Volume 68, no. 4
December 2005

Absalom's Tomb Reconsidered

Claude Reignier Conder in Palestine

ON THE COVER:
One of Claude Reignier Conder's many sketches of Palestinian locals (PEF Archives, PEF/P1/86) © PEF

The Tomb of Absalom Reconsidered
by Joe Zias and Emile Puech

"A Record of Discovery and Adventure": Claude Reignier Conder's Contributions to the Exploration of Palestine
by David Jacobson and Felicity Cobbing

Pathways, Roadways, and Highways: Networks of Communication and Exchange in Wadi Araba
by Andrew M. Smith II

DEPARTMENTS

ARTI-FACTS

Deuteronomy in Dixie: Mobile's Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center Brings teh Dead Sea Scrolls to the Bible Belt
by Gabriele Fassbeck

The Revival of Prehistoric Field Research in Lebanon: THe Qadisha Valley Prehistory Project
by Andrew Garrand and Corine Yazbeck

REVIEWS

Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution of an Old Myster
(Trevor Bryce)

Catalogue of the Aramaic and Mandaic Incantation Bowls in the British Museum
(Peter Busch)

Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period
(Garth Gilmour)

Gender in Ancient Cyprus: Narratives of Social Change on a Mediterranean Island
(Gloria London)

FORUM

(De)Formation of the Israelite State: A Rejoinder on Methodology

148 The Tomb of Absalom Reconsidered
By Joe Zias and Emile Puech
The imposing stone monument in the Kidron valley, popularly known as the tomb of Absalom, is undoubtedly the best known of all Jerusalem's ancient monuments. While viewing a photograph of the tomb of Absalom in 2000, one of the authors was surprised to discover a faintly visible two-line Greek inscription crudely incised above the original tomb entrance that had gone unnoticed for centuries.The inscription, which the authors date to the middle of the fourth century CE, identifies the tomb as belonging to Zachariah the martyr, but which Zachariah? And why did Byzantine tradition have him sharing the tomb with Simeon, another important figure in the early Christian period, who is identified in a second inscription in the tomb?

166 "A Record of Discovery and Adventure": Claude Reignier Conder's Contributions to the Exploration of Palestine
by David Jacobson and Felicity Cobbing

Mapping Ottoman Palestine with the Bible, theodolite, compass, and spade, Claude Reignier Conder directed one of the most complete and detailed surveys of the archaeology of Palestine ever accomplished. Additionally, he identified Herodian Temple remains in Jerusalem's Western Wall, made the first copy of the famous Siloam Tunnel Inscription, discovered and mapped many of Jordan's prevously undiscovered megalithic monuments, and identified the site of the Battle of Qadesh. Yet, Conder remains one of the lesser-known participants in nineteenth-century British exploraton of the Holy Land. Fortunately, Conder was a prolific writer, and the archives of the Palestine Exploration Fund in London contain hundreds of his letters, reports, drawings, and paintings, many of which were either never pubished or have been out of print for decades. Two members of the Palestine Exploration Fund in London summarize Conder's life and work through his own words and paintings.

180 Pathways, Roadways, and Highways: Networks of Communication and Exchange in Wadi Araba
by Andrew M. Smith II
Wadi Araba is a landform of unique charcter, a massive linear depression stretching from the Dead to the Red Sea. There has long been a debate about the nature of human traffic in the Araba. While most agree that many cross-routes existed throughout the valley, contentions remain over whether any north-south routes ran through the Araba. Andrew Smith examines the broad range of settlement activity in the valley and the interconnections between the settlements to illuminate how ecological factors determined the nature both of settlement activity and of communication and exchange networks in the valley. In so doing he concludes that north-south routes did indeed exist within the Wadi Araba, facilitating cultural interaction in the Nabataean and Roman periods.