There were some interesting guesses to the question of what is hanging on my bedroom wall. Indeed, I do have the jawbone of a donkey (and I used it yesterday when telling the Samson story at Beth Shemesh), but I keep it on a shelf in my office and not on the wall of my bedroom. :-) The same is true of a mummified foot which was presented to me one day in class, on the podium, under a newspaper, without warning.
Ilena gets the award for effort, but there is no picture of my wife (or of me) on our bedroom wall! I don’t own a Marshalltown trowel, and that hat that you remember is, fortunately, resting in peace in some Israeli landfill. I have a “stiffer” hat now :-).
Happy gets the most smiles from me with his suggestion of a Yasser Arafat painting. Indeed, he must have read my recent post about Arafat posters.
Cindi wonders if it’s something related to “Square B.” That honestly is one of the most bizarre episodes in my life. For two days (not more!) we excavated and this group of 5-6 students in that square have perpetuated that memory in the most curious ways for 5 years now! I can’t even have a blog without it coming up :-). I think too that she overestimates my degree of dislike for her semester group. In fact, I did say they were characterized by an “independent spirit” but that is different from saying that I didn’t like them. Many of them are blessings to me until this day.
But the prize goes to Danny. He should know, since he helped me paste that map on the wall. It actually covers the entire width and height of the long wall in our bedroom. So when I lay in bed, and the light is on, I stare at it and a million thoughts are prompted. It’s a huge map, with India about the size of my hand. If you have a TV in your bedroom, I’d recommend replacing it with a huge map of the world (like this one).
Danny’s prize is the forthcoming Archaeology Study Bible, to be published by Zondervan in March 2006. I contributed some articles and photos to that and look forward to seeing it in print. I don’t know of any information about it publicly available yet, but I do know that the publisher will have free calendars promoting the Bible at the ETS/SBL meetings in November. Grab one if you’re there.