Abila Lecture in Biblical Archaeology

The Abila Lecture in Biblical Archaeology is a bi-annual lecture series that promotes understanding of the archaeology and history of the Biblical world to audiences at John Brown University and in Northwest Arkansas. Each year the Abila Lecture will bring in two scholars to speak on the history and archaeology of the Biblical world. Abila Lectures held in the Fall will typically focus on the Old Testament and lectures in the Spring on the New Testament. Funding for the lecture series has been provided by generous donors to John Brown University’s Abila Archaeological Project which excavates at Abila of the Decapolis in Northern Jordan. All lectures are free and open to the public. We hope you will join us.

Fall 2017 Abila Lecture in Biblical Archaeology

"The Philistine Cemetery at Ashkelon"

Thursday, October 19th, 7:00 p.m. in the Cathedral of the Ozarks

Dr. Daniel Master - Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL

Dr. Daniel Master has been teaching at Wheaton College since the Fall of 2000. In 2001 Dr. Master completed a PhD at Harvard University in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations with a dissertation entitled, "The Seaport of Ashkelon in the Seventh Century BCE: a Petrographic Study." His extensive publications focus on the ancient Philistine city of Ashkelon and related topics in the excavation of ancient Israel. He also co-authored a volume on the excavations at Tell Dothan in Israel.

During the 2008-2009 academic year, Dr. Master was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the Albright Institute for Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. From 2011 to 2013 he was the General Editor for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology and the Bible. His teaching at Wheaton focuses on Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology, Historical Geography, and Archaeology and the Bible. For many years he has been the Co-Director of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon which had its final season of field excavation during the summer of 2016. In the summer of 2017, Dr. Master will be co-directing the first season of excavation at Tell Shimron in northern Israel under the sponsorship of the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC.