Jerusalem Tracker 13.2: New Media, Developments, and Events about the Holy City
Helpful lists of new material about Jerusalem
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NOTICE: Building these lists has become an enormous task and resulted in a ton of material to read through. So I have decided to split the format into two posts sent on two different days:
Jerusalem Tracker 13.1 contains new publications about Jerusalem (books and articles).
Jerusalem Tracker 13.2 contains new pop/social media and blogs, digital resources, developments, and upcoming events about Jerusalem.
I will use this format going forward.
This is the 13th installment of Jerusalem Tracker, a quarterly list of every new publication I can find about historical Jerusalem. I also include relevant new media, developments, and events. To make these lists, I manually comb through hundreds of periodicals, publishing house websites, newsletters, popular outlets, blogs, social media feeds, and other online spaces. See the archive of previous lists here.
The following criteria apply to the items listed below:
They must deal with an aspect of historical Jerusalem, whether its direct study, appropriation, or something else.
Material about Jerusalem’s hinterland is included only when there is a direct connection to the historical basin.
Some material was written in languages other than English but can be translated via browser extensions or other tools.
Most material below was issued after August 2025, but some older items may appear if I omitted them from previous lists by accident.
The study of Jerusalem is inherently variegated. Material or publication outlets listed below do not imply an endorsement of the 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 Pop/Social Media and Blogs about Jerusalem
The Race to Save a Medieval Palestinian Library (Literary Hub)
The Khalidi Library: The Preservation of Palestinian History in Jerusalem (Jerusalem Story/Alice Austin)
The “Degraded” Hasmonean Coins” - A Silent Witness to the Price of Brotherly Conflict (Temple Mount Sifting Project)
Netanyahu repeats push for Siloam Inscription from Türkiye to back Jerusalem claim (Türkiye Today)
Jerusalem in the Age of Possibilities (Jerusalem Story/Ida Audeh)
Jewish Pilgrimage in Second Temple Jerusalem: Ophel dig provides new insights into pilgrims and rituals (Biblical Archaeological Society/Market Dospěl)
US Backs Settler-Led Archaeological Tunnel Project in Jerusalem (Jerusalem Story/Jessica Buxbaum)
Breaking ground without digging: In first, archaeologists ‘X-ray’ Jerusalem’s hidden layers (Times of Israel)
Map reveals dozens of ancient quarries hidden beneath modern Jerusalem (Jerusalem Post)
The Historical Corner: The “Forgery” That Shook the World of Archaeology (Kol Ha’Ir/Adam Ackerman)
Alexander the Great in Jerusalem (ANE Today/Ory Amitay)
The oldest pipe organ in the Christian world sounds after 800 years of silence (Associated Press)
Jerusalem’s Sunday Special: Soup with a 500-Year-Old Recipe (Jerusalem Story/Khalil Assali)
New Book Challenges Via Dolorosa: Scholar Reconstructs Jerusalem’s Early Pilgrim Route (ReligionUnplugged)
How the palmette motif shifted from elite status symbol to royal emblem in Iron Age Judah (Phys.org/Sandee Oster)
Visual Chronicles: A Collection of Stamps Housed in Amman Tells Stories of Jerusalem (Jerusalem Story/Arda Aghazarian)
The Historical Corner: The Jerusalem Museum Documenting the Armenian Tragedy (Kol Ha’Ir/Adam Ackerman)
An elm tree in Jerusalem, the site of public executions (Tamar HaYardeni)
The Stories of Jerusalem’s Jewish Slum Neighborhoods During the Mandate Period (National Library of Israel)
Festival of archaeology? Five ways to explore Hanukkah history in Jerusalem (Times of Israel)
Planning to Visit to the Western Wall? There’s a Secular Option Too (HaAretz)
Jerusalem Through the Ages: An authoritative introduction to Jerusalem’s archaeology (Biblical Archaeological Society/Shimon Gibson)
Recent Approaching Jerusalem articles
Some Observations on the “Siloam Dam”
A massive dam wall was uncovered in excavations at Birket al-Ḥamra in Jerusalem and dated to ca. 800 BCE. Let’s take a closer look.
Jerusalem on the Madaba Map and a new book about Christian pilgrimage in the pre-Crusader city
New Digital Resources related to Jerusalem
Podcasts
This Week in the Ancient Near East
Jerusalem Unplugged is back!
Videos
3 Problems with the “Evidence” Found in Jerusalem: Yeda’yah Seal Controversy Explained (Bible & Archaeology)
The Hezekiah Bulla—In Five Minutes (Armstrong Institute)
Matthew Grey: Mormons in the Holy Land (Palestine Exploration Fund)
How Tech Transforms Storytelling (Tower of David Museum)
Jerusalem: Secrets of the Holy City (imineo Documentaries)
Christian Media Center
Virtual Jerusalem
Varia
The Digital Atlas of Ancient Roads
Explore roads into and out of Jerusalem/Hierosolyma/Aelia Capitolina in this wonderful project detailing the Roman road network around the Mediterranean Basin.
New Developments in Jerusalem
The library at the Kenyon Institute has reopened.
Work is underway on a new building for the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology in Jerusalem (Deutsches Evangelisches Institut für Altertumswissenschaft) that is scheduled to be completed in January 2027.
News reports have noted that the future of the Rockefeller Museum/Palestine Archaeological Museum is uncertain, including the possibility that it may be turned into a hotel. As others have noted, it would be hard to accept any scenario where the museum does not remain open with its collections intact.
A lead menorah pendant was found in the Davidson Archaeological Park
More on the Iron Age dam wall that was uncovered at Birket al-Ḥamra near the ancient Pool of Siloam:
A cuneiform fragment was found in excavations below the Western Wall Plaza in association with an impressive building containing a number of bullae from the time of the Judahite monarchy (Iron Age). It was published in a conference paper in Hebrew and has appeared widely in media. The inscription dates to the time of the Neo-Assyrian Empire and was sent to Judah from Assyria, apparently dealing with taxes.
A fortification segment dating to the time of the Hasmoneans (also known as the “First Wall”) was recently announced by the IAA and picked up widely in Israeli and international media. See also this explainer video by Bible & Archaeology.
HA | ToI | JP | BAS | AI | AP | LAT | NYP | FOX | CBS | YNET | CT | AN | etc.
I find the extent of the media coverage here a little perplexing. Some reports imply that this wall is an entirely new discovery, but it has been known since 2000-2001 when large-scale excavations took place in the Qishle. And it was already published in 2018. It seems to me (though I may be incorrect) that the new excavation revealed the northern extension of the wall for some 15 meters which was already known for about 25 meters (Re’em (ed) 2018:62). Media reports also describe uncertainty about the person who intentionally dismantled the fortification, whether Herod the Great or John Hyrcanus when Jerusalem was besieged by Antiochus VII (and hence the tie-in with Hanukkah). However, the excavation report consistently assigns the wall’s dismantling to Herod the Great (e.g. Re’em (ed) 2018:248). Perhaps new evidence was uncovered that calls this interpretation into question, but none is mentioned in the media reports.
The Qishle also includes foundation walls from Herod’s palace and a fortification segment from the time of the Judahite kings (Iron Age). We will look forward to future announcements that may relate to those features. For example, one media report noted that there may be new radiocarbon dates for the Iron Age fortification.
Upcoming Events about Jerusalem
March 17 (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 16 hours of watch time.
January 10, 2026 (10:00 AM until 1:30 PM ET): Jerusalem University College Online Seminar
I’ll be speaking about Psalm 122:3: what does it mean that Jerusalem was “built as a city which is compact together?” The online seminar is free, and it includes three other lectures and live Q & A afterward. More info here and register here.
This material was 100% human composed. We do not use AI at any stage of research or writing.
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