BARlines
Stager’s “Deborah” and Ritmeyers’ “Temple Mount” Chosen as Best BAR Articles
Lawrence E. Stager’s “The Song of Deborah—Why Some Tribes Answered the Call and Others Did Not,” BAR 15:01, has received the Fellner Award for the best BAR article of 1989. The award, the third in a continuing series, carries a $500 prize. A second prize of $250 went to Kathleen and Leen Ritmeyer’s “Reconstructing Herod’s Temple Mount in Jerusalem,” BAR 15:06.
The judges were two members of BAR’s Editorial Advisory Board, Joe D. Seger, Professor of Middle Eastern archaeology at Mississippi State University’s Cobb Institute of Archaeology, and Dan P. Cole, professor of religion at Lake Forest College, in Lake Forest, Illinois. In a joint statement, they said Stager’s article “offers a convincing interpretation of the reason why different tribal groups did and did not join the Deborah uprisings against the Canaanites. Stager goes well beyond simply addressing the article’s title, however. He provides a sophisticated review of the social and economic environments of the Israelite tribes during the Iron I period. The article literally allows us to look inside a typical early Israelite village home.
“Stager’s article represents a model of how archaeological research can be brought into dialogue with other research disciplines to broaden our understanding of Biblical backgrounds and to bring the Biblical text into sharper focus. Stager draws upon a wide range of archaeological data (such as comparisons of Late Bronze and Iron I house and fortification architecture and examples of ancient cistern technology) along with relevant ecological and ethnographic studies, as well as upon his own direct study of the Biblical text based on a scholarly command of the necessary tools of language and textual analysis. The article is very clearly written and logically organized, demonstrating a veteran teacher’s skill in reviewing and synthesizing complex ideas and issues with deliberate clarity.”
In addition to serving as the Dorot Professor of the Archaeology of Israel at Harvard University and as director of Harvard’s Semitic Museum, Stager currently directs the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon, Israel. His excavations of the giant cemetery in Carthage, Tunisia, containing child and animal sacrifices, led to a an earlier BAR article, “Child Sacrifice At Carthage—Religious Rite Or Population Control?” BAR 10:01. He has also dug at Idalion, on Cyprus, and at Tell el-Hesi and Tell Gezer, in Israel.
Commenting on the Ritmeyers’ article, the judges said it “presents a cogent and well-illustrated survey of the latest perspectives on the history of Herod’s construction of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Its special contribution is in providing a concise but comprehensive overview of what Herod’s Temple Mount looked like, based on the numerous partial features of the several Temple Mount elements that have come to light in archaeological investigations over more than a century. The article offers a well-integrated report of researches ranging from the tunnelings of Charles Warren in the 1860s to the Ritmeyers’ own work associated with Benjamin Mazar’s extensive excavations in the 1960s and ’70s. The Ritmeyers bring to bear a good command of the comparative architecture of the Hellenistic and Roman periods, with attention also to the descriptions contained in Josephus’s writings. Leen Ritmeyer also is responsible for most of the article’s architectural graphics, which are excellent.
“The Ritmeyer’s article provides an almost indispensable guide to Herod’s Temple Mount for the present-day visitor to Jerusalem, one that puts ‘state of the art’ information into the hands of anyone who wishes to identify the specific elements that remain from Herod’s massive building project and to visualize the ancient Temple Mount as it is currently understood by scholars.”
A native of Holland, Leen Ritmeyer’s work on the Temple Mount excavations, first as surveyor and then as architect, served as a springboard to a career as an archaeological architect at numerous digs in Israel, including the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, the City of David and the Citadel in Jerusalem. The Temple Mount excavation also introduced him to his future wife, Kathleen. Originally from Ireland, Kathleen earned a B.A. degree in archaeology from University College, Dublin. She has excavated at sites in western Ireland, in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides and at Tel Akko in Israel.
The Ritmeyers’ article is being published, together with other articles on Herod’s Temple Mount, as a separate booklet, which may be ordered for $7.95 from BAS, 3000 Connecticut Ave., N.W., Suite 300, Washington, DC 20008.
The Leopold and Clara M. Fellner Charitable Foundation, of which Frederick L. Simmons is trustee, donated the funds for the awards. Corresponding awards for the best articles in our sister publication, Bible Review, will be announced in its April issue.
Tel Haror Seeks Volunteers
One of southern Israel’s largest tells from the Bronze and Iron Ages (3150–586 B.C.), Tel Haror stands in the heart of Sharsheret National Park, southeast of Gaza. The tell has been identified with the Canaanite and Philistine city of Gerar, which figured prominently in the lives of the Patriarchs (Genesis 20, 26). Five seasons of excavation have uncovered rich remains from the Middle Bronze Age to the Persian period (eighteenth to fifth centuries B.C.), including a Hyksos temple with a large collection of unique cult objects, a Late Bronze Age residence with abundant imported Cypriot objects, an extensive Philistine settlement and exceptionally well-preserved Assyrian fortifications.
In two sessions, July 22–August 3 and August 5–17, the expedition will explore the Hyksos temple complex and will extend the Philistine excavations. Room and board at Eshel Hanassi agricultural school, which also provides recreation facilities and a swimming pool, costs $150 per week. Volunteers are expected to stay at least two weeks, and a $25 nonrefundable registration fee is required. Four to six credits may be earned through Ben Gurion University for $50 per credit hour.
For more information, contact: Prof. Eliezer D. Oren, Archaeology Division, Ben Gurion University, P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel (phone: 057–461-092).
Eric Meyers New ASOR President
If you want something done, find a busy person to do it. That seems to have been the philosophy of the Board of Trustees of the American Schools of Oriental Research in their choice of a new president.
The board selected the distinguished scholar and archaeologist Eric M. Meyers of Duke University to fill the post left vacant by P. Kyle McCarter, Jr. of Johns Hopkins University, who resigned as president after a year and a half in office. Meyers will serve a three-year term, beginning Jan. 12, 1990.
Meyers is writing (with his wife Carol, also a distinguished scholar and archaeologist) a second volume of commentary on several “minor” prophets for the Anchor Bible. He also heads a major excavation at Sepphoris in the Galilee and serves as director of Duke University’s Center for Judaic Studies. He is editor-in-chief of a projected four-volume Encyclopedia of Biblical Archaeology to be published by Oxford University Press, and he is also the editor of ASOR’s semi-scholarly quarterly Biblical Archaeologist. He will continue in all of these positions.
Replacing Meyers as ASOR’s first vice president in charge of publications is James W. Flanagan of Case Western Reserve University.
BAS Chapter in Albany, New York, Plans Activities
Still going strong after nearly ten years, the Capital District Chapter in Albany, New York, generally attracts 25 to 50 people to their meetings, which regularly feature eminent speakers. In the months ahead, they will listen to Dr. Hans Pohlsander of SUNY at Albany discuss the emperor Constantine’s baptism (March 18), travel to Harvard University’s Houghton Library to hear Dr. Rodney Dennis talk on medieval Biblical manuscripts (April 7) and, they hope, host a miniseminar (tentatively scheduled for April 29) on “Bronze and Iron Ages in the Bible Lands,” conducted by archaeologist Dr. Bryant Wood, author of “Did the Israelites Conquer Jericho? A New Look at the Archaeological Evidence,” in this issue.
Meetings are held approximately once a month from January through May and September through November, and dues are $10 per year. For more information, call or write to the chapter treasurer, Genevieve Ertelt, 229 Old Niskayuna Road, Latham, NY 12110; phone: (518) 785–3192.
Biblical Archaeology Course Offered
BAR contributor Vassilios Tzaferis will teach a special course, “New Testament Archeology in Israel,” April 30 through May 11, 1990, at Seaver College, Pepperdine University. Deputy director of excavations for the Israel Antiquities Authority and field director at Banias (Caesarea Philippi), Tzaferis recently introduced BAR readers to his excavations at Kursi, in “A Pilgrimage to the Site of the Swine Miracle,” BAR 15:02. John F. Wilson, professor of New Testament at Seaver College and project director at the Banias excavation, will co-teach the course with Dr. Tzaferis.
Students may receive up to four graduate or undergraduate credits for the course, which will meet about five hours per day, Monday through Friday. During the course, students will have access to the Getty Museum, the USC archaeological laboratory, and the latest unpublished information regarding New Testament-related sites. Scholarships are available to qualified students.
Students will also have an opportunity to participate in the current excavations at Banias in Israel, May 19 through June 22, for which they may receive four additional credits. (For background on the Banias dig, see “1990 Excavation Opportunities,” BAR 16:01)
For more information about the course, contact Dr. Thomas Olbricht, Chairperson, Religion Division, Seaver College, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA 90263. To join the dig, contact Dr. Wilson at Office of the Dean, Seaver College.
In the drawing of Herodian Jerusalem that accompanied “A Pilgrim’s Journey,” BAR 15:06, one of the arrows showing the pilgrim’s route was misplaced. Instead of turning right and ascending the stairs to the Double Gate, as shown, the pilgrim in the text climbs the stairway to Robinson’s Arch. From the top of the arch, the pilgrim pauses to view some features in the Upper City that are not visible from the Double Gate, and then passes into the Royal Stoa through the gate at the other end of the arch.