Weekend Roundup, Part One

David Gurevich considers the effects of re-dating Jerusalem’s Middle Bronze walls on our understanding of Jerusalem in the time of David and Solomon.

Why do the locals of Jerusalem dump their trash everywhere? Wayne Stiles suggests some reasons and makes an application to our lives.

Archaeologists have filed a petition against the Israel Antiquities Authority for its approval of the prayer platform below Robinson’s Arch.

Scientists are studying dust deposits in the Jordan Valley in order to understand changes in landscape and climate in antiquity.

If you’ve hiked the Israel Trail and the Jordan Trail, you might want to consider the Sinai Trail (especially if you are brave).

“Southwest Baptist University [in Bolivar, Missouri] is hosting the biblical archaeology exhibit
‘Khirbet el-Maqatir — A Journey through Biblical History’ through Dec. 8.”

If you want to dig at one of the most exciting excavations in Israel, you need to get your app in now!

John DeLancey shares a video of the quiet Capernaum shoreline and explains the significance of the location.

Tampa Bay Online runs an obituary for James F. Strange.

Congratulations to Seth Rodriquez on his appointment to the faculty of Colorado Christian University!

HT: Ted Weis, Charles Savelle, Joseph Lauer, Agade, A.D. Riddle

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Archaeologists have discovered the oldest port in Iraq, a large harbor built by the Sumerians circa 2000 BC.

A US organization has kept the traditional tomb of Nahum in Iraq from collapsing.

Scholars have identified an ancient Greek medical text by Galen that was later covered by a 10th-century copy of the Psalms.

Fifteen years after 15,000 antiquities were looted from the Baghdad Museum, half of them have still not been located. Many have likely been sold on the antiquities market.

“Mapping Mesopotamian Monuments is a topographical survey of rock reliefs, historical monuments and architecture that covers all historical periods from ancient to modern.”

Touring Jordan: Ferrell Jenkins shares a photo of the Jabbok River and Leon Mauldin posts shots of Tell es-Saidiyeh (Zarethan?) and a sunset over the Dead Sea.  

Apollo Magazine reports on the famous mosaics of Medeba.

In celebration of the acquisition of CDL Press, Eisenbrauns is offering a 30% discount on all volumes in the Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology series. Use discount code CUSAS.

Clyde Billington is on The Book and the Spade this week discussing the Roman camp at Megiddo.

Aren Maeir was honored on his 60th birthday with a festschrift prepared for him by more than 100 contributors!

Professor Ephraim Stern, director of the Dor Project from 1980 to 2000, passed away Friday evening in Jerusalem.

James F. Strange has died.

HT: Agade, Charles Savelle, PaleoJudaica

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Weekend Roundup, Part 1

An 86-year-old guide hiked the Nabatean Spice Route from Petra to Avdat over five days. On the last day they discovered a lost portion of the route.

The process of clearing mines from the area around the baptismal site on the Jordan River has begun.

A new study reveals that “pigeons played a central role some 1,500 years ago in transforming the Byzantine Negev into a flourishing garden.”

Philippe Bohstrom provides a good summary of where things stand with the seal impression of Isaiah.

Itzhaq Shai and Chris McKinny explain Canaanite religion at Tel Burna in the 13th century BC.

Israel’s Good Name recently spent the day at En Gedi, taking photos around the area and visiting the ancient synagogue.

An Israeli shepherdess is raising sheep so she can sell pricey shofars.

Passion Week begins tomorrow and Wayne Stiles is making available a free video series tracing

Jesus’s final days from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday.

50% off retail price on the entire inventory of Wipf & Stock! They have some great books! Use code INV50 through April 3. Here are three of their books I love:

Or search their 300-page catalog here. (Sale includes books not listed in that catalog.) Or find Biblical Studies here.

HT: Agade, Charles Savelle, PaleoJudaica

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Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Adi Erlich reports the results from the renewed excavations of the Beth Shearim that she directed.

The closing of the Megiddo Prison will (finally) permit the opening of an archaeological park that features an early place of Christian worship.

“A rare, intact bronze ring from the Middle Ages bearing the image of St. Nicholas was discovered by chance during recent landscaping work in the garden of a home in the Jezreel Valley community of Moshav Yogev.”

The shrinking Dead Sea is attracting some strange people.

Photographs from the 1952 Qumran Caves’ Expedition are now online.

Israel’s Good Name explored some places in Jerusalem that many tourists never see.

On Purim 89 years ago the Graf Zeppelin flew over Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

The entire double issue of Biblical Archaeology Review that celebrates Hershel Shanks is currently available in its entirety to all.

Accordance Bible Software is offering a large Lifeboat Switcher discount if you come over from any
other Bible software platform.

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

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Lois Tverberg explains the reading tradition used in the synagogue in ancient times, and she provides a list of the triennial reading schedule used in the 3rd to 7th centuries.

Wayne Stiles’s post on “How to live the impossible Christian life” includes a beautiful photo of the Sea of Galilee.

The Young Archaeologists School in el-Alamein, Egypt, is teaching schoolchildren about the importance of archaeology.

“Why don’t most ancient Near Eastern languages have words for ‘blue,’ ‘yellow,’ or even ‘color’?”

G. M. Grena notes a couple of episodes on the “Excavating the Bible” show that mention LMLK seals.

Chris McKinny is one of the authors of a new article entitled “The Agricultural Landscape of Tel Burna: Ecology and Economy of a Bronze Age/Iron Age Settlement in the Southern Levant.

Aren Maeir has posted the schedule for the annual “Aharoni Day,” this year focused on ancient metallurgy.

In honor of Tu B’Shevat, the Temple Mount Sifting Project shares some of the fascinating story of ancient wooden beams from the Temple Mount.

Israel’s Good Name took a field trip to the IAA Warehouse and to the Rockefeller Museum.

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Weekend Roundup

A team has been excavating the so-called “Cave 12” at Qumran and a statement of their latest work will be released soon.

One of the last unpublished Dead Sea Scrolls has been deciphered using high-tech imagery to put together a puzzle of 60 tiny scroll fragments.

The Times of Israel has more on the depiction of the birth of Athena on the potsherd from et-Tell.

Moshe Gilad, in a lengthy and well-illustrated article at Haaretz, asks why Qasr el-Yahud, the traditional place of Jesus’s baptism, is still mined and booby-trapped seven years after the site opened to tourists.

A conference on the Archaeology of the Dead Sea Region will be held next month at the State Museum of Archaeology Chemnitz in preparation for an exhibition on “Life at the Dead Sea” in the fall of 2019.

In a journal article for NEASB, Brian Peterson considers whether a ram’s head discovered at Khirbet el-Maqatir provides evidence for the Israelite conquest of Ai.

New images of mosaics discovered at the Huqoq synagogue will be displayed for the first time in a lecture at the University of Chester in the UK.

Carl Rasmussen shares photos of reliefs that illustrate the “dogs eating the crumbs” that fall from the table.

Leen Ritmeyer discusses the importance of the Trumpeting Stone discovered below the Temple
Mount and shares some photos from its original discovery.

Wayne Stiles explains why the Lord took his people to Mount Sinai before the Promised Land.

Kenneth Seeskin explains why the Hebrew Bible is so easy/difficult to interpret.

The Caspari Center is running a course on “Discovering Jesus in His Jewish Context” in April and May of this year.

Les and Kathy Bruce of Biblical Byways are leading a tour to Turkey and Greece in May and June.

Elisha Qimron has been awarded the Israel Prize for his work on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The ESV Archaeology Study Bible is coming in March, and you can read about the editors and their approach.

Appian Media has released a trailer for their next big project: Searching for a King. Filming will begin this summer.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Agade, Charles Savelle

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About the BiblePlaces Blog

The BiblePlaces Blog provides updates and analysis of the latest in biblical archaeology, history, and geography. Unless otherwise noted, the posts are written by Todd Bolen, PhD, Professor of Biblical Studies at The Master’s University.

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