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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 results
Estimating the Population of Ancient Jerusalem
Archaeology provides a new more accurate method for estimating ancient populations. Davidic Jerusalem was home to fewer than 2000 people.
Despite its obvious importance, the number of ancient Jerusalem’s inhabitants is a subject that is often ignored. Until recently, writers who did deal with the matter based their estimates on ancient literary sources, which, however,...
Biblical Archaeology Review, June 1978
"Digging Up Jerusalem"—A Critique
Popular accounts of archaeological excavations serve a double purpose: For the non-professional, they provide readable and comprehensive summaries; for the scholar, they serve as a temporary substitute for the excavator’s final report...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September 1975
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
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
Evidence of Earliest Christian Pilgrimage to the Holy Land Comes to Light in Holy Sepulchre Church
The compound of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is not only Christianity’s holiest site it is also one of the most fascinating buildings in the world. Its nucleus goes back to the 4th century A.D.—how many 4th...
Biblical Archaeology Review, December 1977
Spirituality in the Desert: Judean Wilderness Monasteries
In 1966, the English scholar Derwas J. Chitty located 25 monasteries in the Judean desert east of Jerusalem, many known only from then-recent explorations.1 Today the number exceeds 60.2 The past decade has witnessed a veritable revolution in...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 1995
Leading Scholar Calls for Prompt Publication
How quickly should ancient texts be published after they come into a scholar’s hands? Within one year—at most, says Professor David Noel Freedman in a forthcoming issue of the Biblical Archaeologist. This is a statement of...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March 1978
The Gigantic Dimensions of the Visionary Temple in the Temple Scroll
The Temple Scroll and its contents have already been described at some length for BAR readers by the scroll’s editor, the late Yigael Yadin. Until his untimely death in 1984, Professor Yadin was Israel’s most famous archaeologist.a The Temple...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1987
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
Whose Bones
New Qumran Excavations, New Debates
Under the headline, “Digging for the Baptist,” the August 12, 2002 issue of Time magazine asked its readers: “Have...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 2003
A Country Gentleman’s Estate
Unearthing the Splendors of Ramat Hanadiv
On a ridge about 3 miles east of Caesarea, deep in the Carmel range, Baron Edmond de Rothschild is buried alongside his wife...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2005
Tiberias: Preview of Coming Attractions
This is the story mostly of what will be rather than what has been. It is a report on what we hope to do more than what we have already done. It tells of the tantalizing clues that keep...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1991
The Shapira Scrolls: The Case for Forgery
In 1883, antiquities dealer Moses Shapira presented to the watching world several scroll fragments that he claimed were an ancient biblical manuscript. Yet the manuscript was quickly decried as a forgery. Although its authenticity has been reappraised recently, biblical scholars Ronald S. Hendel and Matthieu Richelle argue—with old and new evidence—that the Shapira Scrolls are forgeries.
Biblical Archaeology Review, Winter 2021
Beware the Wiles of the Wanton Woman
Dead Sea Scroll fragment reflects Essene fear of, and contempt for, women
Nearly 35 years ago, Bedouin tribesmen searching for more scrolls near the original find on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea discovered the now-famous Qumran cave 4. Cave 4 proved to be the richest of all the Qumran caves, containing...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1983
“House of David” Is There!
BAR recently published an article by Philip R. Davies in which he claims that the now famous six letters of the Tel Dan inscription, bytdwd, do not mean “the House of David” after all.a The tone and content of the article are an...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1995
Sumptuous Roman Baths Uncovered Near Sea of Galilee
Hot springs drew the afflicted from around the world
According to the Greek biographer Eunapius, the second most beautiful bath complex in the entire Roman Empire during the fourth century A.D. was located in, of all places, Palestine—at a site known as Hammat Gader.1 Hammat Gader lies just...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1984
Finding Historical Memories in the Patriarchal Narratives
The search for the historical patriarchs of Genesis has taken some dizzying turns in the last half-century. From the 1940s through the 1960s, scholars proclaimed that the patriarchal...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1995