Last year, Dr Zahi Hawass spoke to Heritage Key in a video interview about the restoration work being carried out at the Moses Ben Maimon (Maimonides) synagogue in Cairo by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (see the video at the bottom of this page). With the project nearing completion, the SCA chief has today announced that a planned celebration to mark the reopening of the restored monument has been cancelled.
Dr Hawass explained that the decision comes in the aftermath of Israeli authorities prohibiting worshippers from praying in the Al-Aqsa mosque in the West Bank.
A researcher has uncovered evidence of a widespread scam in Israel that results in tourists buying recently looted artefacts without their knowledge. Buying antiquities in Israel is legal if they were found before 1978, the year a major antiquities law was passed. There are numerous dealers in Israel, who are required to register with the Israel Antiquities Authority and keep an inventory of the artefacts they have for sale. Dr. Morag Kersel, of Brown University in the United States, has been studying the illegal antiquities trade in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories.
According to the Hebrew Bible Solomon, son of David and Bathsheba, was a King of Israel reigning between 971-931 BC. He is described as being the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king which followed the split of Irael into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. According to the Bible Solomon built the first temple of worship to God in Jerusalem. He was known as a wise and powerful king who worshipped God, however Solomon is best known for his sinful, adulterous act against God by having an affair with the Queen of Sheba.
Submitted by Sean Williams on Tue, 12/22/2009 - 08:00
The discovery of a 'Jesus-Era' man buried outside Jerusalem, Israel, has cast doubt on the famous Turin Shroud. The man, who is thought to have suffered from both tuberculosis and leprosy, was buried in a cave called the 'Tomb of the Shroud', part of the 'Field of Blood' (Akeldama), a 1st century AD cemetery in the Lower Hinnom Valley (Gehenna) near Jerusalem. The preservation of bodies in the region is extremely rare, thanks to high humidity levels underground.
Archaeologists from USC, UCLA and the Middle East have developed a searchable online map that details 7,000 archeological sites on the West Bank and Jerusalem - many of them never publicy disclosed. The map - an effort to identify Israeli archaeological activity since 1967, when Israel took over the West Bank and East Jerusalem - is freely accesibly online at the USC's Digital Library.
Built over several years through hundreds of hours of research, bolstered by freedom of information requests and, when necessary, a lawsuit in Israeli courts, the Web site provides interactive satellite maps showing locations of about 7,000 archaeological sites in the region, including:
Jerusalem is one of the oldest, most famous and most controversial cities in the world. It has existed since the Stone Age, and in that time been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times.
Currently it is the capital of Israel (although the United Nations do not recognise it as such), the country's largest city and the spiritual centre of the Jewish people. Jerusalem also has a wealth of Christian sites, and is seen as the third city of Islam. The city is one of the key issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem, which - up until the Six-Day War of 1967 - was held by Jordan, remains a bone of bloody contention between Israelis and Arabs.
Sites of ancient significance in Jerusalem are almost too many to list. Most are situated in the space of just 0.35 square miles, in the Old City. They include the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque.
Around 73% of the city's modern population is Israeli, the rest is predominately Palestinian Arab.
We all get a bit ticked off when someone else uses our favourite coffee mug. But for the Jews in ancient Jerusalem, keeping their best cups sacred was apparently a matter of the gravest importance.
A stone drinking receptacle dating from around the time of Jesus Christ, found recently on historic Mount Zion, has shed light on strict religious ritual when it came to mugs in Biblical times. It bears tens lines of strange script scratched into its side, which – while not yet deciphered – are nevertheless believed to indicate that the cup wasn’t to be casually used by just anybody.
A researcher has uncovered evidence of a widespread scam in Israel that results in tourists buying recently 
The discovery of a 'Jesus-Era' man buried outside 
Archaeologists from USC, UCLA and the Middle East have developed a searchable online map that details 7,000 archeological sites on the West Bank and Jerusalem - many of them never publicy disclosed. The map - an effort to identify Israeli archaeological activity since 1967, when Israel took over the West Bank and East Jerusalem - is freely accesibly online at the USC's Digital Library.
