Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 2013
Features
Where Is Sodom?
The Case for Tall el-Hammam
I think I have found Sodom! I can already see the raised eyebrows: The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is not history; it’s just a traditional tale ... In the Bible, Sodom is the essence of evil: “The men of Sodom were wicked” (...Read more ›
When Pharaohs Ruled Jerusalem
One thing leads to another. In a way, it can be said that the article you are now reading originated with another BAR article: In 2000 the prominent Jerusalem archaeologist Gabriel Barkay published an article in BAR titled “What’s an Egyptian Temple Doing in Jerusalem?”a1 Barkay summarized...Read more ›
The Staurogram
Earliest Depiction of Jesus’ Crucifixion
In Greek, the language of the early church, the capital tau, or T, looks pretty much like our T. The capital rho, or R, however, is written like our P. If you superimpose the two letters, it looks something like this: . The earliest Christian uses of...Read more ›
Wet-Sift the Megiddo Dumps!
Wet-Sifting Is Invaluable for Recovering Small Finds
I’m looking for a clever aphorism saying that good things sometimes come from something bad. I have in mind the Muslim Waqf’s illegal excavation on the Temple Mount to accommodate a new, larger entrance to the underground Marwani mosque. Truckloads of dirt were dug without regard to...Read more ›