU Journal of Biblical and Theological Studies.

I have not seen any AI-generated videos related to biblical archaeology until one showed up in my Google Alerts this week. Entitled “Ketef Hinnom: The Oldest Biblical Secret,” the 1.5-minute video is pure AI, from the information to the imagery. The essence of the report is accurate, but the photos are misleading, and not a single image of relevance ever appears (such as the site or the amulets). I fear we’ll see more of this, if not be swamped by it. Posted 4 days ago, the video already has 14,000 views.

HT: Agade, Alexander Schick, Explorator

Tagged Jerusalem, Judah, Resources, Sad News, Shephelah, Temple Mount, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

Bible Archaeology Report lists the top ten discoveries related to Ezra and Nehemiah. Every discovery is illustrated by at least one photo, and the post has 27 footnotes pointing to additional resources.

Don Binder gives a little history of the Nea Church in Jerusalem, its excavation in the 1970s, and its inaccessibility ever since.

Bible Mapper has released a clickable, searchable Hebrew calendar that includes festivals and seasonal activities.

Lauren McCormick summarizes a recent article by Mark Wilson that argues that the Ethiopian eunuch may have been a Jewish administrator.

“Bread baked according to an ancient Roman recipe was sold for the first time in 2,000 years at Pompeii.”

According to a new study, the stadium at Perga was repurposed into a gladiatorial and execution arena, and five “Gates of Death” were designed to release animals into the combat area.

A exhibition on Troy will open in June at the Colosseum in Rome.

Significant changes are being made at four temples in Luxor to improve the visitor experience.

Three 18th-dynasty tombs in Luxor are being reopened after conservation work.

A new theory proposes that 16 ramps were used to build the Great Pyramid of Khufu in a period of as little as 14 years.

Christopher Rollston is on The Book and the Spade talking about Dead Sea Scrolls research related to the current exhibit at the Museum of the Bible.

The Vanderbilt Divinity Library is soft launching the new Art in the Christian Tradition website.

HT: Agade, Explorator, Roger Schmidgall

Tagged Dead Sea Scrolls, Egypt, Italy, Jerusalem, Museums, New Exhibits, Photo Resources, Resources, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

Israel aims to become the leader in archaeological knowledge within three years as they develop an open database and transform it into an advanced scientific repository using Google’s artificial intelligence tools.

A volunteer at the Temple Mounting Sifting Project this week discovered a seal impression from the First Temple period with Egyptian symbols.

Joshua Berman wonders if the biblical account of the exodus was “mockingly subverting an earlier Egyptian text.”

Alon Gildoni and Ron Milo created “Haggadah on the Map,” with a printable pdf version and an online interactive version. The Times of Israel interviewed Gildoni.

A newly excavated fortress at Tell el-Kharouba in northern Sinai might be related to the Way of Horus which the Lord led the Israelites away from during the exodus.

Ruth Marks Eglash reports on the excavations in the Kishle, just south of the Tower of David complex in Jerusalem.

Archaeologists discovered a cache of ostrich eggs near the remains of a campfire used by desert nomads in southern Israel.

“Recent excavations in Egypt’s Kalaya region in the Beheira governorate have uncovered a fifth-century CE building that offers a detailed glimpse into early Coptic monastic life.”

A new study has identified a female beast hunter in a now-lost ancient Roman mosaic.

Woo Min Lee argues that Sennacherib’s claim that he “shut [Hezekiah] up like a bird in a cage” was a declaration of victory, not defeat.

The latest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review includes articles on the Last Supper, sights and smells of synagogues, the “Diaspora Revolt” against Rome, and the Roman siegeworks built around Jerusalem in AD 70.

Greek Reporter has an article about the synagogue at Delos, the oldest one known outside the land of Israel.

Greece will be establishing two new underwater archaeological sites that will be open to divers.

New release: The Untold Story of the Kingdom of Judah, by Oded Lipschits (De Gruyter Brill, $88)

New release: Pencil and Dust. Women Who Shaped Archaeology in Greece and the Greek World, edited by Sylviane Déderix and Maguelone Bastide (École française d’Athènes; $11)

New online course: “The Archaeology of Ancient Israel: A View from Mesopotamia,” by Paul Collins (Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society; £50-£100)

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Exodus-Conquest, Greece, Holidays, Jerusalem, Judah, Mesopotamia, Negev, Resources, Technology, Temple Mount, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

Rossella Tercatin writes about the exhibition, “The Girl Who Wrote,” that will open at the Israel Museum when the war restrictions are lifted.

With the museums in Israel currently closed, visitors can take advantage of online offerings, including activities for children.

The Times of Israel writes about the Purim holiday in light of current events.

Bryan Windle concludes his series on Jericho, arguing that it was City V, not City IV, that Joshua conquered.

Katharina Schmidt gives an update on the archaeological excavations at the Amman Citadel in the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

Archaeologists working in Luxor’s West Bank have found a cache of painted coffins with a collection of rare papyri that dates to Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period.

A tour guide in Egypt was arrested for drawing a stick figure into the wall of an ancient pyramid.

A 14-minute video shows how Pompeii looked before its destruction.

Bryan Windle discusses the top ten archaeological discoveries related to Esther on Digging for Truth.

“This past month, the most significant news stories from the world of biblical archaeology all involved stones: a stone seal, a stone vessel workshop, and limestone blocks related to a biblical Pharaoh.”

Zoom lecture on March 9: “Sensing the Synagogue,” by Karen B. Stern ($10). You can get a preview in this BAS article.

New release: Mummy Portraits of Roman Egypt, Volume 2, edited by Marie Svoboda and Caroline R. Cartwright (Getty Museum; open-access, including pdf)

The eBook of Bringing Heaven Here is on sale through Sunday for $3.99 (Kindle, B&N, Apple, Google, Kobo).

Jodi Magness has written a retrospective piece about her career as an archaeologist.

HT: Agade, Explorator, Paleojudaica

Tagged Egypt, Excavations, Holidays, Italy, Jordan Rift, Museums, New Exhibits, Persia, Resources, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

“A stone tool workshop from the Second Temple period was discovered on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem during an investigation by the Israel Antiquities Authority into a gang of antiquities thieves.”

“A rare bronze scale pan was discovered during excavations in the ancient Jewish town of Sussiya by a father and daughter participating in an educational dig.”

A seal discovered in the Temple Mount Sifting Project is a rare find “from Jerusalem’s ‘Second Persian Period,’ the brief 14-year window of Sassanid rule between 614 and 628 CE.”

A Roman cemetery was discovered in the village of Jifna, north of Ramallah.

“The elderly patriarch and matriarch of a prominent Israelite family living in an imposing building in the Judean lowlands nearly 3,000 years ago appear to have enjoyed their own spacious room in a strategic part of the large home, suggesting they continued to play a prominent role within the multi-generation household into their golden years.”

The latest Jerusalem in Brief looks at the history of Absalom’s Pillar through a 19th-century photo, and more.

Hybrid lecture on Feb 26: “A Book in Two Scrolls: On the Bisection of Isaiah,” by Marcello Fidanzio (registration required). This lecture is in conjunction with the Great Isaiah Scroll exhibit which opens to the public on Tuesday (through June 6). The exhibition book is now available for sale in e-book (pdf) format.

Hybrid lecture at the Albright on March 4: “Current Research on the Holy Sepulchre and Faunal Remains,” by Luca Brancazi (Zoom link)

New release: Ashkelon 10: The Philistine Cemetery, by Daniel M. Master, Adam J. Aja, and Rachel Kalisher (Eisenbrauns, $91 with code NR26).

New release: Lahav VIII: The EB III and LB II to Iron II Strata in the Western City at Tell Halif: Excavations in Field III, 1977–1987, by Oded Borowski and Joe D. Seger (Eisenbrauns, $91 with code NR26).

Following the British Museum’s review of the anachronistic use of the term “Palestine,” PaleoJudaica explored what language Second Temple-era Jews used for the land.

Israel’s Good Name describes his visit to the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem.

Bible Mapper Atlas has created a free poster map of Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Ted Weis, Explorator, Alexander Schick

Tagged Dead Sea Scrolls, Discoveries, Excavations, Jerusalem, Judah, Lectures, Museums, Resources, Samaria, Shephelah, Temple Mount, Tourism, Weekend Roundup