Biblical Archaeology Review, December 1975

The most sensational archaeological discovery of the last half century was made entirely by accident. On a morning in the winter of 1946–1947 three shepherds of the Ta’amireh tribe of Bedouin watched their nimble-footed goats skip across the cliffs just north of an old ruin on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea The […]

It’s hard to believe that with this issue the BAR has completed its first year of publication. For those who have been intimately involved in its creation, probably no other year will be as challenging as this one has been. Now we’ve made it. The potential has been made actual. In short, we’re a success.

The article on Hazor in the March 1975 issue of the BAR (“Yigael Yadin on ‘Hazor, The Head of All Those Kingdoms,’” BAR 01:01) appears to endorse Yadin’s conclusion that the references to Hazor and its king Jabin in Judges 4 constitute “a late and inaccurate gloss.” Don’t reject the historicity of the Biblical […]

Scholars will recall that several years ago a shepherd, wandering in the Gulf of Aquaba, stumbled upon a cave containing several large clay jars and also two tickets to the ice show. Inside the jars were discovered six parchment scrolls with ancient incomprehensible writing which the shepherd, in his ignorance, sold to the museum for $750,000 apiece. Two years later the jars turned up in a pawnshop in Philadelphia. One year later the shepherd turned up in a pawnshop in Philadelphia and neither was claimed.

In the late eighth century B.C., when Sennacherib, King of Assyria, sent messengers to Hezekiah, King of Judah, to demand the surrender of Jerusalem, Hezekiah dispatched three senior officials to negotiate with the Assyrian messengers. When the negotiations proved unsuccessful, Hezekiah sent these Judean officials to the prophet Isaiah to seek the prophet’s advice. […]

The past two and a half decades have witnessed a proliferation of publications in the field of Biblical archaeology designed for the interested layman or student. While some of these works cater to sensation and exaggerated claims, and others are little more than huge and expensive volumes of glossy photos, many others offer solid […]

Avi Eitan, the new Director of the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums, is only the third person to hold the position in the history of the 27-year old state. (The other two incumbents were Avraham Biran, the most recent director, and Samuel Yeivin.) A youthful 40-year-old, Eitan is likely to be in this important position for years to come.

The climate of the Near East has not changed since Biblical times, according to most scientists, a view shared by climatologists, as well as by geologists and dendrochronologists (experts in dating tree rings).

Last summer, a kernos was found in a field of an Israeli kibbutz. A kernos is a hollow pottery ring about 12 inches in diameter with various hollow pottery objects sitting on the ring and attached to it. Six objects originally perched on the ring of the kernos which turned up last summer, of […]