Who Knew? Uncovering Unexpected Histories in the Southern Levant
June 2023 | Vol. 11.6 By Martine van den Berg This past February, the first-ever Friends of ASOR Tour to Israel and the Palestinian Territories headed off for a 13-day archaeolog
The Book of Esther as a Source for Achaemenian History
June 2023 | Vol. 11.6 By Morteza Arabzadeh Sarbanani The Book of Esther (Fig. 1) is set in the Persian capital of Susa during the reign of Xerxes (Ahasuerus in Hebrew) and tells th
Who Invented Idolatry?
June 2023 | Vol. 11.6 By Daniel Barbu In late antiquity, Christian authors triumphantly celebrated the end of polytheism and idolatry: Christ had vanquished the demons and the Chur
“Proto-Rams”: Piecing Together the Early History of Naval Ram Development
May 2023 | Vol. 11.5 By Stephen DeCasien The naval ram was the predominant weapon of navies throughout much of antiquity, playing a decisive role in many consequential confrontatio
The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel
april 2023 | Vol. 11.4 By Andrew Tobolowsky The twelve tribes of Israel are, in a nutshell, how the Hebrew Bible’s historical narratives define Israel. Even today, the tribes are
“The Egyptian,” King of Moab
March 2023 | Vol. 11.3 By Mattias Karlsson The royal inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian kings Esarhaddon (680–669 BCE) and Ashurbanipal (668–631 BCE) mention a king of Moab named
The “Tomb of Absalom”: The Earliest Judeo-Christian Place of Pilgrimage in Jerusalem
March 2023 | Vol. 11.3 By Joe Zias The so-called Tomb of Absalom in Jerusalem is one of the more popular pilgrimage sites since the Late Roman period. It is also one of the most en
The Emergence of Edom: Recent Debate
March 2023 | Vol. 11.3 By Piotr Bienkowski Did the Iron Age kingdom of Edom emerge in the 10th century BCE from a nomadic polity that developed sophisticated copper production and
Tree Rings, Drought, and the Collapse of the Hittite Empire
February 2023 | Vol. 11.2 By Eric Cline The recent Nature study about drought and the fall of the Hittite Empire doesn’t just make for good headlines, it adds to our knowledge
The Earliest Mention of the Placename Sinai: The Journeys of Khety
February 2023 | Vol. 11.2 By Julien Cooper Well before Moses ascended “Mount Sinai” and received the revelation from God, Egyptian officials penetrated the rugged vales of the