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Help Needed

BAS Publication Awards Discontinued for Lack of Funds

In 1984 and again in 1986, the Biblical Archaeology Society, publisher of BAR and Bible Review, presented BAS Publication Awards to the authors of distinguished books, chosen by eminent scholars in the field, in nine different categories relating to archaeology and the Bible. Each winner of a BAS Publication Award was presented with a beautiful bronzed plaque testifying to the award, plus a small, cash honorarium.

BAS Publication Awards became highly regarded in the profession as well-deserved recognition of major contributions to archaeological and Biblical studies, both popular and scholarly.

Unfortunately, we have been forced to discontinue thew awards due to a lack of funds. The total cost of the program is approximately $5,000 per year. We solicited the participation in this funding from an appropriate scholarly organization and from some private philanthropy—but, alas, to no avail so far.

If our readers know of any source that would continue to underwrite these important awards, please contact us so that the BAS Publication Awards can be reinstated.

Prestigious Prize

Moshe Dothan Wins 1988 Percia Schimmel Award

Israel’s most prestigious archaeological prize, the Percia Schimmel Award for Distinguished Contribution to Archaeology in Eretz Israel and the Lands of the Bible, has been bestowed on Professor Moshe Dothan. The distinguished honor is presented annually by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Professor Dothan has conducted numerous excavations and surveys all over Israel for more than 30 years. His work at such sites as Afula and Tel Esur greatly enhanced the understanding of the transitional period between the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages. At Ashdod and Akko, his comprehensive excavations especially enriched our knowledge about ancient Israel’s international relations and trade connections. The magnificent mosaics that he uncovered at the Hammath Tiberias synagogue were published in his book about the site, Hammath Tiberias, reviewed in Books in Brief, BAR 10:03.

Professor Dothan’s contributions have not been confined to fieldwork, however. After beginning as an employee of Israel’s Antiquities Department shortly after the founding of the State, he became the department’s Deputy Director in 1961. He has also lectured for more than a decade at Haifa University, whose Department of Archaeology he founded in 1982.

ASOR Election

P. Kyle McCarter, Jr. Chosen President

P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., a member of BAR’s Editorial Advisory Board and associate dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, has been elected President of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR). McCarter is also the author of the chapter on the Patriarchal Age in a new book, Ancient Israel: A Short History from Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple, which will soon be published by BAS. His three-year term of office begins on July 1. ASOR is the leading professional organization of American archaeology relating to the Bible and the Near East. It maintains schools in Jerusalem; Amman, Jordan; and Nicosia, Cyprus.

Also winning office in the election were Eric M. Meyers of Duke University, who was re-elected as First Vice President for Publications, and Walter E. Rast of Valparaiso University, who becomes Second Vice President for Archaeological Policy. George M. Landes of Union Theological Seminary was re-elected Secretary, and Kevin G. O’Connell, President of Le Moyne College and a member of Bible Review’s Editorial Advisory Board, was picked to be Assistant Secretary.

In a separate election, Joe D. Seger of the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University was chosen President of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, ASOR’s school in Jerusalem. Seger also serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of BAR.

Caesarea Travels

Major Exhibition Will Tour America

BAR readers who have learned about the ancient port of Caesarea, both on the land and on the sea,^a will now be able to see important artifacts from the site. An elaborate exhibition, “King Herod’s Dream: Caesarea on the Sea,” will travel across the U.S., and to Canada, to six museums in the next two years. The exhibition displays more than 200 artifacts and uses videotapes, models and other graphics to trace the archaeological and historical significance of the harbor city—built to rival Alexandria from its construction by King Herod in 22 B.C. to its demise in 1265 A.D. Among the artifacts, representing six historical periods, 005are statues of the Greek goddesses Artemis and Tyche, a hoard of Islamic jewelry, Byzantine mosaics, glassware and coins. A 300-page book published by W. W. Norton accompanies the exhibition.

The exhibition was organized, in association with the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums, by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, the University of Maryland Center for Archaeology, the Caesarea Ancient Harbor Excavation Project, and the Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima. Kenneth G. Holum, of the University of Maryland, and Robert L. Hohlfelder, of the University of Colorado, are serving as the exhibition curators.

After completing its stay at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, in Washington, D.C., on June 19, 1988, the exhibition will travel to the following sites: Museum of Natural History (Los Angeles), July 16 through October 9, 1988; Denver Museum of Natural History, November 5, 1988, through January 29, 1989; Science Museum of Minnesota (St. Paul), February 25 through May 21, 1989; Museum of Science (Boston), June 17 though September 10, 1989; and Canadian Museum of Civilization (Ottawa), October 7, 1989, though January 14, 1990.

Ambitious Assembly

Byzantine Icons and Frescoes from Greece at The Walters Art Gallery

The most important collection of Byzantine icons ever to cross the Atlantic will be shown in “Holy Image, Holy Space: Icons and Frescoes from Greece,” an exhibition that will make its inaugural American appearance at The Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, from August 20 through October 16, 1988. Composed of about 80 icons—devotional images in tempera and gold on wooden panels—and frescoes from every corner of Greece, the exhibition will display many pieces never seen before in America.

The show’s most important work is El Greco’s “Dormition of the Virgin” icon executed shortly before 1566 and discovered only in 1983. The show will also include a selection of six icons by Angellos, a recently discovered, early 15th-century master.

The exhibition will evoke the social, historical, architectural and religious context from which the icon emerged, and it will document the role of Byzantine icons in the development of Western panel-painting. A film, a full-color catalogue, and a booklet on icons written by four experts will supplement the display.

Dig Opportunity

Shiqmim

Located about ten miles west of Beer-Sheva, Shiqmim is one of the largest Chalcolithic (c. 4000 B.C.) village sites in Israel. The well-preserved village features residences, alleyways, metalworking areas, “public” buildings and courtyards. Abundant pottery, flint, metal and other artifacts have also been found. Last year’s discovery of large, underground, storage facilities suggests the presence of a network of subterranean rooms and tunnels like those found at Beer-Sheva in the 1950s. The 1988 season, directed by Dr. Thomas E. Levy and David Alon, will focus on the exploration of these underground facilities.

The excavation will be conducted from September 11 through October 14 (subject to change). Volunteers must stay at least three weeks, and they will be accommodated in a tent camp. The cost is $900. Six academic credits are available through Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion; tuition is an additional $300. Qualified students may apply for full scholarships.

Contact: Dr. Thomas E. Levy, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, 13 King David St., 94101 Jerusalem, Israel.

Exhibition

Mummies and Magic in Boston

Over 300 objects, many never before seen by the public, will be displayed in “Mummies and Magic: The Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt,” an exhibition appearing from September 14 through December 11, 1988, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Designed to present “a history of the mummification process and the beliefs and practices surrounding it,” the exhibit will include 11 human mummies, animal mummies and a variety of tomb furnishings, ranging in date from the Predynastic Period (before 3000 B.C.) through the second century A.D. The results of recent X-ray and CAT-scan studies of the mummies will also be featured. In addition, the museum plans to publish an exhibition catalogue containing essays by more than 30 scholars on mummification, funerary archaeology and funerary mythology.

Help Needed