17吃瓜

Friends of ASOR聽presents the next webinar in our monthly series on聽February 21, at 7:30 pm EST, featuring Dr. Carol Meyers. An expert in biblical studies, archaeology, and gender in the ancient world, she will address an important question: Who were the most important religious figures in ancient Israel? Most people would probably say that the priests were. But they would be wrong. The main arena of religious life for most people in the biblical period was not the Jerusalem temple or a regional shrine; it was the family household, and women were major figures in household religious activities. Those activities are largely invisible in the Bible with its focus on the priesthood and sacrifice. However, the use of an array of archaeological materials鈥攁nd also some carefully selected and fascinating ethnographic data鈥攃an reveal many aspects of women鈥檚 household religious culture and its meaning for the lives of ordinary ancient Israelites.

In this lecture Professor Carol Meyers will take you into the Israelite household for an in-depth look at women鈥檚 religious activities, otherwise hidden from view. The webinar will conclude with a live Q&A session.

Carol Meyers received the A.B. with honors from Wellesley College and the M.A. and Ph.D. in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. She is currently the Mary Grace Wilson Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at聽. A prolific scholar, she has lectured and published widely. She is the author of more than 450 articles, reports, reference-book entries, and reviews; and she has authored, co-authored, or edited twenty-two books. Her 2013 book,聽Rediscovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context, is a landmark study of women in ancient Israelite society. Other recent books include a commentary on the book of Exodus and several excavation reports (with Eric Meyers). Among her co-edited volumes are聽Archaeology, Bible, Politics, and the Media听(2012),听The Bible in the Public Square聽(2014), and the Bloomsbury聽Handbook of Food in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel聽(forthcoming in 2021).

As a field archaeologist, Meyers has worked on numerous digs since she was an undergraduate, and she has been a staff member and then co-director of several archaeological projects in Israel. She has been a frequent consultant for media productions relating to archaeology and the Bible, including A&E鈥檚聽Mysteries of the Bible聽series, DreamWorks鈥檚 鈥淧rince of Egypt,鈥� NOVA鈥檚 鈥淭he Bible鈥檚 Buried Secrets,鈥� and several National Geographic documentaries.

Dr. Meyers has served on the editorial boards of many reference works and journals, including the聽Bulletin of ASOR. She was a senior editor of the聽Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East聽and associate editor of聽The Torah: A Woman鈥檚 Commentary. She is currently a trustee of the American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR) and Vice-President of the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation and recently served as President of the Society of Biblical Literature. Among her many honors and awards are ASOR鈥檚 Charles U. Harris Service Award for her many years of service as an 17吃瓜trustee and ASOR鈥檚 P. E. MacAllister Field Archaeology Award for her contributions to Near Eastern archaeology.