Conference: Aram and Israel in the 12th to 8th Centuries BC

Heidelberg Colloquium on the Subject of Aram and Israel: Cultural Interaction, Political Borders and Construction of Identity during the Early Iron Age (12th–8th Centuries BCE)

IWH Symposium, September 1-4, 2014

IWH Hauptstrasse 242, Heidelberg

Organisation: Prof. Manfred Oeming, Dr. Omer Sergi, Dr. Izaak de Hulster


Monday, Sept. 1, 2014

14:00-14:30: Introduction

14:00-14:10: Peter Comba, Manfred Oeming, Greetings

14:10-14:30: Omer Sergi and Izaak de Hulster, Historical Outline for Aram and Israel


First Session: Jordan Valley between Aram and Israel: Archaeological Perspectives
Chair: Izaak de Hulster

14:30-15:15: Amihai Mazar, Looking for Aramaean Impact in the Beth-Shean Valley in Light of the Excavations at Tel Beth Shean and Tel Rehov

15:15-16:00: Stefan Münger, Who, When, and Why–Investigating Cultural Footprints at Early Iron Age Tel Kinrot

16:30-17:15: Nava Panitz-Cohen, Aram-Maacah? Aramaeans and Israelites on the Border: Excavations at Tel Abil al-Qameh (Abel Beth Maacah) in Northern Israel

17:15-18:00: Yifat Thareani, Enemy at the Gates? The Archaeological Visibility of the Aramaeans at Dan

18:00-18:30: Discussion

Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2014

Second Session: Aspects of Material Culture between Aram and Israel
Chair: Omer Sergi

9:00-9:45: Izaak de Hulster, The Aram–Israel Border Zone: Two Comparative Iconographic Case Studies

9:45-10:30: Benjamin Sass, Aram and Israel during the Early Iron Age (12th-8th Centuries BCE): The Alphabet

11:00-11:45: Assaf Kleiman, Dating the Aramaean Campaigns to the Southern Levant: A Gradual Process of Destructions?

11:45-12:30: Aren Maeir, The Aramaean Involvement in the Southern Levant: Case Studies for Identifying the Archaeological Evidence

12:30-13:00: Discussion


Third Session: Aramaean Identity in Changing Cultural Contexts
Chair: Jan Christian Gertz

14:30-15:15: Christoph Uehlinger, What are We Looking for when dealing with ‘Identity’ and the ‘Construction of Identity’ in Levantine Societies of the Iron Age? (with an Excursus on the Bethsaida Stela)

15:15-16:00: Guy Bunnens, Tradition, Innovation and Cultural Borders in Aramaean Syria

16:30-17:15: Stefania Mazzoni, Identity and Multiculturality in the Northern Levant of the 9th-7th century B.C. with a Case Study on Tell Afis

17:15-18:00: Herbert Niehr, The Power of Language:, Language Situation and Language Politics in Sam’ al

18:00-18:30: Discussion

Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014

Fourth Session: The Border Zone between Aram and Israel: Historical Reflections
Chair: Juha Pakkala

9:00-9:45: Israel Finkelstein, Aram and Israel: Some Cultural and Historical Reflections

9:45-10:30: Erhard Blum, The ‘Borders’ between Israel and Aram-Damascus in the 9th-8th Centuries BCE according to Biblical and Epigraphical Sources

11:00-11:45: Omer Sergi, Gilead between Aram and Israel: Some Historical and Historiographical Considerations

11:45-12:30: Jutta Häser, Tell Zira’a in the Iron Age

12:30-13:00: Discussion


Fifth Session: Historical Memory of Aram in Israel’s Bible
Chair: Dorothea Erbele-Küster

14:30-15:15: Manfred Oeming, “And the King of Aram was at War with Israel”– The Construction of the Aramaean as an Enemy in the Elisha Cycle 2 King 2-13.

15:15-16:00: Matthias Köckert, Jacob Cycle and the Aramaean Identity of Israel

16:30-17:15: Angelika Berlejung, Family Ties: Constructed Memories about Aram and the Aramaeans in the Old Testament – “God’s People Network”

17:15-18:00: Nili Wazana, “My Father was a Wandering Aramaean”: The Implications for Israelite Identity

18:00-18:30: Discussion

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2014

Concluding Session: Israel among the Aramaeans
Chair: Manfred Oeming

9:00-10:30: Concluding discussion

The Colloquium is supported by: Heidelberg University, Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

The program is available in pdf format here.

Another topic that seems relevant to this conference: Textual Witnesses to the Aramean Oppression of Israel in the Late Ninth Century. And another: Archaeological Evidence for the Aramean Route to Philistine Gath. I’ve written on both in my dissertation.

HT: Jack Sasson

Tel Chinnereth from north, tb102702025
Tell Chinnereth (Tel Kinrot) and the Sea of Galilee
Photo from volume 1
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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

A replica of Solomon’s Temple has now opened in Sao Paulo. But since it has the capacity to seat 10,000 people (and Solomon’s could seat exactly zero), one has to wonder in what sense it is a “replica.” This Forbes article has more info and a computer image. Google has more images.

Results of excavations at Tell Jemmeh in southern Israel from 1970 to 1990 have now been published.

G. M. Grena shares a list of lectures and abstracts of interest from the ASOR 2014 meeting in San Diego in November.

Wayne Stiles highlights some ancient tombs in Israel that you can visit.

Bible History Daily has a roundup of articles related to summer excavations.


The Times of Israel has a good collection of photos of mosaics from the Huqoq synagogue.

The NY Times has more on the destruction of the tomb of Jonah in Iraq.

ArtDaily: “Scientists at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia have re-discovered an important find in their own storage rooms, a complete human skeleton about 6,500 years old.”


Haaretz runs a profile on 5,000 years of strife in Gaza: “Gaza’s history reads like an encyclopedia of misery – war, destruction, earthquakes, plagues and floods. It has been destroyed and rebuilt, conquered again and again. But it also enjoyed periods of prosperity, when pagan, Jew and others lived together in harmony.”

Last call for the lowest price on Logos’ Archaeological and Theological Studies of Jerusalem (10 vols.) Some of the works I’m not familiar with, but the two Warren volumes are classics. The  more
who order, the lower the price goes for all of us.

I recommended ScrollTag several years ago, but if you missed it then, you should check it out now.

The program now includes the Trainer, a unique tool that will help you learn (and remember!) Greek
and Hebrew word forms. The package price is a great deal.

HT: Jack Sasson, Charles Savelle

Tell Jemmeh and Nahal Besor view northwest, tb050701349
Tell Jemmeh and Nahal Basor
Photo from the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands, volume 5
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Weekend Roundup

What do you do when your summer excavation site turns out to be less than 5 miles from a war zone?
The Ashkelon team had to figure matters out on the fly.

Mark Hoffman is inviting everyone to join his free, online course, “Survey of the Lands of the Bible.”

This MOOC begins in September and you can participate as much and as little as desired.

Wayne Stiles has a well-written and well-illustrated article about Ein Parath, where Jeremiah buried his loincloth.

How did archaeologists come to reject the biblical description of Joshua’s conquest? Henry Smith explains. He is interviewed briefly about the article here.

Leon Mauldin takes his readers to the Mamertine Prison in Rome.

ISIS Is About to Destroy Biblical History in Iraq.

Cleopatra’s Needle in New York City is getting a laser cleaning. “In nanoseconds, the soot particles are turned into white-hot plasma.”

The latest issue of ‘Atiqot is online and it includes several articles about an excavation in the Kidron Valley.

Göbekli Tepe excavator Klaus Schmidt died last week.

Amnon Rosenfeld—In Memoriam, by Howard R. Feldman.

HT: Charles Savelle, G. M. Grena, Craig Dunning

110724879tb Egyptian obelisk, aka Cleopatra's Needle
Cleopatra’s Needle, New York City
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Weekend Roundup

Aren Maeir will be lecturing on the Philistines in Kansas City and Chicago later this month.

Carl Rasmussen ran into a pack of wild boar at Caesarea Philippi and some in his group managed to get photos. (I’ve managed the former but never the latter.)

Israeli police arrested five Jews attempting to sacrifice a goat at the Temple Mount for Passover.

A couple of tombs from the 26th Dynasty were discovered in Pr-Medjet. Luxor Times has photos.

The ruins of Palmyra have suffered from the Syrian civil war, and the New York Times provides an update.

The ASOR roundup has more stories from archaeology around the world.

Bibles-Online is a new site that allows you to view every page of rare and antique copies of the Scriptures, including the 1521 Erasmus Greek NT, the 1535 Coverdale Bible, the 1549 Matthew-Tyndale Bible, and others.

Wayne Stiles is offering a significant discount on his new audiobook this weekend before it is available at Audible.com. I’ve highly recommended the print version of Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus in the past and now the audiobook is available for less than $7.

HT: Jack Sasson, Charles Savelle

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Weekend Roundup, Part 2

Now online: the video of Eugene Merrill’s recent lecture on “Ai and Old Testament Chronology: Who Cares?”

Places of the Passion Week in 360-Degrees – Wayne Stiles shares some new photos.

The ASOR Blog has a series of posts about Passover and Jesus:

Also on the ASOR Blog: 10 Tips for Packing for a Dig

The sale of a Nebuchadnezzar II cylinder set a world auction record.

Now available for Kindle: Hebrew Bible and Greek New Testament with English translation ($6.99)

iPad users can purchase the HebrewBible app here ($9.99).

Happy 6th Blogiversary to BibleX!

HT: Ted Weis

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Seminar: The History of the Caves of Qumran

The Institute of Culture and Archaeology of the Bible Lands and the Faculty of Theology of Lugano, Switzerland, are hosting on February 20-21, 2014 a research seminar entitled, “The History of the Caves of Qumran.”

The program gives the following description and schedule of lectures.

The Research Seminar is dedicated to the Qumran Caves. Usually archaeological studies focus on the ruins and consider the caves as a background. Our intention is to center the interest on the caves themselves. We’ll consider not only the eleven caves in which the manuscripts were found during the last century, but all the caves that offered archeological material.

In particular, the focus of the seminar is on the identity of each individual cave in comparison with the other caves of Qumran. In addition, the ensemble of Qumran caves will be compared with other caves or findings in the Dead Sea region. Both archeological and textual data will be used in order to provide useful elements to outline the history of use of the caves.


First Session: Topography

M. Fidanzio, General Introduction

J. Taylor, The Qumran Caves in Their Regional Context

J.-B. Humbert, La morphologie des grottes de Qumrân [The morphology of the caves of Qumran]

Second Session: Manuscripts

F. García Martínez, Contents of the Manuscripts from the Caves of Qumran

C. Hempel, The Profile and Character of Qumran Cave 4

E. Puech, La paléographie des manuscrits de Qumrân [The paleography of the Qumran manuscripts]

E. Tov, Scribal Characteristics of the Qumran Scrolls


Third Session: Other Findings

R. Bar Nathan, Pottery From the Qumran Caves

J. Młynarczyk, Terracotta Oil Lamps

O. Shamir and N. Sukenik, The Differences in the Textiles from the Qumran Caves Compared to Those Found in Other Judaean Desert Caves

M. Bélis, Les textiles inédits de Qumrân, fouilles de R. de Vaux: enquête et perspectives 
[Unpublished textiles of Qumran, excavations of R. de Vaux: survey and prospects]

Y. Adler, Leather Tefillin Cases (Phylacteries)

D. Mizzi, Non-Ceramic/Textual Artefacts From the Qumran Caves


Fourth Session: History of Use of the Caves

M. Popovic, When and Why Were the Caves Near Qumran and in the Judaean Desert Used?

J. Magness and J. Zangenberg, The Functions of the Caves and the Settlement of Qumran

The research seminar will be preceded by the Fourth International Conference of TerraSancta on February 19 (mostly in Italian) as well as intensive courses (all in Italian) on February 17–18. More details are available in the program available online here.

For photos of the Qumran caves where Dead Sea Scrolls were found, see our summary here. The Israel Antiquities Authority also has a page explaining the major finds in each cave.

HT: Yonatan Adler

UPDATE (2/25): See this post for a report of Adler’s discovery of nine new manuscripts.

Dead Sea, Qumran, Scroll Caves sign from before 1967, tb021107674
Pre-1967 sign pointing to Dead Sea Scroll caves
Photo from Signs of the Holy Land
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About the BiblePlaces Blog

The BiblePlaces Blog provides updates and analysis of the latest in biblical archaeology, history, and geography. Unless otherwise noted, the posts are written by Todd Bolen, PhD, Professor of Biblical Studies at The Master’s University.

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