This Week in the Ancient Near East

That’ll Do Iron Age Pig, That’ll Do, or, Jambon in Jerusalem

First sharks and now pigs? What’s going on in Iron Age Jerusalem with all these non-kosher species? Were Judeans in the shadow of the Temple noshing on something naughty or are there other explanations? Are there ever! Our panelists'  speculations are unbridled in this laughter filled episode.

 

To learn more

https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/cryptic-2700-year-old-pig-skeleton-found-in-jerusalems-city-of-david-673989

(Almost) Biblical Writing, or How to Go From Lunchboxes to Bureaucracy in Only 300 Years.

It’s only four little letters, well maybe five, but another tiny Iron Age inscription has raised more than a few eyebrows. What’s the significance of this latest scribble? Is it the name of a biblical character, or the name of a guy who didn’t want his lunch stolen? And why are our panelists talking about being stuck in a suburban cul-de-sac?

 

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Five-letter inscription inked 3,100 years ago may be name of biblical judge

https://www.timesofisrael.com/five-letter-inscription-inked-3100-years-ago-may-be-name-of-biblical-judge/

The Gospel of “Who the Heck Falls for This Stuff?”

The ‘Gospel of Jesus’ Wife’ is the latest high profile example of a forged ancient text. Scholars should have known better, but hey, where’s the fun in that? When Fox Mulder meets Elaine Benes the sparks fly and scholarship takes it on the chin. Our panelists are there ringside, sagely opining.

 

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A Scholarly Screw-Up of Biblical Proportions

https://www.chronicle.com/article/a-scholarly-screw-up-of-biblical-proportions

And That’s How We Solved the Mystery of the Fossil Shark Teeth in Iron Age Jerusalem

A bunch of 80 million year old shark teeth in Iron Age Jerusalem have set the archaeological world ablaze. What are they doing there along with 10,000 fish bones and six and a half tons of pottery? It’s gotta be a joke, right? Do our panelists speculate wildly or do they jump the shark?

 

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Cache of 80-million-year-old shark teeth found in Solomon-era site in Jerusalem

https://www.timesofisrael.com/cache-of-80-million-year-old-shark-teeth-found-in-solomon-era-site-in-jerusalem/

Where Did Babies Come from in the Iron Age, or, Biblical Archaeology Smokes a Cigar in the Waiting Room

Iron Age figurines in the Southern Levant depict naked women and not a lot else. The usual explanations are goddesses or magical devices related to fertility. But isn’t everything sort of related to fertility? What were mostly male Biblical Archaeologists missing? Probably quite a bit. Our panelists wax eloquent in this family friendly episode.

 

To learn more

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium.MAGAZINE-birth-rites-in-canaan-the-enigma-of-the-figurines-1.9892078

Death on the Euphrates, or, a Kunga Line to Heaven?

Is the third millennium BCE burial mound at Tell Banat in north Syria a war memorial to the site’s defenders? What moves the living to take a random sample of human and animal bones and bury them in a mound that looms over their community? What is a kunga anyway and how does the modern sport of donkey basketball fit in? Our panelists are strangely eloquent, in an episode not to be missed.

 

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Pyramid-shaped mound holding 30 corpses may be world's oldest war monument

https://www.livescience.com/oldest-war-monument-discovered-syria.html

A Resurrected Date by Any Other Name Would Still Taste As Sweet, or, Jurassic Park in the Judean Desert

Resurrection genomics sounds fancy, even a little scary, but in this case it means cultivating date trees from ancient seeds and then sequencing their genes. What do we learn about the antiquity of this ever-popular fruit? And if dates are so great, how come the tree is the symbol and not the fruit? Our panelists are torn, yet characteristically sweet and sticky.

 

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Researchers Sequence Genomes of Revived 2,000-Year-Old Date Palms

http://www.sci-news.com/genetics/judean-date-palm-genomes-09627.html

The Strange Story of the Roman Era Half Lamp, or A Sconce to Light Their Way

The chance find of a strange Roman period half lamp in Jerusalem and the even chancier discovery that the other half is in Hungary has shocked the archaeological world. What is this strange light fixture and how can its separation lead to some high-class speculation about lamps, symbolism, and ancient psychology? What is light anyway, and why is it so darned good? Our panelists are incandescent in this episode.

 

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Matching half of 2,000-year-old lamp found in Jerusalem said located in Budapest

https://www.timesofisrael.com/matching-half-of-2000-year-old-lamp-found-in-jerusalem-said-located-in-budapest/