Turkey Archives - Page 3 of 65

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Excavations at Kharga Oasis in Egypt revealed two early churches, including a mosaic depicting Jesus healing a sick person.

“Ongoing excavation at Iraq’s Mosul Dam reservoir yielded finds from the Hellenistic era,” including 40 tombs.

“Authorities in Türkiye have begun a large-scale preservation project for the colossal statues on Mount Nemrut using nanotechnology.”

Turkish Archaeological News highlights other top stories for the month of August.

There was a fire at the archaeological site of Tyre. The story has a photo but little information.

British Museum Blog: “The fascinating maths problems found in the 3,500-year-old Rhind Mathematical Papyrus show how ancient Egyptian mathematics supported daily life, from ensuring there was enough food to feed people to designing the perfect pyramid.”

Mark Wilson is leading “Paul’s Aegean Voyages” next June, and you can follow that up, if you wish, with the Antioch Seminar on Paul and Peter. Both are organized by Tutku Educational Travel (pdf brochure here).

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Gordon Franz

Tagged Egypt, Lebanon, Mediterranean Islands, Mesopotamia, Museums, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

“A trove of ancient statues, coins, pottery and pieces of a merchant ship has surfaced from the waters off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt.”

“An Italian archaeologist said recently he has found the exact location of Plato’s grave in the Platonic Academy in Athens after deciphering the Herculaneum papyri.”

New remains from the Kingdom of Lydia will soon be open to visitors to Sardis.

“The Minister of Culture and Tourism declared 2025 a ‘Golden Age of Archaeology’ for Türkiye.”

Zoom lecture on Sept 9: “After 1177 BC: The Survival of Civilizations,” by Eric Cline (date corrected)

Owen Jarus explains why identifying the Roman emperor who ruled the longest is complicated.

Philip Chrysopoulos explains why Nabonidus was the world’s first archaeologist.

Bible Mapper Atlas has created an audio-visual reading of Paul’s dramatic voyage to Rome in Acts 27.

in Biblical World’s second episode in its Second Temple series, Mary Buck explains the significance and major events of the Neo-Babylonian period.

I’ve recently been browsing Nancy S. Dawson’s All the Genealogies of the Bible (Zondervan Academic, 2023), and it is an impressive body of research on an important but neglected topic. It’s remarkable how much genealogies permeate Scripture. It’s available in hardcover from Amazon ($31) and digital from Logos ($30).

HT: Agade

Tagged Egypt, Greece, Lectures, Mesopotamia, Resources, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Nathan Steinmeyer has written an introduction to the Sinai, including its role in biblical history.

“Egypt Eternal: 4,000 Years of Fascination” is a new exhibition opening at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East on September 21.

A Scottish tourist was accused of stealing five stones and a brick fragment from the ancient city of Pompeii.

An ancient footpath network connects 46 villages in northwestern Greece.

New release: Slavery and Honour in the Ancient Greek World, edited by David Lewis, Mirko Canevaro, Douglas Cairns (Edinburgh University Press, 312 pages, $140, open-access)

New release: The Boomer Archaeologist: A Graphic Memoir of Tribes, Identity, and the Holy Land, by Thomas Evan Levy (Equinox, 400 pages, $40). The reviews are quite good. Use code 2893-25 for 25% off. (Publisher’s website is clunky, but the book is not yet available at Amazon.)

Applications are now open for the 2026 Biblical Field Studies tour—a funded study trip in Turkey for Bible teachers and scholars in the Majority World.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Alexander Schick, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

Tagged Egypt, Greece, Resources, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

“Analysis of 3,000-year-old smelting droplets shows copper from Timna and Feinan was alloyed with tin at a mountain site in Samaria, revealing a budding regional trade and technology network.” The underlying journal article is here.

A fire along the shore of the Sea of Galilee cleared the overgrowth at el-Araj (possibly Bethsaida), exposing piles of stones which may be ancient buildings.

A new video tours the not-yet-open museum below the Western Wall plaza (22 min).

The first volume of the excavation reports is now open-access: Jerusalem Western Wall Plaza Excavations I: The Roman and Byzantine Remains; Architecture and Stratigraphy, by Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah (IAA Reports, 2019)

“Police arrested a 27-year-old Jewish suspect on Monday, accused of spray-painting ‘There’s a Holocaust in Gaza’ on the ancient stones of the Western Wall, Judaism’s second-holiest site.”

Chandler Collins explores the location and significance of the Mishneh in Jerusalem.

Archaeologists have found two ancient church buildings in Egypt’s Western Desert.

“It’s now official—the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) will hold its long-awaited grand opening on November 1.”

“A new artificial intelligence (AI) system has accurately read an ancient Hammurabi tablet with 98% precision, marking a significant step forward in translating some of the world’s earliest written laws.”

New release: Ancient Mediterranean Incarceration, by Matthew D. C. Larsen and Mark Letteney (UC Press, $13, open-access)

Bible Mapper Atlas has posted an audio-visual reading of Judges 4.

With excavations underway at Colossae, Ferrell Jenkins recalls his first visit to the site several decades ago.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Ted Weis, A.D. Riddle, Arne Halbakken, Wayne Stiles, Gordon Dickson, Andy Cook

Tagged Egypt, Galilee, Jerusalem, Museums, Samaria, Technology, Temple Mount, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

“Researchers have discovered a 4,000-year-old handprint on a tomb offering from ancient Egypt.”

“During the 2025 excavation season, archaeologists in the ancient city of Laodicea have unearthed a 2,050-year-old Roman-era assembly building with a never-before-seen architectural design in Anatolia.”

An excavation in Diyarbakır, Turkey, uncovered a mosaic with a “Star of David with a cross motif and six lines of text written in Ancient Greek.” Not quite: the star is eight-pointed and not a “Star of David.”

“The restoration project of the 2,200-year-old theater in the ancient city of Assos, Çanakkale, northwestern Türkiye, has reached its final stage.” Also at Assos, archaeologists continue to bring to light a Hellenistic stoa.

Excavations continued this summer at Amathus on the oldest known Iron Age palace in Cyprus.

“New excavations clarified the long-debated ‘return to Pompeii’ theory and confirmed that survivors reoccupied the devastated city after the 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius.”

The IOSOT Berlin 2025 conference has a number of papers and panels relevant to our areas of interest. The full program is online here.

Eisenbrauns has four new books out, and you can save 30% off the prices below with code NR25:

Hellenistic Nysa-Scythopolis I: The German-Israeli Tell Iẓṭabba Excavation Project, the 2019–2020 Seasons, by Achim Lichtenberger and Oren Tal (394 pages, $100)
Kiriath-jearim: The Shmunis Family Excavations, by Israel Finkelstein and Thomas Römer (352 pages, $100)
The Excavations Beneath Wilson’s Arch, Volume 1, edited by Joe Uziel, Avi Solomon, and Tehillah Lieberman (458 pages, $120)
Authority and Ideology in the Early Neo-Assyrian Empire (934–745 B.C.), by Zozan Tarhan (304 pages, $75)

In a 3-minute video for Tyndale House, Caleb Howard reads from a cuneiform text that is related to biblical history.

The Friends of ASOR are hosting an archaeological tour of Cyprus with highlights including “exploring Idalion with Dr. Pamela Gaber, investigating the new excavation areas around Kalavasos with Dr. Kevin Fisher, conversing with Dr. William Dever over dinner, and touring and dining at the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute with Dr. Lindy Crewe.”

“The top three reports from the world of biblical archaeology in July 2025 included discoveries related to flint, clay, and human remains from Israel and Egypt.”

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Joseph Lauer, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Excavations, Italy, Jerusalem, Mediterranean Islands, Resources, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

July Roundup, Part 4 (Turkey)

After decades of hopes and dreams, excavations began at Colossae last month. The team’s X feed includes a couple of photos.

“Archaeologists working in an ancient Urartian necropolis in eastern Türkiye’s Van province are uncovering remarkable evidence of Urartian burial traditions, including signs that women may have held high status in the Iron Age kingdom.”

“A newly discovered 2,000-year-old shipwreck off the coast of Adrasan in southern Turkey is offering a rare glimpse into ancient sea trade, with remarkably well-preserved ceramics still in their original arrangement.”

Archaeology in Turkey is struggling with understaffing, underfunding, unrealistic deadlines, unqualified archaeologists, hasty reconstruction efforts, and illegal treasure hunting.

“The ancient city of Termessos in the southern province of Antalya has launched its first systematic archaeological excavations this year.”

Austria is celebrating 130 years of excavation at the site of Ephesus.

“In a landmark study published in Science, researchers analyzing ancient DNA from nearly 400 skeletons at Çatalhöyük, a remarkably well-preserved Neolithic settlement in southern Turkey, revealed powerful clues that this early civilization operated under a matriarchal system.”

Istanbul is not prepared for its next earthquake. This Washington Post story (subscription) looks at the potential damage to residents and the city’s 40,000 historical sites.

Jason Borges explains the strategic importance of the Cilician Gates, and he identifies and illustrates five main gates accessing the Cilician Plain.

Turkish Archaeological News rounds up the top stories for the month of June and the month of July. Some highlights:

With the installation of lighting system, Ephesus is now open to visits until midnight.
Visitors to Aphrodisias can now enjoy “night-time museum visits, a redesigned welcome center and enhanced landscaping.”
A second season of excavations is now underway at Lystra.
“Significant progress has been made in the Hidirlik Tower Archaeological Excavation and Viewing Terrace Project.”
Archaeologists have uncovered Roman-era shops and a stoa at Patara.
The goal of this season’s excavations at Troy is to uncover physical evidence related to the Trojan War.
Why 37 museums are closed in Turkey

HT: Agade, A.D. Riddle, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Excavations, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup