Monday, August 15, 2011

Bible Software Review

Bible Review Software is one of a number of Bible software sights that offers benefits such as appraising existing programs.

http://www.bsreview.org/

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Palestinian Archaeological Databank and Information System (PADIS)

The Palestinian Archaeological Databank and Information System (PADIS) offers maps and various publications on archaeology in this region. The site concentrates on Jericho and Jordan.

http://www.lasapienzatojericho.it/Padis_old/Padis_Ind.htm

2 new atlases

The Digital Archaeological Atlas of the Holy Land
http://daahl.ucsd.edu/DAAHL/
interfaces with Google Maps. It:

...brings together experts in information technology including Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the archaeology of the Holy Land (modern Israel, Palestine, Jordan, southern Lebanon, Syria and the Sinai Peninsula) to create the first on-line digital atlas of the region held sacred to the three great monotheistic faiths - Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Using the power of spatial information systems such as Google Maps and Google Earth, GIS, the tens of thousands of recorded archaeological sites for the region - from the remote prehistoric periods to the early 20th century - will be entered into a comprehensive database along with site maps, photographs and artifacts. The historical and archaeological content for this project will be developed by a team of over 30 international scholars working in the region, helping to provide the data used to create the Atlas. This website and its content will serve as the prototype "knowledge node" of a more comprehensive Digital Archaeological Atlas Network for the Mediterranean region.

ArchAtlas
http://www.archatlas.dept.shef.ac.uk/Home.php
consists of a journal, themes, and an atlas relating to archaeology around the globe, using Google Earth.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Iconography of Deities and Demons in the ANE (IDD)

http://www.religionswissenschaft.uzh.ch/idd/index.php

From the website:

Iconography of Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near East (IDD) is designed as a companion to the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (DDD), edited by Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking and Pieter van der Horst (Leiden: Brill, 2nd edition 1999). Its focus will be on visual sources, which are essential for interpreting the religious symbol systems of antiquity.

IDD will not restrict itself to DDD's selection of lemmata. As a matter of fact, numerous DDD lemmata do not have visual correlatives; on the other hand, visual sources attest 'icon types', which cannot always be identified or labeled with a divine name. Moreover, while DDD demonstrates how many of the Near Eastern deities and demons have found their place into the Bible in some way or another, there are others, including major deities, who are not mentioned in the Bible and thus remain absent from DDD.

Our project aims at restoring the balance by establishing a selection of lemmata on an historical and archaeological basis: IDD should refer to all major deities and demons of the areas covered, regardless of whether they are attested in the Bible or not. On the other hand, in order to control the material boundaries of IDD, we take the 'biblical world' to cover the Eastern Mediterranean and Near Eastern area to the extent that were part of the biblical writers' geographical horizon. Wherever possible, reference will be made to visual evidence attested on objects recovered from known archaeological contexts in Palestine/Israel.