Centuries before the famous running messenger who told the tale of the Greek victory over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon, another messenger took the tale of a disastrous Israelite defeat at the hands of the Philistines back to the Israelite Temple at Shiloh. The message was just the opposite, but the distance was about the same. And thus, today there is a marathon race in Israel that goes from Tel Aphek, the site of the battle, to Tel Shiloh.

In addition to this fascinating story that connects archaeology to sports, we have two more stories that connect archaeological research to two important foods of the region: olives and dates. These stories and more in this week's program, discussing stories from the news digests of the latest issue of ARTIFAX, our biblical archaeology news magazine.