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BASONOVA is a non-sectarian society open to anyone who has an interest in biblical-era archaeology or the history of ancient times. Our members are drawn from all walks of life and live predominantly in Northern Virginia, Montgomery County and the District of Columbia. We call ourselves a society because there is an important social aspect to our organization.
We meet eight times a year, on Sunday afternoons, usually at a restaurant in the Metropolitan DC area to sample ethnic food, enjoy engaging table talk, and listen to well-informed scholars and field archaeologists. Many of these lecturers have international reputations and educate us for an hour with richly illustrated images of their work. Now in our second decade, BASONOVA began as an unofficial offshoot of Hershel Shanks' Biblical Archaeology Society and has grown to become a popular destination to meet a wide range of warm and thoughtful people interested in the biblical history and archaeology of ancient times.
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Yearly Events
Once a year we hold a special "big event." This year our "big event" was a lecture on discoveries at an ancient synagogue in Huqoq, Israel by the internationally renowned archaeologist Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina. Last year the big event was a reception and lecture at the Egyptian Embassy featuring superstar Egyptologist Betsy Bryan of Johns Hopkins University. (Professor Bryan will speak to us again this year in a smaller setting on the "Art of Royal Tomb Painting.") On other occasions, we have made trips to nearby museums and embassies where we have been entertained and educated and also enticed to visit their homeland archaeological sites.
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Funding for the Future
BASONOVA uses its $30 annual dues and per lecture fees for two purposes: to pay our lecturers and to invest in the future of biblical archaeology. We provides annual grants to worthy dig sites, or to archaeology students to help defray the cost of their participation in an overseas dig. For the coming year we are providing funds to help support a student dig at the site of Tel Kabri, a royal Canaanite site dated to 1900-1700 BCE, located in Israel near the Lebanon border. The student will return to speak at one of our meetings with a detailed report of their activities and findings, along with Professor Eric Cline of George Washington University, the director of the Kabri dig.
E-mail us today for information regarding our biblical archaeology society
or to learn about upcoming events.
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