Ancient Israel

Ancient Israel

Burial customs

Jun 9

Canaanite Burial Customs—Pour One Out for the Departed

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

Editor’s Note: This blog article contains images of human skeletal remains. Burial customs often bind a culture together, showing how people perceive death and the […]

The Pyramin of Pharaoh Djoser

Jun 6

Pharaoh’s Brick Makers

By: Marek Dospěl

What does the Bibleclaim about the Israelites’ forced labor for the Pharaoh? Looking for the most plausible match in ancient Egyptian architecture.

Does the Merneptah Stele Contain the First Mention of Israel?

Jun 4

Does the Merneptah Stele Contain the First Mention of Israel?

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

Does this fragmentary hieroglyphic inscription contain the first mention of Israel? According to a recently published article by Manfred Görg, Peter van der Veen and Christoffer Theis, the name-ring on the right may indeed read “Israel,” and they date it almost 200 years earlier than the reference to Israel on the Merneptah Stele.

ancient toilet

Jun 2

Did Biblical Kings Have Dysentery?

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

It is not shocking to learn that ancient hygiene did not live up to modern standards. But new archaeological evidence from Jerusalem suggests that personal […]

City of David inscription

May 29

Second Temple Period Receipt Found in the City of David

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

During a salvage excavation of a 19th-century excavation tunnel underneath the City of David, archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) discovered a fragmentary inscription […]

roman shipwreck

May 22

Roman Shipwreck Found Off Israel’s Coast

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

About 700 feet off the Israeli coast sits the remains of a Roman shipwreck and 44 tons of buried treasure. Although not golden loot, the […]

May 10

Does the Mesha Stele Really Reference the Dynasty of King David of the Bible?

By: Megan Sauter

The Mesha Stele and “House of David” take center stage yet again. In the Winter 2022 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, André Lemaire and Jean-Philippe […]

Lachish Letters

May 5

The Lachish Letters

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

The Lachish Letters are a collection of texts excavated at biblical Lachish in southern Israel that date to the years immediately preceding the site’s destruction […]

Apr 24

Pontius Pilate’s Ring Reexamined

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

Is this Pontius Pilate’s ring? First published in 2018, the small copper ring quickly made international headlines with its captivating one-word Greek inscription: ΠΙΛΑΤΟ (Pilato)—the […]

Solomon and Sheba

Apr 10

Archaeological Evidence of Solomon and Sheba?

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

The story of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba is one of the more intriguing accounts found within the narrative of Solomon’s reign (1 […]