James Strange
James R. Strange is the Charles Jackson Granade and Elizabeth Donald Granade Professor in New Testament at Samford University, where he teaches courses in New Testament, ancient Greco-Roman religions, and archaeology. He is the director of the Shikhin Excavation Project in Israel and has published extensively on the history and archaeology of Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity, including his most recent book, Excavating the Land of Jesus: How Archaeologists Study the People of the Gospels (Eerdmans, 2023).
Presenter at
Spring Bible & Archaeology Fest 2023
Actual and Experimental Archaeology: Lamp Manufacturing in the Galilee?
Since excavations began at the site of Shikhin in 2012, evidence of lamp manufacturing has been turning up in every dig season. Evidence indicates that Shikhin’s industry produced and regionally distributed three well-known lamp forms: the Herodian knife-pared lamp, the northern undecorated lamp, and the northern Darom lamp. The fluorite of the industry happened between the ends to two wars with Rome: 70 and 135 CE. During the 2022 season, Yeshu Dray of Restoration of Ancient Technology built a reproduction of a small kiln excavated at Shikhin and successfully fired reproduction northern Darom lamps. The presentation will cover the discovery and technology of lamp production and their economic implications in the region.
