The life of an (aspiring) lost-language decipherer

AMBITIOUS HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS: The lonely life of a glyph-breaker. The heroic days of deciphering hieroglyphics and cuneiform make for great stories, but will we ever see that happen again? (Francesco Perono Cacciafoco, Aeon).

Rather than trying to amass oceans of scientific papers listing self-evident results and futile findings, instead of inserting AI and unnecessary technologies into the most human of activities, like teaching, universities and research institutions should value and support their people (something that, nowadays, happens more and more rarely) and be especially inclusive of the ones among them who are able to think outside the box, to go the extra mile towards the achievement of what is believed to be unattainable or, simply, impossible – like the decipherment of undeciphered writing systems.

There’s no question that challenges remain. Linear A, the Phaistos Disc, the Indus Valley script, the Rongorongo writing system, the Singapore Stone and many other mysteries still await their codebreakers. Their decipherment seems unlikely – especially for scripts with very few surviving texts – but so too did the breakthroughs in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Linear B.

I agree with all of the above, not least the reservations about AI matching human creativity in the foreseeable future.

This long article has a good discussion of the challenges of deciphering lost languages, a challenge that is more difficult today because most of the remaining lost-language remnants survive in such sparse samples. It also includes detailed accounts of Champollion's decipherment of Egyptian hierogyphics and Ventris's decipherment of Linear B.

The headline mentions the decipherment of cuneiform, but the article says little about it. For more, see here, here and (especially) here.

For a test-case of AI decipherment from some years ago, using Ugaritic, see here and here. For more comments on the use of AI for various aspects of ancient language decipherment and analysis, see here, here (especially), here, and here.

For the importance of the decipherment of the ancient Egyptian and cuneiform languages, see my post Why we need Akkadian (and the humanities!), again from some years ago, but still relevant. See also here.

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Review of Regards croisés sur la pseudépigraphie dans l’Antiquité / Perspectives on pseudepigraphy in antiquity

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Regards croisés sur la pseudépigraphie dans l’Antiquité / Perspectives on pseudepigraphy in antiquity.

Anne-France Morand, Eric Crégheur, Karine Laporte, Gaëlle Rioual, Regards croisés sur la pseudépigraphie dans l’Antiquité / Perspectives on pseudepigraphy in antiquity. Judaïsme ancien et origines du christianisme, 30. Turnhout: Brepols, 2024. Pp. 304. ISBN 9782503602608.

Review by
Fabienne Jourdan, CNRS. jourdan.fabienne@cnrs.fr

... Fidèle à son objectif, l’ouvrage traite la pseudépigraphie selon ses différents aspects : littéraires, historiques, religieux et politiques; selon ses différents types de réceptions, anciens et modernes, gouvernés par différentes attentes; il redéfinit la notion selon la nature spécifique des textes qu’elle sert à qualifier. La bibliographie est très bien exploitée. Cet ouvrage constituera un maillon essentiel dans la poursuite des recherches sur le sujet.

The volume includes many articles on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha.

The volume and the review are in French. A Google English translation of the review is here.

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The dogs(?) that didn't snarl(?)

PASSOVER IS COMING: The dogs that didn’t bark at the Exodus. As the Israelites prepare to leave Egypt, the Torah makes a reference to dogs. But why? (Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum, The Jewish Chronicle).

Dogs hardly appear in the Torah, but they do feature in the Pesach story. On the night set for leaving Egypt, God promised that “no dog shall snarl against the Israelites” (Exodus 11:7). It’s an odd thing to mention. Why worry about a few woofs?

An intriguing reading that involves the Egyptian god Anubis. With some midrashic support.

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The City of David, the Temple Mount, and the Givati Parking Lot

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The Parking Lot That Determined the Future of Jerusalem’s Past. In the 1860s, a British explorer discovered the City of David. Fifteen years ago, the Palestinian Authority tried to stop those who wanted to follow in his footsteps (DORON SPIELMAN, Mosaic Magazine).

Charles Warren kindled an ongoing quest to uncover Jerusalem as it was during the times of the First and Second Temples. The patient, careful work undertaken since that time has vastly increased the scholarly understanding of the Hebrew Bible (as well as the Christian one) and of Jewish history, and still attracts some of the world’s leading archaeologist, as well as scientists who are constantly developing new methods of exploring these sites.

Of course, those who have been involved in the project that Warren began have brought with them various religious, ideological, and scholarly agendas. But a different kind of agenda has emerged over the past several decades: an attempt to stop further exploration and destroy the archaeological record, in order to throw into doubt the connection between the Jewish people and their ancestral homeland. In what follows, I will look at those who have in recent years continued what Warren began, and how their progress was almost thwarted.

Charles Warren and his shaft, Herod’s Water Channel, Hezekiah's Tunnel and its inscription, and the back story of the Givati Parking Lot excavation.

This long article is fascinating and informative. Well worth the read.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Givati Parking Lot excavation, see here and links, plus here, here, and here.

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Jodi Magness

PROFILE: The Archaeologist’s World: Jodi Magness and Her Ancient Discoveries (Laurie Paolicelli, The Chapel Hill Local Reporter).

It was just another day for Jodi Magness: breakfast with her husband, a walk around her Chapel Hill neighborhood, and then a call from Austria. A documentary producer wanted to meet her in Jerusalem to discuss the Shroud of Turin — a linen cloth bearing the image of a man some believe to be Jesus Christ. For the average person, this might require a quick internet search to recall what the Shroud even is. For Magness, it was simply one of many calls from experts worldwide seeking her expertise on Jesus and ancient Jerusalem.

As the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 2002, Magness has established herself as a preeminent authority on the historical landscapes of modern Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories from the time of Jesus through the tenth century.

[...]

A nice, brief biography of Professor Magness and overview of her work.

For more on her work, including the remarkable Huqoq excavation, see here and links, plus here and here.

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Avi Hurvitz (1936-2025)

SAD NEWS FROM H-JUDAIC: Passing of Avi Hurwitz (1936-2025) (Elena Beletckaia).

H-Judaic is greatly saddened to learn of the passing of Avi Hurwitz (1936-2025), Professor Emeritus of Bible and Hebrew Language at the Hebrew University.

Born in Israel, Prof. Hurwitz specialized in the linguistic analysis of the Hebrew Bible. His effort to distinguish early and late biblical Hebrew was widely discussed.

[...]

May his memory be for a blessing.

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Masotti, But the Wise Shall Understand (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Felipe A. Masotti

But the Wise Shall Understand

Reuse of Prophecies, Chronotope, and Merging of Eschatological Horizons in Daniel 10-12

[»Aber die weise sind werden's verstehen.« Wiederverwendung von Prophezeiungen, Chronotopos und Verschmelzung von Eschatologiehorizonten in Daniel 10-12.]
2025. XXIV, 414 pages.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament 2. Reihe (FAT II) 157

€109.00
including VAT

sewn paper
available
978-3-16-163402-4

Also Available As:
eBook PDF
€109.00

Summary

Felipe A. Masotti demonstrates how the closely related phenomena of literary reuse of prophecies and time-space representation are employed in Daniel 10-12 to describe the ultimate end. Adopting Bakhtin's chronotope concept, Masotti shows how prophetic texts from Numbers, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Habakkuk are strategically reused to build a narratological architecture emphasizing the eschatological expectancy of an impending divine intervention. This volume illustrates how Daniel 10-12 creates a tension between conservatism and innovation regarding older eschatological expectations. Consequently, it unveils how the chronotopical architecture of Daniel 10-12 grounds a theology of God's sovereignty over classical prophetic time, and how the merging of eschatological horizons between its apocalyptic discourse and the reused prophecies is intentionally achieved through textual saturation.

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Purity in Ancient Judaism (Mohr Siebeck)

NEW BOOK FROM MOHR SIEBECK:

Purity in Ancient Judaism
Texts, Contexts, and Concepts

Edited by Lutz Doering, Jörg Frey and Laura von Bartenwerffer

[Reinheit im antiken Judentum. Texte, Kontexte und Konzepte.]
2025. VIII, 427 pages.
Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament (WUNT I) 528

€154.00
including VAT

cloth
available
978-3-16-159329-1

Also Available As:
eBook PDF
Open Access

Summary

Purity plays a central role in ancient Judaism. It is relevant in the encounter with the sacred, especially at the Jerusalem Temple, but also in the context of sacred communities, for example the Qumran yaḥad. Ancients Jews, however, also strove for purity far away from the Temple, both in the land of Israel remote from Jerusalem and in the Diaspora. Yet, means, procedures, and conceptualizations in relation to purity and purification varied. While purity therefore seems to be »everywhere« in ancient Judaism, it is not everywhere the same. The present volume explores different texts and material evidence in relation to purity, impurity, and purification, from both the historic land of Israel and the Diaspora. It adduces comparative evidence from Greece, probes and refines concepts of moral and ritual (im)purity, and traces the relevance of purity debates in nascent Christianity.

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Gaza archaeology exhibition in Paris

NOW OPEN: New Gaza archaeology exhibit opens in Paris, as most sites in enclave severely damaged. Artifacts on display include findings from Franco-Palestinian excavations initiated in Gaza in 1995, as well as items from the collection of Gazan real estate magnate Jawdat Khoudary (ROSSELLA TERCATIN, Times of Israel).

Titled “Rescued Treasures of Gaza: 5000 Years of History,” the exhibition is hosted by the Institut du Monde Arabe (Institute for the Arab World) and organized in partnership with the Museum of Art and History of Geneva (MAH) and the Palestinian National Authority.

Running from April 3 to November 2, 2025, the Institut du Monde Arabe is exhibiting what it calls “an exceptional collection featuring 130 archaeological masterpieces, each bearing witness to the vibrant and millennia-old history of this Palestinian enclave,” in a statement provided to The Times of Israel (the Institute did not respond to multiple requests for an interview with one of its representatives).

For PaleoJudaica posts on this collection and on this exhibition as upcoming, see here and links.

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Albert Pietersma (1935–2025)

SAD NEWS: Obituary for Albert Pietersma (1935–2025) (Robert Hiebert, IOSCS).

Albert Pietersma
Professor Emeritus of Septuagint and Hellenistic Greek
Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations
University of Toronto
September 28, 1935 – March 25, 2025

Albert Pietersma passed away peacefully on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at the age of 89. ...

He was a remarkable scholar whose contributions to the discipline of Septuagint Studies were stimulating and impactful, not least in his capacity as Joint-Editor-in-Chief (along with Benjamin Wright) of A New English Translation of the Septuagint (OUP, 2007) and of the forthcoming Society of Biblical Literature Commentary on the Septuagint series (SBL Press). Included among his numerous publications were monographs and essays dealing with Greek and Coptic papyrus texts of Genesis, Psalms, The Apocalypse of Elijah, The Acts of Phileas, and The Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres, as well as with topics pertaining to the textual criticism, exegesis, and hermeneutics of the Septuagint. ...

Reqiescat in pace.

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Review panel on Neis, When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven (5)

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW has published another essay in its review panel on Rafael Rachel Neis, When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven:

The Theory of the Raven (Sarah Pierce Taylor)

In responding to Rafael Neis’ book When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven, I write as a scholar of premodern South Asian religious literature focusing on affect, embodiment, and gender and sexuality. Being an outsider to the field means that the finer strokes of Rabbinic law and the like are impenetrable, but it is also a position of privilege for the ways in which it makes readily apparent the broader strokes and interventions of Neis’ project. ...

I noted the earlier essays in the series here and links.

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Zoom lecture by Prof. Amy-Jill Levine on Jesus' parables

CAL STATE LONG BEACH COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS: Zoom Event- Dr. Amy-Jill Levine: "Jesus’ Parables as Jewish Stories"

The CSULB Jewish Studies Program is deeply honored to welcome Professor Amy-Jill Levine back to Southern California. She will be discussing “Jesus’ Parables as Jewish Stories” via Zoom at 6 pm on Monday, April 7th. ...

Follow the link for the Zoom link and more on the lecture and the lecturer.

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Guide to ethnographic passages in Poseidonios of Apameia

ETHNIC RELATIONS AND MIGRATION IN THE ANCIENT WORLD: Guide to Poseidonios of Apameia (Philip A. Harlan).

This post is aimed at providing a guide for reading through ethnographic passages on this website from Poseidonios’ lost works (first century BCE):

Poseidinios passed on some dodgy ideas about ancient Judeans, and perhaps some comments on Dead Sea asphalt harvesting.

For more on this blog, see here and here and links.

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Aliyari Babolghani, The Great King’s Word under AhuraMazdā’s Protection (Brill)

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: The Great King’s Word under AhuraMazdā’s Protection. Notice of a New Book: Aliyari Babolghani, Salman. 2024. The Great King’s Word under AhuraMazdā’s Protection: Trilingual Achaemenid Royal Inscriptions of Susa I (DARIOSH STUDIES III/1) (Ancient Iranian Series 17). Leiden: Brill.

Follow the link for description and link to the publisher's page.

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Ten Commandments Scroll coming to Reagan Library exhibition

SCROLL ROTATION: Ten Commandments Scroll To Be Featured At The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library (Reagan Foundation press release).

SIMI VALLEY, CA. – The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute will introduce the Ten Commandments Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls to its exhibit, “Dead Sea Scrolls: The Exhibition.” This new addition offers visitors a rare opportunity to explore one of the most significant texts in religious history. The Ten Commandments Scroll will be on display from April 11 to 24, 2025, with a media day to witness the installation on April 10.

Never before toured in California and not seen in the U.S. since 2013, the Ten Commandments Scroll will be on exclusive display at the Reagan Library, the only stop on this tour to feature them. The Scroll, known as 4Q41, was discovered in 1952 in Qumran Cave 4 and contains Deuteronomy 8:5–10 and Deuteronomy 5:1–6:1. It is believed to be the oldest existing copy of the Ten Commandments and is permitted for display only two weeks every two years.

[...]

I noted in February that new scrolls were coming to the Reagan Library exhibition. But at the time I didn't know which ones they would be.

4Q41 (also known as 4QDeutⁿ or the "All Souls Deuteronomy" manuscript) was published by my good friend and fellow doctoral student Sidnie White Crawford in her Harvard PhD thesis and then in DJD 14 (1995). It contains selections from Deuteronomy, one of which is the Decalogue.

The last I heard of this scroll, it was on display in Israel in 2015. See my comments at the link qualifying the claim that it is the oldest copy of the Ten Commandments. For more on the 2011-13 exhibition in the USA, see here and links.

For more on the current Reagan Library exhibition, see here and links.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 226

ZWINGLIUS REDIVIVUS: The March Carnival: A Special Edition- Agade (Jim West).

Some of you are familiar with Jack Sasson’s brilliant email list called Agade. ...

This month’s carnival is in honor of Jack’s astonishing work on his list, his lifetime of amazing scholarship, and his collegiality and friendship over many years. The carnival is organized according to Jack’s email list categories. He sent out a LOT more links and such but since they were not particularly related to biblical studies I didn’t include them.

PaleoJudaica refers to the Agade List often. And Phil Long, the coordinator of the Biblical Studies Carnival, has more on it here.

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Bentley Layton (1941-2025)

SAD NEWS: Bentley Layton, distinguished Coptic linguist and scholar of ancient Christianity (YaleNews).

Bentley Layton, the pre-eminent scholar of his generation of the late ancient Egyptian language, Coptic, died on March 26 at his home in New Haven from complications of Parkinson’s disease. He was 83.

Layton, the Goff Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies and professor of Near Eastern languages and civilizations at Yale, made immeasurable contributions to the study of major textual corpora, including the gnostic texts found at Nag Hammadi, and the writings of the Egyptian monk Shenoute of Atripe.

[...]

Requiescat in pace.

Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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On the Coptic “Pillow Psalter”

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: The “Pillow Psalter” Returns. The Oldest Complete Book of Psalms is Back on Display (Marek Dospěl).

One of the most treasured artifacts in the collections of the Coptic Museum in Cairo, the so-called Pillow Psalter, is back on display. Dating to about 400 CE, this oldest complete Coptic manuscript of the Book of Psalms returned to public view in February, following almost five years of restoration work. As reported by several Egyptian outlets, including the State Information Service, the ancient codex has been fully restored and documented and is now presented in a newly designed permanent exhibit, ready to awe and inspire many more generations of visitors to the Coptic Museum.

[...]

This essay gives a good overview of the Coptic Mudil "Pillow Psalter" codex. But the above paragraph could use some editing. The essay was published a year ago, so the mentioned "February" is February of 2024. In other words, the psalter has been on display for the last year.

Nevertheless, the essay is worth reading, BHD has re-posted it, and I missed it last year. So here it is. PaleoJudaica posts on the codex are here, here, and here.

Cross-file under Coptic Watch.

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