Scholar explores fusing archeological remains, historic texts

Scholar Dan Schowalter will investigative the three temples built by Herod the Great that Jewish historian Josephus writes about in his texts at a lecture at 7 p.m., Jan. 29 in Life Sciences A Building, room 1919, Arizona State University Tempe campus. Schowalter will examine the difficulty of integrating material remains at these archeological sites with textual evidence from Josephus’ texts and the New Testament.

The lecture is sponsored in partnership by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of Religious Studies, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, School of International Letters and Cultures, and the Central Arizona Society of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Schowalter will discuss the political significance of holy places in both the ancient and modern world. The remains of the temples at the cities of Caesarea Maritima and Samaria Sebaste in Israel have been discovered for years. But the discovery of a three-phase temple site at Omrit, in northern Israel, has created a debate about the location of the third temple.

He is professor of religion and classics at Carthage College in Wisconsin. His academic interests include archaeology, the development of the New Testament, honors offered to the Roman Emperors, and the modern dialogue between science and religion. Schowalter serves on the archaeology and religion in the greco-Roman world section for the Society of Biblical Literature. He is also associate director of the Macalester College excavation at Omrit in northern Israel.

Schowalter is a contributor to “The Cities of Paul: Images and Interpretations” DVD from the Harvard New Testament Archaeology Project. He is also co-editor of “Urban Religion in Roman Corinth: Interdisciplinary Approaches.”