epigraphers

epigraphers Latest

Oct 8 Blog

Precursor to Paleo-Hebrew Script Discovered in Jerusalem

Alan Millard examines the Proto-Canaanite script of the earliest alphabetic text ever found in Jerusalem. What can it tell us about literacy during the time of David and Solomon?

Feb 13 Blog

A First Temple Period Palatial Estate Near Jerusalem?

By: Samuel Pfister

Archaeologists excavating at Ein Hanniya outside of Jerusalem unearthed seventh-century B.C.E. finds that suggest the presence of a palace in the First Temple period.

Sep 23 Blog

Qumran Phylacteries Reveal Nine New Dead Sea Scrolls

By: Noah Wiener

Nine small Dead Sea Scroll fragments were discovered in ancient phylacteries, or tefillin.

Sep 23 Blog

The Cave of Elijah the Prophet under Threat?

By: Henry Curtis Pelgrift

The Cave of Elijah the Prophet in Israel faces the threat that its inscriptions may be defaced or destroyed by modern visitors who crowd into it daily.

Mar 20 Blog

What to Do with Unprovenanced Artifacts—Publish or Perish?

By: Hershel Shanks

Hershel Shanks’s First Person in the March/April 2013 issue of BAR

Feb 15 Blog

Recreating the Origins of Language

By: Noah Wiener

University of British Columbia and University of California, Berkeley researchers have developed computer software that can reconstruct protolanguages out of a synthesis of modern languages.

Aug 28 Blog

Of Pirates and Virgins: Greek and Turkish Scholars Colloquiating

By: Mark Wilson

The invitation to attend the Second Greek-Turkish Symposium on Epigraphy in May was one I couldn’t turn down. It had been extended by Mustafa Adak, the chairperson of the epigraphy and ancient history department of Antalya’s Akdeniz (“Mediterranean”) University. Not only was I interested to hear the presentation of some of the thirty papers, I was also curious to see how these scholars from similar, yet politically rivaling, cultures would get along. Recent news stories highlighted the controversy over who had invented baklava—the Turks or the Greeks. And what should that thick, hot drink with grounds in the bottom of the cup be called—Greek or Turkish coffee? However, the three-day colloquium turned out to be a model of peaceful relations as the scholars set aside their nationalistic differences for the sake of epigraphy.

Interpreting the Qeiyafa Ostracon as a Narrative of the Birth of the Kingdom of Israel

May 7 Blog

Qeiyafa Ostracon Relates the Birth of the Kingdom of Israel

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

Gerard Leval presents French epigrapher Émile Puech's interpretation of the Qeiyafa Ostracon as the earliest text on the formation of the Kingdom of Israel and the only artifact referencing King Saul.

Mar 9 Blog

Joseph Naveh (1928–2011)

By: Ada Yardeni

Joseph Naveh, Israel's preeminent paleographer, died on November 21, 2011, at age 83. Known to his friends as Yossi, he was, in the words of one obituary, "among the nephilim" of Northwest Semitic epigraphers.

Who Governed the Roman Province of Lycia-Pamphlyia?

Feb 24 Blog

Who Governed the Roman Province of Lycia-Pamphylia?

By: Mark Wilson

One thing I enjoy about living in Turkey is the serendipitous discoveries waiting to be found. Last year as my wife and I were returning from the grocery store, I looked into a garden and saw an ancient stone standing there.

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