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Displaying 1 - 20 of 27 results
Another Temple to the Israelite God
Aramaic Hoard Documents Life in Fourth Century B.C.
The scholarly world is abuzz. During at least the past 20 years, and more likely during the last 33 years, more than a thousand potsherds inscribed in Aramaic have come onto the antiquities market. About 800 of these have now been published.1...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2004
Visualizing First Temple Jerusalem
Visitors to Jerusalem understandably are often confused by the jumbled and disconnected layers of the past that exist side by side with the teeming modern city. Jerusalem at the time of the First Temple—the Jerusalem of the Bible, the...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1989
Was the Site of the Jerusalem Temple Originally a Cemetery?
Stylistic and architectural similarities between the cave of Machpelah enclosure at Hebron and the Temple Mount enclosure in Jerusalem have been clearly demonstrated by Nancy Miller in “Patriarchal Burial Site Explored for First Time in 700...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1985
Old, New Banquet Hall by the Temple Mount
A banqueting complex was recently identified just beside the Temple Mount. Dating to the time of King Herod, it projects the splendor and comfort enjoyed by royal guests. With its two dining halls and a fountain room in between, this composite triclinium is probably the most splendid Herodian building that has survived the 70 C.E. Roman destruction of Jerusalem.
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2017
Probable Head of Priestly Scepter from Solomon’s Temple Surfaces in Jerusalem
Inscription containing name of God incised on ivory pomegranate
BAR recently published a fascinating article by Gabriel Barkay reporting on his excavation of a small rolled silver amulet, dating from the seventh or sixth century B.C. When the amulet was unrolled, it was found to contain the tetragrammaton...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1984
Prize Find: An Incense Shovel from Bethsaida
Slowly it emerged from the ground: a beautiful, 8-inch-long bronze incense shovel, the prize find of the 1996 excavations at Bethsaida, near the northeastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The shovel lay in a first-century C.E. refuse pit. Just...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1997
Volunteers Find Missing Pieces to Looted Inscription
In the November/December 2008 issue of BAR, we reported on an inscribed limestone stela that had been purchased on the antiquities market by Judy and Michael Steinhardt and is on permanent loan to the Israel Museum.a The incomplete stela,...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 2010
Keeping Jerusalem’s Past Alive
Jerusalem is not only one of the oldest cities in the world, it is one of the few cities which has been continuously inhabited for more than 40 centuries. From before 1850 B.C., when the first wall surrounded and defended Jerusalem, people...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 1981
Searching for Bethsaida: The Case for Et-Tell
For 30 years, archaeologists have been excavating et-Tell in the Lower Golan, east of the Jordan Rift Valley. See why they believe their site is biblical Bethsaida.
Biblical Archaeology Review, Spring 2020
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...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2005
Solomon & Sheba, Inc.
New inscription confirms trade relations between “towns of Judah” and South Arabia
Southern Arabia is 1,200 miles south of Israel. Naturally, skepticism about the reality of trade between South Arabia and Israel in ancient times seems justified. Yet the Bible documents this trade quite extensively—most famously in the...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 2010
The Origin of Israelite Sacrifice
Sacrificing animals to God—a major activity in the Temple—must certainly seem odd to us in the 21st century. Where did the practice come from? The Israelites didn’t invent it. Scholars have hypothesized its origin in prehistoric times, not...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2011
Exploring the Holy Land Close to Home
I have never been to Israel. But after visiting the Explorations in Antiquity Center just an hour outside of Atlanta in LaGrange, Georgia, I have a much better idea of what it was like to live there 2,000 years ago. The center, which opened...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2008
Israel Antiquities Authority’s Report Deeply Flawed
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) recently formed a committee to decide whether the James ossuary inscription and the Yehoash (or Jehoash) inscription are authentic or forgeries. I...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 2003
Return to the Cave of Letters: What Still Lies Buried?
A small shovel started it all. In the summer of 1996, at the excavation of the Galilee site of Bethsaida (which we codirect), we uncovered a small bronze incense shovel. Others like it were used in the imperial cult throughout the Roman...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 2001
Bethsaida Rediscovered
Long-lost city found north of Galilee shore
Bethsaida is the town that disappeared. Soon after playing a prominent role in the Gospels—Bethsaida is mentioned more often in the New Testament than any city except Jerusalem and Capernaum—this fishing village on the Sea of Galilee simply...
Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 2000
Crossing the Holy Land
New church discoveries from the Biblical world
A few years ago the archaeological world, not to mention the popular press, was abuzz with news that an early Christian church had been discovered on the grounds of an Israeli prison at Megiddo. As BAR reported in an article by archaeologist...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 2011
Are We Prepared to Raze the Edifice?
The dating of the Siloam Inscription proposed by Rogerson and Davies would not only change the interpretation of one of the most famous monuments of ancient Jerusalem. It would also change the dating of other Hebrew inscriptions of the First...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1997
Hideouts in the Judean Wilderness
Jewish revolutionaries and Christian ascetics sought shelter and protection in cliffside caves
More than three decades have passed since archaeologists and Bedouin prowled the caves of the Judean wilderness in search of ancient manuscripts and other remains. What occasioned this frenzied search was the stunning but accidental finding...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 1989
Royal Signature: Name of Israel’s Last King Surfaces in a Private Collection
The name of the northern kingdom of Israel’s last king has turned up on a beautiful seal from the eighth century B.C.E.! Although the seal did not belong to the king himself, it was the property of one of his high-ranking ministers. The king...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1995