PaleoJudaica's top ten for 2025

ONE MORE (FOR NOW) 2025 TOP TEN LIST: In recent years I have been concluding the year with a list of PaleoJudaica's top ten stories/posts for the year. My main criterion is stories that I found most interesting.

This year is a bit complicated. There have been endless interesting and important discoveries and advances in 2025, but very few stand out as top-ten material. That is reflected in the wide variation in earlier 2025 lists. Also, the biggest stories for PaleoJudaica have been of a more personal nature.

The following list has ten bullet points, but it's a mixture of stories, themes, and single posts. And it has a lot more than ten links. Most are not already covered in other 2025 lists. Let's start with a couple of personal stories.

● The top story of the year for PaleoJudaica was the publication of:

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 2: More Noncanonical Scriptures (Eerdmans, ed. Davila and Bauckham; MOTP2).

Theoretically this was on 25 April, but I received my first copy in March. You can read a chapter of it for free:

MOTP2: Introduction to the Book of Giants

The first review, by Phil Long at Reading Acts, is noted here.

Noteworthy around the same time was the first paperback publication of volume 1 (hardback published in 2013). And during the year I seized some opportunies to mention MOTP2 (and MOTP1) in connection with other stories. See here, here, here, here, here,here, and here.

● The other big personal story was my visit to Cartagena, Spain, to help the locals celebrate their annual Festival of the Carthaginians and Romans. I have been noting the festival off and on for many years (see here and links), and finally got around to attending this year. The 2025 posts:

In anticipation:
Cartagena Festival 2025 is coming
Starts today: The Carthaginians and Romans Festival of Cartagena

The reports on the trip, with lots of photos and videos:
The Festival of the Carthaginians and Romans 2025
Carthaginians and Romans: the capture of Carthago Nova
Cartagena: Phoenician and Punic archaeology and epigraphy
Cartagena: Roman-era archaeology
Carthaginians and Romans: Final Events

And a couple of follow-up posts with more photos:
Phoenician shipwreck exhibition in Cartagena
A first-century Latin sortilege inscription from Cartagena

● A persistent theme throughout the year has been the use of AI for improving our understanding of ancient Judaism and the ancient past in general. Here are the posts.

The life of an (aspiring) lost-language decipherer
Text excerpts in Syriac manuscripts
Satlow on AI and Word Similarity in the Talmud
Social inferences from the ancient Hebrew onomasticon
"Enoch" AI and new Carbon dating may push the dates of some DSS back (with follow-up posts here and here, notably on the implications of the re-dating of 4QDaniel^c)
An AI system for reconstructing ancient (Latin) inscriptions
Algorithm and multispectral imaging meet the DSS
An AI-Based Analysis of a Jewish Textual Corpus
AI is transcribing the whole Cairo Geniza
Drones, AI, and archaeological mapping

Also, let's reprise a couple of 2024 posts in which I discuss the limitations of LLM AI as I see them. I will not expatiate here. Maybe in another post.

Using AI to reconstruct damaged Hebrew & Aramaic inscriptions?
Machines agree that those special Talmud tractates are special

● The ongoing decipherment of the Herculaneum papyri also came up quite a bit. There continues to be steady progress, although I saw no dramatic developments like 2024's recovery of a lost biography of Plato. I'm also throwing in an extra post on other ancient libraries.

The Musk Foundation is funding the Vesuvius Project
Deciphering another Herculaneum scroll
Aksu, Collecting Practices and Opisthographic Collections in Qumran and Herculaneum (Brill, open access)
More Philodemus from Herculaneum
Bigtime grant for Heculaneum scrolls research
Plato's grave located? I doubt it.
The latest on the Heculaneum papyri

A library without scrolls and scrolls without a library

We also saw the recovery and decipherment of some other scroll material. The Nahal Zohar fragments were newly recovered in that mysterious pyramid. The tax fraud papyrus was acquired by the Israel Museum some time ago under unclear conditions. It was finally noticed in 2014 and published this year.

● A pyramid and scroll fragments excavated in Judean Desert
More on the pyramid and scroll finds at Nahal Zohar

● A tax-fraud and forgery trial recorded in a pre-Bar Kokhba Revolt papyrus
More on that fraud-trial papyrus
Ancient Roman taxation practices

● An ongoing debate in Ethiopia about Ge'ez was in the news. Ge'ez is the ancient Ethiopian language that preserves the only complete texts of the ancient Jewish books of 1 Enoch and Jubilees. Is it a "dead" language? Should it be? Or should it be taught in Ethiopian schools? How important is it for Ethiopian culture today? Meanwhile, SBL Press has published a new reader's edition of Ethiopic (Ge'ez) 1 Enoch.

In defense of Ge'ez
Another defense of Ge'ez

Olivero, 1 Enoch: An Ethiopic Reader’s Edition (SBL)

● Perhaps surprisingly, PaleoJudaica found two postable stories about Neolithic archaeology, with a bonus story for each.

A six-fingered shaman, giants, and a ghost wheel—two prehistoric stories
Proto-writing at Göbekli Tepe? Plus Ashubanipal's looted library? (with an update noting a response by an archaeologist who has worked at Göbekli Tepe)

Finally, two additional personal stories.

● The first involves, belatedly, a trip to the Isle of Jura in Scotland.

Burns Night, with an update

● The second, and last in this year's list, is a (successful) experiment involving enabling comments. I may repeat it sometime.

Ezra and Nehemiah pseudepigrapha?

Last year's top-ten list is here.

Cross-file under Annual Archaeology List Watch.

Have a good and safe New Year's Eve 2025!

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

Ancient Judaism postdoc at Yale University

H-JUDAIC: Yale University - Postdoctoral Associate in Ancient Judaism/Jewish History.

The Program in Jewish Studies at Yale University is offering a two-year Postdoctoral fellowship that will begin on July 1, 2026. Candidates for the fellowship must have a Ph.D. in hand by July 1, 2026 and must have received the degree no earlier than 2023. The Program seeks a specialist in Ancient Judaism/Jewish History who will work closely with appropriate members of Yale’s faculty.

[...]

Follow the link for further particulars. "The deadline for receipt of application materials is February 16, 2026."

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Another review of Henze & Lincicum (eds.) Israel’s Scriptures in Early Christian Writings

BOOK REVIEW: Israel’s Scriptures in Early Christian Writings: The Use of the Old Testament in the New. WRITTEN BY MATTHIAS HENZE AND DAVID LINCICUM, EDS. (Benjamin E. Castaneda, Themelios Volume 50 - Issue 3).

In the decades since Richard Hays’s groundbreaking Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), there has been a tremendous outpouring of secondary literature on the relationship between the OT and the NT, mostly focusing on the latter’s reuse of the former. This hefty edited volume, comprising a lengthy introduction and forty-two dense chapters, not only outlines the status quaestionis but also aims to advance the scholarly conversation. ...

I noted the publication of the book here and another review here.

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

Bible Places: 2025 top ten

ANNUAL ARCHAEOLOGY LIST WATCH: Top 10 Discoveries of 2025 (Todd Bolen, Bible Places Blog).

The end of the year marks a time to look back and reflect, and since our interest here is the biblical world, I am continuing our tradition of highlighting the most important discoveries and stories related to biblical archaeology this year.

Our survey begins with a ranked list of the top 10 discoveries of the year. Ranking discoveries is difficult and highly subjective and thus to be discouraged, but the attempt may be justified in the interest of provoking more consideration of what is most important and why.

In addition to the top 10, I have identified the most controversial stories of the year and other noteworthy stories from Jerusalem, Israel, Mesopotamia, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy. Then we consider the top stories related to tourism and technology. Many significant books and digital resources were released in 2025, and some of those are noted. This annual roundup concludes by remembering scholars we lost this year and other top 10 lists of interest.

Todd's annual list is always the most comprehensive. PaleoJudaica has posted on many, but by no means all of these 2025 stories.

Ovelapping PaleoJudaica posts, limited to his main top-ten list: on Jerusalem's Siloam dam, see here; on the late-notice from the Assyrian taxman excavated in Jerusalem, see here; on the pottery evidence for Egyptians at Megiddo in Josiah's time, see here; on the three recently excavated shipwrecks at Tel Dor, see here; on the possible tomb of an Assyrian official excavated in Northern Israel, see here; on the Sifting Project's recovery of a Hebrew bulla bearing a possibly biblical name, see here; on the ancient garden excavated at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, see here; and on Jerusalem's Hasmonean-era city wall, see here and here.

PaleoJudaica's top-ten list is coming tomorrow. Watch this space!

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

BHD: Top Ten Biblical Archaeology Stories of 2025

ANNUAL ARCHAEOLOGY LIST WATCH: Top Ten Biblical Archaeology Stories of 2025. Bible History Daily’s Year in Review (Nathan Steinmeyer).

What were the top ten biblical archaeology stories of 2025? As the year winds down, we look back at some of the most popular news stories published on Bible History Daily in 2025. From newly identified temples in Jerusalem to discoveries about Egyptian pharaohs, this year provided some incredible archaeological news. The articles below are not listed or ranked in any particular order, though readers are welcome to share their top picks in the comments section below.

There is some overlap with other 2025 top-ten lists, but less than you might expect.

PaleoJudaica has posted on some, not all, of these stories: on the reported worship building down the road from the First Temple, see here; on the late-notice from the Assyrian taxman excavated in Jerusalem, see here; on the pottery evidence for Egyptians at Megiddo in Josiah's time, see here; on the tax-fraud trial papyrus, see here, here, and here; on the Punic lack of Levantine ancestry, see here and here.

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

On Constantine’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Commemorating Jesus: Constantine’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Jordan J. Ryan).

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the site where the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus are commemorated, looms the largest of the early commemorative churches in Christian memory, imagination, and history. Its original construction was begun circa 325-326 CE in the wake of the Council of Nicaea and in tandem with the celebration of the twentieth year of the Emperor Constantine’s reign. It was finally dedicated ten years later as part of the celebration of Constantine’s thirty-year jubilee in 336 CE.

For some PaleoJudaica posts on the recent renovations and excavations in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Holy Sepulchre), and much more on the Church, see the links collected here, plus here and here.

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

Haaretz: top-ten Christian archaeology stories 2025

ANNUAL ARCHAEOLOGY LIST WATCH: Bethsaida Rises From the Ashes: Top Christian Archaeology Stories of 2025 (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

My goodness, Ms. Schuster has been busy! I'm just now catching up with her.

It was hot in Israel this summer, the land baking in heatwave after heatwave, dismaying farmers up and down the land and desiccating the vegetation. In the dry season, wildfires are always caused by somebody tossing a cigarette or neglecting to douse a barbecue. There are no rainstorms in summer, no lightning strikes and Israel has no active volcanoes so the wildfire that ate the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee in late August was not an act of God. But it helped clear up one of the great biblical mysteries – where the lost city of Bethsaida, home of the Apostles Peter, Andrew and Philip, really is.

In other news of early Christianity, a Byzantine-era skeleton found in chains in Jerusalem belies the assumption that all martyrs were male, archaeologists find a hitherto unknown (and wealthy) early Byzantine settlement and monastery in the desert, and child archaeologists break new ground at Chorazin (and you can too!) Here are some of the hottest stories in Christian archaeology in 2025 and one analysis courtesy of Elon Gilad: Why actually is Christmas celebrated on December 25?

For PaleoJudaica on the wildfire at Tel Araj (Bethsaida?), see here; on the late-antique (extreme ascetic?) woman found buried in chains near Jerusalem, see here and here; on the late-antique African figurines excavated in the Negev, see here; on the educational excavation at Chorazin, see here; on the Byzantine-era menorah amulet excavated near the Temple Mount, see here; on the late-antique monastery and inscribed mosaic excavated near Kiryat Gat, see here; on the Be'er Shema (Birsama) mosaic exhibition, see here; on the menorah-decorated pillar capital excavated near Jerusalem, see here. I missed Elon Gilad's article asking when Jesus was born and when December 25th was picked to celebrate, but it's worth a read. For more on those questions, start from the links here. For the late-antique Samaritan estate (with the watermelon mosaic) excavated in Israel, see here.

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

Haaretz: top-ten archaeology stories 2025

ANNUAL ARCHAEOLOGY LIST WATCH: Ancient Humanity, Surprise Us: Best Archaeology Stories in 2025 (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz). Not to be confused with Haaretz's 2025 biblical archaeology list, noted here. No overlap between them.

We humans surprise ourselves. The earliest boomerang was made 40,000 years ago. In Poland. The agricultural revolution was eagerly embraced. Except when it wasn't. Moses wasn't the first to seek his god on a mountain, and the longest papyrus ever found in the Judean Desert – wait 'til you hear what it says. Here are those stories and many more from the world of archaeology in 2025!

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Punic lack of Levantine ancestry. see here, here, and here; on the fox-footprint find at el-Araj, see here; on the tax-fraud trial papyrus, see here, here, and here; and on the late notice from the Assyrian taxman excavated in Jerusalem, see here; and on the megalithic "Wheel of Ghosts" at Rujm el-Hiri, see here.

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

Mikveh excavated under Western Wall Plaza under destruction layer

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Mikveh Filled With Ash From Roman Destruction Found in Jerusalem. Ritual bath found under the Western Wall Plaza by the Temple entrances contains the evidence of the violent end of the Second Temple period in Jerusalem (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

Right by two of the main entrances to the Second Temple that the Romans looted and destroyed in 70 C.E. was a large mikveh that likely served locals and the many pilgrims to Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority revealed on a rainy Monday morning. ...

The bath structure dates to the Second Temple period, the archaeologists could confirm: It lay sealed beneath the Second Temple period destruction layer. Also, it was full of debris, ash and broken household items from the terrible destruction of the city and Temple in the year 70, following the Jewish rebellion that began in 66 C.E. "Buildings and streets were collapsing and burning down in the fighting," [excavation director Ari] Levy recreates the horrors of the time.

Among the shattered vessels bedded in ash in the bath were many made of stone, a hallmark of Jewish life in the Second Temple period. Stone kitchenware was believed to be impervious to contamination, whereas if a ceramic item was exposed to foulness, it had to be thrown out. The archaeologists also found also ceramic vessels as well as precious glass, as expected, says Levy. The archaeologists also found some coins.

For more on ancient Jewish stone vessels and their purity implications, see here and follow the links.

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

Drones, AI, and archaeological mapping

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Israeli AI, drone imagery revolutionizing mapping of archaeological sites. “Sites that appear on the surface as scattered stones suddenly become coherent, organized spaces, and it saves a lot of research time,” Dr. Yitzchak Jaffe said (TPS/Jerusalem Post).

The tool combines high-resolution drone imagery with machine learning to identify individual building stones and wall segments across archaeological sites. Within minutes, the system can map hundreds of thousands of stones and translate what looks like visual chaos into a detailed, measurable site plan. It was recently evaluated in the peer-reviewed Journal of Archaeological Science.

The article about this University of Haifa research is open access at JAS Volume 185, January 2026:

Semi-automatic detection of building stones and wall segments of archaeological ruins

Erel Uziel, Motti Zohar, Yitzchak Jaffe

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2025.106430

Highlights

• Detect stones and walls from drone imagery with deep learning.
• Analyze archaeological sites using digitized stone and wall layers.
• Provide open-source models and code for stone and wall detection.
• Deliver an end-to-end workflow from drone images to GIS layers.

Abstract

This study presents a semi-automatic methodology for detecting building stones and wall segments in archaeological research, using drone imagery and deep learning algorithms. The immediate outputs of the methodology are a georeferenced stones layer, with each stone detected as a separate instance, and a site plan layer, composed of stones considered part of detected wall segments. We developed this model via nine sites of varying size with different vegetation coverage, ground color, and material composition, exemplifying the model's ability to perform successfully even in challenging conditions. The digital layers, along with additional attributes associated with each shape, provide a foundation for further analysis, such as identifying multiple construction styles and site organization patterns, with significant potential for large-scale multi-site studies. Evaluation results demonstrate good model performance under varied conditions. We also provide trained models, trained on data from multiple sites, for immediate use and further refinement.

Cross-file under Algorithm Watch.

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Muraoka, The Book of Judith (Peeters)

NEW BOOK FROM PEETERS PRESS:

The Book of Judith

Author:
Muraoka T.

Price: 40 euro
Year: 2025
Isbn: 9789042953802
Pages: XVI-172 p.

Summary:
Judith is one of very few ladies in the ancient biblical world whose life stories show us what important roles women can play in human history in addition to motherhood. Along with Ruth and Esther she is one of the only three women on whom a whole book was written. Her life story is attractive enough to be read in the Greek version, probably dating to the first century BCE, and its annotated English translation presented in this book.

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

Buster & Walton, The Book of Daniel, Chapters 1–6 (NICOT, Eerdmans)

NEW BOOK FROM EERDMANS:

The Book of Daniel, Chapters 1–6
by Aubrey E. Buster and John H. Walton

Series: New International Commentary on the Old Testament (NICOT)

Imprint: Eerdmans

960 Pages, 6.12 × 9.25 in

Hardcover
9780802875990
Publication Date: November 20, 2025v $62.99 £48.99

eBook
9781467469753v Publication Date: November 20, 2025
$62.99 £48.99

DESCRIPTION

An indispensable resource for preaching and teaching the book of Daniel

In this volume of the New International Commentary on the Old Testament, scholars Aubrey E. Buster and John H. Walton guide readers through chapters 1–6 of the book of Daniel. They provide historically informed, theologically sound interpretations of some of the most memorable stories and imagery in the Old Testament, including Daniel in the lion’s pit, the fiery furnace, the figure with feet of clay, and the writing on the wall. Buster and Walton also help readers understand the significance of the text’s composition, audience, historical context, genre, and structure. Accessible and insightful, this well-researched volume is an essential resource for preaching, teaching, and study of the book of Daniel.

All NICOT volumes combine superior scholarship, an evangelical view of Scripture as the Word of God, and concern for the life of faith today. Each volume features an extensive introduction treating the biblical book’s authorship, date, purpose, structure, and theology. The authors’ own translations of the original text and verse-by-verse commentary follow. The commentary itself carefully balances coverage of technical matters with exposition of the biblical text’s theology and implications. Readers who want to hear God’s voice anew through Scripture will find the New International Commentary on the Old Testament series to be a faithful, trustworthy guide.

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

Evidence for Byzantine-era Christian souvenir production at Hyrcania

ANCIENT ARTIFACT: Forget keychains, Byzantine pilgrims took home ‘souvenir’ flasks, newly found mold shows.Judean Desert finds dated 1,400 years ago bear witness to ‘flourishing Christian pilgrimage industry’ as travelers from around Roman Empire sought mementos of visits to Jesus-linked sites (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

In a rare find, Israeli archaeologists recently uncovered the tools used some 1,400 years ago to make mementos for the travelers who made their way to the Land of Israel to visit the key sites associated with the life of Jesus and other saints as Christianity became firmly established as the Roman Empire’s dominant religion.

A Byzantine mold to craft small flasks featuring an elaborate cross and inscribed with the Greek words “Lord’s blessing from the holy places,” was among several notable artifacts recently unearthed at the Hyrcania archaeological site in the Judean Desert in the West Bank, researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem told The Times of Israel on Thursday. The inscription was deciphered by Dr. Avner Ecker.

For more on the many discoveries at the Hyrcania excavation, see here and links.

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

Gold ring and coins excavated at Hyrcania

NUMISMATICS AND ANCIENT BLING: Hyrcania excavations uncover evidence of Byzantine Monastic life. Excavations at Khirbet Hyrcania in the northern Judean Desert uncovered rare Byzantine-era gold coins and a ring, highlighting Christian monastic activity at the site (Israel National News).

The excavation of Hyrcania in the West Bank began in 2023. For additional posts, see here (immediately preceding post) and links.

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

On the expansion of the Civil Administration's archaeology unit

ARCHAEOLOGY AND POLITICS: Israel boosts archaeological enforcement and excavations in the West Bank. Archaeological activity in the West Bank has greatly expanded after approving 120 million shekel plan, boosting budgets, enforcement powers and excavations; officials say move aims to protect heritage sites, amid political and academic controversy (Elisha Ben Kimon, Ynet News).

In 2010, the Israeli government adopted a decision to strengthen the enforcement and protection of antiquities in the West Bank, but it was an initial move with limited budgets and minimal attention from the military and government ministries. In July 2023, nearly a year after the current government was formed, a new government decision approved a multi-year plan to combat the destruction of antiquities and heritage sites in the West Bank. The decision, initiated by Heritage Minister Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Tourism Minister Haim Katz, allocated 120 million shekels over three years. The new budget fundamentally changed the work of the archaeology unit.

For more on the Sartaba-Alexandrium excavation, see here and links; on the Hyrcania excavation, see here and links (UPDATE: also the next two posts here and here); and on the new Sebastia excavation, here and links, here, here, and here; and on a recent academic boycott, here.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ahere, here,ncient Judaism and the biblical world.

Christmas 2025

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all those celebrating!

I haven't really posted on Christmas this year, unless you want to count posts on the disappointing 2025 film The Carpenter's Son. I suppose we can count this one on Coptic magical infancy Christian apocrypha too. Otherwise, such Christmas stories that I've seen are recyclings of old ones that come up every year.

But just to make sure they are covered too, here are some old posts on perennial Christmas subjects. Each has plenty of links to follow.

Where was Jesus born?
The year Jesus was born (?) was quite a year
The Star of Bethlehem and ancient astronomy
On Matthew's Magi
Apocryphal Christmas again
Has Santa's coffin been found?
How did December 25th become Christmas?

I think that about covers it.

For posts of Christmases past, see my 2024 Christmas post and links.

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

Proto-writing at Göbekli Tepe? Plus Ashubanipal's looted library?

DR. IRIVING FINKEL, well-known Assyriologist at the British Museum, was recently interviewed by Lex Fridman. In this clip, Dr. Finkel makes a couple of fascinating and somewhat controversial claims.

First, he notes that the Neolithic archaeological site at Göbekli Tepe, best known for its remarkable monolithic architecture bearing extensive artwork (noted here and here), has produced a small stone object that has the look of an administrative seal. The object has three marks on it that sure look like pictographic writing, possibly even phonetic writing. Dr. Finkel thinks that such a complex society would have needed at least pictographic writing for trade and administration and this artifact shows that they had it. Presumably they used it more extensively on perishable materials such as leaves.

Not noted in the clip, but similar decorated stone objects has been found at other Neolithic sites. An example from Jerf al-Ahmar in Syria is shown here. French scientists have already suggested a connection with pictographic writing. A cautious appraisal of the implications of such objects is in this open-access article. Note especially Fig. 3A‒D.

Finkel knows much more about early writing systems than I do, but I know enough to say that his proposal has some merit. Neolithic civilizations may well have already been working on pictographic writing systems in 9000 BCE. The earliest proto-cuneiform writing is from the late 3000s BCE, nearly six millenia later.

Pair that with this year's proposal that alphabetic writing was already underway in the third millennium BCE.

For another 2025 PaleoJudaica post on an intriging story about Neolithic archaeology, see here.

Second—and here Finkel speaks directly out of his expertise—he has an arresting take on Ashurbanipal's famed cuneiform library in the ruins of Nineveh, excavated in the nineteenth century. The Library of Ashurbanipal, some 30,000 tablets or so, is a major source for the Epic of Gilgamesh and other cuneiform literature. PaleoJudaica has posted on it here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Finkel's proposal, which I have not heard before, is that the Babylonian conquerers and their allies must have looted the library before they destroyed it. It would have contain vast amounts of important information in their own language which they would have wanted to keep. The huge "library" that was excavated consists only of the duplicates and the broken pieces that the Babylonians didn't bother carting off. If he's right—and as a curator of the cuneiform collection of the British Museum, where those tablets are housed, his opinion has credibility—the loss of the bulk of the original library of Ashurbanipal is a tragedy comparable to the loss of the Library of Alexandria.

Still, we are unimaginably fortune to have what we do have of it.

PaleoJudaica has noted Dr. Finkel in connection with a British Museum exhibition on Babylon here; his work on the Mesopotamian Noah's Ark story here, here, here, and here; his work on some new Cyrus Cylinder fragments here and here; an interview with him here; his comments on the completion of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary here; his work on the Babylonian World Map here; and a recent book he co-authored on Babylonian Chronographic Texts from the Hellenistic Period here.

If you're wondering, no, none of this has anything to do with Christmas. Except perhaps that Dr. Finkel does look a lot like Santa Claus.

UPDATE (28 December): Over at the Trowel and Pen Blog, archaeologist Jens Notroff—who specializes in the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods, who has acted as a staff member at the Göbekli Tepe excavation, and who has published on the site—has responded to Finkel's claims in the Fridman interview: Hidden in plain sight: Did archaeologists really overlook evidence for early writing at Göbekli Tepe?! It's brief, so read it all.

Mr. Notroff makes three points. First, he objects to Finkel's "subtle passive-agressive" tone toward archaeologists. Fair point. I think he was speaking tongue in cheek, but he could have skipped those opening comments.

Second, the artifact is not unique. It comes in an archaeological context of similar objects and iconography found at the site and elsewhere. Agreed. For example, I linked to a photo of the Jerf el Ahmar plaquette above.

Third, there is already a specialist literature on these objects and their iconography. Again, agreed. I cited a 2025 peer-reviewed article above as an example.

So is it proto-writing? Notroff concludes:

So, is it now writing or not? I’d still be hesitant, to be honest. These symbols are part of a communication system, I’m totally on board here. But in my humble opinion we’re not seeing phonetic values assigned to specific symbols representing spoken language here yet.

That doesn't sound far off from what Finkel (and I) said. It looks like some kind of pictographic communication. Whether it was "proto-writing," is certainly up for discussion. It could be phonetic, but need not be. We would need to know something about the language spoken by the Göbekli Tepeians to evaluate that.

If it is ever firmly established that they used (proto-)writing, that will only be through collaboration between experts on early writing systems like Dr. Finkel and specialist archaeologists like Mr. Notroff. I am glad that the latter weighed in on the subject.

I have not yet found any responses by other Assyriologists to Finkel's comments about Ashubanipal's Library.

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

Apocryphal

DEFINITION: Word Wisdom: Apocryphal. Concepts of doubtful authenticity. (John Kreutzwieser, Moose Jaw Express).

A thorough and seasonally timely overview of the meaning of the term.

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Christianity Today's 2025 biblical-archaeology-stories list

ANNUAL ARCHAEOLOGY LIST WATCH: 10 Striking Biblical Archaeology Stories of 2025. Research and natural disaster uncovered exciting finds from the ancient world (Gordon Govier, Christianity Today).

Megiddo, site of the biblical Armageddon and home of the discovery that capped off our top 10 list last year, continued to yield noteworthy discoveries in 2025.

This year’s archaeology stories highlight discoveries that have helped us learn more about the biblical world and the context that gave us the Bible. Some are controversial. Some are serendipitous.

The most important biblical archaeology discoveries of this year may not be known until months or years from now, as archaeologists study their findings in the lab, research them, and publish their reports in scientific journals. This list is the stories we learned about this year.

Another good list, with relatively little overlap with earlier ones.

PaleoJudaica has posted on almost all the stories: on Egyptians at Josiah's Megiddo, see here; on Jerusalem's Hasmonean-era city wall, see here and here; on that new map of Roman-era roads, see here; on the somewhat controversial new excavation at Samaria/Sebastia, see here (cf. here) and on the Civil Administration's expropriation of land in the area, see here; on Egypt's also-controversial nationalization of St. Catherine's Monastery, see here (cf. here); on the cuneiform late notice from the Assyrian taxman excavated in Jerusalem, see, here; on the AI redating of 4QDaniel^c, see here, here, and here; on the wildfire at Tel Araj (Bethsaida?), see here (cf. here); and on Jerusalem's Siloam dam, see here.

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

Ben-Yehuda's revival of Hebrew

LINGUISTIC RESURRECTION: Digging Up Hebrew. The revival of Hebrew as a spoken language has been given supernatural terms like ‘resurrection’ and ‘miracle,’ but how ‘scientific’ was it? (Ryan Malone, Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology, from the November-December 2025 Let the Stones Speak Magazine Issue).

A 1952 English book by Robert St. John, now out of print, offers incredible detail on this process and the man called Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. In Tongue of the Prophets, St. John conveyed what he learned from a biography written in Hebrew by Eliezer’s widow.

Ben-Yehuda’s work not only benefited the establishment of “Israel,” it also served as a mighty support to the archaeological work that would come in the years to follow. Biblical archaeology without a nation of Hebrew speakers seems impossible to imagine.

Additionally, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda was himself an archaeologist—of a linguistic sort. The kind of rigorous work he did, the scientific standards to which he adhered, are relatable to anyone leading an excavation. And they make the product of his life’s devotion all the more worthy of the highest esteem.

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

A chaos dragon rock carving in Iran

MYTHOLOGICAL ICONOGRAPHY: Hercules–Hydra Motif Identified in Rare Elymaean Rock Carving in Iran (Nisha Zahid, Greek Reporter).

Archaeologists in Iran have identified a rare motif in Elymaean rock carving that may depict a scene closely resembling the famous myth of Hercules battling the Hydra, a story widely known across the Greek world and featured on coins dating to around 325 BC. ...

The relief is carved on a trapezoid-shaped rock surface measuring about 70 by 81 centimeters (2.29 to 2.65 feet). Although erosion and deliberate defacement have damaged parts of it, three figures remain visible.

On the left, a powerful nude male figure appears in three-quarter profile, lifting a large round object that may represent a ritual mace while gripping the central creature by the throat. Researchers say the carved muscles and movement stress heroic strength.

The central figure is a three-headed serpent-like being, about 83 centimeters (2.7 feet) long. Such imagery is extremely rare in Elymaean art and is key to interpretation. On the right, a man in Parthian-style clothing stands in a frontal pose, resembling priestly figures seen in other Elymaean reliefs, possibly suggesting a ceremonial role.

The relief certainly has parallels to the Heracles/Hercules myth, but it need not depict the Greek hero. Given its location, that seems less than likely to me.

The myth of a foundational battle between a god and a multi-headed dragon is much older than our Greek sources. A third-millennium BCE stamp seal depiciting a similar scene with a seven-headed dragon was excavated at Hazor last year. See here and here.

The myth is found in the ancient Near East and repeatedly in the Bible. It may well have come to this Elymais relief via ancient Near Eastern religious traditions.

For PaleoJudaica posts on Elymais, a region in the ancient Parthian Empire, see here, here, and here.

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

Haaretz: top-ten biblical archaeology stories 2025

ANNUAL ARCHAEOLOGY LIST WATCH: God's Chariot and Secrets in Stone: Top Biblical Archaeology Stories of 2025 (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

Archaeology isn't an exact science of unearthing the past. Only so much is uncovered, much more is assumed to be lost and a geat deal is down to interpretation. But 2025 was a great year for cracking some of the mysteries that had been bedeviling archaeologists for decades.

A good list.

PaleoJudaica has posted on some, not all, of these stories. For the proposed decipherment of Cryptic B script and the Mount Zion stone cup's Cryptic A script, see here. The Magdala Stone has been around for a while, but a couple of 2025 posts on it are here and here. It's currently on display at the Museum of the Bible in D.C. Live Science also has a recent article on it by Kristina Killgrove here. For the pottery evidence for Egyptians at Megiddo in Josiah's time, see here. For the inferred different naming patterns in Judah and Israel, see here.

I didn't post on the Neolithic massebah at e-Tell, There is another recent Neolithic archaeology story worth mentioning, but it deserves a post on its own.

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

Dentistry in ancient Israel etc.

ODONTIC HISTORY:

Dentistry and dental care in antiquity: part 1 – prehistory, Mesopotamia, Israel, Etruria and the Far East

Roger Forshaw

British Dental Journal volume 239, pages 851–856 (2025)

Abstract

This paper – the first of two – explores the development of dentistry and dental care practices across diverse ancient civilisations. Evidence from prehistory, from a 13,000-year-old intervention at Riparo Fredian in northern Italy, to Neolithic findings in Pakistan and Slovenia, suggests that early populations attempted to alleviate pain and manage oral conditions. In Mesopotamia, cuneiform texts detail treatments for caries and periodontal disease, accompanied by recommendations and prescriptions for oral hygiene. Although these texts describe various therapeutic approaches, there is no mention of any operative procedures, and the sparse osteological record similarly offers no evidence of dental intervention. Biblical and Talmudic sources from ancient Israel emphasise the cultural significance of dental aesthetics, offering insights into remedies and practices intended to preserve the natural look of the teeth. Discoveries from Etruria and Phoenicia, dated to the first millennium BC, including dental bridges and gold-wire appliances, reveal intricate restorative and cosmetic techniques, particularly among elite women. In the Far East, ancient Chinese and Indian texts highlight preventive measures and herbal treatments, prioritising diagnostics and hygiene over operative procedures. Collectively, these findings illustrate a broad spectrum of early dental care strategies that evolved, alongside dietary shifts, cultural values, and technological innovations, providing fascinating insights into the origins and development of dentistry and dental care.

The article is open access. The section on ancient Israel is brief. It mostly has information from the Talmud.

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

Augustine in the Cairo Genizah?

CAIRO GENIZA WATCH: Augustine in the Cairo Genizah (Brent Nongbri, Variant Readings).

Thinking about the letters of Augustine reminds me of one of the more interesting manuscripts I encountered this year. Among the many remarkable manuscripts in the Cairo Genizah is Cambridge University Library ADD.4320. It’s a collection of fragments of a palimpsest with an upper text containing masoretic notes on various texts from the Hebrew scriptures and a lower erased text that has been identified as a collection of Augustine’s sermons.

The hand of the Latin script is a clear uncial that has been assigned to the sixth century, making these folia some of the oldest surviving copies of Augustine’s writings.

[...]

For more Cairo Geniza stories, start here and follow the many links. And for a recent book on Augustine, see here and here.

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

A contemporary drawing of King Hezekiah in Sennacherib’s palace?

ROYAL RELIEF-REPRESENTATION? Revealed: A 2,700-Year-Old Depiction of Jerusalem and Hezekiah? Remarkably, the relief may picture not only Jerusalem but also King Hezekiah himself (Brent Nagtegaal, Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology; from the November-December 2025 Let the Stones Speak Magazine Issue).

Finally, standing alone in the tallest tower was a single figure. He’s the only individual in the entire city. And he’s holding a standard, suggesting royal status. If Slab 28 depicts a scene from King Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah, and if the city depicted was Jerusalem, then this lone royal figure had to be King Hezekiah!

Compton's JNES article is behind the subscription wall, but Nagtegaal gives a detailed summary.

If the depicted figure is King Hezekiah, that's a significant discovery. Alas, the stylized figure leaves us little the wiser about what the king actually looked like.

For PaleoJudaica posts on Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem, its archaeology, and what may have happened there, start with the links collected here.

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

Review of Conybeare, Augustine the African

BOOK REVIEW: Augustine’s African roots. A new biography of Saint Augustine returns this towering figure of western philosophy to his North African origins, revealing the provincial schisms that shaped his thought (Daniel Skeffington, Engelsberg Ideas).

A naturally offensive stance earns him many critics, especially among the educated Romanised elites, each of them eager to turn his poor, provincial, Punic origins against him. Combined with his sexually liberal years as a Manichean cultist, there is no shortage of ammunition to use against him when he was ordained, in 391, as presbyter of Hippo. Allusions to his treacherous ‘Carthaginian’ nature punctuate the work of his opponents, from the biblical scholar Jerome to the excommunicated aristocrat, Bishop Julian, who readily derides him as a ‘Punic pamphleteer’ of oriental disposition.

The book under review is Catherine Conybeare, Augustine the African (Blackstone, 2025). I noted another review of it here.

Cross-file under (Neo-)Punic Watch.

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Raja & Seland (eds.), Palmyra, the Roman Empire, and the Third Century Crisis (Steiner)

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Palmyra, the Roman Empire, and the Third Century Crisis. Notice of a New Book:

Raja, Rubina & Eivind Heldaas Seland. eds. 2025. Palmyra, the Roman Empire, and the Third Century Crisis: Zooming in and Scaling up from the Evidence. Stuttgart: Steiner.

Cross-file under Palmyra Watch.

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Ackerman, Maturity, Marriage, Motherhood, Mortality (OUP)

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Maturity, Marriage, Motherhood, Mortality

Women's Life-Cycle Rituals in Ancient Israel

Susan Ackerman

£25.99
Hardback

Published: 29 October 2025
408 Pages | 13 b&w halftones
235x156mm
ISBN: 9780197809655

Also Available As:
E-book

Description

Maturity, Marriage, Motherhood, Mortality is a deft study of women's life-cycle rituals in ancient Israel. These include rituals that marked a young woman's coming of age (“maturity”) and her betrothal and wedding (“marriage”); rituals undertaken by women during pregnancy, parturition, and their first days and early years after giving birth (“motherhood”); and rituals that were enacted at the time of a woman's death and in the months and years that followed (“mortality”).

The book's aims are tripartite. The first is to sketch as fully as possible a picture of women's life-cycle events and rituals from preexilic and early postexilic Israel, using both evidence that can be gleaned from our primary source for the religious traditions of ancient Israel-the Bible-as well as extrabiblical data, including ancient Israelite archaeological data and archaeological, iconographic, and textual data that come from the many peoples of the ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean by whom the Israelites were influenced or with whom they interacted.
The second is to highlight the several distinctive features that characterized women's life-cycle events and rituals: for example, the way women's life-cycle events can flow as a virtually uninterrupted ritual continuum, from, say, coming of age, to betrothal, to marriage, to motherhood, and also the ways in which Israelite women's experiences during life-cycle events and rituals differed from those of their male counterparts. The experience of a bride who is “given” to her prospective spouse during betrothal and wedding rituals is different, for example, than the experience of a groom who “takes” a woman in marriage. Finally, the book offers a six-part theoretical model that explains the distinctive features that appear within Israelite women's life-cycle rituals and that accounts for the differences between women's life-cycle rituals and men's.

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van der Schoor, Rewriting Generations of Truth (Brill)

NEW BOOK FROM BRILL:

Rewriting Generations of Truth: The Words of Qahat and Manuscript 4Q542* in Context

Series:
Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 155

Author: Hanneke van der Schoor

Rewriting Generations of Truth takes the text and manuscript evidence of Words of Qahat (4Q542*) as a vantage point to assess editorial methods and textual classification of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Van der Schoor argues for a different distribution of 4Q542 and 4Q547 fragments, employing the resulting manuscript to consider writing and correction practices in scribal communities behind the Scrolls. Based on terminological similarities, she correlates textual traditions beyond linguistic boundaries and alleged provenance. Contextualising Words of Qahat within the Second Temple Period, particularly 4QApocalypse of Weeks, 4QTime of Righteousness and 4QLevi Apocryphon, highlights sapiential and eschatological elements in Words of Qahat.

Copyright Year: 2026

E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-74548-3
Publication: 24 Nov 2025
EUR €129.00

Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-74547-6
Publication: 27 Nov 2025
EUR €129.00

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Joseph, Egyptians, Herodotus, and cows

PROF. ALBERT I. BAUMGARTEN: Egyptians Would Not Dine with Hebrews... or Cow-Eating Greeks (TheTorah.com).

The Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Egypt in the 5th century B.C.E., reports that Egyptians would not kiss a Greek on the mouth or use any of their food implements—knife, fork, or pot—because Greeks ate cows, which Egyptians regarded as sacred. This background sheds light on the biblical account of Egyptians refusing to eat with Joseph’s brothers—or even with Joseph himself.

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The Coptic Magical Formularies Project: 2025 report

THE COPTIC MAGICAL PAPYRI BLOG: 2025 Review: The First Year of the Coptic Magical Formularies Project.

The Coptic Magical Formularies project finished its first full year in 2025, with some big changes. ...

I noted the 2024 inception of the project here and an interim report here. It arises out of the work of the earlier Coptic Magical Papyri Project.

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Review of Kelly, Philosophers, Jews, and Christians in the Roman empire

BYRN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Philosophers, Jews, and Christians in the Roman empire: authority, text, and tradition.

Leslie Kelly, Philosophers, Jews, and Christians in the Roman empire: authority, text, and tradition. Routledge focus on classical studies. London: Routledge, 2025. Pp. 114. ISBN 9781032904214.

Review by
Mark Letteney, University of Washington. letteney@uw.edu

This slim book by Leslie Kelly aims to offer an overview and comparison of three groups as they existed in the first and second centuries of the Common Era, attending to their respective interactions with texts and authorities in their “traditions.” It succeeds in part. ...

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Cracking the Qumran Cryptic B script?

DECIPHERMENT? Unknown Alphabet in Dead Sea Scrolls Has Been Cracked, Scholar Says. Cryptic B was considered impenetrable because there's so little material. Then, Emmanuel Oliveiro, a scholar in the Netherlands, noticed what looked like the word 'Yisrael' (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

The code had been considered to be impossible to decipher, mainly because of the sheer paucity of Cryptic B material. All we have are isolated fragments from two scrolls called 4Q362 and 4Q363, and a few spots in other scrolls where scribes briefly introduced Cryptic B in the middle of a Hebrew text, Oliveiro explains, in the journal Dead Sea Discoveries in December.

Oliveiro's process was based on analysis and intuition, similar to the methodology the scholar Józef Milik used when deciphering Cryptic A in 1955. Both began with assuming that they were dealing with a mono-alphabetic substitution system– where each of the 22 letters of Hebrew or Aramaic is consistently replaced with a specific cryptic sign (as in – say A is always be replaced by $).

A simple alphabetic substituion code is easy to decipher—if you have a reasonable-sized corpus. But the tiny size of the surviving corpus written in the Cryptic B script presented a huge challenge. Epigrapher Christopher Rollston says that the proposed decipherment is plausible, but hard to confirm, since the corpus is so small. That sound about right to me.

The abovementioned advance-published DSD article is open-access, so you can decide for yourself.

Cracking Another Code of the Dead Sea Scrolls

Deciphering Cryptic B (4Q362 and 4Q363) through Analysis and Intuition

In: Dead Sea Discoveries

Author: Emmanuel Oliveiro

Online Publication Date: 01 Dec 2025

Abstract

Among the Qumran manuscripts, several enigmatic scripts, including Cryptic A and Cryptic B, have been discovered. While Cryptic A was deciphered in 1955, Cryptic B has until now remained undeciphered. This study offers the first decipherment, transcription and translation of two Cryptic B manuscripts, 4Q362 and 4Q363. Their content appears to reflect familiar biblical idioms and eschatological themes, and the findings provide a foundation for future inquiry into the variation within Cryptic B letterforms, its relationship to Cryptic A, its role within Qumran scribal practices, and the development of cryptic scripts.

We can only hope for the discovery of more texts in Cryptic B, so that this decipherment can be tested.

That's a more realistic hope than you might think. Cryptic A was known only in some Qumran texts, and Milik had a go at deciphering it from them. But then in 2009 an inscribed stone cup was recovered by the Mount Zion excavation. The inscription was written in, among other things, the Cryptic A script. It's decipherment remains in progress, but our previous knowledge of Cryptic A seems to have helped.

Whether the cup's inscription will in turn help with understanding the Cryptic A scrolls remains to be seen.

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On the Rockefeller Museum in East Jerusalem

CURATORIAL ARCHAEOLOGY: Jerusalem’s ‘cursed’ antiquity museum reopens its doors amid rumors it may become a hotel. The Rockefeller Archaeological Museum stores some 60,000 artifacts spanning millennia, including unique decorations from the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

Meanwhile, although the interministerial committee still has to formulate its recommendation regarding the future of the Rockefeller, the IAA told The Times of Israel that it has requested to be reassigned the responsibility for the facility.

“For the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Rockefeller Museum is the historic and symbolic home of the archaeology of the Land of Israel,” read a statement shared by an IAA spokesperson.

“The Authority has formally requested that the museum’s operation be returned to its hands, in order to promote its reopening,” the statement added, pledging that the IAA “will do everything possible to ensure that the Rockefeller Museum once again becomes a living museum, full of content, as it deserves to be.”

The title of the article is unfortunate, if attention grabbing. But it gives a good overview of the history of the museum, some of its key holdings, and the issues around its coming fate.

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

ANE Today's 2025 top archaeological discoveries list

ANNUAL ARCHAEOLOGY LIST WATCH: Top Archaeological Discoveries of 2025 (Jessica Nitschke, The Ancient Near East Today).

From a previously unknown royal tomb to DNA revelations to a newly deciphered alphabet, here are our picks for some of the most interesting breakthroughs and discoveries in the archaeology of the Middle East and North Africa in 2025. ...

And so the 2025 listing begins. Most of the discoveries in this one are outside PaleoJudaica's interests. But a few have come up.

For "3. Evidence of the Egyptian Army at Megiddo in the Time of King Josiah," see here. For "4. DNA Evidence Suggesting Levantine Phoenician Contributions to Punic Settlements Were More Cultural Than Genetic," see here and here. And for "8. First Iron Age Shipwrecks from the Southern Levant Excavated," see here.

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

A Persepolis conservation project

PERSEPOLIS WATCH: Persepolis launches new conservation program using advanced material and imaging technology (AM, Tehran Times). HT Rogue Classicism.

TEHRAN – Iranian restoration teams have launched a new conservation program at the UNESCO-designated Persepolis and the nearby Naqsh-e Rostam site using advanced imaging, special material, and stone-analysis technologies, officials said on Saturday.

The project is being carried out by Iranian researchers with scientific support from international institutions. According to authorities, the work involves laser scanning, 3D imaging, detailed structural analysis of stone surfaces and the use of environmentally friendly protective materials aimed at slowing erosion.

Persepolis, founded by Darius the Great around 518 BC, served as the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (c. 550 – 330 BC). The terrace complex, about 60 km northeast of Shiraz, was largely destroyed by Alexander the Great in 330 BC. Its surviving palaces, stairways and cuneiform inscriptions are considered among the most significant archaeological remains of the ancient world.

[...]

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Persepolis, the ancient Achaemenid ceremonial capital city, see here and links.

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

The Cyrus Cylinder

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The Cyrus Cylinder. A Persian edict and the return of the Judean exiles (Nathan Steinmeyer).

The Cyrus Cylinder is one of the best-known surviving texts from the Achaemenid Persian Empire (c. 550–332 BCE), due almost entirely to its proposed connection to the return of the Judean exiles and the rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple as recorded in the Book of Ezra. However, beyond its biblical connection, the Cyrus Cylinder is a rather standard inscription, closely resembling many that came before it. So, what is the Cyrus Cylinder and how does it relate to the history and world of the Bible?

This is the second part of an exclusive Bible History Daily series on historical texts that are important for understanding the history and world of the Bible.

[...]

I noted the first part here. This essay gives a nice overview of the Cyrus Cylinder, taking into account the latest developments.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Cyrus and the Cyrus Cylinder, start here and follow the links.

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

State Department grant for Albright Institute and Huqoq Excavation Project

FUNDING AWARD: Huqoq Excavation Project to benefit from U.S. Department of State grant (UNC Chapel Hill College of Arts and Sciences).

The Huqoq Excavation Project will benefit from a $1.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of State to the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research.

Huqoq, a UNC-Chapel Hill-led archaeological project in Israel’s Lower Galilee region, is revolutionizing our understanding of ancient Jewish religious and cultural life.

[...]

Congratulations to both.

For much more on the Huqoq excavation, start here (cf. here) and follow the many links.

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Ross on “Reevaluating Parataxis in the Septuagint”

WILLIAM A. ROSS: NEW PUBLICATIONS: PART 5.

If I succeeded in showing that parataxis as Exhibit A for Semitism is not in fact a Semitism by any reasonable definition, then it stands to reason that the term Semitism itself deserves greater scrutiny for the sorts of assumptions it may smuggle into our discipline.

That could mess with some of my past research. I hope he continues to follow the question up.

I have noted previous posts in this series here and links.

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

Who will play Metatron in Dogma 2?

ARCHANGEL METATRON WATCH: Who Will Replace Alan Rickman in Dogma 2? New Metatron Revealed. Kevin Smith is writing Dogma 2's Metatron for this actor. (EpicStream).

Cross-file under Asking the Important Questions.

Oddly, Smith doesn't seem to have said that the actor has been offered or has accepted the part yet.

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Hanukkah history in Jerusalem

FOR HANUKKAH: Festival of archaeology? Five ways to explore Hanukkah history in Jerusalem. From the arrowheads used by a Greek army to menorahs, the city offers antiquities enthusiasts many opportunities to celebrate (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

For more on the Hasmonean wall section near the Tower of David, see here. And on those arrowheads, see here. For more on the Schottenstein National Campus for the Archeology of Israel, see here and links. And for more on the Hasmonean aqueduct segment in Jerusalem's Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, see here.

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

A 19th-century "storm in an oil jug" over the Hanukkah miracle

DR. ISAAC (TSACHI) SLATER: The Chanukah Oil Miracle Never Happened—A 19th Century Heresy (TheTorah.com).

The miracle of the jug of oil lasting eight days is first narrated in the Babylonian Talmud, centuries after the establishment of Chanukah. In 1891 Poland, Chaim Zelig Slonimski, an observant, science-minded Jew, denied the historicity of this miracle, claiming that he was following in the footsteps of Maimonides. Some of his enlightened colleagues—and even some secular Zionists—thought he was endangering people’s connection to Judaism and providing antisemites a pretext to mock the Talmud.

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"Hasmonean Palaces" to open to public during Hanukkah

COMING SOON: Ancient Jewish site damaged by vandalism to reopen during Chanukah. The Hasmonean Palaces, damaged by graffiti and looting, will open to visitors during the holiday following restoration efforts (JNS Staff).

For a report of illegal construction at the site of the palace at Tel Aroma (Tel Aruma) in 2020, see here. In 2023 I noted the Israeli Government conservation project that included the Jericho palaces.

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

Hasmonean artifacts recovered in West Bank village

FOR HANUKKAH: Hanukkah discovery: Rare Hasmonean lamp, Second Temple stylus found near Jerusalem. The Civil Administration said the artifacts add to a growing corpus of Second Temple–era material recovered in recent years across the West Bank (Shir Perets, Jerusalem Post).

The lamp, exposed during work led by the head of the unit, was found together with a Second Temple–period writing implement believed to have been used on wax tablets. According to the Civil Administration, the discovery offers fresh evidence of Jewish life and settlement continuity around Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago.

The artifacts were discovered at Nabi Samuel, a village in the West Bank.

Another Hasmonean-era oil lamp is nice to have, but it is not especially rare.

The stylus, however, is a rare find. Reportedly a (much older??) iron one was found a few years ago at Mount Ebal. No indication what the newly recovered one was made of.

Confusingly, they are not the objects in either photo. The lamp and coins in the top one came from Tel Yavneh (a.k.a. Yavneh Yam). The second photo is of a bronze half-face lamp discovered in 2021. See here, here, and here.

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

Apamea and Hanukkah?

FOR HANUKKAH, SORT OF: Hanukkah and Apamea: how Jews thrived under Hellenistic rule. As Hanukkah celebrates Jewish resilience, the ancient city of Apamea reveals a forgotten chapter of Jewish life—one of integration, visibility, and faith (Liran Friedmann, Ynet News).

As Jews around the world light Hanukkah candles to celebrate resilience and identity, the ruins of Apamea — an ancient city in modern‑day Syria — reveal a chapter of Jewish history that complicates common perceptions of Jewish life under Hellenistic influence.

Apamea was founded in the 3rd century BCE by Antiochus I Soter (280–261 BCE), the great‑grandfather of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid ruler whose later policies in Judea ignited deep conflict. Antiochus I established the city on the Orontes River as part of a broader strategy to strengthen Seleucid control across Asia Minor. Built on a plateau by the Marsyas River at a crossroads of trade and travel, Apamea became a major commercial and strategic centre on the Great Southern Highway linking inland Anatolia to Mediterranean ports.

[...]

It's the time of the year when journalists, bless their hearts, are scrambling to work Hanukkah into any story involving Judaism and archaeology. This article has to try pretty hard. But it's a good overview of the ancient Syrian city of Apamea and the Jewish presence there. Worth reading for that.

For more on Apamea, see here and links.

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

Byzantine-era menorah amulet excavated near Temple Mount

FOR HANUKKAH: Menorah Amulet From Byzantine Time Found in Ancient Jerusalem. The crudely fashioned, possibly homemade pendant was unearthed by the Temple Mount in a Byzantine building from 1,300 years ago, a time Jews were banned from the city (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

Both sides of the pendant depict a flaming seven-branched menorah in a circular frame. One side was preserved well, while the other became patinated. Analysis back at the IAA labs by artifact conservator Ilya Reznitsky found that the pendant was made of 99 percent lead. ...

Baruch suspects the owner, a Jew visiting Jerusalem, may have worn this crude, plain object beneath his or her clothing as a charm to protect them from evil, not as an ornament; not as a jewel.

Cross-file under "Apotropaic Artifact?"

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Archaeological evidence for a Maccabean battle?

FOR HANUKKAH: First Material Evidence of Judah Maccabee’s Battlefield Discovered Near Jerusalem (TPS-IL).

In an exclusive interview with TPS-IL, Dr. Dvir Raviv of Bar-Ilan University said that a survey at Horbat Bet Zecharia, in the Gush Etzion region south of Jerusalem, has uncovered objects that match both the date and the military profile of the famous battle described in the Book of Maccabees in 163 BCE.

The site, on a hill about seven kilometers southwest of Bethlehem, is widely identified with the ancient village of Bet Zecharia, where the Seleucid army and the forces of Judah Maccabee clashed in what is known as the fifth Maccabean battle.

The article does cite 1 Maccabees and Josephus for the information on the battle, but it would be nice if such pieces also gave the specific references. In this AI era, they aren't hard to find. (But double check them in the primary sources.)

The references are 1 Maccabees 6:32-47 and Josephus, Antiquities 12:369-74 and Jewish War 1:41-45. I have posted on the battle some years ago here. It would be asking a lot to hope to find elephant bones at the site, but who knows?

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The "degraded Hasmonean coins"

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: THE “DEGRADED HASMONEAN COINS” – A SILENT WITNESS TO THE PRICE OF BROTHERLY CONFLICT.

The twilight of the Hasmonean dynasty does not remain solely in history books; it is clearly reflected in the soil of the Temple Mount, particularly in a special find: the bronze “Degraded Hasmonean Coins.” These coins, minted during the final decades of Hasmonean rule (~60-40 BCE), were previously misidentified as sloppy versions of the Royal coins of King Alexander Jannaeus who ruled from 104 to 76 BCE.

Tangentially Hanukkah related (Hasmonean finds). Cross-file under Numismatics.

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Hanukkah 2025

HAPPY HANUKKAH (CHANUKKAH, CHANUKAH, HANNUKAH) to all those celebrating! The eight-day festival begins tonight at sundown.

Last year's Hanukkah post is here. It links to earlier and some subsequent Hanukkah/Hasmonean-era-related posts. And see also here, here, here (follow-ups here and here), here, and here. And more is coming!

Posting was light last week because I've had the flu. I'm still a little under the weather, but I aim to catch up this week.

UPDATE (1 January 2026): More here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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