Persian-era mass grave of infants excavated at Azekah

FUNERARY ARCHAEOLOGY: Archaeologists Find 2,500-year-old Mass Grave of Infants in Israel. The jumbled remains of dozens of skeletons at Azekah may help explain why children are not found in biblical-era cemeteries (Ariel David, Haaretz).

More than a decade ago, archaeologists investigating a cistern among the ruins of Azekah, an ancient town southwest of Jerusalem, made a gruesome discovery. The millennia-old water reservoir was not only filled with broken pottery and sediment washed in during centuries of abandonment, as one would expect. It also contained dozens of skeletons of children.

This mass grave for infants, most of them less than two years old, was likely in use during the Persian Period, some 2,500 years ago. It housed the fragile, jumbled remains of up to 89 individuals, the researchers say.

[...]

The underlying open-access peer-review article in the Palestine Exploration Quarterly:

A mass grave of young children and infants from the Persian period in Tel Azekah and its importance for the understanding of burial practices of unweaned infants

Oded Lipschits, Annika Hauser, Noa Shatil, Manfred Oeming, Omer Sergi, Liora Freud, Tal Nemet, Hila Mayl & Sabine Kleimana
Published online: 27 Mar 2026
Cite this article https://doi.org/10.1080/00310328.2025.2589646

ABSTRACT

During the excavations at Tel Azekah, a cistern was discovered on the tell’s lower plateau containing the remains of a minimum of 68 individuals, almost all of whom were infants and young children. The osteological analysis revealed that approximately 90% of the individuals were under five years of age, 70% even less than two years old. The burial seems to be primary, and the deposition of the remains was dated to the Persian period (ca. 5th century bce) based on the analysis of ceramics and small finds. This paper presents the archaeological context, ceramics, small finds, and human remains. We propose that during the Persian period, the cistern functioned mainly as a mass burial site for infants who were not granted individual interments since they were not yet weaned. The findings address broader questions, such as the social status of infants, weaning as a rite of passage, and mortuary practices during the Persian Period.

For more on the Ashkelon brothel infant burials, see here and here and the links in between. For many posts on the infant burials at Carthage, which are widely, but not universally, taken to be human sacrifices, start here and follow the links.

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AI and Israeli archaeology

ALGORITHM ARCHAEOLOGY: From dust to data: How technology is transforming Israeli archaeology. Israel’s archaeologists are harnessing artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and cutting-edge science to transform how the past is uncovered – and understood (Shlomo Cesana, Jerusalem Report).

The first stage, then, was the creation of an open and accessible database. The second stage, currently underway, is transforming the database into an advanced scientific repository. To this end, thousands of archives, laboratory data, and additional information that the IAA collected are being fed into it, and in the future it will include research articles from around the world.

“In the second stage, which we are in right now,” said [Alby] Malka, head of the IAA Technologies Division], “the Israel Antiquities Authority is using Google’s artificial intelligence tools. A pilot project has already scanned 5,000 archaeological research articles relevant to finds discovered in Israel.”

The third and most ambitious stage will enable the AI system not only to retrieve information but also make connections, suggest new perspectives, and answer complex questions. The system will integrate archaeological finds, scientific articles, and general knowledge, performing a synthesis that can serve as a research tool. Completing this stage will undoubtedly constitute a significant breakthrough in combining new technology with the findings of the past.

The first stage is done. Great. AI will be quite useful for the second stage, which amounts to advanced bean counting.

The catch comes with the third stage. The achilles heel of LLM AI is that there is no one home. Its a collection of automated processes—advanced autocorrect—which give a result with no one reviewing it against baseline reality. That's why it hallucinates. AI will speed up the third stage as long as humans oversee it to correct its misapprehensions.

When I get a chance, I may say more about this. Meanwhile, this is a good article that understands the benefits and limitations of AI.

Cross-file under Technology Watch.

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Honor Frost: Selected Works (open access, Sidestone Press)

THE AWOL BLOG: Honor Frost: Selected Works.

A collection of essays by pioneering underwater archaeologist Honor Frost. For more on her and her her contribution to Phoenician and Punic marine archaeology, as well as to the archaeology of Jericho, see here and here.

Cross-file under marine (maritime, underwater) archaeology.

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Beentjes, ... Collected Essays on the Book of Ben Sira III (Peeters)

NEW BOOK FROM PEETERS PUBLISHERS:

"Wisdom Sings Her Own Praise" (Sir. 24:1)
Collected Essays on the Book of Ben Sira III

Series:
Contributions to Biblical Exegesis & Theology, 126

Author:
Beentjes P.C.

Price: 74 euro
Year: 2026
ISBN: 9789042955868
Pages: XIV-245 p.

Summary:

It is no less than a Golden Age for Ben Sira students and scholars. Over the last twenty-five years, the research into the Book of Ben Sira (Ecclesiasticus) has grown into a well-studied field. Apart from the publication of basic tools, such as new text editions and polyglots, a variety of topics has been discussed.

In the first part of this volume the author focuses on some literary units in the Book of Ben Sira, such as the prayer in Sir. 22:27-23:6 and its mediaeval reworking. The portrayal of Aaron and Phineas is analyzed, just as the way Ben Sira speaks about angels.

The second part of this collection presents essays on Ben Sira’s way of quoting from Proverbs and Isaiah. Attention is further paid to the divergent views between Ben Sira and his grandson on prophets, and on wisdom and torah.

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Evans & Grønbech-Dam (eds.), 'Ex Oriente Lux' in Second Temple Texts (T&T Clark)

NEW BOOK FROM BLOOMSBURY/T&T CLARK:

'Ex Oriente Lux' in Second Temple Texts

Eschatological and Heavenly Revelation

Craig A. Evans (Anthology Editor) , Marc Grønbech-Dam (Anthology Editor)

Hardback
$120.00 $108.00
Ebook (PDF)
$108.00 $86.40
Ebook (Epub & Mobi)
$108.00 $86.40

Product details

Published Jan 22 2026
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 240
ISBN 9780567721884
Imprint T&T Clark
Dimensions 9 x 6 inches
Series The Library of Second Temple Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Description

This volume presents fresh scholarly insights into numerous Second Temple texts, encompassing apocalyptic themes and text-critical challenges. Contributions from renowned scholars illuminate the intricate dynamics of Second Temple literature and their potential historical and theological implications for the development of Christianity and Judaism in the first century.

The contributors first consider the revelatory dimensions of texts, including an examination of Moses's transformation in the Animal Apocalypse, which presents a provocative rejoinder to the notion of Enochian opposition to covenantal theology. Further essays engage the divine polemic against Apollo found within the Sibylline Oracles, as well as an exploration of prophetic declarations regarding the establishment of God's kingdom on earth. The role of Deuteronomic theology in shaping Second Temple Jewish eschatology is also examined, as well as the role of the Messiah in bringing salvation to both Jews and gentiles in the Psalms of Solomon, culminating in an engagement with the historical and textual complexities of Luke 3:23 and the baptism of Jesus.

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The question of the historical Talmud

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: The Historical Talmud (Simcha Gross).

Curiously, however, modern scholarship has largely proceeded as though the Talmud lies beyond the reach of historical inquiry. Even as contextual approaches to the Talmud – especially attention to its religious and cultural milieux – have attracted a growing community of scholars and incorporated an expanding range of comparanda, the historical study of the Talmud continues to be treated as a topic of interest rather than as an essential methodological orientation. It occupies a position not unlike that of studies of rabbinic conceptions of the afterlife or angelology: a legitimate subject of inquiry, yet not a foundational point of departure. Historical analysis is thus rarely regarded as indispensable to Talmudic study in the way that philology is; instead, it remains a specialized line of investigation within the broader field. ...

The historical study of the Bavli can therefore no longer be treated as a secondary pursuit. Like any other literary work, the Talmud must also be read within its political, social, and cultural ambit. Such an approach corrects for latent – and ultimately unsubstantiated – historical assumptions that continue to shape many aspects of the field. At the same time, it offers new lines of approach to familiar questions and opens novel avenues of inquiry. I will conclude by sketching four such directions:

I noted the first three essays in this series here and links.

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On Israeli archaeology in the West Bank

ARCHAEOLOGY AND POLITICS: Israel digs up the West Bank – and reignites a battle over history. As Israel expands excavations in the West Bank, ancient ruins become entangled in a modern political struggle over land, history, and identity (RUTH MARKS EGLASH, The Jerusalem Report).

While such dramatic ancient archaeological sites are located across this region, which Israelis call by its biblical name, Judea and Samaria, Alexandrion/Sartaba is now one of a handful of places where active excavations are taking place – for the first time in 40 years.

However, the renewed excavation here is not unfolding in isolation from modern events. It comes amid a sweeping Israeli government initiative to expand archaeological activity across the West Bank – territory Palestinians seek for a future state; territory which much of the international community considers “occupied.”

For more on the political situation with archaeology on the West Bank, and more on the Sartaba-Alexandrium excavation, see here and links. And for a post on the site of Archelais, see here.

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Review of Faust & Farber, The Bible's First Kings

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY:

The Bible’s First Kings

A fresh look at the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon

The Bible’s First Kings: Uncovering the Story of Saul, David, and Solomon
By Avraham Faust and Zev I. Farber
(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2025), 464 pp., 30 figs. (photos, plans, and maps); $49.99 (hardback & digital)

Reviewed by Michael G. Hasel

... This period of ancient Israel’s history, and its first kings, has become the most contested area of research over the past 40 years. It is into this quagmire of history, archaeology, and faith that archaeologist Avraham Faust and biblical scholar Zev Farber offer a new synthesis titled The Bible’s First Kings, which offers a dense but engaging discussion of the various biblical and archaeological issues.

Cross-file under New Book.

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Why was the Elephantine Judean temple really destroyed?

HISTORICAL RECONSTRUCTION: What Caused History's 'First Pogrom'? New Study Points to a Lurid Personal Rivalry. The destruction of the temple of Yahweh at Elephantine 2,400 years ago may have been the first anti-Semitic act in history, but new research suggests a more mundane motive was behind the devastation (Ariel David, Haaretz).

The destruction of the Jewish temple on the Egyptian island of Elephantine some 2,400 years ago is considered by some scholars to be the first recorded manifestation in history of religious and ethnic hatred toward Jews in the diaspora. But a recently published study claims that the true motive behind this 'proto-pogrom' was a personal rivalry between powerful local officials, on the background of a broader struggle for control over Egypt under Persian occupation.

The research sheds new light on the complex cultural and political dynamics that affected the life of early Jews in the Persian Empire, which may have had significant influence on the development of later Judaism as we know it, says Dr. Gad Barnea, a lecturer in Jewish history and biblical studies at Haifa University.

[...]

This article summarizes Dr. Barnea's interesting, if rather complicated and speculative, reconstruction of the events surrounding the destruction of the Elephantine Temple.

For the full technical and philological reconstruction, his open-access peer-review JAOS article is available here:

Khnum Is Against Us”: The Rise and Fall of Ḥananiah and the Persecution of the Yahwists in Egypt (ca. 419–404 BCE).

December 2025Journal of the American Oriental Society 145(4)
DOI:10.7817/jaos.145.4.2025.ar029

Authors:
Gad Barnea
University of Haifa

Abstract and Figures

According to the Elephantine Yahwists’ own dramatic portrayal, the figure of a certain Ḥananiah played a key role in the misfortunes they experienced following his arrival in Egypt in or around 419 bce. Therefore, understanding who this person was and how he might have helped cause these calamities can provide important context to the analysis of the final decades of this community. This article looks at all available evidence—textual, linguistic, and archeological data, both internal and external to Egypt—and comes to the conclusion that Ḥananiah was, in all probability, a scion of the Sanballat dynasty, an aristocrat and future governor of Samaria, who is known from various mid-fourth-century BCE documents discovered in Palestine. The identification of this eminently unique and dramatic character in Egypt at an exceptionally critical time in the satrapy has important implications, regarding which some speculative options are offered. The article also provides a new perspective on the overarching context of the events endured by the Yahwists in Elephantine, as well as on the general state of Yahwism in the Achaemenid period. Specifically, it offers a new hypothesis regarding the reasons for the persecution of the Yahwists and the destruction of their temple.

Other articles on the ancient Judean community at Elephantine by Dr. Barnea are noted here and here.

For many, many PaleoJudaica posts on the Elephantine Papyri and the site of Elephantine, see here and links, plus here, here, here, here, and here. Perhaps also here. Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.

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Shipwreck evidence for Iron Age II smithing and smelting

MARINE ARCHAEOLOGY: Iron from a 2,600-year-old shipwreck off Israeli coast may rewrite the history of war. The first evidence that iron was traded as a semifinished product has been found off the coast of nor (Rosella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

It was against the backdrop of this upheaval that a ship sank just meters from the ancient harbor of Dor, on the Carmel Coast in northern Israel (also known as Tantura Lagoon). Over two and a half millennia later, as maritime archaeologists retrieved some of its cargo, they made an unprecedented discovery, which changes the understanding of ancient metal production, trade routes, and possibly war supplies in the Iron Age (1200-586 BCE), a crucial time in the region’s history when most of the biblical narratives took place.

These "iron blooms" were found in the remains of Dor L2, one of the cargoes excavated at three shipwreck sites in Dor Lagoon. They have been in the news recently. See here.

The underlying open-access peer-review article in Heritage Science:

Article Open access Published: 13 March 2026

Earliest iron blooms discovered off the Carmel coast revise Mediterranean trade in raw metal ca. 600 BCE

Tzilla Eshel, Andrei Ioffe, Dafna Langgut, Yoav Bornstein, Zachary C. Dunseth, Marko Runjajić, Shmuel Ariely, Thomas E. Levy & Assaf Yasur-Landau
npj Heritage Science volume 14, Article number: 155 (2026)

Abstract

The discovery of exceptionally well-preserved iron blooms during underwater excavations in the Dor Lagoon provides a rare and transformative window into southern Levantine Iron Age metallurgy and trade. For the first time, unworked iron blooms, still encased in protective slag, have been recovered, representing the earliest securely dated industrial iron products identified to date. Radiocarbon modeling of an embedded charred oak twig, together with additional short-lived carbon samples, dates the blooms to the late 7th–early 6th centuries BCE. These findings challenge assumptions that iron blooms were typically forged immediately after smelting. Instead, the Dor blooms demonstrate that raw iron was transported in its as-smelted state, with adhering slag protecting the metal from corrosion during shipment. Results suggest that Iron Age urban centers focused on smithing rather than smelting activities, while raw iron circulated as a traded commodity, possibly under Saitic-Egyptian rule following the Neo-Assyrian withdrawal from the region.

Cross-file under Maritime (Underwater) Archaeology.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Did the Armenian alphabet come from the Ethiopic alphabet?

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Ancient alphabets, new insights: Researchers uncover hidden links among the letters. SDSU researchers used AI to compare writing systems across distant regions (San Diego State University).

With artificial intelligence (AI) as an essential tool, San Diego State University researchers have discovered surprising similarities among ancient writing systems from Africa and the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Their study suggests the Armenian alphabet may be more closely related in structure to the ancient Ethiopic writing system than linguists and historians previously thought.

For many years, historians noticed some Armenian, Georgian and Caucasian Albanian letters look similar to letters from Ethiopic, also known as Ge’ez, a writing system developed in the Horn of Africa more than 1,600 years ago. ...

One of the most surprising findings was that the Armenian alphabet appeared almost as similar to Ethiopic as Ethiopic is to its own earlier version. That suggests the resemblance may not be accidental.

That is an interesting discovery. It raises the question whether any cultural influences accompanied the script influence. Not my area, though.

This press release gives a brief, accessible summary of the underlying open-access peer-review article just published in Digital Scholarship in the Humanities. If you're feeling ambitious, you can read the whole, rather technical, article:

Machine learning techniques for exploring influence, commonalities, and shared origin of scripts: cases of Ethiopic, Armenian, Georgian, and Caucasian Albanian scripts

Daniel Zemene, Esatu Zemene, Atharv Sankpal, Eskinder Sahle, Vyshak Athreya Bellur Keshavamurthy, Samuel Kinde Kassegne
Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, fqag029, https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqag029
Published: 25 March 2026

Abstract

The morphological similarities between the Armenian, Georgian, and Caucasian Albanian scripts and the Ethiopic script have long intrigued both casual observers and scholars. However, prior studies have relied primarily on qualitative or historical analysis, often lacking objective or computational rigor. This study addresses that gap by applying machine learning and deep learning methods to explore potential structural relationships among these scripts. Using over 28,000 images of Ethiopic characters, we trained a deep convolutional neural network and augmented the dataset to enhance generalization. The resulting model, FeedelLigence, analyzes cross-script similarities through transformation-invariant distance measures, cosine distance (CD), and mutual information (MI). Our findings indicate notable structural and symbolic proximity between Ethiopic and the three comparison scripts. Armenian showed the strongest similarity, with the highest MI (0.7428 bits) and the lowest CD (0.0774). Georgian and Caucasian Albanian followed, with MI scores of 0.6843 and 0.6561 bits, and CDs of 0.1558 and 0.2498, respectively. These results provide computational evidence of significant structural overlap, suggesting possible historical connections or shared influences. In a broader cultural context, such affinities align with historical patterns of script evolution and cross-civilizational exchange. By combining artificial intelligence with comparative script analysis, this study offers a novel, quantitative perspective on the relationships among ancient writing systems—advancing our understanding beyond traditional human-centered approaches.

Cross-file under Paleography, Ethiopic Watch and Armenian Watch.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Large late-antique Coptic monastic complex excavated in Egypt

COPTIC WATCH: Archaeological discovery from the 5th century in the Nile Delta: the second-largest monastic complex in the history of Egyptian Christianity (Guillermo Carvajal, LBV).

The excavation campaign carried out by the Egyptian archaeological mission of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in the area of Al-Qalaya, located in the center of Hosh Issa, in the Beheira governorate, has culminated in the discovery of a monumental structure that specialists link to the earliest manifestations of Coptic monasticism.

[...]

Lots of architectual and artifactual discoveries at this site. The latter include a grave stone and fragmentary ceramic vessels inscribed in Coptic.

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Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology Volume 12 • 2025

NOW OUT, OPEN ACCESS: Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology Volume 12 • 2025

Contents

Dudi Mevorah, Ruth E. Jackson-Tal 4 In Memoriam Yael Israeli, 1933–2025

Arlette David 8 Amenhotep IV’s Large ‘Commemorative’ Scarabs

Eran Arie 24 Five Statuette Heads from the Warschaw Collection at the Israel Museum: Tracing Gaza’s Role in the Distribution of Cypriot Statuary in the Persian-Period Southern Levant

Shimon Gibson, Rafael Y. Lewis, Yarden Pagelson, Dudi Mevorah, Hadas Seri 44 A Roman Spatha Sword and Scabbard from Excavations on Mount Zion in Jerusalem

Ofer Pogorelsky 66 “An Epitaph upon Husband and Wife” A Greek Funerary Inscription in the Collection of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Ohad Abudraham, Ofer Pogorelsky 74 A Forgotten Nabataean Inscription from the Moshe Dayan Collection at the Israel Museum

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Abracadabra yet again

ARAMAIC WATCH? Word of the Day: ‘Abracadabra’; Check its Meaning, Origin, Phonetic, IPA & More. Abracadabra is a historic magical word linked to ancient healing beliefs, now widely used by magicians to symbolize mystery and transformation (Shubhi Kumar, The Sunday Guardian).

The origin of “Abracadabra” dates back nearly 2,000 years. It first appeared in the writings of a Roman physician named Serenus Sammonicus in the 2nd century. People believed that writing the word in a triangular pattern and wearing it as an amulet could cure diseases, especially fever. Some scholars think it comes from the Aramaic phrase meaning “I create as I speak,” while others link it to ancient Hebrew expressions.

Abracadabra comes up now and then in the media, and it's fun to review it when it does. It does have connections with both Aramaic and Hebrew, although the specifics are indeed debated.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the word and its possible etymology, start here and follow the links. I discuss the philological problems in detail here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Ancient coins seized at West Bank checkpoint

APPREHENDED NUMISMATICS: Ancient coins from Hasmonean kingdoms, Jewish revolts seized after suspected smuggling. Police say they found the artifacts last month as they inspected a vehicle belonging to a Palestinian doctor as he crossed the Hizma checkpoint north of Jerusalem into Israel (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

A collection of dozens of ancient coins was seized after a suspected smuggling attempt from the West Bank into Israel last month, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Monday.

Most of the coins date back approximately 2,000 years. Some were minted by Hasmonean kings (in the second or first centuries BCE), others by Jewish rebels during the Great Jewish Revolt (66-73 CE) or the Bar Kochba Revolt (132-136 CE). The collection also includes many Roman coins.

[...]

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

When did the Bavli become authoritative - especially in the Land of Israel?

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Historical Bavli Questions (Yitz Landes).

Thus, from the vantage point of the History of the Jewish Book, the study of the Talmud’s reception can focus on many things, but there are two main questions that it must deal with: One, which I just alluded to, is a question for the historian of the modern era, or perhaps even for the ethnographer, and this is the question of how the Talmud became a popular text after many centuries of it being a text of the elite.

The book historical question that I will focus on here is the question of the Talmud’s initial reception, of what we may call its canonization. And I mean this not in the sense of its coalescing as a work, though that is still profoundly unclear, but in the sense of how the Talmud became the most central work for defining what Judaism is and should be—well before, even a millennium before, it became a popular book and a part of popular piety.

I noted the first two essays in this series here and here.

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Is the Ark of the Covenant in the Solomon Islands?

WELL THAT'S A NEW ONE: Local religious movement claims the Ark of the Covenant is in the Solomon Islands. Among the To’abaita people in the north of Malaita, a deeply rooted belief holds that they descend from the “Lost Ten Tribes of Israel” (Jerusalem Post Staff/AI).

A new theory is drawing attention to Malaita Island in the Solomon Islands as a potential hiding place of the Ark of the Covenant. Local accounts point to a lost temple deep in the jungle that was modeled on King Solomon’s Temple to safeguard the sacred chest. ...

No, I don't take this seriously, but it's fun to keep track of all the places where the Ark is supposed to be. Once someone even visited my office to tell where it was buried in Scotland.

To the Solomon Islanders and anyone else who proports to know where the Ark of the Covenant is, I say, I am fully prepared to be convinced when you produce the Ark and it is properly authenticated by professional archaeologists and specialists.

For a great many posts on the Ark of the Covenant and the many places where it's claimed to be, start here and just follow those links. For some background links, see here.

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