Weekend Roundup

Maritime archaeologists have discovered a Phoenician shipwreck dating to 700 BC off the coast of Malta.

A new study of the Timna copper mines shows that the workers in the 10th century BC were not slaves but highly skilled craftsmen.

Corinthian Matters has a review of a field trip app that accompanies the ASCSA’s new Ancient Corinth: A Guide to the Site and Museum.

Ferrell Jenkins describes his recent visit to the Louvre in Paris.

Tiberias—There’s More to See than Just Hotels. Yes, indeed.

Leon Mauldin visits the other Bethlehem. This lesser-known biblical site is in Galilee.

Clyde Billington is on the Book and the Spade this week discussing the “stone rejected by the builders” along with the use of tokens for counting.

Accordance has a sale now on a five-resource bundle from Rose Publishing, including their guides to the tabernacle and temple.

Paul L. Maier’s Pontius Pilate is marked down to $2.99 for the Kindle. I recommend it.

HT: Charles Savelle

Timna Chalcolithic copper mine, tb030807061
Copper mine in Timna Valley
Photo from Negev and the Wilderness
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Weekend Roundup

SourceFlix has produced a short video illustrating Psalm 23.

Wayne Stiles has everything you want to know about Timna Park, including photos, a time-lapse video, Google Street View, and a map.

“Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered the deepest cave in Israel, reaching a depth of 187 meters below ground.”

The Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names is now online for free.

If you’re thinking about visiting the Pergamum Museum in Berlin anytime soon, read Ferrell Jenkins’ recent post.

A copper awl discovered not far from Beth Shean is now believed to be the oldest metal object known from the Middle East. The University of Haifa press release is online here.

“The Iraqi National Museum inaugurated two renovated halls adorned with life-size stone statues on Thursday.”

The new editors of BASOR have penned an inaugural letter describing their plans and offering an invitation.

Jordan’s Tourism Board has launched a new online chat service.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson, Charles Savelle, A.D. Riddle

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Weekend Roundup

Anna Moseley Gissing writes about three lessons she learned from archaeology about the spiritual life.


Haaretz reports that the appointment of Israel’s new antiquities chief is embroiled in politics.

Should the Vatican return the menorah from the Jerusalem Temple? Steven Fine assigned his class the task of refuting the notion that the Vatican has it.

Greek archaeologists excavating a fourth-century BC tomb at Amphipolis have made an “extremely important find.”


Camels Mummification existed in Egypt 1,500 years earlier than scientists have long believed.

The Egyptian government has asked the Ashmolean museum to lend it the personal collection of Howard Carter.

Brian Daniels discusses Preserving Culture in War on this week’s broadcast of The Book and the Spade.

What is the relationship between the archaeology of Jerusalem and the Book of Mormon? SourceFlix has produced a new video that answers this question.

Wayne Stiles describes two oases along the shore of the Dead Sea. (Can you guess which ones they are? Neither one ends with “Gedi.”) He includes photos, a video, and a map.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Arch of Titus Temple treasures scene left, tb112105077
Triumphal procession depicted on the Arch of Titus in Rome
Photo from Pictorial Library of Bible Lands, volume 15
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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A replica of Solomon’s Temple has now opened in Sao Paulo. But since it has the capacity to seat 10,000 people (and Solomon’s could seat exactly zero), one has to wonder in what sense it is a “replica.” This Forbes article has more info and a computer image. Google has more images.

Results of excavations at Tell Jemmeh in southern Israel from 1970 to 1990 have now been published.

G. M. Grena shares a list of lectures and abstracts of interest from the ASOR 2014 meeting in San Diego in November.

Wayne Stiles highlights some ancient tombs in Israel that you can visit.

Bible History Daily has a roundup of articles related to summer excavations.


The Times of Israel has a good collection of photos of mosaics from the Huqoq synagogue.

The NY Times has more on the destruction of the tomb of Jonah in Iraq.

ArtDaily: “Scientists at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia have re-discovered an important find in their own storage rooms, a complete human skeleton about 6,500 years old.”


Haaretz runs a profile on 5,000 years of strife in Gaza: “Gaza’s history reads like an encyclopedia of misery – war, destruction, earthquakes, plagues and floods. It has been destroyed and rebuilt, conquered again and again. But it also enjoyed periods of prosperity, when pagan, Jew and others lived together in harmony.”

Last call for the lowest price on Logos’ Archaeological and Theological Studies of Jerusalem (10 vols.) Some of the works I’m not familiar with, but the two Warren volumes are classics. The  more
who order, the lower the price goes for all of us.

I recommended ScrollTag several years ago, but if you missed it then, you should check it out now.

The program now includes the Trainer, a unique tool that will help you learn (and remember!) Greek
and Hebrew word forms. The package price is a great deal.

HT: Jack Sasson, Charles Savelle

Tell Jemmeh and Nahal Besor view northwest, tb050701349
Tell Jemmeh and Nahal Basor
Photo from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands, volume 5
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Weekend Roundup, Part 1

SourceFlix has a new video with fly-overs of nine important biblical sites.

A Nebuchadnezzar Cylinder recently sold for $605,000. (That’s an interesting number given that Nebuchadnezzar came to the throne in 605 BC.)

BibleX shares a report from the 1880s of a visit inside the traditional house of Simon the Tanner.

Robert Mullins is on The Book and the Spade this week discussing the recent season of excavations at Abel Beth Maacah.

That recently discovered Iron Age gate at Lachish is neither a gate nor is it from the Iron Age. Luke Chandler explains.

Ferrell Jenkins explains the importance of the Tenth Roman Legion in Jerusalem, and he follows it up with a number of photographs.

Five haredim were arrested this week for attempting to block entrance to an excavation site near the Old City.

IAA Director General Yehoshua (Shuka) Dorfman died on July 31 after a long illness.

HT: Ted Weis

Jaffa, house of Simon the Tanner, mat06522
Interior of House of Simon the Tanner
Photo from Northern Palestine
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Weekend Roundup

What do you do when your summer excavation site turns out to be less than 5 miles from a war zone?
The Ashkelon team had to figure matters out on the fly.

Mark Hoffman is inviting everyone to join his free, online course, “Survey of the Lands of the Bible.”

This MOOC begins in September and you can participate as much and as little as desired.

Wayne Stiles has a well-written and well-illustrated article about Ein Parath, where Jeremiah buried his loincloth.

How did archaeologists come to reject the biblical description of Joshua’s conquest? Henry Smith explains. He is interviewed briefly about the article here.

Leon Mauldin takes his readers to the Mamertine Prison in Rome.

ISIS Is About to Destroy Biblical History in Iraq.

Cleopatra’s Needle in New York City is getting a laser cleaning. “In nanoseconds, the soot particles are turned into white-hot plasma.”

The latest issue of ‘Atiqot is online and it includes several articles about an excavation in the Kidron Valley.

Göbekli Tepe excavator Klaus Schmidt died last week.

Amnon Rosenfeld—In Memoriam, by Howard R. Feldman.

HT: Charles Savelle, G. M. Grena, Craig Dunning

110724879tb Egyptian obelisk, aka Cleopatra's Needle
Cleopatra’s Needle, New York City
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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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