Biblical Archaeology

Ancient Egypt
148

The ‘Israel Stela’ of Merenptah

The only reference to Israel ever found in Egypt, inscribed on a stela discovered in 1896 by Flinders Petrie.

Ancient Egypt
142

The meaning of Joseph’s Egyptian name

Joseph L Thimes explores a range of different translations of the Egyptian name given to his namesake, the biblical Joseph.

World Archaeology
122

Archaeology of Jesus’ Nazareth

REVIEW BY ANDREW SELKIRK Let’s do some biblical archaeology. Nazareth is not well known. Bethlehem, where the Bible tells us that Jesus was born, has a magnificent basilica; Jerusalem has the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; but Nazareth, which was…

The Past

Fragment of Old Syriac translation of New Testament discovered

The text represents one of the earliest-known translations of the Gospels.

Below Animal remains are a key source of information about ancient diets. Here we see the working space of a zooarchaeologist in the field. The assemblage consists of animal bones dating to the Iron Age from a site called Tell el Burak, located in present day southern Lebanon. What you see in the picture is work in progress, with some bones divided per skeletal element (for example, vertebrae, skull elements, teeth), while there is also a large to do pile. Most of these bones can be identified as sheep or goat, although some of the larger ones are cattle or donkey. Coincidentally, these are the most frequently identified animals at this site. Once everything is sorted, all information about every bone is recorded in a database, after which statistical analyses will follow.

World Archaeology
109

Southern Levant: what was on the menu in the land of milk and honey?

Just how much can ancient diet tell us about past lives? Shyama Vermeersch considers what cuisine reveals about the southern Levant in the Bronze and Iron Ages.