How BAR Changed My Life

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When we announced our 20th Anniversary issue last summer, we wanted to be sure to include our readers in the celebration. We asked those of you who have been with us from the very beginning to let us know what BAR has meant to you. We also asked to hear from people whose lives have been changed by BAR.

We wish we could print all of the wonderful letters we received in response. You will see that we have made a difference in people’s lives. To everyone who wrote, including those whose letters we cannot print for lack of space, we offer our deepest gratitude. Thank you for reminding us why we are doing all this in the first place.

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I remember the first time I rode a public bus. I was going to the fair. I no longer remember the details of the fair, but I vividly recall the sensation of seeing old familiar sights from a new perspective. My seat on the bus was several feet higher than my usual position in the back seat of our family car. I could see over fences, into yards that had been hidden before, over the sides of the bridge to the river below. My world had expanded.

Ten years ago, I took another bus ride, a metaphorical one through the pages of two magazines, BAR and its companion, Bible Review. They have widened my world, increased my knowledge, directed my reading and research, given me new tools for evaluation, inspired, enlightened, amused and entertained me.

Over the years, I have attended 14 seminars sponsored by the Biblical Archaeology Society and three at the Smithsonian that were co-sponsored by BAS. For the layman with an interest in Bible studies, these were obviously God-sent. The seminars have provided some very pleasurable experiences, and although they certainly do not make me a scholar, they have given me a new way of understanding the Bible, faith and religion. I have a new way of viewing, a seat with a different perspective.

All the issues of BAR sit on a shelf within arm’s reach at the right side of my desk, including those first three years of the buff-and-brown production. As its size has grown from 16 pages, coverage expanded and full color added, its usefulness as an information source and teaching resource have multiplied. Thank you, Hershel Shanks, and all who have assisted you.

Since she could read, my daughter Marisa has eagerly read BAR after I have finished. Many times I thought BAR was lost in the mail only to find it in Marisa’s room, since she had received the mail before me.

Because of BAR’s influence, Marisa will be attending the University of Michigan and majoring in archaeology.

I have every issue of BAR and have faithfully read it for 20 years, always waiting anxiously and expectantly for the next issue to arrive. Thank you for helping me experience lifelong dreams and ambitions while sitting in my armchair, traveling in the Middle East, and actually digging in Israel. Even as a small boy growing up in Denver, I wanted to be an archaeologist. Having visited an archaeological site in Colorado, I went home to my own backyard and discovered a long-lost civilization. Actually, I had uncovered the lid to the septic tank. My father let me fantasize for a while and then helped me replace the soil.

Of all the books and periodicals I have read and to which I subscribe, the one that has taken me from page to field is BAR. In the first issue of BAR, I read an account of the great “horned altar” at Beer-Sheva. In 1986, on my first visit to Israel, I actually saw the altar with James Fleming in the Israel Museum, and in 1989, while taking a course under Gabriel Barkay, I visited Beer-Sheva. In recent issues of BAR, the fine articles about Qumran brought back experiences at Qumran and Ein Gedi, the Shrine of the Book and the Rockefeller Museum.

A highlight in my experiences with BAR came in June and July 1992. For years I read in the January–February issues about excavation opportunities, longing one day to be a volunteer. In the 1992 issue I narrowed my choices to four sites and made contact. I joined the Bethsaida excavations, under the direction of Rami Arav and John Rousseau. The fantasies of a little boy and the dreams of a grown man came true. I dug in the dust of time, uncovered implements that had not been seen for centuries and touched the fingerprints of men and women who lived in the times of David and Jesus. Thank you, BAR, for bringing faith and history alive, and for making some sense out of our human strivings.

Was it really 20 years ago that my first issue of BAR arrived? In spite of the battered covers, those first issues opened a new source of pictures and information to help my students visualize the setting of the Scriptures. The “horned altar” picture in the first issue was useful immediately and was the first in a bountiful line of “helps” in building a mental picture of Biblical life.

I was a local pastor then, and over the years health problems have moved me out of the local parish, through teacher education in a secular university into semi-retirement, but I continue to enjoy 051and use BAR for teaching resources and personal enrichment.

Some years ago I taught adult Bible study classes entitled “The Years Between” (on the Intertestamental Period). Having been a subscriber to BAR since the very first issue, I was able to use articles in BAR to enrich my lessons and provide some good background information.

In 1987 my son and I participated in the BAS tour to Egypt and Israel led by Avner Goren. We thoroughly enjoyed the tour and have a great deal of respect for Goren as an archaeologist and as an excellent guide. Since the tour the articles in BAR have become even more meaningful to me. I read with great interest the material on the Dead Sea Scrolls, since Avner took some of us up into the caves where the scrolls were found. Recently I was most interested in the article on Hezekiah’s Tunnel. Having walked through the tunnel, I could much more appreciate the material.

Where have you been all my life? It was a wonderful moment when we first met. I was strolling through the excavations at the southern wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This time I was going to get to know everything about these excavations. I had done my homework, after all, and soon I would be the expert. That morning I seemed to be the only one around, except for the nice young man sitting on a Herodian block below Robinson’s Arch.

As I walked by, I noted how engrossed he was in what he was reading. I glanced at what was in his hands. “Hello, hello,” I said to myself, “is that a diagrammatical sketch I see, and of this very spot?” The temptation was too great: I had to sit down and check out this young man’s reading matter.

“Oh, this is just the Ritmeyer article from BAR,” he said, as casually as if it were the morning edition of The Jerusalem Post. I tried not to sound too blank. “Ritmeyer? BAR? … ” He was so patient, even though I must have been the only person he had ever met who had not heard of such a publication.

Well, that was the beginning; it is almost two years ago now. Since then, I have been to so many places with BAR. Why, only last week I spent a day at Dan with BAR. I took you along to Qatzrin, to Jericho, to Qumran, under the City of David and to so many other places; and back, of course, to where we first met—to the southern wall of the Temple Mount (but now, I do know it all!).

I congratulate you on your 20th birthday. BAR is brilliant; I read you cover to cover. How can I ever make up for the lost 18 of your 20 years? I do have a question though: With all of those issues of BAR I felt I needed to bring to Jerusalem with me, do you have a special fund for covering subscribers’ overweight airline baggage?

Congratulations on having reached your 20th anniversary strong and healthy. I continue to marvel at the wealth of material still extant to be investigated and written about in the Near East. One of my great desires is to visit and perhaps dig in the Holy Land, becoming part of the action.

I have taught church Sunday school for over 53 years and have always considered the archaeology of the Near East very important to interpreting the Bible in its time for our time. The dead stones do speak, now that we have learned to understand what they say.

Having discovered your magazine during college, I have been a subscriber since 1989. The biggest thrill for me about BAR happened in late December 1991, when I pulled the paper cover off my new issue and found a very familiar face smiling back at me! Not at all expecting to see myself, I actually recognized my shirt before I recognized myself. The picture was taken in June 1990 while I was on a dig in Caesarea.

I returned for the 1993 season and was tickled to find that I was a celebrity! I never thought I would be a part of your 052magazine, other than as a happy subscriber. Thank you for your interesting articles and thanks also for making me a “cover girl.” I look forward to the next 20 years.

I began volunteering on archaeological excavations in Israel in 1982 (at the City of David, led by the late Yigal Shiloh). I was first introduced to BAR when my new boss lent me his copies in 1984. Throughout the years, thanks to the combination of “hands-on experience” (every summer) and the interesting, and knowledgeable information in BAR, I was able to keep abreast with the latest exciting events in the archaeological world. As a result, my interest in archaeology continued to expand, developing into a serious commitment.

In 1988 my BAR subscription made aliyah [immigration to Israel] with me. I continued to participate on digs and visited many of the sites written about in BAR (I even met some of the authors). Subsequently, I applied for a job through the Israel Antiquities Authority, met and was hired by one of the district archaeologists, married him and now we are “living happily ever after” … still excavating and still receiving and enjoying (our) BAR!

During July of 1990 I led a group from my church in Saginaw, Michigan, on a tour of the Holy Land. Our entrance point was Amman, Jordan. Two of my sons were along on the tour. Joel has had a strong interest in Biblical archaeology for a long while, and had with him the latest copy of BAR, the cover story of which dealt with Beth-Shean. Joel was excited that he had the story with photos of the place where we were standing.

Joel had to return to the United States earlier than the rest of the group. As he went through the border at the Allenby Bridge back to Amman, he was thoroughly checked. The guards took from him anything that had signs of Israel on it—the flag of Israel, shirts, and his copy of BAR.

Reverend Abenth included a letter from Sherif Zeid bin Shaker, Chief of the Royal Hashemite Court, expressing his regrets over the incident. We hope that with the recent peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, such petty harassment will be a thing of the past.—Ed.

Congratulations on the 20th anniversary of your splendid magazine. We have looked forward to every issue from the beginning. From so many articles we gained interesting insights for our Bible classes at Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Bethesda, Maryland.

One of my favorite memories is from 1981, when my husband and I, armed with the December 1977 issue (“Evidence of Earliest Christian Pilgrimage to the Holy Land Comes to Light in Holy Sepulchre Church,” BAR 03:04), wandered around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, hoping to be able to see the graffito of the small Roman ship with the inscription “Domine Ivimus.” (None of our acquaintances in Jerusalem knew anything about its existence, much less its location.) Almost by chance we found the Armenian chapel, not realizing how close we were to the stone. A silent priest observed our interest in the floor mosaics of Noah’s ark and beckoned us to follow him. Down the dark, uneven, ancient steps we descended wondering where he was leading us. He stopped to open a door, motioned us to step into what appeared to be a subterranean storage room, and pointed his finger toward a corner. There before our eyes was the graffito!

The enclosed snapshot is of us at Masada, the day we finally had time to climb down to Herod’s winter palace. The reason we look so at home is because of your articles and pictures … we think we’ve been there before.

Having recently retired from ministry at Pilgrim, we look forward to having even more time to appreciate BAR in our Albuquerque home. We wish you many more years of significant issues.

Congratulations on the 20th anniversary of a very fine publication. A special salute is due for your patience, persistence and chutzpah 053throughout the continuing drama of the Dead Sea Scrolls Soap Opera (if 40 years was enough for Moses, it should have been more than enough for the scroll editors). I also applaud your attempts to chart a middle course in a sea of controversial issues. Allowing scholars to use B.C.E./C.E. or B.C./A.D. as they choose is most diplomatic, as was including some photos of erotic art in an easily removed section (Lawrence E. Stager, “Eroticism and Infanticide at Ashkelon,” BAR 17:04).

BAR helped me to make the switch from banking to doctoral student in the field I love. Your travel/study seminars in particular helped me to get to know Johns Hopkins Professor Kyle McCarter, who assisted in getting my article, “Drama of the Exodus,” published in your companion magazine, Bible Review.

I am now a doctoral student in religion and education in a joint program at Columbia University, Union Theological Seminary and the Jewish Theological Seminary. This semester I am teaching my first archaeology class, on “Archaeology in the Ancient Near East,” at Marymount College in New York. I appreciate your pictures more than ever! Believe me, I never thought I would be teaching about the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. My interests have expanded greatly: I realize that to understand the historical context in which Moses led the Exodus from Egypt in the time of Ramesses, I need to understand more about the ancient Near East in general. Only then can one understand how Israel was both part of and different from its neighbors.

Thank you for creating the magazine that I use constantly for school papers and lectures.

Yigal Shiloh’s article about the City of David in the summer of 1979 (“Digging in the City of David,” BAR 05:04) transported me from the small town of Huntington, Pennsylvania, to the center of archaeology in Jerusalem, Israel.

In 1980 I became a volunteer at the City of David excavations. I signed on for two weeks and stayed the entire season. From then on my love for archaeology and Israel was incurable.

In March 1982, I packed all my belongings into two suitcases and moved to Jerusalem. The City of David dig was due to start in June, but I couldn’t wait and signed on with Gershon Edelstein, who was doing some small salvage digs around Jerusalem.

One day he asked me to type (for BAR) some articles written by volunteers. I thought I could do as well, so I wrote “A Volunteer on the Road,” BAR 09:01. You published it!

In June 1982 I went to the City of David. Soon Yigal began to introduce me as a professional volunteer. Then in 1983 and 1984 he hired me as registrar, which came with a paycheck. I would never again be “just a volunteer.”

From 1984 to 1988 I was registrar and then area supervisor under Gershon Edelstein at Ein Yael. I assisted Gershon with “What’s a Roman Villa Doing Outside Jerusalem?” BAR 16:06. My name made the footnotes! I saw Gershon’s dream come to fulfillment in 1992 in the Living Museum at Ein Yael.

On later digs I put excavation data on computers, and even learned to modify computer programs to meet our needs. This was good and bad. I became “the computer person,” and now some lucky volunteer has all the fun of finding artifacts.

For the past two years I have been computerizing 12 seasons of the Banias excavations, directed by Vassilios Tsaferis.

So here I am, an Israeli, working full-time with the Israel Antiquities Authority. All this began with the article in BAR and a dream to be involved in archaeology. I would say BAR has had a significant impact on my life, wouldn’t you?

When we announced our 20th Anniversary issue last summer, we wanted to be sure to include our readers in the celebration. We asked those of you who have been with us from the very beginning to let us know what BAR has meant to you. We also asked to hear from people whose lives have been changed by BAR. We wish we could print all of the wonderful letters we received in response. You will see that we have made a difference in people’s lives. To everyone who wrote, including those whose letters we cannot print for lack of […]