Israeli Archaeological Activity in the West Bank 1967-2007: A Sourcebook: The West Bank and East Jerusalem Archaeological Database Project

Anthony Keddie investigates the changing dynamics of class and power at a critical place and time in the history of Judaism and Christianity - Palestine during its earliest phases of incorporation into the Roman Empire (63 BCE–70 CE). He identifies institutions pertaining to civic administration, taxation, agricultural tenancy, and the Jerusalem Temple as sources of an unequal distribution of economic, political, and ideological power. Through careful analysis of a wide range of literary, documentary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence, including the most recent discoveries, Keddie complicates conventional understandings of class relations as either antagonistic or harmonious. He demonstrates how elites facilitated institutional changes that repositioned non-elites within new, and sometimes more precarious, relations with privileged classes, but did not typically worsen their economic conditions. These socioeconomic shifts did, however, instigate changing class dispositions. Judaean elites and non-elites increasingly distinguished themselves from the other, through material culture such as tableware, clothing, and tombs.

Class and Power in Roman Palestine: The Socioeconomic Setting of Judaism and Christian Origins

GNOTICISM Jewish elements in gnosticism: the problem defined It should be obvious even from a cursory reading of Gnostic literature that there are Jewish elements in Gnosticism. These elements are of many different kinds, and may be classified in many different ways, but for our present purposes it will be sufficient to distinguish two broad categories – biblical and non-biblical. To the first category belong the quotations from, or allusions to, the Old Testament in the Gnostic texts. (For convenience we may include here also much Gnostic exegesis of the Old Testament.) Into the second category may be put all those Gnostic ideas, motifs, literary genres, technical terms and formulae which have been paralleled more or less convincingly in post-biblical Jewish literature. It is important to realize that the significance of an element will vary according to the category into which it falls. The Jewishness of elements in category one is not, in the last analysis, open to question. We may speculate on how Old Testament materials found their way into Gnosticism (whether through Christianity, pre-Christian Jewish Gnosticism, or by direct borrowing from Judaism), but that they are Jewish can hardly be disputed. The Jewishness of elements in category two, on the other hand, is often problematic. We are dealing here in the first instance with parallelism, and that creates a host of problems. We must establish that the parallelism we perceive is real and significant – in itself no small task. Then we must face the question of origins: who has borrowed from whom? There is a tendency for scholars to assume that in cases of parallelism Gnosticism is indebted to Judaism.

Jewish elements in gnosticism and magic c. ce 70– c. ce 270

The early liturgy of the synagogue

The Diaspora in the Roman period before ce 70

"Qumran Type" Graves in Jerusalem: Archaeological Evidence of an Essene Community?

The article presents the results of archaeological excavations and surveys undertaken at and near the spring of ‘En Qobi. ‘En Qobi is a spring in the upper reaches of Nahal Qobi, a tributary of Nahal Refai’m, West of Jerusalem. There is evidence of human activity near the spring from the Bronze Age to the present – a span of approximately 3,000 years. The article presents and discusses (a) the spring and its water system; (b) partial excavations and the preservation of the interior of the medieval church located near the spring; (c) H. Tasit and a nearby refuge cave, both located west of the spring; (d) H. Qobi, situated east of the spring. Our team cleaned the water system, which consists of a long spring tunnel, a large underground reservoir, an open pool and other elements typical of systems used to tap spring water in the Judean Hills. This system was apparently built in the Early Roman period, was renovated again and again and remained in use until recent times. The medieval church has a rectangular nave, oriented east-west with well-preserved ashlar walls. The inner walls were covered with polychrome frescoes. Elbow columns topped with capitals, characteristic of Frankish (Crusader) architecture in the Jerusalem area, were found in situ on the northern and eastern walls. Our funds permitted only a partial excavation of some portions of the inner walls. Inadequate funding prevented a full excavation of the church walls and floors, so the construction phases of the structure were not fully clarified. H. Tasit is a relatively small site, apparently an agricultural estate from the Roman and Byzantine periods. Unfortunately, the site was looted extensively in the past. On the nearby slope we detected and explored a small karstic cave that was apparently used for refuge purposes in the first – second centuries CE. H. Qobi is a small, ruined village located on a prominent hilltop above the spring. Without extensive excavation it is difficult to ascertain its function and past. An underground olive press and some looted tombs on the slopes were explored. Pottery and finds from the Late Hellenistic, Early Roman, Byzantine, Medieval, Ottoman and British Mandate periods were collected. ‘En Qobi has been identified as Qobi, a location near Bethar mentioned in a story in the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 95a) and in additional Roman-period, late antique and medieval sources. The article describes the sites and discusses their historical-geographical significance and identification.

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Archaeological explorations at ‘En Qobi in the Jerusalem Highlands and the identification of Qube/Qubi

Herod "the Great", king of Judea in the second half of the first century BC, was known for his building projects, wealth, and political power. Two of his personal calcite-alabaster bathtubs, found in the Kypros fortress and the palace of Herodium, are among the very limited archaeological evidence of his private life. It seemed plausible that they were imported from Egypt, the main source of calcite-alabaster in ancient periods. Yet, the recent identification of a calcite quarry in the Te'omim cave, Israel, challenges this hypothesis. Here, we developed an approach for identification of the source of calcite-alabaster, by combination of four analytical methods: ICP, FTIR, ssNMR and isotope ratio. These methods were then applied to Herod's bathtubs demonstrating that they were indeed quarried in Israel rather than in Egypt. 

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Sourcing Herod the Great's calcite-alabaster bathtubs by a multi-analytic approach

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Boaz Zissu

Papers

"Qumran Type" Graves in Jerusalem: Archaeological Evidence of an Essene Community?

Archaeological explorations at ‘En Qobi in the Jerusalem Highlands and the identification of Qube/Qubi

Sourcing Herod the Great's calcite-alabaster bathtubs by a multi-analytic approach

Publisher Correction: Sourcing Herod the Great’s calcite-alabaster bathtubs by a multi-analytic approach

Underground Cavities and a Christian Inscription and Dipinti at Horbat Basal (Khirbet Umm el-Basal), Judean Foothills