ASOR Strategic Planning-2020
For the past five years, ASOR has been well guided by the Strategic Plan adopted by its Board of Trustees in April. Indeed, ASOR has achieved many of the goals identified in the Strategic Plan, especially with respect […]
Who’s the Fairest of them all? Feminine Beauty in the Hebrew Bible and Iron Age Ivory Sculpture
From fairy tales to fashion magazines, notions of feminine beauty pervade the world we live in. But what does the Hebrew Bible have to say about this topic? And how might […]
Experiencing Ancient Mesopotamian Music and Cuisine for the First Time
When I heard that the Harvard Semitic Museum was hosting an event on ancient Mesopotamian music and cuisine, I was all in. Not only would I get to learn about the past, I’d get to try new food and listen to[…]
Excavating the Albright Institute’s Attic
Many ASOR members who excavate in Israel use the Albright Institute’s attic for storage—it’s a convenient place to keep ceramics and other excavation materials, as well as summer dig clothes. It’s just like any other attic. But it is also a kind of archaeological […]
Music in Ancient Mesopotamia
We have a wealth of sources from ancient Mesopotamia: archeological, iconographical, and, most significantly, textual. Hundreds of thousands of cuneiform tablets in collections around the world shed light on the everyday […]
Blast from the Past - Photo Submissions
We at ASOR want to see how things have changed — or stayed the same. In the new Blast from the Past blog feature, we’ll post photo submissions of our members throughout the years. ~~~ All content provided on this blog is for informational purposes only. The American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) makes no […]
Did Jesus Speak Greek?
Did Jesus and his disciples speak and teach in Greek? What languages were spoken in first century Palestine? If so, does the New Testament preserve their actual communications? These questions have generated rich debate through the years. It has been the general consensus […]
The Jehoash Affair: A Personal Recollection
Perhaps naively, I was very surprised that there was so much politics injected into what I believed was a strictly scientific study. I was then made aware of what Amnon termed “minimalists,” who argue that biblical histories […]
Introducing the Manar al-Athar Open Access Photo Archive
The Manar al-Athar photo-archive’s ca. 3,000 photographs of floor mosaics show how classical imagery and motifs were re-purposed in Christian and Jewish buildings, such as the Roman wolf with Romulus and Remus […]
King David Slept Here
For one thing, the archaeological search for David, and for the United Monarchy under him and his son Solomon, seems to assume that tangible proof – like the letter the dog dug up – exists, just waiting to be found. It appears to underlie claims of the discovery of buildings like David’s palaces in […]
Special Feature: Syria Destruction Update
News accounts and propaganda videos continue to report ISIL’s destruction of archaeological sites in Syria, and the ongoing devastation caused by the civil war. ANE Today is sad to present a series of the most recent links discussing these situations. […]