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:

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

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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:

HT: Agade, A.D. Riddle, Explorator

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

“Archaeologists have discovered ancient mosaics and detailed floor decorations during ongoing excavations in the ancient Greek city of Olympos (Greek: Ὄλυμπος) in modern-day Antalya, Turkey.”

“Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a rare Greco-Roman library in the ancient Greek city of Stratonikeia (Greek: Στρατoνικεια) in southwest Turkey, revealing new insights into the architectural and cultural legacy of one of antiquity’s largest marble cities.” By library, they mean the building, not the books/scrolls.

Jason Borges “describes the Roman road section from Antioch to Lystra, for people seeking to travel the route and explore extant remains along the Via Sebaste extension.” The article gives 11 features on the route and notes that excavations began at Lystra this year and the tell is fenced off.

Owen Jarus asks how Rameses II died and what happened when he did.

New release: The House of the Satrap: The Making of the Ancient Persian Empire, by Rhyne King (University of California Press, 334 pages, $95; Amazon)

To be released on July 8: Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations, by Sam Kean (Little, Brown and Company, 464 pages, $33)

Historie & Civilisations has produced a 50-minute documentary about “Gerasa: Rome’s Forgotten City in the Jordanian Hills.”

Bryan Windle has written and illustrated an archaeological biography for Darius the Persian (the one mentioned in Nehemiah 12:22).

There will be no roundups in the month of July.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Explorator

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

“A contractor digging into the earth where the rubble of a destroyed house had been cleared away in northern Syria stumbled across a surprise: the remains of an underground Byzantine tomb complex.”

“A wooden-structured burial chamber believed to belong to the Phrygian royal family has been uncovered in the ancient city of Gordion in Türkiye’s capital, Ankara.” The individual is possibly related to Gordios or Midas.

“A recent study suggests that high-altitude wind patterns played a crucial role in the collapse of the Minoan civilization by spreading volcanic ash and aerosols from the eruption of the Thera volcano.”

“The Greek Culture Ministry has unveiled a series of enhancements to the Acropolis archaeological site, offering visitors access to newly restored areas and improved facilities for the first time in decades.” The Old Acropolis Museum has not yet been reopened.

Athens is working to help tourists deal with the summer heat, including planting thousands of trees, removing concrete, and closing the Acropolis.

Alison Wilkinson writes about women’s rights in marriage in ancient Egypt. The full issue of The Ancient Near East Today is online here.

The Grand Egyptian Museum will hold its official inauguration on July 3, and the museum will be open to the public beginning on July 6.

HT: Agade, Explorator

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Archaeologists believe that they have discovered the lost city of Tharais, depicted on the Madaba Mosaic Map, in southern Jordan.

“Two seal impressions found on a large storage vessel, dated to the Early Bronze Age (2700–2300 BC), raise compelling questions about the role of Greece’s Cyclades islands in the emergence of script—potentially rewriting the more commonly accepted narrative that places the birth of writing on Minoan Crete at around 2000 BC.”

St. Catherine’s Monastery has been closed to all visitors in protest of an Egyptian court ruling that challenges its ownership status. An agreement may have been reached on Wednesday.

“The Centre of Excellence in Ancient Near Eastern Empires has published an annotated text corpus of some 6,000 Babylonian texts from the sixth and fifth centuries BCE.”

Leonard J. Greenspoon, best known for his work in Septuagint and Jewish Bible translations, died recently.

Walter Brueggemann, a widely published OT scholar, died on Thursday. Brent A. Strawn has written a tribute.

Turkish Archaeological News surveys the main stories of the month of May.

Bible Archaeology Report’s top three reports for May “include shipwrecks, gold, and a stone capital with an intriguing image.”

HT: Agade, Keith Keyser, Arne Halbakken, Alexander Schick, Gordon Franz, Mark V. Hoffman, Ted Weis

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Archaeologists uncovered portions of a monumental relief of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal in the throne room of his palace in Nineveh.

Christopher Jones explores questions related to Sennacherib’s assassination.

Scientists have discovered the evidence for leprosy that dates to the third millennium BC.

In a new study on Pompeii, “scientists documented events at one home in the doomed city where a family sought refuge inside a back room by pushing a wooden bed against a door in a vain attempt to stop a flood of volcanic rocks from the sky.”

Turkish authorities arrested four individuals who had discovered a Roman mosaic during illegal excavations at their house.

“Gojko Barjamovic, a lecturer at Yale University, along with a team from Harvard, deciphered and even attempted to recreate some of the dishes detailed on Babylonian clay tablets dating back nearly 4,000 years.”

David M. Pritchard explains why “sport in ancient Athens was much more than the Olympics.”

Aish.com has published a primer on the Cairo Geniza.

“The ancient bilingual inscriptions of Karatepe Aslantas Open-Air Museum in Osmaniye, Türkiye, have been officially inscribed into the UNESCO Memory of the World International Register.”

“Friends of ASOR is pleased to announce its first tour of some of Chicago’s greatest museums on September 18 and 19 for an exclusive behind-the-scenes experience.”

Live Science explains how archaeologists can determine the sex of a skeleton.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Ted Weis, Arne Halbakken

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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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