Inside BAR

002

Was the ancient Negev “a kind of Paradise Lost situated between the granaries of plenty known as Egypt and the country ‘flowing with milk and honey’ called Canaan?” American archaeologist Nelson Glueck of Hebrew Union College asked this question more than 30 years ago when he began to explore the Negev desert. In the mid-1970’s, armed with new questions—and new, anthropological perspectives—Thomas E. Levy began a systematic survey of the major drainage system of the northern Negev. “How Ancient Man First Utilized Rivers in the Desert” tells of the remarkable discoveries made by that large-scale survey.

Levy was born in California and began his world-wide archaeological career at Indian sites in the American Southwest and at Tel Gezer in Israel in 1971. He recently resumed from an ethnoarchaeological project in northern Cameroon, where he studied recently abandoned Shuwa Arab pastoral nomad camps south of Lake Chad. After taking his B.A. degree in anthropology at the University of Arizona, Levy went on to get a Ph.D. in archaeology and prehistory at the University of Sheffield in England. Since then he has worked as a curator at the Negev Museum in Beer-Sheva and as assistant director of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. He currently serves as the assistant director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology at the Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem.

Even with 5,000 years of history behind it, the ancient farm site of Ein Yael was not expected to yield any flashy artifacts—the kind that pack them in at exhibitions and give archaeology its romantic aura. But if finding the unexpected is part of the romance of archaeology, then Gershon Edelstein became its shining knight when he uncovered a Roman villa at Ein Yael and found many of its floors decorated with beautiful mosaics. Edelstein examines both the down-to-earth significance of the farm and the exalted beauty of the mosaics in “What’s a Roman Villa Doing Outside Jerusalem?”

Born in Argentina, Edelstein now lives in Israel, where he works as a senior archaeologist with the Antiquities Authority. Interesting architectural finds in the hills outside Jerusalem prompted Edelstein to focus his studies on ancient agriculture and rural settlements. Edelstein’s survey of the hills west of Jerusalem revealed hundreds of carefully planned, ancient farms. He conceived the idea of the Ein Yael Living Museum, an educational project that combines continuing archaeological excavation with experimentation in ancient technology.

The spring at Ein Yael may have played an even more significant historical role than providing life-giving water for an ancient farm and villa; it may be the site where Philip the evangelist baptized the Ethiopian eunuch, a minister to Queen Candace (Acts 8:26–40). As Yehudah Rapuano points out in “Did Philip Baptize the Eunuch at Ein Yael?” the site’s location fits well with the route Philip took, and an extant arch at the ancient springhouse corresponds to one depicted in a scene of the baptism on an icon in a Jerusalem monastery.

Rapuano received his undergraduate training in archaeology and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is now pursuing a Masters degree at the newly established, Jerusalem-based Center for the Study of Early Christianity. After beginning as a field supervisor at Ein Yael in 1986, Rapuano became the excavation’s co-director, with Gershon Edelstein, in 1987.

Climbing the Great Pyramid may not sound like a dangerous adventure, but so many people have fallen to their deaths trying to do it that the Egyptian authorities forbid tourists to make the attempt. This ban frustrated Carey A. Moore’s lifelong dream to climb the Great Pyramid, inspired by the early 20th-century adventurer Richard Halliburton, but he found compensation in the more personal and no less exciting adventure of seeing something that Halliburton never saw. He shares this adventure in “How I Almost Climbed Cheops’ Pyramid.”

Author of the Anchor Bible Esther and Judith, Moore contributed two articles based on those volumes to BAR’s sister magazine, Bible Review: “Eight Questions Most Frequently Asked About the Book of Esther,” BR 03:01, and “Judith—The Case of the Pious Killer,” BR 06:01. Currently the Amanda Rupert Strong Professor of Religion at Gettysburg College, Moore specializes in archaeology, the Hebrew Bible, Apocrypha and post-Biblical studies. He is, however, no stranger to hands-on archaeology, having served as an area supervisor at the Tel Gezer and Tel Dan excavations.

You’ve heard of word processing, but are you familiar with Word processing? Ever since the computer revolution took off in earnest, many companies have been producing a variety of programs that can make Bible study much faster and more efficient. By now you may have trouble deciding which programs are worth your while and which are not. Happily, expert guidance is now available from John J. Hughes in “Computers and the Bible.” You’ll learn what different programs can do, what features to look for and, thanks to a detailed chart, where to order the products you want.

Hughes is the author of Bits, Bytes and Biblical Studies (Zondervan, 1987; reviewed 008in the August 1988 Bible Review) and edits Bits & Bytes Review, a newsletter that reviews the latest products. Hughes is product manager for Zondervan Electronic Publishing. He holds a Master in Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary and has taught at Westmont College.

It’s nice to know some things don’t change (or is it?). When the First International Congress on Biblical Archaeology convened in Jerusalem in 1984, the question on many participants’ minds was when the remainder of the Dead Sea Scrolls would be published. When the Second International Congress convened in Jerusalem this past summer, the question on many participants’ minds was when the remainder of the Dead Sea Scrolls would be published. There was much else to occupy the more than 600 participants—lectures, site visits, musical performances—as BAR editor Hershel Shanks reports in “Absorbing Archaeology at the Jerusalem Congress,” but it was the session on the Scrolls that packed in the crowds. Shanks recounts the highlights of this gathering of luminaries and compares it to the first meeting six years ago.

Was the ancient Negev “a kind of Paradise Lost situated between the granaries of plenty known as Egypt and the country ‘flowing with milk and honey’ called Canaan?” American archaeologist Nelson Glueck of Hebrew Union College asked this question more than 30 years ago when he began to explore the Negev desert. In the mid-1970’s, armed with new questions—and new, anthropological perspectives—Thomas E. Levy began a systematic survey of the major drainage system of the northern Negev. “How Ancient Man First Utilized Rivers in the Desert” tells of the remarkable discoveries made by that large-scale survey. Levy was born […]