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archaeology
Dr. Barak Monnickendam-Givon at the excavations under Beit Straus in Jerusalem's Old City, near the Western Wall, May 2020. (Yaniv Berman/Israel Antiquities Authority)
July 1, 2020, 5:00 pm
LISTEN: ToI takes you to a unique excavation deep under Jerusalem’s Old City
Join IAA archaeologist Barak Monnickendam-Givon on a jaw-dropping guided audio tour spanning two millennia some 7 meters under the Western Wall plaza
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Seal made out of a piece of clay from the Persian Period discovered in the City of David Givati Parking Lot excavations. (Shai Halevy, Israel Antiquities Authority)
June 30, 2020, 2:05 pm
2,500-year-old seals may show Jews rebuilding Jerusalem after 1st Temple exile
Rare discoveries in City of David confirm that after Babylonian destruction of 586 BCE, city was slowly resettled in Persian era, with a revived bureaucracy, as told in the Bible
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Tourists visit the archaeological site of Tel Shiloh in the West Bank, March 12, 2019. (AP/Sebastian Scheiner)
From the WebJune 29, 2020, 6:20 pm
Activists call for ancient Jewish sites to be included in annexation plan
Advocacy group Safeguarding Eternity says ruins of Hasmonean and Herodian forts are too important to nation’s heritage to be left outside government sovereignty, Reuters reports
IAA archaeologist Dr. Lior Weisbrod with tiny fossils of rodents from the excavation. (Yoli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority)
June 22, 2020, 3:52 pm
Fossils show 1st intrepid humans left Africa 200,000 years ago for an icy Israel
Discovery of fossils of cold-climate rodents alongside remains of region’s 1st modern humans shows they arrived from hot cradle of Africa during Ice Age, but were able to adapt
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Part of a Byzantine-era mosaic unearthed in 2007 in northern Israel at the Pi Mazuva dig site. (Courtesy/Israel Antiquities Authority)
June 19, 2020, 3:53 pm
Archaeologists unearth Galilee Christian town sacked by Persians in 7th century
Remains of affluent, rural community discovered at Pi Mazuva in 2007 include crosses, pagan-inspired mosaic; new publication illuminates the Christians who lived there
By Luke Tress
Researchers with the University of Haifa dig up Natufian remains in the Mount Carmel area of northern Israel. (Courtesy/Reuven Yeshurun, University of Haifa)
June 12, 2020, 1:15 pm
Israeli researchers find first evidence ancient humans ate snakes, lizards
University of Haifa archaeologists say residents of Mount Carmel snacked on reptiles some 15,000 years ago, possibly as part of transition to sedentary lifestyle
By Luke Tress
An excavator of the Northern Line of the Great Wall of China. (courtesy Hebrew University)
June 9, 2020, 2:11 am
China’s fabled ‘Genghis Khan Wall’ was not actually built to keep him out
737 km section of Great Wall in Mongolian Steppe predates ferocious ruler; was built to control movements of nomadic peoples, boost Khitan-Liao Empire, Israeli hi-tech study shows
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Archaeologist Joe Uziel cleans the newly uncovered Western Wall courses, located under Wilson's Arch in the Jerusalem Old City. October 2017. (Yaniv Berman/Israel Antiquities Authority)
June 3, 2020, 9:00 pm
Scientists ‘set the clock’ for ancient Jerusalem, prove who built Temple bridge
New cutting-edge C14 method provides ‘extreme accuracy’ in placing monumental structures in precise historical setting; shows Wilson’s Arch begun in Herod’s time, built in 2 phases
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Jeremiah Scroll from the IAA's Dead Sea Scrolls collection. (Shai Halevi, Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)
June 2, 2020, 6:24 pm
Pioneering DNA study reveals not all Dead Sea Scrolls are from Dead Sea
Breakthrough paleogenomic analysis of ancient parchment helps prove textual evolution in 2 versions of Book of Jeremiah in 2nd Temple era
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
1,800-year-old waterspout discovered at Tzippori National Park. (Meital Roizer Aharon/Israel Nature and Parks Authority)
June 1, 2020, 1:05 pm
1,800 years ago, sages prohibited drinking from this ‘idolatrous’ waterspout
Anxious to prevent bending to worship idols, Talmudic rabbis would have frowned at richly decorated humanized lion gargoyle, uncovered at Tzippori National Park in northern Israel
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Illustrative: Burial of individual analyzed in the Canaanite study, from about 1600 BC. (Dr. Claude Doumet-Serhal/Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute)
May 28, 2020, 6:06 pm
How the Canaanites, Biblical frenemies of the Israelites, kept genetic integrity
Major study shows Canaanites maintained coherent genetic mix even though they were widely dispersed, and it can still be discerned in modern Arabic-speaking and Jewish populations
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Dr. Barak Monnickendam-Givon at the excavations under Beit Straus in Jerusalem's Old City, near the Western Wall, May 2020. (Yaniv Berman/Israel Antiquities Authority)
May 19, 2020, 12:42 pm
Living underground before the Romans? 2,000-year-old rooms found by Western Wall
Purpose of unique ancient complex still unclear, but indicates possible subterranean Second Temple-era life in Jerusalem’s Old City prior to the Roman conquest in 70 CE
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
This electron microscope image provided shows part of a Neanderthal cord from Abri du Maras, France. (M-H. Moncel via AP)
April 13, 2020, 2:55 am
Oldest known string upends assumptions on Neanderthal intelligence
Archaeologists discover 40-50,000-year-old cord in France, suggesting ancient hominids had some understanding of numbers, use of tree fibers
By Malcolm Ritter
Palestinian youths take cover amidst tear gas smoke during clashes with Israeli forces in a village south of Nablus in the West Bank on March 11, 2020. (JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP)
April 1, 2020, 11:04 pm
Palestinian man dies of wounds month after West Bank clash with IDF
PA says Islam Dweikat had been in intensive care since he was shot at a confrontation last month during which a Palestinian teenager was killed
By AP and TOI staff
2,000-year-old ballista stone returned to the City of David by an anonymous Israeli 15 years after he stole it. 
(Moshe Manies)
March 16, 2020, 12:31 pm
Fearing the end is nigh, man returns stolen 2,000-year-old artifact to park
For 15 years, theft of a catapult bolt stone weighed on his mind. With the coronavirus crisis, anonymous Israeli uses go-between to restore national treasure, unburden conscience
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
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