Capital Archaeology

For nine years, I have written reviews of the Annual Meeting^a as objectively as possible. This year, however, I admit to being prejudiced—prejudiced in favor of this year’s meeting because it was held (for the first time since 1974) in our hometown, Washington, D.C. Not only that, but the Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS), publisher of BAR and Bible Review, was a major participant.

One of the Meeting’s prime features was an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution consisting of two unique objects that BAS brought to this country for the occasion. Lent to us by the Israel Museum and the Israel Antiquities Authority, the two artifacts were the ivory pomegranate from Solomon’s Temple inscribed “Holy to the Priests, belonging to the Temp[le of Yahwe]h”^b and the recently-excavated ossuary, or bone box, of the high priest Caiaphas, who, according to the Gospels, presided at the trial of Jesus^c