BiblePlaces Blog

Weekend Roundup

2008-07-21T19:27:00.001-05:00

Leen Ritmeyer has a posted (with a follow-up) on his identification of several stones in the eastern wall of the Temple Mount that are clearly pre-Herodian. Ritmeyer dates them to the time of King Hezekiah, suggesting that he was the one to build the 500-cubit square Temple Mount that Ritmeyer has previously identified. He includes some helpful illustrations and photos.

A review of current excavations in Turkey is given at Today's Zaman. New Testament sites being excavated include Alexandria Troas, Miletus, Hierapolis, Sardis, Smyrna, and Laodicea. There are many other sites as well. Many of these cities have very impressive remains, unlike many sites in Israel. Today's Zaman also has an article on recent discoveries at Sardis.

NASA has a photo of a street of Ephesus at night, with (the planet) Jupiter illuminating the way.

Across the way in Greece, the ancient hippodrome of Olympia has been discovered. This is a good story that counters the myth that everything to be found has already been found.

A couple fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls have now been published by James H. Charlesworth. One of the fragments may be from the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the other appears to be from Nehemiah, making it the first portion of that book to be found among the DSS. Paleojudaica gives more info and links.

If you're a tourist in Israel and have a question, you can now call the 24-hour tourist hotline. It's easy (dial *3888), but it's not a toll-free number.

Just Another Byzantine Church

2008-07-16T21:36:00.001-05:00

The "Earliest Church in Jordan" sounded like a bunch of nonsense to start with and now a couple of scholars have more data and believe the excavators have made some big mistakes.

Even stronger criticism has now emerged. Two University of Toronto scholars argue that the excavators have misread the inscription in the church; they claim, from both a rereading of the inscription and from the architecture, that the church is significantly younger than do the excavators. They also say that the cave below gives no indication of having been used in the first century.

Biblical Archaeology Review has the story, including a pdf file of the article: “The Oratory of St. George in Rihab: The Oldest Extant Christian Building or Just Another Byzantine Church?”

Weekend Stories

2008-07-14T09:29:00.001-05:00

A Byzantine cemetery has been discovered in construction work at the hospital of Ashkelon (JPost).

An arsonist set several fires in the Tel Dan nature reserve, burning half of the 120-acre park. They hope to re-open the park later this week (JPost).

A rare marble discus was discovered underwater at Yavne-Yam. The disk, 8 inches in diameter, was used to ward off the evil eye in the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. (IAA; Arutz-7; Haaretz; JPost).

The hotel where Mark Twain stayed in Jerusalem has been identified (Haaretz).

Israeli, Palestinian, and German scholars will be studying bones unearthed at Jericho by Kathleen Kenyon in order to study the DNA so as to identify genes that made the ancient inhabitants more or less susceptible to tuberculosis (Guardian).

Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg discusses two Jewish temples known from Egypt, one at Leontopolis (Tell el-Yehudiyeh) and the other on Elephantine Island (Yeb, Aswan) (JPost).

New Book: Walk the Land

2008-07-11T10:47:00.001-05:00

One of the simultaneously best and worst experiences of my life was hiking the Israel Trail. I led a group of intrepid adventurers on a 120-mile hike, beginning in Dan and concluding in Caesarea (skipping a 30-mile section in the middle). I've hiked many other portions of the trail over the years. The trail covers some of most beautiful and remote scenery, and it is a way to understand the land of Israel that you'll never get from jumping on and off a bus. It also can be quite a painful experience for your feet.

An Israeli couple recently hiked the entire trail from Eilat to Dan (580 miles) and the wife wrote a book about the 2-month trek. The book, Walk the Land, was recently reviewed by Theresa Newell of CMJ USA (pdf, p. 21). The review begins:

"What is needed by the reader or teacher of the Bible is some idea of the outlines of Palestine - its shape and disposition; its plains, passes and mountains; its rains, winds and temperatures; its colours, lights and shades. Students of the Bible desire to see a background and to feel an atmosphere; to discover from `the lie of the land' why the history took certain lines and the prophecy and gospel were expressed in certain styles; to learn what geography has to contribute ..." (From the 1894 Preface to the First Edition of The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, by George Adam Smith.)

Over a hundred years later, Judy Pex brings the reader through those very "plains, passes and mountains" about which Smith wrote. Step by step from Eilat to Mt. Hermon on The Israel Trail, Pex describes her country from the ground up.
Judy and John Pex have overseen The Shelter Hostel in Eilat for over 20 years. They lead an international congregation there which grew out of their work of serving soup dinners and giving backpackers a place for overnights. It is a 24/7 kind of job.
Their dream grew over the years: to walk the entire Israel National Trail (Shvil Israel) - a feat accomplished by only about 100 people per year. John decided it had to be done before his 60th birthday! And they did it - all winding 940 km (580 miles) from Eilat to Dan. The Trail meanders through the vast wadis and heights of the Negev, then cuts west to the Mediterranean near Tel Aviv along busy roads, up the coast and across the Carmel Range, ending on Mt. Hermon at the Syrian-Lebanese border. The map and 16 pages of Pex's color photos augment her descriptive passages.

There is also an interview with the author here.

The book sounds like a profitable way to gain insights from the trip without having to wrap your feet in duct tape every morning.

HT: Yehuda Group

The Graduate Junction

2008-07-11T10:19:00.001-05:00

I have been alerted to a new resource which may be very helpful for researchers. From their description:

The Graduate Junction is a brand new website designed to help early career researchers make contact with others with similar research interests, regardless of which department, institution or country they work in. Designed by two graduate researchers at the University of Durham, The Graduate Junction has proved very popular with research students and academics alike. Within the first two weeks after our launch in early May 2008 over 2000 researchers in the UK had registered and the news had spread across 40 countries.
Currently research students have two main sources of information, published literature and academic conferences. Whilst published literature is essential, it can only ever reveal completed work. Relevant academic conferences provide a forum for students with similar research interest to interact but occur infrequently. It is very easy to become isolated, overly focused on the specifics of one's own work and lose a sense of what other related work is being done.
The Graduate Junction hopes to prevent that isolation and allow early career researchers to start forming the networks which can stay with them throughout their careers. The Graduate Junction aims to provide an atmosphere similar to that at academic events and through the use of the internet aims to establish an on-line worldwide graduate research community.

This could be a great way to connect with those working in your field. Check it out here.

En Gedi stream

2008-07-10T23:05:00.001-05:00

En Gedi, the oasis on the western shore of the Dead Sea, may be a more enjoyable place to visit in the future. From the JPost:

The Ein Gedi stream started flowing on Monday for the first time in 50 years, following an agreement signed in May 2007 between Kibbutz Ein Gedi and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.

The agreement stipulates that the kibbutz must let water flow from the Ein Gedi spring into the stream before drawing it for kibbutz use. The agreement also limits the amount of water that the kibbutz may use, thereby increasing the flow from the spring to the stream.
The stream dried up in the 1950s because those developing the kibbutz needed its water for agriculture. After that, until the signing of the agreement, the kibbutz drew water directly from the spring, which was the stream's source. The Ein Gedi water company also drew from the spring prior to the deal.
"We didn't deal with the principal question of whether the kibbutz needed to get this water," said Omri Gal, an assistant spokesperson for INPA. "We took as a given that the kibbutz needed that water. Our goal was to lessen the damage to the water. The previous situation was unacceptable, and the stream was a tragedy."

Several months later, after the kibbutz dismantled its water-drawing facilities, water has begun to flow down the stream at a rate of 10 meters per second, a number that should rise to 25 by the time the process is completed.
Though the Ein Gedi water, if not drawn, would flow to the Dead Sea, Gal said that its reaching the stream brought tremendous benefit to the surrounding area, as well as to the government agency that protects it.
"This is an amazing thing for the environment," he said. "Ein Gedi is an important natural area. There have been guards working there for 30 years, and for them this is a holiday."

The story continues here and ends with this line:

"Ein Gedi used to be unique," said Gal. "We want to revive the flora and bring back the water. It will look like it did in days of old."

You can read (and see) more about En Gedi at this BiblePlaces page.

Water Crisis in Israel

2008-07-09T09:25:00.001-05:00

From the JPost:

"This is the worst crisis since records started being kept 80 years ago," Water Authority head Uri Shani declared Tuesday morning at a special press conference in Tel Aviv. "Like most countries, Israel is dependent on rainfall and the amount of rainfall is decreasing. There is a drop of 100 million cubic meters per year."

Shani described a situation of increasing damage to Israel's main natural water sources. The Coastal Aquifer "has dropped below its black line," which means that it will suffer rapid damage, possibly irreversible damage, Shani said.
The water level in the Mountain Aquifer was currently a meter above its Lower Red Line, but was also expected to reach its bottom limit - the Black Line - by this year. He added that water levels in the aquifers had never been this low.
Shani predicted that Lake Kinneret [Sea of Galilee] would reach its Black Line by December 2008. The Kinneret dropped below its bottom limit on Monday, 213 meters below sea level. The lake's Black Line is 214.87 meters below sea level.

The story continues here.

New sign in Tiberias displays the present water level in the Sea of Galilee, a main source of fresh water for Israel today

Gabriel's Vision (Messiah Stone)

2008-07-07T09:39:00.001-05:00

The New York Times publishes an article on old news, Drudge links to it, and suddenly we have a sensational story that will "shake our basic view of Christianity." Hold on a minute.

You can read the story in the NY Times, a copy at the International Herald Tribune, Haaretz, World Net Daily, and elsewhere. You could also have read about it a year ago in Haaretz, or read the article in Biblical Archaeology Review Jan/Feb 2008 issue. Why is it suddenly "news" now?

You can see photos of it at Haaretz, a large photo here, line drawing and transcription here (pdf), and an English translation here. You can also read the original journal article published in Cathedra here (in Hebrew; pdf).

Here's a brief summary:

What: Three-foot tall stone inscribed in ink with 87 lines of Hebrew text describing a vision given by the angel Gabriel

When: The stone was written in the 1st century B.C. and it was discovered 8-10 years ago and sold by a Jordanian antiquities dealer to an Israeli-Swiss antiquities collector.

Where: It was found in the vicinity of the Dead Sea, possibly on the Jordanian side. Ada Yardeni: "You have got a Dead Sea Scroll on stone."

Forgery?: Even though this was not uncovered in a legal excavation, scholars believe the inscription to be authentic.

The Sensational Claim: The end of the inscription mentions a messiah who would rise in 3 days. Since the text was written before Jesus' resurrection, it explains how the story of Jesus' resurrection came to be.

The Sensational Quotation: "Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story" (Israel Knohl, professor of biblical studies at Hebrew University and proponent of this theory).

The Disputed Reading: "In three days you shall live, I, Gabriel, command you."

Why Disputed: "There is one problem. In crucial places of the text there is lack of text. I understand Knohl's tendency to find there keys to the pre-Christian period, but in two to three crucial lines of text there are a lot of missing words" (Moshe Bar-Asher, president of the Israeli Academy of Hebrew Language and emeritus professor of Hebrew and Aramaic at the Hebrew University).

Why This Matters:

Knohl said that it was less important whether Simon was the messiah of the stone than the fact that it strongly suggested that a savior who died and rose after three days was an established concept at the time of Jesus. He notes that in the Gospels, Jesus makes numerous predictions of his suffering and New Testament scholars say such predictions must have been written in by later followers because there was no such idea present in his day.

In other words, if the disputed reading is correct, this reveals that Jesus and/or his disciples did not create the story of his resurrection after three days, but rather they borrowed it from existing ideas. Of course, it is either one or the other: they invented it or stole it. Here's a radical idea: Jesus was raised by God from the dead after he had been in the tomb three days. Jesus expected this, which is why he predicted it. His disciples remembered it, which is why they recorded it.

The author of this theory, Israel Knohl, says that this stone "should shake our basic view of Christianity." Several assumptions are required for this stone to be so significant: 1) Knohl's disputed reading must be correct; 2) Knohl's interpretation of the text overall must be correct; 3) Jesus and/or his disciples must have known about this text (or a similar one not yet attested to); 4) Jesus did not rise from the dead; 5) Jesus' disciples were dishonest in claiming that he did rise from the dead and in attributing this idea to him from another source; 6) Jesus' disciples were stupid in dying for a lie that they invented. Altogether, I think that these assumptions are shaky enough to suggest that Knohl is a little too optimistic about the impact of his theory.

UPDATE (7/8): I found the BAR article mentioned above online and added a link. For today's articles and analysis on the story, see this post at Paleojudaica.

UPDATE (7/9): I can hardly do better than Paleojudaica with the latest stories, so I will not even try. Note his choice for "inflated headline of the week."

Reminiscences of Lachish

2008-07-06T14:55:00.001-05:00

Ferrell Jenkins has posted about the 4th of July in Israel while excavating at Lachish in 1980. He also has some interesting photos of the excavators, showing some of today's leading archaeologists at a younger age. I remember Gabriel Barkay talking about the visit of the Arab workers that Ferrell witnessed. He recalled how one day the old workmen and women showed up at the dig site. They had formerly lived in Qubeibe, a village just north of the tell, but were now living in a refugee camp in Jordan. Barkay had photos from Starkey's excavation in the 1930s and the workmen identified themselves. The town of Qubeibe was leveled by the Israeli military in the 1960s and the stones of the village, probably many taken from the ruins of Lachish, were sold to building contractors. Who knows but some ancient inscription was unknowing transferred from Lachish to Qubeibe and is now part of a wall in the area?

Free Software: Get Lost in Jerusalem

2008-07-03T16:33:00.001-05:00

Some years ago Zondervan released a educational game on CD called "Get Lost in Jerusalem." The goal of the game was to navigate through the Old City of Jerusalem with the help of clues. Many American students were particularly delighted to find that "home base" in the game is the shop of the famous Shaban (photo at right). The copyright on the game has now reverted to its creator, Ted Hildebrandt, and he is making it available for free download. So if you're hankering for a stroll down the historic narrow alleyways of Christian Quarter, minus the odors, you're in luck. You can check out Hildebrandt's page with the download (and lots more), get more information at Amazon, or take a look at Biblical Studies and Technological Tools to get some helpful instructions before downloading and installing the 550 MB file.

When You're Not Digging

2008-07-02T19:08:00.001-05:00

One thing (an important thing) to consider when choosing an excavation to join is the extra-curricular activities. By that I mean the evening lectures and the afternoon or weekend tours. Digging in the dirt is nice, but your experience will be greatly enhanced if you can learn about your site and travel around the area. Having said that, and having looked at the schedule at Gath this season, I would certainly recommend choosing Gath for your excavation next year. Check the schedule out at the Gath blog. A tip to other excavations interested in boosting their number of volunteers for future seasons: put your extra-curricular schedule online. And start a dig blog.

Yigael Yadin lecturing at Megiddo excavation, 1967
from forthcoming photo collection of David Bivin

Bike Ride Mission to Israel

2008-06-26T17:47:00.001-05:00

Arutz-7 reports on an up-coming bike ride in Israel:

From September 21-27, 2008, athletic tourists will be able to visit and tour the country in a unique style: Bicycling their way through the upper Galilee and the Golan Heights on the Jewish National Fund’s first annual Bike Ride Mission to Israel.
"Participants will traverse over 200 miles of breathtaking terrain," the JNF literature announces, "during four days of fully supported riding (all ability levels are welcome), and will be rewarded with exclusive accommodations at the 5-star Mitzpe Hayamim Hotel and Spa and The Carmel Forest Spa Resort."
The bicycle tours will include stops in towns, army bases, and JNF sites such as security bypass roads, forests, and nature reserves. The participants will also hear talks from public officials and IDF officers, will learn about Israel's water problems and the JNF's efforts and successes in solving them, and will take part in rafting and wine-tasting activities.
The cost: $3,600 per rider (double occupancy), not including airfare. Participants can either bring their own bicycle or rent one here....
For more information on the bike mission, visit www.jnf.org/bikeisrael.

Wildfire in Dead Sea nature reserve

2008-06-24T22:20:00.001-05:00

From the Jerusalem Post:

An IDF training exercise sparked a massive wildfire at the Ein Fasha Nature Reserve Tuesday morning, destroying nearly 2000 dunams [500 acres] of land in what the chief firefighter on the scene called "the largest wildfire of the summer."
"It's by far the largest," said Amnon Amir of the Judea and Samaria Fire Department, as flames in the area were still being sprayed by airplanes overhead. "It started around four in the morning, and has been extremely difficult to put out."
According to Amir, the exceedingly dry conditions in the area, which borders the northern Dead Sea, added to the difficulty, and low amounts of rainfall over the winter were to blame. But he also told The Jerusalem Post that the IDF had initially prevented his firefighters from entering the area, making it more difficult to combat the intense flames....
"It will take 10 years before the area completely renews itself," Nissim said. "But within six months or so, we'll already see new signs of life. This isn't a completely tragedy, because it's somewhat healthy for the vegetation to renew itself like that, but still, it's been difficult to watch it all burn."
The army refused to comment further on the incident, which Army Radio reported had begun from a flash or smoke grenade. According to the Judea and Samaria fire department, there were no injuries reported, and damage was limited to the plant life in the reserve.
There have been three large wildfires throughout the country since Saturday, two in the Jerusalem Hills before Tuesday's at Ein Fasha. Firefighters blame high temperatures and dry conditions as a factor in all of the fires, but at least one, on Saturday afternoon near Kibbutz Ma'aleh Hahamisha, was reportedly the result of arson.

Dating from Magnetic Particles

2008-06-24T17:41:00.001-05:00

This AP article is about American archaeology, but the technology could be applied to the Near East, if it hasn't been already.

You might be surprised what you can learn from a campfire. A campfire that has been cold for, say, 300 years.
Stacey Lengyel hopes she can tell, within 30 years or so, when it was used.
Lengyel, a research associate in anthropology at the Illinois State Museum, is the country's leading authority on archeomagnetic dating, a process built around two phenomena: when heated, magnetic particles reorient themselves to magnetic north; and over time, magnetic north is, literally, all over the map.
"They call it a 'drunken wander,' " said Lengyel. "Around 1600, it was real close to Earth's rotational axis. Now, it is around 75 degrees latitude...."
In archeomagnetic dating, once potential samples have been identified, their location and orientation are precisely measured, Lengyel said. About a dozen 1-inch cubes are then excised, encased to preserve them, then taken to a lab.
The chunks are then progressively demagnetized until their natural remnant magnetism can be measured, she said. The objects may have been partially magnetized by nearby lightning strikes, for example, or if they were stored near objects with strong magnetic fields. These weaker magnetic fields must be removed.
First their magnetic fingerprint is taken, and then they are slightly demagnetized. The process is repeated several times; eventually all that is left is the baseline magnetic signal, she said. If the material is fired to about 500 degrees Celsius or more, the magnetic field will point to where magnetic north was located at the time.
"The best dates we can get are within a 30-year time period," Lengyel said.

The complete article is here.

HT: Joe Lauer

Student Finds LMLK Handle

2008-06-22T21:10:00.001-05:00

Last month I was in Israel when a friend called and said that one of the students in a group he was leading found a jar handle with a LMLK seal impression laying on the ground at Ramat Rahel (two miles south of the Old City of Jerusalem). I've led student groups around Israel for 15 years and none of them has ever found a LMLK handle and my friend is three days into his first trip when one is found. Within a day or so, he had sent a photo of the seal impression to "Mr. LMLK" (who immediately published an analysis of it here) and got the expert opinion of Dr. Gabriel Barkay. Yesterday, the story made it into the newspaper. If you're recruiting for next year's tour, you can try enticing your students with the hope of such a discovery. And you might take a closer look at that next potsherd before you toss it.

LMLK seal impression; photo by Steven Sanchez

Record Number of Tourists in Israel

2008-06-17T20:11:00.001-05:00

My impression that there were too many tourists in Israel last month was correct. In fact, there has never been more tourists in the history of the nation. Haaretz reports:

Nearly 300,000 tourists visited Israel in May, an all-time record, the Ministry of Tourism said.

The number of tourists was five percent higher than May of 2000, Israel's record year for tourism, and at the current pace, 2.8 million tourists are on track to visit by the end of the year, according to the ministry....

By 2012, the ministry's goal is to attract five million tourists, have 220,000 workers employed in the tourism industry and have tourism revenues of NIS 43 billion.

Goals are good, but it might be wise for the budgeters to keep in mind that 5 months after Israel's record-breaking May 2000, tourism nearly ground to a halt for about 3 years.

Tour buses parked near Garden of Gethsemane

If the optimists are right, you're best to avoid the month of May in future years if possible. You know it's going to be bad when there are no seats left for your group's flight in a year in advance (that's my situation for next May). Here are some advantages to going in other months:

February: no tourists (but potentially lots of rain)
March: everything is green and wildflowers are everywhere
August: no tourists (but you'll know why as you hesitate to get off the air-conditioned bus)
October: possibly my favorite month of the year in Israel, with great temperatures and no rain
December: clearer air (less haze) means better panoramic views

Mysterious Stone Piles in Sea of Galilee

2008-06-17T10:25:00.001-05:00

From Haaretz:

A marine scientist has discovered a series of mysterious stone patterns on the lake bed of drought-stricken Lake Kinneret.

The man-made piles of stone, which are now above water, jut out from the freshwater lake, and sit 30 meters from each other along a 3.5-kilometer stretch of the eastern shore, from the Kinneret College campus to Haon resort.

Gal Itzhaki of Kibbutz Afikim first noticed the stones while strolling along the lake's receded shoreline. He says the patterns are a "fascinating phenomenon" and are part of an "impressive building enterprise."

Though they have not yet been scientifically examined, there are several hypotheses as to what functions they fulfilled. One theory postulates that they were part of a boundary between the ancient lakeside towns of Hippos, also known as Sussita, and Gadara. Both towns were part of the Decapolis, a group of 10 towns that flourished in the eastern part of the Roman province of Palestina, and are mentioned in the New Testament. Others have hypothesized that the patterns were part of a string of watchtowers or small buildings, or were used to set up fishermen's nets.

Read the rest here. The Hebrew version includes a photo.

HT: Joe Lauer

DigMegiddo - Excavation Blog

2008-06-16T18:28:00.001-05:00

Today is the first day of excavations at Megiddo, and a new blog intends to narrate the season from the perspective of archaeologist Eric Cline and 9 students. Apparently 8 of the bloggers are female, which may say something about the attitude of guys towards archaeology or perhaps the recruiting skills of Cline. You can check it out here: http://digmegiddo.wordpress.com/

Review: Israeli-Palestinian Cultural Heritage Agreement

2008-06-16T17:48:00.001-05:00

The subject of the "Israeli-Palestinian Cultural Heritage Agreement," and similar subjects, has largely been ignored on this blog (for reasons of time). Joe Lauer today sent out a handy summary of the issue, which I re-post here with his permission. He also points out that there are a few additional links at Paleojudaica. From Joe Lauer:

The recent Op-Ed by Meron Benvenisti, published in Ha'aretz, is another article or opinion piece dealing with the draft "Israeli-Palestinian Cultural Heritage Agreement" introduced by two archaeologists on April 8, 2008. The archaeologists are Ran Boytner, from UCLA, and Lynn Swartz Dodd, from USC.

As I was away from our PC from early April through mid-May, I could not share the news and opinions about the draft with those on the list, although many undoubtedly were made aware of them through their own reading or through postings on other lists.

For those who did not have access to these materials, the following mentions some of the items that appeared in early April and thereafter. I'm sure that many other article and op-eds have appeared regarding the proposal.

On April 8, 2008, UCLA issued a lengthy press release regarding the draft agreement ("Plan brokered by archaeologists would remove roadblock to Mideast peace"). This release, which has a picture of the two archaeologists, a map of the "Proposed Jerusalem Heritage Zone", and a link to an almost eight-minute UCLA video about the draft, evidently was the basis for many of the following articles on the subject. It may be read here.

The video may be also be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkRATNj8WDo.
On April 14, 2008, ScienceDaily published the UCLA press release at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080411123057.htm. It also has a link to the UCLA video.

On April 9, 2008, The Jerusalem Post published a brief news item on the subject ("Israeli, Palestinian archaeologists draft deal to preserve historic sites") by its staff. It may be read here or here.

On April 10, 2008, The Jerusalem Post (pg. 7) reprinted an article by Tom Tugend that first appeared on April 7 [sic], 2008 in The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles ("UCLA and USC archaeologists hope preserving the Middle East’s shared past can pave way to protecting"). It may be read here.

The Jerusalem Post article was entitled "US academics work to bridge archeological gap between Israelis, Palestinians" (and sub-captioned "Effort yields database of sites, artifacts that could be caught in legal limbo when final borders are decided").

Unfortunately, I do not have the URLs for The Jerusalem Post article or the Letter to the Editor that responded to it from Ken Spiro, April 14, 2008, pg. 14 ("Preposterous plan"), although I have them in print form. (The letter stated: "I read with complete disbelief about a plan to return to the Palestinian Authority archaeological artifacts excavated from Judea and Samaria as part of a final peace deal ("US academics ...," April 10). If these were Muslim or Arab artifacts I could at least understand, but they're talking about the Dead Sea Scrolls, antiquities from the First and Second Temple periods -- our very history, and the physical evidence of the Jewish people's connection to Israel! To even contemplate giving these to the PA -- which continues to deny that there ever was a Jewish presence in Israel or Jerusalem -- is a form of national suicide. As Israel Meir Lau, former chief rabbi of Israel and now chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, once said: 'A nation that does not value its past has no right to dream about its future.'")

The Jewish Journal article was also circulated by Common Ground News Service, in a slightly edited form ("Archaeologists preserve hope"), at http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=22977.

The Jewish Journal article has a picture of the two academics, a link to the "Plan" of the "Shared Heritage Project", and a link to the UCLA video about the agreement. The Plan (including All documents (includes the cover letter, agreement, map) 5.32 MB; Agreement only 37.5 KB; High resolution Jerusalem Heritage Zone Map 2.11 MB; and Low resolution Jerusalem heritage zone map 932 KB) may also be linked to at http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/religion/arc/sh/.

Ha'aretz also had its articles and opinion pieces on the subject:

On April 11, 2008, Ha'aretz published "A separate peace", by Meron Rapoport. It may be read at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=973870 [English; Last update - 20:38 14/04/2008]

http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=973829 [Hebrew; Last update - 15:22 12/04/08]

On April 18, 2008, Ha'aretz published "Partitioning the past", by Neil Asher Silberman. It may be read at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=976273 [English; Last update - 07:41 18/04/2008]

Silberman's critical piece was followed by a response ("Sharing the past by dividing it") from Raphael Greenberg, who often speaks for the "Israeli-Palestinian Working Group on Archaeology," including in a campaign against the IAA excavations in the City of David sponsored by Elad. His article may be read at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=977945 [English; Last update - 09:19 25/04/2008].

Earliest Church in Jordan

2008-06-13T10:47:00.001-05:00

When a sensational but unsubstantiated archaeological discovery is reported, my inclination is to ignore it. Since the goal to gain headlines and popularity (and sometimes to stir up tourism), the best way to thwart the guilty is to not publicize their claim. As they know, all publicity is good publicity.

This doesn't work very well when mainstream news sources carry the story and one gets multiple requests about the accuracy of the report. So I succumb.

The claim by Jordanian archaeologists that they have found the "earliest church" ever is the latest in an apparently on-going competition by archaeologists. According to everything I've read about it, there is no basis for this claim whatsoever. All evidence noted in the story runs counter to this claim. Jerome Murphy-O'Connor says it well:

"Pushing the (date) back to the year 70 is very speculative. (The Jordanians) are desperate to create church sites (for tourism)," Father Murphy-O'Connor said. "I would be suspicious of this sort of hype."

Be suspicious of archaeologists, pseudo-archaeologists, and government departments of tourism.

2,000-Year-Old Palm Tree Now 4 Feet Tall

2008-06-13T10:34:00.001-05:00

National Geographic has an update with a couple of photos. We mentioned this before here.

The oldest-sprouted seed in the world is a 2,000-year-old plant from Jerusalem, a new study confirms.
"Methuselah," a 4-foot-tall (1.2-meter-tall) ancestor of the modern date palm, is being grown at a protected laboratory in the Israeli capital.
In 2005 the young plant was coaxed out of a seed recovered in 1963 from Masada, a fortress in present-day Israel where Jewish zealots killed themselves to avoid capture by the Romans in A.D. 70....

Methuselah beats out the previous oldest-seed record holder, a lotus tree grown from a 1,300-year-old seed in 1995 by Jane Shen-Miller, a botanist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues.

The Jerusalem Post has a similar story.

National Bible Museum to be built

2008-06-11T14:42:00.001-05:00

This item came out a few weeks ago, but seems interesting enough to mention for those who might not have seen it elsewhere.

A Cornerstone [Grand Rapids, Michigan] history professor is working to create a first-of-its-kind Bible museum in Dallas, Texas, to house thousands of artifacts relating to the Bible and provide education.

Scott Carroll, professor of history, has been working with donors and others in academia to create the National Bible Museum to house the largest collection of artifacts about the Bible.

The goal of this museum is to become “the Smithsonian of biblical antiquities,” he said. "To get the same experience now someone would have to travel across the world.”

For the past five years, Carroll, and historian, Jonathan Shipman, have been conceptualizing and raising money for the project.

The museum will be funded by one family “who wants the museum to be part of their legacy,” said Carroll.

Several major donors are now interested.

“We are in the final stages of acquiring a 900,000-square-foot facility that sits on 22 acres in downtown Dallas,” said Carroll.

The building will cost $300 million and is being paid for by a family that Carroll is working with, whose name he declined to disclose.

The museum will be comprised of 20 halls, each half the size of a football field that will contain artifacts and illustrations of the preservation of the Bible during a different period of history.

One donor has offered to build exact replicas of as many ancient monuments as the museum wants, Carroll said.

The facility will be completed in about three years and will employ more than 200 staff and 15 faculty members with doctoral degrees.

Carroll said he wants the museum to be a place where the media can go to get an authoritative Christian answer if there are questions concerning the Bible or a new discovery.

Educational programs are being planned by the museum staff for public schools, universities and seminaries.

Carroll will serve as chief executive officer of the museum with duties to include “making sure the museum stays true to its vision, overseeing development of the collection, continuing research and speaking and resuming an excavation in Egypt.”

Turkey Familiarization Tour

2008-06-09T17:19:00.001-05:00

This might be of interest to some readers:

Dear Professors, Colleagues, and Group Leaders,
We are currently taking sign ups for the MARCH 6-14, 2009 FAM. TRIP! And this year we are offering a SPECIAL optional Extension to Israel!
We are happy to have Dr. Mark Wilson accompany the Fam. Trip group next year, to share his vast knowledge of the country, its culture and history.
The March familiarization trip is for professors who are bringing or would like to bring a group to Turkey and want to come to experience some of the sights on their own before making a group tour. This trip has very limited space because of the special price. The professor price of $1,195 is land, airfare & tax inclusive, based on double occupancy, with airfare from New York, JFK. The cost of a single room is $1,490 per person. Please ask for our spouse rate. Participants of this trip are responsible for their own transport to and from JFK. If you are interested in signing up for this trip please contact me for further details.
As usual, we will be organizing yet another memorable event, open to all Christians, at the ancient city of Ephesus.
We would like to invite all of you to join our Famous Ephesus Meeting May 2009! www.ephesusmeeting.com , you can watch our introductory movie here.
Ephesus Meeting 2009 is a spiritual journey to the Biblical Sites and the Early Churches in Turkey. We have many wonderful University, College, Seminary and Church groups join this event. The event is an unforgettable experience of fascinating speakers, wonderful music, and a spiritual ambiance in an ancient land....
We are also excited about our NEW website. Please click here, www.turkeystudyabroad.com, to view our special group programs of Cultural Exploration and Education, Art Programs, Archaeology Programs, Culinary Programs and Ancient Medicine Programs.
We hope to meet you AT OUR BOOTH in Providence, RI November 19-21, at ETS (booth #406), and in Boston, MA November 22-24, at SBL, (booth #117). We will also be offering an additional meeting, with a slide show presentation, on The Seven Churches, and the Footsteps of St. Paul in Asia Minor. ETS additional meeting, date and time will be announced and the SBL additional meeting is Sunday, November 23 from 4:00- 6:30 pm....
Ephesus Meeting www.ephesusmeeting.com
Tutku Tours www.tutkutours.com

Archive of First Protestants in Jerusalem

2008-06-09T07:21:00.001-05:00

Haaretz has an interesting article on the historical archive of Christ Church in the Old City of Jerusalem. Some excerpts:

Tucked away in Jerusalem's Old City, between the entrance to the David Street market and the Armenian Quarter is one of Jerusalem's unsung treasures - a small room chock full of books, letters and documents in the historic Christ Church complex. Many of the documents are hand-written in the flowery style of the 19th century or earlier, written by Europeans, particularly the British, who lived and worked here. Coming to the documents' hopeful rescue is a recently initiated project that applies a combination of cutting edge technology and devotion to history to set them on their way toward digitalization as a means of preserving the stories they tell for future generations....

To explain what the library is all about, Arentsen's supervisor and Christ Church's new rector, Rev. David Pileggi pulls out one of the thousands of glass slides the library also owns. He holds it up, illuminating it in the afternoon Jerusalem sunlight streaming though the windows from the Christ Church courtyard. This one depicts nurses standing next to the beds of patients on a ward of the first hospital in Jerusalem, founded by the missionaries. "Life is complicated," Pileggi says, using the slide to segue into what is obviously a pet subject of his--dispelling the notion that nineteenth-century European Christians "were only interested in converting Jews to hasten Jesus' second coming."

Pileggi, an affable and talkative Floridian who has lived in Israel for 28 years broaches an issue that raises hackles in Jewish and Israeli society. He concedes the hospital's missionary purpose, but seems intent on getting across that it was "mixed with a deep sympathy for the Jews that came from reading the Bible. When you read the Bible and immerse yourself in its culture, as they did in places like England, Holland, and parts of Germany, you begin to identify with the main characters. That's certainly part of what these people were doing....

The precious documents found in the rare holdings closet put the Conrad Schick Library on a list of over 50 priceless collections whose preservation and digitalization is the goal of the Historical Libraries and Archives Survey, a project under the wing of the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London. Along with the Conrad Schick Library, the survey aims to preserve and digitize collections throughout Jerusalem - from the Afeefi family's 43 Arabic manuscripts on astronomy and other science kept in their Jerusalem home to the library in the ancient Syriac Orthodox St Mark's church with at least 300 manuscripts, the Al Aqsa Mosque repository with about 1,000 manuscripts and hundreds of ancient Korans, and the collection of the Admor of Karlin with more than 800 manuscripts, some centuries old. Dr. Merav Mack, 35, a Cambridge University-educated medieval scholar and a fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, is a consultant on the project along with colleague Peter Jacobsen. "We think the project is important because the city's written treasures are of such enormous educational and cultural value to our global heritage."

HT: Joe Lauer

Egyptian Fortress on Road to Canaan Revealed

2008-06-08T15:42:00.001-05:00

From National Geographic:

Archaeologists have uncovered more remnants from Tharu, the largest known fortified city in ancient Egypt, which sits near the modern-day border town of Rafah.
The fortress, also known as Tjaru or Tharo, covered about 31 acres (13 hectares), Egyptian authorities say. Its discovery near the Suez Canal was announced in July 2007.
Tharu helped guard the empire's eastern front in the Sinai Peninsula and served as a military cornerstone for Egypt's ancient leaders.

"It was built [more than] 3,000 years ago, and it was an important and strategic point," said Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The fort's remains were found as part of a project that began in 1986 to explore the "Horus Way," an ancient military road that connected 11 fortresses linking Egypt and Palestine.
The path also served as an entry point for traders coming from Asia.
"This is the only way to enter Egypt by land coming from the east," said Fayza Haikal, a professor of archaeology and Egyptology at the American University in Cairo. "It was the way not only for armies but also commercial [expeditions]."
So far Egyptian authorities have discovered four fortresses along the Horus Way, which essentially formed the same line as Egypt's current eastern border (see map).

The story continues here.

HT: Joe Lauer