Biblical Archaeology Review, January/February 2014
Features
Digs 2014: Layers of Meaning
BAR readers are familiar with a common archaeological fairy tale: The first discovery of an ancient artifact opens a majestic bridge to the past. This lovely trope ends with the archaeologist and artifact living happily ever after. But it doesn’t happen that way. When new volunteers excavate...Read more ›
Buy Low, Sell High: The Marketplace at Ashkelon
Ashkelon—an ancient city whose name comes from the same root as shekel—was indeed a city of buying and selling. If archaeologists were to design a place to examine the economy of the ancient world, they could hardly pick a better site than Ashkelon. At the end of...Read more ›
Cult Prostitution in Ancient Israel?
Contrary to the claims of some 20th-century scholarship, the Hebrew Bible never refers directly to cult prostitutes. Many modern Bible translations are simply misleading in this respect. Much of the confusion results from a misunderstanding of a few Biblical texts that mention qedeshot, the plural of qedeshah,...Read more ›
The Interchange Between Bible and Archaeology
The case of David’s Palace and the Millo
Evidence from the Bible and from archaeology must be interpreted independently of each other, but in the end they must be compared and interpreted. Take Jerusalem: In view of the continuous settlement of Jerusalem from the tenth century B.C.E. until the Babylonian destruction of the First Temple...Read more ›