NORMAN GOLB argues in The Forward that the recently discovered escape tunnel in Jerusalem may have been used to evacuate Dead Sea Scrolls. Excerpt:

Putting the various statements of the archaeologists and of Josephus together, we have the following picture:

The archaeologists have discovered a Jerusalem tunnel that could accommodate many individuals and which led, at the least, from the Temple Mount to the Siloam Pool situated in the southern extremity of the ancient city. The pool, in turn, led directly to the Nahal Qidron, which, as the news reports indicate, led eastward down to the Dead Sea.

While no description in Josephus’s “Jewish War” actually makes mention of a particular locus, he does indeed state that various inhabitants of Jerusalem hid in the city’s underground passages (plural), and at one point he describes an important group of rebels whom he calls “the tyrants” as having secured temporary refuge in “the ravine below Siloam,” by which he undoubtedly means the opening gorges of the Nahal Qidron. It is thus a fair inference or assumption on the part of the archaeologists that the tunnel they uncovered was one of those used by Jerusalem’s inhabitants to hide and flee from the Romans. However, if we follow Josephus, not only one but several escape routes could be and were used by the refugees. No available indications appear to confirm the archaeologists’ suggestion that the drain-tunnel discovered by them is a particular one uniquely referred to by Josephus.

Tunnels of this type, moreover, were discovered by explorers of Jerusalem’s past in the 19th-century; see particularly the accounts given by Charles Warren in his 1876 “Underground Jerusalem” and the four illustrations reproduced in reduced form here.

Warren’s findings, together with the discovery of Reich and Shukron described in the recent news reports, fully support Josephus’s statements relating to the tunnels beneath Jerusalem and the use to which they were put during the Roman siege of 70 A.D. These underground passages enabled many inhabitants of Jerusalem to exit the city and flee both south to Masada and, via Nahal Qidron and other wadis heading from Jerusalem eastward toward the Dead Sea, to the Machaerus fort lying just east of that sea, and which was actually closer to Jerusalem than was Masada. (Josephus describes the large number of refugees who gathered at Machaerus.)

The circumstances as now known leave little doubt that, quite likely beginning even before the siege had begun, groups engaged in hiding the Temple treasures, the books and other items listed in the Copper Scroll — as well as those ancient writings of the Palestinian Jews known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found centuries later in caves near the wadis leading out of Jerusalem.

Interesting idea, which builds on Golb's theory that the Dead Sea Scrolls were literary archives from Jerusalem rather than a sectarian library. (See here, here, and here.)

HEBREW BIBLE PROFESSOR: I am very happy to report that our position in Old Testament/Hebrew Bible has been filled.

St Mary’s College is pleased to announce the appointment of Kristin De Troyer as Professor of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible with effect on 1 June 2008.

Prof. De Troyer comes originally from Belgium and studied at the Catholic University of Leuven in the 1980s. In 1990 she founded the Kok Pharos Publishing House in Kampen, the Netherlands. She completed her doctoral work at the University of Leiden on the Alpha Text of Esther (published in Dutch in 1997 and in English in 2000). In 1998 she was appointed to a teaching post in Hebrew Bible at the Claremont School of Theology where she is currently Professor of Hebrew Bible and also Professor of Religion at the Claremont Graduate University.

Prof. De Troyer’s research specialisms are in the areas of Second Temple history and literature, and textual criticism, especially the Septuagint (LXX) and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Her publications include: Rewriting the Sacred Text: What the Old Greek Texts Tell Us about the Literary Development of the Bible (Atlanta: SBL, 2003); The End of the Alpha Text of Esther: Translation and Narrative Technique in MT 8:1-17, LXX 8:1-17, and AT 7:14-41 (Atlanta: SBL, 2000); (with E. Beate, A. Lange and H. Lichtenbeger) Minor Prophets (Biblia Qumranica, 3B; Leiden: Brill, 2004). In addition she has edited a number of scholarly books and published numerous articles in academic journals.

Prof. De Troyer is the Program Chair for the International Society of Biblical Literature, co-director of the Biblia Qumranica Project, editor of Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology (Louvain: Peeters), a board member of Journal for the Study of the Old Testament and Catholic Biblical Quarterly, and a member of the executive committee of the International Organization of Septuagint and Cognate Studies.

NEW SBL PUBLICATIONS - e-mailed from the SBL:

New Titles from SBL Publications


The Quest for the Historical Israel: Debating Archaeology and the History of Early Israel

Israel Finkelstein and Amihai Mazar
Edited by Brian B. Schmidt

Three decades of dialogue, discussion, and debate within the interrelated disciplines of Syro-Palestinian archaeology, ancient Israelite history, and Hebrew Bible over the question of the relevance of the biblical account for reconstructing early Israel’s history have created the need for a balanced articulation of the issues and their prospective resolutions. This book brings together for the first time and under one cover, a currently emerging “centrist” paradigm as articulated by two leading figures in the fields of early Israelite archaeology and history. Although Finkelstein and Mazar advocate distinct views of early Israel’s history, they nevertheless share the position that the material cultural data, the biblical traditions, and the ancient Near Eastern written sources are all significantly relevant to the historical quest for Iron Age Israel. The results of their research are featured in accessible, parallel syntheses of the historical reconstruction of early Israel that facilitate comparison and contrast of their respective interpretations. The historical essays presented here are based on invited lectures delivered in October of 2005 at the Sixth Biennial Colloquium of the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism in Detroit, Michigan.

Paper $24.95 — ISBN 9781589832770 — 232 pages — Archaeology and Biblical Studies 17 — Hardback edition www.brill.nl

Seeking the Favor of God, Volume 2: The Development of Penitential Prayer in Second Temple Judaism

Mark J. Boda, Daniel K. Falk, and Rodney A. Werline, editors

The essays collected in this volume investigate the development of prayers of penitence within Jewish literature of the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The book provides a critical overview of the present state of research on these prayers, and leading experts in the field use a variety of methodologies to investigate afresh various texts from the Hebrew Bible, apocryphal (deuterocanonical) and pseudepigraphical works, and the Qumran corpus in order to provide new insights into this prayer tradition. Contributors include Russell C. D. Arnold, Esther G. Chazon, Daniel K. Falk, LeAnn Snow Flesher, Michael H. Floyd, Judith H. Newman, Bilhah Nitzan, Eileen Schuller, Pieter M. Venter, and Rodney A. Werline.

Paper $39.95 — ISBN 9781589832787 — 300 pages — Early Judaism and Its Literature 22 — Hardback edition www.brill.nl

The "We" Passages in the Acts of the Apostles: The Narrator as Narrative Character

William Sanger Campbell

This book explores the narrative significance of the “we” passages in Acts within the boundaries of acceptable ancient grammatical practice. It contends that the occasional first-person plural narrator represents a character whose entrance at crucial moments in Paul’s career parallels the role of Barnabas, the apostle’s earlier companion. Although consistent with the grammatical practice of ancient writers, the use of the “we” style in Acts nonetheless represents a variation of those conventions because the author of Acts wrote anonymously and never claimed personal participation in the events narrated. In analyzing the function of the narrator as narrative character, the book presents narrative literary strategy as a fruitful approach to these enigmatic texts whose narrative possibilities have in the past been subordinated to their historical potential.

Paper $19.95 — ISBN 9781589832053— 164 pages — Studies in Biblical Literature 14 — Hardback edition www.brill.nl

Peter in the Gospel of John: The Making of an Authentic Disciple

Bradford B. Blaine Jr.

In this narrative-critical study Bradford B. Blaine Jr. argues, against conventional scholarship, that John’s Gospel presents Peter and the Beloved Disciple not as competitors but as colleagues who together serve as composite halves of the ideal Johannine Christian, with Peter representing praxis and John representing faith. Not only does Peter carry out activities fundamental to Johannine discipleship during Jesus’ earthly ministry, which include believing in Jesus, following him, and publicly confessing him, but he also demonstrates post-Easter missionary skills and is invested by the risen Jesus with pastoral responsibilities. Finally, in dying a martyr’s death, Peter glorifies God. Peter, in fact, is depicted in this Gospel as an inspirational founding member of the Johannine community.

Paper $29.95 — ISBN 9781589832725— 240 pages — Academia Biblica 27 — Hardback edition www.brill.nl

Studia Philonica Annual XIX, 2007

David T. Runia and Gregory E. Sterling, editors

The Studia Philonica Annual is a scholarly journal devoted to furthering the study of Hellenistic Judaism, and in particular the writings and thought of the Hellenistic-Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria (circa 15 B.C.E. to circa 50 C.E.).

Cloth $39.95 — ISBN: 9781589832954 — 260 pages


To order, go to the SBL Store or click on one of the links above.

Society of Biblical Literature — P.O. Box 2243 — Williston, VT 05495-2243 USA
Phone: 877-725-3334 (North America); 802-864-6185 (elsewhere) — Fax: 802-864-7626

THE PULSA DE NURA CURSING RITE is back in the news (Haaretz), apparently due to the recent publication of a scholarly article on it:

Texts describing the ritual describe 10 sages who gather at midnight, following a three-day fast. As they blow on a shofar, they extinguish black candles. Those invoking the curse are required to name the guardian angel entrusted with safeguarding the condemned. The process of invoking the pulsa denura carries the danger of transforming it into a blessing, or even worse; of causing the curse to be turned back onto themselves.

And that means the cursers are covered no matter what happens, which is a closed-thought system typical for magic. Presumably the instance aimed at Teddy Kollek belongs to the transformed-into-a-blessing variety.

The hype around the pulsa denura, and its strangeness, led some researchers to question its origins, and its place within Judaism. Dr. Zion Zohar, of Florida International University's religious studies department, claims to have discovered that the ceremony in its current form 'is not of Jewish origins.'

According to Zohar, who published his findings recently in the periodical Modern Judaism, the ceremony took shape in Israel in the first years after the state's founding. It had its beginnings in disputes within the ultra-Orthodox community.

Zohar says he sees no evidence of the pulsa denura having been performed prior to 1948. The first instance ever recorded, he says, was in the 1950s, when members of Jerusalem's tiny anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect cast the curse on a burial society undertaker who had agreed to relocate graves from the site that later became the government complex at Givat Ram, in the capital.

"It was a political tool, which the extreme right later adopted for its own purposes," Zohar says. Although the term 'pulsa denura' does appear in the Zohar, the Florida researcher says that its original meaning was the opposite of its modern understanding. "Pulsa denura appears there as a divine force that protects from evil," Zohar says

Background here and here.

AN ARMY OF ASSYRIOLOGISTS. (Via the Agade list.)

Similar story here.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

From the National Geographic Society:

Solomon's Temple Artifacts Found by Muslim Workers

Mati Milstein in Tel Aviv, Israel
for National Geographic News
October 23, 2007

Muslim workers have unearthed artifacts on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, says an Israeli agency.

The artifacts, which date to the First Jewish Temple period—the eighth to sixth centuries B.C.—were found by Waqf Muslims doing maintenance work, the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) reported.

[...]

It sounds now as though the IAA archaeologists merely examined material from the Waqf excavation and did not undertake any controlled, scientific excavation themselves. I think.

From Arutz Sheva:

Dr. Mazar: PM's Office Complicit in Temple Mount Destruction

by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

(IsraelNN.com) Well-known archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar of Hebrew University told Arutz Sheva Radio that she sees the recent revelation of First Temple artifacts on the Temple Mount as further proof of what she called the Antiquities Authority's "criminal behavior." The
The destruction on the Temple Mount continues... due to "a direct order from the Prime Minister's Office."
destruction on the Temple Mount continues, she charged, due to "a direct order from the Prime Minister's Office" to ignore the Islamic Waqf's violations of antiquities preservation laws.

Asked why the Prime Minister would issue such a directive, Dr. Mazar said, "I am an archaeologist, not a politician. However, it is clear that the Prime Minister must not avert his eyes from the destruction of antiquities on the Temple Mount. Not even at the cost of tranquility. These are artifacts that have been permanently ruined and we will never be able to restore them."

[...]

Plus, the Waqf dispenses more Jewish-Temple denial:

Waqf Denies Existence of First Temple Artifacts
The director of the Waqf for holy sites in Jerusalem told a Lebanese newspaper that Israeli reports of archaeological finds from the First Temple period are baseless. Azzam Al-Hatib charged that Israel timed the reports to try to prove a Jewish link to the site at the same time the Palestinian Authority has demanded control of the Old City.

Muslims have been conducting a campaign that has escalated in the past two years to convince the world that there is no Jewish connection with the Old City of Jerusalem. They argue that the Western Wall (Kotel) was a hitching post for a mythical horse ridden by Islam's founder, Muhammad. Historically, the 7th-century Arabian leader never set foot in Jerusalem.

And more on the Waqf from YNetNews:

Waqf boycotts Knesset committee

Head of Muslim body in charge of Temple Mount refuses to attend Knesset committee meeting on excavations at site. 'We don't recognize Israel's sovereignty in Jerusalem,' he explains

Amnon Meranda
Published: 10.22.07, 22:33 / Israel News

The Knesset State Control Committee decided Monday to ask the state comptroller to compile a report on the archeological digs carried out by the Muslim Waqf at the Temple Mount.

The decision came after a representative of the Muslim administrative body in charge of the holy site refused to attend the committee's meeting, stating that he did not recognize Israel's sovereignty at the Temple Mount or the Knesset's authority to make decisions on the matter.

[...]

THE SAINT JOHN'S BIBLE IS "NEARLY COMPLETE" and selections are on display in Phoenix:

Phoenix Art Museum Hosts Monumental Gathering of Old and New Illuminated Manuscripts
Posted : Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:12:11 GMT
Author : Phoenix Art Museum

PHOENIX, AZ -- 10/23/07 -- Phoenix Art Museum will present one of its most divine exhibitions from December 11, 2007 - March 9, 2008, focusing on handmade Bibles and religious manuscripts from throughout history. Bringing together the old and new, three unique exhibitions will collectively span the more than 1300 years of history represented through this ancient art form. Highlighting this exhibition will be one of the most remarkable artistic endeavors undertaken this millennium as the museum plays host to "Illuminating the Word: The Saint John's Bible" -- the only handwritten and illuminated Bible commissioned since the advent of the printing press more than 500 years ago.

Concurrent with "The Saint John's Bible," Phoenix Art Museum will host "The Early History of the Bible" from the world-class collection of sacred manuscripts at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, and "Selections from the James Melikian Collection" from a private collection in Phoenix representing more than 20 ancient Christian and Jewish texts and manuscripts from these two important collections.

"We are extremely proud to host this rare gathering of artwork celebrating the expansive history of the book as an art form," said James K. Ballinger, director of Phoenix Art Museum. "These three exhibitions provide an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view some of the rarest books and manuscripts from throughout history, and to experience the incomparable 'The Saint John's Bible' masterpiece."

A richly ornamented masterwork, hand-illustrated with gold leaf on oversized vellum, "The Saint John's Bible" (which includes both the Old and New Testaments) is an unprecedented undertaking in contemporary book arts and a major cultural endeavor. Selections from the nearly-complete Bible are traveling the country as part of a national tour sponsored by Target; and for the first time it will be exhibited alongside ancient examples of the book arts.

[...]

For Phoenix Art Museum, "Illuminating the Word: The Saint John's Bible" features 49 two-page openings from the nearly-complete Bible, with selections from Gospels and Acts, Pentateuch (the first five books of Jewish and Christian scripture), and Psalms. Among the pages on view at Phoenix Art Museum are: The Seven Days of Creation, Genesis, The Garden of Eden, Jacob's Ladder, The Ten Commandments, The Parable of the Loaves and Fishes, The Sermon on the Mount, The Parable of the Sower and the Seed, The Birth of Christ, Dinner at the Pharisee's House, The Woman Accused of Adultery, The Raising of Lazarus, The Death of Moses, The Crucifixion.

[...]

The exhibition includes some other interesting items:

Comprised from the extensive, world-class collection of sacred manuscripts and ancient Biblical works of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, "The Early History of the Bible" is a collection of illuminated and handwritten works ranging from an 8th century Biblical manuscript fragment from Egypt to a 16th century Hebrew Esther scroll, and features Bibles from the early age of printing, including a page from the Gutenberg Bible and a first edition of Martin Luther's New Testament.

[...]

One of the foremost private collections of ancient illuminated texts, the James Melikian Collection features several rare objects of note. "The Khabouris Codex" is one of only two Assyrian New Testament manuscripts from the 11th/12th centuries, written in Aramaic, and still in existence in the Western Hemisphere (the other is housed in the Library of Congress).

The Melikian Collection also features a variety of English printed Bibles, ranging from the Bishops' Bible to various editions of the King James translation, all from the 1500s and 1600s (including the tallest printed Bible, printed in 1680). These Bibles showcase the intense activity that first brought the Bible into the English language.

Additionally, the collection features three Armenian "Four Gospels," notable for their beauty and rarity to the Western region, the earliest of which dates back to 1350. Written in Aramaic on rice paper, each manuscript begins with a series of full-page illustrations of the life and ministry of Jesus. One of the "Four Gospels" on display, dated 1651, was made by an ethnic-Armenian team in Istanbul and used through a three-decade career of the priest-monk (vardapet) Minas of Kona. Minas, in turn, commissioned a deluxe silver cover for the volume in 1675, just before donating the book to the parish he served throughout his life. Several other silver Bible covers, many from the 1800s, will also be on display.

[...]

Background here, here, and here.

MORE ON THE JEZEBEL SEAL from the Jerusalem Post:

Dutch scholar claims ancient seal was Queen Jezebel's
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS

An ancient seal that surfaced in Israel more than four decades ago belonged to the biblical Queen Jezebel, according to a new study released on Tuesday by a Dutch university.

[...]

But the study by Utrecht University Old Testament scholar and Protestant minister Dr. Marjo Korpel, 48, concludes that the seal must have belonged to Jezebel, based on the symbols that appear on it.

The seal, which was donated to the Israel Department of Antiquities in the early 1960s by the private Voss-Hahn collection, not only bears symbols that indicate a female owner but also "well-worked" symbols that designate that owner as royalty, Korpel said.

Moreover, the seal is exceptionally large compared to those commonly possessed by ordinary citizens, she added.

Korpel, who is not an archeologist, suggested that the upper edge of the seal, which is chipped off, must have originally included two broken-off letters that would have correctly spelled Jezebel's name.

Korpel conceded that her thesis was "a real hypothesis" that remained uncorroborated by any archeological bodies, including the Israel Antiquities Authority, and that it had been reached by a process of elimination.

[...]

It seems that Korpel's work is being published in a specialist journal:

The Utrecht study, which has been published in the the Journal for Semitics, indicates that Jezebel possessed her own seal, enabling her to operate independently of Ahab.

This is a South African journal about which I know little.

Background here.

UPDATE: Reuters also has an article on Korpel's theory here.

UPDATE: Amihai Matzar is skeptical. (Via the Agade list.)

JESUS AND ARCHAEOLOGY, edited by James Charlesworth, is reviewed by Gary M. Burge in Christianity Today.

At the turn of the millennium, a Jerusalem conference hosted an international gathering of scholars who summarized the achievements in New Testament archaeology over the last few decades. This volume contains 30 papers from the conference, skillfully edited for publication.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

MKs want to probe Wakf for Mount dig
By DAN IZENBERG (Jerusalem Post)

The Knesset State Control Committee on Monday decided to ask the State Comptroller's Office to investigate procedures for allowing the Wakf Islamic trust to excavate on the Temple Mount, amid claims by archeologists that the laying of electric cables there in August endangered ancient artifacts.

[...]

The committee accused the Antiquities Authority and its director-general, Shmuel Dorfman, of violating government regulations required for granting permission to the Wakf to carry out work that might harm archeological artifacts.

Dorfman acknowledged that he had not asked for permission from a ministerial committee established to oversee Temple Mount excavations, as required by the regulations. However, he and the Jerusalem District architect, Yuval Baruch, told the panel, "There was no damage to the remains of buildings or artifacts." Dorfman also said he had been more lenient regarding the terms of the excavation because it was the only way he could be sure the authority would be able to supervise the excavation.

Dorfman strongly denied allegations by a member of the archeologists' committee, Yisrael Caspi, that he had been ordered by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to give the Wakf permission to dig the trench.

"The prime minister did not speak to me," he told the State Control Committee. "No one spoke to me and no one forced me to agree."

[...]

IN THE MAIL:

Stephen R. Donaldson, Fatal Revenant (The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant) (New York: Putnam, 2007)

Woo hoo! Book reviews will have to wait. No academic reading for me for the next week or two.

HUMAN SACRIFICE AND THE PHOENICIANS: At Rogue Classicism, David Meadows notes the following:

Interesting item from ADNKronos claiming evidence from Sicily suggests the Phoenicians did practice the sacrifice of newborns, but not in large numbers and only in response to specific events[.]

Oh. Well, that's all right then.

UPDATE: For a discussion of similar claims about Carthage, see here.

A FESTSCHRIFT FOR SY GITTEN has just come out. Congratulations, Sy!

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that the Israeli Antiquities Authority has recently undertaken an investigation "over maintenance works of the Waqf" (presumably associated with the recent Waqf excavations by bulldozer) and have found, suprise! surprise!, a "sealed archaeological level" containing artifacts from the First Temple Period (Iron IIB, eighth- to sixth-centuries B.C.E.):

Yuval Baruch of the IAA, Prof. Sy Gitin, Director of the William F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, Prof. Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University and Prof. Ronny Reich of Haifa University examined the finds and the archaeological data and reached the conclusion that the characteristics and location of the finds may aid scholars in reconstructing the dimensions and boundaries of the Temple Mount during the First Temple Period.

The finds include fragments of bowls, including rims, bases and body sherds; the base of a juglet used for the ladling of oil; the handle of a small juglet and the rim of a storage jar. The bowl sherds were decorated with wheel burnishing lines characteristic of the First Temple Period. In addition, a piece of a white washed handmade object was found. It may have been used to decorate a larger object or may have been part of a figurine.

Joseph I. Lauer comments:

Well Glory Be! The IAA finally got off its duff and sent someone to look at the Temple Mount platform and found objects from the First Temple Period. Now, perhaps, they'll finally do a real inspection (and excavation) of the area being destroyed by the Waqf.

Ouch! By their inaction I guess the IAA has earned some criticism, although it's hard to tell how much their hands have been tied by the Government. In any case, I'm glad that at least they are doing something now. I don't know whether the Waqf is still digging, but if so, this information ought to be enough to make the Israeli Government put it to a end. But then, Barkay's sifting of earlier Waqf excavations has already provided ample data along these lines, so I can't say I'm optimistic.

As I've said any number of times (e.g., here), I would rather there be no digging on the Temple Mount by anyone until we have the technology to do it by nonintrusive and nondestructive means. But if there's going to be digging I want it to be by trained archaeologists, not workmen with a bulldozer.

As I was about to publish this post, an APF article on the finds came in on Lauer's list. It looks to be based on the MFA release, with nothing new.

Then, as I wrote the above sentence, Lauer sent out an Arutz Sheva piece that does have additional information, much of it wrong:

Finds on Temple Mount from First Temple

by Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) The unauthorized dig of a trench this past summer by the Moslem Waqf on the Temple Mount, in the course of which it was assumed that precious findings were destroyed, apparently had a thin silver lining. Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) personnel monitoring the trench-digging have, for the first time, found traces of the First Temple.

The IAA studied an archaeological level dating to the First Temple Period, exposed in the area close to the south-eastern corner of the raised platform surrounding the Dome of the Rock.

Archaeological examination of a small section of this level, led by Jerusalem District Archaeologist Yuval Baruch, uncovered fragments of ceramic table wares, animal bones, and more. The finds date from the 8th to 6th centuries BCE; the First Temple existed between the 9th and 5th centuries BCE, having been built by King Solomon in 832 and destroyed in 422.

[...]

According to the Deuteronomistic Historian (in 1 Kings) Solomon's Temple was built in the tenth century (the 900s) BCE It was destroyed by the Babylonians in the early sixth century BCE (586/7 BCE). Sigh.

On Surah 17.1 and related traditions, see here and here.

And Lauer is on a roll! I can't even hit the publish button before he sends in something new. Here's one from Haaretz on the discoveries.

Archaeologists find link to 1st temple in controversial J'lem dig
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent and The Associated Press

Israeli archaeologists overseeing a contested dig at Jerusalem's holiest site for Muslims and Jews stumbled upon a sealed archaeological level dating back to the era of the first biblical Jewish temple, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Sunday.

[...]

And this one does have some additional and somewhat disquieting news:

Jon Seligman, Jerusalem regional archaeologist for the Antiquities Authority, said the find was significant since it could help scholars in reconstructing the dimensions and boundaries of the Temple Mount during the first temple period.

"The layer is a closed, sealed archaeological layer that has been undisturbed since the 8th century B.C.," he said.

But the Public Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, a group of Israeli archaeologists, downplayed the findings, saying the dig was conducted in an unprofessional manner without proper documentation. The group previously condemned the maintenance works, which included using a tractor to dig a trench, charging that digging at such a sensitive site could damage Bible-era relics and erase evidence of the presence of the biblical structures.

"I think it is a smoke screen for the ruining of antiquities," said Eilat Mazar, a member of the committee.

Seligman said the maintenance work was necessary to accommodate the thousands of worshippers who flock daily to the site. He said no damage was caused to the site and added that the discovery was merely a pleasant surprise.

[...]

It's difficult to know what is going on here without more information.

UPDATE (22 October): And this from the A.P. in the International Herald Tribune:

Israeli archaeologists overseeing contested Jerusalem dig find link to first Jewish Temple
The Associated Press
Published: October 21, 2007

JERUSALEM: Israeli archaeologists overseeing a contested dig at Jerusalem's holiest site for Muslims and Jews stumbled upon a sealed archaeological level dating back to the era of the first biblical Jewish temple, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Sunday.

Islamic authorities responsible for the Old City compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, said the dig was part of infrastructure work at the site to replace 40-year-old electrical cables. But the Islamic Trust denied that any discovery was made, or that any Israeli archaeologists were supervising the work.

[...]

Interesting.

UPDATE: Reader Carla Sulzbach e-mails:

The article from Arutz 7 in which the phrase "The finds date from the 8th to 6th centuries BCE; the First Temple existed between the 9th and 5th centuries BCE, having been built by King Solomon in 832 and destroyed in 422" is found is not "wrong" in the sense that they used some random dates. They use the rabbinic chronography Seder Olam Rabbah. This work is the source of the Anno Mundi calculation and compresses the Persian Period to a mere 52 years and reduces the reign of ten kings to three. Earlier dates, as you can see from the article, are also dramatically off in comparison to the conventional chronology. Indeed, it is worrysome to see this creep into news articles - bad enough that certain publishing houses such as ArtScroll use it as fact.

Indeed.

THE JERUSALEM QUARRY is the subject of a press release from the Israel Antiquities Authority:

For the First Time a Quarry has been Exposed that Supplied Enormous Stones for the Construction of the Temple Mount

In salvage excavations the Antiquities Authority conducted in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood in Jerusalem, an ancient quarry was revealed that extended across an area of at least 5 dunams. The excavation was carried out as part of a project initiated by the Jerusalem Municipality for the purpose of building an elementary school for the children of the neighborhood. From this quarry huge stones were extracted that were used in the national construction projects in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period. This construction most likely also included the walls of the Temple Mount and other monumental buildings. Upon the discovery of the antiquities Mayor Rabbi Uri Lupolianski instructed that the work be halted and allocated 350,000 NIS for salvage excavations.

[...]

Background here and here. But somehow I doubt that this is relevant.

(Via Joseph I. Lauer's list.)

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS: THE MOVIE.

Plus a quiz!

Plus this on the Qumran copy now on display in San Diego:

At the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park, the fragmented copy of the commandments is a hit so far. Last Saturday, a near-capacity crowd of 3,900 visitors showed up to see the exhibition after word got out that this piece of Deuteronomy was on display ahead of schedule.

“This is simply the blockbuster of the exhibition,” said curator Risa Levitt Kohn at the official kickoff Monday.

The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition began three months ago with the first sampling of biblical texts, religious commentaries and other writings discovered in the Judean desert and dating back roughly 2,000 years. For preservation purposes, 12 scroll fragments on loan from Israel were on display the first three months and then another 12 are being shown these final three months (three on loan from Jordan are here all six months). The exhibition ends Dec. 31.

Included in this second set are fragments from Leviticus, Psalms and Samuel, a commentary on Genesis and an apocalyptic prediction about the coming of a messiah. The Deuteronomy fragment of the Ten Commandments is a long, narrow scrap of parchment that dates back to about 30 B.C.

There is debate as to whether this text is the oldest known copy of the Ten Commandments, with some scholars saying that distinction belongs to the Nash Papyrus fragments acquired in Egypt about a century ago.

For more on the Nash Papyrus, see here.

MANUSCRIPTS GALORE! At the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog, Peter Head points to reports of new manuscript discoveries.

At Parchment and Pen, Dan Wallace reports on photographic projects at Patmos and "an Eastern European country":

As many of you know, the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (www.csntm.org) sent out two teams on expeditions this past summer—one to Patmos and one to an eastern European country. The expeditions accomplished far more than we thought they would: 25,000 images shot with high-resolution digital cameras, more than sixty manuscripts photographed altogether. Not only that, but we discovered several manuscripts that are up till now unknown to western scholarship. We’re not sure exactly what we have found in all instances so far because with thousands of images to go through it takes time to determine exactly what each manuscript contains. But we’ve been working through the images and documenting what we have found.

In addition to the new discoveries, CSNTM also ‘rediscovered’ several manuscripts that had been presumed lost decades ago. To put all this in perspective, those manuscripts that go missing almost never show up. And certainly they don’t show up in batches. This time, they did. More importantly, we photographed them as well as the newly discovered manuscripts.

In Archaeology Magazine, Marco Merola reports on thousands of recently excavated inscribed papyrus fragments and potsherds at Tebtunis in Egypt. This part of the online abstract caught my eye especially:

Gallazzi puts on a pair of white gloves to remove a piece of papyrus from the ground with very thin tweezers. Since 1998, the Italian-French mission has found 7,000 papyri and many inscribed potsherds. This is one of the very few places in Egypt where archaeologists are still unearthing papyrus fragments. And the finds here are startlingly diverse, written in Arabic, Coptic, Greek, Aramaic, and Egyptian demotic, a simplified, cursive form of hieratic writing.

"Many are concerned with administrative procedures, but also include contracts, receipts, inventories, letters, and school exercises, as well as copies of literary works by Homer, Menander, and Euripides," says Gallazzi, who seems to be able to read ancient papyri the way you're reading this article.

As always when I hear of such manuscript discoveries, I want to ask whether there are any Old Testament Pseudepigrapha among them. I suspect that projects like this will provide fodder for a future More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project in decades to come.

By the way, the current MOTP project is going well. Entries are starting to come in and we expect to be doing much of the editing of the volumes in 2008. Thanks to those who have already turned in their entries, and we look forward to receiving the rest in the coming months.

INTERNET ACCESS at home is still erratic. I'll post over the weekend if I'm able to.

WILLIAM DEVER'S LECTURE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY is reported on in The Forward. A very direct connection is made to the controversy over tenure for Nadia Abu El-Haj:

Archaeologists Challenge Barnard Professor’s Claims

Marissa Brostoff | Wed. Oct 17, 2007

Amid charges of mud-slinging, a group of archaeologists turned to dirt-digging — literally — in their fight against a controversial fellow academic.

On Monday night, Columbia University’s pro-Israel student group played host to the latest installment in a lecture series aimed, at least partially, at rebutting Nadia Abu El-Haj, whose work has been critical of the traditional narratives of Israeli archeology.

[...]

On Monday night, the featured speaker was William Dever, a retired professor of Near Eastern archaeology at the University of Arizona who is a critic of Abu El-Haj. Although he never referred explicitly to Abu El-Haj in his lecture, Dever challenged notions advanced by some academics about archaeology’s inherent biases.

“Archaeology has never been edited,” he said. “When we dig these things up, they are pristine.”

Judith Jacobson, a member of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, made the opening remarks at Dever’s lecture. She said that the lecture series, titled “Underground: What Archaeology Tells Us about Ancient Israel,” was conceived partly to remind the community that good Israel archaeology exists in abundance. Asked if she thought the series served a political purpose, Jacobson answered carefully.

“Only to inform the community,” she said. “It’s all we can do.”

[...]

(Via Joseph I. Lauer's list.)

UPDATE (20 October): Ralph Harrington at the Greycat blog offers a trenchant criticism of the quotation attributed to Dever.

UPDATE (27 October): More here

THE REVISED DEAD SEA SCROLL EXHIBITION IN SAN DIEGO is reviewed in the North County Times:

Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit lives on

By: GARY WARTH - Staff Writer
Part 2 of collection opens, contains portion of Ten Commandments

It's not quite as exciting as discovering the Ark of the Covenant, but a 2,000-year-old scroll depicting the Ten Commandments is the highlight of an already landmark exhibit at the San Diego Natural History Museum.

The museum this week began displaying the second of its two-part series of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the largest collection of the artifacts ever displayed in the United States. The 24-scroll exhibit, which runs until Dec. 31, is in two parts because the Israel Antiquities Authority allows only 12 scrolls to leave the country at a time.

Curator Risa Levitt Kohn, director of San Diego State University's Jewish Studies Program and an associate professor of Hebrew Bible and Judaism in the Religious Studies Department, said the scrolls demonstrate how consistent the Bible has been over 2,000 years.

[...]

The Ten Commandments portion is said to be significant because it is the oldest and best-preserved of all the Deuteronomy manuscripts that were discovered in the find. Deuteronomy is one of the Old Testament books of the Bible.

The Ten Commandments text is longer than traditional translations of the Commandments, according to the exhibit's literature, and it includes the two biblical versions of the Sabbath commandment, Exodus 20:11 and Deuteronomy 5:11. Still, its content is easily recognized.

The text reads in part: "You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, and any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters below the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am an impassioned god."

[...]

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH -- from JewishJournal.com:

Olmert to OU: Jerusalem Not On Table

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised Orthodox Jewish leaders that Jerusalem is not up for discussion in forthcoming negotiations with the Palestinians.

In response to a letter from the Orthodox Union (OU) insisting that Olmert not cede portions of Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority, Rachael Risby-Raz, Olmert's diaspora affairs adviser, said the prime minister would keep the city united. The OU wrote to Olmert following a speech Monday in which he appeared to suggest he was willing to consider ceding parts of the city to the Palestinians.

"The issue of Jerusalem is currently not under negotiations with the Palestinians," Risby-Raz wrote. "We assure you, however, that in any future settlement, the prime minister will strengthen the Jewish character of Jerusalem, enhance its Jewish majority, and keep Jerusalem as the eternal, united and internationally recognized capital of the Jewish people and the State of Israel."

Despite the reassurance, the OU still found Olmert's commitment unsatisfactory, noting that in light of his comments "and in light of the unparalleled significance to all Jews of the fate of the holy city, we must ask Prime Minister Olmert to be more explicit about his intentions and commitment to keep Jerusalem as the 'eternal and indivisible capital of the Jewish People,'" a statement from President Stephen Savitsky said.

On Monday, Olmert questioned the inclusion of certain Arab areas within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem -- a remark the Israeli media construed as signaling his willingness to part with certain parts of the city.

THE COMPLETE JANES ARCHIVE IS NOW ONLINE. This from the Agade list:

From David Marcus damarcus@jtsa.edu:
==================================
Announcement, October 17, 2007

JANES ARTICLES ON WEB SITE of the JEWISH THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

The editors of JANES are very pleased to announce that, thanks to the assistance of the Library and the Dean of Academic Affairs, all of JANES articles have been scanned and are available for viewing, searching, and downloading in PDF format on the Web site of the Jewish Theological Seminary at the following link:
http://www.jtsa.edu/Audience_Pages/Scholars_and_Research/JANES.xml.

JANES, the Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society, was founded in 1968 at Columbia University, and has been housed at the Jewish Theological Seminary since 1982. Over these approximately forty years 30 volumes have been published under the editorship of JTS professors Ed Greenstein and David Marcus.

The volumes include approximately three hundred and fifty articles written by over two hundred scholars and students from all over the world. The impressive array of scholars that have contributed articles to these volumes includes well-known names such as G. R. Driver, H. L. Ginsberg, Jonas Greenfield, William Hallo, Thorkild Jacobsen, Jacob Milgrom, A. L. Oppenheim, to mention but a few. Over the years there have been five special issues celebrating JTS and Columbia scholars Elias Bickermann, Meir Bravmann, Theodor Gaster, Moshe Held, and Yohanan Muffs.

Articles have been written on all aspects of the Bible and Ancient Near East covering areas such as art history, archaeology, anthropology, language, linguistics, philology, and religion. There are articles on Assyriology, Ugaritic, Phoenician, Hittite, and all areas of Hebrew and Aramaic and on almost every book of the Bible.

The range of topics is extremely varied and suits a variety of tastes. For example there are articles on:

Rhetorical Features in Sumerian, Akkadian and Biblical Literature

Lions on Assyrian Wall Reliefs

The Worlds First Museums

Assyrian carpets

The Invention of Chess and Backgammon

Animal Domestication

Humor and Cuneiform Literature

Breast-feeding Practices in Biblical Israel

The Urim and Thummim

Juvenile Delinquency in the Bible and the Ancient Near East

Illustrative of the scope of JANES is the contents of the current issue (volume 30):

Pierre Auffret, Dijon France, "C`est l`homme droit que regardera sa face: Etude structurelle du Psaume 11"

Walter R. Bodine, Yale University, "YBC 6996: A Name List from a Mesopotamian School"

John A. Cook, Winona Lake, IN, "The Finite Verbal Forms in Biblical Hebrew Do Express Aspect"

Wayne Horowitz, Hebrew University, "A Late Babylonian Tablet with Concentric Circles from the University Museum (CBS 1766)"

Yigal Levin, The College of Judea and Samaria and Bar-Ilan University, "Numbers 34:2-12, The Boundaries of the Land of Canaan, and the Empire of Necho"

T. Oshima, University of Bucharest, "Marduk, the Canal Digger"

Diane M. Sharon, New York, "Echoes of Gideon`s Ephod: An Intertextual Reading"

Nili Shupak, University of Haifa, "A Fresh Look at the Dreams of the Officials and of Pharaoh in the Story of Joseph (Genesis 40-41) in the Light of Egyptian Dreams."

Information about subscribing to the print version of JANES may also be found at: http://www.jtsa.edu/Audience_Pages/Scholars_and_Research/JANES.xml

Lots of free good stuff. Excellent!

WE'RE THE MESOPOTAMIANS! Brought to you by They Might Be Giants.

Buy the t-shirt here.

(From Francis Deblaue via the Agade list.)

PRE-MODERN JUDAISM JOB AT STANFORD:

From: "Sharon Haitovsky" haitovsky@stanford.edu
Subject: RE: Jewish Studies Search at Stanford University
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 7:34 PM

Stanford University is seeking to appoint a distinguished scholar in pre-modern Judaism at the tenured Associate or Full Professor rank.
We are particularly interested in candidates specializing in the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple period, Midrash, Late Antiquity, or Medieval Judaism, but we encourage all candidates working on any aspect of pre-modern Jewish thought and culture to apply. The successful candidate will be housed in the relevant departments of his or her discipline.

Please send a letter of application and a current CV by November 30, 2007.

Stanford University is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to increasing the diversity of its faculty. It welcomes nominations of and applicants from women and minority groups, as well as others who would bring additional dimensions to the university's research and teaching missions.
Contact Info:
The Jewish Studies Search Committee
Taube Center for Jewish Studies
450 Serra Mall, Stanford University
Bldg 360, Room 362H
Stanford, CA 94305-2190

Website:
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/jewishstudies/overview/index.html

(From the H-JUDAIC list.)

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Turkey denies approving Jerusalem holy site project
Published: 10/17/2007 (TurkishPress.com)

ANKARA - Turkey said Wednesday that a team of Turkish experts who had inspected renovation work by Israel near Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound disapproved of the controversial project.

"The technical delegation has definitely not approved the project," said a statement from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office, contradicting remarks by Israeli Immigrant Absorption Minister Yaacov Edri Sunday that Turkish experts who had investigated the site in March had okayed the work.

[...]

The most recent update on this story that I can find is here. I've not heard anything about the report since.

FROM DEAD SEA SCROLLS TO DEAD BODIES. Me, I'll stick to scrolls, thanks.

CYRUS THE GREAT'S TOMB in danger from humidity damage arising from a new dam?

Iran dam sparks row about ancient Persian relic

By Fredrik Dahl and Reza Derakhshi-Salmasi Wed Oct 3, 8:29 AM ET

PASARGADAE, Iran (Reuters) - For the people protesting against it, a new dam near these sun-drenched ruins may be more than an environmental upheaval: in it they scent an affront to the country's pre-Islamic identity.

For 2,500 years, the tomb of Cyrus the Great has stood on the plain at Pasargadae in southern Iran, a simple but dignified monument to a king revered as the founder of the mighty Persian empire. But some fear the dam and reservoir pose a threat to the ancient structure.

They say the project may increase humidity in the arid area near the city of Shiraz, which they believe could damage the limestone mausoleum.

That may seem far-fetched -- officials dismiss it -- but the row highlights deep cultural faultlines in attitudes to the Islamic Republic's wealth of pre-Islamic relics.

[...]

I have no idea what the merits of this particular case are, but I'm glad there are people in Iran who worry about such things.

(Via the BAS Breaking News page.)

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: I don't have time to follow all the ins and outs and spinoff discussions connected to the upcoming Annapolis summit, but I'll note relevant things as they happen to catch my eye.

'Likud could allow Muslim country to run Temple Mount'
By GIL HOFFMAN (Jerusalem Post)

The head of the Likud's foreign relations department, former ambassador to the US Zalman Shoval, joined calls Tuesday for compromises on Jerusalem when he told a meeting of the Foreign Press Association that his party could allow an Arab or Muslim country to administer the Temple Mount.

[...]

"The question of Israel's sovereignty in Jerusalem, and first and foremost the Temple Mount, is not negotiable," Shoval said. "That said, it is not in Israel's interest to be in any way in charge of the holy places other than [those of] the Jewish faith, and I believe that there are ways - actually there have been plans for a long time - to adopt suitable formulae to this end. Arab and Muslim countries, Jordan for instance, could play a leading role in this."

Shoval told The Jerusalem Post after the event that Israel could maintain sovereignty on the Temple Mount while allowing a country such as Jordan to administer the area. He said he would not rule out the Palestinian Authority running the Temple Mount if there were real peace.

[...]

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

New Mughrabi Bridge plan gets initial OK
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS (Jerusalem Post)

A plan to construct a small new bridge to the Mughrabi Gate which has won city approval has been transferred to the Interior Ministry planning committee for final approval, the Interior Ministry announced late Tuesday.

The archaeological excavation site at the Mughrabi Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The proposal, which calls for the construction of a 95-meter-long bridge to the Mughrabi Gate, comes months after earlier, controversial plans to build a much larger new bridge to the site directly through an archaeological garden were nixed.

The proposed route of the new bridge, which is pending final approval, will follow the existing route of the ramp leading up to the Mughrabi Gate and will be significantly shorter than the previously planned bridge.

A salvage excavation which began at the site earlier this year and then was stopped as the new plans were drawn up could resume shortly, officials said.

[...]

A LECTURE BY DANIEL BOYARIN at Columbia University does not seem to have gone well. A student reports in the Columbia Spectator:

Take a Seat
By Miriam Krule
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 15, 2007

On Oct. 12, most of the Columbia College class of 2010, or at least those who were able to get out of bed, attended the Fall 2007 Contemporary Civilization’s course-wide lecture. The lecture, “Dethroning the Son of Man: Daniel and the Antiquity of Christianity,” was given by Daniel Boyarin, a Columbia alum and celebrated professor of Talmud at UC Berkeley. While this was a required event for all students enrolled in CC, by the end of the lecture less than 100 people remained in the auditorium, a majority of whom were CC professors.

I have never encountered such blatant disrespect. Not only were students talking and sleeping during the lecture, but many students left with no concern for how much noise they made on their way out. No one expected everyone to stay in their seats, or at least I did not, but for groups of students to walk out mid-lecture is inappropriate. What is the value of a liberal arts education, and classes like CC that discuss justice and moral values, if we do not appreciate the ideas and try to uphold them?

Many students—including myself—voiced the opinion that this lecture was an inappropriate choice for a CC-wide event. It is hard to deny that the lecturer was very knowledgeable on the subject, and anyone who stayed long enough to ask questions or hear answers saw the breadth of his knowledge. Yet his use of Hebrew and Aramaic phrases throughout his speech, without sufficient explanation of the sources and characters that he was citing, made it hard for anyone without his background to follow. Even more than that, it was unclear what his academic analysis of the concept “son of man” and how it relates to Judaism had to do with a discussion of law in the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament.

[...]

SPEAKING OF THE TENURE CONTROVERSY surrounding Nadia Abu El-Haj at Barnard, the History News Network has two essays on the story, one pro-tenure and one anti-:

Daniel Martin Varisco, "Nadia Abu El-Haj: Whatever her opinions her methods are not shoddy, as alleged, says scholar" (pro)

Richard L. Cravatts, "Archeology and the Propaganda War Against Israel" (anti)

UPDATE (19 October): More here.

A SERIES OF LECTURES on "What Archaeology Tells Us About Ancient Israel" begins today at Columbia University:

WILLIAM DEVER, UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA, FOLLOWS ALAN SEGAL AT SPME-COLUMBIA'S UNDERGROUND ARCHEOLOGY OF ISRAEL LECTURE SERIES ON OCTOBER 15
By • Judith R. Jacobson
October 9, 2007

William Dever, U of Arizona, on "Did God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel" on October 15 and Aren Maeir, Bar-Ilan University, "The Archaeology of the Philistines: Findings Relevant to Ancient Israel and the Development of Biblical Text" on November 19 and Jodi Magness, Duke University, on Jerusalem in the Time of Herod February 4, 2008

The Columbia chapter of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and LionPAC, a Columbia student organization, present the second in the Underground Lecture Series: What Archaeology Tells Us About Ancient Israel

At Columbia University.

[...]

I think we can assume this is not unrelated to the current tenure controvery concerning Nadia Abu El-Haj.

UPDATE: On the latter, more here (one post up).

UPDATE (19 October): For a brief report on Dever's lecture, see here.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS COME TO SAN DIEGO as the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition there undegoes a rotation:

Ten Commandments fragment already on display at museum
By Sandi Dolbee
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

October 12, 2007

BALBOA PARK – Visitors to the San Diego Natural History Museum's Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition got a surprise treat this week: the oldest known copy of the Ten Commandments.

“I am just in awe,” said Mildred Hill, 81, of Carlsbad, as she stood beside the exhibit yesterday morning. Under glass was a 2,000-year-old fragment written in Hebrew from the biblical book of Deuteronomy.

“I knew they were coming, but I didn't know if we were going to get lucky – and we were,” Hill said.

Billboards advertise the second set of scroll fragments that include the Ten Commandments as going on display next week at the Balboa Park museum. But the items from Israel were swapped a week ago.

[...]

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Mugrabi excavations delayed due to appeal by Arab minister
By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent

The decision to renew excavations at the Mugrabi Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem was postponed on Sunday after Sports, Science and Culture Minister Ghaleb Majadele appealed a ministerial committee vote and requested that debate on the matter be brought before the cabinet plenum.

Government regulations stipulate that when a decision is appealed by a minister, it is delayed pending further government discussion.

In a letter to Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel, the Israeli Arab minister warned that the committee's decision to renew the excavations could spark riots and exacerbate tensions with neighboring countries ahead of next month's planned Annapolis peace summit.

Majadele asked that the appropriate authorities involved, namely the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and UNESCO, be given a chance to express their opinions on the matter before a final decision is made.

The excavations - which are to prepare for the construction of a new bridge to the Mugrabi Gate, between the Western Wall and the Temple Mount - were stopped in June after they sparked protests from the Palestinian Authority and Arab countries. However, the Ministerial Committee on Jerusalem approved their renewal about two weeks ago and digging was set to begin in the coming days.

[...]

Some background is here.

UPDATE:

Israel to Resume Dig Near Temple Mount

By MATTI FRIEDMAN – 15 hours ago

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel will resume archaeological excavations near a Jerusalem holy site that has often been a flashpoint for violence, Israeli officials said Sunday. The decision drew Palestinian charges that Israel is trying to scuttle next month's U.S.-sponsored peace conference.

Fearing an outbreak of violence, an Israeli Cabinet minister said he stalled construction for at least two weeks. But officials said they remained determined to push forward with the project.

The dig is located outside the Old City compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, and is home to the gold-capped Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque.

[...]

A CONFERENCE FOR CANADIAN DEAD SEA SCROLLS SCHOLARS has just taken place in Vancouver:

Dead Sea Scrolls scholars meet for first time at international conference

VANCOUVER - They're awe-inspiring ancient manuscripts shrouded in mystery for both historians and religious scholars wanting a glimpse inside an old Jewish community's customs and the origins of the Hebrew Bible, or the Christian Old Testament.

For the first time this week, Canadian scholars who study the Dead Sea Scrolls have met at an international conference to mark the 60th anniversary since the treasured manuscripts were discovered near Jerusalem.

Peter Flint, co-director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Institute at Trinity Western University in Langley, B.C., said Friday that 12 Canadian experts research the scrolls, which were found in a cave by a goat herder near the shores of the Dead Sea in 1947.

[...]

SORRY FOR THE LONG SILENCE. My home Internet connection has been down again and I didn't have time to stop in the office over the weekend.

JEAN-FRANCOIS CHAMPOLLION -- The Champ Of Hieroglyphics and a role model for Investor's Business Daily.

RESERVATIONS ABOUT ELAD:

The City of David, below and above ground
By Danny Rubinstein (Haaretz

The uncovering of ancient sites currently taking place on the City of David hill, on the slope south of the wall around Jerusalem's Old City, is almost certainly the most impressive archaeological enterprise in Israel today. During a visit there during the Sukkot holiday, one could see thousands of visitors, tourists from abroad and Israelis. They toured the visitors' center on top of the hill, descended to the large area of Warren's Shaft, named after Charles Warren, the famous Welsh officer and researcher of Jerusalem who discovered the shaft 140 years ago, and continued from there to the relatively new digs at the Silwan Pool. Anyone who made an effort could peer through the fence at the deep digs being carried out in the area called Givati parking lot, and in another area that extends southward on the slope.

The discoveries are fascinating: sections of ancient streets, water projects that have been in place since they were constructed over 2,000 years ago, remains of palaces that are hard to identify because on the City of David hill about 20 stages of settlement have been found, dating from its founding until the Middle Ages.

The discoveries involve a series of problems, almost all of them political. Because Jerusalem will be central to the negotiations to be renewed shortly between Israel and the Palestinians, these problems must be addressed.

The digs at the site are being conducted by archaeologists, with authority and permission, but the administration of the various sites is in effect in the hands of the Elad association (a Hebrew acronym for To the City of David), which was established more than 20 years ago and whose goal is to settle Jews on the site. There are similar associations that purchase assets and settle Jews (mainly yeshiva students) in Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, and these things are known. However, there is nothing like this association, which has become an empire of archaeology and tourism. It is headed by David (Davideleh) Beeri, an energetic man who is succeeding in raising money and enlisting support, and his work has expanded the activity of the association relating to archaeology and tourism beyond the City of David as well.

[...]

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Palestinians Want Western Wall as Part of Any Settlement

By BENNY AVNI
Staff Reporter of the Sun
October 12, 2007

UNITED NATIONS — As an American-hosted Middle East summit approaches, Palestinian Arabs are hardening their positions: An aide to the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, said yesterday that the Palestinians will demand sole Arab control over Judaism's holiest site in Jerusalem, the Western Wall.

Mr. Abbas's adviser on religious affairs, Adnan al-Husseini, made the new demand in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv, sparking an outcry from many Israeli politicians who complained that recent reports about the Olmert government's proposal to transfer Arab-dominated neighborhoods in Jerusalem to the jurisdiction of a Palestinian state have led to further Arab demands.

[...]

POSTGRADUATE CONFERENCE on interdisciplinary approaches to the bibical world:

Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:47:23 -0400
From: Adam Mendelsohn amend@BRANDEIS.EDU
Subject: CFP: Graduate Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Biblical World

The School of Religions and Theology, Trinity College Dublin is pleased to invite papers for the Second Annual Biblical Studies Conference, Graduate Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Biblical World (GIA), 15-17 February 2008. The conference is open to all research students, both at Master and Doctoral level.

The aim of GIA remains to foster Postgraduate research on the contexts of ancient Judaism and early Christianity particularly in its engagement with related disciplines, social scientific approaches to the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament and the continuous dialogue with the field of archaeology. It is our hope that we will facilitate this engagement with a conference specifically organised for postgraduate students to present their work.

The first GIA brought postgrads from all stages in researching, and the committee intends to continue with the same broad format. A relaxed atmosphere is intended to attract students who may be presenting their work for the first time. Students beginning their research may gain experience and learn in dialogue from those closer to submission of their doctoral theses. In structured sessions with 20 minute papers and 10 minute discussion sessions, we will also provide an opportunity for more advanced students to engage critically with each other's work.

Papers should be twenty minutes in length and in English; 250-word (maximum) abstracts should be submitted by 8 December 2007 to giaconf@tcd.ie and should include the applicant’s educational standing (year, course). There will be no poster session. There is no submission fee; registration fee (in Euros only) is €30 on site, €25 early.

Presented abstracts will be eligible to submit for the intended peer-reviewed publication of the proceedings. Deadline for this submission will be 1 month following the symposium.

Jason M Silverman
Graduate Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Biblical World
School of Religions and Theology
Trinity College Dublin

(From the H=Judaic list.)

QUEEN JEZEBEL'S SEAL?

Dutch researcher claims to confirm Queen Jezebel's seal
By Cnaan Liphshiz (Haaretz)

For some 40 years, one of the flashiest opal signets on display at the Israel Museum had remained without accurate historical context. Two weeks ago, Dutch researcher Marjo Korpel identified article IDAM 65-321 as the official seal of Queen Jezebel, one of the bible's most powerful and reviled women.

Israeli archaeologists had suspected Jezebel was the owner ever since the seal was first documented in 1964. "Did it belong to Ahab's Phoenician wife?" wrote the late pioneering archaeologist Nahman Avigad of the seal, which he obtained through the antiquities market. "Though fit for a queen, coming from the right period and bearing a rare name documented nowhere other than in the Hebrew Bible, we can never know for sure."

Avigad's cautious approach stemmed from the fact that the seal did not come from an officially-approved excavation. It was thought to come from Samaria in the ninth century B.C.E., but there was no way of knowing for certain where it had been found. And that has been the scientific hurdle that Korpel - a theologian and Ugaritologist from Utrecht University and a Protestant minister - set out to conquer.

In her paper, scheduled to appear in the highly-respected Biblical Archaeology Review, Korpel lists observations pertaining to the seal's symbolism, unusual size, shape and time period. By way of elimination, she shows Jezebel as the only plausible owner. She also explains how two missing letters from the seal point to the Phoenician shrew. (See box.)

[...]

The "box" can be found here.

To show the seal belonged to Queen Jezebel, Dr. Korpel had to address one crucial matter: The seal reads YZBL, whereas Jezebel's name was known to begin with aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. By comparing the seal with similar signets from the same historical period, Korpel showed that seals commonly carried two letters on the top part - precisely where Jezebel's seal was missing a small piece. In keeping with the known pattern from other seals, the first missing letter is almost certainly the possessive lamed. This means the seal probably carried one other letter - the first letter of the owner's name.

Also, Joseph I. Lauer points to Dutch publications here and here which have pictures.

A few comments. If the seal was found in 1964 it's not a product of the forgery ring that seems to have produced a lot of supposedly Bible-related inscriptions somewhat later on. Nevertheless, the seal is unprovenanced, which should make us nervous. Biblical Archaeology Review is a respected popular magazine that has a lot of good articles, but I would like to see the case made in a peer-review journal. Stay tuned.

UPDATE (12 October): Duane Smith comments at Abnormal Interests.

PIETER VAN DER HORST is interviewed about the origins of anti-Semitism by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Excerpts:

"As far as we know Alexandria in Egypt was the birthplace of anti-Semitism's ideology. There also the first pogrom in history-as we now would call it-took place. In Asia Minor, which is now Turkey, there also were large Jewish communities from the fourth or third century BCE onward. One finds there no endemic hatred of the Jews as in Alexandria.

"The initial indication of a negative attitude toward Jews is found at the beginning of the third century BCE in the writings of an Egyptian priest called Manetho. This Greek-speaking Egyptian devotes a large section of his main work, which deals with the history of Egypt, to the Exodus of the Israelites."

Prof. Pieter van der Horst studied classical philology and literature. In 1978 he received his PhD in theology from Utrecht University. After his studies he taught there, among other things as professor of Jewish studies. Van der Horst is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

[...]

Parallels with Today

"The fact that the Jews are monotheistic is no longer a real issue these days. Contemporary anti-Semitism by and large comes from Christians and Muslims, who consider themselves monotheists. The Jew-hatred these days stems from different sources than in antiquity.

"There is, however, another parallel with antiquity. The otherness of the Jews played a large role in their image among Greek and Roman circles. That also is the case in our own times. Anti-Semites perceive the Jews as being different, and this leads them to see them as dangerous. This imagined danger leads to hatred of the Jews.

"One horrifying aspect of the history of Jew-hatred, namely, the twenty-three centuries of anti-Semitism that we know of, is the tenacity of so many motifs such as that Jews are dangerous and enemies of humankind. These ideas are and always have been demonstrably false. They are, however, much alive up to the present day. It is apparently impossible to break through these perceptions.

"The image of the Jew as an enemy is grotesque and easily exposed as pure nonsense. Still these images are kept alive among many millions of people all over the world. That this is possible is one of the most frightening aspects of the history of Jew-hatred."

ROMAN-ERA JEWISH FLOOR MOSAICS are on display at the Dayton Art Institute:

Sanctuary in time

Ancient synagogue floor mosaics make Roman World at DAI a must see

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

Prepare to be floored by a synagogue floor. Through January 6, the Dayton Art Institute is home to the The Roman World: Religions and Everyday Life, featuring Jewish mosaics from the Brooklyn Museum.

Twelve mosaics — sections of the sanctuary floor of a sixth-century synagogue in Tunisia — are the stars of the show.

They were unearthed in 1883 when French army captain Ernest de Prudhomme ordered soldiers to prepare his backyard for a garden. What they dug up were the first archeological ruins of a Roman-period synagogue.

In 1905, the Brooklyn Museum purchased the sanctuary panels, which were last exhibited there in 1998.

[...]

IN THE MAIL -- a review copy of:

Maureen Bloom, Jewish Mysticism and Magic: An Anthropological Perspective. (New York/Oxford: Routledge, 2007)

Providing a unique anthropological perspective on Jewish mysticism and magic, this book is a study of Jewish rites and rituals and how the analysis of early literature provides the roots for understanding religious practices. It includes analysis on the importance of sacrifice, amulets, and names, and their underlying cultural constructs and the persistence of their symbolic significance.

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

Israeli archeologist stoned near Temple Mount
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS (Jerusalem Post)

An Israeli archeologist taking part in a dig in
Jerusalem's ancient City of David was stoned Tuesday near the Temple Mount, the archeologist said.

The archeologist was not injured in the early morning attack near a Muslim cemetery in the area, but the stone hit his car.

The suspected Arab assailants fled the scene and a
border police patrol did not find the attackers.

Jerusalem police spokeswoman Sigal Toledo said that a group of Arab children apparently threw the stone.

Joseph I. Lauer reports on his list that he wrote to Etgar Lefkovits to ask the obvious question -- who was the archaeologist? Lauer reports: "He responded, 'an associate of Hebrew U archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar'. Unfortunately, I do not have any more information."

A RABBINICS CONFERENCE AT BRANDEIS:

Conference on Teaching Rabbinic Literature:
Bridging Scholarship and Pedagogy
January 27-28, 2008


A research conference featuring presentations by and discussions with outstanding teachers of rabbinic literature from diverse settings and multiple levels.

(Via the H-Judaic list.)

SYRIAC CONFERENCE (from Dr David G.K. Taylor on the Hugoye list):

The 5th annual conference of the "Societe d'etudes syriaques" will take place in Paris
16 November 2007

*THE OLD TESTAMENT IN SYRIAC*

*9h 15* : accueil
Moderator: Arnaud Serandour
*9 h 30* : Sebastian Brock : « Présentation des Bibles syriaques et exposé de la problématique ».
*10 h* : Gilles Dorival : « Bibles syriaques, Bibles hébraïques et Bibles grecques ».
*10 h 30* Marinus Koster, Olivier Munnich, Adrian Schenker : « Le polymorphisme du texte biblique et la place des versions syriaques ».
11 h 15: Pause
*11 h 30* : Philippe Le Moigne : « Peut-on définir une théologie de la Peshitto L’exemple du livre d’Isaïe ».
*12h* : Jean-Claude Haelewyck : « Le canon de l’Ancien Testament dans la tradition syriaque (listes canoniques, auteurs, manuscrits) ».

Moderator: Pier-Giorgio Borbone
*14 h 30* Timothy Michael Law : « La version syro-hexaplaire et la transmission textuelle de la Bible grecque ».
*15 h* Alison Salvesen : « La version de Jacques d’Édesse ».
*15 h 30* Bas ter Haar Romeny : « La réception des différentes versions : l’apport des citations dans la littérature patristique ».
16 h : Pause
*16 h 15* Konrad Jenner, Wido van Peursen : « La diffusion des manuscrits bibliques conservés : typologie, organisation, nombre et époques de copie ».
*16 h 45* Bernard Outtier : « L’ancien Testament en arménien et en géorgien : des traductions du syriaque ? ».
*17 h 15* Sidney Griffith : « Les premières versions arabes de la Bible et leurs liens avec le syriaque ».


*Venue* : Les Cordeliers, 15 rue de l’École de médecine, 75006 Paris, Salle Gustave Roussy, Escalier B, 2e étage.

Free entrance.

*With the support of*
l’ANR (programme DATI : De l’antiquité tardive à l’islam)
l’UMR 8167 Orient et Méditerranée Laboratoire des études sémitiques anciennes (CNRS)
l’UPR 841 Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes (CNRS)
le ministère des Affaires étrangères
l’université Paris IV-Sorbonne
l’École doctorale I (Mondes anciens et médiévaux) de l’université Paris
IV-Sorbonne
l’Institut universitaire de France.


The acts will be published next year in 'Etudes syriaques 5'.

AN ARCHAEOLOGY TELETHON, plus more (Punic) Phoenicians in Europe:

Italy resorts to telethon to protect antiquities


Tom Kington in Rome
Monday October 8, 2007
The Guardian

Weighed down by the burden of restoring and protecting hundreds of crumbling archaeological and cultural sites, the cash-strapped Italian government has resorted to a direct appeal to Italians for contributions through a three-day TV telethon.

With the aim of raising €3.5m over the weekend, Italian opera singers, actors and conductors were enlisted to plead for cash in a stream of adverts on state broadcaster RAI, warning of dire consequences if sites such as the Palatine hill home of Emperor Augustus were not patched up.

Article continues
Launching the marathon fundraiser on Thursday the culture minister, Francesco Rutelli, told TV audiences of the dangers of leaving digs and monuments unprotected from tomb raiders in a country that boasts 41 Unesco designated sites but can only afford €300m of the €700m required for their annual upkeep.

To soaring music by Ennio Morricone, seven sites featured in rotating TV spots, including Augustus's villa where the frescos and flooring are decaying, the Sulky Punic necropolis in Sardinia, dating back to the fourth century BC, and an abandoned Norman fort near Cosenza.

[...]

PHOENICIANS IN EUROPE:

Europe's oldest city' is found
By Elizabeth Nash in Madrid
Published: 09 October 2007 (The Independent)

Archaeologists in Spain's southern port of Cadiz believe they have found remains which prove that it is Europe's oldest inhabited city – Phoenician Gadir, or Gades in Roman times.

Remnants of walls have emerged seven metres deep in a dig beneath Cadiz's old town centre which have been dated to the 8th century BC. Scientists found shards of Phoenician pottery, and pieces of jars, bowls and plates once used in everyday life which all point towards the existence of a town. A well-preserved bronze brooch has also appeared, suggesting a high level of civilisation. Previous finds, including funeral relics, did not provide conclusive evidence of urban settlement.

[...]

By the way, my home Internet access has finally been restored. The problem turned out to be a faulty telephone socket.

MAARAV, A Journal for the Study of the Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures, has a new issue (13.2, 2006) printed and about to be sent out. Jack Sasson has posted the TOC on the Agade list:

Bibliographical Abbreviations 141
(r) Raymond Westbrook
Reflections on the Law of Homicide in the Ancient World 145
(r) Paul G. Mosca
Some Grammatical and Structural Observations on the Trophy Inscription from Kition (Cyprus) 175
(r) Alejandro F. Botta
The Legal Function and Egyptian Background of the fylv Clause: A Reevaluation 193
(r) David P. Wright
The Laws of Hammurabi and the Covenant Code: A Response to Bruce Wells 211
(r) Rebecca Hasselbach
Review of Pratique de la grammaire akkadienne: Exercices et corrigés
(Florence Malbran-Labat) 261
(r) Alan S. Kaye
Review of Grammaire comparée des langues sémitiques: Éléments de phonétique de morphologie et de syntaxe (Jean-Claude Haelewyck) 269
Corrigendum 277
Simon B. Parker 279

HEBREW BIBLE JOB:

POSITION IN HEBREW BIBLE

DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES
UNC-CHAPEL HILL

JOB DESCRIPTION

The Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill invites applications for a tenured/tenure track appointment in Hebrew Bible, effective July 1, 2008. The rank is open.

The candidates must be prepared to teach large introductory undergraduate courses in the Hebrew Bible, courses on ancient Israelite history and religion, and upper level courses and graduate seminars requiring close reading of Biblical texts. Thorough knowledge of Hebrew and Aramaic, and familiarity with the major issues of textual, historical, and literary criticism of the Hebrew Bible will be assumed. Scholars with secondary (teaching and research) competence in a range of fields and subfields are invited to apply, including but not limited to the languages, literatures and cultures of the Ancient Near East, Biblical archaeology, or Septuagint and Qumran studies. Successful candidates will also be expected to direct doctoral students in collaboration with faculty in the Department of Religion at Duke University. Both teaching and research of the candidates need to be related to the problems and issues in the study of religion broadly conceived.

Send letter of application, current curriculum vitae, and the names and addresses (email and postal) of five references to: Chair of Hebrew Bible Search Committee, Department of Religious Studies, CB# 3225, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3225 (http://www.unc.edu/depts/rel_stud/). Completed hard copy of the application and accompanying documents must be received by January 4, 2008. The University of North Carolina is an equal opportunity employer. Women and minorities are strongly encouraged to apply.

(From the Agade list.)

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH:

'Jordan will have custody of Temple Mt.'
By JPOST.COM STAFF

The Israelis and Palestinians have reached an agreement by which, in a final peace deal, the Temple Mount's holy sites will be transferred to Jordanian custody, Al-Quds al-Arabi reported on Monday morning. Also, according to the London-based newspaper, it was agreed that Jordanian citizenship would be granted to 90,000 east Jerusalem residents.

According to the report, it is also likely that a supreme supervisory commission will be established, which will include representatives from the UN, Egypt, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

[...]

Perhaps this story is related.

UPDATE ON THE UCL ARAMAIC INCANTATION BOWL COLLECTION:

British university forced to return 'looted' Iraq treasure
By Andrew Johnson (The Independent)
Published: 07 October 2007

One of Britain's leading universities is embroiled in an embarrassing row over hundreds of treasures looted from Iraq.

Found scattered around ancient Mesopotamia, the Aramaic incantation or devil bowls were placed upside down in homes during the sixth to eighth centuries to trap evil spirits. The spells, and information such as the names of the home owners, are not found in any other source. One collection contains the earliest examples of the Bible in Hebrew.

This is somewhat garbled. I've never heard them called "devil bowls" before, although I suppose they could be. Some of the names in the bowls are known from other sources (e.g., Rav Joshua bar Perahya, who also appears in rabbinic texts). And, although the bowls do quote passages from the Hebrew Bible from time to time, these bowls are not the earliest sources for the Hebrew Bible. Rather, the Dead Sea Scrolls are. [UPDATE: Actually, the very earliest fragment of a text found in the Hebrew Bible appears in the Ketef Hinnom silver amulets.]

Anther collection is at the centre of a legal row that has divided Britain's academic community. Since the first Gulf War in 1990, Iraq has been a looters' paradise. The United Nations introduced a sanction in 2003 making it illegal to handle artefacts from the country. So when University College London came into possession of 654 bowls, the biggest collection in the world, which it loaned from a private collector, suspicions were raised.

The bowls belong to Martin Schoyen, a Norwegian collector of ancient scripts. There is no suggestion that he looted the bowls, or was aware they may have been looted when he bought them in London from a Jordanian who claimed they had been in his family for generations.

UCL set up a committee of inquiry which found that "on the balance of probability" the bowls had, somewhere along the line, been looted from Iraq.

At this point Mr Schoyen sued UCL for their return. Legally his claim is sound, because he has held title for seven years. What has dismayed academics, however, is that the inquiry report was suppressed as part of the out-of-court settlement.

Professor Colin Renfrew, a fellow at Cambridge University and a member of UCL's committee of inquiry, is angry that the settlement said the report should be withheld. A world expert in ancient treasures, Lord Renfrew said UCL had no choice but to return the collection.

[...]

The situation sounds messy. For previous PaleoJudaica coverage, see here, here, and here. For some introductory comments on the Aramaic incantation bowls, go here.

By the way, my broadband access is still down at home, but I'm working on it.