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.
Rachel's tomb, located south of Jerusalem on the outskirts of Bethlehem in the West Bank, is widely considered the third holiest site in Judaism. Considered the burial spot of Biblical "eternal mother" Rachel, it's marked by a building shaped like a cube topped with a dome. The shrine is a popular pilgramage destination for Jews, particularly women unable to give birth, although access is severly restricted.
Because of security tensions, the shrine is surrounded by a fortified compound, and seperated from the rest of Bethlehem by an extension of the West Bank separation barrier. Only bullet-proof buses are allowed direct access. Palestinians refer to the tomb as Bilal ibn Rabah, and claim it has Muslim origins. They consider the placement of the wall as a land grab, and reject Israeli claims that it's a defensive structure intended to keep attackers out.
In 2010, the shrine was controversially added to Israel's list of national heritage sites by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Known by Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs, and venerated by Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque, this site is a network of subterranean caves in the city of Hebron in the West Bank, located beneath a large mosque/synagogue compound. Fiercely disputed by these two faiths, the shrine has seen much controversy and violence over the centuries.
The tension remains today. Hebron is a major flashpoint because it’s the only location in the West Bank where Jews, some of them extremists, live among Palestinians. Muslims control about 81% of the compound, and Jews the other 21%. They're kept apart in specially designated areas. The waqf - a traditional "trust" holding land for Islamic religious purposes - controls the site. Tourists are allowed to enter, but security - controlled by the Israeli Defence Force - is very tight.
In 2010, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu provoked controvery by adding the Cave of the Patriarchs to Israel's list of national heritage sites.
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.
Post-Doctoral Fellow - Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology at Brown University
Dr. Morag Kersel is a post-doctoral fellow at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology at Brown University, in Rhode Island USA. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and a masters degree in historic preservation from the University of Georgia.
Dr. Kersel has done extensive work on studying the illegal antiquity trade in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories. She found evidence that licensed antiquity dealers, in Israel, were selling recently looted artefacts by means of a registry numbers exchange scheme. Her work has also shed light on the motivation of looters to loot. While these include money, other reasons are recreational and, in the West Bank, resistance to Israeli occupation.
She has also done extensive fieldwork, excavating in Egypt, Greece, Jordan, Israel and Turkey. This includes the Cyclades, where her team unearthed nearly 500 fragments of figurines. The fact that they were uncovered in an archaeological excavation means that archaeologists will be able to gain a new understanding into what this figures mean. Beforehand most of the figures from these islands were found in private collections and lack archaeological provenance.
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:
There are few ancient history exhibitions that actually lead people to take to the streets in protest - but the Dead Sea Scrolls is one of them.
Last Friday a few dozen protesters took to the streets outside the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto to protest against the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit.
At the same time a group of supporters of the exhibit staged a counter-protest right across the street.
Videos, from both sides of the protests, have recently migrated onto youtube.
It’s the latest chapter in a series of events that have been playing out in the city since the exhibit was announced last autumn.
Three new ancient egyptian tombs dating back almost 3500 years have been discovered near Luxor by an archaeological mission lead by Dr. Zahi Hawass. One of the newly discovered tombs belonged to Amun-Em-Opet, Supervisor of Hunters and dates back to shortly before King Akhenaten's reign. Entrances to 2 undecorated tombs have been found to the north-west of Amun-Em-Opet's. The newly discovered were unearthed at the necropolis of Dra Abu el-Naga, on Luxor's west bank.
A researcher has uncovered evidence of a widespread scam in Israel that results in tourists buying recently 
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.
There are few ancient history exhibitions that actually lead people to take to the streets in protest - but the 
Three new ancient egyptian tombs dating back almost 3500 years have been discovered near Luxor by an archaeological mission lead by 
