With a commercial empire that lasted a millennium, the Phoenicians were major players in the ancient Mediterranean world. Spreading their culture and goods, they came into contact with many different Read more…
The Ancient Near Eastern World
The Biblical world existed in a wider context of the ancient Near East and interacted with Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greco-Roman and other contemporaries. See how these other cultures influenced the region through alliances, migrations, trade, material culture and cultural perspectives.
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Who Were the Phoenicians?
• 10/20/2017
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Babylonian Trigonometry Table: The World’s Oldest?
• 09/20/2017
According to a new interpretation of a 3,800-year-old clay tablet, the ancient Babylonians may have developed the first inklings of trigonometry more than a thousand years before Pythagoras, the namesake Read more…
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The Phoenician Alphabet in Archaeology
• 09/12/2017
The Phoenician script was borrowed by the Israelites, Greeks and Romans. Learn what sorts of texts the Phoenicians wrote as revealed by a recent archaeological excavation. Read more…
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Bronze Age Collapse: Pollen Study Highlights Late Bronze Age Drought
• 09/03/2017
What caused the Bronze Age collapse? A recent study of pollen grains in sediment cores beneath the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea provides a new view of the Read more…
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The Last Days of Hattusa
• 08/29/2017
In the latter part of the second millennium B.C., the Hittite empire was a Near Eastern superpower. Its capital, Hattusa, was a great city of palaces and temples surrounded by Read more…
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August 2017: An Eclipse of Biblical Proportions
• 08/11/2017
See an eclipse of Biblical proportions. A total solar eclipse will be visible across the United States on August 21, 2017. Read more…
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What Happened to the Canaanites?
• 08/09/2017
For the first time, researchers have conducted DNA sequencing on ancient Canaanite skeletons and have determined where the Canaanites’ descendants can be found today. Read more…
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5,000-Year-Old Egyptian Billboard Discovered
• 07/20/2017
Egyptologists recently discovered the oldest known monumental hieroglyphs. Read more…
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What Is Coptic and Who Were the Copts in Ancient Egypt?
• 07/18/2017
When did the ancient Egyptians stop writing in hieroglyphs, and what came next? From the fourth to ninth centuries C.E., Egypt was predominantly Christian. During this time, the language used Read more…
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Tarshish: Hacksilber Hoards Pinpoint Solomon’s Silver Source
• 07/11/2017
What is the location of Tarshish, the Biblical source of the Phoenician silver trade? A Hacksilber Project study points to Spain and Sardinia as the Biblical world’s source of Read more…
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Biblical Sidon—Jezebel’s Hometown
• 06/19/2017
The city of Sidon on the coast of modern Lebanon is mentioned 38 times in the Hebrew Bible. Recent excavations have exposed part of the ancient Canaanite—and later Phoenician—city, including Read more…
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Akhenaten and Moses
• 05/29/2017
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 Read more…
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A Feast for the Senses … and the Soul
• 05/23/2017
Go on a journey of the senses through history and discover the significance of ritual feasts and meals in antiquity. Read more…
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Where Did the Philistines Come From?
• 05/20/2017
Excavators at Tell es-Safi/Gath, the site of Gath of the Philistines mentioned in the Bible, found an exceptionally well preserved horned altar reminiscent of the Israelite horned altars described in Read more…
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The Expulsion of the Hyksos
• 05/18/2017
In the 16th century B.C.E., Ahmose I overthrew the Hyksos and initiated the 18th Dynasty and the New Kingdom of Egypt. Recent archaeological discoveries at Tel Habuwa shed new light Read more…
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Site-Seeing: Petra’s Temple of the Winged Lions
• 05/16/2017
A new program led by the American Center of Oriental Research is, for the first time, allowing visitors to go beyond Petra’s monuments to actually discover and experience its past Read more…
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The Göbekli Tepe Ruins and the Origins of Neolithic Religion
• 05/01/2017
The massive stone enclosures of the Göbekli Tepe ruins may be the earliest examples of Neolithic religion. Read more…
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Sacred Prostitution in the Story of Judah and Tamar?
• 04/24/2017
According to popular belief, cult prostitution was common throughout the ancient world, particularly associated with the fertility rites of the Canaanites and Phoenicians. While some scholars suggest that temple prostitution Read more…
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How Bad Was the Babylonian Exile?
• 04/15/2017
Was there really weeping from the Judahite exiles by the rivers of Babylon? New evidence suggests that life was actually pretty good for some Judahite deportees and their successors. Read more…
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Who Is the Queen of Sheba in the Bible?
• 04/13/2017
The meeting of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba is described in the Bible. Bringing exquisite gifts, the Queen of Sheba came from an exotic land—but where exactly? Ethiopians Read more…
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Solving the Enigma of Petra and the Nabataeans
• 04/06/2017
Who were the Nabataeans, the industrious Arab people who built the city of Petra and its towering rock-cut monuments over 2,000 years ago? Almost everything about them—their history, their culture, Read more…
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Exodus in the Bible and the Egyptian Plagues
• 04/01/2017
The Book of Exodus describes ten Egyptian plagues that bring suffering to the land of pharaoh. Are these Biblical plagues plausible on any level? Read more…
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Did Pharaoh Sheshonq Attack Jerusalem?
• 03/27/2017
Israeli scholar Yigal Levin’s article “Did Pharaoh Sheshonq Attack Jerusalem” in the July/August 2012 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review examines the historical veracity of both the Egyptian Pharaoh’s account and Read more…
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Jewish Captives in the Imperial City
• 03/26/2017
Ancient Rome was the superpower of its day. Yet, when the Romans conquered the tiny province of Judea and quashed the First Jewish Revolt in 70 C.E., it was actually Read more…
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Who Were the Hittites?
• 03/12/2017
Archaeology tells us a lot about the Hittites—and the Neo-Hittites too. But it’s hard to reconcile this with the Hittites of the Bible. Read more…
