I'M OFF TO VENICE first thing tomorrow morning for the Enoch Seminar. I don't expect to do any blogging while I'm there unless I get extremely bored and find an Internet caf� (unlikely) or someone finds the Holy Grail while I'm away (less likely). I should be back late on Saturday the 5th but probably won't be blogging again until Sunday. E-mail sent to me today or later will have to wait for me to get back.

If you aren't going to the Enoch Seminar, you can have a taste of it here. This is a short paper I'm giving on "The Animal Apocalypse and Daniel" and this is the handout that goes with it. I'm not allowed to show you the full text of my other paper, which is slated to be published in the conference proceedings in the journal Henoch, but I'll give you a longish abstract of it. It's called "Enochians, Essenes, and Qumran Essenes."

While I'm away, there are other sites that cover news on the ancient world, although none of them deals with exactly the same areas as PaleoJudaica. The Archaeologica News website is always full of the latest on world archaeology. David Nishimura's blog Cronaca deals with art history, antiquity, and archaeology but it is on hiatus too right now. He promises to be back by the Fourth of July weekend, so have a look then. He also recommends Mirabilis, which I haven't seen before but which looks interesting.

And, finally, here are some timely online exhibits from the British Museum website:

Limestone ossuary
Roman/Jewish, 1st century AD
From Jerusalem
Perhaps a representation of the Temple of Jerusalem

Limestone ossuary
Roman/Jewish, 1st century BC to 1st century AD
From Jerusalem
Donor of doors to the Temple of Jerusalem

Pottery lidded jar of the sort used to store the Dead Sea Scrolls

Happy Independence Day to all my American readers. Look for me again on Sunday, 6 July. Have a good week.