Ptolemaic period mummified individual. Courtesy Paul Hudson from United Kingdom, CC-BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Few things captivate the imagination like Egyptian mummies. Their intricate wrappings and lifelike preservation carry both religious significance and enduring mystery. A recent study focuses on something far more earthly: their smell.

Mummified remains have a distinctive musty and woody aroma, which has been shown to preserve a chemical record of ancient embalming practices. The  study is showing how scientists can read that record without harming the priceless burials. Even the faintest scents from mummified remains carry a wealth of historical information, offering new ways to connect with Egypt’s ancient past without unwrapping a single bandage.

Mummification in ancient Egypt was not just a burial practice but a spiritual one. Preserving the body ensured safe passage into the afterlife. Over thousands of years, Egyptians experimented with natural materials that slow decay, including animal fats, plant oils, beeswax, resins, and, later, bitumen. Each material leaves a chemical “fingerprint,” releasing tiny molecules into the air called volatile organic compounds.

The study’s innovation lies in analyzing these compounds non-invasively. Scientists capture them on fiber waved in the air around the mummified remains. The compounds stick to the fiber and are then analyzed to identify which embalming materials were used. Instead of cutting into the remains, researchers “sniff” it chemically. The researchers report that short-chain fatty acids reveal oils, mono-carboxylic fatty acids and cinnamic compounds indicate beeswax, sesquiterpenoids point to resins, and naphthenic compounds signal bitumen.

This approach even distinguishes differences between mummified individuals from different historical periods, showing how embalming materials age over time. Some compounds degrade quickly; others persist for millennia. Understanding these patterns helps explain why two mummified individuals may smell different despite similar treatments. It also illuminates the evolution of Egyptian embalming, from simple fats and oils to complex mixtures including costly resins and bitumen.

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The study has relevance for biblical archaeology as well. Ancient Israelite custom held that corpses be washed, anointed with oils and spices, and wrapped—a process also reflected in New Testament accounts of Jesus and Lazarus. After Jesus’s crucifixion, for example, his body was washed, anointed with myrrh and aloes, and wrapped in linen before being laid in a tomb (John 19:39–40). While Israelite and early Christian practices did not involve chemical embalming, the careful washing, anointing, and wrapping reflects a similar spiritual care: honoring the deceased, masking decay, and preparing the body for what comes next.

Lauren K. McCormick is an assistant editor at Biblical Archaeology Review and a specialist in ancient Near Eastern religions, visual culture, and the Bible. She holds degrees in religion from Syracuse University, Duke University, New York University, and Rutgers University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship on religion and the public conversation at Princeton University.

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Base of Phoenician Iron Age steatite scarab seal found at Nuraghe Ruinas in Sardinia, Italy. Courtesy Soprintendenza Sassari e Nuoro.

A small object with a big story has emerged from the excavations at Nuraghe Ruinas in Sardinia, Italy. The Superintendency of Archaeology for the Sassari and Nuoro provinces in Sardinia reported on Facebook that, during recent archaeological work in the area, archaeologists uncovered a remarkable Iron Age artifact—a scarab seal. Likely originating from ancient Phoenicia (modern day Lebanon), this small but significant object provides tangible evidence of the commercial and cultural networks at work in the biblical world.

The scarab found at Nuraghe Ruinas is made of steatite and is engraved with hieroglyphic characters. The team has not yet described the inscription or iconography, but the hieroglyphs strongly suggest eastern Mediterranean craftsmanship or influence. Further, the discovery is not isolated. Similar scarabs have been found at S’Arcu ’e Is Forros, about 5 miles from Nuraghe Ruinas, and at Nuraghe Nurdole, between Orani and Nuoro. Taken together, these finds suggest sustained interaction between the ancient inhabitants of Sardinia (the Nuragic civilization) and Phoenician traders operating across the Mediterranean basin.

What Are Scarabs?

Scarabs are small ancient artifacts modeled after the dung beetle. These objects, which connoted status, were typically made of stone or faience. While sometimes worn as jewelry or amulets, scarabs primarily functioned as seals. The tops were carved to resemble a beetle and their flat undersides were often inscribed with symbols or names, pressed into clay to stamp documents and goods.

Sardinia at the Crossroads of the Mediterranean

Sardinia is a large island in the western Mediterranean Sea, situated about halfway between the Italian Peninsula and the coast of North Africa. In antiquity, Sardinia was strategically located along a major maritime trade route linking the eastern Mediterranean—including Phoenicia and the Levant—with North Africa and Iberia. Phoenician contact with Sardinia intensified from the ninth to eighth centuries BCE. In the Levant, this period overlaps with the era of the Israelite monarchy and the later divided kingdoms (c. 1000–586 BCE).

Trade in the Biblical World

Sardinia—rich in copper, lead, and silver—was an important partner in Iron Age Mediterranean exchange networks. Phoenician merchants were the most renowned seafarers of the ancient world. They established trade routes and settlements stretching from the Levant to North Africa and the western Mediterranean and are even credited with standardizing and disseminating the alphabet. The same networks that carried Egyptian-style scarabs to Sardinia also connected to Levantine cities like Tyre and Sidon, both of which play central roles in the Hebrew Bible, including the supply of cedar for Solomon’s Temple. Biblical figures participated in long-distance commerce, political alliances, and cultural exchange.

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The Spread of Religious Symbols

Scarabs originated in Egypt but were widely adopted and adapted throughout the eastern Mediterranean. In Egyptian belief, the scarab symbolized rebirth, renewal, and divine protection. It was closely associated with the solar god Khepri, who represented the rising sun. Just as the dung beetle rolls a ball of dung—seemingly bringing life from decay—Khepri was understood to roll the sun across the sky each day, embodying the daily renewal of life. Both the beetle and the deity thus became powerful symbols of regeneration and cosmic order.

Over time, however, the scarab became more than a religious emblem, it was a portable cultural form. Phoenician artisans adopted and adapted Egyptian motifs, circulating Egyptianizing objects widely throughout the Mediterranean. Even without knowing the specific imagery of the Sardinian scarab, the scarab form invites discussions of Egyptian symbolism, Phoenician adaptation, and the presence of Egyptian-style artifacts in the Levant. Once conservation and study are complete, the iconography may offer more precise clues about its origin—whether Egyptian, Phoenician, or a hybrid Levantine style—further illuminating the interconnected world of the Iron Age Mediterranean.

This evidence reflects a larger reality of the ancient world: symbols migrated across cultures, often independently of the belief systems that first produced them. Cultural borrowing was normal in the Iron Age Mediterranean. Religious imagery traveled along the same routes as metals, textiles, and luxury goods. Ancient Israel existed within this shared symbolic ecosystem. During the centuries when biblical kingdoms rose and fell, long-distance trade networks connected distant coasts, moving not only commodities but also artistic forms, technologies, and ideas. A small carved scarab, carried across the sea millennia ago, is in that sense evidence of the Mediterranean system that shaped the world of the Bible.

Lauren K. McCormick is an assistant editor at Biblical Archaeology Review and a specialist in ancient Near Eastern religions, visual culture, and the Bible. She holds degrees in religion from Syracuse University, Duke University, New York University, and Rutgers University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship on religion and the public conversation at Princeton University.

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Rock inscription found at Wadi Khamila in the southwestern Sinai Peninsula. Modern tracings added for legibility. Courtesy Mustafa Nour El-Din, redrawing by E. Kiesel

A recently discovered rock inscription from Wadi Khamila in the southwestern Sinai Peninsula offers a vivid glimpse into a world that predates the Exodus tradition by a millennium or more. Discovered by archaeologist Mustafa Nour El-Din and interpreted by Egyptologist Ludwig Morenz, the rock features a central scene dated to roughly 3000 BCE, although later inscriptions and graffiti were added over time. The scene shows a striding Egyptian figure with boats at his back, standing over a wounded, kneeling figure. Above, early Egyptian hieroglyphs read: “Min, ruler of copper/the copper region.” The inscription appears to signal Egyptian hegemony in the region that is tied to copper extraction. It pairs violence and state power with divine sanction—a combination that later biblical authors would critique in their own Sinai narratives. 

The Wadi Khamila depiction is not the only one of its kind. Wadis are valleys carved by seasonal water flow that, outside the rainy season, expose smooth rock faces and serve as natural corridors for travelers and herders. Early Egyptian hieroglyphic inscriptions and drawings asserting Egyptian authority are also found in the nearby Wadi Maghara and Wadi Ameyra. An inscription from Wadi Ameyra also references Min, the god of copper, while Wadi Maghara is known historically and archaeologically as a turquoise mining center. Taken together, the sites suggest a formal Egyptian presence in the area, perhaps, as Morenz notes, “a kind of colonial network.” Rock art across the wadis reveals the southwestern Sinai as a zone of repeated Egyptian resource extraction.  

Across these sites, the hieroglyphs and invocations of Min already mark Egyptian presence. In the Wadi Khamila scene, however, the boat adds an unmistakably colonial dimension, visually signaling arrival from elsewhere. The Egyptian figure—rendered at a larger scale—seems to have traveled by boat to extract copper in an Egyptian deity’s name. The scene appears to record a state-sponsored expedition into the Sinai—one involving symbolic and physical violence legitimated by divine authority.

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The Wadi Khamila inscription is among the earliest written claims of Egyptian state activity outside of the Nile Delta. It shows a longstanding Egyptian presence in the Sinai. While many scholars question the historical reliability of the Exodus account, they also recognize it as a powerful early narrative conveying identity and theology. A long history of Egyptian domination is the backdrop against which the Exodus tradition later emerges.   

The Wadi Khamila inscription indicates that the Sinai was a place where Egyptian state power was publicly asserted and religiously justified. The Exodus story later reclaims that same space as the setting wherein divine sovereignty confronts human rule. The biblical tradition reimagines the Sinai as the arena where imperial power is resisted and displaced by a different order. It is where divine authority shifts from an earthly king to a heavenly one—from empire to covenant. 

The Wadi Khamila inscription exemplifies economic exploitation paired with violent subjugation, under the patronage of a god who authorizes control of land and people. The Bible’s critique of Egypt is a sustained response to imperialism. God’s authority is not vested in an imperial ruler claiming divine status, but in a God who effects liberation over domination. The king is not God, and divine power is not synonymous with domination.

Dr. Lauren K. McCormick is an assistant editor at Biblical Archaeology Review and a specialist in ancient Near Eastern religions, visual culture, and the Bible. She holds degrees in religion from Syracuse University, Duke University, New York University, and Rutgers University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship on religion and the public conversation at Princeton University.

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Most readers will be familiar with the ark as a reliquary (a box holding holy relics) that was used by Moses to contain and transport the two tablets of the Ten Commandments. Yet the ark was constructed using a visual language that everyone knew 3,300 years ago but is mostly lost to us today. And although ancient writers said more about the ark than any other artifact from ancient history, little of this information is reliable apart from what is found in the biblical texts. Despite the immense progress in biblical studies over the past 200 years, modern scholars have produced relatively little of a serious nature on this subject. This gap provides an opportunity to ask exciting questions and explore the context of the ark in a new and meaningful way.¹

DIGITAL RECONSTRUCTION of the Ark of the Covenant according to its descriptions in the Book of Exodus.
Credit: © David A. Falk

Even though it might seem obvious, few of us ever consider that the Ark of the Covenant was a piece of furniture. Furniture is defined as a piece of large movable equipment that creates a space suitable for living or working. So if all you have is an empty room, the space in that room is not very useful. Add a chair, and you have a sitting room. Add a bed, and you have a bedroom. Add a religious altar, and now you have created a ritual space. In short: Furniture helps create and change the nature of a space.

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In the ancient Near East, furniture was the preeminent status symbol of opulent wealth. Beds, chairs, and boxes were high-end luxury goods that only few could afford. And the best furniture was fit to be used in rituals to the gods. But to make the furniture suitable for the gods, it had to be decorated with sacred iconography. In ancient Egypt, this iconography included friezes of uraeus (cobras) that spat fire, to keep profane things out, and the Nekhbet (vulture) goddess, who made holy the space between her wings. These icons separated sacred space from profane space. And by using different icons, the Egyptians were able to create different kinds of sacredness. They could even intensify sacredness by putting one frieze inside another, creating a holy of holies.

A TEBET BASKET, now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Credit: Photo by David A. Falk

This brings us to ritual furniture used in the Bible. For example, biblical Hebrew uses an Egyptian loanword tebah, meaning a “basket” or a “box.” A tebah (Egyptian: tebet) was the basket that the baby Moses is placed inside and floated among the reeds (Exodus 2:3), but it is also used of Noah’s ark (e.g., Genesis 6:14). With both Moses and Noah’s ark, the tebah was being used to sanctify the contents of the chests to consecrate them for God’s purpose.

A DJESER CHEST of Thuya, who was the mother of Queen Tiye (the principal wife of Amenhotep III) and grandmother of Akhenaten. Discovered in her tomb in the Valley of the Kings, Western Thebes, it is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Credit: Photo by David A. Falk

However, the Ark of the Covenant is referred to as an aron, not a tebah, which offers different connotations. An aron can be a coffer, chest, or coffin. For the Egyptians, a coffin was more than simply a box for a corpse. A coffin was a proxy body that served as a place to where a spirit could return. Similarly, other chests had parallels to the ark.

A pega chest was a finely crafted piece of furniture that was draped in scarlet cloth, similar to the cloth that was used to cover the ark (Numbers 4:8). A djeser chest (see image [directional]) had tall legs that elevated items off the ground, and it was used for storing holy or sacred things. Yet another type of chest, the pedes chest, was used in a ritual that took profane offerings and sanctified them so that the offerings could be used in temple rituals. The pedes also had a uraeus frieze, which made the space inside it sacred, and carrying poles near the feet of the chest. This is remarkable because of the four pieces of the Israelite Tabernacle furniture, only the ark is said to have its pole rings attached to its feet (Exodus 25:12).

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Finally, there is the Chest of Anubis, a special canopic chest that was used only to carry canopic jars (containing the body’s selected organs) to a tomb. It was covered in gold inside and out (as the ark in Exodus 25:11; 37:2), held sacred objects (as the ark in Deuteronomy 10:2, 5), and had its poles attached to its base. Its lid, which fit over the lip of the chest and was known as the “mercy seat,” bore a statue of Anubis (god who escorted the dead to the afterlife) made in one piece with the lid. These features are markedly similar to the ark.

AN ANUBIS CHEST from the tomb of King Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, Western Thebes, now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Credit: Photo by David A. Falk

As we have just demonstrated, the Ark of the Covenant was similar to ritual chests. But it was also similar to Egyptian shrines. Shrines are important in this analysis because they developed out of Late Bronze Age concepts of divinity. People in the Late Bronze Age believed in localism, the belief that a god could only be in one place at a time. This idea often manifested in idolatry. Like the Egyptian coffin, an idol acted as a physical body where a god maintained its presence, becoming one with the substance of the statue. In Egyptian rituals, this idol was “enthroned” on a standard and placed inside the holy space of a shrine. For small chapels or private worship, that shrine was housed inside a small tent, forming a tabernacle. For larger chapels and temples, the shrine was replaced with a barque.

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A barque was a special shrine that was built as a model boat. It had a hull, rudders, and figureheads like a boat, all of which makes sense since Egypt was a river culture, where daily life and much of the religious beliefs revolved around the Nile River. Since Egypt’s earliest days, barques had been the ritual furniture par excellence. Every major temple in Egypt had a barque at its center, even the funerary temples of kings. And every day, the Egyptian priests fed and clothed their gods and placed them upon their thrones. Then at night, the priests put their gods to bed in naoses at the back of the temple.

SACRED BARQUE OF AMUN-RE being carried by priests in a procession. This model boat with a shrine for the Egyptian god is depicted in low relief in the Great Hypostyle Hall of the Karnak Temple in Luxor.   Credit: Photo by David A. Falk

Yet when the Israelites built their tabernacle, they did so without an idol. A sacred shrine without an idol was unprecedented in the ancient Near Eastern world. By excluding idols from the ark, Yahweh flipped the notions and symbols of ancient Near Eastern religion and demonstrated that he was not cared for by human hands, never slept, and was always on the throne. Thus, Yahweh worked within human religious understanding but utterly transformed it.

Furthermore, even though the Ark of the Covenant was a reliquary, the most important part of it was the space above the Mercy Seat, the lid. This is similar to Egyptian palanquin thrones, which incorporated the sacred iconography of barques to create a sacred space where the king (or image of a god) would be seated. Unlike barques, where the sacred space was enclosed and hidden, palanquin thrones had the king or god on full display but still protected in holy space—between a pair of winged goddesses. The Mercy Seat was a lid with a pair of cherubim (angels) whose wings stretched out over the lid of the box (Exodus 25:20). God met with his people from the sacred space between the wings of the cherubim.

WINGED GODDESSES on the corners of the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamun in the newly restored tomb in the Valley of the Kings, Western Thebes. Credit: Photo by David A. Falk

When we look at Egyptian ritual furniture during its 3,000-year history, boxes, biers, shrines, barques, and palanquin thrones develop and change over time, augmented with distinct iconography. Sufficient examples of this iconography survive to allow for typological dating with granularity down to the reigns of specific kings. Likewise, some iconography and furniture types fall out of favor so that they form a terminus ante quem, or the latest possible date a particular object might have been made. This means that, when we consider the stylistic influences relevant for the Ark of the Covenant, the iconography as described above suggests a period no earlier than the reign of Amenhotep III (c. 1389–1351 B.C.E.) and no later than the end of Dynasty 20 (c. 1194–1073 B.C.E.). This means that the Ark of the Covenant is consistent with the kinds of ritual furniture that would be expected from Late Bronze Age Egypt.

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Notes

[1] I have recently addressed this subject in my book The Ark of the Covenant in Its Egyptian Context: An Illustrated Journey (Hendrickson Publishers, 2020)

A version of this post first appeared in Bible History Daily in May, 2021

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Preserved mudbrick walls from the monastic complex at Al-Qariya bi-Duwayr in southern Egypt. Image courtesy the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

In the biblical imagination, the desert is never empty. It is a charged landscape: dangerous and barren, yet paradoxically fertile with spiritual possibility. The Israelites wander the wilderness for 40 years in the book of Exodus, stripped of familiar supports and taught to rely on God alone. The prophets confirm the desert as a place of trial, and, eventually, covenant. The New Testament opens with John the Baptist preaching repentance in the desert, before Jesus himself enters that wilderness, confronts temptation, and begins his ministry. Again and again, the Bible presents the desert as a challenging environment, but one where new beginnings can unfold.

Now, excavations in southern Egypt have revealed how some of Christianity’s earliest monastic communities pursued religious practice in the desert. At the site of Al-Qariya bi-Duwayr in the Sohag region, Egyptian archaeologists with the Supreme Council of Antiquities have uncovered one of the most complete ancient monastic complexes yet discovered in the country. As announced on social media by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (January 6, 2026), the mudbrick complex, which dates to the Byzantine period (fourth–seventh centuries CE), contains a basilica, individual monks’ cells, refectories for communal eating, courtyards, storage facilities, inscribed amphorae, potential water infrastructure, and tools for work and writing.

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The newly discovered monastic complex joins two other well-known ancient monasteries from the Sohag region—the Red and White Monasteries—which date to the fourth and fifth centuries, respectively. Like Al-Qariya bi-Duwayr, these monasteries each feature a tripartite basilica with a nave, choir, and sanctuary, situating Al-Qariya bi-Duwayr within the recognizable lineage of Egypt’s Coptic Christian architecture. What sets the newly uncovered monastery apart is the comprehensive view it offers of a functioning Byzantine monastic settlement. The remains show dedicated areas for living, worship, dining, and storage, along with storage jars, pottery sherds, and limestone slabs that contain Coptic writing, all of which provide direct evidence of literacy and the community’s administrative activity. Al-Qariya bi-Duwayr offers a rare, archaeologically rich snapshot of the monks’ lived experience—not only through architecture but through the qualities of its small finds.

Pottery and other small finds from the monastery, including sherds with Coptic writing. Image courtesy the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

According to Mohamed Ismail Khaled, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, the preliminary results of the excavation suggest a self-sufficient monastic community. They seem to have been able to procure and store their own food and water. This apparent autarky reflects a core monastic conviction: Labor was not a distraction from prayer but one of its expressions. As later monastic rules would affirm, such labors trained humility, attention, and dependence on God.

Egypt was in fact a cradle of Christian monasticism. Anthony the Great (c. 251–356 CE)—often called the father of monasticism—withdrew from society to pursue a life of prayer, fasting, and asceticism in Egypt’s Eastern Desert. His life, recorded by Athanasius of Alexandria in The Life of Anthony, became one of the most influential texts in early Christian monasticism and acted as a model for both hermits (eremitic) and later communal monks (cenobitic), like those evidenced at the site of Al-Qariya bi-Duwayr. Monks like Anthony did not invent the desert model of devotion: They read the Bible literally and symbolically, seeking to imitate Jesus’s solitude and Israel’s trial. “Rend your hearts and not your garments,” the prophet Joel exhorts—a verse beloved by monks for highlighting inner conversion over outward display. For monks like those living at Al-Qariya bi-Duwayr, the desert was a place where God humbled and taught, where divine speech emerged from silence, and where false selves fell away.

The Al-Qariya bi-Duwayr monastery stands as material testimony to the conviction that the desert—so often imagined as empty and hostile—served for centuries as a realm of intense spiritual formation and communion with God.

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Mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as one of the two cities in which the Israelites labored during their servitude in Egypt, Pi Ramesses—biblical Raamses (Exodus 1:11)—is fascinating for a several reasons, not the least of which is that it could help date the period of the Exodus. At least, that is what some archaeologists think.

Corresponding to the archaeological site of Qantir in northeastern Egypt, Pi Ramesses became Egypt’s capital during the reign of Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great (r. 1279–1213 BCE). Although the city was one of the largest and most splendid in Egypt at the time, it only survived for a little more than a century, as the branch of the Nile it was built on soon dried up, forcing the Egyptians to move their capital to the nearby city of Tanis, about 20 miles to the north. Not letting the building material of Pi Ramesses go to waste, however, the Egyptians took much of the city’s stones and transported them to Tanis, with some of the buildings of Pi Ramesses being rebuilt in their entirety in the new city.

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Given its short period of habitation, Pi Ramesses might well hold clues for dating the Exodus from Egypt, connecting the servitude of the Israelites to a dateable, extra-biblical city. To learn more about Pi Ramesses and how it might connect to the Exodus account, watch this video with Egyptologist Mark Janzen, Associate Professor of Archaeology and Ancient History at Lipscomb University.

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The early church at Laodicea. Photo: Dr. Celal Şimşek/Laodikeia excavation.

How old is Christianity? When did it stop being a Jewish sect and become its own religion? As reported in “Crossing the Holy Land” in the September/October 2011 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, new archaeological discoveries of churches are crucial to helping answer those questions. But when did Christians begin to build these churches? Early Christian gathering places are difficult to identify because at first Christians met together mostly in private homes. Even as Christian populations grew, distrust and persecution by their Roman rulers forced the early church to stay out of the public eye.

The situation changed in 313 A.D. when the emperor Constantine made Christianity a licit religion of the Roman Empire. With this acceptance came the construction of large public buildings, or churches, to serve the worship needs of Christians. Remains of these churches are now turning up in Biblical archaeology findings around the world, helping to answer the questions: How old is Christianity in places like Turkey and Egypt? And when did Christianity begin to spread beyond Israel throughout the Roman Empire?

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In early February 2011 the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced some Biblical archaeology findings, including a large Byzantine Church at Horvat Midras southwest of Jerusalem. The structure, which was used as a church in the fifth–seventh centuries, was among many recent archaeology discoveries at the site and was located inside an earlier Jewish compound. The highlight of the basilica is the mosaic carpeting. The colorful geometric patterns and images of fish, peacocks, lions and foxes are rare in both the level of craftsmanship and the state of preservation.

But then disaster struck. Someone attacked these mosaics with a hammer. In the wake of the vandalism, the IAA covered the Biblical archaeology findings, stating that they hoped the mosaics could be mostly preserved, although it will now require significantly more time and money.

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But how old is Christianity’s presence in Turkey? Given the importance of Asia Minor to the apostle Paul and other early followers of Jesus, it should come as no surprise that a church from the fourth century was among the recent archaeology discoveries there. Turkey announced at the end of January 2011 that a large, well-preserved church had been found at Laodicea using ground-penetrating radar. According to the excavation director the church was built during the reign of Constantine (306–337 A.D.) and destroyed by an earthquake in the early seventh century.

Laodicea is mentioned several times in the New Testament, in both Paul’s letter to the Colossians and the Book of Revelation. Paul’s letter suggests that Laodicea had a very early Christian community. A bishop’s seat was located at Laodicea very early on, and it remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church today, although the city is uninhabited and the bishop’s seat has been vacant since 1968. In 363–364 A.D., clergy from all over Asia Minor convened at the regional Council of Laodicea. It is possible that the recently discovered church is the very same building where Asia Minor’s clergy met to hold the influential Council of Laodicea.

For more about these and other recent church discoveries, read “Crossing the Holy Land” by Dorothy D. Resig in the September/October 2011 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

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This Bible History Daily article was originally published in October 2011.

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We can learn from Assyrian depictions of ancient musicians a good deal about how Biblical psalms might have been performed. The meditative, introverted lute player on this eighth-century B.C.E. relief from Samal in modern Turkey, for instance, can give us an idea of what the performer of a wisdom psalm may have looked like. Photo: Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin/Photo Thomas Staubli.

Biblical psalms have throughout millennia been an important part of traditional Jewish and Christian worship. In synagogues and churches around the globe, psalms are sung today as they were two or three thousand years ago. Or are they? How much do we really know about how biblical psalms were originally performed? What might a psalm performance have looked like in the First Temple period, around 900 B.C.E.?

By examining available evidence, Thomas Staubli of the University of Freiburg, Switzerland, ventures to answer these intriguing questions in his Archaeological Views column “Performing Psalms in Biblical Times,” published in the January/February 2018 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

To be sure, there are no ancient music notations to inform us on the music arrangements of psalms in Iron Age Israel. What’s more, even though the collection of biblical psalms as we know it from the Hebrew Bible was established quite late, the oldest psalms were likely composed already in the 14th century B.C.E., from which we have no adequate documentation from Israelites themselves. Finally, given the biblical prohibition against graven images (Exodus 20:4), we do not possess depictions of people performing psalms. Because of this absence of direct evidence, Staubli focuses on comparative material, suggesting that we can learn much by simply taking a look at the Levantine neighbors of the early Israelites.

“The Bible does not tell us much about how psalms were originally performed. Archaeology and extra-biblical texts, however, can shed some light on the music and dance that accompanied psalms in biblical times,” summarizes Staubli his approach to the puzzle.

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“Among the Levantine parallels to the biblical psalms is the famous text corpus from Ugarit on the northern coast of modern Syria,” explains Staubli, referencing the so-called shuilla or the Akkadian “lifted-hand” petition prayers to different deities. Like many of biblical psalms, these ritual prayers contain in their rubrics designations of the genre, the function of the prayer, or descriptions of ritual enactments. Two examples read as follows:

It is the wording of a lifted-hand to the god Enlil-banda. You do the ritual with either a ritual arrangement or an incense burner.

It is the wording of the lifted-hand prayer to the goddess Ishtar. Its ritual: In an inaccessible place (lit., where the foot is kept away) you sweep the roof, you sprinkle pure water, and you lay four bricks at right angles to one another. You heap twigs of the Euphrates poplar (on the brazier), and you kindle the fire. Aromatic plants, scented flour, and juniper wood you strew. You pour out beer. You do not prostrate yourself. This recitation before Ishtar you recite three times. You prostrate yourself, and you do not look behind you.¹

There can further be no doubt that psalm singers were accompanied by players on musical instruments, which we can find depicted on numerous stone reliefs around the Levant (see image above).

Discovered on Elephantine, an island at the very southern border of ancient Egypt, the following fourth-century B.C.E. papyrus manuscript (P.Amherst 63) reveals that Yahweh was indeed seen as a music lover. Composed within the local Jewish community in Aramaic language but recorded in an Egyptian cursive script, it translates as follows: “Drink, Lord (YHWH), from the bounty of a thousand basins; be inebriated, Adonai, from the bounty of men. Musicians stand in attendance upon Lord (Mar): a player of the bass lyre (nevel), a player of the lyre (kinnor).”²

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Notes

1. Adapted from Alan Lenzi (ed.), Reading Akkadian Prayers and Hymns: An Introduction, Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2011, pp. 241 & 284. From ancient times, lifted hands are an expression of prayer (or greeting).

2. Adapted from Richard C. Steiner and Charles F. Nims, The Aramaic Text in Demotic Script: Text, Translation, and Notes (self-published, 2017), p. 48.

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This post originally appeared in Bible History Daily in February, 2018

The post How Were Biblical Psalms Originally Performed? appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Dogs in the Bible were not well loved. To be called a dog was to be associated with evil and low status. Therefore it is surprising that Caleb, one of the great Hebrew spies, means “dog” in Hebrew. Pictured is a stone relief created in 1958 by sculptor Ferdinand Heseding. The relief, which appears on a fountain in Dusseldorf, Germany, depicts the Biblical spies Joshua and Caleb carrying a cluster of grapes back from the Promised Land (Numbers 13:1-33).

Everyone loves dogs—don’t they? Dogs—or celeb in Hebrew—are humanity’s best friends. We welcome them into our homes, we walk them, feed them, clean up after them and excuse their bad behavior. But in ancient Israel, people had an entirely different view of dogs.

Of the more than 400 breeds of dogs around today, all came from the same ancestor—ancient wolves. Dogs were first domesticated perhaps as far back as 12,000 years ago. Because dogs are the only animals with the ability to bark, they became useful for hunting and herding. Dogs in the Bible were used for these purposes (Isaiah 56:11; Job 30:1).

There is evidence in the Bible that physical violence toward dogs was considered acceptable (1 Samuel 17:43; Proverbs 26:17). To compare a human to a dog or to call them a dog was to imply that they were of very low status (2 Kings 8:13; Exodus 22:31; Deuteronomy 23:18; 2 Samuel 3:8; Proverbs 26:11; Ecclesiastes 9:4; 2 Samuel 9:8; 1 Samuel 24:14). In the New Testament, calling a human a dog meant that the person was considered evil (Philemon 3:2; Revelation 22:15).

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Some scholars hypothesize that the negative feelings expressed in the ancient Near East toward dogs was because in those days, dogs often ran wild and usually in packs. Dogs in the Bible exhibited predatory behavior in their quest for survival, which included the eating of dead bodies (1 Kings 14:11; 16:4; 21:19, 23-24; 22:38; 2 Kings 9:10, 36; 1 Kings 21:23).

There is archaeological evidence, such as figurines, pictures and even collars, that demonstrates that Israel’s neighbors kept dogs as pets, but from the skeletal remains found within the Levant, the domestication of dogs did not happen until the Persian and Hellenistic periods within Israel.

The word for dog in Hebrew is celeb, from which the name Caleb derives. Due to the negative attribution of dogs for the ancient Israelites, it is surprising that one of the great Hebrew spies bears this name. As the Israelites were preparing to enter the land of Canaan, Moses called a chieftain from each tribe to go before them and scout the land. Caleb was the representative of the tribe of Judah. When these spies returned, they reported that the land surpassed expectation but that the people who live there would be mighty foes. The Israelites did not want to go and face the peoples of Canaan, but Caleb stepped forward and urged them to proceed. After more exhortation from Moses, Aaron and Joshua, the people relented. Caleb was rewarded for his faith: Joshua gave him Hebron as an inheritance (Numbers 14:24; Joshua 14:14).

Ellen White, Ph.D. (Hebrew Bible, University of St. Michael’s College), was the senior editor at the Biblical Archaeology Society. She has taught at five universities across the U.S. and Canada and spent research leaves in Germany and Romania. She has also been actively involved in digs at various sites in Israel.

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This Bible History Daily feature was originally published on January 26, 2015.

The post No, No, Bad Dog: Dogs in the Bible appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Painting from the tomb of Nebamun showing a cat catching birds. Courtesy of the British Museum.

Despite their stereotypically aloof attitude, cats are so popular today that they have been photographed the world over, are the stars of YouTube videos and have even been provided sanctuary at an archaeological site. When were cats domesticated? According to a 2014 study led by Wim Van Neer of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, cats may have been domesticated in ancient Egypt much earlier than previously thought.

Cats are traditionally believed to have been domesticated in Egypt during the Middle Kingdom (c. 1950 B.C.E.). Famously devoted to these furry creatures—calling them miw onomatopoetically—the Egyptians mummified deceased cats and depicted them in paintings and sculptures. Cats were associated with a number of Egyptian deities, including Bastet, the goddess of fertility and protector of women in childbirth.

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Excavations conducted at Hierakonpolis, the capital of Upper Egypt during the Predynastic period, yielded evidence suggesting that cats were tamed as early as the fourth millennium B.C.E. The skeleton of a jungle cat discovered in an elite cemetery dated to c. 3700 B.C.E. showed signs of a healed leg fracture, indicating that the animal was held in captivity and cared for for several weeks before its sacrifice. In another burial, the skeletons of six cats—two adults and four kittens—were uncovered next to contemporaneous burials of baboon and dog skeletons. Using comparative studies of wild and domestic cat skeletons, the researchers propose that the six cats buried together were domestic.

While Van Neer and his colleagues caution that the conclusions from Hierakonpolis are tentative until further comparative studies are conducted, the researchers believe that it is nevertheless evident a “close relationship” existed between cats and humans in Egypt almost two millennia earlier than previously thought.

Read more in The Journal of Archaeological Science.

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Related reading in Bible History Daily

Saqqara Tombs Reveal More Animal Mummies

Bible Animals: From Hyenas to Hippos

What Does the Bible Say About Dogs?

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

Ancient Life: Cats

Animals of the Bible: Living Links to Antiquity

From Pets to Physicians: Dogs in the Biblical World

The post Cats in Ancient Egypt appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.