the crusades

By: Hershel Shanks

Archaeologist Hillel Geva says that population estimates for ancient Jerusalem are too high. His new estimates begin with people living on no more than a dozen acres.

By: Mary Joan Winn Leith

“The Cherry Tree Carol” is a Christmas carol that first appeared in 13th-century England; an American version was discovered in Appalachia in the 20th century. Stonehill College Biblical scholar Mary Joan Winn Leith explains the carol’s roots in early Christian Syrian churches.

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

Some of the most famous churches in Jerusalem were built during the Christian Crusades by Crusaders wishing to memorialize sites they believed to have great Christian significance.

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

Archaeological excavations are prohibited on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, though one project—the Temple Mount Sifting Project—has been analyzing soil that came from the Temple Mount since 2004. Learn the story.

By: Biblical Archaeology Society Staff

The Fihrist, and the scholarship it represents, is one of the shining positives that emerged from the Crusades.

By: Megan Sauter

Jerusalem has been revered as a holy city for millennia—with pilgrims a staple feature in its bustling streets. Egeria’s Travels and the journals of the Bordeaux Pilgrim and the Piacenza Pilgrim demonstrate that this was as true in the Byzantine period as it is today.

By: Stephen E. Tabachnick

While the real T.E. Lawrence was not exactly like the character in the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, he was, nevertheless, one of the most colorful figures to emerge from World War I.

By: Megan Sauter

The first and only Philistine cemetery ever discovered was found outside the walls of ancient Ashkelon.

By: Jonathan Klawans

The Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem is a place you may have missed on your first (or even your second) visit to Jerusalem, but it’s well worth your time when you are lucky enough to make it back.

By: Robin M. Jensen

The legend of the magi has fired the imagination of Christians since the earliest times. In art, the adoration of the magi appeared earlier and far more frequently than any other scene of Jesus’ birth and infancy, including images of the babe in a manger.