1096 - Nazareth Village and the Book & the Spade Tour

Nazareth Village is an authentically reconstructed 2000-year old living history museum in the heart of modern Nazareth (population 70,000). We've not included it in past tours, it's actually a fairly recent facility. But I'm excited that we will be spending an afternoon there during our 25th anniversary Book & the Spade tour next February.

In past programs we've featured Stephen Pfann, one of the archaeologists whose excavations have helped establish the authentic foundation for this attraction, as well as Shirley Roth, the executive director. On this week's program, we check back in with Shirley to find out what's new in anticipation of next February's visit.

I'm particularly excited about finally having the opportunity to visit Nazareth Village. From everything I've read and heard it seems to be one of the best opportunities available to really see life as it was during the time of Jesus, 2,000 years ago.

Traditionally many tours have spent only a couple of hours in Nazareth, for a short visit to the Basilica of the Annunciation, which is well worth a visit. Now there's a reason to spend at least a half day there and even overnight, which is what we plan to do, for the first time on a Book & Spade tour.

We'd like to invite you to join us on our tour. If you have an interest, please let me know.

1094-1095 Identifying Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut was one of the most prolific builders among the ancient Pharaohs of Egypt. Her Temple at Deir el-Bahri is one of the most beautiful architectural complexes of antiquity. But she is best known for ruling as a male Pharaoh even though she was a woman. And once her rule ended, her successor did everything he could to wipe out the remains of her rule.

Perhaps even more interesting, for our purposes, Hatshepsut was a contemporary of the Hebrew prophet Moses (if you're going by the early date of the Exodus, around 1440 BC). Some have even speculated that Hatshepsut was the daughter of Pharaoh who rescued the baby Moses from the Nile River.

With the news from archaeologist Zahi Hawass that the mummy of Hatshepsut has been identified, we thought it was time for a conversation with Egyptologist Charles Aling. Professor Aling is a history professor at Northwestern College. He has excavated in Egypt. And he is the president of the Institute for Biblical Archaeology, for whom I edit the quarterly magazine ARTIFAX.

Breaking news: the British Museum has announced that one of the many cuneiform tablets in its collection has just been discovered to contain the name of a Babylonian official named in Jeremiah, chapter 39.

More breaking news: once again unsupervised digging is being reported on the Temple Mount. Photos and story here. Protests are lodged.

1093 - Philistine Writing

The Philistines of the Old Testament picked up the alphabetic Canaanite script rather quickly, according to the archaeological evidence. The writing system they brought with them when they settled into the land of Canaan is still pretty much a mystery. On this week's program we report on two Bible scholars who believe they may have found evidence of the early Philistine writing.