PRESENTING ANCIENT SPACES USING GOOGLE EARTH
Christopher M. Jones
Beloit College
jonescm@beloit.edu
SBL Annual Meeting
Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
November 23, 2014
How to Create Integrated Presentations in Google Earth
Locating ancient spaces
 A good many biblical places have been located, if not definitively then at least
conjecturally. Academic commentaries will generally note the modern site of an ancient
space, and should also cite publications on excavations conducted at the site.
 Coordinates for most dig sites are available, either in publications or online. You can
input the coordinates directly into Google Earth when you create placemarks.
Creating content
 Placemarks, polygons, and paths can be created by clicking on the buttons above the
main map screen. Polygons can be used to represent rough political or cultural
boundaries. Paths can represent itinerancies, trade routes, and the like.
 Use placemarks without icons to create regional labels.
 Power Point slides can be added to maps. First, save the slide you want on the map as
an image file (using the Save As command). Then, insert the image onto your map using
the Add Image Overlay button in Google Earth. Resize and position the slide as needed.
 Photographs can be added using Add Image Overlay as well.
Formatting and Organization
 I like to create one main folder for each presentation. Then I create one subfolder for
each “stage” of the presentation, and I arrange these in the sequence in which I’d like to
present the material. Of course, during class you can go out of sequence to suit student
interests.
 Copy all relevant placemarks, paths, polygons, labels, and images into each subfolder
where you would like them to appear.
 Make sure that you “freeze” the view for that subfolder at the right position and
altitude. Right-click on the subfolder and select “snapshot view.”
 During your presentation, all you have to do is double-click on each subfolder, and click
the checkbox next to it. Content will appear and the map’s “eye” will move as you’ve
directed it.
Selected Bibliography: Spatial Theory and Biblical Studies
Short Theoretical introductions
Flanagan, James W. 1999. Ancient Perceptions of Space / Perceptions of Ancient Space. Semeia
87: 15-43.
Berquist, Jon L. and Claudia V. Camp, eds. 2007. Constructions of Space I: Theory, Geography,
and Narrative. LHB/OTS 481. New York: T&T Clark.
Sleeman, Matthew. 2013. Critical Spatial Theory 2.0. Pages 49-66 in Constructions of Space V:
Place, Space, and Identity in the Ancient Mediterranean World. Edited by G. T. M.
Prinsloo and C. M. Maier. LHB/OTS 576. T&T Clark Library of Biblical Studies. New York:
Bloomsbury.
Jones, Christopher M. 2014. Retrofitting Jerusalem: Conceptions of Space, Identity, and Power
in Ezra-Nehemiah. Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison. (Chapter 2, pp. 41-73.
Available through ProQuest: http://gradworks.umi.com/36/17/3617738.html)
Monographs
Økland, Jorunn. 2004. Women in their Place: Paul and the Corinthian Discourse of Gender and
Sanctuary Space. London: Continuum.
Maier, Christl. 2008. Daughter Zion, Mother Zion. Minneapolis: Fortress.
George, Mark K. 2009. Israel’s Tabernacle as Social Space. SBL Ancient Israel and its Literature
2. Atlanta: SBL.
Sleeman, Matthew. 2009. Geography and the Ascension Narrative in Acts. Society for New
Testament Studies Monograph Series 146. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hutton, Jeremy. 2009. The Transjordanian Palimpsest: The Overwritten Texts of Personal Exile
and Transformation in the Deuteronomistic History. BZAW 396. Berlin and New York:
Walter de Gruyter.
Meredith, Christopher. 2013. Journeys in the Songscape: Space and the Song of Songs. Hebrew
Bible Monographs 53. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix.
Russell, Stephen C. Forthcoming. Beyond Sacred Space: A Geography of Power in the Hebrew
Bible. New York: Oxford University Press.