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Bethel Excavations, $2.50, and more

Eisenbrauns, a favorite among many academics working in biblical and Ancient Near Eastern studies, has recently begun a “deal of the day.” Typically the price reductions are outstanding (60-90% off!), and often the book is of interest. Today’s offer is The Excavations at Bethel (1934-1960), regularly $35 (or used, $21), today $2.50, which is 93% off. (Plus $5 shipping.)

For such a deal, there are a few hurdles to overcome. First, to learn about these daily offers, you should subscribe to the RSS feed. Unfortunately, the link never seems to work in my (Google) reader. But when you see a title of interest, you can go to the Eisenbrauns home page and navigate from there. Second, the description of the volume as related to the excavations of Beth-Zur should be ignored. Third, the author is not Julie Kelso, but William F. Albright and James L. Kelso. And fourth, there’s a real question that the excavations are even of Bethel! Other that that, as they say, everything’s perfect.

I am not trying to provoke an argument about the location of Bethel. I am not advocating for another location. I simply suggest that if you read this excavation report you will not find any compelling archaeological evidence that indicates that this site is biblical Bethel. And in fact, there are serious deficiencies with what was found. But I am not going to argue against this identification on the basis of the absence of evidence. I am willing, however, to point out that if this was one of the greatest cities of the northern kingdom and the home of one of the major shrines, one would expect to uncover much more than they did.

A related note. This is related both to the Bethel/Ai debate and to the incorrect first name of the author of the title. A few days ago I came across a reference in Richard Hess, Israelite Religions, to two entries in the New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land. He cited the author of the Ai article as Joseph A. Callaway, but the author of the article of nearby Khirbet Raddana as James A. Callaway. Unfortunately, his citation follows the original; NEAEH “misspelled” Callaway’s first name. As far as I can tell, the new Volume 5 does not include an errata.

Speaking of typos, here’s an embarrassing one, on the packaging of the esteemed Anchor Bible Dictionary, no less! (For non-Hebrew readers, the text on the CD design has the first two words from Genesis, but the letters read from left to right.)

Quibbles aside, every book mentioned in this post is worth buying if these are subjects of interest to you.

Tagged Resources

Desert Kites: Ancient Technology of Hunters

This JPost article claims that a new study has “unlocked a key piece,” but as far as I can tell, the research merely confirms what was previously believed. Mazar, in his Archaeology of the Land of the Bible (1990), says something similar (pages 54-56). It’s an interesting phenomenon, and I note it here for those who have not studied some of the earlier periods of land of Israel.

University of Haifa researchers have just unlocked a key piece of the mystery of ancient desert survival, as part of their research on “desert kites” in the Negev and Arava regions.
The kites – so called because of their kite-like appearance to British pilots flying over the area in the early 1900s – resemble walls stretching over hundreds of meters of desert, meeting at angles with rounded trenches at the intersections.
The study, headed by zooarcheologist Dr. Guy Bar-Oz, archeologist Dr. Daniel Nadel and landscape ecologist Dr. Dan Malkinson, found that these structures were made by ancient desert people over 5,000 years ago as mass hunting apparatuses.
A number of such kites have been identified in Jordan, Syria, Israel and the Sinai. The archeological community has surmised that they were used for hunting purposes or as cattle pens.
Now, after surveying 11 kites and conducting digs at four different kite locations – from Givat Barnea in the North to Eilat in the South – and utilizing cutting edge measuring devices, two radiometric methods of dating, and aerial and ground photography, the team has concluded that the kites were constructed specifically to direct wild animals along the walls and convey them toward the trenches, where they could be hunted with ease….
“We were not taken by surprise by the technological ability; humans in that period were very similar to us in their capabilities. But nevertheless these were immense efforts,” he said. “Some of the kites are spread across hundreds of meters, and the construction blocks of some of the traps are very large and heavy. We are definitely talking about wide-scope construction in a region that is challenging for survival.”

The full story is here. Arutz-7’s version includes four photos.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Discoveries

Weekend Roundup

Daily Mail has a report and photos of the stunning model of Herod’s Temple Mount being constructed by Alec Garrard. At 30 years and counting, Garrard has worked longer on his model than Herod did on the original (at the time of his death).

Sunday’s Zaman has a review of the “Top 10 Museums” in Turkey. Most, but not all, of the museums are related to the ancient world. HT: Explorator.

Dr. Platypus (Darrell Pursiful) has posted the Biblical Studies Carnival XXXIX. As always, the carnival is a great way to see what is going on in the wider blogosphere.

John Walton posts on what the Bible means in its description of “the land flowing with milk and honey.”

Arabia meets America in the Wild Wadi Water Park.

Tagged Museums, Temple Mount

1967 Archaeology Movie with Pritchard

In 1967 the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania filmed a 27-minute movie about archaeological work in Jordan and the West Bank. “The Book and the Spade” gives a general introduction to the value and discipline of archaeology, which includes footage of important biblical sites that are not usually on the itinerary of visitors today, including Hebron, Shechem, and Samaria.

The film naturally focuses more on the excavations sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, Gibeon and Tell es-Saidiyeh. The latter site is the subject of the second half, and the one who is patient is rewarded with shots of the on-going excavations and an interview with the archaeologist James B. Pritchard. Pritchard is probably best known today for his three editions of Ancient Near Eastern Texts, but he made significant contributions in his excavations of Gibeon (1956-62) and Tell es-Saidiyeh (1964-67). The film also documents the construction of a mudbrick house. Though the movie was slow-moving by today’s standards, I enjoyed seeing many sites the way they were 40 years ago. You can see the contrast of the excavations in the film with a recent photo below.

Excavation area of Tell es-Saidiyeh, 2003

Other University of Pennsylvania films that may be of interest to readers of this blog include:
Athens (1939)

Ancient Earth: Making History Everlasting (1940)

Iran (1963)

Windows on the Past (1967)

Turkey (1967)

Jordan (1969)

Cyprus (1969)

And more…

HT: Ferrell Jenkins and Gordon Govier

Tagged Excavations, Resources

Conference: The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christian Origins

Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is hosting a conference on “The Dead Sea Scrolls and Christian Origins” on March 12-14, 2009.

A tentative schedule (pdf) gives the lectures:

“A Dialogue on the Gospel of Thomas,” Craig A. Evans, Acadia Divinity College; Stephen J. Patterson, Eden Theological Seminary

“The Scrolls and the Hebrew Bible,” Peter W. Flint, Trinity Western University

“The Scrolls and the New Testament,” Craig A. Evans, Acadia Divinity College

“The Scrolls and the Dead Sea Community,” John J. Collins, Yale University

“The Scrolls and Interpretation of Scripture,” George J. Brooke, University of Manchester

“The Scrolls and the Scribes,” Terry L. Wilder, B&H Academic Publishers

“The Scrolls and the Messiah,” William M. Schniedewind, University of California, Los Angeles

“‘Dark Secrets’ of the DSS?,” R. Philip Roberts, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

You can also download a poster (pdf) promoting the conference.

Tagged Lectures

Excavations to Resume at Kh. el-Maqatir (Ai?)

Excavations are set to resume at Khirbet el-Maqatir, a small site about half a mile (1 km) west of et-Tell, the scholarly choice for biblical Ai. Bryant Wood led excavations at Maqatir from 1995 to 2000, when the second Intifada interrupted the work. Wood has published in Israel Exploration Journal his view that Maqatir is the best candidate for the Late Bronze city of Ai. More information about the excavation, including a solicitation for volunteers, is online at the website of the Associates for Biblical Research.

I wrote an article about ten years ago (Bible and Spade 12/3 [1999], p. 91ff) in which I showed that local tradition located Ai at Maqatir, not et-Tell. Unfortunately Calloway (and every other scholar
I’ve read) ignored this rather important piece of data reported by Edward Robinson (1841). No kidding.

Tagged Excavations