In 1971, on Mount Scopus in Israel, an extraordinary discovery was made: an 1,800-year-old lead coffin containing a young Roman girl adorned with precious jewelry to ward off the ‘evil eye’ and...
This ancient copper “fishhook” is the earliest of its type ever discovered in Israel. But this hook wasn’t used for hauling up inshore tiddlers, rather, it was designed for hunting huge sharks off...
Renowned auction house, Sotheby’s in New York, prepares itself for the sale of possibly the most expensive historical document ever sold at an auction, in the form of Codex Sassoon. This is one of...
Weary travelers have always needed a place to rest and recuperate, from the harsh conditions and terrains of the Silk Route, to the more plush comforts that accompany modern travel. In Israel, an...
In ancient Megiddo, a city on the crossroads of major trade routes, two upper-class brothers underwent "angular notched trephination," the earliest example of its kind found in the Ancient Near East...
While sifting through dirt and rubble removed from a huge Roman structure discovered during excavations at Pilgrimage Road in the City of David in Jerusalem, a National Service volunteer found a...
Archaeologists have uncovered rare, printed fabrics dating back around 1,300 years. While the fabrics had originated in the East, they were found in an Israeli dump! It is the first evidence of a...
A collection of eight ostrich eggs dated to between 4,000 and 7,500 years old have been discovered near an ancient fire pit in southern Israel. It was a campsite used by prehistoric nomads, which...
In a fascinating new study has found that dozens of silver pieces found during excavations in Israel and the Gaza Strip were actually used as currency in ancient times. Since the silver pieces were...
Archaeologists have recently uncovered the remains of a man in iron chains from the Khirbat el-Masani archaeological site in northern Jerusalem. The remains are 1500-year-old and are those of a...
In the days leading up to the biggest Holy Day (holiday) of the Christian year, celebrating the birth of Christ, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have announced “the cave of Holy Salome,' the...
Archaeologists in the Judean desert have unearthed a small wooden box lined with sheepskin and a purple cloth. Within it, they discovered fifteen rare coins minted by Egyptian King Ptolemy VI,...
A lead sling bullet from the Hellenistic period with a Greek inscription proclaiming victory in battle, has been discovered in Israel. Dated to 2,200 years old, it was excavated in Yavne, and bears...
Researchers in Israel have found evidence of cooking fish dated to roughly 780,000 years ago. This pushes back the beginnings of humans being able to control fire and cook their food over 600,000...
One would expect the oldest written words found during archaeological excavations to be carved into the face of a stone tablet, or perhaps into the surface of an ancient stone monument. But they can...
The Cave of Letters is quite literally a cave of secrets. Rediscovered by archaeologists in the 1960s, its contents told of uprisings as well as everyday life in ancient Israel. What at first...
Biblical accounts of ancient military campaigns against the kingdoms of Judah and Israel have been confirmed by archaeologists in a very interesting new study. By recording geomagnetic fields in 21...
Stashed in a wall in Israel around the time of the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem 1,400 years ago, this gold coin hoard was minted during one of the bloodiest and paradigm changing periods of history...
Human beings have been using hallucinogenic or psychoactive drugs to experience pleasurable sensations or induce altered states of consciousness for thousands of years. It is possible this activity...
In the Bedouin town of Rahat, during pre-emptive excavations carried out before the building of a new neighborhood by the Israeli government, archaeologists stumbled upon a 1,200-year-old Islamic...
Since the dawn of humanity, countless civilizations have engaged in ritual sacrifice. Often, these sacrifices involved other humans, and were so common they were considered a normal aspect of life...
A rare and beautiful bronze coin from the reign of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius, who ruled as emperor between 138 and 161 AD, has been discovered off the coast of Haifa in Israel. The 1,850-year-old...
An 8,000-year-old "Mother Goddess" figurine has been uncovered at a Neolithic site in Israel. Why then, does she have “coffee-shaped” eyes? Located at the foot of the Golan Heights in the Jordan...
There is no smoke without a fire, or so they say, and a group of scientists are applying this thinking to develop new methods to seek out when and where the earliest fire use was. And they have come...
