Illuminated only by torches and camera lights, Egyptian laborers used crowbars and picks Wednesday to lift the lid off a 2,600-year-old limestone sarcophagus, exposing — for the first time since it was sealed in antiquity — a perfectly preserved mummy.

The mummy, wrapped in dark-stained canvas, is part of Egypt's latest archaeological discovery of a burial chamber 36 feet (11 meters) below ground at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara. The find, made three weeks ago, was publicly announced Monday and shown to reporters for the first time Wednesday.   SOURCE ARTICLE

Israeli authorities called it "the fraud of the century": fakes passed off as archaeological finds with biblical ties. The most notorious object was the James ossuary, a limestone box inscribed in Aramaic with the words "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." Five men were charged, and the trial has been dragging on for three years.

But it may all be crashing to a halt. A few weeks ago, the judge -- who is hearing the case without a jury -- told the government lawyers he's not convinced the objects are forgeries and suggested they consider dropping the matter. If the authorities can't make their case, experts warn that the antiquities market -- and a proof-hungry religious public -- inevitably will be fed groundbreaking biblical "discoveries" as far-fetched as Solomon's crown and Abraham's sandals.   FULL ARTICLE LINK

Announcing the 11th annual Bible and Archaeology Fest to be held November 21-23, 2008, in Boston, Massachusetts. Concurrent sessions over the three-day period will address the latest developments in the fields of early Christianity, the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient Israel and Biblical archaeology. Twenty leading scholars will convene from around the world to share their research with the public.

Session topics include such presentations as Is the New Testament Forged? by the ever-popular Dr. Bart Ehrman the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, The Archaeology of David and Solomon: Ancient Politics and Modern Controversies by Professor Ryan Byrne of Rhodes College, Excavating Mt. Zion: Past, Present and Future by Professor James Tabor of the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, When Were the Gospels Written? by Professor Mark Goodacre of Duke University, and Authors and Books in Biblical Times by Professor Alan Millard of the University of Liverpool, England. Professor Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill will introduce newcomers to the exciting field of archaeology in her lecture titled Archaeology 101: How We Dig, How We Date, What We Dig Up and Much More.

A plenary session will be held the first evening with Dr. James Charlesworth of the Princeton Theological Seminary. His lecture, titled Was Jesus Influenced by the Dead Sea Scrolls?, addresses one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century and their possible influence on Christianity’s most important figure. The final evening will feature a banquet and question-and-answer session with Hershel Shanks, founder of the Biblical Archaeology Society and editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, Dr. Amy-Jill Levine of Vanderbilt University and Dr. William Dever, retired professor of Near Eastern Archaeology and head of excavations at Gezer, Khirbet el-Kom and Jebel Qacaqir.   FULL PRESS RELEASE

Ruins of a Roman temple from the second century CE have recently been unearthed in the Zippori National Park. Above the temple are foundations of a church from the Byzantine period.

The excavations, which were undertaken by the Noam Shudofsky Zippori Expedition led by of Prof. Zeev Weiss of the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, shed light on the multi-cultural society of ancient Zippori (also known as Sepphoris).

The discovery indicated that Zippori, the Jewish capital of the Galilee during the Roman period, had a significant pagan population which built a temple in the heart of the city center.   FULL ARTICLE LINK