BARlines
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Encore
Noah’s Ark Is Discovered in Pennsylvania
In
So we’re taking no chances this time: we don’t for a minute believe the report in the supermarket checkout tabloid Weekly World News (published in Lantana, Florida) that “Noah’s Ark [Has Been] Found in Pennsylvania.” According to a screaming frontpage headline, the ark “looks exactly like [sic] the Bible says.”
The discovery is attributed to “a French archaeologist” named “Dr. Gene Chevalier” who is not otherwise identified. The ark is supposedly 475 feet long and is “still in one piece.”
“I’ve found the ark,” said “Dr.” Chevalier, without doubt or qualification. Although not a religious man, he’s “beginning to think I’m on a divine mission, ordained by God.” “Dr.” Chevalier believes that when he finally gets the ark out of the ground, “It will prove that everything the Bible said about Noah and the Great Flood is true.”
In the meantime, “Dr.” Chevalier has only a piece of wood he identifies as gopherwood to support his claim, and some bones he says are of extinct animals that “apparently died on the vessel.”
The article quotes Italian theologian Mario Lamazzo, not otherwise identified, as saying that the ark is as apt to be found in Pennsylvania as anywhere else. “Dr.” Chevalier believes Noah crossed the Atlantic in the Great Flood and ended up in the United States.
Dig Opportunities
Tel Nizzana (Nessana)
Tel Nizzana stands near the junction of two ancient routes in the Negev desert: “the way to Shur,” leading to Egypt, and a branch of the Via Maris, running from the Mediterranean shore at Gaza to the Gulf of Elath. Founded by the Nabateans in the second half of the second century B.C., the settlement flourished through the first century A.D. During the second to fourth centuries A.D., Nizzana declined when trade with Elath was diverted from the Gaza route to a new route to Damascus. A Byzantine settlement including two churches, built in the first quarter of the fifth century, thrived until the Arab conquest and continued to exist until the eighth century. Discoveries at the site include a late Roman fort and papyri of a Greek dictionary of Virgil’s Aeneid and of a fragment of the Aeneid.
Archaeologists Dan Urman and Joseph Shereshevsky will direct further excavation of the fort and churches this year in two sessions, March 3 through March 28 and April 7 through August 30. Volunteers will receive room and board at Nizzana Educational Community for $20 per day. The minimum stay is one week. Four to six academic credits are offered through Ben-Gurion University at the cost of $100 per credit. The site is open to visitors by appointment from 8 a.m. to noon daily, and guided tours are available.
Contact: Dr. Dan Urman, Archaeological Division, Ben-Gurion University, P.O. Box 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel.
Har Karkom
Boasting 35,000 petroglyphs at more than 700 sites—the largest concentration of rock art in the Negev—the vicinity of Har Karkom provides a rich field for exploration. Numerous Chalcolithic (4500–3150 B.C.) and Bronze Age (3150–1200 B.C.) ceremonial sites related to the rock art have been discovered on the mountain, including altars, pillars and grave mounds. Large campsites from the same period have also been found. The subject of a heated debate in BAR, Har Karkom is identified by archaeologist Emmanuel Anati as a holy site from the time of the Exodus, perhaps even Mt. Sinai (see “Has Mt. Sinai Been Found,” BAR 11:04), but in the view of archaeologist Israel Finkelstein, it was simply a popular gathering place for nomads over the millennia (see “Raider of the Lost Mountain—An Israeli Archaeologist Looks at the Most Recent Attempt to Locate Mt. Sinai,” BAR 14:04).
From March 22 through April 7, 074Emmanuel Anati will direct further excavation of selected sites, rock art recording and exploration of new areas and caves. Volunteers should be in good condition and ready to stay the full period. Accommodations consist of a tent camp in the desert. The cost is yet to be determined. Academic credit is available by arrangement with the volunteer’s own university.
Contact: Professor Emmanuel Anati, Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici, 25044 Capo di Ponte, Brescia, Italy.
New Director
Annenberg Research Institute Selects Eric Meyers
The board of directors of the Annenberg Research Institute has chosen Eric M. Meyers, professor of Biblical archaeology at Duke University, to be the institute’s new director. A secular institute similar to Princeton University’s Institute for Advanced Study, the Annenberg Research Institute is dedicated to scholarly study of Judaic and Near Eastern history and culture.
The new appointment adds yet another challenge to the energetic Meyers’ intense life as administrator, writer, editor and excavator. He is the current president of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) and editor of ASOR’s semi-scholarly Biblical Archaeologist. Meyers also serves as director of Duke University’s Center for Judaic Studies and co-directs a major excavation at Sepphoris in the Galilee (see “Mosaic Masterpiece Dazzles Sepphoris Volunteers,” BAR 14:01). He is the author or co-author of 12 books and 150 scholarly papers, including the recent Anchor Bible commentary on Haggai and Zechariah 1–8 (written with his wife, Carol Meyers, also a distinguished archaeologist and professor of religion at Duke).
Meyers said he hopes to add seminars, colloquia and television to the Annenberg Research Institute’s educational outreach program. He also hopes to increase the accessibility of the institute’s large library.
Obituary
Sayed Tawfik, Egypt’s Chief Archaeologist
The chairman of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization, Sayed Tawfik, died of a heart attack at Sakkara, Egypt, on December 20. He was 54. Tawfik also served as professor of Egyptology and formerly as dean of archaeology at Cairo University. He was the author of six books on Egyptian antiquities. Renowned as an excavator, Tawfik had been digging at a site on a bluff above Sakkara’s royal burial grounds for the last eight years. In 1985 he discovered in the vicinity some important tombs dating to the time of Ramesses II (1290–1224 B.C.), the traditional pharaoh of the Exodus.
Tawfik was a leading proponent of the current, so-far-successful project to restore and preserve the Sphinx, which weather and vandals have ravaged over the centuries. He visited the Sphinx for the last time on the day before he died. Earlier in the week he had told an interviewer, “I’m so happy with the work. We’ve saved the Sphinx.”
Chapter News
Los Angeles BAS Chapter Celebrates Tenth Anniversary
Congratulations to our Los Angeles BAS chapter. Last August the thriving chapter celebrated its tenth anniversary with a pot-luck dinner and a program entitled “Update on Jerusalem.” Starting with just 15 members during its first six months, the chapter now has 180 members. Attendance at monthly meetings—which have featured such distinguished speakers as James Sanders, Norma Kershaw, James Strange and the late Yigal Shiloh—averages about 60 enthusiastic participants. Persons interested in joining the chapter may contact Lorraine O. Schultz, their stalwart vice-president, at 6355 North Oak Avenue, #18, Temple City, CA 91780.
Barriers Fall
BAR Articles Available for the Sight-Impaired
Material from BAR is now accessible to the visually impaired. The November 1990 issue of John Milton Magazine reprinted Abraham Levy’s “Small Inventions? They Changed How People Lived in the Hellenistic Age,” BAR 16:04 in both its large type and braille editions. The magazine is published by the John Milton Society for the Blind (475 Riverside Drive, Room 455, New York, NY 10115; phone: 212–870-3335). A forthcoming issue of the magazine will carry another BAR article, “Sussita Awaits the Spade,” BAR 16:05, by Vassilios Tzaferis, and an article from BAR’s sister magazine Bible Review, “A Woman Was the First to Declare Scripture Holy,” BR 06:02, by William E. Phipps.
Coincidentally, the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, an agency of the Library of Congress, chose the
Dig Postponed
California State University, Long Beach, is postponing its winter, 1991, Dead Sea Scroll Search/Survey in the Judean Desert because of conditions in the Middle East. The Search/Survey project will resume next fall with the participation of the University of Chicago, the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and the University of Sheffield in England. Details will be announced in BAR.
Correction
Reader Marvin Tameanko of Toronto, Canada, points out two mistakes in “What’s a Roman Villa Doing Outside Jerusalem?” BAR 16:06. The coin refers to Severus Alexander, who was the Roman emperor rather than the Procurator of Judea, a title that did not exist at the time the coin was minted (between 222 and 235 A.D.). Also, the coin could have been still in circulation after 240 A.D.
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Saudi Arabia Prevents BAR from Reaching American Troops
United States Defense Department censors, acting on behalf of the Saudi Arabian authorities, have rejected BAR. Accordingly, we were unable to ship 10,000 copies of BAR to American troops defending Saudi Arabia as part of Desert Shield.
We sent a copy of BAR to Defense Logistics, which reviews all material intended for general distribution to the troops in Saudia Arabia. Two persons in that department rejected BAR because of its religious content and pictures. Spokesman Paul Trqula explained that they follow guidelines established by Central Command in Saudi Arabia. These guidelines prevent distribution of anything that might be offensive to the Saudi Arabians, and Defense Logistics has been instructed to “be very careful, especially with magazines.” BAR fell victim to the rule that denies access to “material contrary to Islamic religion, including religious literature intended for general distribution.”
Trqula pointed out that material intended for personal use by a specific individual, rather than for general distribution, could be sent to that individual without being reviewed by Defense Logistics. Had BAR been approved by Defense Logistics, it still would have faced the Saudi Arabian inspectors, who, like customs officials, examine as much as they can of anything entering the country.
The money our readers sent to us to cover the cost of shipping will be used to send BAR to needy institutions in this country (see Queries & Comments, BAR 17:01).
Encore
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