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Melanie Lidman

Melanie Lidman

An example of fibers dyed using the purple color from sea snails. (courtesy Jonathan Gottlieb)
June 22, 2023, 10:57 am
Purple from Holy Temple objects traced to snail guts at 3,000-year-old Haifa factory
Archaeologists uncover new evidence at a Phoenician dye factory that suggests the site was conquered by Israelites around the mid-9th century BCE
By Melanie Lidman
A selection of Akkadian cuneiform translated with AI. (courtesy, Gai Gutherz)
June 17, 2023, 9:57 am
Groundbreaking AI project translates 5,000-year-old cuneiform at push of a button
‘Google Translate’-like program for Akkadian cuneiform will enable tens of thousands of digitized but unread tablets to be translated to English. Accuracy is debatable
By Melanie Lidman
IAA archaeologist Marwan Masarwah holds a 1,700-year-old anchor in front of a sign advertising the campaign to encourage citizens to return illegally-held antiquities on June 15, 2023. (courtesy IAA)
June 15, 2023, 11:10 pm
New campaign to anonymously return illegally held antiquities nets thousands of items
15% of public estimated to be holding antiquities in their homes that by law belong to the state; Israel Antiquities Authority’s collection drive extended another week
By Melanie Lidman
Hebrew University post-doctoral fellow Dr. Laurent Davin plays a recreated 12,000-year-old flute discovered in northern Israel. (credit Laurent Davin)
June 9, 2023, 2:11 pm
Archaeologists discover and replicate earliest musical instrument in the Middle East
Tiny 12,000-year-old bone hunting flute likely used to attract birds of prey for Natufian settlements in Hula Valley
By Melanie Lidman
A British athlete competes in the CrossFit event during the 3rd Veterans Games in Tel Aviv on May 29, 2023. (courtesy Beit Halochem UK)
May 31, 2023, 1:47 pm
Wounded vets from Israel and the UK test their mettle at 3rd annual Veterans Games
The three-day event brings together more than 100 Israeli and British military veterans for an athletic competition, sightseeing, and a chance to bond with comrades-in-arms
By Melanie Lidman
Tasting the biblical-style beer produced from ancient yeast strains dormant for thousands of years. (Yaniv Berman/ Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)
May 26, 2023, 3:08 pm
Brew your own ancient beer: Yeast from 3,000-year-old Philistine beer jug now on sale
Israeli multi-disciplinary research team’s first yeast strain available on preorder for December shipping; Israel Museum and Shikma Brewery launch limited edition commercial batch
By Melanie Lidman
Inspectors for the Israel Antiquities Authority Theft Prevention Unit with three ossuaries recovered from a burial cave in northern Israel that was nearly destroyed by construction. (courtesy Yoli Schwartz/IAA)
May 23, 2023, 2:58 pm
Family building a house in northern Israel destroys 1,800-year-old burial cave
Inspectors raid construction site where bulldozers flattened cave, find ossuaries; owner to be indicted for failing to report antiquity discovery
By Melanie Lidman
Part of the handwritten list of words attributed to Maimonides from the Cambridge University Genizah Research Unit. (courtesy Cambridge University/José Martínez Delgado)
May 19, 2023, 4:36 pm
Mysterious trilingual Cairo Geniza vocab list found to be penned by Maimonides
Housed at Cambridge University’s Genizah Research Unit, crib sheet with words in Hebrew, Arabic and a Romance dialect gives a glimpse into renowned philosopher’s method of thinking
By Melanie Lidman
Closeup of the outside of the arguably Late Bronze Age lead curse tablet discovered on Mount Ebal in 2019. (Michael C. Luddeni/Associates for Biblical Research)
May 14, 2023, 5:23 pm
Academic article on controversial 3,200-year-old ‘curse tablet’ fails to sway experts
Year after team hails bombshell discovery of oldest Hebrew writing in Israel, details of the find hit a peer-reviewed journal. But some academics don’t see any inscription at all
By Melanie Lidman
The Backstreet Boys performing in Rishon Lezion on April 22, 2018. (Courtesy: Orit Pnini)
May 12, 2023, 5:53 pm
Saturday’s Backstreet Boys concert in Israel canceled as conflict with Gaza drags on
Authorities scrap Rishon Lezion show because of security considerations
By ToI Staff and Melanie Lidman
Orit Ouaknine-Yekutieli (center, white shirt) excavates the synagogue in Tamanart, Morocco, in November 2021 with her daughter Shoham (left), student Adi Gura, and Mona Naji-Goeury, daughter of researchers Salima Naji and David Goeury. (Courtesy Orit Ouaknine-Yekutieli/Yuval Yekutieli)
May 1, 2023, 4:24 pm
Abraham Accords allow Israelis to excavate two huge ‘genizas’ found in rural Morocco
Normalization lets Israeli researchers formalize ties with Moroccan experts to investigate remnants of Jewish life – with aid of Israelis who once lived in those abandoned villages
By Melanie Lidman
The “Grande Ludovisi” sarcophagus, with a battle scene between Roman soldiers and Germans, in a marble sarcophagus from 251/252 CE. (Museo Nazionale Romano di Palazzo Altemps, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
May 1, 2023, 3:31 am
Roman army may have included kosher-observant Jews 2,000 years ago, study finds
High numbers of Jews likely served in the legions that brought down Jerusalem and could have constituted even up to 15% of the vast empire’s army
By Melanie Lidman
A rendering of what archaeologists believe the sand farm looked like during production some 1,000 years ago. (courtesy Yaakov Shmidov/Israel Antiquities Authority)
April 10, 2023, 3:01 am
Over 1,000 years ago, Caesarea’s coast was likely the birthplace of sand farming
Around 900 CE, a complicated plot-and-berm system used industrial waste to build agricultural fields on sand – launching a completely novel way of raising vegetables
By Melanie Lidman
A series of selfies from the Passover story created by Dana Green using the AI program Midjourney. (Dana Green + Midjourney)
March 31, 2023, 2:08 pm
What makes an AI-enhanced haggadah different from all other haggadahs?
Since the release of ChatGPT and Midjourney, people are using artificial intelligence to tell the Passover story in new ways – though some worry about mixing AI with the sacred
By Melanie Lidman
Dr. Yael Abadi-Reiss, an archaeologist with the IAA, shows the copper fishhook in this photo from March 29, 2023. (courtesy Emil Aladjem/IAA)
March 29, 2023, 2:38 pm
Ancient jaws: 6,000-year-old copper fishhook, oldest in region, was likely for sharks
Artifact discovered near today’s Ashkelon demonstrates mastery of copper technology, say archaeologists
By Melanie Lidman
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