Browse Items (337 total)

The ancient site of Yiftael, in Lower Galilee, has one of the best preserved Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age I (3150-2850) villages in Galilee. This photograph shows the foundations of the round or elliptical houses that comprised a room that was…

The Yarmuk river flows east-to-west, forming the modern political border between Syria and Jordan. The Yarmuk empties into the Jordan River just south of the Sea of Galilee, where it also marks the border between Jordan and Israel. The Yarmuk River…

Albright (1891-1971) was an American archaeologist and biblical scholar. He became the foremost proponent of “biblical archaeology,” a movement that attempted to authenticate events, people, and ideas found in the Bible through scientific,…

This famous photograph shows the handshake between Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yassir Arafat, the Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, after signing the Declaration of Principles of the Oslo Peace Accords at the…

This photograph shows the cliff-side monastery called Choziba or St. George's Monastery, which is in the Wadi Qelt, approximately 3 miles west of Jericho, in the Judaean Desert. The monastery was established in the early fifth century, during the…

This is a painting of Vasco de Gama, Admiral of the Seas of Arabia, Persia, India, and all the Orient for the Portuguese crown. He lived from ca. 1460-1524 and he is known for the leading the first sea voyage that circumnavigated Africa and found the…

The Sumerian King List is the name given to a traditional canon of the early kings of Mesopotamia, thought by some scholars to have been composed in the time of Utu-hegal, a king of the city of Uruk who restored Sumerian independence after the…

This photograph of a waterfall was taken near the modern town of Metulla, at the northernmost reaches of the Huleh Valley (where the Huleh begins to climb up toward Mt. Hermon and the Anti-Lebanon mountain range). It illustrates the lush, watery…

Northern Galilee was known as 'Upper Galilee' in antiquity because its elevation was higher than Southern Galilee. Today its central portion, called the Huleh Valley (visible in the foreground of this picture), is a rich agricultural valley…

This photo shows a small one-room temple enclosure near the copper mines of Timna in the eastern Sinai Desert. It was originally built to the Egyptian goddess Hathor in the 14th or 13th century BCE. Later in the 13th or early 12th century BCE the…

This faience mask, discovered at the Temple of Hathor near the copper mines of Timna in the eastern Sinai Desert, was made to be a representation of the goddess. The eyes are characteristically Egyptian, and clearly were colored. It was one of more…

Tiberias was founded by Herod Antipas in 20 CE and has been continuously occupied since then. It is located on the west shore of the Sea of Galilee. At the top of the picture one sees the modern city of Tiberias which sits on the ruins of the Arab…

This aerial photograph, looking north, shows the modern city of Tiberias. Tiberias was founded by Herod Antipas in 20 CE and has been continuously occupied since then. It is located on the west shore of the Sea of Galilee. At the top of the picture…

This photograph shows a page from the Codex Vaticanus, which was created in the 4th century CE and is arguably the most important ancient manuscript of the Greek Bible. Codex Vaticanus originally contained both the Old and the New Testaments, but…

This map shows the regional divisions (eparchies) after the Battle of Paneas (198 BCE), when the Seleucids seized control of Israel/Palestine: Phoenicia, Samaria, Paralia, Idumaea, and Galaaditis.

This map shows the provinces of Roman control around the Mediterranean. The red circle is around Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire, and the arrow points to the city of Constantinople, which is where Constantine moved the capital of the Empire in…

This map shows the gradual expansion of the Roman Empire around the Mediterranean between the years 100 BCE and 150 CE. Red areas indicate Roman control in 100 BCE; yellow areas indicate the extent of the empire at the time of Julius Caesar's death…

This map shows the regional divisions (hyparchies) in the Ptolemaic Period (i.e., 312-198 BCE): Phoenicia, Galilee, Samaria, Judaea, Perea, Ammonitis, Moabitis, and Idumaea.

How should one define the geographic entity known as the “Middle East”? Scholars have diverging views based on political, demographic, and historical factors. The natural topographic and geological features of the region provide a helpful starting…

This map shows an aerial view of the Mediterranean Sea and surrounding regions. The Black Sea is directly above the eastern part of the Mediterranean and the Caspian Sea is further east. The European continent is north of the Mediterranean, with…

This map represents the military movements in the Mediterranean and the Middle East in the 13th century CE, including the 7th Crusade of King Louis IX in 1248 CE from France to Egypt (red) and the move of the Mongols in the 13th century, emanating…

Paul was a Jew from Tarsus (modern Turkey). He embarked on three journeys to spread his ideas about the end of the world. His views were shaped by the Jewish scriptures which anticipated a time of divine judgment on all evil. At this time the world…

This map shows the areas of Israel/Palestine that revolted against Rome in 66 CE (also known as 'the Great Revolt'), as well as the paths of attacks and counter-attacks that occurred during the four years of fighting. Pink areas (Galilee, Perea, and…

This map shows the divisions of the Hellenistic kingdoms after the Battle of Paneas in 198 BCE. After this point, the land of Israel/Palestine was controlled by the Seleucids. The Ptolemiac Kingdom continued to occupy Egypt and North Africa.

Tell Beit Mirsim is a site in southern Israel, about 13 miles southwest of Hebron. Albright excavated this site on multiple occasions in the 1920s and 30s. He is shown at the top of the picture with a white hat. Local Arabs worked with Albright on…

Tel-Aviv has become today the most important economic center of Israel. Jewish immigrants began settling in the area in the 1880’s, but the city was not officially established until the early 1900’s. It is outlined in this image by the high-rise…

The remains of this well-preserved house temple at Tel Qasile, near the exit of the Yarkon river to the Mediterranean in central Israel, dates to the 12th-10th century BCE. Excavators recovered a number of cult objects such as incense stands and…

These pottery stands are shown in situ (as they were left in the 10th century BCE), in a shrine next to the main sanctuary. The stands held bowls, which were found with them. They were used in the temple complex for ritual offering of food to the…

This photograph shows an underground tunnel that was part of Megiddo's water system, which was built in the 9th century BCE. Water was a precious defensive commodity - if a city had any hope of surviving a siege, they had to make sure that their…

This stone-lined pit is 21 feet deep and 34 feet across and was a municipal grain storage silo between ca. 780-650 BCE. There were two winding staircases that went down into it (one of which is visible on the right side of the photograph). Though no…

This inscription is written in the Akkadian language that used a cuneiform (literally, 'wedge-shaped') script for letters. The earliest examples of writing from Israel/Palestine are in this script and language. This particular fragment is from…

The earliest writing preserved from Israel/Palestine are in the form of cuneiform on clay tablets like this one. The cuneiform script and the languages that were written in it (like Akkadian) were developed in Mesopotamia. This tablet fragment…

The round stone mound in this photo—a Canaanite outdoor altar—is also referred to as a 'high place'. It was built around 2,700 BCE and used up to around 1,800 BCE. A 'high place' ('bamah' in the Hebrew Bible) was a place used for worship, in part…

This aerial photograph shows a huge outdoor altar, up to 5 feet high, that was built in the Early Bronze Age (2850-2650 BCE). The altar was accessed via the steps on the left side of the photo, and excavators found pottery and bones surrounding the…

This aerial photograph shows the site of ancient Megiddo, the most important city of Lower Galilee in antiquity. It sits at a major crossroads at the western end of the Jezreel Valley. Megiddo was inhabited from the Pre-pottery Neolithic period until…

This beautiful urn was made by a well known Greek potter and vase painter around 450 BCE. It was imported to Judah and found in the ruins of a Persian grain storage center at Tel Jemmeh. The reason that an elegant urn from Greece ended up in Judah is…

The area with pillars in this photo shows the ancient ruins of a storehouse that dates to the 9th century BCE. The large rooms in the foreground date to the time of Jeroboam II (793-753 BCE). In the background is the snow-covered peak of Mt. Hermon.

This large rectangular building with its double row of pillars was a royal storehouse from the 9th century BCE. Other storehouses like it have been discovered at Megiddo and at Tel Be'er Sheva.

This photograph shows an intact shrine from inside the Holy of Holies of a small broadhouse temple (i.e., the entrance is on the broad side of the building). It dates to the 13th century BCE. The stones were all cut from basalt, a local rock. Eight…

Hazor, an ancient city and tel that sits at the southern end of the Huleh Valley in eastern upper Galilee, was one of the largest and most important cities in the region from ca 1,900 BCE until 732 BCE when it was destroyed by the Assyrian king…

This image shows Tel Hazor looking west. The six-chambered gate is near the center of the image. There appear to be eight chambers, but the front square sections are remains of two tower foundations, guarding the entrance. Notice where the “casemate”…

This is an aerial image of the remains of Tel Hazor (Tell el-Qedah), an ancient city north of the Sea of Galilee, in the Hula Valley of northern Israel. At the top left of this picture, the square-like stone structures are the remains of a…

All three of these vessels can be dated to the late 6th or early 5th century BCE, during the first decades of Persian control of Palestine. However, pottery forms do not change simply because the political control does. As a result, these forms look…

This finely worked sculpture of a bearded man wearing a sort of a head cover is typical of the high-quality Hellenistic finds from the port city of Dor.

These three figurines of pregnant women wearing Egyptian wigs and holding one hand on their stomachs are typical of figurines found at other Phoenician sites in Lebanon, Cyprus, and Israel in the Persian period. Scholars usually assume that they were…

This photograph shows one of the main streets of the 3rd century BCE city of Dor. This phase of the city was built under King Ptolemy II (285-246 BCE) on a Hippodamian plan (i.e., a checkerboard pattern of city blocks) and had an advanced sewage…

This bone pendant is a typical depiction of the god Bes, an Egyptian god who protected pregnant women. It would have been the central ornament on a necklace.

The excavations at Tel Dor, on the coast of Israel between Tel Aviv and Haifa, are barely visibly on the rocky promontory in the low center of this photograph. Dor was one of the Phoenician harbors in antiquity, first settled in the 15th century BCE…

This photo shows the fully preserved arched gateway at Tel Dan, which was made of mud bricks and is the first such structure found intact in Israel. In the Early Bronze Age, sun-dried mud bricks began to replace the stones that had been used for city…

This view of Tel Beit Shemesh (the archaeological ruins in the foreground), an Israelite town during the Iron Age, gives a feel of the transition from the Coastal plain to the Central Hill. The peaks of the Central Hill, running from north to south…