Mar 29
By: Marek Dospěl
One of the most treasured artifacts in the collections of the Coptic Museum in Cairo, the so-called Pillow Psalter, is back on display. Dating to […]
Mar 12
By: BAS Staff
A newly published inscription from Tel Lachish in southern Israel is the earliest alphabetic writing discovered in the southern Levant. The fragmentary inscription features a mere handful of letters inscribed on a tiny pottery sherd, measuring just 4 by 3.5 cm. The sherd is dated by radiocarbon to the 15th century B.C.E., or the first part of the Late Bronze Age.
Mar 7
By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff
“Yahweh and his Asherah” is written across the top of this eighth-century B.C. drawing on a ceramic pithos from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud in the eastern Sinai. Some scholars have theorized that these figures resembling the Egyptian god Bes are in fact a drawing of God and his consort.
Mar 5
By: Jonathan Klawans
Followers of this blog may have heard that the 19th-century Shapira Affair[1] has resurfaced again. In March, 2021, a biblical scholar at the University of […]
Mar 3
By: Robin Ngo
For the first time, the royal seal of King Hezekiah in the Bible has been found in an archaeological excavation.
Feb 22
By: Robin Ngo
In 1979, archaeologist Gabriel Barkay discovered two miniature silver scrolls from a late Iron Age (seventh century B.C.E.) tomb in Ketef Hinnom outside of Jerusalem. When unrolled, the scrolls had tiny texts written on them—similar to the priestly blessing in Numbers 6:24–26.
Feb 15
By: Noah Wiener
A recently translated Old Babylonian flood tablet describes how to build a circular ark.
Feb 14
By: John Drummond
“The Woman at the Window” is an intriguing artistic motif that was popular among the elite of the ancient Near East during the Iron Age […]
Feb 4
By: BAS Staff
A recent computer analysis of handwriting from the Great Isaiah Scroll—one of the longest and best preserved of the Dead Sea Scrolls—found the 54-column text was produced by two different scribes who apparently worked in shifts to complete the task.
Feb 1
By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff
From Solomon’s Temple to the Jesus Boat, the Biblical world was built of cedar.