The following announcement was posted on several lists, including biblicalist.  Most lectures are in Hebrew. Dr. Rainey’s astonishing career is surveyed on the Tel Aviv University website.

Cordially invite the public to the 30th annual conference of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology:

“And They Went Up and Toured the Land” – in honor of Professor Anson F. Rainey on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

Thursday, May 6, 2010, Mintz Auditorium, Building 403, Bar-Ilan University.

8:30-9:00: Registration and Refreshments

9:00-9:20: Greetings:

• Prof. Haim Taitelbaum, Vice Rector
• Prof. Avraham Faust, Chair, Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology
• Prof. Shlomo Bunimovitz, Chair, Jacob M. Alkow Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures

9:20-11:00: Session 1: Archaeology. Chair, Prof. Ze’ev Herzog

• Yuval Gadot: The Central Coastal Plain in the Late Bronze Age – Geography, History and Archaeology
• Shlomo Bunimovitz and Zvi Lederman: The Hanan Clan: Epigraphic Evidence for Iron Age Canaanite Continuity in the Northern Judean Shephelah
• Avraham Faust: An Assemblage of Bullae from Tel ‘Eton and the Development of Administration in the Kingdom of Judah
• Ze’ev Herzog: The Hezekiah/Josiah Cult Reform Debate: An Archaeological Perspective

11:00-11:30: Break

11:30-13:30: Session 2: Linguistics and Bible. Chair, Prof. Shlomo Izre’el

• Israel Knohl: Merneptah’s “Israel” and Biblical “Israel”
• Shawn Zelig Aster: Isaiah 31 and Relations Between Judah and Assyria During the Reign of Sargon II
• Gershon Galil: The Book of Joshua: Formation and Historical Reliability
• Daniel Sivan: The Case System in Northwestern Semitic Languages
• Chaim Cohen: Four New Philological Notes Concerning the Languages of the El-Amarna Letters according to the Comparative Philological Method of Prof. Moshe Held z”l

13:30-14:45: Lunch Break

14:45-16:30: Session 3: Historical Geography. Chair, Prof. Joshua Schwartz

• Ze’ev Safrai: Historical Geography, 35 Years after Ben-Arieh
• Aren Maeir: The Identification of Philistine Gath, 25 Years Later
• Oded Lipschits: Further Thoughts on the Ancient Name of Ramat Rahel
• Yigal Levin: The Identification of Khirbet Qeiyafa – A New Proposal

16:30-16:50: Break

16:50-19:00: Session 4: History. Chair, Dr Boaz Zissu.

• Dr. Paul Wright, Director, Jerusalem University College: Blessings and comments about Anson Rainey (in English)
• Victor Hurowitz: Demonyms and Toponyms: Symbolism and Hermeneutics
• Brian Schultz: A New Proposal for Tamar/Tadmor in 1 Kings 9:18 (in English)
• Aaron Demsky: The Phoenician Connection of the Greek Sphinx
• R. Steven Notley: Was the Galilee No Longer Jewish in the Days of Judah Aristobulus?

Closing Remarks – Prof. Anson F. Rainey

All papers will be in Hebrew unless English is specified.

Open admission. For information call 03-5318350 or use email address on the announcement.