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

[Poppa Bear]

Not a problem, take care.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "sheila" <sleigland at bresnan.net>
To: "Faith-talk,for the discussion of faith and religion" 
<faith-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 22, 2014 9:42 PM
Subject: Re: [Faith-talk] Sharing a ebook about daily life in the ancient 
world


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
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