Jerome Murphy-O’Connor passed away today in Jerusalem. A Dominican priest and author of many books, Murphy-O’Connor is best known to many visitors of Israel for The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700. This excellent guide has been published in five editions beginning in 1980 with the most recent update in 2008.
HT: Paleojudaica
Mohamed Ibrahim, Egypt’s minister of state for antiquities, requests help in the Washington Post in fighting antiquities theft in his country.
Egypt’s future lies in its history, particularly its archaeological history. For hundreds of years the mystery and wonders of the pyramids, the sphinx and the Valley of the Kings have attracted visitors from around the world. Tourism is the lifeblood of Egypt’s economy and touches the lives of most Egyptians, whether they work as tour guides, restaurant owners, craftsmen or bus operators. Egypt’s history holds the prosperity of the country’s future generations, including that of youths — more than 40 million Egyptians are age 30 or younger — who are seeking opportunities.
But thieves are raiding our archaeological sites and selling their findings to the highest bidders. They are taking advantage of Egypt’s security situation to loot our nation’s economic future and steal from our children.
Egyptians need the people and the government of the United States to support our efforts to combat the systematic and organized looting of our museums and archaeological sites. Imagine a world in which the stories of King Tut, Cleopatra, Ramesses and others were absent from the collective consciousness. And with much of our history still waiting to be discovered under the sand, the potential losses are staggering. Antiquities theft is one of the world’s top crimes — after the trafficking of weapons, narcotics and people — but it is seldom addressed.
Egyptian antiquities are flooding international markets. Recent auctions at Christie’s in London and New York included several items from Egypt. Fortunately, when contacted, Christie’s in London withdrew a number of items that had been stolen from the tomb of King Amenhotep III, discovered in 2000 in Luxor. Among the items was a steatite bust of an official dating from 1793 to 1976 B.C.
The full op-ed is here.
HT: Jack Sasson
The Caspari Center Media Review reports on a couple of items in the Israeli press of interest to this blog. The first is from an article in Haaretz on October 17.
The Catholic Church in Israel launched a petition demanding the removal of an electricity pole that was put up two years ago across from the Garden of Gethsemane, which is “one of the holiest [sites] to Christians – the place where tradition says Jesus and his disciples prayed together before Jesus was arrested by the Romans and crucified the next day.” The pole was put up at the request of Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem “who have asked to be disconnected from the Jerusalem District Electricity Corporation, which supplies electricity to Arab neighborhoods on the city’s east side.”
The Catholic custodian of the Garden of Gethsemane wrote in his petition that “the huge pylon obstructs the view of the Old City from the prayer garden of the church used by pilgrims. … One of the significant reasons for the popularity of the church is the unique view of the Temple Mount and the Old City, and the pylon utterly destroys this uniqueness.”
The judge presiding over this case criticized the placement of the pole, saying that “it was a beautiful corner of Jerusalem and in addition a holy place.” He later added, off the record, that the Israel Electric Corporation “would not have done it in the Kotel [Western Wall] plaza.” By the end of the hearing, “the two sides agreed to transfer the matter to the appeals committee of the Jerusalem Regional Planning and Building Committee.”
I do not have a photo of the pole, but if any of our readers do, you’re welcome to send it in and we’ll post it here.
UPDATE: See photo below.
The second is from HaModia and HaMevaser.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be traveling to Rome next week to meet with the pope; they will discuss, among other things, the transfer of certain holy sites to the custody of the Catholic Church. “It turns out,” says HaModia, “that the new pope has set a public declaration of the transfer as a condition for his promised visit to the land.” One of the sites in question is David’s Tomb, “which the Catholics have claimed as their own for hundreds of years.”
HaMevaser reports that Rabbi Haim Miller has appealed to Knesset Members in an effort to stop the deal from going through. Miller claims that it is better for the pope not to visit Israel than that the tomb be handed over to the Catholic Church, even if this causes a rift between the Vatican and Israel.
The full Caspari Center Media Review is here.
UPDATE: A.D. Riddle has sent along a photo that shows the electrical pole. On the right side of the photo, there’s a purple bush with the pole to the left.
UPDATE #2: Pat McCarthy notes that Haaretz has posted two photos of the pole.
UPDATE #3: Paul Mitchell points to Google Images which has a link to this image in an article dated to last year in the Jerusalem Post.
UPDATE #4: Shawn French has sent a photo of an old electric pole that tarnishes the view from Gethsemane.
Egypt says an exact replica of the tomb of Tutankhamun will be installed near the 3,000-year-old original to divert tourists away from the threatened site.
Officials said they hope the $675,000 project will prolong the life of the original tomb while maintaining sustainable tourism in a country where many ancient archaeological sites are under severe threat.
Tutankhamun’s tomb, in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings, is one of many burial sites deteriorating from the impact of years of tourism, while restoration efforts will likely to make the problem worse, they said.
“The attempt to fix the tombs to make them visitable is itself now the largest long-term risk to the tombs,” said Adam Lowe, whose firm Factum Arte, based in Spain, led and funded the creation of the tomb’s replica.
The full story is here. The price of visiting Tut’s tomb has long been many times the cost of visiting other bigger and better tombs, and I recommending skipping Tut in favor of the pharaohs who ruled much longer. The Cairo Museum has a large display of items discovered in Tut’s tomb.
HT: Jack Sasson
On this week’s broadcast of The Book and the Spade, Gordon Govier and I talk about the recent discoveries of the Elisha inscription at Tel Rehov and the Roman Legion base at Megiddo. Listen here.
Ferrell Jenkins discusses the discovery of huge columns at Laodicea.
Luke Chandler had a fantastic day visiting sites in Samaria and recommends his tour guide to others.
An article in Haaretz explains why women in Tel Aviv have been enjoying archaeological lectures in English for 40 years now.
HT: Joseph Lauer
The discovery of an ancient olive press in Jerusalem was announced yesterday.
The “Naked Archaeologist” is suing one of its many critics in Israeli court.
Megiddo V: The 2004-2008 Seasons is now available from Eisenbrauns.
The warm springs of Sachne/Gan HaShlosha are one of the best places to swim in Israel, particularly on a school day when the crowds are absent.
The BibleMap App connects every chapter of the Bible with Google Maps.
Chris McKinny has been leading students from The Master’s College IBEX program at the Tel Burna Excavation Project for several years. His work is the subject of a new article on the college’s website.
Luke Chandler shares a 7-minute video of a recent field trip to the important site of Gezer.
Tourists will surely be affected by the massive renovation of Highway 1 between Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem.
