The Phoenicia is sailing to the Americas

PHOENICIAN WATCH: Who reached America first – Columbus or the Phoenicians? A replica Phoenician vessel made in Syria is sailing the Atlantic to prove the ancient civilisation did it 2,000 years before Columbus (Tom Westcott, Middle East Eye).

Philip Beale, the project’s leader, explained: “This expedition hopes to show that the Phoenicians could have been the first ancient seafarers to cross the Atlantic, well before Christopher Columbus.

“It’s not whether Christopher Columbus was the first to cross the Atlantic but actually that he was probably one of the last.”

As for their likely destination, Beale said that the idea is to not aim for anywhere in particular. Instead they will go where the winds and currents naturally take them, to best recreate the likely route of the Phoenicians.

This replica Phoenician vessel is, of course, the Good Ship Phoenicia. PaleoJudaica followed the ship's successful expedition to circumnavigate Africa from 2008 to 2010. Now she aims to cross the Atlantic to show that the Phoenicians could have reached the Americas. I noted the fundraising for the project back in 2013. And follow the links from there for many past posts on the adventures of the Phoenicia.

Perhaps Phoenicians could have reached the New World. Perhaps they even did. But I have reviewed all the evidence I can find for a Phoenician presence in the Americas and I have not found it credible. For past posts, see here, here, here, and many links. Cross-file under New World Forgery.

Be that as it may, I wish the Phoenicia a successful voyage. I look forward to following her new adventures.

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Review of Krause, Synagogues in the Works of Flavius Josephus

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Synagogues in the Works of Flavius Josephus: Rhetoric, Spatiality, and First-Century Jewish Institutions (Joseph Scales).

Andrew R. Krause, Synagogues in the Works of Flavius Josephus: Rhetoric, Spatiality, and First-Century Jewish Institutions (Brill, 2017).

Excerpt:

This book is a valuable addition to scholarship on Josephus and 1st century synagogues, incorporating work on Josephus as a Greco-Roman-Jewish author, considerations for his writing intentions and how his thought developed over his career, while also addressing some of the scholarship on the early synagogue. Josephus is often used as a direct source for synagogue practices in its early developmental stage, and this work counters some of the oversimplifications that have been drawn from cursory readings of Josephus. Krause’s careful discussion of the relevant passages further shows the importance of the emerging synagogue in Judaism of the late 1st century CE.

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Biblical Studies Carnival 164 (September 2019)

READING ACTS: Biblical Studies Carnival 164 (Phil Long).

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Review of Luijendijk and Klingshirn (eds.), My Lots are in Thy Hands

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: AnneMarie Luijendijk, William E. Klingshirn (ed.), My Lots are in Thy Hands: Sortilege and its Practitioners in Late Antiquity. Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, 188. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2018. Pp. xvii, 392. ISBN 9789004384101. €129,00. Reviewed by Joseph E. Sanzo, University of Warwick (Joseph.Sanzo@warwick.ac.uk)

Sortilege properly emerges from this volume as a complex cluster of ritual, scribal, and textual practices, which formed an important aspect of late antique social existence. Each essay successfully functions as a stand-alone contribution, offering a wealth of information to anyone interested in this important ancient practice. The non-expert will especially benefit from the editors’ introduction and first chapter. Yet, as a collection, the reader both receives valuable insight into the most important sortes (e.g., the Sortes Astrampsychi, the hermēneiai, the Gospel of the Lots of Mary) and gains a vivid sense of how sortilege was interwoven into various ancient domains, including law (Naether), economy (Ratzan), ecclesiastical institutions (Kocar, Frankfurter, and Luijendijk), the body (Costanza), and sacred texts (Wilkinson, Childers, Meerson, van der Horst).

Sortilege (casting lots to make decisions, including by consulting random passages in scripture) is also attested in late antique Judaism. See the article in this volume by Pieter van der Horst.

I noted the publication of this book here.

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Aramaic ostraca, possibly from the first Jewish Revolt

TECHNOLOGY WATCH: Advanced imaging reveals ancient inscriptions on 2,000-year-old pottery (Kristen Mitchell, Phys.org).

The fragments, called ostraca, were discovered at the site of Machaerus, a well-known archaeological site connected with notable historical and religious figures of the first century including Herod the Great and John the Baptist. Chris Rollston, associate professor of northwest Semitic languages and literature, took possession of 20 ostraca in May and used multispectral imaging equipment at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences to examine the pieces and their faded ink writing more closely.

Professor Rollston, of George Washington University, and his epigraphic work are well known to PaleoJudaica readers.

What do the ostraca say? The intriguing preliminary results:

While the ostraca are brief, Dr. Rollston believes they could include information that could help researchers better understand cultural practices in the first century. He believes some of the ostraca written in Aramaic include the names and titles of Jewish soldiers who served during the First Jewish Revolt. This would shed light on naming practices of the time and provide insight on a significant time in Jewish history.

"It's difficult to know exactly when these inscriptions were written, but my sense is they were written sometime during the decade or two right prior to fall of Judaea to the Romans," he said. "These are inscriptions from this really pivotal period in what we know as ancient Judaea."

Some past posts on Multispectral Imaging and its application to epigraphy are here and links and here. And past posts on the site of Machaerus (the reputed site of the execution of John the Baptist) are here and links. Cross-file under Aramaic Watch and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy.

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How Jewish Was Herod the Great?

ARCHAEOLOGY MAKES THINGS COMPLICATED: How Jewish Was Herod? (Evie Gassner, TheTorah.com).

Despite the negative evaluation of Herod in traditional Jewish sources, archaeological evidence seems to suggest that, with some notable exceptions, Herod saw himself as tied to the Jewish religion and tried, to a certain extent, to uphold its laws, even in his own lifestyle.

For a related post from some years ago which also discusses Herod's Arab background, see here. And for many other past posts on Herod the Great and related archaeological discoveries, start here and follow the links.

Also,by the way, TheTorah.com's website has just been completely redesigned.

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Temple of Ptolemy IV excavated in Egypt

CHANCE DISCOVERY: Archaeologists unearth ancient pharaoh Ptolemy IV's temple in Egypt [PHOTO] (Bhaswati Guha Majumder, International Business Times). Ptolemy IV Philopator is mentioned in the Bible. In the Book of Daniel 11:11-12 he is referred to as "the king of the south." For more about him, including some of the coins minted during his reign, see here and here.

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Top 10 archaeological discoveries from the Holy Land

LISTMANIA: Digging for the Bible: 10 key discoveries from the Holy Land. Leading biblical archaeologist Aren Maeir identifies 10 key discoveries from the Holy Land and explains how they relate to the Old Testament (History Extra). It's a good list that the BBC posted several years ago.

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British Library digitizes religious manuscripts

DIGITIZATION: British Library digitises ancient texts including 1,000-year old Hebrew Bible. Collection co-sponsored by Dangoor Education includes extraordinary selection of old manuscripts, books, scrolls and scriptures from the world's major faiths (The Jewish News).

Ancient religious texts including a 1,000-year old Hebrew Bible have been digitised and made available online for free by the British Library after help from a British Jewish philanthropist.

The collection, called ‘Discovering Sacred Texts,’ is an extraordinary selection of manuscripts, books, scrolls and scriptures that allows anyone with an internet connection to explore the sacred texts of the world’s major faiths.

[...]

The tenth-century Hebrew Bible manuscript is London Codex. Or 4445.

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Rosh HaShanah 2019

HAPPY NEW YEAR (ROSH HASHANAH - Jewish New Year 5780) to all those celebrating. The New Year begins tonight at sundown.

Last year's Rosh HaShanah post, with biblical and other links, is here. And a couple of subsequent posts on the subject are here and here.

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Review of Kreuzer, Introduction to the Septuagint

WILLIAM ROSS: AN INITIAL REVIEW OF BAYLOR’S INTRODUCTION TO THE SEPTUAGINT. This volume is newly translated from German.

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Review of Rüpke, Pantheon

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Book Note | Pantheon (Amit Gvaryahu).

Jörg Rüpke, Pantheon: A New History of Roman Religion, Translated by David M. B. Richardson. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018.

I am a student of rabbinic literature, and my subjects are observers and critics of Roman practice of all kinds — including the practices which are lumped together under the heading of “Religion.” My interest in what is called Roman religion stems from a need to understand the relationships my subjects, the rabbis and their followers, had with it. What did they “borrow” from the Romans in their religion? What did they reject? In what ways was rabbinic worship a Roman cult, and how was it decidedly not Roman? How did Jews who were not rabbis perform “Roman-ness” in their religion, how did the rabbis do so, and what did they have to say about it?

[...]

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On the Gezer Calendar and the New Year

ROSH HASHANAH IS COMING: Rosh haShanah and the mystery of the Gezer Calendar (Daniel Kenner, Times of Israel Blogs).

It may not have been recorded sufficiently in the written Torah itself, but the Jewish oral tradition fills in the gaps regarding the significance of the “Day of (Shofar) Blasting”. In beginning the year on this day, the oral tradition hearkens back millennia to the Gezer Calendar’s poetic description of the Land of Israel’s natural cycle. This primary Jewish New Year – though not the only one – is thus celebrated on the First of Tishrei – the Moon of Gathering, the Moon of Forces. This is the time not only to blast on a shofar, but also to celebrate the results of the past year’s work and blessings, to take stock, to gather resources and collect forces for the year ahead.

A nice introduction to the complexities of the Jewish New Year.

Rosh HaShanah begins this year on the evening of Sunday, 29 September. For past PaleoJudaica posts on the Gezer Calendar, see here and links and here. Cross-file under Northwest Semitic Epigraphy.

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The Talmud on the misuse of sacrificial meat

THIS WEEK'S DAF YOMI COLUMN BY ADAM KIRSCH IN TABLET: Sacrificial Ram. Sacred meat, slaughtered animals, and blood on the altar, in this week’s ‘Daf Yomi’ Talmud study.

This week we began Tractate Me’ila, which deals with a different kind of sin: the misuse of property, such as animals, that have been consecrated to God. ... But when does sacrificial meat change from being God’s property to being human property?

Earlier Daf Yomi columns are noted here and links.

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Two cuneiform tablets found at Hadid

ASSYRIOLOGY: Assyrians Came, Conquered, and Kicked Everyone Out: Tablets Reveal 2,700-year-old Relocation. Cuneiform records show land sales 2,700 years ago in Hadid, central Israel, were made to people with entirely foreign names (Philippe Bohstrom, Haaretz premium).

Two clay tablets found in Hadid recording loans and land sales in the seventh century B.C.E. indicate that most of the people living in the town, between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem today, were foreign, not Israelites, archaeologists say.

[...]

That's what we would expect from the biblical accounts. Plus there's a loan tablet in which someone puts his wife and sister up as collateral. And the excavation also found a seal with the emblem of the moon god Sin. Yes, that actually was his name.

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The Beit Shean statues find a home

THEY BELONG IN A MUSEUM. AND THAT'S WHERE THEY ARE: NO LONGER HOMELESS: TWO STATUES FIND PERMANENT HOME IN REGIONAL MUSEUM. The finds were dated to the late Roman-early Byzantine period (third to fourth centuries CE), fascinating for the social flux which occurred then (HEDDY BREUER ABRAMOWITZ, Jerusalem Post).

Two Roman statues have just been placed in their new permanent home at the regional archeological and Mediterranean museum of the National Parks Authority at Gan Hashlosha-Sahne Park, it was announced by the Antiquities Authority (IAA) in September.

[...]

I noted the chance discovery of the statues near Beit Shean (Beth Shean) in late 2018 here and here.

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Greenstein on translating the Book of Job

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST TODAY: Translating Job as Befits a Great Ancient Work (Edward L. Greenstein). Professor Greenstein has published a new translation of the Book of Job with Yale University Press.

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New images of LXX papyrus 967

THE ETC BLOG: New Images of Papyrus 967 (Ezekiel Portion) (Tommy Wasserman). With links to earlier posts.

This manuscript also contains material from Esther and Daniel. It is the earliest manuscript containing the Old Greek text of Daniel. It is of great importance for the textual history of that book.

For more on the Esther section of the manuscript, see here.

Cross-file under Digitization.

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Aramaic gravestones in Jordan

NORTHWEST SEMITIC EPIGRAPHY: ‘World’s only’ Aramaic gravestones found in northern Jordan — French scholar (Saeb Rawashdeh, Jordan Times).

AMMAN — Khirbet es-Samra, an archaeological site located some 50 kilometres north of Amman, contains the world’s only Aramaic-inscribed stelae (ancient gravestones), according to a French scholar.

Two kinds of stelae were excavated in the ancient cemetery within the site, noted Pierre-Louis Gatier from the University of Lyon. One type of stela has a regular gravestone shape dating from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, while the other unusually shaped stela dates from the 6th century AD, Gatier said.

[...]

These tombstones have been known for a while, but I just learned of them through this article. You can read more about the site of Khirbet es-Samra and the epigraphic discoveries there in this article: EPIGRAPHIC DIVERSITY IN THE CEMETERY AT KHIRBET ES-SAMRĀʾ, JORDAN (Nabulsi A. J. and Michael C A Macdonald et al; PEQ 146 [2014]: 149-61).

By the way, these are not the only know Aramaic-inscribed gravestones. Some were recovered at the site of Zoar in southern Jordan near the Dead Sea. They are painted (mostly) or inscribed in Aramaic on sandstone. They are from about the same period as the ones from Khirbet es-Samra. I noted a BHD piece about them some years ago. And there is an unprovenanced Aramaic gravestone that looks similar to the ones from Zoar. See here and here.

Cross-file under Aramaic Watch.

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Oetjen (ed.), New perspectives in Seleucid history, archaeology and numismatics

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: New Perspectives in Seleucid History, Archaeology and Numismatics. Notice of a new book: Roland, Oetjen (ed.). 2019. New perspectives in Seleucid history, archaeology and numismatics: Studies in honor of Getzel M. Cohen (Beiträge zur Altertumskunde 355). Berlin: De Gruyter.

For more on the Seleucid dynasty and its importance for biblical studies, see here and links (cf. here and here).

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