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Archaeology and Women

“Digging Up Women” is the title of a new article posted at The Bible and Interpretation. Elizabeth McNamer provides some insight into the daily life of women using biblical texts and archaeological finds from Bethsaida. She writes:

Most of the artifacts found at Bethsaida are in the domain of women: loom weights, ovens, cooking pots, jugs, juglets, grinders, flourmills, fish plates, olive bowls, pruning hooks, oil lamps, water jugs, jewels, wine jars (and cellars), needles, ungent jars, eating utensils. Clothes were made of linen and wool. Making wool was a time-consuming task. It involved sheering the sheep, sorting and grading, spinning the yarn, and dying the wool, setting up the loom to make the fabric and then making it into clothing. Spinning was mandated by the Talmud (even rich women were required to spin). So many linen spores have been found at Bethsaida that we think there may have been a linen factory there. (It was required for sailing boats and for shrouds for the dead among other things). To clothe a family of six would have required about three hours a day of labor (and taking the Sabbath off). If she produced more than her family required, there were local markets and fairs at which the surplus could be sold.

The article provides some of the “other side” of the story, for archaeology is often most concerned with fortifications, palaces, and other discoveries built and destroyed by men.

Tagged Galilee

Weekend Roundup

Two articles that I contributed made it to the “Most Viewed” list over at The Bible and Interpretation. Both articles are brief and challenge current thinking:

Probably the most important work of historical geography ever written is The Sacred Bridge, by Anson F. Rainey and R. Steven Notley. At $100, you may need convincing that it’s worth the sacrifice. I look at it this way: take the number of years left in your life and divide $100 by that. It is worth a few bucks a year to have such an extensive reference tool at arm’s length. Leen Ritmeyer has posted a brief review of the book on his blog. If you don’t need the original languages, you can cut the price in half by purchasing Carta’s New Century Handbook and Atlas of the Bible.

If you’d like a free classic to offset the expensive purchase, you can download the entire work of George Adam Smith’s Historical Geography of the Holy Land (pdf). This is the 4th edition (of 26!), but as far as I know, the content is largely the same. I am not sure if residents outside the US have access.

Tagged Resources, Weekend Roundup

Palestine Park, Chautauqua, New York

A friend tipped me off that my summer travels this year would have me near Chautauqua Institution in western New York, the location of Palestine Park. Originally built in 1874, the model of the land of Palestine (as it was then known) has been reconstructed and enlarged over the years to its present size of 350 feet long (110 m) at a scale of 1.75 feet to the mile (0.34 meters to the km).

The model blends into its surroundings and you don’t realize you’ve arrived until you’re standing in it. This is a view of the area from the “north” with the edge of “Mount Hermon” visible on the right.

The best view of the model is from the top of Mount Hermon. Lake Chautauqua stands in for the Mediterranean Sea, but since the park is on the lake’s western shore, the sun rises on the wrong side of this “world.”

The model includes major landmarks such as Mount Tabor, the Hill of Moreh, and the Jezreel Valley, but I found it difficult to easily identify the physical features because of the uniform shade of the green grass.

In the photo below, you can see the Sea of Galilee distinctly, and in the foreground the labeled sites are Nain (left) and Mt. Moreh (center).

The two major lakes are the most easily identifiable features and both are shaped appropriately. The Sea of Galilee (below) is surrounded by biblical cities (not exactly in the right places), including Tiberias, Magdala, Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Gergesa. Perceptive visitors may wonder why the “Mount of Beatitudes” is placed on a high mountain on the lake’s west side. This reflects a 19th-century view that Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount at the place today known as Mt. Arbel.

Every Sunday and Monday evenings a local pastor, allegedly in costume, gives presentations of the model using biblical stories. Mounts Gerizim and Ebal, located under the boys, would provide an ideal place for many wonderful and important history lessons.

Jerusalem is uniquely marked on the model with a depiction of the (modern) Old City walls. The model labels a mixture of sites from the Old Testament, New Testament, and later periods.

Approximately sixty sites are identified, including the Mount of Olives and Bethany (behind Jerusalem in the photo below).

The model also includes the rugged hill country of Transjordan and labels sites including Macherus, Mt. Nebo, Ramoth-gilead, and Gerasa. The large lake shown below is the Dead Sea. For a better photo that includes the lisan peninsula, see yesterday’s post.

For more information about the premises where the model is located, you can visit the website of the Chautauqua Institution (but Palestine Park is ignored on the site). The entrance fee for the morning was $16, which I felt was a bit unfair, especially since I only spent about 15 minutes at the model (but more than that walking in from the parking lot). Wikipedia has a brief article about the place, and you can quickly locate the site on Google Maps here. If you visit in the summer on a Sunday or Monday evening, you can join the free tour (weather permitting). At other times , you can enjoy a self-guided tour with the assistance of either a cassette tape or a booklet.

A connection I only learned when writing this post is that the man who directed the creation of the park, John H. Vincent, co-wrote Earthly Footsteps of the Man of Galilee, one of the first works that I selected for the Historic Views of the Holy Land series. He is listed on the title page as the “Chancellor of Chautauqua.” There is a whole history of American interest in the Holy Land in the 1800s of which I have been ignorant.

If you have visited Palestine Park and have any observations or suggestions for potential visitors, feel free to comment below.

Tagged Museums, Tourism

Name This Place

What is it and where is it?

I’ll write about my recent visit in the next few days.

Tagged Challenge

Wednesday Roundup

Leen Ritmeyer has just released a digital version of “Jerusalem in the time of Christ,” a CD with 85 images (cost with shipping is £18).

Some Muslims are upset that Israel would dare build an elevator in the Jewish Quarter to allow handicapped access to the Western Wall.

Start making plans now for excavating next year at Tel Burna in the Shephelah. If you prefer to avoid the heat, you might opt for the spring session.

G. M. Grena is recommending an old film that shows the step-by-step process of traditional pottery-making.

Jesus.org is a new website that provides all kinds of information about the Savior of the world. I was particularly impressed to see an entire section of the site featuring articles from the best teacher I’ve ever known. Doug Bookman has 40 articles in the “Harmony of the Gospels – Life of Jesus” section.

Tagged Excavations, Jerusalem, Resources, Shephelah

Does the Merneptah Stele Contradict Archaeology?

Many times I have told a classroom full of undergraduates, “I thank God every day for the Merneptah Stele.” They no doubt thought I was a strange duck, but this crazy claim didn’t help my reputation.

It’s not that I don’t like the other famous inscriptions that relate to biblical history. I remember one of my professors saying that there was no extrabiblical evidence for the “house of David” and then a few months later (in the summer of 1993), the Tel Dan Inscription was discovered. I appreciate the Black Obelisk which has a depiction of King Jehu bowing down and paying tribute to the Assyrian monarch. And I love to point out the Ketef Hinnom silver amulets in the Israel Museum as the earliest portions of Scripture ever found. But I don’t thank God every day for any of these.

The Merneptah Stele is a 10 feet- (3 m-) tall monumental inscription that records the victory hymn of Pharaoh Merneptah (1213-1203 BC). Most of the lengthy poem is about his campaign against Libyan tribes, but at the end he describes some victories in Canaan. One of the enemies he claims to have thoroughly obliterated is the people of Israel.

Merneptah’s boast has had the opposite effect: instead of destroying Israel, he has actually preserved the fact of their existence at that time. Everyone agrees that Israel existed sometime later, but without the Merneptah Stele, very few scholars would acknowledge that they existed at this time. In fact, it’s my opinion that even today, 114 years after the discovery of the Merneptah Stele, most scholars don’t properly account for this inscription in their reconstruction of the origin of the people of Israel.

That’s the point of my brief essay posted today at The Bible and Interpretation. I’d be gratified if you’d give it a read. Maybe I’m not as crazy to give thanks as my students thought.

Tagged Analysis, Egypt