Biblical Archaeology Review, May/June 2014
Features
Queen Helena’s Jerusalem Palace—In a Parking Lot?
This story, you may be assured, will end in Jerusalem. But only in due course. It begins in Adiabene, a small semi-independent kingdom near the border of the Parthian (Persian) empire in the days before the First Jewish Revolt against Rome. The story is told mostly by...Read more ›
Was Herod’s Tomb Really Found?
It was archaeologist Ehud Netzer’s final triumph—the discovery of the tomb of Herod the Great. To celebrate this accomplishment the Israel Museum mounted its most expensive and what turned out to be its most popular exhibit, Herod the Great: The King’s Final Journey.a But tragedy preceded: Shortly...Read more ›
The New Jerusalem Inscription—So What?
In 2012, while excavating at the southern wall of the Temple Mount, Israeli archaeologist Eilat Mazar discovered the oldest alphabetic inscription ever found in Jerusalem. It had been inscribed on a storage jar, but, alas, the jar had not fared well. Made of pottery, it had broken...Read more ›
Circular Signatures: Getting a better view of Mesopotamia’s smallest art form
Readers of BAR are familiar with many of the great works of Mesopotamian art that were produced in what is now modern Iraq over several millennia: the Neo-Assyrian palace reliefs, the stele of Hammurabi, the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, statues of gods and rulers and the...Read more ›