Abstract
BALCELLS GALLARRETA, JOSÉ E., Household and Family Religion in Persian-Period Judah: An Archaeological Approach (Ancient Near East Monographs, 18; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2017), pp. xiv + 193. $48.95. ISBN 978-1-62837-178-9.
Interest in religious traditions during the Persian period has seen a well-deserved renewal and this interdisciplinary study is a welcome addition to this ever-growing field. The focus of the book is on one site, Tell en-Nasbeh in the southern Levant, a site rich in a variety of household and public buildings. The starting point is that the religion witnessed in Ezra and Nehemiah needs to be explored more fully through a range of disciplines, including archaeology. After a short introduction, the first chapter tackles ‘methods and definitions’ in which the author introduces the reader to social-scientific methods, archaeology of ritual and religion, as well as C. Bell's typology of rituals. The book is divided up into five further chapters: ‘Persian Period Ritual in Ezra’ looks at background while going into the complex questions of influence from Zoroastrianism; ‘Persian Period Ritual Artefacts from Tell en-Nasbeh Households’ starts to build a case for the importance of the site to understand Judean rituals during the Persian period; ‘Persian Period Architecture and Natural Landscape from Tell en-Nasbeh’ investigates the space in which ritual objects were found; and ‘Persian Period Ritual Material Culture from other Yehud Sites’ looks at answering a number of questions about household religion. ‘Summary and Conclusions’ bring the threads together. There is no doubt that the author's novel approach complements and expands R. Albertz's work on the wide range of religious and ritual practices in Judah during the Persian period. The four appendixes (Tell en-Nasbeh material culture distribution from stratum 2; building constructions; photographs of ritual artefacts; and building specifications), 29 figures and 23 tablets are well set out and useful for further research.
ANN JEFFERS
BHAYRO, SIAM, JAMES NATHAN FORD, DAN LEVENE, and ORTAL-PAZ SAAR, Aramaic Magic Bowls in the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin: Descriptive List and Edition of Selected Texts (Magical and Religious Literature of Late Antiquity, 7; Leiden: Brill, 2018), pp. xiii + 240. €85.00/$102.00. ISBN 978-90-04-34447-1.
Several collections of Aramaic magic bowls have appeared in recent decades, but not those in the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin, except for a volume of selected ones by D. Levene (Jewish Aramaic Curse Texts from Late-Antique Mesopotamia, 2013; not reviewed in B.L.). All the magic bowls in that museum have now been catalogued, 169 bowls and fragments (including also three skulls and fragments of one eggshell) (given here on pp. 9-173). In addition, 15 of the bowls are published here (with the text transliterated and translated), along with two others written in pseudo-script. These have been chosen as representative of the various types in the collection, so that some are being republished though others are published for the first time. About half the bowls in the catalogue are from excavations but the rest were bought on the antiquities market (many acquired in 1886) or of unknown origin. Glossaries of Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, Mandaic and Syriac are included. A full edition of the collection in the museum is planned.
LESTER L. GRABBE
CHOI, GWANGHYUN D., Decoding Canaanite Pottery Paintings from the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age I: Classification and Analysis of Decorative Motifs and Design Structures— Statistics, Distribution Patterns—Cultural and Socio-Political Implications (OBO, Series Archaeologica, 37; Fribourg: Academic Press Fribourg/Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2018), pp. xi + 272. €140.00. ISBN 978-3-7278-1804-2 (Academic Press Fribourg), 978-3-525-53039-9 (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht).
This book is a revised doctoral thesis, supervised by Yosef Garfinkel and submitted to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2008. It should be noted that the content of the work is restricted to archaeological finds from before 2008 as its aim was to provide a system for classification rather than offer a complete corpus of finds. The book has an introduction, five chapters, a conclusion, bibliography and indexes and also contains a database on a CD-ROM at the back. Chapter 1 gives an overview of typologies of painted vessels and methods for classifying decorative motifs, before ch. 2 presents a detailed typology of decorative motifs, including ‘Natural’ (trees, animals, fish, humans, deities and composite motifs), ‘Abstract’ and ‘Geometric’ (which both include triangles, circles, wavy lines and dots), and ‘Motifs for Handle Decoration’. Chapter 3 analyses the structures of Canaanite pottery paintings, ch. 4 presents statistics of the occurrences and distribution of the motifs, and ch. 5 then discusses the cultural and socio-political implications of the pottery paintings. The central thesis argues that these Canaanite pottery paintings emerged during the LB and IA I, when the region was under Egyptian rule, and faded out of use in the 11th and 10th centuries BCE. The analysis indicates prevalence of ANE rather than Egyptian influence on the motifs and thus C. argues against notions of Egypt forcing their traditions on Canaan and also theories of Canaanite ‘emulation’ of Egyptian styles during this time. The most common motif was the ‘tree of life’, which likely has links to a fertility goddess, though C. notes that evidence of an association between this motif and the biblical Asherah is not well attested. This thorough work is undoubtedly useful for those interested in the subject and the lack of Egyptian influence is especially interesting if it holds true for post-2008 finds as well.
CAT QUINE
DEVER, WILLIAM G., Beyond the Texts: An Archaeological Portrait of Ancient Israel and Judah (Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2017), pp. xxi + 749. $49.95. ISBN 978-0-88414-218-8.
D. here offers a very substantial history of Israel and Judah based on archaeological sources; the HB is overtly discussed only briefly at the end of each main chapter to explore whether or not it fits with the picture already determined. The patriarchs, Exodus, and conquest narratives have no historical foundation so that the account proper starts with the rise of Israel in the land. Regrettably the analysis stops with the Babylonian conquest. As might be expected, there is an enormous amount of well-documented information here about the current state of knowledge of Israel in the Iron Age. The only scholar with whom there is repeated and detailed interaction is Israel Finkelstein, whose low chronology is rejected. The material remains thus allow the historian to postulate the rise of a central state following the wholly rural origins of the people while excavated written sources allow us also to accept that there were two states for the succeeding centuries. Most of D.'s positions are known from his previous publications, even if not so fully argued as here. His tone is generally less strident than before, though he still dismisses many with whom he disagrees as lacking adequate expertise and with no attempt to understand what they are trying to say. (Readers of the B.L. will be pleased, however, that the former editor Lester Grabbe gets star positive billing for his recent work.) D.'s own views unconsciously include more of the biblical narrative as presupposition than he realizes and of course there are alternatives or gaps which he does not always mention (e.g. where did Yahweh come from?—a historical question of no small impact). Nonetheless, all should be grateful for this massive compendium.
H.G.M. WILLIAMSON
FINKELSTEIN, ISRAEL, Hasmonean Realities behind Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles: Archaeological and Historical Perspectives (Ancient Israel and Its Literature, 34; Atlanta, GA: SBL Press, 2018), pp. xi + 208. $32.95. ISBN 978-0-88414-307-9.
F. has long advocated the need to put archaeological data first when evaluating the historicity of material presented as such in Tanakh. In this collection of previously published papers he applies this principle to the postexilic books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles. The essential archaeological material relates to evidence for settlement in Yehud in the Persian, and early and later Hellenistic periods. Many studies have used the lists of places in these books (both fortified and supposedly absorbed during expansion), returnees and their stated locations, and the named opponents of Nehemiah's rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls, in order to establish the historical realia of the late 5th and early 4th centuries BCE. F. on the contrary begins with detailed surveys of settlement evidence and concludes that Jerusalem was essentially a large village of some 400 people in the Persian period, with no more than 12,000 in Yehud as a whole. Only in the Hasmonean period did population levels recover to those of the 7th century. He concludes that the data in the books in question is better suited to the period around the reign of John Hyrcanus. F. leaves open the origins of the earliest portions of the books, but sounds a note of caution when he observes that the population prior to the Hasmonean period was unlikely to have sustained any significant literary activity. There is some repetition in these essays arising from their origin as separate publications; nevertheless this is a valuable, stimulating, and provocative contribution to scholarship.
ALASTAIR G. HUNTER
GRIES, HELEN, Der Assur-Tempel in Assur. Das assyrische Hauptheiligtum im Wandel der Zeit (2 vols.; Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen OrientGesellschaft, 149; Ausgrabungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft in Assur, A: Baudenkmäler aus assyrischer Zeit, 16; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2017), pp. xiii + 375 (vol. 1), 220 (vol. 2). €198.00. ISBN 978-3-447-10858-4.
With this handsome pair of volumes, the project to present and evaluate the early 20th-century German excavations at Assur reaches its completion. The final volumes are devoted to the temple of Assur that stands at the north-east corner of the city. Various reports were published on the finds by the excavator Walter Andrae, with particular focus on the architecture of the site. The present volumes go beyond earlier publications by offering a comprehensive account of both the architecture and the smaller finds. The first volume contains the text and the catalogue of objects, while the second volume contains plans, and photographs of the excavations and objects, as well as two loose plans of the site. For the most part the images are black-and-white, but there are 10 colour plates at the end of the volume. After a brief introduction and account of the excavations (pp. 1-10), the architectural and smaller finds are described (pp. 11-120). Of particular interest to readers of the B.L. will be the synthetic essay that provides a reconstruction of the building's history and use from the third millennium down to the destruction of the site in 614 BCE (pp. 121-48). There are a few appendixes at the back including a synoptic concordance of the excavation numbers, museum inventory and the catalogue, as well as a transcription of Andrae's logbook.
NATHAN MACDONALD
HARING, BEN, From Single Sign to Pseudo-Script: An Ancient Egyptian System of Workmen's Identity Marks (Culture and History of the Ancient Near East, 93; Leiden: Brill, 2018), pp. xvi + 291. €155.00. ISBN 978-90-04-35753-2.
This book is the output of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) project ‘Symbolizing Identity: Identity Marks and their Relation to Writing in New Kingdom Egypt’ (ca. 1550–1070 BCE), undertaken at Leiden by the author—after more than a decade of his own research—together with two doctoral students, Kyra van der Moezel and Daniel Soliman. As H. states, the book is ‘pioneering research that combines the decipherment of an ancient graphic code with modern scholarship on visual communication’ (p. x). He argues that the identity marks in the Deir el-Medina marking system are based on hieroglyphic and some hieratic writing, together with concrete models (human, animal and object), and geometric forms. They are not the progenitors of an alphabetic writing system, though some signs might have alphabetic connections. In use for almost four centuries, the marks are a pseudo-script specific to individual members of one community of ancient Egyptian craftsmen and their families. A key starting point in the analysis is that an identity mark can be passed from father to son even if the son has a different name from his father. Over 1000 ostraca are assessed, together with other objects from the workmen's settlement and tombs, especially pottery vessels, and hundreds of graffiti in the Theban mountains. The technical data and Egyptological scholarship of the book are deliberately made very accessible to be of assistance in the understanding of identity marks in other periods and cultures. This is a remarkable work of social history.
GEORGE J. BROOKE
HERRMANN, CHRISTIAN, Ägyptische Amulette aus Palästina/Israel. IV. Von der Spätbronzezeit IIB bis in römische Zeit (OBO, Series Archaeologica, 38; Fribourg: Academic Press Fribourg/Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016), pp. xvi + 510. €200.00. ISBN 978-3-7278-1801-1 (Academic Press Fribourg), 978-3-525-54408-2 (Vanden-hoeck & Ruprecht).
H. has spent many years in collecting the Egyptian amulets in Palestine/Israel. Previous volumes have been reviewed in the B.L.: vol. 1 (B.L. 1995, p. 28), vol. 2 (B.L. 2003, p. 26). Volume 3 (2006; not reviewed in B.L.) was a collection of all Egyptian amulets to 2005, especially those found after 1991. The present volume includes all those found in Palestine/Israel from 2005 to 2015, plus those not previously available or simply overlooked, 1381 in all. They are grouped by type: anthropomorphic entities (humans and gods), animals, and objects (parts of the body, plants, heavenly bodies, and the like). An appendix lists all the amulets from all four volumes by find site, meaning all amulet finds in Israel after 1898 that were available to the author. Unfortunately, many unprovenanced amulets are listed in this catalogue. It is useful to have the information available, but great caution should be exercised in treating such objects as authentic. This catalogue will have value especially for archaeologists and Egyptologists but also for historians of religion.
LESTER L. GRABBE
HOROWITZ, WAYNE, TAKAYOSHI OSHIMA, and SETH L. SANDERS, Cuneiform in Canaan: The Next Generation (University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns, 2nd edn, 2018), pp. xii + 248. 180 b&w illustrations. $59.95. ISBN 978-1-57506-791-9.
Despite a new publisher and a modified subtitle, this is essentially a second edition of the authors’ earlier work published in 2006. At that time the cylinder seal at the Smithsonian Institute from Tel Jemmeh was left with the briefest of descriptions; now further information is provided to suggest the decorative motif may be interpreted as calligraphy. Similarly Hazor 15, which had been found in 2004, was provisionally listed as an administrative tablet and left unedited; it now turns out to be a fragment of a letter. There are three extra Hazor fragments: another clothing docket (#16); a few ominous conclusions to be drawn by a haruspex when scrutinizing particular characteristics of an animal liver (#17); and lines of casuistic law reminiscent of Codex Hammurabi (#18). Neither of the two fragments found at Jerusalem in the Ophel excavations is large enough to be coherent, but one of them seems to be from a copy of a letter written on local clay. As before, Sanders has been responsible for the editions of the three alphabetic cuneiform inscriptions. By assembling all this material with his updated bibliography and indexes, Horowitz maintains his commitment to directing this research project, which is supported by the Hebrew University.
MERVYN RICHARDSON
KEEL, OTHMAR, Corpus der Stempelsiegel-Amulette aus Palästina/Israel. Von den Anfängen bis zur Perserzeit, Katalog Band V: Von Tel el-‘Idham bis Tel Kitan (OBO, Series Archaeologica, 35; Fribourg: Academic Press Fribourg/Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2017), pp. xviii + 672. €200.00. ISBN 978-3-7278-1816-5 (Academic Press Fribourg), 978-3-525-54412-9 (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht).
This project of publishing all the stamp seals and seal impressions from Palestine/ Israel began with an introduction to the project (B.L. 1996, p. 26), then (re)publication by site: vol. 1 (B.L. 1998, p. 30), vols. 2–3 (2010, not reviewed in B.L.), and vol. 4 (B.L. 2015, pp. 38-39). The present volume includes the large number of seals from Jericho and Jerusalem (1118 from those two sites alone). Only about a sixth of the seals overall have their first publication here, but 80 per cent of those from the Reich/Shukran excavations near Gihon (catalogued under Jerusalem) appear here for the first time. Most of the volume, including the descriptions of individual seals and impressions, is in German, but ##114-124c, 138-521 from Jerusalem, those from Yiftach-El and Kafar Ara, and perhaps a few others are described in English. The use of ‘wet sifting’ means that many more seal impressions are now being found. As is becoming more and more obvious, unprovenanced seals and impressions from the antiquities market cannot be trusted. These volumes of provenanced finds form a valuable catalogue not only for archaeologists but also historians and others interested in the everyday life of people in ancient Israel and Judah.
LESTER L. GRABBE
MATTHIAE, PAOLO, FRANCES PINNOCK, and MARTA D'ANDREA (eds.), Ebla and Beyond: Ancient Near Eastern Studies after Fifty Years of Discoveries at Tell Mardikh. Proceedings of the International Conference Held in Rome, 15th-17th December 2014 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2018), pp. ix + 521. €98.00. ISBN 978-3-447-11000-6.
This collection of essays on ancient Ebla focuses on the archaeology, though there are a few essays on the texts and language. Most are in English but a few are in French. After opening addresses, there are essays on Levantine archaeology: introductory remarks on the archives of R. du Mesnil du Buisson (in French); the Early Bronze III-IVA1 sequence on the acropolis of Tell Mardikh; urban planning and urbanization in 3rd-millennium BCE Syria; Kura, the youthful ruler and martial city-god of Ebla; from Mari to Ebla, designs of interculturality?; syllables in Eblaite and their representation; past and present research on Early Bronze IV caliciform goblets and their chronological and socio-economic implications; the Akkadian adventure in Syria; the Early Bronze IVB pottery of Ebla; a century of change at Ebla: the pottery assemblages between the 3rd and the 2nd millennium BCE; Cappadocian-style seals at Ebla; a re-examination of the city gates at Ebla; urban landscape and funerary ideology in Old Syrian Ebla; the ‘palaeo-Babylonian’ texts at Ebla (in French); the length of the cubit at Amorite Mari (in French); are basins an essential cult requisite in the temples of Ebla, Syria and Upper Mesopotamia?; tracing northern networks among the arts of Syria in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages; from Middle to Late Bronze in Ebla and Western Syria; Ebla in the Iron Age: new evidence from the acropolis; and clay figurines in the Achaemenid Near East as seen from Tell Mardikh. The volume ends with ‘Final Considerations’ from the veteran excavator P. Matthiae. Interestingly, the late G. Pettinato's name occurs only a couple of times in the volume, in the bibliographies of two essays: sic transit gloria mundi.
LESTER L. GRABBE
MILSON, DAVID (ed.), Strata: Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society, vol. 35 (London: The Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society, 2017), pp. 225. Numerous figures. £30.00 p.a. ISSN 2042-7867.
The 2017 AIAS annual bulletin begins with an article reflecting on 70 years of the archaeology of Qumran and the DSS (D. Mizzi). While it is not possible to cover such a subject comprehensively in such short compass—its author readily admits to providing only ‘a few simplified snapshots of some salient facets of this exciting field'—it should nonetheless provide a good orientation to students less familiar with this area of study together with an array of pointers to important recent and more specialized work pertaining to many issues and unresolved questions that could be mentioned only briefly. Three articles discuss Roman oil lamps and their production: from the Aelia Capitolina (R. Rosenthal-Heginbottom); from ancient Shiḥin (J.R. Strange and M. Aviam); and by a petrographic study of Roman ceramic oil lamps from nine sites, again including Shiḥin (A. Shapiro). Of the reports on archaeological sites, that on Bronze and Iron Age Tell Gush (I. Wachtel, R. Sabar and U. Davidovich) may be most immediately relevant to readers of the B.L. A systematic survey together with spatial analysis of 20 small-scale salvage operations suggests that it was ‘one site in a range of medium-sized sites that occupied the fertile northeast of the Meron Range’ during these periods. There are also studies of 4th-millennium interactions between northeast Africa and the Southern Levant (S. Atkins) and of megalithic architecture in Judea and the Shephelah (M. Freikman and A. Nagorskava). Finally, although they are necessarily brief, the field notes from the second season of excavation at Horvat-Midras (O. Peleg-Barkat) are sufficient to suggest that this may ultimately prove to be a site of considerable interest. As in previous issues of the bulletin, there are Book Reviews, Lecture Summaries, (brief) Reports from Israel, and Grant Reports.
GEORGE NICOL
RECKLINGHAUSEN, DANIEL VON, Die Philensis-Dekrete. Untersuchungen über zwei Synodaldekrete aus der Zeit Ptolemaios’ V. und ihre geschichtliche und religiöse Bedeutung (2 vols.; Ägyptologische Abhandlungen, 73; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2018), pp. x + 435 (vol. 1), iv + 85 (vol. 2). €168.00. ISBN 978-3-447-10820-7.
This is revised from a doctoral thesis at Tübingen (supervisor: Christian Leitz). In the Ptolemaic period regular Egyptian synodal decrees were a means for the priesthood both to honour the ruler(s) and to recognize their ‘godhood’. Contemporary with the more famous Rosetta stone inscription, the Philensis (Philensis I and Philensis II) Decrees honour Ptolemy V (205–180 BCE) and Cleopatra I on the occasion of the defeat of a rebel movement in the southern part of Egypt that had lasted for 20 years until 186 BCE. R. studies how these synodal decrees (he compares them with several others) helped to integrate traditional Egyptian religion with the Hellenistic ruler cult, which was a means of uniting the native people behind a Greek dynasty. However, these volumes will no doubt have their main benefit in becoming the standard edition of the Philensis Decrees. He has brought together the various (fragmentary) inscriptions (one became available only in 2015) into a synoptic relationship and gives both line-by-line photos of the original hieroglyphic and demotic wall inscriptions with a transcription/transliteration, as well as a composite transliteration and German translation of each inscription.
LESTER L. GRABBE
SIMPSON, ELIZABETH (ed.), The Adventure of the Illustrious Scholar: Papers Presented to Oscar White Muscarella (Culture and History of the Ancient Near East, 94; Leiden: Brill, 2018), pp. xxviii + 1019. €210.00. ISBN 978-90-04-36170-6.
A 13-page Bibliography precedes an Introduction describing Muscarella's life and 42 papers relating to his wide interests in the ANE and his crusade against the trade in antiquities, few related to the OT. The essays are: L. Adams on Muscarella and Sherlock Holmes; S. Berndt, ‘The Myth of Midas's Ears’; A. Çinaroglu on Hattian royal tombs of Alaca Höyük; L.M. Kaye on the Lydian hoard; R.F. Liebhart on Tumulus MM at Gordion; D.G. Mitten, ‘A Pithos Burial at Sardis’; L.E. Roller, ‘Attitudes towards the Past in Roman Phrygia’; K. Spirydowicz on wooden fragments from Gordion; G. Summers and F. Summers, ‘Monumental Entrances, Sculpture and Idols at Kerkenes’; M. Vassileva on fibulae from Gordion; A. Çilingiroglu on Urartian objects from Ayanis; S. Kroll on part of a ram's head rhyton from Qalatgah; D.T. Potts, ‘Toul-E Gilan and the Urartian Empire’; V. Sevin on Urartian burial rites; D. Stronach gives ‘Observations on … Erebuni’; P. Albenda surveys Neo-Assyrian views of foreign cities, tentatively identifying Sennacherib's South-West Palace panel 23 as Ekron; M.S. Joukowsky discusses the role of the Petra Great Temple in Nabataean archaeology; F.Pedde, ‘ Fibulae in Neo-Assyrian Burials’; C.K. Piller, ‘Fibulae, Chronology and Related Considerations at Marlik’; B.A. Porter looks at a stele from Hama and Old Syrian seals; I. Ziffer, E.C.M. van der Brink, O. Segal and U. Ad present ‘A Unique Human Head-Cup’ from the Jezreel Valley; R.B. Koehl looks at Paros in the 12th century BCE; G. Kopcke in ‘Liturgy’ explores antecedents to classical Greek art; M.J. Rose on Greek figures he diagnoses as TB sufferers; R.D. Salisbury on the weights from the Ulu Burun shipwreck; Ö. Acar on Kyme as a centre for jewellery; E.Z. Dembin on craftsmen on Greek vases; A. Gutierrez-Folch follows the klismos chair through the ages; G. Killen, ‘Furniture of the Ramesside Pharaohs’; M. Nelson looks at Roman gold body chains; A. Rodriguez on the problems of identifying ivory; and the Editor explores ‘Luxury Arts of the Ancient Near East’. The final ten essays are about the antiquities trade, including M.C. Root and H. Dixon on a stamp seal in Kelsey Museum apparently copied from BM 48508, and E. von Dassow who uses interpretative theory to explain ancient texts. This volume displays the impact Muscarella has had (see his collected essays: B.L. 2015, pp. 144-45).
ALAN MILLARD
Note also the following books reviewed in other sections of this Book List:
ASTER, SHAWN ZELIG, and AVRAHAM FAUST (eds.), The Southern Levant under Assyrian Domination — see p. 26
CECCARELLI, PAOLA, et al. (eds.), Letters and Communities: Studies in the SocioPolitical Dimensions of Ancient Epistolography — see p. 29
ELAYI, JOSETTE, Sennacherib, King of Assyria — see p. 193
GREENSPAHN, FREDERICK E., and GARY A. RENDSBURG (eds.), Le-ma‘an Ziony: Essays in Honor of Ziony Zevit — see p. 5
PIOSKE, DANIEL D., Memory in a Time of Prose: Studies in Epistemology, Hebrew Scribalism, and the Biblical Past — see p. 40