Authors

Yitzhak Magen (“Nebi Samwil: Where Samuel Crowned Israel’s First King,” ) is head archaeological officer for the civil administration of Judea and Samaria. As Israel’s chief archaeologist for the West Bank, he has directed numerous excavations, including the Samaritan site of Mt. Gerizim. More recently with Yuval Peleg, Magen excavated Qumran, the site usually associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls. Magen and Peleg found it to be a pottery factory, rather than a community of Essenes. See “Qumran—The Pottery Factory,” BAR, September/October 2006.

Aren M. Maeir (“Did Captured Ark Afflict Philistines with E.D.?” ) is the director of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological project (www.dig-gath.org) and currently serves as chair of The Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel, where he teaches Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern archaeology.