Ancient Cultures

Apr 13

Fruit in the Bible

By: David Moster

Seeds and fruit remains are exciting discoveries for archaeologists, and they provide radiocarbon data to help date buried strata. Fruit also plays an important role in the Biblical narrative.

Stela from El-Amarna, Egyptian King Akhenaten is seen with his wife Nefertiti and their daughters bearing offerings to the sun-disk Aten.

Apr 9

Pharaoh Akhenaten, who abolished the Egyptian pantheon and instituted worship of a single deity, the sun-disk Aten, in the mid-14th century B.C., may have established the world’s first monotheism. Did this influence the birth of Israelite monotheism?

Stacks of building materials found in the atrium of the Pompeii town house, including stone blocks, tuff, orderly rows of roof tiles. Image courtesy of Italian Ministry of Culture

Apr 8

Roman Construction Site Uncovered at Pompeii

By: BAS Staff

Researchers recently uncovered the remains of a construction site at Pompeii that remained undisturbed and preserved for nearly 2,000 years. This exciting discovery opens new […]

Kuttamuwa Stele (eighth century BCE), a funerary stela with Aramaic inscription from Samʾal (modern Zincirli) in southern Turkey. CC by-SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons.

Apr 5

What Is Aramaic?

By: Clinton J. Moyer

The Aramaic language constitutes the eastern branch of the Northwest Semitic language family. Its closest relatives are the Canaanite dialects in the western branch of […]

Painting 'He turned their waters into blood,' by the 19th-century American folk painter Erastus Salisbury Field (1805–1900). Photo: National Gallery of Art, Washington/Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch

Mar 31

Exodus in the Bible and the Egyptian Plagues

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

The Book of Exodus describes ten Egyptian plagues that bring suffering to the land of pharaoh. Are these Biblical plagues plausible on any level?

Mar 25

A 4,000-Year-Old Lipstick

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

A small stone vessel from the southeastern Jirof region of Iran may be the oldest lipstick ever discovered. Publishing in the journal Scientific Reports, […]

Mar 22

Bar Kokhba Tunnels in the Galilee

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

Excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have revealed a complex of underground tunnels built by the Jewish residents of Huqoq, in central Galilee, around […]

1813 painting Vesuvius Erupting by Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes

Mar 21

The Destruction of Pompeii—God’s Revenge?

By: Hershel Shanks

The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius destroyed the opulent vacation destinations of Roman elites in August 79 C.E.—almost exactly nine years after Roman troops destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. Did this seem like more than mere coincidence to the ancients?

A stone relief created in 1958 by sculptor Ferdinand Heseding. The relief, which appears on a fountain in Dusseldorf, Germany, depicts the Biblical spies Joshua and Caleb carrying a cluster of grapes back from the Promised Land (Numbers 13:1-33)

Mar 19

No, No, Bad Dog: Dogs in the Bible

By: Ellen White

Dogs—or celeb in Hebrew—were not well loved in the Bible. Given the negative associations with dogs, it is surprising that one of the great Hebrew spies bears this name.

Neolithic Bread from Catal Hoyuk. Courtesy Necmettin Erbakan University

Mar 18

Neolithic Bread at Catal Hoyuk

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

Excavations at the important site of Catal Hoyuk in south-central Turkey have uncovered what archaeologists have termed “the world’s oldest bread.” According to a press […]

Ancient Cultures