Hippos Sussita Mosaics

With Clyde Billington

Hippos/Sussita, one of the New Testament cities of the decapolis, is the home to at least a half dozen Byzantine churches which have been, or are being, excavated. The latest report from these excavations concerned beautiful mosaics found in one of the churches. The mosaics, among other things, portray Jesus and the feeding of the 5,000, which occurred (somewhere) nearby. We discuss this discovery and others that have been reported in the latest issue of ARTIFAX, our biblical archaeology news magazine, including a beautiful staircase at Hazor which is believed to lead to a plaza and a palace. Then there's the Goliath Wall at Gath, a massive city wall from the time of David and Goliath that is twice as thick as the later walls that were excavated on top of it. And finally, year-round excavations have begun at Assos, a city along the coast of western Turkey that was visited by the Apostle Paul (Acts 20:13). Archaeologists have been working here for 38 years, but are now picking up the pace, to make the site more interesting to visitors.

tags: Gath Mosaics Hippos Sussita Byzantine Churches Hazor Goliath Feeding 5000 Wal Assos staircase

Governor of the City Seal

With Clyde Billington

Reviewing archaeology news reported in the latest issue of ARTIFAX, we cover a seal impression (bulla) which has the inscription, "Governor of the City." This conforms to two separate scriptural mentions of the Governor of the City of Jerusalem. This seal impression was found by Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists working in the western wall plaza area, near the Temple Mount. Also in this program, we discuss several reports from Egypt, including a new investigation of King Tut's tomb and the discovery of a void inside of the great pyramid. And finally, a few words about the great work done by Andrews University archaeologists over the past 50 years at the site of Tall Hisban in Jordan.

tags: Jerusalem Heshbon King Tut Western Wall Governor of the City Tall Hisban Andrews University

The Western Wall Plaza and the Temple Mount Sifting Project

With Gabriel Barkay

In this continuation of the previous program's discussion, archaeologist Gabriel Barkay discusses recent archaeology done in the Western Wall Plaza area and gives us an update on the Temple Mount Sifting Project.

tags: Temple Mount Western Wall Plaza Sifting Project

Jerusalem Cardo and Samaritan Inn

With Prof. Keith Schoville

On our last Holyland Study Tour in 2008 we saw some excavations going on along the western edge of the Western Wall Plaza. We had already had reports of discoveries in that area and finally we have a report on the results of the excavation in the January-February issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. So we discussed the article on this week’s program, along with two more articles in the latest issue: the story of the Good Samaritan Inn Mosaic Museum, and possible evidence for Israel in Egypt that predates the Merneptah stele (More on that to come in the weeks ahead).

tags: Jerusalem Cardo Good Samaritan Merneptah Stele Mosaics