Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2005
Features
The Untouchables: Scholars Fear to Publish Ancient House Shrine
To encounter ancient Near Eastern religion, one can hardly do better than to begin with the clay model house shrines that appear as early as the third millennium B.C. and continue through the Biblical period. An especially instructive one is said to have come from northern Palestine,...Read more ›
Firsthand Report: Tracking Down the Looted Treasures of Iraq
The world watched in horror as the images were flashed all over the globe: In the chaos that surrounded the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, the Iraq Museum—home to a priceless collection of ancient objects from the birthplace of civilization—was being wildly looted...Read more ›
Excavating Ekron
Major Philistine City Survived by Absorbing Other Cultures
The Philistines were the chief adversary of Biblical Israel in the 12th and 11th centuries B.C.E. They were also the conquerors of the Canaanite cities of the southern coastal plain.1 At the beginning of the first millennium B.C.E., however, the Philistine cities were destroyed...Read more ›
The Universal God
How the God of Israel Became a God for All
Israel not only survived but thrived in exile. Indeed, Israelite Yahwisma became universal monotheism in the Babylonian Exile. In the preceding article, Professor Seymour Gitin explains why the Philistines, unlike the Israelites, did not survive the Babylonian Exile, although their cities were destroyed by the same Babylonian...Read more ›