Archeology

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The Animals Went in Two by Two, According to Babylonian Ark Tablet

We all know the story of Noah’s Ark. Ever since George Smith’s 1872 translation of Babylonian texts similar to the Biblical Deluge (see “George Smith’s Other Find” below), we’ve also known about echoes of the Genesis narrative in pre-Biblical Mesopotamian texts. A recently translated Old Babylonian (c. 1900–1700 B.C.E.) tablet has literally reshaped our vision of the Babylonian vessel used to weather the storm and builds bridges across the floodwaters dividing the Biblical and Mesopotamian accounts of the flood.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/the-animals-went-in-two-by-two-according-to-babylonian-ark-tablet/?

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The Secrets of Huqoq

The ancient Galilean village of Huqoq has emerged as one of the region’s most remarkable archaeological sites, offering an extraordinary window into Jewish life during the Roman-Byzantine period. Excavations have uncovered the remains of an entire settlement, including a synagogue, a natural spring, agricultural installations, ritual baths (mikva’ot), and three underground tunnel networks, signaling periods of danger. Archaeologists have also discovered bronze coins, a ring, and a dagger concealed within one of those underground passages.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/post-biblical-period/the-secrets-of-huqoq/?

First Person: Did the Kingdoms of Saul, David and Solomon Actually Exist?

Amihai Mazar (better known as Ami) is one of Israel’s most highly regarded archaeologists. He recently retired from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I remember long ago when I featured him on the cover of BAR together with his famous uncle, Benjamin Mazar, a former president of the Hebrew University and a famous archaeologist; Ami was angry. He didn’t want to be pictured with his uncle. Ami wanted to make it on his own—not because of his relationship to his distinguished uncle. Well, Ami certainly has now made it on his own.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/did-the-kingdoms-of-saul-david-and-solomon-actually-exist/?

Fragment of Homer’s Odyssey Unearthed at Olympia

Archaeologists working at the Greek site of Olympia, home of the ancient Olympic Games, discovered near the sanctuary of Zeus a Roman-period clay tablet containing 13 lines of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. The discovery was made by the archaeological project The Multidimensional Site of Olympia, led by Dr. Erofili-Iris Kollia, Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Ilia, and first announced by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/homer-odyssey-tablet-olympia/?

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In Search of Eden with Rob Carter Part 1

And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. – Genesis 2: 8 (KJV)

https://www.patternsofevidence.com/2026/07/10/in-search-of-eden-with-rob-carter-part-1/

In Search of Eden with Rob Carter – Part 2

And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. – Genesis 2: 10 (KJV)

https://www.patternsofevidence.com/2026/07/16/in-search-of-eden-with-rob-carter-part-2/

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Gaza’s Catastrophic Loss

Across an area only about half the size of Manhattan, the Gaza Strip features hundreds of archaeological and heritage sites, ranging in date from prehistoric times to the British Mandate. Indeed, as one of the few harbors along the southern Levantine coast, Gaza was a center of commerce and exchange for thousands of years, remembered in the Bible and ancient sources as one of the leading Philistine cities and then, during the Roman period, as a critical commercial hub that connected the Roman East with the wider Mediterranean world.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/archaeology-today/cultural-heritage/gazas-catastrophic-loss/?

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Measuring Time Through Trees

Most people know that you can count a tree’s rings to determine its age. Many also know that the rings indicate the climate in any one of the years of the tree’s life: a larger ring indicates a wet year while smaller rings indicate dryness. A tree’s rings form a pattern, kind of like a bar code, that scientists can “read,” allowing them to: 1) know when a tree grew and was cut; and 2) build unbroken chronologies by matching sequences of rings from different trees from the same region through time.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/measuring-time-through-trees/?

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Who Were the Sea Peoples?

In Nolan’s new adaptation of the Odyssey, Homer’s epic poem about Odysseus’s struggle to return to his kingdom in Ithaca after the Trojan War, the “People of the Sea” hang over the plot like a dark cloud—a rumor of coming destroyers and harbingers of a dark age mentioned by multiple characters along the way. But who are these “People of the Sea”? Well, they’re not just a plot device or a way of adding dramatic tension. The “Sea Peoples” were a very real phenomenon of the Mediterranean world in the tumultuous days at end of the Late Bronze Age.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-near-eastern-world/who-were-sea-peoples/?

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Biblical Ataroth

High on a ridge in western Jordan, overlooking the Dead Sea some 6.5 miles away, sits the remarkable site of Khirbat Ataruz, likely the location known in the Hebrew Bible as Ataroth. During the Iron Age, beginning in the early to mid-ninth century BCE, a remarkable temple complex flourished here, and, for a time, control of the site was hotly contested by the competing powers of Israel and Moab. In the Summer 2026 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, archaeologists Chang-Ho Ji and Aaron Schade detail their findings from two and a half decades of excavation at the site in their article “Sacred Center: The Iron Age Temple at Biblical Ataroth.”

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-sites/biblical-ataroth/?

The Nag Hammadi Codices and Gnostic Christianity

Until the discovery of the Nag Hammadi codices in 1945, the Gnostic view of early Christianity had largely been forgotten. The teachings of Gnostic Christianity—vilified especially since they were declared heretic by orthodox Christianity in the fourth century—had been virtually erased from history by the early church fathers, their gospels banned and even burned to make room for the view of Christian theology outlined in the canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/the-nag-hammadi-codices/?

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Rare Judean Pillar Figurine Discovery from Jerusalem

A remarkable discovery in Jerusalem sheds new light on one of the most enigmatic artifact types from Iron Age Judah: the Judean Pillar Figurine. These feminine figurines occur in two principal types: with heads that are modeled by hand or through the use of an open-faced mold. Over a thousand figurine pieces have been recovered from sites in eighth- through sixth-century BCE Judah—comprised of body fragments, both types of head, and less often, whole figurines—yet archaeologists have only found a handful of molds.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/artifacts-and-the-bible/judean-pillar-figurine-jerusalem/?

Who Were the Sea Peoples?

In Nolan’s new adaptation of the Odyssey, Homer’s epic poem about Odysseus’s struggle to return to his kingdom in Ithaca after the Trojan War, the “People of the Sea” hang over the plot like a dark cloud—a rumor of coming destroyers and harbingers of a dark age mentioned by multiple characters along the way. But who are these “People of the Sea”? Well, they’re not just a plot device or a way of adding dramatic tension. The “Sea Peoples” were a very real phenomenon of the Mediterranean world in the tumultuous days at end of the Late Bronze Age.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-near-eastern-world/who-were-sea-peoples/?

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Cypriot Coin found at Ashdod

A silver-plated Cypriot coin dating to the mid-fifth century BCE has been discovered on Ashdod Beach. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) reported that the coin was minted in the ancient city of Salamis on Cyprus and is the first example of this type to be found in Israel. The artifacts was found by the Director of the Ashdod Beaches Department while searching for a patron’s lost property.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-near-eastern-world/cypriot-coin-found-at-ashdod/?

High Places, Altars and the Bamah

The open-air altar shrine, called a bamah (plural bamot), is known through several books of the Biblical canon—but none more so than the Book of Kings, where they play a prominent role in assessing the performance of a king. Often referred to as “high places” in translations of the Bible, bamot were worship sites that usually contained an altar. A general understanding about the bamah and how it functioned can be gained by using evidence from the Biblical text as well as archaeology.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-israel/high-places-altars-and-the-bamah/?

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Talking Exodus with Ken Kitchen Part 1

The Exodus Investigation

https://www.patternsofevidence.com/2026/07/23/talking-exodus-with-ken-kitchen-part-1/

Talking Exodus with Ken Kitchen Part 2

Interviewing a Legend

https://www.patternsofevidence.com/2026/07/31/talking-exodus-with-ken-kitchen-part-2/?

Mysterious Mercenaries

The biblical King David, before he became leader of the Israelites, was a mercenary who sold his services to the Philistine king of Gath. This was nothing out of ordinary, as mercenaries were an integral part of many ancient armies, beginning in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550–1100 BCE). Among the better-documented warrior groups of that era were the Shardanu, whose name would suggest they originated from the island of Sardinia in the central Mediterranean.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/mysterious-mercenaries/?

Who Was Noah’s Wife?

Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel—the names of biblical matriarchs such as these have lived on long after they were first written down more than two and a half millennia ago. They are among some of the most common names still used across the world today. Within the narrative of Genesis they walked alongside their male counterparts and even took center stage at times. The name of one important matriarch, however, is conspicuously absent from the story found in the biblical text—Noah’s wife.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-interpretation/who-was-noahs-wife/?

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Three New Assyrian Kings Discovered

In a remarkable moment for the study of ancient Near Eastern history, Alexander Johannes Edmonds (University of Münster) and Eckhart Frahm (Yale University) have discovered three previously unknown Assyrian kings. Their findings effectively work to dethrone, as it were, the longtime king of Mesopotamian history: the Assyrian King List.

https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/ancient-cultures/ancient-near-eastern-world/three-new-assyrian-kings-discovered/?