“Did Yahweh Have a Consort?” presents the first detailed, color-illustrated article on Kuntillet Ajrud by Israeli archaeologist, Ze’ev Meshel. In this early eighth century B.C. Judean outpost in the Sinai desert Meshel found a treasure of Hebrew and Phoenician religious inscriptions and drawings, many of which have never been printed in color, and some of which have never been published at all.
This year Meshel is a Research Fellow at Harvard University while on leave from his post as Assistant Professor at the Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University. While continuing to study the Ajrud materials, he is also examining the collection of pottery excavated fifty years ago by Nelson Glueck at Tell el-Kheleifeh, the site which Glueck believed to be Biblical Ezion-Geber, the port of Solomon. Unfortunately, Glueck died before publishing the scientific report on his excavation at this important site.
How to Pick a Dig
Like many of our authors, Dan Cole is a field archaeologist as well as teacher and writer: In “How to Pick a Dig” Cole shares his knowledge as a dig director with those whose fascination with archaeology tempts us to join a dig.
Dan Cole himself began digging the same year he began to teach college—in 1960—and both kinds of experience are reflected in his article. He received his first field experience under G. Ernest Wright at the Shechem excavations. Later he was a field supervisor and member of the core staff of the Gezer excavations, where the field school concept was first employed on a large-scale project. Since 1976 he has been Associate Director of the Lahav Research Project (Tell Halif), where he has been responsible for the field school program.
Cole’s teaching assignments at Lawrence University and, since 1965, at Lake Forest College have included Biblical studies and Classical culture as well as Near Eastern archaeology. He shaped a spring archaeological study program in Greece for Lake Forest students which he has directed several times. This has, he says, enabled him to enjoy the best of all three worlds: Illinois in the autumn, Greece in the springtime, and Israel in the summer digging season!
Cole’s wife, Catherine, who has been camp manager at the Lahav Project and has already written for BAR (see “How a Dig Begins,”BAR 03:02), teamed up with the project’s photographer, Patti O’Connor, to co-author a book of their personal and photographic impressions of the land and peoples of Israel. Now available in the United States (from Academy Press, Ltd., Chicago), One Summer in Israel is the source of most of the fine photographs which accompany “How to Pick a Dig”. O’Connor, official photographer of the Lahav excavations, has shown her work at the Chicago Art Institute.
Syria Tries to Influence Ebla Scholarship
BAR Editor Hershel Shanks, writes that “Syria Tries to Influence Ebla Scholarship,” a disturbing account of official Syrian efforts to down-play, if not suppress, the Biblical connections of Ebla. Shanks’ case is built on published statements and interviews in the Syrian and American press.
Also in this issue:
• Our annual survey of dig opportunities for volunteers, “Thinking Ahead to Summer, Digs in ’79,” with suggestions, also, about how to participate in the rescue excavations in the Biblical Negev.
• “What is Palestine” continues to concern readers in Queries & Comments. BAR responds to reader concerns that advertising may affect editorial policy.
• The response of Israel’s Education Minister to BAR readers’ letters requesting release of a color photo of a Hadrian statue found in Israel several years ago is printed in Queries & Comments.
Cover Story: Did Yahweh Have a Consort?
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