This year marked the anniversaries of some of the most important archaeological discoveries from the world of the Bible. We celebrated 200 years since Egyptian hieroglyphs were first deciphered, the centennial of the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, and perhaps most significantly for biblical archaeology, the 75th anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
These remarkable discoveries, which opened up entirely new areas of study and rewrote our histories of the ancient and biblical past, remind us why archaeology continues to captivate so many. A single swing of the pick or swipe of the trowel can completely transform our view of the past, revealing new, exciting, and often unexpected insights into peoples, events, and even everyday lives about which we previously knew little.
Just in time for the holidays, our Winter 2022 issue celebrates the latest discoveries—from the monumental to the mundane—that continue to shape our understanding of the biblical world. In “Mesha’s Stele and the House of David,” André Lemaire and Jean-Philippe Delorme take a detailed look at the famous monumental inscription of the Moabite king, Mesha, and the new photographic evidence that they believe confirms its long-suspected reference to the kingdom of David. Similarly, in “The Genesis of Judaism,” Yonatan Adler systematically examines the archaeological and historical evidence to determine when early Jews first began to observe the laws of the Torah—and reaches a surprising conclusion.
In his article “Enduring Impressions,” archaeologist Oded Lipschits highlights Judah’s long tradition of stamped jar handles, which reveals an innovative and remarkably durable administrative system that persisted across more than six centuries of local and imperial rule. And for those who have always wondered how Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25, T.C. Schmidt’s article “Calculating Christmas” examines an early Christian inscription that indicates the date was determined not by the appropriation of a pagan holiday but by the calculations concerning Jesus’s conception.
In addition to news, tributes, and our always enjoyable quizzes, Strata highlights the latest in Dead Sea Scrolls research, with an article by Christy Chapman and Brent Seales on the incredible technology that allows scholars to digitally unwrap and read the interiors of rolled-up and previously undocumented scrolls. We also interview Joe Uziel, head of Israel’s Dead Sea Scrolls Unit, whose team works to document, conserve, and make accessible the more than 25,000 scroll fragments recovered from the Judean Desert since 1947. And for the collector and travel enthusiast in all of us, Katharine Scherff examines a fantastic Byzantine reliquary that reveals Christianity’s long fascination with Holy Land keepsakes.
Epistles explores a broad range of biblical and textual stories and themes. David Fiensy looks at the early Jewish laws, customs, and traditions that governed Joseph and Mary’s engagement and wedding in first-century Galilee, while Jonathan Yogev profiles the mysterious Rephaim, mythical characters of a bygone age often associated with death and the underworld in the Bible. Aaron Koller then examines how ancient scribes understood the written word and the very different function that writing served in antiquity.
As we gather with family, friends, and colleagues this holiday season, we hope our latest issue provides not just hours of enjoyable reading and conversation, but also an opportunity to celebrate the many remarkable discoveries that continue to make biblical archaeology such a fascinating and thought-provoking field.
—GLENN J. CORBETT
This year marked the anniversaries of some of the most important archaeological discoveries from the world of the Bible. We celebrated 200 years since Egyptian hieroglyphs were first deciphered, the centennial of the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, and perhaps most significantly for biblical archaeology, the 75th anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. These remarkable discoveries, which opened up entirely new areas of study and rewrote our histories of the ancient and biblical past, remind us why archaeology continues to captivate so many. A single swing of the pick or swipe of the trowel can completely […]
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