Daily Life and Practice

Daily Life and Practice

Dove

Jul 12

The Enduring Symbolism of Doves

By: Dorothy Willette

Few symbols have a tradition as long and as rich as the dove. Read about what it represents and how its use has been shared, adapted and reinterpreted across cultures and millennia to suit changing belief systems.

Iberian Stuffed Eggplant in bowl

May 27

Iberian Stuffed Eggplants

By: Jennifer Drummond

The Kitāb al-ṭabīh (“Book of Cooking”) is a 13th-century collection of recipes from the Iberian Peninsula. It is the oldest recipe collection from Spain, specifically […]

An example of animal bones collected from an archaeological context. Photograph by Sasha Flit; courtesy of the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University.

May 21

What Is Zooarchaeology?

By: Deirdre N. Fulton and Lidar Sapir-Hen

What is zooarchaeology? Anyone who works in the field of zooarchaeology has been asked this question on numerous occasions. One of the more memorable queries […]

17th-century bilingual collection of Christian exhortative texts. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Public Domain

May 7

What Is Coptic?

By: Marek Dospěl

Discover the fascinating history of Coptic, the final stage of the indigenous language of Egypt. Learn about its connection to ancient Egyptian and its significance in the Coptic Church.

Mosaic from Pompeii, Italy, depicts a woman from the late first century B.C.E. or early first century C.E. Photo: Dominik Matus/CC by SA-4.0.

May 1

5 Ways Women Participated in the Early Church

By: Megan Sauter

What was life like for women in the Christian Church during the first century C.E.? When the books of the New Testament were being written, […]

Alabaster vessel of King Pepi I (2276–2228 BCE). The Walters Art Museum, Public Domain.

Apr 30

What Is Ancient Egyptian?

By: Marek Dospěl

The Egyptian language is the sole representative of an autonomous branch of the Afro-Asiatic (formerly Semito-Hamitic) language family. As such, Egyptian is related to both […]

Delphi Oracle

Apr 29

The Oracle of Delphi—Was She Really Stoned?

By: Jelle Zeilinga de Boer and John R. Hale

According to Strabo and other sources, the Pythia who gave prophecies on behalf of Apollo was inspired by mysterious vapors. Is there evidence that intoxicating gases actually drifted through the Temple of Apollo at Delphi?

Apr 15

Fruit in the Bible

By: David Moster

Seeds and fruit remains are exciting discoveries for archaeologists, and they provide radiocarbon data to help date buried strata. Fruit also plays an important role in the Biblical narrative.

A stone relief created in 1958 by sculptor Ferdinand Heseding. The relief, which appears on a fountain in Dusseldorf, Germany, depicts the Biblical spies Joshua and Caleb carrying a cluster of grapes back from the Promised Land (Numbers 13:1-33)

Mar 20

No, No, Bad Dog: Dogs in the Bible

By: Ellen White

Dogs—or celeb in Hebrew—were not well loved in the Bible. Given the negative associations with dogs, it is surprising that one of the great Hebrew spies bears this name.

mt-gerizim

Mar 1

The Samaritan Schism

By: Lawrence H. Schiffman

In part two of his study on schisms in Jewish history, Lawrence H. Schiffman examines the Samaritan schism.

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