Aren Meir and Sue Frumin come back on the show to discuss a paper they co-authored that examined plant-related Philistine ritual practices at Tell Es-Safi, which is believed to be the biblical Gath. You can find a link to the study here. Aren is a professor at Bar Ilan University and director of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project. His research has a particular focus on the Bronze and Iron Ages of the ancient Near East. Sue is has been the archaeobotanist of the Tell es-Safi/Gath Archaeological Project since 2012 and is a member of the Faculty of Jewish Studies at Bar Ilan University.

Joan Taylor is a Professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism at King’s College London and the author of the book The Essenes, The Scrolls, and the Dead Sea. In this episode, we discuss her book that challenges misconceptions about who the Essenes were and their place in Second Temple Judaism. You can purchase a copy of the book on Amazon.

Michael Fradley is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and a landscape archaeologist. He was one of the co-authors of a recent study about how a remote sensing survey in southern Jordan identified at least three Roman military camps that seem to reveal a previously unknown military campaign against the Nabateans. You can find a link to the study here.