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Displaying 1 - 20 of 26 results
Herod’s Family Tomb in Jerusalem
Archaeological clues suggest monumental structure resembles Augustus’s tomb in Rome
We have not found Herod’s tomb, but we have examined a structure that may be Herod’s family tomb. It is not at Herodium but is in Jerusalem itself opposite the Damascus Gate, the most elaborate entrance to the Old City. As with Herodium, my...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1983
Unwrapping the Torah
Making a symbol real again
The Bible plays an enormous role in Jewish ritual life. Many of the psalms have been incorporated into the synagogue liturgy, forming an essential component of the regular daily services...
Bible Review, October 2002
Inanna—The Quintessential Femme Fatale
Diane Wolkstein’s Inanna–Queen of Heaven and Eartha is a retelling, with commentary, of one of the major texts about the Sumerian goddess Inanna. This is a difficult book for me to review. I could not possibly be more in sympathy with...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 1984
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
The Trial Before God of an Accused Adulteress
In the Book of Genesis, when Adam sees Eve, he immediately says “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23). The narrator adds, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife; and...
Bible Review, Fall 1986
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
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
God Before the Hebrews
Treasures of Darkness goes back to the Mesopotamian roots of Biblical religion
What, if anything, can we learn about Biblical religion from the vast quantities of material relating to Mesopotamian religion? The answer is: a great deal. No single volume provides better evidence for this conclusion than the recently...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 1982
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
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
Floating in the Desert
A pleasure palace in Jordan
For more than a century after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.E., his heirs, the Seleucids in Syria and Mesopotamia and the Ptolemies in Egypt, fought for control of the portion of southern Israel known as Judea. Early in the second century B.C.E., a Jew named Joseph stepped into the...
Archaeology Odyssey, Winter 1999
New Mosaic Art from Sepphoris
BAR readers know Sepphoris well. In the BAR 14:01 issue the mosaic known as the Mona Lisa of the Galilee appeared on the cover and was the prize find of the 1987 season.a More recently, in the BAR 18:03 issue, Sepphoris was the chief exhibit...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1992
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
Searching for Herod’s Tomb
Somewhere in the desert palace-fortress at Herodium, Palestine’s master builder was buried
Dedicated to the memory of David Rosenfeld.a I had no idea of searching for Herod’s tomb when I began my archaeological work at Herodium. But I confess it has now become something of a minor obsession with me. Whether I will eventually...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1983
The Many Masters of Dor, Part 3: The Persistence of Phoenician Culture
Twelve years of excavation have barely begun to uncover the 3,900 years of history buried at Tel Dor. Located 12 miles south of Haifa, on Israel’s Mediterranean coast, this 45-foot high...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1993
Jewish Rebels Dig Strategic Tunnel System
At Herodium, the isolated mountain palace-fortress complex originally created by Herod the Great in the midst of the Judean desert,1 an underground tunnel system dating to the Bar-Kokhba revolt, the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome (132–135...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1988
The Last Days and Hours at Masada
The last stand in the First Jewish Revolt against Rome took place on the nearly diamond-shaped mountaintop of Masada, site of a palace-fortress completed by Herod the Great (37–4 B.C.E.). Jewish Zealots who occupied Masada at the start of the...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1991
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
In Search of Herod’s Tomb
Josephus tells us that the site of Herodium was the final resting place of the skilled builder and hated king Herod the Great, but Josephus failed to identify the exact location of the tomb. For 35 years, Herod’s tomb eluded archaeologist Ehud Netzer. Finally in 2007 a ruined mausoleum and a smashed sarcophagus were uncovered, providing the long-sought answer. But excavations at Herod’s magnificent eponymous desert retreat have now revealed much more, including a royal theater box with colorful paintings.
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 2011
This book, developed from a popular symposia sponsored by the Biblical Archaeology Society and the Smithsonian Institution, offers readers exciting, new ways to deepen their appreciation and understanding of Biblical texts. Four outstanding scholars Phyllis Trible, Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Pamela J...