Highlights- Alexander the Great Coin, 340-323 BCE Dan Inscription, 2nd-3rd century BCE The Septuagint, 285-246 BCE Silver Tetradrachm of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, 164 BCE Overview Hellenism 332-167, Teddy Kollek and Moshe Pearlman, Jerusalem- Sacred City of Mankind, Steimatzky Ltd., Jerusalem, 1991. Overview- Jews and Judaism from Alexander to the Maccabees (332-63 BCE) Biblical History- From […]
Recently Discovered Photos Show Long-Lost Details Just over a hundred years ago, an American archaeologist discovered a series of spectacular tomb paintings dating from about 200 B.C.E. at a site in the foothills of the Judean mountains. Yet, within a few years, these precious works of art had faded into oblivion, and since then they […]
Kyrenia Shipwreck Will Be Published In our recent review of The Problem of Unpublished Excavations we listed Michael Katzev among the culprits—archaeologists who delay publishing, or never publish, the results of their research.a We are pleased to say we may have spoken too soon. Katzev, who died of a stroke last September at age 62, […]
2000 Hellenistic Bullae were found at Kedesh in upper Galilee in the summer of ’99. This clay seal impression depicts a rearing horse. Strata- Woollae Bullae, Devra Wexler, BAR 26-03, May-Jun 2000.
Team Hopes to Find More Seals at Kedesh Spurred by the discovery of a massive hoard of bullae—stamped pieces of clay used to seal documents—the excavation team at Tel Kedesh hopes it is on the verge of uncovering an entire ancient bullae archive. Nearly 2,000 bullae were uncovered last summer in a single 1-meter by […]
Pottery talks. That’s a little secret archaeologists know but few outsiders are privy to. And pottery can talk—a lot. If you were to excavate George Washington’s dining room at Mount Vernon and recover fragments of the many plates and cups and bowls and serving dishes used there, you would conclude that our first president cared […]
Ancient Wonder of the World Rediscovered In Alexandria, Egypt, history is no longer a thing of the past. Its ancient library, which held over a million volumes of the world’s knowledge in one place, is being rebuilt. And the remains of some of its other structures—the Pharos lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the […]
The God Who Is In Dan Dan Inscription Dan Inscription Drawing Discovered in 1976 at the royal bamah, this stone bearing an inscription incised in Greek and Aramaic confirms the identity of Tel Dan. The inscription, which dates to the first half of the second century BCE, contains three lines of Greek and one line […]
Samaritan Synagogue Inscriptions Two inscriptions from Samaritan Synagogues were found in 1979-80 on the Aegean island of Delos- 1. 250-175 BCE “Israelites (on Delos) who make offerings to hallowed Argarizum” (Greek for Mt. Gerizim) 2. 150-50 BCE Honors Sercipion who makes donations to the community.
After the death of Alexander the Great, his empire was divided by his generals. Palestine was claimed by both Ptolemy (king of Egypt) and Seleucus (king of Syria). At the end of a protracted military struggle in which the land changed hands five times, Ptolemy won control of the area in 301 BCE. During the […]