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archaeology in Israel
Bronze pot with gold earring and coins inside, unearthed at Caesarea Maritima. (Yaniv Berman, courtesy of the Caesarea Development Corporation)
December 3, 2018, 2:57 pm
Trove of 11th century gold coins discovered in ancient Caesarea
Six incredibly rare Byzantine Empire gold coins and 18 Fatimid-era 24k coins testify to a wealthy family fleeing conquest on the eve of the bloody 1101 Crusade, say archaeologists
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
A photo from May 2, 2018, of Dead Sea Scrolls displayed at the Shrine of the Book at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
December 1, 2018, 11:56 pm
Newly discovered caves may hold more Dead Sea Scrolls
Though no new manuscripts found so far, archaeologists are hopeful after unearthing objects at Qumran used in the storage of ancient scripts
By TOI staff
A 9,000-year-old stone mask discovered in the southern Hebron Hills area of the West Bank in early 2018. (Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority)
November 28, 2018, 1:15 pm
9,000-year-old mask from Hebron Hills sheds light on the dawn of agriculture
Archaeologists say rare stone artifact uncovered in southern West Bank was used in ancestor worship during a pivotal period in Neolithic culture
By TOI staff
A First Temple period weight measure called a 'beka' was unearthed in a City of David excavation in the Davidson Archaeological Park and discovered in the wet sifting project in Jerusalem's Tsurim Valley. (Eliyahu Yanai, City of David)
November 21, 2018, 12:57 pm
Straight from the Bible: Tiny First Temple stone weight unearthed in Jerusalem
Volunteer at City of David sifting project finds rare ‘beka’ measure, used by pilgrims paying half-shekel tax before ascending to Temple Mount, in dirt from dig near Western Wall
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Vanilla planifolia flowering in Florida Southern College's greenhouses (Malcolm Manners, CC-BY, via wikipedia)
November 20, 2018, 12:47 pm
Residue found in 3,600-year-old Holy Land tomb rewrites the history of vanilla
World’s 2nd most expensive spice was thought to have been introduced 13,000 miles away and thousand of years later, until analysis of burial offerings at Canaanite tomb in Megiddo
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Mosaic depicting Jonah being swallowed by a fish, Huqoq synagogue. (Jim Haberman)
November 19, 2018, 4:21 pm
Newly revealed 5th century mosaics a kaleidoscope of Jewish and secular imagery
Archaeologist Jodi Magness started to excavate the Galilean village of Huqoq to put to rest a decades-old academic debate. Then she found mosaics and the site just keeps on giving
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Illustrative: A shared meal (Foxys_forest_manufacture; iStock by Getty Images)
November 17, 2018, 8:47 am
Israel dig provides clues on how feasting became an important ritual
Evidence from a 12,000-year-old archaeological site in country’s north shows communally shared meals have long been vital components of human ceremony
By Natalie Munro
Dr. Emma Maayan-Fanar's reconstruction on top of the face of Jesus found in a Byzantine-era North Church at Shivta in the Negev. (Dror Maayan)
November 15, 2018, 11:17 am
Jesus image, hidden in plain sight at Negev church, is one of earliest in Israel
Youth with ‘short curly hair, a prolonged face, large eyes and an elongated nose’ depicted in faint painting found in circa 6th century Byzantine church in ancient village Shivta
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Side-by-side, the newly imagined 60,000-year-old skeletal chest and its original, Kebara 2, discovered in the Carmel Mountains in 1983. (A. Gómez-Olivencia, A. Barash and E. Been/J. Trueba/Madrid Scientific Films)
November 9, 2018, 6:24 am
3-D model of Neanderthal rib cage busts myth of ‘hunched-over cavemen’
High-tech visualization techniques on Israeli skeleton give new window into lives of our early human cousins, who survived extreme conditions but went extinct some 30,000 years ago
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Dr. Davida Eisenberg-Degen, a specialist in Rock Art and Graffiti at the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA)
November 7, 2018, 2:09 pm
Hold the camels: 2,000-year-old cistern in Beersheba engraved with sea vessels
Archaeologists believe that whoever carved boats into the landlocked water storage pit had technical knowledge of their construction
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
A Dead Sea Scrolls fragment from the book of Micah, part of Museum of the Bible's Scholars Initiative research project published by Brill in 2016. (Image by Bruce and Kenneth Zuckerman and Marilyn J. Lundberg, West Semitic Research, courtesy of Museum of the Bible.)
October 23, 2018, 3:48 pm
Five proven Dead Sea Scroll forgeries only the tip of the iceberg, scholars say
The Museum of the Bible’s announcement it will pull fragments from display is to be lauded, but is only a first step as accusations fly over dozens of others in global collections
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
The gilthead seabream fish, known as "denise" in Hebrew. (Courtesy Haifa University)
October 16, 2018, 6:58 pm
Ancient fish teeth reveal intensive 3,500-year-old aquaculture in Sinai
By studying chemical traits in the bones of gilthead seabream found in Israeli archaeological sites, scientists have unearthed the oldest known example of intensive fish farming
By TOI staff
The inscription as it was found in the excavation near the Jerusalem International Convention Center, winter 2018. (Danit Levy, Israel Antiquities Authority)
October 9, 2018, 3:27 pm
Earliest known stone carving of Hebrew word ‘Jerusalem’ found near city entrance
Unearthed in what was an artisan’s village 2.5 km from ancient Temple, inscribed column from 100 BCE features Aramaic, Hebrew, two of the languages used by Jerusalemites of the era
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Male human head louse, Pediculus humanus capitis. (Gilles San Martin, CC-BY-SA, via wikipedia)
September 25, 2018, 10:38 am
A bit player in human history, the mighty louse is important — and here to stay
From the migration of early hominids to Jewish rebels at Masada, the perfectly adapted parasite is a portal in time to shed light on even the smallest of mysteries
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Microscopic traces of ancient starches extracted from the Raqefet Cave (left) are compared to the references Stanford University Prof. Li Liu and her research replicated in their beer brewing experiments. (Credit: Li Liu)
September 12, 2018, 7:18 pm
13,000-year-old brewery discovered in Israel, the oldest in the world
Ancient Natufians tamed seven species of wild grains for ancient ale, according to new Stanford University study
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
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