Review of Dabrowa, Camps, campaigns, colonies

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Camps, campaigns, colonies. Roman military presence in Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and the Near East.

Edward Dabrowa, Camps, campaigns, colonies. Roman military presence in Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and the Near East: selected studies. Philippika. Altertumswissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, contributions to the study of ancient world cultures, 138. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2020. Pp. 216. ISBN 9783447113816 €54,00.

Review by
Andrea De Giorgi, Florida State University. adegiorgi@fsu.edu

Notable for PaleoJudaica:

The following two essays shift the focus to Judea and the long season of wars that culminated in the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. At issue are the mobilization of the legions, their intersection with local communities, and, lastly, a topography of siege operations.

There is also an essay on the military camp at Dura-Europos and one on Roman conflicts with the Parthians/Arcasids.

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Excavating in the plague year: ‘Auja el-Foqa

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Excavating ‘Auja el-Foqa. 4 Questions for the Dig Directors of ‘Auja el-Foqa, an ancient Israelite fortress in the Jordan Valley (Megan Sauter).

See also the interview with the excavators of Abel Beth Maacah, noted here.

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A Canaanite "missing link?"

PALEOGRAPHY: Canaanite Inscription Found in Israel Is ‘Missing Link’ in Alphabet’s History. The tiny inscribed pottery shard unearthed at Lachish dates to 3,500 years ago and is the oldest text from the Southern Levant to use alphabetic writing, rather than pictographic, archaeologists say (Ariel David, Haaretz). Cross-file under Northwest Semitic Epigraphy.

The story has received a lot of attention. The Daily Mail has coverage with some background on the earliest alphabetic Canaanite inscriptions, discovered in a turquoise mine in the Sinai: Has the 'missing link' in the history of the ALPHABET been discovered? Archaeologists find evidence of an early example in Israel from 1450 BC that could explain how the alphabet arrived in the Levant from Egypt (Jonathan Chadwick).

Both articles note the underlying open-access article in the journal Antiquity:

Early alphabetic writing in the ancient Near East: the ‘missing link’ from Tel Lachish

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 April 2021

Felix Höflmayer, Haggai Misgav, Lyndelle Webster and Katharina Streit

Abstract

The origin of alphabetic script lies in second-millennium BC Bronze Age Levantine societies. A chronological gap, however, divides the earliest evidence from the Sinai and Egypt—dated to the nineteenth century BC—and from the thirteenth-century BC corpus in Palestine. Here, the authors report a newly discovered Late Bronze Age alphabetic inscription from Tel Lachish, Israel. Dating to the fifteenth century BC, this inscription is currently the oldest securely dated alphabetic inscription from the Southern Levant, and may therefore be regarded as the ‘missing link’. The proliferation of early alphabetic writing in the Southern Levant should be considered a product of Levantine-Egyptian interaction during the mid second millennium BC, rather than of later Egyptian domination.

I noted the discovery of the other early inscribed ostracon at Lachish here in 2015. For posts on the earliest Hebrew and Hebrew-ish inscriptions, see the links collected here. Other relevant posts are here, here, here, and here.

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Pure leprosy?

PROF. ALBERT I. BAUMGARTEN: The Tzaraʿat Paradox (TheTorah.com).

Why is partially infected skin impure but fully infected skin pure? Mary Douglas’ insight into the polluting power of anomalies helps us make sense of this counterintuitive rule.

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Oedipal Judas?

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: Translating the Traitor: A Medieval Life of Judas (Brandon W. Hawk). .

Such a complicated textual tradition is not altogether rare among apocryphal literature. In this sense, the Life of Judas is not idiosyncratic for its variant, fluid, and multilingual transmission history but representative of the types of issues encountered with many apocrypha, including some of those translated in the MNTA volumes. This case presents one intriguing example of a work that likely moved from Western Europe into Near Eastern contexts (rather than the reverse, as scholars often expect), but the afterlives of many apocrypha follow similarly complex cross-cultural paths.

This is the second installment of a series on volume 2 of New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures (MNTA 2). I noted the first essay here.

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Hector Avalos, 1958-2021

SAD NEWS: Hector Avalos has Died (Jim West, Zwinglius Redividus).

Via Jack Sasson-

Hector Avalos, Professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University, succumbed yesterday afternoon to a persistent illness.

Professor Avalos and I overlapped as NELC doctoral students at Harvard University in the late 1980s. Then in the mid-1990s we both taught in Iowa at different institutions.

Among other contributions, Hector did important work on health care and disability in the biblical and ancient worlds. His Wikipedia page is here. Just last weekend I linked to one of his essays here.

Requiescat in pace.

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When is a jug leprous in Leviticus?

PROF. MARTHA HIMMELFARB: Priests & Rabbis Determine Ritual Reality (TheTorah.com).

The Torah allows the removal of vessels from a house before the priest quarantines it for tzaraʿat, understanding impurity here not as the result of physical reality but of a human declaration. This idea is developed further by the rabbis, who apply it to other areas of Jewish law.

The purity status of the ceramic vessels is in a superpositioned state until the priest observes them.

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The reception of Semiramis

BIBLIOGRAPHIA IRANICA: Semiramis: From Antiquity to the Modern Times. Notice of a New Book: Droß-Krüpe, Kerstin. 2020. Semiramis, de qua innumerabilia narrantur: Reception and argumentation of the Queen of Babylon from antiquity to the opera seria of the Baroque (Classica et Orientalia, 25). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz (in German).

Semiramis (Shammuramat) was a real Neo-Assyrian queen who reigned in the late eighth century BCE. But in the Greek Fantasy Babylon tradition she became the founder of the city of Babylon.

For PaleoJudaica posts on Semiramis, see here and links.

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Review of Memories of utopia: the revision of histories and landscapes in Late Antiquity (ed. Bronwen & Simic),

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: Memories of utopia: the revision of histories and landscapes in Late Antiquity.

Bronwen Neil, Kosta Simic, Memories of utopia: the revision of histories and landscapes in Late Antiquity. Routledge monographs in classical studies. London; New York: Routledge, 2019. Pp. 284. ISBN 9781138328679 $155.00.

Review by
Hope Williard, University of Lincoln. hwilliard@lincoln.ac.uk

Notable for PaleoJudaica:

Strickler’s chapter how the Christian and Jewish writers sought to explain the events and changes of the seventh century through apocalyptic discourse that frequently invoked visions of dystopia while remaining hopeful for a brighter future. An ideal but unrealized future characterizes utopian thinking, so this struck me as a productive and intriguing way to approaching late antique apocalypticism.

11. Ryan W. Strickler, Paradise regained? Utopias of deliverance in seventh-century apocalyptic discourse, 171-188

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Was the Flood futile?

IS THAT IN THE BIBLE? Noah’s Flood: Competing Visions of a Mesopotamian Tradition. Paul Davidson surveys the J and P strata of the Genesis Flood story in comparison to the Gilgamesh/Atrahasis Flood story.

One detail: the Atrahasis Epic is in Akkadian, not Sumerian.

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On the More New Testament Apocrypha Project

ANCIENT JEW REVIEW: More New Testament Apocrypha? Yes please (Tony Burke).

This is an introduction to a series of upcoming AJR posts on New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, volume 2 (MNTA 2). I have reviewed volume 1 here and links. A third volume is in progress.

Our More Old Testament Pseudepigrapha Project also gets a mention.

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Review of Malik, The Nero-Antichrist

BRYN MAYR CLASSICAL REVIEW: The Nero-Antichrist: founding and fashioning a paradigm.

Shushma Malik, The Nero-Antichrist: founding and fashioning a paradigm. Classics after antiquity. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. xv, 228. ISBN 9781108491495 $99.99.

Review by
Harriet Fertik, University of New Hampshire. harriet.fertik@unh.edu

I am not sure what to make of this claim in light of the evidence of the Book of Revelation:

[Malik] contends that the association of Nero with the Antichrist did not originate in the first century, as many biblical scholars have concluded (8-9): instead, it emerged among late antique Christians and enjoyed renewed popularity among writers in the late-nineteenth century.

Probably it has to do with the use of the term "Antichrist," which appears in 1-2 John, but not in the Book of Revelation.

For PaleoJudaica posts on the Book of Revelation and the Nero rediturus and Nero redivivus myths, start here and follow the links. Some posts on or involving the Antichrist tradition are here, here, here, here, here, and here.

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On the purchase of the Sappho papyri

VARIANT READINGS: New Article on the (ex-)Green Collection Sappho Papyri. The article is by Museum of the Bible curator Brian Hyland in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. It is behind the subscription wall, but Brent Nongbri gives some details in this blog post.

Background on the Sappho papyri and on the complicated Oxford missing-papyri scandal is here and links.

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The Ketef Hinnon silver scrolls

VIDEO OF THE DAY: The Silver Scrolls (The Jewish Press).

For many past PaleoJudaica posts on the silver amulets excavated at Ketef Hinnom, start here and follow the links. The amulets contain the earliest surviving copies of a biblical text, the priestly blessing in Numbers 6:24-26.

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Sterling on why Philo matters

MARGINALIA: Why Philo Matters. Gregory E. Sterling on Philo of Alexandria. The basics of Philo and his works in a brief article.

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Longacre on "Script Interactions and Hebrew/Aramaic Writing Culture"

THE OTTC BLOG: Comparative Hellenistic and Roman Manuscript Studies (CHRoMS). Drew Longacre has an article published in this open-access journal. Abstract:

Comparative Hellenistic and Roman Manuscript Studies (CHRoMS): Script Interactions and Hebrew/Aramaic Writing Culture

Longacre, Drew

Writing is an expression of culture and is subject to intercultural influences. In this comparative study, I argue that Egyptian and Judean Hebrew/Aramaic scripts from 400 BCE–400 CE were heavily influenced by Greek and later Latin writing cultures, which explains many previously inexplicable phenomena. Jewish writers in the third century BCE adopted the Greek split-nibbed reed pen, which dramatically changed the appearance of Hebrew/Aramaic scripts. At the same time, the normal size for Hebrew/ Aramaic scripts shrank considerably, the pen strokes became mostly monotone and unshaded, and the scripts became more rectilinear, angular, bilinear, and square.

Each of these features appears to be due to direct imitation of contemporary Greek formal writing. Beginning in the first century BCE, Hebrew/Aramaic writers began to decorate their formal scripts with separate ornamental strokes like those of contemporary Greek and Latin calligraphic scripts. And from the second or third century CE, Hebrew/Aramaic calligraphic scripts seem to be increasingly characterized by horizontal shading, parallel to the contemporary rise of Greek and Latin shaded scripts. Furthermore, in the late Roman period, the traditional Hieratic-derived Aramaic numeral system was replaced by an alphabetic numeral system under the influence of the Greek Milesian alphabetic numerals.

Follow the link for a link to the article.

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The perilous Ark of the Covenant

DR. RABBI TZEMAH YOREH: The Dangerous Ark of the Book of Samuel (TheTorah.com).

The ark of Shiloh is captured by the Philistines, but they soon send it back to Israel after they are struck by plague. The ark continues to wreak havoc along the way until it finds its final resting place in Jerusalem.

There's lots of redaction criticism here, if you enjoy such things.

For many, many PaleoJudaica posts on the the Ark of the Covenant in the Bible and tradition and in light of archaeology, see here, here, here, and follow the links.

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Excavating in the plague year

BIBLE HISTORY DAILY: Digging Abel Beth Maacah. 5 Questions for the Dig Directors of Abel Beth Maacah (Megan Sauter).

Nava Panitz-Cohen and Naama Yahalom-Mack of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Robert Mullins of Azusa Pacific University direct excavations at Abel Beth Maacah in northern Israel. Despite some hurdles, their team conduced a small excavation in 2020 and hope for a 2021 season as well.

They answered five questions about the pandemic’s effect on their excavation.

For recent discoveries at the Abel Beth Maacah excavation, see here and links.

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Review of Fishbane, The Art of Mystical Narrative

THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION, BOOK REVIEW: Fishbane, Eitan P. The Art of Mystical Narrative: A Poetics of the Zohar. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. xiii+519 pp. $125.00 (cloth). (Ellen Haskell). The full text is behind the subscription wall. But the first page of the review says a good bit, and that is available for free.

Cross-file under Zohar Watch.

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Palmyra in pictures

PALMYRA WATCH: Take a virtual tour of the Roman ruins of Palmyra in Syria - in pictures. Syria has six sites listed on the Unesco elite list of world heritage and all of them sustained some level of damage in the 10-year war (AFP/The National). HT Rogue Classicism.

For many posts on Palmyra, its history, the ancient Aramaic dialect spoken there (Palmyrene), and the city's tragic reversals of fortune, now trending for the better, start here and follow the links.

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