Weekend Roundup Archives - BiblePlaces.com

Weekend Roundup

During excavations of the agora at Smyrna, archaeologists discovered three rooms with wall paintings and mosaics.

“For nearly 180 years, archaeologists studying Nimrud in northern Iraq have focused on palaces, temples, and royal buildings. A new project is shifting attention to the vast lower city, where most of the Assyrian capital’s people lived.”

Archaeologists have discovered at Saqqara the tomb of a judge who heard the appeals of ordinary people.

“A scientific journal has retracted a study that claimed satellite radar could reveal hidden structures inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, finding ‘serious methodological flaws and statistical errors’ that undermined its conclusions.”

“The Egyptian Museum in Cairo completed restoration work on a stele of Ramesses II.”

Scientists are stomping grapes in an ancient reconstructed winepress in order to determine “whether ancient Judean winemakers let the juice flow directly into the adjacent collection vats to ferment, or instead left it to ferment on the treading floor itself.”

ASOR has teamed up with the Libyan Department of Antiquities to restore the archaeological site of Cyrene. The article includes many photos.

Turkish Archaeological News rounds up the top stories for the month of August.

The Museum Fine of Arts, Boston, is presenting the exhibit “Maverick Kings,” highlighting the reigns of three Egyptian rulers of the 18th Dynasty: Hatshepsut, Amenhotep III, and Akhenaten.

New release: The Animals of Ancient Egypt: Then and Now, by Richard Hoath and Salima Ikram (AUC Press, $22)

On Digging for Truth, Ted Wright discusses a panel from Sennacherib’s palace that may depict Jerusalem.

Friends of ASOR Webinar on Sept 24: “Digging into The Odyssey: An Epic Reimagined or a Misinterpretation of Epic Proportions?,” with Eric Cline, Kim Shelton, and Alex Joffe

Zoom lecture on Oct 6: “When Worlds Collide: Mediterranean Mercenaries and Israel’s Genesis,” by Aaron Burke (BAS Scholars Series, $10)

Writing for Bible History Daily, Robin Gallaher Branch explores the significance of Cornelius and his conversion.

Carl Rasmussen explains how to easily find images on his website.

The Friends of ASOR Tours is offering a 15-day tour of Tunisia, led by Andrew G. Vaughn.

HT: Agade, Ted Weis, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Judah, Lectures, Mesopotamia, Museums, New Exhibits, Resources, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

“Archaeologists excavating the ancient city of Adramytteion in western Türkiye have uncovered an unusually personal trace of Roman domestic life: a cat and a dog depicted in a mosaic from the villa’s 2nd–3rd-century AD phase, accompanied by inscriptions giving their names.” Adramyttium is mentioned in Acts 27:2.

The AFP reports on archaeological discoveries in Lebanon in recent years.

The British Museum Blog looks at wigs and hairstyles in ancient Egypt.

On Digging for Truth, Bryan Windle gives an archaeological biography for Sargon II.

New release: Babel and Bible: The Impact of Mesopotamia on Biblical Studies 1872-1924, by Rannfrid I. Lasine Thelle (Bloomsbury; $76–$108)

Hybrid lecture on Sept 16 at the Albright: “The Site That Broke the Clock: Radiocarbon Dating, Pottery, and Rewriting the Early Bronze Age ‘Collapse’ in Jordan,” by James Fraser

Zoom lecture on Sept 23: “The Wondrous Phenomenon of the Artesian Spring – New Excavations at Tall Zirāʿa,” by Dieter Vieweger

An Italian man who constructed his own “ancient Greek theater” and charged tourists to see it is now in jail.

HT: Agade, Explorator, Paleojudaica

Tagged Assyria, Egypt, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Lectures, Resources, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

“A team led by Israeli researcher Yoav Vaknin has developed a method to distinguish genuine clay artifacts from modern fakes by reading faint magnetic signals locked into the objects when they were fired thousands of years ago.”

A new study by UCLA professor Catherine Bonesho concludes that a copper ring once identified as Pontius Pilate’s—and then not—likely belonged to a slave involved in administrative work in Judea.

Aren Maeir visited the new excavations at Tel Qana, on the northern bank of the Yarkon River, and the Jerusalem Post published a video.

The latest Jerusalem Tracker lists “every new academic publication” that Chandler Collins “can find that is relevant for the study of historical Jerusalem,” including new books, excavation reports, articles, and book chapters.

Elon Gilad writes about another Jewish revolt, one between the Great Revolt and the Bar Kokhba Revolt, about which little is known.

Shmuel Browns, a tour guide in Israel, has begun a Substack that features his areas of interest: History & Archaeology, Hiking & Nature, Photography, and a Field Report.

Libby Backfish and Cynthia Shafer-Elliott are on the Biblical World podcast to discuss their recent book, Grounded Theology in the Hebrew Bible: Exploring the Cultural Context that Formed Ancient Israel.

The Badè Museum’s 2026–2027 online lecture series is entitled “Affordability in the Iron Age: Household, Regional, and Interregional Economies in the Levant.” The first lecture, on September 24, is by Erin Hall on “The Economy of the Northern Israelite Kingdom in the Iron Age II.”

Eric Cline asks (and answers) the questions of who the Sea Peoples were (there is no simple answer) and whether they caused the end of the Bronze Age (they have been set up as a scapegoat).

Bryan Windle reports on the top three archaeological reports for the month of August.

The latest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review includes articles on a harbor town in the days of Israel’s judges, monumental tombs in the Kidron Valley, tombs in the Negev, gaps within the text of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and an advertisement for a new book (p. 65).

HT: Agade, Explorator, Paleojudaica

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Jerusalem, Judea, Lectures, Museums, Resources, Technology, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup

A burial cave from the Second Temple period was discovered underneath a building in the Silwan neighborhood of Jerusalem.

All Israel News summarizes the case that el-Araj is biblical Bethsaida, including news from this summer’s excavation.

After sixteen years of uninterrupted excavations—even during COVID and wars—i24 News visited Azekah. The excavator “said his dream is for visitors within about four years to walk through the citadel’s high walls and inner structures and along the street surrounding the fortress.”

A study of a tomb chamber in the Theban necropolis was carried out “to reconstruct how this burial space was used and reused between its construction during the Twenty-fifth Dynasty (754–656 BCE) and the Ptolemaic period (305–30 BCE).”

“A new archaeological discovery at Tell Abu Saifi in Qantara East, Ismailia, is shedding new light on the ancient Horus Military Road and strengthening the hypothesis that the site may be linked to the lost ancient Egyptian city of ‘Mesen.’”

“The pillar of St. Simeon the Stylite was returned to its original location at the Monastery of St. Simeon on Mount Simeon, northwest of Holeb (Aleppo), Syria, on Tuesday, 16 centuries after it was erected.”

New release: David Stronach and British Archaeology in the Middle East, by Sabrina Maras (Bloomsbury, $84)

New release: Inspired by Assyria: Ancient Iraq & Victorian Britain, by Michael Seymour and Constance McPhee (The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin; free download)

On Digging for Truth, Nate Loper discusses his latest research after visiting the cities of Tanis and Bubastis.

Carl Rasmussen shares photos of the newly reconstructed bridge at Laodicea that crosses the Asopos River.

Bible Passages has created two new videos on YouTube:

“The Beast of Ephesus”: Did Paul really fight wild beasts at Ephesus? (10 min)
“The Hyrax Connection”: What the Elephant of Israel Tells Us about God (4 min)

John W. Moore has also written an article on Barclay’s Gate and related matters. His wife took a camera into the synagogue inside the ancient gate.

HT: Agade, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Egypt, Galilee, Jerusalem, Mesopotamia, Resources, Shephelah, Syria, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A Roman-era street is being excavated at Troy.

“On a Turkish hillside overlooking the olive-covered slopes outside Izmir is a cave known to generations of locals as the place where Homer penned ‘The Odyssey.’”

The Gaziantep Archaeology Museum has reopened after renovations following the 2023 earthquakes.

Ben Witherington suggests that Paul and Barnabas traveled from Cyprus to Pisidian Antioch at the request of Sergius Paulus.

Brent Nongbri writes about a sarcophagus lid in Athens “that shows papyrus rolls with a surprisingly high level of detail.”

“Athens’ U-shaped Panathenaic Stadium — made entirely of white marble — is getting its first systematic cleaning in more than a century.”

“The remains of an ancient bridge [from the time of Caligula] have emerged in Rome’s Tiber River, near St. Peter’s Basilica, as weeks with virtually no rain caused water levels to plunge.”

“Some households in Pompeii burned incense that likely came from Asian or African forests, connected via a global trade network, according to a new study.”

“A cave in eastern Spain is revealing new clues about the ritual lives of Roman women, after archaeologists documented more than 120 Latin inscriptions — the highest number known anywhere in the Roman Empire — at an underground sanctuary.”

Dante Muhammad has done a lot of detailed study to reconstruct the physical setting where Jacob crossed the Jabbok. His related book is entitled We Were Not Looking: Reconstructing the Patriarchal World Through Ancient Near Eastern Context.

With cracks appearing in the walls, the Altes Museum in Berlin is now scheduled for a complete renovation in the 2030s.

Carl Rasmussen shares some remarkable before/after photos of the odeum at Laodicea.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Joseph Lauer, Explorator

Tagged Greece, Italy, Jordan, Museums, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

“A 1,300-year-old industrial and commercial complex was uncovered during excavations over the past few months in the Winter Stadium parking lot in Ramat Gan.”

Moshe Gilad writes about the new exhibit about Huqoq and the excavations that led to it. There is more about the site and exhibit at the KKL-JNF website, including photos and information about the mosaics.

“Israel experienced a rare midsummer storm on Saturday that brought heavy rain to Jerusalem and the surrounding area, as well as to the Golan Heights, breaking all-time August rainfall records and causing flooding in parts of the Judean Desert.”

In a lecture given in Tel Aviv earlier this week, Anselm C. Hagedorn argued that Kiriath-Jearim should be located not at Deir el-ʿAzar near Abu Ghosh, but at Tel Moẓa.

Chandler Collins writes about two new interpretations of the inscription in Hezekiah’s Tunnel.

New release: Plants and Humans in the Ancient Near East: Roots of Multispecies Connections, edited by Silvana Di Paolo and Gioele Zisa (Zaphon 98 EUR)

Bryan Windle has written an archaeological biography for Ben-Hadad III.

HT: Agade, Arne Halbakken, Joseph Lauer, Explorator

Tagged Excavations, Galilee, Israel's Coast, Jerusalem, Judah, Syria, Weather, Weekend Roundup