Strata: 2010 Marks BAR’s 35th Anniversary

This year brings the 35th anniversary of BAR and the Biblical Archaeology Society. Traditionalists may say that this anniversary should be celebrated with coral, or perhaps jade, but we all know those aren’t the kind of stones we’re interested in. Instead, we’re planning a special section in our March/April issue (the official anniversary of our inaugural March 1975 issue of BAR).

Then, in each of the remaining issues this year, we’ll bring you a new interview with one of the prominent people in the field, starting with Israel Finkelstein of Tel-Aviv University, whose low chronology for dating the Biblical period in Israel has won him some enemies among traditional scholars. Following that we’ll talk to Harvard’s Lawrence Stager, longtime excavator of Ashkelon, “Queen of the Philistines” Trude Dothan and historical Jesus scholar Sean Freyne from Trinity College, Dublin. Hear what they have to say about what’s changed in the past 35 years and what we have to look forward to in the years to come.