Biblical Archaeology Review

When digging a large site, archaeologists number in sequence each new area they start digging. Each one of these is called a “Field.” Each Field is divided into “Areas,” usually 5x5 meters square.

Obv. [obverse or front of the tablet] IV [the number of the column] 8 [the number of the row] = [indicates a parallel or duplicate passage in another tablet with the number indicated] 2379 rev. [reverse or back of the tablet] I.5.

TM. [Tell Mardikh, the modern site name of Ebla] 76. [1976] G. [the excavation area in which the tablet was found; in this case, the royal library] 524 [the number of the tablet].

See “BAR Interviews Giovanni Pettinato,” BAR 06:05. Once again, in this article, Pettinato launches some unacceptable insults against me. Also the evidence offered in favor of his thesis is insubstantial.

Dr. Goedicke is not the first to associate the Hebrews in Egypt with the Hyksos. The Egyptian historian Manetho did so in the third century B.C. See Josephus, Contra Apion, I, 14f.

That is, the use of terms which did not come into existence until after the time-period in which the story purportedly takes place.

Onomastic refers to names, especially a vocabulary of proper names.

Professor Urbach’s article was translated for BAR by Marc Brettler.

William F. Albright, “The Impact of Archaeology on Biblical Research—1966,” New Directions in Biblical Archaeology, ed. D. N. Freedman and J. C. Greenfield (Doubleday Anchor Books: Garden City, N.Y., 1971), pp. 3–4.

A festschrift is a book of scholarly papers presented by friends to honor a scholar.