Inside BAR

Some may think that the irrepressible Avraham Biran—who was 57 when he began directing the ongoing Tel Dan excavations 20 years ago—has found the fountain of youth at this major northern Galilee dig. In an interview with BAR editor Hershel Shanks (“BAR Interview: Avraham Biran—Twenty Years of Digging at Tel Dan”), Biran makes no such claim, but he does describe important discoveries at Dan that might not have been made without his perseverance—for example, the “Dancer From Dan,” a unique 14th–13th century B.C. plaque of a dancing man playing the lute. Biran also shares conclusions the excavators have reached—thanks to discoveries in the most recent seasons—about a civilization at Dan at the time Israel entered Canaan.

No trace of Solomon’s temple, built in Jerusalem about 950 B.C., has yet been unearthed, and we don’t know from the Bible exactly how it looked. But Biblical descriptions give archaeological sleuths a wealth of information to compare to ancient temples that have been discovered. In “Temple Architecture: What Can Archaeology Tell Us About Solomon’s Temple?” Volkmar Fritz turns for clues toward Syria, where temples built on a long-room plan—reminiscent of Solomon’s Temple—were erected as early as the second millennium B.C.