Biblical Archaeological Review looks at the symbolism of doves.
Few symbols have a tradition as long and as rich as the dove. A particular favorite in art and iconography, the dove often represents some aspect of the divine, and its use has been shared, adapted and reinterpreted across cultures and millennia to suit changing belief systems. From the ancient world to modern times, this simple bird developed layer upon layer of meaning and interpretive significance, making it a complex and powerful addition to religious texts and visual representations…
In response to a question that was posed on the Associates for Biblical Research website, Rick Lanser writes:
… so-called “biblical” archaeology is simply applying valid archaeological principles to the archaeology of the lands discussed by the biblical writers, without the anti-Bible preconceptional bias that taints the research of so many archaeologists. The “storybook” perception you mentioned is part and parcel with this unexamined anti-Bible bias, which gets in the way of impartially evaluating the Bible’s truth-claims…
What makes economies grow? It’s a question that has occupied thinkers for centuries. Most of us would tick off things like education levels, openness to trade, natural resources, and political system.
Not so, at least, according to this Boston Globe report:
Here’s one you might not have considered: hell.
A pair of Harvard researchers recently examined 40 years of data from dozens of countries, trying to sort out the economic impact of religious beliefs or practices. They found that religion has a measurable effect on developing economies – and the most powerful influence relates to how strongly people believe in hell.
That hell could matter to economic growth might seem surprising, since you can’t prove it exists, let alone quantify it. It stands as one of the more intriguing findings in a growing body of recent research exploring how religion might influence the wealth and prosperity of societies. In recent years, Italian economists have presented findings that religion can boost GDP by increasing trust within a society; researchers in the United States showed that religion reduces corruption and increases respect for law in ways that boost overall economic growth. A number of researchers have documented how merchants used religious backgrounds to establish one another’s reliability.
The notion that religion influences economies has a long history, but the specifics have been vexingly difficult to pin down. Today, as researchers start to answer the question more definitively with the tools of modern economics, what’s emerging is a clearer picture of how nations’ prosperity can depend, in part, on seemingly abstract concerns like theology – and sometimes on quite nuanced points of belief or religious fervor…
More news from ASOR (American Schools of Oriental Research), this time, in the The Los Angeles Times. The 2009 Open Archaeology Prize has been won by the makers of a
searchable map detailing 40 years of Israeli archaeological work in the West Bank and East Jerusalem…
A nonprofit organization founded in 1900 and located at Boston University, the American Schools of Oriental Research support the study and public understanding of peoples and cultures of the Near East. The prize, to be presented today at a professional meeting in New Orleans, recognizes “the best open-access, open-licensed, digital contribution to Near Eastern archaeology by an ASOR member.”
Project leaders Lynn Swartz Dodd of USC and Rafi Greenberg of Tel Aviv University are expected to accept the award on behalf of an international team composed of Americans, Israelis and Palestinians.
The digital map apparently won the approval of jurors because it offers a body of information previously unavailable to the public about sites surveyed or excavated since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem…
So says a Vatican researcher, and that, according to an Associated Press release:
ROME — A Vatican researcher claims she has found a nearly invisible text on the Shroud of Turin and says the discovery proves the authenticity of the artifact revered as Jesus’ burial cloth.
The claim made in a new book by historian Barbara Frale drew immediate skepticism from some scientists, who maintain the shroud is a medieval forgery.
Frale, a researcher at the Vatican archives, says the faint writing emerged through computer analysis of photos of the shroud, which is not normally accessible for study.
Frale says the jumble of Greek, Latin and Aramaic includes the words “Jesus Nazarene” and mentions he was sentenced to death. She believes the text was written on a document by a clerk to identify the body and the ink then seeped into the cloth…
USA Today’s Science Fair has this article which covers the report of Prof Eric Cline and Prof Assf Yasur-Landau on this year’s work at Tel Kabri, which was presented at ASOR’s (American Schools of Oriental Research) New Orleans meeting yesterday.
“Canaanite excavations always find art that recalls the Mesopotamian culture dominant then,” Cline says. “But not this palace, these people were looking to Greece.”
The Canaanites were the inhabitants of modern-day Israel at the time and Tel Kabri was one of their leading towns near the Mediterranean Coast. The site near the town of Nahariya is one of the few Bronze Age palaces in the region that wasn’t built over, providing a snapshot of the time it was overcome, shown by collapsed rooms dating around 1550 B.C. The Bronze Age palace, from roughly the time of the Biblical figure of Abraham, likely stood for five centuries before its abandonment.
Over the summer, a team led by Yasur-Landau and Cline excavated the site, expecting to find remains of Babylonian or similar sculpture, as seen in other Canaanite sites…
Amira Edan, the director of Iraq 's National Museum, says that soon she will no longer have to worry so much that the famous institution remains closed to the public for fear of violence.
Long before early American colonists in New England sat down with the natives to share a Thanksgiving feast in 1621, tribes of American Indians were enjoying their own feasts on river shores in Eastern North Carolina.
This article was published in the Fall 2002 issue of Bible and Spade. Tyre’s significance in the 14th century BC can be seen in the Amarna Letters. These cuneiform-inscribed clay tablets found in Tell el-Amarna, Egypt, represent correspondence between minor Canaanite kings ruling under Egyptian auspices during the reign of Egyptian Pharaohs Amenhotep I […]
In an announcement likely to renew the debate over the Shroud of Turin’s authenticity, Vatican scholar Dr. Barbara Frale claims that she has identified the imprint of the death certificate of “Jesus the Nazarene” on the cloth. The shroud, which is revered by Christians and held by many to bear the image of the crucified Jesus, is believed by most scholars to […]
Few symbols have a tradition as long and as rich as the dove. Read about what it represents, how its use has been shared, adapted and reinterpreted across cultures and millennia to suit changing belief systems.
Magnificent artifacts from a grave dating to the Parthian period have been discovered by Iraqi archaeologists, who have expressed surprise and delight at the beauty of the pieces. A total of 216 artifacts in good condition were recovered including gold, precious stones and pottery. The tomb itself—the location of which is being keep secret for security reaso […]
Biblical Archaeological Review looks at the symbolism of doves.
