This new website offers virtual tours of archaeological sites and is worth visiting.
The Virtual World Project is designed for educational purposes, with teachers and students in mind. The project offers two modes for viewing the archaeological sites (Tour and Presentation mode). See the help screens for further information on using the project. Audio commentary is being added to many of the sites (see Herodium, Dan, Qasr Bshir, and Ramm, among others).
The project is continually being updated. Find out what is new in the project by visiting the project’s Blog. Click on the “Project Blog” link here or below. The project should be linked and accessed through its own domain at www.virtualworldproject.org
Good to see this book on Jerusalem (see previous post) in the list of Sunday Times (UK) bestsellers – for 15 weeks already! And it’s due for more exposure on Sunday, May 5th, when Montefiore speaks at the Hay Festival near us here, in the Brecon Beacons, Wales, UK.
Research and documentation of Jordan’s archeology, folklore and modern history,
Education and information dissemination programmes to the public,
Collection, conservation and protection of artifacts and materials,
Exhibition, permanent or temporary, of artifacts and cultural heritage materials of Jordan.
The Archaeological and Historical Gallery is the largest gallery in the museum and will present Jordan’s history and culture from the Lithic Ages up to the Islamic periods (including the Rashidi and Ottoman Caliphates).
The Hebrew Dead Sea Scrolls are being moved from the old Jordan Archaeological Museum in Amman to this new museum.
It is to be hoped that some of the most important artefacts in the old museum will be moved as well, such as the Copper Scroll, the Balaam inscription and the tables and benches from Qumran.
This bench and table from Qumran are in need of conservation and deserve a better display. Photo: Leen Ritmeyer
The benches and tables were part of the Scriptorium at Qumran:
Did you ever wonder what happened to all those prayer notes that people stick in between the stones of the Western Wall of the Temple Mount? Once a year, in preparation for Pesach (Jewish Passover), they are taken out and buried. According to Jewish Law they cannot be trashed, as the name of God appears on most of the notes. This Israel National News report and video tells you how they do it:
The holiday of Passover is quickly approaching and as we are all busy cleaning our homes, the Kotel (Western Wall) is also being cleaned and the many notes which visitors place between the stones throughout the year are being removed. After the notes are removed, they are taken to genizah (storage for sacred documents).
You can watch the video here:
Cleaning the Western Wall
“We do this so that there’s room for people who come in the future to place their notes,” explained the caretaker of the Kotel, Yehoshua Rachamim. “We also do it so the wall is Kosher for Passover and there are no traces of chametz between the stones.”
Rachamim added that the cleaning staff does not look at the contents of the notes under any circumstances.
“We don’t look at the notes,” he emphasized. “We only clean, gather the notes, place them in a bag, and take them for genizah.”
In addition to removing the notes, professional engineers are also working at the site, using a crane to ensure that the stones remain stable and that there is no fear that they could break and fall on the worshipers.
The work is being carried out by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, and is being supervised by the Kotel’s rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich.
A great reason to visit the “city of dreaming spires”
This drawing shows the excavation results of the fortified area in the City of David. The earliest remains are stone filled terraces from the Jebusite period, which were excavated by Kathleen Kenyon. Yigal Shiloh excavated the rest of the area, which he called Area G.
The Department of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum (University of Oxford) is pleased to invite friends and colleagues to:
The Seventh Annual Roger Moorey Memorial Lecture:
Dr Kay Prag, University of Manchester, “Re-excavating Jerusalem: A Review, Fifty Years On”
Saturday 28 May 2011, 2.30pm, at Wolfson College, Linton Road, Oxford, OX2 6UD
Summary: May 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the large-scale excavations undertaken by Dame Kathleen Kenyon in Jerusalem. The huge archive contains a remarkable record of finds from the earliest occupation through to the Islamic centuries – but did Kenyon achieve her aim – to put the archaeology of Jerusalem on a sound scientific footing for the first time?
***Entry to this lecture is free but seat reservation is essential***
Please contact: Ilaria Perzia, Department of Antiquities, Ashmolean MuseumE-mail: antiquities@ashmus.ox.ac.uk Tel: 01865 278020 www.ashmolean.org
In the Book of Exodus we read about the construction of the Tabernacle. On the first day of the first month (called ‘Rosh Chodesh Nisan’ in Hebrew) of the second year after coming out from Egypt, the Tabernacle was put up (Exodus 40.1) and on the same day God’s glory filled the Tabernacle (Exodus 40.34).
Tomorrow, on the 5th of April, the Jews celebrate Rosh Chodesh Nisan (which is also the beginning of the Sacred New Year) and the Temple Institute of Jerusalem is organising the 2nd International Temple Mount Awareness Day with a program that will be live broadcast from 2.00 – 8.00 pm Israel time. Click on the picture below to see a video that gives a brief description of what they are planning:
With claims such as have been made for this discovery, ones’s in-box gets flooded with enquiries and it takes time to set out the facts. Time is in short short supply here at the moment, so I can do no better than refer you to his incisive post.
Todd concludes:
There may be something to this discovery, but first the artifacts must be confiscated by the officials and assigned to reputable scholars.
It may be April Fool’s Day, but let us take the advice of wise Solomon:
“He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him” (Proverbs 18.13, NKJV).
I used our new CD-ROM, The Seven Churches of Revelation – Walking among the Lampstands, to teach part of a course on The Archaeology of the New Testament yesterday.
Having read this article in Arutz Sheva on Israel’s earthquake preparedness, a few hours earlier, the promise to the overcomers in Philadelphia came home with more force than usual. It quotes from the State Comptrollers’s report this month, which paints a bleak scenario, expecting a 7.5 quake to kill 16,000 people and leave 377,000 homeless. Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss’ wrote that:
“Most earthquake experts feel that the eventuality of an earthquake in Israel that is liable to exact thousands of victims and cause significant damage to property and buildings is almost certain, and that such a quake will definitely come sooner or later…”
“A quake of 7.5 on the Richter scale in northern Israel is expected to cause 16,000 deaths, 6,000 seriously injured, 83,000 lightly injured, 377,000 evacuated from their homes…
“Though it is vital that hospitals continue to operate after an earthquake, many northern hospital buildings are very old and not built according to contemporary standards. A Health Ministry survey found that most of them are liable to collapse during an earthquake.”
Part of the promise to believers in the sixth of the Seven Churches to receive a letter from Jesus Christ was : “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more” (Revelation 3.12).
As we read in the CD captions, temples in Asia in antiquity were always supported by pillars, making them the safest structures in the city. This message, therefore, would have resonated deeply with people living in this notoriously earthquake-prone area. In terms of earthquake preparedness, it is fascinating to read Pliny’s account of the construction of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus (the first of the Seven Churches):
“It was built on marshy soil so that it might not be subject to earthquakes or be threatened by subsidences. On the other hand, to ensure that the foundations of so massive a building would not be laid on shifting, unstable ground, they were underpinned with a layer of closely trodden charcoal, and then with another of sheepskins with their fleeces unshorn” (Natural History 36.95).
My son Nathaniel Ritmeyer was in Israel last month and took these photographs of the location of the fake tombs at the southern tip of the City of David, above the stepped Siloam Reservoir and King’s Garden.
The fake tombs are in the foreground above the Siloam Reservoir and King’s Garden, looking south. Photo: Nathaniel Ritmeyer 20 Feb. 2011
The fake tombs are located above the high stone wall at the southern end of the City of David, looking north. Below the stone wall is the northern cliff of the Siloam Reservoir. The exit is near the grey car and the steep road beyond it leads up into the City of David. The road on the very right, where the white car is parked, runs through the Kedron Valley toward the Gihon Spring. Photo: Nathaniel Ritmeyer 20 Feb. 2011This photograph, looking east, was taken on 14th June 2010, showing that the tomb stones have been there for almost one year. Photo: Nathaniel RitmeyerOnly a tiny bit of concrete holds up this tomb stone, which is clearly not attached to any grave. Photo: Nathaniel Ritmeyer 14 June 2010This picture was taken on 28 May, 2009, looking south over the Siloam Reservoir and King's Garden. No fake tombs are visible. Photo: Nathaniel Ritmeyer.
Ferrell Jenkins reports on what looks like fake tombs on a small plot of land near the Siloam Pool in Ancient Jerusalem:
New Tombstones above the Pool of Siloam. Photo by Ferrell Jenkins.
They certainly look fake, as normally tombstones are added after first a stone or concrete enclosure has been constructed. In a previous post I wrote about this problem which appears to be a land grab. Ferrell writes:
Ancient burial places create serious problems for archaeologists. Ultra-Orthodox Jews often create a scene at digs when they know or suspect that there may be Jewish tombs in the area.
The cemeteries of the Holy Land have become a ground for religious and political skirmishes. Leen Ritmeyer reported on fake Arab tombs near the Temple Mount here.
Muslim tombs have been on the eastern wall of the Old City for a long time. This photo was made looking south from outside the Lion’s Gate (or St. Stephens’ Gate). Perhaps every reader knows that this is across the Kidron Valley from the Mount of Olives which we mentioned in the previous post.
In early February I noticed a large number of new tombstones with Arabic inscriptions in a small plot above the Pool of Siloam. Suspicious, to say the least.
