Let the Stones Speak

After three weeks of excavation, our work at Jerusalem’s royal quarter has ended. We had a successful and productive season in an area of the Ophel that has not been touched since Dr. Eilat Mazar’s 2009-2010 excavations. In today’s episode, Let the Stones Speak co-host Christopher Eames interviews excavation director Prof. Yosef Garfinkel about his perspective on the season and the future of the site.

Over a century of excavations at Tel Megiddo have finally unearthed a construction layer from the late seventh century B.C.E. and with it the largest assemblage of Egyptian pottery ever discovered in the southern Levant. This is at the precise time the Bible says King Josiah traveled to Megiddo to war against Egypt. On today’s program, host Brent Nagtegaal talks about the new discovery as well as the broader biblical context for King Josiah’s last stand at Megiddo. https://armstronginstitute.org/1221-the-egyptian-army-at-megiddo-a-window-into-king-josiahs-last-stand [https://armstronginstitute.org/1221-the-egyptian-army-at-megiddo-a-window-into-king-josiahs-last-stand]

On April 2, renewed excavation began in Jerusalem's biblical royal quarter in preparation for reconstruction work to highlight the ancient city's famed past. The three-to- four-week excavation is the first return to the area, known as the Ophel, since the excavations led by the late Dr. Eilat Mazar in 2009–2010. This current excavation is led by Hebrew University's Prof. Yosef Garfinkel, staffed by the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology (AIBA) and funded by AIBA alongside Daniel Mintz and Meredith Berkman. On today's program, host Christopher Eames interviews aiba staff member Brent Nagtegaal who was on the 2009 excavation and is helping coordinate the excavation this year. https://armstronginstitute.org/1217-excavating-the-ophel-water-gate [https://armstronginstitute.org/1217-excavating-the-ophel-water-gate]

The Temple Mount Sifting Project has produced some remarkable finds. The discoveries are diverse—from arrowheads to astragals—and unique, including items made of gold! Each discovery, just like the sifting project itself, makes a great contribution to the archaeological record of Jerusalem. During their December interview, project co-director Zachi Dvira gave Let the Stones Speak co-host Christopher Eames an inside look at some of these finds. You can now see these for yourself in this second installment of that interview.

In a first for Israel, a tomb complex holding the bones of about 60 individuals was recently uncovered in the Negev region of southern Israel. On today's program, Let the Stones Speak host Brent Nagtegaal speaks with Israel Antiquities Authority senior researcher and Negev expert Dr. Tali Erickson-Gini about the unique discovery. https://armstronginstitute.org/1189-2500-year-old-tomb-complex-discovered-at-critical-crossroads-in-southern-israel [https://armstronginstitute.org/1189-2500-year-old-tomb-complex-discovered-at-critical-crossroads-in-southern-israel]