Jerusalem Tracker: News, Publications, and Media about the Holy City (No. 12)
Helpful lists of new material about Jerusalem
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This is the 12th installment of Jerusalem Tracker, a quarterly list of every new publication I can find about historical Jerusalem. New media, developments, and events related to historical Jerusalem are also included. See the archive of previous lists here.
The following criteria apply to the publications and media below:
They must deal with an aspect of historical Jerusalem, whether its direct study, appropriation, or something else.
Material about Jerusalem’s hinterland or other topics are included only when there is a direct connection to the historical basin.
Forthcoming publications, even if available for preorder, are not included.
Open access (*OA) works are noted.
Most publications below were issued after May 2025, though I may list some earlier ones that I missed in the past.
Material or publication outlets linked below are not an endorsement of the scholarly or ideological views they express unless stated otherwise.
If you sense that any relevant resources are missing, please feel free to leave a comment or send an email to approachingjerusalem@gmail.com.
New Articles and Book Chapters about Jerusalem
Book Reviews
Reviews of Owning Books and Preserving Documents in Medieval Jerusalem. The Library of Burhan al-Din by Said Aljoumani and Konrad Hirschler:
in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung by Leonie Böttiger
Review of City of Caesar, City of God: Constantinople and Jerusalem in Late Antiquity, edited by Konstantin M. Klein and Johannes Wienand in Church History David Gyllenhaal
Review of In the Shadow of the Wall: The Life and Death of Jerusalem’s Maghrebi Quarter, 1187–1967 by Vincent Lemire in American Historical Review by Alex Winder
Review of Sir Ronald Storrs: Personality and Policy in Mandate Palestine, 1917–1926 by Christopher Burnham in Jerusalem Quarterly by Awad Halabi *OA
Review of An Impossible Friendship: Group Portrait Jerusalem before and after 1948 by Sonja Mejcher-Atassi in Jerusalem Quarterly by Maryvelma Smith O’Neil *OA
Review of The Contest and Control of Jerusalem's Holy Sites: A Historical Guide to Legality, Status, and Ownership by Marshall J. Breger and Leonard M. Hammer in The Catholic Historical Review by Joshua William Samuels
History of Jerusalem
“Samarian Scribes in King Hezekiah’s Court” by William M. Schniedewind in Biblical Archaeology Review
“Hermeneutical Objects in Late Antique Jerusalem” in The Hermeneutical Jew: Essays on Inter-Religious Encounters in Honour of Jeremy Cohen by Ora Limor
“The Persian Conquest of Jerusalem (614) and the Religious Dimension of the 'Last Great War Of Antiquity' (603-628),” in Religion and War from Antiquity to Early Modernity by Yuri Stoyanov
“Rationalising the First Crusade (1095–1099): Rupert of Deutz, the Roman Conquest of Jerusalem, and the Twists of Salvation History” in Religions by Alexander Marx *OA
“The Loss of Jerusalem: Jeopardizing the Kingdom of Heaven” in The Preaching of the Third Crusade (1187–1192): The Early University of Paris, Biblical Exegesis, and the Coming Apocalypse by Alexander Marx *OA
“Tidings From Zion: A Missionary Monthly in Jerusalem (1882–5) and the ‘Artuf Affair’” in The Edinburgh History of the Transnational British Press in Non-Anglophone Countries, 1800–1914 by Gideon Kouts
“The Harmony of Inclusivity and Policy: Ottoman Custodianship of Historic Churches in Islamicjerusalem” in Journal of Islamicjerusalem Studies by Khalid El-Awaisi and Firdan Fadlan Sidik *OA
“Jerusalem’s History from Below – a History of Personal and Historiographical Transitions” in History from Below: Between Democratisation and Populism by Menachem Klein
“The Fall of Jerusalem in the Memoirs of Anwar Nusseibeh” in Jerusalem Quarterly by Issam Nassar *OA
Jerusalem and Ancient Literature
“Psalm 147 and the Poetics of Repopulating Jerusalem” in Bring Them into the Land: Studies in Honor of R. Steven Notley by David Emanuel
“Babel and New Jerusalem: Two Urban Expressions of Theological Contrast” in Religions by Bret David Fearrien *OA
“Daughters of Jerusalem: Symbol and Realia” in Bring Them into the Land: Studies in Honor of R. Steven Notley by Amy-Jill Levine
“The Differences between Josephus’ Temple Descriptions in War and Antiquities” in Memory – Papers Read at the Jewish and Christian Perspectives Conference, Utrecht 2022 by Eyal Regev
“Two Sages Lamenting at the Western Wall (Seder Eliyahu Rabbah 28:11)” in The Tales of the Sages in Late Midrash. A Curtain Set with Jewels by Sivan Nir
Geography of Jerusalem
“The Valley of Rapha? A New Suggestion for the Identification of the Rephaim Valley” in Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament by Sabine Kleiman
Inscriptions from Jerusalem
“Historical Geography, Suspicion, and the So-Called Jehoash Inscription” in Bring Them into the Land: Studies in Honor of R. Steven Notley by Matthew Suriano and Kathleen Nicoll
“The Armenian Convent of Holy Archangels in Jerusalem and its Epigraphic Heritage” in Cercetări Arheologice by Khachik Harutyunyan *OA
Archaeology of Jerusalem
“A Carved Ivory Head from Jerusalem: Its Role in the City’s Status
and Iconographic Repertoire in Iron Age II” in Israel Exploration Journal by Reli Avisar, Joe Uziel, Ortal Chalaf, and Filip Vukosavović
“Manasseh’s Wall and Construction Operations on the Western Slope of the Southeastern Hill of Jerusalem” in Tel Aviv by Nadav Na’aman *OA
“Radiocarbon dating of Jerusalem’s Siloam Dam links climate data and major waterworks” in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America by Johanna Regev, Nahshon Szanton, Filip Vukosavović, Itamar Berko, Yiftah Shalev, Joe Uziel, Eugenia Mintz, Lior Regev, and Elisabetta Boaretto *OA
“Radiocarbon Dating Jerusalem: Methodological and Historical Comments” in Revue Biblique by Israel Finkelstein
“At the Temple Gates: The Archaeology of Jerusalem Pilgrimage” by Uzi Leibner and Orit Peleg-Barkat in Biblical Archaeology Review
“The Aqueducts and Water Supply of Ancient Jerusalem” in Groundwater by David Deming *OA
“Day and Night: Illuminating Late Roman Aelia” in Tel Aviv by Débora Sandhaus, Yana Tchekhanovets, and Doron Ben-Ami
“Traces of the AD 749 Earthquake in Jerusalem. New Archaeological Evidence from Mount Zion” in Jerash, the Decapolis, and the Earthquake of AD 749: The Fallout of a Disaster by Jennifer Zimni-Gitler
“The City Walls around Jerusalem Through the Ages: New Evidence from Mt. Zion” in Proceedings of the 13th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East Copenhagen, 22–26 May 2023. Volume 1 by Dieter Vieweger, Jennifer Zimni-Gitler and Katja Soennecken *OA
“Domestic Life in Jerusalem through the Ages: New Evidence from Mount Zion” in Proceedings of the 13th International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East Copenhagen, 22–26 May 2023. Volume 1 by Jennifer Zimni-Gitler, Dieter Vieweger and Katja Soennecken *OA
Jerusalem, the Old City, Shuq Ha-Zorfim Street in Hadashot Arkheologiyot by David Yegar *OA
“First Demonstration of Underground Muon Imaging at an Archaeological Site in Ancient Jerusalem” in ArXiv by Yan Benhammou, Erez Etzion, Yuval Gadot, Gilad Mizrachi, Oded Lipschits, Yiftah Shalev, Yiftah Silver, Amir Weissbein, and Igor Zolkin *OA
New Books about Jerusalem
The Excavations Beneath Wilson’s Arch, Volume 1 edited by Joe Uziel, Avi Solomon, and Tehillah Lieberman
Alexander the Great in Jerusalem by Ory Amitay
Walking the Jerusalem Circuit: In the Footsteps of Pilgrims Before the Crusades by Rodney Aist
Cultures of the Medieval Kingdom of Jerusalem: Frontier Inventiveness in the Age of the Crusades by Benjamin Z. Kedar
Several chapters are directly relevant to Jerusalem
The Destruction of Jerusalem in Nineteenth-Century German Culture edited by Axel Stähler *OA
Sovereignty in Miniature: The Mount Scopus Exclave 1948-1967 (Hebrew) by Yefa’at Weiss
Jerusalem in Memory and Eschatology: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Visions of the Past and Future of Jerusalem edited by Emma O'Donnell Polyakov
New Pop/Social Media and Blogs about Jerusalem
When Absalom Encounters NT Zachariah, the Father of John the Baptist, Chaos Ensues, All in the Valley of He Who Judges (Zoe Zias, Bibleinterp)
Carved Ivory Emerges from Biblical Jerusalem (Nathan Steinmeyer, Biblical Archaeological Society)
Abraham’s Vineyard in Mandate Jerusalem: A Messianic failure (Gershon Nerel, Israel Today)
Reconstructing the Life and Erasure of Jerusalem’s Moroccan Quarter (Ida Audeh, Jerusalem Story)
Pilgrimage Pit Stop: Who used the ritual baths at Jerusalem’s Tomb of the Kings? (Omri Abadi and Boaz Zissu, Biblical Archaeological Society)
For the first time, cosmic-ray muons map Jeremiah’s cistern in the City of David (Jerusalem Post)
The Mysterious Inscribed Mug from Mount Zion (Clinton J. Moyer, Biblical Archaeological Society)
Jewish priests wrestling naked: How sports shook ancient Judean society (Shmuel Munitz, YNet)
Jerusalem aqueduct tunnel surpassed Rome’s in length, study reveals (Jerusalem Post)
Where Is the Valley of Rephaim? (Nathan Steinmeyer, Biblical Archaeological Society)
Sundials – Where to Find Them in Jerusalem (Adam Ackerman, KolHair)
The Persian Consulate Buildings in Jerusalem (Adam Ackerman, KolHair)
Sacred stones scandal: How a five-ton Kotel relic shook Jerusalem (Jerusalem Post)
More on the small-scale dig that took place in the Ophel earlier this year
For background, see here.
Reporting on a bronze coin from the fourth year of the Jewish Revolt against the Romans found at the Davidson Center:
Reporting on a gold coin of Bernice II from the Early Hellenistic Period found in the Givati Parking Lot:
Recent Approaching Jerusalem articles:
The Mishneh, a Feature of Ancient Jerusalem
The Mishneh is known from II Kings 22:14 as the residence of the Prophetess Huldah. This post reviews the biblical and archaeological evidence for its location.
Approaching Jerusalem's third birthday, a lecture on Macalister and Duncan's excavations, and a note on Birket al-Hamra
New Digital Resources related to Jerusalem
Podcasts
Ory Amitay - Alexander the Great in Jerusalem: Myth and History (New Books Network)
Videos
Christian Media Center
Virtual Jerusalem
The ONLY Authentic 1st Century Burial Shroud Ever Found in Jerusalem (James Tabor)
Meet Jerusalem's Chief Archaeologist, an interview with Amit Re’em (Armstrong Institute)
New Developments in Jerusalem
The German Protestant Institute of Archaeology has resumed their excavations on modern Mount Zion in a very interesting, tiny area behind the Greek Catholic Cemetery and adjacent to Jerusalem University College. The artificially shaped bedrock scarp here is generally understood to have served as the foundation for Jerusalem’s fortification wall in several historical periods.
It appears that at least some of this area was partially exposed by Henry Maudslay in 1878. Read more on his excavations here.
A clay seal impression with the restored reading “Yed[a‛]yah (son of) Asayahu,” including an ancient thumb print, was found in the Temple Mount Sifting Project. The seal’s date, the identity of the person to whom it belonged, and whether that person was an official in Jerusalem’s administration will undoubtedly be debated once published.
A new season of the Ophel excavations began in early July and concluded in early August. See the excavation blog here, as well as before and after tours of the three excavation areas.
A new museum is being prepared below the Western Wall Plaza, and new excavations are taking place adjacent to the Eastern Cardo. This video details both.
A large dam wall was uncovered below Birket el-Hamra that was dated to around 800 BCE on the basis of radiocarbon samples extracted from the wall’s interior. If the dating is correct, it could have some interesting historical implications for ancient Jerusalem’s urban development.
See a video by the IAA here and the scholarly publication here.
For background on the excavation’s initial development, as well as some previous discoveries, see our recent post here.
The find has been published in some media outlets (HA | JP) but will undoubtedly make the rounds.
Upcoming Events about Jerusalem
September 16 (8:00-9:30pm ET): Approaching Jerusalem livestream for paid supporters.
During these events, I discuss excavations, publications, pop media articles, and developments relevant to historical Jerusalem. I also share resources and occasionally present original research. Participants have the opportunity to ask questions. Paid subscribers also get access to the archive of previous livestreams, which is currently about 15 hours of watch time.
Oct 22-23: The annual New Studies in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and Its Surroundings conference.
Nov 19-22: The annual meeting of the American Schools of Overseas Research (ASOR) will feature a session on “Jerusalem and the Archaeology of the Sacred City.”
This material was 100% human composed. We do not use AI at any stage of research or writing.
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