Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1997
Special Section
Any Time, Any Place: A Dig for Every Interest
How far back can we peer into human history? Like astrophysicists gazing at the edge of the universe to detect evidence of the Big Bang, archaeologists and paleontologists search back before “history” to trace out human origins. Prehistory (1,000,000 to 3150 B.C.) Our knowledge of times so...Read more ›
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 a few meters away is the corner...Read more ›
BAR Dig Scholarships
Every year BAR offers $1,000 travel scholarships to a few people who couldn’t otherwise afford to volunteer for a dig. If this description fits you, the box at lower right tells you how to apply. But first you may want to read what two of last year’s...Read more ›
Features
Beth Shemesh
Culture conflict on Judah’s frontier
At 6 a.m. on April 6, 1911, a group of Arab villagers headed by a tall, red-haired, boldly mustachioed Scottish highlander named Duncan Mackenzie began to unearth a desolate hillock in Palestine believed to be Biblical Beth-Shemesh. In the spirit of...Read more ›
Excavate King David’s Palace!
A careful examination of the Biblical text combined with sometimes unnoticed results of modern archaeological excavations in Jerusalem enable us, I believe, to locate the site of King David’s palace. Even more exciting, it is in an area that is now available for excavation...Read more ›
Masada—The Final Reports
Masada: The Yigael Yadin Excavations 1963–1965, Final Reports (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society/Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1989–1995, distributed by the Biblical Archaeology Society, 1856 pp., Vol. I, $60; Vol. II, $72; Vol. III, $144; Vol. IV, $90; Vol. V $81; Vol. I–V, $399;...Read more ›
The Petra Scrolls
Publication of papyri a legal obligation
In December 1993, when Pierre Bikai, director of the the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in Amman, Jordan, and his team discovered a cache of burnt papyrus scrolls in a Byzantine church in Petra, he wanted to avoid the kind of publication scandals that surrounded the...Read more ›