The opening event of the annual gathering of members of the American School of Oriental Research (ASOR) got underway in San Diego this evening. Scholars and archaeologists from many parts of the world gathered to hear the opening comments and lectures. What was evident was an organization that was fighting back against the tides of post modernism that influences so much in academia today. In his opening remarks, president Eric Meyers of Duke University harked back to a discussion with Yigal Yadin who had anticipated a divide in the academic sphere. Yadin’s solution was to establish endowed chairs in biblical archaeology in at least 10 American universities. As a start toward raising the necessary funds, he had offered his draw as a speaker. Sadly, Yadin left for Israel after that meeting and died the next day without being able to start on the challenge. In his place, Norma Kershaw rose to the challenge and with her husband endowed two chairs in Southern California. Norma Kershaw was part of the welcoming committee this evening, as was David Noel Freedman of the University of San Diego. In his remarks Freedman followed Meyers lead in discussing a ring found on a female skeleton at Meggido 75 years ago in a controlled dig supervised by a licensed archaeologist. The inscription on the ring has challenged epigraphers ever since. Freedman offered his interpretation. In his opinion, the inscription lines up with a woman mentioned in Judges 5:28—the mother of Sisera, a warrior who battled against the Israelite forces under the leadership of Deborah and Barak. To Freedman, the inscription on the ring is cause for accepting that the Bible contains historical information relating to the beginning of Israel. The focus of the evening was a lecture by Jodi Magness, a religious studies professor of at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, titled “The Current State of Qumran Archaeology.” Magness tied the confusion on the subject to those who wished to separate the archaeology from the textual evidence associated with the site. For Magness, this is characteristic of the post-modern approach to archaeology. Magness went on to show that by the use of both archaeological and textual evidence an understanding of the intimate purity regulations of the Essenes could be understood. Eric Meyers, in a brief discussion during the reception following the meeting spoke to the vitality of the traditional approach to archaeology. According to Meyers, the difficulty is that younger members are too interested in anthropology by itself and won’t consider the textual evidence that needs to be brought into the discussion. So the first evening ended on a high note with a reception. | 
