[Faith-talk] Sharing a ebook about daily life in the ancient world

[sheila]

sounds interesting thank you for the post.
On 2/22/2014 6:28 PM, Poppa Bear wrote:
> 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
>
> iii
>
> 

> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society iv
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society v
>
> 

> 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
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 1
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 2
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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
>
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 3
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 4
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
>
> 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
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 5
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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
>
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 6
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 7
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 8
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 9
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 10
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
>
> 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
>
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 11
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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?
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 12
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 13
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 14
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 15
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 16
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 17
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 18
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 19
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 20
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 21
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 22
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
>
> 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).
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 23
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 24
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 25
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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].
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 26
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 27
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 28
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 29
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 30
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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."
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 31
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 32
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 33
>
> 

> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
>
> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 34
>
> 

> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 35
>
> 

> 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
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 36
>
> 

> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 37
>
> 

> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 38
>
> 

> 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.
>
> © 2013 Biblical Archaeology Society 39
>
> 

> 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.
> BAS educates the public about archaeology and the Bible through its bimonthly
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>
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>
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>
> Life in the Ancient World: Crafts, Society and Daily Practice
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