The Generative Power of The Always-Yet-Never-Here Apocalypse
The funny thing about the apocalypse is that it has never happened, and yet it is always in our face and right around the corner. […]
4 Ways You Can Help Cultural Heritage
Cultural heritage is the closest thing we have to time travel. You can use cultural heritage to connect with past generations and with someone who you’ll never be able to meet. If this damage continues unchecked, we will lose more than just […]
Archaeology Weekly Roundup! 2-21-14
If you missed anything from the ASOR Facebook or Twitter pages this week, don’t worry. We’ve rounded up some of this week’s archaeology news into one convenient post. If we missed any major archaeological stories from this week, feel free to let us know in the comment section! [list type=”icons-book”] A linguistics professor claims he’s decoded 10 words […]
The Big Dig Video Roundup
Sites and Finds Deep Time at Tall Hisban, Jordan In Focus: Abel Beth Maacah Bethsaida, Israel—Take a Tour of Current Excavations Illustrated lectures Everyday Life from the Archaeological Record: Prof. Aren Maeir Sarah Parcak: Archeology from space Ashkelon: Seaport of the Philistines, Lecture by Lawrence Stager You can find more videos on the Friends of […]
Sustainability at Any Price is not Sustainable: Open Access and Archaeology
By: Eric Kansa, UC Berkeley This blog post looks at the open access debate, and notes how sustainability is as much of an ideological and political question as it is a financial issue. It is intended to follow up on previous blog posts (first, second, third) that discuss how the Aaron Swartz prosecution […]
Ethics, Archaeology, and Open Access
By: Eric Kansa The issue of open access to scholarly works recently gained renewed attention following the tragic suicide of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist charged with felony computer and intellectual property crimes involving the mass download of articles from JSTOR. ASOR uses JSTOR as a repository for the Bulletin of the American Schools of […]
“Jonah” Ossuary Discussed in Print in 1981
By Eric M. Meyers and Christopher Rollston, ASOR Blog Guest Editors for MarchIt has come to the attention of the ASOR Blog that a newspaper article about the so-called “Patio Tomb” in East Talpiyot was published in Hebrew in DAVAR on May 22 (this tomb has also been called “Talpiyot Tomb B”). […]
PHILOLOGY, ‘MARA,’ AND THE ‘JESUS DISCOVERY’ BOOK AND DOCUMENTARY
By Dr. Christopher A. Rollston, Toyozo Nakarai Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages, Emmanuel Christian Seminary, Tennessee INTRODUCTION[1] Recently I have posted on the blog of the American Schools of Oriental Research my readings, and some plausible renderings into English, of the four-line (fourteen letter) Greek inscription from Talpiyot, along with images visually demonstrating that […]
A Response to Chris Rollston’s Reading of the Ossuary from Talpiot Tomb B
EnglishEnglishFrenchPowered by TranslateBy: H. Gregory Snyder, Professor of Religion, Davidson College Back in October, James Tabor invited me to join in a conversation that was underway between himself, Richard Bauckham, and Jim Charlesworth. Tabor submitted eleven photos of the ossuary bearing the four-line inscription for our inspection, and all of us engaged in a lengthy debate […]
THE FOUR-LINE GREEK INSCRIPTION FROM A TALPIYOT TOMB: EPIGRAPHIC NOTES AND HISTORICAL DISCUSSIONS
Christopher A. Rollston, Toyozo Nakarai Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages, Emmanuel Christian Seminary Introduction The publication of a four-line Greek inscription from a tomb in East Talpiyot (Jerusalem) has generated substantial interest, especially because of the dramatic claims surrounding it (Tabor and Jacobovici). James Tabor has argued that this inscription reads as […]
SOME CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT THE ICTHYOMORPHIC DRAWING ON OSSUARY 6:3 FROM EAST TALPIOT TOMB (TALPIOT B OR “PATIO” TOMB), IN JERUSALEM
Juan V. Fernández de la Gala, Forensic Anthropologist and Zooarchaeologist, Associate Professor of History of Medicine, Universidad de Cádiz, Spain, SUMMARY: Professor Tabor’s team has recently explored a first century Jewish tomb found in Jerusalem. One of the ossuaries showed a nicely carved icthyomorphic design on its front façade that Professor Tabor interpreted as […]
The Four-Line Ossuary Inscription from Talpiyot Tomb B – an Interpretation
Richard Bauckham, Preamble: I should first explain that in the autumn ofI took part in a lengthy email correspondence about this inscription with James Tabor, Greg Snyder and Jim Charlesworth. It was a profitable conversation in which we made real progress in both reading and interpreting the inscription, though we certainly did […]
The Talpiot Tomb and the Beatles
EnglishEnglishFrenchPowered by TranslateBy: Mark Goodacre, Dept of Religion, Duke University The current discussion of Talpiot Tomb B, the “patio tomb”, has largely centered on the interpretation of the picture on one of the ossuaries. But Tabor’s and Jacobovici’s argument that this tomb is linked with Jesus and his disciples is related to their earlier claims […]
A Reply from Prof. Tabor—A Jonah Fish Image or a Tower Tomb Monument?
James D. Tabor, University of North Carolina at Charlotte I want to thank ASOR’s executive director Andy Vaughn, guest editors Eric Meyers and Christopher Rollston, and participating colleagues, for devoting time and space to a special consideration of the ideas expressed in the non-specialist book, The Jesus Discovery as well as the more technical paper […]
Prof. Robin Jensen Refutes Any Claim that She Concurs with the Interpretation in “The Jesus Discovery”
From Prof. Robin Jensen, Vanderbilt University In December, I was asked to participate in a National Geographic film project that—I was led to believe—would investigate the image of Jonah in early Christian art. I was asked to fly to Rome in January in order to be filmed in the catacombs and comment on the […]
On ‘Absalom’s Tomb’ in Jerusalem and Nephesh Monument Iconography: A Response to Jacobovici and Tabor by Robert Cargill
By: Robert R. Cargill Assistant Professor of Classics and Religious Studies, The University of Iowa
Reflections of an Epigrapher on Talpiyot Tombs A and B: A Detailed Response to the Claims of Professor James Tabor and Filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici
Professor Christopher A. Rollston Professor of Semitic Studies, Emmanuel Christian Seminary I. THE CLAIMS OF TABOR AND JACOBOVICI: THE NEW BOOK[1] Here are the basic claims of James Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici: “Talpiyot Tomb B contained several ossuaries, or bone boxes, two of which were carved with an iconic image and a Greek inscription. Taken […]
Brief Reflections of an Epigrapher on Talpiyot Tombs A and B
Professor Christopher A. Rollston, Emmanuel Christian Seminary Much can, and no doubt will, be said about the proposal (and new volume) of Professor James Tabor and Filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici that Jesus of Nazareth was married to a woman of Magdala named Mary, that they had a son named “Judas” and that their tomb has been […]
Archaeology, Bible, Politics and the Media: Duke “Office Hours” with Professors Carol and Eric Meyers
Drawing on their decades of experience on archaeological digs in Israel, Duke University Professors Carol and Eric Meyers take questions from online viewers about the charged combination of archaeology, the Bible, politics and the news media, during an “Office Hours” conversation September 1.
Archaeology in the News
Here are some links to recent news from the world of Archaeology! It looks like the artifacts in the Cairo museum are now being protected, but not all of them. Â Here is an interesting YouTube video of the looting at the Cairo museum. Â Other sites around Egypt need protecting as well. The preservation of […]