Diversity of Cultures in Ancient City of Dura-Europos Explored in Special Exhibition at NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient WorldBackground to this exhibition is here, and follow the background link to that post for previous exhibitions and much more on Dura Europos.
(IEWY News)
Edge of Empires: Pagans, Jews, and Christians at Roman Dura-Europos”
Exhibition Dates: Sept. 23, 2011 – Jan. 8, 2012
The ancient city of Dura-Europos, which stood at the crossroads of the Hellenistic, Persian, and Roman worlds for some five centuries, is the subject of the upcoming exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) entitled Edge of Empires: Pagans, Jews, and Christians at Roman Dura-Europos. The exhibition, on view from September 23, 2011, through January 8, 2012, tells the story of life in the city, located in present-day Syria, from the mid-second to mid-third century CE, when it thrived as a Roman military garrison.
[...]
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
More on upcoming NYU Dura-Europos exhibition
MORE ON THE UPCOMING NYU DURA-EUROPOS EXHIBITION:
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
More on those caves in Israel
MORE ON THOSE CAVES IN ISRAEL: Extraordinary pictures of the 2,000 year old underground labyrinth where Jewish rebels hid from Roman soldiers (Daily Mail).
This is from last week; not sure how I missed it.
Background here.
This is from last week; not sure how I missed it.
Background here.
Indiana Jones Not Accurate?
WELL NO, NOT ENTIRELY: "Indiana Jones Not Accurate", Say Archaeological Society (The Spoof).
So far this year I've joined a secret cabal and acquired a new fedora, so that's not doing too badly.
(Via Dorothy the PhDiva.)
So far this year I've joined a secret cabal and acquired a new fedora, so that's not doing too badly.
(Via Dorothy the PhDiva.)
New course materials in the PaleoJudeo-Blogosphere
NEW COURSE MATERIALS IN THE PALEOJUDEO-BLOGOSPHERE:
First, Rebecca Lesses is teaching her course on Jewish Folk Religion: Magic and Ritual Power at Ithaca College. She has posted the course syllabus at Mystical Politics (follow the link) and also some online resources for the study of Jewish magic.
Second, Simon Holloway is teaching "A Comprehensive Introduction to the Rabbinic Literature" at North Shore Temple Emanuel and has posted a useful-looking handout on Tractates of the Mishna at Davar Akher.
Both courses look very interesting and I wish I could sit in on them.
By the way, did I mention that I'm on research leave this whole academic year? Just saying.
UPDATE (7 September): I had Simon Holloway's teaching location wrong. Now corrected.
First, Rebecca Lesses is teaching her course on Jewish Folk Religion: Magic and Ritual Power at Ithaca College. She has posted the course syllabus at Mystical Politics (follow the link) and also some online resources for the study of Jewish magic.
Second, Simon Holloway is teaching "A Comprehensive Introduction to the Rabbinic Literature" at North Shore Temple Emanuel and has posted a useful-looking handout on Tractates of the Mishna at Davar Akher.
Both courses look very interesting and I wish I could sit in on them.
By the way, did I mention that I'm on research leave this whole academic year? Just saying.
UPDATE (7 September): I had Simon Holloway's teaching location wrong. Now corrected.
Monday, September 05, 2011
Cairo's Ben Ezra Synagogue in OnIslam.net
CAIRO'S BEN EZRA SYNAGOGUE is treated in a travel piece by Idris Tawfiq in OnIslam.net. Contains the obligatory anti-Israel, anti-Zionist disclaimer, but looks to be factually accurate.
More on the Ben Ezra Synagogue here, here, and here. And much more on the Cairo Geniza and its texts here and links.
More on the Ben Ezra Synagogue here, here, and here. And much more on the Cairo Geniza and its texts here and links.
RBL review: Brakke, "The Gnostics"
RBL REVIEW by James McGrath: David Brakke, The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010 pp. xii + 164. $29.95).
By the way, I share David Brakke's skepticism about the existence of ancient Jewish Gnosticism. The key problem is not so much that we lack actual Jewish Gnostic texts, but rather that the internal thought world of the surviving ancient Christian Gnostic texts makes sense as emerging out of Christianity, but is oblivious to obvious Jewish concerns. Where, for example, are the midrashic reflections on the implications of the Gnostic myth of a corrupt demiurge and an intrinsically evil material world for Jewish halachic practices? Contrast the letters of Paul, which are in the early stages of founding a new movement deriving from Judaism and which are very much concerned with such Jewish issues.
This does not mean that there wasn't some original form of Jewish demiurgic Gnosticism, but if there was, the positive evidence for it has been purged from our surviving sources. Unless and until that changes, I remain unconvinced.
By the way, I share David Brakke's skepticism about the existence of ancient Jewish Gnosticism. The key problem is not so much that we lack actual Jewish Gnostic texts, but rather that the internal thought world of the surviving ancient Christian Gnostic texts makes sense as emerging out of Christianity, but is oblivious to obvious Jewish concerns. Where, for example, are the midrashic reflections on the implications of the Gnostic myth of a corrupt demiurge and an intrinsically evil material world for Jewish halachic practices? Contrast the letters of Paul, which are in the early stages of founding a new movement deriving from Judaism and which are very much concerned with such Jewish issues.
This does not mean that there wasn't some original form of Jewish demiurgic Gnosticism, but if there was, the positive evidence for it has been purged from our surviving sources. Unless and until that changes, I remain unconvinced.
BMCR reviews
BMCR REVIEWS:
Philip A. Harland, Dynamics of Identity in the World of the Early Christians: Associations, Judeans, and Cultural Minorities. New York: T & T Clark, 2009. Pp. xii, 239. ISBN 9780567111463. $29.95 (pb).Philip Harland has a blog called Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean.
Reviewed by Guy Stroumsa, University of Oxford (guy.stroumsa@lmh.ox.ac.uk)
Preview
This book includes eight studies (two of them new), presented together within a general framework, developed in a long introduction. The eight chapters of the book deal with various aspects of group identity of Jews and Christians in the Roman world (more precisely, in the Eastern Mediterranean). The fist chapter deals with associations and group identity among Jews and Christians (Harland speaks of Judeans rather than of Jews; the present reviewer, perhaps because he belongs to an older generation, admits to being unable to appreciate the real advantage obtained in transforming our traditional vocabulary). Chapter 2 studies local cultural life and Christian identity. Chapter 3 analyses the word “brothers” in associations and congregations, while Chapter 5 discusses “Mothers” and “Fathers. Chapter 3 studies the concept of “brothers.” In a second part, Harland deals in turn with other diasporas, and with the problem of acculturation of immigrants (Chapter 5) and with interaction and integration among Jews (Chapter 6). The last two chapters study group interactions and rivalries, through the study of Sardis and Smyrna (Chapter 7) and the anti-associations and their banquets (Chapter 8).
[...]
Gregor Weber (ed.), Alexandreia und das ptolemäische Ägypten: Kulturbegegnungen in hellenistischer Zeit. Berlin: Verlag Antike, 2010. Pp. 232. ISBN 9783938032374. € 49.90.
Reviewed by M. Weiskopf (mnweiskopf@aol.com)
[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]
Weber has edited an excellent, well-written collection of essays investigating the Ptolemaic era, a collection (whose origins lie in 2007/2008) indicative of the advances made in the field since the 1980s when the imprecise term "multicultural" was first used to placate the “politically correct.” Weber’s introduction (pp. 9-29) makes clear that one is investigating cultural interactions, Kulturbegegnungen: a plural. The cultures and interactions are never static, nor is there a single Leitkultur. Weber proposes the investigation of five Problembereiche that cut across disciplines: a. the concept of monarchy, in which the desire for dynastic unity led to the adaptation of the Egyptian concept of sibling marriage; b. the elite of the land, Egyptian and Greco-Macedonian maintaining their respective positions, but prosopographical details preclude assigning ethnics based on one’s name; c. religion, in which the Ptolemies were active patrons, but a clear division between divine worlds seems to have persisted; d. the situation in the chora, illuminated for the most part by papyrus-preserved “personal” histories; e. dislike of the Ptolemaic rule: the priesthood saw the Ptolemies as the bulwark against a Sintflut of chaos and anarchy; it remains difficult to assign specific reasons for others’ dissatisfaction. Weber ends with advice (p. 24): “Generalisierende Aussage in grosser Stil ueber die griechische Elite oder die Aegypter verbieten sich daher.”
[...]
Livia Capponi, Roman Egypt. Classical World Series. London: Bristol Classical Press, 2010. Pp. 89. ISBN 9781853997266. $23.00.
Reviewed by Nikolaos Lazaridis, California State University, Sacramento (lazaridis.nikolaos@gmail.com)
Livia Capponi, an enthusiastic and experienced papyrologist who is currently a lecturer in Ancient History at Newcastle University, has written a modest but well-documented introduction to Roman Egypt, a long historical period that begins with Augustus’ arrival at Alexandria on 1 October, 30 BC and ends with the Arab conquest of Egypt sealed by a treaty signed by the general ‘Amr ibn al-‘As and the patriarch Cyrus on 8 November 641. This introduction is intended for “students and teachers of Classical Civilization at late school and early university level”, according to the series’ mission statement on the back cover, even for “those with no previous knowledge of the classical languages and those who, before reading, did not even know what a papyrus was”, according to the author’s preface.
[...]
Sunday, September 04, 2011
Saturday, September 03, 2011
Fake metal codices: the video
FAKE METAL CODICES WATCH: Tom Verenna has put together a video that summarizes the case that the Jordan metal codices are fakes. It's not quite ten minutes long, but is worth your time. Toward the end there is an additional—devastating—revelation about that Oxford metallurgical report on the lead.
(Although I am mentioned in the credits and I am a member of the biblioblogger cabal mentioned in the video, I had no involvement in the making of the video. Tom gets the credit for that, with feedback on earlier drafts from some members.)
UPDATE: Some of us have tried posting a link to the video on the Jordan Codices Facebook website, but these comments are swiftly deleted. I had added some screen grabs here, but I've taken them down, since that seemed like overdoing it.
UPDATE (4 September): Tom collects blogospheric reactions here.
UPDATE: Dorothy King has observations on the verisimilitude of the menorahs on the metal codices. Not surprisingly, there are problems.
UPDATE (5 September): Forgot the "Background here and links" link.
(Although I am mentioned in the credits and I am a member of the biblioblogger cabal mentioned in the video, I had no involvement in the making of the video. Tom gets the credit for that, with feedback on earlier drafts from some members.)
UPDATE: Some of us have tried posting a link to the video on the Jordan Codices Facebook website, but these comments are swiftly deleted. I had added some screen grabs here, but I've taken them down, since that seemed like overdoing it.
UPDATE (4 September): Tom collects blogospheric reactions here.
UPDATE: Dorothy King has observations on the verisimilitude of the menorahs on the metal codices. Not surprisingly, there are problems.
UPDATE (5 September): Forgot the "Background here and links" link.
Friday, September 02, 2011
BNTC 2011
THE ANNUAL BRITISH NEW TESTAMENT CONFERENCE started yesterday in Nottingham. This is the first time in many years that I have not been able to attend. I hope the papers and the whisky evenings go well.
Dueling sites for the baptism of Jesus
POLITICS: Dueling sites for the Baptism of Jesus:
Jordanian Group Threatens Lawsuit Over Baptism SiteBackground on the opening of Qasr al-Yahud is here.
Jordan, fighting Israel over Christian tourists, is claiming that the Christian baptism site Qasr al-Yahud is actually on its territory.
by Elad Benari (Arutz Sheva
First Publish: 9/2/2011, 1:12 AM
A Jordan-based group is threatening to file a lawsuit against Israel in the International Criminal Court over its opening of the baptismal site Qasr al-Yahud near the Jordan River.
The group, which calls itself “The Arab Union to Resist the Expulsion of Arab Christians”, is headed by the speaker of the Jordanian senate, Taher al-Masri, and includes Muslim and Christian officials from around the Arab world.
The group is upset over the fact that on July 12, Israel held an official ceremony to mark the opening of Qasr al-Yahud, the site which is known as the place where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and which is considered the third holiest site in Christianity.
[...]
Graffiti in ancient Israel
GRAFFITI IN ANCIENT ISRAEL is explored in The Media Line:
The article is difficult to excerpt from here, but it deals with graffiti left by Byzantine monks in Greek and by Second-Temple era Jews in Hebrew.
That project to produce a comprehensive collection of ancient inscriptions from the land of Israel is noted here. And another recent article on graffiti in ancient Israel is noted here.
In Search of Ancient GraffitiWith a smaller daily readership but longer archiving.
Written by Arieh O'Sullivan
Published Wednesday, August 31, 2011
A Paleo-Facebook, writings on the wall tell of ordinary people from distant past
HIRBET BURJIN, Israel -- It’s hot. A haze of heat hangs flat over a copse of hundred-year-old oaks and dry scrubland of the Judean foothills where people may have lived for millennium, but not a soul is around today.
“Don’t worry. The air conditioner is on inside,” jokes Boaz Zissu, a rugged, tall archaeologist with a swagger that makes it easy to conjure up his past as the former commander of the unit for protection of antiquities in Israel.
Shortly later, after clambering through the thicket and fig trees, crawling down steps carved into the earth, we are sitting in the cool, darkened halls of a cave staring at its white limestone walls and trying to decipher the mysterious scratches.
“It says ‘Christo.’ It’s the name of Jesus but in vocative, like ‘O Jesus,’” says Zissu, pointing out the ancient Greek letters chi and epsilon carved about chest height.
Ancient graffiti, etched into the walls of burial caves, tombs and quarries, is a postcard from the past and gives us a look into the minds of our ascendants. In a way, graffiti is like the Facebook of earlier eras.
“Graffiti are a way of expressing yourself,” says Zissu, today a senior lecturer at Bar Ilan University. “In a period when Internet and blogs didn’t exist and somebody wanted to express himself and to say something they were doing, they did it with a nail on a wall of a cave.”
[...]
The article is difficult to excerpt from here, but it deals with graffiti left by Byzantine monks in Greek and by Second-Temple era Jews in Hebrew.
That project to produce a comprehensive collection of ancient inscriptions from the land of Israel is noted here. And another recent article on graffiti in ancient Israel is noted here.
Thursday, September 01, 2011
September 2011 Biblical Studies Carnival Episode III
SEPTEMBER 2011 BIBLICAL STUDIES CARNIVAL EPISODE III has been posted by James McGrath at Exploring Our Matrix.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Steve Caruso on "units of forgery" in the metal codices
FAKE METAL CODICES WATCH: Steve Caruso has an interesting argument in his latest blog post: Jordan Lead Codices: Units of Forgery.
As a greater number of pictures of the codices surface -- in addition to other numerous points of evidence discussed by others -- virtually every specimen revealed can be discounted as a forgery outright as we see various patterns emerge regarding their construction.Background here and links.
Directly to the point: Each plate thus far has shown itself to be a collage of identical master pattern "stamps" of text arranged in such a manner to make each set seem like a full document rather than a collection of component pieces.
More on the ancient Buckinghamshire "brothel"
MORE ON THE ANCIENT BUCKINGHAMSHIRE "BROTHEL" that may preserve evidence for systematic infanticide: This article supports the infanticide theory:
UPDATE (1 September): Judith Weingarten directs me to Dead babies still are bad evidence for a Roman brothel , by Rosemary Joyce at the Ancient Lives, Ancient Bodies blog, which responds to that recent BBC article and supports that different interpretation of the evidence.
Terrible secret of Roman brothel finally uncoveredThe ancient Judaism connection:
(Henley Standard)
THE rediscovery of infant bones has led to a Hambleden field being identified as the earliest proven site of infanticide in Britain.
An excavation of Yewden Villa at Mill End in 1912 found a number of unusual discoveries, the most startling of which was the remains of 97 newborn babies.
The theory that the villa was used as a Roman brothel has also gained weight after the latest archaeological findings.
A H Cocks, former curator of Buckinghamshire County Museum, noted the discovery but focused on the tonne of pottery that was also found.
The remains of the infants, buried between 150 AD and 200 AD and all the same size, were rediscovered in cigarette boxes at the Aylesbury museum in 2008.
Dr Jill Eyers, director of Chiltern Archaeology, pushed for extensive investigation into the bones, which has confirmed beyond doubt that each baby was killed shortly after birth.
“Refinding the remains gave me nightmares for three nights,” said Dr Eyers. “It made me feel dreadful. I kept thinking about how the poor little things died. The human part of the tale is awful.”
[...]
“Because there was so much trade coming through, they had a little brothel operating.”
There was no such thing as abortion then — the best option was an ointment designed to kill sperm which didn’t work. Dr Eyers said there would have been no place for babies for women who had gone down the road of prostitution. She discounted her colleague’s theory of a birthing centre having been at the site.
“I wanted that as well, as I didn’t want them to have been killed, but it just doesn’t work,” said Dr Eyers.
“There has never been a birthing centre in the Roman empire anywhere in the world and this is an unusually high number of burials.”
Her suspicion that the infants were systematically killed because they were unwanted births has been confirmed by Simon Mays, a palaeontologist who has spent the past year measuring the bones.
Dr Eyers said: “He proved without doubt that all the infants were new-born. They were all killed at birth and all at the gestation period of between 38 and 40 weeks.
[...]
Dr Eyers noted striking similarities between Yewden Villa and a site in Ashkelon in Israel, which archaeologists have concluded was also a brothel.Background, with support for a different interpretation of the evidence, is here.
UPDATE (1 September): Judith Weingarten directs me to Dead babies still are bad evidence for a Roman brothel , by Rosemary Joyce at the Ancient Lives, Ancient Bodies blog, which responds to that recent BBC article and supports that different interpretation of the evidence.
Israel's ancient rebel caves
NOT FOR THE CLAUSTROPHOBIC:
Israel's ancient rebel caves, a hidden adventureThese tunnels have come up from time to time over the years in various posts, e.g., here, here, and, more recently, here and here.
By Ari Rabinovitch
JERUSALEM | Tue Aug 30, 2011 10:09am EDT
(Reuters) - You'll need a headlamp, a tight waistline and no fear of the dark in order to enjoy one of the most extreme, yet lesser known, archaeological wonders of the Holy Land.
[...]
More Elad controversy
POLITICS: The Elad controversy continues.
Leftists in Last-Minute Bid to Halt Ir David ExcavationsFor background links and a rather different take on the current controversy, see here.
After failing to halt the Elad organization's archaeological work at Ir David, leftists are decrying the 'privatization of archaeology'.
by David Lev
First Publish: 8/30/2011, 11:37 PM (Arutz Sheva)
A group of 150 archaeologists and students sent a petition Tuesday to Environment Minister Gilad Erdan and Sport and Culture Minister Limor Livnat, asking them to drop their support for a law that formalizes private archaeological digs and research at national parks and historical sites. The petition says that the law would “politicize archaeology in Israel and damage the independence of researchers," and calls for the ministers to oppose the "privatization of archaeology," which, they write, would be the death knell of archaeology in Israel.
But supporters of the law said that there were already hundreds of independent and private groups conducting archaeological research around the country. In fact, supporters say, there is only one dig that the group is interested in halting – the one going on in Ir David (the City of David), conducted by the Elad organization.
[...]
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