Ronnie Ellenblum, a Pioneering Historian on the Crusades and Climate Change
Colleagues and family agree: The Hebrew University professor who died this month was a mensch who loved Jerusalem as much as he loved his nonstop intellectual inquiry
Archaeology
One of the World's Oldest Mosques Found in Tiberias, Israel
Beneath the city’s ancient mosque is actually an older one from the seventh century, when Judaism, Christianity and Islam lived side by side
Israelis Crack 2-million-year-old Mystery About Stone Tools
Chopping tools were the real original Swiss army knife of the archaic human set, says Prof. Ran Barkai, but nobody knew what they were used for – until now
Inscription to Jesus, Dedicated by the ‘Miserable Thomas', Found in Northern Israel
A piece of the door-frame of an early church was reused in the wall of a luxury house in the late Byzantine or early Islamic period and has now been found during road work
‘A Rare Treat’: Paleontologists Detect 50-million-year-old Fossil Bug Penis
Yes it was very small, but the insect found in Colorado is so extraordinarily preserved that we can still see the stripes on his little legs too
Prehistoric Northern Russians Were Obsessed With Elks, Grave Goods Show
Burials from 8,200 years ago on a wee island far up in the north contain all kinds of gear for the afterlife – half of which is elk teeth engraved to be worn as pendants
3,300-year-old Canaanite Jars Found in Tiryns Rewrite History of Trade
Ports in today’s Israel and Lebanon may have supplanted the great city of Ugarit as the main trading partner with the Aegean even before civilization collapsed in 1,200 B.C.E.
Archaeologists Find Oldest Picture in the World. It’s a Pig
Early modern human art turns out to abound in Southeast Asia. The artists painting the Sulawesi cave wall over 45,500 years ago may have been depicting a whole social interaction between warty pigs
Archaeologists Discover King Herod Had a Bonsai Garden
More than 2,000 years ago, miniaturized trees decorated King Herod’s palace in Jericho, in what could have been a display of the ruler’s power over nature – and his fealty to Rome
Reconstructed Ottoman Bridge in Israel Raises Hackles Over Politicization of Archaeology
The stone structure over a river was built on top of a Roman bridge for a single use: Kaiser Wilhelm’s 1898 visit to the Holy Land
The Utah Monolith Has an Ancient History
For millennia, people have placed bizarre sculptures in nature, with no clear purpose or connection. Why?
Mind the Gap Scholars Have Been Vastly Mistaken in Filling the Holes in Our History
The standard way to estimating the missing length of ancient scrolls is wrong by as much as 1800 percent, Israeli scholars find. Why it matters if an ancient text is missing 6 inches or 6 feet
Sharing Scraps With Wolves May Have Created Man's Best Friend
Dogs are thought to have evolved from wolves scavenging our garbage, but now a paper posits that humans hunting megafauna would have had scraps to spare for their proto-pets
Archaeologists Find Byzantine Tombstone Inscribed ‘Blessed Maria’ in Israel
The tombstone of the woman who lived in the Nitzana area about 1,400 years ago joins others unearthed in excavations that belonged to Christians interred in local churches and burial grounds
Crusader-era Siege Ramp Protected Israeli City From the Desert for a Thousand Years
Israeli archaeologist identifies massive siege ramp erected by Muslim or Christian warriors to conquer Ashkelon – which has been shielding the city from encroaching sand dunes ever since
Geologists Solve Archaeological Mystery About Early Farmers in Israel
Archaeological evidence indicates that the Jerusalem foothills, the Judean lowlands and northern West Bank were relatively heavily farmed while the rainier Galilee was less so. Now geologists think they know why
Vast Cache of Stolen Antiquities Found in Huge Raid in Central Israel
The thieves caught in the raid even restored some of their looted treasures; detectives needed a truck to cart away the coins, jewelry, statues, and figurines and pottery from ancient Greek and Italy
Ghostly Genes, Gal Gadot and Stone Balls: Best Archaeology Stories of 2020
On human evolution: cooking before fire, storing perishables before electricity, counterfeiting before money, enigmatic footprints in Saudi Arabia, moon gods and shamans and so much more
The 4th-century Pope and the Great Jewish War Over New Year’s Day
How ‘the Sylvester’ on December 31 became one of the favorite holidays for some Israelis and why so many other Israelis hate it with a passion
Jesus’ Crucifixion, a Cursed King and Mysterious Giant Mounds: Top Biblical Archaeology Stories of 2020
Why did the ostensibly monotheistic ancient Hebrews make statuettes of nude women? Is that the face of Yahweh? What’s the village excavating itself up to now? All this and more in Haaretz archaeology 2020
Why Jews Don’t Worship Statues of God
Rejecting idolatry is one of the main pillars of Judaism, but it wasn’t always so. How did a people who once worshipped idols come to abhor religious imagery?
A 350,000-year-old Turning Point in Human Evolution Found in Israel
Analysis of a single rock used to abrade materials, probably hides, indicates sophistication in tool use much deeper in time than had previously been thought
Archaeologists Find Jewish Ritual Bath From Jesus' Time at Jerusalem's Gethsemane
This is the first archaeological evidence found of activity at the Jerusalem site during the Second Temple period, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority
Scapegoating Rats and Other Mistakes: Here's How Scholars Got the Plague Totally Wrong
Scholars studying pre-modern pandemics have been reinforcing plague myths without actually checking for evidence to back the ancient wails of woe. And give the rat a break
Mega-tsunami Smashed Into Israel 10,000 Years Ago
Archaeologists discover sand and seashells kilometers inland, deduce that a wave up to 12 stories high wiped out coastal settlements and apparently left the area barren for centuries
When Jews Used Olive Oil as a Weapon Against the Romans in Ancient Israel
An olive press in ancient Yodfat, in northern Israel, sheds light on the role of olive oil in Jews' lives 2,000 years ago
Canaanites Ate Soy, Philistines Munched Bananas: Study Reveals Ancient Trade in Exotic Foods
Analysis of teeth from the Bronze and Iron Ages indicates very early globalization: More than 3,500 years ago, people in today’s Israel ate goods from the Far East
Archaeological Trove Spanning Millennia Emerges From Construction Work in Ancient Jaffa
A Bronze Age baby buried in a jar, a Greek call to accept death as part of life and an Islamic headache remedy are just some of the recent discoveries in one of the world’s oldest port towns
Neanderthals Buried a Toddler 41,000 Years Ago in France
The jury’s still out on non-sapiens mortuary rites, but the evidence is building that at least some Neanderthals ritually interred their dead
Lost Workshop Making Pagan Figurines in Roman Palestine Rediscovered in Central Israel
Nude female and other figurines found in the workshop centuries after Jews had eschewed polytheism indicate that the Romans repeopled the region after the failed Jewish revolt with pagans from northern Syria
Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate Battles to Become the Old City's Main Portal
The site is undergoing a face-lift that would position it as the Old City’s main entrance, in its rivalry with 'the more Jewish' Dung Gate near the Western Wall
The Rabbis' Gambit: A Brief History of Jews and Chess
If at first the rabbis were appalled by the notion of Jews squandering time better spent on Torah study, over the centuries playing chess would become encouraged – as long as they didn’t gamble on Shabbat
King Herod’s Throne Room Where ‘Salome Danced’ Found in Jordan
The clifftop palace with a view of the Dead Sea, where Princess Salome is said to have danced before Herod Antipas’ court and demanded John the Baptist’s head, is being reconstructed
Ancient Greece Had Market Economy, 3,000 Years Earlier Than Thought
Integrated markets were thought to have started with the industrial revolution, but now pollen data demonstrates unexpectedly skewed crop choices, especially located on the Aegean coast
An Archaeological Mystery: Why Ancient Hebrews Made Figurines of Naked Women
In First Temple-period Judah, statuettes of women holding up their breasts were apparently a must-have item, but were they images of Yahweh’s wife, fertility figurines, or something else?