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 14th Annual Conference of The Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies

“NEW STUDIES ON JERUSALEM”

Thursday, November 13, 2008

8:20 gathering

8:45 opening remarks:

Prof. M. Orfali, Dean of the Faculty of Jewish Studies, Bar-Ilan University

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

Prof. A Faust & Dr. E. Baruch, conference organizers

Session 1 – 9:00- 10:30

Chair: Aaron Demsky


Eilat Mazar
The Stepped Stone Structure in the City of David in Light of the New Excavations in Area G


Moshe Garsiel
The Elah Valley’s Battle, the Duel of David’s and Goliath and Why Goliath’s Head and Weapons End
Up in Jerusalem


Avraham Faust
Sennacherib’s Campaign to the Judean Highlands and Jerusalem: A New Perspective


Tsvika Tsuk
“And Brought the Water to the City” (2 Kings 20, 20): Water Consumption in Jerusalem in the
Biblical Period

Discussion

Break

Special Discussion- 10:50-11:40


Shlomo Bunimovits & Avraham Faust
The Archaeology of the Biblical Period in the Twenty-First Century: Towards a New Dialogue
between Archaeology and the Bible

Discussion

Break

Session 2 – 12:00- 13:50

Chair: Ben-Zion Rozenfeld


Joseph Patrich
On the Chamber Called House of Stone (beth even), Which was Facing the Northeast Corner of the
Temple Building (birah) (Mishnah, Parah 3:1)


Michael Ben-Ari
Recollections of the Temple: Between Yavne and Lod and Between the Ideal and the Real


Ehud Netzer
How to Handle the Different Reconstructions of the Temple and its Surrounding Courts


Joshua Schwartz
The Temple Cult Without the Sages: Prolegomena on the Description of the Second Temple Period
Cult according to Sources of the Second Temple Period


Yehoshua Peleg
The Pre-Herodian Sanctified Temple Area and Outer Court.

Discussion

Lunch Break

Session 3 – 14:50-17:00

Chair: Hanan Eshel


Eyal Baruch
The Palatial Mansion in Jerusalem: Class and Ideology


Yuval Shahar
The Concept of the Temple Mount in the Second Temple Period


Ram Bouchnick, Nimrod Marom & Guy Bar-Oz
“Rams from Moab and Ewes from Hebron”: Herd Maintenance Strategies in the Late Second Temple
Period in Jerusalem


Zachi Zweig
New Information from Various Temple Mount Excavations from the Last Hundred Years


Yair Talmor
Between the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Nea Church – The Religious Space of Byzantine
Jerusalem

Discussion

Break

Session 4 – 17:20- 19:10

Chair: Yvonne Friedman


Peretz Reuven 
“A Female Slave from the Harem Who Became the Mother of the Caliph”: a Suggestion to Connect
an Unknown inscription from the Al-Aqsa Mosque to the Mother of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadir.”


Nissim Dana 
The Prophet Mohammad’s Night Ascent to Heaven: A Review of the Passage in the Qur’an and in
Other Islamic Sources


Shelomo Lotan
The Symbolism of Jerusalem and the House of King David in the Teutonic Military Order Medieval
Heritage


Josef Drory
The Contribution of Franciscan Documents for Esteem of the Local Minorities’ Rights in Mamluk
Jerusalem


Oded Shay
The Beginning of Historical Documentation and Modern Archives of the General Population in
Jerusalem at the End of the Ottoman Period

Discussion

The conference proceedings (app. 400 pp. including 2 articles in English and 20 articles in Hebrew,
with English abstracts) will be on sale during the conference.

HT: Joe Lauer

The first one has passed, but Wheaton College has many more in their fall lecture series entitled, “From Migdol to Aswan: Geoarchaeology in Egypt and Sinai.”  I don’t see it stated explicitly on the website, but in previous years the lectures were open to the public, free of charge.  For locations and other information, see their website.

Monday, October 6, 7:00 PM


The Application of Satellite Imagery to Archaeological Research
Sarah Parcak, University of Alabama-Birmingham


Mining Operations in Sinai in Pharaonic Times Greg Mumford, University of Alabama-Birmingham

Monday, November 3, 7:00 PM


“Moses Slept Here:” A Critical Review of Popular Exodus Theories James K. Hoffmeier, Trinity International University
Stephen O. Moshier, Wheaton College

Monday, November 10, 7:00 PM


Some Applications of Geologic Science in Ancient Egyptian Archaeology James A. Harrell, University of Toledo

Monday, November 17, 7:00 PM
New Insights into the Geography of the Exodus: Reports from Excavations in the Eastern Delta and Northwest Sinai James K. Hoffmeier, Trinity International University
Stephen O. Moshier, Wheaton College

Monday, December 1, 7:00 PM


Paleolithic Occupation of the Sinai Jim Phillips, Field Museum of Natural History

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is running a Distinguished Lecture Series in conjunction with its exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

The list includes:

The Dead Sea Scrolls: Controversies and Theories of Early Judaism and Christianity
Eric Meyers

Wednesday, October 1

Women in the Dead Sea Scrolls and at Qumran
Sidnie White Crawford

Thursday, October 16

The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Jodi Magness

Thursday, October 30

The Biblical Dead Sea Scrolls
Emanuel Tov

Thursday, November 20

The Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Christianity
Bart Ehrman

Wednesday, December 10

For more information, see the details hereTickets are $25.  For the subject of the Dead Sea Scrolls,
you really cannot beat this line-up of speakers and topics.

HT: Joe Lauer

A Roman temple from the 2nd century A.D. has been excavated at Sepphoris.  The temple was about 40 by 80 feet (12 x 24 m) and its facade faced the decumanus, the main east-west street of the city.  A church was later built over the temple.  The story is reported by ScienceDaily, Physorg, and the Jerusalem Post.  The first two links each have a photo.

Zondervan Academic has a new blog and they have, among other things, links to the online programs for the national meetings of AAR, ETS, and SBL.  I also liked John Walton’s post on bad things people do in teaching children the Bible

The JPost has a short article about “Genesis Land,” a tourist site that recreates patriarchal life midway between Jerusalem and Jericho.

Some people know General Charles Gordon because of his work in China and Sudan, and others for his popularization of “Gordon’s Calvary” or the Garden Tomb.  NPR has a five-part series on China and Sudan, in which Gordon’s influence is discussed in part one.

History Talk:

In conjunction with the exhibit

Imagining the Temple:

The Models of Leen Ritmeyer

Steven Fine on

IMAGINING THE TEMPLE

Sunday, March 30, 2008

2 pm

Ever since the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, Jews and, later, Christians, have tried to picture what the Jerusalem Temple looked like. During the 20th century, this imagining often resulted in three-dimensional models of the Temple. In this talk, Steven Fine, professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University, sets the Ritmeyer models within the contexts of Jewish and Christian conceptions of the Jerusalem Temple. 

Free with Museum admission.

Yeshiva University Museum

15 West 16th Street

New York, NY 10011

HT: Joe Lauer

The Ranieri Colloquium on Ancient Studies

The Dead Sea Scrolls at 60:

The Scholarly Contributions of NYU Faculty and Alumni

Co-sponsored by the New York University Center for Ancient Studies and
the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies

March 6-7, 2008

Hemmerdinger Hall, Room 102
Silver Center, 100 Washington Square East

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Matthew S. Santirocco (Dean, College of Arts and Science, New York University) – Welcome


10:00a.m. – Session One: Rewriting the Bible

Erik Larson (Florida International University) – On The Identification of Two Greek Texts of Enoch

Mark Smith (New York University) – “In-between Texts”: Biblical Texts, Inner-Biblical
Interpretation, Second Temple Literature, and Textual Criticism

Moshe Bernstein (Yeshiva University, New York University) – The Dead Sea Scrolls and Jewish
Biblical Interpretation in Antiquity


12:00 Noon – Lunch


1:30p.m. – Session Two: The Dead Sea Sect

Gary Rendsburg (Rutgers University) – Language at Qumran

Shani (Berrin) Tzoref (Hebrew University, University of Sydney) – The Pesharim and the Pentateuch:
Explicit Citations, Overt Typologies, and Implicit Interpretation

Alexei Sivertsev (DePaul University) – Sectarians and Householders


4:00p.m. – Keynote Address

Lawrence H. Schiffman (New York University) – The Dead Sea Scrolls and the History of Judaism
and Christianity

6:00p.m. – Reception

Friday, March 7, 2008


9:00a.m. – Session Three: The Scrolls and Second Temple Judaism

Alex Jassen (University of Minesota) – The Contribution of the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Study of
Prophecy in Ancient Judaism

Yaakov Elman (Yeshiva University) – Zoroastrianism and the Dead Sea Scrolls

Joseph Angel (Yeshiva University) – The Historical and Exegetical Roots of Eschatological
Priesthood at Qumran

11:00a.m. – Session Four: Judean Desert Texts

Judah Lefkovits (Independent Scholar) – The Copper Scroll (3Q15): A Reconsideration

Baruch Levine (New York University) – Judean Desert Documents of the Bar Kokhba Period:
Epistolary and Legal

Andrew Gross (University of Pittsburgh) – The Judean Desert Formulary: A Case Study in the
Continuity and Innovation of Ancient Near Eastern Traditions

The school’s announcement is here.

HT: Joe Lauer, who says that the event is free and open to the public.  You can confirm attendance
with Shayne Leslie Figueroa at shayne dot figueroa at nyu dot edu.