Notice of a New Book: Leuchter, Mark A. 2025. An Empire Far and Wide: The Achaemenid Dynastic Myth and Jewish Scribes in the Late Persian Period. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Follow the link for description and ordering information. I noted the publication of the ebook, with the hardback forthcoming, here. The hardback is finally out.
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The most interesting is the reported recovery of biographical details about the philospher Zeno of Citium. He was the founder of Stoicism and is not to be confused with Zeno of Elea, the Presocratic philosopher who gave us Zeno's famous paradoxes of the flying arrow and of Achilles and the tortise.
This press release refers to a study in Scientific Reports (Springer Nature). The only such study I can find is a highly technical one that lacks the detials about the contents of this and the other papyri. But it's open access, so have a go at it if you like.
Pulsed thermographic analysis of Herculaneum papyriIt's not clear to me how much of the information about Zeno is new. The manuscript PHerc. 1018 was originally published in a Brill volume in 1993.Sofia Ceccarelli, Massimo Rippa, Giovanni Caruso, Loredana Luvidi, Simona Boccuti, Melania Paturzo, Vito Pagliarulo, Kilian Fleischer, Costanza Miliani & Graziano Ranocchia
Scientific Reports volume 15, Article number: 34466 (2025)Abstract
The Herculaneum papyri represent an exceptional cultural treasure, providing invaluable insights into the philosophical, literary and historical landscape of the Greco-Roman world. However, their carbonization due to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD poses significant challenges for both textual legibility and structural analysis. This study illustrates the first application of Pulsed Thermography to the non-destructive analysis of these unique manuscripts. By employing an experimental setup comprising a couple of flashes providing the excitation and a thermal camera for recording the infrared emission from the sample, the technique proves to be an important tool for textual recovery, revealing writing almost not discernible to the naked eye. Furthermore, Pulsed Thermography provides structural information useful for restorers, such as the papyrus texture and adhesion points to paperboard, offering a valuable advantage over other imaging techniques. The results show the potential of the adopted method not only as a powerful tool for textual recovery but also for guiding conservation strategies ensuring a deeper understanding of Herculaneum papyri.
The Vesuvius Challenge Project also has a new Substack post on the latest on the scrolls' decipherment. Again, it is technical.
Multiple scrolls now show Greek letters. Who wants to help read them all?
TL;DR: Our generalist ink‑detection model and ~2 µm CT scans now reveal Greek letters across multiple scrolls. Early, noisy—but real signal. VC3D gets major usability upgrades. New $200K Unwrapping at Scale prize. Get involved.Finally, NewScientist has a general article on the decipherment of the Herculaneum Library.
What I can see looks interesting, but the rest is behind a subscription wall.
Anyway, bit by bit, a letter at a time, whatever it takes. Until we're done.
For many PaleoJudaica posts on the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE and its destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and on the efforts to reconstruct and decipher the carbonized library at Herculaneum, start here and follow the links.
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But did Alexander the Great visit Jerusalem, or didn’t he? That is the single most frequently asked question when people hear the title of my new book, Alexander the Great in Jerusalem: Myth & History. It is encouraging in our day and age that people still care about facts. The truth of the matter is, however, that there is really no way to tell. After more than 20 years of studying the evidence, my answer to this basic question is a definite maybe.That's a good answer.
Regarding the book:
Either way, a much more important question for me — indeed, it stands at the heart of my book — is not what happened when Alexander passed through the Levant, but rather what it was that generations of Judean storytellers intended when they made up stories about Alexander in Jerusalem that were clearly fictional. These fictions are themselves historical facts, and they each contain their storyteller’s assumptions and agenda. Methodologically, my point of attack lies with the alternative facts presented by each story. By considering these fictive factoids together with each story’s tendencies and attitudes, I attempt to offer a historical context for each of the four stories studied in the book.I noted the publication of the book here. And for many PaleoJudaica posts on Alexander the Great and his connection with ancient Jewish traditions, follow the links from there.
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At creation, humans and animals were alike—plant-eating, unclothed, and speaking the same language; God even brings the beasts to Adam to find a fitting companion. Everything changes when Adam and Eve eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. What kind of story is this? Remarkable parallels with the Mesopotamian Gilgamesh epic show how the biblical author crafted an Israelite wisdom story about the end of humankind’s infancy.
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Archaeologists have discovered six new Aramaic inscriptions at Zernaki Tepe, a 3,000-year-old ancient city in eastern Türkiye’s Van Province. The findings — including several deliberately erased inscriptions — shed new light on the Parthian-era presence in Eastern Anatolia and reveal traces of political conflict between ancient powers that once dominated the region. ...That makes a total of 14 [number corrected] Aramaic inscriptions found at this site. A few years ago, I noted the discovery of four of them.Professor Çavuşoğlu explained that three inscriptions had been deliberately erased, suggesting cultural or political upheaval: “Some of the inscriptions were intentionally scraped off. This likely indicates inter-civilizational conflict or an effort by a later ruling power to erase the traces of the previous one.”
It would be nice if at some point someone would tell us what some of them say.
I don't know how much can be recovered from the erased ones. There is a photo of one of them in this article. It looks like it has potential. Anyone want to have a go at it?
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I noted one of these last week with the comment, "Of potential considerable interest also for biblical studies." True for the rest of these volumes too, some more than others.
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This is a reprise of an oldie (2013), but goodie. I posted on it at the time, but the links are all rotted, so it's worth a repeat.
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About this eventThis free lecture takes place on Wednesday, October 22 · 5 - 6:30pm GMT+1. Follow the link for ticket information. It says there are few tickets left, which surprises me for an online event. But don't dawdle!Mapping the Jews of Ancient Egypt: From the Hellenistic Period to the Arab Conquest
This paper presents IM–JEDI, an interactive map of the Jews of Egypt based on documentary (papyri) and epigraphic evidence, tracing Jewish settlement and migration from the Ptolemaic through the Byzantine periods. By visualizing geographical shifts, continuity, and disappearance of communities, the project highlights urban and rural distribution, the impact of the Diaspora Revolt (115–117 CE), and the transformation of Egyptian Jewry in its aftermath. Case studies from the Fayum, Antinoopolis, Oxyrhynchus, and Upper Egypt (Edfu) illustrate patterns of resilience, decline, and cultural adaptation. The map demonstrates how digital tools can illuminate Jewish history in Egypt across centuries of political and social change.
Meron M. Piotrkowski (Ph.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2015) is Associate Professor of Ancient Jewish History at the University of Oxford. A historian of antiquity, he specializes in the Second Temple period with a particular focus on the Jewish Diaspora in Egypt. He is the author of Priests in Exile: The History of the Temple of Onias and Its Community in the Hellenistic Period (Berlin and Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2019) and a contributor to the new Corpus Papyrorum Judaicarum (vols. IV–VII, eds. N. Hacham and T. Ilan). His current book project focuses on the History of the Jewish community of Oxyrhynchus in Egypt during the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods.
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Carlotta Viti, Ancient Greek and Latin in the linguistic context of the ancient Mediterranean. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto, 2024. Pp. 460. ISBN 9783823385851.A couple of the articles deal with biblical languages and translations.Review by
James Clackson, University of Cambridge. jptc1@cam.ac.ukThe title of this volume is broad; the papers within range even wider, although most deal with some aspect of the linguistic study of Latin and Ancient Greek. The introduction (and synopsis of the book on the back cover) stress that the book privileges the perspective of language contact as a productive way of looking at Latin and Greek, offering new insights into the developments of ancient languages through the effect of contact. This is certainly a laudable aim, and the many studies on multilingualism and language contact in the ancient world show that there is still much to be done in this area. ...
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He began documenting Maaloula’s history through a scientific and methodical approach, avoiding hearsay and repetition. He explored its narrow alleys, studied inscriptions on monastery walls, and recorded the stories of its residents. His focus later turned to the language itself, comparing ancient inscriptions, identifying its various scripts — round Aramaic, square Hebrew, and Eastern Syriac — and seeking, as he put it, “to extract the mother Syrian tongue from the womb of early Aramaic writing.”PaleoJudaica has been following the fate of Maaloula (Ma'aloula, Malula, Maalula - etc!), the Syrian city where Aramaic is still spoken, for more than 20 years - all the way through it's destruction by jihadis during the civil war and its subsequent recovery. Start here and follow the links.
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“If a seven-day week existed in Arad, it was possibly replaced by a six-day cycle, which divided the 30-day month into five segments, facilitating foodstuffs calculations,” the researchers write in the paper. “Such a calendrical system would have enabled both storekeepers (e.g., Eliashib) and recipients (e.g., the Kittiyim) to plan and manage provisions more effectively by distinguishing, for example, between perishable.”The underlying open-access article is published in the current volume (8, 2025) of the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology.
Gorzalczany, A. & Rosen, B.If correct, their conclusion raises the question of what the relationship could have been between Arad's 6-day administrative cycle and the cultic 7-day week, with Sabbath. Assuming the latter was observed in late-Iron-Age Judah.
Measuring Time, Distance, and Mass in the Arad Fortress, Early 6th Century BCE
pp. 106-119Abstract
While Biblical Hebrew literacy has been widely studied, numeracy—the cognitive ability to understand and manipulate numbers—remains a largely overlooked, underexplored domain. This article addresses this gap by examining the Arad Ostraca. These texts were produced in the early 6th century BCE and concern routine administrative operations, including issuing, receiving, and recording goods such as wine, bread, and grain. We pay close attention to timekeeping systems, including references to days, months, and a single regnal year and propose that some documents reflect a structured six-day supply cycle. It divides a 30-day month into five segments, establishing a calendrical system, which might have been influenced by Egyptian or Mesopotamian administrative traditions. Furthermore, the use of hieratic numerals in these otherwise Hebrew texts suggests a complex hybrid scribal culture. The paper argues that scribes and officials at Arad regularly engaged in quantification and planning, embedding numeracy into the syntax and lexicon of their written communications. However, because these inscriptions stem from a military and bureaucratic context, they likely represent a specialized linguistic register and do not necessarily testify to how Biblical Hebrew was used in other circles. The study thus contributes to our understanding of cognitive, logistic, and linguistic development in Iron Age Judah, while cautioning against generalizations beyond the administrative sphere.
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Written by a Jew in the 2nd century B.C.E., The Letter of Aristeas tells how Demetrius of Phalerum advised King Ptolemy II (3rd cent. B.C.E.) that the Library of Alexandria should commission a Greek translation of the otherwise inaccessible Jewish Torah. At the king’s request, Eleazar, the High Priest of the Jerusalem Temple, sends high-quality manuscripts and seventy-two translators—six from each Israelite tribe—who so impress the Hellenistic king and his court with the Torah’s universal wisdom that he offers to pay them to remain in Egypt.
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That seems reasonable. At 57, Caviezel is getting a bit antiquated to play Jesus. Even though according to Revelation 2:12-16, the resurrected Jesus had gone gray.
Also, more information on the release date of the two-part movie:
After having been in the works for roughly a decade, The Resurrection of the Christ: Part One hits theaters March 26, 2027, which is Good Friday. Forty days later, Part Two will debut May 6, 2027, in honor of Ascension Day. Gibson is producing the films with Icon Productions partner Bruce Davey.Background here and links.
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I wish you the joy of the holiday. Two years later, today is indeed a day of joy.
Last year's Shemini Atzeret post is here. Biblical etc. links are here.
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I should say a few words about the "Festival Camp," which was about a 45-minute walk inland from the Port where the parades originated.
The Camp was a horseshoe-shaped street area with two entrances, one for the Carthaginian street and one for the Roman one. The two streets merged amicably at the base of the horseshoe. The were mostly a big food mall, whose temporary restaurants were appropriately themed for each street. The food was inexpensive and excellent, as it was everywhere we tried in Cartagena. There was also a Roman "village" to one side, with lots of tourist goodies for sale.
Carthage Street:
Rome Street:
On Saturday we visted the aforementioned Castle and made a feathered friend.
After lunch, we took a boat tour around the coast. This is the view of the Port from out in the bay.
We had a late dinner at the Festival Camp on the Carthaginian street. Meanwhile, the third parade, The Grand General Parade of Troops and Legions, had commenced at the Port.
Bless the Cartagenans. There was a Thursday evening parade seeing Hannibal off to the Alps. Then a Friday Victory Parade. The parades were huge, with at least many hundreds of participants, perhap more. Each parade involved a slow walk over something like three miles from the Port to the Camp. There was much drumming, marching, and even fire acrobatics, the whole time. It must have been exhausting. But they were ready and full of energy for the final Saturday night parade. We caught the beginning of its arrival at the Camp as we were heading back to our accommodation.
Sunday had no day festival events, so we made it a day at the beach with lunch. The lovely Cala Cortina beach is a four kilometer taxi ride from the Port.
Sunday evening we had dinner again at the Camp. Then we attended the finale, the Extinguishing of the Sacred Fire, followed by fireworks.
The speeches went on for a bit, so we were pretty sure the sacred flame had already extinguished itself. But it was good ceremony nonetheless.
VIVA LOS CARTHAGENESES Y LOS ROMANOS!
VIVA!!
VIVA LA CARTAGENA!
VIVA!!
In our experience, Cartagena is a beautiful, safe, and friendly city. Highly recommended.
Previous posts in the series are here, here, here, here, and here.
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With both parties agreeing to terms, the first stages of a peace plan in Gaza are in motion. US President Donald Trump is credited (especially in Israel and the US) with having played a vital role in this development.This comparison has been around for a while. For many PaleoJudaica posts on Cyrus the Great, start here and follow the links.But why have banners appeared in Israel depicting Trump with the caption “Cyrus the Great is alive”?
Who was Cyrus and what is he renowned for?
[...]
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The “Africanness” of Augustine is a case made from deep reading and an imaginative instinct for the sources, pointing to the unusual survival of Punic alongside Roman throughout North Africa; and the unique dynamics of the African Church, with its distinctive customs and Donatist schisms. Rather than falling into the trap of treating Roman Africa as a subaltern identity, [author Catherine] Conybeare paints a persuasive portrait of a provincial identity, closely linked to a hyperlocal patria of home town and patronage networks.The book under review is Augustine the African (Blackstone, 2025).Africa, in the context of the book, means the Roman province, which encompassed the former African possessions of its one-time rival city state, the Phoenician colony of Carthage. This included much of modern Tunisia and parts of modern Algeria and Libya. The inhabitants were diverse, including Phoenician, Greek and Roman settlers, but also what we would call an indigenous population of Berbers, who in Augustine’s time spoke the Punic language brought by the Carthaginians. Augustine himself was born to a Roman father and a Berber mother, and he would have spoken Punic as well as Latin.
Cross-file under Punic Watch.
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