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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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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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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SourceFlix has posted a video taken by drone of the Old City and Temple Mount of Jerusalem.

Excavators at Jezreel discovered an amethyst scarab that likely came from Jezebel’s homeland.

Amnon Rosenfeld died in a car accident in Israel last week. Earlier this month he wrote “The Antiquities Game – Behind the Trial of the Century.” The article is long but has a number of valuable insights.

With Gaza in the news again, Ferrell Jenkins discusses its biblical significance.

The excavators at Gath had a very interesting day on Thursday.

Abram K-J has found a free digital Greek edition of Eusebius’s Onomasticon.

Rik Wadge and Steve Shermett host a series on biblical archaeology entitled Rocks, Shovels, and 
Manuscripts on God’s Learning Channel. The most recent episodes focus on the seven churches of Revelation.

Caves in Israel—Manmade and God-made: Wayne Stiles explains and illustrates. He also offers a free download of a book he recently wrote for the Israel Ministry of Tourism, 100 Off-The-Beaten-Path Sites.

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After 31 years of hosting The Book & The Spade, Gordon Govier shares some personal reflections.

An aging Lebanese potter laments the passing of his craft.

Archaeologists have found evidence of the “plague of Cyprian.”

Satellite images from the US State Department’s Cultural Heritage Center “document the scale of destruction that looters continue to inflict on archaeological heritage sites during the ongoing conflict in Syria.”

Identifying a complete set of Edward Robinson’s Biblical Researches in Palestine at archive.org is a bit confusing, but David Stark has posted links to volumes 1 and 2 (3 volumes from 1841 in a 2-volume set, 2nd/11th eds.) and volume 3 (the 1856 volume, Later Biblical Researches, 11th ed.).

Now on pre-pub for Logos Bible Software: Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin (1958–2013) (78 issues) – $99.95.

ASOR’s Archaeology Weekly Roundup has more.

I’ll be traveling the better part of the next two weeks and will not be posting much. If they discover an archive at Hazor, Gezer, or Gath, I’m sure that one of my fellow contributors will let you know.

HT: Charles Savelle, Jack Sasson, Joseph Lauer, Ted Weis

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Luke Chandler reports on the first week of excavations at Lachish. They made some significant finds in his square on each of the first three days.

They had a fantastic third week of excavations at Tel Burna.

A Roman theater (or amphitheater?) has been discovered in ancient Smyrna as the municipality demolishes a poor neighborhood. This may have been the place where Polycarp was martyred.

Beit Guvrin National Park has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Wayne Stiles captures the beauty and historic significance of Nahal Zin with photos, a video, and Google Street View.

“The truth about Jesus’ tomb, romance and the Holocaust” is a rather flashy title for an update of Simcha Jacobovici’s lawsuit against Joe Zias.

ABR has created a new video series, Is It Time To Throw Away Your Bible? They have now shared a couple of free episodes: King David and Solomon: Men or Myths? Part One and Part Two. The video set is on sale for only $20.

Robert Cargill reflects on the passing of Yuval Peleg.

Bet Guvrin cave with view to sky, tb022807541
Cave at Beit Guvrin National Park
Photo from Judah and the Dead Sea
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