Sepphoris Temple and More

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.

Steven Fine lecture: Imagining the Temple

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

Dead Sea Scrolls at 60: Conference at NYU

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.

Renfrew on "The Dawn of Civilization"

The Scotsman has an interesting preview of an upcoming lecture by Colin Renfrew.  The article is entitled, "Cemetery Looting Robs Archaeologists of DNA Link to Past," but I think the more interesting discussion is about other subjects.  For instance:

A greater puzzle is why, after Homo sapiens dispersed from Africa about 60,000 years ago, pockets of human culture developed in different ways at different rates. Urban civilisations developed independently in six or seven locations, thousands of years apart, with no contact between the different groups, from Sumerian culture in 4,000BC, to West African in AD1,000.

"It's one of the great unanswered problems of the human story," Lord Renfrew says. "Why did societies working independently in different parts of the world come up with civilisations, including cities, which are in some ways quite similar?

"For a long time, archaeologists assumed there was a diffusion of cultures from one area to another. There was even a theory that everything emerged from ancient Egypt, and wise people from there went over the world and built their pyramids in Mesoamerica. But as we get a much better understanding of the archaeological record, it is clear that there wasn't sailing over great distances until the time of the Conquistadores and early colonists, although the Polynesians did make some amazing voyages in their canoes."

You can read the whole here. The lecture is in Scotland on Monday.

HT: Joe Lauer

New ASOR Session on Judaism and Christianity

Readers may find this of interest:

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We are writing to inform you of a new session being proposed for the 2008 ASOR annual meeting in Boston that will focus on the archaeology of Judaism and Christianity in the Roman and Byzantine periods.  The session chairs are seeking papers that present architectural, art historic, inscriptional, or any type of material discussion of synagogues, churches, necropoleis, and/or their associated communities in either Palestine or the Diaspora.  We are also looking for papers that address material evidence for cultural and religious communication among Jews, Christians, and their neighbors.  Reports on field seasons are also encouraged where relevant.

This new session has not yet been accepted for the 2008 ASOR annual meeting.  Before it is proposed, we would like to demonstrate the interest in such a session to the Program Committee by assembling a list of possible presenters.  If you are interested in submitting an abstract for this session, please notify us before January 31 by emailing werlin@email.unc.edu.  We do not necessarily need abstracts or paper titles by then -- only a stated interest and intent to submit an abstract.

Please feel free to forward this message to colleagues, students, and others who may be interested in taking part in the proposed session.  Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Steve Werlin and Carrie Duncan

Conference: Burials In Jerusalem

This conference has already started (Jan 13-16), but the program (pdf) may be of interest to those not in Jerusalem.  The full title of the conference is "Jewish Views of the After Life and Burial Practices in Second Temple Judaism: Evaluating the Talpiot Tomb in Context."  This is the Third Princeton Symposium on Judaism and Christian Origins, and it looks like James Charlesworth will likely edit a book from the proceedings, similar to his Jesus and Archaeology, which came out of a conference in Jerusalem in 2000.  Presenters or panel participants include Kloner, Vermes, Magnes, Meyers, Gibson, Lemaire, Zias, Tabor, Barkay, Netzer, and many others.

HT: Yehuda News

Netzer Lecture on Herod's Tomb

Ehud Netzer, the archaeologist who discovered Herod's tomb and excavated most of Herod's other sites throughout Israel, is lecturing (in Hebrew) this Thursday at Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem.  The details are:

Lecture: The Discovery of King Herod's Tomb at Herodium (in Hebrew) with Ehud Netzer

Location: HUC/JIR, 13 King David Street

Date: Thursday, Dec 27, 2007 at 5 PM
Website:  http://www.huc.edu/events/07/12/JE.shtml

HT: Joe Lauer

ASOR Annual Meeting Report

Those interested in the goings-on at the ASOR meeting in San Diego should look at the LMLK Blogspot of George Grena. In his first post, he discusses some of the scholars he met and the first session which was on Ramat Rahel. I'm in town for another conference but opted to not to go the ASOR meetings because of the high admissions fee (and the Biblical Archaeology Society conference was even more outrageously priced). You can see the ASOR program schedule here. Other highlights of the day that Grena noted in a posting to the ANE-2 list are:

2) Interesting ruffling of feathers between attendees at Chang-Ho Ji's paper on Khirbat 'Ataruz (Ataroth?) regarding the interpretation of 2 male figures (homosexual deities?) on a cult statue.

3) A heated exchange between the excavators of Beth Shemesh & Yosef Garfinkel & Saar Ganor of the IAA after their consecutive papers. The former pointed out the lack of evidence for an 8th-century earthquake, but suggested that a burnt layer relates to 2Kings 14:11-2; the latter identified Khirbet Qeiyafa as Biblical Azekah.

4) A 6-line ink-inscription ostracon found at Tall Jalul, presented by Randall Younker--note that this was a surprise change from the topic originally planned--you won't find it in the abstracts program book.

5) A strong protest by Aren Maeir following the Zayit Abecedary session.

Wheaton Archaeology Lecture Series

The 52nd Annual Archaeology Lecture Series is underway at Wheaton College, entitled "Ashkelon and the Ports of the Mediterranean." The remaining lectures are:

Wednesday, Oct 31, 6:30pm
Brian Brisco, "The Persian Period at Ashkelon"
Billy Graham Center, Room 140

Wednesday, Nov 7, 6:30pm
Tracy Hoffman, "The Byzantine and Islamic Periods at Ashkelon"
Billy Graham Center, Room 140

Lectures at Oriental Institute

The following lectures are free, open to the public, and held in the Breasted Hall of the University of Chicago, Oriental Institute.  

Wednesday, Nov 7, 7pm-9pm
Allison Thomason, "Banquets, Baubles and Bronzes: Material Comforts in Neo-Assyrian Palaces"

Wednesday, Dec 5, 7pm-9pm
Scott Branting, "Mapping the Past"

Wednesday, Jan 9, 7pm-9pm
Harald Hauptmann, "Neolithic Revolution of the Ancient Near East"

Wednesday, Feb 6, 7pm-9pm
Terry Wilfong, "Anxious Egyptians: Personal Oracles as Indices of Anxieties in the Later Periods"

Wednesday, Mar 5, 7pm-9pm
David Schloen, "Excavations at Zincirli"

Wednesday, Apr 2, 7pm-9pm
Nadine Moeller, "Tell Edfu, Egypt"

Wednesday, May 7, 7pm-9pm
Larry Stager, "Excavating Ashkelon, Sea Port of the Phillistines"

Wednesday, Jun 4, 7pm-9pm
Stuart Tyson Smith, "Death at Tombos: Pyramids, Iron, and the Rise of the Nubian Dynasty"

Lectures in Biblical Archaeology

The American Jewish University (formerly University of Judaism) is hosting the 18th and final series of lectures on biblical archaeology at their Los Angeles campus starting next week.  The lectures are on Monday evenings, beginning at 8:00 p.m., and with a cost of $25 each.  The lecture dates, topics, and speakers are:

October 15
Jerusalem in the Days of David and Solomon: What Do We See in Excavations and What Does It Actually Mean?
Jane M. Cahill

October 22
Archaeology, History and the Patriarchs
Gary Rendsberg

October 29
The Exodus from Egypt and the Conquest of Canaan in Archaeology, Egyptology and the Bible: What Do We Know for Certain?
James K. Hoffmeier

November 12
Death Styles of the Rich and Famous and of the Kings of Israel: An Archaeologist Examines the Evidence and Arguments
Jodi Magness

November 19
Two Temples Stood in Zion: How New Excavations, Old Photographs, Recent Observations and Ancient Texts Enable Us to See the Temples of Solomon and Herod
Leen Ritmeyer

November 26
The First Synagogues and Churches: What Can We Learn from Newly Excavated Sites About the Beliefs, Organization and Origins of Early Christian and Jewish Groups?
Steven Fine

December 3
Cosmos from Chaos: the Creation of Heaven and the Search for Divine Presence in Israelite Religion
Ziony Zevit

This really is an outstanding program and if I didn't have to jump on an airplane to attend, I would go.  If you have limited time or funds, the four that would be of most interest to me are Cahill, Hoffmeier, Magness, and Ritmeyer.  The last three have great books on their subjects which I recommend to all.  (Perhaps they would sign it if you brought it.)  Those books are Hoffmeier, Israel in Egypt ($30); Magness, Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls ($15); Ritmeyer, The Quest ($60).

Barkay Lecturing in U.S.

Dr. Gabriel Barkay is a distinguished archaeologist in Israel whose significant discoveries include the silver amulets from Ketef Hinnom.  His current project is sifting the debris from the Temple Mount.  Barkay is lecturing this month in various places in the U.S.

Feb. 1 New Rochelle, NY—Beth El Synagogue
Feb. 4-7 Dallas, TX—Dallas Theological Seminary
Feb. 5 Fort Worth, TX—Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary 7pm
Feb. 8 Lubbock, TX—Lubbock Christian University, 7 pm
Feb. 9-10 Ashland, OH—Ashland Theological Seminary
Feb. 11 Silver Spring, MD—Jewish Center, 2:00pm
Feb. 12 Wheaton, IL
Feb. 13 Milwaukee, WI
Feb. 14 Madison, WI
Feb. 15-16 Springfield, MO—Missouri State University
Feb. 20 Atlanta, GA—Atlanta Museum, Emory University
Feb. 22 Southern California—UCLA and UC Riverside, 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM
Feb. 27 Nyack, NY—Alliance Theological Seminary, 6:30-9 p.m

If you have never heard Barkay speak, you can see a short sample taken by a student on a recent tour here.  Of course, he's better in person.

HT: Yehuda News

Update (2/10): The entry for Feb 15 was corrected and the lecture for Feb. 27 added.

Lecture Series at Bible Lands Museum

The Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem has a special lecture series running through April 2007. The topic is "The Bible: A View from the 21st Century - Literary Genres," and it is advertised as addressing these questions:

How did ancient Israel's law resemble that of its neighbors? Who was a false prophet? What makes the writing of history in Ancient Israel unique? And more… Join us as leading Bible scholars will analyze the various literary genres of the books of the Bible, their content and their form.

The lecture schedule posted so far is as follows:

November 15, 2006
Lecture I in the Hebrew series “The Bible, A View from the 21st Century – Literary, Genres”:
The Bible – Beginning of the Jewish “Big Bang”
Prof. Yair Zakovitch, Hebrew Univ.
Lecture in Hebrew

November 22, 2006
A Chalcolithic Cemetery in Palmachim: Features of a Peripheral Site in the Center?
Amir Gorzalczany, IAA
Lecture in Hebrew

November 29, 2006
Lecture I in the English series “The Bible, A View from the 21st Century – Literary, Genres”:
The Bible – Beginning of the Jewish “Big Bang”
Prof. Yair Zakovitch, Hebrew Univ.
Lecture in English

December 6, 2006
Lecture II in the Hebrew Series “The Bible, A View from the 21st Century – Literary Genres”:
Teachings and Commandments; Laws and Statutes: Features of Biblical Law
Dr. Baruch Schwartz, Hebrew Univ.
Lecture in Hebrew

December 13, 2006
Antiochus IV and the Levant: the Wider Context of the Macchabean Revolt
Dr. Gerald Finkielsztejn, IAA
Lecture in Hebrew

December 27, 2006
Lecture II in the English Series “The Bible, A View from the 21st Century – Literary Genres”:
Teachings and Commandments; Laws and Statutes: Features of Biblical Law
Dr. Baruch Schwartz, Hebrew Univ.
Lecture in English

January 3, 2007
Lecture III in the Hebrew Series “The Bible, A View from the 21st Century – Literary Genres”:
History Writing in Israel: Scope, Origins, Forms, and View
Prof. Sarah Japhet, Hebrew Univ.
Lecture in Hebrew

The lectures are free with museum entrance.

Archaeology Lecture Series at Wheaton

Here's another archaeology lecture series of interest, this time for those in the Chicago area. This is the 51st annual lecture series of Wheaton College, this year entitled "Greeks in the Holy Land." Note the lecture title by Kletter gives away the "startling new discoveries" that were to be revealed in his lecture in Los Angeles. Kudos to John Monson and the guys at Wheaton for making all of the lectures free! Here are the details:

There is a long history of interaction between the peoples of the Aegean and the Holy Land. This year's lecture series will emphasize the key points of intersection between these cultures and the impact that their interaction had upon the history, culture, and religion of ancient Israelites, Jews, and Christians. The lectures are free to the public and will be on select Tuesday evenings at 6:30 pm in the Billy Graham Center, Room 140.

Tuesday, September 26
David Chapman, Professor of New Testament and Biblical Archaeology, Curator of the W.H. Mare Institute for Biblical and Archaeological Studies, Covenant Theological Seminary
Marriage and family in the Jewish/Greek world

Tuesday, October 3
Assaf Yasur-Landau, Researcher, Institute of Archaeology, Tel-Aviv University
How the Philistines reached the Holy Land

Tuesday, October10
John McRay, Professor of archaeology emeritus, Wheaton College
Archaeology and the life of Paul

Tuesday, October 24
Gene Green, Professor of New Testament, Wheaton College
The Gospel and the Thessalonians in their cultural context

Tuesday, October 31
James Jeffers, Professor and Coordinator of Humanities MA, California State University, Dominguez Hills
Greeks, Romans, and religion in the Holy Land

Tuesday, November 7
Raz Kletter, Excavations and Surveys Department, Israel Antiquities Authority
What to do with a Hundred Cultic Stands--the Finds From Yavneh of the Philistines

Tuesday, Nov 28
Michael Graves, Visiting Professor, Wheaton College
A Roman in Greek Palestine: Jerome and the development of Near Eastern studies

Archaeology Lectures in Southern California

The University of Judaism has announced their fall lecture series on Archaeology and the Bible. This year the series is entitled, "Archaeology and the Bible: New Discoveries, New Methods, New Interpretations, New Insights." As in previous years, the cost to attend individual lectures is $25. Or if you register by October 6, the cost for all is $125. More information is available at the UoJ website. The UoJ campus is in Los Angeles, not far from the Getty Museum off the 405. The scheduled lectures are:

Christopher A. Rollston, "Fakers, Forgers, and Con Artists: How Forged Artifacts and Inscriptions Corrupt Biblical History" (Oct. 23)

Raz Kletter, "Philistine Cult and Religion: The Startling New Discoveries from Yavneh" (Oct. 30)

Tessa Rajak, "Melting Pot or Market Place? Jews, Christians and Pagans in the Cities of the Roman Empire" (Nov. 6)

Eveline van der Steen, "Bedouins and the Bible" (Nov. 13)

Avi Faust, "Biblical Archaeology, the Prophets of Israel and the Poor" (Nov. 20)

William Schniedewind, "The First Scribes in Ancient Israel and the Beginnings of Biblical Literature" (Nov. 27)

Marvin Meyer, "The Recently Published Gospel of Judas, Gnosticism, and the Jewish Connection" (Dec. 4)

Christoph Uehlinger, "Insights from Images: What Do Assyrian Sculptures Tell Us About the History of Religion in Ancient Israel?" (Dec. 11)

I think if my budget or time were limited, my first two choices would be the lectures by Faust and Schniedewind.

Barkay and others lecture in Los Angeles

I've known about this series for sometime because I originally had scheduled Gabriel Barkay for a trip for my class, but that had to be changed because of his LA engagement. In any case, full details of Excavating in Jerusalem and the Mountains Around Her: What the New Excavations Teach Us About the City, the Bible, the People and the Temple are now available from the University of Judaism. There are 7 lectures, with an entrance cost of $25 each. A few years ago I attended some of these lectures and I believe there was a student price at that time. The top three that I would attend if I could:

Gabriel Barkay: What Does Recent Excavation Reveal About the Temple Mount Past and Present?

Beth Alpert Nakhai: An Archaeological View of Biblical Women and Their Families

Thomas Levy: King Solomon’s Mines Revisited: Archaeological Explorations in Edom and What They Mean for Understanding Biblical History

$25 is not cheap, esp. for students, but these are the scholars who have made (or are making) the discoveries. And LA is a shorter drive than Israel.