The problem with a journal review of a book (or collection of CDs) is that there’s no opportunity for response. I imagine that hundreds of writers must feel this frustration annually, when their works are reviewed. Too frequently, I think, books are reviewed by professors who are happy to get a free copy of the… Read More »
Last night I had guard duty and between letting guests in for the bar mitzvah, I read through several articles in the latest issue of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (Sept 2005, 48/3). Many of the readers of this blog are currently students and thus don’t have time for extra reading, but this… Read More »
I’ve heard from a reliable source that Shanks is shaking things up in BAS-land, with the intent of combining the three magazines (Biblical Archaeology Review, Bible Review, Archaeology Odyssey) into a single publication. Apparently the managing editor of BAR, Steven Feldman, was dismissed as well. In my opinion, Shanks has made some questionable decisions in… Read More »
The first point of this post is that this is not news. It happened about five years ago or so. But it took me a few years after it occurred before I visited the site, and then a few more years before I got the idea to put a photo comparison here. The Shephelah is… Read More »
Two very early inscriptions were found in excavations in the Shephelah this summer and word leaked about them both this week, in advance of the annual SBL/ASOR meetings in Philadelphia. Since lots of news reports and bloggers have written about them, I am not motivated to say more, though both are more interesting to me… Read More »
I used to think that I took good photos in Hezekiah’s Tunnel. I remember when most people’s photos didn’t come out and mine did (because of the difficulty of focusing in the dark). That was back in the days when I was mainly shooting students in the tunnel for the early IBEX website. But yesterday… Read More »
I’m being asked for my opinion on the latest archaeological discovery: the “earliest church” found at Megiddo (AP story, Washington Post, photos and more photos). Frankly, I’m not all that excited. Here’s why. 1. It seems like every few years the “earliest church” is discovered (in Jordan). Of course, they mean the earliest church building,… Read More »
These were the words of the archaeologist in charge of the current excavations of the City of David today. Our students were volunteering in the on-going archaeological work there and in the course of the day I had the chance to talk a bit with him. He showed me some of the newest excavations (on… Read More »
After spending a semester in Israel, many students have a love for the land and a desire to return. Exactly how to do that isn’t always clear. One option that I recommend is to study the “other half” of the land, what is today the country of Jordan. You really don’t understand how integral that… Read More »
I’m not going to take the time now to make my case for why I don’t think artifacts like the Rosetta Stone and the Bust of Nefertiti should be returned to Egypt. There are many reasons, but here’s one, revealed in this article in today’s NY Times: the deplorable state of the Egyptian Museum. The… Read More »