The Ancient Near Eastern World
Mar 6
Blue Threads of the Bronze Age
Textiles play an important role in the world of the Bible. From the finely crafted garments described in the book of Exodus to the special […]
Mar 2
Unlocking the Secrets of Egyptian Mummification
Few things captivate the imagination like Egyptian mummies. Their intricate wrappings and lifelike preservation carry both religious significance and enduring mystery. A recent study focuses […]
Mar 2
The Evolution of Biblical Archaeology
By: BAS Staff
What is biblical archaeology? The answer to this question has changed considerably over the 100-plus years since the discipline first emerged in the early 20th […]
Feb 24
Akhenaten and Moses
By: Robin Ngo
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 this influence the birth of Israelite monotheism?
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 […]
Feb 13
The Sands of Time
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. […]
Feb 10
Solving the Enigma of Petra and the Nabataeans
By: Glenn J. Corbett
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?
Feb 4
Vanilla-Spiced Afterlife at Canaanite Megiddo
By: Vanessa Linares
For centuries, the earliest documented exploitation of domesticated vanilla was known from the Aztecs, who cultivated the flat-leafed species (Vanilla planifolia) in central Mexico around […]
Jan 26
Babylonian Texts Complicate Bible’s Image of Nebuchadnezzar
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, […]
Jan 20
Asherah and the Asherim: Goddess or Cult Symbol?
By: Ellen White
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 difficult to distinguish what meaning is intended.
