The Cyrus Cylinder is on display at the Yale Peabody Museum until the end of June. On May 1, Irving Finkel will give a lecture at the museum on “Cyrus and His Cylinder: What Was He Thinking?” Registration is required. The severed hands discovered at Avaris is likely a practice introduced by the Hyksos rulers of Egypt. “Five extramural shrines dated to the Late Bronze/Iron Age (LB/IA) have been excavated in the southern arid margins of the Levant: two at Timna, and one at Horvat Qitmit, ‘EnHazeva (Naqab) and Wadi at-Thamad (in south-central Transjordan).” A full-color graphic version of Eric H ..read more

Scholars are trying to understand four clay tokens discovered near the Temple Mount and unlike any known elsewhere in the Roman world. The Hamas War has resulted in damage to many archaeological sites in Gaza, though some treasures have been protected in Switzerland for years. “Nahal HaShofet, one of central Israel’s most popular outdoor destinations, reopened this week after extensive renovations costing 25 million shekels.” A new project at Hazor is seeking to understand the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age based on archaeological discoveries and biblical texts. Afte ..read more

If you didn’t know that we released the long-awaited Genesis volume last week, you probably are not subscribed to the BiblePlaces Newsletter. Circumstances late last year forced us to rebuild the entire subscriber list from scratch, so that could explain why you are not on the new list. Subscribing is free and easy, and you receive two photo sets when you do (140 photos of Herodium and 240 of Philippi). The Genesis volume is the largest collection of photographs in the Photo Companion to the Bible series (or in any of our 72 volumes of images). Quantity is important in building a library ..read more

Some newly discovered frescoes inspired by the Trojan War are among the finest ever to have been found at Pompeii. Archaeologists working on the Greek island of Aegina have discovered a Mycenean building from the time of the kingdom’s decline. “Cats were known and domesticated in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, but are absent from the Bible and Second Temple literature. The Persians despised cats, but the Talmud tolerates them.” For the occasion of last week’s solar eclipse, Carl Rasmussen brings back an explanation of how “the solar eclipse of June 15, 763 B.C. holds the key to the chro ..read more

Andy Cook was at the Pool of Siloam this week and he recorded a video showing the site now with the news that they have apparently discovered the eastern wall of the pool. Sifting at the Pool of Siloam excavation revealed a gaming die dating from the 13th century AD. The find of the month (from before the war began) at the Temple Mount Sifting Project is a piece of a Byzantine stone chancel screen. What was that doing on the Temple Mount? “Israeli archaeologists have reconstructed a 6,000-year-old vessel made of elephant ivory, which had been shattered in antiquity and preserved inside a basal ..read more

Archaeologists excavating at Philippi discovered a rare head of Apollo dating to about AD 200. One of the oldest known codices in existence will be auctioned off in June. The Crosby-Schoyen Codex includes what may be the earliest known texts of 1 Peter and Jonah. Elizabeth Knott explains how the Yale Babylonian Collection Seal Digitization Project used the latest photographic methods to document more than 14,000 seals and seal impressions. The Yale website has more details. “Since 2002, more than a hundred ‘new’ Dead Sea Scroll fragments have appeared on the antiquities market. Most of these f ..read more

“An archaeological site in the Jordan Valley that experts at the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) call a ‘prehistoric Garden of Eden’ was dedicated and opened to the public on Thursday.” Israel has declared 42 acres surrounding the Herodium to be “state land.” An unknown Hebrew letter was discovered in a Dead Sea Scroll, according to an announcement of the Academy of the Hebrew Language on April 1. Abigail Leavitt describes her experience at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on Easter morning. Biblical Backgrounds has posted James Monson’s “The Way of the Cross” handout, used in teaching ..read more

“In a ceremonial nod to Purim, the Israel Antiquities Authority has disclosed to the public a ceramic jar fragment bearing a human face and dating back to the Persian period (4th-5th centuries BCE) that was discovered in 2019” in Jerusalem. A high school student found an oil lamp at Mezad Tzafir that is nearly identical to one discovered by Nelson Glueck ninety years ago at the same location. Archaeologists discovered a mastaba in an Old Kingdom necropolis at Dahshur. “Archaeologists in Pompeii have unearthed an ancient building site that sheds light on construction techniques used by the Roma ..read more

Archaeologists working at Huqoq in Galilee discovered an extensive underground complex used by Jewish villagers to hide from the Romans during the First and Second Jewish Revolts. The site will be open to visitors on March 29 and April 5 with free registration. In a new relief sculpture discovered in eastern Turkey, “Antiochos of Commagene calls on the people to ‘obey and respect the law.” Lechaion, one of the harbors of ancient Corinth, is at least 500 years older than previously thought. Israeli authorities arrested Palestinians who built a parking lot on top of Umm ar-Rihan, a Second T ..read more

Excavation results have been published for a salvage dig at Zanoah, a site located near Beth Shemesh and mentioned in Joshua 15:34 and Nehemiah 3:13 and 11:30. Jerusalem Post: “A scroll unearthed in the Judean Desert is shedding light on the ancient practices of astrology and mysticism in a discovery that has intrigued historians and archaeologists alike.” Haaretz: “Archaeologists have uncovered the ruins of a Canaanite temple built to greet the rising sun atop the mound of Azekah.” “Archaeologists have discovered about 8,600-year-old bread at Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic settlement in central Turk ..read more