With a commercial empire that lasted a millennium, the Phoenicians were major players in the ancient Mediterranean world. Spreading their culture and goods, they came into contact with many different Read more…
The Ancient Near Eastern World
The Biblical world existed in a wider context of the ancient Near East and interacted with Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greco-Roman and other contemporaries. See how these other cultures influenced the region through alliances, migrations, trade, material culture and cultural perspectives.
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Who Were the Phoenicians?
• 07/08/2018
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The Last Days of Hattusa
• 07/03/2018
In the latter part of the second millennium B.C., the Hittite empire was a Near Eastern superpower. Its capital, Hattusa, was a great city of palaces and temples surrounded by Read more…
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Carchemish in the Bible and History
• 06/21/2018
Carchemish was an important Hittite fortress and provincial capital located on the west bank of the Euphrates River. Read more…
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Who Were the Hittites?
• 06/21/2018
Archaeology tells us a lot about the Hittites—and the Neo-Hittites too. But it’s hard to reconcile this with the Hittites of the Bible. Read more…
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The Philistine Marketplace at Ashkelon
• 06/20/2018
In “Buy Low, Sell High: The Marketplace at Ashkelon” in the January/February 2014 issue of BAR, Daniel Master and Lawrence Stager examine what was traded and by whom in Philistine Read more…
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The Animals Went in Two by Two, According to Babylonian Ark Tablet
• 06/18/2018
A recently translated Old Babylonian flood tablet describes how to build a circular ark.
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The Athenian Acropolis
• 06/07/2018
Prior to its destruction by the Persians in 490 B.C.E. and again in 480–479 B.C.E., the Acropolis was a sacred precinct with a temple to Athens’s tutelary goddess, Athena. The Read more…
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‘Abdiel: Egyptian Vizier and “Servant of the God El”
• 06/04/2018
Could a vizier with a Semitic name from ancient Egypt illuminate the story of Joseph in the Bible? Read more…
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Asherah and the Asherim: Goddess or Cult Symbol?
• 06/03/2018
Who is Asherah? What is asherah? The reference may be to a particular goddess, a class of goddess or a cult symbol used to represent the goddess. It is sometimes Read more…
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Israelite Psalms in an Egyptian Papyrus?
• 06/01/2018
Karel van der Toorn contends that three Israelite psalms appear in Papyrus Amherst 63—although only one is attested in the Bible. Read more…
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Did Pharaoh Sheshonq Attack Jerusalem?
• 05/29/2018
Israeli scholar Yigal Levin’s article “Did Pharaoh Sheshonq Attack Jerusalem” in the July/August 2012 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review examines the historical veracity of both the Egyptian Pharaoh’s account and Read more…
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Israelite Kings Depicted in Ancient Art?
• 05/24/2018
Has archaeology uncovered portraits of two Israelite kings? One contender is on the famous Black Obelisk from Nimurd/Calah, but scholars differ about the identification. Another more recent candidate for an Read more…
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Joseph and Esarhaddon of Assyria
• 05/20/2018
Even though he was not the oldest of his brothers, Esarhaddon was named heir apparent of his father Sennacherib, ruler of the Assyrian empire. But because of his jealous brothers, Read more…
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Solving the Enigma of Petra and the Nabataeans
• 05/19/2018
Who were the Nabataeans, the industrious Arab people who built the city of Petra and its towering rock-cut monuments over 2,000 years ago? Almost everything about them—their history, their culture, Read more…
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Akhenaten and Moses
• 05/14/2018
Pharaoh Akhenaten, who abolished the Egyptian pantheon and instituted worship of a single deity, the sun-disk Aten, in the mid-14th century B.C., may have established the world’s first monotheism. Did Read more…
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Thonis—A Major Egyptian Port Swallowed by the Sea
• 05/13/2018
At the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea off the Egyptian coast lies the spectacular port city of Thonis. Read more…
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Third Scan Searches for Queen Nefertiti’s Tomb
• 05/11/2018
A research team conducted the third investigation into whether Queen Nefertiti’s tomb is located on the other side of King Tut’s burial chamber. Read more…
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Who Were the Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites in the Bible?
• 05/10/2018
During the Iron Age, when Israel and Judah ruled Canaan, the kingdoms of Ammon, Moab and Edom ruled east of the Jordan River. They and their gods are featured in Read more…
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Epilepsy, Tutankhamun and Monotheism
• 05/06/2018
Tutankhamun died at a young age with a feminine physique. His closest relatives all shared similar features and fates. Imperial College London surgeon Hutan Ashrafian suggests that the royal family Read more…
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What Is Coptic and Who Were the Copts in Ancient Egypt?
• 04/19/2018
When did the ancient Egyptians stop writing in hieroglyphs, and what came next? From the fourth to ninth centuries C.E., Egypt was predominantly Christian. During this time, the language used Read more…
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The Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela
• 04/14/2018
With 11 rock-hewn churches, Lalibela, Ethiopia, is understandably a place of pilgrimage for those in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Explore Lalibela’s spectacular subterranean churches in this web-exclusive slideshow. Read more…
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Early Bronze Age: Megiddo’s Great Temple and the Birth of Urban Culture in the Levant
• 04/08/2018
Megiddo’s Great Temple is a structure that, according to its excavators, “has proven to be the most monumental single edifice so far uncovered in the EB I Levant and ranks Read more…
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Jewish Captives in the Imperial City
• 04/05/2018
Ancient Rome was the superpower of its day. Yet, when the Romans conquered the tiny province of Judea and quashed the First Jewish Revolt in 70 C.E., it was actually Read more…
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Bronze Age Collapse: Pollen Study Highlights Late Bronze Age Drought
• 04/03/2018
What caused the Bronze Age collapse? A recent study of pollen grains in sediment cores beneath the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea provides a new view of the Read more…
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Exodus in the Bible and the Egyptian Plagues
• 03/11/2018
The Book of Exodus describes ten Egyptian plagues that bring suffering to the land of pharaoh. Are these Biblical plagues plausible on any level? Read more…
