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Who was the king of Assyria during the ministry of Jonah? This isn’t a question I’ve really heard discussed before. Now, having looked into it, it seems we have a strong candidate. And that in part because of an ancient solar eclipse. The biblical text of Jonah never names the king who presided over Nineveh during its great repentance, simply calling him “the king of Nineveh” (Jonah 3:6). But the Bible does tell us which king was on the throne of Israel during Jonah’s ministry – Jeroboam II. This king of Samaria ruled from 782 – 753 B.C., during a...

When archaeologists on a dig in southern Portugal last year flipped over a heavy chunk of slate and saw writing not used for more than 2,500 years, they were elated. The enigmatic pattern of inscribed symbols curled symmetrically around the upper part of the rough-edged, yellowish stone tablet and coiled into the middle in a decorative style typical of an extinct Iberian language called Southwest Script. "We didn't break into applause, but almost," says Amilcar Guerra, a University of Lisbon lecturer overseeing the excavation. "It's an extraordinary thing."

Spaniards search for legendary Tartessos in a marsh By Sinikka Tarvainen May 11, 2007, 11:28 GMT Madrid - Where was the capital of Tartessos, the legendary pre-Roman civilization which once existed on the Iberian Peninsula? The culture which flourished from around 800 to 500 BC is believed to have been located mainly around the present-day cities of Cadiz, Seville and Huelva in southern Spain, but no traces of a major urban settlement have been found. Now, however, scientists have discovered surprising clues to where a major Tartessian city may have been, the daily El Pais reported. Its ruins could lie...

...a magnificent hoard of ancient gold objects discovered by Spanish construction workers near Seville in 1958... 2,700-year-old treasure... sparked speculation and debate about Tartessos, a civilization that thrived in southern Spain between the ninth and sixth centuries B.C... That wealth, and the fact that the Tartessians seemingly 'disappear' from history about 2,500 years ago... Another side of the debate held that the jewelry came with the Phoenicians – a Semitic, seafaring culture from the Near East which first arrived in the western Mediterranean in the eighth century B.C. and established a trading port at what is now modern-day Cadiz... The...

The sonar scans of manmade structures one mile below water off the southeast coast of Cyprus were presented here Thursday by Robert Sarmast, head of the Cyprus/Atlantis Expedition project for the first time. Announcing the results of last year’s expedition to find one of humankind’s greatest mysteries, the legendary Atlantis, Sarmast presented three dimension underwater side-scan sonar pictures of structures 1.5 km below sea level, 80 km off the southeast coast of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean. He said it was no coincidence that his team discovered a 3km long straight wall intersected at right angles by another wall, adding...

Sacred Precincts: A Tartessian Sanctuary in Ancient Spain Sebastián Celestino and Carolina López-Ruiz When the Phoenicians arrived on the Iberian peninsula, probably at the end of the ninth century B.C., they came into contact with an indigenous people called the Tartessians. The two cultures soon fused. The hybrid culture produced by this fusion of peoples is evident in a mysterious structure at Cancho Roano, deep in the heart of south-central Spain. The structure at Cancho Roano is sometimes called a “palace-sanctuary” because of its monumentality. But it was not a palace at all; it was simply a Tartessian sanctuary, which...

Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of Mérida (IAM) have unearthed a slate plaque at the Casas del Turuñuelo site in Guareña, Badajoz, Spain. Measuring approximately 20 centimeters wide, this plaque is intricately engraved on both sides with various motifs, including geometric patterns, repeated faces, and a combat scene featuring four warriors...The plaque's detailed engravings depict four warriors with decorated clothing and weapons, suggesting its use as a reference for creating intricate designs on various materials.In addition to the slate plaque, the 2024 excavation campaign has revealed the location of the eastern gate of the palace complex. This gate provides...

Archaeologists in Spain recently discovered five life-size busts of human figures... that could be the first-known human depictions of the Tartessos, a people who formed an ancient civilization that disappeared more than 2,500 years ago.The carved stone faces, which archaeologists date to the fifth century B.C., were found hidden inside a sealed pit in an adobe temple at Casas del Turuñuelo, an ancient Tartessian site in southern Spain. The pieces were scattered amongst animal bones, mostly from horses, that likely came from a mass sacrifice, according to a translated statement published April 18."The unusual thing about the new finding is...

3,500 years ago, the island underwent a period of significant cultural transformations, namely the adoption of a new language and economic system, and major changes in burial customs and attire.Around the same time, many important sites across the island were destroyed and warriors’ graves appeared at the famed palace of Knossos, leading scholars to long believe that these seismic changes had been the result of a Mycenaean invasion...Rather than looking at things like burial, art, or dress, practices that tend to shift with fashion, archaeologists have begun to look more closely at more mundane, everyday practices as a better insight...

When the Bronze Age hit ancient Israel, the copper-rich region was able to quickly source seven of the eight ingredients needed to produce the alloy at Timna and other mines. But where tin -- another one-eighth of the metal's recipe -- came from has been a lingering mystery for scholars. A new paper from an international team of researchers proposes a surprisingly faraway source -- Cornwall. In a paper published in June on the open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS One, the authors analyze 27 tin ingots, or blocks, from five sites bordering the eastern Mediterranean Sea. For decades, researchers have...

The Minoans and their capital Knossos weren’t incinerated by volcanic blast from Thera or flattened by quake as thought, but tellingly: their writing system changed. The mystery of what happened to the Minoan civilization has tormented archaeologists for over a century, and the tale has now taken a new twist. Nothing happened to them, say archaeologists who have been excavating the island of Crete for over thirty years. This extraordinary people, who produced palatial architecture unparalleled in the Aegean region at the time, were not immolated by the volcanic eruption of Thera as once thought, crushed by earthquake, or squashed...

An initial inspection of the ceramics found in the tomb allowed it to be dated to the late Minoan period, or 1400 to 1200 BC Archaeologists in Crete have discovered an intact Minoan-era tomb containing a well-preserved adult skeleton along with funerary vessels. An initial inspection of the ceramics found in the tomb allowed it to be dated to the late Minoan period, or 1400 to 1200 BC, a statement from the Ministry of Culture noted. The tomb was discovered during an emergency excavation in an olive grove outside the village of Kentri, in the eastern prefecture of Ierapetra, the...

Sometime between 1400 and 1200 B.C., two Minoan men were laid to rest in an underground enclosure carved out of the soft limestone native to southeast Crete. Both were entombed within larnakes—intricately embossed clay coffins popular in Bronze Age Minoan society—and surrounded by colorful funerary vases that hinted at their owners’ high status. Eventually, the burial site was sealed with stone masonry and forgotten, leaving the deceased undisturbed for roughly 3,400 years.

One of the enduring consequences of the era of Phoenician influence -- which had by around 800 BC progressed from trading outposts to full-blown colonies in southern Spain -- was the adoption of alphabetic writing by the native population, first in the south-west. The number of known Tartessian inscriptions on stone is now about 90 and steadily rising with new discoveries. Concentrated densely in southern Portugal (the Algarve and Lower Alentejo), there is a wider scatter of fifteen over south-west Spain. The best exhibition of the inscriptions is on view in the new and innovative Museu da Escrita do Sudoeste,...

Elizabeth Armstrong Moore September 27, 2016 In 1950, a collection of 29 tablets was discovered in the ruins of Ugarit, an ancient city in the northern region of present-day Syria, but only one had survived the intervening centuries well enough to be deciphered. Known as H6, the 3,500-year-old clay tablet revealed a simple hymn specifying the use of nine lyre strings and the intervals between them, much like an "ancient guitar tab," reports ClassicFM, which has recently picked up the story. The resulting melody, it says, isn't just the oldest discovered in the world, but "utterly enchanting." Musician and composer...

Atlantis Rising,” a new documentary by “Titanic” director James Cameron, argues the “mythical” city is the biblical Tarshish. Breaking News Israel reports the “lost city of Atlantis has been found, and it’s straight out of the Bible – at least according to a stunning new National Geographic documentary.” Emmy-winning journalist Simcha Jacobivici worked with Cameron on the newly released film. BIN reported the two followed “ancient clues through Greece, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic on a search for Atlantis.” “Along the way, they discover mind-blowing biblical connections to Atlantis, including a 3,000 year old carving that ties the mythical city...

The discovery suggests that not only did this spectacular site in the Greek Bronze Age (between 3500 and 1100 BC) recover from the collapse of the socio-political system around 1200 BC, but also rapidly grew and thrived as a cosmopolitan hub of the Aegean and Mediterranean regions. Antonis Kotsonas, a University of Cincinnati assistant professor of classics, will highlight his field research with the Knossos Urban Landscape Project at the 117th annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America and Society for Classical Studies. The meeting takes place Jan. 7-10, 2016 in San Francisco. Kotsonas explains that Knossos, "renowned as...

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there shall thy hand lead me. A Meditation on the Story of Jonah. By: Msgr. Charles PopeAs a followup to yesterday’s (Sunday 3rd Week) reference to Jonah the Prophet, I would like to sketch a fuller portrait of his life. Yesterday’s reading dropped us into the middle of the story. Let’s look at the backstory and see how the Lord does not give up on Jonah, nor on the people whom He has sent Jonah to deliver. God keeps calling until we are ready, until our last...

When the Phoenicians arrived on the Iberian peninsula, probably at the end of the ninth century B.C., they came into contact with an indigenous people called the Tartessians... The structure at Cancho Roano... was not a palace at all; it was simply a Tartessian sanctuary, which over time became influenced by Phoenician culture. Scholars have only recently begun to separate Tartessian history from myth. When the Greeks reached the Iberian peninsula a few centuries after the Phoenicians, they called the land Tartessos... According to the fifth-century B.C. historian Herodotus, Tartessian civilization was discovered accidentally by a Greek named Kolaios, who...

Satellite images 'show Atlantis' By Paul Rincon BBC News Online science staff The imagery may show the former locations of major buildings and rings A scientist says he may have found remains of the lost city of Atlantis. Satellite photos of southern Spain reveal features on the ground appearing to match descriptions made by Greek scholar Plato of the fabled utopia. Dr Rainer Kuehne thinks the "island" of Atlantis simply referred to a region of the southern Spanish coast destroyed by a flood between 800 BC and 500 BC. The research has been reported as an ongoing project in the...