“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

Share:

“A stunning marble sarcophagus carved with a raucous drinking contest between Dionysus and Heracles has been unearthed in Caesarea.”

In his latest video for Expedition Bible, Joel Kramer claims to have solved the problem of Ai with the discovery of Late Bronze pottery at et-Tell in a 2019 excavation. I’ll be interested to see the published report.

Susan Schmidt filmed pieces for several years to create a beautiful 11-minute video on the complete Nabatean Incense Route, from Petra to Gaza.

Nathan Steinmeyer explains a new theory about the location of the Valley of Rephaim.

Joe Zias: “Archaeological and epigraphic evidence indicates that the ‘Tomb of Absalom’ constitutes the earliest Judeo-Christian pilgrimage site in the Holy Land.”

The latest issue of Near Eastern Archaeology is focused on Megiddo in the Bronze Age. Access requires a subscription. The next issue is dedicated to Megiddo in the Iron Age.

In the latest Jerusalem in Brief, Chandler Collins reports on a lecture on Macalister and Duncan’s excavations and wonders why popular media is not reporting on the new interpretation of the Pool of Siloam/Birket al-Hamra.

Several long-time readers have written to say that they are really enjoying Doron Spielman’s new book, When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David and What Israel’s Enemies Don’t Want You To Know.

Jerusalem University College has announced its lineup of fall online courses, including (not yet online):

  • Biblical Archaeology I, taught by Kyle Keimer
  • Biblical Jerusalem and Its Explorations, taught by Chandler Collins
  • The Life and Times of Paul, taught by Chris Vlachos
  • Ancient Egypt and the Bible, taught by Paul Wright
  • Palestinian Society and Politics, taught by Bernard Sabella

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Luke Chandler

Share:

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

Share:

Scholars have used radiocarbon dating and artificial intelligence to date some Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts, with the results often providing earlier dates than previously believed based on paleographical analysis. Of particular interest is 4Q114 which preserves Daniel 8-11, now dated to 230–160 BC (earlier than it was written, according to critical scholars). The underlying journal article is here.

Excavations at Samaria-Sebaste have been underway for two weeks, and discoveries include a stone pavement and the base of a monument near the city gate.

Following a kerfuffle over a 5-ton Herodian stone on display at Ben Gurion Airport, the IAA has promised to rebury all Western Wall stones. The parties agree that Western Wall stones “must not be treated as archaeological exhibits but rather as sacred relics subject to Jewish law.” Stones on display elsewhere will be returned for burial, and the site will be fenced off to prevent the public from touching them.

Nathan Steinmeyer explains what the Galilee is.

Zoom lecture on June 10: “Hearing the Voices of the Dead in Ancient Israel,” by Elizabeth Bloch-Smith ($10)

BAS is offering a four-lecture course with Sidnie White Crawford about ancient libraries, focusing especially on the Dead Sea Scrolls ($149).

I recently read The Odyssey of Marcus Panthera: A Journey to the Land of Israel in the First Century, by Makram Mesherky (Gesher Media, 2024, $25). The author is a Palestinian believer whose fictional account reads like a travelogue during the time of Jesus. The book is not long, is easy to read, and is loaded with full-color illustrations.

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

Share:

Excavation work continues at Khirbat Balu’a, a Moabite site with a monumental Iron Age structure.

The digging of a well in western Syria resulted in the discovery of a Roman mosaic depicting Tyche.

Archaeologists in Rome have found evidence of a bath complex that was transformed into an early church.

Glenn J. Corbett writes about the threats to the heritage of ancient Cush.

Aaron Koller explains how and why post-exilic Judeans adopted the Aramaic script for writing in Hebrew.

In a new pdf resource, John DeLancey explains how Jesus used remez in the Gospels.

YodAlpha is a search engine exclusively dedicated to Religious, Theological, and Biblical Studies. Its index is built from crawling the websites of various academic institutions that support open access scholarship.”

New release: Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ, by T. C. Schmidt (Oxford University Press, $130; Amazon; free download).

Should have taken an Uber: “A German tourist has been arrested in Rome on Wednesday after being caught riding down the street on a rented electric scooter with the marble base of a Roman column on the footplate.”

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

Share:

Haaretz reports on the discovery of a stone mug found in the Mount Zion excavations that has a very unusual inscription.

An ostracon discovered in the Babylonian destruction layer of Lachish has been published.

Adi Erlich and Ron Lavi report that in their three-year excavation of the famous cave of Caesarea Philippi, they found no evidence of Herod’s temple in front of that cave.

An impressive Byzantine mosaic with 55 richly detailed medallions has been restored and is now on display in the Negev near where it was discovered.

A journal article published in Antiquity studies the cargoes from three Iron Age shipwrecks discovered near the port of Dor.

Ynetnews runs a lengthy story about the Weizmann Institute of Science’s particle accelerator, how it is used for dating Carbon-14 samples, and its impact in dating antiquities in Jerusalem.

Zoom lecture on June 5: “Tel Azekah after Twelve Seasons of Excavation,” by Oded Lipschits

This week’s Jerusalem Tracker highlights new books, book reviews, blogposts, podcasts, videos, as well as the latest developments in Jerusalem.

Steven Smith at OpenBible used AI to create 180 maps of the Holy Land. He discusses his methodology and the weaknesses of the results.

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

Share: