Lauren McCormick, Author at Biblical Archaeology Society

Lauren McCormick Latest

Neutral-colored Iron Age steatite scarab seal found at Nuraghe Ruinas in Sardinia, Italy.

Feb 16

Phoenician Scarab Discovered in Sardinia

A small object with a big story has emerged from the excavations at Nuraghe Ruinas in Sardinia, Italy. The Superintendency of Archaeology for the Sassari […]

Birds eye view of excavated Temple of Ishtar at Assur. Courtesy Mark Altaweel et al., “The Sand Deposit Underneath the Ishtar Temple in Assur, Iraq,” Journal of Archaeological Science (2026), CC-BY 4.0.

Feb 13

The Sands of Time

By: Lauren K. McCormick

A recent study of the Ishtar temple at Assur has identified an unusual feature beneath the temple’s earliest floor: a thick layer of prepared sand. […]

Relief detail of panel from Nineveh. Greyish brown scene of oxen dragging a cart with people in it

Feb 9

An Ode to Oxen

By: Lauren K. McCormick

Why are cattle such a big deal in the Hebrew Bible? Imagine your car, your savings account, and your power grid were all the same […]

bronze coin bearing an amphora in shades or dark brown and black

Feb 6

“Render Unto Caesar” and the First Jewish Revolt

By: Lauren K. McCormick

Two coins from the First Jewish Revolt (66–74 CE) have been found among the numismatic material excavated at Carchemish. Located on the Euphrates River in […]

Feb 2

Sinai Before Sinai

By: Lauren K. McCormick

A recently discovered rock inscription from Wadi Khamila in the southwestern Sinai Peninsula offers a vivid glimpse into a world that predates the Exodus tradition […]

Exposed foundations of Vitruvius’s basilica at the site of ancient Fanum Fortunae along Italy’s Adriatic coast. Courtesy Italian Ministry of Culture

Jan 30

Vitruvius and the Built World of the New Testament

By: Lauren K. McCormick

When we read the New Testament, we often focus on the words spoken and the people involved—Jesus, Pilate, Paul, crowds. Yet these texts unfold within […]

3D model of one of the cylinders found at Tell al-Uhaimir in southern Iraq. Courtesy Ahmed Ali Jiwad and Hussein Fleih Al-Ammari, “Two Inscribed Cylinders of Nebuchadnezzar II from the Ziggurat of Kish,” IRAQ (2025), CC-BY 4.0

Jan 26

Babylonian Texts Complicate Bible’s Image of Nebuchadnezzar

By: Lauren K. McCormick

In biblical memory, Nebuchadnezzar II (604–562 BCE) looms large as an agent of catastrophe. He appears across multiple biblical books—2 Kings and 2 Chronicles, Jeremiah, […]

A collection of cornet vessels from the Chalcolithic period. Photo by Sharon Zuhovitsky, courtesy of the Pontifical Biblical Institute

Jan 23

Israel’s Long History of Ritual Light

By: Lauren K. McCormick

Archaeology rarely hands us clear answers. More often, it provides puzzles that resist easy explanation yet feel charged with meaning. Chalcolithic “cornets” found in the […]

Jan 16

Byzantine Monastery Unearthed in Egypt

By: Lauren K. McCormick

In the biblical imagination, the desert is never empty. It is a charged landscape: dangerous and barren, yet paradoxically fertile with spiritual possibility. The Israelites […]

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