Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 1998
Special Section
Introduction
Maybe you’ve always dreamed of being an archaeologist. Ever since your first Indiana Jones movie you’ve longed for an archaeological adventure, imagined making a big find. Maybe you’re eager to uncover the history of places you know from the Bible. Perhaps you’re a student trying to make...Read more ›
Site Gazette
Abila Ten is Abila’s magic number as the site enters its tenth year of excavation. Situated about ten miles south of Irbid in northern Jordan, Abila is one of the cities of the Decapolis—a federation of ten cities in eastern Palestine (Matthew 4:25; ...Read more ›
Volunteers’ Views
Exploring Biblical Roots On site at Bethsaida the sun rose over a landscape that had not changed for 5,000 years. People saw the same sun rise here in 2800 B.C. while they worshiped their “strange gods”; here the plundering soldiers of Joshua came and claimed the village...Read more ›
Prize Finds
The Bull from the Sea: Geshur’s Chief Deity? A bull-headed figure stares belligerently from this basalt stela, challenging archaeologists with an apparently unprecedented find. Stelae are rarely found in Israel, though they have been discovered throughout the rest of the ancient Near East. Unearthed during the 1997...Read more ›
Dig Scholarships
BAR offers travel scholarships of $1,000 every year to a few people who would otherwise not be able to volunteer. In 1997 the three women shown below—Melody Knowles, then finishing her dissertation on the Hebrew Bible at Princeton Theological Seminary, Jessica Redford, a philosophy student who would...Read more ›
Features
The Enigma of Qumran
Four archaeologists assess the site
If you want to understand how archaeologists think, how they reason, how they work, how they interpret finds—and why they sometimes disagree—you will enjoy this discussion among four prominent archaeologists who know as much about Qumran and its excavation as can be known today. Long associated with...Read more ›
Banias Dig Reveals King’s Palace
[But which king?]
“Trim the balk!” we cried to the volunteers, encouraging them to clean the sides of their excavation square. As volunteers dig down, they leave the balks standing to preserve the layers of debris deposits. The balks are critical for dating purposes, for they reveal the stratigraphy of...Read more ›
Let My People Go and Go and Go and Go
Egyptian records support a centuries-long exodus
Nothing in the archaeological record of Egypt directly substantiates the Biblical story of the Exodus. Yet a considerable body of Egyptian material provides such close analogies to the Biblical account that it may, in part, serve as indirect proof for the Israelite episode. No other event figures...Read more ›