Inside BAR

Have you ever wondered how to pronounce some of the words and names in BAR? Words like kibbutz, Hazor and genizah, to name a few. And just what is a genizah? To help, in each article we will now be printing pronunciations in parentheses beside unfamiliar words. For many articles, we will also include a glossary of terms at the end. And, in this issue, we inaugurate a new department, “Glossary”—a one- or two-page treatment of important, but perhaps unfamiliar, terms in Biblical archaeology. After reading “Glossary: Standing Stones,” by Neil Asher Silberman, you’ll know, at last, how to pronounce stela and stelae, which is singular and which is plural, and what distinguishes it (them) from massebah (and masseboth)!

Awarded a Crane-Rogers Foundation fellowship in 1984, Silberman spent two years in investigative archaeological reporting in Israel, Egypt and Jordan. His first article for BAR, “In Search of Solomon’s Lost Treasure,” BAR 06:04, is based on his book Digging for God and Country: Exploration, Archaeology, and the Secret Struggle for the Holy Land 1799–1917 (Alfred A. Knopf, 1982).