Best of BAR

Thanks to the generous support of the Leopold and Clara M. Fellner charitable foundation, through its trustee Frederick L. Simmons, we are able to honor the best articles in BAR for 1994 and 1995. The selections were made by Jodi Magness, assistant professor of classical and Near Eastern archaeology at Tufts University, and Peter Machinist, the Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages at Harvard University.

First Prize

Dan Gill, “Jerusalem’s Underground Water Systems—How They Met: Geology Solves Longstanding Mystery of Hezekiah’s Tunnelers,” BAR 20:04

Gill offers a convincing solution to an important problem that has attracted much attention over the years: How were Hezekiah’s Tunnel and the other parts of Jerusalem’s ancient water systems constructed? Gill’s solution, anchored in a painstaking study of the geology of the city, is ingenious; for the first time, he is able to make sense of the water systems and their varied features in a comprehensive and coherent way. Writing in a lucid and lively style, Gill has made a major contribution to the archaeology of ancient Jerusalem.

Honorable Mention

Esther Eshel, Hanan Eshel and Ada Yardeni, “Who Was He? Rare Dead Sea Scroll Text Mentions King Jonathan,” BAR 20:01