Events
Wednesday, May 29th 2013, 8pm, Dugout Conference Room, RIMAC Annex, UCSD
Aren Maeir, Bar Ilan University in Israel; UCSD Visiting Professor
"Who are you calling a Philistine? Archaeology and the Bible at Tell es-Safi - biblical Gath of the Philistines"
The biblical Philistines, arch-enemies of the Israelites, have for many centuries suffered from "bad PR" - due to the biblical texts negative attitude towards them. Archaeological excavations over the last century have slowly changed this perception, demonstrating that the Philistines had an extremely complex, diverse and developed culture - particularly in comparison to the contemporaneous Israelites. Recent finds from Philistia, and in particular from Tell es-Safi/Gath (biblical Gath of the Philistines - home town of Goliath), now show that not only are previous understandings of the biblical Philistines somewhat monolithic in nature, but that a thorough reassessment of the relationship between the biblical texts about the Philistines and the archaeological remains are called for. This can serve as an excellent case study for the modern interface between Bible and Archaeology - a long-debated and contested topic. In this lecture, Prof. Aren Maeir, of Bar-Ilan University (Ramat-Gan, Israel), will discuss these and other issues, with particular emphasis on the results of the excavations at Tell es-Safi/Gath, a project which he directs.
You can read more about Professor Maeir on our Visiting Scholars page.
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Sunday, June 1st through Saturday June 9th 2013, 11:00am-6:00pm daily, Atkinson Hall, UCSD
Out of Egypt: Israel’s Exodus Between Text and Memory, History and Imagination
This exhibition organized by CISA3 associate director Tom Levy will showcase alternative interpretations of the Exodus, using high-tech display tools in a museum-of-the-future setting.
The exhibition will be preceded by an invitation-only symposium for academics on Saturday, May 31, OUT OF EGYPT. The exhibition will open to the public on Saturday, June 1 and run through Sunday, June 9.
Parking for this event is free on the weekends.
Wednesday, June 5th 2013, 5:00pm, Atkinson Hall, UCSD
William H.C. Propp, Harriet and Louis Bookheim Chair in Biblical Hebrew and Related Languages, UCSD
"What Was the Exodus?"
Was the Israelite Exodus out of Egypt a historical event? To answer this question, we must first decide what we mean by “the Exodus” and what we mean by “historical”? Are there solid facts behind the Torah’s account of the miraculous departure from slavery? What evidentiary tests are imposed by the concept of historicity as understood by historians back to Thucydides?
Drawing upon his own previous researches and the presentations at the UCSD Calit2 Qualcomm Institute conference Out of Egypt: Israel’s Exodus Between Text and Memory, History and Imagination (June 1-3, 2013), Professor Propp will consider whether and to what extent we can utilize the Hebrew Bible as a historical source, and how its narrative fits into the known history and archaeology of the Late Bronze Age. Finally, to illustrate the challenges the Exodus poses to the historian, Propp will compare the biblical tale to another miraculous escape story, drawn from the folklore of World War I.
Dr. William H. C. Propp, Professor of Ancient History and Judaic Studies, holds the Harriet and Louis Bookheim Chair in Biblical Hebrew and Related Languages at the University of California San Diego, where he has taught since 1983. His three books, Water in the Wilderness (1987), Exodus 1-18 (1999) and Exodus 19-40 (2006) all concern traditions of the Israelite Exodus.
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Event and Parking Location [Google Maps]