A new layer to the ancient Philistine city of Gath has been uncovered in an archaeological excavation led by Aren Maeir of Bar-Ilan University which has the potential to re-contextualize much of biblical history.
Known to historians as part of the Pentapolis of Philistine cities – a group of five cities, consisting of Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath,…
Archaeologists have uncovered the massive walls of a 2,200-year-old Hellenistic fortification that may have been built by the Seleucid general who defeated Judah the Maccabee, the famed Jewish leader at the center of the Hanukkah story. In an unexpected twist, the discovery could also help identify the location of the biblical town of Emmaus,…
Monumental Iron Age remains from the ancient Philistine city of Gath, once the home of the legendary biblical giant Goliath, surfaced this summer during excavations by a Bar-Ilan University-led team of archaeologists.
Gath, one of the five cities of the ancient foes of the Israelites, was one of the largest cities in the region in the…
According to the bible, the biggest Canaanite settlement was razed to the ground by Joshua’s Israelites
A large, impressive ancient staircase from 3,500 years ago was recently discovered in Israel’s Upper Galilee region at an excavation site at Tel Hazor, believed to have been part of the Canaanite kingdom ruled by Hazor, according to the Old…
An unprecedentedly vast Neolithic settlement — the largest ever discovered in Israel and the Levant, say archaeologists — is currently being excavated ahead of highway construction five kilometers from Jerusalem, it was announced on Tuesday.
The 9,000-year-old site, located near the town of Motza, is the “Big Bang” for prehistory settlement…
The first biblical-era facility for producing prestigious purple-dyed textiles has been uncovered at Tel Shikmona, south of Haifa.
“Until now, there has not been any meaningful direct archeological evidence of workshops for the production of purple-colored textiles from the Iron Age – the biblical period – not even in Tyre and…
US envoys wielded hammers on Sunday to break open a new tunnel at a Jewish heritage site in east Jerusalem, signaling Washington’s support for Israel’s hold over parts of the city that Palestinians seek for a future state.
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman attended the event along with three other visiting American ambassadors as well as US…
(June 25, 2019 / JNS) Just like “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” neither was Jerusalem, says Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan-Nahoum.
As a part of the city’s development endeavors, Jerusalem’s main entrance will undergo a grand makeover—a million-square-meter project including construction of a new entryway into the city, extension of the…
An ancient observation tower was discovered in southern Israel on Wednesday in an IDF paratrooper base. The tower dates back to the days of the King Hezekiah, who ruled the Kingdom of Judah almost 3,000 years ago, according to the Bible.
“The strategic location of the tower served as a lookout and warning point against the Philistine enemy, one…
Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Zeev Elkin played show and tell at the June 2 Cabinet meeting this week. To mark Jerusalem Day, a national holiday celebrating the 1967 reunification of Jerusalem, Elkin brought to the Prime Minister’s Office a rare 2,700-year-old First Temple clay sealing impression, fittingly inscribed with the name of…
After nearly 32 years of excavation in the ancient city of Bethsaida in the Golan Heights’ Jordan Park northeast of the Sea of Galilee, a city gate from the time of King David was discovered – opening up a world of new possibilities, opinions and theories about the ancient landscape of the Land of Israel.
According to the chief archaeologist…
A new Tel Aviv University study found that there is evidence that 400,000 years ago, prehistoric humans “recycled” their broken flint, the researchers announced on Wednesday. They transformed their discarded flint tools to make smaller utensils with specific functions.
Recycling was a way of life for these people,” said Prof. Ran Barkai, one of…
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — German police on Tuesday will hand over to Israel thousands of stolen papers and manuscripts belonging to Max Brod, the friend and literary executor of Czech writer Franz Kafka.
Brod, who died in Tel Aviv in 1968, is primarily responsible for Kafka’s success as one of the 20th century’s most influential writers, having…
Thursday is Israel’s Independence Day, which commemorates the country’s official Declaration of Independence in 1948. The country celebrated with rallies, fireworks displays, flyovers by the Israeli Air Force and family barbecues.
It was a hard-fought independence — the day after the declaration, a coalition of Arab armies attacked and started…
A postcard written and signed by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, just one day after officially declaring the State of Israel’s independence, was recently discovered. Dated on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Iyar in the Jewish year 5748 (May 15, 1948), it was sent to the founding father of the kibbutz movement, Shlomo Lavi.
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Since the early 1990s, scholars have pointed to a barely readable bit of text on a nearly 3,000-year-old stone as possibly the first extra-biblical historical proof of the Davidic Monarchy. The reading, based upon decades of educated guesses, is notable for what can’t be fully discerned in the Moabite script almost as much as what can.
A pair of…
An archaeologist has recently uncovered a fortified wall in the ancient city of Lachish, a discovery he said shores up the biblical account of the site and suggests that a centralized kingdom ruled by King David and his descendants was founded and expanded earlier than previously believed.
Prof. Yosef Garfinkel, head of the Hebrew University of…
Two minuscule 2,600-year-old inscriptions recently uncovered in the City of David’s Givati Parking Lot excavation are vastly enlarging the understanding of ancient Jerusalem in the late 8th century BCE.
The two inscriptions, in paleo-Hebrew writing, were found separately in a large First Temple structure within the span of a few weeks by…