Biblical Archaeology Review is the flagship publication of the Biblical Archaeology Society. For more than 40 years it has been making the world of archaeology in the lands of the Bible come alive for the interested layperson. Full of vivid images and articles written by leading scholars, this is a must read for anyone interested in the archaeology of the ancient Near East.
Two seminal articles on this subject were written by David Ussishkin; see note 9. For earlier studies, see G. Ernest Wright, “The Significance of the Temple in the Ancient Near East,” part 3, “The Temple in Syria-Palestine,” Biblical Archaeologist (1944), pp. 65–77; Leroy Waterman, “The Damaged Blueprints of the Temple of Solomon,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies (1943), pp. 284–294.
Lawrence E. Stager, “The Archaeology of the Family in Ancient Israel,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 260 (1985), pp. 1–35; and “The Song of Deborah: Why Some Tribes Answered the Call and Others Did Not,” BAR 15:01.
Here and throughout the temple reliefs we find the “serpentine curve” pattern known from other finds in the Levant, including a basalt bowl from Hazor Temple H (see Yigael Yadin, Hazor III–IV [Jerusalem: Magnes, 1961], pl. 122) and most recently a tenth-century pottery vessel from Tel Rehov (see Amihai Mazar and John Camp, “Will Tel Rehov Save the United Monarchy?” BAR 26:02).
Portions of this article have been adapted from “The Temples of ‘Ain Dara and Jerusalem,” Text, Artifact, and Image: Revealing Ancient Israelite Religion, eds. Gary Beckman and Theodore Lewis (New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press, forthcoming). I would like to thank Anthony Appa for sharing with me his pictures of ‘Ain Dara and his experiences at the site. I am indebted to my mentor, Lawrence E. Stager, for many helpful comments.
