Check out the new issue of the “Ancient Near East Today” – which is very interesting and also free!
On a humorous note – I suggest a name for another publication: “The Contemporary Near East Yesterday” :-p
Aren
Great animated film – not on the Philistines – but on their “relatives” – check it out
Yesterday, I received information on a great animated clip whose central theme is transporting a ship over land thru the Isthmus of Corinth in Classical Greek times, but also illustrates many other very interesting aspects of ancient Greek culture and technology.
Here is the notice that appeared in “Aegeanet” – courtesy of Kalliopi Efkleidou:
“This is a link (http://vimeo.com/13229017) to a very interesting animation film on the Diolkos, the land route which enabled ships to be transported across the Corinth Isthmus. On the side it shows interesting features of the maritime voyage of a trade ship arriving at the corinthian gulf, crossing the diolkos and ending up at Kenchreai before leaving for Cyprus, technological achievements, visit to Poseidon’s temple, traded goods etc. Produced by the ASSOCIATION of ANCIENT GREEK TECHNOLOGY STUDIES (EMAET) & the Technical Chamber of Greece.”
Highly recommended – check it out!
Aren
News item on the cedar beams from the Temple Mount
Visit to Utah
In the last few days, I’ve been visiting beautiful Utah! On Friday, I gave a lecture on the excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath at Brigham Young University (as already mentioned here). The lecture went very well – and before the lecture I had the opportunity to meet with some of the excellent students of Ancient Near Eastern Studies at BYU.
Following the lecture, Jeff Chadwick, my host at BYU, myself and our significant others, drove down to Moab, Utah for a great weekend. Today, we visited the absolutely fascinating and astonishingly beautiful Arches National Park.
Needless to say, when we visited the park, we of course went to visit Double Arch, where the first scene of Indiana Jones and Last Crusade was filmed!
And yes, as I was in Moab, and I had just recently read the Book of Ruth on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot – I was looking all over for Ruth or Naomi – but could not find them in Moab… :-)
Aren
Offprint of article received!
As previously mentioned, a book edited by Ann Killebrew and Gunnar Lehmann on the Philsitines and Sea Peoples has just appeared. The volume includes many VERY interesting studies, dealing with a wide range of topics related to the study of the Philistines and the Sea Peoples. Today, Ann kindly sent me the pdf of my article in this volume – I’m eagerly awaiting to see my copy of the entire volume!
It should be noted that the article was written in, and is updated for, 2003, and despite the editors’ heroic efforts, the volume in which it was meant to be published only appeared a decade later. Needless to say, since then, on the basis of newer finds and fresh understandings, much of what is discussed in this article is outdated (and these more updated publications have been noted in the blog). Nevertheless, it does present interesting materials and a summary updated for 2003.
The full reference is:
Maeir, A. M. 2013. Philistia Transforming: Fresh Evidence from Tell es-Sâfi/Gath on the Transformational Trajectory of the Philistine Culture. Pp. 191–242 in The Philistines and Other “Sea Peoples” in Text and Archaeology, eds. A. Killebrew and G. Lehmann. Archaeology and Biblical Studies 15. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.
Best
Aren
Interesting site: Jewish perspectives on modern biblical research
A very interesting site has been put online recently - thetorah.com – in which modern biblical scholarship is viewed through traditional Jewish perspectives There are quite a few very interesting articles, by various biblical scholars – as well as even a few archaeologists (such as yours truly…).
Check out what I wrote on an archaeological perspective on Shavuot – but look at the other very interesting materials on this site as well.
Aren
Upcoming lecture at UCSD on the Tell es-Safi/Gath and the Philistines
Once again, in order to give a sufficient “heads up” for upcoming lectures (who says I don’t learn from critics?), I will be giving a talk for the Jewish Studies Program at UCSD on May 29th.
Here are the details:
Wednesday, May 29th 2013, TBA, TBA
Aren Maeir, Bar Ilan University in Israel; UCSD Visiting Professor
“Who are you calling a Philistine? Archaeology and the Bible at Tell es-Safi – biblical Gath of the Philistines”
Summary: The biblical Philistines, arch-enemies of the Israelites, have for many centuries suffered from “bad PR” – due to the biblical texts negative attitude towards them. Archaeological excavations over the last century have slowly changed this perception, demonstrating that the Philistines had an extremely complex, diverse and developed culture – particularly in comparison to the contemporaneous Israelites. Recent finds from Philistia, and in particular from Tell es-Safi/Gath (biblical Gath of the Philistines – home town of Goliath), now show that not only are previous understandings of the biblical Philistines somewhat monolithic in nature, but that a thorough reassessment of the relationship between the biblical texts about the Philistines and the archaeological remains are called for. This can serve as an excellent case study for the modern interface between Bible and Archaeology – a long-debated and contested topic. In this lecture, Prof. Aren Maeir, of Bar-Ilan University (Ramat-Gan, Israel), will discuss these and other issues, with particular emphasis on the results of the excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath, a project which he directs.
The details of the location of the talk on the UCSD campus will be published later.
In addition, look at the Jewish Studies Program events page – for this and other interesting upcoming events – including the VERY interesting conference on Exodus – for which I have the honor to have been invited to present a paper (note – this conference is a closed conference – only for invited speakers – although there will be a public lecture by Bill Propp on the exodus – and a very interesting digital exhibition – curated by Tom Levy). See details on the events page.
BYU lecture poster
As previously mentioned, I will be giving a lecture on May 17th at BYU.
The event poster is now out (courtesy of Jeff Chadwick [aka Achish Melekh Gath]) – all of you can print it out in and hang it on the inside of your bedroom door…
:-)
Aren
Article in the Jewish Tribune (Canada) on the Safi excavations
A short, but very nice article on the excavations at Safi has just appeared in the Canadian Jewish newspaper, the Jewish Tribune. Haskel and I were interviewed for this article during my recent trip to Winnipeg.
Check it out!
Aren
New Journal “Journal of Ancient History” with (for now) free access – including important article on the current state of Ancient Near Eastern Studies
The new “Journal of Ancient History” which is put out by de Gruyter has put online the first issue of what appears to be an excellent journal. As of now (and I doubt this will last for long…), the articles in the first issue can be accessed for free online!
This first issue includes an excellent paper by Mark Van de Mieroop (Columbia), in which he surveys his understanding of the current state of Ancient Near Eastern historical studies (“Recent Trends in the Study of Ancient Near Eastern History: Some Reflections”) - with a particular emphasis on the study of Mesopotamian history.
Well worth reading – check it out!
Aren
