Displaying 1 - 20 of 44 results
The Birth of Adonis?
Cyprus excavation suggests a connection between the Greek god and the Hebrew Adon
How does a site get lost? It happens. For nearly a decade—from 1867 to 1875—General Luigi Palma de Cesnola, a flamboyant Italian who served as both the American and Russian consul to...
Archaeology Odyssey, Spring 1998
How an American Coal Miner Acquired Sacred Biblical Papyri
The Chester Beatty Collection
The Chester Beatty Library was once one of Dublin’s best-kept secrets. I often found myself the only visitor when I went there as a student. The library was tucked away in the leafy Dublin suburb of Ballsbridge, on Shrewsbury Road, amidst...
Bible Review, August 2002
What Archaeology Can Contribute to an Understanding of the Bible
Although Professor Dever objects to the use of the term “Biblical archaeology” (see “Should the Term ‘Biblical Archaeology’ Be Abandoned?” BAR 07:03), few are as articulate as he in describing what archaeology, and particularly Syro-...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 1981
Jerusalem Tombs from the Days of the First Temple
A few hundred yards from Damascus Gate and over the wall from the Garden Tomb, magnificent burial cave lies beneath a Dominican monastery.
Damascus Gate, the most important entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City, fairly bustles with activity inside and out. Arab men in their robes and keffiyehs; Arab women in long embroidered...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1986
The Garden Tomb: Was Jesus Buried Here?
First-time visitors to Jerusalem are often surprised to learn that two very different sites vie for recognition as the burial place of Jesus. One is, as its name implies, the Holy Sepulchre Church; it is located in a crowded area of the...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1986
Burial Headrest as a Return to the Womb—A Reevaluation
In “The Peculiar Headrests for the Dead in First Temple Times,” BAR 13:04, Professor Othmar Keel takes issue with an earlier BAR article in which Amos Kloner and I discussed these stone headrests carved on top of burial benches (“Jerusalem...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1988
Reconstructing Herod’s Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Herod the Great—master builder! Despite his crimes and excesses, no one can doubt his prowess as a builder. One of his most imposing achievements was in Jerusalem. To feed his passion for grandeur, to immortalize his name and to attempt to...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1989
A Pilgrim’s Journey
Jerusalem is bathed in the clear light of early morning. A pilgrim has come for one of the great festivals, and his journey is almost over. He begins the ascent from the Siloam Pool at the bottom part of the Lower City. The sun is not yet...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1989
Reconstructing the Triple Gate
Reconstructing the Triple Gate required that we answer three principal questions. What was the gate’s original width? Was it originally a double gate or a triple gate? For whom was it built? The discovery of a vault in front of the Triple...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1989
Archaeology and the Bible—Understanding Their Special Relationship
The following article has been adapted from Recent Archaeological Discoveries and Biblical Research, by William G. Dever (Seattle: Univ of Washington Press, 1990). As a matter of principal Professor Dever does not write for BAR (see...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 1990
The World’s Oldest Poorbox
I believe I may have discovered the world’s earliest poorbox—a tangible expression of Israel’s ancient concern for the needy among its people. On one of my frequent visits to Jerusalem’s Rockefeller Museum, I noticed an object that I had seen...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1992
Herod’s Temple in East Anglia
There it is in the heart of the British countryside I of East Anglia: the largest, the most detailed and the most accurate model of Jerusalem’s Second Temple ever built. Breathtakingly beautiful, the model is difficult to equate with its...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 1993
Potter’s Field or High Priest’s Tomb?
About a half mile south of the Old City of Jerusalem—at the southeast end of the Hinnom Valley, near where it joins the Kidron Valley east of the city—is one of the most impressive,...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1994
The Death of a Discipline
As readers of BAR may know, I have long maintained a principle of not writing articles for the magazine, although I remain good friends with editor Hershel Shanks, and I do assist with...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 1995
Politics—Not Religious Law—Rules Ultra-Orthodox Demonstrators
Political power, not religious law, motivates the ultra-Orthodox in Israel who violently protest archaeological excavations, claiming that ancient Jewish graves are being desecrated. Jewish religious law (halakhah) does not prohibit...
Biblical Archaeology Review, November/December 1997
Save Us from Postmodern Malarkey
There are some who claim that the Bible contains little or no historical information about ancient Israel. I want to combat these “minimalist” or “revisionist” views of the history of ancient Israel by showing how archaeology can and does...
Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2000
What’s an Egyptian Temple Doing in Jerusalem?
Recent attacks on the historicity of the United Monarchy of David and Solomon (in the tenth century B.C.) have focused on the scant archaeological remains that have been discovered in...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 2000
Mounds of Mystery
Where the Kings of Judah Were Lamented
At the beginning of the 20th century, when Jerusalem, still centered around its ancient core, was surrounded by agricultural land and orchards, 20 mysterious earth-and-stone mounds rose above the city’s western horizon, clearly visible from...
Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 2003
Whatchamacallit
Why It’s So Hard to Name Our Field
Cynical observers claim that when a discipline falls to questioning its name, it is already moribund. I would argue, however, that periodic (and even painful) reassessment is a sign of...
Biblical Archaeology Review, July/August 2003
Royal Palace, Royal Portrait?
The Tantalizing Possibilities of Ramat Raḥel
The first Judahite royal palace ever exposed in an archaeological excavation is bei ng rediscovered. And with this renewed interest come echoes of what is probably one of the bitterest rivalries in the history of Israeli ar chaeology—between...
Biblical Archaeology Review, September/October 2006