Features

Introduction

NASA does not ask the public to help them design rockets, particle physicists do not seek the aid of John or Jane Doe to operate their cyclotrons, and geneticists do not recruit enthusiastic lay people to assist in splicing genes. But every year Biblical archaeologists put out the call for volunteers to help them […]

Digging in ’89

Ashkelon

Prize Find: Tel Dan Scepter Head

“And it was so, when the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, that she obtained favor in his sight. And the king held out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. So Esther drew near, and touched the top of the scepter” (Esther 5:2). As we read in […]

First Hand: A Poet at Ashkelon

Digging at Ashkelon It is not the dead that die, It is their whispers

Excavating in Samson Country—Philistines and Israelites at Tel Batash

The period from the time of the Judges to the end of the Israelite monarchy is known in archaeological terms as the Iron Age. It is subdivided into Iron I, the time of the Judges from about 1200 to 1000 B.C., and Iron II, the United and Divided Monarchy, from about 1000 to 586 […]

The Song of Deborah—Why Some Tribes Answered the Call and Others Did Not

The Song of Deborah (Judges 5) is one of the most powerful pieces of poetry in the entire Bible. A prose version repeats the same story, with many variations, in Judges 4. The account tells of the deliverer (Judge) Deborah and her reluctant general Barak, who do battle against an alliance of Canaanite kings. […]

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