Half a decade of search engine referrals

SEARCH ENGINE REFERRALS: For the past five years and several months I have been saving up especially entertaining search-engine referrals that have directed readers to PaleoJudaica. It's pretty obvious that most of those readers did not find what they were looking for. Here, for your amusement, is the list of search terms. I swear I did not make any of them up.

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Coptic Unicode font now available

A COPTIC UNICODE FONT is now available.

The Flood story at Ugarit

THE FLOOD STORY AT UGARIT: It isn't terribly well known, but a version of the Mesopotamian Flood story was found among those "Canaanite" alphabetic cuneiform texts at Ugarit. This tablet, however, was written in Akkadian and tells the story in the first person with Atrahasis as the Flood hero. The name of the hero is Utnapishtim in the Gilgamesh Epic and Atrahasis in the Atrahasis epic. Duane Smith has posted an edition and translation of the Flood story from Ugarit at Abnormal Interests.

I published a discussion and partial translation of this tablet in my article "The Flood Hero as King and Priest," JNES 53 (1995): 199-214, esp. pp. 205-206. Despite its fragmentary nature, it is a very interesting text.

Bishop Tom Wright on moving to St. Andrews

BISHOP TOM WRIGHT is interviewed by the BBC on moving to St. Andrews.

Via Mark Goodacre's NT Blog.

BNTC 2010

I'M OFF to the British New Testament Conference, which is in Bangor, Wales, this year. I'm not presenting a paper this time, but I will be co-chairing the New Testament and Second Temple Judaism Seminar, as usual. The programs of all the seminars are available here.

The conference takes place today, Friday, and Saturday. I will try to keep blogging as usual, time and internet connection permitting, but I have also pre-posted a few things, so there will be something new here each day in any case.

New World Hebrew forgeries in the news

NEW WORLD HEBREW FORGERIES have been getting some unfortunate media attention lately. For some reason the Los Lunas "Mystery Stone" forgery in New Mexico is given gullible positive coverage by Digital Journal. Also, a visit to the stone is chronicled much more sensibly in Mama Dragon, in which post the burning bush is repeatedly addressed as "dude."*

Note also Glenn Beck's recent foray back into Hebrew studies with a segment on the Bat Creek Stone. The Bat Creek stone inscription was also debunked back in 1993 in the July/August issue of Biblical Archaeology Review by P. Kyle McCarter, supporting earlier conclusions by Frank Moore Cross. (Not online. Sorry.) Cross and McCarter are two of the most distinguished living Northwest Semitic epigraphers. (Full disclosure: Cross supervised my doctoral dissertation.) Both the paleography (letter shapes) of the letters that look like Hebrew and the content (the apparent geographical name Yehud) do not work for Second Temple Hebrew (or, in combination, any other kind).

Beck also mentioned the Newark Stones, which are clearly not actually Second Temple Hebrew inscriptions, although it has been argued that they are medieval Jewish relics that were salted into the digs where they were discovered. At least the residents of Newark were pleased with Beck's mention of the stones:

NEWARK -- The day after the Newark Earthworks were mentioned by television and radio host Glenn Beck on FOX News, there was an increase in visitors at the Great Circle.

"Our phones are ringing off the hook," said Susan Fryer, executive director of the Greater Licking County Convention and Visitors Bureau, which is housed at the Great Circle in Newark.

"So far we've had about 34 visitors today, and about one-third of those are here because they saw it on Glenn Beck," Fryer said mid-afternoon Thursday.

Many of the visitors, Fryer said, were from Ohio and had thought about visiting but never did until they saw the program.

[...]

*Via James McGrath on FB.

Antiquities restoration at the IAA

ANTIQUITIES RESTORATION at the IAA gets a brief look by Haaretz. Excerpt:

[Elisheva] Kamaisky is one of the Antiquities Authority's six-member restoration team who reconstruct objects and implements of the material culture in the country since human habitation began. They receive potsherds, threadbare cloths, metallic weapons, golden coins, delicate glassware and more. Unlike their colleagues in the rest of the world, Israeli law bars them from working with human remains.

[...]

In a nearby room that resembles a chemistry lab, Lena Kuperschmidt, a metallurgy expert, is hard at work. Her current project is opening rolled up lead talismans found in Caesarea. Each talisman is a flat rectangle of lead, engraved in Greek and rolled into a tight scroll. The talismans contain mostly curses against horses, and were meant to help whoever wrote or ordered them disable rival's horses in the races staged at the local hippodrome. Every talisman holds uncharitable wishes, like "may the horse go blind," "may it break its legs," "may it fail to run" and so on.

Ancient Cupid cameo from Jerusalem

AN ANCIENT CUPID CAMEO has been excavated in Jerusalem:

Israel archeologists uncover 2,000-year-old cupid in City of David dig

Israel Antiquities Authority says added inlaid semi-precious stone is of the 'Eros in mourning,' one of a group of visual motifs linked with mourning practices.

By Haaretz Service Tags: Israel news archeology Jerusalem

Israeli archeologists unveiled a 2,000 year old semi-precious cameo bearing the image of Cupid on Monday, which the Israel Antiquities Authorities (IAA) said was among several items located in the City of David archeological area in Jerusalem's Old City in the last 12 months.

The cameo, which will be displayed at the 11th Annual City of David Archaeology Conference scheduled to take place later this week, is 1 cm in length and 0.7 cm in width, and was discovered in the Givati Parking Lot Excavation, a part of the Jerusalem Walls National Park.

[...]

Click on the link for a photo and detailed description.

On the origins of the alphabet

ON THE ORIGINS OF THE ALPHABET: An interesting debate was started up in the March/April issue of BAR by Orly Goldwasser on whether the alphabet was invented in elite scribal circles or (her position) in a working-class environment. Anson Rainey and now Christopher Rollston have replied, taking the contrary view. Much of the discussion is online:

Orly Goldwasser, How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs (mostly behind a subscription wall).

Anson Rainey, with Goldwasser's rebuttal, Who Really Invented the Alphabet—Illiterate Miners or Educated Sophisticates? (BAR website).

Christopher Rollston, FEATURED POST by Christopher Rollston: The Probable Inventors of the First Alphabet (ASOR blog).

Note also the recent discussion of The Origins of ABC in a post at John Boardley's I Love Typography blog.

More on Arsinoë II

MORE ON ARSINOË II from Judith Weingarten at the Zenobia: Empress of the East blog: The Uppity Queen Arsinoë II (Part II).

Background here.

Phoenicia closing on on Gibraltar

THE GOOD SHIP PHOENICIA is closing in on Gibraltar:

ARRIVING AT CALPE…

Over a thousand years ago they arrived, looked at the Rock and called it Calpe. Now they’re back - at Ocean Village.

After 27 consecutive days at sea, Phoenicia is expected to arrive on Sunday 29 August in the safe waters of Ocean Village marina for some well-earned R n R. The 21 metre vessel, a traditionally built replica of a 600BC Phoenician cargo ship, is currently recreating the epic first circumnavigation of Africa achieved some 2,600 years ago.

[...]

The latest entry in the Ship's Blog (Position Report 241) reports favorable weather. Background here and follow the links.

UPDATE (30 August): They arrived safely on Sunday (Position Report 243):

We successfully made landfall earlier this morning after a challenging passage along the final Straits of Gibraltar where strong headwinds and sea mist nearly prevented us from going any further. However the strong current enabled us to beat off the head winds and although this meant positioning ourselves near the centre of the Strait and facing on coming ships in the adjacent traffic lane, this strategy eventually paid dividends. Even so it was a tense night and fortunately our luck held.

In Gibraltar we are guests of the Ocean Village Marina where we plan to stay until the end of the week when we will start another leg of the expedition towards Carthage in Tunisia.

Reasons to study theology and religion

101 REASONS TO STUDY THEOLOGY AND RELIGION: The Call for Comments. Helen Ingram has an important blog post up at The Geek Muse. As you can see, I have added my two minas' worth in the comments.

More ancient bling

MORE ANCIENT BLING:

Syrian Archaeologists: Bronze Bracelets, Golden Earrings Unearthed in Sweida

By R. Raslan (Global Arab Network)
Friday, 27 August 2010 14:05

Syria (Sweida) – Syrian excavation expedition working at different archaeological sites in Sweida province (south of the country) unearthed a number of archaeological finds dating back to Hellenistic, Byzantine, Nabatean and Roman ages.

Archaeological discoveries at al-Najma Palace included pottery finds, rings, beads, lanterns, coins, jars, bronze bracelets and golden earrings, Director of Sweida Antiquities Department Wasim al-Shaarani said.

[...]

Via Joseph I. Lauer.

Is it just me, or were ancient women kind of careless with their gold earrings?

For earlier ancient bling posts, go here.

PSCO 2010-11 news

NEWS ON THE PHILADELPHIA SEMINAR ON CHRISTIAN ORIGINS 2010-11 from Annette Yoshiko Reed:

48th Philadelphia Seminar on Christian Origins, 2010-2011

"Beyond Scare Quotes: Rethinking Words and Things in the Study of Ancient 'Judaism' and 'Christianity'"

Co-chairs: Phillip Fackler and Phillip Webster (Penn) / Coordinator: Annette Yoshiko Reed (Penn)

Scare quotes are everywhere in the study of "Judaism" and "Christianity" in antiquity. The ideological import of these terms - along with other words previously thought neutral and descriptive, such as "orthodoxy" and "heresy" - has been exposed. We as scholars can no longer blithely assume a direct correspondence between the categories our sources use and social reality; the words themselves shape reality. Although this insight is not new, it has recently come to dominate discussion in the field, concurrent with the newfound interest in the construction of "Judaism" and "Christianity" as distinct, mutually exclusive "religions." Arguably, however, the time has come to theorize beyond scare quotes. If the words we use do not correspond simply or directly to things, what actually are the objects of study for students of ancient "Judaism" and "Christianity"? Could the appellations "Judaism" and "Christianity" most helpfully be thought of as referring to specific discourses? As ideologies? And what exactly would either of those options mean? Would more attention to group theory help? Identity theory? Could a re-thinking of how the relationship between words and things, and the limits of the heurism of categories and taxonomy, help to re-theorize the relationship between belief and practice? With the recent advent of a near revolution in thinking about the relationship between Jews, Christians, and others in the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, the time may be ripe for an extended discussion regarding of some of the most basic questions in the field: what exactly are the objects of our study when we say we are studying "Judaism" and "Christianity"? And how do we study them?

Schedule [unless otherwise noted, all meetings will be held at 7pm in the Second Floor Lounge of Cohen (Logan) Hall at the University of Pennsylvania]

23 September 2010 - Dale Martin (Yale), "Purity of Language"

21 October 2010 - Seth Schwartz (Columbia), "How Many Judaisms Were There? A Critique of Mason and Boyarin on Categorization"

17 November 2010 - Ra'anan S. Boustan (UCLA), topic TBA [please note that this meeting falls on a Wednesday, rather than the usual Thursday]

January 2010 - TBA

17 February 2010 - Virginia Burrus (Drew), topic TBA

30 March 2010 - Elizabeth Castelli (Barnard), topic TBA

April 2010 - Graduate Student Conference, details soon to come!


For further information about PSCO please see our website, http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/psco/

Good topic. And don't even get me started on "apocrypha" and "pseudepigrapha."

Inscriptions of Qasr ibrim

THE INSCRIPTIONS OF QASR IBRIM are being published in a new book:

Qasr Ibrim: The Greek and Coptic Inscriptions Published on Behalf of the Egypt Exploration Society

by Adam Lajtar and Jacques van der Vliet

This book contains the publication of the Greek and Coptic inscriptions that were brought to light during archaeological work on the site of Qasr Ibrim (Egyptian Nubia) carried out by the Egypt Exploration Society from 1963 onwards. 330p, c.90 figs (Journal of Juristic Papyrology 2010)
ISBN-13: 978-83-925919-2-4
ISBN-10: 83-925919-2-5
Hardback. Not yet published - advance orders taken. Price GB £75.00

Regular readers will recall that numerous manuscript fragments were also excavated at Qasr Ibrim, among them the Coptic fragments of 2 Enoch.

Jack Sasson quotes some further information on the book, which I have not been able to find on the website:

The natural citadel of Qasr Ibrim in Northern Nubia occupied for thousands of years a strategic position between Egypt and the Middle Nile region (the present-day Sudan). In Late Antiquity, it was the political centre of an independent kingdom, Nobadia. Following the Christianization of the region in the sixth century, it became the see of a bishop, for whom a magnificent stone-built cathedral was erected. Towards the year 700, Nobadia became politically integrated into the southern kingdom of Makouria, which had its capital in Old Dongola, but Qasr Ibrim remained the residence of a ‘viceroy’, the eparch of Nobadia, who played a pivotal role in the contacts between Christian Nubia and Islamic Egypt. The capture of Qasr Ibrim by Shams ad-Dawla, Saladin's brother, in 1173, was a dramatic event that inaugurated the decline of the Christian kingdoms of Nubia.

This book brings together the Greek and Coptic inscriptions found at Qasr Ibrim during the excavations of the British Egypt Exploration Society, undertaken between 1963 and 2008. It contains over 90 inscriptions from the period between the sixth and the twelfth centuries, a majority of which are stone monuments that are edited here for the first time. Each inscription is reproduced, translated and provided with a full commentary; extensive indices enhance the accessibility of the material. Most of the inscriptions are of a funerary nature (tombstones), including a series of epitaphs
commemorating bishops, whereas others include building inscriptions and apotropaic texts. Together they present a vivid picture of the mainly clerical élite of this Christian centre at a crossroads between Africa and the Mediterranean, revealing patterns of commemoration and in-group status maintenance.

A new fragment of Ezekiel's Exagoge

PSEUDEPIGRAPHA WATCH: Bob Kraft e-mails:

I just returned from the Papyrology Congress in Geneva, and you will be interested in the paper by Dirk Obbink (Oxford), "A New Fragment of Ezekiel's Exagoge from Oxyrhynchus." According to the abstract, this "newly identified papyrus ... preserves the earliest textual witness to the Hellenistic tragedy Exagoge by Ezekiel. ... The new papyrus attests the widespread circulation of this work and affords a unique opportunity to view its textual paradosis and graphic presentation in literary circles in Roman Oxyrhynchus." The handout provided a critical edition of the text and comparison with other witnesses.

This text is a retelling of the Exodus story in the form of a Greek verse drama by the Hellenistic author Ezekiel the Tragedian. (We covered this in my Old Testament Pseudepigrapha course some years ago. And for much more, see here and here.) Apart from this manuscript, it survives only in quotations (and quotations of quotations) by later writers. Assuming, that is, that this is a manuscript of the Exagoge and not one of the later embedded quotes. Still, an actual manuscript of the work of Alexander Polyhistor would be pretty cool too.

The website for the 26th International Congress of Papyrology is here.

UPDATE (6 September): Jona Lendering and Bill Thayer comment at the Lacus Curtius and Livius blog. (Via Dorothy the PhDiva).

BU's ASOR archive opened to public

THE ASOR ARCHIVE at BU is being opened to the public:

Near East Archaeological Archive Opened

American Schools of Oriental Research headquartered at BU

By Rich Barlow (BU Today)

Good news for the Indiana Jones set: since 1900, the American Schools of Oriental Research has played a pivotal role in archaeological discoveries. Now the BU-headquartered nonprofit, which is dedicated to the archaeology of the Near East, is opening its archive to the public for the first time. Included in its collections are diaries of archaeologists; rare photos of various excavations, including Qumran in the West Bank, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered; and miscellanea, like a reproduction of an 1873 sultan’s permit for a dig in Palestine.

[...]

Coptic Studies Conference

A COPTIC STUDIES CONFERENCE is being held in Alexandria on 21-23 September. Details at Howard Middleton-Jones's Coptic News and Archive blog (which is new to me) and the conference website.

Also via Abu 'l-Rayhan Al-Biruni on FB.

The Literature of Pre-Islamic Iran

NEW(ISH) BOOK:

Ronald E. Emmerich (1937-2001) and Maria Macuch (eds.), The Literature of Pre-Islamic Iran - Companion Volume I: v. 1: Companion

Hardback | In Stock | £59.50 (I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd)

Persian literature is the jewel in the crown of Persian culture. It has profoundly influenced the literatures of Ottoman Turkey, Muslim India and Turkic Central Asia and been a source of inspiration for Goethe, Emerson, Matthew Arnold and Jorge Luis Borges among others. Yet Persian literature has never received the attention it truly deserves."A History of Persian Literature" answers this need and offers a new, comprehensive and detailed history of its subject. This 18-volume, authoritative survey reflects the stature and significance of Persian literature as the single most important accomplishment of the Iranian experience.The main object of this companion volume is to provide an overview of the most important extant literary sources in Old and Middle Iranian languages - the languages of the Achaemenid, Parthian and Sasanian periods culminating in the rich resource of Pahlavi Persian which fed so directly into the language of the later great Persian poets. It will be an indispensable source for the literary traditions of pre-Islamic Iran and an invaluable guide to the subject.

Via Abu 'l-Rayhan Al-Biruni on FB.

Hannah Cotton lecturing on conception of Jesus

ISRAELI CLASSICS PROFESSOR HANNAH COTTON is giving a lecture at the University of Melbourne on "The Conception of Jesus and the Documents from the Judean Desert."