Lectures Archives - Page 84 of 91

Aren Maeir Lecturing in New England

Aren Maeir, excavator of Philistine Gath, will be lecturing in New England next week. From his blog:

On Wednesday, March 3rd, I will be giving two lectures at Brandeis University. The first one, entitled: “The Archaeology of Love and Sex in the Ancient Near East” will be from 2:10 – 3:30 pm at Lown 202, as part of Prof. M. Brettler’s class “The Song of Songs”. The second one, entitled: “Canaanites, Philistines, Israelites and Crusaders: The Excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel” will from 5:10 – 6:30 pm at Lown 2, as part of a joint lecture for the Depts. of Anthropology and of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. On Thursday, March 4th, I’ll be presenting a lecture at the Laboratory for Engineering Man/Machine Systems at Brown University, on the excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath. If anyone is in the area, please do feel free to come to these talks.

These sound interesting!

Tagged Lectures

Dead Sea Scroll Lectures in Milwaukee

There are a number of lectures here that look very good. From JSOnline:

The Milwaukee Public Museum and Mount Mary College are both holding lectures in connection with the museum’s “Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible” exhibit opening Friday.

The museum’s 11-lecture series features an international panel of speakers covering different facets of the exhibition, from the scrolls’ application to the understanding of modern biblical texts to discoveries revealed through new technologies.

Individual lectures at the museum cost $25, $20 for members. To purchase seats for individual lectures, call (414) 223-4676 or register online at www.mpm.edu/peo. To purchase seats for a four- or six-lecture series, call (414) 223-4676.

The museum’s lectures:

• “An Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls and Bringing the Dead Sea Scrolls Back to Life: The Use of Imaging Technologies to Reclaim Ancient Texts.” Weston Fields, Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation, and Bruce Zuckerman, University of Southern California. 2 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. [Jan 22-23]

• “The Three Favorite Books at Qumran and the Biblical Text.” Peter Flint, Canada Research Chair in Dead Sea Scrolls Studies, Trinity Western University. 7:30 p.m. Feb. 4.

• “The Ever-Alive Dead Sea Scrolls and Their Significance for Understanding the Bible, Early Judaism, and the Birth of Christianity.” Shalom Paul, Hebrew University. 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Feb.18.

• “Israel at the Time of the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Larry Schiffman, Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University. 7:30 p.m. March 4.

• “The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. 7:30 p.m. March 18.

• “The Stories of the Milwaukee Public Museum Dead Sea Scrolls.” Marty Abegg, director, Dead Sea Scrolls Institute, Trinity Western University. 7:30 p.m. March 25.

• “God Among the Gods: Divine Plurality in the Qur’an in the Light of Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Mythic Tradition.” Wesley Williams, Michigan State University. 7:30 p.m. April 15.

• “In Search of the Holy Grail: How Much Difference Would It Make If We Found the Original Handwritten Copies of New Testament Books?” Brent Sandy, Grace College. 7:30 p.m. April 29.

• “The Scriptures and Their Interpretation in the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Andrew Teeter, Harvard University. 7:30 p.m. May 6.

• “The Scribes of the Dead Sea Scrolls.” Emanuel Tov, Hebrew University. 5:30, 7:30 p.m. May 27.

• “The Dead Sea Scrolls and Current Bible Translations.” Deirdre Dempsey, Marquette University. 7:30 p.m. June 3.

Meanwhile, Mount Mary will present “The Dead Sea Scrolls 101: An Evening of Introduction” at 7 p.m. Feb 4 at 2900 N. Menomonee River Parkway. The lecture will be presented by Donald Rappe, associate professor at the college’s department of theology, and Helga Kisler, an adjunct theology instructor at Mount Mary.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Dead Sea, Lectures

Thursday Roundup

Dr. Zvi Greenhut, Deputy Director of Survey & Excavations, Israel Antiquities Authority is interviewed on Arutz-7 Radio about his excavations of Moza (Emmaus?). A summary of his Iron Age finds is given at the IAA website.

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas has purchased three fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls, with verses from Exodus, Leviticus, and Daniel.

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel lists 93 threats to open spaces in their annual report, with the largest number falling in the north.

Richard Jones of Lee University will give a lecture entitled “Biblical Archaeology on the Karak Plateau, Jordan” on Jan. 23 at 10:30 at the Museum Center at Five Points in Cleveland, Tennessee.

Professor Emeritus Abraham Malamat of the Hebrew University passed away today at the age of 87.

HT: Joe Lauer and the Yehuda Group

Tagged Excavations, Jordan, Lectures, Weekend Roundup

Archaeological Museum Tour by iPod

You can now tour the Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum in Collegedale, Tennessee, with audio narration provided by William Dever and Michael Hasel, according to this month’s issue of DigSight. The 52-minute tour takes the visitor through the museum’s 16 display cases. Hasel, the museum curator, says, “I’ve traveled to dozens of museums all over the world, and I haven’t encountered another museum that uses iPods for their tours . . . I think we’re using cutting-edge technology.” The iPod displays photos of the artifacts to assist the visitor in identifying what is being described.

The newsletter also announces that the personal library of William Dever has been placed at Southern Adventist University. The library catalog is available online at library.southern.edu.

Next on the schedule for the Museum Lecture Series at SAU is K. Lawson Younger, speaking on “Aramean Astral Religion in Light of Recent Discoveries.” The lecture will be given on March 17, 2010 at 7:30 in the Lynn Wood Hall Chapel.

Tagged Lectures, Museums, Technology

15th Annual Conference: New Studies on Jerusalem

Joe Lauer has sent along notice of this conference which will be held in Tel Aviv on December 24, with lectures in Hebrew.

The Ingeborg Rennert Center The Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology The Faculty of Jewish Studies Bar-Ilan University

Invite you to

The 15th Annual Conference of
The Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies
“NEW STUDIES ON JERUSALEM”

8:20 gathering

8:45 opening remarks:

Prof. Joshua Schwartz, Director of the Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies

Prof. Avraham Faust & Dr. Eyal Baruch, conference organizers

Session 1 – 9:00-10:55

Chair: Eyal Baruch

09:00 Ronny Reich & Eli Shukron- Channel II in the City of David, Jerusalem: Technical Details, Date and Function

09:20 Avraham Faust- King David’s Palace, a Hellenistic Structure or a Jebusite Fort: A Reexamination of the Large Stone Structure Unearthed by Eilat Mazar in the City of David

09:40 Moshe Garsiel- The Book of Samuel: Compilation Stages and Historical Value for Describing David’s Kingdom and His Capital in Jerusalem

10:05 Ehud Netzer- An opus reticulatum Structure, West of the Old City, Jerusalem

10:25 Ram Bouchnick, Omri Larnow, Guy Bar-Oz & Ronny Reich- Jerusalem Fish Menu from
the Late Second Temple Period

10:45 Discussion

10:55 Break

Session 2 – 11:20-13:10

Chair: Joshua Schwartz

11:20 Michael Ben-Ari- Simchat Beit Sho’eva – The Origins of the Custom.

11:40 Varda Sussman- Shaving/paring of Herodian Oil Lamps

12:00 Ze’ev H. Erlich (Jabo) – What is the ‘Kotel ha-Katan?’

12:20 Amos Kloner- The Damascus Gate

12:40 Yoav Farhi & Oded Lifshitz– A Unique Bulla from the Ramat Rahel Excavations Bearing the Name of Hadrian

13:00 Discussion

13:10 Lunch Break

Session 3 – 14:20-16:30

Chair: Josef Drory

14:20 Yehoshua Peleg- Were the Temple Mount Gates Reconstructed in the Second Century CE?

14:40 Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Zweig- A Roman Period Centaur Relief from the Temple Mount

15:00 Perez Reuven- A Decorated Beam from the Roman Period in the Temple Mount

15:20 Bat-Sheva Garsiel- The Status of Jerusalem in Early Islamic Theological Writings

15:40 Michael Ehrlich- The Southern Quarters of Jerusalem during the Medieval Period: A Multi-
Periodical Overview

16:00 Oded Shay- The Contribution Made by the Jerusalem-based Monk Father Antonin, to Jewish
Studies and to the Research of the Material Culture of Palestine in the Final Years of the Ottoman
period

16:20 Discussion

16:30 Break

Session 4 – 17:00-18:30

Chair: Boaz Zissu

17:00 Amos Frumkin & Boaz Lengford- The Research of a Karstic Cave Used for Refuge in the
Jerusalem Hills

17:20 Boaz Zissu & Roi Porat- A Hoard of Coins and Other Finds from the Bar-Kokhba Period,
Recently Discovered in a Refuge Cave in the Jerusalem Hills

17:40 Guy Stiebel– “On the Edge” – Military Equipment from a Refuge Cave in the Jerusalem Hills

18:00 Hanan Eshel- New Discoveries from a Refuge Cave in the Jerusalem Hills, and their
Contribution to the Study of the Bar-Kokhba War

18:20 Discussion

The conference proceedings (app. 300 pp. including 17 articles in Hebrew, with English abstracts)
will be on sale during the conference

For additional information, please contact the Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies (see
email address at bottom of this page) or Avi Faust (email address here).

Previous conference proceedings are available for purchase here.

Tagged Jerusalem, Lectures

Where Did Goliath’s Head Go?

Everyone knows the story of David and Goliath. Many are probably not aware, however, of what happened next. That was the subject of James Hoffmeier’s recent lecture at the Bible and Archaeology Fest. “Exploring David’s Strange Antics after Defeating Goliath” looked specifically at 1 Samuel 17:53-54.

1 Samuel 17:53-54 (ESV) “And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. 54 And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent.”

If these verses are not baffling, remember that David had not yet conquered Jerusalem (he would do that after he became king, in 2 Samuel 5). The other difficulty here is the phrase, “he put his armor in his tent.” Presumably the “he” is David, “his armor” refers to Goliath’s gear, but whose tent is involved? Some think it is the tent of David (see the translation of the NIV), others think it is the home of David (“tent” being used elsewhere of one’s home), and an intriguing suggestion is that it is the tent of Yahweh (but that requires changing the text).

Hoffmeier’s lecture gave a tour of tents in the Ancient Near East, including those of Ramses II and Sennacherib. Kings Thutmose III and Sargon II are recorded as having plundered the tent of their enemies. Hoffmeier suggested that this statement indicates that David took Goliath’s tent and weapons back to Bethlehem.

As for Goliath’s head, did David store it in his refrigerator for a few years until he conquered Jerusalem? Probably not. While some scholars view this statement as an anachronistic error, Hoffmeier has identified a number of ancient scenes where conquerors carried off the heads of the defeated, tying them to their chariots or garden trees. Heads were often displayed as warnings to potential enemies. Perhaps, then, David had it in his mind to conquer the Jebusite stronghold already as a youth, and he took Goliath’s head to serve notice to Jerusalem that they were next.

Ashurbanipal after capture of Babylon, tb112004733ddd

Assyrian relief depicting Ashurbanipal’s army after capture of Babylon, c. 650 BC. Relief now in British Museum. Notice the pile of heads in the upper center. This same king put a hook in Manasseh’s nose and hauled him off to Babylon (2 Chr 33).

I found Hoffmeier’s lecture enjoyable and his ideas provocative. This is a difficult problem, and I find his solution preferable to the alternatives. My comments here are an unofficial record (I may have made a mistake in my note-taking), but you can read some of his findings in his article, “The
Aftermath of David’s Triumph over Goliath,” in Archaeology in the Biblical World, Spring 1991, pp. 18-23.

Hoffmeier is, of course, best known for his work in Egypt, and he has written a couple of excellent books on the subject of historical and archaeological evidence for the Israelites in Egypt:

One on his works on my shelf that I have not yet had time to read is The Archaeology of the Bible, published in 2008.

Tagged Jerusalem, Lectures, Shephelah