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Displaying 1 - 20 of 22 results
Nebi Samwil
Where Samuel Crowned Israel’s First King
On Tuesday morning, June 7, 1099, the knights of the First Crusade caught their first glimpse of Jerusalem—from a height near the campsite where they had spent the night. The Crusaders called the hill Mons Gaudii—Mount Joy, or Montjoie in...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 2008
Pagan Yahwism: The Folk Religion of Ancient Israel
The Bible imagines the religion of ancient Israel as purely monotheistic. And doubtless there were Israelites, particularly those associated with the Jerusalem Temple, who were strict monotheists. But the archaeological evidence (and the...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 2001
Ancient Israel’s Stone Age
Purity in Second Temple times
In the decades before the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple in 70 C.E., Jews gave a new and heightened emphasis to ritual purity. In fact, purity laws may have been interpreted more strictly at this time than at any point before—...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 1998
Bells, Pendants, Snakes & Stones
A Samaritan temple to the Lord on Mt. Gerizim
According to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, the Samaritan leader Sanballat promised to build a temple on Gerizim, the Samaritan’s holy mountain, in imitation of the Jerusalem temple. This, Josephus tells us, occurred at the time of Alexander the Great’s conquest of the...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2010
Inn of the Good Samaritan Becomes a Museum
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” the man of the law asks Jesus. “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” And he answered: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 2012
The Babylonian Gap
The Assyrians impressed their culture on Israel … the Babylonians left no trace
The Assyrians and Babylonians both ravaged large parts of ancient Israel, yet the archaeological evidence from the aftermath of their respective conquests tells two very different stories. Why? In 721 B.C.E., the Assyrians brought an end to...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2000
What Happened to the Cult Figurines? Israelite Religion Purified After the Exile
Accidental discoveries of two pits containing cult figurines have led me to discern an extraordinary development in Israelite religious observance. This development occurred when the Jews returned from the Babylonian Exile in the sixth to...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1989
Martyrius: Lavish Living for Monks
Four miles east of Jerusalem on a hilltop in the Judean desert on the road to Jericho sits Ma‘ale Adummim, a modern city of over 20 thousand people. In its midst is one of the largest, most important and most elaborate ancient monasteries in...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 1995
Yes There Was
Let me begin with several basic facts—more historical than archaeological—on which Joseph Blenkinsopp and I can agree. When the Babylonians arrived in the Land of Israel, there were no fewer than eight independent kingdoms there and in...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 2002
The Other “Philistines”
The Bible portrays the Philistines as Israel’s cruel and ruthless enemy. The two peoples engaged in a fierce struggle for control of the land in the 12th–11th centuries B.C.E. We all know the stories of Samson’s struggles against the...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2014
Prize Find: Priestly Blessing of a Voyage
Recovery of a harbor scene at Dor
Part of a Persian period pit produced a perplexing prize find. It was discovered at the end of our 13th season (1993) at Tel Dor.a Persian period pits (fifth-fourth century B.C.E.) are...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1995
Phoenicia and Its Special Relationship with Israel
With a commercial empire that lasted a millennium, the Phoenicians were major players in the ancient Mediterranean world. Spreading their culture and goods, they came into contact with many different groups, but their relationship with the Israelites was distinct. Join Ephraim Stern as he explores the Phoenicians’ identity and interactions with their close neighbor and ally, Israel.
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2017
Buried Treasure: The Silver Hoard from Dor
At first, our discovery—an unadorned clay jar—seemed deceptively modest. For months we had been excavating an area overlooking the southern harbor of ancient Dor, south of Haifa on...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1998
The Many Masters of Dor, Part 1: When Canaanites Became Phoenician Sailors
History runs deep at Tel Dor—45 feet deep to be exact! Layer upon layer of ancient cities, each built on the ruins of its predecessor, have formed this immense mound on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, about 12 miles south of Haifa. As...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1993
The Many Masters of Dor, Part 2: How Bad Was Ahab?
Tel Dor, on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, is the site of one of the most conquered cities in the Levant. Although practically...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1993
An update to Vol. 1, pp. 357–372.
The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land
2008
The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land
2008