SBL review panel on Carlson, Unfamiliar Selves, part 3

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW has published another essay in its SBL review-panel series on Reed Carlson's book, Unfamiliar Selves in the Hebrew Bible: Possession and Other Spirit Phenomena (De Gruyter 2022):

Selves, Spirits, and the Usefulness of Comparison (David Lambert)

... In short, I would suggest that the use of comparative studies as framing material for the biblical, alongside the synchronic approach, is conducive to making a general claim about the importance of “spirit”-phenomena but not to the actual identification of difference, which I see as essential to the comparative and critical enterprise. The suggestion would seem to be that spirit possession is a core, universal human experience, quite apart from the particularities of its social construction as a part of a broader engagement of political, economic, social, religious, and gendered concerns in specific local sites. ...

I noted the earlier essays here and here.

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The Buddha at Berenike?

SUPRISE ICONOGRAPHY: Buddha statue unearthed at temple in Egypt's Red Sea region. A newly discovered marble statue of the Buddha at a temple in Berenike on the red sea shows a connection between Egypt and India during the Roman Empire (Nevine El-Aref, Ahram online)

Berenike Trogodytika was a port on the coast of the Red Sea in Ptolemaic times. It is named after Queen Berenike I, the wife of Ptolemy I. The latter appears under the code name "king of the south" in Daniel 11:5. I have mentioned it here and links.

The site continues to produce interesting discoveries. This latest one, from the temple of Isis (a.k.a the "Great Temple"), illustrates the cross-cultural and eclectic nature of Egyptian religion in the "Roman era." (The article does not specify the date of the discovery any further.) A Sanskrit inscription dating to the mid-third century CE, some second-century CE coins, and some first-century CE jars underline the connection to India. For more on the excavation of this temple, see here and here.

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Bumped with update and news: No news on the Mount Ebal "curse tablet"

ONE YEAR LATER: An Early Israelite Curse Inscription from Mt. Ebal? Questions abound following announcement of sensational new find (Nathan Steinmeyer, Bible History Daily).

Announced during a press conference in March 2022, the tablet comes from the West Bank site of Mt. Ebal, which was first excavated by archaeologist Adam Zertal in the 1980s. The site consists of two large stone installations, one circular and one rectangular. Zertal interpreted the site and the earlier circular feature to be the location of Joshua’s altar (Joshua 8:30), though many dispute this identification. The tablet was only recovered in 2019, however, when archaeologists with ABR began a project to sift the soil dumps from the Mt. Ebal excavation in hopes of identifying artifacts that had been missed during the original dig.

[...]

This is a reprint of a BHD essay published on 25 April 2022, which I noted originally here. It has just been posted again. I link to it not because it has new information, but to underline that it does not.

The object was first announced in late January of 2022. For more PaleoJudaica posts, start here and follow the links.

We were told a year ago that the epigraphic team hoped to publish an article about it in 2022. The article has not yet appeared. I have heard nothing more about the object in the last year. I would love to be wrong, but I remain skeptical of the claims about it. The Lottery Rule still applies.

UPDATE: I have just learned that according to Prof. Galil's Facebook account, an article on the tablet has been accepted "in one of the leading [peer-review] journals in the field." Which journal is not specified. I look forward to seeing the full evidence for the remarkable claims about the tablet.

UPDATE (13 May): The article is now published. See here for link and my initial assessment.

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A suppressed Roman campaign vs. the Nabateans?

NABATEAN (NABATAEAN) WATCH: Archaeologists Find Evidence of ‘Lost’ Ancient Roman Campaign in Arabia. The Romans tell that their conquest of the Nabateans was peaceful, but is that a tall tale of the victor? Or did they erase the memory of a fiasco in Arabia? (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

In the year 106, the Romans annexed the Nabatean kingdom and renamed it Arabia Petraea. The question is how exactly that was achieved.

Roman historians described this as a nonviolent process following the demise of the last Nabatean king, Rabbel II Soter. But now, in the barren desert of northern Arabia, archaeologists have detected what they believe were three Roman army camps. They're situated in a straight line between the Bayir oasis near the Nabatean capital of Petra and Dûmat al-Jandal in what is now northern Saudi Arabia.

[...]

If that's what they are, then something happened, but who knows what?

One possible explanation is that at the first camp the force was split in two and the second route hasn’t been discovered yet. Or maybe half the force split off and advanced ahead of the other half, and was responsible for ferrying water, the archaeologists postulate.

A grimmer possibility is that the size discrepancy holds clues about the soldiers’ fate: Half the force was lost en route from the big camp to the middle one. ...

But why be a downer? “This may not appear because nothing much happened! They started the campaign and halfway through the kingdom surrendered,” [archaeologist Michael] Fradley speculates. “If you’re being realistic, that may be why nothing appeared in the historic record. Or maybe the campaign was very small, run by a general who didn’t have a political career.”

History is written — or not — by the winners.

The underlying article in Antiquity is available for free with Cambridge Core:

A lost campaign? New evidence of Roman temporary camps in northern Arabia

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 April 2023

Michael Fradley, Andrew Wilson, Bill Finlayson and Robert Bewley

Abstract

Remote sensing survey in southern Jordan has identified at least three Roman temporary camps that indicate a probable undocumented military campaign into what is today Saudi Arabia, and which we conjecture is linked to the Roman annexation of the Nabataean kingdom in AD 106.

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BIAJS 2023 Student Essay Prize

BIAJS 2023 Student Essay Prize Deadline: 19th June

We are pleased to announce the launch of the 2023 BIAJS student essay prize. Two prizes of £400, ordinarily for one outstanding undergraduate and one postgraduate essay by students at institutions in the UK and Ireland, are awarded annually.

[...]

Follow the link for further particulars.

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The Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World Blog

THE ETHNIC RELATIONS AND MIGRATION IN THE ANCIENT WORLD BLOG, run by Philip Harland and collaborators, continues to publish many interesting posts with primary-text excerpts and commentary. They report that there are more than 325 of them. I noted the blog most recently here.

Some recent posts that deal with matters of interest to PaleoJudaica are as follows, more recent ones first.

Canaanites / non-Judean peoples: The Judean author of Jubilees on the Dinah story and intermarriage (mid-second century BCE)

Egyptians: The Judean tale of Joseph and Aseneth on rejecting Egyptian gods and on intermarriage (ca. first century CE)

Axumite perspectives: Inscription by the king of Axum on the Ethiopian and Arabian peoples he conquered (late-second or early-third century CE)

Ethiopians: Artapanos and Josephos on Moses, intermarriage, and the Kushites (second century BCE-first century CE)

Persians: Acts of Archelaos on Mani’s foreignness (early fourth century CE)

Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Phoenicians: Julius Africanus on competitive chronologies (ca. 222 CE)

Persians: Irenaeus on Marcus the Valentinian Magian (late second century CE)

Mediterranean peoples: Diodoros, Pliny and Plutarch on Pompey’s subjugation of peoples of the world (mid-first century BCE on)

Judeans: Reliefs on the Arch for Titus depicting temple treasures and defeat (late first century CE)

Judeans: Hekataios, pseudo-Hekataios and Diodoros on Judean origins and migration with the exodus (first century BCE)

Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Celts, and others: The Cicero brothers on the nature and effectiveness of divination (mid-first century BCE)

Assyrian / Babylonian wisdom: Sibyl of Babylon on the superiority of the Judean people (second century BCE)

Babylonian perspectives: Bel-re’ushu / Berossos on the origins of civilization (late fourth century BCE)

Persians: Heresy-hunters on Simon Magus and other Magians (second-third centuries CE)

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Schiffman and The Collector on Dura-Europos

PROF. LAWRENCE H. SCHIFFMAN: DURA-EUROPOS.

In a museum in Damascus, the remnants of a shul from the 3rd century CE linger, telling secrets of our history.

This blog post leads to a reprint of an Ami Magazine article by Prof. Schiffman on the ancient synagogue at Dura-Europos.

The Ami article focuses on Jewish remains at Dura-Europos. The Collector has a new article out by Robert C. L. Holmes which surveys the history and archaeology of the site more generally: Dura Europos: The Unknown Pompeii of the Desert. Located in the western desert of modern Syria, the ancient city of Dura Europos was a Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman border city. Its well-preserved ruins made it an Archaeological treasure.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on Dura-Europos, start here and follow the links.

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SBL review panel on Carlson, Unfamiliar Selves, continued

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW has published another essay in its SBL review-panel series on Reed Carlson's book, Unfamiliar Selves in the Hebrew Bible: Possession and Other Spirit Phenomena (De Gruyter 2022):

Possession and Relational Moral Agency (Jutta Jokiranta )

Carlson has opened up a rich investigation that goes in many directions—and deserves to be continued. As seen by the many ideas it created, it is a spirited enterprise!

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Not Pontius Pilate's ring after all?

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Pontius Pilate’s Ring Reexamined. Scholars contend Roman ring not connected to famous prefect (Nathan Steinmeyer).

This essay has a good brief summary of the background and issues. The underlying article by Werner Eck and Avner Ecker is in ‘Atiqot 110 (2023) (current issue):

Not a “Signet Ring” of Pontius Pilatus (pp. 89–96)
Werner Eck and Avner Ecker

Keywords: Roman Judea, finger ring, Pontius Pilatus, Roman administration, Latin, Greek, epigraphy

Gideon Foerster’s excavations at Herodium in 1968/69 yielded a simple ring, which was published only in 2018. The inscription on the ring was read as Πιλάτο(υ), i.e., ‘of Pilate.’ Various interpretations were offered for the inscription, all generally linking the ring directly or indirectly to Pilate. This paper shows that, apart from the problematic reading, everything we know about the Roman administration in the provinces speaks against such an assumption, especially the use of the Greek language in an administrative context in the first half of the first century. Alternative readings for the letters and other ways to understand them are discussed.

The pdf of the article is open-access (free).

PaleoJudaica posts on the discovery and discussion of the ring are here and here.

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Should Australia return a late-antique mosiac to Israel?

REPATRIATION CONTROVERSY: Untold story of how WW1 Diggers 'stole' a priceless mosaic from the battlefield that's now in Australia's most sacred memorial... but the 'real' owners want it back (Stephen Gibbs, Daily Mail).

• Shellal Mosaic was laid in 6th century in Palestine
• It was dug up by Light Horsemen during World War I
• Mosaic was shipped to Australia and put on display

... Now known as the Shellal Mosaic, this extraordinary artwork not only survived the battle but for the past eight decades has been housed in Canberra at the Australian War Memorial.

How the Shellal Mosaic came to be displayed 14,000km from where it was found in what is now southern Israel is remarkable enough. Where it really belongs has been debated for a century across three continents. ...

Cross-file under Decorative Art.

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Sasson on the Priestly Benediction

JACK SASSON, of Agade List fame (among his many accomplishments) has drawn my attention to his recent article on the Priestly Benediction (Birkat Kohanim):

"On Birkat Kohanim (Numbers 6:24–26) and its Citation." Jack M. Sasson. Pp. 379-402 in Richard Hidary, ed. Torat Moshe: Essays in Honor of Rabbi Moshe Shamah's Eightieth Birthday & the Jubileee of Sephardic Institute. Brooklyn: Tebah Educational Services & Sephardic Institute, 2022.

Background here.

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The archaeology of trees in the Negev

ARCHAEO-BOTANY: Genetic Tests of Israeli Desert Olive Tree Reveal Roots of Ancient Agriculture. A first-of-its-kind study by an Israeli university seeks to uncover the information contained in ancient fruit trees (Gid'on Lev, Haaretz).

Bar-Oz started out as a biologist, and most of his years in academia were spent as an archaeo-zoologist, focusing on studying animal bones from archaeological sites. His entry into the world of plants was a novelty for him. “There are groups in Israel studying the country’s fruit trees, but they consist mainly of botanists who focus on the taxonomic differences between varieties. They don’t study the ‘roots’ of trees, their cultural history. As an archaeologist, I can see that trees are part of culture.”

Bar-Oz admits that this is a somewhat odd type of archaeology, since archaeological digs were never done on living trees, which hold historical data. Previously, this type of information was not studied. “In Israel, and in the entire Mediterranean basin, fruit trees have been nurtured for thousands of years. If we learn how to read them and understand the information embedded in them, we can learn about unknown chapters in the history of agriculture. We want to characterize the architecture of the ancient fruit orchard and how it changed over time. This is pioneering work which has not been done before, here or overseas.”

The living tree on which archaeology was done is a 1,500-year old olive tree, discussed at the beginning of the article.

For the DNA analysis of the Negev wine grapes, see here. For more on the archaeology of the late-antique Negev, see here and links.

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Review of Coin hoards and hoarding in the Roman world

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Coin hoards and hoarding in the Roman world.

Jerome Mairat, Andrew Wilson, Chris Howgego, Coin hoards and hoarding in the Roman world. Oxford studies on the Roman economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. 384. ISBN 9780198866381

Review by
David Schwei, Episcopal School of Jacksonville. schweid@esj.org

Coin Hoards and Hoarding in the Roman World is the first collection of studies resulting from the Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire Project (CHRE). ...

Essay #9 is of particular interest to PaleoJudaica: “Coin Hoards in Roman Palestine: 63 BC – AD 300,” by Joshua Goldman.

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The ritual power of the Priestly Benediction (Num 6:24-26)

PROF. SHAWNA DOLANSKY: Birkat Kohanim: The Magic of a Blessing (TheTorah.com).

Why was the priestly benediction placed together with the laws of nazir and the laws of sotah?

This essay was published in 2016, but I missed it then.

For many PaleoJudaica posts on the priestly benediction of Numbers 6:24-26, mostly involving the Ketef Hinnom silver scrolls, start here and follow the links.

UPDATE (25 April): More here.

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Screnock & Olivero, A Grammar of Ugaritic (SBL)

NEW BOOK FROM SBL PRESS:

A Grammar of Ugaritic

John Screnock, Vladimir Olivero

ISBN 9781628374513
Volume RBS 102
Status Available
Publication Date November 2022
Paperback $35.00
Hardback $55.00
eBook $35.00

A Grammar of Ugaritic is an accessible yet academically rigorous textbook for first-year students of Ugaritic. Eight digestible lessons include more than 150 exercises to strengthen readers’ understanding through translation and composition of not only vocalized Ugaritic but also transcribed texts and cuneiform script—strategies that develop language skills and provide a sound basis for classroom teaching. Short stories interspersed among the lessons help students consolidate their knowledge and bolster recognition of forms. An introduction to the language and its historical context, glossaries, paradigms, and a bibliography and guide for further learning supplement the lessons. Students who work through the grammar in the classroom or individually will be rewarded with the ability to read real Ugaritic texts in cuneiform.

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Ancient Inscriptions from Israel / Palestine

THE AWOL BLOG: Ancient Inscriptions from Israel / Palestine.

I have mentioned the Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine Project a few times (see here and links). But since AWOL has just posted on it, it is worth mentioning again.

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