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.
Archaeology is full of puzzles, as BAR readers are well aware. I would like to discuss here some figurines that proliferated in Judah during the First Temple period; they have puzzled me for a long time. They are known as JPFs, and more than a thousand have been found to date.
A recent study1 has sought to determine by sophisticated new methods whether Qumran was home to a religious community (as Sidnie White Crawford argues in the accompanying article based on her study of the 11 scroll caves and their comparative contents) or whether it was something else—a fortress, a villa, a caravanserai or a pottery factory.
It is commonplace in archaeology: An excavation provides more questions than answers. That is certainly true at Maresha.
