Ariel Cohen (The Siloam Tunnel Inscription: For the Living or the Dead?) is Associate Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Foreign Literatures and Linguistics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.

Thomas Davis (The Diaspora Revolt: Cyprus’s Forgotten Jewish Uprising) was Professor of Archaeology at Lipscomb University and Associate Director of the Lanier Center for Archaeology. He directed the center’s excavations at the site of Kourion in Cyprus.

Mary Foskett (Milestone: Patricia Maynor Bikai (1943–2025)) is Wake Forest Kahle Professor of Religious Studies at Wake Forest University, where she teaches courses primarily in New Testament studies.

Matthew J. Grey (What Did the Last Supper Really Look Like?) is a professor of ancient scripture and coordinator of the Near Eastern studies program at Brigham Young University. He specializes in the New Testament and the archaeology of Roman Judea.

Michael G. Hasel (Book Review: The Bible’s First Kings) is Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Archaeology at Southern Adventist University. He has directed excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, Socoh, and Lachish.

Barbara A. Porter (Milestone: Phyllis Trible (1932–2025)) is the former director of the American Center of Research (2006–2020) in Amman, Jordan. Previously, she served as an assistant curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Matthieu Richelle (Was the Tower of Babel Left Under Construction?) is Professor of Old Testament at the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. His most recent book is The Bible and Archaeology (Hendrickson, 2018).

Karen B. Stern (Sensing the Synagogue) is Professor of Classics at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. She studies early Jewish material culture of the Mediterranean world.

David S. Vanderhooft (Was the Tower of Babel Left Under Construction?) is Associate Professor of Theology at Boston College. His research focuses on the Hebrew scriptures, especially the Prophets.

Győző Vörös (Under Siege: How Rome Conquered Jerusalem) is the founding director of the Hungarian Academy in Jerusalem. He has directed the Machaerus Archaeological Excavations since 2009.

Mark Wilson (Philip’s Encounter with the “Ethiopian Eunuch”) is the director of the Asia Minor Research Center in Antalya, Turkey, and Professor Extraordinary of New Testament at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

ERIC CARLSON

Thank you to all those who submitted caption entries for our Fall 2025 cartoon (left), based on Genesis 11:6–7: “And the LORD said, ‘Look, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’” We are pleased to congratulate Jeremy Weinstein of Walnut Creek, California, who wrote the winning caption, and our runners-up:

“Ziggur-what?”
—Jeremy Weinstein, Walnut Creek, California

RUNNERS-UP

“I thought speaking in tongues wasn’t invented yet!”
—Milo Velebir, Ranford, Western Australia

“If we could only find that darned Rosetta Stone!”
—Jerry Kliot, Painesville, Ohio

HONORABLE MENTIONS

“How do you expect me to understand you when you’re speaking in hieroglyphs?”
—W. Arthur Hays Jr., Murphy, North Carolina

“So … what’s the name of that translation app? Begins with a ‘B’ …”
—Debra Bream, Beachwood, Ohio

ERIC CARLSON

For additional caption entries, as well as past cartoons and captions, please visit barmag.org/capcontest.

Write a caption for the cartoon (right) based on Genesis 44:12: “He searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest; and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.” Submit it via our website at barmag.org/capcontest.

Please include your name and address. The deadline for entries is May 15, 2026. The author of the winning caption will receive a BAS All-Access membership and three gift subscriptions to give BAR to friends. Runners-up will receive an All-Access membership and two gift subscriptions for friends.

Thank you for your thoughts and comments about our Fall 2025 issue. We appreciate your feedback. Here are a few of the letters and responses we received. Find more online at barmag.org/letters.

Different Strokes for Different Folks

Thanks to BAR, readers hear from real experts in the field, not a summary or a version of an event that is redacted by a staff writer with little hands-on experience. I commend BAR and its editorial team for giving us a journal where you can still find trustworthy, relevant, and reliable information, conveyed by real professionals, unafraid of pushing against established dogma.

JOSE M. PAREDES
FLOSSMOOR, ILLINOIS

I really am sorry to see your magazine has gone so liberal! Truly, it appears many universities today are producing well-credentialed skeptics rather than apologists of God’s Word. If this is the decided course, may I suggest you drop “biblical” from your title and replace it with “biblical lands” or “Middle Eastern” as a more accurate reflection of your position?

PASTOR MIKE PANGBURN
BRIDGETON, NEW JERSEY

Fix Your Dates!

I don’t know where BAR stands on the truth of God’s Holy Word. However, when I see the terms BCE and CE instead of BC and AD, it makes me wonder. Even an organization that doesn’t subscribe to any particular religious viewpoint must have some idea as to the truth of the Holy Bible. Since you seek out information that is about the history behind the biblical text, you must see that Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose from the dead and that his life changed history forever. With that in mind, to use BCE and CE is an affront to the truth of God’s Holy Word and to God himself. Can you please see fit to use terms that have been in longstanding use worldwide until the last few decades?

BRYAN DAUGHERTY
YUBA CITY, CALIFORNIA

Why BCE and CE? Looks to me like you have gone secular, with no regard for the truth.

MICHAEL NOCTOR
LEHIGHTON, PENNSYLVANIA

As a new subscriber, I was disappointed to see the use of BCE and CE, considering that this is a biblical archaeology magazine. I understand that is the secular use. The contention regarding Christ’s birthday notwithstanding, the standard usage still works and people know what it means. It just seems like another example of woke “be in the world, not of the world.”

JOHNNA HILDEBRAND
LONDON, OHIO

In accordance with most standard scholarly usage today, BAR’s house style is to use BCE (Before the Common Era) and CE (Common Era). However, BAR allows authors to maintain their preferred terminology as appropriate, including BC and AD (see, e.g., Győző Vörös’s article, “Under Siege: How Rome Conquered Jerusalem,”).—ED.

John Was Not a Witness

Several letters in the Fall issue’s “Queries & Comments” draw conclusions about Jesus’s crucifixion based on the authority of the author of the Gospel of John. I know of no reputable New Testament scholar who believes that any of the four canonical gospels were written by eyewitnesses, and certainly not apostles or disciples of an apostle. Those attributions were likely assigned in the mid- to late second century to give greater authority to the gospels. All four canonical gospels are anonymous.

ARTHUR J. BELLINZONI
AURORA, NEW YORK

Grateful Dead Backstory

The title of the article “Ancient Judah’s Grateful Dead” refers imprecisely to the folkloristic motif of the “grateful dead” by focusing on the comfort, care, and celebration at the deceased’s tomb. Most commonly, the widespread grateful dead tales involve the death of a debtor, his creditors paid by a traveler or stranger, who, in turn, is saved from death or calamity by the soul/spirit of the grateful deceased.

BERNARD WITLIEB
WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK

Mysterious Negev Tombs

The short news item “Mysterious Negev Tombs,” about the tomb complex found at a crossroads on the ancient trade routes connecting Egypt and the Levant to the Arabian Peninsula, was very interesting. Among other things, it stated that a significant number of the burials were of women, which the excavators suggest may indicate human trafficking.

I wish that statement had been expanded upon to look at other possibilities. The kingdom of Cush was known for its women warriors, the most famous being Queen Amanirenas. Might the burials have been of women warriors who were hired as guards for the caravans?

MARIAN POWELL
CHINO VALLEY, ARIZONA

You might be pleased to learn that we are preparing a feature article for an upcoming issue on these mystifying tombs, so hopefully we’ll learn more then. Also, for more on the women who ruled over Cush during the time of the first Christians, check out Mark Wilson’s article “Philip’s Encounter with the ‘Ethiopian Eunuch’,” in this issue.—ED.

Misunderstanding Moses

Ralph Hawkins seems to have missed an important point in his article “Losing Abraham’s Religion.” While I am sure that the Egyptian princess did her best to care for the infant Moses, I am equally sure that she allowed her handmaidens the opportunity to change his diapers. If the Israelites were practicing circumcision during their stay in Egypt, it would have become widely known that Moses was a Hebrew, since he was supposed to be 3 months old when placed in the Nile.

JOHN MAJKA
LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

I believe Hawkins has mistranslated Exodus 4:24. The Lord wanted to kill Moses, not his infant son Gershom. It was Moses’s duty to circumcise his son on the eighth day. Zipporah realized what was happening and quickly circumcised her son, thus saving her husband. The Midrash attempts to fill in the blanks surrounding Zipporah’s actions.

MARTY BLUMENTHAL
HIGHLAND PARK, ILLINOIS

Stay Out of Politics

I was outraged and disappointed to see you publish the letter by Craig Hunter in the Fall issue. Hunter writes nothing about archaeology but shows his prejudice and hatred by referring to “occupied” East Jerusalem and to people who have been “displaced” by the Israeli government. He even cites the bogus, racist, International Court of Justice in his screed.

In almost 40 years, I have never known BAR to become involved in politics, especially in the Arab-Israeli conflict. You deal with archaeology and the Bible very well and have always—usually quite deftly—avoided the slightest mention of this issue. Why, then, did you publish this letter instead of tossing it into the garbage where it belongs?

WALLACE GOTTLIEB
CEDARHURST, NEW YORK

Incorrect Hieroglyphs

The news of the discovery of the cartouche of Ramesses III in Jordan contains an incorrect reading of the hieroglyphs preceding the left cartouche. It is NOT nb 3ḫw, “Lord of transfigured spirits.” To my knowledge, this phrase never occurs as a royal epithet. Instead, the Egyptian reads nb ḫ‘w, “Lord (or Possessor) of Crowns,” which is a very common royal epithet in the New Kingdom.

JAMES K. HOFFMEIER
EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY
TRINITY INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Matthew J. Adams (In the Shadow of Armageddon) is director of the Jezreel Valley Regional Project and former director of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem.

Drew W. Billings (Biblical Profile: Paul, the Bible’s Last Action Hero) is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at the University of Mississippi. His research focuses on the history of early Judaism and Christianity.

Aaron A. Burke (Putting the Bible Back in Biblical Archaeology) is Professor of the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and the Levant at the University of California, Los Angeles. He specializes in the archaeology of the Bronze and Iron Ages.

Gillan Davis (Biblical Border Town: Is Khirbet al-Ra‘i Where David First Ruled?) is the director of the Ancient Israel Program at the Australian Catholic University in Sydney. He co-directed excavations at Khirbet al-Ra‘i.

Saar Ganor (Biblical Border Town: Is Khirbet al-Ra‘i Where David First Ruled?) is an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority and a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. He co-directed excavations at Khirbet al-Ra‘i.

Yosef Garfinkel (Biblical Border Town: Is Khirbet al-Ra‘i Where David First Ruled?) is the Yigael Yadin Chair in Archaeology of Israel at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. He co-directed excavations at Khirbet al-Ra‘i.

John W. Herbst, Ph.D. (Big City, Small Town—Why Size Matters), is the Scholar-in-Residence for the Virginia Peninsula Baptist Association. He has taught undergraduate and graduate classes on the Bible and religion.

Kyle H. Keimer (Biblical Border Town: Is Khirbet al-Ra‘i Where David First Ruled?) is a lecturer in the archaeology and history of ancient Israel at Macquarie University in Australia. He co-directed excavations at Khirbet al-Ra‘i.

Achia Kohn-Tavor (Site-Seeing: Digging Through Time at Chorazin) is an Israeli archaeologist and educator specializing in Galilean and Byzantine archaeology. He directs the excavations at Chorazin.

Mark Letteney In the Shadow of Armageddon is a doctoral student at Princeton University, specializing in late Roman history. He oversees the amphitheater excavations at Legio.

Vanessa Linares (Vanilla-Spiced Afterlife at Canaanite Megiddo) is a lecturer in the Department of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Haifa, Israel.

Candida Moss (The Hidden Hands Behind the New Testament) is the Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom and a Research Associate at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University.

Abigail Naidu (Book Review: Rediscovering the Dead Sea Scrolls) is a doctoral researcher in theology and religion at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Her doctoral project examines the Temple Scroll.

Jonathan Rosenbaum (Milestone: Leonard J. Greenspoon (1945–2025)) is President Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies at Gratz College and a visiting scholar in biblical studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Joan E. Taylor (Not So Little Town of Bethlehem) is Professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism at King’s College London. Her research focuses on early Judaism and Christianity.

Yotam Tepper (In the Shadow of Armageddon) is an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority. He has excavated at Legio and the Megiddo prison compound.

Wiesław Więckowski (In the Shadow of Armageddon) is a professor in the Department of Bioarchaeology at the University of Warsaw, Poland. He studies the burial and funerary materials from Legio.

BAR Summer 2025

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and comments about our Summer 2025 issue. We appreciate your feedback. Here are a few of the letters and responses we received. Find more online at barmag.org/letters.

Job Well Done

I have been an avid BAR reader for many years. I also subscribe to several other archaeology magazines and want to compliment you on the cover of your Summer issue. In comparing this cover with the covers of other magazines I receive, the term “less is more” comes to mind. Your Summer issue catches the eye where other magazines clutter their cover with as much stuff as possible, thereby producing a cover that confuses the eye and causes you to look elsewhere. Your magazine consequently gets read first. A job well done.

DOUGLAS CAMPBELL
WARRENTON, VIRGINIA

After reading the letters published in the “Queries & Comments” section of your latest issue, I was appalled at the letter denouncing your magazine and its contributors. I find it wonderfully refreshing to get different viewpoints rather than a straightforward literal reading of biblical texts.

REGINA H. SOULE
BRIGHTON, MASSACHUSETTS

BAR Offends Christians

You have no idea how offensive your magazine has become to those of us who name Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. The last BAR I read, now several years ago, had an image of a grotesque figure on the cover and asked if it was the face of God (Fall 2020). That, for me, was the last straw. When an apology is published, with the commitment that BAR will engage the Christian community with greater discretion, that’s when I will consider reengaging. Until then, there are many, many other sources for archaeological news.

GREGORY DRAKE
NORTHBROOK, ILLINOIS

Indeed, the “Face of God” article stirred considerable controversy among scholars, several of whom refuted its claims in the subsequent article “Facing the Facts About the ‘Face of God’” in BAR’s Winter 2020 issue. But even when covering such controversial topics, BAR always strives to present the latest discoveries in ways that both accurately reflect scholarly research and are sensitive to the diverse views, beliefs, and concerns of our many readers.—ED.

Mysterious Mug

Regarding the mug stone presented by Shimon Gibson in “The Mysterious Mount Zion Mug,” were there any residues found in it to indicate what was drunk from it?

ELLIOT WERNER
RADNOR, PENNSYLVANIA

SHIMON GIBSON RESPONDS:
It is a truly unusual and exceptional vessel, in that it is inscribed. But many thousands of similar but uninscribed vessels have turned up in excavations in Jerusalem and at Jewish urban and village sites of the early Roman period across Israel and even in neighboring Jordan. I surmise they were used for the washing of hands (netilat yadaim, in Hebrew) rather than for drinking, but to the best of my knowledge no residue analysis has yet been undertaken on such vessels.

Women and Prophecy

I enjoyed the Summer issue but had issues with the article “Women and Prophecy in Biblical Israel,” by Susan Ackerman. The author makes two statements about women prophets that are just as true for men prophets.

First, referring to Miriam’s leading Israel in song, Ackerman states, “Our definition of the Bible’s women prophets, therefore, may need to expand to include the roles they had as musicians.” However, David is called a prophet in Acts 2, and he’s also the Bible’s most famous musician. Elisha uses music while listening for God’s direction. Habakkuk writes his last chapter as a song to be accompanied by stringed instruments. And Isaiah includes, among many other poetic passages, the Song of the Vineyard. So how is music as part of prophecy something distinctive to women?

Second, she writes, “Rather, like women today, ancient Israel’s women prophets were the ultimate multitaskers.” Let me point out that Elisha is involved in construction; Saul (“among the prophets”) and Amos in agriculture; Moses, David, and Amos in sheepherding. On the other hand, there are women prophets for whom the Bible mentions no other occupation—e.g., Agabus and Philip’s daughters in Acts. So how are women prophets more multitaskers than men?

STANLEY SCISM
NORTH WOODSTOCK, NEW HAMPSHIRE

The Historical John the Baptist

Zeba Crook’s review of the book John of History, Baptist of Faith: The Quest for the Historical Baptizer (Eerdmans, 2024) contains the coded words “history” and “historical” throughout. In my experience, these have been code for “no supernatural allowed” and for the liberal view of the biblical narrative. It seems that when there is no “historical” evidence of a biblical setting or story, we end up with the liberal opinion taking precedence over the declarative statements of the narrative itself, in this case because “collective memory” is unreliable.

Crook is allowed to hold whatever view he wants. But it was perplexing to me how he could state that “none of the sources [mentioning details or settings of the life of John] was written by an eyewitness, or even likely by a person with access to an eyewitness,” when there are at least two Bible verses that unequivocally say otherwise. Luke 1:1 lays out that many had attempted to write of the life of Christ “just as those who, from the first, were eyewitnesses and servants of the Word” and that he “carefully investigated everything from the beginning” (NIV). And John, himself an apostle who walked with Jesus, states that he was writing and proclaiming “the Word of life” that he and others had seen, heard, and touched (1 John 1:1, 3).

DAVE HART
LATHAM, NEW YORK

Misleading Jesus Statement

I was fascinated by the news piece “Law and Order in Roman Judea”’ but had to reread the sentence, “This is the best documented Roman court case from Judea apart from the trial of Jesus,” because that was news to me. In fact, there is no known Roman court record of the trial, nor is there apparently any contemporaneous account. I believe I understand what the author of that statement meant to get across, but I doubt whether I was the only subscriber to have a “Whoa” moment upon reading that sentence.

ROBERT A. DELL’AGOSTINO
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

Interestingly, we had our own editorial discussion about this claim as well, but concluded, probably as you did, that the quoted scholar was clearly referencing the lengthy descriptions of Jesus’s trial preserved in the various gospel accounts (Matthew 27; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 18–19). Of course, in critical historical studies, it is important to distinguish between contemporaneous documentation and the literary retelling of an event.—ED.

The Writing on the Wall

I was intrigued by the short note about the “Writing on the Wall” (“Whence-a-Word?”). The biblical Mene, Mene, Teqel, Uparsin brought to mind an entirely different interpretation of that message that I learned from my father, Julius Freund, who some 50 years ago was auditing classes at UCLA.

I don’t recall if the ideas were entirely his own or arose from discussions in his Aramaic classes, but he offered the following rather amusing interpretation. The three different words denoted three coins, whose Hebrew equivalents were minah, shekel, and farsin. The wall inscription may well have been a graffito of three coins: a mina (worth many shekels) with the head of Belshazzar’s grandfather, suggesting he was a great king; a shekel coin with the head of his father, a lesser but still great man; and a farthing coined with the head of Belshazzar himself, suggesting that he was all but worthless in comparison to his forebears.

The meaning of that graffito was of course clear to anyone who saw it scrawled on the palace wall, but who would dare reveal its meaning to the king? Only Daniel had the courage to suggest to the king that he was a failure, and that his kingdom would soon fall.

DWIGHT D. FREUND
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

Your father was clearly paying attention in class. The idea that the Aramaic words mene, teqel, and parsin reflect the names for weight units was first suggested in 1886, by the French scholar F. Clermont-Ganneau. In his article “Mané, Thécel, Pharès et le festin de Balthasar” (Journal Asiatique 8 [1886], pp. 36–67), Clermont-Ganneau offered several different readings of the inscription and Daniel’s interpretation. The first and the last of the words he understands as two different words for weights, one of which represents a half of the other: “one mina” and “two perases” (i.e., half-minas), connected somehow by the middle word, which might be another weight (“shekel”) or a different derivation of the verb “weigh.” The first to equate each of the units with rulers was likely Emil G.H. Kraeling, in his “The Handwriting on the Wall” (Journal of Biblical Literature 63 [1944], pp. 11–18). Although these ideas are intriguing, there is, however, no way to know how Daniel read (i.e., vocalized) the inscription and how exactly, in his mind, the pun worked.—ED.

Priestly Training Center?

I read with fascination the Summer issue’s news piece “Jerusalem Cult Shrine Discovered.” I wondered if the facility might have been a training center for priests chosen to serve at the Jerusalem Temple, rather than a “cult shrine” operating outside the writ of the Temple while being so close to Jerusalem. It could hardly have been unknown to the hierarchy in the capital that so often condemned non-centralized worship, yet it continued in use for generations, until Hezekiah’s reforms in the eighth century. A priestly training center would have made sense, since the Temple was in constant use for sacrifice and worship. After all, priests/Levites needed to be trained in their important duties.

ANDREW CARUTHERS
WENATCHEE, WASHINGTON

2025 WINNERS BAS Publication Awards
These prestigious awards have been made possible by a grant from:
The Rohr Family in memory of Sami Rohr

BEST BOOK ON THE HEBREW BIBLE

Deuteronomy and the Material Transmissions of Tradition

Deuteronomy and the Material Transmission of Tradition

Mark Lester
(Leiden: Brill, 2024)

Mark Lester’s Deuteronomy and the Material Transmissions of Tradition offers a unique, interdisciplinary approach to the Book of Deuteronomy. Lester challenges traditional theological and literary interpretations of Deuteronomy and studies it as an adaptation of the media aesthetics of ancient Near Eastern treaty tablets and monumental inscriptions. He invites readers to approach Deuteronomy not merely as narrative literature, but as a material and literary artifact imbued with cultural and social significance. His rigorous study makes an important contribution to both biblical studies and biblical archaeology and will appeal to a general audience interested in the intersection of these two disciplines.

— JUDGES —
KEVIN BURRELL – Wilfrid Laurier University
ALICE MANDELL – Johns Hopkins University
TINA WRAY – Salve Regina University

BEST BOOK ON THE NEW TESTAMENT

John of History, Baptist of Faith

John of History, Baptist of Faith

James F. McGrath
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2024)

This title is incredibly readable, impressive in its scholarly scope and depth, and accessible to an interested general audience. John of History, Baptist of Faith demonstrates McGrath’s breadth of expertise not only in biblical studies but also in the directly relevant fields of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Christian Apocrypha, the Nag Hammadi texts, and rabbinic literature. This volume sets a high standard for the field of New Testament studies and advances the field in any investigation of John the Baptist.

— JUDGES —
MATTHEW GREY – Brigham Young University
LEE JEFFERSON – Centre College
ELIZABETH SCHRADER POLCZER – Villanova University

BEST SCHOLARLY BOOK ON ARCHAEOLOGY

The Amman Theater Statue in Its Iron Age Contexts

The Amman Theater Statue in Its Iron Age Contexts

Joel Burnett
(Alexandria: ASOR, 2023)

At its best, archaeology combines materials science, art history, ancient history, and spatial contexts to gain insight into the past. The Amman Theater Statue in Its Iron Age Contexts approaches this ideal. Burnett’s volume takes a single Iron Age object found in a Roman context by a rescue excavation and turns it into an innovative contribution to history. The book explores several Iron Age contexts: monumental statues found in Iron Age Jordan, Mesopotamian and Egyptian art and religion, the literature of the Hebrew Bible, and, although tentative, the royal architecture of the kingdom of Ammon. This well-rounded study shows how research into an object should be done.

BEST POPULAR BOOK ON ARCHAEOLOGY

After 1177 B.C.: The Survival of Civilizations

After 1177 B.C.: The Survival of Civilizations

Eric H. Cline
(Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2024)

Eric Cline’s After 1177 B.C. offers an engaging take on the aftermath of the Late Bronze Age collapse. The book presents a highly accessible survey of various eastern Mediterranean societies, tracing their trajectory from the 12th to the ninth centuries BC while analyzing their varied responses to the crisis. By drawing parallels between the Late Bronze Age collapse and current global issues such as climate change, pandemics, and geopolitical conflicts, Cline underlines the role archaeology can play in addressing contemporary challenges. At a time when the relevance of the humanities is frequently questioned, this may be the book’s most important contribution.

HERSHEL SHANKS AWARD FOR BEST DIG REPORT

Yotvata: The Ze’ev Meshel Excavations (1974–1980)

Yotvata: The Ze’ev Meshel Excavations (1974–1980)

Edited by Lily Singer-Avitz and Etan Ayalon
(Jerusalem: Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem, 2023)

Yotvata: The Ze’ev Meshel Excavations (1974–1980), edited by Lily Singer-Avitz and Etan Ayalon, represents an important contribution to the field and sets a high standard for excavation reports. The inclusion of analyses by a wide range of specialists results in a comprehensive and well-rounded treatment of the material. This volume also reflects a significant broader trend in archaeology: the systematic processing and publication of legacy collections—materials excavated in earlier decades but left unpublished. By bringing Meshel’s excavations at Yotvata to light, the editors not only enrich our understanding of the site but also highlight the enduring value of revisiting and publishing earlier fieldwork.

— JUDGES OF THE ARCHAEOLOGY BOOKS —
DANIEL MASTER – Wheaton College
DENNIS MIZZI – University of Malta
ALEXANDRA RATZLAFF – Brandeis University

For full descriptions of these awarded works, as well as books that received honorable mentions in this year’s competition, visit barmag.org/pubawards.

ERIC CARLSON

Thank you to all those who submitted caption entries for our Summer 2025 cartoon (left), based on 2 Samuel 6:14: “David danced before the Lord with all his might.” We are pleased to congratulate Beth Vanderbeck of Charleston, South Carolina, who wrote the winning caption, and our runners-up:

“You can tell by the way I use my walk, I’m the Lord’s man, no time to talk!”
—Beth Vanderbeck, Charleston, South Carolina

RUNNERS-UP

“Saul slew his thousands, but David’s slaying the dance floor!”
—Trevor Bourgeois, Lewis Center, Ohio

“‘Israel’s Got Talent’ will not be impressed by this guy’s dancing!”
Laurel Meyer, Winder, Georgia

HONORABLE MENTIONS

“All together now: ‘Oh, when the Ark comes marching in…’”
—Michael Meloney, Columbia, Virginia

“Marry him, they said. He’ll be king one day, they said. No one mentioned the crazy!”
—Gina Murray, Kilgore, Texas

ERIC CARLSON

For additional caption entries, as well as past cartoons and captions, please visit barmag.org/capcontest.

Write a caption for the cartoon (right) based on Jonah 3:6: “When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.” Submit it via our website at barmag.org/capcontest.

Please include your name and address. The deadline for entries is February 15, 2026. The author of the winning caption will receive a BAS All-Access membership and three gift subscriptions to give BAR to friends. Runners-up will receive an All-Access membership and two gift subscriptions for friends.

ERIC CARLSON

“We’ve gotta invite this Jesus guy to all our parties!”
—Josh Bizzell, Byron, Georgia

Thank you to all those who submitted caption entries for our Spring 2025 cartoon (right), based on John 2:9–10: “When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’” We are pleased to congratulate Josh Bizzell of Byron, Georgia, who wrote the winning caption, and our runners-up:

RUNNERS-UP

“Outstanding! Let’s call it Cana Cabernet!”
—Don Sterrenburg, Santo Domingo, California

“Ahh, now that’s the real Manischewitz!”
—Jack M. Rode, Whitefield, New Hampshire

HONORABLE MENTIONS

“Red wine?! But I ordered white! We’re having fish for dinner.”
—Judy Jackson, Covina, California

“My laundry was in there!”
—Sean McCandless, Danvers, Massachusetts

ERIC CARLSON

For additional caption entries, as well as past cartoons and captions, please visit barmag.org/capcontest.

Write a caption for the cartoon (right) based on Genesis 11:5–7: “The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which mortals had built. And the Lord said, … ‘Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’” Submit it via our website at barmag.org/capcontest.

Please include your name and address. The deadline for entries is November 15, 2025. The author of the winning caption will receive a BAS All-Access membership and three gift subscriptions to give BAR to friends. Runners-up will receive an All-Access membership and two gift subscriptions for friends.

Mary R. Bachvarova (The Fall of Jerusalem: Who Was to Blame?) is a professor of Classics at Willamette University. She specializes in comparative religion and literature of the eastern Mediterranean.

Alicia J. Batten (Ancient Courts and the Letter of James) is a professor of religious studies at the University of Waterloo. She specializes in the development of early Christianity in its Mediterranean context.

Aaron Brody (Ancient Judah’s Grateful Dead) is Professor of Bible and Archaeology at the Pacific School of Religion and Director of the Badè Museum of Biblical Archaeology in Berkeley, California.

Meredith Chesson (Milestone: Nancy Lapp (1930–2025)) is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. She co-directs the Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain and the Follow the Pots Project.

Erin Darby (Forging Ahead: Biblical Archaeology’s Expanding Frontier) is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She specializes in ancient Israelite religion and iconography.

Mark R. Fairchild (Where Was the First Council of Nicea?) is a retired professor of biblical studies at Huntington University. He is a specialist in the Hellenistic and Roman periods in Asia Minor (modern Turkey).

Shimon Gibson (Book Review: Jerusalem Through the Ages) is a professor in the History Department at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He co-directs the Mt. Zion excavations in Jerusalem.

Ralph K. Hawkins (Losing Abraham’s Religion: More on Israelite Religion in Egypt) is a professor of religion at Averett University and the author of Discovering Exodus.

James K. Hoffmeier (Milestone: Kenneth A. Kitchen (1932–2025)) is Emeritus Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

Morag Kersel (Milestone: Nancy Lapp (1930–2025)) is Professor of Anthropology at DePaul University. She co-directs the Follow the Pots Project and the Expedition to the Dead Sea Plain.

Matthew D.C. Larsen (Classical Corner: Crime and Punishment in Roman Corinth) is Professor of New Testament and Early Christian History and Archaeology at the University of Copenhagen. He specializes in the archaeology of the Mediterranean basin.

Uzi Leibner (At the Temple Gates: The Archaeology of Jerusalem Pilgrimage) is the head of the Institute of Archaeology and a professor of classical archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He co-directs the Ophel excavations.

Thomas E. Levy (Arch-Tech: Advancing Marine Archaeology) is Distinguished Professor of the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands at the University of California, San Diego. He specializes in ancient technology and social evolution.

Orit Peleg-Barkat (At the Temple Gates: The Archaeology of Jerusalem Pilgrimage) is a senior lecturer in the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She co-directs the Ophel excavations.

William M. Schniedewind (Samarian Scribes in King Hezekiah’s Court) is a professor of biblical studies and Northwest Semitic languages at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research focuses on biblical studies, inscriptions, and archaeology.

Gilad Shtienberg (Arch-Tech: Advancing Marine Archaeology) is a geoscientist at the University of California, San Diego. He focuses on coastal geomorphology and human–environment interactions in the eastern Mediterranean.

Assaf Yasur-Landau (Arch-Tech: Advancing Marine Archaeology) is Professor of Mediterranean Archaeology and head of the Recanati Institute of Maritime Studies at the University of Haifa. He focuses on coastal archaeology and underwater survey.

PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA THE UNITED STATES LIBRARY OF CONGRESS / PHOTO: G. KRIKORIAN

Whose studies of Levantine village life identified folklore and traditions that extended back to biblical times?

Answer: Tawfiq Canaan

Tawfiq Canaan (1882–1964) was a Palestinian physician who spent his career in Jerusalem. He was a gifted and prolific medical researcher, authoring nearly 40 studies ranging from tuberculosis and malaria to health conditions in Palestine; he also contributed to research that led to a cure for leprosy.

Parallel to his medical career, however, Canaan was deeply engaged in the study of Palestinian folk traditions and culture, producing several books and more than 50 articles in this field. He stood at the heart of an intellectual circle that understood rural communities to be the inheritors of the region’s cultural legacy dating back to pre-biblical times. Publishing regularly in the Journal of the Palestine Oriental Society in the 1920s and ’30s, Canaan developed a rich, vibrant, and sensitive body of knowledge about the beliefs and traditions of the residents of the southern Levant that he believed was essential to understanding the earlier Canaanite, Israelite, Philistine, Nabatean, Aramean, and Arab inhabitants of the region.

Canaan’s upbringing was steeped in the German Lutheran tradition; his father, the first Arab pastor for the German Protestant Palestine Mission, founded the first Lutheran church, YMCA, and co-ed school in their home village of Beit Jala, near Jerusalem. Thanks in part to this background, Canaan was able to maintain close ties with European intellectuals over the course of his career, including biblical scholars such as Albrecht Alt, Martin Noth, and his lifelong friend, archaeologist William F. Albright, who headed the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem during the 1920s.