Uncovering the Mysteries of Khirbet Qeiyafa

Anyone following major archaeological discoveries in Israel will recall the pottery shard whereon was found five lines of what may be the oldest Hebrew script ever discovered. The find was uncovered at a hitherto unknown archaeological site known as Khirbet Qeiyafa. Despite its mystery, it is emerging as one of the most important archaeological excavations in Israel, revealing an ancient city that may tell a new story about life during the times of ancient Israel's best known kings. Add to this its massive fortifications and its strategic location between Jerusalem and ancient Israel's coastal plain on the main road from ancient Philistia, and we have a site that promises to add much to our understanding of Iron Age Judah. It is in this area that the famous battle between David and Goliath may have taken place.

During previous excavations, an early Iron Age II stratum was uncovered, including a massive casemate wall, a monumental four-chambered gate and residential buildings. Radiometric dating places this stratum in the years 1,000 - 975 B.C., the time of King David. This makes it the only site in Judah that can be securely dated to the time of King David. The 2011 Season (June 12 - July 22) will continue to explore the site's fortifications and its urban layout.

Source: http://archaeologydigs.blogspot.com

E-CORPUS

 e-corpus is a collective digital library that catalogs and disseminates numerous documents: manuscripts, archives, books, journals, prints, audio recordings, video, etc.

This diverse platform presents cultural diversity worldwide and specifically in the Euro-Mediterranean region. e-corpus proposes a variety of themes and a large quantity of digital documents presented by numerous organizations and countries. Based on cutting edge technologies, e-corpus offers a simple and direct public access to a rich collection of resources.

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What's your sign? Probably not what you think, thanks to the Earth's "wobble"

By BILL WARD, Star Tribune

A recent Harris Poll found that 31 percent of Americans believe in astrology. They're wrong -- although not necessarily in the way their detractors might cite.

The ancient Babylonians based zodiac signs on the constellation the sun was "in" on the day a person was born. During the ensuing millenniums, the moon's gravitational pull has made the Earth "wobble" around its axis, creating about a one-month bump in the stars' alignment.

The result?

"When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces, it's really not in Pisces," said Parke Kunkle, a board member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society.

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3,800 year old tablets from Larsa, in Iraq, tell tale of ancient tycoon

He served one of the longest reigning kings in history, bought up real estate like there was no tomorrow and at times did business under the authority of the sun god Shamash.

His name was Abum-waqar and thanks to new research by Professor Karljürgen Feuerherm, of Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo Canada, we now know his story. "It took me basically a decade to work through this stuff," Feuerherm said at a recent lecture in Toronto.

There are more than 200 tablets that show this man's dealings. Most were dug up by looters in the early 20th century and are now located all over the world with Yale University holding the lions share. Many of them have never appeared in scholarly publications before, much less in popular media.

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Διημερίδα Τομέα Αρχαιολογίας και Ιστορίας Τέχνης Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών

Ανασκαφή και Mελέτη VIII

Πρόκειται για την 8η διημερίδα που οργανώνει κάθε δυο χρόνια ο Τομέας Αρχαιολογίας και Ιστορίας της Τέχνης του Τμήματος Ιστορίας και Αρχαιολογίας του Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών, με θέματα, από την ανασκαφική και ερευνητική δραστηριότητα τόσο των μελών ΔΕΠ όσο και υποψηφίων διδακτόρων, τα οποία καλύπτουν την Προϊστορική, Κλασσική και Βυζαντινή Αρχαιολογία καθώς και την Ιστορία της Τέχνης.

14-15 Απριλίου 2011

Αμφιθέατρο Δρακοπούλου στο Κεντρικό Κτήριο του Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών (Πανεπιστημίου 30).

Samarra Resource Page

Samarra’s 100th Anniversary
Ernst Herzfeld’s archaeological excavation of Samarra will mark its 100th anniversary in 2011.  To honor the occasion, the Freer|Sackler Archives has created the Samarra Resource Page that collates collections online content, social media content, and related scholarly content, to provide an easy central resource for all of the Herzfeld paper materials and products.  Preservation, digitization, and cataloging have been made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation.

Background on the Samarra Excavation
Sponsored by the (then) Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, Ernst Herzfeld conducted two campaigns in Samarra from 1911-1913.  This excavation was the first of its kind to perform a large-scale archaeological survey of Islamic antiquities.  The first excavation performed included over nineteen
sites: Great Mosque of al-Mutawakkil, Congregational Mosque of Madinat al-Mutawakkiliyya, Shiite Shrine Complex, Qubbat al-Ṣulaibiyya; palaces of Balkuwārā, Ṣūr Īṣā, and the Qaṣr al-Āshiq; the Cemetery at Shabbat al-Hawā; Mausoleum of Imām al-Dūr; Tall al-Alīq; Ḥarba Bridge and finally the residential architecture at al-Quraina, al-Qāṭūn, al-Jubairiyya, and west of Ṣūr Īṣā, and the baths.   His second, and arguably more ambitious campaign, focused on Dār al-Khilāfa.

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