The International Congress on Biblical Archaeology, Jerusalem

Abstract

This year the Israel Exploration Society has its seventieth anniversary. In order to mark this special event, an International Congress on Biblical Archaeology was held in Jerusalem at the Hilton Hotel. About eight hundred people participated. The Congress was divided into two major parts: firstly, from the evening of 1 April up to the night of 5 April, there were the various talks, responses, discussions and so on. Secondly, for those who could make it, from 6 to 10 April there were excursions to various excavation sites in the country. I myself could only participate in the first part. The themes covered in the Congress were multiple, and they included the moot terminological problem of 'Biblical Archaeology', the difficult and agonizing research into Israel's origins, general methodological questions on stratigraphy, chronology and terminology, the Philistines, the Dead Sea Scrolls and Early Christianity, and so on. In one word, the Congress was comprehensive.