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News Release
The Biblical Archaeology Society is celebrating the publication of the 200th issue of Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR) with a special double issue that includes a retrospective of its adventures over the last three decades, as well as a tribute to some of the greatest discoveries and people in the field.
We begin with one of our hallmark feature articles, “The Riches of Ketef Hinnom” by Gabriel Barkay. This long-awaited BAR publication of the fascinating Jerusalem site of Ketef Hinnom features two silver amulets that bear the earliest inscription of a Biblical text—nearly 400 years before the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Our special 200th-issue section begins with “How BAR Was Born,” which chronicles the evolution of BAR from an idea inspired by Hershel Shanks’s year-long sabbatical in Israel to a magazine that reaches out to hundreds of thousands people with every new issue. In “Letters We Loved” we reprint some of our favorite letters to the editor over the years to celebrate the opinions and thoughts of the readers that continue to make BAR so successful.
The ten stunning archaeological photos of “Biblical Archaeology in Focus” and their significance are a tribute to Jerusalem’s late David Harris, whose photographic genius documented some of the greatest archaeological discoveries of our time.
We also took on the daunting task in “Ten Top Discoveries” of choosing some of the most important archaeological discoveries published in our first 199 issues, and we looked at how they have influenced the field of Biblical archaeology.
“BAR’s Crusades” follows the pivotal—and sometimes controversial—role that the magazine and the Biblical Archaeology Society have played in some of the most dramatic debates, discoveries and issues in the last 35 years of Biblical archaeology.Last but not least, for a bit of fun, our “Where in the Wide World?” quiz challenges readers to test their knowledge of the origins of some of our past WorldWide artifacts.
Read “How BAR Was Born” by clicking here. The following is an excerpt from the article:
In 1972 Hershel Shanks took a sabbatical from his legal practice in Washington, D.C. He and his family went to Jerusalem for a year. Once there, the Shanks family became part of a network of friends and colleagues who comprised some of the archaeological luminaries in the Holy Land at the time. That year proved to be the catalyst for the creation of the Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS) and its flagship publication, Biblical Archaeology Review. Hershel reflects below on the birth, evolution and legacy of BAR.
I spent 1972–1973 with my wife and two daughters living in Israel. Julia (or Yael, as she was called for that year) was three and Elizabeth (or Elisheva) was six. Every Shabbat my wife Judith (Yehudit), the kids and I would take a tiyyul, or outing, to explore an archaeological site.
By the time we got around to exploring Hazor, the whole family was expert in picking up sherds, the ever-present fragments of pottery at archaeological sites, and deciding whether it was a “diagnostic” sherd—a rim, base or handle—or just a plain body sherd. Before we ascended the tell, we visited the little Hazor museum at the nearby kibbutz. The museum displayed a case of these diagnostic sherds, including handles that had been impressed with seals. Pointing to one of those handles, I told the kids, “See? That’s the kind of thing we want.”
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Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary
Tags: Biblical Archaeology Review, Hershel Shanks
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Dr. Claude Mariottini - Professor of Old Testament 