Yigael Yadin Finds a Bama at Beer-Sheva

On my last visit to Jerusalem, I stopped in to see Yigael Yadin—as I always do. It was a fascinating hour—as it always is.

This time, he told me how he found what he believes to be a bama^a destroyed by King Josiah—and found it in someone else’s dig.

I sat enthralled, listening to this great scholar—lean, crisp, precise and articulate, puffing his pipe, eyes dancing, jumping up to pull a book from the shelf to find a quotation or drive home a point.

His claim to have found the bama is sure to be disputed by the Beer-Sheva team of excavators. But that is for a later issue of the BAR, not this one.

Yadin began by telling me about Josiah.