These discoveries illustrate the important work that goes on at excavations across Israel every year, and just scratch the surface of what has been found in 2013. Quite possibly a decade from now, with added perspective and more digging, the most important discoveries of 2013 may look different than this list.

Biblical Archaeology discoveries made in 2013 have given us new information about biblical events and people. This list is subjective, and based on news reports rather than peer-reviewed articles in scientific publications.

These discoveries illustrate the important work that goes on at excavations across Israel every year, and just scratch the surface of what has been found in 2013. Quite possibly a decade from now, with added perspective and more digging, the most important discoveries of 2013 may look different than this list.

1. The Egyptian Scarab of Khirbet el-Maqatir

This tiny 3/4-inch long amulet, carved in the familiar shape of a dung beetle, has been dated to the Late Bronze I period, 1550-1450 BC. Its discovery in the remains of a fortress at Khirbet el-Maqatir, nine miles north of Jerusalem, strengthens the case being made by the excavators that this site is the real location of Ai, the city destroyed in Joshua 8.

The site archaeologists have traditionally associated with Ai, nearby et-Tell, lacks destruction that could be dated to the time of Joshua, which raised questions about the accuracy of the conquest narrative.

2. Jezreel Winepress

Ancient winepresses are found all over Israel. The fact that this winepress is one of the largest, and is located near one of the most famous vineyards of the Bible, makes it of interest.

1 Kings 21 tells the story of how the evil Queen Jezebel plotted with her husband, King Ahab, to eliminate Naboth and convert his vineyard to a garden for the king’s palace.

Jezreel was one of the capital cities of the northern kingdom, an important site in the history of Israel, but it has been lightly excavated. And despite 7,000 years of history at the site, based on the pottery that has been found, it is not a steep-sided tel (hill) like the nearby sites of Megiddo and Beit She’an.

The new excavation which began in 2013 has not yet determined the date of this winepress. But ultimately the excavation should reveal more of the history of this city, which Ahab and Jezebel favored over Samaria.

3. The Wine Cellar of Tel Kabri

Working double shifts, excavators pulled 40 wine jars from a storage room in the ruins of a palatial building eight miles northeast of Akko. The capacity of the jars, more than 500 gallons, would fill about 3,000 bottles of wine. It’s Israel’s oldest and largest wine cellar.

The ingredients detected in the wine residues discovered inside the jars are similar to the ingredients described in cuneiform tablets excavated in the 1930s in the ruins of Mari, a Sumerian and Amorite city on the Euphrates River.

This Canaanite palace—dated to about 1700 BC—was already known for the fragments of rare Minoan-style wall and floor frescoes discovered there in previous years. The identities of its sophisticated inhabitants haven’t been determined.

4. Royal Public Buildings at Khirbet Qeiyafa

The palace of King David, as some reports described it, was probably not used as living quarters by King David. But the palatial ruins and nearby storehouse excavated in the seventh and final excavation season helped confirm Khirbet Qeiyafa’s identification as a heavily fortified Judahite city from the time of King David.

Overlooking the Elah Valley, where David famously confronted Goliath, Khirbet Qeiyafa was clearly constructed to help protect Jerusalem and the Judean highlands from the lowland Philistines.

5. The Sphinx of Hazor

The front paws of a sphinx, found this past summer at Tel Hazor, have the name of Menkaure in an inscription written between them. Menkaure is a fourth-dynasty pharaoh who built the third and smallest of the great pyramids on the Giza plateau about 1,000 years before the Exodus.

No other sphinx statues have been found outside of Egypt in the eastern Mediterranean. This statue fragment was found in a destruction layer dated to the 13th century BC, the period of the Judges. Judges 4 tells the story of Deborah and the uprising against Jabin, Canaanite king of Hazor.

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