Biblical Archaeology Review - Bible History to Life

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Table of Contents • Biblical Archaeology Review
March / April 2010

ON THE COVER: The faint etchings on this small terra-cotta sphinx bear witness to the birth of the alphabet. In “How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs,” Orly Goldwasser explains how simple Canaanite miners made one of the world’s greatest inventions.

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Features

Our 35th Anniversary

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In honor of our 35th anniversary, we take a look at how BAR and the Biblical Archaeology Society have developed over the years to bring you the latest in Biblical archaeology. We’ll also be bringing you exclusive interviews with top scholars to discuss how the field has changed in the past three-and-a-half decades.

How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs

By Orly Goldwasser

More than 3,800 years ago, illiterate Canaanite laborers working in the turquoise mines of Sinai were responsible for one of the most significant inventions in human history: the alphabet. An Egyptologist and expert in hieroglyphs explores the simple but ingenious ideas that led these miners under hieroglyphic inspiration to create the first-ever alphabetic script.

Prize Find: Oldest Hebrew Inscription Discovered in Israelite Fort on Philistine Border

By Hershel Shanks

Last year we introduced BAR readers to the exciting excavation at Khirbet Qeiyafa, where archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel had just uncovered a fortified Judahite city from David and Solomon’s time and hinted at an important new inscription (but wouldn’t show it to us). Now, following the speedy publication of Qeiyafa’s first two excavation seasons, including an epigraphical study of the inscription, here’s an update about the site and its elusive and enigmatic text—the earliest known Hebrew inscription.

New Evidence of the Royal Stoa and Roman Flames

By Aryeh Shimron and Orit Peleg-Barkat

When the Romans burned Jerusalem’s Temple Mount in 70 C.E., marble architectural fragments from Herod’s Royal Stoa fell to the street below. They have now been recovered in an archaeological excavation and are published here for the first time. Their beauty preserved, they also evidence the conflagration, some of whose flames exceeded a thousand degrees centigrade.