Yesterday I had some folks visiting the City of David, and we discovered an additional section of the cleared Herodian drainage channel (sounds better than ‘sewer’!) newly open to visitors. It had only opened three days before, on Sunday, we were told. Whereas until now visitors had to exit the channel halfway up Ir David Street, they can now continue on as far as the Givati parking lot excavation area, near the head of the street and not far outside Dung Gate. The following sign calls the entire ascent a ‘road’ — they were shooting for ’route’, I believe — but most of it is in fact a drainage channel. http://israelpalestineguide.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/new-section-of-herodian-channel-opens-in-city-of-david-silwan-photos/

JERUSALEM — A dull-looking chart projected on the wall of a university office in Jerusalem displayed a revelation that would startle many readers of the Old Testament: The sacred text that people revered in the past was not the same one we study today.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The excavation of an ancient drainage tunnel beneath Jerusalem has yielded a sword, oil lamps, pots and coins abandoned during a war here 2,000 years ago, archaeologists said Monday, suggesting the finds were debris from a pivotal episode in the city's history when rebels hid from Roman soldiers crushing a Jewish revolt.

Arutz Sheva (Israel National News.com) reports that archaeologists have “discovered a rare gold bell with a small hook at its end.”

The directors of the excavation on behalf of the Antiquities Authority, archaeologists Eli Shukron and Professor Ronny Reich of Haifa University, said after the finding, “The bell looked as if it was sewn on the garment worn by a man of high authority in Jerusalem at the end of the Second Temple period.

“The bell was exposed in the city’s main drainage channel of that period, between the layers of dirt that had been piled on the floor of the channel,” they continued. “This drainage channel was built and hewn west to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount and drained the rainfall in the different parts of the city, through the City of David and the Shiloah Pool to the Kidron valley.”

The excavation area, above the drain, is located in the main street of Jerusalem which rose from the Shiloah Pool in the City of David. In this street an interchange was built through which people entered the Temple Mount. The remains of this interchange are what is known today as Robinson’s Arch. Archaeologists believe that the eminent man walked the streets of Jerusalem in the area of Robinson’s Arch and lost the golden bell which fell off his outfit into the drain beneath the street.

The full news report may be read here.

To read Ferrell Jenkins' comments on the find, click here

In the highest, most sophisticated levels of professional Biblical archaeology, there is a certain prejudice against the Bible.I take as my text a passage from a new book of which (full disclosure) the Biblical Archaeology Society, publisher of BAR, is a copublisher with the Israel Exploration Society. The book, written by my good friend Ronny Reich of Haifa University and excavator of the City of David,1 is titled Excavating the City of David (reviewed in this issue). It is a magnum opus that will be read and studied a hundred years from now; but it does treat dismissively the excavation of another good friend, Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University. (Ronny even accuses Eilat of acting “unethically,” but that is another matter.2)

One of Eilat’s crimes, according to Ronny, is using the Bible as a guide to where to excavate. Let me unpack this: As Eilat read the Bible, it seemed to indicate just where King David’s palace might be buried in the City of David—at least, it did to her. On this basis, she decided to dig there.

This was highly improper and unscientific, according to Ronny. When he heard that Eilat was using reasoning like this to find King David’s palace, he knew immediately that, proceeding in this way, “she would certainly find that building” (emphasis in original).

Continue the article by clicking here

In a follow-up interview in Tuesday’s Haaretz newspaper, Benjamin Kedar, outgoing chairman of the IAA Board of Directors responds to this query, and weighs in on a host of other issues impacting archaeological thinking and practice in Israel (and Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem). He describes some of the political cross-currents he has encountered during his tenure and also comments on the proposed changes (see yesterday’s post) which, if enacted, will inevitably affect the makeup of Israel’s upper echelon of archaeological leadership and decision-making. Some excerpts:

Prof. Benjamin Z. Kedar has been chairman of the board of the Israel Antiquities Authority for 11 years. He is also the deputy chairman of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Kedar will leave his position at the authority at the end of July. Haaretz reported yesterday on an amendment to the Antiquities Authority Law, proposed by Culture and Sports Minister Limor Livnat, that would make it easier for her to find a replacement for Kedar. At present, the chairman of the Antiquities Authority board must belong to the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Livnat’s bill would require only that the chairman be a “leading scholar in the field of history or archaeology.”

Senior archaeologists criticized Livnat on Sunday, claiming that the purpose of the amendment was to enable her to appoint archaeologists who are identified with the right or who will toe the establishment line. Livnat’s critics say the bill reflects the anti-intellectual winds blowing through the government ministries. Kedar rejects this interpretation, but cautions against amending the law.

Read the rest of ths article by clicking here

A dinosaur horn is now pointing to a catastrophic end for the Age of Dinosaurs, not a gradual one as some researchers have claimed.

The leading culprit for the end of the Age of Dinosaurs is a catastrophic meteor strike about 65 million years ago. Although it is now widely accepted that a cosmic impact took place about then — a time known as the Cretaceous-Tertiary, or K-T boundary — it was unclear if the mass extinctions started gradually before the hit, perhaps due to volcanoes or other factors.

Walter Veith spoke Thursday and Friday afternoons to over 130 students and faculty at La Sierra University, invited by student creationist club Sci-Fai to address topics related to creation and evolution. The lectures took place at Hole Memorial Hall and Cossentine Hall. The most notable attendees were LSU Provost Steve Pawluk and Research Professor of Philosophical Theology Fritz Guy. According to event organizers, Lee Greer attended Friday’s presentation.