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The Persian conquest of Palestine in 614 CE is described in historical sources as a most violent military raid that dramatically affected the political and administrative stability of Byzantine Palestine, involving large scale damage to churches and a mass killing of the local Christian population. Common view has it that the conquest marked a turning point in the history of the Near East and was one of the causes for the rapid Early Islamic conquests, twenty years later. Although the Persian domination - lasting only 14 years (614-628), was a very brief episode in the long historical sequence of Palestine,...

While exploring the area around the hotel that he had been evacuated to along the Dead Sea, Nati Toyikar came across an ancient coin dating back to the Hasmonean period.. An 11-year-old boy found a 2,000-year-old coin belonging to the Hasmonean king and high priest Alexander Yanai, Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday. Nati Toyikar was evacuated from his home, Kibbutz Magen, following Hamas's October 7 attacks. He is currently living in one of the hotels for evacuated residents along the Dead Sea, where, on one of his explorations, he unexpectedly found an ancient coin from the time of Hasmonean...

In the systematic excavation project of the temple area in the lower city of Gath, a team from Bar-Ilan University has overseen the reconstruction of the plants used in Philistine rituals.The mysterious culture of the Philistines that flourished during the Iron Age (1200-604 BCE) profoundly affected the southern Levant's cultural history, agronomy, and dietary customs. More than a quarter century of excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath in central Israel, identified as the biblical Gath of the Philistines and the home of Goliath, has provided a unique window into the world of this ancient civilization.In the systematic excavation project of the temple...

Identifying an archaeological site with biblical stories is often circumstantial. In this case, archaeologists found the biblical archaeology equivalent of the Holy Grail: inscriptions discovered within a few hundred meters from the site, albeit from the 1st century B.C.E., reading "boundary of Gezer" in Hebrew, among other things. But the city's story begins thousands of years earlier...Later excavations in the 1960s and '70s on behalf of Hebrew Union College discerned 26 strata, often with one built upon the last. They range in date from the Chalcolithic period (4th millennium B.C.E.) to the Early Roman period (late 1st century B.C.E).The most...

An extremely rare silver coin that was minted outside the Land of Israel during the Persian Period – within a few centuries of the biblical story of Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus in the 6th–5th centuries BCE – has been discovered by an archaeologist during an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) excavation in the Judean Hills...Minted in a period when the use of coins had just begun, it joins only half a dozen coins of its type that have been found in excavations in the country.An indication of the gradual process of minting coins instead of weighing silver pieces to make...

[Make sure to read Daniel Greenfield’s contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]In 1966, a year before the war that would fundamentally change the country and the region, John Steinbeck arrived.“I want to see everything in Israel,” he told the press.Outraged novels of class warfare like ‘Grapes of Wrath’ had once made the author a favorite of the leftist establishment, but Steinbeck had turned to other topics. He considered his life’s work to be ‘East of Eden’, a retelling of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel in California, which touched on his own...

Itamar Grossman, 13, was visiting the Sussita National Park, on the ruins of the ancient Hellenistic city of Hippos, when something on the ground caught his attention after he went to a vantage point with a cousin to take photos, according to a press release from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority.That something turned out to be an ancient bronze ring.“It was a strange and ancient-looking ring,” Itamar said, according to All Israel News. “My brothers and cousins who were with me didn’t think it was anything old, just a ring someone had dropped.”Although his siblings and cousins didn’t think...

Professor Gershon Galil at Haifa University’s Institute for Biblical Studies and Ancient History, along with Eli Shukron from the Bible and Ancient History research institute, found that the 8th Century BC inscriptions – on a stone no bigger than the palm of a hand – not only include Hezekiah’s name, but also list his achievements from the first 17 years of his reign. Those include his commission to carve out the pool at Siloam and the tunnel to access the waters underneath the Gihon Spring. The action is believed to have helped saved the city by denying sources of water...

About 700 years before Christ, Hezekiah built a 2,000-foot-long tunnel through solid rock to secretly carry water from the Gihon Spring in Jerusalem to the Pool of Siloam (also called the Pool of Siloah) just outside the wall around ancient Jerusalem and at the base of the Temple Mount (II Kings 20:20). Hezekiah built the tunnel and Pool of Siloam (a water reservoir like a swimming pool that was about 53 ft long, 18 ft wide, and 19 ft deep) to ensure that Jerusalem had water if the Assyrians surrounded Jerusalem and tried to capture the city. The pool was...

Israeli construction workers were fixing a large water pipe near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount when they noticed mysterious ancient steps. They called on some archaeologists for help, namely Ronny Reich and Eli Shukron. The two proceeded to excavate the site and found one of the most significant archaeological affirmations of the Bible. The steps led down to a 225 feet long pool, the Pool of Siloam. What they discovered matched the exact location of the Bible’s description of the pool. It was next to Hezekiah’s tunnel and near the Temple of the Mount. According to The Bible, King Hezekiah first constructed...

Archaeologists in Israel have unearthed a sacred Christian site in Jerusalem, where Jesus performed a miracle by healing a blind man. The steps to the ancient Pool of Siloam haven't been seen for more than 2,000 years. The discovery of the steps is a bit of a miracle as well. Construction was being conducted in 2004 to repair a large sewage pipe south of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount in the City of David. During the repair procedure, a strange scrapping noise was heard. Archaeologists identified ancient stone steps in the vicinity. Since the discovery, major excavations have been taking place in...

The channels may have been used to prepare a commodity "connected to the economy of the temple or palace", said archaeologist Yuval Gadot in the statement...The knee-deep channels, dating back 2,800 years, are located outside Jerusalem's walled Old City. They stand in two clusters, which were discovered 10 metres (30 feet) apart.Forensic testing of the channels found no blood, the Israel Antiquities Authority said - potentially ruling out a role in animal slaughter for banquets or religious sacrifice.The ducts also do not appear to have engineered a flow in a single direction, or debouched into any basin, suggesting they were...

Amit Waldman: A new era in Israel-Italy relations by Giorgia Meloni: In the Italian newspaper La Repubblica it was published that in the debate held at the United Nations, Italy took the side of Jerusalem. In the vote, Rome abandoned its traditional line of abstaining and voted together with the USA, Germany and Israel against The decision to transfer the issue of the ongoing Israeli (what they term an) "occupation" to the Hague Tribunal. [https://t.me/N12Updates/166928] https://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2022/11/11/news/onu_israele_palestina_italia_vota_no-374112797/?ref=RHLF-BG-I374116504-P4-S2-T1]

A cave in Jerusalem's western hills might have once been a divine prophecy site where Roman-era gentiles attempted to communicate with the dead.Three skulls and more than 100 ceramic lamps were found squeezed into the cave's crevices, and two archaeologists in Israel speculate in a new paper that these were likely used to conjure up dead spirits and their secrets – a practice known as necromancy.The Te'omim Cave has been studied since 1873... Only in the 1970s, however, did archaeologists uncover a series of secret passageways leading to other, hidden inner chambers.Long, narrow crevices were abundant in these concealed areas,...

A team of researchers working with citizen archeologists on the Tzurim Valley National Park sifting project (near Temple Mount) has found a unique ancient gem seal—one that bears the face of the god Apollo. The team, led by Eli Shukron, has been speaking with the press about the unique find and its possible history.Gem seals are flat-faced, carved stones, generally coin-sized. They were used by ancient people as a form of signature. The seal was pressed against a soft material such as wax to leave an imprint of whatever was carved on the stone. Such signatures were used when purchasing...

Homebrewers will soon be able to time travel with their taste buds and brew beer similar to what the Philistines in Goliath’s hometown of Gath drank. An interdisciplinary team of researchers, archaeologists and brewmasters in Israel first isolated 5,000-year-old yeast in 2019, as published in the peer-reviewed mBio journal in 2019. But now, the fruits of that discovery are about to become available for hobby brewers and sourdough aficionados everywhere, when the first batch of commercially available ancient yeast ships in December. Pre-orders are open now. “We want to create an opportunity for every person to connect with this story,...

If descendants of slaves in America are seeking reparatons so should Jews, Yazidi, Christian Armenians, Egyptian Copts, Bantus and other minorities in Islamic States for centuries of unjust property seizures, Jyzia, Slavery, discrimination and abuse under Islam By Ezequiel Doiny Below is an excerpt from my book "Reparations for ethnic cleansing, Jizya and slavery of Jews in the Middle East", the book Kindle version is available for free in the link below. (please rate it!) https://www.amazon.com/Reparations-ethnic-cleansing-slavery-Middle-ebook/dp/B0BVBYZ6Z9/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1676193639&refinements=p_27%3AEzequiel+Doiny&s=books&sr=1-3&text=Ezequiel+Doiny Index Part A - A "reparations task force" should be created to "hold hearings, solicit witness testimony, and request evidence" on the effects of...

Desperate to find a restroom after a nearly nine-hour flight from Johannesburg, South African university student Klaas Mokgomole grabbed his carry-on and hurried off the plane. Urgently searching out a gate agent at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport and praying that the man understood English, Mokgomole asked sincerely, “Can you please show me to the blacks-only restroom?” The agent’s eyes widened in disbelief. He told Mokgomole in no uncertain terms that he never heard of such a thing and pointed him to a nearby bathroom. That’s when it was Mokgomole’s turn to be confused. Mokgomole — then a South...

The bead was found in dirt removed from a Roman structure discovered during the Pilgrimage Road Excavation. It was created using a unique technique that required delicate workmanship to affix tens of tiny balls together in the shape of a ring in order to create one ornament.The relic was found by Hallel Feidman, an 18-year-old doing her compulsory national service as a volunteer for the sifting project at the Archaeological Experience."I poured the pail onto the sieve and began to wash the material that was brought from the excavations in the City of David," she recounted. "And then I saw...

(Last Updated On: January 25, 2023) HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust Holocaust Remembrance Day – Each year on January 27th, the world remembers one of the most horrific events in modern history. This tragic event is known as the Holocaust. The holocaust occurred during WWII when Nazi Germany killed millions of innocent victims. The day is also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day. #HolocaustRemembranceDay Nazi Germany is one of the evilest regimes that ever existed. They persecuted and killed millions of people in just under four years. One group in particular...