Number of ASOR & SBL lectures scheduled:
- 52 & 673
Number of ASOR & SBL lectures I attended in their entirety:
- 14 & 14
Number of ASOR & SBL lectures I attended portions of:
- 8 & 5
Percentage of available ASOR & SBL lectures I attended (fractional lectures counted as 0.5 each):
- 35% & 2%
Prices I paid for ASOR & SBL lectures:
- $125 (1 day) & $135 (3 days)
Gas + parking expenditures for ASOR & SBL:
- $53 ($33+$20) & $165 ($99+$66)
Prices-I-ended-up-paying for each ASOR & SBL lecture (fractional lectures counted as 0.5 each):
- $10 ($178/18) & $18 ($300/16.5)
Intangible value received for attending ASOR & SBL lectures:
- Priceless!
Autographs I Obtained:
- Anson Rainey
- Aren Maeir
- Bruce Zuckerman
- David Noel Freedman
- Hershel Shanks
- Jodi Magness
- Lester Grabbe
- Marilyn Lundberg
- Nili Fox
- P. Kyle McCarter
- Robert Deutsch
- Ron Tappy
- Shlomo Bunimovitz
- Steven Feldman
- Zvi Lederman
Other Friendly Scholars I Met (*=LMLK VIPs whose autographs I already had):
- Ann Killebrew
- Beth Alpert Nakhai
- Carolina Aznar
- David Vanderhooft
- Jane Cahill (*)
- Jim Davila
- Jonathan Lawrence
- Lisbeth Fried
- Oded Borowski (*)
- Oded Lipschits
- Robin DeWitt Knauth
- Steven Collins
- William Schniedewind
- Yosef Garfinkel (*)
Other Scholars I Saw But Didn't Have an Opportunity to Speak with:
- Chris Heard
- James Charlesworth
- Jeff Zorn
- John Hobbins
- Larry Stager
- William Dever
- Yuval Goren
Scholars I Hoped Might Be There, But Weren't (or if they were there, our paths never crossed):
- Alan Millard
- Andre Lemaire
- David Ussishkin
- Eilat Mazar
- Ephraim Stern
- Frank Moore Cross, Jr.
- Melody Knowles
Scholars Who Were There That I Wanted to Meet, But Our Paths Never Crossed:
- Andy Vaughn
- Bryant Wood
- Jeff Chadwick
- Joe Cathey
- Larry Herr
- Ruth Ohm
- Todd Bolen
[Note: I'm abbreviating my blog reports as "A" for ASOR or "S" for SBL in brackets below; so "A5" means "ASOR p. 5".]
Best "Biblical Archeology" Lecture:
- "Come, Let Us Meet Face to Face" by Zvi Lederman [A5]
Best Paper Toss:
- Zvi Lederman, into the lap of Hershel Shanks [A5]
People Who Believe ASOR & SBL Should Record Conference Lectures & Sell Them to Raise Funds:
- G.M. Grena [A3]
People Who Had Thought I Was Older Before Meeting Me:
- Hershel Shanks [A1]
- Steven Feldman [A13]
People Who Disagree with Lenny Wolfe's "Lame Bet" Argument Against Forged Seals:
- Robert Deutsch [A8]
- G.M. Grena [A8]
People Not Afraid to Be Seen in Public with Robert Deutsch:
- G.M. Grena [A1]
Most Interesting Disputes
- P.M. Daviau vs. Beth Alpert Nakhai [A2]
- Larry Stager vs. Aren Maeir [A9]
- P. Kyle McCarter vs. Christopher Rollston [A16]
- Aren Maeir vs. all the Zayit-session lecturers! [A16]
Scholars Who Read "David" in the Mesha Stela:
- Anson Rainey [S11]
- Chang-Ho Ji [A2]
Scholars Who Write For, But Don't Read, BAR Magazine:
- William Dever [A2]
Scholars Who Think the American Public Is Dreadfully Ignorant (unlike the public in, say, Copenhagen or Timbuktu):
- William Dever [A5]
Scholars Accused of Not Knowing a Canaanite Dialect If It Were to Bite Them:
- William Dever [S11]
Scholars Who Don't Believe Any Ancient Records of Horse Quantities:
- Anson Rainey [A3]
Scholars Not Proud of Most Tel Aviv University Excavation Reports:
- Anson Rainey [A5]
Scholars Who Believe "Everyone Knew Everyone" in Iron-Age Israel:
- Deborah Cantrell [A3]
Most Controversial Lecture:
- "Khirbet Kiafa: Biblical Azekah?" by Saar Ganor & Yosef Garfinkel [A6]
Best Opportunity Given to Excavate a Monumental Iron-Age Gate:
- Yosef Garfinkel [A6]
Most Passionate Objection to a Lecture:
- Shlomo Bunimovitz, in response to "Khirbet Kiafa: Biblical Azekah?" [A6]
Harshest Criticism Delivered in a Lecture:
- Jodi Magness, to Itzhak Magen & Yuval Peleg's published interpretation of Qumran [S3]
Most Embarrassed Scholar:
- Jodi Magness (after being asked by me for an autograph) [S3]
Best Compliment Given to a Lecturer:
- Anson Rainey to Uzi Leibner--"an awesome presentation" [A3]
Best Use of a Valley-Girl Adjective by a Scholar:
- Anson Rainey "awesome" [A3]
Lecturer Who Used "Not" the Most in the Shortest Span:
- Christopher Rollston (9x in < 2 minutes) [A14]
Funniest Comment During a Lecture:
- Seth Sanders reacting to Ron Tappy's 5-minute-warning card [A15]
Unintentionally Funniest Moment During a Lecture:
- P. Kyle McCarter losing his place after mentioning "Hebrew national" (along with an intentionally funny recovery!) [A16]
Weakest Use of "Millions of Years":
- P. Kyle McCarter [A16]
People Who Know Radiometric Analyses Count Atoms, Not Years:
- Elisabetta Boaretto [A3]
- G.M. Grena [A3]
Best San Diego Museum Exhibit Related to the Bible:
Dumbest Bible-Related Museum-Exhibit Admission Policy in San Diego:
- Natural History Museum (the staff needs a few-million more years to evolve an intelligent policy)
Most Uncomfortable Conference Chairs in San Diego:
- Marriott [S8 & S12]
Best Hyperbole during the Conferences:
- Bruce Zuckerman, "elephant in the living room" (i.e., non-abecedary inscriptions on the Zayit Stone) [S5]
Worst Acting Performance:
- Nili Fox, "ouch" (stoic reaction to surgical removal of tattoos) [S7]
Most Annoying Remarks During a Lecture:
- Nili Fox (2; "literary nature" of Genesis, & "Deutero-Isaiah") [S7]
Lecture with the Most Attractive Ladies:
- "Daniel: Sage, Seer... and Prophet?" by Lester Grabbe (3--I had plenty of time to "see" them while waiting to get his autograph) [S8]
Most Unusual Sentence in a Lecture:
- "She's a really fine man!" by David Stein [S9]
Most Surprisingly Friendly VIP:
- Niels Peter Lemche (a really fine man) [S2]
Overall Nicest Person at the Conferences (no big surprise):
- Robin DeWitt Knauth [A13 & S10]
Scholar Who Used the Most English Words I Was Unfamiliar with:
- Anson Rainey (4: "preterite", "lexeme", "prothetic", & "syntagma") [S11]
Lecture with Best LMLK Content:
- "Storage Jar Transportation and Exchange Types in the Iron Age II Southern Levant" by Carolina Aznar [A7]
Total # of Unsolicited/Surprising Compliments I Received on My LMLK Research:
- 4 (Collins, DeWitt Knauth, Lipschits, Noel Freedman)
Things I Regret the Most (in order of occurrence):
- Not skipping out of part of the ASOR Zayit session to hear Steven Collins lecture on Tall el-Hammam
- Not reviewing my unpublished 2004 analysis of King Hezekiah's bullae before meeting Robert Deutsch
- Not scheduling an appointment to meet Andy Vaughn
- Not taking the time to stop by the AiG resources-booth (at ETS) while wearing one of my Creation Museum shirts
- Not inviting Jodi Magness to dinner (I had already embarrassed her once; why not shoot for 2?)
- Not being brave enough to ask James Charlesworth if he's James Charlesworth
- Not bringing a granola bar to Anson Rainey's lecture
Thanks to these scholars for posting comments during this blog series:
- Andrew Compton [S11]
- Kevin P. Edgecomb [S9]
- Owen Chesnut [A6]
- Peter van der Veen [A6]
- Scott Needham [S11]
Song of the week: "Friends With You" by John Denver (click the song title to visit Amazon; click here for a 24-second sample; 328kb).
G.M. Grena
2 comments:
Since you noticed Jodi Magness' harsh (and unanswered) criticism of Magen and Peleg, you will probably want to read this:
http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/charity-fund-involved-dead-sea-scrolls-conflict
It's also being discussed on ANE, see, e.g., http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ANE-2/message/6864
Yes, a nice color version of that PDF was brought to ANE-2's attention back in February (message #4000). It seemed like old news when the B&W version was mentioned again recently. I'm sure Dr. Magness was aware of it during her November lectures, & was completely unimpressed.
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