[Faith-talk] Sharing a ebook about daily life in the ancient world
Poppa Bear
heavens4real at gmail.com
Sun Feb 23 01:28:22 UTC 2014
I am sharing a free ebook work on daily life in the ancient world of the east that helps to put the times of the Bible in a clearer context. I hope some will copy it into a notepad or word document to spend some time in it. I have moved the credits from the beginning of the document to the end of the document if anybody wants to know more about the organisation and their publucations.
Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
Table of Contents
V Introduction
by Noah Wiener
1 Jerusalem Flourishing-A Craft Center for Stone, Pottery, and Glass
by Nahman Avigad
18 Sidebar: Refuse from a First-Century Glass Factory
21 Sidebar: Making Kohl Sticks
22 Of Fathers, Kings and the Deity
by Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager
27 Archaeology Odyssey's Ancient Life:
27 Table Manners?
29 Temple Dancers
30 Letter Perfect
32 Desert Fruit
34 The Eyes Have It
36 Practical Papyrus
38 Need a Lift?
39 Roman Haute Cuisine
41 Authors
42 Notes
© 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society
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Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
Introduction
We look back on the Biblical world as a time of fateful battles, inspiring prophets, great
empires and profound learning. Unfortunately, this picture is often skewed to highlight regal,
rather than common, history. More of our modern philosophy and theology grew out of the
ancient agora than the palace. Many profound thinkers and religious visionaries in the ancient
world never interacted with kings or fought in great battles. How does archaeology tell their story?
By examining ancient societal structure, crafts and daily practices, we can reconstruct the lives
of common people to better understand the world of the Bible and breathe new reality into the
ancient world we are trying to understand. This eBook features articles from Biblical Archaeology
Review describing industry in Second Temple period Jerusalem and household structure in
ancient Israel along with a collection of brief and lively accounts from Archaeology Odyssey
describing standard practices across the ancient Mediterranean, from table manners to
construction cranes, and from fashion and makeup to the Roman postal service.
If Jerusalem is famous for one thing, it is for being a religious center. But our interest in the
Holy City lies also in its everyday life, of which so little is known. Recent investigations revealed
that in ancient times, especially in the late Second Temple period (50 B.C.-70 A.D.), various arts
and crafts, such as stonework, painted pottery and glass industry, flourished in Jerusalem. In
1983, the Israeli authorities opened to the public a building that had been closed for 1,913 years
to the day. The building, in ancient Jerusalem's Upper City, was a workshop that was stormed by
Roman soldiers in 70 A.D., the year the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and burned the Jewish
Temple. In "Jerusalem Flourishing-A Craft Center for Stone, Pottery, and Glass," eminent Israeli
archaeologist Nahman Avigad describes what his excavations in the Upper City teach us about
Jerusalem as an ancient craft center.
Ancient Israelite society was structured in a way that few of us in modern times experience. Its
focus was on family and kin groups organized around agrarian activities. Family and kin groups,
in turn, generated the symbols by which the higher levels of the social structure-the political and
the divine-were understood and represented. Ancient Israelite society consisted of a series of
"nested households"-one social grouping within another within another. In "Of Fathers, Kings
and the Deity," Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager guide us through this arrangement, which
included family groups within a tribal kingdom-all under the rule of Yahweh.
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Examining societal structure provides an important overview, but how did individuals work,
dress, eat and party? A collection of colorful articles from Archaeology Odyssey guides readers
through common practices in the ancient world. Learn how ancient people used papyrus and date
palms, put on makeup, delivered mail and celebrated over dinner parties and with temple
dancers.
Enjoy this colorful, exciting and informative journey and discover what life was really like in
ancient times.
Noah Wiener
Biblical Archaeology Society
2013
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Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
Jerusalem Flourishing-A Craft Center for Stone,
Pottery, and Glass
By Nahman Avigad
Sidebar: Refuse from a First-Century Glass Factory
Sidebar: Making Kohl Sticks
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Triangles and diamonds of different-colored stone and marble, polished with care and
inlaid with precision around a square of veined white marble, once formed the top of a
small decorative table. This tabletop fragment, found in a large, elegant Herodian home in
Jerusalem's Upper City, attests not only to the wealth of the Upper City residents but also
to the high level of skill the Jewish stonecrafters of Jerusalem had attained by the first
century B.C.
If Jerusalem is famous for one thing, it is for being a religious center. But our interest in the
Holy Cities lies also in its everyday life, of which so little is known. Recent investigations revealed
that in ancient times, especially in the late Second Temple period (50 B.C.-70 A.D.), various arts
and crafts, such as stonework, painted pottery and glass industry, flourished in Jerusalem.
To understand these crafts is to add a new dimension to our understanding of life in the Holy
City. From these crafts we learn about the world of the craftspeople who produced the artifacts,
about the art and culture their products reflected, and about the people who used them. A
knowledge of these crafts breathes new reality into the ancient world we are trying to understand.
For 14 years, between 1969 and 1983, I directed archaeological excavations in the Jewish
Quarter of the Old City, within the area of Jerusalem where its Upper City was located. The
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Jewish Quarter of the Old City had been largely destroyed by the Jordanians in 1948. When the
Jewish Quarter was reconstructed after the 1967 Six Day War, we took the opportunity to
investigate the site, which had never been excavated before. Our archaeological excavations
provided some of the most important evidence yet uncovered concerning Jerusalem as an
ancient craft center. Foremost among these crafts was one that utilized the common raw material
naturally available locally-stone.
Even before our excavations, Jerusalem stonework was well-known. The well-developed art of
stoneworking is evidenced by the Second Temple Period tombs scattered around the city. The
architectural carvings and ornamentation in these rock-hewn tombs, as well as on carved stone
sarcophagi and ossuaries,a which are found in such large quantities in Jerusalem, are witness to
the local skill in this craft, which eventually evolved into a typical Jewish style. Although no
sepulchral discoveries were made in our excavations, I have reproduced here one of the finest of
the sarcophagi discovered on the campus of the Hebrew University on Mount Scopus, which
superbly demonstrated the high standards attained by these Jerusalem artisans.
Eretz Israel, Vol. X, 1970
Richly decorated stone sarcophagus. Found on the Mt. Scopus campus of the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, this elegant sarcophagus dates to the time of Herod. Both the box
and lid are decorated with finely chiseled leaves, flowers and grapevines, attesting to the
skill attained by Jerusalem stoneworkers in the first century B.C.
Other excavations in Jerusalem over the last decade have also uncovered artistic
stonecarving. For example, the ornamented stones with geometric and floral patterns discovered
near the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount fully display the ornamental richness and variety that
typified the Royal Portico of the Temple Enclosure at the end of the Second Temple Period. One
stone ornamented in a similar style was found in our excavations, and it, too, was apparently from
a monumental building somewhere in the so called Upper City, which was where our excavations
were located.
Our excavations in the Upper City have shown that Jerusalem artisans also produced such
practical wares as stone tables and household vessels. In other words, Jerusalem had a
flourishing and varied stone industry, employing many artisans and craftsmen.
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Until we discovered stone tables in our excavations, as far as the archaeologist was
concerned, the furniture of the Second Temple Period in Israel had been unknown. Even now this
is the only type of furniture actually found. The ordinary tables in the Jerusalemite home were, of
course, made of wood; but they long ago disintegrated under moist climatic conditions. We now
know that Jerusalemites also had stone tables, decorative in nature and quite expensive, that had
specific functions within the house.
Our first stone table was found in the so-called Burnt House, which was burned in the Roman
destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. (See "Jerusalem in Flames-The Burnt House Captures a
Moment in Time," BAR 09:06.) Later we found more of these tables in many houses in the Upper
City. Fragments of such tables had been discovered in other excavations in Jerusalem--some of
them long ago-but these fragments had not been recognized as parts of tables. Fragments of
the small columns that form the legs of these tables had also been found, but long puzzled
excavators.
We found two types of stone tables, one rectangular and high, the other round and low. The
rectangular tables have a single central leg and a rectangular top. A projection on the underside
of the table slab fits into a corresponding depression in the top of the leg, joining the two together.
The leg is fashioned in the form of a column, with all the usual elements including base, shaft,
and capital. These tables were the same height as modern tables, 28 inches to 32 inches, and
the tops measure about 18 inches wide by 34 inches long.
Serving pieces grouped as they might
have been used in the home of a wealthy
Jerusalemite in the first century A.D. The
tabletop is a replica, and portions of the
column leg and large stone vessels
under the table have been restored. The
bronze vessels on the table were found
intact.
This arrangement of table and vessels isbased on a scene carved into a tabletop
fragment that was found in an Upper City
building called the Burnt House (see
drawing). The fragment was stolen from
the excavations and then recovered by
the Israel Department of Antiquities after
it was found at an antiquities dealer's
shop.
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
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Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Drawing of scene carved into tabletop fragment. For full caption, see photograph of
serving pieces (previous page).
One unusually elegant table had a thin top and a foot in the form of a tall, well-designed
column; it is made of a hard, polished stone that was shattered into dozens of fragments and
splinters by the fire in the house where it came to light. Our search for its pieces continued over
two seasons, during which time we carefully sifted all the earth removed from rooms of the house.
Another table is more typically proportioned, with a thick top and stubby central leg. The fore-
edge of the top bears a stylized leaf pattern also found on Jewish ossuaries from Jerusalem; its
leg has a capital in Doric style. The top and leg of the table were found in different buildings and
did not originally compose a single table. They do, however, go together quite admirably.
The edges of these tables are generally ornamented on three sides with geometric and floral
patterns; the fourth side is most often plain. This suggests that the tables originally stood against
a wall.
On the edge of one table fragment there is an unusual motif-two crossed cornucopias with a
pomegranate between them. Until recently, this motif was known only from Hasmonean (first
century B.C.) coins; this is the first instance of this Hasmonean emblem being found on an object
other than a coin. An unusual motif on another tabletop, a fish, is particularly noteworthy because
it is the only animal figure found in ornamental use. This period in Jerusalem is known for its strict
adherence to the proscription against human or animal representation.
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Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Fragment of a stone table decorated with the same "still life"-a pomegranate flanked by
horns of plenty-as a Hasmonean coin (see photograph). Although this motif was
previously known from Hasmonean coins, the Jerusalem table fragment is its first
appearance on an object other than a coin.
Courtesy Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hasmonean coin decorated with the same "still life"-a pomegranate flanked by horns of
plenty-as a Jerusalem table fragment (see photograph). Although this motif was
previously known from Hasmonean coins like this one, the Jerusalem table fragment is its
first appearance on an object other than a coin.
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
The only animal figure discovered in the excavations, this open-mouthed fish decorates a
fragment of a stone table from Jerusalem's Upper City. In first-century B.C. Jerusalem,
Jews for the most part observed a strict interpretation of the second commandment,
reading it to forbid the making of all graven images.
Flowers and geometric patterns like those on either side of the fish were common
decorative motifs, but the fish is an anomaly.
The smaller round tables are about 20 inches in diameter. Their tops are usually of soft
limestone, though some fragments are of either a hard, reddish Jerusalem stone, a blackish
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bituminous stone, or imported black granite. On the bottom of these smaller tabletops are three
depressions, where wooden legs had been affixed. Nothing survives of the legs, but on the basis
of Hellenistic and Roman paintings and reliefs, we can suggest that they were in the form of
animal legs, sometimes with bronze fittings at the bottom. A round table of this sort appears in a
wall painting in a Hellenistic tomb at Marisa, some 22 miles southwest of Jerusalem, as well as
on several of Herod's coins.
Low, three-legged table with stone top.
Reconstructed wooden legs have been
set into the three depressions under this
tabletop excavated in the Jewish Quarter.
The restoration is based on similar tables
depicted in contemporaneous paintings
and coins. Sometimes these animal-
shaped table legs had bronze "paw"
fittings (inset). From the height of this
and other tables found in the Jerusalem
Upper City excavations, we can deduce
that these were dining tables around
which guests would sit, relaxing on
couches while eating.
The group of tables from the Jewish Quarter thus reveals a hitherto unknown aspect of home
furnishing in ancient Jerusalem. Hellenistic and Roman paintings and reliefs depicting rectangular
tables with a single leg reveal that they were used as serving tables to hold drinking vessels. The
round tables with three legs are depicted in use for meals, surrounded by guests reclining on
couches.
Roman relief showing serving and dining
tables. In this relief, from Italy, two
servants are kept busy waiting on groups
of diners seated on couches around low
three-legged tables. Pitchers and
drinking vessels for the diners are kepton a higher one-legged table between the
two groups. This one-legged table stands
away from the wall.
Scenes like this, showing one-and three-
legged tables, how they were used and
the arrangement of beverage vessels
around them, have enabled Israeli
archaeologists to reconstruct similar
tables and vessels from fragments
salvaged from the fiery debris ofJerusalem's destruction.
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
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Stone tables like these were in widespread use throughout the Roman Empire, although they
originated in the Hellenistic East. The Roman historian Livy, who lived in Herod's day, mentions
"tables with one leg" among the booty brought from Asia Minor in the second century B.C., when
they were apparently still considered a novelty in Rome. The Roman scholar Varro (first century
B.C.) describes "a stone table for vessels, square and elongated, on a single small column .
many placed it in the house alongside the central pool. On and near it, when I was a lad, they
would put bronze vessels." A graphic representation of such a group is also found on a Roman
pottery oil lamp. Even today, the visitor to Pompeii will find such decorative tables in the dining
rooms and patios of the luxurious villas there. In Jerusalem, too, these attractive stone tables
added beauty and culture to the home. The basic technique of the Jerusalem stonecarvers who
made these tables, as well as the style of their ornamental motifs, was deeply rooted in the local
tradition of stoneworking and, although their work was patterned after foreign models, it had a
decidedly local flavor.
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Roman relief showing serving and dining tables. The table in this relief stands against the
wall, a position that explains why tabletops found in the Jerusalem excavations weredecorated only on three sides. On either side of the stylized lion leg of the table in the
scene at right are large pitchers, probably refill sizes for the smaller pitchers on top of the
table. As one servant reaches for a pitcher, another pours a beverage into a drinking
vessel he has just taken from the table.
Scenes like this, showing one-and three-legged tables, how they were used and thearrangement of beverage vessels around them, have enabled Israeli archaeologists to
reconstruct similar tables and vessels from fragments salvaged from the fiery debris of
Jerusalem's destruction.
An ornamented fragment of a stone tabletop was recently purchased from an antiquities
dealer in Jerusalem by Dr. L. Y. Rahmani on behalf of the Israel Department of Antiquities and
Museums. The dealer claimed that it had been found at Turmus-Aya near Samaria. Dr. Rahmani
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showed this fragment to me before his Department bought it and asked if I thought that it might
have been stolen from our excavations, for we had just found the first such tables in the "Burnt
House." The stone offered for sale bore the typical traces of soot, as did ours. I was in an
embarrassing position, because we had carried out the excavation of the burnt rooms under strict
supervision, employing only staff members and volunteers, and the site was guarded after
working hours and at night by a special guard. Since a heavy fragment of a stone table was no
mean item to put in your pocket and smuggle away, I told Rahmani that I didn't think it was ours. I
began having second thoughts, however. One of the day workmen, in cahoots with the night
watchman (who also worked for us during the day) might have been able to remove such a bulky
item. It might have been placed to one side during the day and then removed at night, to be sold
to a waiting antiquities dealer. Other factors also seemed unexplainable. For instance, at the very
time we were uncovering the first such rare objects in the Jewish Quarter, a similar fragment of a
Jerusalem table came to light at a site far away in Samaria, where no excavations were currently
known to be in progress, and this fragment, too, bore traces of fire. I reluctantly came to the
conclusion that the fragment Rahmani bought from the antiquities dealer had indeed been taken
from the Burnt House in our Jewish Quarter excavation.
According to Rahmani's published description, various motifs are incised on the edge of the
tabletop: on the long side is a ship, while on the shorter side there is a table with a single leg,
bearing various vessels and flanked by two large jars with high bases. This latter depiction
appears to be a precise graphic counterpart to Varro's description noted above and is also in
surprising agreement with the depiction on the Roman oil lamp also mentioned above. In
ornamenting this tabletop, the Jerusalem artisan had simply chosen the motif of the table itself,
with all the vessels usually associated with it; in other words, a page straight out of the book of
the everyday life of his period. On the basis of these depictions, both literary and pictorial, we
have been able to restore such a grouping, using finds from our excavations.
In addition to stone tables, we found an abundance of stone vessels. Indeed, the discovery of
stone vessels became routine. Whenever we approached a stratum of the Second Temple Period
in which a building was burnt by the Romans during the destruction of the city in 70 A.D., stone
vessels invariably made their appearance as well. Thus, even in the absence of other specific
chronological clues, we were often able to date a structure as Herodian solely on the basis of the
presence of even a single stone vessel-or even mere fragments of a stone vessel. Generally,
these vessels were accompanied by traces of fire, obviously from the destruction of 70 A.D.
Our discovery of stone vessels came as no surprise, for their existence in Jerusalem had long
been known from previous excavations. What did surprise us was the great number and variety of
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complete vessels. Our discovery of them in almost every house soon led us to realize that stone
vessels, previously regarded as isolated luxury items, were in fact widely used. Some of the stone
vessels served the same functions as their pottery counterparts; others were of special shapes
for special uses. In general, the stone vessels are a rich and variegated addition to the types of
utensils known to have been in use in the Jerusalem household in antiquity.
Stoneware production in Jerusalem during this period reached a pinnacle of both technical
skill and design. Stone vessels were of course produced in other lands. For example, some stone
vessels found in Delos in Asia Minor are quite similar to ours. The Jerusalem artisans
undoubtedly learned much from others, but the peculiar and specific need for stoneware in
Jerusalem (for reasons explained below) led Jerusalem artisans to outstanding achievements.
The products of Jerusalem were undoubtedly famous and were apparently unrivaled within
Palestine. The one large stone jar found at Ain Feshkha and the several smaller stone vessels
found at Masada and other sites were surely made in Jerusalem.
The stone vessels are generally made of a soft, readily carved limestone, found in abundance
in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Among the smaller vessels found in our excavations, a few are made
of other types of stone, such as alabaster or marble.
On the basis of form and finish, it is possible to distinguish between stone vessels made on a
lathe and those carved by hand. In either case, the craftsmen would use chisels to give the
vessels their general form and then usually would drill to extract the material from the interior
before finishing.
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Machine-made stone bowls and cups, a small sample of the attractive and varied shapes
and sizes Jerusalem stonecrafters were producing by the first century A.D.
The abundance of stone vessels found in the Jewish Quarter houses surprisedarchaeologists, but they quickly saw the explanation. Stone, unlike porous pottery, cannot
be ritually unclean and therefore unusable according to Jewish dietary laws. If a stone
vessel was designated for use with meat dishes, for example, and then accidentally came
in contact with milk, it could be purified and then reused. But a pottery vessel subject to
the same accident had to be destroyed-it could not be made clean and then reused.
Thus, stone plates and bowls were in demand. And stonecrafters perfected their artproducing an abundant supply of these dishes for the rich residents of the Upper City.
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The lathe-turned vessels have open and cylindrical shapes, as is dictated by that technique of
manufacture. Among such vessels are the very impressive large jars in goblet form, standing on a
high foot. The rim has a molded profile, as does the high base, and the surface is well smoothed
and often ornamented with horizontal bands or vertical ribbing. Where ledge handles are present,
the strips between the two handles are rougher, giving them an ornamental effect. It is possible
that these jars are to be identified with the stone "jar" (kallal) mentioned in the Mishnahb(Parah 3,
3), a large stone or pottery vessel nathaniel that was used for holding the ashes of the Sin Offering. Long
ago, the late J. Brand described the kallal of the Mishnah as a goblet-shaped vessel with a broad
rim, straight sides, curved bottom, and a high base-a description that fits our vessels perfectly.
The blocks of stone from which these jars were fashioned weighed several times as much as
the finished products, which were 26 inches to 32 inches tall. This makes it all the more surprising
that the ancient lathes could support such a mass, and we can only wonder how they were
powered.
Most of the lathe-turned vessels, however, are much smaller than the jars: plates, bowls, and
handleless cups, which are also rather attractive, some of the forms clearly imitating imported
pottery vessels. These smaller vessels were readily made on a bow-powered lathe, somewhat
resembling a primitive drill.
Hand-carving of stone vessels was employed for special forms where a lathe could not be
used-as in the case of vessels with a vertical handle (which would interfere with the turning of
the lathe) or of vessels that were not round. Of the types with handles inconvenient for turning,
we may note two examples. A cup of fine form, resembling a modern coffee cup, has a delicate
handle apparently imitating some pottery form of foreign origin. Ordinary cups of the period are in
the form of a deep bowl; indeed bowls were generally used for drinking in antiquity. Another sort
of stoneware cup was cylindrical with a pierced, vertical handle; its surface was not smoothed but
rather pared vertically with a knife or an adze. These cups often have a short spout at the rim, not
opposite the handle but at a right angle to it.
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Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Stone cup. Before the Jewish Quarter excavations, stone vessels like these were thought
to be luxury items. But the author found them in almost every Jewish Quarter house-so
many, of different shapes and sizes, that he concludes that these stone vessels were as
common as coffee cups today.
Most stone drinking cups of this period were deep handleless bowls made on a lathe. But
this cup with its carefully styled handle is handmade, probably the Jerusalem potter's
imitation of a style popular somewhere "abroad."
These two types of cups were the most common stone vessel found, and we encounter them
often outside Jerusalem as well. The fact that they were made in various sizes, from large (6
inches high) to small (2 inches high) has led archaeologists to consider them to be "measuring
cups" for liquids and for dry measures; one opinion is that their standard corresponds with that
mentioned in the Mishnah, but this requires further investigation.
Handwork is, of course, also necessary on vessels that are not round, as is especially obvious
on deep, square bowls-a shape not found in pottery but one apparently considered very
convenient for kitchen use. Another noteworthy vessel has multiple compartments, with two,
three, or four divisions; one such vessel is reminiscent of a salt and pepper shaker, while another
resembles an army "mess tin" or a serving dish for a selection of relishes.
Relish dish? Several handmade stone
vessels with multiple compartments like
this were found. Perhaps it was used as a
serving dish for olives and relishes, or
perhaps it was an individual dinner tray
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
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Round or elongated serving trays of stone with ornamental handles have also been found.
Such trays are depicted in Roman mosaics loaded with food. In one depiction, a tray of our type
bears a large fish.
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Stone tray. Scenes on some Roman mosaics show serving trays like this marble fragment
filled with food for banquets. The delicate rim and ornamental handle display the skill of
the master Jerusalem stonecrafters.
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Stone tray. Scenes on some Roman mosaics show serving trays like this deep stone one
filled with food for banquets. The delicate rims and ornamental handles display the skill of
the master Jerusalem stonecrafters.
Another handcarved vessel worthy of note is a stone oil lamp, the only example known to us.
Additional stone objects were found whose original function cannot even be guessed.
All in all, we were astonished by the rich and attractive variety of stone vessels. Neither the
local abundance of raw material nor the attractiveness of their shapes would alone explain this
phenomenon. Moreover, their manufacture is much more costly than that of pottery, and stone
vessels are more restricted and less convenient to use because of their weight and the softness
of their material. Why, then, did they appear so suddenly and in such quantities in the Jerusalem
household?
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The answer lies in the realm of halakhah, the Jewish laws of ritual purity. The Mishnah tells us
that stone vessels are among those objects that are not susceptible to uncleanness (Kelim 10, 1;
Parah 3, 2), but no further details are given. Stone was simply not susceptible to ritual
contamination. When a pottery vessel, on the other hand, became ritually unclean through
contact with an unclean substance or object, it had to be destroyed. In contrast, a stone vessel
would preserve its purity and thus its usability, even if it had come into contact with uncleanness.
One of the clearest literary witnesses to the Jewish ritual of purity relating to stone vessels is
preserved in the New Testament, in the episode of the wedding at Cana in Galilee. There Jesus
performed the miracle of changing water into wine. The text reads: "Now six stone jars were
standing there, for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding two or three gallons" (John 2:6).
These were most probably jars of the very type we have been discussing.
With the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., the flourishing production of stone vessels and
stone tables came to an end, and the tradition of their manufacture was never revived.
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Elegant red terra sigillata pottery vessels, also seen on the cover, have been restored.
Some of the finest pottery produced in late Hellenistic times, these vessels were probably
imported from an eastern Mediterranean country.
The most common article in any household in antiquity was, of course, its pottery. The corpus
of Palestine pottery during the Herodian period is not especially rich, but in the light of the recent
excavations in Jerusalem, it turns out to have been more variegated than previously thought. The
most common vessels were those most used in the house: cooking pots and storage jars. Most of
these vessels were not found in the kitchens and storerooms which, at least in our excavations,
were mostly looted and destroyed; rather, they came to light in the cisterns and pools of the
houses, which had been turned into refuse dumps.
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The cooking pots are almost invariably blackened with soot-evidence of their daily use. We
would expect, in keeping with the large number of cooking pots in which food was prepared, that
there would be a correspondingly large number of bowls or plates for serving. But the pottery of
this period includes few locally made bowls or plates, types that are generally found in large
quantities in other periods. In this particular period, only small, thin bowls are found here, suitable
only for small portions. This raises an interesting gastronomical question, for which we have no
ready answer. We do know from other sources that the wealthy people of the period generally
enjoyed, if anything, excessive culinary delights.
Most of the storage jars used for water, wine and oil have elongated bodies. We also found
some with a more globular, sack-shaped form.
Another basic vessel-type, in this as in all periods, is the jug in its various forms, including
juglets and small bottles for small quantities of oil or perfume. Equally common were the thin-
walled asymmetrical flasks.
In addition to these common vessels, we also found several types of unusual pottery.
Foremost are the painted bowls sometimes known as "Pseudo-Nabatean" ware. Curiously, this
type of bowl was entirely unknown during the first hundred years of excavations in Jerusalem,
and only since 1968, with the commencement of excavations near the Temple Mount, have these
painted bowls made their appearance. They have since become a regular feature in our
excavations in the Upper City as well, among the finds of the first century A.D. These bowls are
very fragile, and they are seldom found intact; but even so we have been able to mend and
restore an impressive group.
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Bowls found near the Temple Mount,
painted in red, brown and black floral
designs. Although locally made, these
bowls have been called "Pseudo-
Nabatean" because like Nabatean
pottery, they are thin-walled and painted
with flower motifs. But their composition
and style are in fact unique, and thus far
these fragile vessels have been
discovered only in Jerusalem. The author
now prefers to call them "Jerusalem
Painted Pottery."
These thin-walled bowls, which measure about 5 inches to 6 inches in diameter, are of very
fine quality and are painted on the inside in stylized floral patterns in red and, sometimes, in
brown or black. Two styles of painting are evident. One employs symmetrical compositions taking
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up the entire area of the bowl; the motifs are usually arranged radially, but sometimes they are in
concentric circles, as on one example found in the house we called the Mansion. In the second,
more carefree style, the painter often used a few quick strokes of the brush, much in the manner
of abstract artists today.
When these painted bowls were first found, they were called "Pseudo-Nabatean," for they
superficially resemble the Nabatean bowls, famous for their thinness and painted motifs. But the
bowls from Jerusalem are different in the form of their motifs, in their composition and even in the
quality of the ware itself. They seem to be a sort of Jewish alternative to the fine Nabatean bowls,
which simply did not reach the Jerusalem market in significant quantities. Since these locally
produced bowls have been found thus far only in Jerusalem, it would be appropriate to recognize
them as a class by themselves and to call them "Painted Jerusalem Bowls."
No one would have previously thought that Jerusalem was famous for its glass, but now we
know it held an important place in the technological history of ancient glass. This came to light
through one of our most unusual discoveries-the refuse from a glass factory. This waste
material included a rich variety of glass fragments-some of them distorted by heat-unfinished
products, hunks of raw glass, and lumps of slag. Where the glass factory itself was located, we
do not know, except that it must have been somewhere in the vicinity.
The reader may ask what value scrap glass could have for us. Scientific research is not a
treasure hunt for finished products in perfect condition, and the archaeologist treasures material
that can provide an insight into methods of manufacture and their development as well as he
cherishes finished products. It would of course be nice to find a complete workshop, with all its
various installations, tools and products in various stages of manufacture, but no such glass
factory has ever been found, and the next best thing are the waste materials that derive from one.
Even such refuse is infrequently found and its rare discovery in our excavations can thus be
considered a blessing in disguise.
Among the vessel fragments, we could distinguish two major types of glass products, each
based on a different method of manufacture. For one type, the artisan formed vessels in molds;
for the other type, the artisan shaped the hot glass into the desired form by blowing through a
tube.
Chronologically, the molding process is the earlier of the two. We found hundreds of fragments
of thick glass bowls, hemispherical or conical in shape, all of the molded type. The glass itself is
greenish, but the surface is now generally covered with a layer of thick, black patina. These
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bowls, attractive in their simplicity, were very common in the Late Hellenistic period (second to
first century B.C.), and similar examples have been found in many places in Palestine. Alongside
these fragments were a small number of fragments from another type of bowl, also molded, but of
thinner material, either rounded or carinated (sharp-angled), with rims that are modeled and
bodies that are ribbed-a very common mode of decoration in the Hellenistic period.
The fragments of the second type of glass product are of closed vessels, such as small bottles
of the "perfume bottle" type. This is the simplest shape to obtain using the glass blowing
technique. It was probably the first shape ever produced by this process.
Our mixed find of molded and blown glass is especially interesting, for we see here a single
factory using two different techniques side-by-side. Despite the numerous excavations in Israel
and abroad of sites rich in glass finds, never before has such clear-cut evidence for the initial
stage of glass blowing come to light. This process revolutionized the production of glass vessels
and facilitated their "mass production," relatively speaking. The invention of glass blowing can be
compared to that of the potter's wheel in ceramic production. In our glass finds we can see at
least a partial explanation for the actual beginning of glass blowing.
Scholars have long believed that, from the initial invention of glass blowing, vessels have been
blown from a gob of hot, plastic glass stuck on the end of a metal tube or pipe, as is still the
practice today. But our finds from Jerusalem now indicate that the earliest glass blowing was
done with glass tubes. These glass tubes are perhaps the very first stages of experimentation at
glass blowing, followed later by the use of the blow-pipe. Our pile of glass refuse included many
thin glass tubes, some of them with the beginning of a swelling at one end, though the
continuation was broken off. There were also bulbs of glass the size of birds' eggs, which had
clearly been blown from glass tubes. In other words, both the pipes and the bulbs of glass
composed a single element, the initial phase of blowing a glass vessel. For one reason or
another, the blowing ceased on these pieces, and the vessels were never completed. It is not
quite clear yet how blowing with a glass pipe was accomplished in the heat of an open hearth.
The matter requires further specialized study.
Dr. Gladys Weinberg and Professor Dan Barag, well-known experts on ancient glass,
examined the glass refuse soon after its discovery, and they tell me that no evidence of this sort
has been found at any other site in the world, and that this find of the earliest phase of glass
blowing is of revolutionary significance for technological research. In their opinion, Jerusalem is
the first site at which the meeting of the two techniques, glass molding and glass blowing, has
been encountered. This discovery, then, represents a transitional phase in which the production
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of glass continued in the older molding technique alongside the newly introduced technique of
glass blowing. This occurred around the middle of the first century B.C.
Another glass product reflecting the process of manufacture was thin, twisted rods, most of
them found broken but originally about six inches long with one end rounded and the other
pointed. Generally known as "kohl sticks," and probably used for cosmetics, they are rarely found
in excavations but can be seen in some museums. Here we suddenly uncovered an abundance
of them. We also found the smooth rods that were the raw material employed in their
manufacture. We can follow the process of their manufacture into twisted sticks from smooth
rods, through the phase of twisting, to their actual finishing. The marks of the pincers used to hold
the hot, plastic rods are still clearly visible. Other glass objects discovered among the refuse
included spinning whorls, conical gaming pieces, discs, and inlay plaques.
It is odd that we should find such significant remains in Jerusalem, for scholars have generally
assumed that the centers of glass production were located close to sites rich in silica sand, the
principal raw material of glass. However, the production of glass vessels, like that of pottery or
metal wares, was not restricted to a single area. Chunks of raw glass could readily be transported
from place to place, and glass artisans in various locales, however remote, could use them in
whatever manner they desired.
Much research still needs to be done on this material. From it, glass experts will no doubt be
able to clear up many of the longstanding questions relating to the earliest history of blown glass.
One of these questions concerns the part played by the Jews in the production of glass in
antiquity, for it is commonly thought that their role was a major one. Though this has not been
proved conclusively, our finds from Jerusalem may well be a valuable contribution to that
discussion.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos and drawings in this and the following article are courtesy
of Nahman Avigad.
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Refuse from a First-Century Glass Factory
Sidebar to: Jerusalem Flourishing-A Craft Center for Stone, Pottery, and Glass
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Broken bowl fragments discovered in the refuse from a first-century Jerusalem glass
factory.
Glass molding and glass blowing existed side by side in a Jerusalem glass factory during the
Herodian period. Here we see the refuse from this factory-evidence of an industry in transition.
The Upper City excavations present archaeologists and ancient glass experts with a unique
opportunity to study a pivotal phase in the history of glass manufacture.
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Chunks of unprocessed glass discovered in the refuse from a first-century Jerusalem
glass factory.
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Courtesy Nahman Avigad
A heap of stems and pipes discovered in the refuse from a first-century Jerusalem glassfactory.
Found among the refuse were broken bowls; chunks of unprocessed glass; a heap of stems
and pipes; a striped blowing pipe and fragments of a flask blown from it (reassembled in an
artist's reconstruction); mouth and neck fragments of flasks; and pipes broken just as egg-shaped
globs of glass were being blown.
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
A striped blowing pipe and fragments of a flask blown from it, discovered in the refuse
from a first-century Jerusalem glass factory.
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Mouth and neck fragments of flasks discovered in the refuse from a first-century
Jerusalem glass factory.
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Before these pipes were discovered, scholars thought that glass vessels were blown from
glass globs at the ends of metal pipes, but these finds show that in the earliest stage of glass
blowing, the globs of hot soft glass were stuck onto pipes that were themselves made of glass.
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Glass-blowing pipes broken just as egg-shaped globs of glass were being blown,
discovered in the refuse from a first-century Jerusalem glass factory.
Below are fragments of glass bowls that were molded, not blown. Simple concentric circles are
incised along the inside of their rims. Alongside the fragments an artist has shown what complete
bowls would look like, as projected from the shape and design of each fragment. The top bowl is
rounded and the bottom bowl has a ribbed body and is carinated-sharply angled just under the
shoulder.
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Fragments of molded glass bowls discovered in the refuse from a first-century Jerusalem
glass factory, shown with artist's reconstructions of the complete bowls. The top bowl is
rounded and the bottom bowl has a ribbed body and is carinated-sharply angled just
under the shoulder.
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Making Kohl Sticks
Sidebar to: Jerusalem Flourishing-A Craft Center for Stone, Pottery, and Glass
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Fragments of glass used for making kohl sticks. At left are glass sticks strengthened by
heat; at right are sticks that, while still hot, were partially twisted with pincers.
Phases of "kohl stick" manufacture. These fragments have been grouped to illustrate the steps
of manufacturing the thin twisted glass rods that are called kohl sticks because they were used to
apply the black eye paint kohl. Above left are glass sticks strengthened by heat; above right are
sticks that, while still hot, were partially twisted with pincers. Below we see fragments of the
finished product.
Courtesy Nahman Avigad
Fragments of finished kohl sticks.
Kohl sticks are rarely found in excavations but can be seen in some museums. In the
Jerusalem glass factory, archaeologists discovered an abundance of them as well as the smooth
rods that are the raw material for their manufacture.
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Of Fathers, Kings and the Deity
The nested households of ancient Israel
By Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager
Ancient Israelite society was structured in a way that few of us in modern times experience. Its
focus was on family and kin groups organized around agrarian activities. Family and kin groups,
in turn, generated the symbols by which the higher levels of the social structure-the political and
the divine-were understood and represented.
A three-tiered structure formed a series of, as it were, nested households. At ground level was
the ancestral or patriarchal household known in the Bible as bêt 'aµb literally "house of the father"
(Genesis 24:7; Joshua 2:12, 18; 6:25). As a social unit, the joint or extended family, not the
biological family, was most important. Sometimes as many as three generations lived in a large
family compound, comprising a minimal bêt 'aµb. This, the basic unit of Israelite society, was the
focus of religious, social and economic spheres of Israelite life and was at the center of Israel's
history, faith and traditions.
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C.S. Alexander; © L.E. Stager
The foundation of daily life in ancient Israel was the extended family household, or bêt
'aµb, which lived and worked in a compound like the one shown in this reconstruction. Not
only was the bêt 'aµb the basic unit of social organization, but it also served as a model for
the organization of all of Israelite society. Just as a father exerted authority over his
household, so the king ruled his "children," the people-and God was father over the
"children of Israel." In the accompanying excerpt from their new book, Life in Biblical
Israel, authors Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager argue that Israelite society was thus
structured like households nested one inside the other.
In this household, there was no mistaking that ultimate authority was with the father, the
paterfamilias. His word had the authority of command, subject only to the constraints of
customary rules that governed Israelite society and provided a traditional framework in which his
word was to be understood.
Besides the parents and unmarried children, the bêt 'aµb might include several generations of
family members, depending on who is claimed as the paterfamilias, along with his wife or wives,
sons and their wives, grandsons and their wives, the unmarried sons and daughters, slaves,
servants, geµrÎm, aunts, uncles, widows, orphans and Levites who might be members of the
household. The geµrÎm were non-kin who were nevertheless included in the "protective" network.
A geµr often became a "client" or "servant" of the patron who protected him. For example, the
household of Micah in the hill country of Ephraim was occupied by Micah, probably his wife or
wives, his widowed mother, his sons, probably their wives, a hired priest (the Levite), and
servants (Judges 17-18). To obtain a wife for Isaac, Abraham directed his servant, "You shall go
to my father's house (bêt 'aµb) [in Mesopotamia], to my clan (misûpaµh\â), and get a wife for my
son" (Genesis 24:38).
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The further back one traced the ancestry, the larger the lineage or household. Very large
families formed the misûpaµh\â or "clan." Later in Iron Age II (1000-586 B.C.E.), the state
constituted the largest family of all in ancient Israel.
At the level of the state or, better, tribal kingdom, in both ancient Israel and neighboring
polities, the king functioned as paterfamilias. His subjects were dependent on personal
relationships and loyalty to him; in return for this allegiance, they expected protection and succor.
As sovereign and proprietor of the land, the king presided over his "house" (bayit), which included
the families and households of the whole kingdom. Thus, in the Tel Dan stele of the ninth century
B.C.E. the southern kingdom of Judah is referred to as the "house of David" (byt dwd).a The same
designation has recently been deciphered in the contemporaneous Mesha stele found in Moab.b
Similarly, the northern kingdom of Israel is known as the "house of Omri" (beµt H|umri) in
Assyrian annals.1
The king, however, does not sit at the top of the social order; rather it is Yahweh (in the case
of Israel) who is the supreme paterfamilias. He is the ultimate patrimonial authority over the
"children" of Israel, who are bound to him through covenant as his kindred ('am) or kindred-inlaw.
2 Human kingship and divine kingship are simply more inclusive forms of patrimonial
domination.
Thus we find households nested within households on up the scale of the social hierarchy,
each tier becoming more inclusive as one moves from domestic to royal to divine levels. At the
same time, this entire structure reinforces and legitimates the authority of the paterfamilias at
each of the three levels. In this way, the family and household provide the central symbol about
which the ancient Israelites created the world in which members of that society expressed their
relationships to each other, to their leaders (whether "judge" in early Israel or, later, "king") and to
the deity. Through the three-tiered patrimonial model of Israelite society, we can understand how
kingship in Israel, as elsewhere, could be a compatible institution with other forms of patriarchal
dominance.
It is sometimes suggested that the Israelite monarchy was some kind of "alien" urban
institution grafted onto a reluctant egalitarian, kin-based tribal society, which through internal
conflict and contradiction became a class-riven society dominated by an oppressive urban elite.3
This fantasy-kingship cancelling kinship and giving rise to class consciousness-is little more
than Karl Marx's dialectic in modern guise, in which society evolves from "primitive communalism"
to "slave society" with their masters holding the means of production. It is a groundless analysis.
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Seen through the lens of the patrimonial model we are using, Israelite kingship is simply a higher
level of kinship.
Similarly, the rural-urban conflict posited by this Marxist perspective is more a mirage than a
reality in ancient Israel. There were inequalities to be sure, both in premonarchic and monarchic
Israel, but social stratification along class lines and class consciousness did not exist. The vertical
relationships of superior to inferior were of a different sort and far more variegated than class
concepts allow.
Take the term 'ebed, literally "servant," for example. It can refer to anyone from a slave to a
high government official, as on certain seals which refer to 'ebed hammelek, "servant of the
king."4 The particular social context of the term in ancient society must be known in each instance
in order to understand its meaning. In a society in which countless variations within the
patrimonial order were possible, it is not so difficult to imagine a farmer such as Saul or a
shepherd such as David becoming king. Moreover, because kingship was not an alien institution,
it could be idealized long after the demise of the monarchy (in 586 B.C.E.) into the messiah-king
redidivus.
As already noted, family and kinship relationships were organized largely around agrarian
activities. That, too, separates us from the ancients as we become further removed from our
agrarian roots. Today less than two percent of the population in the United States are farmers. In
ancient Israel, it was just the opposite. Nearly everyone, even those living in royal cities such as
Jerusalem and Samaria, was involved in some form of agriculture and had encounters with
animals wherever they went. Two of the main city gates leading into Iron Age Jerusalem took
their names from the creatures being bought and sold there-the Sheep Gate (Nehemiah 3:1, 32,
12:39) and the Fish Gate (2 Chronicles 33:14; Nehemiah 3:3; 12:39; Zephaniah 1:10).
Agricultural life was conducted by a "calendar" very different from ours. Our appointment and
planning books mark the day, month, year and even the hour when something is to be done. In
premodern agricultural societies, activities were organized around a different "clock" and
"calendar." In agrarian societies one rises with the sun and retires when it sets. The seasons of
activities revolve about farming and herding.
The Gezer calendar highlights the seasonal patterns of the agricultural year. This small
limestone plaque with a mere seven-line inscription was found at Gezer in 1908 by the Irish
archaeologist R.A.S. Macalister. It dates to the second half of the tenth century B.C.E.
(Solomon's reign) and is one of the oldest known Hebrew inscriptions. It describes agricultural
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operations during the course of 12 months, with time subdivided by the seasonal farming
activities. It refers to the months of the year not by their names but by the harvest associated with
them:
His two months are (olive) harvest,
His two months are planting (grain),
His two months are late planting;
His month is hoeing up of flax,
His month is harvest of barley,
His month is harvest and feasting;
His two months are vine-tending,
His month is summer fruit.5
The produce mentioned in the Gezer calendar is consistent with the Biblical description of the
Promised Land as "a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of
olive trees and honey, a land where you [Israelites] may eat bread without scarcity"
(Deuteronomy 8:8-9). The land itself, however, belonged to God, although it was entrusted to the
kings and their subjects (Genesis 12:7; 17:8; Joshua 1:2-3). The earthly king, the paterfamilias of
his subjects, was only the representative of the heavenly king.
Excerpted and adapted from Philip J. King and Lawrence E. Stager, Life in Biblical Israel
[Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001].
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Ancient Life: Table Manners?
An ancient mosaic gives us a bird's-eye view.
Scala/Art Resource, NY
When ancient Greeks asked, "Which way to the men's room?" they weren't trying to find a
lavatory; they were looking for the dining room. The Greek aristocrat's dining room, or androµn
(literally "men's room"), took its name from the custom of separating men and women at meal
time. Only men, and the occasional courtesan, took part in ancient dinner parties.
This mosaic fragment- found in 1833 in front of the Aurelian wall, south of Rome's Aventine
Hill-is a second-century A.D. reproduction of a popular design by the second-century B.C.
Greek mosaicist Sosos. Signed by one Herakleitos, the mosaic depicts an androµn floor littered
with food after a dinner party. In the traditional Greek feast, guests reclined on couches placed
atop a raised dais; they would toss chicken and fish bones, lobster and urchin shells, and
unconsumed vegetables onto the floor.
These stag banquets were usually followed by lavish drinking parties known as symposia.
Ancient writings are scattered with lewd references to the courtesans and flute girls present at
symposia-and to an excessive fondness for drink. (According to an anecdote by the historian
Timaeus [c. 356-260 B.C.] of Tauromenium, in Sicily, one group of young men got so drunk they
imagined they were on a storm-tossed ship; to keep their host's house "afloat," they tossed his
furniture outside.)
More often, symposia were well-regulated, highly ritualized events that provided an
opportunity for intellectual discussion. Strict rules dictated how much wine should be served, how
much water should be mixed with the wine (Athenians considered drinking undiluted wine
barbarous) and how quickly the wine should be consumed.
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Sosos's original Unswept-Floor mosaic probably decorated the palace of Eumenes II (197-
159 B.C.) at Pergamum, in Asia Minor. The first-century A.D. Roman historian Pliny tells us that
Sosos's designs were all the rage among the Roman elite: Copies of this mosaic have been
found in Pompeii and on the Aegean island of Delos. A copy of a different mosaic by Sosos-
showing doves drinking at a birdbath-was commissioned by the Roman emperor Hadrian (117-
138 A.D.) for his elaborate villa at Tivoli.
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Ancient Life: Temple Dancers
No PC in B.C.
Jurgen Leipe
As Harkhuf, a high official of Pharaoh Pepi II (2246-2152 B.C.), was returning to Egypt from
the region of modern Ethiopia, he sent word ahead to the king. Eight-year-old Pepi showed no
interest in the treasures of ebony, ivory or incense Harkhuf had for him. But the boy was
extremely excited to hear about the "actual dancing dwarf" that Harkhuf was bringing back to
perform in a temple. Pepi's letter, inscribed in Harkhuf's tomb, cautions his official to be careful
not to allow the Pygmy to fall in the Nile and drown.
The ancient Egyptians adored the Pygmies for their dancing, as depicted in this 3-inch-high
ivory toy (now in the Cairo Museum), found 30 miles south of Cairo in the tomb of a young girl,
named Hapi. Carved in the 20th century B.C., the three performers stand on pedestals that can
be rotated by tugging on string wound through holes in the rectangular base-simulating a
whirling dance.
Egyptian inscriptions refer to Pygmies as "Dwarfs of the Gods' Dances" who dwell in the "Land
of the Spirits." To the ancient Egyptians, the Pygmies were semi-divine-but they were also only
semi-human. Because of their diminutive size, they were brutally captured, wrenched from their
homes and put to use as dancing slaves. This ambivalent attitude toward the Pygmies is
apparent in young Pepi's warnings to Harkhuf: "Get worthy men to lie around him [the captured
Pygmy] in his tent! Inspect him ten times a night!" The poor Pygmy, to Pepi, and probably to
Egyptians in general, is no more than a strange, cute, wild animal that might try to escape.
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Ancient Life: Letter Perfect
The Roman postal service
Erich Lessing
Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night kept Roman postal carriers from
completing their rounds.
The going was made easy by the meticulously engineered roads that crisscrossed the vast
Roman empire. Over this network, horse-drawn mail carts (such as the one depicted in this
second-century A.D. relief from Austria) could travel 50 miles a day. Messages of the utmost
urgency were carried by relay teams that covered 170 miles a day.
The emperor Augustus (27 B.C.-14 A.D.) established Rome's first official postal service to
communicate quickly and reliably with his far-flung governors and military officers. The so-called
cursus publicus was strictly reserved for government officials; private letters were usually carried
by servants or merchants. Augustus and his successors built about 47,000 miles of post roads,
along with numerous relay stations to quarter animals and ease the transfer of cargo. These
stations generally employed a stationmaster, an accountant, a veterinarian, grooms and mail
carriers.
The cursus publicus was divided into two branches. The cursus velox (fast course), devoted to
expediting communication throughout the empire, carried loads of no more than 1,500 pounds,
usually drawn by horses. The cursus clabularis (open wagon course) used oxen to transport
weightier loads.
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Although the cursus publicus was reserved for official business, influential Romans could, and
did, use the service for personal ends. One such person was the lawyer and statesman Pliny the
Younger (62-114 A.D.), who then sent an apologetic letter to the emperor Trajan:
"Up to now my Lord, I have only issued permits for people and letters to use the imperial post
on your business. I have broken my own rules because of an emergency. My wife heard that her
grandfather had died and was so upset that she wanted to rush off and visit her aunt and I found
it very hard to refuse to give her a permit to travel by the imperial post, as it is the quickest way .
I relied on your kindness and acted as though I had already received the favor even though I had
not yet asked you for it. I did not wait until I had asked you, because if I had waited it would have
been too late."
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Ancient Life: Desert Fruit
A History of Dates
©The British Museum
The man in this 2-foot-tall, first-millennium B.C. Syrian relief is about to fertilize a female date
palm by smearing pollen from a male date palm over its flowers. Our farmer hopes to create lots
of little date palms, from which he will cull the female trees and cultivate them for their sweet fruit.
Because date palm trees are dioecious (that is, either male or female), it is more efficient to
pollinate female trees artificially than to rely on capricious natural agents like the wind or insects.
The trees reach full productivity when they are 30 years old and only begin to decline after a
century.
A single date palm produces up to 20 bunches of fruit-which is resistant to spoilage because
of its high sugar content. The heart of the palm provides a celery-like vegetable, and the tree's
sweet sap is used to make fermented wine. Southern Mesopotamian date palm fronds were
lashed together to form the walls of ancient huts.
The earliest-known date seeds were found in Indus Valley settlements dating to the sixth
millennium B.C., suggesting that dates originated in the East and were carried to the Near East
and Egypt. Date seeds were found in the third-millennium B.C. royal cemetery at Ur.
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During the second half of the second millennium B.C., workers from Deir-el-Medina (who
constructed the royal tombs in Egypt's Valley of the Kings) received dried dates as part of their
wages. Dates were also cultivated in the mid-tenth century B.C. Sabaean kingdom, on the coast
of modern Yemen, and sold to travelers following the incense route stretching from southern
Arabia to Petra and Gaza.
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Ancient Life: The Eyes Have It
Ancient Egyptian cosmetics
O. Louis Mazzatenta/National Geographic Society
It's a familiar image from wall paintings and painted statues: Ancient Egyptians with almond-
shaped eyes, thickly outlined in dark makeup.
Men and women, kings and queens, and even children wore cosmetics in pharaonic Egypt.
They applied eye makeup with the aid of delicate spoons carved in charming shapes-such as
the swimming girl with outstretched hands.
Green and black were the most popular colors to enhance the eye. A green pigment (udju)
made from malachite, a copper ore mined in the Sinai, was used to touch up the eyebrows and
the corners of the eyes. Black makeup (mesdemet), called kohl in modern Egypt, was applied to
the rims and lashes of the eye. Kohl was made from a dark gray lead ore known as galena, which
is found around Aswan and on the coast of the Red Sea.
Both malachite and galena were ground on a palette and then mixed with water, or with an
ointment derived from animal fat, to make a paste that would adhere to the eye. (Even the
humblest of New Kingdom [1550-1070 B.C.] graves frequently contained such palettes.) Then,
as now, achieving a flattering line required a steady hand: In applying kohl, the polished tip of a
wooden, bronze, obsidian or glass stick was moistened, dipped into the pigment and twisted until
the tip was uniformly coated; then the stick was placed at the inner corner of the eye and slowly
drawn outward over the closed eyelids-leaving a heavy line on both the upper and lower lids.
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Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
Eye makeup was not only used to create the feline beauty that seems so quintessentially
Egyptian. Heavy black kohl eyeliner helped protect the eyes from the intense glare of Egypt's
sun. (Even today baseball, football and soccer players smear black paint on their upper cheeks to
reduce sun glare.) When used as a salve, kohl also has disinfectant and fly-deterrent properties,
which may be why it is listed numerous times as a treatment for eye diseases in the 16th-century
B.C. Ebers Medical Papyrus.
The act of applying makeup was thought to invoke the protection of the goddess Hathor, who
was often associated with sexuality and motherhood. Thus outlining the eye was not only an
investment in one's personal charms, but it was also a fashioning of one's personal protective
amulet, one that couldn't be easily lost or misplaced.
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Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
Ancient Life: Practical Papyrus
The Plant with a Thousand Uses
Giraudon/Art Resource, NY
Ancient Egyptian farmers harvest papyrus on this relief from the mid-third-millennium B.C.
tomb of Nefer el Ka-Hay, in Saqqara, Egypt, about 10 miles south of Cairo.
Papyrus was particularly abundant in the marshes of the Nile Delta. In fact, the name for
Lower Egypt (that is, northern Egypt) consisted of papyrus plants growing out of the hieroglyph
for "land."
The Egyptians wove the versatile papyrus reed into mats, rope, fabric and utensils. They even
lashed together stalks of papyrus to create rafts, allowing them to cross the crocodile-infested
waters of the Delta.
But papyrus's noblest use was as a writing material. (Our word "paper" derives from the Greek
papyros.) Papyrus sheets were produced by removing the plant's green outer layers, cutting the
pith into thin strips, soaking the strips in water to remove the sugars, and pounding the strips to
break down the fibers. The flattened strips were then placed on top of one another at right angles,
forming a square sheet, and this sheet was pounded again to create a felt-like texture. Finally, the
sheets were weighted down with a heavy stone slab while they dried out.
Shorter items like letters and receipts were written on individual papyrus squares, rarely much
larger than 15 inches on a side. Longer texts were recorded on scrolls (or rolls) formed by
attaching papyrus sheets together, end to end; a common length of a papyrus scroll was 20
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Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
squares. These long scrolls would be inscribed with ink and rolled up like a carpet, with the
writing on the inside.
The oldest papyrus sheets were discovered in a tomb in Saqqara dating to around 3000 B.C.
Papyrus continued in use until cloth paper was introduced from the Far East in the eighth and
ninth centuries A.D.
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Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
Ancient Life: Need a Lift?
Roman Construction Cranes
Werner Forman / Art Resource, NY
Five workers power a crane to hoist building materials to the roof of one of Rome's
monuments, in this relief from the first or second century A.D. The carving was found in the tomb
of the Haterii family in Rome; Quintus Haterius Tychicus, a freedman, was probably a building
contractor who helped erect some of the multi-storied, marble-clad buildings that lined the Via
Sacra, the main street of the Roman Forum.
Passionate about machinery, the Romans used construction cranes like this one to build multilevel
structures. The reason they could put up such large buildings was that they had invented an
extremely strong and durable form of concrete (opus caementicium) in the early fourth century
B.C. Roman concrete was made by mixing stone aggregate-pebbles or gravel-with a mortar of
quicklime, water and sand. (Quicklime was produced by heating limestone until all the water in
the stone evaporated.) The mixture was poured into special molds and allowed to harden.
The secret behind the strength of Roman concrete was its use of fine-grained volcanic sand
from Pozzuoli, known as "pozzolana." Pozzolana concrete was so durable that it was used to
build the foundations of Roman bridges. Even river-borne sand and debris failed to erode the
bridges' concrete piers; some of these structures remain in use today.
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Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
Ancient Life: Roman Haute Cuisine
Fried flamingo, anyone?
The Baltimore Museum of Art
Were the ancient Romans simply the Italian connoisseurs of their day? Were they fond of
corn-meal polenta, roasted potatoes, egglant, and penne in tomato sauce, followed perhaps by a
cup of thick, sweet espresso?
Nope. Not unless Roman ships did indeed cross the Atlantic, for these foods (except for the
pasta, which arrived on the scene much later) all came from the New World.
What the Romans did eat is suggested by this third-century A.D. mosaic from Greco-Roman
Antioch, on Turkey's Mediterranean coast near the border with Syria. The mosaic, which once
covered the floor of a dining room in Antioch's House of the Boat of Psyche, depicts (from left to
right) personifications of the Harvest (Opora) and Fields (Agros) enjoying the fruits of their labors
while being served by Wine (Oinos).
The Romans cultivated various grains-barley, spelt (a variety of wheat), rye and millet-to
make porridges and breads. They harvested grapes, apples, pears, pomegranates and plums.
And they loved figs, which they mixed with sesame and fennel, rolled into balls, wrapped in fig
leaves and then dried in the sun. Geese were even force-fed dried figs-so that their livers could
be used to produce a Roman version of foie gras.
The Romans also ate their vegetables: especially carrots, asparagus, chickpeas, beets,
cabbage, and rutabagas. The emperor Nero (37-68 A.D.) consumed leeks to keep his voice in
shape, and his mother, Agrippina, is thought to have killed her husband, the emperor Claudius,
by poisoning a tasty dish of mushrooms.
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Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
Not unlike modern Italians, the Romans liked cheese. Martial (40-104 A.D.) wrote that cheese
mixed with water and cracked wheat made for a delicious cake.
One ancient Roman, Marcus Gavius Apicius, produced an entire cookbook devoted to
sauces-including the famed garum, a salty fish sauce that the Romans shipped throughout the
Mediterranean. In another cookbook, Apicius provides recipes for ordinary dishes of fish, pork,
goat, chicken, geese, duck, deer and pigeon. But Apicius was also concerned about the more
adventurous palette, telling his readers how to prepare flamingo, nightingale tongue, stuffed
sow's womb, camel heel and oak grubs.
Of course, no ancient Roman meal would have been complete without wine. As Horace says,
"Bacchus opens the gate of the heart" (Satires 1.4).
© 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 40
Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
Authors
Nahman Avigad was one of the most prominent archaeologists in Israel in the 20th century,
directing excavations in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem as well as surves and
excavations at Beth She'arim, Masada and across the Judean desert. Avigad was professor at
the Hebrew University and an expert of epigraphy and paleography. He passed away in 1992.
Philip J. King is professor emeritus of Biblical studies at Boston College. He is also past
president of the American Schools of Oriental Research, the Catholic Biblical Association and the
Society of Biblical Literature-the only person to head all of the organizations.
Lawrence E. Stager is Dorot Professor of the Archaeology of Israel at Harvard University and
director of the Harvard Semitic Museum, as well as general editor of the museum's publications.
He has directed excavations in Cyprus, Tunisia and Israel. Since 1985, he has led the Leon Levy
Expedition to Ashkelon.
© 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 41
Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
Notes
Jerusalem Flourishing-A Craft Center for Stone, Pottery, and Glass
a.
An ossuary is a rectangular box with a lid, usually hewn out of limestone, which was used as a depository for
secondary burial of a deceased person's bones.
b.
The Mishnah is the body of Jewish oral law, specifically, the collection of oral laws compiled by Rabbi Judah the
Prince in the second century.
Of Fathers, Kings and the Deity
a.
See "'David' Found at Dan," BAR 20:02; Philip R. Davies, "'House of David' Built on Sand: The Sins of the Biblical
Maximizers," BAR 20:04.
b.
See André Lemaire, "'House of David' Restored in Moabite Inscription," BAR 20:03.
1.
A. Leo Oppenheim (translator), "Babylonian and Assyrian Historical Texts," in James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near
Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd edition with Supplement (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1969), pp. 284-285.
2.
Frank M. Cross, From Epic to Canon: History and Literature in Ancient Israel (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press,
1998), pp. 3-21.
3.
John Bright, A History of Israel, 4th edition (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000), p. 187 ff.; G. Ernest Wright,
"The Provinces of Solomon," in N. Avigad et al, eds., Eretz-Israel 8 [E.L. Sukenik Memorial Volume] (Jerusalem:
Israel Exploration Society, 1967), pp. 58-68; Norman K. Gottwald, The Tribes of Yahweh: A Sociology of the
Religion of Liberated Israel, 1250-1050 B.C.E. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1979), Part IX; see also his The Politics of
Ancient Israel, Library of Ancient Israel (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2001). For the theory of patrimonial
authority, see Max Weber, "Economy and Society," in G. Roth and C. Wittick, eds., Economy and Society vol. 2
(Berkeley: University of California, 1978), ch. 12. For its application to Ancient Israel, see L.E. Stager, "Archaeology
of the Family," BASOR 260 (1985), pp. 25-28. For its application to the whole of the ancient Near East, see J. David
Schloen, The House of the Father as Fact and Symbol: Patrimonialism in Ugarit and the Ancient Near East, Studies
in the Archaeology and History of the Levant, vol. 2 (Cambridge: Harvard Semitic Museum, 2001); Baruch Halpern,
The Constitution of the Monarchy in Israel, Harvard Semitic Monographs No. 25 (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1981);
Hayim Tadmor, "'The People' and the Kingship in Ancient Israel: The Role of Political Institutions in the Biblical
Period," Journal of World History 11 (1968), pp. 46-68.
4.
For example, seals nos. 6-11 in Nahman Avigad and Benjamin Sass, Corpus of West Semitic Stamp Seals
(Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1997).
© 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 42
Life in the Ancient World
Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
Staff for this book:
Noah Wiener - Editor
Robert Bronder - Designer
Susan Laden - Publisher
© 2013
Biblical Archaeology Society
4710 41st Street, NW
Washington, DC 20016
www.biblicalarchaeology.org
Cover Image: C.S. Alexander; © L.E. Stager.
© 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society
i
Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
About the Biblical Archaeology Society
The excitement of archaeology and the
latest in Bible scholarship since 1974
The Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS) was founded in 1974 as a nonprofit,
nondenominational, educational organization dedicated to the dissemination of information about
archaeology in the Bible lands.
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Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
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