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Feb 24 Blog

Ancient Pergamon

Ancient Pergamon's strategic location along both land and sea trading routes contributed to its prosperity. Pilgrims from all over the Mediterranean region would flock to the city to engage in commerce or to visit the famous Asclepion, a center of medical treatments.

Stela from El-Amarna, Egyptian King Akhenaten is seen with his wife Nefertiti and their daughters bearing offerings to the sun-disk Aten.

Feb 24 Blog

Akhenaten and Moses

By: Robin Ngo

Pharaoh Akhenaten, who abolished the Egyptian pantheon and instituted worship of a single deity, the sun-disk Aten, in the mid-14th century B.C., may have established the world’s first monotheism. Did this influence the birth of Israelite monotheism?

Al-Khazneh (“the Treasury”), one of Petra’s iconic monuments. Photo: Markv’s image is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

Feb 10 Blog

Solving the Enigma of Petra and the Nabataeans

By: Glenn J. Corbett

Who were the Nabataeans, the industrious Arab people who built the city of Petra and its towering rock-cut monuments over 2,000 years ago?

Jan 31 Blog

Ivory Pomegranate Revisited: A Relic from Solomon’s Temple?

By: BAS Staff

The famous inscribed ivory pomegranate, which, if authentic, may have been the head of a scepter from Solomon’s Temple, has endured decades of debate. Is the inscription real, or is it a forgery? A meeting between world-class paleographers in the summer of 2015 may have settled the debate.

Ta’anach Cult Stand. Photo © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem/Israel Antiquities Authority (photograph by Avraham Hay)

Jan 20 Blog

Asherah and the Asherim: Goddess or Cult Symbol?

By: Ellen White

Who is Asherah? What is asherah? The reference may be to a particular goddess, a class of goddess or a cult symbol used to represent the goddess. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish what meaning is intended.

Jan 10 Blog

Adam and Eve

By: BAS Staff

In a BAS Library special collection of articles, learn about a controversial interpretation of the creation of woman, and explore other themes related to Adam and Eve in the Bible.

Jan 4 Blog

Herod the Great and the Herodian Family Tree

By: Lawrence Mykytiuk

See a visualization of the Herodian family tree and key events in the New Testament related to members of the Herodian family.

Aerial view of the remains of a Byzantine-era monastery complex on a low hill at Al-Maghtas, Jordan. Photo: Jordan Tourism Board

Nov 29 Blog

Baptismal Site “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” Added to UNESCO World Heritage List

By: Robin Ngo

In 2015, UNESCO added the archaeological complex at Al-Maghtas, Jordan—called the Biblical “Bethany beyond the Jordan”—to its World Heritage List. Another tradition places the baptismal site on the west bank of the Jordan River—in Israel.

The Tel Dan stele. Photo: The Israel Museum, Jerusalem/Israel Antiquities Authority (photograph by Meidad Suchowolski)

Nov 23 Blog

The Tel Dan Inscription: The First Historical Evidence of King David from the Bible

By: BAS Staff

Few modern Biblical archaeology discoveries have attracted as much attention as the Tel Dan inscription—writing on a ninth-century B.C. stone slab (or stela) that furnished the first historical evidence of King David from the Bible.

Nov 20 Blog

The Tomb of Jesus? Wrong on Every Count

By: Craig Evans and Steven Feldman

Back to “Jesus Tomb” Controversy Erupts—Again Rarely does the world of Biblical archaeology make as much news as when filmmakers James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici […]

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