Hanukkah history in Jerusalem

FOR HANUKKAH: Festival of archaeology? Five ways to explore Hanukkah history in Jerusalem. From the arrowheads used by a Greek army to menorahs, the city offers antiquities enthusiasts many opportunities to celebrate (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

For more on the Hasmonean wall section near the Tower of David, see here. And on those arrowheads, see here. For more on the Schottenstein National Campus for the Archeology of Israel, see here and links. And for more on the Hasmonean aqueduct segment in Jerusalem's Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, see here.

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A 19th-century "storm in an oil jug" over the Hanukkah miracle

DR. ISAAC (TSACHI) SLATER: The Chanukah Oil Miracle Never Happened—A 19th Century Heresy (TheTorah.com).

The miracle of the jug of oil lasting eight days is first narrated in the Babylonian Talmud, centuries after the establishment of Chanukah. In 1891 Poland, Chaim Zelig Slonimski, an observant, science-minded Jew, denied the historicity of this miracle, claiming that he was following in the footsteps of Maimonides. Some of his enlightened colleagues—and even some secular Zionists—thought he was endangering people’s connection to Judaism and providing antisemites a pretext to mock the Talmud.

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"Hasmonean Palaces" to open to public during Hanukkah

COMING SOON: Ancient Jewish site damaged by vandalism to reopen during Chanukah. The Hasmonean Palaces, damaged by graffiti and looting, will open to visitors during the holiday following restoration efforts (JNS Staff).

For a report of illegal construction at the site of the palace at Tel Aroma (Tel Aruma) in 2020, see here. In 2023 I noted the Israeli Government conservation project that included the Jericho palaces.

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Hasmonean artifacts recovered in West Bank village

FOR HANUKKAH: Hanukkah discovery: Rare Hasmonean lamp, Second Temple stylus found near Jerusalem. The Civil Administration said the artifacts add to a growing corpus of Second Temple–era material recovered in recent years across the West Bank (Shir Perets, Jerusalem Post).

The lamp, exposed during work led by the head of the unit, was found together with a Second Temple–period writing implement believed to have been used on wax tablets. According to the Civil Administration, the discovery offers fresh evidence of Jewish life and settlement continuity around Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago.

The artifacts were discovered at Nabi Samuel, a village in the West Bank.

Another Hasmonean-era oil lamp is nice to have, but it is not especially rare.

The stylus, however, is a rare find. Reportedly a (much older??) iron one was found a few years ago at Mount Ebal. No indication what the newly recovered one was made of.

Confusingly, they are not the objects in either photo. The lamp and coins in the top one came from Tel Yavneh (a.k.a. Yavneh Yam). The second photo is of a bronze half-face lamp discovered in 2021. See here, here, and here.

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Apamea and Hanukkah?

FOR HANUKKAH, SORT OF: Hanukkah and Apamea: how Jews thrived under Hellenistic rule. As Hanukkah celebrates Jewish resilience, the ancient city of Apamea reveals a forgotten chapter of Jewish life—one of integration, visibility, and faith (Liran Friedmann, Ynet News).

As Jews around the world light Hanukkah candles to celebrate resilience and identity, the ruins of Apamea — an ancient city in modern‑day Syria — reveal a chapter of Jewish history that complicates common perceptions of Jewish life under Hellenistic influence.

Apamea was founded in the 3rd century BCE by Antiochus I Soter (280–261 BCE), the great‑grandfather of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Seleucid ruler whose later policies in Judea ignited deep conflict. Antiochus I established the city on the Orontes River as part of a broader strategy to strengthen Seleucid control across Asia Minor. Built on a plateau by the Marsyas River at a crossroads of trade and travel, Apamea became a major commercial and strategic centre on the Great Southern Highway linking inland Anatolia to Mediterranean ports.

[...]

It's the time of the year when journalists, bless their hearts, are scrambling to work Hanukkah into any story involving Judaism and archaeology. This article has to try pretty hard. But it's a good overview of the ancient Syrian city of Apamea and the Jewish presence there. Worth reading for that.

For more on Apamea, see here and links.

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Byzantine-era menorah amulet excavated near Temple Mount

FOR HANUKKAH: Menorah Amulet From Byzantine Time Found in Ancient Jerusalem. The crudely fashioned, possibly homemade pendant was unearthed by the Temple Mount in a Byzantine building from 1,300 years ago, a time Jews were banned from the city (Ruth Schuster, Haaretz).

Both sides of the pendant depict a flaming seven-branched menorah in a circular frame. One side was preserved well, while the other became patinated. Analysis back at the IAA labs by artifact conservator Ilya Reznitsky found that the pendant was made of 99 percent lead. ...

Baruch suspects the owner, a Jew visiting Jerusalem, may have worn this crude, plain object beneath his or her clothing as a charm to protect them from evil, not as an ornament; not as a jewel.

Cross-file under "Apotropaic Artifact?"

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Archaeological evidence for a Maccabean battle?

FOR HANUKKAH: First Material Evidence of Judah Maccabee’s Battlefield Discovered Near Jerusalem (TPS-IL).

In an exclusive interview with TPS-IL, Dr. Dvir Raviv of Bar-Ilan University said that a survey at Horbat Bet Zecharia, in the Gush Etzion region south of Jerusalem, has uncovered objects that match both the date and the military profile of the famous battle described in the Book of Maccabees in 163 BCE.

The site, on a hill about seven kilometers southwest of Bethlehem, is widely identified with the ancient village of Bet Zecharia, where the Seleucid army and the forces of Judah Maccabee clashed in what is known as the fifth Maccabean battle.

The article does cite 1 Maccabees and Josephus for the information on the battle, but it would be nice if such pieces also gave the specific references. In this AI era, they aren't hard to find. (But double check them in the primary sources.)

The references are 1 Maccabees 6:32-47 and Josephus, Antiquities 12:369-74 and Jewish War 1:41-45. I have posted on the battle some years ago here. It would be asking a lot to hope to find elephant bones at the site, but who knows?

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The "degraded Hasmonean coins"

THE TEMPLE MOUNT SIFTING PROJECT BLOG: THE “DEGRADED HASMONEAN COINS” – A SILENT WITNESS TO THE PRICE OF BROTHERLY CONFLICT.

The twilight of the Hasmonean dynasty does not remain solely in history books; it is clearly reflected in the soil of the Temple Mount, particularly in a special find: the bronze “Degraded Hasmonean Coins.” These coins, minted during the final decades of Hasmonean rule (~60-40 BCE), were previously misidentified as sloppy versions of the Royal coins of King Alexander Jannaeus who ruled from 104 to 76 BCE.

Tangentially Hanukkah related (Hasmonean finds). Cross-file under Numismatics.

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Hanukkah 2025

HAPPY HANUKKAH (CHANUKKAH, CHANUKAH, HANNUKAH) to all those celebrating! The eight-day festival begins tonight at sundown.

Last year's Hanukkah post is here. It links to earlier and some subsequent Hanukkah/Hasmonean-era-related posts. And see also here, here, here (follow-ups here and here), here, and here. And more is coming!

Posting was light last week because I've had the flu. I'm still a little under the weather, but I aim to catch up this week.

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Screnock, Reading Psalms with the Scribe (OUP)

NEW BOOK FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS:

Reading Psalms with the Scribes

Using Ancient Manuscript Evidence to Inform Biblical Studies

John Screnock

£99.00
Hardback
Published: 18 November 2025
304 Pages
234x156mm
ISBN: 9780198853640

Also Available As:
E-book

Description

Reading Psalms with the Scribes argues for a new approach to the study of the Hebrew Bible, “reading with the scribes,” which puts variation in the ancient witnesses at the center of the endeavor. With a focus on texts from Psalms, Reading Psalms with the Scribes explores how ancient manuscript evidence can impact scholars' thinking about poetics, composition, and interpretation. Whereas most biblical scholarship keeps textual criticism distinct from other kinds of analysis — as a preliminary step that provides one correct version of the text to be studied, for example — the practice of reading with the scribes leverages moments of variation for their insights into the thoughts, practices, and work of scribes. The scribes of the Second Temple period were much more than copyists; they were practiced readers who paid close attention to the poetic features of psalms, competent editors who polished the existing strengths of psalms, talented authors who could add new elements to psalms without altering their compositional unity, and skilled interpreters with robust understandings of the text. Though current scholarship has extensive knowledge of these ancient texts in all their facets, there is much we can learn from the scribes of the Second Temple period. When we focus our attention on the places in the text where the scribes were at work and explore the elements of the text involved in that work — when we explore some of the paths that scribes have made in the text — we can glean methodological insights and consider psalms and other ancient Hebrew texts in new ways.

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