I am delighted to announce that my book, An Enchanted World: The Shared Religious Landscape in Late Antiquity, will be released in the United States on February 3. The U.K. release is March 31, and an Italian edition is in the works.It is now out in both countries, published by Princeton University Press. The publisher link is here.[...]
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While parts of the early Roman built world survive in exceptional sites such as Pompeii and Herculaneum, Roman architecture is unevenly preserved across the empire. Recent excavations at Piazza Andrea Costa in the Italian city of Fano (ancient Fanum Fortunae) provide an opportunity to recover the architecture of a mid-sized Italian city, one not subjected to the constant rebuilding that took place in the capital. Archaeologists believe they have identified the remains of a Roman basilica in Fanum Fortunae built by the late first-century BCE architect Vitruvius.There's not a very direct connection between this discovery and the New Testament, but it's always good when new evidence improves our material feel for life in the ancient world.
As it happens, the Penguin translation of Vitrivuis' On Architecture has been sitting on my coffee table for some time, glaring at me to be read. I suppose that's the main reason the story caught my eye. Maybe I will get to it soon.
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A vivid photo essay on the ruins of this important Phoenician city in Lebanon. For some PaleoJudaica posts on Baalbek, see the links collected here.
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The Reception of Exodus Motifs in Christian, Jewish, and Islamic Writings
Edited by Agnethe Siquans and Beate Kowalski2026. 256 pages.
History of Biblical Exegesis (HBE) 9€89.00
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The Exodus story ranks among the most influential narratives of the biblical tradition. As Israel's foundational story of origin, it has shaped Jewish identity in profound ways, while also exerting major influence on Christianity and Islam. The contributors to this volume trace the diverse strategies by which interpretive communities have appropriated the Exodus for their own identity-formation, theological reflection, and social orientation. While received as a normative and authoritative text, the Exodus account has also posed significant challenges. Difficult passages - such as the hardening of Pharaoh's heart or the ambivalent portrayal of Moses - have demanded interpretive responses, ranging from neglect to creative re-interpretation, as exemplified by the Qur'anic representation of Moses' »white« hand. Beyond textual analysis, the contributors emphasize the cultural settings in which these readings emerged: rabbis and church fathers, Paul and early Muslim thinkers interacted, influenced each other, or sharply demarcated their positions. Thus, the reception history of Exodus not only illuminates theological debates but also offers insights into interreligious relations, processes of identity formation, and the dynamics of cultural boundary-drawing
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A Jewish ArchaeologyThe Christian Discovery of Jewish Catacombs in Rome
Series: Jews, Judaism, and the Arts, Volume: 6
Author: Jessica Dello Russo
This study examines how various catacomb networks in Rome were eliminated and subsequently restored to the historical record as specifically Jewish sites. By exploring the evolution, interpretation and presentation of these catacombs from ancient times to the present, it offers fresh insights into their historical significance and the impact they have had on later generations. Understanding how this situation relates to the broader context of archaeological activity in Rome also highlights important changes in the study of catacombs during the nineteenth century that led to the identification of additional Jewish catacombs and other material evidence of Jews in Ancient Rome.
Copyright Year: 2026
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ISBN: 978-90-04-73538-5
Publication: 22 Sep 2025
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Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-53291-5
Publication: 02 Oct 2025
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In biblical archaeology, there are the Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran, and then there are the silver scrolls of Ketef Hinnom. The former are quite important; they include biblical texts over 2,000 years old. The latter are also important, containing the earliest biblical text archaeologists have ever discovered.A long memorial that interviews a number Professor Barkay's students and archaeological colleagues. Background here and links.The two silver amulet scrolls date to 600 BC and are inscribed with the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:24–26. They were discovered in a Jerusalem excavation in 1979 by Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay, who passed away January 11, 2026. He was 81.
[...]
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The book of Ezra–Nehemiah records Nehemiah’s mid-fifth-century B.C.E. attempts to enforce Shabbat, and for the first time in the Bible, the name שַׁבְּתַי, Shabbethai, appears. In this period, similar names derived from Shabbat are also first attested in Babylonian cuneiform tablets, as well as ostraca and papyri from Elephantine, suggesting that Shabbat became a recognized reference within the Judean community.For some PaleoJudaica posts on the reconstructed origins of the Sabbath, see the links collected here. One of them links to an open-access specialist article by the above two authors on the same subject as this essay.
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Bobby Duke thinks many of the world’s treasures belong in a museum for everyone to see. In that way, he is similar to some of the silver screen’s famed history lovers — but he’s no Indiana Jones.“I don’t wear a fedora. I don’t have a whip, and I don’t have this John Williams theme music in the background,” Duke said.
Even with a name fit for a hero, Duke spends most of his adventures as chief curatorial officer of the Museum of the Bible studying and teaching about the priceless artifacts in its collection.
[...]
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The horns of Moses in Jerome’s Vulgate did not initially represent derision or dishonor; rather they reflected the presence of God. And for centuries after Jerome’s translation, Moses was depicted along with Jesus, performing miracles, also reflecting proximity to the divine. But the horns took a literal turn once they became visible in art. They came to be understood as indicators of devilry and rejection of Christianity. However, this understanding was not entirely uniform.The tradition of Moses having horns has come up in PaleoJudaica periodically, going back to a lot of discussion in 2004. It's been a while, and I haven't noted this essay before, so this is a good time to bring it up again. The essay has a good overview of the history of the tradition.Michelangelo’s Moses, perhaps the most famous statue of Moses with horns, was created in the 16th century for the tomb of Pope Julius II, who likely did not see Moses’s status as ignoble. And more modern artists, such as Marc Chagall, depicted Moses with two ray-like beams on the top of his head rather than physical horns. Artistic representations such as these remind contemporary readers that Moses’s horns are not monolithic in interpretation, and they may not even be horns at all.
For PaleoJudaica posts, see the links collected here, plus here and here.
If I may quote myself from a very early post, this still sums up what I can find about the range of interpretations of the originating biblical passage in Exodus 34. The post is actually about a critical essay on Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ, but it generated a lot of discussion and debate about Moses' horns.
Those horns on Moses' head come from a literal translation of Exod 34:30, 35, which describes the skin of Moses' face being changed somehow as a result of seeing God on Sinai, using a verbal form (qaran)of the Hebrew root for "horn" (qeren). One intepretation, going back to the Jewish Greek translation of Aquila, is that Moses grew horns. Jerome's Vulgate also takes it this way. It originated as an artistic motif in 11th century Britain. Some critical scholars today still think this is the correct interpretation (perhaps going back to a ritual mask with horns or the like). Others go with another ancient interpretation that goes back to Pseudo-Philo and Paul (cf. 2 Cor 3:7-18), that "rays" of splendor shown from Moses' face. This is based on a rather unlikely reading of a difficult passage in Habbakuk 3:4. And back in the 1980s, Professor William H. Propp of UCSD argued that Moses' skin was "made horny" or scorched by the divine radiance. For more on this whole subject, see his fascinating article: "The Skin of Moses' Face—Transfigured or Disfigured?" Catholic Biblical Quarterly 49 (1987): 375-86. Bottom line: the portrayal of Moses with horns came about through a particular, not entirely impossible, reading of the biblical text, not as an attempt to demonize him.
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It is with mixed emotions that I announce a new book that will be available this month with Bloomsbury T&T Clark publishers, Language and Identity in Hellenistic Judaism: Essays in Memory of James K. Aitken (here)For more on the late Professor Aitken and his import work, particularly on the Septuagint, see here and links, notably here, and elsewhere in the archives. I am pleased to hear that this volume in his memory is coming out soon.[...]
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Debbie Felton, The Oxford handbook of monsters in classical myth. Oxford handbooks. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024. Pp. 640. ISBN 9780192896506.Not to be confused with The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters, which came out last year.Review by
Scott G. Bruce, Fordham University. sbruce3@fordham.edu... The Oxford Handbook of Monsters in Classic Myth is an exceptional resource for those interested in ancient monsters and their reception history in visual and literary media, both premodern and modern. ...
"Classical" here includes the ancient Near East, Egypt, Persia, and sometimes further afield. For more on ancient biblical and other monsters, see here and links.
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As before, the posts are in Dutch, but Google Translate can easily give you an English version.
I have posted on the Roman conquest of Cartagena here and here.
For my visit there last year and related, see the posts collected here, plus here.
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I've not paid much attention to this debate in the pages of BAR over the last several years. The issue is whether the House of David is mentioned in the rather poorly preserved text of the Mesha Stele or Moabite Stone. Anyway, you can go over the discussion at the link: mostly BHD summaries, although one full article appears and the last one, at least at present, is completely 404'ed.
For more on the proposed reading "House of David," see here—although the Haaretz article is now behind the subscription wall—and the links here. For many other PaleoJudaica posts on the Mesha Stele, start here and follow the links.
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The decor of the restaurant has some visual elements to justify the name – a few stone-like embellishments on the walls, and a mural of cave dwellers painted on a brick-colored wall.But for the most part, it’s a modern, streamlined place that offers not just kosher dining but a cabaret later in the evening for the diners’ enjoyment.
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A rare 2,000-year-old stone vessel recently uncovered in the Galilee is on display for the first time as part of the exhibition, “From the Great Assembly to the Knesset” at the Knesset in Jerusalem to celebrate the building’s 60th anniversary, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced in a statement on Monday.The display includes a couple of intriguing inscription fragments.[...]
I keep pretty good track of ancient stone vessel discoveries in Israel, but this one, from "the Pundaka de Lavi site in the Lower Galilee," is new to me. For a couple of stone vessel workshops elsewhere in the Galilee, see here.
For more on ancient Jewish stone vessels and their purity implications, start here and follow the links, notably here.
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It wasn’t until the late Second Temple period—shaped by Greek and Roman legal culture—that Torah law started to function as actual law.
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A tide of books about the Gospel of John are now hitting the shelves, marking a trend that is perhaps worthy of a biblical text that opens with the phrase, “In the beginning was the Word.”Lots of promising-sounding John books have been coming out. I noted Mark Goodacre's last year here. And I hadn't heard that George van Kooten, in his 2025 book Reverberations of Good News: The Gospels in Context, Then and Now (Eerdmans), argues that John's Gospel may be the earliest of the Four. That should be rile things up.These recent and forthcoming books consider new and different theological, historical, and cultural perspectives on the book that is often called “the fourth gospel”—distinct in tone and authorship from the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
[...]
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On January 20, the Ganeles family was among a group of roughly 30 people to take an inaugural walk up the road. Starting from an area where the archaeologists believe the ancient Siloam pool stood at the entrance of the ancient city, in what is today the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, the largely subterranean road runs underneath modern infrastructure for several hundred meters to the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden adjacent to the Western Wall.The road was formally opened by dignitaries back in September 2025, but now it's open to the public. For more on the Jerusalem Pilgrimage Road excavation and its discoveries, start here and follow the many links.
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A rare Greek (Hellenistic) period Aramaic inscription uncovered at Rabat Fortress in eastern Turkey is providing the first direct evidence of local elites in the ancient Kingdom of Sophene (Greek:Σωφηνή), reshaping scholarly understanding of power and identity in this little-documented region.Arkeonews has a more detailed article by Leman Altuntaş, but you have to watch an ad to read it:The stone inscription, dating to the second century BC, was found reused in a village stable near the fortress during archaeological surveys. Though long exposed to earthquakes and reconstruction, the artifact remained intact.
[...]
The Syriac Press also has a briefer article that summarizes some information from the latter:
For more on the ancient kingdom of Sophene, see here.
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Ory Amitay, Alexander the Great in Jerusalem: myth and history. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025. Pp. 220. ISBN 9780198929529.I have noted the book already here and here.Review by
Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. magness@email.unc.eduThis book is only marginally concerned with whether Alexander the Great ever visited Jerusalem—an historical question that Ory Amitay ultimately leaves unanswered. Instead, it is mostly about stories describing a visit by Alexander to Jerusalem, which were composed at different times and in different places. Amitay examines four main versions of these stories ...
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Last year's Tu B'Shevat post is here.
For biblical background, see here. The name "New Year for Trees" comes from Mishnah Rosh HaShanah 1.1. That passage gives two alternative dates for the celebration, one from Shammai and one from Hillel. Hillel's date (15 Shevat) is the one celebrated at present. The Hebrew phrase Tu B'Shevat means "the 15th of Shevat."
The first link above gives last year's date range for the holiday on the top right. Hopefully, this will be corrected by the time you see it.
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Early Byzantine Apocalyptic DiscoursesCoping with Crises in the Sixth and Seventh Centuries
Series:
Brill's Series on the Early Middle Ages, Volume: 32Author: Ryan W. Strickler
The Byzantine Empire faced many threats, but few were as great as the events of the sixth and seventh centuries, when paranoia, plagues, and wars threatened to tear the empire apart. Like today, prophets predicted horrors to come while preachers called on their congregations to repent. This book considers how the Byzantines understood the crises of the period and their role in divine history by reframing their troubles through an apocalyptic lens. While most scholars have interpreted these messages as a prediction of the end, this book argues for a different reading, understanding them instead as messages of hope.
Copyright Year: 2026
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Publication: 27 Oct 2025
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ISBN: 978-90-04-74585-8
Publication: 06 Nov 2025
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Domenico Lo Sardo2026. 371 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe (FAT II) 166€109.00
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In this study, Domenico Lo Sardo examines the textual and literary development of Exodus 25-31 and Leviticus 8-9, expanding on prior research on the Tabernacle's second account (Exodus 35-40). He argues that Exodus 25-31 was later composed to legitimize the Temple's construction and was shaped alongside Leviticus 8. Challenging the idea of an early, fully developed Priestly Writing (Pg), his analysis of the texts studied in terms of textual and literary criticism presents it as an evolving tradition with a multistage production history. He further demonstrates that Priestly Writing (P) concludes at Leviticus 8 and does not extend beyond this point. Highlighting themes of divine presence, worship, and sacred space, the author ultimately situates the Temple-cult project within the broader theological framework of creation and covenant fulfillment.
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The [six-week] course [at the Siegal Lifelong Program at Case Western Reserve University] covers the Georgian Jewish history from the sixth century BCE, when fleeing the conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, they arrived in Mtskheta (the ancient capital of Georgia) to the modern era. The program will focus on the Georgian Jewish material culture, archaeological treasures, and literary corpus of Georgian Jewry, including extant Armazic Aramaic inscriptions, bilingual stelae, golden amulets, the Bret Bibles, the Lailashi Codex, and the Chianurashvili Tehillim (Psalter).For more on Dr. Gomelauri's work on the Lailashi Codex, see here and here. And for an important Georgian/Aramaic palimpsest, the Codex Sinaiticus Rescriptus, see here and links.
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Inspectors in Israel have seized hundreds of ancient and forged coins hidden inside a balcony planter at a private home in East Jerusalem, authorities said this week.The raid uncovered about 450 coins, including authentic ancient pieces and modern counterfeits. Authorities carried out the operation at the home of a resident suspected of involvement in the unlawful possession and trafficking of antiquities.
Coins span the Hasmonean, Herodian, and Roman periods
Experts examining the seized items said the cache included Hasmonean, Herodian, and Roman-era coins, spanning several centuries of ancient history in the region. Some of the coins were confirmed to be authentic antiquities, while others were identified as forgeries.
[...]
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Allowing this new archaeological evidence to complicate Nebuchadnezzar’s character invites us to move beyond the idea of history as a straightforward moral tale, toward a more nuanced understanding of how power, memory, and identity are shaped by competing narratives. The biblical authors, writing in the aftermath of exile, understandably portray Nebuchadnezzar as a destroyer because he literally did destroy their temple. Babylonian inscriptions, on the other hand, depict the same ruler as a restorer of temples—a deeply pious and reverential figure. ...For more on King Nebuchadnezzar, including on the Nebuchadnezzar Cylinder(s) and other cuneiform material, see here and links.
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Taylor O. Gray, Ethan R. Johnson, Martina Vercesi, Belief and unbelief in the ancient world. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2025. Pp. 288. ISBN 9780802878977.I noted (as upcoming) the conference at my home institution here (but I was unable to attend) and the publication of the book here.Review by
Justin M. Rogers, Freed-Hardeman University. jrogers@fhu.eduThe current volume represents the proceedings of a conference hosted by the University of St. Andrews in 2021 entitled, “Aspects of Belief in Ancient West Asia and the Mediterranean Basin: 1000 BCE–100 CE.” ...
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AI may have helped solve an ancient puzzle. For his new book Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ, Dr. T. C. Schmidt used AI to test something long in dispute: what the first century historian actually said.I noted the publication of the book, with some thoughts of my own, here.[...]
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John of History, Baptist of Faith: The Quest for the Historical BaptizerThat's a bit ouchy.
By James F. McGrath
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2024), 486 pp., $59.99 (hardcover and eBook)Reviewed by Zeba Crook
In a style that is easy to read, James F. McGrath has undertaken this study into the historical John the Baptist in the true spirit of scientific inquiry: It is daring, creative, and exploratory. As with all novel scientific experiments, however, value is not always measured in terms of success but rather learning, for one can learn as much from a failed experiment as from a successful one.
[...]
I noted the publication of the book here.
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The discovery at Umm el-Marra now suggests that alphabetical writing may have not only emerged 500 years earlier than the Sinai script but also done so in a different location.See here and links for earlier coverage. This article has a good account, perhaps more confident than earlier ones. There seems to be agreement that the markings are writing. Whether they are alphabetic writing seems less certain. I hope they find more samples.“Paradigm-shifting discoveries gain acceptance gradually, not rapidly,” [epigrapher Christopher] Rollston said. He is confident that if more inscriptions are found, preferably longer texts, a solid consensus on the new script will develop.
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AMMAN – More than 17,000 archaeological artefacts have disappeared from museums and heritage sites in the Gaza Strip, according to Gaza’s cultural authorities and international human rights organisations, raising serious concerns about looting and the unlawful removal of cultural property during Israel’s war on Gaza. ...For more on the Saint Hilarion Monastery, see here and links.Israel has not specifically addressed allegations of antiquities theft, and UNESCO has not yet announced an investigation into the fate of the missing artefacts. Euro-Med Monitor has called on the organisation to send an investigation committee to Gaza to examine damaged heritage sites and determine the fate of thousands of artefacts reported missing.
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Short answer:
The answer seems to be that “pascha” is actually a Greek word, and basically indeclinable, and therefore weird stuff can happen.For the long answer, follow the link. For hardcore philologists.
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An international team of archaeologists and paleontologists has announced the discovery of physical evidence unique in Europe: an elephant bone dated to the Second Punic War (218–201 BC). The find, a small but revealing bone fragment, was made during an emergency excavation at the Colina de los Quemados site in Córdoba (Spain), identified with the ancient Iberian city of Corduba.The artifacts in the same stratum confirm the likelihood that the elephant was one of those used by the Carthaginians in the Second Punic War.[...]
On an unrelated note, this is perhaps of interest:
Given the exceptional nature of the find, an attempt was made to obtain an absolute date through radiocarbon analysis. Although the collagen in the bone had not been sufficiently preserved, scientists dated the mineral fraction (bioapatite). The result placed the sample between the late 4th century and the 3rd century BC, a range that, although slightly broader and earlier than expected, is consistent with the period of the Second Punic War.Compare this range with the new C-14 dating range for 4QDanc of 230-160 BCE, with a composition date for the Book of Daniel of c. 165. The fighting in Spain in the Second Punic War occurred between 219 BCE (the siege of Saguntum) and 206 BCE (the Battle of Ilipa), so the early end of the C14 date range is about a century too early. The early end of the new C-14 date range for 4QDanc is only about 60-70 years too early.
So it is fair to say that this dating has "a range that, although slightly broader and earlier than expected, is consistent with the period of the" composition of Daniel. If we accept this range as pretty firm (2-sigma = 95%), 4QDanc is quite an early copy of Daniel. But the book easily could have been circulating widely in Palestine within a few years or less of its composition.
More on the redating of 4QDanc, and the associated Enoch AI dating tool, is here and links.
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Reza Shaghaghi Zarghamee, Myth and history in ancient Persia: the Achaemenids in the Iranian tradition. Edinburgh studies in ancient Persia. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2025. Pp. 376. ISBN 9781399530989.I noted the publication of the book here.Review by
Rhyne King, University of Toronto. rhyne.king@utoronto.caThis ambitious book aims to bring the field of Achaemenid history into conversation with Zoroastrian studies and the study of early Islamic literature. As Reza Shaghaghi Zarghamee notes, Achaemenid historians have rarely engaged with sources in Avestan, Middle Persian (also known as “Pahlavi”), and New Persian, and the author seeks to rectify that. ...
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Jona Lendering has visited Cartagena, Spain, too, and he has posted a report here in Dutch. Google Translate can easily produce an English version if you want one.
Jona has photos and commentary that nicely complement my posts on my own recent visit to Cartagena.
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Among the treasures broken in the terror group’s campaign of destruction was a slab of stone that had adorned Sennacherib’s opulent throne room, which scholars long ago concluded depicts the Assyrian siege of the Philistine city of Eltekeh.I have already noted this story here. For more on Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem, its archaeology, and what may have happened there, follow the links from there.But new research analyzing photographs and drawings of the largely overlooked bas-relief before its destruction suggests that it actually shows Jerusalem, making it the oldest-known depiction of the city.
Current scholarship holds that the Madaba map, a mosaic found in a sixth-century CE Byzantine church in modern-day Jordan, is the oldest rendering of Jerusalem to survive to modern times. But the study, published in October in the prestigious Journal of Near Eastern Studies by University of South Africa researcher Stephen Compton, suggests that the southwest palace in Nineveh was home to a depiction 1,200 years older than the one in Madaba.
This ToI article includes an interview with the researcher, responses from other specialists, and an update on the ongoing reconstruction of Nineveh's antiquities after the desecration by ISIS.
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The people of the past were human beings as we are, but they lived much different lives and saw the world much differently than we do. We would seem very strange to them, and, if we really want to understand the past, we need to recognize their strangeness for us.Cross-file under New Book: Joel S. Baden Lost in Translation: Recovering the Origins of Familiar Biblical Words (Fortress Press, 2025).That recognition is at the heart of Lost in Translation: Recovering the Origins of Familiar Biblical Words by Yale Divinity School professor Joel S. Baden. The book, published by the Minneapolis-based Fortress Press, is a nuanced look at more than three dozen words and phrases that appear often in the Hebrew Bible of Judaism, called the Old Testament in Christianity.
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When an academic study earlier this year applied artificial intelligence to the science of Biblical manuscript dating, mainstream media reported it as a curious development. But what many missed at the time was how the new AI technique might lend unexpected credence to Biblical apologetics.When I first noted the reports of the redating of some Dead Sea Scrolls, notably 4QDanielc (4Q114), by the "Enoch" AI, I commented, "I can't wait to see how this will be deployed by the early daters of the Book of Daniel." And so we have it deployed in this article.
I have further discussion of the AI redating here and here [link corrected].
For more detailed comments defending the late dating of the Book of Daniel, see here, here, and here.
UPDATE (27 January): My comments above needs correction. There is new dating of some Dead Sea Scrolls by the Enoch AI, but the redating of 4QDanielc involves C-14 dating. More on that here.
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Hebrew Philology, Hebrew Lexicography
David J. A. ClinesISBN 9781914490903
Status Available
Publication Date October 2025
Hardback $95.00This edited collection, from world-leading philologist and lexicographer of Classical Hebrew, David J. A. Clines (1938–2022), demonstrates how his motivations for philological and lexicographical work sat in contrast to each other. These articles and papers, published and unpublished, show Clines’s efforts in each direction.
As Clines explains a “philologian is a ‘lover of words’ […] a hunter, imbued with the spirit of the chase […]. A lexicographer is by contrast a shepherd, gathering a flock together […], big words and little words, common words and rare words […]. To the lexicographer, all words are equally deserving of respect and nurture; a lexicographer cannot afford favourite love objects. […] A philologian can polish off an article in 50 or 100 hours—or less–but a lexicographer must be long-lived, immune to boredom, and possessed of an addictive personality.”
In the first section, Philology, there are eight chapters, mostly on individual words. In the second section, Lexicography, there are eighteen chapters, dealing first with Clines’s Dictionary of Classical Hebrew in general (Chapters 9-14), then with features of the Dictionary that call for exposition and justification (Chapters 15-21), and finally with some individual studies arising from the lexicographical work (Chapters 22-26).
Via these articles and papers, Clines seeks to counter the lack from editors of earlier Hebrew dictionaries, which left scholars with little explanation of their methods and procedures. By explaining himself Clines wishes that present and future users of the dictionary would know the conception of his intentions for the project. This Clinesian imperative means his views are explained, in general, about byforms, synonyms, semantic fields, definitions and suchlike, so readers are not left with only his conclusions.
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Ittai Gradel, Nils Arne PedersenFor PaleoJudaica posts on the Testament of Solomon and related artifactual material, see here and links. This is the first I've heard of any Solomonic ring artifacts, aside from the fictional one in the 2010 children's novel by Jonathan Stroud.The Lost Novel of King Solomon and the Demons
New Evidence on the Testament of Solomon in Antiquity
2025. 344 pages.
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€99.00Summary
In this study, Ittai Gradel and Nils Arne Pedersen develop a new approach to the apocryphal Testament of Solomon by combining archaeology and textual analysis. The starting point is a group of ten 3rd-century rings, each inscribed in Greek: »Solomon says: 'Watch out!'« The phrase, puzzling as an apotropaic formula, makes sense only in light of the Testament of Solomon, where the king, empowered by a divine ring, subjugates demons. In a climactic episode, Solomon orders two demons to support a massive column until the Day of Judgment - precisely with the words »Watch out!« This unique command, permanently binding the demons, explains its adoption in everyday magical practice.
The rings, securely dated, establish a 2nd-century date for the original version of the text and invite new reflections on its literary shape and development. While the preserved Testament alternates between first-person and third-person narration, the inscriptions suggest that the original form was a longer third-person narrative later abbreviated and reworked. From this basis, the authors develop a theory of its redactional history. The evidence points toward popular Christianity distinct from the patristic mainstream. Several rings display Christian iconography, one was linked to the pilgrimage site of Abu Mena, and parallels to Jewish Solomonic traditions are also apparent. Alexandria emerges as a plausible place of origin. The interdisciplinary synthesis - archaeology, history of religions, apocryphal studies, and folklore - generates fresh perspectives. The appendices enrich this contribution with translations of previously inaccessible versions of the Testament of Solomon, including one that contains a newly attested agraphon ascribed to Jesus, as well as a new edition and translation of a Syriac narrative. In this way, the authors significantly reposition the Testament of Solomon within the history of ancient religion and literature.
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Woman Zion, Out of HandA New Materialist Investigation of Zion's Movement
Cindy Dawson
£64.00
Hardback
Published: 18 November 2025
262 Pages
235x156mm
ISBN: 9780197817223Also Available As:
E-bookDescription
In this groundbreaking work, Cindy Dawson maps and investigates Woman Zion through texts and time as a premiere example of a body's agency. The personification of the city of Jerusalem in biblical and Early Jewish texts, Woman Zion appears in 30 texts over 800 years, during which time her body undergoes remarkable change. Dawson begins in the preexilic years of Isaiah, Micah, Hosea, and Jeremiah, descends with Woman Zion to her exilic nadir in Ezekiel and Lamentations, then watches her remarkable rise in Isaiah and the texts of Early Judaism, including 1 Baruch, 4 Ezra, Galatians, and Revelation. Building upon the insight of New Materialism, this study defines agency as the ability to intra-act, to act upon and be acted upon by the world around it. Agency is not limited by something (i.e., "intention" or "will") that someone (i.e., a human) possesses but simply by some ability to enact change, an ability possessed by humans and nonhumans alike.
Woman Zion is therefore more than a way for authors to think, more than a mere tool by which those authors assert their agenda and their agency — her body is in fact an art object, and at that, one with agency. This agency is ontological and furthermore demonstrable, evident in how her body gets out of hand, outlasts her creators, and does things they would never intend her to do. This study therefore provides a new way to track a tradition, without succumbing to the limitations of form criticism and, by definition, its tie to forms that face eventual extinction. Here, Cindy Dawson reformulates a long-time interest of biblical studies, to show how Woman Zion's body becomes the new form.
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The Historical Location of P
Reconsidering the Priestly Texts in Light of Material Culture and Geographical Indications
Edited by Jürg Hutzli and Jordan Davis2026. 260 pages.
Archaeology and Bible (ArchB) 10€89.00
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978-3-16-164623-2Also Available As:
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€89.00Summary
Although there is an enduring, general consensus regarding the identification of the Priestly Writings (P), there are nonetheless several open questions related to this important literary stratum in the Pentateuch. One of these crucial and debated questions is the dating and location of the Priestly texts. The contributors of this collected volume seek to better situate the Priestly Writings both temporally and geographically. In doing so they pay attention to the choice of pertinent criteria for this task and recall those that have been neglected in the recent past, such as geographical indications and references to material culture provided by the Priestly texts.
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Sahidic Coptic LeviticusCross-file under Coptic Watch.Its Manuscript Witnesses and Its Text
Series:
Texts and Studies in Eastern Christianity, Volume: 30Author: Antonia St Demiana
Until recently, the Sahidic Old Testament has received little attention. In Sahidic Coptic Leviticus, Antonia St Demiana fully documents, for the first time, the manuscript evidence of Sahidic Coptic Leviticus and offers a full codicological investigation and reconstruction of its codices and fragments. By surveying the dispersed Sahidic Leviticus fragments and folios, codices formerly considered to be independent of one another are reconstructed and unified, and new Leviticus fragments are identified and virtually assigned to their original codices. A semi-diplomatic edition of the most complete witness of Sahidic Leviticus, MLM M566, with the variae lectiones from the other Sahidic Leviticus witnesses is provided with a critical apparatus and English translation. A commentary including an introductory textual study and translation analysis of the text is also presented. In addition, this volume offers new and conclusive observations on the nature of the Sahidic version of Leviticus, and the relationship between the text of Sahidic Leviticus and its Greek Vorlage.
Copyright Year: 2025
E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-54589-2
Publication: 25 Nov 2024
EUR €250.00Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-54588-5
Publication: 05 Dec 2024
EUR €250.00
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Ashurbanipal, the most powerful king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in the mid-seventh century B.C., was known for his ruthless military prowess, his incredible lion-hunting skills—and for being a librarian.This is a long, informative article on Ashurbanipal's library. It focuses on its discovery and excavation, but gives some attention to its contents; notably the first-discovered fragments of the Epic of Gilgamesh.“Palace of Ashurbanipal, King of the Universe, King of Assyria” reads an inscription denoting his ownership on one of over 30,000 clay tablets and fragments from the magnificent library he maintained at his capital, Nineveh, today in northern Iraq.
[...]
I was wondering if it would interact with Irving Finkelman's proposal, covered in a recent interview with Lex Fridman, that the 30,000 recovered tablets are just duplicates and discarded broken pieces, while the Babylonians and their allies carried off the bulk of the library.
The article does not mention Dr. Finkel's idea, but it does make an intriguing comment that could be relevant:
Recent analysis of the corpus of Nineveh tablets by a German-British team is producing interesting insights. For example, it was initially thought that reconstructing the tablets would be just a matter of time and effort. Now, even with all the pieces digitally cataloged, it has only been possible to reconstruct about 200 tablets, and even these are missing large sections. It has also been established that many tablets were marked with colophons (notes placed at the end of text) of different types. These identified the kind of text they contained or the period in which they were made. Some were even signed by individual scribes. The conclusion is that the rest of the fragments have been lost or have yet to be found in Nineveh.Are these indeed just the broken pieces left by the Babylonians when they looted the library?
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Joseph L. JustissScribal Change and Strategic Sequencing in the Hebrew Source of G Proverbs
2026. 276 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe (FAT II) 168€99.00
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€99.00Summary
Joseph L. Justiss examines the variant sequences of large text-blocks as found in the ancient Greek version of Proverbs (G Proverbs) and the Masoretic version of Proverbs (M Proverbs) to determine whether G's translator or G's source is the cause of the variant orders. Additionally, he examines how the different sequencing impacts the interpretation of the juxtaposed units. The author proceeds from a diachronic to a synchronic analysis of these units. Diachronically, textual and editorial criticism shed light on scribal changes at the edges and sometimes within juxtaposed units. Synchronically, topic analysis, dialogic analysis, and literary analysis reveal scribal motivations and compositional strategies inspiring the sequencing of units. Drawing on the main results of his study, Joseph L. Justiss argues that a variant Hebrew recension caused G's variant sequences and that the scribe of G's source expanded texts to emphasize wise speech and reverence in the presence of high authorities.
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Now, excavations in southern Egypt have revealed how some of Christianity’s earliest monastic communities pursued religious practice in the desert. At the site of Al-Qariya bi-Duwayr in the Sohag region, Egyptian archaeologists with the Supreme Council of Antiquities have uncovered one of the most complete ancient monastic complexes yet discovered in the country.The discoveries reportedly include Coptic inscriptions.
For more on Egypt's Sohag region and its archaeology and history, some of which is of interest to PaleoJudaica, see here and links. For posts on Akhmim, see here and links. For posts on Shenoute and the White Monastery, here and links.
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For this year’s first blog post, we start a new series looking at angels in Coptic Magic. As an introduction, this first post provides a brief discussion of the concept of angels and their importance in various ritual and literary traditions, as well as an overview of the main groups of angels found in Coptic magical texts. The following posts in this series will focus on specific groups of angels and individual angels, discussing their roles, names, and descriptions. ...For more on the Talmudic-era Hebrew magical tractate Sefer Ha-Razim (Sefer HaRazim), see here and here and various other mentions in the archives.While Coptic magical texts are witnesses to some new and original traditions about angels, they also drew upon, and evolved together with, older and contemporary traditions, including the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri, Jewish private ritual, orthodox Christian liturgical practice, and Christian literature. It is therefore important to mention these briefly before moving on to the Coptic magical material.
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A nice overview of this important archive.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
A nice overview of Abgar V and his apocryphal correspondence with Jesus. Eusebius preserves the letters in a Greek translation, but they also survive in the original Syriac, notably in the Doctrine of Addai.
For PaleoJudaica posts on the Agbarid dynasty and the Abgar letters, as well as on ancient Edessa, start here and follow the links. Cross-file under Syriac Watch.
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Four suspected antiquities robbers were caught “in the act” Sunday afternoon digging inside an ancient Roman‑era burial cave near the Nabi Shu’aib/Chitin archaeological site in the Arbel Ridge area, on the outskirts of the Jordan Valley near the Sea of Galilee.For more on the Talmudic gladiator-sage Reish Lakish (Resh Lakish), who lived in the region, see here, here, here, here, and here.[...]
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The Beginnings of Christianity as an Integral Part of Early JudaismCross-file under New Book. You can download it for free at the link.Jesus and his first followers were Jews who never intended to form a new religion apart from Judaism. The so-called “parting of the ways” between Jews and Christians was long and by no means monolinear. Rather, it was a complex process that stretched over five hundred years, occurring in different places at different speeds and under a variety of circumstances. What we today call the “beginnings of Christianity” was in fact an integral part of multifaceted Judaism.
See also Early Judaism and the Beginnings of Christianity: Common Roots and the Parting of the Ways (Kohlhammer, 2026; open access).
By Markus Tiwald
Professor of New Testament
Faculty of Catholic Theology
University of Vienna
January 2026
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... and instead praise them!
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Archaeologist Gabriel Barkay, pioneer of Temple Mount research, dies at 81. Discoverer of the Ketef Hinnom scrolls and founder of Temple Mount Sifting Project was a larger-than-life figure who stirred controversy, loved Jerusalem and made the city his mission (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel; long and detailed)
Jerusalem University College's post (Jerusalem University College on Facebook)
Gabriel Barkay, 81, Dies; His Discoveries Revised Biblical History. One of Israel’s leading archaeologists, he found evidence that the writing of the Old Testament likely began much earlier than historians had thought. (Clay Risen, New York Times; behind the subscription wall)
Background here and links.
Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.
Simon Hornblower, Hannibal and Scipio: parallel lives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024. Pp. 528. ISBN 9781009453356.For PaleoJudaica posts on Hannibal Barca and Scipio Africanus, start here, here, and here, and follow the links.Review by
Jeff Tatum, Victoria University of Wellingon. jeff.tatum@vuw.ac.nzIts subjects—Hannibal and Scipio, Rome and Carthage—are big. Its learning is deep. Its keen, focused curiosity is an inspiration. And its style, conversational and lucid, is a pleasure to read. This, in sum, is a delightful and instructive book. There can be only a very few readers who will not learn something, or even quite a lot, from it. By putting in parallel the lives of Hannibal and Scipio, Simon Hornblower endeavours to furnish a fuller picture both of their twinned yet distinctive careers and personalities but also of Carthaginian and Roman ambitions, local as well as geo-political, during the late third and early second centuries bce. And he succeeds admirably.
[...]
Cross-file under New Book and Punic Watch.
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Moritz F. Adam2025. 335 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament (FAT) 191€139.00
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978-3-16-164797-0Also Available As:
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Open Access
CC BY-SA 4.0Summary
Moritz F. Adam explores conceptions of time in the book of Ecclesiastes and its place in the history of thought in Hellenistic Judaism. He situates Ecclesiastes before a wider panorama of emerging apocalyptic thought and investigates how the text reflects, resists, and reworks prevailing ideas about time, history, knowledge, and meaning. Adam shows how Ecclesiastes stands at an important moment of conceptual transformation to the manner in which time was thought about in ancient Judaism, and how the book reflects new, broader, totalising, and abstract concerns in conversation with contemporary interlocutors. Through textual studies, comparative discussions and theoretical engagements with the fields of Classics and Literature, Adam challenges scholarly boundaries between wisdom, apocalypticism, and other genres, and highlights Ecclesiastes' pluralistic, open-ended discourse as a vital part of ancient Jewish thought.
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Performance, Space, and Time in the Dead Sea ScrollsPapers from the Eleventh Meeting of the International Organization for Qumran Studies, Zürich 2022
Series:
Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 154Editors: Michael B. Johnson, Jutta Jokiranta, and Molly M. Zahn
The collection focuses on performative and ritual aspects of the Dead Sea Scrolls, originating from the IOQS 2022 meeting. The concept of ritualization is examined at both individual and collective levels, using ritualization of covenant as a case study. Other essays examine performative aspects of the Hodayot manuscripts, and singing, meditation, and poetic form in Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice. Spatial aspects are examined in two essays: one argues against the common assumption that the temple city in the Temple Scroll is clearly or only referring to Jerusalem, and the other essay demonstrates 4QMMT’s legal stringency in the question of the presence of dogs in Jerusalem. Aramaic compositions are examined for their view of priesthood. Finally, past, present and future time is argued to be brought together in ritual, with the result that the role of eschatological time in the Scrolls should be complemented by ritual time.
Copyright Year: 2025
E-Book (PDF)
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ISBN: 978-90-04-73445-6
Publication: 08 Dec 2025
EUR €118.00Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-73444-9
Publication: 11 Dec 2025
EUR €118.00
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Divine Names on the Spot III
Naming and Agency in Ancient Greek and West Semitic TextsSeries:
Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis, 307Editors:
Galoppin T., Lebreton S.Price: 85 euro
Year: 2025
ISBN: 9789042955943
Pages: XXII-318 p.Summary:
In the line of the previous volumes of the series “Divine Names on the Spot” devoted to the study of divine names in Greek and Semitic contexts, this third one focuses on the question “who named the gods?” Naming the divine, within the ritual communication or in narratives and discourses about gods and goddesses, involves choices, negotiations or strategies by human agents, in accordance with traditions or in order to activate innovations. Always context-sensitive, the agency of human addressers, narrators, or beneficiaries of the divine powers must be put forward as a main factor of these processes. From the addresses to the gods by kings in Cyprus to the carriage drivers naming Poseidon Helikapanaios in Thessaly, through the carving of divine names on a cup found in Jerusalem, the dozen of contributions gathered here make steps for a long exploration of divine names in the making, and suggest a few directions and orientations for investigating human agency in religious history.
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Shaping Text Through Song: The Influence of Singing Upon Processes of Textual Interpretation and Variation in the Dead Sea ScrollsSeries:
Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Volume: 156Author: Jonathan M. Darby
This book explores the influential role played by singing as a performative medium within processes of textual interpretation and variation during the late Second Temple Period, as reflected in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Singing is argued to be a prominent and widespread mode of performance, and a medium which exerted considerable influence within and upon processes of textual composition, interpretation and transmission. These complex processes result in the variation of textual forms, meaning that sung performance contributed to the widespread pluriformity of textual traditions, including those that were eventually codified in the scriptural canons of Judaism and Christianity.
Copyright Year: 2026
E-Book (PDF)
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-74934-4
Publication: 22 Dec 2025
EUR €121.00Hardback
Availability: Published
ISBN: 978-90-04-74933-7
Publication: 18 Dec 2025
EUR €121.00
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Phoenicia, Carthage, and Popular Government in the Pre-Classical MediterraneanCross-file under Phoenician Watch and Punic Watch. There's a lot of interest lately in Phoenicia and Carthage. It's not just me.The Other Democracy
Brett Kaufman
£99.00
Hardback
Published: 26 December 2025
320 Pages | 57 figures and 3 maps
234x156mm
ISBN: 9780198867685Also Available As:
E-bookDescription
From Aristotle to John Adams, great minds of government have revered Carthaginian democracy as the purest expression of a people's will. Yet today, while Phoenician influence on the Graeco-Roman worlds has been revisited and corrected from the perspectives of art, architecture, industry, crafts, and writing systems, the sphere of government in general and constitutional democracy in particular are still largely, and incorrectly, considered to be purely within the preserve of ancient Greece or Athens.
This book is the first comprehensive treatment of Phoenician government, drawing on archaeological, epigraphic, and historical sources. The Phoenicians introduced a brand of state-level society that enfranchised not only men, but also women, children, and even slaves into the popular assembly. Phoenician governmental leaders fostered a foreign and domestic policy that emphasized development, political stability, and economic growth insured by mutual incentives, as well as shared ritual practice, marriage alliances, social mobility, and concern for commoners, at home and abroad. This sustainable form of global leadership lasted for around eight centuries (~1000–146 BC).
This work in no way attempts to diminish the exceptional Athenian democracy and its subsequent positive effects on political history and the peoples who have benefited from its legacy. Rather this work amplifies ancient Greek democracy to help us better understand its origins, as well as expanding democratic heritage. In turn, it serves as an historical corrective that recenters democracy as a conversation and a competition between peoples as opposed to a monolithic institution. It highlights an alternative model of imperial democracy.
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Religion at Carthage 800 BCE-439 CECross-file under Punic Watch.From Baal-Hammon to Christ
Series:
Vigiliae Christianae, Supplements, Volume: 191Volume Editors: Jane Merdinger, Jesse A. Hoover, and Nancy Weatherwax
This volume investigates the rich spectrum of religious practices and beliefs at Carthage from its foundation until the end of Roman rule. Essays analyse the metropolis’s Phoenician, Punic, and Graeco-Roman cults (all exhibiting a remarkable degree of assimilation and amalgamation), mystery cults, Judaism, and Manichaeism. A majority of essays comprehensively examine Christianity’s development (including persecution, martyrdom, Montanism, and Donatism) within Carthage’s multi-cultural environment. Utilizing methodologies from popular culture studies, biblical exegesis, cultural studies, and archaeology, contributors cover such innovative topics as: polytheistic religiosity; Jewish identity and devotional life based on a recently discovered ancient synagogue near Carthage; and challenges experienced by St. Augustine as a guest-preacher to rambunctious congregations at Carthage.
Copyright Year: 2025
E-Book (PDF)
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ISBN: 978-90-04-73859-1
Publication: 01 Dec 2025
EUR €183.00Hardback
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ISBN: 978-90-04-73858-4
Publication: 04 Dec 2025
EUR €183.00
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A geoarchaeological study identifies that the mud bricks were manufactured 7–8 km from the site, demonstrating detailed knowledge of the territory and a centralized political organization under Barcid rule.The headline is a little confusing. It's point is that the North African city Carthage organized the construction of the city wall of its namesake, Carthage or New Carthage, it's chief colonial city in Spain. That is the modern city of Cartagena, about which you have already heard a great deal from me.
The underlying open-access article, cited at the end of the LBV piece, is Cutillas-Victoria B, Ramallo Asensio SF, Martín Camino M. "Landscape exploitation and middle-distance supply of mudbricks for the Carthaginian rampart of Qart Hadasht (Spain)." Antiquity. Published online 2026:1-19. doi:10.15184/aqy.2025.10276.
AbstractFor PaleoJudaica posts on Cartagena, its Annual Festival of the Carthaginians and Romans, and its history and archaeology, see the links collected here. For a very quick history review, see here. And for more on that Punic-era city wall (which in the end did not save the city) and other Punic archaeological remains, see here.Founded in 228/227 BCE, the Carthaginian city of Qart Hadasht in southern Spain became the principal Punic political centre and military port in the western Mediterranean. Its defensive architecture featured a robust casemate wall composed of an outer sandstone face and inner mudbrick walls. Here, the authors present the geoarchaeological analysis of the earthen materials used in the construction of this wall. The results reveal differences in composition and provenance between mudbricks and mud mortars, with the former sourced across distances of 7–8km, highlighting the detailed knowledge of hinterland resources and complex political organisation involved in the wall’s construction.
Cross-file under Ancient Fortification.
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Renewed excavations near Pompeii are revealing more of the incredible riches of a house believed to be the home of Emperor Nero’s second wife, Poppaea. In addition to newly excavated rooms, archaeologists have uncovered multiple stunning frescoes and other remarkable finds.PaleoJudaica last saw Poppaea Sabina ascending to heaven on a chariot. Or at least that seems the most likely reading of a damaged third-century Oxyrhynchus papyrus that doesn't actually give her name.[...]
I posted that story with an eye to a revisionist view of Nero. (For another Nero story that does not fit the narrative, see here.) But Poppaea's mythology aside, it seems that her likely second home, at Pompeii, is currently being excavated. If so, we now know quite a few personal details about her, including her tastes in decorating and gardening.
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Archaeologist Who Died Last Night Made the Discovery of a Lifetime Thanks to an Annoying Child (Dinah Bucholz, JewishBreakingNews.com)
That discovery was, of course, the inscribed Ketef Hinnom silver amulets.
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Translation Technique and Literary Structures in Greek Isaiah 13:1–14:23
Matthew J. AlbaneseISBN 9781628376449
Volume SCS 79
Status Available
Price $64.00
Publication Date October 2025
Paperback $64.00
eBook $64.00
Hardback $84.00Matthew J. Albanese explores the translation techniques behind the Greek version of Isaiah 13:1–14:23, offering fresh insights into how the translator rendered the Hebrew text. Through a detailed analysis of style, structure, and linguistic choices, this book reveals how the translator’s decisions were deeply rooted in the Hebrew text, shedding new light on the artistry of biblical interpretation and translation in ancient Judaism. The work also examines how certain divergences and shifts in Hebrew-to-Greek clause structure, semantics, and lexical misunderstanding influenced the formation of Greek Isaiah. The work advances Greek Isaiah research by highlighting the translator’s awareness and appropriation of features from larger thematic and structural portions of Hebrew Isaiah 13:1–14:23.
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In Memoriam: Prof. Gabriel Barkay, Dean of Biblical Archaeology (1944–2026). Israel loses another archaeology giant (Armstrong Institute Staff).
In the old days, W. F. Albright was the Dean of Biblical Archaeology. I wonder who will take up that mantle now.
I didn't know about Prof. Barkay's book on Song of Songs.
A personal memorial by Todd Bolen at the Bible Places Blog:
Dr. Gabriel Barkay (1944-2026)
Most remembrances of Gabriel Barkay will likely focus on his archaeological contributions, but for me he was one of the most influential teachers of my life. He didn’t just demand that I know it all, he made me want to know it all. When students of mine complain about the lack of a (useful) exam study guide, I tell them about Dr. Barkay’s exam. There was one, on the last day of the semester, and your entire course grade depended on that one test. It was not multiple-choice or true/false. We had eight essay questions and two hours to write as fast as we possibly could everything we knew. Preparing for those exams taught me how to study, and I’ve never been the same.Background here.
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According to a recent IAA announcement, thousands of pottery vessels uncovered at excavation sites across Israel will now be examined with advanced scientific methods and catalogued as part of a joint project led by Dr. Anat Cohen Weinberger of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Prof. Alexander Fantalkin of Tel Aviv University. ...For a related 2020 article by the lead researcher, see here.According to the announcement, the research is being developed as a wide-scale national project. As part of it, the IAA said it is building a digital “kiln atlas” to consolidate the accumulated knowledge and make it available to researchers through a platform being developed by the authority’s digital technologies division. The statement says the atlas is intended to serve as a long-term research infrastructure for studying production, trade, and regional connections in the past.
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Oh dear. Not so long ago, "Palestine" was a neutral term for a particular geographical area. But now everything is political.
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It is with great sadness that we announce the passing ofAren Maier also has a brief notice at his blog: Sad News: Gabriel Barkay z”l….Dr. Gabriel Barkay z”l, co-founder and director of the Temple Mount Sifting Project.
[...]
Sad news this evening with the information that Dr. Gabriel (Gaby) Barkay z”l, passed away. May his memory be a blessing.These posts mention two of Professor Barkay's best-known accomplishments: the discovery of the Keter Hinnom siver amulets inscribed with the priestly blessing in Numbers 6:24-26 (on which see here and many links) and his leadership of the Temple Mount Sifting Project. PaleoJudaica links to the Sifting Projects's blog frequently.Gabi was for many years a leading figure in the archaeology of the Land of Israel in general and Jerusalem in particular, and among his many accomplishments, is well-known for his excavations in the Ketef Hinnom Cemetery, where he discovered the famous “Priestly Blessing” silver amulets.
[...]
May his memory be for a blessing.
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