A rare gold bead made by hand in Jerusalem some 1,600 years ago was recently discovered by an 18-year-old volunteer in the City of David, not far from the Old City, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Wednesday.
The tiny bead, found intact in an imposing Roman structure on what is known as the Pilgrimage Road, was created in a complex method…
An ancient Hebrew coin minted during a Jewish rebellion against Roman rule in Judea has been found during an excavation of caves by the Dead Sea, the Israel Antiquities Authority recently announced.
The bronze coin was discovered at the Nahal Darga Nature Reserve. It is dated to the second year of the Bar Kokhba revolt, a failed Jewish uprising…
Newly uncovered remains of fabrics from the Far East dating to some 1,300 years ago in Israel’s Arava region suggest the existence of a previously unknown “Israeli Silk Road,” according to a team of researchers from Israel and Germany.
“Our findings seem to provide the first evidence that there was also an ‘Israeli Silk Road’ used by merchants…
A coin from the Bar Kochba revolt was found recently during an archaeological dig in Murabba’at caves in the Nahal Darga Reserve in the Judean Desert, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Thursday.
The coin, dated to the second year of the revolt (133 AD), features a date tree on one side with the name “Shimon” on it. Shimon Bar Kochba…
A rare, half-shekel coin from the Great Revolt from 66 CE to 70 CE during the Second Temple period has been discovered in Jerusalem’s Ophel excavations south of the Temple Mount.
Only a few days ago, a wooden box containing 15 silver coins that serve as proof of the Hanukkah story of the Maccabees – which was found recently during an excavation…
LACHISH FOREST, Israel Dec 20 (Reuters) – Excavations of a cave reputed to be the burial place of Salome, said in non-canonical scripture to have been nurse to the newborn Jesus, have found more signs it was both an important Jewish tomb and a Christian pilgrimage site, archaelogists say.
The Book of James, among early Christian writings called…
03/22/2021
A lost biblical manuscript discovered in 1878 – long believed to be a forgery – was authentic and likely predated the Dead Sea Scrolls by hundreds of years, making it the most ancient biblical scroll ever known in the modern era, Israeli scholar Prof. Idan Dershowitz has suggested.
In his book, The Valediction of Moses,…
03/16/2021
A perfectly preserved large woven basket dating back some 10,500 years was unearthed in the Judean Desert, the Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday.
Experts believe the artifact is probably the oldest of its kind ever uncovered. It was excavated in a Judean Desert cave by the IAA in cooperation with the Civil Administration’s…
03/16/2021
A 2,000-year-old biblical scroll has been unearthed in the Judean desert, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday. The groundbreaking discovery marks the first time that such an artifact has been uncovered in decades, since the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
The two dozen fragments were found in a cave in the Judean…
02/22/2021
A mid-15th century Iberian megillah of Esther – also referred to as the Esther scrolls – has been gifted to the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem.
The Iberian Esther scroll is one of the oldest surviving renditions of the biblical tale of Esther taking up her noble destiny to save the Jewish people from the evil Haman.
…
02/09/2021
An Israel Defense Forces soldier discovered a rare 1,800-year-old coin during a training exercise, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Monday.
The coin features an image of the head of the Roman emperor Antonius Pius and was dated to 158–159 CE.
On its reverse was the Syrian god MEN, the moon god, and the phrase “of…
2,700-year-old administrative storage center from days of Kings Hezekiah and Manasseh found at site
A significant administrative storage center from the days of Jewish Kings Hezekiah and Manasseh has recently been uncovered at archaeological excavations in the Arnona neighborhood of Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced in…
One of the largest collections of royal Kingdom of Judah seal impressions has been uncovered at a massive First Temple-period public tax collection and storage complex being excavated near the new United States Embassy in Jerusalem. The main Iron Age structure is exceptional in terms of both its size and architectural style, said Israel…
In 1993, archaeologists working at the Tel Dan site in Northern Israel unearthed an Aramaic inscription featured on a monumental stone jab. Once deciphered, the artifact offered something absolutely unprecedented: the first archaeological reference to biblical King David.
The issue of the historicity of the monarch had been debated by scholars…
Sometime around 160,000 to 120,000 years ago, early man began to string together painted shells and display them, according to a new international, interdisciplinary study published in the open-sourced PLOS One journal this week.
The authors, a team of scientists led by Tel Aviv University’s Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer and University of Haifa’s…
An extremely rare example of megalithic rock art was recently identified in northern Israel’s Yehudiya Nature Reserve inside a 4,200-year-old stone burial chamber.
The unique discovery of a clearly composed, artistic rendering of a herd of animals is shifting the way archaeologists think about the little-understood peoples who created the…
A new study carried out on pottery items uncovered in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron suggests the cave, where according to tradition, Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs were laid to rest, was used and visited as a pilgrimage site during the First Temple Period, around 2,700 years ago.
The results of the study were published in the latest…
An ancient seal and a seal impression found at an archaeological site in Jerusalem offered Israeli archaeologists a glimpse at the restoration of the city after its fall to the Babylonian armies in 6th century BCE, Israel’s Antiquities Authority recently announced.
The two artifacts were discovered at the Givati Parking Lot Excavation site in the…
