Into the Heart of Moab: Excavations at Khirbet Balu‘a

Home > Magazines > BAR > Summer 2024

Despite Moab’s proximity to Israel and Judah and its prominence in the biblical account, we still know little about this ancient kingdom east of the Jordan. A more fulsome picture is coming to light thanks to excavations at the site of Khirbet Balu‘a, one of the largest Moabite sites ever discovered. Journey into the heart of Moab to see what archaeology has revealed about this ancient city and its connections to the biblical past.

Please join the BAS Library or become an All Access member of BAS to gain full access to this article and so much more.

Join the BAS Library!

Already a library member? Log in here.

Institution user? Log in with your IP address or Username

Footnotes

1. See André Lemaire and Jean-Philippe Delorme, “Mesha’s Stele and the House of David,” BAR, Winter 2022.

Endnotes

1. For various scholarly views on Balu‘a’s identification in the Bible, see J. Maxwell Miller, “The Israelite Journey through (around) Moab and Moabite Toponymy,” Journal of Biblical Literature 108 (1989), pp. 593–595; Udo Worschech, “Ar Moab,” Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 109 (1997), p. 252; Edward Lipin´ski, On the Skirts of Canaan in the Iron Age: Historical and Topographical Researches (Leuven: Peeters, 2006), p. 354.

2. For a recent discussion of the Balu‘a Stele, see Bruce Routledge and Carolyn Routledge, “The Baluʿa Stela Revisited,” in Piotr Bienkowski, ed., Studies on Iron Age Moab and Neighboring Areas in Honour of Michèle Daviau (Leuven: Peeters, 2009), pp. 71–95.

3. For further discussion, see Fawzi Zayadine, “The Moabite Inscription,” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 30 (1986), pp. 302–304.

4. For more on this inscription, see Udo Worschech, “An Inscription from al-Bālū‘ (Ard․ al-Karak),” Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan 50 (2006), pp. 99–105.