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“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard/Are sweeter,” wrote the nineteenth century poet John Keats. In many ways archaeology is the antithesis to this poetic sentiment: the archaeologist’s job is to animate the silent remains he uncovers. This is exactly what Professors Anne Draffkorn Kilmer and Richard L. Crocker of the University of California at Berkeley did when they were given a tablet from ancient Ugarit to decipher. After collaborating with scholars from all over the world, they deciphered the lyrics and music of “The World’s Oldest Musical Notation.” Today, we can hear this 3500-year-old Hurrian Cult Song played on an ancient replica lyre constructed by Professor Richard Brown, also of the University of California at Berkeley, on the recording, “Sounds From Silence.”

About 300 hundred miles from ancient Ugarit, on the barren heights east of the Dead Sea, archaeologists have been excavating Early Bronze tombs and charnel houses at Bab edh-Dhra and Numeira. Here, and at three other nearby Early Bronze sites, Excavation Directors Walter Rast and R. Thomas Schaub believe they have found the remains of the Five Cities of the Plain including Sodom and Gomorrah which, in the Bible, epitomize the ill-fated path of evil. In “Have Sodom and Gomorrah Been Found?” BAR brings you the first report with full-color illustrations of these astonishing conclusions.

Walter Rast is a Professor in the Department of Theology of Valparaiso University in Indiana and President of the American Center of Oriental Research in Amman. Rast received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1966 and attended Harvard Divinity School. He is married to Suzanna, a professional flutist and has four children. When not digging, Rast enjoys long distance bicycling, woodwork and furniture making.

Thomas Schaub is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Pennsylvania. Schaub received his Ph.D. from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 1973 and later attended the Harvard Divinity School and the École Biblique et Archéologique in Jerusalem. Schaub’s wife, Marilyn, teaches at the Department of Theology of Duquesne University, also in Pennsylvania. Both husband and wife are former Dominicans and have been very involved with renewal movements of the Roman Catholic Church. They have a daughter, Helen.

Sharply contrasting with the theme of evil and punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah is the symbolism of hope and rebirth associated with a desert plant called the Rose of Jericho. In their article, “The Rose of Jericho—Symbol of the Resurrection,” authors Jacob Friedman, Zippora Stein, and Amotz Dafni take BAR readers on a walk through the desert. In words and pictures they describe the special regenerative power of the Rose of Jericho—a characteristic which has given it a place in the folklore of Moslems, Christians, and Jews.

Jacob Friedman, a desert plant ecologist, studies the medicinal qualities of plants. He is on sabbatical from Hebrew University spending this year with his wife and four children at Oklahoma State University where he is Visiting Associate Professor. Friedman’s pastimes are closely connected with his work: watching wildlife, drawing plants, and photography. His student Zippora Stein recently earned her M.Sc. at Hebrew University where she concentrated on the germination biology of the Rose of Jericho. Amotz Dafni received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. from Hebrew University. He has pursued post-doctoral studies at the University of Liverpool and is currently employed at the Institute of Evolution at the University of Haifa.

In his article, “Are the Ebla Tablets Relevant to Biblical Research?” Father Mitchell Dahood, S.J., uses the Ebla tablets to unlock the meaning of obscure passages in the Hebrew Bible. Father Dahood is the translator of and commentator on the Book of Psalms in the Anchor Bible series. As a result of his work on the Ebla tablets he is now revising this three-volume work on the Psalms. Father Dahood is also author of Proverbs and Northwest Semitic Philology (Pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome, 1963) and Ugaritic-Hebrew Philology (Pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome, 1965).

Currently Professor of Ugaritic Language and Literature at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, Dahood received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1951, was ordained in 1954, and entered the Society of Jesus in 1959.

Equally as controversial as Father Dahood’s use of the Ebla tablets in Biblical research are the translations of the Ebla tablets by Professor Giovanni Pettinato. In “BAR Interviews Giovanni Pettinato,” the former Chief Epigrapher to the Ebla Mission discusses with BAR Editor Hershel Shanks some scholarly and political aspects of translating the Ebla tablets. According to Pettinato, many journalists, scholars, and politicians have keen incorrectly bandying about his beliefs. To set the record straight on just what Pettinato says and thinks about the Ebla affair, read BAR’s interview.

In his article, “Daughters of Judah,” Ian Hopkins explains how a “daughter” in the Hebrew Bible is not always a maiden, but is sometimes a rural outpost of an urban center. Hopkins is a Middle East specialist at the University of Durham, England and author of Jerusalem, a study in urban geography (Baker House, Grand Rapids, 1970).

“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard/Are sweeter,” wrote the nineteenth century poet John Keats. In many ways archaeology is the antithesis to this poetic sentiment: the archaeologist’s job is to animate the silent remains he uncovers. This is exactly what Professors Anne Draffkorn Kilmer and Richard L. Crocker of the University of California at Berkeley did when they were given a tablet from ancient Ugarit to decipher. After collaborating with scholars from all over the world, they deciphered the lyrics and music of “The World’s Oldest Musical Notation.” Today, we can hear this 3500-year-old Hurrian Cult Song played […]