BIG TROUBLE FOR ELAD?

Islamic-era skeletons 'disappeared' from Elad-sponsored dig
By Meron Rapoport (Haaretz)
Tags: archeology, Israel, Elad

Dozens of skeletons from the early Islamic period were discovered during excavations near the Temple Mount, on a site slated for construction by a right-wing Jewish organization. Contrary to regulations, the skeletons were removed, and were not reported to the Ministry of Religious Services. The Israel Antiquities Authority termed the incident "a serious mishap."

The IAA's Dr. Doron Ben Ami is directing the excavations at the Givati Parking Lot in Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood, across from the entrance to the Dung Gate. Elad, an association devoted to Judaizing East Jerusalem, is funding the dig at the site, where it plans to build an events hall with underground parking. The IAA is excavating there even though Elad never filed building plans with the planning authorities.

In recent weeks, workers excavating at a depth of two to three meters reached a layer from the 8th or 9th century C.E., some 200 years after the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem. They discovered several dozen skeletons, skulls and bone fragments, thought to date from the early Islamic period. An IAA source said "dozens of crates" containing bone fragments were removed, which suggests at least 100 skeletons were found.

IAA regulations require that any graves discovered be reported immediately to the Religious Services Ministry and to Atra Kadisha, an ultra-Orthodox organization dedicated to preserving ancient Jewish grave sites. For some reason this discovery was not reported, and the skeletal remains were carted away before ministry officials arrived to inspect the site. The ministry learned of the discovery only two weeks later, following inquiries by Haaretz.

Nor have the Muslim religious authorities been notified, even though the skeletons are thought to be Muslim.

[...]

If this report is accurate, it's hard to imagine how Elad could have done more reinforce stereotypes about it and critically damage its own credibility. And the episode doesn't do the IAA any good either. All that said, I want confirmation of the story and it's details before jumping to any conclusions. I note that an earlier Haaretz article on an archaeological issue and Elad by the same journalist had some problems with it.

There is nothing about this episode on the IAA website yet.

For background on Elad and the IAA see here, here, and here.

METATRON WATCH: Get your Metatron Personal Harmonizer now, before everybody has one.

It turns out, preparing for the imminent alien invasion is only part of Jeff Peckman's craziness. He also creates and peddles "Metatron Harmonizers," little snakeoil gadgets designed to "transform the chaotic electromagnetic fields into life-supporting fields that are in harmony with the natural fields created by the human physiology." Hoo boy.

Check out the picture.

I love Gizmodo.

ANOTHER PHOENICIAN BOAT RECONSTRUCTION is in the works, this one involving a circumnavigation of Africa:

An ancient adventure
By George Hamilton (Oxford Mail)

Grandfather Mike Wilcox is set to become an honorary Phoenician - by recreating one of the greatest ever voyages of discovery.

The property maintenance worker from Bicester Road, Launton, is one of seven people from across the world who have been picked as full-time crew on an exact replica of a Phoenician sailing boat.

He will spend a year on the wooden boat, including 10 months recreating the first-ever circumnavigation around Africa, a voyage first made by Phoenician mariners in 600BC.

The 52-year-old said: "I couldn't believe it when I was picked. It took a couple of days to sink in. It's a voyage of discovery. Nobody has sailed 17,000 miles in one of these boats since 600BC."

Mr Wilcox was a Petty Officer in the Royal Navy for 16 years and saw action during the Falklands conflict in 1982, when he was a member of the crew of the landing ship HMS Intrepid, delivering troops to the beachhead at San Carlos.

He was offered a place in the crew of the Phoenicia after hearing about the British Museum-sponsored expedition and emailing a good luck message to the organisers.

[...]

I noted a similar project, involving a trip from Tyre to Europe, in January.

CAN'T MAKE IT UP: Remixing the Torah for Shavuot.

The Word of God, Rewritten

By Beth Schwartzapfel
Thu. May 29, 2008 (The Forward)

On the upcoming festival of Shavuot, we commemorate the day when Moses carried the Torah — with its 613 rules, injunctions and guidelines on how to live a Jewish life — down from Mount Sinai. Some of its commandments, like “Do not murder” and “Love the stranger,” ring as true today as they did in the Sinai desert. Others, like “Destroy the seed of Amalek” and “Do not eat the flesh of an ox that was condemned to be stoned,” require a little creativity to remain applicable to the lives of 21st-century Jews.

So, two San Francisco-based artists have set up a Web site that allows Jews everywhere to apply their own brand of creativity and humor to the task. (RE)velation (http://revelation.xoxco.com) users “remix” the commandments, using colloquial English and a modern sensibility to reinterpret the lessons of the mitzvot. Thus, “Do not carry tales” becomes “Gossip magazines are not your friend,” and, in a rather unorthodox take, “Do not leave a beast that has fallen down beneath its burden, unaided” becomes “Mick Jagger just wants you to make love to him.” It’s sort of like a Talmud wiki.

[...]

I can't wait to see the search engine referrals that last quote brings in.

MORE ON THE PROPOSED ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL AGREEMENT:

USC, UCLA professors work on Israeli-Palestinian archaeological pact

Lynn Dodd and Ran Boytner are helping to devise a plan for handling the region's rich heritage.
By Ashraf Khalil, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 30, 2008

JERUSALEM -- A pair of archaeology professors from crosstown rivals USC and UCLA are working together to help bring harmony to a small corner of the lengthy conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

For five years, Lynn Dodd of USC and Ran Boytner of UCLA have sought to come up with a plan for handling the rich archaeological heritage of the Holy Land should a binding peace deal be reached for the creation of a Palestinian state.

The pair organized the Israeli-Palestinian Archaeology Working Group, bringing together three Palestinian and three Israeli archaeologists to craft a blueprint for the eventual disposition of hundreds of historical sites and thousands of artifacts.

After three years of sometimes contentious negotiating sessions overseen by professional mediators, the group has formulated a nonbinding model that could be put into action once the final borders of a Palestinian state are defined. Their next step is to submit the proposal for discussion in June at the World Archaeological Congress in Dublin, Ireland.

[...]

The Dead Sea Scrolls would be a particularly touchy area:

From the Israeli side, one of the immediate sticking points is the future status of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The ancient texts are viewed in Israel as a national treasure, and Israeli officials made it clear from the start that putting the scrolls into Palestinian hands was not an option.

"The Israelis are very emotional about them," Jubeh said.

At least some of the scrolls were unearthed on what is now Palestinian land, Greenberg said, but many first came to light when they turned up on the antiquities market.

The joint archaeology document states that the fate of certain highly sensitive artifacts should be addressed by the politicians during final negotiations.

"The Dead Sea Scrolls are a political issue. We recognize that will be a political decision," Boytner said.

And though all sides acknowledge that the scrolls probably will remain in Israeli hands, Boytner said, "there must be a legal way to do it. The Israelis can't just say, 'We're going to keep it and that's it.' "

[...]

Background here. This remains a utopian exercise until there actually is a peace agreement.

ARAMAIC WATCH: Gilgamesh, The Opera - in Syriac:

Bedford composer's works earning international attention
By MIKE LEWIS mikel@tmnews.com
May 29, 2008

BEDFORD — Since a trip to The Netherlands in 2006, Bedford resident and composer John Craton has kept busy. And the work will take him back to The Netherlands this summer for another premiere of an original work.

The work for two guitars and orchestra called “Flowers of Spain” will be premiered July 5 by American guitarists Mark and Beverly Davis and the Dutch orchestra Het Consort. The composer and his wife, Dr. Deborah Craton, plan to attend the concert in The Netherlands.

[...]

Craton is a full-time composer who also teaches violin and classical mandolin in a studio at his home.

A Bedford resident since 1984, he began composing music when he was 11 years old. He has composed for artists in the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany.

The composing side has been busy the past several months. Some highlights:

[...]

• A commissioned opera, “Gilgamesh,” is the first to be composed in the Syriac language. It is to be presented at a concert by the Townsend Opera Players this fall in Modesto, Calif.

[...]

There is a venerable tradition of Gilgamesh in Aramaic, although these sources just preserve the name and get the story completely garbled. Gilgamesh, the monster Humbaba, and the Flood hero Utnapishtim appear as giants in the Book of Giants. And around 600 CE, the Nestorian Syriac writer Theodor bar Qoni mentions Gilgamesh as a contemporary of Abraham. It's good to see that the tradition continues and that, presumably, this Aramaic version will be much closer to the original.

THE SHROUD OF TURIN may be compared to a much older shroud found in the Judean Desert:

Will Judean Desert find shed light on Shroud of Turin?
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS

Can a 6,000-year-old shroud uncovered in the Judean Desert in 1993 help illuminate the centuries-old debate over the Shroud of Turin?

That is the question posed by Olga Negnevitsky, a conservator at the Israel Museum who was involved in the conservation of the lesser-known shroud for the Antiquities Authority after it was discovered inside a small cave near Jericho.

The idea to use the older shroud to learn more about the famous one came to Negnevitsky this week after she listened to an address on the Shroud of Turin at the International Art Conference in Jerusalem on the conservation of cultural and environmental heritage.

[...]

Instead of finding biblical scrolls, the archeologists stumbled on the 6,000-year-old tomb of a nobleman whose body was wrapped in an elaborate linen shroud.

The skeleton was accompanied by a long flint blade, wooden bowls, sandals of thick leather, and bows.

The shroud, like the Shroud of Turin, had signs of blood on it, likely from a wound suffered by the bandaged warrior, Negnevitsky said.

[...]

On a related note, the Chicago Tribune reports that the Shroud of Turin is going to be subjected to new tests at Oxford University:

Now, John Jackson, a University of Colorado at Colorado Springs physics lecturer has done something his colleagues consider nearly miraculous.

Jackson, who is a leading researcher on the 14-foot-long linen sheet, has persuaded the Oxford laboratory that dated the shroud to the 13th or 14th Century to revisit the question of its age.

Professor Christopher Ramsey, head of the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, has agreed to test Jackson's hypothesis that contamination by carbon monoxide could throw off radiocarbon dating by more than a millennium.

It is possible, Jackson said, that even minimal contamination of the shroud by environmental carbon monoxide could have skewed the dating by 1,300 years — making it not medieval but contemporaneous with Jesus's life.

Jackson, who must prove a viable pathway for that contamination, is working with Oxford to test samples of linen under the various conditions the shroud has endured, such as outdoor exhibitions and exposure to extreme heat during a 1532 fire.

"Science still has much to tell us about the shroud," said Jackson, a devout Catholic. "If we are dealing with the burial cloth of Christ, it is the witness to the birth of Christianity. But my faith doesn't depend on that outcome."

Watch this space.

MANI AND MANICHAEISIM get some nice coverage from Press TV, Iran:

Mani and Manichaeism in Sassanid Iran
Wed, 28 May 2008 15:46:15
By Hedieh Ghavidel, Press TV, Tehran

Manichaeism, presumably an offshoot of Zoroastrianism, was not only an inspiration for various heretical movements in Christianity but also dominated the religious life of Central and Eastern Asia for centuries.

Through the four centuries of Sassanid rule over Persia (224-651 CE) Zoroastrianism was the official state religion. Historians, however, have spoken of several heretical sects. One such cult was that of the Manicheans, founded by Mani at the beginning of the Sassanid era.

The founder of the new religion believed to have been the culmination of Zoroastrianism, Christianity and Buddhism was born in 216 CE in southern Babylonia of noble Persian stock.

He grew up under the careful guidance of his father who was a religious leader of a Jewish-Christian baptizing sect. At the age of twelve, Mani claimed that an angel named The Twin had instructed him in a vision to withdraw from the sect and purify himself through asceticism. The Angel later returned to young Mani, this time calling upon him to preach a new religion.

[...]

During his years in exile, Mani gave final shape to his teachings and committed them to writing. Between 244 and 261 CE, he sent a mission to Egypt which met with considerable success.

Apart from the extensive body of anti-Manichaean literature, there are numerous Latin, Greek, Coptic, Middle Iranian, Uighur, and Chinese documents, found in the 20th century, on the Manichean doctrine and practices.

Manichaean sacred texts include The Living Gospel, The Treasure of Life, The Pragmateia, The Book of Mysteries, The Epistles, The Book of Giants, and Psalms and Prayers.

Other Manichaean writings consist of the Shahburagan, a summary of Mani's teachings prepared for Shapur I, the Ardahang, a picture-book illustrating Mani's view of the world and the Kephalaia, a collection of Mani's sayings.

[...]

Despite the unfortunately simplistic heading ("offshoot of Zoroastrianism"), the article itself is much more nuanced and looks accurate in general, although I don't have time to check the details. It also has some good images of Manichaean artifacts, including a manuscript. I have written on the Book of Giants here and here.

DERULZAFARAN MONASTERY (the Syriac "Saffron Monastery") was mentioned in a post in March. Here's a photo gallery of it. A number of Syriac inscriptions are included.

(Via the Condé Nast Traveler blog.)

BUSTED!

Police recover Roman-era figurine, meter-high pottery in home raid
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Antiquities, Israel

A Roman-era bronze figurine of a woman and an intact ceramic pitcher more than a meter high were among dozens of antiquities that Haifa law-enforcement authorities discovered Monday while raiding the home of a man suspected of planning to sell the goods.

The finds - which also include three anchors from ancient ships, pottery, ancient coins, and glass and bronze tools - were allegedly recovered during illegal dives to undersea archaeological sites in the north.

[...]

And here's some good advice on what to do if you discover an artifact (and how to avoid being prosecuted as a looter):

"If you dive and accidentally discover antiquities on the sea floor, do not remove the antiquities from the sea," Ganor said. "Try to mark the location and try to get exact coordinates, and immediately report it to the Antiquities Authority. Diving and removing antiquities from sunken ships on the sea floor sabotages archaeological research and erases important historical evidence. In addition, it is illegal."

Context is crucial.

IN SEARCH OF THE SYNAGOGUE PART III: Lee I. Levine is interviewed in Reform Judaism Magazine. For Part II, see here. I missed Part I and can't find it in their archive.

HUGOYE: Journal of Syriac Studies Volume 11 Number 1 (Winter 2008) has been published online. Table of contents:

Papers

Coptic-Syriac Relations beyond Dogmatic Rhetoric.
Lois Farag, Luther Seminary

Jonah’s Oar: Christian Typology in Jacob of Serug’s Mēmrā 122 on Jonah.
Robert A. Kitchen, Knox-Metropolitan United Church

Expectations of the End in Early Syriac Christianity.
Ute Possekel, Pappas Patristic Institute

Brief Article

The State of Preservation of the Byzantine mosaics of the Saint Gabriel Monastery of Qartamin, Tur Abdin.
Patrick Blanc and Marie-Laure Courboulès, Musée de l’Arles et de la Provence antiques

Publications and Book Reviews

Recent Books on Syriac Topics.
Sebastian Brock, University of Oxford

Jerome Alan Lund, The Book of the Laws of the Countries, A Dialogue on Free Will Versus Fate: A Key-Word-in-Context Concordance.
Kristian S. Heal, Brigham Young University

Martin Zammit, ‘Enbe men Karmo Suryoyo (Bunches of Grapes from the Syriac Vineyard): A Syriac Chrestomathy and Anonymous, The Book of Crumbs: An Anthology of Syriac Texts.
Kristian S. Heal, Brigham Young University

W.Th. van Peursen and R.B. ter Haar Romeny (eds.), Text, translation, and Tradition: Studies on the Peshitta and its Use in the Syriac Tradition.
Craig E. Morrison, Pontifical Biblical Institute

P.S.F van Keulen and W.Th. van Peursen, Corpus Linguistics and Textual History: A Computer-Assisted Interdisciplinary Approach the Peshitta.
Deryle Lonsdale, Brigham Young University

Sebastian Brock, Fire from Heaven: Studies in Syriac Theology and Liturgy.
David G.K. Taylor, Oxford University

Conference Reports

International Syriac Language Project. Ljubljana, July 2007.
Terry Falla and Beryl Turner, University of Melbourne

Announcements

‘Antioch’: a new initiative for the study of the Rum Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch.

Symposium Syriacum and Conference of Christian Arabic Studies, September 22-27, 2008.

Jacob of Sarug and His Times: Studies in Sixth Century Syriac Christianity, October 24-26, 2008.

Advertisements

Journal of Aramaic Studies

Beth Mardutho Amazon Associates

Journal of the Canadian Society of Syriac Studies

QUEEN OF SHEBA'S PALACE UPDATE: Another note of skepticism.

Did Helmut Ziegert discover the Queen of Sheba's palace?

Helmut Ziegert, a retired Archaeology professor from the University of Hamburg, has recently inspired a wide international discussion brought about by his announcement that he should have discovered the palace of the Queen of Saba from the 10th century B.C. in the vicinity of Aksum in northern Ethiopia. However, he provides no tenable proof for his otherwise interesting contribution to the history of Aksum.

Ziegert did not discuss his hypothesis with any colleague working in the field of Ethiopian studies or African archaeology. He is not a member of the Research Unit. The members and the head of the Research Unit Ethiopian Studies of Hamburg University consider the published identification as not scientifically proven.

Professor Dr.Dr. Siegbert Uhlig, Head, Research Unit Ethiopian Studies

Background here.

(Via the Agade list.)

A PALACE OF THE SCRIBES in Safed:

Israeli Museum Offers Insider’s View of How Scribes Put Pen to Parchment

By Tamar Runyan (Chabad.org News)
May 26, 2008

In a grand celebration attended by hundreds of people, a slate of politicians and rabbinical dignitaries dedicated a new scribal arts factory and visitors’ center in Safed, Israel.

Kiryat Hasofrim – its name roughly translates to “Palace of the Scribes” – promises to both present Judaism’s rich scribal heritage and support a veritable army of scribes, who will combine traditional techniques with modern technology.

“This will be the first institute of its kind in the world,” declared Rabbi Chaim Kaplan, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Safed.

[...]

SATAF is an interesting historical reconstruction project in Israel.

Ancient Agriculture
Sataf - A Reconstruction

It is a serene place on the terraced slopes of Mt. Eitan, where ancient mountainous agriculture is practiced as it was by the Israelites thousands of years ago. The 250-acre (1000 dunam) site is maintained by the Jewish National Fund, as a reconstruction of ancient agricultural methods. All the work is done by hand, or with the help of farm animals, without any machinery or use of pesticides. The place is Sataf, where the remains of a 4,000 BCE Chalcolithic village with some of the oldest agricultural traces in the region as well as the remains of a pre-1948 Arab village are clearly visible. Two springs, Ein Sataf and Ein Bikura flow into the Sorek riverbed, below.

[...]

Video here.

ARCHAEOLOGIST BYRON MCCANE is profiled by GoUpstate.com:

Biblical digs breathe life into class for Wofford’s Indiana Jones
By JEREMY JONES
Published: Monday, May 26, 2008 | Updated: 6:35 am

When Byron McCane’s daughter was 9 years old, she and some friends were watching “Raiders of the Lost Ark” when he overheard one of the girls say, “Isn’t your dad an archaeologist like Indiana Jones?”

“Yeah,” McCane’s daughter said. “Same stuff.”

McCane is the Albert C. Outler professor and chair of the religion department at Wofford College. He holds degrees from the University of Illinois, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Duke University.

His book, “Roll Back the Stone: Death and Burial in the World of Jesus,” has positioned him as a leading authority on early Christian burial customs.

[...]

DIVINE LANGUAGES: Sanskrit, Arabic, Syriac, Latin.

ANOTHER JESUS MOVIE from an Islamic perspective seems to be in the works. Not surprisingly, it is generating controversy:

Film about Jesus stirs controversy

By Ramadan Al Sherbini, Correspondent [Gulf News)
Published: May 26, 2008, 00:02

Cairo: Egypt's Muslim and Christian clerics have baulked at a plan by a Syrian director to make a film on Jesus Christ.

Filmmaker Mohammad Aziziah has unveiled a plan to start shooting The Arab Messiah, a film about Jesus from an Islamic perspective.

"I am going to file a lawsuit in the name of the Church to get the production of the movie stopped or to have the script changed," Najeeb Gabriel, an adviser to Pope Shenouda, Egypt's top Christian cleric, said.

Aziziah said in recent remarks he would not seek approval of his film from Egypt's Orthodox Coptic Church or Al Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world's most influential institution. "The film will not be shot in Egypt. It can be shot in Syria, Morocco or Tunisia," the filmmaker told the Egyptian independent newspaper Al Khamis earlier this month.

[...]

According to the Quran, Jesus was not crucified, but rather he was raised alive to Heaven.

The Arab Messiah is not only daring but very new. Hundreds of films have been shot depicting Jesus's life and mission in nearly every language. But this will be the first time such a film will have Jesus speaking in Arabic and he will no longer have blue eyes or yellow hair. He will be played by an Arab actor, according to Aziziah.

[...]

THE 19 THINGS WE'VE LEARNED FROM INDY. They're all good, but here's just one:

2. Never Get Caught With a Sword in a Gunfight
Forget all your fancy maneuvers and impressive showmanship. The simplest solutions in life are often also the best. Sometimes, problems just aren't as complicated as we make them out to be.

JEWISH-TEMPLE DENIAL (ETC.) WATCH: An outfit called News Blaze has an article with lots of accusations against academics associated with the Palestinian Authority:

Anti-Semitism among Palestinian Authority Academics

By Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook

# One of the primary objectives of the Palestinian Authority (PA) after its establishment in 1994 was to delegitimize Israel. These efforts were evident throughout Palestinian society and involved various channels including television, schoolbooks, and culture. The delegitimization of Israel incorporated various hate messages, especially the denial of Israel's right to exist.

# The academic community was likewise recruited to this undertaking. Professors, religious academics, teachers, and schoolbook authors are all participating in this hate promotion. Certain academics are chosen by the PA to indoctrinate the people using such public venues as PA TV and, particularly, educational broadcasting.

# In 1998, PA historians held a conference in which they devised a policy of historical revisionism. The developing PA educational system would not aim to teach historical truth but rather to convey a political history aimed at denying Israel's right to exist in the Land of Israel. Palestinian academics, recognizing the futility of attempting to erase the documented history of the Jews, instead adopted a different solution of literally stealing the identity of the Jews by identifying ancient Hebrews as both Arabs and Muslims and denying their connection to today's Jews of the state of Israel. Another component of the negation of Jewish history is the denial of modern Jewish experience-including the horrors of the Holocaust.

# Many PA academics have gone beyond the theoretical "struggle." They teach that the killing of Jews by Muslims is a precondition of world redemption. Because Jews are inherently evil and an existential danger, their annihilation is justified self-defense, a service to humanity, and an enactment of God's will.

[...]

I know nothing about News Blaze and I can't confirm the specific accusations in the article. Some of the reported historical claims are not out of line with claims coming from the PA in the recent past (see, e.g., here, here, here, here, and here).

SOME ARCHAEOLOGISTS are not pleased with Indy either:

Real Archaeologists Don't Wear Fedoras

By Neil Asher Silberman (Washington Post)
Sunday, May 25, 2008; Page B01

After 17 years, Hollywood's most famous archaeologist is back in action. Now grayer and a bit creakier, Indiana Jones is again hacking his way through thick jungles, careering wildly in car chases and scrambling through dark tunnels to snatch a precious artifact from the clutches of an evil empire (Soviet, this time).

And I'm thinking, oh no. Here we go again. Get ready for another long, twisting jump off the cliff of respectability for the image of archaeology.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a fan of pop culture. But I have a problem with the entertainment tail wagging the archaeological dog. As someone who's been involved in archaeology for the past 35 years, I can tell you that Indiana Jones is not the world's most famous fictional archaeologist; he's the world's most famous archaeologist, period. How many people can name another? Whether I'm sitting on a plane, waiting in an office or milling around at a cocktail party, the casual mention that I'm an archaeologist inevitably brings up Indiana Jones. People conjure up images of gold, adventure and narrow escapes from hostile natives. And while "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" will almost certainly break worldwide box office records, it will also spread another wave of viral disinformation about what archaeologists actually do.

[...]

Of course, archaeologists have to reach out to the public to raise funds and gain attention for their efforts, but I'm convinced that there's something misguided and destructive in this academic love affair with IndianaJones. It's not just that the films are harmlessly caricatured visions of old-fashioned archaeology; they are filled with destructive and dangerous stereotypes that undermine American archaeology's changing identity and goals. At a time when our national political debates are centered on our relationships with other cultures, when the question of talking to rather than attacking perceived enemies has become a contentious presidential campaign issue and when claims for the repatriation of looted relics are being seriously addressed by courts and professional archaeological organizations, the thrill-a-minute adventures of Indiana Jones are potentially dangerous and dysfunctional models for both modern archaeology and American behavior in the world.

[...]

I have a lot of respect for Neil Asher Silberman and he makes good points. The films do perpetuate many destructive and grossly inaccurate stereotypes. But nothing archaeologists say is going to stop this sort of film being made (not just Indiana Jones, but The Mummy series and the like). Moreover, the films, notably the latest film, are so absurd that I can't believe that anyone is going to take anything in them seriously unless they are already beyond the reach of reason. But the films also fire up interest in archaeology, which can lead to many teachable moments for those still teachable. I dare say some good academics are in the field of archaeology today due to these movies and that there is more interest in and sympathy for archaeology as well.

THE RUSSIAN COMMUNIST PARTY is not happy with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull:

Indiana Jones and the wrath of the Communist Party
Tony Halpin in Moscow (London Times)

He has battled against Nazi villains, a Beduin swordsman and a pit of poisonous snakes. Now Indiana Jones can add the Communist Party of St Petersburg to his list of adversaries.

Party leaders accused the actors Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett yesterday of promoting crude, anti-Soviet propaganda in their new film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. They have urged Russian moviegoers to boycott the film and told Ford, 65, not to visit the country.

[...]

Dear me. Are they saying that they think parts of the film are inaccurate?

ANY MORE BABES LIKE YOU? Christianity Today looks at some impressive second-temple-era ladies, mostly fictional:

Five Intertestamental Beauties
Don't mess with these women.
by William Griffin

"Are there any more babes like you up there? If so, we don't stand a chance!" (Judith 10:19).1 That was an Assyrian military officer speaking to the Jewish Judith. She'd come down from her hillside village, heading toward the Assyrian general's tent with murder in her heart.

The same statement could just as well have been applied, mutatis mutandis, to such other extraordinary women found in intertestamental literature as Esther, Vashti, Sophia, and Susanna. Which is to say, they were the sort who, despite a blindfold, could take creation apart and reassemble it again as though it were a Rubik's Cube.

First thing one notices about these women is that they were smart.

[...]

You may notice that the translations are pretty free. See the first footnote.

A FIXED-TERM HEBREW BIBLE POST (12 months) has opened at the University of Edinburgh.

Applications are invited for the post of Teaching Fellow in Hebrew and Old Testament Studies in the School of Divinity (New College).

You will have a PhD (or equivalent) in Hebrew and Old Testament and will contribute to core teaching in degree programmes at Honours and postgraduate levels.

You will have excellent reading ability in biblical Hebrew, and experience, or strong promise of teaching ability in biblical Hebrew and in Old Testament studies.

The post is available from the 1 August 2008 for one year.

Salary Scale: £28,290 - £33,780

The application deadline is 4 June 2008.

(Via the SOTS list.)

HYRCANUS BEN JOSEPH and his estate in what is now Jordan are featured in a Jerusalem Post article:

Paradeisos found
By STEPHEN GABRIEL ROSENBERG

It is, as Josephus said, a "paradeisos." The first-century Jewish historian describes it in detail in his Antiquities of the Jews, Book 12, and he gets most of it right. As you leave the sprawling western suburbs of Amman, you enter a desert of few trees and shrubs, and after 20 minutes you suddenly spy a green patch that grows larger and larger as you approach and soon it becomes this paradise of greenery and classical ruins.

To the north, it is hemmed in by high limestone cliffs riddled with caves, and to the south, it is cut off by the deep gorge of the Wadi es-Tsir. In between are terraced fields of fruit and vegetables dotted with small houses surmounted by dovecotes. You have arrived at Airaq al-Amir (also spelled 'Iraq el-Emir) that Josephus called Tyros.

It was the estate of Hyrcanus ben Joseph, one of the first Hellenizers, who had to flee from his brothers in Jerusalem after he had usurped the tax-collecting rights of their father Joseph ben Tobiah. He fled to the family property across the Jordan, near Rabbat Ammon, and there he transformed it into a Hellenistic country estate, but he was not its founder.

That was one of his ancestors, Tobiah the Ammonite servant (court official), who had opposed the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah. Another was Tubias the animal breeder who supplied exotic animals to his royal Egyptian customer Ptolemy II from this estate in Ammon. Hyrcanus's father Joseph had been tax-collector for Ptolemy IV Philopator for 22 years and had brought prosperity to himself and his compatriots in Palestine, until such time as his energetic youngest son Hyrcanus bribed his way in Alexandria to take over the lucrative position.

[...]

GEZA VERMES attended the Balzan Foundation's international Symposium on "The Truth" in Switzerland, speaking on "The Truth about the Historical Jesus." He is interviewed by the National Catholic Reporter.

Bible scholar rips pope's book, warns of chilling effect
Posted on May 19, 2008 01:40am CST.

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Lugano, Switzerland

A leading New Testament scholar, and former Catholic priest, has criticized Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 book on the Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth, saying that its insistence on identifying the historical Jesus with the Christ of traditional Christian faith has “turned back the clock” on modern scholarship.

The comments from Geza Vermes, author of the acclaimed book Jesus the Jew and a longtime professor at Oxford, came during a summit of leading Western intellectuals May 16-17 in Lugano, Switzerland, devoted to the theme of “truth.” The gathering was sponsored by the Balzan Foundation, which awards the Swiss-Italian equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

[...]

A WORLD-RELIGIONS ANGEL PRIMER AT BELIEFNET.

AN APOCRYPHA SYMPOSIUM IN ARIZONA:

Bible Museum to host symposium

GOODYEAR - The Bible Museum will host the Forbidden Book Symposium on May 9-10. The free symposium deals with the Apocrypha, the 14 books no longer included in the 66-book Bible most Protestant Christians are familiar with.

Information: 623-536-8614. The museum is in the Hampton Inn and Suites, 2000 N. Litchfield Road, Goodyear.

ARCHAEOLOGY continues to ride on Indy's coattails:

If Harrison Ford can play an archaeologist in the "Indiana Jones" movies, why can't you? You probably won't snag a starring role in a Hollywood blockbuster. But you can always find an archaeological dig looking for some help, particularly if you're willing to pay for helping.

The life of an archaeologist isn't all about fighting Soviet spies or unearthing unspeakable ancient evils, of course. Often it's about sorting through somebody else's trash - except that this trash could be thousands of years old. That's where students and tourists can help out, by pitching in on the fieldwork.

Unlike your typical tourist vacation, fieldwork opportunities will require you to get your hands dirty. But you also will learn much more about ancient cultures that vanished, as well as modern cultures that still survive. The price tag can range from free, to $25 a day, to thousands of dollars for a two-week trip.

Most of these sessions are offered only in the summer, and in those cases it may be too late for this year. But you'll have plenty of time to plan out next year's adventure - or you can use the Internet to turn yourself into an armchair archaeologist.

Here are 10 online destinations to explore:

Follow the link to read about them.

UPDATE: Crystal skulls too:

But the Quai Branly's skull, along with others in prestigious museums such as the Smithsonian Institution and the British Museum, are all phonies. The museum concedes that it knows little about the skull. Explanatory text next to the skull's display case doesn't explain much: "19th century? Europe?"

The bigger question: Why is a museum promoting an artifact it knows isn't authentic?

Partly because the public doesn't really care, notes Esther Pasztory, an art-history professor at Columbia University. "People want to see Aztec art," she notes, even if it isn't really Aztec art. Museums should clearly disclose counterfeit artifacts, she says, adding that known fakes still have their fans.

Fakes were once a source of embarrassment for museums. But more recently, they have become objects of fascination. In 1990, the British Museum put its most famous examples on display, including a sarcophagus that once was thought to be from the sixth century but was actually made in the 19th century.

LAG B'OMER began last night at sundown.

LAMED VOVNIKS (Lamed Vavniks) are featured by Philologos. Excerpt

Shimon ben Yohai certainly did not have the modesty attributed by later Jewish legend to a Lamed-Vavnik, but his boast caused the talmudic sage Abbaye, who lived slightly more than 100 years after him, to add to it (Abbaye’s remark is found in the same passage in Sukkah):

“There are never less than 36 just men in the world who greet the Shekhinah [God’s worldly presence] every day, for it is written [in the book of Isaiah 30:18], “Blessed are all who wait for Him” [ashrei kol h.okhei lo], and [the word] lo [“for Him,” spelled Lamed-Vav] is numerically equal to 36.”

Abbaye’s interpretation is in the nature of a numerical pun, since by reading the verse from Isaiah as if there were a comma between “wait” and “for Him,” he gives it the meaning of “Blessed are all who wait, [the] 36.” Although he does not explicitly say that these 36 men keep the world from destruction, his statement, read in the context of Shimon ben Yohai’s declaration, implies that they have the power to ward off the harshness of God’s judgment. This, then, would appear to be the source of the Jewish legend of the Lamed-Vavnik.

But what, in turn, is the source of Abbaye’s statement? It seems highly unlikely that he would have hit on such an interpretation of Isaiah 30:18 had he read it without preconceptions. Rather, he must have been looking to begin with for a biblical verse that could be construed in such a fashion. Why?

This question was addressed by Gershom Scholem, the great scholar of Jewish mysticism, in a short essay published in German in 1962 and in English in 1971, under the title “The Tradition of the Thirty-Six Hidden Just Men.” In this essay, Scholem speculates that the number 36 “originates in ancient astrology, where the 360 degrees of the heavenly circle are divided into thirty-six units of ten, the so-called ‘deans.’” (In astrological literature, these units are more commonly known as “decans.”)

Background here.

I'M OFF to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with my son and his buddy. I'll let you know what I think.

LATER - Initial reactions:

Many chase scenes. Maybe too many. Dialogue was too predictable, as was some of the action. We noticed a number of bits nicked from The Mummy Returns. Indy is still in good form, but the mileage shows. The consensus of the boys was that it was a good movie, but not such a good Indiana Jones movie. In any case it was unquestionably the silliest of the four, which took some doing. I liked the ending. Do see it: whatever the quality, it's a cultural icon. Three stars of five.

THE ENOCH GRADUATE SEMINAR for 2008 now has its schedule posted on the Enoch Seminar website.

Also, Gabriele Boccaccini e-mails:

While we are preparing for the event, I am very pleased to announce you that the Third Enoch Graduate Seminar will be held in two years (July 2010) at the Catholic University of Budapest, Hungary, and will be chaired by Ida Froehlich, Armin Lange, Geza Xeravits and myself--a recognition for the leadership in Central Euroepe. Unlike the Enoch Seminar (which is a thematic conference), papers from ALL fields and subfields of Second Temple Judaism and Christian Origins (Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Dead Sea Scrolls, New Testament, Philo and Josephus, etc.) are accepted at the Enoch Graduate Seminar. The deadline for submitting paper proposals will be in the Fall 2009 (we will pick up the best 24 ones). It is very important that we start "advertising" the event as soon as possible and have all most talented graduate students from all around the world attend the event.

The 2012 Fourth Enoch Graduate Seminar will be at the University of Notre Dame, chaired by James VanderKam, Hindy Najman, and myself.

PROMOTION: I am very happy to report that I have just been promoted to (Full) Professor. I did mention my blogging in the promotion application under innovative teaching, but I doubt it was the deciding factor.

LOOKING FOR A GRADUATION PRESENT?

Israeli artist inspired by Dead Sea Scroll vessels

BY: JENNIFER DADDARIO Staff Reporter [Cleveland Jewish News]

It was a normal visit to The Israel Museum in Jerusalem to see the Dead Sea Scrolls, but it changed artist Avital Sheffer’s life.

After Sheffer, 53, took a closer look at the vessels that held the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Sabra altered her career. Within a week, she was enrolled in a ceramics class, and soon after, she began making her own ceramic vessels.

[...]

The artist, who now lives in Australia, creates large, non-functional ceramic vessels inspired by ancient and Middle Eastern glassware and metalware. All are adorned with Hebrew text. “They are contemporary expressions of my interpretation of ancient classical forms,” Sheffer explains in a phone interview from Israel. The vessels are about 3 feet tall and range from $3,200 to $3,900.

[...]

Sheffer spends a great deal of time doing research and seeking out ancient manuscripts to re-create on her vessels. To find the ancient documents n anything from love letters to passages from the Bible or prayer books n Sheffer visits museums and libraries all over the world. “Because the Hebrew language is considered sacred, all manuscripts were preserved, even simple letters and documents,” she explains.

[...]

THE TIMBUKTU MANUSCRIPT DIGITIZATION PROJECT continues apace:

Project Digitizes Works From the Golden Age of Timbuktu

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD (New York Times)
Published: May 20, 2008

From Timbuktu to here, to reverse the expression, the written words of the legendary African oasis are being delivered by electronic caravan. A lode of books and manuscripts, some only recently rescued from decay, is being digitized for the Internet and distributed to scholars worldwide.

These are works of law and history, science and medicine, poetry and theology, relics of Timbuktu’s golden age as a crossroads in Mali for trade in gold, salt and slaves along the southern edge of the Sahara. If the name is now a synonym for mysterious remoteness, the literature attests to Timbuktu’s earlier role as a vibrant intellectual center.

In recent years, thousands of these leather-bound books and fragile manuscripts have been recovered from family archives, private libraries and storerooms. The South African government is financing construction of a library in Timbuktu to house more than 30,000 of the books. Other gifts support renovations of family libraries and projects for preserving, translating and interpreting the documents.

Now, the first five of the rare manuscripts from private libraries have been digitized and made available online (www.aluka.org) to scholars and students. At least 300 are expected to be available online by the end of the year.

[...]

Then there's this interesting aside:

Many documents in the graceful Arabic calligraphy are a visual delight. Although the writing is mostly in Arabic, quite a few manuscripts are in vernaculars adapted to the Arabic script, which is sure to pose a challenge for scholars.

Hmmm... Garshuni maybe? (Syriac written in Arabic script.) And who knows what else. Hebrew and Greek manuscripts are also known. Background here and keep following the links back.

(Via the Agade list.)

UPDATE (22 May): Bulbul e-mails:

The "quite a few manuscripts ... in vernaculars adapted to the Arabic script" NY Times articles mentions are almost certainly written in what is usually referred to as 'ajami'. This terms is used as a
designation of the practice to write African languages like Hausa, Yoruba, Wolof and many others and often as a generic term for various modifications of the Arabic script necessary to adequately record the various languages of East Africa. The website
[http://warc-ifap.wikispaces.com/Ajami] is a good overview of the subject. Confusingly enough, in some instances, the term 'ajami' is used as if it referred to a particular language (e.g. "Liste des manuscripts en langues arabe et ajami") which is bound to cause some confusio, just like it so often happens with karshuni/garshuni.

He then very tactfully points out that my definition of Garshuni above is wrong: it is actually Arabic written Syriac script. Oops! That was a silly mistake. Thanks for the correction. Bulbul has a post on Garshuni/Karshuni here.

PICTS AND COPTS in contact in late anquity? So says Magnus Linklater in the London Times:

Around the 6th century, the Picts converted to Christianity and some of their carvings show links with the Middle Eastern Coptic church. This image (left), of two hands receiving a loaf of bread from a raven, depicts StAnthony and StPaul the Hermit in the desert. It is found on a monastery wall in Egypt and a Pictish stone at St Vigeans, Dundee.

Unfortunately the online article has no image.

VIENNA JOB UPDATE: Armin Lange e-mails a link to a web page containing the advert I posted last week:

The Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies of the University of Vienna announces the position of a Full Professor of Jewish History, Religion and Literature in Rabbinic Times (70-1000 CE) (full-time permanent position under private law).

MORE ON THE ARCHAEOLOGY AND POLITICS of the City of David/Silwan from the AP:

The organization funding the digs, the Elad Foundation, is associated with the religious settlement movement and is committed to preventing Israel from ever ceding the area in a peace deal. It says it has a yearly budget of close to $10 million, nearly all of it from donations, and is buying up Palestinian homes in Silwan to accommodate Jewish families. Around 50 have moved in so far, living in houses flying Israeli flags and guarded by armed security men paid for by the Israeli government.

At the same time, the City of David digs have expanded through the neighborhood, carried out by respected Israeli government archaeologists with funding from Elad.
The site at the City of David is seen next to the Arab neighborhood of Silwan near Jerusalem’s Old City.

The site at the City of David is seen next to the Arab neighborhood of Silwan near Jerusalem’s Old City.

Fakhri Abu Diab, a neighborhood activist, said the Elad Foundation has made it clear that he and his neighbors are in the way.

“They want the land without the people,” he said.

None of the finds that the archaeologists highlight for the public are from the eras of Christian or Muslim rule. “They are looking only for Jewish ruins,” said Abu Diab. “It’s as if we’re not here.”

Elad denies having any intention of driving out Silwan’s Palestinians. “There will always be Jews and Arabs living together here,” said Doron Spielman, Elad’s international director of development. Dozens of Silwan Arabs are employed by Elad, he said, and the foundation’s activities include neighborhood beautification projects that improve life for Palestinian residents.

Still, he said, “We do not deny we have a Zionist dream — to reveal the ancient city beneath the ground and create a thriving Jewish neighborhood above the ground.”

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH (indirectly) - another quarry:

Another Second Temple quarry uncovered
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS (Jerusalem Post)

For the second time in the past year, archeologists have uncovered a Second Temple Period quarry whose stones were used to build the Western Wall, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Monday.

The latest archeological discovery was made in the city's Sanhedria neighborhood, located about two kilometers from the Old City of Jerusalem.

The quarry was uncovered during a routine "salvage excavation" carried out by the state-run archeological body over the last several months ahead of the construction of a private house in the religious neighborhood.

The quarry is believed to be one of those used to build the Jerusalem holy site because the size of the stones match those at the Western Wall.

[...]

Background here and here.

COMPUTER GEEK KEN FISHER, co-founder of Ars Technica, is a also a philology geek:

Ken Fisher, one of the co-founders of Ars Technica, may be just a pen-protector expression of the Condé Nast way. After we discussed our common interest in fourth-century Coptic texts — O.K., he talked, I listened — he said that he had been approached by a number of parties interested in buying the site. After talking to people at Wired.com and Reddit, he and his partners decided that the Condé Nast way left them the best chance of developing what had been a hobby on steroids into a business.

When I first read this quote in a NYT piece on Condé Nast's investments in tech publications, I figured that Fisher just meant that he had read one of the translations of the Nag Hammadi Library or the like. But when I found his brief bio at the Ars Technica site, I realized my error:

I'm currently a Ph.D. student in Religion at Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. I'm now working on my dissertation, and hope to be finished in a few years. I have worked in IT for most of my "career years," performing senior administrative functions at two different universalities, as well as running my own consulting business on the side. I tend now to focus all of my energy on my studies, but I still consult from time to time to pay the bills.

He's the real thing. Cool.

UPDATE: Brent Landau, Harvard doctoral candidate in NT and early Christianity, e-mails to say that Ken Fisher "is definitely the real deal" and that he is doing his dissertation on ritual practice in the Gospel of Philip.

MORE ON THE PSALMS SCROLL that was on display for the President's Conference in Jerusalem: The IAA has a press release.

(Via Joseph I. Lauer's list.)

THAT STORY ABOUT THE QUEEN OF SHEBA'S PALACE - supposedly excavated in Axum, Ethiopia - now has coverage by the London Times and Fox News. It recycles the earlier story, and repeats some errors (Menelik, Queen of Sheba's - ahem - "liason" with Solomon), but introduces a healthy note of skepticism.

The discovery, announced by the University of Hamburg last week, has stirred skeptical rumblings from the archaeological community.

[...]

Many archaeologists believe that their profession should not be in the business of myth-chasing. Even if the Ark were found, it would be impossible to establish scientifically whether it was the original receptacle for the Ten Commandments.

Iris Gerlach of the German Archaeological Institute in Sanaa, Yemen, believes the religious centre of Sheba is in present-day Yemen.

Although she does not go head-to-head with her colleague Professor Ziegert, the message is clear: A relic such as the Ark would have been stored in an important religious city rather than in Aksum.

[...]

There may an interesting story in this, but we're not there yet.

(Via Explorator 11.4)

HARRISON FORD has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Archaeological Institute of America. Now if they can just get Angelina Jolie signed up ... (Maybe they shouldn't have dissed Lara Croft!)

(Via the Agade list.)

Also, don't miss the link in that announcement to the article on crystal skulls by Jane MacLaren Walsh in the current issue of Archaeology Magazine. Alas, they are fakes - a multi-generational industry that began in the Victorian era.

Impressed by their technical excellence and gleaming polish, generations of museum curators and private collectors have been taken in by these objects. But they are too good to be true. If we consider that pre-Columbian lapidaries used stone, bone, wooden, and possibly copper tools with abrasive sand to carve stone, crystal skulls are much too perfectly carved and highly polished to be believed.

THE BOOK OF 2 SAMUEL has been made into a musical, with the Archangel Metatron as one of the characters:

Reconsidering a King as a Lord of the Dance
The Spirit That Moves Theater J's 'David' Comes From the Sole

By Celia Wren
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, May 18, 2008; Page M04

You might think of it as the original "Dancing With the Stars." The biblical book of 2 Samuel recounts how David, king of Israel, leaped and capered in worshipful jubilation as the ark of the covenant -- symbolizing God's presence -- progressed toward Jerusalem.

That scriptural episode has long fascinated Yehuda Hyman, a Los Angeles playwright and former professional dancer. With the gamboling-monarch anecdote at the back of his mind, Hyman found himself musing more broadly on the David story. The upshot is "David in Shadow and Light," a musical receiving its world premiere at Theater J. Boasting a libretto by Hyman and a Middle Eastern-flavored score by Daniel Hoffman (a klezmer violin virtuoso), the show runs through June 22 under Nick Olcott's direction.

"David" is a chronicle of the biblical hero, from his slingshot triumph to his exploits as army commander to the highs and lows of his reign over Israel. With a quarter-million-dollar budget, a four-person band and staging that runs to puppetry and other high-concept touches, the musical is the boldest, costliest and most time-intensive production ever for Theater J, according to Artistic Director Ari Roth.

The cast includes Matt Pearson (MetroStage's "tick, tick . . . BOOM!") as the young David, and Bobby Smith doubling as Saul and the older David. Will Gartshore portrays Saul's son Jonathan. Enlivening the musical's postmodern-frame tale (based on a legend from a midrash, a storytelling exegesis of biblical texts), Donna Migliaccio depicts the Archangel Metatron, who is screening a movie biography of David for Adam (Norman Aronovic), of Garden of Eden fame.

[...]

Note: it was a sling, not a slingshot. Also, in case you're wondering, Metatron does not actually appear in 2 Samuel. I'm not sure which midrash served as the inspiration. Anyone know?

Cross file under "Metatron watch."

UPDATE (17 June): More here.

VISION OF GABRIEL UPDATE: A technical glitch has been fixed and Israel Knohl's article "'By Three Days, Live': Messiahs, Resurrection, and Ascent to Heaven in Hazon Gabriel" is back up on the Shalom Hartman Institutute website. They send apologies for the glitch.

Background here and here.

UPDATE: N. T. Wrong brings in an Ugaritic connection (via Abnormal Interests).

ALON GOSHEN-GOTTSTEIN gave a lecture in Ohio on sacred space in Judaism and Christianity. Rabbi Goshen-Gottstein also publishes on Merkavah Mysticism and Hekhalot literature.

"IT'S HOT, IT'S DIRTY." A Berkeley professor reflects on archaeology after Indiana Jones:

"I don't know how he stands a big heavy jacket and hat in those climates," said UC Berkeley classics professor and unabashed Indy fan Kim Shelton. "But it looks good in movies."

Shelton spent 12 years as a full-time archaeologist at Mycenae, one of the great Greek city-states and home to legendary king Agamemnon, hero of Homer's "Odyssey." These days, Shelton directs the university's dig in Nemea, a site with links to the Hercules legend and the original Olympic games.

But Shelton has fond recollections of watching "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" with fellow archaeology students back in grad school. This time, she'll share the adventure with her own students, most of whom spent the semester exploring the myths and realities of archaeology and such topics as antiquities law, Trojan gold and "Whip or Trowel? Tools of the Trade."

It's not so much that the Indiana Jones movies are wrong, Shelton said, as that they depict "an old-fashioned way of doing things, a romantic version with traps and danger. You find things easily and sell them, which we don't do. And Indiana Jones never seems to publish. He gets his tenure from his good looks."

But Indiana Jones' greatest success has been in wooing students to archaeology and classics classrooms, Shelton said. The razzle-dazzle of Nazi fortune hunters and gleaming treasure lure them in. Science and history win their hearts.

Nonsense about archaeology and history can be used to reel in potential serious students. As I've remarked before, reading Erich von Däniken as a kid got me interested in this field.

Read the rest of this article to hear about Professor Shelton's coolest find ever. And about the "sudden avalanche of voracious, enormous red fox fleas," whatever those are. Ugh!

JOB IN JUDAISM IN RABBINIC TIMES at the University of Vienna:

The Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies of the University of Vienna announces the position of a Full Professor of Jewish History, Religion and Literature in Rabbinic Times (70-1000 CE) (full-time permanent position under private law).

As stated in its development plan (http://www.univie.ac.at/rektorenteam/ug2002/entwicklungsplan.html) the University of Vienna aims at strengthening its position as a major research oriented university. Key elements of this strategy include the provision of an attractive range of research-based study programmes, support for furthering the work of junior academic colleagues, and high-calibre professorial appointments.

The Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies of the University of Vienna announces the position of a Full Professor of Jewish History, Religion and Literature in Rabbinic Times (70-1000 CE) (full-time permanent position under private law).

The University of Vienna intends to increase the number of women on its faculty, particularly in high-level positions, and therefore specifically invites applications by women. Among equally qualified applicants women will receive preferential consideration.

The successful candidate will have a research record in one of the fields of Rabbinic epoch and will be able to teach Jewish history, religion and literature in Rabbinic times (70-1000 CE) at all levels (BA, MA, PhD).

Successful candidates will have the following qualifications: - PhD and post-doctoral experience at a university or other research institution. (Austrian or equivalent international academic degree in the relevant field)
- Outstanding research and publication record, with an excellent reputation as an active member in the international academic community (Habilitation (venia docendi) or equivalent international qualification in the relevant field is desirable)
- Experience in designing, procuring and directing major research projects, and willingness and ability to assume the responsibility of team leadership
- Experience in university teaching, and willingness and ability to teach at all curricular levels, to supervise theses, and to further the work of junior academic colleagues
The University of Vienna expects the successful candidate to acquire, within three years, proficiency in German sufficient for teaching in Bachelor programmes and participation in committees.

The University of Vienna offers:
- with its unusually broad spectrum of subjects, and the city of Vienna, with its libraries, archives, museums and other institutions, provide ideal surroundings for research and teaching in the humanities.
- Attractive terms and conditions of employment with a negotiable and performance-related salary, associated with a retirement fund
- A "start-up packageı for the initiation of research projects
- An attractive and dynamic research location in a city with a high quality of life and in a country with excellent research funding provision
- Support for relocation to Vienna, where appropriate Candidates should send an application containing at least the following documents:
- Academic curriculum vitae
- Brief description of current research interests and research plans for the immediate future
- List of publications together with a) specification of five key publications judged by the applicant to be particularly relevant to the advertised professorship together with an explanation of their relevance
b) PDF versions of these five publications provided either as email attachments or through URLs of downloadable copies
- List of talks given, including detailed information about invited plenaries at international conferences
- List of projects supported by third-party funds
- Short survey of previous academic teaching and list of supervised PhD theses.

Applications in English or German should be sent to:
The Dean of the Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies of the
University of Vienna
Dr.-Karl-Lueger-Ring 1
A-1010 Vienna

and submitted by e-mail to Guntram.Schneider@univie.ac.at, no later than June 15th, 2008 with reference 14/24-2007/08.

(From the Agade list.)

MORE ON THE ISAIAH SCROLL EXHIBITION: Art Daily has an article with a nice photograph.

Israel Museum Presents Great Isaiah Scroll For the First Time in Over Forty Years

TEL AVIV.- On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel, the Israel Museum presents two major sections of the Great Isaiah Scroll – the most complete biblical Dead Sea Scroll document ever found and one of the world’s greatest archaelogical treasures – in a special installation in the Shrine of the Book. For the first time in over forty years, the public will have the rare opportunity to view the two longest sections of the Scroll, featuring Isaiah’s celebrated message of peace: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares…" (Isaiah 2:4). In order to illustrate this important message, artifacts from the days of the prophet Isaiah (8th century BCE), including a bent scimitar and agricultural tools, will be displayed together with the Scroll as part of this special exhibit. Swords into Plowshares: The Isaiah Scroll and Its Message of Peace will be on view in the Shrine of the Book at the Museum from May 19 through August 30, 2008.

“This special installation, held in celebration of Israel’s 60th anniversary, provides visitors with a rare opportunity to view one of the oldest, most complete, and best preserved of the Dead Sea Scrolls,” said James S. Snyder, Anne and Jerome Fisher Director of the Israel Museum. “The Isaiah Scroll, housed at the Israel Museum in the Shrine of the Book, with its timeless message of peace, is one of the most important ancient biblical documents ever discovered.”

Swords into Plowshares presents the longest sections of the complete Isaiah Scroll: a 2.60 meter-long section comprising chapters 1-28, and a 2.38 meter-long section comprising chapters 44-66. Contextualizing the scroll, the Museum will also display ancient archaeological tools, including a bent scimitar and a newly excavated and never before displayed early Roman seal, depicting a dove-like bird carrying an olive branch. The exhibit is curated by Michal Dayagi-Mendels, Chief Curator of Archaeology, and Adolfo Roitman, Head of the Shrine of the Book and Curator of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

[...]

There will also be a conference in July to go with the exhibition and the sixtieth anniversary of the discovery of the Scrolls.

"HOW MANY HOLY BOOKS HAVE YOU READ?"

Don't get me started.

PRESIDENT BUSH visited Masada yesterday. And Mrs. Bush visited the Western Wall tunnels.

UPDATE: Here's a Masada Factbox from Reuters. Looks accurate, except it should note that Josephus's account is viewed with skepticism by some modern scholars.

VISION OF GABRIEL UPDATE: Earlier I noted Israel Knohl's English article "'By Three Days, Live': Messiahs, Resurrection, and Ascent to Heaven in Hazon Gabriel" in the Journal of Religion, accessible only by subscription. Now Professor Knohl has posted it for free at the website of the Shalom Hartman Institute.

UPDATE: The link has gone dead. I've e-mailed Professor Knohl and will keep you posted.

UPDATE (18 May): Problem fixed.

THE FIFTEENTH WORLD CONGRESS OF JEWISH STUDIES has issued a call for papers.

(Via the Agade list.)

MORE ON THE ISAIAH SCROLL EXHIBITION:

Israel Museum puts Dead Sea scroll on rare display

By MATTI FRIEDMAN – 13 hours ago

JERUSALEM (AP) — One of the most important Dead Sea scrolls is going on display in Jerusalem this week — more than four decades after it was last seen by the public. The 24-foot scroll with the text of the Bible's Book of Isaiah had been in a dark, temperature-controlled room at the Israel Museum since 1967. It went on display two years earlier, but curators replaced it with a facsimile after noticing new cracks in the calfskin parchment.

The museum decided to put the scroll back on show for three months as part of Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations.

[...]

Yesterday's article said only two months. The Jerusalem Post had some photos to go with today's article. (Click on first link above.)

A far smaller fragment of another Dead Sea scroll will be on display at the Jerusalem convention center where Bush will be speaking along with other dignitaries.

The segment, also rarely shown, contains the text of Psalm 133, which reads: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity."

INDIANA JONES GALLERY: Lots of Crystal Skull photos here.

Plus, there are interesting interviews with Karen Allen here and here. Excerpt from the second:

iF: What's the biggest change that Marion has made in the new Indy?

ALLEN: Well, it's difficult to talk about that, given that we're not supposed to reveal anything about the story. And a lot of the changes in Marion’s life are connected to the plot of the film that's been kept so incredibly, incredibly secret! But I think I can say that Marion and Indy's lives over the past twenty years have diverged, and they haven't seen each other for a long time. She's been living in the world on her own terms, and has developed into an interesting, completely independent woman who can stand on her own two feet. And that’s definitely a change from the first RAIDERS. Even though she's a feisty character in that movie, I felt that Marion was a bit buffeted around by circumstance in it. She's thrown here, thrown there, dropped into a well of souls and tossed into a basket. But I feel that this time, Marion’s really taking charge of where, and whom she's going with. And it’s that level of grounding, and maturity in her character that I liked when I read the script.

DEAD SEA SCROLLS EXHIBITIONS:

The Isaiah Scroll from Qumran Cave 1 (1QISa^a) is on display at the Israel Museum:

2,100-year-old Isaiah Scroll on rare public display for two months
By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Yigal Yadin, Isaiah Scroll

For the past 40 years, the 2,100-year-old Isaiah Scroll has been kept in a dark room with temperature and humidity controls, far from the public eye. A few days ago, in honor of Israel's 60th anniversary, the Israel Museum put the parchment scroll on display in the Shrine of the Book - for two months only.

[...]

And the Jewish Museum in New York is to have six unidentified Dead Sea Scrolls on display for the same reason:

Jewish Museum Celebrates Israel’s Birthday
(Huliq.com)

The Jewish Museum is marking the 60th anniversary of Israel’s founding with a variety of programs featuring Israeli art and artists. Among the highlights are a panel discussion on Israeli and Jewish film on Tuesday, June 3; an exhibition of six Dead Sea Scrolls at the Museum from September 21, 2008 through January 4, 2009; and several exhibitions including the work of contemporary Israeli artists.


[...]

An upcoming exhibition will feature artifacts that shed light on ancient worship and religious debates. The Dead Sea Scrolls are among the world’s most famous archaeological discoveries, and three of the six scrolls to be displayed––from September 21, 2008 through January 4, 2009––have never before been shown in New York. Part of one of the earliest copies of the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Jeremiah (c. 200), is included. Exhibition visitors will be able to explore what the scrolls tell us about ancient Judaism and early Christianity.

[...]

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Resumption of the work on the Mughrabi (Mugrabi) Gate bridge has reportedly been approved (again?).

Background here.

THE NEWARK STONES are in the news:

'Holy Stones' prompt investigation

By L.B. WHYDE • Newark Advocate • May 12, 2008

NEWARK - Trying to preserve the Union during a tumultuous time in history, several prominent local men conspired and manufactured artifacts to support an emerging anti-slavery theory.

Known as Newark's Holy Stones, the artifacts later were proven to be fake. But two local men have done extensive research to discover the reasons behind the conspiracy.

Brad Lepper, an Ohio Historical Society archaeologist, first learned of the pair of hand-carved stones found in the Newark area in 1860 while he was a graduate student working at the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum in Coshocton, where the original stones are housed.

When he became the curator at the Newark Earthworks in 1988, Lepper had to learn about the fake artifacts because of the number of questions about them. But when Jeff Gill, a history enthusiast and supply preacher, moved into the area in 1989, the duo continued the research to discover the men and reasons behind the conspiracy.

"Looking into the background of what was going on at that time period, it shows us how Licking County played a role in the movement for freedom of rights," Gill said. "They (the conspirators) did it for the right reasons, but I deplore their methods."

[...]

The first stone unearthed had several flaws, including being found too close to the surface and the fact the writing was modern Hebrew for that time. Five months later, another stone, called the Decalogue Stone, was discovered much deeper, in the area of Jacksontown.

Again Wyrick found the stone, which seemed to answer all the flaws of the first stone. The stones were claimed to be conclusive proof that all men descended from Adam and Eve. After both stones later were found to be fake, and his premature death, the blame was put on Wyrick by former Newark Mayor Israel Dille.

[...]

A few years ago Rochelle Altman published an essay at the Bible and Interpretation website in which she argued that the stones were genuine Jewish artifacts from the late Middle Ages.

A "BIOGRAPHY" OF A GEMARA MANUSCRIPT from Manuscript Boy. The first of many, I hope.

ED COOK is publishing a new book:

A Glossary of Targum Onkelos

Congratulations Ed!

DUELING NEW TESTAMENT TEXTUAL CRITICS.

HARRISON FORD is profiled by the Independent in advance - of course - of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Excerpt:

The marketing men are taking a rather different line on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which is a star attraction at the Cannes film festival starting next week and which opens in the UK later this month. They are talking about something "fresh but familiar", which is what fans will be hoping for from the old team of storymaker George Lucas, director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford back in the hat as the born-again archaeologist action hero. The money men are predicting the blockbuster of the summer.

Harrison Ford has form on that. The previous Indiana films have been one of the biggest box-office successes in the history of the movies. They won Ford the No 1 slot in Empire magazine's Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time list – and took his gross worldwide earnings to almost $6bn, making him one of the most financially successful actors of his generation. Who cares that his long career has featured only one Oscar nomination when he has appeared in five of the top 10 highest-grossing movies ever.

Still, Indiana 4 has been a long time coming. Spielberg and co have been on the lookout for a good enough script for more than 15 years, rejecting three so-so ones in the process. "None of us was fully satisfied with what was produced," says Ford.

There is an irony in that. For long planning is the antithesis of the happenstance that has characterised Harrison Ford's long career. Many of the nodal points over the past four decades were happy accidents or serendipitous defaults. His big break, playing Han Solo in the first Star Wars film, came while he was a carpenter standing in to read for an absent actor. Indiana's leather coat (very odd wear for a hot-climate archaeologist) was originally intended for another actor, Tom Selleck, who at the last minute couldn't get out of his contract for the TV show Magnum PI.

And there are already noises being made about a fifth Indiana Jones movie. I'll let you know what I think of that once I've seen the fourth.

Meanwhile some high school students in Florida are learning about real archaeology in a simulated excavation:

The project, a joint effort by Matanzas and Flagler Palm Coast high schools' Community Problem Solvers teams, is designed to teach students about world cultures through archaeology, said Flagler Palm Coast teacher Diane Tomko.

"When you learn about archaeology, it's hard to do it in the classroom," said Tomko, who worked with Matanzas teacher Mat Saunders to coordinate the project. "They get more of a hands-on experience this way."

To prepare for their roles as archaeologists, students first researched 15 different countries including Japan, India and Pakistan, said Bunnell fifth-grade gifted teacher Karen Driscoll. They had to familiarize themselves with the art forms, dress and currency of the country.

Students practiced their excavation techniques using toothpicks to carefully wedge out the chocolate chips in cookies, Driscoll said. Saunders -- who will lead Flagler Palm Coast and Matanzas students on a dig in Belize this summer -- said it's important students understand that there's more to archaeology than just digging up antiques.

"We're teaching them scientific method, history, world cultures, geometry," he said. "Everything is tied into this."

The 27-by-50-foot dig box may be the largest of its kind in North America and is similar to a real archaeological site, Saunders said. Before the students could dig, Saunders and Tomko charted the locations of each country in the box and buried dozens of artifacts -- ranging from a full samurai suit to a golf club.

Good stuff.

DRUZE DNA is producing some interesting genetic data:

Genetics Confirm Oral Traditions Of Druze In Israel

ScienceDaily (May 8, 2008) — DNA analysis of residents of Druze villages in Israel suggests these ancient religious communities offer a genetic snapshot of the Near East as it was several thousands of years ago.

The Druze harbor a remarkable diversity of mitochondrial DNA types or lineages that appear to have separated from each other many thousands of years ago, according to a new study by multinational team, led by researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Rappaport School of Medicine.

But instead of dispersing throughout the world after their separation, the full range of lineages can still be found within the small, tightly knit Druze population.

Technion researcher Karl Skorecki noted that the findings are consistent with Druze oral tradition suggesting the adherents came from diverse ancestral lineages "stretching back tens of thousands of years." The Druze represent a "genetic sanctuary" or "living relic" that provides a glimpse of the genetic diversity of the Near East in antiquity, the researchers write in the May 7th issue of the journal PLoS ONE.

[...]

THE BIBLE, BRITISH VERSION. Including the Apocrypha.

THE QUEEN OF SHEBA'S PALACE?

Archaeologists find Queen of Sheba's palace at Axum, Ethiopia
07.05.08 23:38 (TREND Information, Azerbaijan)

Archaeologists believe they have found the Queen of Sheba's palace at Axum, Ethiopia and an altar which held the most precious treasure of ancient Judaism, the Ark of the Covenant, the University of Hamburg said Wednesday, the dpa reported.

Scientists from the German city made the startling find during their spring excavation of the site over the past three months.

The Ethiopian queen was the bride of King Solomon of Israel in the 10th century before the Christian era. The royal match is among the memorable events in the Bible.

Ethiopian tradition claims the Ark, which allegedly contained Moses' stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written, was smuggled to Ethiopia by their son Menelek and is still in that country.

[...]

Whatever is going on here sounds garbled to me. I take it that a German team of archaeologists has found a tenth-century BCE palace in Axum and speculates that it might have belonged to the Queen of Sheba. This sounds at least possible. But the Bible does not say that Solomon married the Queen of Sheba. That, the stuff about the Ark, and the name Menelek all come from the medieval compilation of Ethiopian legends in the Kebra Negast. (See the links at the bottom of this post for background.) The original story of the Queen of Sheba is found in the Bible in 1 Kings 10:1-13.

This may be an important find, but we'll have to see. Watch this space.

UPDATE (10 May): Todd Bolen has some useful observations at the BiblePlaces blog.

A PBS SPECIAL ON JUDAISM is reviewed by the NYT:

Telescoping 4,000 Years of Talmud and Tradition

By GINIA BELLAFANTE
Published: May 7, 2008

It is easy to see why someone might approach “The Jewish People: A Story of Survival” with a certain reservation. The documentary, to be shown on Wednesday on WLIW and on other PBS stations in June, condenses four millenniums of atrocity into 60 minutes, allotting the pogroms the amount of time it takes to dust a coffee table.

On the surface “The Jewish People” is like a YouTube video reducing multiple seasons of a complex television show — let’s say “Battlestar Galactica” — into 50 seconds: enslavement, evil pharaohs, the marauding Babylonians, the overpowering Romans, the rise of anti-Semitism, the ravages of the Crusades, shtetls, the birth of Yiddish, the Holocaust, Stalinism, the glories of Theodor Herzl, Zionism. And yet what we get is an impressive and surprisingly rigorous feat of synthesis that roots itself in the lesser-known aspects of Jewish life during the ancient world.

[...]

If Ms. Leibowitz really does take her Talmud on the plane, it must be the Reader's Digest condensed version.

BLOG POST TITLE FOR THE DAY:

Piles or Penises?

SOME EXCITING GENIZA NEWS, also via the Aramaic Blog.

UPDATE (8 May): Bad link fixed. Sorry.

ARAMAIC WATCH: An Aramaic Music Festival in Lebanon.

SCHØYEN COLLECTION FOR SALE.

I've mentioned the Schøyen Collection here, but the links have all died. But see also here and here.

UPDATE: Duane Smith comments at Abnormal Interests.

ARAMAIC WATCH: This is a novel use of Aramaic, although I'm not sure what it has to do with the sacks.

Wool sacks return to cathedral
By Tanya O'Rourke (Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Woolsacks are hanging from the Bradford [England] Cathedral bell tower once again - more than 350 years after they were strung up around the outside to protect it from cannon fire.

During the English Civil War, the sacks were used in the 1642 Bradford Siege to prevent damage being caused by Royalist cannonballs.

And this month - as part of an exhibition by Bradford-based artist network CART - hessian sacks are adorning the inside of the tower with fragments of Aramaic script, the ancient language of the time of Christ, also featuring.

The piece, called Blessed, hangs 30 feet from the bell tower into the cathedral.

[...]

CONGRATULATIONS TO THOMAS LEVY, who has been named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences:

Founded in 1780, the Academy annually elects individuals who have made preeminent contributions to their disciplines and to society at large. The 2008 class of scholars, scientists, artists, civic, corporate and philanthropic leaders elected as fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences includes 190 new Fellows and 22 new Foreign Honorary Members from 20 states and 15 countries.

[...]

Thomas Levy is professor of anthropology at UC San Diego where he holds the Norma Kershaw Endowed Chair in the Archaeology of Ancient Israel and the Neighboring Lands. Levy has had a distinguished career as a field archaeologist working in Israel and Jordan, focusing primarily on the evolution of complex societies and on the role of technology in the evolution of ancient cultures. Since joining the faculty in 1992, he has served as the chair of the Department of Anthropology, director of the Judaic Studies Program and associate director for Archaeology at UCSD’s Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology, part of Calit2. Levy’s interests include anthropological archaeology, Biblical and Near Eastern archaeology, ethno-archaeology in India and the application of digital methods in archaeology. In 2007, he served as the guest curator for the San Diego Museum of Man’s exhibition ‘Journey to the Copper Age’ carried out in association with the National Geographic Society.

HEADLINE FOR THE DAY:

Anyone who can master Ancient Greek like Boris can master anything ... including London

THE CHRONOGRAPHIAE of Julius Africanus, which survives only in fragments, has been published in a new edition that is reviewed in Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

Martin Wallraff (ed.), Iulius Africanus: Chronographiae. The Extant Fragments. In collaboration with Umberto Roberto and Karl Pinggéra, William Adler. Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte, NF 15. Translated by W. Adler. Berlin-New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2007. Pp. lxxxix, 352. ISBN 978-3-11-019493-7. €91.59.

Reviewed by Hagith Sivan, University of Kansas (dinah01@ku.edu)
Word count: 1514 words

First, congratulations are in order to the venerable Griechischen Christlichen Schriftsteller for producing, for the first time in its history, an edition with an English translation and even an introduction in English. "Let these be multiplied," as the rabbis used to say, a blessing that, one hopes, is sufficiently suitable for an edition of an author who hailed from Palestine.

Julius Africanus well deserves the effort that the impressive international team assembled by Martin Wallraff has obviously invested in this project. Of Africanus' not insignificant output, consisting of the Cesti (originally in 14 volumes), two letters (one addressed to Origen, the other to an Aristides) and the Chronographiae (originally in 5), we now have the most complete collection of 100 fragments from the last work and, equally useful, of 99 testimonia.

Through the Chronographiae Africanus conceived the extraordinarily ambitious plan of fitting widely disparate strands of different histories into a biblical frame of time, beginning with Adam and culminating with the Resurrection. The resultant chronological system served as a basis for universal histories of which the Eusebian-Hieronymian version proved both influential and lasting. Perhaps the success of the latter ultimately guaranteed the dispersal and fragmentary survival of the model conceived by Africanus.

[...]

UPDATE (5 May): Blog post title for the day:

He Was the Very Model of a Pantheon Librarian

L'AELAC (L'Association pour l'étude de la littérature apocryphe chrétienne) has its annual meeting in June in Dole, France.