PaleoJudaica's top ten (with bonuses) for 2024

ONE MORE (FOR NOW) 2024 TOP TEN LIST: Below is my own list of PaleoJudaica's top ten stories/posts for 2024, with some bonuses at the end. My criterion is stories that I found most interesting. They are mostly in chronological order of posting.

• FIRST, a very important annnouncement: Forthcoming: More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2. With follow-up posts here, here, and here (and anticipatory post here).
• Chaos dragon stamp seal excavated at Hazor. With follow-up posts here and here.
• Plato's last night revealed in Herculaneum scroll? With follow-up posts here and here.
• The Holy Grail has not been found at Petra. Nope. But read on .... With follow-up posts here and here.
• The Mazzarón II has been raised. For the long saga of the raising of the Phoenician shipwreck, the Mazzarón II, off the coast of Spain, follow the links. It is currently being restored at nearby Cartagena.
• Alphabetic inscriptions from 2,400 BCE? Yep, currently looks like it. Follow-up posts are here and here.
• A first-century synagogue in Russia? (updated and bumped). See also the earlier link in the update. A follow-up post is here.
• Samaritan Decalogue tablet sells for more that $5m. Follow the links for posts on this object, and its two sales, going back to 2016.
• Does the Tel Dan Stele prove there was a King David? The Tel Dan Stele has been in the news a lot in 2024. It is currently on an exhibition tour in the United States. Follow the links for this year's posts and more.
• A.I. is finding more Gilgamesh Epic. There were many Artificial Intelligence stories this year. That one is a win. So is this: A Grand Prize winner for the Vesuvius Challenge. So-called "AI" is good for rote detailed jobs like matching up clay fragments. To do much of anything else, it requires lots of human assistance. To a large degree the limitations are not solvable by adding more computing power. They are intrinsic to the technology. It can't perceive reality directly. It can only remap the reality maps handed to it. I discuss some of the issues here. Some other posts are here, here, and here. Personally, I think LLM technology is a dead end that will never produce real AI.

Bonus Story:

• Bronze bulls and other goodies excavated at MBA Tel Shimron

And finally, a few 2024 posts which are not news stories per se, but which I think have useful observations:

• The Haggadah counters an intermediary angel at the Exodus
• Should we trust reconstructions of fragmentary texts?
• What is "Late Antiquity?"

Last year's top-ten list is here.

Have a good and safe New Year's Eve 2024!

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