Inside BAR

After 20 years of publishing a magazine on Biblical archaeology, we decided it was time to ask some fundamental questions about the field: What is Biblical archaeology’s greatest achievement? Its greatest failure? What is its greatest challenge? In “Scholars Speak Out,” fourteen archaeologists and Bible scholars respond by examining past triumphs and flops, and sketching their goals for the future. We trust that their success in meeting these challenges will furnish us with at least another 20 years’ worth of BAR articles.

Our anniversary leads naturally to another query: What are the top ten discoveries in Biblical archaeology? Is it possible to choose among the thousands of intriguing tablets, scrolls, ostraca, churches, statues, altars, amulets, water systems, city walls, tombs and the like that make up the archaeological record of the Near East? We asked Michael D. Coogan to assemble a list. He narrowed the search by selecting finds that are not only important in themselves but also representative of other achievements from the Biblical world; the Gibeon water system, for example, stands for the many spectacular engineering feats of the ancient Canaanites and Israelites. Coogan chooses and describes the “10 Great Finds,” each shown in BAR’s vivid color.