Publication of Gezer VI: The Objects from Phases I and II (1964–1974) continues the presentation of archaeological reports on the Hebrew Union College-Harvard Semitic Museum Excavations at Gezer between 1964 and 1974 as part of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology Annual Series. With the exception of objects previously published in Gezer V, Gezer VI provides a comprehensive database with listings of all of the objects recovered during both the Phase I (1968–1971) and Phase II (1971–1974) HUC excavations at the site. In addition, the volume offers a summary of the stratigraphic history of Tell Gezer and includes a series of plates illustrating a large sample of the finds sorted by type and strata. Provided also are a series of comparative studies of the major material and type groupings of the object repertoire.

In 1912, R. A. S. Macalister published reports on his PEF excavations at Tell Gezer in central Israel, including notice of having traced more than 1,400 meters (almost a full mile) of defense walls around the site. Now, a century later, a detailed reassessment of these fortifications is provided in the publication of Gezer VII: The Middle Bronze and Later Fortifications in Fields II, IV, and VIII, edited by Joe D. Seger and James W. Hardin. This volume features work at Gezer sponsored by Hebrew Union College and Harvard University between 1968 and 1974, reporting on excavations at Macalister’s “Southern Gate” (Field IV) and along his “Inner” and “Outer” wall systems both on the southern (Field II) and northern (Field VIII) flanks of the site. These excavations produced much new data, enabling a confident dating of the Southern Gate complex and the Inner Wall system to the latter part of the Middle Bronze period (1700–1500 B.C.E.) and of the Outer Wall to the Late Bronze II and subsequent Hellenistic eras. Among a rich array of cultural remains, intramural occupation of the Middle Bronze Age yielded a gold jewelry hoard and early evidence of alphabetic writing.

Publication of Gezer VI: The Objects from Phases I and II (1964-1974) continues the presentation of archaeological reports on the Hebrew Union College-Harvard Semitic Museum Excavations at Gezer between 1964 and 1974 as part of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology Annual Series. With the exception of objects previously published in Gezer V, Gezer VI provides a comprehensive database with listings of all of the objects recovered during both the Phase I (1968-1971) and Phase II (1971-1974) HUC excavations at the site. In addition, the volume offers a summary of the stratigraphic history of Tell Gezer and includes a series of plates illustrating a large sample of the finds sorted by type and strata. Provided also are a series of comparative studies of the major material and type groupings of the object repertoire.

Publication of Gezer VI: The Objects from Phases I and II (1964-1974) continues the presentation of archaeological reports on the Hebrew Union College-Harvard Semitic Museum Excavations at Gezer between 1964 and 1974 as part of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology Annual Series. With the exception of objects previously published in Gezer V, Gezer VI provides a comprehensive database with listings of all of the objects recovered during both the Phase I (1968-1971) and Phase II (1971-1974) HUC excavations at the site. In addition, the volume offers a summary of the stratigraphic history of Tell Gezer and includes a series of plates illustrating a large sample of the finds sorted by type and strata. Provided also are a series of comparative studies of the major material and type groupings of the object repertoire

Until recently, biblical studies and studies of the written and material culture of the ancient Near East have been fragmented, governed by experts who are confined within their individual disciplines’ methodological frameworks and patterns of thinking. The consequence has been that, at present, concepts and the terminology for examining the interaction of textual and historical complexes are lacking. However, we can learn from the cognitive sciences. Until the end of the 1980s, neurophysiologists, psychologists, pediatricians, and linguists worked in complete isolation from one another on various aspects of the human brain. Then, beginning in the 1990s, one group began to focus on processes in the brain, thereby requiring that cell biologists, neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, linguists, and other relevant scientists collaborate with each other. Their investigation revealed that the brain integrates all kinds of information; if this were not the case, we would not be able to catch even a glimpse of the brain’s processing activity. By analogy, van Wolde’s proposal for biblical scholarship is to extend its examination of single elements by studying the integrative structures that emerge out of the interconnectivity of the parts. This analysis is based on detailed studies of specific relationships among data of diverse origins, using language as the essential device that links and permits expression. This method can be called a cognitive relational approach. Van Wolde bases her work on cognitive concepts developed by Ronald Langacker. With these concepts, biblical scholars will be able to study emergent cognitive structures that issue from biblical words and texts in interaction with historical complexes. Van Wolde presents a method of analysis that biblical scholars can follow to investigate interactions among words and texts in the Hebrew Bible, material and nonmaterial culture, and comparative textual and historical contexts. In a significant portion of the book, she then exemplifies this method of analysis by applying it to controversial concepts and passages in the Hebrew Bible (the crescent moon; the in-law family; the city gate; differentiation and separation; Genesis 1, 34; Leviticus 18, 20; Numbers 5, 35; Deuteronomy 21; and Ezekiel 18, 22, 33).

This work provides a landmark in early twentieth century publishing summarizing the most up-to-date findings in all branches of the social sciences at a formative time and during a period of decisive historical discovery.

The first expansive reference examining the texts and material culture related to children in ancient Israel Growing Up in Ancient Israel uses a child-centered methodology to investigate the world of children in ancient Israel. Where sources from ancient Israel are lacking, the book turns to cross-cultural materials from the ancient Near East as well as archaeological, anthropological, and ethnographic sources. Acknowledging that childhood is both biologically determined and culturally constructed, the book explores conception, birth, infancy, dangers in childhood, the growing child, dress, play, and death. To bridge the gap between the ancient world and today’s world, Kristine Henriksen Garroway introduces examples from contemporary society to illustrate how the Hebrew Bible compares with a Western understanding of children and childhood. Features: More than fifty-five illustrations illuminating the world of the ancient Israelite child An extensive investigation of parental reactions to the high rate of infant mortality and the deaths of infants and children An examination of what the gendering and enculturation process involved for an Israelite child

Tel Maresha is located in the foothills of Israel's Judaean Mountains. It was established in the Iron Age II (circa 700 BCE) and is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Josh 15:44; I Chron. 2:42). But it was mainly a Hellenistic-period town - a major Idumean political and administrative center. One of the unique and fascinating aspects of Maresha is its subterranean city - hundreds of underground galleries and chambers filled to the gills with artifacts. This volume is a report of the excavations of one of these rich subterranean complexes - SC 169 - which contained a full corpus of Hellenistic pottery forms - both local and exotic altars, figurines, amulets, seals and seal impressions, hundreds of inscriptions in Greek and Aramaic, coins, jewelry and much more. These finds tell the story of an affluent cosmopolitan society comprised of Idumeans, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Jews, who lived together in a vibrant urban setting until the city was destroyed, probably by the Jewish Hasmonean kingdom in 104 BCE.