ancient Israel

TEL AVIV – A rare bronze coin dating back to the Bar Kochba revolt (circa 132 CE) was revealed by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) Monday, just ahead of the Lag B’Omer holiday, which commemorates the life of anti-Roman second-century sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.

TEL AVIV – A large 3,500-year-old staircase has been discovered in Israel’s Upper Galilee region at the Tel Hazor excavation site and is believed to have been part of the Canaanite Hazor kingdom that was famously conquered by the Israelites, as recounted in the book of Joshua. 

Archaeologists have discovered an 11th-century moat just outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls—the first hard evidence of a fabled Crusader siege against the city 920 years ago. Attested to in several historical documents, many scholars nonetheless believed the siege was a myth.

TEL AVIV – Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour was branded “stupid” by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son, Yair, over her claim that Jesus of Nazareth was a “brown copper skinned” Palestinian.

JERUSALEM — An enigmatic sculpture of a king’s head dating back nearly 3,000 years has set off a modern-day mystery caper as scholars try to figure out whose face it depicts.

JERUSALEM – Israeli archaeologists announced Sunday they have uncovered a rare site dating back some half a million years — just next to a modern highway and only several metres underground.

A recently found 2,700-year-old artifact — bearing the inscription “belonging to the governor of the city” found in Jerusalem — has been presented to the city’s current mayor.

JERUSALEM — Israeli archaeologists on Monday announced the discovery of the first known Roman-era theater in Jerusalem’s Old City, a unique structure around 1,800 years old that abuts the Western Wall and may have been built during Roman Emperor Hadrian’s reign.

The Algemeiner reports: JNS.org – A 7,200-year-old pottery vessel recently unearthed at the prehistoric site of Tel Tsaf in Israel’s Jordan Valley is the first evidence of the ritualistic and political significance of large-scale food storage in the ancient Near East, the University of Haifa reported on Wednesday.

A collection of First Temple-period seals has been discovered during excavations in Jerusalem’s City of David.

Israel took nine visiting UN ambassadors on a tour of the City of David archaeological park in Jerusalem on Sunday in a bid to highlight the Jewish heritage of the holy city following a spate of UN resolutions denying that historic link.

Amid this week’s celebrations making the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority unveiled evidence of the battle of Jerusalem that took place before the destruction of the Second Temple 2,000 years ago.

A hoard of ancient Jewish antiquities was recovered by the Israel Police and the IDF near Hebron on Wednesday, during a raid on a home in the Palestinian town of Beit Ula.

An archaeological survey by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in preparation for the construction of a new elementary school in the city of Ashkelon has revealed a 2,100-year-old wine press dating back to the Hellenistic Period.

Israeli archaeologists on Thursday presented new details of what they said were the first tiny artifacts, unearthed in situ on the Temple Mount, ever conclusively dated to the time of the First Temple over 2,600 years ago.

Archaeologists in Israel have unearthed a city-gate and shrine dating to the First Temple Era. An Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) team headed by Sa’ar Ganor discovered the ruins in the Tel Lachish National Park.

The charred lump of a 2,000-year-old scroll sat in an Israeli archaeologist’s storeroom for decades, too brittle to open. Now, new imaging technology has revealed what was written inside: the earliest evidence of a biblical text in its standardized form.

A rare, well-preserved coin struck in 56-57 CE, bearing the image of Roman Emperor Nero, was found by archaeologists from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte during a recent excavation on Jerusalem’s Mount Zion, just outside the Old City, it was announced Wednesday.

Archaeologists are scientifically proving the Jewish people’s connection to Jerusalem, defending the state of Israel in a way that no one but the IDF can, Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr. Dore Gold said Thursday night.

A centuries-old hand grenade that may date back to the time of the crusaders is among a host of treasures retrieved from the sea in Israel.

In a limestone cave halfway between Nazareth and the biblical town of Cana, archaeologists recently unearthed a first century CE workshop that produced stone vessels similar to those that held the water Jesus turned into wine.

The Jerusalem Post reports: An ancient ballista ball, claimed to be one of those used by Jewish warriors fighting against the Roman Empire during the Bar-Kochba revolt, has been unearthed by high school students in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem.

A synagogue dating back to the end of the Second Temple Era was discovered on the Tel Recheš Peak in the Galilee last week in a rare and unique archaeological find.

Israeli archaeologists in the Western Galilee have uncovered a 1,600-year-old ceramics workshop and a distinctive kiln cut into bedrock that was used to fire the pottery made there.

Mosaics depicting prominent Bible scenes were uncovered during annual excavations of an ancient synagogue in Israel’s Lower Galilee.

Archaeologists have uncovered the first Philistine cemetery ever discovered, following 30 years of exploration and digging outside the Israeli city of Ashkelon.

A human foot and 86 tortoise shells were just some of the extraordinary finds discovered in the prehistoric grave of a female shaman in the Galilee, in northern Israel, dating back some 12,000 years.

Ynetnews reports: A group of Israeli high school girls discovered an Egyptian Scarab amulet estimated to be nearly 3,300-years-old on Wednesday morning while on a field trip to an archeological site in the Galilee.

Israel on Sunday returned to Egypt two stolen sarcophagi lids, saying the repatriation of the millennia-old artefacts was a sign of warmer relations between the two countries.

An ongoing archaeological dig in Israel continues to reveal evidence that researchers have come across the site of the historic Greek fortress, Acra.

The Times of Israel reports: High-tech handwriting analysis of First Temple period writings inscribed on pottery shards indicates the Bible may have been written earlier than some scholars believe, Tel Aviv University researchers have found. Most scholars agree that key

Archaeologists have called for the preservation of an ancient church unearthed on a Gaza construction site, with different ministries in the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave seemingly at loggerheads over its fate. The site is believed to be a church or cathedral

The Times of Israel reports: An ornate Second Temple era bronze incense shovel and bronze jug were recently unearthed at the biblical site of Magdala, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday. The 2,200-year-old

Ynetnews reports: A rare 2,500-year-old seal bearing the name of a woman, Elihana bat Gael, has recently been discovered in an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) excavation at the City of David in the Jerusalem Walls National Park. The seal was found

JERUSALEM – An ancient wine press that likely dates from Roman or Byzantine times was unearthed on the grounds of an obsolete army base in Jerusalem, the Times of Israel reported. The Israel Antiques Authority (IAA) excavated the former Schneller

NBC News reports: TEL AVIV, Israel — A seven-year-old boy discovered an ancient statuette of a naked woman during a day trip to Tel Rehov archaeological site in Israel, antiquities officials said Thursday. Ori Greenhut saw a dirt-covered stone with with