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Attendance at Biblical Archaeology Course Reveals Enthusiastic Public Interest

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the nation’s foremost museum complex, recently offered the general public a seven-lecture course entitled “Archaeology and the Old Testament World: A Vicarious Tour.” More than 250 people enrolled in the course. “This was one of the most popular courses this term,” said Smithsonian program coordinator, Paul Edelson. The Smithsonian offers scores of such courses.

Course Instructor Dewey M. Beegle, Professor of Old Testament at Wesley Theological Seminary, led his students on vicarious excavations of Shechem, Gezer and Heshbon, (digs in which Beegle himself participated) as well as Jericho, Bab edh-Dhra, Ebla and numerous other sites.

Beegle was surprised but delighted at the large turnout for his lectures. “So many people enrolling is evidence of a keen interest in archaeology among the lay public,” Beegle told BAR.

International Team Dates Ancient Manuscripts

An international team of codicologists is using techniques similar to those used by handwriting and fingerprint experts to check the ages of ancient Samaritan and Hebrew manuscripts in leading western libraries.

The team, based in Sydney, Australia, has been in operation for five years. Members include Dr. Alan Crown of the University of Sydney, Professor Colette Sirat of the Sorbonne, and Professor Bet-Arieh of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Crown, a specialist in Samaritan manuscripts, describes codicology as “the technique of collecting … detailed technical and stylistic information about dated manuscripts. This information is then used as a key to dating other material.”

To identify a manuscript, the experts first analyze the skin or parchment. Then they determine the method of manufacture, and finally, they scrutinize the script style.

According to Crown, “We can identify the time and place of most parchment manuscripts by working out the way they were prepared. Samaritan manuscripts were written on skins of animals that had been sacrificed, but this was not so with Hebrew parchments that came from France, Germany, North Africa, and the Yemen.

“In each case different processes were used. If a manuscript is on paper it can he identified by the manufacturing techniques, as these varied considerably.

“Style is equally important. In ancient times there were scribal centers that were the homes of certain scribal families, each with its individual style of writing and copying.” Crown claims it is possible to learn to identify each scribe’s style by studying his work. Each had a standard format, giving his script particular style and direction. Forgery was virtually impossible.

In his search for a paper’s significant characteristics, Dr. Crown holds manuscripts up to a light which reveals a pattern of fine lines and other molding marks. Some libraries allow the codicologists to use a beta-radiograph plate which greatly simplifies identification. Crown also wants to use an electron-microscope to study ancient manuscripts. He has already used this method to study modern Australian papers. Electron-microscopic study reveals details about plant materials like seeds and grasses within the paper. These details would allow codicologists to identify specific locations where papers were manufactured.

Team members welcome any opportunity to examine genuine scripts. Dr. Crown hopes for greater exchange of information between western researchers and those in the Soviet Union and other East European countries. He remarks that many of the earliest manuscripts are in Leningrad.

High-Tech California Archive Preserves Ancient Manuscripts

The Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center founded in 1978 in Claremont, California, is undertaking the monumental task of collecting and storing photographic reproductions of every ancient manuscript of the Bible as well as other documents important for Bible study.

James A. Sanders, president of the Center, compares his staff’s work with that of ancient scribes who assumed a responsibility to reproduce written knowledge and guidance for future generations. The Center’s modern technology preserves this knowledge and makes it accessible in combinations available nowhere else in the world. Microfilm readers enable scholars to view and cross-check manuscripts not otherwise found in the same place.

For each of the 2,500 manuscripts thus far included in the collection, one film is preserved in the Center’s climate-controlled vault in Claremont and another film is stored in Tahoe City, California, as a further safeguard against deterioration and loss.

The Center is alert to advances in photography and computer technology. In cooperation with colleagues around the country, Center experts are exploring the use of computer image enhancement to bring fading script to light. In another project, materials are being entered into a nationwide computerized cataloguing system.

Perhaps only a small number of people will read the Masoretic, Ethiopic, and Coptic manuscripts stored in the Center. But the number of those who will use the Bible translations and interpretations thus improved will be legion.

The Center welcomes financial support for its unique work. To make a tax-deductible contribution, to request further information, or to receive the Center’s newsletter, The Folio, write to Richard Weis, Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center, Dept. 1, P.O. Box 670, Claremont, California 91711.

Correction

In the March/April 1982 BAR article “Is the Biblical Account of the Israelite Conquest of Canaan Historically Reliable?” BAR 08:02, by Yigael Yadin, an illustration of a two-handled Mycenaean IIIB vessel was called a pyxides. It is a pyxis(singular). Pyxides is the plural of pyxis. (Thanks to Edward E. Campbell of McCormick Theological Seminary for this correction.)

Attendance at Biblical Archaeology Course Reveals Enthusiastic Public Interest