Lectures Archives - Page 77 of 90

Weekend Roundup

The Ancient World Online (AWOL) has several posts of map resources this week. The Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilizations is a work-in-progress by students and faculty at Harvard. The Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem has now made available online the Eran Laor Cartographic Collection. For more historic maps, start with the Links page at this site.

Tom Powers reports that you can now walk underground (on the street and through the drainage channel) from the Pool of Siloam to the Givati Parking Lot opposite the entrance to the City of David. He also has photos of the new exit for the passage just below Robinson’s Arch. (The unsightly railing smack in the middle of the first-century street will cause distress for those who haven’t already taken photographs of this historic site.)

The Jerusalem municipality is promoting a “Take two days in Jerusalem” campaign this summer, and the list of cultural events is extensive:

The International Festival of Light, Knights Festival, International Film Festival, Puppets Theater Festival, Opera Festival, Balabasta Festival in Mahane Yehuda Market, Jerusalem Beer Festival, Arts & Crafts Festival, End of Summer Celebration Festival, Wine Tasting Festival, Shalem Dance Festival, Ziggy Marley, Infected Mushrooms, Matisyahu, Eyal Golan, Renee Fleming and more!

Arutz-7 is reporting illegal construction activity at Gibeah of Saul.

Recent events in the Middle East may have a downside: “The ‘Arab Spring’ may have facilitated trade of a treasure trove of stolen assets in the world’s art and antiquities markets.”

The Ashmolean Museum at Oxford will be opening new wings for ancient Egypt and Nubia in November.

Amihai Mazar will be giving a public lecture in Sydney, Australia in September.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson, BibleX

Bird’s Eye View of the Holy Land, engraved from A. J. Marks lithograph, 1880s. Source: Eran Laor Cartographic Collection.

Tagged Jerusalem, Lectures, Museums, Resources, Weekend Roundup

Lecture Series in OKC

The “Passages” exhibit in Oklahoma City (noted here in May) has announced a series of free lectures weekly on Tuesday evenings, to be held in the Noble Theater at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, from 6:30 to 7:45 p.m. on the days listed.

• July 19: David Lyle Jeffrey, Ph.D., Baylor University, “Beyond the Renaissance: Critical Texts and Bible Translation.”

• July 26: Peter Flint, Ph.D., Canada research chair in Dead Sea Scrolls studies, “The Contents and Challenges of the Dead Sea Biblical Scrolls.”

• Aug. 9: Gordon Campbell, Ph.D., University of Leicester, United Kingdom, “The Making of a Bible Classic: The Translation of the King James Bible.”

• Aug. 16: Edwin Yamauchi, Ph.D., Miami (Fla.) University, “The Greatest Archaeological Discoveries and the Old Testament.”

• Aug. 23: Scott Carroll, Ph.D., director of the Green Collection, “The Green Collection: Scientific Breakthroughs and Bible Translation.”

• Sept. 6: Scot McKendrick, Ph.D., British Library, “Manuscript Discoveries and Bible Translation.”

• Sept. 13: Dirk Obbink, Ph.D., Oxford University, “Papyri Discoveries and Bible Translation.”

• Sept. 20: Alister McGrath, Ph.D., King’s College, United Kingdom, “What Do William Tyndale and C.S. Lewis Have in Common.”

• Sept. 27: Ralph Hanna, Ph.D., Oxford University, “Richard Rolle’s Impact on the English Bible.”

• Oct. 4: Jerry Pattengale, Ph.D., director of the Green Scholars Initiative, “Answers to New
Theories Regarding How We Got the Bible.”

• Oct. 11: Robert Cooley, Ph.D., Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, “The Greatest Archaeological Discoveries and the New Testament.”

More details are available in this article at NewsOK as well as at the official website.

HT: Jack Sasson

Tagged Lectures

Biblical Archaeology Conference in Fort Worth

BibleX has word of The Future of Biblical Archaeology Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Riley Center on the campus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is hosting The Future of Biblical Archaeology Conference on Friday, October 14 and Saturday, October 15, 2011. Scheduled speakers include William G. Dever, Steven Ortiz, Tom Davis, James Hardin, Dale W. Manor, Karen Borstad, Laura Mazow, Abby Limmer, Jennie Ebeling, Alysia Fischer, Elizabeth Willett, and Heather Reichstadt.

Registration fees are reduced before September 30. The official website includes information about the speakers, the schedule, and registration.

Next year SWBTS will host an “exclusive exhibit” on the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible, running from July 2, 2012 to January 11, 2013.

Tagged Lectures

Weekend Roundup

Aren Maeir has posted the schedule of the 31st Annual Conference of the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University.

Gary Byers has a report on discoveries from the first week of excavating Khirbet el-Maqatir.

Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg has posted his review of “Archaeology in Israel Update—April 2011.”

He reviews the demonstrations over graves in Jaffa, Jordan’s demand for the return of fake metal codices, Jacobivici’s “Nails of the Cross,” and the politicization of the Kenyon Institute (formerly the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem).

The ASOR blog has several dozen links to news from the world of archaeology.

Israel is moving forward with plans to construct the largest desalination plant in the world. When constructed, 65% of Israel’s water consumption will come from desalinated sources.

Kevin DeYoung’s post on “being better Bereans” is broader than the usual focus of this blog, but I suspect that many readers attracted to a blog like this one may be tempted to make some of the mistakes he describes. I recommend it highly.

If you’ve been waiting to pick up the new book by Ronny Reich, Excavating the City of David: Where Jerusalem’s History Began, do so this weekend, while the price is knocked down from $50 to $30 at the Biblical Archaeology Society website. They also have a good deal on Hershel Shanks, Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. And the third edition of Ancient Israel. The sale ends at 11:59 pm on Monday.

Tagged Discoveries, Lectures, Resources, Weekend Roundup

AIA Newsletter: Finkelstein’s Redating

The Australian Institute of Archaeology produces a newsletter, the current edition of which is online (also in pdf). You may also subscribe by email request. Some items are specific to Australian readers, but other articles are of broader interest. For example, one item notes Israel Finkelstein’s revision of his Low Chronology to be closer to the mainstream position.

During his presentation [at SBL 2010], Israel Finkelstein revised his dating, and stated that he was now dating the transition from Iron Age I to IIA to about 950 BC. This was momentous. Based on their experiences in the Philistine areas and sites such as Lachish, Ussishkin and Finkelstein have been dating the start of Iron Age II to 920–900 BC and they, and many others, have used this dating to argue that David and Solomon did not exist. Archaeologists working elsewhere in the southern Levant have found the comparatively short period of Iron Age II problematic because it was diﬃcult to compress their Iron Age II levels into it. While they mounted archaeological arguments to support an earlier start to Iron Age II they were normally accused of being ‘biblically biased’.
Now that Finkelstein is digging at Megiddo, where there is a signiﬁcant depth of Iron Age II material, he realises that the period was longer and that an earlier date for the start of Iron Age II is necessary. There are numerous books written by Finkelstein arguing that there was no United Monarchy because Iron Age II began long after the time it was supposed to have existed. Unfortunately these books will continue to have inﬂuence for decades to come, although the core argument is no longer accepted. The change does not mean that the United Monarchy did exist; it simply removes one of the hypothesised impediments. It was interesting that in the presentations the only person to regularly refer to biblical texts was Finkelstein: for him, disproving the Old Testament appears to be a hobby-horse. Much of the scholarly world has been ﬁxated on Finkelstein conveying his hypotheses as facts. It will be interesting to see if it now takes a less dogmatic stance.

The full text of the newsletter is here (also in pdf format). More information about the Australian Institute of Archaeology and how to become a member may be found here.

HT: James Lancaster

Tagged Lectures, Resources

Wednesday Roundup

A plan by the Israeli government will save the southern end of the Dead Sea from rising waters by harvesting salt.

“Beersheba. Just say the name, and images come to mind of an old, crusty patriarch leaning on his staff in the dry winds of the wilderness.”

Leen Ritmeyer comments on the report that the temporary bridge to the Mughrabi Gate must be removed within two weeks.

The Bible Gateway Blog answers the question: “How should we respond to sensational archaeological claims?”

A 39-year-old archaeology student was arrested for looting archaeological sites, including Tel Shikmona near Haifa. He was caught by the IAA Theft Prevention Unit when he left his cell phone at the site.

The 4th meeting of the Forum for the Research of the Chalcolithic Period will be held on June 2, 2011, at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The conference title: “50 Years of the Discovering of the Nahal Mishmar Treasure.” A full schedule of the program is here.

Eric Meyers writes in The Jewish Week on the earliest synagogues known archaeologically. He does not agree with those who wish to re-date many of these synagogues to the 4th-6th centuries. Of the period immediately after AD 70, he writes:

In my view this period in the history of Judaism was as definitive as the period after the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE when the exiled Judeans not only survived but managed to pray without the Temple and began the task of editing the books of Scripture that would help them maintain their identity and keep the traditions of former times. The first centuries after 70 CE also led to publication of the Mishnah by 200 CE and many of the early biblical commentaries. It is unimaginable that all of this literary creativity, along with the development of the synagogue liturgy, could have happened without a physical setting in which it could take shape. The most logical setting is the synagogue as a structure where the Torah was read, translated and interpreted; where homilies were given; and where the liturgy was sung and recited.

HT: Joseph Lauer, Jack Sasson

Tagged Dead Sea, Galilee, Jerusalem, Lectures, Negev, Pseudo-Archaeology, Temple Mount