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archaeology in Israel

Archaeology
Purple from Holy Temple objects traced to snail guts at 3,000-year-old Haifa factory
By Melanie Lidman
Archaeologists uncover new evidence at a Phoenician dye factory that suggests the site was conquered by Israelites around the mid-9th century BCE
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
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 rare bronze medium denomination coin from the reign of Antigonus Mattathias II (40 BCE - 37 BCE), allegedly illegally excavated, after they were recovered from a suspect's home in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, June 7, 2023. (Israel Antiquities Authority)
June 7, 2023, 7:19 pm
Looted rare coin from last Hasmonean king seized in raid on suspected thief
IAA says coins minted under Antigonus Mattathias II rarest from period; dozens of other ancient coins from Roman to Muslim periods recovered in search of East Jerusalem home
By Michael Horovitz
The 2,000-year-old inscription bearing the financial record discovered near ancient Jerusalem's Pilgrimage Path. (Eliyahu Yanai, City of David)
May 17, 2023, 11:56 am
2,000-year-old ledger found in City of David points to widespread 2nd Temple literacy
Discovered near Pilgrimage Path, inscribed chalkstone slab that appears to be ossuary maker’s accounting record adds to physical evidence of ancient Jerusalem shuk in lower city
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
An Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist checks out pieces of 1,800-year-old marble from a shipwreck off the shore of Beit Yanai in central Israel. (Israel Antiquities Authority's Theft Prevention Unit)
May 15, 2023, 11:43 am
Swimmer discovers precious marble cargo from 1,800-year-old Mediterranean shipwreck
Roman-era raw materials likely came from Turkey and were on their way to a southern Holy Land port; archaeologists hope to find wood remains of ship during excavations next week
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
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
A compass and other items from a 1948 War of Independence battle that have been found on Ha-Lamed Heh Battle Hill, April 2023. (Yoli Schwartz/Israel Antiquities Authority)
April 24, 2023, 2:59 pm
75 years on, newly found compass points to heart of 1948 battle where 35 troops died
Researchers also unearth bullet casings at site of famous Lamed Heh battle in War of Independence, shedding rare light on an incident from which there were no Palmach survivors
By Michael Bachner
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
Ariel University's Dr. Yonatan Adler. (courtesy)
April 5, 2023, 7:39 am
What Matters Now to archaeologist Prof. Yonatan Adler: The origins of Judaism
Ariel University prof discusses his ‘excavation’ into the evidence for the practice of the Jewish religion – and points to when we know with certainty that Passover was observed
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
Jewelry collection from the Mount Scopus coffin (Emile Aladjem/IAA)
April 4, 2023, 6:51 am
Ancient Jerusalem child’s amulet on show, 50 years after discovery
Items of gold jewelry from an 1,800-year-old burial cave in capital made public for first time, ahead of Israel Antiquities Authority’s 48th Archaeological Congress
By ToI Staff
The seven-letter 10th-century BCE inscription in Ancient South Arabian script on a pithos from the Ophel. (photo: Daniel Vainstub; all rights reserved © Dr. Eilat Mazar; after Mazar 2015)
April 3, 2023, 4:02 pm
Newly deciphered inscription gives clue to biblical Queen of Sheba’s Jerusalem visit
Discovered at the Ophel adjacent to the Temple Mount, seven letters on clay jar sherd are written in dialect and script stemming from the Arabian Peninsula, epigrapher suggests
By Amanda Borschel-Dan
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
Dr. Elyashiv Drori harvests grapes at a research vineyard near Ariel University in 2020. (courtesy Ariel University)
March 25, 2023, 2:09 pm
It’s in the DNA: Israeli grapes are the mother of all European wines
Massive DNA study of over 3,500 wild and domesticated grapevines overturns what historians thought they knew about the first cultivation of grapes and wine
By Melanie Lidman
A potsherd discovered in Tel Lachish with an Aramaic inscription 'Year 24 of Darius.' It was announced by the IAA as the first written evidence of Persian king Darius the Great discovered in Israel, but on March 3, 2023 was declared to not be authentic. (Yoli Schwartz/IAA)
March 20, 2023, 11:46 am
Too-good-to-be-true Darius ostracon mix-up teaches a public lesson etched in pottery
While archaeologists worry about forgeries, the IAA vows to implement more rigorous testing after a highly touted potsherd thought to be from 498 BCE was found to be inauthentic
By Melanie Lidman
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