Digging In: Travel the Biblical World This Summer

GLENN J. CORBETT

Just in time for summer vacation, our latest issue takes you on a trip around the world, or at least the world as it was known to the biblical writers—a world that stretched well beyond ancient Israel to exotic, distant lands that may often have seemed more myth than reality.

Our first stop is the Bay of Málaga in southern Spain, where our cover story, “From Tyre to Tarshish,” explores the latest archaeological evidence for Phoenicia’s early expansion into the western Mediterranean and its legendary trade connections with the biblical land of Tarshish. We then venture to the fabled land of Cush, along the far reaches of the Nile in modern-day Sudan, to visit the great temples and pyramids of “Judah’s African Ally” and learn about Taharqa, the Cushite ruler who came to the aid of King Hezekiah in his confrontation with the Assyrians in 701 BCE. Our journey continues in Jerusalem, where we join an excavation just outside the walls of the Old City to examine the unique cryptic inscription of “The Mysterious Mount Zion Mug” and what it may reveal about how Jewish purification rituals were performed during the time of Jesus.

More travel adventures await in Strata and Epistles, where we investigate the so-called “Table of Nations”—the list of Noah’s descendants who repopulated the earth after the Flood (Genesis 10)—and the myriad sources where the biblical writers gained information about the broader geographic and cultural world they inhabited. Take a “Site-Seeing” tour of Jesus’s hometown of Nazareth in northern Israel to visit centuries-old churches and landmarks that commemorate places and events from his formative years. In “Test Kitchen,” sample a flavorful Jewish eggplant dish from medieval Spain, and in “Going, Going, Gone,” learn how Sudan’s ongoing civil war is placing the country’s rich but little-known cultural heritage at risk.

During your journey, be sure to enjoy this issue’s other compelling stories. Examine the various types of decorative amulets that many early Christians used to secure divine blessing and how such objects were likely influenced by Jewish and Samaritan traditions—much to the chagrin of church leaders. Explore less prominent but highly influential women prophets in the Hebrew Bible and how their prophetic and religious roles were similar to but also distinct from their better-known male counterparts. And join us as we sit down with James Fraser, the new director of the Albright Institute in Jerusalem, to discuss his distinguished career in archaeology and museums and what he enjoys most about being the institute’s director.

Finally, this issue continues to celebrate BAR’s 50th anniversary with the second article in our “New Directions” series that highlights scientific dating techniques that may finally resolve some of biblical archaeology’s most heated and longstanding debates. Also, be sure to catch the “Flashbacks” scattered throughout the issue that showcase some of the special discoveries, debates, and controversies that BAR has covered over the past five decades.

So pack your bags! This issue is going to be the adventure of a lifetime!