
In the Biblical world, Lebanese cedar (Cedrus libani) trees were highly sought after as an excellent source of timber for ancient woodworking. The wood’s high quality, pleasant scent and resistance Read more…
Biblical artifacts are manmade objects, often found during archaeological excavations, that make a contribution to our understanding of the Bible and/or the historicity of Biblical events.
• 05/20/2013

In the Biblical world, Lebanese cedar (Cedrus libani) trees were highly sought after as an excellent source of timber for ancient woodworking. The wood’s high quality, pleasant scent and resistance Read more…
• 05/17/2013

What happened to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount when the Romans destroyed Herod’s Temple in 70 C.E.? There is no report of any building left on the Temple Mount by the time Read more…
• 05/13/2013

James Tabor describes Israel Knohl’s changed interpretation of the critical line discussing the resurrection of the dead after three days of “Gabriel’s Revelation.” Read more…
• 05/08/2013

Gabriel’s Revelation: Download a free ebook of definitive articles on “the greatest archaeological discovery in the Middle East since the Dead Sea Scrolls,” now on display at the Israel Museum Read more…
• 04/12/2013

The Shema‘ Yisrael from Deuteronomy 6:4 (“Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one”) is Judaism’s holiest confession. Today, we understand the passage as a monotheistic Read more…
• 04/05/2013

Numismatics is a unique scholarly discipline that spans archaeology, ancient history and epigraphy. It seems the axiom “money talks” is true. A guest blog contribution by Dr. Mark Wilson. Read more…
• 04/04/2013

How the world has changed—in only 25 years. A recent public letter from Israel Antiquities Authority director Shuka Dorfman tells us he is “very proud” to announce the availability of Read more…
• 03/20/2013

Hershel Shanks’s First Person in the March/April 2013 issue of BAR Read more…
• 03/08/2013

Thank you all for participating in this weekend’s What is it? discussion. We’ve updated the page with the answer and details on the artifact below. D. Babylonian priestly record. Read more…
• 02/07/2013

In a recent study about the Essenes of Qumran, archaeologist Eyal Regev used the tools of social archaeology to answer the question, “Who were the Essenes?” Read more…
• 02/04/2013

What is it … made of? Read more…
• 01/30/2013

A New York appellate court has affirmed the criminal conviction of Raphael Golb, son of Dead Sea Scroll scholar Norman Golb, for impersonating another Dead Sea Scroll scholar, Lawrence Schiffman. Read more…
• 01/28/2013

The scrolls’ final stop is at the Museum of Science in Boston (beginning in May 2013), and the museum has worked closely with Brandeis University students and faculty to organize Read more…
• 01/17/2013

Early last week, archaeologists uncovered a broken pottery vessel and ashes suggesting large-scale destruction at Biblical Shiloh, the Israelite capital for over three centuries before the Temple was built in Read more…
• 01/16/2013

The famous Theodotus inscription, which commemorates the building of a first-century B.C.E. synagogue, is one of hundreds of early Jewish writings now being published that document the ancient history of Read more…
• 01/07/2013

A recently discovered cache of medieval Jewish manuscripts from Afghanistan* went on display last week in Israel’s National Library. The 11th-century C.E. collection, dubbed the “Afghan Genizah,” includes Biblical commentaries, Read more…
• 01/02/2013

Researchers at Harvard University’s Semitic Museum are using new photomodeling technology to construct undamaged re-creations of Mesopotamian artifacts damaged over the millennia. Read more…
• 01/02/2013

Archaeologist and art historian Karen Britt of the University of Louisville provides a detailed artistic analysis of a Huqoq mosaic featuring an inscription and two female faces. Read more…
• 01/02/2013

The Israel Antiquities Authority’s David Amit analyzes and translates a Hebrew or Aramaic mosaic inscription from the Huqoq synagogue. Read more…
• 12/28/2012

Jodi Magness’s excavations at Huqoq have exposed an elaborate Samson mosaic as well as new insights into the development of ancient synagogues. Read more…
• 12/18/2012

This week, the Israel Antiquities Authority, in collaboration with Google, launched The Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library, a new website that allows visitors to view and search high-resolution Read more…
• 12/14/2012

The snowy white body of a sphinx regally supports the ebony-colored cup of this ceramic rhyton, or drinking horn, found in a tomb in Capua, Campania, Italy. The sphinx, a Read more…
• 11/07/2012

There has been a great deal of discussion in recent issues of Biblical Archaeology Review about the relationship between archaeology, artifacts, ancient texts and the Bible. In the July/August 2011 Read more…
• 11/02/2012

There has been a great deal written about the community of scribes that penned the Qumran scrolls. These studies rarely focus on an individual ancient scribe; they generally focus on Read more…
• 10/26/2012

I recently had lunch with Victor (Avigdor) Hurowitz, a distinguished professor of ancient Semitic languages at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. He is firmly convinced that the Jehoash (Yehoash) Inscription, Read more…