Roman-Era Cemetery Discovered in Hebron

“Hebron – Ma’an – Palestinian tourism and antiquities police uncovered Roman-era cemeteries in the town of Halhul, north of Hebron, on Thursday, according to the department’s media office.

‘As the municipality of Halhul was using heavy machinery to expand the main road, a number of Roman-era graves and skeletons were found, and workers immediately contacted antiquities police,’ the department said in a statement.

Ramadan Awad, the head of Hebron’s police department, asked residents to report any related discoveries to the antiquities police ‘in order to help preserve the civil and historic heritage of Palestine.’”

See article here.
Thanks to J. Lauer!

Symposium: Priesthood in Ancient Judaism at Yeshiva University

This is perhaps one of the most interesting topics regarding Ancient Judaism, especially when we consider the numerous texts that are currently known (e.g. Jubilees, Aramaic Levi) which present figures from Genesis (!) as priests. In other words, the priesthood in some regards is presented as having its roots in periods of time long before Aaron, the first high priest in the Bible.

The Working Group on Jews and Judaism in Late Antiquity at the Yeshiva
University Center for Israel Studies invites you to a symposium:

Priesthood in Ancient Judaism
Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 7-9 pm
Furst Hall, Room 501, 185th Street at Amsterdam Avenue

Moderator:  Steven Fine, Yeshiva University

Speakers:

• Martha Himmelfarb, Princeton University,

“Priesthood and Wisdom According to the Aramaic Levi Document”

• Joseph Angel, Yeshiva University,

“Human Priests as Otherworldly Mediators in the Dead Sea Scrolls”

• Richard Hidary, Yeshiva University,

“From Priests to Rabbis: Tradition in Transition”

• Respondent:  Lawrence H. Schiffman, New York University

All are welcome to attend.  A photo ID is required.

For information, please contact: Joseph Angel at jangel@yu.edu

Source: J. Lauer.

Herod’s Third Temple at Omrit?

I got to visit this site in 2004 when it was still closed off and had still not been reported on.

On a good day, you can see it from a distance. It stands proudly on a ridge below a higher peak at a site where you would least expect to see a fine Roman structure. Although it lies in ruins, the white structure stands out in a landscape of black basalt rocks, typical of the Golan. Before 1967, it was the site of a Syrian military bunker.

Khirbet Omrit (the Arabic name) rests on the border between the Galilee and the Golan, on what was the boundary between civilization and barbarity. At first, during the Roman occupation of Palestine, the Galilee was also a wild and unruly area where the young Herod was sent to restore order. He did this with his usual ruthless brutality, not allowing humanity to stand in the way of good order. As a result of his success, his masters inRome saw he was suited to become King of Judea. Later this cruelly successful mode of operation also gained him rule over the Golan, which was added to his kingdom in about 30 BCE.

Herod remembered this border territory, the site of his early triumph, and came back one day to build a temple to his patron, the Emperor Augustus. According to the first-century historian Josephus Flavius, after Caesar granted Herod the territory of the local governor who had died, “he [Herod] erected for him [Augustus] a beautiful temple in white stone in the territory of Zenodorus, near the place called Paneion [today, Banias]” (Antiquities 15: 363).

This white stone building at Omrit stands in the middle of nowhere today, but this was not so in antiquity. Recent excavations have shown that it stood alongside the Roman road from Tyre to Damascus, where it was joined by the route from Scythopolis (Beit-She’an) to Damascus. The temple stood high above the road and was joined to it by an avenue of columns that led to a bridge across the wadi Al-Hazin, which the road followed.

A colonnaded way means a road of shops, and that means commercial activity – here associated with travelers as well as locals. Omrit was a way-station on the road to Damascus, the seat of the senior Roman procurator who supervised Syria, which included Palestine.

Herod built three temples in honor of his patron Augustus. One stood at Sebastia (Samaria) and a second one at Caesarea. Where was the third? Some archeologists think it was at Banias itself, but that city was dedicated to the god Pan.

Walking to Omrit in 2004 (that's me in the Blue t-shirt falling behind everybody in the hot sun)

Omrit in 2004

See the rest here: JPost

Thanks to J. Lauer!

Up to the Temple: The Road of Pilgrims in the Second Temple Period

This is a bit old in the fast moving world of archaeology but I figured I would still post it. Archaeologist Ronny Reich presented this at SBL in Boston last year. It was a great presentation and adds significantly to our knowledge of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period, as well as the path from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple. As you can see from the picture the 2,000 year old street is still a great state of preservation. Here is hoping that the excavations will continue.

A section of a stepped street paved in stone slabs, going south in the direction of the Shiloach Pool was discovered in excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Shiloach Pool Excavation at the City of David in the Jerusalem Walls National Park. The excavations are conducted in cooperation with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, funded by the Elad Foundation, under the auspices of Prof. Ronny Reich of Haifa University and Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The existence of this road has been known about for over one hundred years, since it was first discovered between 1894 and 1897 by Prof. Frederick J. Bliss and Archibald C. Dickey of the British Palestine Exploration Fund, and then covered and filled in at the end of their excavation. Other sections of this same road, to the north, have been excavated and covered over in the past, including during the excavations of Jones in 1937 and Kathleen Kenyon from 1961-1967.

This section of the stepped street was discovered at a distance of 550 meters south of the Temple Mount. The road represents the central thoroughfare of Jerusalem that ascended from the north-west corner of the Second Temple Shiloach Pool to the north.

According to Prof. Ronny Reich, “In the Second Temple Period, pilgrims would begin the ascent to the Temple from here. This is the southernmost tip of the road, of which a section has already been discovered along the western face of the Temple Mount.”

The current excavation has been concentrated in a very narrow strip (1-2 meters in width) in the western sections of the road. Essentially, the excavation work removed the earth that had been filled in by previous excavators over the sections they already discovered. This section of road is built in the Second Temple style, which comprises alternating wide and narrow steps.

Further work must be done to clarify what the relationship was between the current excavated section and the section of the road and the drainage channel that were discovered nearby two years ago.

See article hear at Arutz-Sheva, JPost (w/ video of the street )

Though its late, thanks to J. Lauer!

2,000 Year Old Mikveh Discovered Near Western Wall

From the IAA

A large and impressive ritual bath (miqve) from the end of the Second Temple period was recently uncovered in archaeological excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is carrying out in the Western Wall tunnels, in cooperation with the Western Wall Heritage Foundation.

The miqve was discovered inside the western hall of a splendid structure that is located just c. 20 meters from the Western Wall. Parts of the building were discovered in the past and the Israel Antiquities Authority is currently exposing another one of the three halls inside it. It is one of the most magnificent structures from the Second Temple period ever to be uncovered.

The edifice is built of very delicately dressed ashlar stones and the architectural decoration in it is of the highest quality. From an architectural and artistic standpoint there are similarities between this structure and the three magnificent compounds that King Herod built on the Temple Mount, in the Cave of the Patriarchs and at Allonei Mamre, and from which we can conclude the great significance that this building had in the Second Temple period.

In his book The War of the Jews, Josephus Flavius writes there was a government administrative center that was situated at the foot of the Temple. Among the buildings he points out in this region were the council house and the “Xistus”- the ashlar bureau. According to the Talmud it was in this bureau that the Sanhedrin – the Jewish high court at the time of the Second Temple – would convene. It may be that the superb structure the Israel Antiquities Authority is presently uncovering belonged to one of these two buildings.

Read rest from IAA here: English, Hebrew, Arutz Sheva, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Sources: J. Lauer, Todd Bolen

Second Temple Synagogue Discovered (IAA Pics)

From the IAA Press Office

One of the Oldest Synagogues in the World was Exposed in the Israel Antiquities Authority Excavation

A synagogue from the Second Temple period (50 BCE-100 CE) was exposed in archaeological excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting at a site slated for the construction of a hotel on Migdal beach, in an area owned by the Ark New Gate Company. In the middle of the synagogue is a stone that is engraved with a seven-branched menorah (candelabrum), the likes of which have never been seen. The excavations were directed by archaeologists Dina Avshalom-Gorni and Arfan Najar of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The main hall of synagogue is c. 120 square meters in area and its stone benches, which served as seats for the worshippers, were built up against the walls of the hall. Its floor was made of mosaic and its walls were treated with colored plaster (frescos). A square stone, the top and four sides of which are adorned with reliefs, was discovered in the hall. The stone is engraved with a seven-branched menorah set atop a pedestal with a triangular base, which is flanked on either side by an amphora (jars).

According to the excavation director, Dina Avshalom-Gorni of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “We are dealing with an exciting and unique find. This is the first time that a menorah decoration has been discovered from the days when the Second Temple was still standing. This is the first menorah to be discovered in a Jewish context and that dates to the Second Temple period/beginning of the Early Roman period. We can assume that the engraving that appears on the stone, which the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered, was done by an artist who saw the seven-branched menorah with his own eyes in the Temple in Jerusalem. The synagogue that was uncovered joins just six other synagogues in the world that are known to date to the Second Temple period”.

See rest here [English] [Hebrew]

Migdal Synagogue from IAA

IAA

Thanks to J. Lauer!

More on the Inscription from Mount Zion from NatGeo

From Nat Geo (Photograph by S. Pfann/UHL )

Bible-Era Mystery Vessel Found — Code Stumps Experts

It didn’t look like much at first, just a broken, mud-caked stone mug.

But when archaeologists in Jerusalem cleaned the 2,000-year-old vessel, they discovered ten lines of mysterious script.

“These were common stone mugs that appear in all Jewish households” of the time, said lead excavator Shimon Gibson of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

“But this is the first time an inscription has been found on a stone vessel” of this type.

Deciphering the writing could provide a window into daily life or religious ritual in Jerusalem around the time of Jesus Christ (interactive time line of early Christianity).

Working on historic Mount Zion—site of King David’s tomb and the Last Supper—the archaeologists found the cup near a ritual pool this summer. The dig site is in what had been an elite residential area near the palace of King Herod the Great, who ruled Israel shortly before the birth of Jesus.

From the objects that surrounded it, Gibson determined that the cup dated from some time between 37 B.C. and A.D. 70, when the Romans nearly destroyed Jerusalem after a Jewish revolt.

Among the dig’s other finds are ruins spanning the time of the founding of King Solomon’s Temple, around 970 B.C., to the destruction of Jerusalem by Christian crusaders in A.D. 1099.

See rest here

Thanks to J. Lauer!

Hoard of Coins, Pottery, and Weapons Discovered from the Bar Kokhba Rebellion 132-135 CE

From Red Orbit article

One of the oft forgotten rebellions, prehaps due to the paucity of sources, is the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132-135) that took place nearly 70 years after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Scholars speculate that this revolt, also known as the Second Jewish Revolt, against Rome was more successful than the first but also more bloody.

As recent discovery of coins, pottery, and weapons was made dating to the Bar-Kokhba Period.

The following is from the JPost:

Israeli archeologists unveiled never before seen historical artifacts from a recent discovery of a Judean Hills cave used by Jewish refugees during the Bar Kokhba rebellion in 132-35 CE. The findings were presented at a press conference held at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Wednesday morning.

The massive discovery marks the first time Israeli researchers have ever found a large hoard of ancient coins from this era. The gold, silver and bronze coins, 120 in all, were discovered in an undisclosed location within the ‘Green Line’ of Israel. The unlocking of the almost inaccessible cave also yielded iron weapons, storage jars, oil lamps, a juglet, a silver earring and a glass bottle.

The 20-meter deep cave and its bounty are continuing to be explored by Prof. Amos Frumkin and Boaz Langford of the Cave Research Unit in the Department of Geography of the Hebrew University and Dr. Boaz Zissu and Prof. Hanan Eshel of the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University. The project is made possible with the support of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.

The artifacts are believed to be solid evidence proving the theory that Jews found refuge in the Judean Hills during the time-period.

With this find, Prof. Zissu said that the distribution of the coins in the region helps to further “indicate the geographical extent of the Jewish presence outside of Jerusalem” during the Roman occupation of the land of Israel. Prof. Zissu further explained that “since there is not a definitive historian (from the era), we have to rely on the information we find from the coins and discoveries.”

Prof. Frumkin added “this discovery verifies the assumption that the refugees of the revolt fled to caves in the center of a populated area in addition to the caves found in more isolated areas of the Judean desert.” The researchers believe that the Judean Hills cave served as a hiding place, with its proximity to the ancient city of Betar, for a dozen or more Jewish fighters…

See rest here: Archaeologists find 120 coins from the Bar Kokhba Revolt era
Arutz Sheva: Bar-Kochba Treasure Discovered in Judean Hills (there is also a video that I could not embed from some reason)
Red Orbit: Large Coin Collection From Bar-Kokhba Revolt Discovered
Science Daily: Largest-ever Collection Of Coins From Period Of Revolt Against Romans Found In Judean Hills
Haaretz: Bar Kochba-era treasure uncovered in Judean Hills cave
Haaretz: (Hebrew): נתגלו מטבעות וכלי חרס מתקופת מרד בר כוכבא
Congrats from Aren Maeir: Congrads to Boaz Zissu, Hanan Eshel et al.

Thanks to J. Lauer!

PhD Student Finds Codex Sinaiticus Fragment from the 4 century CE

The INDEPENDENT NEWS:

Fragment from world’s oldest Bible found hidden in Egyptian monastery

A British-based academic has uncovered a fragment of the world’s oldest Bible hiding underneath the binding of an 18th-century book.

Nikolas Sarris spotted a previously unseen section of the Codex Sinaiticus, which dates from about AD350, as he was trawling through photographs of manuscripts in the library of St Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt.

The Codex, handwritten in Greek on animal skin, is the earliest known version of the Bible. Leaves from the priceless tome are divided between four institutions, including St Catherine’s Monastery and the British Library, which has held the largest section of the ancient Bible since the Soviet Union sold its collection to Britain in 1933.

Codex Sinaiticus Homepage

Source: Bible Places Weekend Roundup

Time Magazine: The Burial Box of Jesus’ Brother: Fraud?

The world of biblical archaeology was stirred in 2002 by the unveiling of a limestone burial box with the Aramaic inscription Yaakov bar Yosef akhui di Yeshua (“James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”). Allegedly dating to an era contemporaneous with Christ, the names were a tantalizing collation of potentially great significance: James was indeed the name of a New Testament personage known as the brother of Jesus, both ostensibly the sons of Joseph the carpenter, husband of Mary. If its dates were genuine, the burial box — or ossuary — could well be circumstantial evidence for the existence of Jesus of Nazareth, a tenet supported only by gospels and scripture written, at the earliest, a generation after his crucifixion and, of course, by the faith of hundreds of millions through 2,000 years.

Experts, however, declared the ossuary a modern-day forgery. It was seized by Israeli police and its owner, Tel Aviv collector Oded Golan, was arrested and charged with counterfeiting the ossuary and dozens of other items. Golan and co-defendant Robert Deutsch were put on trial in the Jerusalem District Court in 2005. Deutsch is accused of forging other valuables, though not the ossuary. Both men deny all charges.

See rest here: The Burial Box of Jesus’ Brother: Fraud?

Matthew Kalman website: JAMES OSSUARY TRIAL JERUSALEM
OBSERVATIONS FROM THE JERUSALEM DISTRICT COURT BY MATTHEW KALMAN

Todd Bolen’s Blog: Defense to Testify in James Ossuary Forgery Case
PaleJudaica: NEWS ON THE ISRAEL FORGERY TRIAL

Related Articles: The Brother Of Jesus?
Exposing the ‘Jesus’ Brother’ Fraud

Thanks to J. Lauer!