“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

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“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

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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

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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

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A gold ring with a red gemstone dating to the Hellenistic period has been discovered in the Givati Parking Lot excavations in the City of David. It is quite similar to another ring found at the same place last year.

Yosef Garfinkel recently completed excavation of Ophel’s “Water Gate” area, removing several Byzantine walls in order to highlight the Iron Age walls. The report includes numerous pictures and a video interview.

All Israel News has created a 5-minute video showing some of the archaeological evidence for a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount.

A visitor center telling the story of tekhelet (biblical blue color) opens in the Judean wilderness later this month.

Leon Mauldin posts a photo and a map of Taanach by the Waters of Megiddo.

Denny Sissom has a new series of videos explaining each chapter of his book, The Bridge to the New Testament: A Comprehensive Guide to the Forgotten Years of the Inter-Testament Period, in detail.

BibleStock has released a new coaching video, explaining how to use video footage in teaching the story of David and Goliath.

With this week’s release of the Photo Companion volumes for Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs, we’re offering both for the price of one. Luke Chandler calls the Photo Companion to the Bible his “favorite overall Bible study resource.”

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Ted Weis, Arne Halbakken, Explorator

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Archaeologists uncovered portions of a monumental relief of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal in the throne room of his palace in Nineveh.

Christopher Jones explores questions related to Sennacherib’s assassination.

Scientists have discovered the evidence for leprosy that dates to the third millennium BC.

In a new study on Pompeii, “scientists documented events at one home in the doomed city where a family sought refuge inside a back room by pushing a wooden bed against a door in a vain attempt to stop a flood of volcanic rocks from the sky.”

Turkish authorities arrested four individuals who had discovered a Roman mosaic during illegal excavations at their house.

“Gojko Barjamovic, a lecturer at Yale University, along with a team from Harvard, deciphered and even attempted to recreate some of the dishes detailed on Babylonian clay tablets dating back nearly 4,000 years.”

David M. Pritchard explains why “sport in ancient Athens was much more than the Olympics.”

Aish.com has published a primer on the Cairo Geniza.

“The ancient bilingual inscriptions of Karatepe Aslantas Open-Air Museum in Osmaniye, Türkiye, have been officially inscribed into the UNESCO Memory of the World International Register.”

“Friends of ASOR is pleased to announce its first tour of some of Chicago’s greatest museums on September 18 and 19 for an exclusive behind-the-scenes experience.”

Live Science explains how archaeologists can determine the sex of a skeleton.

HT: Agade, Gordon Franz, Ted Weis, Arne Halbakken

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