No title

S OF 0

Biblical

Archaeol

Spring1983

Samuel

CI1

Volume 46 Number 2

Noah

Lamentations Sumerian Pauline Albenda: Iron Age Women Edwin Yamauchi:Scythian Invaders Kramer

on

Invitation Authors Prospective An

to

The editors of Biblical Archaeologist are soliciting article proposals for four new departments: "Enigmatic Bible Passages,""BAGuide to Artifacts," "BAPortrait,"and "The Museum Trail."Our goal is for each of these columns to appearin every issue of BA. To achieve that goal, we need to have a steady flow of ideas, proposals, and manuscripts coming in to our mailbox here in Durham. The descriptions and guidelines furnished below are designed to give prospective authors a good idea of what we're looking for.Wewelcome your suggestions and comments on these new departments-and on any and all aspects of BA.

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ENIGMATICBIBLEPASSAGES Thisdepartmentwill consistof one or,preferably,a pairof 750-2000 wordessays,ideallyonefor OldTestamentandone forNew Testament.The authorof eachessaywill discussa biblical thatdisplaysone ormore verse/passage/pericope featureslikely to interestourreaders. Thepassagemaybe one thathasproved notoriouslydifficultforcommentatorsdownthe centuriesto interpret.Or,it mightrecountan incident,belief,practice,orritualthatseems to us today.Weare bizarre,evenincomprehensible, particularlyinterestedin units on whichmodern archaeological, epigraphic,ormanuscriptdiscoveries haveshedexcitingnew light. It is imperativethateachessayin this series be gearedto the readerwho lacksa knowledgeof ancientlanguagesandscripts.The authorshould not attemptto elaboratethe passage'stheological messageto modernbelievers.Rather,he/she shouldemphasizenoteworthyinsightsthathave beenachievedthroughthe use of the historicalcriticalmethodand/orarchaeology. (Itwouldbe equallyworthwhile,however,to treata knotty passagethathas consistentlyresistedthe bestefforts of historical-critical methodologyandstoutly refusesto yieldup its meaningto scholars.)Weare hopingto playup the "detectivework"aspectof goodscholarshipwheneverpossible. It is unnecessaryto use anykindof formal referencescitingscholarlyliterature.Ifyoulike,you

may note up to six sources as "Suggestionsfor FurtherReading."

BA

PORTRAIT

This departmentwill comprisea briefbiographical treatmentof one of the deceasedmoderngiants of NearEasternstudies-archaeology, exploration, biblicalstudies,intertestamental historiography, studies,Assyriology,Egyptology,Hittitology, Semitics,etc.--togetherwith one ortwo illustrations.The projectedlengthof eachessayis 10002000words. Scholarswho werein somewaypioneersor exemplarsareprimecandidatesforthe "BAPortrait." Profiles of the 19th- and early 20th-century scholars are especially desirable.And we encourageauthors to select interesting, colorful charactersas their subjects. "BAPortrait"should be written in a lively style and with a humanistic orientation. Explain why the person'swork was/is significant, but also tell the readersomething about the human being behind the eminent scholar.A sprightly anecdote or well-chosen quote drawnfrom a work by one of the individual's contemporaries,for example, often says more than many pages of straightforward biographicaldetail. Again, only deceased figures will be profiledin the "BAPortrait."Weplan to use the ASOR Newsletter to salute our active peers. It is unnecessary to use any kind of formal referencesciting scholarly literature.If you like, you may note two or three sources as "Suggestions for FurtherReading."

continued on inside back cover

SOF O,9

Biblical

Volume

1983

Spring

THE WEEPINGGODDESS: SUMERIANPROTOTYPES OFTHEMATERDOLOROSA Samuel Noah Kramer The world'sforemostSumerologist has searchedthroughSumerianliteratureforpassagesthat portraythe role, character,and behaviorof the "weeping goddess"'

82

WESTERNASIATICWOMEN IN THE IRON AGE:THEIR IMAGEREVEALED Pauline Albenda Ourunderstandingof the roles and status of women in antiquity has recently dependedon textual data uncoveredat archaeologicalsites. In a searchfornew sources of information, the authorexamines Assyrian wall reliefs and variousworks of art fromnorthernSyria.

90

THE SCYTHIANS:INVADING HORDES FROM THE RUSSIAN STEPPES

Edwin Yamauchi Ancient Israelfaceda numberof threatsat her northernborder.There is now archaeologicalevidence to identify these invadinghordes with contemporariesof the biblical authors -the Scythians.

46

Number

2

Page98

Page82

Page74 69

C1

101 THE MUSEUM TRAIL The HarvardSemitic Museum Rises Again JanetTassel

117 BA GUIDE TO ARTIFACTS

Tokensand Counting

Denise Schmandt-Besserat In the Middle Eastbetween 8000 and 3100 B.c., tokens were used as counters in ancient data-processingsystems. The study of these tokens has yielded new insights into the development of cognitive skills duringthe last phase of prehistory.

Afterfortyyearsof neglect, a revivified museum opens to the public.

109 ARCHAEOLOGYAND THE PUBLIC'SPERCEPTIONOF THE ANCIENT WORLD A recent archaeologicalfind and a hit movie led to this conversation between two scholars-Eric Meyers, editor of BA,and Michael Payne, a professorat Bucknell University.

121 IDENTIFYINGTHE CURVING LINE ON THE TEMPLECOIN BAR-KOKHBA

LawrenceD. Sporty One variationof the Templefacadeon a Bar-Kokhba coin shows a curving line beneath the crownworkof the facade.Whatdoes this line represent?

113 THE ETHIOPIANLEGEND OF THE ARK

BarryHoberman The KebraNagast, the national saga of Ethiopia,contains an engaging,although fictional, account of the theft of the Ark of the Covenant.

115 ENIGMATICBIBLE PASSAGES Jericho Off Limits (Joshua 6:26)

RobertG. Boling Whyis it, that among the numerous sites mentioned by name in the stories of warfarethat comprise Joshua6-11, Jerichoalone is declaredoff limits for subsequent Israelitesettlement?

DEPARTMENTS 66 67 124

128

INTRODUCINGTHE AUTHORS LETTERTO THE READERS BOOKREVIEWS Alter, TheArt of Biblical Narrative (Levenson);MeyersandStrange,Archaeology, The Rabbis, and EarlyChristianity (Silberman);Pattonand Holoien, Computingin the Humanities (Strange) BOOKSRECEIVED Coverinformation:See page96.

Biblical Archaeologist is published with the financial assistance of Zion Research Foundation, a nonsectarian foundation for the study of the Bible and the history of the Christian Church.

1983 ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING BIBLICAL

65

the Introducing

Authors

Samuel Noah Kramerhas been called "Dean of the world'sSumerologists,and the scholar who has done more than anyoneelse to recoverand make availableSumerian literature."Dr. Krameris ProfessorEmeritusof Assyriology at the University of Pennsylvania,and his numerous publications include History Begins at Sumer:TwentySeven "Firsts"in Man's RecordedHistory (Doubleday Anchor Books, 1959),The Sumerians:TheirHistory Culture,and Character(The University of Chicago Press, 1963),and Fromthe Poetryof Sumer:Creation, Glorification,Adoration (University of California Press, 1979).

andassociatesinfrontof thezigurat at SamuelNoahKramer is AqarQu/ abouttwentymileswestofBaghdadDr.Kramer

PaulineAlbenda

EdwisnYarnauchi

second/rom the right. Tohis right areDr. Na/i-al-Asil, then directorofthe IraqDepartment oAntiqitiquities, and TahaBaqir,then directorofthe IraqMuseum, who itsas Dr. Kramer'sstudent at the OrientalInstitute of the Universityof Chicagoin 1933. Theothersin the picture are unidentified. Thisphotographwas taken in 1946 during Dr. Kramer'sstay in Iraqas Annual Professorof the American Schools of Oriental Researchfor the purpose o/studying, the

Iraqiexcavationsduringthe waryears.

PaulineAlbendahas published many articles on the arts of Assyria. She is currentlystudying and preparingfor publication the unpublisheddrawingsof the monumental wall reliefs from Khorsabad,undera grantfrom the National Endowmentfor the Humanities. Edwin Yamauchiis Professorof History at Miami University in Oxford,Ohio. He contributesfrequently to journals,and he is the author of a numberof books including The Stones and the Scriptures(J.B. Lippincott, 1972),The Archaeology of New TestamentCities in WesternAsia Minor (BakerBook House, 1980),and Foes from the NorthernFrontier:InvadingHordesfrom the Russian Steppes(BakerBook House, 1982). JanetTassel is a teacherand writer from Lexington, Massachusetts. Her articles on the arts arefeatured regularlyin The Boston Globe and Boston magazine. She has also appearedin numerous other publications, including Harvard Magazine, The New YorkTimes, Moment, ARTnews, Musical America, Opera News, and

Indiana Studies in the Humanities.

66

1983 BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPIRING

Denise Schmandt-Besseratis Associate Professorof Middle EasternStudies at the University of Texasat Austin. She writes, "I came to the study of tokens totally by chance. In 1969 I starteda study on the earliest uses of clay in the Middle East for the RadcliffeInstitute in Cambridge,Massachusetts. This led me to systematically visit all availablecollections of clay artifactsdating 8000-5000 storedin the museums of the Middle East, Europe,and the United States.I was looking for figurines,bricks, and pots. I found plenty of these but, in addition, I was surprisedto find the many small tokens. The artifactssoon startedpuzzling me because they were so ubiquitous;I figuredthey had to have some meaning." She adds, "Iam presently workingat a volume entitled BeforeWriting,that will be publishedby the University of TexasPress.It will present a full documentation of the token system from 8000-3000 ni.c."

RobertG.Bolingis Professor of OldTestamentat McCormick TheologicalSeminaryin Chicago.Hehas contributed articlesto numerousjournalsandbooksof collectedessays,andhe hasdonetwoof the booksin the

Letter

to

the

Readers

AnchorBible series-Judges (1975)and Joshua(1982).

Dr.Bolingis editorof the journalBiblicalResearch.

andVice D. Sporty,M.D.,is ClinicalProfessor Lawrence Chairmanof the Departmentof PsychiatryandHuman Behaviorin the Collegeof Medicineof the University interest of Californiaat Irvine.He hasa long-standing of the Second in thehistory,art,andarchitecture Templeperiod. BarryHobermanhasa master'sin OldTestamentfrom Harvard DivinitySchoolandanotherin medieval historyfromIndianaUniversity.Hisarticleson Near EasternandCentralAsianhistoryappearregularlyin Aramco WorldMagazine;he has also contributedto HarvardMagazine, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston

Journal,andTheLamp.Hobermanwasformerlymanagingeditorof BA.

DeniseSchmandt.-Besserat Lawrence D. Sporty

RobertC. Boling

Of

articlesin this themanyinteresting

issue of BA, I would like to mention three in particular.The first is our featurearticle by Samuel Noah Kramer. Dr. Kramer'swork in bringingto light the resemblances and parallelsbetween the literaryworks of Sumer and the Bible is well known. In "The WeepingGoddess: Sumerian Prototypesof the Mater Dolorosa," he continues this effort, this time with Sumerian lamentations. I don't think it's an overstatementto say that this is an important article for students of the Bible, especially those interested in biblical laments. This issue of BA is also noteworthyfor its initiation of a new department:"The Museum Trail."The purposeof this departmentis to inform people about collections and exhibits they might not be awareof, and to inform them in such a way that they are stimulated to see for themselves. JanetTassel'sarticle, "The HarvardSemitic Museum Rises Again"succeeds admirablyin this. I recommend the article and the museum. Finally,this issue also includes a conversation between two scholars-Eric Meyers,editor of BA, and Michael Payne,a professorof English and history at Bucknell University.Wewould like to do more articles in this interview format.Interviews can communicate ideas with an immediacy that is difficult to obtain in authoredarticles, and of course they can be interesting for the glimpses they provideof the person behind the ideas. Your suggestions for people who could be interviewed in future issues would be welcome.

Martin Wilcox ManagingEditor

1983 ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING BIBLICAL

67

OF%,

;

F. Albright tW. Institute of

Archaeological Researchin Jerusalem

announces its newly expanded program and improved facilities AcademicProgramBi-monthly series of Lectures,Seminarsand Reportsin archaeologyand related subjects. Field Trips Bi-monthlyprogramof study tours to eighty archaeological sites and museums in Israeland annual trips to Cyprus, Jordanand Egypt. ExcavationProjectLong-termfield programat Tel Miqne (Ekron) cosponsoredby the Hebrew University. Publications Program(in preparation) Miqne(Ekron)monograph series; a catalogueof the Albright a survey Institute'sStudyCollection; of Archaeological Resourcesin Israel; an annual publicationin English of HadashotArkheologiyot-Archaeological in Israel, SurveysandExcavations jointly sponsored by AIAR, NGSBA, IES and the Departmentof Antiquities. ResearchLibrary18,000volumes, 450 journals,maps, microficheand ceramiccollections;specializingin Syro-PalestinianArchaeology,and Ancient Near EasternHistory, Languages and BiblicalStudies. WorkshopsRestoration,drafting, photographicand storage facilities. Scholar'sResidence Single and double rooms with half board, daily/monthlyrates. Two twobedroomapartmentsavailablefor long-term rental. Firstprioritygiven to Albright/ASORappointees. Appointments and Fellowships Annual awards are made for PostdoctoralNationalEndowmentfor the HumanitiesFellowships;Annual Professorships;Pre-doctoralGeorge A. Bartonand Samuel H. Kress Fellowships;HonoraryFellowships for Senior, Post-doctoraland ResearchFellows. While all students and scholarsin Ancient Near EasternStudies are welcome to participatein the program of the AlbrightInstituteand use its facility,priorityis given to membersof the AmericanSchools of OrientalResearch. further "For S. informationcontactProfessor Gitin, Director,W. F. AlbrightInstitute of ArchaeologicalResearch, P.O.B. 19096,91 190 Jerusalem, Israel,Tel. 282-131,or Mitchell Rothman,AdministrativeDirector, ASOR, 4243 Spruce Street, Philadelphia,PA 19104,Tel. (215) 222-4643.

68

IN THE NEXT BA

OF0 sO

Biblical

Archaeologst Editor Eric M. Meyers

Associate Editor James W Flanagan

Managing Editor

Martin Wilcox Book Review Editor Peter B. Machinist

Editorial Committee Carole Fontaine Volkmar Fritz Lawrence T. Geraty David M. Gunn A. T Kraabel Baruch A. Levine Carol L. Meyers John Wilkinson Art Director Susan Leeb

Editorial Assistants

Although we know a greatdeal about the people of the ancient world,we know very little about the proceduresthat werefollowed in their crafts -particularly the ways in which artistic designs were executed. How did a Romanstone carver proceedwhen designing the decorationfor a sarcophagus?How did a Byzantineartisango about laying out the patternof a mosaic? RobertHouston Smith has made a study of representativeworks, and he presentsanswersto these questions in his article "DecorativeGeometricDesignsin Stone-The Rediscoveryof a Techniqueof RomanByzantineCraftsmen."

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

Amy-Jill Levine Jay Geller Karen S. Hoglund

Subscriptions Manager

Barbara G. Smiley

Staff Assistant Leslie E. Sladky

AdvertisingSales Allan E. Shubert Company 198 Allendale Road King of Prussia, PA 19406 215-265-0648 Biblical Archaeologist (ISSN 0006-08951 is published quarterly (Winter,Spring, Summer, Fall) by the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR),a non-profit, nonsectarian educational organization with administrative offices at 4243 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Subscription orders and all business correspondence should be sent to ASOR Subscription Services, 4243 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Annual subscription rates: $16 in the US., US. possessions, and Canada; $18 foreign. Special annual subscription rates for students and retired faculty: $10 in the US., US. possessions, and Canada; $12 foreign. (To qualify for student or retired faculty rates, send a copy of a document that verifies your current status.) Current single issues: $5 in the US., US. possessions, and Canada; $6 foreign. Students and retired faculty: $4 in the U.S., U.S. possessions, and Canada; $5 foreign. Members of ASOR automatically receive Biblical Archaeologist as one of their annual membership benefits. Article proposals, manuscripts, letters to the editor, and all other editorial correspondence should be sent to the Editor,Biblical Archaeologist, ASOR Publications Office, Box HM, Duke Station, Durham, NC 27706. Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope bearing the proper return postage. Foreign contributors should furnish international reply coupons. Books for review should be sent to Dr. Peter B. Machinist, Department of Oriental Studies, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721. Composition by Carolina Academic Press, Durham, NC. Printed by Fisher-HarrisonCorporation, Durham, NC. Second-class postage paid at Philadelphia, PA 19104 and additional offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to ASOR Subscription Services, 4243 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Copyright ? 1983 by the American Schools of Oriental Research.

The

Weeping Goddess: Sumerian Prototypes of

the

Mater

Dolorosa by Samuel Noah Kramer

about a devastaB.c., ting calamity befell a disaster Sumer, that well-nigh ended the existence of Sumer a as Some 2000

time

political What

entity. made

this

catastrophe particwas ularly tragic, the poignant fact that it marked

Ur-Nammu, the founder of the ThirdDynasty, erected this stele at Ur. Only fragmentsof the stele werepreserved,but it has been restored to its original size of approximatelyten feet high and five feet wide. The top decorative zone shows the king pouringlibations before an enthroneddeity. The scene is repeatedin the second zone with Ur-Nammu appearing twice-once before the moon-god Nanna and once before the goddess Ningal. The heavily damaged, lower zones of the stele originally depicted the king engagedin building operations.University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

69

the end of a Sumerian renaissance of political and economic power,a periodwhen learning, literature,and music flourished throughout the land. It had begun when a king of Erechby the name of Utuhegal defeatedthe barbaricGutian hordes from the east that had subjugated much of Sumer.Utuhegal, however, did not rule long over Sumer-his throne was usurpedby one of his ambitious governors,Ur-Nammu, who succeeded in founding the last important Sumerian dynasty,commonly known as the Third Dynasty of Ur. Ur-Nammu reignedfor sixteen yearsand provedto be a capable military leader,a great builder,and an outstanding administrator.' Ur-Nammu was followed by his son Shulgi, who reignedfor close to half a century.Shulgi was one of the truly greatmonarchs of the ancient world: an outstanding military leader,a punctilious administrator,an energetic builder of monumental temples, and, even more important,a veritable cultural Maecenas. He extended Sumer's political powerand influence from the Zagrosrangeson the east to the MediterraneanSea on the west. He instituted an effective bookkeeping and accounting system in palace and temple, rearrangedthe calendar, and standardizedweights and measures throughout the land. He broughtto completion the construction of Sumer's most imposing stage tower,the zigguratof Ur, which his fatherhad left unfinished, and built numerous religious structures in the cities of Sumer.He was a lavish patronof the arts-he founded or at least liberally supportedSumer's two majoracademies of learning, one in Ur and one in Nippur. But despite Shulgi's remarkable achievements, the dynasty was nearingits end. His two sons, AmarSin and Shu-Sin,reignedonly nine years each, and we now hear for the first time of serious incursions by nomadic Amorites from the SyroArabiandesert. Shu-Sin found it necessary to build a huge fortified wall to keep the barbaricnomads

at bay,but to no avail.They continued their inroadsinto Sumer during the reign of Ibbi-Sin,the last king of the dynasty,who succeeded in holding on precariouslyto his throne for twenty-fouryears. Throughout his reign, his situation was insecure and even pathetic. Undermined by the repeatedincursions of the nomads from the west,

Detail of copperstatuette of Ur-Nammufrom the Inanna temple at Nippur.

and assaulted by the hateful Elamites from the east, his empire tottered and crumbled,and the governorsof all the more important cities of Sumer found it advisable to abandon their king and fend for themselves. One of these governors,Ishbi-Irraby name, was a craftyMachiavellian type, who kept on increasinghis powerby beguiling the confused and ratherobtuse Ibbi-Sinwith spurious comfortingpromises and honeyed seductive assurancesthat lulled the king into a false sense of security. So much so, that in time Sumer found itself under the rule of two kings: Ibbi-Sin,whose dominion was limited to the capital Ur and its environs, and Ishbi-Irra,who controlled most of the other cities of Sumer from his capital Isin.

Finally,in the twenty-fourth year of his reign, the Elamites and their allies, the Su-people, overwhelmed and destroyedUr and led off Ibbi-Sin, and no doubt many of the nobles and priests, into captivity. It was this calamitous event that left a bitter, distressing, harrowingimpression on the Sumerian psyche. And in the years following this catastrophe, after Ur had recoveredto some extent, when the priestly poets and bardswere called upon to help conduct services in Ur's restored temple, they were moved to compose lengthy poems consisting primarily of mournful laments over the sad fate of Sumer and its cities, but all ending on a note of hope and deliverance. It was in the course of composing these heartrending laments that the Sumerian poets created the image of the grieving "weepinggoddess,"sorrowful,tender, and compassionate. The Appearanceof the Weeping Goddess in Sumerian Literature In the course of the centuries that followed, the "weeping goddess" image became a currentmotif in the dirges and laments that abound in the Sumerian literaryrepertoire.She appearsin numerous and diverse guises: as the divine queen bemoaning the destruction of her city and temple, the suppressionof her cult, the sufferingof the ravagedand dispersedpeople. Or,she is the spouse, the sister, and aboveall the mother, of Dumuzi, or a Dumuzilike figure,who had been carried off into the nether world, a tragicfate that came to symbolize the death of the king and the destruction of her city and temple. Forthis paper I have combed the Sumerian literary documents in orderto uncoverand collect the more significant and intelligible passages that portrayin one wayor anotherthe role, character, and behaviorof the "weeping goddess"as imagined by Sumer's poets and bardsover the centuries. These documents fall into three categories:(1)A groupof five city lamentations which give the impres-

'Until very recently Ur-Nammuwas thought to havepromulgatedthe first written law code in the history of man. Now, new facts have come to light. See my article, "WhoWrotethe Ur-NammuLawCode?"in the forthcomingissue of Orientalia.

70

1983 BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING

sion that the destruction of Sumer and its cities was a tragic event whose bitter memories were still ratherfresh in the hearts and minds of the Sumerianpoets and bards. Two of these, the "Lamentation Over the Destruction of Ur" and the "LamentationOver the Destruction of Sumer and Ur,"were probably composed no more than a generation or two after the collapse of the Third Dynasty of Ur, that is, about 1900 B.c. The other three, the

"LamentationOver the Destruction of Nippur,"the "Lamentation Over the Destruction of Erech,"and the "LamentationOver the Destruction of Eridu,"were composed about a century later, during the reign of Ishme-Dagan,the fourth ruler of the Dynasty of Isin. (2)A groupof formulaic, repetitive, stereotypical liturgies and litanies that echo from afar,as it were, the destruction of such cities as Kesh, Isin, Ur, Nippur,Erech,Eridu,and Larsa.(3)A considerablenumber of liturgic laments relating to the death of Dumuzi, or one of the deities that came to be associated with him; most of these are couched in languagethat is laconic, enigmatic, ambiguous, and obscure.

the

in

It

was

of

composing

laments fate sad its and

the

over

of

Sumer

that

cities

Sumerian ated the

course

poets

cre-

that she had abandonedher city and forsakenher temple-she had tried desperately to prevent the catastrophe that befell Ur and its inhabitants. On the very day that she had learned that the greatgods An and Enlil had decreed the destruction of Ur and the extermination of its people, she claims to have poured out "the water of her eyes" before An and to have come as a suppliant before Enlil, pleading with them and saying "Let not Ur be destroyed! Let not its people perish!" But in vain-"An changed not his word.... Enlil soothed not my heart (by saying) 'It is good, so be it!'" Even so, continues the goddess, she refused to resign herself. With bent knees and outstretched arms she came before the council of the gods meeting in solemn session and repeatedher plea: "Let not Ur be destroyed!Let not its people perish!" But again in vain. An and Enlil refused to change their cruel verdict and they directed the utter destruction of the city and the death of its people. With Ningal's plea rejected, the poet devotes the next two stanzas to a detailed, distressing description of the destruction of Ur on Enlil's command. He called the cruel merciless storm, accompanied by ragingwinds and scorching fire, against the trembling, horrified land. After destroyingthe cities of Sumer it turned to Ur and "coveredit like a garment, enveloped it like a cloth." Ur's high walls were breachedby the Elamites and their allies, the Su-people. Dead bodies lay rotting awayat Ur's lofty gates and wide promenades; the blood of its people flowed like molten metal in the crucible. Its arms-bearingmen died fighting; those who escaped were

of image "weepgrieving ing goddess," sorrowful, tender, and compassionate. the

their mothers, and the alienation of its rites and rituals. The poet then begins the third stanza by introducing the agonizing, sleepless Ningal who seats herself on the groundwith her plaintive lyre, and chants a lament, the burden of which is the suffering inflicted upon her by the terrifying, cyclonic destructive storm which she cannot escape day or night and Lamentations which does not allow her one day LamentationOverthe Destruction of peace and rest. Because of the of Ur. By far the most vivid, anguish of the land, the poet has her delineand continue, she trod the earth like comprehensive graphic, a cow in search of its calf, but the ation of the "weeping goddess"and land was not delivered of fear. her agonyand torment is found in the "LamentationOver the Destruc- Although, because her city was in tion of Ur," a composition of over agony,she flew to its aid, flappingher four hundredlines divided into wings like a bird in the sky, the eleven stanzas. This work bewails city was nevertheless destroyedto its the destruction of Ur by the Elamites very foundations. Although when and the Su-people, and the ravaging spying the "handof the storm" she of the land by a devastating calamity cried "Return,Storm,to the steppe," her command was of no avail. The designated as a cruel, ruthless, and storm chose not to depart.Her heartless "storm." The first two stanzas set the stage, as it were, for Enunkug,her house of queenship, for which she had been promised the appearance of Ningal as the long days,lay hugging the groundin "weeping goddess." After bewailing tears and laments. In her temple, the abandonment of all the more which used to be the place where the their of Sumer cities by important spirit of the "blackheads"(that is, tutelary deities, these stanzas conthe blackheadedpeople, the Sumerclude with an exclamatory address ians) was soothed and comforted, by the poet to the far-famed, highwrath and distress now abound walled city of Ur, bemoaning its instead of joyous celebrations. destruction, the carrying off of its Not, cries the grievinggoddess, people like kids and lambs from

killed by the storm. Young and old, weak and strong, perished through famine. The old men and old women who stayed in their houses were burnt alive. Disorder and confusion reigned everywhere. Mother forsook daughter; father forsook son; wife and child were abandoned. Ningal, herself, had to flee the city "like a bird on the wing." Ur's possessions were defiled, its storehouses were burnt, its rivers were

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

71

driedup. Ninlil, concludes the poet, left the city crying out to her spouse Nanna: "Alasfor my city, alas for my house.... Ur has been destroyed,its people have been dispersed!" The poet now brings the embitteredNingal once again on the scene, and has her utter a long heartbreakingsoliloquy bemoaning the fate of her city and temple. An, she cries, has cursed her city, and Enlil has turned inimical to her house. Ur has been destroyedinside and outside. In its riversdust is heapedhigh; there is no fresh water. There is no grainin the field; gone is its field-worker.Her palm groves and vineyardshave broughtforth the mountain-thorn. Her possessions have been carriedoff to the lands aboveand below; her precious metals, stones, and lapis lazuli lie scatteredabout. Her ornaments of precious metal and stone now adornthe bodies of those who "know not" precious metal and stone. Her sons and daughtershave been carried off into captivity; she is no longer queen of Ur. Her city and house have been demolished and a strangecity and a strangehouse have been erected in their place. Woe is her, she exclaims, Ur has been destroyed;its people have been put to death; where now shall she sit down, where stand up? Here the poet interruptsNingal's mournful soliloquy with a brief three-line passagedepicting the goddess'sviolent emotional state: With tear-filledeyes she tears out her hair like rushes, and'beatsher breastlike a drum. He then has the goddesscontinue her despondent monologue: Woe is her; her house is a stall torn down whose cows have been dispersed-she was an unworthy shepherdess who let her ewes be struck down by the weapon. Woe is her; she has been exiled from her city and can find no rest, can find no home. As if she were a stranger in a strange city, curses and abuse are pressed upon her and she can say nothing in response. The goddess now proceeds to berate the personified "City-Fate" and "House-Fate" who had dared approach her for destroying her city

72

and turning her house into ruins, warningthem that she will lie down in the debrisand, like a fallen ox, rise no more. Finally,turning once again to her city, she concludes her lamentful soliloquy with the accusation that her house had been built in deceit and that her city, from

This tablet is inscribed with the third, fourth,fifth, and sixth stanzas of the "Lamentation Over the Destruction of Ur." University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.

which all offeringswere now cut off, was devastatedby the storm, out of hatredand without cause. So moved is the poet by Ningal's tears that he exclaims, "O Queen, make yourheart like water,how can you keep on living?"and repeats this and parallelphrasesas a persistent refrain.Finally,after cataloguing the misfortunes that have overtaken her,he pleads with the goddess to returnto the city that loved her and looked up to her like a child to its mother. He begs her to returnlike an ox to its stall, like a sheep to its fold, like a maiden to her

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

chamber.An, he consoles her, is no longer angry with her,and Enlil will restoreher city so that she might once again be its queen. Other Lamentations. So much for the weeping Ningal as portrayed in the "LamentationOverthe Destruction of Ur!'" Nothing quite comparableto this striking, poignant, sensitive depiction of the "weepinggoddess"is to be found in any other extant Sumerianlament, not even in the four other impressive lamentations listed in the first group.In the "LamentationOver the Destruction of Sumer and Ur,"for example, a composition of over five hundredlines that is of no little historical significance, one of the stanzas mentions briefly virtually every important Sumeriancity that had been destroyedby the enemy, as well as the name of its weeping divine queen. But all that the poet says about each of these sufferinggoddesses is that they cry bitterly "Oh my destroyedcity! Oh my destroyedhouse!"-a vague, colorless assertion that says virtually nothing about any passionate, emotional reaction to the suffering and devastation about them. In the case of the "Lamentation Over the Destruction of Nippur," a composition of which the first part only is a lament, while the second, largerpartis actually a song of jubilation celebratingthe deliveranceof Nippur by the messiahlike Ishme-Dagan,its divine queen Ninlil is only briefly mentioned, and not as a "weeping goddess"but ratheras a "great mother" offeringa prayerto her spouse Enlil who, accordingto the poet, had alreadybeen moved to mercy and compassion by the plight of the city and its anguished plea for the restoration of his temple and the deliverance of the "blackheads!' The "Lamentation Over the Destruction of Erech" is only about half-preserved and in the extant portion there is no mention of its queen Inanna in the role of a "weeping goddess." Inanna does appear toward the very end of the composition, not as a "weeping goddess" but as the exalted Eve-

ning and Morning Starto whom the poet offers a prayerfor the life of Ishme-Dagan who had restoredthe city and who, he assures her, would serve her faithfully with sacrifices, libations, music, and song. Only in the "Lamentation Over the Destruction of Eridu"is there a portrayalof a "weeping goddess"that may be at all comparedwith that of Ningal in the "Lamentation Over the Destruction of Ur."In this composition the poet depicts the divine queen of Eridu,Damgalnunna, as lacerating her body with daggerand sword and weeping over the destruction of her city and the suppression of her cult. Other cities, she laments, have been destroyedby the deities in charge of them, but none have been completely abandoned, and in time their temple and cult were restored. Why then, she complains, should Eridu and its temple stay desolate and forsaken?On hearing Damgalnunna's plaint, Enki, the Sumerian god of wisdom whose seat was Eridu,becomes extremely despondent but is comforted by the poet who pleads with him to return to his city and temple. Liturgies and Litanies

In the liturgical, litany-padded laments that constitute the second groupof documents in which the image of the "weeping goddess" is a prominent structuralfeature, it is primarily the goddess Ninisinna, the divine queen of Isin (andthe severaldeities associated or identified with her), and Inanna, the divine queen of Erech,who play the leading roles, at least in the extant texts. In one composition, for example, the poet depicts Ninisinna bemoaning the dire consequences of the destruction of her city and temple thus: She now has no savory food and drink; no place to sit or lie down; no dining table with its silver and bronze vessels; no sweet-sounding musical instruments such as the lyre, drum, tambourine, and reed pipe; no comforting songs and soothing words from the temple singers and priests. Her spouse and her son no longer live with her; she can no longer walk proudly in her

Nothing ble

comparathe

to

striking of

depiction "weeping the

in

the

Over

struction other lament.

goddess"

"Lamenta-

tion can

the

be

of

DeUr"

in found Sumerian

any

own house. In another of these liturgical laments, Ninisinna complains bitterly that it is the cruel relentless word of An and Enlil that have broughtabout the destruction of her temple by the enemy,who carried off her possessions in boats loaded front and rear;who came into her holy cella without taking off his shoes; who laid a terrifying hand on her; who tore off her garments and dressedhis wife with them; who rippedoff her ornaments and adornedhis child with them. So terrifiedwas she, the goddessgrieves, that she dartedto the roof of her house like a frightened dove;fluttered about in the crevices like a bat; fled her city and house like a bird on the wing; exclaimed, "Youare not my house, you are not my city" when he kept calling afterher. The poet now introduces a motif that in one form or another appears in severalof the liturgic laments: the goddess'sdespondent response to the accusation that it was she herself who had dishonoredherself by destroyingher house and city. No, the poet has the goddess assert, it was not she who was responsible-it was her "father"An, and/or Enlil, the lord of all the lands, who did these terriblethings to her. Another of these Ninisinna liturgies, one that may be entitled "The Goddess and Her Lyre:A

Doleful Dialogue," begins with a bitter soliloquy by the goddess in which she laments the tragicmisfortune that has befallen when the stormlike, cruel word of An and Enlil overtookher: Her city and house were devastated;deprivedof her possessions and of her husband and son, she wanders about aimless and overcome;the fledglings of her nest arehungry,the young of her stall are thirsty; her Dilmun boat has been sunk in the swamps and her fishing boat is lost in the marshes; she is an enemy in her own city, despised in her birthplace, without strength and willpower. After an obscurepassagein which the goddess continues to lament for her ravagedcity and house, she solemnly proclaims that she has decided to flee the word of An and Enlil and hide where no one can find her, not even they who seek her in the most desolate places. These mournful words so move her lyre, which the poet imagines to be in earshot of the sombre soliloquy, that it breaksinto a lamentful chant addressedto the goddess,the burden of which is that her flight from the word of An and Enlil will only make matters worse: The princely children will rush pell-mell out of her sheepfold and will be cut down by the word of An and Enlil. The response of the goddess is not clear,but to judgefrom the general tone of her speech which continues to dwell on the dreadedword of An and Enlil, she remains firm in her resolve to flee. One of these Ninisinna liturgic compositions, consisting of close to six hundredlines, is inscribed on a ten-column tablet which is more than half-preserved.The text, which is replete with repetitious litanies and refrains, nevertheless adds to the repertoire of plaints uttered by the "weeping goddess." Thus we find the poet picturing her as walking about bent low in her defiled cult chamber, bemoaning the devastation of her temple and her treasure house that was once overflowing with riches but is now so desolate and dust-covered that even dogs and scorpions have abandoned it; the doves flee its crum-

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

73

bledspires;its muchadmiredgates arebrokendownanddesolate;its roofbeamslie in the sun like a man who is disease-ridden; its lofty brickworklies weepinglike a grieving woman;its reedmatssquirm andtwist like a manafflictedby colic;its roofhedgeslie scattered on the groundlike ripped-outhair; its hedgerows(?)dartinto the creviceslike flyingbats;its door postslie rubbedrawlike a man its doorhingeshave water-scrubbed; beentornapart;its locks andbolts groanandmoan;herlofty cult chamberhas beengivento the wind.It is Enlil,she complains bitterly,who dishonoredhertemple andbroughtmoaningandweeping into herhouse thathadbeen built forthe celebrationof joyous feasts. Fate,bittertragicfatesymbolizedbythe nether-world demon Namtar,is frequentlymentionedin the Sumerianlamentations.But thereis one liturgiccomposition,a ratherdifficulttext foundin severalversionsaccordingto which the "weepinggoddess"is eitherNinisinnaorInanna,that treatsNamtar as the villainparexcellence,the

Namtar, she weeps, brought her misery as if it were a silver ornament for her hand and a precious stone for her neck; then he addedinsult to injury by pressing her to meet fate with a cheerful face, to rejoicein the death of her husbandand son. But, she retorts

goddess'sbete noir as it were. Beginning with the mournful words "I will cry woe, I will cry oh; I will cry woe, I will cry oh again and again; I will cry woe for my house, I will cry oh for my city," the goddess complains that Namtar is standing at her side day and night; she marrieda spouse but now has no spouse; she gave birth to a son but now has no son; like a ewe she cherished a strangelamb; like a mother-goat she cherished a strange kid; she has been devastatedin her own city; her friends, male and female, are distraught because of her. She thereforeannounces her decision to go to Enlil's "House of Fate" and bring him her defiant complaint. Pressing open the door and crying out "Open, Namtar" she accuses Enlil of decreeing a wretched fate for her. But her cry is in vain. Namtar, she continues, looked at her angrily, screamed at her, and clung tenaciously to her lap and side, so that she became even more despondent, because of her desolation.

74

The goddess Ningal is portrayedin this diorite statue which was dedicated by the high priest, Enannatum (2080 B.c.). University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.

defiantly,she is not a slave-girland will not submit to fate; though she be made to staggerwhen walking and to bow her head when sitting, though her hair be rippedout and her skin torn apart,she will not submit.

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

Burdenedas she is with Namtar on her lap, she proclaims that she has decided to journeyto the steppe where she will drink waterfrom unfamiliarrivers, eat grainfrom unfamiliar fields, walk about in unfamiliarpaths. But even there, in the steppe, she complains, she is hunted by Namtar as birds are hunted in the canebrake.There, moreover,a new calamity befalls her; she is afflicted by Asag, the demon of disease. And so she cries out to her mother about her wretched fate: No one now seeks her out in the steppe, no one asks about her, not even Enlil as he walks to his stall; she is treatedlike an unmentionable ghost of the steppe. And when her mother tries to console her, imploring her not to cry for she is beautiful and lovely, adornedwith kohl and bedecked with ornaments, and urgingher to keep on beautifying herself, to wash and soap herself, to paint her eyes with kohl, and to put on clean clothes, she respondsdespondently that there is no lyric chant in her brokenheart and that no one who sees her shamed face and mumbling lips will have any sympathy for her. The composition, ratherstrangely, closes with an obscure four-line addressto the goddess that relates in some way to the death of Gilgamesh, an enigmatic ending whose real meaning is at present difficult to penetrate. The indictment of Enlil as the god responsiblefor the goddess's misfortune is also underlined in at least two other compositions in which Inannaplays the role of the "weepinggoddess."In a long liturgy of severalhundredlines that is only about half-preserved,the poet depicts the goddess bewailing the destruction of her city and temple and the pillaging of her possessions; she sighs and moans by the Euphrates and its canals, without food to eat and water to drink; she wanders about aimlessly crying "oh and woe" for the dead "lord" of her house. And when she is chided for her shameful part in the destruction of her city and temple, she responds despairingly that it is not she who did it but her father Enlil.

An even more vivid example of Inanna'scomplaint against Enlil is found in an Inannalament inscribed on an as yet unpublished tablet in the British Museum. Beginningwith the goddess'sreproachthat he, Enlil, had filled her with dismay and consternation, the text continues with a picture of Inannaseated beforeEnlil in his temple, demanding answers to her bitter,plaintive queries. She wants him to tell her, now that her house and city have been destroyedand her spouse and son no longer live there, where is she to find a home. Or,as the weeping goddessherself puts it: The birdhas its nesting place, but I-my young are dispersed; The fish lies in calm waters, but I--my resting place exists not; The dog kneels at the threshold, but I-I have no threshold; The ox has its stall, but I-I have no stall; The cow has a place to lie down, but I-I have no place to lie down; The ewe has its fold, but I-I have no fold; The beasts have a place to sleep, but I-I have no place to sleep. Inanna'shomelessness is also a motif in another liturgy that begins with the familiarcry of woe for her temple that had been so that even the dog and thedevastated. scorpion, not to mention humans, abandoned it. In this case, however,it is the poet, not the goddess,who asks plaintively,where will she live now that she allowed the storm to roarday and night in her temple and cella? Moreoverhe chides the goddessfor permitting this shameful act. Inanna'sexpected answer,that it was Enlil who did it, is probably omitted in this composition, which seems to end in medias res. Finally,there is a brief poignant lament by Inanna that summarizes much of the tone, mood, and content of the much longer formulaic liturgies:

I, the hierodule of An, the Queen of Heaven-I, the destroyerof mountains, the Queen of EannaMy house that had been built for me in a dream, My city that had been built for me in a dream, My house that fecundates like stalls and sheepfolds, My house that fecundates like sheep in the sheepfold, My house where the sealcutter cuts seals, My house where the lapislazuli worker,works lapis lazuli, My (house) at whose gate one stands in wonder, My sanctuary of all mankind, My treasurehouse of all the landsWhen it was built, the land, too, was built, When it was destroyed,the land was destroyedwith it. The comely spouse has been carriedoff by the enemy; The comely son has been carriedoff by the enemy; Its great feasts are no longer properlycelebrated; Its precious me (divine powers) are locked away; Its collected me stand (useless) in the corner; Its rites have been altered, its reign has turned hostile. The righteous house-its reign has been transformedinto a hostile reign; The righteous house has been devastated;it has been turned over to the wind.

cally speaking, was carriedoff bound and fetteredto the nether world-there is, however,no son of Inannawho suffereddeath and captivity.In the case of Ninisinna, on the other hand, it was her son Damu, a deity often associated and interchangedwith Dumuzi, who

This tablet from Nippurdates to Dynasty I of Isin and records the "Mythof Enlil and Ninlil." University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.

was carriedoff to the land of the dead-her husband, Pabilsagby name, is not characterizedas a dying god in any extant text. Inanna, it might thereforebe expected, should be mourning only for her doomed husband, and Ninisinna only for her doomed son. Since, The captureand death of the however,the two goddesses are often interchangedin the liturgies, husbandand son referredto in the abovelament constitute a recurrent their authors and redactorsdid not seem to find it necessary to distinstereotypical motif in the liturgical "weeping guish between them and to specify goddess".laments, who mourned for whom in the the to those especially relating goddessesNinisinna and Inanna.In husband-sonmotif that had become a literarystereotype. This bringsus none of these liturgies is the husbandor son identified by name, and to the third class of "weeping this poses somewhat of a quandary. goddess"compositions, those conIn the case of Inannait would seem sisting of laments for the captureand death of Dumuzi and Damu, and the reasonableto assume that the husbandrefersto her spouse Dumuzi (or deities who for some unknown reason had come to be associated the king who was deemed to be an with them. avatarof Dumuzi) who, mythologi-

1983 ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING BIBLICAL

75

Laments for Dumuzi, Damu, or Associates In the case of Dumuzi, the "weepinggoddesses"who mourned his cruel fate were his spouse Inanna,his sister Geshtinanna, and his mother Ninsun. This is put succinctly in a recently published new version of the death of Dumuzi in which the poet has Dumuzi himself bemoaning his cruel fate and actually imagining and visualizing his spouse Inannaweeping bitterly for him in her temple Eanna, while his sister Geshtinanna rips out her hair and rends her sinews by the boulevardof his mother Ninsun. To be sure, Inanna'stears for her spouse are,in a sense, crocodile tears, since it was she herself who accordingto the myth "Inanna's Descent to the Nether World,"turned him overto the cruel little demons to carryhim off bound and fettered Nevertheto the "landof no return!'." less the poets did not seem to find it incongruous to portrayher as weeping for the husband/son who had been taken captive and put to death in Kullab,a district in her city of Erech,and lamenting: Gone now is my husband, sweet husband; Gone now is my son, sweet son; My husband has gone among the early plants; My son has gone among the late plants; My husbandwho has gone to seek plants, has been given overto the plants; My son who has gone to seek water,has been given overto the water; My bridegroomhas departedfrom the city as if it were a fly-infestedplace; He has departedfrom the city as if it were infected with early-plantflies. According to another composition consisting almost entirely of a lament uttered by Inanna,it was not the nether-worlddemons who carriedoff Dumuzi but, strangeand inexplicable as it may seem, a bison with mottled eyes and crushing teeth. Lamentingfor her hus-

76

band Dumuzi, who is no longer alive, she weeps: Wild ox, how can you lie there-the ewe and its lamb have fallen alseep; Wild ox, how can you lie there-the mother-goatand its kid have fallen alseep.

Fate,

bitter

tragic frequently

is in mentioned Sumerian lamentations.

fate,

the

She then decides to go looking for him in the "Hill of the Bison"and keeps asking for his whereabouts, for him "who is no longer given food to eat and water to drink."When the answer is given that the bison has carriedhim off to the nether world, she pleads with him not to seal tight his comely open eyes and not to silence his comely open mouth. But her plea is in vain, and she concludes her lament with these mournful lines:

plays a major role. The scene for this brief lament is set in Geshtinanna's home whither Dumuzi, beaten and tortured,has fled to escape the pursuingnether-worlddemons. Upon catching sight of her unfortunate brother,Geshtinanna lacerates her body and weeps: Oh my brother,oh my brother, lad whose dayshave not been fulfilled, Oh my brother,Shepherd Aamushungalanna, lad whose days and years have not been fulfilled, Oh my brother,lad who has no wife, who has no son, Oh my brother,lad who has no friend, who has no companion, Oh my brother,lad who brings no comfort to his mother.

In another brief passage that is part of a complex and obscure composition, Geshtinanna thinks of herself as Dumuzi's mother as well as his sister. Thus, accordingto the poet, when Dumuzi tells her that he would go to his mother, weeping and crying like a small child, she seems to comfort him with these ambiguous words: Oh my brotherwith the lumlum On his cot the dog lies; eyes, with the lamlam eyes, Who is your sister? I am your My man-in his hut the ravendwells; sister; His flute-song the wind utters; Who is your mother? I am your mother. My man-his chants the North The sun that rises for you rises Wind utters. also for me; While there may be some doubt The sun that gazes upon you, about the sincerity of Inanna's gazes also upon me. tears for her spouse, there is no As for Dumuzi's mother doubt whatever about the deep concern and profound agony of Ninsun, we have at present only one Dumuzi's sister Geshtinanna who, reasonablyintelligible lament actuaccording to the mythographers, ally uttered by the goddess for her loved him so dearly that she was son-its laconic repetitive contents may be paraphrased as follows: preparedto sacrifice her own life to save his. There must have existed Her heart, she cries, has set up a numerous laments uttered by Gesh- dirge in the steppe, on the shepherd's tinanna for her brotherin the hill, where Dumuzi lies bound and Sumerian literary repertoire,but at fettered, "where the ewe has given can be few brief a up its lamb, the mother-goat has dirges present only identified as having been uttered given up its kid." Having heard her suffering son plead "Would that by the goddess. One of these is part of a telescoped version of the myth my mother could reach me!" she can "Inanna'sDescent to the Nether only repeat helplessly, "My heart World"in which Geshtinanna has set up a dirge in the steppe'."The

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

the

On

his

My

man-in

His

flute-song

My

man-his

cot

text closes with a portrayalof the mother who, having bracedher droopinghands and feet, arrivedat the place her son was lying and gazedwith a shudderupon his lifeless face. Since Dumuzi, the son of Ninsun, is often fused and confused with Damu, the son of Ninisinna in the dying-godlaments, it is not surprisingto find that the mothers, too, were sometimes interchanged, so that it is not clear who mourned whom. This is especially true of a composition entitled by the ancient scribes "In the SteppeAmong the EarlyPlants," which is concerned primarilywith the mother's search forher lost son. The sequence of events in this long and ratherobscure text is quite uncertain. It may have begun with the mother comparing her missing son metaphorically to a deadtamarisk, to an uprooted poplar,to withered plants. It continues with the mother cursing the day when she was bereft of her son, as she wandersfrom canebraketo canebrakepleading that someone reveal to her the whereaboutsof her son. When she is informed that he has been carriedoff by the fiendish deputies of the nether world who will not returnhim to her, she proceedsto the deputy-gateand pleads for the returnof hef son, but to no avail-Dumuzi was now in the land of the dead, and unable to respondto his mother's tears. In quite a number of the mater dolorosa compositions, the name of the lost martyredson is not stated, and it is uncertain whether the mother is mourning Dumuzi, Damu, or some other of the dyinggod prototypes.Thus there is one partiallypreservedlament attributed to the goddessNinisinna, who is depicted as a woebegone mother who had weddeda spouse but now

lies;

dog his

hut

the

raven

wind the utters; the North chants

dwells; Wind

utters.

weddeda loving spouse and having given birth to a princely son, a choice donkey-foal,whom death would take from her. Ninhursag is the mater dolorosa in a dying-godcomposition inscribed on a tablet in the British Museum that has only just been edited (1982). Accordingto this text, the goddess's comely, attractive, unnamed son had disappeared,and she went about searching and questioning in the vicinity of a mountain, which she traversedfrom base to summit. Carrying rushes and reeds in front of her, the goddess, designated as "the This tablet from Nippur recordsthe "Lament mother of the lad" and "the mother forDumuzi!' University Museum, University of the lord," sets up a lament among of Pennsylvania. the reed thickets. The burdenof her plaint is largelyunintelligible-it seems to involve a fallen meteor has no husband, who had given birth that had turned noon to dusk, setto a son but now has no son, and ting the earth atremble and interferwho rushes about searching despering with her search. In any case she did not find her missing son, and it ately for her unnamed son whom has been taken from her and whom was finally revealedto the weeping she comparesto a choice donkeygoddess, portrayedas a cow lowing foal that has been abducted,a lamb to its unrespondingcalf, that there snatched by a wild beast, a calf was no point to her searching and carriedoff by a wild beast. In her lamenting-her son is in the nether own city, she exclaims, she has world, and the officials in charge been mistreated;she is a ewe whose will not give him back to her. lamb has been taken from her, a One of the goddesses associated with Ninhursag in the composimother-goatwhose kid has been taken from her; with a heart that is tion just cited is her daughterLisin disconsolate and bewildered,she who is the mater dolorosa in two pleads nonetheless that her city dying-godlaments that have only and temple not be destroyed. recently come to light. One of these In another of the mater dolorosa is a fairly well-preservedtext of compositions it is the greatmotherseventy-six lines that is quite remarkable for its relatively rich and goddessNinhursag (or two of the deities associated with her) that is surprisingcontent as well as for its mourning her unnamed son. The metaphor-orientedstyle. The poet first partof this composition is sets the stage with a brief introducvirtually identical with that of the tory passage:The goddess Lisin, Ninisinna text just cited. But the after searching in vain over meadow burdenof Ninhursag's lament that and high steppe for her lost son, constitutes the second half is quite turns pale and weeps, uttering her different-it centers on the futility cry of woe in regions high and low. and profitlessness of her having After pleading to no avail that her

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My young hero-my mother has killed him. I-to whom can I compare her? My mother who bore me, Ninhursag, My mother has killed him. I-to whom shall I compare her? To a bitch that has no compassion I shall compareher again and again. Lisin, accordingto the poet, now seats herself all alone with aching heart and continues her plaint with special stress on her loneliness and alienation: Like a celibate I will weep and weep. Like one who has no boyfriend I will eat all by myself; Like one who has no girlfriend I will eat all by myself; The doorstepof my housethat is my sister; The doorbolt of my housethat is my brother; The marshes have taken my donkey-foal,the sweet; I will make weeping "live" for my choice donkey-foal; I will make sighing "live"for my choice donkey-foal; I have offereda prayerfor his head; I have invoked (?)a blessing (?) for his cheek.

These tablets from Nippur are inscribed with the story of "Inanna'sDescent." University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.

unnamed son-she depicts him metaphorically throughout the text as a choice donkey-foalwho has been torn to pieces by a pack of dogs, as a birdwhose nest has been destroyed,as a calf whose sleeping place has been destroyed,as a wild donkey cut down in the forest, as a canal inspector overcome by the river,as a farmerwhose field has been inundated- be returnedto her, she lies down among the saplings and laments once again for

78

her metaphorically designated son. The poet now introduces a rather startling motif unknown from any other literarysource: Lisin accuses her own mother Ninhursag of having put to death her son, that is, Ninhursag's own grandson.To quote the goddess: To whom shall I compareher? To whom shall I compare her?I-to whom shall I compareher?

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

The poet now depicts the goddess as lowing anew for her choice donkey-foallike a cow, and braying for him like a donkey-marealong the marshes and river,repeatingthe lament for the loss of her son, and the denunciation of her mother as a pitiless bitch. Embitteredand despondent the goddess abandonsher city

and sits down all alone with a kurgarra (a being connected in some way with the nether world) at her head and Namtar, the demon of death, at her cheek; tears of lament flow from her eyes.

Finally,it is probablyLisin who is portrayedas the mater dolorosa in a composition of forty-fivelines that is fairly well preservedbut whose contents are laconic, allusive, ambiguous, and

obscure.As I very tentatively interpret the text, it consists of an introduction describingthe suffering of the woebegone,fasting goddess Lisin; an obscure narrative passageconcerns the search for her son in the river,the bringingof his corpse to her by the official in charge,and the setting up of her grievinglament; the lament itself, the burdenof which is that because of a violent destructive tempest sent against her by the Father(unnamed -perhaps the god Enlil), she was wreckedlike a boat and forcedto

surrenderher son to the waters. Following the plea by the goddess to the skipperof a boat sailing downstreamnot to set aquiverher son who is also sailing, as it were, on the waters and not to force him to gash his nose like a riverfrogbut to keep searching for him in riverand marsh, the poet concludes the composition with a melancholy three-line addressto Lisin'sdead son, bemoaning the grievoussuffering of the mother who is restless and unable to sleep.

This tablet in the Hilprecht Collection of the Friederich-SchillerUniversity in Jena, East Germany,is inscribed with the seventh stanza and part of the eighth stanza of the "LamentationOver the Destruction of Ur."

BibliographicalGuide Below is a list of the works of Sumerianliteraturediscussed in this article. The bold numbers that appear afteritems referto the following referencelist. Fora generaloverviewof this literature,see references2, 3 (pp. 1-40), 8 (pp.277-325), 20 (pp. 11-51), and 21 (pp. 1-7). "LamentationOverthe Destruction of Ur": 4, 9, 11, 13. "LamentationOverthe Destruction of Sumerand Ur": 14. "LamentationOverthe Destruction of Nippur":12. "LamentationOverthe Destruction of Erech":8 (p. 293). "LamentationOverthe Destruction of Eridu":8 (pp.326-74). FirstNinisinna liturgic lament: 3 (pp. 103-06). SecondNinisinna lament: 23 (pp.374-79). ThirdNinisinna lament: 23 (pp.363-69).

FourthNinisinna lament: 20 (pp.52-223). "Fate"lament: 3 (pp.96-103 and 175-79). FirstInannaliturgic lament: 1, 7 (pls. 35-38), 17 (p. 297). SecondInannalament: 15 (pp.91-93), 17 (p. 297). ThirdInannalament: 3 (pp.66-69 and 158-59). FourthInannalament: 3 (pp. 70-71 and 159-61). Death of Dumuzi: 16. Inanna'shusband/sonlament: 3 (pp. 73-74), 10 (p. 50). "Bison"lament: 3 (pp.89-91 and 170-74).

FirstGeshtinannapassage:22 (p. 228, lines 42-46). Second Geshtinannapassage:10 (p. 68). Ninsun lament: 10 (pp.54-55). "In the SteppeAmong the EarlyPlants":10 (pp.63-66). Ninisinna mater dolorosalament: 6 (No. 19). FirstNinhursagmater dolorosalament: 10 (p. 105). Second Ninhursagmater dolorosalament: 18. FirstLisinmater dolorosalament: 5 (No. 144), 10 (p. 106). SecondLisin mater dolorosalament: 19.

Bibliography BritishMuseum (1)un- BM96680. Tabletcontaining pub. first Inannaliturgic lament. Housed in the BritishMuseum. Cohen, M. E. (2)1974 Balag-Compositions:Sumerian Lamentation Liturgiesof the Second and FirstMillennium B.C. Monographson the Ancient Near East,vol. 1, fasc. 1, ed.

G. Buccellati. Malibu, CA: Undena Publications. (3) 1981 SumerianHymnology: The Ereshemma.New York:Ktav Publishing House.

Falkenstein,A. (4) 1949 Reviewof Lamentation Over the Destruction of Ur (byS. N. Kramer,The OrientalInstitute of the University of Chi-

cagoAssyriological Studies 12, 1940).Zeitschrift ffir Assyriologie und Vorderasiatische Archiiologie49: 320-24. Figulla,H. H., editor (5) 1949 JointExpeditionof the British Museum and of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania to Mesopotamia.Ur Excavations; Texts. Vol.IV.London:

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79

Trusteesof the BritishMuseum. (6)1959 CuneiformTexts from Babylonian Tabletsin the British Museum. PartXLII.London: Trusteesof the BritishMuseum. Gadd,C. J.,editor (7) 1921 CuneiformTexts fromBabylonian Tabletsin the BritishMuseum. PartXXXVI.London: Trusteesof the BritishMuseum. Green,M. (8) 1975W.Eriduin Sumerian Literature. Unpublisheddoctoraldissertation. The Universityof Chicago. Jacobsen,T. (9) 1941 Reviewof Lamentation Over the Destruction of Ur by Samuel Noah Kramer.American Journalof Semitic Languages and Literature58: 219-24. (10) 1976 Treasuresof Darkness:A Historyof MesopotamianReligion. New Haven,CT: YaleUniversity Press. Kramer,S. N. (11) 1940 Lamentation Over the Destruction of Ur.The OrientalInstitute of the University of ChicagoAssyriologicalStudies 12, eds. J.A. Wilson andT.G. Allen. Chicago:University of ChicagoPress. (12)1969 LamentationOverthe Destruction of Nippur:A Preliminary Report.Pp. 89-93 in EretzIsrael:Archaeological,Histori-

(13) 1969

(14) 1969

(15) 1979

(16) 1980

(17) 1981

cal and GeographicalStudies, vol. 9 (W F. E Albrightvolume), ed. A. Malamat. Jerusalem: IsraelExplorationSociety. Translationof "Lamentation Overthe Destruction of Ur." Pp. 455-63 in Ancient Near EasternTextsRelating to the Old Testament,3rd ed. with supplement, ed. J.B. Pritchard. Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press. Translationof "Lamentation Overthe Destruction of Sumer and Ur." Pp.611-19 in Ancient Near EasternTexts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd ed. with supplement, ed. J.B. Pritchard.Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press. Fromthe Poetryof Sumer: Creation,Glorification,Adoration. Berkeley:University of CaliforniaPress. The Death of Dumuzi: A New SumerianVersion.Anatolian Studies: Journalof the British Institute of Archaeologyat Ankara30: 5-13 (specialnumber in honor of the seventieth birthdayof O. R. Gurney). SumerianLiteratureand the BritishMuseum: The Promise of the Future.Proceedingsof the American Philosophical Society 124: 295-312.

(18) 1982 BM98396: A SumerianPrototype of the Mater-Dolorosa. Pp. 141-46 in Erctz-Israel: Archaeological, Historical and GeographicalStudies, vol. 16 (Harry M. Orlinsky volume),

eds. B. A. Levineand A. Malamat.Jerusalem:Israel ExplorationSociety (19)1982 Lisin, the WeepingGoddess: A New SumerianLament.Pp. 133-44 in Zikir Sumim: Assyriological Studies Presented to F R. Kraus,eds. G. van Driel, Th. J.H. Krispun,M. Stol, and K. R. Veenhof.Leiden:E. J.Brill. Krecher,J. (20) 1966 SumerischeKultlyrik.Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz. Kutscher,R. (21) 1975 Oh Angry Sea (a-ab-ba hu-luh-ha):The Historyof a Sumerian CongregationalLament. Near EasternResearches Series No. 6. New Haven,CT: YaleUniversity Press. Sladek,W.R. (22) 1974 Inanna'sDescent to the Netherworld.Unpublisheddoctoral dissertation.The JohnsHopkins University. Witzel, P.M. (23) 1935 Tammuz-Liturgienund Verwandtes. Analecta Orientalia 10. Rome:Pontificio Istituto Biblico (in German).

This is a detail of the stele of Ur-Nammu shown on page 69. The king is representedtwice. On the right Ur-Nammu stands as he pours libations before the moon-god Nanna. The seated figure'smultihornedheaddress and his throne, decorated like a temple facade, indicate he is a god. In his right hand Nanna holds the "line and the rod,"surveyinginstruments used to build a temple. This scene is mirroredon the left with Ur-Nammufacing the opposite direction toward Nanna's consort, the goddess Ningal. In each case, Ur-Nammu is followed by a minor goddess with uplifted arms. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania.

80

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

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ofwomen ecentstudies in antiquity have contributed to our understanding of the roles and status of women in ancient Near Eastern society. Generally,these studies have relied upon the textual data uncoveredat various archaeological sites throughout western Asia (Batto 1974; Dalley 1977). The characterof many of the surviving texts reveals details only of women in the royalfamily or active in cultic affairs(Schulman 1979). As one recent study showed, the channeling of women's energy into domestic affairsled, ultimately, to the continued confinement of women to the domestic sphere (Meyers 1978). To learn about these women and others, we must search out new sources of information. In this article we will examine several alternative sources including Mesopotamian art of the third through second millennia B.C.,

funeraryart from several periods, and Assyrian palace art. From each source we can glean additional details to develop a clearer image of woman in the IronAge. The visual recordobtained from art recoveredin the excavations of Mesopotamian sites of the third through second millennia B.C.in-

dicates that two themes predominated: warfareand religious events. Women make no appearancein battle scenes. Their inclusion in religious scenes is limited to the depiction of goddesses, priestesses, and royalty.Two outstanding works featuringa female divinity may be cited. The tall limestone vessel from Warka,dated to about 3000 B.C., shows in relief decoration the produce of the fields, herds of sheep,

and naked male tribute bearers advancing to the Sumerian goddess Inanna (Moortgat 1969: pls. 19-21). Of much later date we find the important wall painting discovered in the palace of Zimrilim from Mari. The painting dates to the early eighteenth century B.C.,sometime before the city was conquered by Hammurapi, king of Babylon. The central panel portrays a royal cult ceremony. In the presence of other deities the king stands piously

82

Original drawingshowing part of an extensive wall relief at the time of its discoveryin the mid-nineteenth century (The wall relief, from the period of Sennacherib704-681 B.c.-is

no longer extant.)

Western Asiatic Woi Their Imag by Pauline beforethe Akkadian goddess Ishtar, who places one foot upon a recumbent lion (Strommenger1964: pl. 165). Takentogether, the Warka vase and the Mari painting display two important aspects of the divine Inanna/Ishtarin her dual role as goddess of fertility and goddess of war (Jacobsen 1976: 135-38).

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

To the same period belong a large number of male and female statues discoveredin temples. These stone statuettes served as permanent substitutes for the worshipers, serving in their stead. In spite of the rigid pose demanded by their purpose, many of the female figurines display a sense of nobility and vitality.

representations of women. Forexample, portrayedon a number of funerary steles or tombstones from northern Syria are seated women who may be identified as wife, mother, or queen. Among the grave reliefs depicting a family group, three from the site at Marash may be briefly noted. One example portraysa couple who sit side by side, each with one arm placed affectionately over the other's shoulder. The wife holds a mirrorin one hand and exhibits on her belt an exceptional pin known as a fibula. A second stele depicts a man and woman seated across from each other; their daughter stands beside the mother. Mother and daughter wear similar costumes. Each female holds a spindle and, in addition, the daughter has a mirror in the other hand. Whether these objects have cultic or social significance still needs to be determined. The third funeraryrelief shows a seated woman with a boy standing on her lap. The mother embraces the child protectively (see Akurgal 1966: pls. 26-29). Another tombstone, discovered at Zincirli in northern Syria, depicts a local queen. She sits on a simple, high-back chair and faces a table laden with food, beside which stands a person identified as her handmaiden. The royalfigure wears a cloth cap decoratedwith a row of rosettes and she is adorned with jewelry appropriatefor her high rank (Akurgal1966: pl. 23). The most important source for depictions of western Asiatic women in the Iron Age (ca. 900-600

Severalepisodes describe the attack and sack of a city in Phoenicia or Philistia. Among the captivepeoples are women who wear a Phoenician-typeheaddress. Photographcourtesy of the British Museum.

nen e

the

Iron Revealed in

Age:

B.C.),

Albenda From them we learn that women in ancient Mesopotamia were concerned with personal enhancement as demonstrated by the attention given to clothing, headdress, and hair style. The female worshiper statues never show jewelry as part of the costume (compareMaxwellHyslop 1971), which suggests that

however, remains the monu-

mental stone reliefs which covered the walls of the royalAssyrian palaces at Khorsabad,Nimrud, and Nineveh (in northern Iraq).Many

the wearing of such luxury items was unsuitable in a religious setting. Towardthe end of the second millennium B.C., the production of art works declined in general, followed by a gradualresurgence several centuries later. Concomitant with the regrowth there occurred a renewal of interest in

of these reliefs, first discovered by English and French excavators during the mid-nineteenth century, are now on exhibit in the British Museum, the Louvre, and other museums in Europe, Iraq, and the United States. The Assyrian wall reliefs furnish a pictorial record that traces the military expansion of the Assyrian Empire throughout western Asia, from the ninth through the sev-

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

83

Detail of a bas-relieffrom the period of Ashurbanipal (668-627 B.c.)showing a dead Arab woman and man sprawled on the groundwithin a burningtent. This bas-reliefis now in the BritishMuseum (BM124927). Photographis by the author.

enth centuries B.c. Their military reachedinto Egypt,centralAnatolia (modernTurkey),and Elam (western Iran),among others. Severalfactors assist us in identifying the peoples shown on the wall reliefs. Of first importanceare the cuneiform inscriptions often placed above the pictures. These tell the meaning of specific episodes and sometimes cite the name of the city shown under siege. The drawingof architecturaland landscapefeaturesunique to a region affordsanother useful clue in labeling the populace. Additionally, contemporaryhistorical accounts frequently recordedthe routes taken by the Assyrian army (Luckenbill 1926, 1927; Pritchard1955);comparing the carvedscenes with the written reports makes correct identification of distant places possible when no other clue suffices. The most conspicuous subjects on the sculpted slabs deal with the theme of warfare.In addition to narrativebattle scenes, there emerged a tendency to describe at length the aftermathof a successful battle including the taking of booty and the deportationof subjugatedpeoples. Womenand children on the basreliefs are almost always confined to the categoryof deportees. Consequently,women are of minor importance relative to the countless males who are shown engagedin variedtasks on the many walls of the royalresidences. This may explain why no comprehensive,systematic study of the representations of women has been undertaken,

84

Detail of a bas-relieffrom the period of Ashurbanipal (668-627 B.c.)showing Egyptianwomen walking behind shackled men dressedin Kushitecostumes as they leave the defeatedcity of Thebes. This bas-reliefis now in the BritishMuseum (BM124928).Photographis by the author.

although their presence on the Assyrian reliefs has been noted (Reade1972).Despite the unimportance the wall carversassigned to women, their depiction constitutes a unique record,with no parallelin the art of Babyloniaand Persia,the successor kingdoms. A careful analysis of those scenes which show processions of women in open surroundingscan furnish valuable insights into contemporarysocial organizations.Forexample, how women are clothed may revealto what extent other cultures of western Asia determined local fashions. Captive women alwaysappearin small groupssegregatedfrom the men. When male and female populations are deportedtogether,women generallyfollow the men. On occasion women may be urgedforward by an Assyrian soldier,but with one exception they are not mistreated or shackled as subjugatedmen often are. The one exception appearson a series of seventh century B.C. reliefs, depicting a forayagainst Arabswho are fighting on camels. One scene shows Assyrian militia storming into the tents of the enemy, ruthlessly slaying the women within, and afterwardssetting the tents afire (Barnett1976: pls.

BIBLICAL 1983 ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING

32 and 33). The Arabs,we know,were alreadysettled in Babyloniaor along the western frontierof the country,and were one of the foreigngroupswhich took partin the Babylonianstruggle against Assyria (Eph'al1974).As for the harsh treatment meted out to the Arab women, the Assyrian historical texts which recount the Arabcampaign explain that the people of Adia, Queen of Arabia,were slaughtered, her tent was burnt, and she herself was capturedalive. Fromthe scenes on the reliefs, we see that the Arabs, lacking permanentfortifications, were ill-protectedby their tentabodes duringdirect attacks. The clothing of the women of western Asia was of several types. The basic costume consisted of a long dress of varyinglengths. Over this could be worn a plain or fringed robe covering the front and back of the dress and the upperarms. The long rectangularcloth worn by women from the city of Lachish in Judahserved as both an outer coat and head covering.Stylistically different garments were worn by Egyptian women from the city of Thebes; the dress is pleated in front and drapedmore loosely for comfort. In all probability this style of dress,

Detail of a bas-relieffrom the period of Sennacherib(704-681 B.c.) showing severalwomen and their daughtersdepartingfrom the embattled city of Lachish. This bas-reliefis now in the BritishMuseum (BM124989). Photographis by the author.

most suitable for a dry,hot climate, was made of linen or cotton. In contrast, the women of the northern regions used warmer,woolen textiles in the manufacture of their garments. Animal skins do not seem to have been employed for women's clothing, although fur coats were worn by men from the mountainous regions to the north and east of Assyria. Women are alwaysshown barefooted,though one must suppose that they actually wore sandals or boots, especially in the cooler, more ruggedterrains. To some extent, climate may have been a factor in determining hair lengths and styles for women. Womenfrom one mountainous region possess long straight hair falling to the back and ending in a long curl. Babylonianand Arab women have hair arrangedin corkscrew locks reaching to the shoulder.

Detail of a bas-relieffrom the period of Sennacherib(704-681 the ZagrosMountains B.c.) showing women from the regionof talking with each other.Each woman holds a small handbag, probablycontainingpersonalitems. This bas-reliefis now in the BritishMuseum (BM124786). Photographis by the author.

Elamite women wear their hair straight, wavy,or curled, and cut neatly at the shoulder line. In the seventh century B.C.,women in certain groupsworeheaddresses.Phoenician women adopted the most stylish hat, which consisted of a tall round cap protected by a cloth covering.Tight-fitting textured caps which hid the hair were favoredby Egyptianand Elamite women. Babylonian women were adornedwith a wide cloth headband.Women from the hill country,probablythe region of the ZagrosMountains to the east of Assyria, protectedtheir hair with a fabricfolded to resemble a chador, which is worn by modem devout Iranianwomen. The palace reliefs illustrated the actions of women with their infants and children. Those youngsters unable to walk are seen carried over the shoulders, while others

endeavorto keep pace alongside. One small child is shown held firmly in its mother's lap as they ride in an ox-drivenwagon.The nakedness of boys and girls probably means they are very young, and the clothed children are somewhat older.Upon one series of wall reliefs where Judeanfamilies areseen departingfrom the embattled city of Lachish, an event that took place in 701 B.C.,teenage boys and girls are separatedfrom one another and weargarments similar to those worn by the parentbehind whom they march. This implies the existence of a social structure which dictated that, once having attained a certain age, boys were consideredpartof the male population and could no longer remain with the female members of the family in public. A similar separationis expressedin an unusual family portrait

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

85

Detail of a bas-relieffrom the period of Sennacherib(704-681 B.c.) showing women from the hill country to the north or east of Assyria moving in pairs and followed by their menfolk. This bas-reliefis now in the BritishMuseum (BM124902).Photograph is by the author.

found among the stone reliefs discoveredat the north Syriansite of Carchemish. Severalcontiguous orthostats that once covereda wall of the palace complex (Akurgal 1962: pls. 121-23; Vieyra1955: pls. 35-38) portraythe king of the city, Araras,who reignedafter 750 B.c. The bareheadedking strides forwardwith his oldest son, whom he grips at the wrist. Behind them appeareight youngerchildren engagedin a variety of quiet recreational activities. They are followed by their mother, Queen Tuwarisas, who holds to her chest an infant, half-hiddenunder the shawl. At the same time she leads a donkey. The queen's role as mother is here emphasized. In the ancient Near East, artists developeda set of standard gestures and poses which enabled one to interpretthe actions and attitudes in specific situations. For example, the representationof a seated person on a chair was alwaysreservedfor someone in a position of authority such as royalty or divinity. In contrast, the more violent turning, twisting, and falling postures indicate a person facing imminent death. The gesture of clasped hands in the presence of a king signified respect and subservience, while the raisingof one outstretched hand expressedgreet-

86

Detail of a bas-relieffrom the period of Ashurbanipal(668-627 B.c.) showing female Elamite musicians and singersforming part of the entertainmentduring the installation of their king, Ummanigash. This bas-reliefis now in the BritishMulseum (BM128804).Photographis by the author.

ing. There were only a few standard gestures for women because they generallyappearedin only one or two differentcontexts. Indooroccupations appropriatefor women are illustrated only on severalseventh century B.C. reliefs where captive

Elamite families share in a meal. As a consequence the kind of activities in which women engaged seems to be very limited in scope. Assyrian reliefs from the ninth century and later showed women with one or both of their arms raisec overtheir heads to indicate mournin or weeping. This gesture of sorrow was not a new iconographicelement, however,but has its origins in earlierphases of ancient art (Spyropoulos1972).Tenderness was displayedby showing women pause duringthe long march to providetheir young children with liquid refreshmentsfrom skin containers or to ensure a youngster's safety by grippingits arm firmly.In one touching episode, a small child, obviously weariedfrom the journey, beseeches its mother to lift it off the ground;in another sequence a mother has alreadyraisedher youngster halfwayup. A carvedorthostat from Karatepe,situated abovethe Ceyhan Valleyin southern Anatolia, shows in a naive but attractivestyle a mother suckling her child (Akurga 1962: pl. 150).

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

In deportationscenes women stride forwardin the open terrain or ride in a wagon. Some foreign women march in solemn manner; others, including Babylonianand Elamite women, seem more relaxed as they turn and chat with their companions. A happierscene involving females occurs on an extensive series of reliefs depicting the Assyrian battle against the Elamite king, Teumman, in 653 B.C.;his

defeat and death; and the installation of his successor, Ummanigash (Strommenger1964: pls. 238-40). In one section there appearsa procession of male musicians, behind whom Elamite women and girls play musical instruments, sing, and dance in unison. These men and women may belong to the palace personnel of the Elamite king, for we know from the Assyrian texts that the palace staff at Babylonand Jerusalem,as well as at Nimrud and Nineveh, included female musicians. Fromthe evidence on the Assyrian wall reliefs, general conclusions may be drawnconcerning western Asiatic women. In scenes of deportation the appearanceof women and children conveyed the message that entire populations were affected. The passive role assumed by women in the defense of a town, city, or region, usually assured their safe conduct during the long journey leading to resettlement in distant lands. On a related matter, scenes describing civic works-the trans-

Detail of a bas-relieffrom the periodof Ashurbanipal (668-627 B.c.)showing Elamite women and child. This bas-reliefis now in the Louvre(AO19907). Photograph is by the author.

Detail of bas-relieffrom the period of Ashurbanipal(668-627 s.c.) showing Queen Ashur-shurratsitting on a high-back chair and raisinga vessel to her lips duringa banquet. This bas-reliefis now in the BritishMuseum (BM124920). Photographis by the author.

portation of lumber and huge stone blocks-confirm that women were not among the largelabor forces requiredfor construction projects undertakenby Assyrian kings. Furthermore,anecdotal views of military camplife give no hint that the Assyrian army included female camp followers. The distinguishing characteristics of women from diverse geographicareaswere graphicallyexpressedby types of costumes and hair styles. Striking differencesin women's fashions indicate that duringthe IronAge each region retained its own customs. Headdresses may have served the practical purposeof protecting the hair from

the weather,but in some instances the coveringof the head involved a desire to display a more modest appearance.How individual women rankedwithin a town, city, or region is not revealedon the Assyrian reliefs. There is no way of determining whether some of the foreign women were members of the leading families in the community or were active in cultic matters, though in this regardthe reliefs from northern Syria are more informative. Women'sdaily occupations or skills associated with various crafts are likewise not depicted on the reliefs. However,women and older children were affordedopportunities to develop special abilities, as demon-

strated by the female Elamites who performin the orchestraand choir duringan important public event. And what of Assyrian women? It is not surprisingthat, with one important exception, nowhere can they be identified on the Assyrian reliefs. Since the main themes were apparentlyintended to glorify the military supremacyof Assyria over all other peoples, genre scenes involving Assyrian citizens would serve no purposeand thus were not included on wall reliefs. Assyrian women must have sharedcommon traditions with their Babylonian counterpartsbecause of the longlasting political, religious, and social involvements between the countries. The only occasion where Assyrian women appearis on the famous bas-reliefillustrating the banquet of KingAshurbanipal(668-627 B.c.) and his consort Ashur-shurrat.The

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

87

locale is a gardensituated in the queen'sharem where only female servantswere engagedto look after the royalcouple (Albenda 1976, 1977; Barnett 1976: pls. 63-65). The king reclines on a couch and his wife sits on an elaboratelydecorated high-back chair,her feet resting upon a low, cushioned stool. The faces of the royalcouple were mutilated in antiquity,probablyin 612 B.c., when the Assyrian pal-

aces were destroyedby the invading Babyloniansand Medes. Despite this damage,many of the facial details of Ashur-shurrat'sportrait remain intact. Her face, a model of ideal beauty,is full and round and, where still visible, her features are delineated and modeled sensitively. The queen wears a gold tiara in the form of a walled city. Her hair is styled elegantly and terminates in rows of tight curls at the shoulder. Her lavishly patterneddress reaches to the ankles, and over this a similarly textured robe is wrappedabout the body.Specially designed boots coverher feet. The portraitof the bejewelled Ashur-shurratevokes

an auraof luxury and majesty. Maidservantswork to ensure the royalcouple's comfort during the repast, acting as fan-bearers,bringers of the meal, and musicians (harpist, drummer,and double-reedpipe player).The full-bodied attendants are dressedin plainer apparel,yet they, too, display some richness of dress. The more intricate embroidery on the garments of the fanbearerssuggests that these women enjoyeda higher rankwithin the harem. (Insupportof the idea of a harem hierarchy,recall that ancient texts identify a woman known as the shakintu, who was in chargeof the female staff of the palace-Postgate 1979: 100.) It is most fortunate that the banquet scene has survived, for it offersa unique view of the royal harem, a realm into which the only males who were allowed, other than the king himself, were usually young boys and eunuchs. Summary In this study of western Asiatic women in the IronAge, I have focused attention primarilyupon

their image on Assyrian wall reliefs and on severalcarvedorthostats and funerarysteles from north Syriansites. Within the limits imposed by stereotypedmodes of representation,the renderingsof women were objective; depictions concentratedmainly upon outward appearances;most of the actions related to motherhood and the female sphere.Where men and women are drawnin the same scene, the spatial separationbetween the sexes is clearly indicated. Assyrian art works demonstrate that warfare and diplomacy were the concern of men. Women'sactivities seem to have been directedto domestic tasks. The scenes showing the Arab campaign of the seventh century B.c., discussed above, provide the

only instance where women are shown to be brutalized. This strongly suggests that only when foreignwomen participatedin military and political struggles between Assyria and its adversarieswere they treatedharshly.

Bibliography Akurgal,E. 1962 TheArt of the Hittites. London: Thames and Hudson. 1966 TheArt of Greece.Its Originsin the Mediterraneanand Near East. New York:Crown. Albenda,P. 1976 LandscapeBas-Reliefsin the Bit-Hilani of Ashurbanipal,part 1. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research224: 49-72. 1977 LandscapeBas-Reliefsin the BitHilani of Ashurbanipal,part2. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research225: 29-48. Barnett,R. D. 1976 Sculpturesfrom the North Palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (668-627 B.C.). BritishMuseum Publications. Batto,B. E 1974 Studies on Womenat Mari.Baltimore:JohnsHopkins University Press.

Dalley,S. 1977 OldBabylonian Tradein Textilesat

Eph'al,I. in Babyloniain the 8th 1974 '"Arabs" CenturyB.C. Journalof the American Oriental Society 94: 108-15. Jacobsen,T 1976 The Treasuresof Darkness. A History of MesopotamianReligion. New Haven:YaleUniversity. Press. Luckenbill,D. D. 1926- Ancient Recordsof Assyria and 27 Babylonia. 2 vols. Chicago:University of ChicagoPress(1968 reprint: Greenwood). Maxwell-Hyslop,K. R. 1971 WesternAsiatic Jewelleryc. 3000612 B.C. London:Methuen. Meyers,C. 1978 The Roots of Restriction:Womenin EarlyIsrael.Biblical Archeologist 41: 91-103. Moortgat,A. 1969 TheArt of Ancient Mesopotamia. New York:Phaidon.

Tell al Rimah. Iraq39: 155-59.

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BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

Postgate,J.N. 1979 On Some Assyrian Ladies.Iraq 41: 89-103. Pritchard,J.B. 1955 Ancient Near EasternTextsRelating to the Old Testament.2nd ed. Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press. Reade,J.E. 1972 The Neo-Assyrian Court and Army: Evidencefrom the Sculptures. Iraq34: 87-112. Schulman,A. R. 1979 Diplomatic Marriagein the Egyptian New Kingdom.Journalof Near EasternStudies 38: 177-93. Strommenger,E. 1964 5000 Yearsof the Art of Mesopotamia. New York:Abrams. Spyropoulos,T. C. 1972 MycenaeanTanagra:Terracotta Sarcophagi.Archaeology25: 206-09. Vieyra,M. 1955 Hittite Art 2300-750 B.C. London: Tiranti.

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This filmstrip presents extensively documented evidence for perhaps the most extraordinary claim concerning + the Shroud of Turin: that coins of Pontius Pilate covered the two eyes closed in death, and that the coins on the 44 + + right and left eyes can be identified to authenticate, date, and locate the origin of the Shroud. 100 Frames. 4 $30.00 ( 30 Minute cassette ..description. +.................. ...... L . .? L------4.L 4.4. 44•L ?I-.. ,--....t t t,-.A-IIIA _-_AAAA...I-LLJJ L _.L a.t._UUU-U-U

PILATE" Packet:"THEDATINGOFTHESHROUDOFTURINFROMCOINSOFPONTIUS Informational Second (updated) edition: Offers written and photographic data to substantiate imprints from Pilate coins on right and left eyes. 14,000-word Monograph by Francis L. Filas, S.J., Professor of Theology at Loyola University of Chicago. Includes confirmatory findings of Dr. Alan Whanger of Duke University, finding 147 congruences between Shroud imprints and Pilate coins by means of polarizing filters and overlays. Numismatic sketches, 2 slides, 1 color print. $6.50

#163. THE SHROUD OF TURIN: IS THIS THE PHOTOGRAPHOF JESUS CHRIST?

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#173. THE 1978 EXPOSITIONOF THE SHROUD OF TURIN: A DOCUMENTARY

113 frames, 30-minute cassette explanation. Includes priceless historical scenes of Shroud in natural faint shades; pollen off Shroud; list of scientific experiments; computer reconstruction. Some photos already collectors' items. $25.00 Adds new data to #163. R O F T SHO U D

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105 frames, 42-minute cassette explanation, of Holyland Hotel Model in Jerusalem on scale of 1/50 of life size; $22.00 reconstruction of ancient Jerusalem in 66 A.D.

#164. THE DESERTSOF BIBLICALISRAEL TODAY

135 frames, 31-minute cassette explanation, of Sinai, Negev, and Judean deserts, including Qumran, Jericho, $22.00 Murabba'at, Masada, Herodion.

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# 170. LITERARYFORMS:A KEY TO UNDERSTANDTHE BIBLE

92 frames, 20-minute cassette explanation, using 25 sprightly cartoons, 42 biblical locales. Distinguishes what the $22.00 biblical passagemeans rather than what its words literally say. Contemporary examples and selected passages.

#172. THE RESURRECTIONOF JESUS

116 frames, 25-minute cassette explanation, as an audio-visual "recap" of the New Testament Resurrection narratives, $22.00 with their logic and their modern milieu: Jerusalem, Emmaus, Lake of Galilee, Mt. Olivet.

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Children's filmstrip (5th grade & under). 70 frames, 15-minute cassette explanation; Bethlehem, Galilee, Jerusalem, $20.00 in a pattern following life of Christ.

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BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

89

SCYTHIANS:

THE

Invading Hordes from

the

Russian

Steppes

by EdwinYamnauchi

The

Scythians

may

not

have

been the earliest mounted archers

antiquity but they among most

in were

the skilled.

Mountedarchersfiringat pursuingAssyrians.This reliefis fromthe palace of AshurnasirpalII (883-859 B.c.).Photograph

Israel faceda number of threats at her northernfrontier. The Ancient several biblical references to such invadershave provided fodderforthe speculations of modem, popularinterpreters(see sidebar). While identification of the northern enemies as Russians may appealto our imagination, there is now ample archaeologicalevidence to identify these invadinghordes with the Scythians-contemporaries of the biblical authors. In the Old Testament the word

90

Scythian does not appear.Yet in Genesis 10:3 (andits parallel, 1 Chronicles 1:6)as well as in Jeremiah 51:27, the Hebrew term Ashkenaz, which has been identified as the cognate for the Akkadianname for this group,Ishkuza, is employed (Parpola1970: 178).Jeremiah's exhortation even preservesthe warlike connotations of the Scythians: "Preparethe nations for battle against her; summon against her these kingdoms: Ararat,Minni, and Ashkenaz." The Persianscalled the vari-

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

ous Scythian tribes saka. The Greek equivalent, Skythes, appearsonce in the New Testament, Colossians 3:11, and not infrequently in other Greek documents. The Scythians in the North The name "Scythian"designates a number of nomadic tribes from the Russian steppes. One group, afterbeing driven out of Media in

the seventh century B.C.E., settled in

the fertile areaof the present-day Ukraine, north of the Black Sea. Relatedtribes occupied the lands

courtesy of the BritishMuseum.

to the cast of the CaspianSea. Archaeologicalexcavationsin these areashaveprovideda vast number of materialsuseful in reconstructing the Scythian lifestyle. Moreover, they illumine severalreferencesto these tribes in the ancient literature. Interestin the Scythians was first arousedin the seventeenth century,not by the investigations of literaryreferences,but by the discoveryof fabulous treasuresin burialsites north and east of the Black Sea. These burials, which date in generalto the sixth century

B.C.E.(see Artamonov 1969), have

yielded over20,000 gold objects. Today,the discoveriesfrom the tumuli (the Kelermes,Melgunov, Chertomlyk, and other barrows) fill the rooms of Leningrad's HermitageMuseum. Subsequent excavations in the Soviet states of Armenia and Azerbaijanhave documented the Scythian presence in Transcaucasia (northernancient Urartu;compare the biblical Ararat).In the midseventh century,the Urartiansettlement of Karmir-Blur(ancient

Teishebaini)was foundedby Rusa II. A horn carvedwith a Scythian griffin,discoveredin a gate-keeper's lodge, indicates the presence of the northerntribe in the city. Perhaps some Scythians servedin KarmirBlur'sgarrison. Accordingto B. Piotrovsky (1969: 178),who has conducted excavations of Karmir-Blursince 1949 (followinginitial digs between 1939-1941), the Scythians, once allies of Urartu, took advantageof Urartianweakness caused in part by Cimmerian raids, and assaulted

1983 BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING

91

Karmir-Blurat the beginning of the sixth century. The citadel was destroyedand set on fire in a night attack directed not against the well defendedmain gate but against the postern gate in the northwest corner.Beforethe final assault the citadel came under heavy fire from the enemy archers;and numbers of bronze arrowsof the Scythian trilobate type were extracted from the adobe brick of the walls near the postern. It is clear that the attackers of the Urartian fortress included some of their former allies, the Scythians. Scythian presence has also been confirmed in other areas of the kingdom of Urartu,which incorporatedthe areaaroundLakeVan (in eastern Turkey),LakeUrmia (in northwestern Iran),and Lake Sevan (in Soviet Armenia). Forexample, Scythian-type horse-bits and horse burials have been found at Hasanlu south of LakeUrmia, in strata dating from the ninth to the seventh centuries B.C.E. A similar horse burial from this same general period has been uncoveredat BabaJan in the Luristanregion of the ZagrosMountains. Assyrian literary sources place the Scythians in seventh-century Iran,and archaeological evidence suggests an even earlier presence. Although the Assyrian texts do not mention the tribes until late in the eighth century,a relief from the reign of AshurbanipalII (885-859) portraysmounted archerswho may well be Scythians. The most important Assyrian references to the Ishkuza date from the reign of Esarhaddon (681668). In 676, he boasted about his victory over the Manneans (biblical Minni), Scythian allies who inhabited the area south of Lake Urmia: "I am the one who scattered the inhabitants of Mannai, those rebellious Gutians, and who killed in battle the troops of the Scythian, Ishpakai, an ally who could not save them" (Heidel 1956: 17). About a decade later, a Scythian

92

burial of the finds to 600

B.C.E.

R. Ghirshman prefersthe earlierdate of 625. Indeed, since the Ziwiye treasurecontains severalAssyrian into the incursion objects, such as an ivory statue of an Near East cannot Assyrian dignitary,Ghirshman has even suggested that part of the be the exact treasuremay have belonged to the dowry of Esarhaddon'sdaughter,the of their extent raids wife of the Scythian Bartatua (1976: 103). and of the The most significant aspect of years the Ziwiye treasureis the presence their domination of Scythian "animal style" art. A magnificent gold pectoral,which have remained also includes Urartianand Assyrian elements, depicts hares and stylistic matters of recumbent felines-motifs parallel to the designs on objects found in considerable the Kelermesand Litojbarrows. Such Scythian subjects as lynxes, debate. running hares, and the heads of birds of prey appearon a silver dish of Bartatua with gold inlay designs, also found chief, (the Protothyes HerodotusI.103)demandedan Assyr- at Ziwiye. As Ghirshman therefore ian princess in marriageas the price concludes (1964: 98), "'The Ziwiye for his allegiance. Esarhaddonquestreasure'provesthat these warriortioned the diviners of Shamash con- horsemen were present in this part of Iran." cerning this proposal.As Olmstead (1951: 361) observes, '"Asecond The Scythians in the Near East inquiry provesa successful marriage, for Bartatuais expected to march Although Scythian incursion into the Near East cannot be against Bit Kapsiand Sapardain the Median land, the enemies of denied, the exact extent of their raids and the years of their dominaAssyria."The Scythian alliance tion haveremainedmattersof considwith the Assyrians lasted at least for another generation;Madyes (Her- erable scholarly debate. The first focus of the discussion has been odotus I.104), the son of Bartatua, the presence of Scythian hordes fought for the Assyrians against in Media. the Cimmerians in Cappadocia ca. 654 B.C.E. According to Herodotus I.103, Herodotus indicates that the duringthe reign of Cyaxares,the Median kingdom was invaded by a Scythians were active in Media, southeast of LakeUrmia. It is also groupof Scythians. The historian furtherrelates (IV1) that "the evident from the Assyrian texts that these tribes were present in Scythians ... ruled the uppercounMannean territorydirectly south of try of Asia for twenty-eight years." the lake. The spectacular discovery Vaggione(1973)has arguedthat of the Ziwiye treasurein this area "upper country of Asia" probably corroboratesthe literaryevidence. designates eastern Anatolia, from The Ziwiye discoveries were the Halys River eastward to the borders of Media. not made duringa controlled excavation. Rather,in 1947, a local Herodotus provides additional material concerning the question of shepherdhappened upon a bronze chronology. He indicates (I.102) object identified as either a chest or a coffin. Because of this circumthat the Scythians averted a Median stance, some doubt has been cast on attack against Nineveh toward the the authenticity of several other end of the reign of Phraortes. The traditional dating of Phraortes objects from the find. R. D. Barnett(1956) dates the (675-653) would place the Median

Although denied,

scholarly

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

Scythian

Gold pectoralfrom Ziwiye. Photographcourtesyof JosephinePowell.

incursion about 653, the height of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal's power.As R. Labat(1961: 4-5) has indicated, this situation is quite improbable.Moreover,this standardchronology places the Scythian interregnumafter the tenure of Phraortesand before the'accession of Cyaxares,that is, between 653 and 625. In a brief but important article published in 1979, A. R. Millard proposes a new method of reconciling the data providedby Herodotus with the conflicting evidence from Near Easternsources. Millard dates the reign of Phraortesto 647-625, and divides the Scythian interregnum into two phases: (1) domination of eastern Anatolia (645-625); and (2)domination of Media during the first eight years of Cyaxares (625-617). This interpretation places Scythian hegemony after the

passing of the Assyrian threat and before the attack of Cyaxaresagainst the Assyrians in 615. After the Scythians attacked the Median kingdom of Cyaxares,some of the tribes made a lightning raidalong the Palestinian coast to the bordersof Egypt.According to Herodotus (I.105): Thence they marched against Egypt:and when they were in the part of Syriacalled Palestine, Psammetichus king of Egypt met them and persuadedthem with gifts and prayersto come no further.So they turned back, and when they came on their way to the city of Ascalon in Syria, most of the Scythians passed by and did no harm, but a few remained behind and plundered the temple of Heavenly Aphrodite.

This account has been the occasion of some controversy.Several scholars have expressed doubts that such a powerfulruler as Psammetichus I (664-610) would resort to briberyin orderto dissuade an attack by nomadic barbarians. E Wilke (1913: 228-29), for example, dismissed the entire account as an etiological tale devised to explain the origin of "the female sickness" (venerealdisease?)which Herodotus says afflicted the Scythians as a punishment from Aphrodite. Other specialists may find the Pharoah's use of briberyless than honorable but they do not consider it incredible (see Drioton and Vandier1952: 576; Gyles 1959: 22). Millard (1979: 122)concludes that "in the light of earliermovements, too, the gravitation of one band to the frontierof Egyptwould be no surprise.... There are no groundsfor dismissing

1983 BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING

93

Scythian Arrowheads

arrowsand the iron daggeralso in the Scythian style discoveredthere belonged to Ionian and Carian mercenaries. A more comprehensive interpretationis offeredby T Sulimirski (1954: 305):

I

trilobatetype

V pyramidaltype

leaftype

Herodotus'recordof a Scythian attempt to enter Egypt." Excavationsat the eastern Delta site of Tell Defenneh (Tahpanhes), built by Psammetichus I, may offer confirmation of the account by Herodotus. The original excavator, W M. Flinders Petrie, thought that the hundredsof Scythian-type bronze

94

It seems, however,that among these Anatolian mercenaries the Scythians were also included. Recruitmentof these troopersfell into the period of the dawnfall (sic) of the Scythian might in WesternAsia. Characteristic clay figurines representingbeardedridersin pointed caps, which almost always accompany the finds attributedto these mercenaries,seem to supportthis supposition. The Scythians may not have been the earliest mounted archers in antiquity,but they were among the most skilled, as the relief from Ashurbanipalindicates. Their bows were short (110-100 cm) but powerfuland their arrowsmeasured between 50 and 60 cm. The gorytus, a case which held both arrowsand bow,was often elaboratelydecorated in gold. The distinctive, socketed Scythian arrowheadswere constructed of bronze, sometimes twoedgedbut usually trilobate (threeedged)or of the solid, pyramidal type, and often barbed;they were especially adaptedfor the light bows of mounted archers.These types of arrowheadswere not used exclusively by the Scythians; other ancient peoples, such as the Cimmerians, also adoptedthe styles. In most cases, however,these arrowheadshave been discoveredat sites where Scythian presence either is attested or can be postulated. For example, such arrowheads appear only after the incursion of the Scythians south of the Caucasus in the late eighth and early seventh centuries. Sulimirski, in his important 1954 article, presents the collected evidence of these arrowheads throughout the Near East. This evidence can be profitably employed in discussions of Scythian presence in Palestine.

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

Jeremiah'sFoe from the North Jeremiah(4-6 and 8-9) mentions the thrust of a "foe from the north."Today,scholars are divided overthe identification of this foe. Does the prophecyreflect the Scythian raidthrough Palestine? Or,was it an unfulfilled prediction later transferredto another group? Those who favorthe first alternative date the Scythian raidto a time beforethe prophet'scall in 626 (Jeremiah1:2; see Skinner 1922: 39). Others have concluded that when Jeremiah'soriginal prophecies relating to the Scythians were not fulfilled, he revised them to referto the Chaldeans. H. H. Rowley notes that "the view that these oracles have been retouched is born of the fact that Jeremiah'sministry is stated to have begun at approximatelythe time to which Herodotus assigns the Scythian invasion, and of the recognition that as they stand they are appropriateto the Chaldeans, even though some things could equally well apply to the Scythians, and some things perhapsbetter to them" (1962-63: 218-19). A mediating position has been taken by JohnBright.Although in his important commentary on Jeremiah he affirms the possibility of a Scythian raidinto Palestine, Bright acknowledgesthe disfavorinto which the Scythian hypothesis has recently fallen: "But contemporary evidence of such an irruptionis lacking, and it must be said that a Scythian domination of western Asia coincident with the latter part of Ashurbanipal'slong reign is difficult to credit"(1965: LXXXI). Bright'schronologicalquestion has been resolved by Millard's proposal, which places Scythian dominance of Media after the reign of Ashurbanipal. His concern over the alleged lack of evidence can be solved by an appeal to Sulimirski's important study of Scythian arrowheads. Sulimirski lists a number of trilobate arrowheads discovered at Samaria in seventh-century strata. Contemporaneous specimens have been discovered along the Philistine coast at Tell el-Ajjul and Tell Fara. Sulimirski even reports one threeedged specimen from Jerusalem

Today,

new

enable our

discoveries, especially in Soviet archaeology, us to reevaluate the reliability of Herodotus, the on principal source Scythians and their raid

(1954: 297, 299). In 1975, N. Aviga< excavating in the Jewish Quarterof Jerusalem,discoveredfour arrowheads at the base of a massive defense tower dated to the Siege of 586. According to Singer (1976: 7): "The four arrowheads,one iron and three bronze, are thought to be the first remains ever recordedof the two-yearBabyloniansiege which finally broke the defenses of the starving city."' Although only one of these four arrowheadswas of the Scythiantrilobate type, it may hold the key to a new interpretation of Jeremiah's prophecy.This interpretation, which has not been anticipated by scholars, and which may not have been clearly perceived by the prophet himself, concerns the mixed nature of the pronouncements. Some prophecies seem to apply to the Scythians; others concern the Chaldeans. PerhapsJeremiah'sprophecies were fulfilled by an attacking force of both Chaldeans and Scythians. The Scythian-type arrowheads may have been used for two different purposes. Arrowheadsdating to the seventh century probablywere employed by maraudingScythians. Yet those of the sixth century and later may be attributed to the Scythian groupswho remained in the Near East, to serve as mercenaries with the great powers, especially Egyptand Babylonia.Indeed, subsequent history indicates that the Scythians served as archersfor the Persians,and Scythian bowmen were employed as policemen in classical Athens (Plassart 1913). In light of the "Scythian"arrowheaduncoveredfrom the Babylonianattack on Jerusalem,I would thereforesuggest that Scythian mercenaries may have served as the vanguardof the Chaldeanassault.

into

Palestine.

Herodotus and Scythian Tombs The historical reliability of Herodotus, our principal source on the Scythians and their raid into Palestine, was questioned by scholars writing in the early decades of this century,such as Wilke (1913). These criticisms were repeatedby later specialists, including Hyatt (1940),and Lauha(1943),who also investigated the connection between Jeremiah'sprophecies and the Scythians. Today,new discoveries, especially in Soviet archaeology, enable us to reevaluatethe reliability of Herodotus. It is true that the Greek historian recounts many bizarreand even savagepractices of the Scythians. While some of his statements may seem incredibleor exaggerated, a number of them have been corroboratedby excavations of tombs located north and east of the Black Sea. The most important find has been the frozen tombs of Pazyryk, located in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia,just north of the western boundaryof the Mongolian People'sRepublic.Although these tombs may not belong to those who were, strictly speaking, Scythians, they do reveala closely related culture (comparePotratz 1963: 179; and Artamonov 1965). The Pazyryktombs were first discoveredby S. Rudenkoin 1924 and excavatedby him in 1929 and 1947-49. Although partialaccounts of these excavations appeared earlier,the comprehensive study of the tombs did not appearin English until 1970 (see Rudenko 1970). Of the more than forty barrows at Pazyryk,six, rangingin date from the fifth to the third centuries B.C.E.,have been excavated.The perishable materials in these tombs were found intact due to an extraordinarycircumstance. All six tombs had been opened by robbers,and

the openings permitted rain to seep through. This water then froze, largelypreservingthe bodies of humans and horses, textiles, and other perishable materials for over two millennia! Discoveries in barrownumber 2 confirm Herodotus'observation that the Scythians bathed in the vaporcreatedby heating hemp seeds. Two sets of apparatus,consisting of the coppervessels in which the seeds were heated and the six rods which supportedthe miniature sauna, were recovered.In such tents "the Scythians howl in joy for the vapourbath" reportedHerodotus(IV75). Tomb number 2 yielded an even more interesting confirmation. Herodotus (IV.64)reports that the Scythians carriedthe heads of their victims to their chiefs. Moreover,he states that they scalped their

Apparatusfor inhaling hemp fumes from Pazyryk.Photographcourtesyof the Hermitage Museumin Leningrad,U.S.S.R.

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

95

RUSSIAN ATTAC KS? popular interpretersof Ezekiel 38:2-5 claim that the passage prophesies an invasion of Israel by the Soviet Union (Lindsey 1970: 63-65; 1980: 67-68). These writers equate the Hebrew word Rosh as well as Gog and Magog, with Russia, Several Meshech with Moscow, and Tubal with Tobolsk. These four identifications are all problematic. The word Rosh is most commonly translated"chief"or "head"(as in the expressionfor the Jewish New Year,Roshha-Shanah,or head of the year).The RSVtranslatesEzekiel 38:3 as "Thus says the LordGOD: BeholdI am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal" (emphasisadded).Similar renditions appearin the KJV,NAB, and NIV And even if the term Rosh is translatedas a propername (as in the JB, NEB,and NAS), the passagestill cannot referto modem Russia.The name Rus was first broughtinto the regionof Kievby the Vikings in the MiddleAges (Dmytryshyn1977:37-41). The bafflingnames Gog and Magoghave led to a varietyof interpretations-The most common explanation is the equation of Gog with the famous Gyges (d. 644), the king of Lydia(westernTurkey). Assyriantexts speak of Gyges as Gugu, which is a linguistic cognate of Gog (see Cogan and Tadmor1977).Yetwhile the names aresimilar, the geographicaldetails'donot coincide. Gog and his hordes arestated to be from "the uttermost parts of the north" (Ezekiel38:15). The kingdom of Gyges, however,never extended into easternAnatolia, north of Israel.Thus variousattempts (forinstance Myres 1932; Astour 1976)to explain the backgroundof Gog and Magoghavenot won universal consent. Informedstudies acknowledge that the identification of Meshech with Moscow and Tubalwith Tobolskis quite untenable (see Yamauchi 1976).Since the late nineteenth century,Assyrian texts have been availablewhich locate Meshech (Mushku)and Tubal(Tabal)in central and easternAnatolia respectively (Olmstead 1923: 143-44, 221-28, 266-67). During the reign of Sargon11(721-705) the Mushki of central Anatolia were ruled by the famous king Mita, known in classical sources (forinstance, Herodotus1.14)as Midas of the Phrygianswhose touch accordingto legend turnedeverythinginto gold. Wemay conclude that the Phrygianswho came from the west and the Mushki who came from the east fused into one kingdom (Cavaignac1953). If Rosh is not Russia and r'ieshech and Tubalareboth located in Turkey,we may still ask: Are there other biblical referencesto invaders fromwhat is todaythe modem country of Russia?The answeris: Yes, there are.Biblical Gomer (Ezekiel38:6; Genesis 10:2,3)may be associatedwith the invadingtribe from Russia known in nonbiblical sources as the Cimmerians (AkkadianGimmiraia;GreekKimmerioi). In the Odyssey XI.13-19, Homer associated the Cimmerianswith a fog-boundland, perhapsthe Crimea. HerodotusIV11-13 relates that they were drivenover the Caucasus by the Scythians in a domino-like effect as the Scythians were pushed west by others. Cuneiformsources mention an invasion by the Cimmerians (Parpola1970: 132-34). They first attackedthe kingdom of Urartu (biblicalArarat)in the late eighth century.Accordingto Assyrian reportsKingRusa I (735-714) was so overwhelmedby the Cimmerian invasion that he committed suicide.

96

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

BronzeUrartianbelt from the eighth century u.c. depictingchari( but the horsemen wear Scythian trousers.Photographcourtesyof

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HaranNineveh

Seval

Urartuwas weakenedby a second Cimmerian raidin 707. The son of Rusa,Argishti, suffereda greatdefeatas reportedby Sennacherib (Pfeiffer1935: 11).The Cimmerians then passedwest into eastern Anatolia where they encounteredthe Assyrians. Though quite advancedin age, SargonII led the Assyrian armyagainst the invaders.He perishedin 705 while campaigningin Tabal.The Assyrianscontinued to be alarmedby the Cimmerian presence, as the questions addressedby Esarhaddon(681-668) to the god Shamashindicate. Esarhaddonwas able to defeat the Cimmeriansaround678 as they were threateningTabal (Heidel 1956: 15). The Cimmerians next swept into central and easternAnatolia, seizing the Greekcolony of Sinope on the north shore and devastating Gordion,the capital of Midas around676. Excavationsat Gordionby RodneyYoungin the 1950s have uncoveredevidence of the attack (see Mellink 1959). FromAssyrian sources we learn that the threatof the Cimmerians forcedGyges to appealto the Assyriansfor aid at some time between 668 and 665. A final raidin 644, in which the capital Sardisfell, resulted in the king's death (Spalinger1978).A huge tumulus at Bin Tepenear Sardis,some 700 feet in diameter,marks his tomb. Tunnellinginto the mound, GeorgeHanfmannuncovereda'reduplicatedmonogramfor Gyges'name but failed to locate the sarcophagusitself. Sweepingpast Sardis,the Cimmerians also threatenedthe Greek cities of the Ionian coast (Smyma,Magnesia,Ephesus)about fifty miles away.The Ephesianpoet Kallinos, famed for his martial poetry,helped to rally his fellow citizens to defendthemselves. The Cimmerians were at that time led by Lygdamis(Strabo1.61), who can be identified with the Tugdammeof cuneiform sources. After his campaignsin western Anatolia, Tugdammeturnedeast again and threatenedCilicia in southeasternAnatolia. In a text inscribedon a golden incense altar,erected to Mardukat Babylonaround640, Ashurbanipaldenounced his foe. A fragmentarytext published by A. R. Millardgives us details of Tugdamme'sgruesome death:

ts and horsenten.The charioteersareAssyrian in dress of FineArts, Boston. VLuseum

[ ... ] the weapons of Ashur,my lord, overwhelmedhim and he [went mad],and in his delirium chewed his knuckles [ .... changed,and imposed on him his severepunishment. [One side of his body suffereda str]oke,piercingpain attackedhis heart (Millard1968: 109-10). After this decisive defeat the Cimmerians did not survive as an entity. They mergedwith the native populations in easternAnatolia which the Armenians were later to call Gomir. EdwinYamauchi

Urartu.(Adaptedfrom B. Piotrovsky,The Ancient Civilization of Urartu,Cowles, 1969.)

CDOCLMISAral Sea

Black

4

Sea S

fo sw

IV

C,4

o~u

I

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*

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a Sal Ecbatt

sesb Scythopolir (541son) (IrrrllW In susa 10,

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invasions and settlement of the IranianPlateau in the late second and early first millennium .c.

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

97

Mummifiedcorpsefrom Pazyryk.Photographcourtesyof the HermitageMuseumin Leningrad,U.S.S.R.

enemies and used the scalps as "napkins."An illustrated cap found in a Kurdzhipbarrowdepicts a Scythian holding the head of a victim (Rice 1961: 54); the head of the chief from tomb number 2 at Pazyrykhad been scalped. In the case of the corpses at Pazyrykthe entrails, muscles, and brainshad been removed.The crania were then filled with soil, pine needles, and larch cones, and the skin sewn tip with horsehair (Rudenko1970: 280 ff.). Herodotus (IV.71)describedthe embalming of the chief as follows: "His belly [was] cut open and cleansed and filled with cut marsh-plantsand frankincense and parsleyand anise seed, and sewn up again." At the death of the king, Herodotus continues (IV.71),the Scythians "bury,afterstrangling,one of the king's concubines, his cupbearer, his cook, his groom, his squire, and his messenger,besides horses." The sacrifice of a spouse and servants is amply attested by the excavations of Scythian tombs. In the great Chertomlyk burial there were skeletons in each of the four side-chambers:"Inthe north-west chamber,on remains of a bier painted darkand light blue, lay a woman's skeleton" (Phillips 1965: 75-76). The sacrifice of horses is also well attested by archaeology.At the Kostromskayaburial, twenty-two horses were arrangedon four sides of the tomb (Rice 1961: 102-03). At Chertomlyk "threegravesof horses bridledwith gold and silver and two of grooms with silver or gold torques and quivers of arrows" were discovered(Phillips 1965: 76). The frozen condition of the Pazyryk

98

tombs preserved"not only skin and hair,but muscles, and entrails with the remains of undigested food" from ten yellow mares (Griaznov 1933: 32). In the light of these striking discoveries, the reliability of Herodotus as a source for our knowledge of the Scythians can be affirmed. According to Rubinson (1975: 20), "In summary, we can see that Herodotus gives relatively accurate descriptions of the way of life of the nomads who were in fairly close contact with the Greeks, as, for example, in his description of the burial process."(See also Sulimirski 1954: 294; Rice 1961: 42.) SavageKinsmen in Christ In the classical age of Greece (fifth century) the Scythians became well known as archerswho fought both with and against the Greeks. In fact, as often noted in the plays of Aristophanes, a corps of Scythians served as a kind of police force in Athens. Though an exceptional Scythian like Anacharsis could become thoroughly Hellenized and gain fame as a sage, their gaudy pants and pointed caps constantly evoked wonder.Moreovertheir reputation for ferocity,their scalping of captives, and their other barbarous customs made their name synonymous with savagerydown into the Christian era (compare2 Maccabees 4:47; 3 Maccabees 7:5; 4 Maccabees 10:7; Josephus, ContraApion 2.269; Tertullian,Apology 9.9). It is these unsavoryassociations, then, which providethe point of the referenceto the Scythians in Colossians 3:11-a word which means nothing to readerstoday

1983 ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING BIBLICAL

but which would have aroused a strong emotional response from Paul's audience: "Here there cannot be Greek and Jew,circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian,Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all."According to this passage, even those cruel, barbaricScythians -the epitome of savageryin the ancient world-were capable of redemption through the grace of Christ! Materialsfor this article havebeen extracted

fromFoesfromtheNorthernFrontier (Baker Book House, 1982)by EdwinYamauchi,and areused with permission of the publisher.

Scythian archeron an archaic Greekvase (530-520 B.c.)painted by Exekias. Photographcourtesy of the UniversityMuseum, Universityof Pennsylvania.

Bibliography Anderson,A. R. 1932 Alexander's Gate, Gog and Magog and the Inclosed Nations. Cambridge,MA: MedievalAcademyof America. Artamonov,M. I. 1965 FrozenTombsof the Scythians. Scientific American 212 (May): 101-09. 1969 The Splendorof Scythian Art. New York:Praeger. Astour,M. C. 1976 Ezekiel's Prophecyof Gog and the Cuthean Legendof Naram-Sin.Journal of Biblical Literature95: 567-79. Barnett,R. D. 1956 The Treasureof Ziwiye. Iraq 18: 111-16. Cavaignac,E. 1953 Mushki et Phrygiens.Journalasiatique 241: 139-43. Cogan,M. and Tadmore,H. 1977 Gyges and Assurbanipal.Orientalia 46: 65-85. Dmytryshyn,B. 1977 A History of Russia. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Drioton, I . and Vandier,J. 1952 L'Egypte.Paris:PressesUniversitaires de France. Ghirshman,R. 1964 TheArt of Ancient Iran.New York:Golden Press. 1976 L'Irandes originesa l'Islam. Paris: Albin Michel. Griaznov,M. 1933 The PazirikBurialsof the Altai. American Journalof Archaeology 37: 30-45.

Gyles, M. E 1959 PharaonicPolicies and Administration, 663 to 323 B.C. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. Heidel, A. 1956 A New HexagonalPrism of Esarhaddon.Sumer 12: 9-37. Herodotus 1920 Herodotus I. Translatedby A. D. Godley. The Loeb Classical Library. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1921 Herodotus II. Translatedby A. D. Godley. The Loeb Classical Library. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. Hyatt, J.P. 1940 The Perilfromthe North in Jeremiah. Journalof Biblical Literature59: 499-513. Lauha,A. 1943 Zaphon; Der Norden und die NordvdlkerimAlten Testament.Helsinki: Die Finnische Akademie derWissenschaften.

Lindsey,H. 1980 The 1980's: Countdown to Armageddon. New York:Bantam. Lindsey,H. and Carlson,C. C. 1970 The Late GreatPlanet Earth. GrandRapids,MI:Zondervan. Luckenbill,D. D., editor 1927 Ancient Recordsof Assyria and Babylonia. 2 vols. Chicago:University of ChicagoPress. Mellink, M. J. 1959 The City of Midas. ScientificAmerican 201 (July):100-04. Millard,A. R. 1968 Fragmentsof Historical Textsfrom Nineveh: Ashurbanipal.Iraq30: 98-110. 1979 The Scythian Problem.Pp. 119-22 in Glimpses of Ancient Egypt,ed. J.Ruffle et al. Warminster:Aris & Phillips. Myres,J.L. 1932 Gog and the Dangerfrom the North in Ezekiel. QuarterlyStatement, Palestine ExplorationFund:213-19. Naster, P 1938 L'AsieMineureetl'Assyrie. Louvain: Bureauxdu Mus6on. Olmstead, A. T 1951 History of Assyria. Chicago:University of ChicagoPress. Parpola,S. Kevalaer: 1970 Neo-Assyrian Tobponyms. Butzon & Bercker. Pfeiffer,R. H. 1935 State LettersofAssyria. New Haven,CT: American Oriental Society. Phillips, E.D. 1965 The RoyalHordes. New York: McGraw-Hill. Piotrovsky,B. 1969 TheAncient Civilization of Urartu. New York:Cowles. Plassart,A. 1913 Les archersd'Athenes. Revuedes etudes grecques26: 151-213. J. Potratz, 1963 Die Skythenin Siidrussland.Basel: RaggiVerlag. Rice, T 1961 The Scythians. New York:Praeger. Rowley,H. H. 1962- The EarlyPropheciesof Jeremiah 63 in Their Setting. Bulletin of the JohnRylands Library45: 198234. Rubinson,K. S. 1975 Herodotusand the Scythians. Expedition 17 (Summer):16-20. Rudenko,S. I. 1970 FrozenTombsof Siberia: The PazyrykBurials of IronAge Horsemen. Berkeley,CA:University of CaliforniaPress.

Singer,S. 1976 Foundin Jerusalem:Remainsof the BabylonianSiege. Biblical Archaeology Review2: 7-10. Skinner,J. 1922 Prophecyand Religion. Cambridge: University Press. Spalinger,A. J. 1978 The Date of the Death of Gyges and Its Historical Implications. Journalof the American Oriental Society 98: 400-09. Sulimirski, T. 1954 Scythian Antiquities in Western Asia. Artibus Asiae 17: 282-318. Vaggione,R. P. 1973 OverAll Asia? The Extent of the Scythian Domination in Herodotus. Journalof Biblical Literature 92: 523-30. Wilke, E 1913 Das Skythenproblemim Jeremiabuch. Alttestamentliche Studienfir R. Kittel. Leipzig:J.C. Hinrichs. Yamauchi,E. 1976 Meshech, Thbal,and Company. Journalof the EvangelicalTheological Society 19: 239-47.

NEW FULBRIGHTSOFFERED FellowshipsAvailablefor Cyprus announcedthe availabilityof three Fulbrightawardsfor researchpositions in Cypriot art or archaeologyfor the academic year 1984-85. Successful candidates will work closely with the Cyprus Departmentof Antiquities and the Cyprus American Archaeological ResearchInstitute (CAARI)in Nicosia. The positions are: (1) RESEARCH

FELLOWSHIP for postdoctoralresearch

relatedto the grantee'sdoctoral

dissertation. (2) SENIORRESEARCHER FELLOWSHIP for researchon any field of the fellow's choosing. (3) STUDENT FELLOWSHIP for doctoralresearchon

the artor archaeologyof Cyprus. Deadline for applications is September1983 for the 1984-85 academicyear.Forapplicationmaterials and additionalinformation, contact the Fulbrightofficer at your home institution. Unaffiliatedscholars can obtain materialsfor (1)and (2) from the Council for International Exchangeof Scholars, 11 Dupont Circle, Suite 300, Washington,D.C. 20036; for (3)from the Institute for InternationalEducation,809 United Nations Plaza,New York,NY 10017. Foradditionalinformationabout CAARI,write the American Schools of OrientalResearch,4243 Spruce Street,Philadelphia,PA 19104.

1983 BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING

99

THE MUSEUMTRAIL The

Harvard

Rises

Semitic

Museum

Again by JanetTassel

A

t midnightonOctober14,1970,anex-

plosion crackedthe silence of Divinity Avenue, Cambridge.A bomb had detonated on the top floor of the Harvard Semitic Museum, blowing out part of the roof. It had been set there by antiwar demonstrators protesting the presence in the museum building of the Center for InternationalAffairsand of its formerassociate director,Henry A. Kissinger("It took me years to become thoroughly loathed at Harvard;in Washington,it happened overnight. .. !'). The center occupied the upperfloors, while the museum itself-the collections, study areas,and class space for the Department of Near

EasternLanguagesand Civilizations-was relegated to the basement of its own building. The blast was one of a series of shocks to the HarvardSemitic Museum that, beginning in 1942, had led to its decline in location and morale. But this one was to be the last, and, as it turned out, was a serendipitous blow,bearingwith it the promise of an end to the museum's underground huddle and the beginning of its gradualascent to the light. Now, afterforty years in a kind of wilderness, the HarvardSemitic Museum -envisioned by its founders as an international resource for promoting knowledge of the diverse Semitic languages,cultures, and arts-has officially reopenedto the public.

n a bright, cold day in February1903, those founders-men of robust optimism and lordly fortunes-gathered with members of the Harvardcommunity, scholars, clergymen, and guests to dedicate the three-storybrick building at 6 Divinity Avenue. The gentlemen and ladies drankcoffee and hot chocolate and examined the collections arrangedon all three floors: ancient coins, cuneiform inscriptions, Babylonianbasreliefs, Assyrian and Egyptianmonuments, Palestinian pottery,Phoenician glass, Hittite tablets. Charles FrancisAdams, Jr.,was there, and Henry Lee Higginson, and RalphWaldoEmerson's daughter.They heard addressesby Charles W Eliot, president of the university; Charles Eliot Norton, professoremeritus; David Gordon Lyon,Hancock Professorof Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages and curatorof the new museum; Cyrus Adler of the Smithsonian Institution and the Jewish Theological Seminary; and finally, the principal donor of the museum, JacobHenry Schiff. It was Schiff's day;he had broughtwith him in a privaterailroadcar a constellation of relatives and friends, featuringthe cast of Our Crowd--

Seligmans, Loebs, and Warburgs.He arrangeda splendid dinner at his hotel to reciprocate President Eliot's luncheon, and one of the guests declaredthat Harvardrarelywas treatedso regally.Twelve years earlier,when the first collection he purchasedfor the museum was installed at the PeabodyMuseum, Schiff had said that a primarypurposeof the museum must be to repudiateand combat "anti-Semitism in Europe, social prejudiceand ostracism in free America," by creating opportunities "fora more thorough study and a better knowledge of Semitic history and civilization, so that the world shall better understand and acknowledge the debt it owes to the Semitic people."On this day of dedication in 1903, he quoted Goethe: "Happyhe who is glad because of those he sprangfrom." JacobHenry Schiff, born in Frankfurtam Main in 1847 to one of Europe'soldest Jewish families, was a partnerin the New Yorkbanking house of Kuhn, Loeb & Companyby the time he was 28. His specialty was railroadfinancing; later in his life he was considered the only man whose power in American railroadingequaled J.P. Morgan's.But Schiff financed promising enter-

O

ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING BIBLICAL 1983

101

This Akkadian cylinder seal impression (ca. 2400 B.c.)

shows the central figure, the sun-god Shamash, stepping through the mountains at dawn. The god is characterized by rays emanating from his shoulders and the sickle-saw he holds in his hand. The symbol immediately to the right of him representsthe god's name in Sumerian. This impression is currently in the Harvard Semitic Museum; the original seal is in the collection of the British Museum. Copyright1983 by President and Fellows of Harvard

Collegefor the

Semitic Museum.

its

lot

1.10

81I

The earliest topographicalmap known from antiquity is shown above. Discovered in the ruins of Nuzi, this clay tablet of the third millennium B.C.clearly distinguishes mountain ranges on the east and the west. A river flows between the mountains, joined in its course by a second river from the west. The circled areas highlight the names of sites which especially interested the map maker.A line drawingof the map is shown below Copyright 1983 by President and Fellows of HarvardCollegefor the Semitic Museum.

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ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983 BIBLICAL

prises other than railroads.To cite a famous example, in 1904, indignant at official Russian anti-Semitism, he helped finance Japanin its war with Russia. Schiff's role as international financier was complemented by his far-rangingphilanthropic involvements. When he died in 1920 in New York,Schiff left an estate of about $40 million, having given awayperhapstwice that amount duringhis lifetime. Among his gifts were the Semitic departments at Cornell, at the Congressional Libraryin Washington,and at the New York Public Library.Thus when his brother-in-law JamesLoeb, a Harvardundergraduate,suggested to ProfessorLyonin 1888 that Schiff might be the man to contact about funding the acquisition of some inscriptions for the Semitic Languagesand History Department, Lyonwonderedwhy he had not thought of it before. Schiff was the ideal patron.In 1889 he gave $10,000 for the first collection, and a year later $2,000 towardLyon'strip to Europe,the first of severalpurchasing expeditions Lyonand Professor CrawfordH. Toywould make, occasionally accompanied by Schiff. The collection was installed in the PeabodyMuseum in May 1891, while the department'slibrary,also donated by Schiff, was housed in SeverHall. And in February 1893, Schiff offeredto contribute towarda $50,000 building, providedthat other donors be found to match his donation. By June 1899, $40,000 had been raised, but when furtherfunds were slow coming in, Schiff decided to donate the entire $50,000 (he eventually increased it to $76,000), stipulating that the other donors divert their contributions to the fund for purchases. In all, Schiff contributed more than $275,000 to the Semitic Museum, including a gift to the TeachersEndowment Fund, the income of which was to be permanently applied to the salaryof the curatoror professorsconnected with the museum.

His contribution also included $55,000 for the museum's first official archaeologicalexpedition, begun in 1908 in Samariaand headed by Harvard's Egyptologist,GeorgeA. Reisner,whom Schiff persuadedto supervise the dig duringits first year. Reisner,who gavehis addressas "The Pyramids, Cairo,"is known for introducingdebris analysis and photologging,and for making his Egyptian camel drivera rich man by teaching him the only four syllables he would ever need for dealing profitablywith American archaeologists:"Tohell with Yale"!' Schiff often referredto the Semitic Museum as his "own child," and sensed with a father's disappointment the comparativecoolness toward the museum of PresidentA. LawrenceLowell -particularly after President Eliot's enthusiastic involvement, which continued past his retirement in 1909 until his death in 1926. Lyonalso noted the difference.Like Schiff, he had enjoyeda fond personal relationship with Eliot-"the greatest man I ever knew,"he mourns in his diary on the day of Eliot's death. But more than that, President Lowell seemed unaccountably.hostile to the museum. Lyon,who retiredas Hancock professorin 1922, spent most of his time as curatortrying to raise money.He recordson January22, 1926, that Lowell and the Fellows had "vetoed"his efforts to procurefunds for the museum. "I pointed out the desperate need of the Museum," he continues, "and stated that unless means could be found to relieve some of that need I should have to ask to be relieved of any furtherresponsibility.He [Lowell]replied again, 'I will consult the Corporation,'which indicates, I judge,that he will ask them to refuse."The "Golden Age of Eliot" had come to an end. At the same time, financed principally by Schiff's donations, the acquisitions had grown impressively.Collections and single items were also presentedby the Longfellowfamily, Edward EverettHale, and Ellen Mason, among others. The holdings representedcasts or models and original objects. The formergroupincluded huge models of the Temple of Solomon, the Temple of Herod, and the Tabernacle;a cast of the stele of Hammurapi (ca. 2000 B.c.) with the text of his Code of Laws; the Mesha Stone (ninth century B.C.),giving the Moabite version of the wars between Moab and Israel; and Assyrian bas-reliefs from the reigns of Ashurnasirpal II (884-860 B.c.) and Sennacherib (705-681 B.c.). The original objects included one of the world's outstanding collections of Roman glass; several hundred Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac manuscripts; inscribed Babylonian and Assyrian cuneiform tablets and cylinder seals; thousands of ancient Palestinian coins and pottery specimens; jewelry, costumes, utensils, and samples of rocks, flora, and fauna from the Holy Land.

Top:Mr. and Mrs. Robert Pfeifferin 1929 at Nuzi, Iraq. Copyright1983 by President and Fellows of Harvard College for the Semitic Museum. Bottom left: Frank M. Cross,Jr.,director of the HarvardSemitic Museum (left in photograph)and CarneyE. S. Gavin, museum curator,examine an ancient jar, typical of Qumran storage vessels which contained the Dead Sea Scrolls. Photographtaken by Kenneth H. McKelvie,courtesy of the HarvardSemitic Museum. Bottom right: G. Ernest Wright,professorof divinity at Harvardand president of the American Schools of Oriental Researchfrom 1966 to 1974, was curatorof the Semitic Museum from 1961 to 1974. Copyright1983 by Presidentand Fellows of HarvardCollege for the Semitic Museum.

Zoomorphicvessels excavated at Nuzi by RobertH. Pfeiffer.Resembling piggy banks in size and shape, these containers most likely represent lions who were sacred animals to Ishtar, the goddess of love and war. The vessels may have served a cultic function in the fifteenth century n.c.

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

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The museum's holdings were enriched from 1929 to 1933 by what is possibly its most important collection: thousands of clay tablets, cylinder seals, and assorted artifacts-the largest collection in the world-from Nuzi, a site in upper Mesopotamia, about nine miles southwest of Kirkuk,Iraq.A provincialcenter of the enigmatic Hurrianpeople, Nuzi flourished about 1500 B.c. Even now,archaeologists at Harvard(andat the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, which has a smaller Nuzi collection) aredeciphering the chronicle of Nuzi. Field directorof the Nuzi expedition from 1928 to 1933 was RobertH. Pfeiffer,assistant professorof Semitic languages, who became curatorof the museum in 1931 and Hancock professorin 1953. In retrospect, the vicissitudes of the Nuzi collection may be seen as emblematic of the changed circumstances of the museum as a whole, from the happyyears when Schiff, Eliot, and Lyonwould talk late into the night, confidently exchanging plans and visions. ErnestR. Lacheman,a young Swiss graduate of Yale,arrivedat Harvardin 1931 to work with Pfeiffertowardhis Ph.D., his dissertation being the cataloguing of Nuzi tablets. One day in 1942, Pfeiffercalled Lacheman, then in his first yearof teaching at Wellesley College, telling him he must come to the museum immediately and begin to removeall the Nuzi tablets and seals. The museum, Pfeiffersaid, had been rented to the Army as a school for chaplains, and he fearedfor the collections. Thus the tablets and seals began their hegirato Lacheman'soffice, and subsequently to his house, where they were to spend more than just the duration.After the Army left, the Navy moved in, pre-emptingmuch of the museum for a Japanese-languageschool. Pfeiffer'sfearswere validated:items were misplaced, collections moved to the basement, tarpaulin thrown over displays. And after the war, Pfeifferurged Lachemanto keep the tablets, at least until they were published. The museum could no longer guaranteerefugefor them. Lachemanreturnedthe seals in 1958, and he returnedthe tablets as they were published. Between 1942 and his death in October 1982, he published five volumes of the tablets as a partof the HarvardSemitic Series. (Before1942, four volumes of the tablets had alreadybeen published by others: three as a partof the HarvardSemitic Series and one as the ASOR annual for 1935-36). A final volume is now being preparedfor posthumous publication. The departureof the Nuzi collection was paralleledby the attenuation of the museum itself, many of whose initial reasons for being were graduallyundermined in the thirties and forties. The librarywas integratedwith Widenerin 1942-43; the Old Testament courses came to be held exclusively at the Divinity School; Semitic history

104

1983 BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING

and Semitic philosophy courses were absorbed into History and Philosophy.During the war years, even the specifically Semitic courses were moved to other buildings. The dispersion of these classes reflected the size of the department,which had diminished to three men: Hamilton Gibb, University Professorand Jewett Professorof Arabic, whose office was on Dunster Street;HarryWolfson, LittauerProfessorof Jewish Studies, who was located in Widener;and Pfeiffer,whose office since the warhad remainedin his home on FrancisStreet. The museum building during the forties and fifties housed only a.few offices, a lecture hall, and some storagespace. The public function of the museum was nominally restoredafter the war,its collections more or less on display;but because virtually all its endowment except the curator's $2,000 salary was earmarkedfor the purchaseof objects, with almost nothing for upkeep, the maintenance of the building became an expensive problem.Dust accumulated, ceilings leaked, paint peeled. Schiff's child began to look like an orphan.The university,responsible under the

Stairway leading to the Churchof the Holy Sepulchrein Jerusalem. Photographtaken between 1867 and 1880 by Bonfils. Courtesyof the HarvardSemitic Museum.

Schiff-Eliotagreement for repairs,light, heat, and janitorialservice, interceded to pay the deficits. But in 1957, during the regime of Dean McGeorge Bundy,it was decided that the museum had outlived its welcome, had indeed become a liability, and would have to be sold. Pfeiffer,ill, watching the museum's fortunes deteriorate,told Lacheman, "Harvardis asking me to presideat the funeralof the Semitic Museum, and then I too shall pass on." And he was right, except that his funeral came first, in March 1958. The administration had hoped to "sell" the museum building to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, but neither Arts and Sciences nor any other departmentcould affordthe estimated $250,000 such a transferwould cost. A committee chairedby HarryWolfsonand including the new Hancock professor,FrankMoore Cross, Jr., was formed to rule on the disposition of the museum. In its reportof April 1958, the Wolfson committee concluded that

The form into which its assets were translated was the renting of its upperstories, except for Cross'soffice, to the Center for International Affairs,the refurbishingof the basement at a cost of $25,000, and the removal- newspaperwrapped,in crates and tea chests-of most of the original materials to the basement. Disposition of the remainderof the objects had alreadybeen accomplished. Certain of the original acquisitions-a number of Sumerian tablets, for instance-were sent to a storagewarehouse; classical and early Islamic glass and metal-work collections went to the FoggArt Museum, Islamic and Ottoman artifacts to the Center for Middle EasternStudies, and costumes to the PeabodyMuseum. Of the models and casts, some-Hammurapi's column, the Mesha Stone, the Assyrian bas-reliefs-were sent to Brandeis University.The remainder,including the models of Solomon's Temple, the Temple of Baalbek,the Tabernacle,and Jerusalem,were destroyed. The recordswere stowed in a tin trunk in the attic. And one day late in March 1958, the cherry and mahoganydisplay cabinets were brokenup and dumpedfrom the second- and third-floorwindows. Rick Stafford,a Harvardphotographer,watched -"kind of shocked," says he-from the Biological Laboratoriesnext door as first the windows themselves and then the cabinets crashedto the ground.When the dismantling was over,Stafford and some others slipped out and retrievedfrom

the Semitic Museum building is not now,and for some years past has not been, an effective instrument for promoting knowledge of Semitic hfistoryand literature.Consequently,it recommends that either a means be found for making it serve its original purposeeffectively or the assets it representsbe translated into another form which can be used effectively to this end.

~

.ca

wr,

Vekd---

~i~? .?e~: .IP??r4 ~I-ILA

View of Beirutfrom the American College. Photograph taken between 1867 and 1889 by Bonfils. Courtesyof the HarvardSemitic Museum.

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

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the brokenglass and splintered fragments whatever wood looked usable. Todayhe displays a handsome coffee table he built from the cherry wood he took home that day. Accordingto the terms of the Wolfson report, the Center for InternationalAffairswas to lease the space in the Semitic Museum for five years, beginning in 1958. What with one thing and another,it was not until 1979 that it vacated, moving to Coolidge Hall, at 1737 Cambridge Street.In 1958 too, the museum curatorshipwent to Cross, the historian of biblical religion perhaps best known for his paleographicaland textual analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls and for his seminal work The Ancient Libraryof Qumran. At Cross'sinsistence, the curatorshippassed in 1961 to G. ErnestWright,who had come to Harvardtwo years earlieras Parkmanprofessorof divinity. Wright,a "dirt"archaeologist as against Cross's armchairvariety,was directorof the excavations at Gezer,at Shechem, and at Idalion in Cyprus. As president of the American Schools of Oriental Research,Wright,despite a serious heart condition, visited all excavations sponsoredby ASOR, in addition to performinghis museum and teaching duties and continuing his extensive writing. It was clear that he needed an assistant. In 1967 he hired-at $300 a year-a 28-year-olddoctoral candidatein Syro-Palestinianarchaeology,Carney E. S. Gavin. A Catholic priest who had trained at Boston College, at Innsbruck,and as a Fulbright scholar at Oxford,Gavin became assistant curator in 1973. When Wrightdied in the fall of 1974, Cross resumed the curatorship,but changed his title to director,reservingfor Gavin the title of curator.Gavin became curatorof Near Easternart and archaeologyin 1975, and curatorof the museum in 1980. Wrighthad been in the museum basement on at least two occasions when the building was attackedby antiwarprotesters, once with a batteringram, and another time with bombs. After one assault he came home shaken and told his wife Emily that it was not the doughty old building he worriedabout; he trembled for civilization itself. But that 1970 explosion, the one that lifted

Gavin'sacronymfor a worldwide campaign he initiated to find, organize, copy,utilize, and share old photographs.In 1978 FOCUS brought to the museum for its first symposium (the second was in October 1981) curatorsand photohistorians from this country and Europe,and from severalMiddle Easterncountries, including Israel.The Harvard Semitic Museum may be the only place in the world where such a gathering can still take place. Here, then, in 1970 was a thundery blessing for the museum. But meanwhile, less sensational but no less regenerativethings were happening belowstairs. While the administration in 1957 had tightened one fist, it had relaxed the other. The departmenthad been permitted to growfrom the 1957 three to about 25 members, including eleven full professors.This expansion brought with it increased numbers of undergraduateand graduatestudents, and a paradox:While the museum was at its most unceremonious, crowded into the basement, there were more people researchingand publishing its collections than everbefore. The collections were swelled continually by materials shipped back for study from the overseasexcavations in Shechem and Idalion and on loan from Carthagein Tunisia, a dig begun by the Semitic Museum in 1975. Directed in the field by LawrenceStager,a former student of Cross's, the Harvardworkersexcavatedin Punic levels

the roof, brought in its wake the unaccustomed draught of redemption. For when Gavin climbed to the top floor with the inspectors to assess the damage, they foundbeneath the eaves dozens of dusty crates, apparently unopened since Lyon's day. In these boxes were 28,000 prints, lantern slides, and negatives-many bought by Lyon from a London dealer; sumptuous nineteenth-century views of Middle Eastern scenes, architecture, and figures. Suddenly the Semitic Museum found itself possessor of the world's largest collection of nineteenth-century photographs of the Levant. This discovery led several years later to FOCUS,

The seventies brought other signs of revitalization, not least important the museum's recovery of many of its treasures. In 1973 the Fogg Museum and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies returned the collections they had been holding. And in 1974 the Harvard football team, many of whom had been volunteers at the museum, trucked to Brandeis and retrieved the great casts and basreliefs from a crawl space beneath the library. With the members of the department scattered throughout the Harvard diaspora and the museum cellar bulging perilously, the long-delayed moment at last became a likelihood. By 1978 the

106

1983 BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING

(pre-146 B.c.) adjacent to the ancient port,

where they found the tophet, the precinct of child sacrifice. Artifacts from the excavations were popular attractions for the growingnumber of visitors who began to appearat the museum duringthe seventies. They came at Gavin'sinvitation, extended to schools and religious groups.Reaching out to the community has been a priority of Gavin'ssince he joined the museum staff; in addition to his programswithin the museum, he has developedarchaeological courses at the HarvardExtension School, createdtelevision and radiopresentations, and taught summer workshops for teachers. He has also lured crowds of volunteers (he calls them his "belovedmoles") to sort, catalogue, number, and sketch the collections.

museum, in its reportto the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, was able to say that the "decadesof undergroundexile drawto a close and we begin to recoverthe upper floors of the building." With its inaugural exhibit, "Danzig 1939," the Semitic Museum reopened in April 1982. And there is still a great deal to be done. Cross, though supportiveof Gavin'sphotographicand community involvements, is anxious that Harvardcarryits weight in the field of ancient Near Eastern archaeological research.Now, he says, "with the fabulous resources of the museum at its disposal, Harvardmust step to the front where it belongs in a field that is exploding backwards,so to speak. We should have an Egyptologist, and specialists in Syro-Palestinianand Mesopotamian archaeology" He speaks of the collections still uncatalogued, and particularlyof the currentprojects at the museum from two important expeditions. One, directed by Harvard'sMichael Coogan, is at Numeira, an EarlyBronzeAge (2500 B.c.)site on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea in Jordan. Because Numeira was destroyedby a catastrophe and never resettled, the artifacts are in a state somewhat like those from Pompeii. The other material, formerly at Hebrew Union College, is from Tell el-Kheilifeh, on the northern coast of the Gulf of Aqaba,the site excavatedfrom 1938 to 1940 by Nelson Glueck. Glueck called the site the "Pittsburghof Palestine," on the premise that he had found a largesmelting center later popularizedas King Solomon's mines. A new appraisalof Tell el-Kheilifeh under the supervision of Gary Pratico, assistant curatorfor archaeological collections, is just now being completed. "Danzig 1939: Treasuresof a Destroyed Community" ranfrom April 4 through June 20, 1982. Arrangedby the Jewish Museum in New York,it is an exhibit of more than three hundred objects and documents from the doomed Jewish community of Danzig (now Gdanisk,Poland). These objects, most of them from the Great Synagogueof Danzig, were sent by the Danzig Jews to America for safekeepingin March 1939. To raise funds for emigration, the community had sold the synagogueitself to the Nazis, who soon demolished it. The objects, in ten enormous crates, arrived in New York in July 1939 and were housed in the Jewish Theological Seminary. There was a proviso: If a Jewish community were reestablished in Danzig within fifteen years, the objects were to be returned. The collection is divided into three categories. The first and largest is the Lesser Gieldzinski Collection of ceremonial objects, which had been kept in a museum within the synagogue; the second group is appurtenances of the synagogue, a grand Byzantinesque structure built in 1887; and the third category is household treasures added by

individual families, presumablyat the last minute. Therewas a peculiarrightness aboutreopening the Semitic Museum with this exhibit. Therewere coincidences of local interest; for instance, Henry Rosovsky,present dean of Harvard'sFacultyof Arts and Sciences, appearsas a child in a 1935 photographof a primary-schoolclass in Danzig. And there were larger,strangeand poetic historical connections. The Great Synagogueof Danzig was established at about the same time as the Harvard Semitic Museum. ArthurNeustadt, a Danzig merchant, made the first contact to save the synagoguetreasures.His contact: the American JointDistribution Committee, among whose founders was JacobHenry Schiff and whose first treasurerwas Schiff's son-in-law,Felix Warburg. The institution that stored the crates was the JewishTheological Seminary,whose president-the one who accepted the crates-was Cyrus Adler, Schiff's biographerand, we recall, a speakerat the museum dedication in 1903. The Jewish Theological Seminarymoved its Judaicacollectionincluding the Danzig material-to the mansion at 1109 Fifth Avenue that became the Jewish Museum, donatedby Mrs. Felix Warburg,the formerFriedaSchiff. When one thinks of Schiff's solemn injunction to his "child," the Semitic Museum, to eradicateanti-Semitism throughknowledge, again one sees the aptness of this exhibit. Just before the Great Synagogueof Danzig was gutted, there were affixed to it two signs. One read, "Die Synagogewird abgebrochen"-"The synagogue will be torn down";the other, "Komm',lieber Mai, und mache von Juden uns jetzt frei"-"Come, dearMay,and free us of the Jews."It would please JacobHenry Schiff to know that his "child" and the relics of this synagogue,symbols of those he sprangfrom, have been brought together,alike in their obstinate refusal to be eradicated. Copyright C 1982 HarvardMagazine.Reprintedby permission.

An Update The precedingarticle is a slightly modified version of one published in the March-April 1982 issue of HarvardMagazine. The author,JanetTassel, sends us this update on the activities of the museum: When the Harvard Semitic Museum officially reopened on April 4, 1982, several hundred invited guests crowded into a wind-slapped tent on that unseasonably chilly day to hear Derek C. Bok, president of Harvard, and Frank M. Cross, Jr., museum director, deliver brief opening speeches. Carney E. S. Gavin, museum curator, spoke the benediction, concluding with the traditional Hebrew She-heche-yanu, upon which the guests lifted glasses of champagne in a toast. The visitors then returned to viewing "Danzig 1939: Treasures of a Destroyed Community" Be-

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

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tween that April day and the morning in Junewhen the exhibit was packed away,destined for Germany and subsequently Israel,approximately 15,000 people visited "Danzig 1939" at the museum. "Danzig 1939"was followedduringthe summer of 1982 by a small archaeological display of artifacts excavatedby the Semitic Museum in Samaria, Nuzi, Cyprus,Numeira, and Tell el-Kheilifeh. In October 1982 "Remembrancesof the Near East: The Photographsof Bonfils, 1867-1907" opened at the museum. Arrangedon the upper floors were some two hundredalbumen prints by the Bonfils family-Felix, his wife Lydie,and their son Paul-Felix-Adrien-all of which were among the cache discoveredthat October day afterthe midnight explosion. Gavin has published extensively on the lives and work of the Bonfils family, and the museum is generally regardedby photohistorians as the world center of Bonfils study.The work of Gavin and his staff in uncoveringnineteenth-century photographsof the Levantwas furtheredby a $600,000 grantin December 1982 from King Fahdof SaudiArabia to locate and preserveearly Middle Eastern visual documents.

NEW SLIDE LECTURES

Currentlyand through the end of the year,the Semitic Museum has on display the exhibit '"Archaeologyin Bible Lands."Utilizing selected artifactsfrom such site collections of the museum as Nuzi, Samaria,and Tell el-Kheilifeh, the exhibit introduces the discipline of archaeology, its objectives and methods-stratigraphy and pottery typology are examples-while at the same time pointing out the biblical significance of some of these sites. Artifacts from Nuzi, for instance, explorethe Nuzi cuneiform archive and its implications for the study of the patriarchalnarrativesin Genesis. The Tell el-Kheilifeh collection is used for study of the IronAge fortress traditions. And in connection with Samaria,the museum employs C. A. Fisher'soriginal drawingsof Samarianarchitecture and GeorgeA. Reisner's field notes for his excavations as illustrative of the early stage of Syro-Palestinianarchaeology. Those interested in visiting or learningmore about the HarvardSemitic Museum should contact Fr.CarneyE. S. Gavin, HarvardSemitic Museum, 6 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge,Massachusetts 02138, 617-495-4631.

BASED ON ARCHAEOLOGY

SERIES:JUDAISM, 200 B.C.- A.D. 200

SERIES: HERO CULTS

Presents a comprehensivesurvey of Early Judaism in Palestine.

This series will describe the belief in the ancient world that a human hero could become divine as a result of remarkable achievements.

J1. THE JEWISH WORLD IN J2. J3. J4. J5. J6.

PALESTINE, 200 B.C. - A.D. 200, by Carol L. Meyers LITERATURE IN EARLY JUDAISM, by James H. Charlesworth THE MESSIANIC HOPE, by Walter Harrelson LIFE, DEATH, AND AFTERLIFE, by George W. E. Nickelsburg ASTROLOGY, ASTRONOMY, AND MAGIC, by James H. Charlesworth FROM TEMPLE TO SYNAGOGUE, by Eric M. Meyers

HC2. ASKLEPIOS, by David E. Aune Presents the myths and cults of this Greek god of healing. Two more slide lectures are planned for this series: HCICHero Cults: An Overview HC3. Hercules

In recent years archaeological discoveries have greatly increased our knowledge of Early Judaism and ancient hero cults. Intensive study of the Pseudepigrapha and Dead Sea scrolls has also enlarged understanding of Early Judaism. Written by experts in their fields, these lectures incorporate new discoveries.

Produced jointly by the International Center on Christian Origins and the Religion and Ethics Insti- All slide lectures consist of 24 35mm. slides (most in tute, with the aid of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Editor: James H. Charles- color) and 8-page printed lecture. $25 each; $135 for worth. Project Director: Howard M. Teeple. entire J series; all postpaid.

RELIGION AND ETHICS INSTITUTE,

108

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

P.O. Box 664, Evanston, IL 60204

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Department of History invited EricMeyers,now editor of BA, to lecture at the university. Meyershad recently returned from Nabratein in Upper Galilee where an excavation he directed under the sponsorship of Duke University and the American Schools of Oriental Research had uncoveredpart of the stone pediment of a TorahShrine from a synagogue of the third century A.D. (see "The Ark of Nabratein--A First Glance," BA, Fall 1981, volume 44, number 4, pp. 237-43). The discovery of part of this shrine, which symbolically represented the Templein Jerusalem and the Ark of the Covenant, occurredjust at the time popular interest in archaeology was being stimulated by the highly successful movie Raiders of the Lost Ark. One of Meyers'hosts for that visit was Michael Payne, who holds a joint appointment in history and English and who teaches a course on biblical literature and history.

Michael Payne

Photographsby Kate Cross.

Meyers and Paynegot together to share their thoughts on archaeology and the public's perception of the ancient world for Bucknell World, the university's alumni newspaper. The following is a slightly modiversion of the article recording fied this conversation. Meyers:I think the most extraordinarything about our discovery has been the media coverage.This has really captured everyone's imagination. We attribute the popularity,of course, to Raiders of the Lost Ark and to the unique synchronism between this discovery and the movie which we had not seen when we were in Israel.I hadn't even heard about the darnfilm until I got back. Raiders has capturedthe popular imagination. Even when we tell people that we haven'tfound the Ark of the Covenant, the interest in archaeology,the interest in the biblical world, is so great that their

questions just go on and on. Apparently,archaeology is going to stay in the public imagination for some time. Still, there are some things about the movie which should not go uncriticized. The era in the history of archaeology which this movie depicts is one of the blackest. The imperial powers came in, hired thousands of local laborersfor a pittance, and rapedthe Near East of major discoveries. The notions that archaeologists go hunting about for lost or buried treasurefor their own personal gain, or for national gain, is something that has nothing to do with the discipline of archaeology today. This is the way it was in the thirties or the 1890s, and this is one of the aspects of colonial imperialism that has made it so difficult for Americans to get permits in Italy,in Greece, in Turkey,and in Israel because many archaeologists of the past came in and rented boats and took off all these things to Britain,

BIBLICAL 1983 ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING

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Germany,and America. But at the same time, it's this fascination for the past and the longing in the American people to have this tie to something very old and very dearthat has helped our work become known. Payne:One of the things that has intrigued me about your work is that you've succeeded in combining literary studies with archaeological studies, when it's so often assumed that there may be a threat to the text that comes from the study of the material remains of the ancient world. What I'm thinking about in particularis that we recently had a visiting historian here on campus who said that the ancient Jewscared more about the literary,written recordof their history than about what their history actually was, that there was almost an historical mythology that was more important to them than truth. You don't think that at all; is that right? Meyers:I think there is an interrelationship between the written word and the material world that has often gone unnoticed in historical circles. Fora variety of reasons this relationship is not profitablyunderstood, or there are not enough people able to interpret the very delicate relationship that coexists between the material and its "ambience." Takea place like Bucknell. What is the relationship between your magnificent surroundingshere and the ambience of this place? It's difficult enough for me after 24 hours here to come to grips with that. Trydoing this for an ancient society. No doubt Israel's commitment to the written word dominated at certain periods, but it doesn't seem that the literary history became central in Israel's history until about 586 B.c., when threatened by extinction, expulsion from the homeland, a crisis of sorts created a huge burst in literary fervor. But for Jewish history prior to that, without archaeology to serve as a corrective against the bias of people who came along and read an edited text, we have difficulty in really coming any-

110

where close to the reality that lies behind these texts. Payne:Sometimes in trying to come to terms with the reality behind the texts, don'tyou also uncovermaterial that challenges the truth of the texts? Meyers:Forsure, and the classic example from the Old Testament is the story of the walls of Jericho. Dame Kathleen Kenyon,one of the premiere archaeologists of this century,excavatedmany,many seasons at Jerichoand ultimately came to the conclusion that Jericho's

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walls were not there at all in Joshua'stime-I'd like to say,at the time when they were singing that song-and so we have to evolve differentstories or theories to explain the presence of that story in the literarycanon. Archaeology serves to jabthe readerand the historian into a sense of the reality of material culture, and I think that's very important. You'rean historian, a literaryhistorian, of the Shakespeareanera.I don't see how you could do your job if you didn'tknow Elizabethan society inside and out. I think probably very few Shakespeareanexperts would. But ancient historians still dareto do this. Most New Testament scholars, most professorsof Jewish history want to go about their business as if no archaeological work had been done and as if it requiredtwo years of postdoctoral training just to understandwhat's going on. Payne:Is the reluctance on the

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

part of many people to deal with the products of archaeologicalscholarship based on fearthat their faith, their religious commitments are going to be undermined? Meyers:Absolutely not. As a matter of fact, the people who embracearchaeologyfirst are those who feel that archaeologycan be used as a tool to provetheir faith. I'd say the people who are most reluctant to employ archaeologyin their reconstruction of history arethe most scientific, the most distinguished of the scholars who simply cannot breakout of the traditional mode of scholarship in orderto achieve broadergroundingin a discipline that has really changedas a result of new research.Now scientists-that is, in the nature sciences or in the biological sciences-do that every six months, I'm told, maybe every three months. Payne:I was very interested in two majorthemes in your new book Archaeology the Rabbis, and Early Christianity. One of those themes is your exploration of the polymorphous characterof Christian and Jewish communities in the periods beforeand afterConstantine. I wonderif we can talk about how that relates also to a second theme in your book, whether there was something that can be called Judeo-Christianity? Meyers:I think the western JudeoChristian world was shaken to the roots in 1947 when a Bedouin trippedovera bunch of pots full of scrolls along the western shore of the Dead Sea. Their coming to light captured the public's imagination, and one of the reasons it capturedthe imagination was that it established once and for all a new form of Jewishlife that coexisted with the period of Jesus' ministry. Now there were some people in the Christian world who waited tensely, fearing that something in the Gospel might be contradicted. But these scrolls were silent about one Jesus of Nazareth or Bethlehem. This establishes that Judaism

was variegated,that it was diverse, that it was different from what we had thought both about urbanized

Jerusalemand about the ruralDead Sea boondocks of Galilee. Nothing since has shocked historians of Christianity into the kind of recognition that this literature has. They now have a more variegated Judaisminto which to plug their views of Christianity. Each form of Christianity today picks and chooses from the varieties of Judaism into which to plant its roots. That's not quite fair,you see, because that way you can really make faith out to be whatever you want. Many of the historians of Christianity tie their Christianity onto aspects of Judaismthat were not at the center but at the periphery,so Christianity's Judaicroots are cast awayfrom the center. This deJudaizationof Christianity is a form of Arian heresy. From the point of view of archaeology,we can now say that Christianity did not pick up and leave in A.D. 70 from Palestine. It didn'timmediately spiritualize itself. It didn't only go off to Rome or Athens or into Jordan.It stayed and moved with its Jewish brethren.It functioned as an on-going Palestinian sect with close filial ties to Jewish religiosity. Payne:One aspect of your work that seems to me a particularly interesting example of the relationship between Christianity and Jewish culture is your study of the practice of second burial and the ideas about rebirth that emerge from the study of that custom. What was this custom of second burial? Meyers:The Jewish custom of reburialexpressesthe abidingcentrality of the land in the theology of Israel. First, most people in ancient Palestine were buried in vertical or horizontal niches cut into the soft limestone rock, just wrapped in a prayer shawl. That took place probably within a 24-hour period after death, because of the Deuteronomic commandment for rapid burial. In the rabbinic literature it states quite candidly that the bones be collected after the flesh had withered away and that they be reburied. In ancient Palestine it was probably the son who would collect the

bones and reburythem in a box called an ossuary,a bone box, and there would be a second funeral. This survives in Jewish religion in the annual anniversaryof the dead. Christianity picks this up, at least the eastern churches do, and to this day the Greek Orthodox Church practices second burial. Payne:It was only Jewish communities in which people believed in life after death that practiced second burial? Meyers:Yes.Youhave to remember that by 200 B.C. the dominant

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of

exreburial the presses abiding centrality of the in the land theology of Israel.

Old Testament belief in life after death was radically altered as a result of the incursion of Greek people and Greek thinking into Palestine. Prior to then we can say that the dominant belief of Semitic peoples, especially the Hebrew people, was that death was simply a weakened form of life. Now with the Greek influence, you get a doctrine of posthumous retribution attached to all of this. Out of this mergerof Semitic and Greek ideas, the ancient Israelites developeda view of resurrection which is present for the first time in the Book of Daniel. So one of the ways you answer this question of retribution after death is to say that the good are going to stand up again. Resurrection, then, comes out of the old anthropologyof Israel,and it's there that early Judaismand Christianity really merged. Payne:The Easterstory with the scene at the tomb, is it in your view the preparationfor the second burial? Meyers:No, that's too soon after death. What that is is the inspection -and we have a story in the Talmud that parallels it-to make sure that

the deceased was not buried alive. Payne:Now tell me, how did you get from your work on ossuaries to the excavations in the summer of 1981, when you discoveredyour celebrated ark?Is this a change in the direction of your work, or is it part of a larger projectthat you have? Meyers:There is a connection. I had shown how studying Jewish burials could inform the understanding of Jewish theology in antiquity and how indeed it relatedto a greater understandingof the New Testament customs. Wejust expanded that into actual field work and did some majorcemeteries, albeit with great difficulty from the rabbiswho tried to stop us now and again. Payne:The ark that you discoveredis in no way physically similar, at least not iconographically similar, to the description of the Ark in Exodus.

Meyers:No, not at all. Payne:Whichmeansthatmultiple culturalinfluencesoccurredbetweenthe descriptionof the Arkin Exodusandthe makingof the one whichyoudiscovered.Is thatright? Meyers:Exactly.The Ark of the Covenant should look like the kind of chest we find in Egypt.Only it should be decoratedwith gold. Payne:But that Egyptianinfluence on the Ark in Exodus, that's not present in what you discovered? Meyers:No. The influences present in the ark were contemporary. We look to Roman shrines which house the god or goddess of a particularcult, and, indeed, that seems to be the form the ark takes. Payne:Let me see if I understand the relationship between the original Ark and the one that you found. Is it too simple to say that the original conception of the Ark was that it provideda portable

identity for the presence of God? There was a period inwhich the actual structure of the Ark, as it's described in Exodus, had some practical purpose. It was designed to be carried about. When it's placed in the temple, is this original conception, in a sense, lost? Meyers: It was compromised. One of the political motivations of David and Solomon was centrali-

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

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zation of worship, centralization for tax purposes,for military purposes. But what do the people out in the boondocks do? How do they get to see the Ark?How do they prayin Jerusalemwithout having to go to the Holy City at greatexpense and great difficulty? Payne:Are you saying that a thousand years afterDavid there was a kind of nostalgia for the old identity of the Ark and the old suggestion of God's presence everywhere that led to the production of arks like the one you found? Meyers:I'm not sure it was

draftswoman,a sherd cutter, the person who runs the diamond cutter, and a registrarwho works all year round processing the finds. PREDOCTORAL We publish temporaryresults immediately, trying to select the FELLOWSHIPS most significant results to publish right away.The process goes on and IN THE on and on. Ultimately, beyond the initial notes and news and articles, MIDDLE EAST there are books. I would referpeople who are rPedoctoral Fellowinterested in working on biblical Fulbright will be available for the American the of to offices ships digs the 1984-85 academic year Schools of Oriental Researchin in Israel,Jordan,Cyprus, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We do digs in Israel,Jordan,Syria,Tunisia, Egypt, Syriaand other Middle East specificallynostalgiaforthose old countries. notion the and Cyprus and we have between 25 the of immovWhen days. In alone and Israel of to 35 Applications will be accepted ability worshipbegan emerge, digs per year. from well-qualified students in most in 1981, American archaeologists the peopleprobablylookedto a fields of study. Candidates must be symbolthatcouldshowGod'sword took something like 600 or 800 U.S. citizens who will hold a bacheAmerican students with them. in a new way. Each dig has a specific arrange- lor's degreeor the equivalent by the Whenthe canonof the Old ment. It will cost at least for travel beginning date of the grantbut who Testamentis decidedupon,you do not hold the Ph.D. at the time of and some subsistence. Many digs havethe Bibletriumphantandyou now requireacademic credit because application. Eligibility requirements havethe traditionof privateprayer varyfrom country to country,but emerging.Youcan see how,of all the we have so many applicants. applicants do not necessarily have We take only students. If you symbolsof the cult, the Arkwould to be enrolled in a doctoralprogram. have a BA or an MA, you just enroll be the one to focusupon.Where in Specific eligibility requirethe and extra course six hours. wouldyou put the Bible,this new get information on benefits, etc., ments, a of out That's the of it in You way weeding symbol religion? put adventurerfrom the serious student are contained in the brochure, the ark. of archaeology. "FulbrightGrants and Other Grants Not as before,the copyof the for GraduateStudy Abroad,1984covenantbetweenYahwehandhis from the Bucknell World, or the ten commandments Reprinted 85."The brochureis availablefrom people alumni newspaperof Bucknell University, campus FulbrightProgramAdvisers but now the canonof scripture. Pennsylvania. Lewisburg, (forenrolled students) or from any Thatwaswhatwasput into the ark. office of the Institute of InternaThis symbolis adoptedandit's tional Educationfor students not Moving? elevated.It showsthe progressionin Make SureBA Moves With You enrolled in a college or university at the historyof Judeo-Christianity, the time of application; FPA'sestabhow the Bibleultimatelybecomes Please attach yourmagazine mailing lish campus deadlines for receipt of the centralelementwithin worship. label to this coupon and send applications; "at-large"students The ark of the bothto:ASORSubscription Payne: discovery Services, must submit their completed applicais the perfectobjectforyourmethod, 4243SpruceStreet,Philadelphia, PA tions to the StudyAbroadPrograms 19104.Besureto includeyournew is it not, becauseit's an objectitself Division at IIEheadquartersin New on the form. address Thank you! andyet an objectto containtexts? Yorkby October 31, 1983. The main Meyers:Yes,absolutely. office of IIEis 809 United Nations That'sgreat. New York,NY 10017; tel. Plaza, Payne:How long were you workAttachLabelHere (212)883-8200.Branchoffices are in ing at the site at which you found Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Houston, the ark?How many seasons? and San Francisco. was This the second Meyers: ASOR members are urged to season. A season for us is about six for these awards and to use the apply weeks in the field, but that's only Name (please print) at ASOR's centers in Jerufacilities the tip of the iceberg. We generateso salem, Amman, and Nicosia. much material in the course of six YourNew Address weeks of excavation that it requires City years of active preparationof this material for final publication. I have State Zip a staff in Jerusalem:an architect, a

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1983 ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING BIBLICAL

The

Ethiopian Legend of the

Ark

by BarryHoberman

ofthehitmovie ewers Raidersof the LostArk weresweptalongbya dizzying succession of swashbucklingattemptsandcounterattemptsto make off with the rediscoveredArk of the Covenant. Fewof the film's viewerswere awarethat an ancient Semitic legend also tells of a successful '"Arknapping,"albeitwithout such sensational touches as Nazis, snakes, andsubmarines. The story in question comes from Ethiopia, that remarkablerepository of Semitic culture situated on the Horn of Africa. In no Christian country has veneration and imitation of the Old Testament been a more prominent featureof the national religious life than in Ethiopia. Forexample, the Ethiopian national saga, the KebraNagast ("Gloryof the Kings"),takes as its point of departurethe story of the Queen of Sheba'svisit to King Solomon (foundin 1 Kings 10:1-13 and 2 Chronicles 9:1-12). And it is in the KebraNagast-an astonishing potpourriof biblical, apocryphal,pseudepigraphic,rabbinic,patristic, and local traditions, first written down in the fourteenth century-that we encounter one of the most unusual Ark legends of all. Although modern scholars are virtually unanimous in equating Shebawith the ancient kingdom of Sabain southwestern Arabia,Ethiop-

iV

ians have since late antiquity clung to the belief that the Sheba of the Old Testament narrativewas, in fact, Ethiopia. Ethiopian tradition thus shifts the location of the queen's home only slightly, from one shore of the Red Sea to the other. In the KebraNagast, Solomon employs his celebratedwisdom to induce the queen to sleep with him via a ruse. (Here,as in the case of Jacob'stheft of Esau'sblessing, readershave traditionally overlooked, rationalized, or excused the hero's apparentlycaddish behavior on the groundsthat a Higher Purposemust have been at stake.) Soon afterwardsthe queen goes back to her homeland, and eventually gives birth to a son, whom she names Menelik. When Menelik reaches manhood he learns the identity of his famous father,and subsequently goes to visit him in far-off Jerusalem.King Solomon is overjoyedto meet his first-bornson, who bears an uncanny resemblance to his royalparent.However,Solomon is unable to persuadeMenelik to stay in Israeland ultimately succeed him as ruler. The Hebrewmonarch has Zadok the priest anoint Menelik King of Ethiopia. He also commands the chief men of his court to send their own first-bornsons to accompany Menelik home, thereafter to remain in Ethiopia as his

retinue. Naturally,the young men are unhappywith the idea of leaving family and friends in Jerusalem,but they are especially loath to leave behind the precious Ark of the Covenant,here referredto as "Our Ladyof Zion." So Azariah, the son of Zadok, hatches a plan. He and the other sons of Solomon's officers pay a carpenterto construct a raft-a raft having the exact dimensions of the Ark. The night before Menelik's caravanis due to depart,Azariah invades the Holy of Holies in the Temple, removes the Ark, and substitutes the similarly shaped raft in its stead. He drapesthe raft with the covers that normally overlaythe Ark, creating the illusion that the sacredArk still sits underneath. The next day,Menelik and his resourceful cohorts set out for Ethiopia as planned. Not until the groupreaches Egypt do the Israelites inform Menelik that they have abducted the Ark. He is ecstatic-the Ark is, after all, the outward symbol of God's holy presence. The Ethiopians have inherited Israel's mantle as God's Chosen People. The kings of Ethiopia are now the legitimate successors of the kings of Israel and Judah. The Ark is taken to Axum, capital of Ethiopia, where its arrival sparks great rejoicing. The people disavow their native gods and embrace the God of Israel. Ethiopia

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

113

r;4 f f 3fY~/~ L3r

?)'l

'"~~-----

~P.L

~s~??\ pot

fil

~

?~$~

I

r

~

L~ .....

~

~t~

Drawings based on traditional Ethiopianrepresentationof the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba: left, Solomon seizes Sheba; right, Menelik and companions with the Ark.

becomes the second Zion; Axum, the new Jerusalem.And the Ark is the unmistakable emblem of this geographicaltransferof divine favor.

Beforethere was IndianaJones, then, there was Azariah ben Zadok. We are unable to trace this colorful legend to its source, but it probably germinated in late antiquity-many centuries before it was finally incorporatedinto the compilation known as the KebraNagast. The notion that the Ark was extant in Axum appearsto have gained currencybeyond the borders of Ethiopia in the Middle Ages. In the early thirteenth century,Abu Salih, an Egyptianof Armenian descent, wrote the following: The Ethiopians possess also the Ark of the Covenant, in which are the two tablets of stone, inscribed by the finger of God with the commandments which he ordainedfor the children of Israel. The Ark of the Covenant is placed upon the altar, but is not so wide as the altar; it is as high as the knee of a man, and is overlaidwith gold; and upon its lid there are crosses of gold; and there are five precious stones upon it, one at

114

each of the four corners, and one in the middle. The liturgy is celebratedupon the Ark four times in the year,within the palace of the king; and a canopy is spreadoverit when it is taken out from its own church to the church which is in the palace of the king: namely on the feast of the greatNativity, on the feast of the glorious Baptism, on the feast of the holy Resurrection,and on the feast of the illuminating Cross. And the Ark is attended and carried by a largenumber of Israelites descended from the family of the prophetDavid, who are white and red in complexion, with red hair. Abu Salih's information was based on hearsay;it was probably reportedto him by an Ethiopian visiting or residing in Egypt.That the Old Testament Ark of the Covenantwas at any time carried off to Ethiopia is, of course, out of the question. But that there was in medieval Axum an object similar to the one describedby Abu Salih, and indeed believed to be the original Ark, is hardly impossible. Wemay wonder,however,whether Abu Salih's credulous account inspiredany of his readersto trek to Ethiopia in search of the lost Ark

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

-which, as we all know, ceased to be "lost" in 1981, when it was discoveredby Hollywood and artfully restored,if not to Jerusalem,at least to the public consciousness. Suggestions for Further Reading

Most of the information in the abovepresentation was drawnfrom EdwardUllendorff's excellent book, Ethiopia and the Bible (London: OxfordUniversity Press, 1968), and from his chapter,"The Queen of Shebain Ethiopian Tradition," pp. 104-14 in JamesB. Pritchard, editor, Solomon and Sheba (London: Phaidon, 1974). The quote from Abu Salih the Armenian can be found in Abu Salih, The Churches and Monasterles of Egyptand Some Neighbouring Countries; edited and translatedby B. T A. Evetts, with notes by A. J. Butler (Oxford:Clarendon, 1895), pp. 287-88.

I. 4 0

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ENIGMATICBIBLEPASSAGES Off

Jericho

Limits

Joshua administered an oath, at that time, before Yahweh: "Cursed be the man who proceeds to rebuild this city Jericho: With his firstborn he shall lay its foundation. With his youngest he shall set up its gates." Joshua 6:26 (Anchor Bible Translation) by Robert G. Boling

Thus

endsthe firstof the warfarestoriesin

the Book of Joshua.After the relatively prolongeddescription of preparationsfor military invasion and conquest of the land, where the newcomers are to live, it is a most unexpected and exceptional action. Why is it, that among the numerous sites mentioned by name in the handful of warfarestories which comprise Joshua6-11, Jerichoalone is placed under a curse which explicitly puts the site off limits for subsequent Israelite settlement? Apparentlythe stipulations of the sacral-militaryban (Hebrew herem) were variableaccordingto ad hoc decree from one site or occasion to another. See, for example, the exceptional treatment of Hazor among the towns that were situated on tels and participatingin the Galilean coalition headed by Jabin(Joshua 11:13). The enormous symbolic value of the first victory inside the land-the account of it describes at length an entire week of ceremonial and clamorous paradingaroundthe city dailyonly adds to the enigma. Is the curse only a narrativedevice to explain why there was availablea capturedtel to serve as the site for cultic reenactment of Israel'sentry into Canaan-a ritual conquest? In its broaderliterary context the cursing of Jerichois treated as a "prophecy"by Joshua, understood to be referringto the practice of infant sacrifice. As such, the prophecywas seen to be "fulfilled" by Hiel of Bethel when at last Jericho was rebuilt (1 Kings 16:34). Such is the perspective of the books of Kings. What was the thrust of the

old story in its own right, beforeit was taken up by the later compiler? Frequentreadersof BA will alreadybe familiar with the questions posed by the stark contrast between the archaeological evidence for minimal human presence on Tel es-Sultan at the end of the LateBronzeAge (around1200 B.C.E.) and the sweeping narrativeclaims of Joshua6. Tel esSultan at the transition from LateBronzeto IronI supportednothing much more than a residence, perhapsthat of the local strong man, nestled amid the large-proportionedrubble of earlierperiods and perhapsenjoying some measure of protection from surviving segments of the Middle Bronze defense-wall system. But only perhaps. The disclaimer that the locus of the story may be someplace other than Tel es-Sultan is a counsel of despair.In fact, the entire areasustained by the lush oasis that was wateredby CAin es-Sultan appearsto have fallen on hardtimes long beforethe Late Bronze-IronI transition. Habitation was so sparse that the important site of Gilgal has not been confidently identified, although the scragglyhumps of Khirbetel-Mefjir at the northern edge of the oasis remain the most plausible. A somewhat strongercase can be made for the notion that the stories of Jerichoand Ai (Joshua7-8) reflect a stereotyped "form"for recounting the conquest of walled cities, stories originally generatedby far older events, such as the expulsion of Hyksos rulers in the sixteenth century in the case of Jericho.The walled city at et-Tel (most probablelocation for Ai) was destroyed late in the third millennium B.C.E. On this

1983 ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING BIBLICAL

115

view Joshua'sleadership at Jericho,somewhere in the transition from LateBronzeto IronI, resulted in the retelling of an "old favorite"with a new twist, and with a new hero. Yet the question of the curse remains. Thereforeyet another possible readingof the story,one not entirely incompatible with the foregoing,is worth considering. It was first proposedby E.V Hulse, M.D., who noted that Kenyon'sexcavation reportsrecordedthe presence of a most undesirable snail (Bulinus truncatus). This snail is the intermediate carrierof a blood fluke parasitethat causes Schistosomiasis. This host organism thrives best in water that is contaminated by human usage and waste, a process for which the spring'Ain es-Sultan, at the very foot of the tel, is strategically situated. The spring was presumablythe only significant source of water at the site for many centuries priorto the construction of aqueducts, bringingwater down from the hills, in Roman times. It has recently been suggested in BA, by Carol Meyers (1978), that there was some connection between the original institution of the ban (herem) and control of plague or pestilential disease. Schistosomiasis, to this day a majorhealth hazard in many parts of the world, has generally enervating and debilitating effects, manifested in attitudes of defeatism and despair.Especially significant in relation to the proposalregardingJoshua6 are the accompanyingconditions of reducedfertility and increasedinfant mortality. Does the cursing of Jerichobegin to come into focus? If the generalunhealthiness of the oasis was well known in the late thirteenth century,by which time the last Late Bronzetown on the tel had been in ruins for more than a century,the specific terms of the poetic curse suddenly become

intelligible. It is interesting also to note the remarksmade to the prophet Elisha at Jericho: "Behold,the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees, but the water is bad" (2 Kings 2:19 RSV).Is it mere coincidence that there is a 400-yeargap in occupation at Tel es-Sultan, just where geography,historical movements, and climatological conditions in the LateBronzeAge might all have convergedfor the flourishing of this disease whose etiology is clear? With the possibility that the cursing of Jerichowas in fact an exercise of public health policy in what has happily been called the Yahwist RevolutionaryMovement (Kingdomof Yahweh)in the Late Bronze-IronI transition, the whole manner of Jericho'scapturemay be seen in a new light. It is not stated in the text, nor is it clearly implied, that the paradingand clamor were causally related to the collapse of the walls. But if the manner of Jericho's"capture"reflects instead a protective maneuver,using noise to wardoff the demons responsible for disease, and if the climax of the ritual cursing happened to coincide, more or less, with another tremor along the famous geological fault line, rattling the stumps of far older defense walls, then we would indeed have the makings of the story-a most noteworthy experience of amazing grace. Suggestions for FurtherReading

Boling,R. G. 1982 Joshua.Anchor Bible 6. Introductionby G. E. Wright. GardenCity: Doubleday.Pp. 200-15. Hulse, E. V 1971 Joshua'sCurse and the Abandonmentof Ancient Jericho:Schistosomiasis as a Possible Medical Explanation.Medical History 15:376-86. Meyers,C. 1978 The Roots of Restriction:Womenin EarlyIsrael. Biblical Archeologist 41: 91-103.

The American Schools of Oriental Research & St. Mary's University of San Antonio present a

Biblical and Archaeological Graduate Study Tour of

Jordan,

Israel,

Sinai,

Cyprus

June 26 - August 2, 1984

Cost: $3,600 per person Major Faculty: Charles H. Miller and Mary K Milne Department of Graduate Theology, St. Mary's University Guest Lecturers: ASOR Directors and active field archaeologists Graduatestudentsof ASORinstitutionsare eligiblefor six graduatecredithoursfromtheir own institutions, if approvedby theiradvisors. For more information, contact the ASOR Corporate Representative on your own campus or

Professor Charles H. Miller, St. Mary'sUniversity,

One Camino Santa Maria, San Antonio, Texas 78284, (512) 436-3310.

116

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

BA

GUIDE TO ARTIFACTS

A token's shape and incised markings signified its meaning. The disk with parallel incised lines (farleft) probably represented a unit of wool. Disks with two and four parallel incised lines stood for units of cloth of various types. All tokens shown in this article are either from Tello, Iraq, or Susa, Iran, and date ca. 3300 B.c. They are not photographedto scale. Photographs courtesy of the Louvre.

Tokens

Counting by Denise Schmandt-Besserat

n the MiddleEastbetween8000and3100 B.c., tokens were used as counters in ancient

data-processingsystems. The study of these tokens has yielded new insights into the development of cognitive skills duringthe last phase of prehistory.In previous publications I have stressed how the use of tokens led to the invention of writing. In this paperI shall investigate the role tokens playedin the evolution of the art of counting. Description of the Token System The tokens are small artifacts made of clay and measuring one to four centimeters across. They were fired,which made them durableand allowed for their preservationto the present time. The choice of clay for their manufacture proved propitious. It is a plastic material, and with some imagination and little effort, tokens could be modelled into a variety of specific shapes that could be systematically repeated.The tokens can be divided into fifteen types, or characteristic forms, recurrentlyfound in sites over the entire region of the Middle East, namely: spheres,disks, cones, tetrahedrons,biconoids, ovoids, cylinders, bent coils, triangles, parabolas,rectangles, rhomboids, containers, animals, and miscellaneous shapes. These can be furtherdivided into subtypes accordingto markings such as incisions, punctations or applique coils, and pellets added to the surfaceof the artifacts.

Each token shape and marking bore a precise meaning. Namely, each token stood for an economic unit of a specific good-that is, an explicit quantity of a particularproductsuch as, for instance, a measure of grain,a pot of beer,a jarof oil, or a fleece of wool. The meaning of some tokens can be found in the first written tablets where, as will be explained later in the paper,the signs perpetuatedthe token shapes. The cone and sphere can be equated, in particular,with measures of grainsimilar to our peck and bushel or to the Sumerian ban and bariga.Wewill neverknow why such shapes came to stand for such products.The simplest explanation may be the law of least effort: the goods most usually exchanged, such as grain, wereexpressedby the shapes easiest to manufacture. The Evolution of Data Processing The earliest assemblages of tokens consist mostly of spheres, disks, cones, tetrahedrons,cylinders, and, less frequently,ovoids, triangles, rectangles, and animals. They include few specimens bearing markings.The first tokens are found in roundhut compounds along the Fertile Crescent such as Tell Mureybetand Tell Aswad in Syriaand Tepe Asiab and GanjDareh Tepein Iran.The wide geographicaldistribution is interesting because it coincides with the entire region where important socioeconomic events are known to have taken place in southwest Asia, namely, the domestication of plants and animals. The first tokens occur

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

117

about 8000 B.C.This date is significant because it correspondsto the period of transition to agriculture in this part of the Middle East. In fact, at Tell Mureybetno tokens are reportedin the two earliest levels of occupation at the site, when subsistence relied upon hunting and gathering.They first appearin level III,precisely when a sharp increase in the content of cereal pollen in the archaeologicallayersindicates the first cultivation of fields aroundthe site. In sum, both the distribution and the chronology of the earliest tokens suggest that the rise of agriculturein southwest Asia createdan increasedneed for data processing. By the seventh millennium B.C.tokens are found in most archaeologicalsites from Turkeyto Israeland from Syriato Iran.Their number at each site may reach sizeable proportions;for instance, the site of Jarmo,Iraq,dating about 6500 B.c., yielded some 1,500 specimens. The ubiquity of the tokens and their largenumber indicate that, by the late Neolithic period,record keeping was common in the Middle East. During the 4,000 years that followed their invention, the tokens show no noticeable change in shapes, size, and manufacture.This points out that data processing and socioeconomic developments followed parallelcurves of evolution, both reachinga plateau duringthe same interval. Startingin level VI of Uruk, ca. 3350 B.c., incised and punched markings start proliferating on the face of the tokens, and three new types appearin the assemblage, namely bent coils, parabolas,and rhomboids. This indicates a necessity for furtherprecision in handling data. Markingsseem to spell out, for instance, if the grainrecordedwas barley,wheat, or emmer. The date of the appearanceof these more "complex tokens" in-level VI of Uruk is significant because it coincides with the first occurrenceof monumental architecture.This event, in turn, marks the beginning of formal governmentand the rise of the city-state. In other words, changes in the token system can be related to the increasedbureaucracy made necessary,in particular,by the collection of taxes essential to the functioning of a state. The brilliant civilization of Uruk VI-IV relied, therefore,duringits first 200 years on a dataprocessingsystem based solely on tokens, priorto the invention of writing in level IVa,ca. 3150 B.c. In levels V-IVb of Uruk, ca. 3250 B.c., tokens were kept in archives. They were enclosed in clay envelopes in the shape of hollow clay balls some ten centimeters across. Bookkeepersimpressed the tokens into the still soft clay of the envelope's outer surfacebeforeenclosing them, in orderto be able to "read"at all times the content of each envelope. This was a majorinnovation in the development of data processing, because once the envelopes hardenedthey contained tokens inside

118

1983 BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING

Changes can

be

increased

in the related

token

system

the

to

bureaucracy made

necessary by the of taxes essential functioning of

collection to a

the

state.

and correspondinggraphicsigns on the outside. The next step was achieved about 3200 B.c., when solid clay tablets into which relevanttokens were impressed replacedthe hollow envelopes. The graphicsymbols representingeconomic products were finally freedfrom their three-dimensional progenitors.This led to pictographicand phonetic writing, inventions which were to open data processing to all fields of human endeavor. The complex tokens coexisted with writing duringlevel IVaof Uruk, a period of about fifty years.They fell into disuse with level IIIwhen the token system consisted of only a few shapes, mostly spheres and disks. These objects probably servedas calculating devices, and no longerwere used for recordkeeping. In other words,the tokens no longer representeda specific quantity of a particularcommodity but, instead,stood fornumerical values as in our modern abacus. In sum, the evolution of the token system providestangible evidence for an increase in data processing starting with agricultureand culminating with state formation. This information should provide,in turn, new insights on the correspondingevolution of cognitive skills. Primitive computing devices used in modem preliterate societies will providedata for comparison. Primitive Computing Devices Varietiesof counters were used among preliterate societies. According to Menninger,when a Vedda

Tokens in the shape of a cone, sphere, and disk (fromleft to right) representedmeasures of grain. Photographscourtesy of the Louvre.

of Ceylon wished to count coconuts, he collected a heap of sticks. To each coconut he assigned a stick: one nut = one stick. The Veddahad no number words to express quantities, and each time he addeda new stick he said "that is one."At the end of the process he could only point to his pile of sticks and say "that many."The "counting" allowed him to check later on if all the coconuts were there or if some were missing. In the New World,computing was practicedwith kernels of maize, wheat, rice, and cacao beans, whereas in Polynesia it was done with coconut leaves. Pebblesand shells served to keep a census of population and herds among African kingdoms. Furtherprimitive computing devices include simple notched sticks, knotted strings, and fingers. All these systems sharedtwo characteristicfeatures. First,they were based on the same principle of one-to-one correspondence,which is the simplest form of arithmetic. One finger,one notch, one knot, one pebble, or one stick stood for one item to be computed. Second, all were unspecific. The collection of pebbles, sticks, or notches indicated a quantity.They did not reveal the nature of the items to be kept track of. It is logical to assume that the tokens were an elaborationof a simple computing device such as pebble-counting.Like pebbles, tokens were used in a one-to-one correspondence.The tokens were, however,"man-made pebbles" modelled into definite shapes on which were bestowed precise meanings. This conferredon the system an unprecedented specificity. The tokens indicated unambiguously the nature and the quantity of a specific product(one sphere = one bariga of grain)and they also indicated the number of units involved (five spheres = five barigaof grain).The use of tokens at this stage of development can be comparedwith the use of tally sticks that employed differentiatednotches or with quipus that utilized strandsof various colors and several types of knots to recorddifferentitems. These recordkeeping devices creatednew systems of symbols, and, in this light, the tokens were a new tool by which to graspreality. Tokens as Instruments of Thought The step from pebble to token was simple, but it was a leap in data processing. The tokens

data-on the one hand by decontextualizing and abstractingit and on the other hand by translating it into concrete counters. As a consequence, entire budgets could be sized up at a glance; otherwise, because of the limitations of human cognitive abilities, only a single categoryof items could be processed at a time. The tokens could be groupedaccordingto differentcriteria, which thus allowed the scrutiny,comparison, and evaluation of the resulting assemblages. The tokens made it possible to performall arithmetical operationsby manipulating them in a one-to-one correspondence.Because they were durable,the tokens could be stored indefinitely, which preservedthe data for retrievalat any desired time. Because they were light and could be transported, the tokens could communicate information between distant parties. In sum, the tokens representeda sort of extrasomatic brainwhich was not liable to human memory failure. They provideda practical and rationalmethod of dealing with information and in particularwith plurality.It is likely therefore that the token system playeda crucial role in the development of the art of counting. Tokens and the Art of Counting Linguists have studied the evolution of counting throughthe evolution of number words which, as may be logically assumed, must have occurred concomitantly. According to the results of these scholars, numbers representthe most abstract concepts our minds are able of conceiving. They are a productof culture and the result of an exceedingly long process of development. It is likely, therefore,that like the Veddadescribed above,our distant ancestors had only a vague sense of plurality,and duringlong ages had no number vocabulary.The first number words seem to have been associated with concrete objects. This is exemplified by tribes who referto two men, two canoes, two trees, two animals, and two huts with differentwords for two in each of the five connotations. There are numerous remains of such usage in all modem languages(forexample, the following English expressions: a couple of days,a pair of shoes, twins, or a braceof pheasants),

facilitated the collection of data on multiple goods, over short- or long-term periods, without burdening the mind. The tokens helped in grasping the

Two tokens-a rectangle and triangle -bearing incised markings. The rectangular token's meaning is currently undetermined. The triangleprobably representsone unit of metal, most likely silver. Photographs courtesy of the Louvre.

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

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which suggests that this stage of "objective counting" generally precededthe acquisition of abstractnumbers. The work of JoranFriberghas demonstrated that special numerations for animals, grain, and land measures were still common usage in Sumer during the protoliterate period,ca. 3100-2900 B.C. In this light, can it be inferredthat pebblecounting precededtokens duringa time when quantities remained nameless? Furthermore, could the invention of tokens, modelled in different shapes to representdifferentproducts,correspond to the beginning of objective counting? If it does, the invention of tokens is related to the acquisition of a majorcognitive skill, namely,numerations. Abstractnumbers probablyderivedfrom the transferof a predominantnumeration to a generic use. This is exemplified in languageswhere the wordsfor one, two, and three mean, in fact, one stone, two stones, and three stones; one grain, two grains, and threegrains; or one fruit, two fruits, and threefruits. Until the Babylonianperiod, ca. 1800 B.C., the cuneiform signs of the elaboratesexagesimal Sumeri.ansystem of numbers remainedinterchangeablewith those for grainnumeration. It seems likely, therefore,that in Sumer abstract numbers derivedfrom grain metrology.In other words, the cuneiform signs for numbers ultimately derivedfrom cones and spheres expressing grainmeasures duringprehistory.This appears plausible because grainwas the commodity most widely exchanged. Grainmetrology also provided a unique gamut of signs of increasing value which could conveniently be convertedinto the necessary series of numbers. There is no evidence, at least until 3200 B.C., that the tokens assumed a double connotation and ever represented numbers. On the contrary,all evidence seems to indicate that cones and spheres only represented grainmeasures. This is supportedby the assemblages of tokens found enclosed in envelopes. One specimen from Uruk yields, for instance, the following tokens:

twenty-six barigaof grain.The same seems to be true concerning the lines of impressed wedges and circles representingcones and spheres on the first tablets. Should these be numerical notations, they communicate quantities of unknown products, which is inconsistent with the painstaking specificity characteristicof Sumerian bookkeeping.It is probable,therefore,that abstractnumbersstarted appearingwith pictographicwriting. Thus, once again, a majorstep in cognitive skills seems to correspondto a change in data-processingtechnology.Abstractnumbers appearrelatedto the invention of writing. This assumption is supportedby the reduction of shapes in the token system after 3100 B.C., which suggests that the tokens had then assumed numerical values. Conclusion The evolution of a data-processingsystem based on tokens used in the prehistoric Middle East may give new insights into computation priorto the mastery of abstractnumbers. The beginning and end of the token system may coincide with the use of special numerations to count specific categoriesof items. If it does, an important question remains: Did the tokens precede or follow objective counting? I am inclined to believe that the data-processingtechnology came first. It providednew symbols by which to graspand conceive plurality,and it also provideda rational method for handling collections of data, which made it possible for the mind to reach greater levels of abstraction.

3 incisedovoids = 3 jarsof oil = 1 animal 1 cylinder 9 tetrahedrons = 9 unitsof services 3 trussedducks

= 3 trussed ducks

5 ovoids

=5?

4 parabolas 1 triangle 26 spheres

= 4?

= 1smallmeasurcofgrain? = 26 barigaof grain

Should each sphere representten, it would be quite impossible to guess to which particular producteach or all spheres referred.In sum, for the message to be comprehensible, each token had to representone economic unit, used in a one-to-one correspondence:twenty-six spheres =

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BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING 1983

These incised ovoid tokens stood for iars of oil. Photographs courtesy of the Louvre.

the Jdentifying Line

on

the

Curving

Bar-Kokhba

Temple

Coin

by LawrenceD. Sporty

One

oftheTemvariation

ple facaderepresentedon a Bar-Kokhbacoin shows a curving line beneath the Temple facade'scrownwork (Meshorer1967: pl. XXVI,coin 201). This coin bearswhat is possibly the only representationof the Templefacade designed within the lifetimes of people who had actually seen the Temple priorto its destruction in 70 A.D. There are,

Top:silver coin of Bar-Kokhba(132-135 A.D.). (Photographis from Stack'sAncient and ForeignGold and SilverCoins, September 1980 catalogue, lot 197, page 70. Used with permission.) Bottom: fourth-centuryplate discoveredin the Via Labina cemeteryin Rome. (Figureis from Meyers1982.) Note that each shows a curvingline above the temple columns.

however,later representationsof the facade in existence, including an interesting portrayalon a fourthcentury gold-decoratedglass plate found in the Via Labinacemetery in Rome and recently reproducedby both Kaufman(1977)and Meyers (1982).This glass plate interestingly enough also bears such a curving line upon the Temple facade in the same location as it is shown on the Bar-Kokhbacoin. The identification of this curious architecturalrepresentation has yet to be made. Its appearanceon both the Bar-Kokhbacoin and again on the later gold-decoratedglass plate is unlikely to be coincidental, and it is most likely a true but stylized representationof an integralarchitecturalelement of the Templefacade itself. The facade is also describedin contemporaryliterature. Josephusdescribes the Temple at severalpoints in his works, and I call attention to the facade as describedby him in two separatepassages:

The gate opening into the building was, as I said, completely overlaidwith gold, as was the whole wall aroundit. It had,moreover,aboveit those golden vines, fromwhich depended grape-clustersas tall as a man. (The Jewish War, Bk. V Ch. V) The entrance-doors, which with their lintels were equal (in height) to the temple itself, he adornedwith multicolouredhangings,with purple colours andwith inwovendesigns of pillars. Above these, under the cornice, spreada golden vine with grape-clustershangingfrom it, a marvel of size and artistry to all who saw with what costliness of material it had been constructed. (JewishAntiquities, Bk. XV,Ch. XI) Alink can be made between the curving line seen on the BarKokhbacoin andthe goldengrapevine as describedby Josephus.To find the connection one must look to contemporarydecorativemotifs of the Second Temple period in neighboringcities andin Jerusalem. One such link foundoutside of Judea is on the Templeof Bel at Palmyra (Klengel1975:132, 133, 135,136). This structure is a pagantemple

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approximatelycontemporarywith the SecondTemplein Jerusalem.Of course manyof the featuresof the BelTempledifferfromthe Herodian Templein Jerusalem,althoughboth temple complexes consist of columned buildingssurroundedbylarge colonnadedplazas (Meyers1982: 37). In addition, multiple architectural elements in the Temple of Bel resemble architecturalelements recoveredfrom the Second Temple. The ceiling niche in the Temple of Bel has a rosette pattern similar to an architecturalelement in the JerusalemTemple recovered during Mazar'sexcavations on the Temple Mount (Mazar1975: 124). Additional architectural elements at various positions in the Bel complex revealcurving vines with grapeclusters and grapeleaves alternating, and it is this vine Top:the Templeof Bel at Palmyra.(Photomotif that first suggests the link graphis from Klengel1972.) Bottom: the HerodianTempleas depicted by the between the curving line on the nineteenth-centuryexplorerde Vogue.(Figure Bar-Kokhbacoin as previously deis fromMeyers1982.) Note that each has an scribed and the Josephusdescripopen colonnaded courtyard. tion of the Temple facade. There is evidence that this vine motif was used in Judeaduring the Second Temple period as well. A sarcophagusof that period found in Jerusalembears a representation of a grapevine(Avigad1976: 67). (A careful study of this sarcophagus reveals the same rosette patterns that were recoveredin the Temple architecturalfragments.)In addition the grapevinemotif, consisting of a curving vine with grapeleaves and grapeclusters alternating, is represented on a Judeanoil lamp of that period in the possession of the author.The neck of the lamp also bears the representationof an amphora that resembles amphoras illustrated on coins of the BarKokhbawar (Meshorer1967: pl. XXI, coins 168 and 169), and these amphorashave previously been interpreted as representations of ritual amphorasused in the Temple service (Meshorer1967: 93). A similar Top:fragmentsof the HerodianTemplefound in an excavation by Mazar.Note the two amphorais shown on the fourthrosetteson the fragmenton the left. century gold-decoratedglass plate. (Photographis from Mazar 1975.) Bottom: This lamp has two motifs, symbolian architecturaldetail from the Templeof Bel at Palmyra.The rosette,similar to the one cally representingthe Temple, as a seen in the fragmentfrom the Herodian unifying theme. Temple,is found on the ceiling of the south The curving line represented niche. (Photographis from Klengel1972.) on the Bar-Kokhbacoin is therefore

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1983 ARCHAEOLOGIST/SPRING BIBLICAL

Detail of oil lamp of the Second Temple periodfromauthor's collection showing grapevinemotif.

can be made link the curvbetween the on Baring line and coin Kokhba the golden

A

grapevine described by Josephus.

Detail of the portal at the Templeof Bel at Palmyrashowing the grapevinemotif. (Photographis from Klengel1972.)

The

architectural decorations must

the

of

within the architectural the within region.

be seen Hellenistic

most likely a representationof the large and imposing golden grapevine describedby Flavius Josephus.The details of the vine were probablynot representedbecause of the difficulty in providingsuch detail on the coin. The motif of the grapevineappears to have been widely used during the Second Temple period and beyond. The impressive and imposing vine on the Temple may have served as the model for this motif and would thereforeexplain its frequent appearance. The grapevineon the Temple itself must have been very impressive. This is reflected in Josephus' description of it. Its memory must have lingered on to be included in the later representationsof the Temple facade, as illustrated by the gold-decoratedglass plate described earlier.It is also of note that architectural elements such as the vine motif, as well as the rosette patterns, extended beyond Judeaand appear in the Temple of Bel at Palmyraas well. Thus, the architecturaldecorations of the JerusalemTemple must not be seen as totally unique but must be understoodwithin the largercontext of Hellenistic architec-

Jerusalem Temple of

context

design

tural design in the region as well. Furtherinsights into the design of the Second Temple may also be gained through additional studies of the contemporaryarchitectureof the Second Templeperiod in adjoining areas of the Near East. While the curving line as represented on the Bar-Kokhbacoin may appearobscure to us, to a contemporaryof the period the curving line would immediately conjureup memories of the golden vine of the JerusalemTemple and would be easily recognized. Its use on the Bar-Kokhbacoin would only further enhance the nation's resolve to win back Jerusalemfrom the Romans and restore the glory of the HerodianTemple under Bar-Kokhba's leadership.

Bibliography Avigad,N. 1976 The Tombof a Nazirite on Mount Scopus. Pp. 66 in JerusalemRevealed: Archaeologyin the Holy City 1968-1974, ed. Y Yadin.New Haven:YaleUniversity Press.

Josephus,Flavius 1963 ChapterV Book V in Josephus III: The JewishWar,Books IV-VII. Translatedby H. St. J.Thackeray. The LoebClassical Library.Cambridge,MA: HarvardUniversity Press. 1961 ChapterXI,Book XV in Josephus VIII:JewishAntiquities, Books XV-XVII.Translatedby R. Marcus and A. Wikgren.The LoebClassical LibraryCambridge,MA: Harvard University Press. Kaufman,A. S. 1977 New LightUpon Zion: The Plan and PreciseLocationof the Second Temple.Ariel 43: 63-99. Klengel,H. 1972 TheArt of Ancient Syria.New York:A. S. Barnes. Mazar,B. 1975 TheMountain of the Lord.New York:Doubleday. Meshorer,Y. 1967 Jewish Coins of the Second Temple Period.Translatedby I. H. Levine. Tel-Aviv:Am HasseferPublishers Ltd.and Massada. Meyers,C. L. 1982 The Elusive Temple.Biblical Archeologist 45: 33-41.

StonesarcophagusfromMount Scopusshowing grapevinemotif. (Photographis from JerusalemRevealed:Archaeologyin the Holy City 1968-1974, edited by YigaelYadin,YaleUniversity Press,1976. Used with permission of the IsraelExplorationSociety

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Book The Art of Biblical Narrative,by RobertAlter,xii + 195 pp. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society/ New York:Basic Books, 1981: $13.95. This book is a compilation and revision of articles that ProfessorAlter has published in various journalssince 1975, with some new material as well. In it, the author seeks to fill the vacuum he detects in conventional scholarship on the Hebrew Bible between philological and archaeological approaches,on the one hand, and theology, on the other. The middle groundthat he pursues is literary in the sense in which that term is used in English studies, especially by scholars influenced by the new criticism which began to emerge around the time of WorldWarI. Alter's attention, therefore,is directedto "the artful use of language, to the shifting play of ideas, conventions, tone, sound, imagery,syntax, narrativeviewpoint, [and] compositional units" (p. 12). Leitwbrterand other forms of repetition are especially stressed. Alter's book is both brilliant and naivebrilliant about literaryartistry,naive about history,including the history of composition. The brilliance is to be found in the analysis of almost everytext discussed. In the light of Alter's scintillating insights, even the most familiar passages seem new and fresh. An example is the discussion in chapter 1 of Genesis 38, the story of Judahand Tamar.Arguingagainst the conventional idea that this narrativeis "a completely independent unit" (E.A. Speiser),Alter shows that in reality,it recapitulates, adumbrates,or enhances themes from the previous chapter (the sale of Joseph)and the following one (the proposition from Potiphar's wife). Developing leads in rabbinicmidrash,he explicates themes such as estrangement,deception, bereavement,recognition, and sexual temptation so as to demonstrate beyond cavil the thematic interconnection of the three chapters.The volume is thus of greatvalue not only for Alter's own ideas but also for its mediation of the insights of midrashand contemporaryIsraelischolarship, both of which, alas, still lie beyond the ken of most biblical scholars. The Art of Biblical Narrativeis part of a largercurrentthat seeks to offerbiblical scholarship models of criticism other than that of the historico-critical method. Already, in the light of Alter's volume, standard works on the books on which he focuses, including some fairly recent American commentaries, seem to be period pieces of mid-twentieth-century orientalism, unidimensional to the point of innocence. Unfortunately, Robert Alter does not rest content with the literary analysis of the canonical

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Reviews text but makes of his insights a basis for statements about the history of the composition of the texts and even about the worldview of biblical Israel.Here, he is confused and out of his element. An example is his dislike of the tendency of modern biblicists to atomize the text. Were this tendency to appearin other literaryfields, he remarks, Ulysses, The Sound and the Fury,and other greatworks of unitary authorship "would have to be relegatedto the dustbin of shoddily 'redacted'literaryscraps"(p. 21). In his discussion of the putative doublet in Genesis 45:3-4, he faults "the obtuseness of conventional source criticism" for attributing "this brilliantly effective repetition... to a duplication of sources" (p. 175).And in his analysis of the problem of Judahversus Reuben and the Ishmaelites versus the Midianites in Genesis 37, he arguesthat "conventional biblical scholarship misses the point by supposing that the entire narrativeis a somewhat confused splicing of two disparateversions," since the intention is "to intimate some moral equivalence between kidnaping and murder"(p. 166). In short, Alter sees sophisticated literaryartistry as evidence against redaction, and, in so doing, he accepts willy-nilly the pernicious tendency of "conventional" biblical scholarship to see the redactoras an exemplarof a degenerateand ossified sensibility (Wellhausen's "Judaism,"Judentumrn). As one readsthese discussions, it is hardto avoid the suspicion that Alter is not awareof recent scholarship that has developed empirical proof from the ancient Near Easternworld and even from Hebrew sources of the very kind of documentary analysis which he considers speculative and obtuse. What is even more saddeningis that elsewhere in the same volume, Alter not only accepts the Documentary Hypothesis (p. 132) but offersa perceptivechapteron "CompositeArtistry"(chapter 7) in which he shows the aesthetic sophistication underlying the combination of disparatesources in such passages as Numbers 16 and Genesis 1-2. Why,then, cannot the same process of aesthetically sophisticated redaction be at work in the Joseph story?Is a high level of artistic design in the received text an argument against composite authorship, or is it not? Alter's readiness to dismiss "conventional biblical scholarship" (surely a more variegated phenomenon than the term implies) is equally evident in his effort to relate prose narrative to the larger issue of the worldview of biblical Israel. Here, he draws a sharp contrast between the historical consciousness of Israel and "the pagan

worldview,which is locked into an eternal cyclical movement" (p. 25). Again, one has the depressing suspicion that Alter's view of "paganism"owes much to the obsolescent caricaturesprovidedby Yehezkel Kaufmannand various Protestantneoorthodox theologians and nothing to more recent Assyriological discussions by scholars such as Bertil Albrektson, J.J.M. Roberts,and H. W E Saggs,who have done much to destroy the notion that Israel'sconsciousness was historical whereas that of her neighbors was mythological. The author continues to write about "the monotheistic revolution of biblical Israel"(p. 154) as if he is unawarethat researchover the last few decades has increasingly tended to diminish the scope of that "revolution"and to cast into doubt the kind of claim for radical distinctiveness which an older school of biblical theology was inclined to make. In short, having thanked a colleague for saving him "morethan once from invidious simplifications of the Greeks" (p. xi), Alter proceeds to offer invidious simplifications of the rest of the ancient world. He does, however,raise an important issue in claiming that the prominence of historical prose fiction in the Hebrew Bible indicates a new historical consciousness in ancient Israel.At the very least, his theory challenges proponents of the comparativemethod to put forwardparallels from elsewhere in the ancient Near East or to concede that, in the domain of genre, Israelwas indeed different.But Alter fails to see that one cannot so easily abstracta worldview from a genre, especially when it is only one among many in the culture, and that the theology of one source in the received text cannot be assumed to be indicative of that of every source in every period. Without the attention to source-criticism and dating of the sort which Alter eschews and even minimizes, biblical scholarship would be in danger of regressinginto an anachronistic homogenization of the literature, which, whatever its utility for apologetics, would still be untenable in the modem world. Forexample, it would surely be an errorof method to assume, as Alter does (pp.69 and 112), that the creation of the world through the word, an idea in the Priestly source, explains narrativeswritten hundreds of years earlier and by someone with a different view of creation. In short, Alter's book demonstrates both the rich rewards and the grave perils of concentrating on the literary form of biblical narrative to the exclusion of "conventional" historical concerns. At the very least, involvement in the latter might have saved the author from identifying the favorite son of the tribe of Judah as an "Ephraimite" (p. 119)! Jon D. Levenson The University of Chicago

Archaeology,The Rabbis, and Early Christianity: The Social and Historical Setting of Palestinian Judaism and Christianity, by EricM. Meyersand James F Strange,207 pp. Nashville: Abingdon, 1981; $7.95 (Paper). The readingof this small volume brought to mind, in no invidious sense, the attitudes of two scholars of the last century,Heinrich Graetz, the famed Jewishhistorian, and Ernest Renan, the distinguished New Testament scholar. The former wrote in the introduction to the first volume of his history,the one dealing with the biblical period, that he had postponed writing it until he had actually walked on the land where the kings and prophets had trod. The latter, in the first chapter of his work on the life of Jesus, lovingly if somewhat fancifully described Galilee and Nazareth, the formative environment of Jesus. These came to mind because, mutatis mutandis, it is the intention of the authors to remind the readerof the importance and the value of attending to the settings, not merely geographical and certainly not romantic, of the traditions of early Judaismand early Christianity embodied in the literatureof the two communities. It is their contention, explicitly arguedin chapter 1, that to ignore what archaeologyhas disclosed is to run the risk of misinterpreting what the texts seem to be telling us. One need only recall the airy dismissal of archaeologicalevidence by a significant scholar when it sharply contradictedhis stakedout position concerning the date of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Chapters2 and 3 turn directly to an examination of Galilee, the seat of rabbinicJudaismas it emergedand developedin the aftermath of the two revolts, and of early if not earliest Christianity. This is carriedout first in a general overview and then more specifically with regardto Nazareth and Capernaum.Jerusalem,too, is dealt with as a significant site of both earliest Christianity and Palestinian Judaism.Yet the question the authors raise first is not what archaeology has to say about the context of that development but what it illuminates of the earliersituation. Galilee, they argue,farfrom being the seat of "a shallow kind of religious life," exhibited, this following the lead of Aharon Oppenheimer's work on The 'Am Ha-Aretz (Leiden: E. J.Brill, 1977), a wider variety than is often allowed for. Again I am reminded of an older discussion based purely upon literary evidence-and that disputed-that would have found support in this view of Galilean Judaism. Jacob Z. Lauterbach, in a posthumous paper published in 1942, "The Date of the Slaughter of the Paschal Lamb" (Proceedings of the Academy for Jewish Research XII [Hebrew]), argued that there were groups within the Jewish community interpreting the biblical regulations concern-

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ing the slaughteringand eating of the paschal lamb other than the Hillelite interpretation. They, he claimed, observedit anytime from the 10th to the 14th of Nisan. Partof his evidence was based upon the account in the Gospel of Johnin which Jesusand his disciples, against the Synoptic account, observedthe passoveron the eve of the 14th-that is, the lamb was slaughteredin the late afternoonof the 13th and eaten after dark, that is on the eve of the 14th. He suggested that this account recalls such a deviant practice, carried out by Galileans. While one cannot claim that Meyers and Strangeby their description of the Galilean situation confirm Lauterbach'shypothesis, nonetheless its possibility is strengthenedby just such evidence as they educe. Chapter4 offers evidence concerning the languagesof Roman Palestine, touching on the prevalenceof Aramaic; the distinction between "holy language"-biblical Hebrew-and the koine Hebrewrepresentedin its literaryform in Mishnah; the widespreadpresence of Greek; the farlesser impact of Latin. Chapter5 seeks for an understanding of Jewish concepts of afterlifefrom a survey of burial practices, and concludes: '"Astudy of those funeraryinscriptions from Beth She'arimthat arein Greekhas shown that Semitic and Hellenistic views of the afterlifeare so closely interwoven that the mere dominance of the Greek languageis not sufficient to indicate the degreeof accommodation to Hellenism" (p. 108). Christian evidence, such as it is, suggests "how deeply interdependent church and synagoguewere in their most formative period"(p. 109). Chapter6 concerns itself with: "Evidencesof EarlyChristianity: Churchesin the Holy Land,"and discusses "house-churches, synagoguechurches, and cave churches."Chapter7 looks at the variety of synagogue structures-basilica, broadhouse, apsidal-and the question of art and the rabbinicinterpretationof the second commandment. Here, as elsewhere, the authors, having paid respect to Goodenough's seminal work, indicate their considerabledistance from his conclusions. The emergingleniency or flexibility in this area,they contend, may reflect "a growing flirtation with mysticism and astrology"but

in the previous chapters and arguesonce again for a coordination between literaryand archaeological scholarship. "Weare not asking students of ancient Judaismor early Christianity to surrender any of their traditional interests. We are simply urgingthem to broadentheir horizons and to recognize the fact that the present generationof scholars has alreadyproducedsufficient quantities of new data pertaining to such study to warrant serious review and attention" (p. 167). A critical examination of this volume may move in two directions or for a skilled practitioner, not the present writer,in both at the same time. The specialist in archaeologywill undoubtedly praise or cavil at the authors'conclusions depending upon his affirmativeor negative evaluation of their evaluation of the evidence. The literary scholar,on the other hand, may,as evidenced by past performance,disdain mere material stuff as no evidence whatsoever,particularlyif such is understood to lead to an interpretationin contradiction of a cherished position. Or,taking life in hand, one may acquiesce to the authors'plea and attend to the evidence and to the interpretation thereof in formulation of a position derivedin the first instance from literary sources. I write, "taking life in hand" for one does not wish to be accounted among the fools who "rushin where angels fearto tread";and the battleground of archaeologists is just such a not-to-be-troddenupon site. This is, of course, an example of the mote-and-beamsyndrome of literaryscholars. Nonetheless, the plea of the authors ought not go unattended. Literaryscholars darenot wade into archaeologists'battles, yet by bringing their understandingof the literature in touch with those competing claims they may be of help in adjudicatingthem, and through the interaction of the two disciplines all may move ahead in coming closer to the desire of all: understanding the complexities of Judaismand of Christianity in a setting crucial to their developments. The text is accompanied by a series of helpful line drawingsand site maps. Notes 14a and 23a on pages 194 and 195 belong on page 196 following notes 14 and 23 respectively.

"surely it is not necessary to conclude, as Goodenough did, that such art was inspired by a kind of illicit mysticism not sanctioned by rabbinic authorities" (p. 153). Chapter 8 turns to "Jewish and Christian Attachment to Palestine," raising the question of the role of the land in both Jewish and Christian theology and concluding that "[t]he land as a controlling theological concept was already implicit in the idea of pilgrimage. For Jews and Christians alike, then, cords of history and tradition bind them to the land" (p. 165). Chapter 9 summarizes what has been set forth

Lou H. Silberman University of Arizona

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Computing in the Humanities, edited by Peter C. Patton and Renee A. Holoien, 404 pp. Lexington Books Series in Computer Science, Kenneth J. Thurber,GeneralEditor.Lexington, Massachusetts: D. C. Heath, 1981; $29.95. This hefty book outlines at least twenty-five separatecomputer applications in modern research in the humanities. The editors divide the humani-

ties researchin question into four sections to take the readerdirectly to his interests. The four areas are "Computing in the Analysis of Languageand Literature"(eight applications), "Computing in Archaeology and History" (five applications), "Computing in Humanistic Education"(six applications),and "ComputerApplications in the Fine Arts" (six applications). In addition we find five summary essays, one to introduce the notion of computing in the humanities and one for each of the four sections of the book. Of these various parts, the readersof BA would naturally be most interested in the essays reportingon researchin computer applications in biblical and ancient studies and in archaeology.Thus, in PartI, on "Computing in the Analysis of Languageand Literature,"Fribergand Friberg,'"AComputerAssisted Analysis of the Greek New Testament Text," reporton their analysis of the "discourse structure"of the Greek New Testament. They build upon and presuppose the prior,unpublished work of JohnBeekman of the WycliffeBible Translators.Beekman requireda detailed grammatical presentation of every word in a connected text, which the Fribergs(andtheir associates) prepared.On the basis of this material, they then had a computer generatelexical and grammatical (analytical)concordances for each New Testament book. Among the conclusions these concordances permitted was that Koine Greek is not so free in word orderas usually asserted. Other results remain to be accessed by scholars looking for syntactic patterns in the extensive data base which the Fribergshave now assembled. In another essay from PartI, Mulhern, Sparley,and Patton, "ComputerAids to Sumerian Lexicography," outline researchin a fascinating computer-assisted analysis of what promises to be a completely differentdata base. Their effort is aimed at producing detailed indices to two series of texts from ancient Mesopotamia: HAR-ra= hubullu, which is a veritable catalogue of the material culture of ancient Mesopotamia, and ana ittishu, which is principally legal and economic material. This projectuses a microcomputer connected by modem to the main computer of the university when necessary.Harperand Rindflesch, '"AComputerAssisted Study in GraphemicAnalysis," reporton their efforts to ascertain the genetic relationship of certain ancient and modern languages by comparing their writing systems alone, specifically their graphemes. Simply stated, the results of an exhaustive analysis indicate that Afro-Asiatic languages belong to a different population from that of the Indo-European languages (surprise!) but that the Hittito-Luvian languages are closer to the IndoEuropean group. Surprisingly, Etruscan seems, on the basis of this study, to be more closely related to the Indo-European languages than to the HittitoLuvian languages.

PartIIreportson archaeologicaland historical studies using the computer.Wardand Holoien, '"AComputer Data-Basefor BabylonianEconomic Documents," analyzed 102 Kutalla documents in the ancient Babylonianlanguageto deduce economic history.The results include the unexpected find that certain propertieswere likely not residential. In other words, specific plots that Assyriologists had assumed were residential, when comparedin size and price to various other residential lots, provedto be likely nonresidential, perhapseven orchardsor fields. The plots in question were simply too largeand too cheap to be for housing. Morrisand Walsh,on the other hand, present an entirely differentsort of computer application, namely, "CATO:A Computer Simulation of a RomanWine and Oil Plantation." (The felicitous name of CATOapparentlydoes not stand for anything.)Using ancient and modern authors, the investigators isolated the systems that maintained the Roman plantation, represented this prose model mathematically, then ran simulations of the plantation, setting the variables (land,manpower,expenses, and revenue)at different levels. Finally they analyzed the results. The Roman farm excavatedat Boscorealein Campania, Italy,could store about 20,880 gallons of wine, which CATOshowed could producea profit as high as 60 percent under optimum conditions. Under more conservative estimates of the variablesmentioned above, CATOpredictedprofits between 4 and 20 percent, but the vintner would have had problems producingenough grainfor his family and workers.On the other hand, CATOshowed that the persistent problem of olive plantations would have been securing enough wine for rations and pay.This is a highly sophisticated approach to historical and archaeologicalmaterial that promises to yield significant cultural information. Linda Ricketts, "Caesar'sArmy in Gaul: A used the comComputer-AidedProsophography," puter to list by name all Caesar'sofficers in Gaul. She was also able to analyze Caesar'sstaff by rank, estimate the correctrank of those officers whose rankremains uncertain, reassess Mark Antony's careerin Gaul, and develop a composite portraitof those Gallic officers who later turned against Caesar! Ruth Tate, "Minnesota Archaeological-Survey Data Base," reports on a project that could provide a model for similar data bases in the Middle East. Finally Vicky A. Walsh gives us an essay entitled "Computer-Aided Instruction in Archaeology." This elaborate program uses a simulation also, but relies on a microcomputer rather than a huge mainframe. In other words, Walsh used a desk-top computer both to develop

the programand to run it for the instruction of

students. This is a very fast and efficient way to develop instructional software, for using a large mainframe university computer means fitting

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into a schedule and running programsoften in "batch"mode or in a long queue. In this case student use is simple: The student sits at the microcomputerkeyboard,types in his or her name, and is then given backgroundinformation about the site. The student is expected to plan and implement a digging strategy.One error message that all dig directorsdreadoccurs in figure 14-9: "SORRY... YOU HAVEOVERRUN YOURBUDGET!" PartIII,on "Computing in Humanistic Education," gives encouragingresults of attempts to use the computer to teach Sumerian, Egyptian hieroglyphics, classical Greek, and Latin. The Egyptiancourse (Decker et al., '"AComputerBasedCourse in Ancient EgyptianHieroglyphics") was developedon a PLATOterminal in about three months and tested on six students the first time. The instructors judgedthe results to be "aboveaverage."The final section of the book is devoted to the computer and modern music and painting, and is thereforeof less direct relevance to readersof BA. Howeverit might have been useful to see computer applications in the history of art, for that would have had direct application to the ancient Near East. Readerswho need an overview of computer applications in historical and archaeological studies are advised to read this book. Those whose interest is tempered by computerphobia can still profit handsomely by readingthe lead essay by Patton and Roos and the next three essays that introduce PartsI-III.We simply must have more of this, and we need to know the outcome and further applications of the investigations within these covers. Particularlyas powerful computers dropin price and begin showing up in every department of the university, other scholars will have no choice but to learn how to develop such studies themselves. If not, their students will. JamesE Strange University of South Florida

BOOKPUBLISHERS PeterMachinist of The University of Arizona is the Book Review Editorof Biblical Archaeologist. Please send all review copies to the following address: Dr. PeterB. Machinist Department of Oriental Studies The University of Arizona Thcson, Arizona 85721 Thank you for your cooperation.

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Books

Received

Dianne Bergant, C. S. A., Job, Ecclesiastes. Series: Old Testament Message 18. Wilmington, Delaware: Michael Glazier, Inc., 1982, 295 pp. $9.95 (Paper),$12.95 (Cloth). Lawrence Boadt, C. S. P, Jeremiah 26-52, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Nahum. Series: Old Testament Message 10. Wilmington, Delaware: Michael Glazier, Inc., 1982, 276 pp. $7.95 (Paper),$12.95 (Cloth). Entsiqlopediah 'Olam Ha-Tanakh: Bereshit (=Encyclopaedia of the World of the Bible, volume 1, Genesis) (in Hebrew), chief editor: Menahem Haran; editor for Genesis: Moshe Weinfeld. Jerusalem: Revivim, 1982, 256 pp. No price. Carney E. S. Gavin, with IngeborgE. O'Reilly, The Image of the East: Nineteenth-Century Near Eastern Photographs by Bonfils, from the Collections of the Harvard Semitic Museum. Series: Chicago Visual Library Text-Fiche Series 41. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982, xxii + 115 pp. + 10 fiche. $65 (Cloth). Daniel Harrington, S. J., Light of All Nations: Essays on the Church in New Testament Research. Series: Good News Studies 3. Wilmington, Delaware: Michael Glazier, Inc., 1982, 201 pp. $7.95 (Paper). Leslie Hoppe, O. E M., Joshua, Judges. Series: Old Testament Message 5. Wilmington, Delaware: Michael Glazier, Inc., 1982, 218 pp. $7.95 (Paper),$12.95 (Cloth). Lee I. Levine, editor, The Jerusalem Cathedra: Studies in the History Archaeology Geography and Ethnographyof the Land of Israel, volume 2. Detroit: Wayne State University Press/Jerusalem:Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi Institute, 1982, 6 + 355 pp. $25 (Cloth). Jerome Murphy O'Connor, O. P., Becoming Human Together:The Pastoral Anthropology of St. Paul. Series: Good News Studies 2. Wilmington, Delaware: Michael Glazier, Inc., 1982, 224 pp. $6.95 (Paper). David Roberts, Yesterdaythe Holy Land (ed. with introduction by Sipke van der Land). Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1982, 75 pp. + 68 plates. $16.95 (Cloth). Ernest W Saunders, Searching the Scriptures. A History of the Society of Biblical Literature, 1880-1890. Series: Society of Biblical Literature, Biblical Scholarship in North America 8. Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1982, xii + 128 pp. $15 (Cloth). John Scullion, S. J., Isaiah 40-66. Series: Old Testament Message 12. Wilmington, Delaware: Michael Glazier, Inc., 1982, 214 pp. $7.95 (Paper), $12.95 (Cloth).

The

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Home

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Program LANGUAGE

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FORDETAILS ANDA FREECOURSECATALOG: NAME STREET CITY STATE ,ZIP HOME SEMINAR PROGRAM POB787 MALIBU,CA 90265

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BA

GUIDE TO ARTIFACTS

Essayswill examinethe variedtypesof artifacts andothermaterialevidencewith which Near Easternarchaeologistsareconcerned.Theprojected lengthof eachessayis 1500-2500 words. Authorsareaskedto discusseithera general category(examples:glass,mosaics,lithics, sarcophagi,metal objects,bones,seeds),ora specific within one of the largercategories "sub-species" (examples:the coinageof a particularregionor period,a peculiarorunusuallysignificanttypeof ceramicwareorglaze,a kindof tool, cylinderseals). Tryto conveyyourownvigorousenthusiasm forthe subject.(Whatis so fascinatingaboutancient lamps?Do yourbest to let the readerknow.)You maymentionthat a heatedscholarlydebateexists regardingthis orthat artifact,butpleasedo not takea polemicalstanceorfurnisha detailed recapitulationof the controversy. Explain,in jargon-free language,how this typeof artifactor materialevidenceassistsus in the overallreconstructionof the NearEasternpast.Why,in other words,is it an importantpieceof the historical

THE MUSEUM TRAIL With this column, we hope to drawattention to some of the lesser-known, comparativelyunheralded museum collections and special exhibits in which Near Easternartifacts are displayed.The projectedlength is 750-2000 words. Weare interested in hearing about those municipal, university, seminary,and other museums that house impressive-but not necessarily huge-collections of ancient Near Easternobjects. The author should make the readerfeel that a particularcollection or exhibit is indeed worth travelingout of one's way to view. Forthe time being, we will restrict our coverageto museums in the United States, Canada, Jordan,Israel, Cyprus, Egypt, Syria,GreatBritain, and Ireland.Eventually,coveragemay be worldwide.

puzzle? It is unnecessary to use any kind of formal referencesciting scholarly literature.If you like, you may appenda short (fewerthan ten items) list of "Suggestionsfor FurtherReading."

If you wish to do an article for one of our new departments,please dropus a line. Tell us the subject you have chosen, and briefly describe what the content of the article would be. We'llreply promptly to let you know whether your proposalis suitable for BA.

Please send all queries, proposals, and manuscripts to:

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Head of a copper statuette of Ur-Nammu from the Inanna temple at Nippur