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Amanda Borschel-Dan
Amanda Borschel-Dan
Amanda Borschel-Dan is The Times of Israel's Jewish World and Archaeology editor.
Dr. Scott Stripling at the site of ancient Shiloh, May 2017. (Amanda Borschel-Dan/Times of Israel)
January 16, 2020, 2:27 pm
LISTEN: At Shiloh, archaeologist finds artifacts hinting at biblical Tabernacle
With Texan chutzpah, Dr. Scott Stripling says all digs must start wet-sifting their earth, as he recovers overlooked ancient items at the first Israelite priestly capital
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
The 2,000-year-old volumes measuring table, pictured here on the City of David's Pilgrims' Path. (Kobi Harati, City of David archive)
January 6, 2020, 1:31 pm
City of David archaeologists say 2,000-year-old central Jerusalem market found
Stone table top used to measure liquid volumes located in large courtyard in City of David’s Stepped Street, which archaeologists believe was the central market
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Visitors at the Qumran archaeological site, January 22, 2019. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)
January 1, 2020, 4:43 pm
Digging the land: The top 10 Holy Land archaeology stories of 2019
A purely subjective list from the ToI’s archaeology editor on objectively important discoveries
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Poet Miriam Yalan-Stekelis is shocked by the desecration of books at the National Library's Night in the Library Hanukkah program, December 23, 2019. (Amanda Borschel-Dan/Times of Israel)
December 24, 2019, 4:07 pm
This Hanukkah, kid sleuths help solve the case of the ghostly book thief
Israel’s National Library in Jerusalem hosts an after-hours program in which children solve a mystery — and learn about strange creatures like card catalogs
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Photographs of finds from the Tel Hreiz settlement. (a-b) exposure of stone-built features in shallow water. (c) wooden posts dug into the seabed. (d) bifacial flint adze. (e) in situ stone bowl made of sandstone. (f) in situ basalt grounding stone (scale = 20cm); (g) burial 1. (h) suspected stone built cist grave - view from the east (scale = 20cm). (i) in situ antler of Mesopotamian fallow deer, Dama dama mesopotamica. (All photographs by E. Galili with the exception of Fig 3G by V. Eshed)
December 18, 2019, 9:27 pm
7,000-year-old seawall, built to block rising sea levels, found off Haifa coast
With discovery of world’s oldest known breakwater, archaeological record shows how Neolithic villages tried – sometimes in vain – to protect their homes from melting glaciers
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
IAA archaeologist Dr. Tali Erickson-Gini (right) examines a marble tray from the altar area of the Byzantine church near Ashkelon. (Anat Rasiuk, Israel Antiquities Authority)
December 16, 2019, 3:12 pm
Factory for Romans’ favorite funky fish sauce discovered near Ashkelon
Although a staple of the Roman Empire, very few garum production sites or cetariae have been found in the Eastern Mediterranean
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Tammy Hepps, Kate Rothstein and her daughter, Simone Rothstein, 16, pray from a prayerbook a block away from the site of a mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images/AFP)
December 11, 2019, 1:56 pm
Researchers measure the dollar value of ‘thoughts and prayers’
Study shows non-Christians and atheists would be willing to pay priests and religious strangers to keep their sentiments to themselves, but believers find them beneficial
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Liran Carmel of the Hebrew University reveals a 3D printed model of the face of prehistoric human species Denisovan during a press conference at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem on September 19, 2019. (MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)
December 8, 2019, 3:18 pm
Israeli reconstruction of ancient human face finalist for ‘Breakthrough of Year’
Hebrew University researchers’ genetic analysis of Denisovans, cousins to Neanderthals, one of four ‘people’s choice’ finalists for recognition by prestigious Science magazine
By Amanda Borschel-Dan and TOI staff
Close-up of a 12,000-year-old human burial embedded in the white material found in the Ein Gev cave. (courtesy)
December 6, 2019, 9:33 am
12,000-year-old Galilee artifacts reset plaster production clock by 2 millennia
Scientific study of plaster used in cemetery near Ein Gev indicates community must have worked together to bury their deceased, shedding new light on ritual and mass production
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Dr. Sigal Shelach, CEO of JDC Israel, on November 19, 2019 at the soon to be renovated Jerusalem offices. (Amanda Borschel-Dan/ToI)
December 6, 2019, 3:26 am
After cracking JDC glass ceiling, first woman CEO in Israel renovates operations
JDC Israel head Dr. Sigal Shelach leads 105-year-old Joint into an increasingly relevant and necessary role as the de facto startup nation of welfare and social innovation
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Remains of a 3rd century CE mosaic from a synagogue found in the ancient town of Majdulia, in the Golan. (courtesy)
December 2, 2019, 3:54 pm
Rare 3rd century Golan synagogue mosaics show shift in Jewish life post-Temple
Colorful decorations in Roman-era synagogue record transition from study hall to public ‘mini-Temple’ prayer hall
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
A bottom of a vessel decorated with a hexagram (Star of David), discovered near the possible 13th century synagogue, in the Tsarevets Palace in ancient Tarnovo, Bulgaria. (courtesy Dr. Mirko Robov)
November 23, 2019, 11:56 am
Odd 13th-century Bulgarian worship hall may be country’s sole medieval synagogue
Its location in a traditionally documented Jewish quarter outside a Middle Ages fort and its unusual architecture leads archaeologist to believe building is a unique synagogue
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Upper and lower molars from Manot cave, dated to 38,000 years before present, showing a mixture of characteristics. (Dr. Rachel Sarig)
November 5, 2019, 5:18 pm
Ancient teeth show some early humans came to Israel from Europe 40,000 years ago
New Tel Aviv University study attempts to put to rest an ongoing debate over when, and from which direction, the elusive, artistic Aurignacian culture was brought to the Levant
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Byzantine-era church near Ramat Beit Shemesh which was dedicated to a 'glorious martyr,' October 23, 2019. (Cathy Rossi Borschel)
October 31, 2019, 12:56 pm
Tales from a crypt: Shedding light on a mysterious – female? – ‘glorious martyr’
A 1,500-year-old Christian site in the heart of ultra-Orthodox Ramat Beit Shemesh takes The Times of Israel down a rabbit hole to meet St. Thecla, a feisty 2nd-century preacher
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Yair Amitzur, director of the Usha excavation, with the 1,400 year-old iron hammer and nails, October 2019. (Yoli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority)
October 30, 2019, 1:55 pm
Nailed it: Rare 1,400-year-old iron hammer found by family at Sanhedrin site
Volunteers at excavations at Western Galilee’s Usha uncover previously unknown blacksmith industry, an addition to impressive glassworks found there
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
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