Archaeologist Joel Kramer points out what most people do not understand: biblical archaeologists are archaeologists who may or may not believe the Bible. Most do not.

Iran is probably not a country most people want to visit these days. But in the 1930s we can be thankful that archaeologists from the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago did.

I've been listening to a song lately. It's on loop while I make meals, wash dishes and do laundry. It says I am going to see a victory. The first line says, "The weapon may be formed, but it won't prosper."

Just words you may think. It's a nice idea, but the circumstances are overwhelming. Actually that's been said before. A few times.

I have a well worn basketball that is loosing its covering. The kids don't seem to care. They still dribble and dunk it and leave it under the shrubbery until they go looking for it again.

I have no idea how old this ball is. I do know it is not as old as the leather ones discovered in northern China. Those are 3,000 years old.

Six years ago, Dishad Marf Zamua learned one man's seat is another man's ancient temple column. Zamua went to Iraqi Kurdistan to study artifacts he connected to an Urartian temple city called Ardini. This area is thought to have been a buffer region between the kingdoms of Urartu and Assyria. Zamua discovered the locals were reusing the ruins of temple column bases as seats or stairs. Talk about an antique.

It took almost seventy years and a French Assyriologist to understand the cuneiform tablets were ingredients for soup recipes and not pharmecutical tablets. Thank you, Jean Bottéro. If you are studying ancient Babylon or planning a Bible study and need the flavors of Babylon to make the accounts of Daniel and Necuchadnezzar come alive, here are two recipes, one for Babylonian stew and one for Tah'u Stew. Image by Calum Lewis courtesy of Unsplash