x4C Gone from NEASB

This past week the annual meetings for ASOR, BAS, NEAS, & SBL were in Denver. Normally I don't receive the NEAS Bulletin till a few months later, but it arrived in harmony with the actual meeting this time. I almost didn't recognize it though, because instead of the plain-blue cover graced by a hand-drawn x4C icon, it bears a color photo of tiles to complement one of the articles therein:

The x4C design dominated the cover from 1996 to 2017 ... not bad. The credits go to Jim Campbell for the fresh cover design & logo; & to Frankie Snyder for the photo. Here's the main ToC:

"Slinging in the Biblical World: And What We Can Learn about David Defeating Goliath" by Boyd Seevers & Victoria Dennis (a slight deviation from the paper's title at the meeting)

"A Matrix of Potsherds: An Indicator of Prefabricated Opus Sectile Panels from the Byzantine Period" by Frankie Snyder.

"Iron Age I Israelite Looms: An Archaeological and Experimental Study" by Boyd Seevers & Arianna Winslow

And yes, the 1st & 3rd articles were co-written by the same person (I double-checked). This issue also contains 9 book reviews, & a notice for next year's meeting in San Diego. That's another surprise. I attended & blogged about them there in 2007 & 2014, so shame on my cold/calculating brain for not expecting to go again till 2021.

G.M. Grena

Are You Age 10-14?

If so, your age matches the main numbers associated with my next book ... & qualifies you for the Sababa Society! Today I received an E-mail that will unravel this riddle, which you can view online at this link.

This year I've been blessed to acquire some of the rarest specimens of "10-14" postage stamps, particularly one related to the Jewish National Fund (Sababa's parent organization). I'm now overly concerned about documenting them in a formal, philatelic manner. So last month I acquired a gaming computer, & plan to launch into the task next year with a target publication date in 2020. Like Lv1, it will be the first comprehensive book on the subject (in any language), & contain a new classification system for the main collectible configurations & plating errors.

How sababa is that?

G.M. Grena

Read Is Gray and Paper White

While spending another day's useless energy searching for info pertaining to my previous post about the new Hebron park, I found this page:  Inauguration of Tel Hevron Archaeological Garden. At the bottom it has some "recommended articles" including King Seal Artifacts Attest to Hebron's Jewish History. That one has THREE links to works of yours truly, & one to a work of which yours truly was totally ignorant: a 21-page, 2015 white-paper by Ilka Knuppel Gray at Towson University, What Were The LMLK Seals?

Overall, she presents a decent summary of the complex mystery. I'm surprised that her latest citation dates to 2004 (my book & Ussishkin's RAEL) since more-recent publications should've been available to her. I don't have time for an extensive review, but I'm grateful for her numerous citations of my work alongside that of academic giants. Chalk up another one for the Redondo Beach underdog! I'm actually disappointed she cited my Lv1 book when quoting points made by some of those giants, but it's just a white paper; her purpose was to demonstrate subject-knowledge to fulfill coursework, not an attempt to school others.

Naturally I look back & lament her decision to accept/affirm the war-prep theory, but we can each decide which is right, & which is an illusion, right?

G.M. Grena