Prize Find: Tel Dan Scepter Head - The BAS Library
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Excavation Opportunities 1989

Prize Find: Tel Dan Scepter Head

By Avraham Biran

“And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favor in his sight. And the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the scepter” (Esther 5:2). As we read in the Book of Esther, the queen was able to approach King Ahasuerus unannounced and, as a result of this audience, Esther eventually saved her people. The Bible refers to scepters on several occasions as symbols of authority and office (for example, Numbers 24:17; Psalm 45:6; […]

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Footnotes

1.

“Danaans and Danites—Were the Hebrews Greek?” BAR 02:02; “Is the Cultic Installation at Dan Really an Olive Press?” BAR 10:06; “King David as Builder,” BAR 01:01; John C. H. Laughlin, “The Remarkable Discoveries at Tel Dan,” BAR 07:05.

2.

Hershel Shanks, “BAR Interview: Avraham Biran—Twenty Years of Digging at Tel Dan,” BAR 13:04.

3.

B.C.E. is the scholarly, religiously neutral designation equivalent to B.C. It stands for “before the common era.”

Endnotes

1.

See R. D. Barnett in Eretz Israel, vol. 8 (Jerusalem, 1967), p. 4ff.

2.

James A. Pritchard, The Ancient Near East in Pictures (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1954), p. 222.