New Dead Sea Scroll fragments, world's oldest basket found in desert cave

Jpost MARCH 17, 2021

Some 1,900 years ago, Jewish refugees fleeing the Romans made their way to the Judean Desert. Among the belongings they carried with them were scrolls featuring the biblical books of Zechariah and Nahum. Two millennia later, fragments of those texts have reemerged, the Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced Tuesday.

It is the first such discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947 and the early Fifties.

The inhospitable environment was considered a safe haven as the war between the Roman Empire and the Judean rebels led by Shimon Bar Kokhba raged around 130 CE. Jews found shelter in the caves and brought what they thought they needed for their new life.

In recent decades, the caves have been targeted by looters eager to find artifacts to sell on the private market. For this reason, a few years ago, the IAA, in cooperation with the Civil Administration’s Archaeology Department, launched a rescue operation to survey all the caves in the area.

 

Archaeologists Dig Up the Bible at Ancient City of Shiloh

 

Analysis of teeth of individuals who lived in Megiddo then show that the Canaanites imported exotic food from India and Southeast Asia.

JPost DECEMBER 22, 2020 

Bronze Age cuisine in Israel included exotic foodstuffs, such as bananas, soybeans and turmeric, according to a new study published in the journal PNAS. It pushes back the evidence for these foods by centuries.

The conclusion is based on analysis of micro-remains and proteins preserved in the tooth tartar of individuals who lived in Megiddo and Tel Erani during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. 

 “Human dental calculus is wonderful material, full of information about past food habits,” Prof. Philipp W. Stockhammer said. “By studying calculus from Bronze and Iron Age [remains] at the Levant, we are able to trace otherwise often invisible food and can get insights into individual nutrition.”

2,000-year-old seal with the image of Apollo discovered in the City of David near Jerusalem's Western Wall

Times of Israel  29 October 2020

Sun god, a symbol of health and prosperity, was the only member of the pagan pantheon used by Jews during the Second Temple period, says City of David archaeologist Eli Shukron

Discovery of a rare 2,000-year-old signet ring engraved with the Greek sun god Apollo gives new evidence of a pluralistic Jewry walking the streets of ancient Jerusalem during the Second Temple period, archaeologist Eli Shukron told The Times of Israel.

“It allows us to see a Jerusalem that wasn’t some kind of ultra-Orthodox city, it was more pluralistic,” Shukron said, who is convinced the ring would have adorned a Jew’s finger. The fact that a Jew chose the symbol of a Greek god, “shows the wide variety of practices in Jerusalem. Everyone was a Jew, but there were different groups and perspectives,” he said.

The dark brown jasper gem sealing (intaglio) was recently discovered at the Archaeological Sifting Project at Tzurim Valley National Park during the wet sifting of earth taken from ongoing City of David excavations of the foundations of the Western Wall. 

Shukron said there is absolutely no doubt that it is Apollo who is engraved on the tiny, oval-shaped, 13 millimeter-long, 11 millimeter-wide, and 3 millimeter-thick sealing. It would usually have been used as a signature stamp on beeswax to seal contracts, letters, wills, and goods or bundles of money, according to a City of David press release.

The profile of Apollo has long flowing hair spilling over his sturdy neck. He has a large nose, thick lips, and small prominent chin, according to the press release. The styled hair is braided above his forehead, with long curls reaching the shoulder.

All of this adds up to the god Apollo in the eyes of a trained archaeologist. “You cannot miss it,” Shukron said.

 

Ancient Biblical era temple discovered in Israel

Fox February 17

An international team of archaeologists has uncovered an ancient Biblical era temple in Israel.

The ruins of the Canaanite temple were discovered within a large Bronze Age settlement in what is now National Park Tel Lachish. The temple, which dates back to the 12th century B.C., was once part of the ancient Canaanite city of Lachish.

Professor Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Professor Michael Hasel of Southern Adventist University in Tennessee led a team of researchers that uncovered the temple.

Lachish was built around 1800 B.C., destroyed and rebuilt on a number of occasions over the following centuries, according to Hebrew University.

“The settlement is mentioned in both the Bible and in various Egyptian sources and was one of the few Canaanite cities to survive into the 12th century BCE,” it explained in a statement.

The city’s deliverance "into Israel's hands," for example, is described in the Book of Joshua.

The ancient Canaanite civilization, which created the first alphabet and is mentioned frequently in the Bible, has long fascinated historians.

Biblical City of Ziklag Where Philistines Gave Refuge to David Found

Haaretz Jul 08, 2019

The biblical town of Ziklag may have been found, a team of Israeli and Australian archaeologists announced on Monday. The ruins were found near the southern town of Kiryat Gat in Israel and have been dated to the early 10th century B.C.E. – the time associated with King David. 

If they're right, it would bolster the theory that David was more than just a local hilltop chieftain as some researchers claim, and support the theory that he indeed ruled over a united kingdom in the area of Judea, say the researchers, from the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Macquarie University, in Sydney, Australia. But the kingdom doesn't seem to have been the mighty entity in antiquity that some envision.

Ziklag is mentioned in the Books of Joshua and Samuel as a Philistine town abutting the city of Gath (after which the modern city of Kiryat Gat is named).

In this context, the archaeologists point out that the very name Ziklag stands out in the biblical record because it isn’t Semitic or Canaanite, but apparently a Philistine one. Apropos of that, recent genetic studies on skeletons discovered in a Philistine cemetery in Ashkelon, on Israel’s coast, have proved once and for all who these mysterious Philistines were: They originated in Europe.

Archaeologists discovered mosaics depicting four beasts described in Chapter 7 of the Book of Daniel

Fox July 2, 2019

Archaeologists have uncovered a stunning 1,600-year-old biblical mosaic in northern Israel.

The mosaic, which depicts a scene from the book of Exodus, was found at the site of a fifth-century synagogue in Huqoq.

Excavation director Jodi Magness, a professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the mosaic was the first depiction of the episode of Elim from Exodus 15:27 ever found in ancient Jewish art. “Elim is where the Israelites camped after leaving Egypt and wandering in the wilderness without water,” she explained in a statement, noting that the mosaic is separated into three registers or horizontal strips.

One register showed clusters of dates being harvested by loincloth-clad agricultural workers while another showed a row of wells and date palms, she explained. “On the left side of the panel, a man in a short tunic is carrying a water jar and entering the arched gate of a city flanked by crenellated towers. An inscription above the gate reads, ‘And they came to Elim’,” Magness added.

Archaeologists also discovered mosaics depicting four beasts described in Chapter 7 of the Book of Daniel. The beasts represented four kingdoms preceding the end of days.

“The Daniel panel is interesting because it points to eschatological, or end of day, expectations among this congregation,” said Magness, in the statement. “The Elim panel is interesting as it is generally considered a fairly minor episode in the Israelites’ desert wanderings ­­– which raises the question of why it was significant to this Jewish congregation in Lower Galilee.”

A 2,700-year-old clay seal impression found in Jerusalem which may have belonged to prophet Isaiah

Times of Israel   22 February 2018

The hand of the Prophet Isaiah himself may have created an 8th century BCE seal impression discovered in First Temple remains near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, according to Hebrew University archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar.

“We appear to have discovered a seal impression, which may have belonged to the prophet Isaiah, in a scientific, archaeological excavation,” said Mazar this week in a press release announcing the breathtaking discovery.

Mazar’s team uncovered the minuscule bulla, or seal impression, during renewed excavations at the Ophel, located at the foot of the southern wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The discovery was published on Wednesday in an article, “Is This the Prophet Isaiah’s Signature?” as part of a massive March-June issue of the Biblical Archaeology Review dedicated to its recently retired founding editor, Hershel Shanks.

The clay impression is inscribed with letters and what appears to be a grazing doe, “a motif of blessing and protection found in Judah, particularly in Jerusalem,” according to the BAR article.

Ancient Biblical Corinth uncovered in new underwater excavations

DailyStar 18th December 2017

The Greek city, which was rebuilt in 44BC by Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, holds major significance for Christians.

Jesus’s disciple Paul is said to have visited there and wrote two letters about his time in Corinth – featured in the New Testament.

Just days ago, another group of archaeologists in Italy were amazed to discover the historic resort of Baiae in perfect condition.

And new underwater excavations of Corinth's harbour at the port of Lechaion have discovered wooden foundations preserved so well that they look new.

Roman artefacts including fishing lines and hooks, wooden pulleys and ceramics from Tunisia and Turkey were also found.

Experts also think they have found an ancient lighthouse – depicted on coins from that time – and another monument.

Massive section of Western Wall and Roman theater uncovered after 1,700 years

Times of Israel 16 October 2017,

Archaeologists are one step closer to solving the riddle of what took place in Jerusalem following the destruction of the city by Romans in 70 CE.

Israel Antiquity Authority archaeologists announced Monday that for the past two years they have been excavating and exposing a massive eight-meter deep section of Jerusalem’s Western Wall, unseen for 1,700 years.

And in the course of their work, which has been quietly proceeding directly beneath Wilson’s Arch — the area immediately adjacent to the men’s section of the Western Wall — they unexpectedly discovered a small Roman theater. The dig has not encroached under the Temple Mount.

During the two years of excavations, a new reinforced floor was constructed so as not to interrupt daily worship at Judaism’s holiest site for prayer.

The work is set to continue for another six months, and the expectation is that First Temple-era findings will be uncovered. When the work is completed, the site will be opened to the public.

Proof that the Burning of Jerusalem by the Babylonians was real

By Lulu Morris 03 August 2017

An excavation at The City of David in Jerusalem has unearthed an ancient biblical story.
 

Archaeologists at the site have exhumed burnt artefacts dated 2,600 years ago. The discovery of the artefacts solidifies the passage in the bible, where Jerusalem is burnt down by the Babylonians around 587 BC.

Researchers found burnt pieces of wood, grape seeds, burnt pottery and bone all concealed by layers of ash. The burning of Jerusalem was described in the Old Testament in the book of Jeremiah.

"Now on the seventh day of the fifth month, which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. He burned the house of the Lord, the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; even every great house he burned with fire."

The archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority were looking under layers of rock in the eastern area of the City of David when they found the artefacts. Alongside the burnt remains found were storage jars, many bearing stamped handles and rosette seals. The seals were the driving evidence that led the researchers to date the artefacts at 2,600 years. Dr Joel Uziel, the leader of the excavation, explains

“These seals are characteristic of the end of the First Temple Period, [They] were used for the administrative system that developed towards the end of the Judean dynasty."

Find ing the burnt pottery and artefacts in the dig site corroborate Jeremiah’s testament, though perhaps not to the extent he described it, but Jerusalem was at one point, during 587BC burnt to the ground by Babylonian invaders 2,600 years ago.         National Geographic

A team of scientists find evidence of ancient Canaanites

28 July 2017, 6:07 am EDT By Luan Chan Tech Times

A team of scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and its collaborators successfully sequenced the genes of five Bronze Age Canaanite remains found in an archaeological site in the Near East and made a remarkable discovery.

After comparing the ancient DNA with the DNA of modern-day people, researchers learned that present-day Lebanese had actually descended from Canaanites, who were supposedly annihilated after being subjected to divine judgment.

Who Are The Canaanites?

Canaanites were a mysterious race of people that was effectively driven out of their land and annihilated by Israelites after the Exodus, according to the Old Testament; however, the DNA evidence uncovered by archaeologists offers proof that the ancient race did not actually meet its end.

"We know about ancient Egyptians and ancient Greeks, but we know very little about the ancient Canaanites because their records didn't survive. What is known about the Canaanites is that they lived and traded along the eastern coast of the present-day Mediterranean," lead author of the study Marc Haber explains.

So when Haber's team of researchers extracted and sequenced DNA from the five remains from the Sidon excavation site, they compared it with various ancient populations throughout history. Then they further narrowed it down and compared the ancient DNA with DNA samples extracted from a sample of 99 people — Christians, Druze, and Muslims — currently living in Lebanon. To their surprise, the results showed that the present-day Lebanese and the remains in Sidon share 93 percent of their ancestry.

"We can see the present-day Lebanese can trace most of their ancestry to the Canaanites or a genetically equivalent population. They derive just over 90 percent of their ancestry from the Canaanites," geneticist and co-author of the study Chris Tyler-Smith confirms.

The remaining 7 percent is actually derived from ancient people who migrated from the Steppes.

Did The Bible Get It Wrong?

For a long time, researchers could only look through ancient Greek and Egyptian texts, as well as accounts from the Bible, to learn about the mysterious Canaanites, but the new evidence seems to suggest that the Bible has made a mistake.

Then again, the contents of the Bible were translated mostly from dead languages so there is a big probability that the translation was either wrong or the meaning of the words have changed over time — the same way that what we consider finite numbers now seemed infinite for ancient people.

Even with the strong connection between ancient Canaanites and modern-day Lebanese, the fact that no "pure" Canaanite individual seems to survive today could be considered as "killing off" the ancestry.

Still the implication of the discovery is huge for modern-day Lebanese, especially since the different religions argue over their ancestry, where Christians and Muslims debate whether they descended from Phoenicians or Arabs. As the DNA evidence suggests, they are actually all Canaanites.

"We all belong to the same people. We have always had a difficult past ... but we have a shared heritage we have to preserve," excavation director Claude Doumet-Serhal said.

The team's findings have been published in The American Journal of Human Genetics.         Techtimes

Ancient Roman theater found in northern Israel may have been used for religious ceremonies

Daniel K. Eisenbud 10 January 2017

A Roman amphitheater discovered during an excavation by the University of Haifa at Hippos, a site overlooking the Sea of Galilee, may support the hypothesis that the facility was used for religious ceremonies instead of entertainment.

Hippos, which is situated on a prominent hill some two kilometers east of the Sea of Galilee within Sussita National Park, is operated by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.  

According to the University of Haifa’s Dr. Michael Eisenberg, who heads the Hippos Excavations Project, the digs outside the city over the past few years “are falling into place like in a detective story.”

“First, we found a mask of Pan, then the monumental gate leading to what we began to assume was a large public compound, a sanctuary,” he said this week at an annual research conference at the school’s Zinman Institute of Archeology. “And now, this year, we find a public bathhouse and theater in the same location – both facilities that in the Roman period could be associated with the god of medicine Asclepius, or with gods of nature, such as Dionysus and Pan.”

During the Roman period, Hippos was an important city in the Golan Heights, and the area east of the Sea of Galilee, or Lake Kinneret. Over the past two years, researchers from the university’s Institute of Archeology have repeatedly been surprised by the unexpected findings uncovered outside the city’s walls.

However, one feature that was missing in the excavated city, until now, was the theater – a public building capable of accommodating thousands of people, which served as the venue for the popular public shows.     JPost

New Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments Found in Judean Desert

Philippe Bohstrom Dec 21, 2016 1:36 PM
 

New fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls have been found in the Cave of the Skulls by the Dead Sea in Israel, in a salvage excavation by Israeli authorities. The pieces are small and the writing on them is too faded to make out without advanced analysis. At this stage the archaeologists aren't even sure if they're written in ancient Hebrew, Aramaic or another language.

“The most important thing that can come out of these fragments is if we can connect them with other documents that were looted from the Judean Desert, and that have no known provenance," says Dr. Uri Davidovich of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, among the scientists investigating the caves.

In 1947, a Bedouin shepherd tossing a stone into a cave in the vicinity of Qumran heard the sound of an earthenware jar cracking, which led to what some have called the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century. Upon crawling inside, he found the first of what came to be known as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Cave of the Skulls, named for seven human skulls and other skeletal remains, discovered by Prof. Yohanan Aharoni in 1960, is part of the Large Cave Complex, a series of naturally occurring spaces atop a steep cliff on the northern bank of Tze'elim Stream, in the southern part of the desert. The site is in one of the starkest areas of the Judean Desert.      More

Ancient Roman Battlefield Uncovered in Jerusalem

By Megan Gannon, Live Science Contributor | October 21, 2016 11:42am ET

Archaeologists say they've found evidence of a battlefield from the Roman emperor Titus' siege of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

Recent excavations revealed a section of the so-called "Third Wall" of Jerusalem that Titus' army breached on its way to conquering the city, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

Outside the wall, the archaeologists found that the ground was littered with large ballista stones (stones used as projectiles with a type of crossbow) and sling stones, suggesting that this area had been under heavy fire from Roman siege engines. [See Photos of the Ancient Roman Battlefield]

These archaeological remains were unearthed last winter at the site where the campus of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design is to be built, in an area of the city that is known today as the Russian Compound, IAA officials said.

"This is a fascinating testimony of the intensive bombardment by the Roman army, led by Titus, on their way to conquering the city and destroying the Second Temple," the excavation directors, Rina Avner and Kfir Arbib, said in a statement from the IAA. "The bombardment was intended to attack the sentries guarding the wall and provide cover for the Roman forces so they could approach the wall with battering rams and thereby breach the city's defenses."

An eyewitness to the war, historian Flavius Josephus, wrote the seminal account of the Roman siege of Jerusalem, which included key details about the Third Wall.

Josephus said the wall was built to protect a neighborhood called Beit Zeita, which was built outside the city's boundaries at the time. The construction was started by Agrippa I, King of Judea, and was finished two decades later to help fortify the city as Jewish rebels prepared to revolt against Rome in A.D. 66.

Ultimately, the uprising against Rome was unsuccessful, and in A.D. 70, the Romans took back Jerusalem and destroyed much of the city, including the Second Temple.

The newly uncovered section of the wall is 6.2 feet (1.9 meters) wide. Pottery discovered at the site suggests that this battlefield dates back to Roman times, the archaeologists said. They also discovered the remains of a watchtower along the wall.

The new findings could help settle some debate about the exact location of the Third Wall, which has been going on ever since archaeologist Edward Robinson claimed to have found a portion of the wall in 1838. The discoveries will be presented next week at the New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and its Region conference.                      Live Science

25 New 'Dead Sea Scrolls' Revealed

By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | October 10, 2016 07:46am ET

More than 25 previously unpublished "Dead Sea Scroll" fragments, dating back 2,000 years and holding text from the Hebrew Bible, have been brought to light, their contents detailed in two new books.

The various scroll fragments record parts of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Samuel, Ruth, Kings, Micah, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Joshua, Judges, Proverbs, Numbers, Psalms, Ezekiel and Jonah. The Qumran caves ― where the Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered ― had yet to yield any fragments from the Book of Nehemiah; if this newly revealed fragment is authenticated it would be the first.

Scholars have expressed concerns that some of the fragments are forgeries. [See Photos of the Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments] 

These 25 newly published fragments are just the tip of the iceberg. A scholar told Live Science that around 70 newly discovered fragments have appeared on the antiquities market since 2002. Additionally, the cabinet minister in charge of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), along with a number of scholars, believes that there are undiscovered scrolls that are being found by looters in caves in the Judean Desert. The IAA is sponsoring a new series of scientific surveys and excavations to find these scrolls before looters do.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in a series of 11 caves by the archaeological site of Qumran in the Judean Desert, near the Dead Sea. During that time, archaeologists and local Bedouins unearthed thousands of fragments from nearly 900 manuscripts.

Some of the Bedouin sold their scrolls in Bethlehem through an antiquities dealer named Khalil Iskander Shahin, who went by the name "Kando." Shahin died in 1993 and his son William Kando now runs his business and estate.

Many scholars believe that the Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden in the Qumran caves around A.D. 70, during a Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire. They may have been written by a Jewish sect known as the Essenes.

Qumran and its caves are located in the West Bank, a territory captured by Israel from Jordan during the Six-Day War in 1967. Jordan at times has asserted that the Dead Sea Scrolls belong to them.

Although the term Dead Sea Scrolls usually refers to the scrolls found at Qumran, there have been scrolls found in caves at other sites in the Judean Desert that are considered Dead Sea Scrolls. 

Collecting scrolls

The 25 newly published scroll fragments were purchased by two separate collectors. [Gallery of Dead Sea Scrolls: A Glimpse of the Past]

Between 2009 and 2014, Steve Green, the owner of Hobby Lobby, a chain of arts and crafts stores, purchased 13 of the fragments, which he has donated, along with thousands of other artifacts, to the Museum of the Bible. Green is helping to fund construction of the museum, scheduled to open in Washington, D.C., next fall. (A fly-through of the museum can be seen on YouTube).

A team of scholars has published details of these donated fragments in the book volume "Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments in the Museum Collection" (Brill, 2016).

The provenance of this batch of scrolls is not certain.

"Some of these fragments must have come from Qumran, probably Cave 4, while the others may have derived from other sites in the Judean Desert," wrote Emanuel Tov, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in the book volume. "Unfortunately, little is known about the provenance of these fragments because most sellers did not provide such information at the time of the sale."

Antiquities dealer William Kando told Live Science that he doesn't know where the donated fragments originated.

Scientists are conducting tests on the donated fragments to help determine if any are forgeries, said Michael Holmes, executive director of the Museum of the Bible Scholars Initiative, in a statement sent to Live Science.

The results will be combined with an analysis of the writing to help determine what the chances are of the different fragments being forgeries.

"The results will be incorporated in our future museum exhibits, inviting visitors to grasp and engage with issues involved with assessing authenticity," Holmes said.

Biblical manuscripts

Martin Schøyen, a collector from Norway, owns the other batch of the recently revealed Dead Sea Scrolls. The texts from those fragments are detailed in the book "Gleanings from the Caves: Dead Sea Scrolls and Artefacts from The Schøyen Collection" (Bloomsbury, 2016). Also detailed in the book are other artifacts related to the scrolls, including a linen wrapper in which one of the Dead Sea Scrolls was found. [Photos: Who 'Penned' the Dead Sea Scrolls?]

Schøyen, who has a vast collection of antiquities, began collecting biblical manuscripts in 1986. "The ultimate challenge had become to acquire a fragment of the Dead Sea Scrolls with a biblical text," Schøyen wrote in the book. "It was for me a 'Mission: Impossible.'"

His determination paid off as, gradually, he was able to track down scroll fragments that were for sale by a number of sources. He bought several from a family collection that is now in in Zurich (the name was not published) and several more from the descendants of tourists or collectors who had purchased scrolls from Shahin's shop in Bethlehem in the 1950s. He also purchased a few fragments that were once owned by two scholars who had worked in the Qumran caves as students in 1948 (the students got the fragments as gifts from a bishop who supported the work).

"The quest that started as a 'Mission: Impossible' in 1986, gradually proceeded to become a collection of [about] 115 fragments from around 27 different scrolls,"  Schøyen said. He added that some of the fragments in his collection come from caves 1, 4 and 11 at Qumran, while some come from other caves in the Judean Desert.

Nehemiah

A highlight from the newly published Museum of the Bible collection is a fragment from the Book of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 2:13-16).

The fragment tells of a man named Nehemiah who lived during the fifth century B.C., at a time after Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The Persian Empire had taken over Babylon's territory and the Jews, who had been forced to leave Israel by the Babylonians, were allowed to return home.

The fragment records Nehemiah's visit to a ruined Jerusalem, finding that its gates had been "consumed by fire." According to the fragment text, he inspects the remains of the walls before starting work on rebuilding them.

Scholars have noted in previous studies that archaeologists hadn't found any copies of the Book of Nehemiah in the Qumran caves. How this fragment came to America is unknown, and scholars say they can't be sure it's from Qumran.

"It is assumed to come from Cave 4 [at Qumran], but in the final analysis it must be said that the provenance of the fragment remains unknown," wrote Martin G. Abegg Jr., a professor at Trinity Western University who led the team that analyzed the fragment, in the book "Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments in the Museum Collection."

Leviticus

A highlight from the Schøyen Collection is a fragment containing part of the Book of Leviticus. In the fragment text, God promises that if the Sabbath is observed and the Ten Commandments are obeyed, the people of Israel will be rewarded.

"If you walk according to my laws, and keep my commandments and implement them, then I will grant your rains in their season, so that the earth shall yield its produce and the trees of the field their fruit," part of the fragment reads (translation by Torleif Elgvin).

"I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down untroubled by anyone; and I will exterminate vicious beasts from the land, and no sword shall cross your land," the fragment continues. "I will look with favour upon you, and make you fertile and multiply you."

Schøyen published a note from William Kando saying that the Leviticus scroll fragment was once owned by his father who got it from Bedouin in 1952 or 1953 and it was sold, along with other fragments, to a customer in Zurich in 1956.                        Live Science

Archaeologists found evidence where David Battled Goliath

Posted on September 9, 2016 By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman/JNS.org

Archaeologists believe they have found evidence of King David’s footprints in a mysterious two-gated city from 3,000 years ago, mentioned in the Bible’s story of David and Goliath

The site is known by its modern name, Khirbet Qeiyafa, in Israel’s Elah Valley.Eviden

After nearly seven years of excavations, the public can now explore the archaeological findings of Qeiyafa through “In the Valley of David and Goliath,” a new Bible Lands Museum exhibition that opened earlier this week in Jerusalem. The Qeiyafa findings have sparked debate and intrigued historians and archaeologists since they were first revealed.

The city was discovered between Sokho and Azekah, on the border between the Philistines and the Judeans, in the place where David and Goliath battled. It’s mentioned in the Torah in 1 Samuel 17: 1-2.

Carbon-14 dating of some 28 charred olive pits found during excavations date the city as existing around the end of the 11th century BCE, until the early 10th century, in the days of Saul and David.
“No one can argue with this data,” said Prof. Yosef Garfinkel, Yigal Yadin Chair of Archeology at the Institute of Archeology at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He, along with Sa’ar Ganor from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Prof. Michal Hazel of Southern Adventist University of Tennessee, led the excavations.

Among the site’s highlights are its two gates: the western gate, which faced Philistia, and the southern gate, which faced Judah. Having two gates for a relatively small city of 5.7 acres is unusual, according to Bible Lands curator Yehuda Kaplan. Gates are the weakest part of any city. The two gates are what led excavators to identify the site with Sha’arayim (Hebrew for “two gates”), a city mentioned in the David and Goliath story in the Book of Samuel, which reads, “…And the slain Philistines lay along the way of Sha’arayim, as far as Gath and Ekron.” (1 Samuel 17:52) It’s also in Judges 16:5 and in Jeremiah 17:19-20.

The gates were corroborated by additional evidence of Jewish activity at Qeiyafa, including thousands of sheep, goat, cow and fish bones, and the absence of non-kosher pig bones, Kaplan said.
Evidence of cultic activity throughout the city was also unearthed, as well as two inscriptions written in the Canaanite script. One was incised on a jar and contains the Hebrew name Eshbaal, son of Beda. The second was inscribed on a pottery shard with only a few identifiable words, including “king” and “judge.” Many of the letters seem to reflect Hebraic writing.  Garfinkel suggests this is the earliest writing documentation of the Hebrew language discovered to date.

Among the pottery on the site, less than 2 percent was typical Philistine pottery. Kaplan said if the community had been Philistine, a minimum of 20 percent of Philistine design should have been found. Of the 24 weapons and tools discovered, 67 percent were made from iron and 33 percent from bronze. Use of iron during this period by other sites in Judah, such as Arad and Beersheva, helped archeologists identify Qeiyafa as a Judean site.                 

Finally, casemate walls - two thinner, parallel walls with empty space in between and a belt of houses abutting the casemates, incorporating them as part of the construction - are reminiscent of the type of urban planning found only in Judah and Transjordan.

Garfinkel explained that before the period of King David, people lived in small farming communities. Around 11th BCE, these agrarian communities became urban societies.

“In this, the biblical tradition has historic memory,” Garfinkel said. “If we ask, ‘Where is archaeology starting to support biblical tradition, Khirbet Qeiyafa is the beginning.” 

There’s only one other archaeological reference to King David found in Israel, the Aramaic inscription from the mid-9th century BCE found at Tel Dan. This inscription, on display as part of the new exhibit, is attributed to Hazel, king of Damascus, who boasts about killing a king of Israel and a king of Judah, the latter of which is referred to in the inscription as “King of the House of David.”

While the site stirs the biblical imagination, it also serves a political role. 

Biblical Minimalists, a band of biblical scholars and archaeologists trying to eradicate the connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel by claiming there’s not reliable evidence for what had happened in ancient Israel, can be negated by some of Qeiyafa’s findings. Within 10 days of his publishing the first paper on Qeiyafa, another article claimed the site as Palestinian, Garfinkel said.

“This happens a lot,” said Jacob L. Wright, associate professor of Hebrew Bible at Emory University in Atlanta. “In no other area of the world do you have such a connection to biblical imagination.”

Wright said there’s likely a middle ground. While he believes Garfinkel has placed Qeiyafa in the right time period and that it’s likely a Judean community, experts aren’t certain that King David had anything to do directly with the site. 

“One has to separate the bible and archaeology,” Wright said. “The minimalists want to deny the state of Judah and Israel; they are politically driven and have a loose agenda. … But it does not help when the maximalists try to connect everything they find on the ground with Jesus or King David.”

Bible Lands’ Kaplan is confident in the exhibit and the story it’s telling of Qeiyafa.

“Everything you touch at Khirbet Qeiyafa brings you to this biblical period,” he said.                     Jewish News Service

Scientists find evidence of catastrophic flood of 4,000 years ago

Published: 08/17/2016 at 8:09 PM

Replica of Noah’s Ark

Scientists have made an eye-opening discovery in China that may point to a catastrophic biblical flood nearly 4,000 years ago.

Archaeologists uncovered and dated the bones of children found in the Yellow River Valley. The children are believed to have been trapped by a massive flood around 2000 B.C., around the time many Christians believe the biblical story of Noah and the Flood took place.

According to Chinese legend, a great flood deluged settlements, spilled over hills and mountains and even reached the heavens. It’s said that King Yu made the waters recede by constructing large ditches, and he founded China’s first dynasty, the Xia. However, no evidence of Yu or the Xia Dynasty has been uncovered.

Nonetheless, researchers have now published an Aug. 5 study in the journal Science indicating a massive flood submerged large swaths of China. The team, led by Wu Qianlong, believes an earthquake triggered a large landslide and dammed a waterway in 1920 B.C. The scientists believe 4 trillion gallons of water submerged the North China Plain. They used radiocarbon dating and soil samples to reach their conclusion.

But Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis told One News Now the new find is just the latest in a number of stories about a great flood event.

“Whether it’s the American Indians or the Fijians, Hawaiians, the Eskimos, Australian Aborigines … back to the Babylonians, there are flood legends in cultures all over the world,” Ham said.

In fact, the Chinese legend is quite similar to the others.

“And this particular flood legend from China – when you read it – it talks about it was basically a global flood, the way it was described. And there was a man in particular associated with that flood,” Ham explained.

Yes, Noah’s Ark is completely real! “Noah: The Real Story” and “Noah and the Last Days” will answer your questions about Noah, the Flood, the animals, the Ark and the search

However, scientists have not speculated that the Yellow River find may be evidence of the Flood of the Bible.

“There are thousands of feet of Flood sediment all over the globe – evidence of a catastrophic global Flood – and they’re not prepared to look at that because they’ve been indoctrinated to believe that that was laid down over millions of years,” Ham told the news site.

He argued that many in the scientific community are blinded to biblical truth.

“If the Bible’s true, it means God is Creator,” Ham said. “It means God owns us. It means we have to be in submission to him. It means he sets the rules. It means that abortion is wrong; it’s murder. It means that marriage is a man and a woman. It means that we need to receive the free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ.”

WND reported in 2010 when Chinese and Turkish explorers with Noah’s Ark Ministries International said they were “99.9 percent sure” they found the remnants of the legendary biblical Ark high up on Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey.

The 15-member team claimed it recovered wooden specimens from a structure at an altitude of 13,000 feet and that carbon dating suggested it was 4,800 years old.

Several compartments, some with wooden beams, were said to be inside and could have been used to house animals, the group indicated.
“The search team has made the greatest discovery in history,” declared professor Oktay Belli, an archaeologist at Istanbul University. “This finding is very important and the greatest up to now.”

But at least two seasoned archaeologists who had made numerous expeditions to Mount Ararat in search of Noah’s Ark threw cold water on the claim the Old Testament vessel had finally been discovered, saying it was a hoax involving wood hauled in from the Black Sea region.

“To make a long story short: This is all reported to be a fake,” said Randall Price, director of Judaic Studies at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.

“This is not Noah’s Ark,” adds Bob Cornuke of the Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration Institute. “This is a fake. It’s a fraud and it’s of the highest caliber according to what I can assess from the evidence and talking to eyewitnesses and people from Turkey.”                  WND

Historic archeological discovery of Egyptian statue unearthed in Tel-Hazor

By DANIEL K. EISENBUD \07/25/2016 13:55 

 When American Bryan Kovach agreed to volunteer for an excavation north of the Sea of Galilea last week, he had no idea he would personally uncover one of the most historic archeological discoveries in the Middle East.

Last Monday morning, during the dig in Tel-Hazor – the largest Biblical-era site in Israel, as well as a UNESCO Heritage Site – Kovach found a large limestone fragment of an Egyptian statue depicting an ancient official’s foot.          Jerusalem Post

Pit burials in the first Philistine graveyard found in Israel, in ancient Ashkelon

 

A huge Philistine cemetery some 3000-years-old has been found in the Mediterranean seaport of Ashkelon. The manner of the burials proves, for the first time, that the Philistines had to have come from the Aegean Sea region, and that they had very close ties with the Phoenician world.

“Ninety-nine percent of the chapters and articles written about Philistine burial customs should be revised or ignored now that we have the first and only Philistine cemetery,” says Lawrence E. Stager, Dorot Professor of the Archaeology of Israel, Emeritus, at Harvard University.

The cemetery was found just outside the city walls of Tel Ashkelon, one of the Philistines' five primary cities in ancient Israel.

The cemetery was found to have more then 150 individual burials dating from the 11th to 8th century BCE. The undisturbed graves have shed fresh light on a mystery bedeviling archaeologists for decades: the Philistines' real origins.
US anthropologist and pathologist, Sherry Fox shows a skull discovered at the excavation site of the first Philistine cemetery ever found in Ashkelon, on June 28, 2016. Menahem Kahana, AFP

“The basic question we want to know is where this people are from," said Dr. Sherry Fox, a physical anthropologist who is sampling the bones for analysis, including for DNA studies, and radiocarbon and biological distance studies.

How the Philistines lived: Not like Canaanites

The unprecedented discovery of the Philistine cemetery allows the archaeologists not only to study Philistine burial practices for the first time, but also to gain insights on Philistine characteristics and lifestyle. With this discovery, the archaeologists finally have a data set not on one or two individuals but a whole population, explains Daniel M. Master, professor of Wheaton College and co-director of the Leon Levy Expedition. That in turn will enable them to talk about what’s typical and what’s not typical, he explains.

“This forms a baseline for what 'Philistine' is. We can already say that the cultural practices we see here are substantially different from the Canaanites and the highlanders in the east," Master says.
Archaeologists investigating the first unmistakably Philistine burial ground found in Israel, in Ashkelon. Philippe Bohstrom

The bodies can also provide information about Philistine dietary habits, lifestyle and morbidity.

One conclusion the archaeologists have already reached is that these particular individuals seemed to have been spared from strife.

“There is no evidence of any kind of trauma on the bones, from war on inter-personal violence,” Fox told Haaretz.

Unlike the typical burial practice in the region - family burials or multiple burials, where the deceased were laid on raised platforms or benches - the practice in Ashkelon was markedly different.

The deceased were, for the most part, buried in oval pits. Four out of the 150 were cremated and some other bodies were deposited in ashlar burial chamber tombs. These are burial practices well known from the Aegean cultural sphere - but certainly not from the Canaanite one.
Artifacts found with the skeletons in the Philistine graveyard in Ashkelon are indicative of Philistine culture, not Canaanite. Philippe Bohstrom

A peaceful lot

Other finds that accompanied the deceased typically included storage jars, bowls and juglets, and in some rare cases fine jewelry - as well as arrowheads and spear points.

A hoard of iron arrowheads was discovered by the pelvis of one man, the amount one would expect to find in a quiver.

“The same arrow was not repeated, but a variety of forms and sizes, which is interesting," Dr. Adam Aja, assistant director of the excavation, told Haaretz, and added, “Perhaps the archer could choose the arrows he needed to penetrate flesh, armor or wood.”

Spear-points and some jewelry were also found next to the Philistine bowman.
Pottery artifacts found in the Philistine graveyard in Ashkelon, dating back c. 3000 years. Philippe Bohstrom

In other instances, small vials that had contained perfume were found next to the deceased (probably an olive oil based with different fragrances) . In two cases the bottle was found at the nostril, pointing to the nose, presumably so that the deceased could smell perfume throughout eternity.

In addition to the 150 individual pit graves found at the cemetery, six burial chambers with multiple bodies were found (when the bodies were found at all). A magnificent rectangular burial chamber was discovered inside the cemetery, built with perfectly hewn sandstones.  But the large stone door that once stood at its entrance evidently could not hinder grave robbers from looting the tomb of its treasure and its occupants' skeletal remains.

When the chamber was built and used is anybody’s guess. “The latest pottery is trash from the 7th century BCE, but the chamber might have been built and used somewhat earlier,” Master told Haaretz.
The roughly 3000-year old skeletons found in the Philistine graveyard in Ashkelon have clear hallmarks of Aegean customs, not Canaanite. Philippe Bohstrom

Linen, papyrus and slaves

Ashkelon became a flourishing trading hub during the Bronze Age because of its location on the Mediterranean Sea and its proximity to Egypt. It was through Ashkelon, which was situated just north of Gaza, that Egypt sold linen and papyrus – and also slaves – to the rest of the ancient world.

Other goods distributed through Ashkelon during the Iron Age (ca. 1185-604 BCE) included wine and textile. There is also evidence of grain imports from Judah, again attesting to the Philistine city as an important gateway between the East and the West.

Ashkelon would remain a key trading center up to Crusader times. But it was destroyed by the Mamluk sultan Baibars in 1270 CE, a blow from which it never recovered.

The Philistines execute a pincer maneuver

According to the Bible, the island of Crete (usually held to be identical with Caphtor Jeremiah 47:4; Amos 9:7), though not necessarily the original home of the Philistines, was the place from which they migrated to the Canaan coast.

That the Philistines were not indigenous to Canaan is indicated by ceramics, architecture, burial customs, and pottery remains with writing – in non-Semitic languages (several inscribed stamp handles, as well as a pottery sherd with a Cypro-Minoan script, all dating to around 1150-1000 BCE).
Pottery sherd with Cypro-Minoan writing, found on the floor of a house in Philistine Ashkelon, dated to the 11th century BCE. Zev Radovan, courtesy of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon

The ancient DNA-analysis may be the final nail in the coffin that settles the debate of the Philistines origins.

Meanwhile, Lawrence E. Stager of Harvard has long been convinced that the Philistines came by ship, sailing from the Aegean area, perhaps Cyprus, to the South Canaan coast, and established themselves there before their great assault on Egypt.

One of the earliest references to the Philistines is Ramesses III´s mortuary relief at Medinet Habu. The relief portrays the Battle of the Delta, the grand struggle between the Egyptians and the Sea Peoples that took place at the mouth of the Nile during the early 12th century BCE (1176-75 BCE).

Since the relief depicts oxcarts, chariots and ships, some scholars assume the Philistines came overland from Anatolia to Egypt. Stager is skeptical. “There is no way you can come with oxcarts from Anatolia, down through all the hills," he explains. "It makes much more sense if they came with ships, loading and offloading these vehicles."

He also points out that the Battle of the Delta was the one known epic battle between the Egyptians and Philistines or Sea Peoples. There weren't two. If the Philistines attacked the Egyptians, they would likely have sent a navy down the Mediterranean - and an army of land troops, effectively creating a pincer maneuver against Ramesses III, Stager speculates.

Stager suspects the Philistines had to have been well entrenched in south Canaan before the Battle of the Delta. Ashkelon would have been one of the first strategic points the Philistines would have settled, securing as sort of “bridgehead”, before they launched their armada and infantry against the Egyptians in the Nile Delta.

“Ramesses III tried to contain them in their five Philistine cities, but obviously he could not control them or drive them out," says Stager.

Daniel Master differs: “I think Egypt was still in control of the region, even Philistia, and that the Philistines settled with Egyptian acquiescence.  This is become a broader consensus over the last few years due to work at Megiddo, Jaffa, and Ashkelon itself, where we find many Egyptian objects from this period,” he told Haaretz.

At this point, we do not know if the Egyptians managed to subdue the Philistines. But we do know that the Philistines did eventually have their comeuppance.

In early December 604 BCE, the Babylonians swept through Philistia, destroying the cities and exiling its inhabitants.  The Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar torched Philistia in early December 604 BCE, yet within the massive destruction, architecture, ceramics and even foods remained, providing the archaeologists with a snapshot of life in a Philistine city during the 7th century BCE.         Haaretz