Inside BAR
Although Jerusalem was already an ancient city by the time David captured it from the Jebusites 3,000 years ago (or thereabouts), its most glorious days were still ahead: as the capital of the United Monarchy and later of the southern kingdom of Judah, the site of Solomon’s Temple and thus the center of Israelite religious life, a wealthy fiefdom of the Roman Empire, a focal point of the medieval Arab enlightenment and a holy place for three of the world’s major religions.
BAR will celebrate this rich history by featuring, in each issue over the next year, specially commissioned articles on the archaeology of Jerusalem. In “A Yearlong Celebration,” editor Hershel Shanks sets the stage for our coverage with an overview of the checkered history of excavation in the city. Unfortunately, Shanks laments, a good deal more would be generally known about Jerusalem’s remarkable past if the three major digs conducted there during the past quarter century were to be properly published. If they are not, Shanks warns, their fruits may be lost forever.
What image does the magical name Jerusalem conjure up for you? For many, the mental picture they have of the holy city is a view of the Temple Mount, with the shimmering golden Dome of the Rock at center and the Western Wall, Judaism’s most revered site, off to one side. To inaugurate our year-long focus on Jerusalem, we turn in this issue to the western wall—not just the exposed portion where people worship or insert written prayers into the cracks between the beautifully carved blocks—but the entire length of wall built by Herod the Great as part of his massive expansion of the Temple Mount platform. Israel’s Ministry of Religious Affairs, working with the Antiquities Authority, has explored a narrow tunnel alongside the western wall, revealing Crusader, Muslim, Roman, Herodian and Hasmonean structures. Join Dan Bahat, the project’s consulting archaeologist, as he takes us to “Jerusalem Down Under: Tunneling Along Herod’s Temple Mount Wall.”
Bahat served as Jerusalem district archaeologist from 1978 to 1990; for a dozen years before that, he was district archaeologist for the Galilee. Bahat has directed digs at Tel Dan, the Beth-Shean synagogue and Herod’s Palace in Jerusalem. In 1989 he became only the third person to receive the Jerusalem Archaeology Award.
“Hoshea,” the name of the northern kingdom of Israel’s last king (732–722 B.C.E.), appears on a seal that recently surfaced at a Sotheby’s auction in New York City. Used to impress bullae, or lumps of wet clay, with the owner’s imprimatur in the sealing of official documents, this orange chalcedony seal (featured on the cover and on p. 48) is inscribed, in Old Hebrew letters, “[Belonging] to Abdi, servant of Hoshea.” This Abdi, says André Lemaire in “Royal Signature: Name of Israel’s Last King Surfaces in a Private Collection,” was not a menial servant but a high-ranking minister entrusted with state documents; he may have worn his seal mounted and hung around his neck as part of a necklace. Shortly after the seal was purchased at the New York auction, the new owner bought the exquisite golden mounting featured on the cover. In a box on p. 52, Lemaire makes the case that this beautifully milled, finely granulated mounting may once have housed Abdi’s seal.
A professor at the College de France’s Institute for Semitic Studies, Lemaire has excavated at Gezer, Beersheba and Lachish. In one of his several BAR articles, he identified the only surviving artifact from the First Temple—an ivory pomegranate inscribed “Belonging to the Tem[ple of the Lor]d” (“Probable Head of Priestly Scepter From Solomon’s Temple Surfaces in Jerusalem,” BAR 10:01).
Between the lush agricultural fields of the Galilee and the Syrian desert lies the Golan, a desolate, boulder-strewn plateau. According to the earliest written reference to this area, Moses designated the city of Golan (within the region of the same name) a refuge for those “who unwittingly slew a fellow man” (Deuteronomy 4:41–43). But the story of Golan civilization does not begin with the Biblical account. In “Before History: The Golan’s Chalcolithic Heritage,” Claire Epstein examines a remarkable culture that flourished here during the Chalcolithic Period (4500–3500 B.C.), long before the Bible was written, indeed long before writing was invented. Interpreting the basalt fertility figures, simple pottery and architectural remains of early villages discovered throughout the Golan, Epstein paints a vivid portrait of these prehistoric people.
Frustrated by Yigael Yadin’s refusal to allow an amateur to prepare artifacts from Hazor for publication, Epstein returned to her native England for formal training in archaeology. Armed with a Ph.D., Epstein went back to Israel, and soon after Israel captured the Golan during the Six-Day War in 1967, she was sent to survey the region. In 1973, Epstein stumbled upon Chalcolithic culture and since then she has almost single-handedly brought to light the remarkable civilization that flourished on the Golan 6,000 years ago.
You can no longer conduct serious Bible study without a computer. Whether you’re an experienced cybersurfer or a Sunday driver on the information superhighway, you have to keep up with advances in Bible study software. In the one year since our last survey, Bible programs have become even speedier and more sophisticated. In addition, on-line resources have proliferated. Steven M. Deyo, in “From the Good Book to the Good Disk,” guides you through the latest products and explains how best to tap the Internet for Bible study.
Editor-in-chief of Computer User, Deyo also writes on cutting-edge computer technology for Byte and Varbusiness. His low-tech pursuits include teaching Spanish and performing liturgical music.