Last week the latest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) showed up in my mailbox.

As always I eagerly scanned the contents to see what exciting articles it contained.

Today I saw on Luke Chandler’s Blog that archaeologists found a chisel used to build the Western Wall. I realized that I still needed to write my In the BAR post for the new issue.

Here are the links to the previous posts:

In the BAR

In the BAR II

In the BAR III

The lead article in this issues is Was Herod’s Tomb Really Found?

We did not get the chance to go into the Herodium, but did drive by it when we were south of Bethlehem after visiting the Church of the Nativity.

Here we have a closer look at some of the excavation work they are doing. I believe that this is the area of the Mausoleum that they found on the slope of the Herodium.

If you look closely you can see a shepherd and sheep on the slope.

I zoomed in to take a look at the top of the Herodium. You can see here that there is a road that goes to the top. Look in the BAR to see pictures of the hollowed out top of the structure.

The article in BAR is fascinating as it looks at questions about where in the complex Herod is buried and also the use of other structures. The mound was originally topped by a large palace or fortress.

They have also been excavating the Lower Herodium. There is a large pool, bathhouse and palace in the lower section.

In the picture above you can see the large pool surrounded by columns.

Here we can see both the Lower and Upper Herodium. It was a very large complex.

Someday I would like to go back to Israel and the Herodium is definitely on the list of places that I would like to visit next time.

In this issue of BAR there are also articles about Queen Helena’s palace and tomb in Jerusalem and an inscription that was recently found. The inscription is from the time of David and Solomon, and may be the oldest one found in Jerusalem.

Some fascinating reading!

Now to get reading the background material for my trip to Turkey that is coming up very quickly!

Steven