Archaeologists unearth ruins of 1,500-year-old Jewish town in southern Israel

Israeli archaeologists digging on the route of a planned highway have found new ruins from a 1,500-year-old Jewish town, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Sunday.

The remains of two Jewish ritual baths and two public buildings were uncovered in a salvage dig ahead of the paving of a new section of Israel’s Highway 6, a north-south toll road eventually slated to run much of the length of the country.

Both of the public buildings feature raised platforms along the walls facing Jerusalem, archaeologists say — a trademark feature of Jewish houses of prayer.

The highway will be rerouted to preserve the ruins, the IAA statement said.

Click here to read this article from The Times of Israel

Baghdad at 1,250: a far cry from past glories

Baghdad was once the capital of an empire and the centre of the Islamic world, but at 1,250 years old, the Iraqi city is a far cry from its past glories after being ravaged by years of war and sanctions.

Construction of the city on the bank of the Tigris River began in July 762 AD under Abbasid Caliph Abu Jaafar al-Mansur, and it has since played a pivotal role in Arab and Islamic civilisations.

"Baghdad represented the economic centre of the Abbasid Empire, and it was used as a starting point for controlling other neighbouring regions to enhance Islamic power," said Issam al-Faili, a professor of political history at Mustansiriyah University.

"Baghdad witnessed a renaissance of thought through translation, which was usually mastered by Jews and the Christians, and became a destination for intellectuals, poets and scholars from all parts of the world, and a centre for craftsmen and a city of construction," Faili said. "Baghdad today, after it was the capital of the world, has become one of the most miserable cities," he said.

Click here to read this article from Yahoo News

Alexander the not so Great: History through Persian eyes

Alexander the Great is portrayed as a legendary conqueror and military leader in Greek-influenced Western history books but his legacy looks very different from a Persian perspective.

 Any visitor to the spectacular ruins of Persepolis - the site of the ceremonial capital of the ancient Persian Achaemenid empire, will be told three facts: it was built by Darius the Great, embellished by his son Xerxes, and destroyed by that man, Alexander.

 That man Alexander, would be the Alexander the Great, feted in Western culture as the conqueror of the Persian Empire and one of the great military geniuses of history.

 Indeed, reading some Western history books one might be forgiven for thinking that the Persians existed to be conquered by Alexander.

Click here to read this article from the BBC

2,000 year-old gold and silver hoard uncovered in Israel

The Israel Antiquities Authority reports they have uncovered a spectacular 2,000 year-old gold and silver hoard during an archaeological excavation in southern Israel.

The hoard includes jewelry and silver and gold coins from the Roman period, and was recently exposed in a salvage excavation in the near the city of Qiryat Gat. The treasure trove comprising some 140 gold and silver coins together with gold jewelry was probably hidden by a wealthy lady at a time of impending danger during the Bar Kokhba Revolt.

Click here to read this article from History of the Ancient World

Ancient seal discovered in Jerusalem

In archaeological work in the 2,000 year-old drainage channel between the City of David and the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden, remains were discovered of the building closest to the First Temple exposed so far in archaeological excavations.

 The remains of a building dating to the end of the First Temple period (1006 – 586 BCE) were discovered below the base of the ancient drainage channel that is currently being exposed in Israel Antiquities Authority excavations beneath Robinson’s Arch in the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden, adjacent to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. This building is the closest structure to the First Temple found to date in archaeological excavations.

Click here to read this article from History of the Ancient World

Israel's Other Temple: Research Reveals Ancient Struggle over Holy Land Supremacy

The Jews had significant competition in antiquity when it came to worshipping Yahweh. Archeologists have discovered a second great temple not far from Jerusalem that predates its better known cousin. It belonged to the Samaritans, and may have been edited out of the Bible once the rivalry had been decided.

Clad in gray coat, Aharon ben Ab-Chisda ben Yaacob, 85, is sitting in the dim light of his house. He strikes up a throaty chant, a litany in ancient Hebrew. He has a full beard and is wearing a red kippah on his head.

The man is a high priest -- and his family tree goes back 132 generations. He says: "I am a direct descendent of Aaron, the brother of the prophet Moses" -- who lived perhaps over 3,000 years ago.
Ab-Chisda is the spiritual leader of the Samaritans, a sect that is so strict that its members are not even allowed to turn on the heat on the Sabbath. They never eat shrimp and only marry among themselves. Their women are said to be so impure during menstruation that they are secluded in special rooms for seven days.


Click here to read this article from Der Spiegel

Seeking to Preserve the Past, but Stumbling on the Present

On land where Assyrian kings once reigned, an Iraqi farmer named Araf Khalaf surveyed the scrap of earth that has nurtured three generations of his family. It is little more than a mud hut and a scraggly vegetable patch, yet his land has become a battleground, one pitting efforts to preserve Iraq’s ancient treasures against the nation’s modern-day poor.

With violence ebbing, Iraqi and international archaeologists are again excavating and repairing the country’s historic sites. But they are running into a problem: thousands of Iraqis have taken up residence among the poorly guarded ruins of Mesopotamia, in illegally built homes and shops, greenhouses and garages. And they do not want to leave.

“My father grew up here,” Mr. Khalaf said. “This is our land.”

It is a familiar issue for other nations with troves of unrecovered antiquities, like Egypt. And to Iraqi authorities, the residents are nothing more than illegal squatters who need to be moved. Officials say they pose the latest threat to an archaeological patrimony that has been plundered by looters, pummeled by decades of war and disfigured by Saddam Hussein’s egotistical additions and renovations. They want to relocate the families and seal off the areas, much as Kurdish officials in northern Iraq did to clear away squatters from an ancient citadel overlooking the city of Erbil.

Click here to read this article from the New York Times

New book examines the role of Arab doctors in the history of medieval medicine

Professor Peter E Pormann from The University of Manchester says too few people realise European and Arab doctors were part of the same medical tradition which played a pivotal role in the development of medicine as we know it.

“Arabic was the scientific language which united doctors 850 year ago and which contributed to a medical discourse that went beyond country and creed,” he said. “Jew, Christian and Muslim worked together in an openness within medicine which more or less has continued to this day.”

The minute clinical observations of the clinician al-Rāzī, he says – who even once used a control group to test a medical procedure – are a 850-year-old blueprint for how doctors work today.

Al-Rāzī was one of the many clinicians to be inspired by Arabic translations, he says, making great strides in their understanding of medicine and forming the basis of what we know today.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Arabic sources show extreme weather hit medieval Baghdad

Medieval manuscripts written by Arabic scholars can provide valuable meteorological information to help modern scientists reconstruct the climate of the past, a new study has revealed. The research, published in Weather, analyses the writings of scholars, historians and diarists in Iraq during the Islamic Golden Age between 816-1009 AD for evidence of extreme weather in Iraq, including snowfalls and hailstorms in Baghdad.

Reconstructing climates from the past provides historical comparison to modern weather events and valuable context for climate change. In the natural world trees, ice cores and coral provide evidence of past weather, but from human sources scientists are limited by the historical information available.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Slaves or not, Babylonians were much like us, says book

They got married, had children, made beer. Although they lived 3,500 years ago in Nippur, Babylonia, in many ways they seem like us. Whether they were also slaves is a hotly contested question which Jonathan Tenney, assistant professor of ancient Near Eastern studies, addresses in the newly released Life at the Bottom of Babylonian Society: Servile Laborers at Nippur in the 14th and 13th Centuries, B.C., published by Brill.

The book is based on Tenney’s dissertation at the University of Chicago, for which he received the 2010 Dissertation of the Year Award by the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq.

Some previous scholars identified the 8,000-strong group of government workers as temple employees. “But the problem is the records included food for little babies, which didn’t make much sense,” says Tenney, who joined the Cornell faculty this past fall. “And sometimes the workers ran away, and when they were captured they were put in prison.”

Click here to read this article from History of the Ancient World

Byzantine Stamp with the Temple Menorah discovered in Israel

A 1,500 year old seal bearing an image of the seven-branched Temple Menorah was discovered near the Israeli city of Acre/Akko.

A ceramic stamp from the Byzantine period (6th century CE) was discovered in excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is currently conducting at Horbat Uza east of Acre, prior to the construction of the Akko-Karmiel railroad track by the Israel National Roads Company. This find belongs to a group of stamps referred to as “bread stamps” because they were usually used to stamp baked goods.

According to Gilad Jaffe and Dr. Danny Syon, the directors of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “A number of stamps bearing an image of a menorah are known from different collections. The Temple Menorah, being a Jewish symbol par excellence, indicates the stamps belonged to Jews, unlike Christian bread stamps with the cross pattern which were much more common in the Byzantine period”.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

1,600 year-old bathhouse discovered in Israel

Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered a 1,600 year-old bathhouse apparently used by the owners of a wealthy estate or an inn on an ancient road.

Remains of an ancient bathhouse dating to the Byzantine period were exposed during work being conducted on the modern water infrastructure near Moshav Tarum, west of Jerusalem. In recent months the Israel Antiquities Authority carried out an archaeological excavation that uncovered impressive finds as a new water supply system is being built to service Jerusalem.

Click here to read this article from History of the Ancient World

Medieval mosque discovered in Oman

Oman's Heritage and Culture Ministry announced that the Omani-French Exploration Expedition managed to unearth new archeological findings for Qalhat city. The findings highlight the historic and economic role played by Qalhat during the Medieval Ages.

Byoba Ali al- Sabri, Director of Exploration and Archeological Studies at the Heritage and Culture Ministry said today in a press conference that the findings include the Al Jamea Mosque in Qalhat which was built in response to the order of Bibi Mariam at 1300. The Mosque was destroyed by the Portuguese in 1508.

She pointed out that the Mosque is located on the beach, opposite to the port. Beside the Mosque, a magnificent building thought to be the residence of the ruler of the city, was also found.

The findings also include clay items that date back to the 14th century, polished and unpolished clay ceramics.

Click here to read this article from the Oman News Agency

See also the article Qalhat Mosque ruins excavated

Jerusalem’s Western Wall was completed after the reign of Herod, research finds

A ritual bath exposed beneath the Western Wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem shows that the construction of that wall was not completed during King Herod’s lifetime.

Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority: A ritual bath exposed beneath the Western Wall of the Temple Mount shows that the construction of that wall was not completed during King Herod’s lifetime.

Who built the Temple Mount walls? Every tour guide and every student grounded in the history of Jerusalem will immediately reply that it was Herod. However, in the archaeological excavations alongside the ancient drainage channel of Jerusalem a very old ritual bath (miqwe) was recently discovered that challenges the conventional archaeological perception which regards Herod as being solely responsible for its construction.

Click here to read this article from History of the Ancient World

Archaeologists examine medieval fortress on the Mediterranean coast

Archaeologists have long known that Yavneh-Yam, an archaeological site between the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Ashdod on the Mediterranean coast, was a functioning harbor from the second millennium B.C. until the Middle Ages. Now Tel Aviv University researchers have uncovered evidence to suggest that the site was one of the final strongholds of Early Islamic power in the region.

According to Professor Moshe Fischer of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Archaeology and Near Eastern Cultures and head of the Yavneh-Yam dig, the recent discovery of a bath house from the Early Islamic period which made use of Roman techniques such as heated floors and walls, indicates that Arabic rulers maintained control of the site up until the end of the Early Islamic period in the 12th century AD. Considered alongside other datable artefacts — such as pottery, oil lamps and rare glass weights — this architectural feature demonstrates that Arabic control was maintained in Yavneh-Yam at a time when 70 percent of the surrounding land was in the hands of Christian crusaders.

Click here to read this article from Medievalists.net

Byzantine-era anchor found in Israel might shed light on ancient sailing

The recent discovery by Israeli lifeguards of three ancient iron anchors might help archaeologists understand more about ancient sailing and lead to the discovery of an unknown anchorage site.

Lifeguards at a Bat Yam city beach, south of Tel Aviv, came across the first 300 kg, two-meter-tall anchor after spotting it submerged in shallow waters, 30 meters offshore.

Though the lifeguards initially thought it to be a modern artifact, they contacted the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) after suspecting that it might, in fact, be an archaeological find.

An IAA marine archaeologist confirmed that the find was about 1,700-1,400 years old, belonging to the Byzantine era.

Click here to read this article from the Xinhua News Agency

What’s new with ancient Jerusalem?

The 12th Annual City of David Archaeology Conference, the largest of its kind in Israel, is set to take place this Thursday at the City of David. This open-air conference is dedicated entirely to current research about Jerusalem and the City of David and will bring together world renowned experts and 1,400 fans of Jerusalem and its antiquities.

The conference takes place in Hebrew but many Anglos are expected to attend. In honor of the event, the excavation sites at the City of David will be open, and conference-goers will be given the rare opportunity to take a peek at the rigorous field work.

The most senior tour guides will give tours of the various sites including the Herodian Road, the hidden tunnel that leads from the City of David up to the Western Wall. A highlight of this year’s conference is the display of the recently discovered golden bell from the Second Temple period.

Click here to read this article from the Jerusalem Post

Roman-era Sword Uncovered in Ancient Ditch in Jerusalem

Like a postcard sent from the battle ground, a Roman sword, still in its leather-bound wooden scabbard, was unearthed in a Jerusalem ditch where it had apparently lain since the revolt that destroyed the Second Temple almost 2,000 years ago.

Archaeologist Eli Shukron told The Media Line it was a rare find and the only one that could definitely be linked to the Great Revolt by the Jews against the Romans in August 70 A.D.

The discovery was even more symbolic for the archaeologists since it came just a day before Jews mark the destruction of the Temple on the 9th of the Jewish Month of Av, which falls on August 9.

Click here to read this article from The Media Line

Click here to read the article "Jerusalem tunnel contains 2,000-year-old sword, pots and coins" from the Daily Telegraph