Browse Items (337 total)

This close-up of the name 'Israel,' written in Egyptian hieroglyphics, comes from an inscription written on granite during the reign of the Egyptian king Merneptah (1213-1203 BCE). This is the earliest preserved inscriptional evidence of Israel and…

The Merneptah Stele, pictured here, is an inscription written in hieroglyphs on granite during the reign of the Egyptian king Merneptah (1213-1203 BCE). It contains the earliest preserved inscriptional evidence of the name Israel (and perhaps…

This wonderfully preserved papyrus, probably created around 1,200 BCE, is one of the longest papyri that has been preserved from ancient Egypt (it is almost 138 feet long). It is divided into three parts; this section is in the part describing the…

This slide shows the second monumental gateway (called by the Greek word for gateway, 'pylon') of the great mortuary temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu in Thebes. To the left is a relief showing Ramses leading enemy captives, including a row of…

This map was found to be part of the mosaic floor of a 6th century CE church in Madaba, Jordan (east of the Dead Sea), and includes this map of Byzantine Jerusalem. A broad, column-lined street runs from the north gate south through the center of the…

This map was found to be part of the mosaic floor of a 6th century CE church in Madaba, Jordan (east of the Dead Sea), and includes this map of Byzantine Jerusalem. A broad, column-lined street runs from the north gate south through the center of the…

The Mamluks (1250–1517 CE) introduced many unique styles of architecture to Jerusalem. The vaulted doorway pictured here is an example of a finely crafted recessed stone arch encased with a klebo design of interlaced stone blocks of dark and light…

This detail photograph is from the 'Sidonian Tomb,' so called because of an inscription that says that the deceased were members of a Sidonian colony living at Maresha. In this photograph we see paintings of animals from Egypt, along with their Greek…

This photograph shows the entrance stairs leading down into the Sidonian Tomb at Maresha, so called because of an inscription that says that the deceased who were buried here were members of a Sidonian community in Maresha. The paintings on the walls…

This detail photograph is from the 'Sidonian Tomb' at Maresha, so called because of an inscription that says that the deceased were members of a Sidonian colony at Maresha. In this photograph we see a painting of a horse-mounted hunter accompanied by…

This photograph shows the back wall of the Sidonian Tomb at Maresha, called the 'Sidonian' Tomb because of an inscription designates the tomb's deceased as members of a Sidonian colony living at Maresha. Each of the openings on the walls is a…

This aerial photograph, looking southeast, shows the mountaintop fortress of Masada, located in the Judaean Desert, which rises 400 feet above the Dead Sea. King Herod (37-4 BCE) built two palaces on top, and the Northern Palace is visible here. Note…

This aerial close-up of the northern outcropping of the mountaintop fortress of Masada shows the three-tiered Northern Palace that was built by King Herod the Great (37-4 BCE), as well as storehouses and a bath house (at the top of the photograph).…

This aerial close-up of the northern outcropping of the mountaintop fortress of Masada shows the three-tiered Northern Palace that was built by Herod the Great, as well as storehouses and a bath house (at the top of the photograph). The Jewish…

The large stones visible in the foreground of this picture are catapult stones that were used in the Roman siege of the Judaean desert fortress of Masada (in 73 CE). They are obviously very large and very heavy, and were made by the Roman soldiers…

This photograph shows the synagogue within the fortress of Masada, which is located in the Judaean Desert (note the Dead Sea in the top right of the picture). At the end of the Jewish revolt against Rome in 70 CE, some of the rebels who were part of…

The areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea have played a pivotal role in the history of the ancient world. On the northern coast, from west to east, we encounter the regions of Spain, France, Italy, the Balkans, Greece, Turkey, and the Black Sea. On…

This photograph shows some of the common pottery from the Middle Bronze I period (2,000-1,900 BCE). The basin-shaped vessel in the foreground center with the four pinched corners is an ancient lamp. Oil would be put inside and wicks would run through…

This photograph shows Montfort Castle ('mountain castle' in Latin), which was built by the Teutonic Order (a German order patterned after the Knights Templar) in the early 13th century. It is located in western Galilee protecting one of the local…

This image shows the burial-temple complex of Ramesses III (1186–1155 BCE), one of the last powerful Egyptian kings.
The walls display an impressive array of inscriptions, hieroglyphics, and decorated reliefs. Some tell the story of the rise of the…

This photograph shows modern Samaritans, one of whom is holding a Torah scroll, on Mt. Gerizim. The Samaritans still practice their religion in much the same way that ancient Jews practiced their religion prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70…

This aerial photograph looking north at Mt. Gerizim, which is located in the northern part of the Central Hill, shows the remains of the Samaritan Temple. The city of Shechem sat in the valley below (a portion of which can be seen on the right and…

These copper objects are part of one of the most famous hoards of objects ever found in the region. The hoard consisted of over 400 items that were found hidden in a cave high in a cliff overlooking Nahal Mishmar, a seasonal river bed near En Gedi,…

This photograph of the modern city of Nazareth, in Lower Galilee, shows the Church of the Annunciation, which was originally built in the 4th century CE by Helen, the mother of the emperor Constantine. It stands over the place where, according to…

This 6 inch-high clay figurine dates to the Late Neolithic Age (6,000-5,000 BCE), which is the same time that the earliest baked clay vessels were being made. It is the only complete one of its kind from this period, although fragments have been…

This bronze bull was found on a hilltop southwest of Mt. Gilboa, all the way at the northern end of the central hill. When the site was excavated, excavators found an elliptical wall, 70 feet in diameter, inside of which was a large, roughly hewn…

This photograph shows a simple one-room 'round house' in the Negev Desert that was built around 2,000 BCE. The pillar in the middle of the room supported the roof. It seems that they were used only for sleeping quarters: all cooking ovens and other…

This photograph shows a reconstruction of how the roof was probably built on a Round House. Wooden beams from the trunk of a nearby tamarisk tree were laid like spokes radiating from the central pillar to the outer wall, and broad, flat stones were…

This photograph shows Nimrud's Castle, which sits on top of a steep hill in the northern Golan Heights, underneath Mt. Hermon. It guarded one of the roads from Tyre to Damascus. This slide looks southwest; in the background is the Huleh Valley and…

This photograph shows a close-up of the fortifications around Nimrod's Castle, including the main defensive wall and its rounded towers. The castle is located in the modern-day northern Golan Heights, on the southern slopes of Mt. Hermon, and guards…

This detail photograph of the Black Obelisk of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III (858-824 BCE) shows King Jehu, son of King Omri, kissing the ground at Shalmaneser's feet. The divine symbols of the god Shamash (the winged disk) and the goddess Ishtar…

This detail photograph of the Black Obelisk of the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III (858-824 BCE) shows an inscription (at the top, in cuneiform script), part of which reads: "The tribute of Jehu (Iaua), son of Omri (Humri); I received from him silver,…

This detail photograph of the Black Obelisk of the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III (858-824 BCE) shows an inscription (at the top, in cuneiform script) that reads, in part, 'The tribute of Jehu (Iaua), son of Omri (Humri); I received from him silver,…

This detail photograph of the Black Obelisk of the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III (858-824 BCE) shows an inscription (at the top, in cuneiform script) that reads, in part, 'The tribute of Jehu (Iaua), son of Omri (Humri); I received from him silver,…

The Black Obelisk of the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III (858-824 BCE) was carved on all four sides and five registers of reliefs illustrate the obeisance of four rulers from Shalmaneser's western campaigns. It is important for the history of…

This six-sided prism of baked clay preserves the annals of Sennacherib, who was the king of Assyria from 704-681 BCE. It was written around 689 BCE in the Akkadian language (and cuneiform script). The text contains the records of Sennacherib's eight…

Nebi Samuel

These hills are part of the northern Central Hill of Palestine. This view shows the valley of Liban, which is in the region that was Samaria in antiquity, and the modern village of Sawiya (on the far hill). The modern road follows the ancient route…

This 12 inch-high figurine depicts a female figure seated on a stool and holding a milk churn on her head. The milk churn is a miniature replica of ceramic churns known from this period. It was found together with several other apparently ritual…

This map shows the number of Arab villages on the eve of the arrival of the first Zionist colonies in the late 1800s. As you can see, Palestine was widely and fairly densely populated, which conflicts with Zionist claims about the land being largely…

This map shows the expansion of the Hasmonaean kingdom in the period between 160 and 76 BCE. The capital of the kingdom was always in Judaea, colored light blue. The Hasmonaean ruler Jonathan (160-142 BCE) added the yellow portions; his brother Simon…

This map of Israel/Palestine in the time of Jesus shows the locations of Bethlehem and Nazareth, the two central sites associated with the birth of Jesus. Note also the anachronism in the previous statement: the region was not called 'Palestine'…

Shepherds and flocks of sheep, as pictured here, are frequent themes in the Hebrew Bible – David, who’s native town was Bethlehem was a Shepherd. Goats, sheep, and shepherds also comprise the socio-economic context in some Gospel stories.

This maps shows the Persian divisions (also known as provinces, or pahva in Persian) of Israel/Palestine: Samaria, Judah, Idumaea, Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab.

This map shows the extent of the Persian Empire in 500 BCE. With a capital in Persepolis (down and to the right of the center of the map), they expanded their borders all the way into India in the east and to Egypt, North Africa, and Macedonia in the…

This map shows the eastern coastal cities of ancient Phoenicia (modern Lebanon) and its natural resources. These ancient cities were loosely connected and politically independent, but they shared a common Canaanite culture. During the Iron Age…

This is a portrait of an Ottoman soldier. He carries a long rifle and has a pouch for gunpowder. The hat on his head is called a tarboosh.

Shown here is a potter working from a shop in the southern part of the Central Hill, spinning a wheel to shape clay into a pot. Behind him, one can see finished examples before they are fired in a kiln to remove moisture, hardening the clay into…

This artist's rendition of a cult structure at Horvat Qitmit in the eastern Negev Desert has been identified as being Edomite, and as dating to the 7th-6th centuries BCE, on the basis of its pottery. In addition to the pottery, many fragments of clay…

This photograph of the Qumran settlement, taken from a nearby cave, shows the marl terrace where caves 4 and 5 were found, the settlement, and the Dead Sea in the background.