Weekend Roundup Archives - Page 92 of 176

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Joe Uziel, the new head of the Dead Sea Scrolls unit for the Israel Antiquities Authority, discusses his position and plans.

The Jerusalem Post profiles the work of Tanya Bitler, “currently the only person in the world who can touch and handle the legendary Dead Sea Scrolls.”

Researchers have analyzed more than 100 fingerprints on Bronze Age vessels excavated at the city of Gath. The underlying journal article is available here.

A stash of Jordanian ammunition was found at the bottom of a water cistern near the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The Smithsonian Magazine has a short story on rock art discovered on dolmens in northern Israel.

The two issues this year of Jerusalem Quarterly are devoted to “Palestine from Above: Surveillance, Cartography and Control,” with several articles on aerial photography.

A Times of Israel podcast provides a 30-minute tour of excavations near the Western Wall plaza.

Ze’ev Orenstein gives a 35-minute video tour of the City of David.

John DeLancey’s latest video tour is of Caesarea Maritima.

Ferrell Jenkins shares some interesting photos of storks that he has taken in Israel and Turkey.

“Ash-sharq is a new, peer reviewed journal devoted to short and long articles on the archaeology, history and society of the Ancient Near East.”

“The editors of the Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR) Online talk about the content, development and relevance of EBR Online for theologians and humanities faculty (recording of a live webinar).”

A fine painting by Gustav Bauernfeind of Jerusalem around the turn of the 20th century will be auctioned by Sotheby’s on July 28.

LifeWay is going with an archaeology theme for next summer’s Vacation Bible School.

Steven Anderson highlights some new resources for biblical studies, including his interpretive guides, SoundCloud playlists of the Hebrew Bible, and the Syriac-English New Testament.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Alexander Schick, Ted Weis, Explorator

Tagged Dead Sea Scrolls, Jerusalem, Resources, Temple Mount, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

**When we updated our blog design earlier this month, we accidentally broke the system that sends posts out by email. With that now fixed, we are re-posting the recent roundups, one part each day through Friday.**

The digs may have stopped, but the stories have not. With no roundups the last two weeks, I have more than 60 items of interest to share in the coming days.

A seal and a seal impression found in Jerusalem are rare discoveries from the Persian period.

“A Second Temple period Jewish ritual bath was discovered by chance last month in the Lower Galilee and a group of locals are trying to save it from its current destiny of destruction.” There’s a video report here.

“A new study carried out on pottery items uncovered in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron suggests the cave . . . was used and visited as a pilgrimage site during the First Temple Period.”

A new study suggests that many cisterns in the Negev may date back not to the Iron Age but to the Bronze Age. (Journal article for purchase here.)

The cancelled archaeology department at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has found a new home at Lipscomb University in Nashville.

Steven Ortiz, formerly of SWBTS, is interviewed by Bryan Windle in the latest in the Discussions with the Diggers series.

Mark Lanier, who helped bring the SWBTS program to Lipscomb, is interviewed on The Book and the Spade.

Moshe Garsiel has proposed a new theory to support the location of Tell es-Sharia as biblical Ziklag.

Aren Maeir visited the excavations at Tel Hadid, which along with Tell Abu Shusha and Tel Azekah, is one of the few excavations in Israel that were not cancelled this summer.

A study claims that buses and shuttles are a better solution than the planned Old City cable car project.

A couple of officials of the City of David organization give a 40-minute tour of the Siloam Pool and the Pilgrimage Road to the Temple Mount.

Biblical Israel Ministries and Tours is hosting a “Top 10 Israel Photos” contest and offering prizes.

Accordance is offering a number of its graphics collections at big discounts, including:

Bible Lands PhotoGuide (all 6): $74.90
Pictorial Library of Bible Lands: Cultural Images of the Holy Land: $24.90
Pictorial Library of Bible Lands: Trees, Plants, and Flowers of the Holy Land: $24.90
Historic Views of the Holy Land: Views That Have Vanished: $24.90
Historic Views of the Holy Land: American Colony Collection: $89.90
Virtual Tour to the Temple: $39.90
The Virtual Bible (Enhanced): 3D Reconstructions of the Biblical World: $19.90
The Add-On Bundles include many resources at very good prices ($59; $119).

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Alexander Schick, Ted Weis, Charles Savelle, Jared Clark, Explorator

Tagged Discoveries, Galilee, Jerusalem, Judah, Negev, Photo Resources, Shephelah, Tourism, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Restoration of the ancient theater and stadium of Aizanoi in western Turkey has begun.

“The ships and boats from Thonis-Heracleion have much to say about how Egyptian shipwrights of the Late and early Ptolemaic periods built their vessels, as well as the range of decisions that were made when they reached the end of their working lives on the waters of the Nile.”

Among those arrested in an investigation of trafficking of looted antiquities is a retired curator from the Louvre.

Facebook has announced it will remove content that seeks to sell any and all historical artifacts.

Now online: the first installment of the publication project on the records of the Pennsylvania excavations at Nippur 1889-1900 in searchable digital form (pdf).

“During the Early Iron Age, people dwelled among the ruins of the palace at Knossos in what we may refer to as a ‘landscape of memory’, one imbued with the collective memories of a bygone era.”

“Egyptian archaeologists are taking advantage of the global anti-racism movement to renew their calls on the French government to remove a statue of Jean-François Champollion, kneeling on the head of a Pharaonic king.”

Recent fires at Susa and Ecbatana in Iran apparently caused no damage.

Zoom lecture: The Discovery: 1000-Year-Old Bible Refound in Cairo Synagogue, by Yoram Meital, June 28 at 8:00pm Cairo time. To register, email [email protected].

Carl Rasmussen shares more about Aphrodisias, including The Theater and Its Artifacts and Jews, Proselytes, and God-Fearers at Aphrodisias.

Note: there will be no roundups the next two weekends.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Ted Weis, Mark Hoffman, Alexander Schick, Explorator

Tagged Antiquities Trade, Egypt, Mediterranean Islands, Mesopotamia, Persia, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

Just as the Biblical Museum of Natural History was about to open in Beit Shemesh, “a plague of biblical proportions struck.” Virtual tours are available at the museum’s website. They are also offering a new book by the museum’s director, The Torah Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom, Vol. 1: Wild Animals.

The Hashemite Custodianship of Jerusalem’s Islamic and Christian Holy Sites 1917-2020 CE: White Paper, by the The Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought (108pp). The labeled photograph of the Temple Mount on page 81 may be of particular interest.

New from Appian: An 80-page study guide to accompany “Lessons from the Land: The Gospels.”

“In Search of King David’s Lost Empire” is a long piece by Ruth Margalit that reviews the history of the maximalist-minimalist debate. Some responses by Eilat Mazar, Gabriel Barkay and others may be found here.

Assyrian soldiers had the edge with the invention of the socketed arrowhead. The underlying IEJ article is on Academia.

An article in the Jerusalem Post summarizes a recent BAR article on life at Tel Hadid near Gezer after the Assyrians deported the Israelites.

Israel should preserve more archaeological sites uncovered in salvage digs, argue some archaeologists. The article reports that there are 35,000 ancient sites in the country.

Tony Cartledge describes his experience in excavating a 12th-century Canaanite temple at Lachish, including his wife’s discovery of what turned out to be a scepter.

Charles Savelle links to three podcast episodes he has enjoyed on Thutmose III and the Battle of Megiddo.

HT: Agade, Joseph Lauer, Ted Weis, Mark Hoffman, Alexander Schick, Explorator

Tagged 10th Century, Egypt, Excavations, Jerusalem, Museums, Shephelah, Temple Mount, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 2

“A joint report by German and Syrian organisations has documented severe damage to Syria’s historical heritage and antiquities.” (Report on Academia)

“An ancient cave decorated with distinguished engravings depicting scenes of animals has been discovered at Wadi Al-Zulma in North Sinai.”

“The southern region of Najran [in Saudi Arabia] is set to become the largest open museum of rock inscriptions in the world.”

Egypt is proposing a merger of its tourism and antiquities departments.

“British anti-racism protestors called for the destruction of Egypt’s Giza Pyramids on Sunday, after tearing down a statue of a slave trader in the city of Bristol and throwing it in the Avon river.”

“A comparison between the names mentioned in the biblical book of Jeremiah and those appearing on archaeological artifacts from the period when the prophet is believed to have lived – around the sixth to seventh centuries BCE – offers support to its historicity.”

The British Museum blog: “Whip up a classical feast with nine recipes from ancient Greece and Rome.”

The latest British Museum travel guide is for Thebes in the 13th century BC.

New: Unearthing the Bible: 101 Archaeological Discoveries That Bring the Bible to Life, by Titus Kennedy. The author was on the Eric Metaxas show recently discussing the book.

Coming soon: The Case for Biblical Archaeology: Uncovering the Historical Record of God’s Old Testament People, by John D. Currid (also in Logos)

Carl Rasmussen shares photos of Aphrodisias, one of the most beautiful antiquity sites in Turkey and one that many tourists never see (including, sadly, your roundup writer).

“Windows into the Bible” is a new podcast by Marc Turnage that looks at geographical, cultural, historical, and spiritual contexts. I’ve been told the episode on Pilate is quite intriguing.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle, Agade, Ted Weis, Explorator

Tagged Arabia, Egypt, Museums, Resources, Syria, Tourism, Turkey, Weekend Roundup

Weekend Roundup, Part 1

“A sceptre about 3,200 years old made of copper and coated in silver leaf found in the biblical city of Lachish could be the first evidence of life-sized ‘divine statues’ in the Levant.”

Excavations of the underground Siloam Street have been (or were) halted after engineering instruments detected that the ground was moving.

Contrary to previous belief, chalkstone vessels continued to be used in the Galilee for several centuries after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple.

“Israeli archaeologists have published a 360-degree analysis of a rural, affluent Christian town in the Galilee that was most likely destroyed by Persian invaders in 613.”

Analysis of bird remains excavated in Jerusalem confirmed that specific species of birds – pigeons, doves – were indeed sacrificed in the Temple as the biblical text suggests. The story is based on an article in the latest issue of BASOR.

Roman and Byzantine mosaic floors provide insights into how humans restrained animals by the use of cages, ropes, knots, other tethering devices.

“A large number of archaeological sites in the West Bank, including many that are part of Jewish history and tradition, will be placed or remain under Palestinian control according to US President Donald Trump’s peace plan.”

An Explainer piece by Rossella Tercatin in the Jerusalem Post reveals who is in control of the archaeological sites in the West Bank.

Why is the Israel Museum still closed?

Ferrell Jenkins shares some photos and insights about the Judean wilderness.

Daniel Santacruz shares a dozen photos of wildflowers he took near his home in Maale Adumim.

This week we released volume #20 in the Pictorial Library of the Bible Lands. The Western Mediterranean collection focuses on Roman sites in Gaul (France) and Hispania (Spain) and includes more than 1,400 photos and 25 PowerPoints. The sale price ($25) ends on Tuesday.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Charles Savelle, Agade, Ted Weis, Explorator

Tagged Galilee, Jerusalem, Judah, Museums, Photo Resources, Samaria, Weekend Roundup