/This Week in the Ancient Near East

This Week in the Ancient Near East

The podcast that takes archaeology precisely as seriously as it deserves. Two real professors of archaeology and one guy from a fake institution discuss cutting edge archaeological discoveries at a high professional level using technical knowledge and stuff. A scholarly podcast for the discerning listener, it’s handmade, artisanal, and bespoke! Critics say, “A cheeky and irreverent take,” and “the good kind of shenanigans.” Other critics say, “damaging to archaeology,” and “deeply discreditable.” High-level discourse informed by neo-Brechtian, Deleuzian, or post-post processual theory, or just more BS from a couple of bored, middle aged hacks? You be the judge! The Panelists JP Dessel is the Steinfeld Associate Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and History at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He is the author of Lahav I. Pottery and Politics The Halif Terrace Site 101 and Egypt in the Fourth Millennium B.C.E. (2009). Rachel Hallote is Professor of History and coordinator of the Jewish Studies Program at Purchase College, SUNY. She is a co-author of Photographs of the American Palestine Exploration Society (2012) and author of Bible, Map and Spade (2006). Alex Joffe is Director of the Bob and Ray Institute of Archaeology at the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople. This is fake institution. But he is the author of several real books and many actual articles, most recently ”Notes on the Mesopotamian Energy Economy” (2025).

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All I Want for Chanukah is a New Hasmonean Wall in Jerusalem, or, Shameless Holiday Tie In Edition

Dec 15, 2025·—

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The discovery in Jerusalem of a big section of the late second century BCE Hasmonean city wall from has us asking the usual questions. Actually the reverse of the usual questions: not who put it up but who took it down...

Does Anybody at Iron Age Arad Really Know What Time It Is? Or, If You Can Write the Weekly Invoices, Can You Write the Bible?

Dec 1, 2025·—

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At the 6th century BCE Arad fortress Judean soldiers waited patiently for resupply every week. But new research shows that a week was really six days, which added up to a 360 day year. This may not have been a problem...

To Live and Die at Late Bronze Age Yavne Yam, or, I Dream of a Gini with a Jar Full of Opium

Nov 17, 2025·—

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A wealthy Late Bronze Age tomb at Yavne Yam on the coast of Israel has us talking about trade, class, and real estate. How did folks at a pokey little port afford all that stuff, not to mention all the opium? Is this...

A Dam Grows in Iron Age Jerusalem, Or, When the Levites Break

Nov 3, 2025·—

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The discovery of a dam in Iron Age Jerusalem speaks highly about the Judean state’s ability to organize public works projects to meet evolving public needs. The fact that they put their capital in Jerusalem in the first...

The Puzzling Case of Children’s Rattles in Early Bronze Age Syria, or, Here Kid, Shake This, Mom and Dad are Working

Oct 20, 2025·—

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A new article has us talking about toys. Did the potters at Early Bronze Age Hama make rattles for their kids out of love or to maximize investment in their future labor output? It’s an episode that cuts to the heart of...

Banking on Silver Hoards in the Bronze Age Levant, or “Baby You are So Money You Don't Even Know it.”

Oct 6, 2025·—

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New research on Bronze Age silver hoards in the Levant has us wondering about the origins of money. What is it about those shiny and attractive metals that makes us love them so? And sure, you can bury metal in a hole...

Does a Tiny Find Sort of Illuminate a Biblical Figure and Judean Bureacracy? or, Yedayahu, We Hardly Knew You

Sep 22, 2025·—

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An itsy bitsy seal impression with the name of a Biblical figure raises the perennial question, was Judah robust and bureaucratic, or was it tiny and only occasionally literate? How robust do little tiny statelets get...

The Tales Ancient Scripts Can Tell, If We could Only Decipher Them, Like the South Arabian Script a Guy Actually Did Decipher Recently, or, Love Languages Lost (and Found)

Sep 8, 2025·—

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The recent decipherment of the South Arabian Dhofari script from the first millennium BCE reminds us that we don’t know as much about ancient peoples and languages as we think. And finding a completely new language in a...

The Two Faces of Hatshepsut’s Statues, or, Studies in the Archaeology of Iconoclasm and Pothole Repair

Aug 25, 2025·—

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Thuthmosis III had a difficult relationship with Hatshepsut, who was, after all, both his aunt and stepmother. And Pharaoh. But does that mean he had the faces on her statues smashed? Or did he just want them turned off...

Roman Pigs in Judea, or Close Encounters of the Swinish Kind

Aug 11, 2025·—

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Romans sure loved their pigs. Soldiers were even buried with pig jawbones at Legio in the Jezreel Valley after military feasts (which doesn’t sound kosher). They brought pig power to the Levant, but hey, what did the...

How Phoenicians Turned Into Carthaginians But Forgot Their Genes, or, The Other Phoenician Scheme

Jul 21, 2025·—

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We like to think of the Carthaginians as the western extension of the Phoenicians, but Punic genetics suggest that they were primarily descended from local peoples. Did that create identity crises for them? How about...

Bronze Age Tin From Cornwall to the Carmel, or How Tinny was My Valley

Jul 7, 2025·—

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Bronze is a metal so popular that it has an entire age named after. But to make bronze you need tin otherwise you have squishy copper tools and, well, no Bronze Age. We’ve looked high and low for the source and now it...

The Dead Sea Scrolls Computer Dating Service, Or, Sometimes Things Are Slightly Older Than They Look

Jun 23, 2025·—

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New research combines radiocarbon dating and artificial intelligence to examine the Dead Sea Scrolls, some of which turn out to be a bit older than expected. Is this a big rewrite of history or small rejiggering?...

Diving into the Mikvah at Ostia, Or, When is a Pool Not a Pool?

Jun 9, 2025·—

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The discovery of a mikvah or Jewish ritual bath in a house at Ostia Antica, the port of Rome, shows that Jews brought their practices wherever they went. After all, a ritual bath leaves you spiritually clean on the...

Beads, Bangles, and Bowls in Iron Age Judah, Or, Tchotckes Make the Man (and Woman)

May 26, 2025·—

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New research on Iron Age Judah has us asking questions, specifically about tchotckes. Just how elite does having an alabaster bowl make you as opposed to say, a bead? How about after you were pummeled by Assyrians? What...

Getting Blood From a Stone (Arrowhead), Or, Waging Peace, Unsuccessfully, in the Neolithic?

May 12, 2025·—

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A new study of Neolithic arrowheads from the Negev shows they had human as well as animal residues on them. Like human blood and guts residue, not, oh I got a tiny little nick residue. Peaceful hunter-gatherers, amirite?

Finally, Some Evidence of the Pharaoh Necho at Megiddo, or, How to Excavate in the One Tiny Spot on Your Site That’s Sort of Undisturbed and Find Cool Things

Apr 28, 2025·—

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The Pharaoh Necho has finally turned up at Megiddo (well, his guys have), which isn’t so surprising since the Bible says he killed King Josiah there. But this raises questions like, do pots equal peoples? Why did so...

New Excavations in the Church at the Navel of the World, or, How to Dig in Jerusalem Without Things Blowing Up (Again)

Apr 14, 2025·—

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The new excavations at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre have us asking questions. What’s it like digging in the holiest place in the Christian world? Is it as stressful as it sounds? How many phases could there be in a...

The Case of the Late Iron Age Building in the Middle of the Desert Filled With Dead Young Women Probably Going to Yemen for Unclear and Possibly Unsavory Reasons, or Worst Vacation Ever?

Mar 31, 2025·—

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A late Iron Age building in the Negev Desert has us asking questions. Why is it filled with dead young women? Who were they and what were their connections with Yemen? Why don’t we call it The Yemen any more? And what...

Hezekiah Gets His Grooves Off, Or, Cult Consolidator or Cost Cutter?

Mar 17, 2025·—

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Newly published excavations of cultic rooms cut into the living rock of the City of David have us asking questions. Why are there big grooves cut in the floor? Who was crushing olives and/or grapes and for what? Why was...

Carbs, The Lower Paleolithic Breakfast of Champions, Or, Pass the Acorns and Water Lillies, Please

Mar 3, 2025·—

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New research shows that prehumans collected and prepared carb heavy foods around 780,000 years ago. So who says that processed foods are bad for you? After all, it made their brains bigger. With a shoutout to everyone’s...

The Case of the Very Long Roman Legal Papyrus from the Judean Desert, Or, Do You Really Have to Pay Sales Tax on Slaves?

Feb 17, 2025·—

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The publication of a really long Roman legal document from the Judean Desert has us wondering about crime. Is changing a location on a contract really forgery? How about a little light counterfeiting of silver coins? Ok...

The Mysterious Giant Astronomical Observatory of Stone That Wasn't, or Rujm el-Hiri and the Spirit in the Sky

Feb 3, 2025·—

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You know that giant prehistoric stone circle on the Golan Heights, Rujm el Hiri? Yeah, its not really aligned with the sun and stars and isn't the only big stone thing up there. So what is it? Beats us, but never...

The Art of Cursing Your Rivals in Ancient Athens, Or, How to Say #$@#!&! in Greek

Jan 20, 2025·—

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In 4th and 3rd century BCE Athens lead curse tablets were snuck into cemeteries so the dead could take the messages to the underworld. Asking the departed to help put a hit on a business or romantic rival seems like a...

The Early Alphabet (™) in Third Millennium Syria? Or, Spelling it Out, Lightly Baked Edition

Jan 6, 2025·—

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Some lightly baked clay cylinders from a late third millennium tomb in Syria have alphabetic markings. They’ve got us thinking. Does this mean -the- alphabet originated hundreds of years earlier than we thought? What is...