What's in the Herculaneum papyri? What might be?

HERCULANEUM WATCH: The Latin Problem: BYU's Roger Macfarlane on What We Have — and Haven't — Found in the Herculaneum Papyri (Utah TechBuzz News).

BYU classicist, Roger Macfarlane, who has spent more than three decades hunting for lost Latin literature in carbonized scrolls came to UVU with an honest assessment: most of the discovered Herculaneum papyri is barely readable. But what we might still find could change everything.

Further:

From the moment European scholars learned that a library had been buried at Herculaneum, the speculation about what it might contain has been almost comically ambitious. A letter from 1753 — before serious attempts to open the scrolls had even begun — already expressed hope for a portion of Livy's history of Rome, most of which has been lost to time. By 1739, a German scholar was wishfully cataloging the texts he hoped to find: Diodorus Siculus, Berossus on Babylon, Megasthenes on India, Livy, Sallust, and, in a note that Macfarlane clearly relished, "the Five Books of Sallust, although in that event all the labor I have already expended in attempting to reconstruct them would itself be rendered futile."

The list has only grown since. ...

An informative article asking important questions about the Herculaneum library: What is in it? What might be? With some answers to both. I've posted my own wish list of Herculaneum books here and here.

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.

Cross-file under Lost Books (also here).

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Reports of bombed antiquities sites in Israel and Lebanon

THIS IS WAR: There are reports of the bombing of antiquities sites in northern Israel and Lebanon.

Hezbollah rocket hits remains of 1,500-year-old Byzantine church in northern Israel. Israel Antiquities Authority says modern-day structure preserving the mosaic in Nahariya was damaged but the ancient floor is intact (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

“Today, a meeting was held on site with the participation of archaeologists and conservators from the Israel Antiquities Authority [and] representatives of the municipality and the Property Tax Authority,” an IAA spokesperson said in a statement. “An on-site assessment indicates that the mosaic was covered by debris from the modern structure in which it had been preserved, but was not damaged.”

For more on the mosaic and on another significant discovery in Nahariya, see here and here.

Israeli airstrikes hit southern Lebanon and Tyre’s ancient citadel (Middle East Monitor).

Israeli warplanes launched a series of airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Monday, targeting the town of Qantara and the outskirts of Tibnin, while artillery shelling struck the ancient citadel of Tyre, a site listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.

According to the Lebanese National News Agency, the citadel area includes the shrine and tomb of Prophet Simeon the Just, raising concerns over damage to cultural and historical heritage.

[...]

Some PaleoJudaica posts on the history and archaeology of the city of Tyre are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and links. There was a big fire at the site last year.

It sounds as though the bombing damage was to post-Phoenician remains.

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39 more Lebanese sites under enhanced cultural protection

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: 39 Sites in Lebanon Gain UNESCO Protection. Why it matters for biblical history and beyond (Lauren K. McCormick).

In a decision prompted by a request from the Lebanese government, UNESCO granted enhanced protection status to 39 sites across Lebanon under the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. The designation places these sites under the highest level of legal safeguarding during armed conflict, meaning that any intentional damage could be considered a war crime. UNESCO has committed over US$100,000 for measures on the ground, including training for staff and military personnel.

[...]

Lebanon has lots of biblical connections. Also, cross-file under Phoenician Watch.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Review of The Oxford handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The Oxford handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East.

The Oxford handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East Rubina Raja, The Oxford handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East. Oxford handbooks. New York: Oxford University Press, 2025. Pp. 944. ISBN 9780190858155.

Review by
Céline Debourse, Harvard University. cdebourse@fas.harvard.edu

[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]

This impressive collection of essays brings together a wide range of scholarship dealing with the Near East under Hellenistic and Roman rule, from Alexander’s death in 323 BCE into the eighth century CE. Its overarching aim, in the editor’s words, is to apply “both local as well as global lenses” to bring “new perspectives on this central region” (abstract). In fifty chapters covering 940 pages, Rubina Raja and her contributors do indeed deliver a breath-taking overview of topics in sectors as diverse as geography, climate, economy, religion, politics, and culture.

[...]

Apparently the volume does not include Egypt and it oddly neglects Mesopotamia. But in the TOC I see many articles of interest to PaleoJudaica: on Judea and the Galilee (several), Edessa, Europos-Dura (sic), Palmyra, Phoenicia, Petra, and more.

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

Eight 3,000-year-old scrolls excavated in Egypt

YET ANOTHER SCROLL DISCOVERY: Valuable discovery in Egypt reveals 3,000-year-old scrolls with secret messages still unread. Cache of coffins also found stacked in a rock-carved funerary chamber nearby (Andrea Margolis, Fox News).

Excavators found the ancient scrolls in a large pottery vessel, with some even bearing their original, 3,000-year-old clay seals.

"They vary in size and are considered a valuable source of information, with the world awaiting the results following their restoration and translation," the translated release said.

The coffins of Amun chanters — temple singers dedicated to the god Amun — were found stacked in a rock-carved rectangular funerary chamber [on Luxor's West Bank].

Fox News appears to have broken the story in the English-speaking world. No word yet on the contents of the scrolls. Reading the texts will be a laborious and painstaking process.

As I have said before, it is remarkable that Egypt continues to produce substantial scroll discoveries. Several have been found at Saqqara, one of the most thoroughly explored sites in the world. This one was in Luxor, at the other end of Egypt, but comparably explored already. For other recent Egyptian scroll discoveries, see the links at the bottom of this post. If I may quote myself from the first link in this paragraph:

And if there are intact 16-meter ancient scrolls still lying around in Egypt, what does that say about the potential for new scroll finds in Israel? Israel has fewer areas that have the right climactic conditions to preserve scrolls. But there are still promising regions. Besides the Dead Sea region and Samaria, both of which have produced remarkable scroll discoveries, both Megiddo and the Timna Valley have potential. I have discussed the matter here.

Since then, an even earlier textile fragment (c. 1500-2000 BCE) has been recovered from one of the Judean Desert caves. See my commentary at the link for some implications.

The sites in Israel whose climate could preserve ancient scrolls have been extensively explored. But there may still be surprises in them. Keep looking!

Visit PaleoJudaica daily for the latest news on ancient Judaism and the biblical world.

How old is the layout of the MT Hebrew Bible?

GENIZA FRAGMENT OF THE MONTH (FEBRUARY 2026): Scrolls, Stratigraphy and the Song of the Sea: Re-examining Ashkar-Gilson (Kim Phillips).

This fascinating essay is quite technical and hard to excerpt. The main issue is the question of how ancient the layout (as opposed to the text itself) of the Masoretic Text is. The specific examples are the dots placed over some of the words and the division of the five lines preceding the Song of the Sea in Exodus 15.

The answer, the author concludes, is that the the division of the five lines is earlier than the Ashkar-Gilson manuscript, which dates to the seventh or eight century CE. So, very old indeed.

For PaleoJudaica posts on Ashkar-Gilson fragments of Exodus, start here, here, and here, and follow the links.

For many PaleoJudaica posts noting Cairo Geniza Fragments of the Month in the Cambridge University Library's Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, start here and follow the links.

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Arnold, The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Testament (2nd ed., paperback)

NEW PAPERBACK FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS:

The Cambridge Introduction to the Old Testament

Edition: 2nd Edition
Author: Bill T. Arnold, Asbury Theological Seminary, Kentucky
Published: February 2026
Availability: Available
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781009328593

£55.00 GBP
Paperback

£110.00 GBP
Hardback

$72.00 USD
eBook

Description

This textbook offers students who have no prior background in biblical studies an understanding of the lasting contribution of Israel's scriptures. Bringing a literary approach to the topic, it strikes a balance between historical reconstructions, comparative religions, and theology. Among several distinctive features, It traces the legacy of monotheism first emerging in the pages of Israel's scriptures as an enduring contribution for twenty-first century readers. Monotheism gives the volume an immediate relevance because the so-called Abrahamic religions are rooted in this concept. Whether one is Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or secularist, students will gain a new understanding of the origins of monotheism as their common heritage. The Second Edition of this textbook includes expanded discussions within the text and in sidebars, notably on the history of biblical scholarship, modern methods of interpretation, and wisdom literature.

• Addresses the cultural, societal, and philosophical facets of the ancient world in which the Old Testament was written, providing students with proper context for understanding what they read in the Old Testament
• This textbook explores issues of history, comparative religions, and sociology when these topics arise naturally from the text of the Old Testament, introducing students to the wide-ranging and most important aspects of the Old Testament as they are pertinent to today's readers
• It includes 72 illustrations, 20 maps, and sidebar discussions to aid student recall and understanding

I've not noted this book before in any of its previous versions, so here it is.

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