Translated into English as “scarlet,” biblical Tola‛at Hashani was one of three colors that decorated the tabernacle during Israel’s desert wanderings (Exodus 26:1). Obtained from […] The post Earliest Example of “Biblical Scarlet” Discovered appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society ..read more

In ancient Pella, Jordan, archaeology can take you back over 8,000 years of history. The Civic Complex at the base of the mound of ancient Pella includes a large columned church from the Byzantine period. But many of the first modern explorers to visit Pella in Jordan were looking for evidence of the earliest Christians’ escape to Pella from Jerusalem in the first century. Did it really happen? Photo by Hershel Shanks. The fourth-century church historian Eusebius of Caesarea tells of the earliest Christians’ escape to Pella (in present-day Jordan) from Jerusalem just before the latter city w ..read more

Sunrise over the Qasr (“fortress,” at left), a large monumental building situated at the highest point of Khirbet Balu‘a. Friedbert Ninow / Balu‘a Regional Archaeological Project The kingdom of Moab, located across the Dead Sea to the east of biblical Israel and Judah, is referenced regularly in the Hebrew Bible. Yet our knowledge about the ancient Israelites’ neighbor in the Transjordan remains limited. Outside of the biblical account, it relies primarily on the famous Mesha Stele discovered at Dhiban (biblical Dibon) in the 19th century; although this important piece of documentary evidenc ..read more

The Mshatta Facade, on display in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin. Courtesy Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Editor’s Note: This Bible History Daily article discusses an unprovenanced object. Learn more about the problems associated with objects that lack a secure archaeological context. Archaeological objects are fascinating, but not always because of what they reveal about the past. Sometimes, it is the journeys these objects take after they are unearthed that provide new insights into how we interact with and think about the past and h ..read more

A bronze ring depicting a Roman warrior goddess. Courtesy Emil Aladjem, IAA. While hiking on Mt. Carmel outside of Haifa, a young teenager spotted an object on the ground that he originally took to be a rusty old bolt. Upon closer inspection, however, he was shocked to find a 1,800-year-old ring depicting the Roman warrior goddess Minerva. FREE ebook, Recipes from the BAR Test Kitchen Make your own food from recipes handed down from biblical times. Download now. First Name:* Last Name:* Email Address: * * Indicates a required field. SUBMIT If you don’t want to receive the Bible History ..read more

Excavating the Land of Jesus How Archaeologists Study the People of the Gospels By James Riley Strange (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2023), 192 pp., 29 b/w figs., 2 maps; $29.99 (hardcover and eBook) Reviewed by Matthew J. Grey In recent decades, scholarship on the New Testament has reflected a growing interest in the archaeology of Roman Galilee and how its material culture illuminates the historical Jesus, the social setting of his earliest followers, and the Jewish context of the New Testament. As a result, the past 20 years have seen a flourishing of archaeological activity around the Sea ..read more

Uncovering a large part of the hull of the shipwreck. Courtesy Greek Ministry of Culture While exploring the famous first-century BCE Antikythera shipwreck off the southern coast of Greece, divers made some remarkable new discoveries. Among them was a previously unnoticed second shipwreck that may have been caused by the same incident that sunk the first ship. FREE ebook: Island Jewels: Understanding Ancient Cyprus and Crete. Read the fascinating history of these mythical Mediterranean islands. First Name:* Last Name:* Email Address: * * Indicates a required field. SUBMIT If you don’t w ..read more

Painting of the Battle of Nineveh (c. 627 CE) between the Sassanid and Byzantine Armies, by Fresco by Piero della Francesca c. 1452. Piero della Francesca, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. While elite sixth-century CE graves in England may be famous for what they tell us about Anglo-Saxon culture, they might also bear evidence that the peoples of the British Isles were more connected to the ancient world than previously assumed. According to two British scholars, grave goods at several important sites could only have come from the eastern reaches of the Byzantine Empire, where they were ..read more

The North Church (left) and its baptistery (right) at Shivta in Israel’s Negev Desert. Photo by Dror Maayan, courtesy of Emma Maayan-Fanar. At Shivta, a large early Christian site in southern Israel, scenes painted on the ruined walls of two monumental church buildings have been recently identified as depictions of Jesus. Writing for the Summer 2024 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Emma Maayan-Fanar and Yotam Tepper argue that the apse of the baptistery adjacent to the site’s North Church once featured a depiction of Jesus’s baptism, and that Shivta’s South Church still preserves traces ..read more

Replica of the Lachish Reliefs, showing Sennacherib’s siege of Lachish. Courtesy Photo Companion to the Bible, 2 Kings. Have the siege camps set up during Sennacherib’s campaign against Judah (c. 701 BCE) been identified? According to an article published in the journal Near Eastern Archaeology, they have. Relying on Assyrian depictions of siege camps and historical geographic details, academic Stephen Compton proposes that nearly all of the archaeological sites across Israel and the Levant known as Mudawwara are likely the locations of ancient Assyrian siege camps, several of which are ment ..read more