2015 ASOR Annual Meeting Presentations [VIDEO]
At theASOR Annual Meeting, several of our members graciously volunteered to have their presentations recorded for ASORtv. Some presenters met with our Digital Media Specialist to read their papers, and some volunteers were recorded in session […]
The Earliest Music in Ancient Egypt
Music is a human universal. But the beginnings of Egyptian music are much earlier […]
Early Jewish Magic
Judaism has a rich tradition of magic going back over two thousand years […]
A Proper Answer: Reflections on Archaeology, Archaeologists and Biblical Historiography
Noted Israeli archaeologist Israel Finkelstein looks back on almost 50 years in the field […]
A Magnificent Manor: Majdal Yābā - A Fortified Ottoman and British Mandate Period Manor House in Central Israel
In the hills to the east of modern Tel Aviv is a site occupied from the Iron Age until 1948 […]
Of Stones and Social Complexity – The Shamir Dolmen Field and the Intermediate Bronze Age
What does it take to move a stone weighing 50 tons […]
Visitors from the Intermediate Bronze Age? Crescent Headed Figures in Negev Rock Art
The Negev is filled with rock art from all periods. But a newly discovered type of figure suggests that visitors from outside the Levant […]
Child Sacrifice in Ancient Israel
Among the many accusations that the prophets of the Hebrew Bible level at their contemporaries, child sacrifice is one of the most egregious […]
Not Just for the Birds: Pigeons in the Roman and Byzantine Near East
Today we mostly think of pigeons as pests. But the thing that make pigeons a problem for us was a valuable resource […]
The Bible as Tool for Learning to Evaluate Competing Voices in an Age of “Fake News”
“Fake news” is a problem besetting modern societies. Can learning to read the Bible carefully help us develop better skills […]
An Affair of Herbal Medicine? The ‘Special’ Kitchen in the Royal Palace of Ebla
Humans have always needed a wide range of medicines, but until recently, there has been little archaeological evidence […]
Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah
Writing the ‘history of Israel’ has traditionally begun with the Biblical texts […]
Fighting Over the Bible: Jewish Interpretation, Sectarianism and Polemic from Temple to Talmud and Beyond
We speak of the Abrahamic faiths sharing the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. But far from unifying Jews, Christians and Muslims, biblical texts divided them […]
The Antikythera Device - A Working Model of the Cosmos
All cultures create models of the cosmos in words and images; the ancient Greeks were the first to make a mechanical working model of the cosmos […]
Revolutionary Biblical Discoveries and the Need for Historical Amnesia
Every few years, the media report new finds of ancient texts that supposedly throw revolutionary new light on the Biblical world and Christian origins. What if very few of these were really new […]
Making Amulets Christian: Artefact, Scribes, and Contexts
What happens to everyday religious practices when there are major cultural and political shifts? Take the example of amulets, incantations written on papyrus, parchment, metal, or other, and the transition to Christianity […]