Public sculptures were the "mass media" of the Roman world. They populated urban center... more Public sculptures were the "mass media" of the Roman world. They populated urban centers throughout the empire, serving as a "plastic language" that communicated political, religious, and social messages. This book brings together twenty-eight experts who otherwise rarely convene: text-based scholars of the Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian realms from the fields of classics, history, and religion and specialists in the artistic traditions of Greece and Rome as well as art historians and archaeologists. Utilizing the full spectrum of ancient sources, the book examines the multiple, at times even contradictory, meanings and functions that statues served within the complex world of the Roman Near East. Moreover, it situates the discussion of sculpture in the broader context of antiquity in order to reevaluate long-held scholarly consensuses on such ideas as the essence of Hellenism (the culture that emerged from the encounter of Greco-Romans with the Near East) and the everlasting "conflict" among paganism, Christianity, and Judaism.
A first glance the question of the orientation of Greek temples seems a simple one, hardly worth ... more A first glance the question of the orientation of Greek temples seems a simple one, hardly worth discussing; every new student of Classical archaeology learns from the handbooks that Greek temples, with very few exceptions, all face east. The explanations of this phenomenon are various but generally assume that the position of the sun plays an important role in the siting of Greek temples and, by inference, in Greek religion and ritual. So widely is this theory accepted that an eminent architectural historian could pass over the question of orientation in a discussion of the siting of Greek temples with the following: ' ... last is a principle so well known that it need scarcely be mentioned: orientation, in which practically every Greek temple, Bassae excepted, faces east or slightly north of east so that the rising sun at the proper season shines on the cult statue'.l Stillwell's statement reflects the generally held view but is a gross overstatement of the facts as outlined by W. B. Dinsmoor, the dean of Classical architectural historians, in his Architecture of Ancient Greece: 'In actual fact the axes of Greek temples box the entire compass; but more than 80% run, if not exactly east-west, at least within the arc formed on the horizon between the sunrise directions at the summer and winter solstices. It seems that most temples were laid out to face the sunrise on the actual day of their foundation, presumably on the festival day of the divinity.'2 Dinsmoor, following Penrose, ingeniously demonstrates the usefulness of this theory in discovering the construction dates of several temples, most notably the Parthenon.3 Even Dinsmoor's careful statement of the facts is open to some reinterpretation, however, if the evidence on which it is based is examined closely. First of all, within his 80% of temples running east-west some 8% in fact face west, leaving us with over 25% of the total not orientated towards the rising sun. Secondly, the literary sources used to support the importance of the rising sun to the orientation of temples are somewhat suspect and contradictory. Only one of the sources, the Agamemnon of Aeschylus is contemporary with the building of the Greek temples. The lines cited from that play (51g--20) are from the opening of the herald's speech as he arrives at Mycenae and greets everyone including 'the gods who face the sun'. These 'gods' are usually interpreted as statues of the gods standing in front of the palace of Mycenae, the position of which would seem to have little relevance to the orientation of Greek temples. The remainder of the ancient sourcesVitruvius IV, 5, Frontinus (in Gromatici Veteres,27), Hyginius (ibid., 169), Plutarch (Numa, 14,4), Lucian (House, 6), Clement of Alexandria (Strom. VII, 724) are of the Roman period or later. Vitruvius, a Roman citizen, writing in the time of the Emperor Augustus, argues, in fact, that temples ideally should face west rather than east:
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Apr 1, 1979
In the Spring of 1978 excavations were reopened at Tel Anafa in the Upper Galilee, Israel, under ... more In the Spring of 1978 excavations were reopened at Tel Anafa in the Upper Galilee, Israel, under the joint sponsorship of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology of the University of Michigan and the Museum of Art and Archaeology of the University of Missouri.' Work was conducted 20 May-30 June with a field staff of 152 and an additional work force of 20-35 student volunteers who participated in a field school operated through the Department of Classical Studies of the University of Michigan.
Herbert Sharon C., Berlin Andrea M. Coptos : Architecture and Assemblages in the sacred Temenos f... more Herbert Sharon C., Berlin Andrea M. Coptos : Architecture and Assemblages in the sacred Temenos from Nectanebo to Justinian. In: Topoi. Orient-Occident. Supplément 3, 2002. Autour de Coptos
... Conservation Information Network (BCIN). Author: Gunneweg, Jan; Perlman, I.; Yellin, J. Title... more ... Conservation Information Network (BCIN). Author: Gunneweg, Jan; Perlman, I.; Yellin, J. Title of Source: The provenience, typology and chronology of eastern terra sigillata Publisher/Distributor: Hebrew University of Jerusalem. ...
Paper presented at the SBL 2015 Annual Meeting, 2015
In the Persian period, many people living in the towns and cities of the Levantine coast set thei... more In the Persian period, many people living in the towns and cities of the Levantine coast set their tables with imported Attic pottery; including both the drinking and serving vessels associated with Classical Greek symposia and, by the 4th century BCE, plates and bowls for serving food. Inland, the picture is different. At Tel Kedesh in the Upper Galilee, site of an administrative center located 40 km inland from Tyre, Attic pottery is hardly a rarity, but sympotic vessels like kylikes and kraters were few in number. Instead, residents acquired shapes like small bowls that were functional equivalents of local products; suggesting that their entertainments were different – in composition, presentation, or both – from those of the coast. Such differences are all the more interesting given that Kedesh was a Phoenician administrative center with obvious ties to the coast – a place where important people of some means were presumably stationed. What does this tell us about the dissemination of styles and habits of entertaining the Persian Levant? We submit that the differences are due to the fact that at coastal sites, there was a developing middle class, as opposed to the interior, where there was not.
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 2021
Archaeologists and historians have routinely attributed “branded” goods to particular regions and... more Archaeologists and historians have routinely attributed “branded” goods to particular regions and cultural groups, often without rigorous analysis. Phoenician cedar oil is perhaps one of the best-known examples from antiquity. Hellenistic Tel Kedesh in the Upper Galilee region of the Levant is particularly relevant for these discussions by virtue of its strategic role as a border settlement in Phoenicia during one of the most dynamic periods in ancient history. As a concise contribution to these discussions, we present here an interdisciplinary analysis of amphoriskoi found with ca. 2,000 impressed sealings from the archive complex of the Persian-Hellenistic Administrative Building. While the building was constructed under the Achaemenids and occupied in both the Ptolemaic and Seleucid eras, the archive was in use only under the Seleucids in the first half of the of the 2nd century b.c.e. Blending organic residue analysis with archaeological and textual data has allowed us to identi...
Public sculptures were the "mass media" of the Roman world. They populated urban center... more Public sculptures were the "mass media" of the Roman world. They populated urban centers throughout the empire, serving as a "plastic language" that communicated political, religious, and social messages. This book brings together twenty-eight experts who otherwise rarely convene: text-based scholars of the Greco-Roman, Jewish, and Christian realms from the fields of classics, history, and religion and specialists in the artistic traditions of Greece and Rome as well as art historians and archaeologists. Utilizing the full spectrum of ancient sources, the book examines the multiple, at times even contradictory, meanings and functions that statues served within the complex world of the Roman Near East. Moreover, it situates the discussion of sculpture in the broader context of antiquity in order to reevaluate long-held scholarly consensuses on such ideas as the essence of Hellenism (the culture that emerged from the encounter of Greco-Romans with the Near East) and the everlasting "conflict" among paganism, Christianity, and Judaism.
A first glance the question of the orientation of Greek temples seems a simple one, hardly worth ... more A first glance the question of the orientation of Greek temples seems a simple one, hardly worth discussing; every new student of Classical archaeology learns from the handbooks that Greek temples, with very few exceptions, all face east. The explanations of this phenomenon are various but generally assume that the position of the sun plays an important role in the siting of Greek temples and, by inference, in Greek religion and ritual. So widely is this theory accepted that an eminent architectural historian could pass over the question of orientation in a discussion of the siting of Greek temples with the following: ' ... last is a principle so well known that it need scarcely be mentioned: orientation, in which practically every Greek temple, Bassae excepted, faces east or slightly north of east so that the rising sun at the proper season shines on the cult statue'.l Stillwell's statement reflects the generally held view but is a gross overstatement of the facts as outlined by W. B. Dinsmoor, the dean of Classical architectural historians, in his Architecture of Ancient Greece: 'In actual fact the axes of Greek temples box the entire compass; but more than 80% run, if not exactly east-west, at least within the arc formed on the horizon between the sunrise directions at the summer and winter solstices. It seems that most temples were laid out to face the sunrise on the actual day of their foundation, presumably on the festival day of the divinity.'2 Dinsmoor, following Penrose, ingeniously demonstrates the usefulness of this theory in discovering the construction dates of several temples, most notably the Parthenon.3 Even Dinsmoor's careful statement of the facts is open to some reinterpretation, however, if the evidence on which it is based is examined closely. First of all, within his 80% of temples running east-west some 8% in fact face west, leaving us with over 25% of the total not orientated towards the rising sun. Secondly, the literary sources used to support the importance of the rising sun to the orientation of temples are somewhat suspect and contradictory. Only one of the sources, the Agamemnon of Aeschylus is contemporary with the building of the Greek temples. The lines cited from that play (51g--20) are from the opening of the herald's speech as he arrives at Mycenae and greets everyone including 'the gods who face the sun'. These 'gods' are usually interpreted as statues of the gods standing in front of the palace of Mycenae, the position of which would seem to have little relevance to the orientation of Greek temples. The remainder of the ancient sourcesVitruvius IV, 5, Frontinus (in Gromatici Veteres,27), Hyginius (ibid., 169), Plutarch (Numa, 14,4), Lucian (House, 6), Clement of Alexandria (Strom. VII, 724) are of the Roman period or later. Vitruvius, a Roman citizen, writing in the time of the Emperor Augustus, argues, in fact, that temples ideally should face west rather than east:
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Apr 1, 1979
In the Spring of 1978 excavations were reopened at Tel Anafa in the Upper Galilee, Israel, under ... more In the Spring of 1978 excavations were reopened at Tel Anafa in the Upper Galilee, Israel, under the joint sponsorship of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology of the University of Michigan and the Museum of Art and Archaeology of the University of Missouri.' Work was conducted 20 May-30 June with a field staff of 152 and an additional work force of 20-35 student volunteers who participated in a field school operated through the Department of Classical Studies of the University of Michigan.
Herbert Sharon C., Berlin Andrea M. Coptos : Architecture and Assemblages in the sacred Temenos f... more Herbert Sharon C., Berlin Andrea M. Coptos : Architecture and Assemblages in the sacred Temenos from Nectanebo to Justinian. In: Topoi. Orient-Occident. Supplément 3, 2002. Autour de Coptos
... Conservation Information Network (BCIN). Author: Gunneweg, Jan; Perlman, I.; Yellin, J. Title... more ... Conservation Information Network (BCIN). Author: Gunneweg, Jan; Perlman, I.; Yellin, J. Title of Source: The provenience, typology and chronology of eastern terra sigillata Publisher/Distributor: Hebrew University of Jerusalem. ...
Paper presented at the SBL 2015 Annual Meeting, 2015
In the Persian period, many people living in the towns and cities of the Levantine coast set thei... more In the Persian period, many people living in the towns and cities of the Levantine coast set their tables with imported Attic pottery; including both the drinking and serving vessels associated with Classical Greek symposia and, by the 4th century BCE, plates and bowls for serving food. Inland, the picture is different. At Tel Kedesh in the Upper Galilee, site of an administrative center located 40 km inland from Tyre, Attic pottery is hardly a rarity, but sympotic vessels like kylikes and kraters were few in number. Instead, residents acquired shapes like small bowls that were functional equivalents of local products; suggesting that their entertainments were different – in composition, presentation, or both – from those of the coast. Such differences are all the more interesting given that Kedesh was a Phoenician administrative center with obvious ties to the coast – a place where important people of some means were presumably stationed. What does this tell us about the dissemination of styles and habits of entertaining the Persian Levant? We submit that the differences are due to the fact that at coastal sites, there was a developing middle class, as opposed to the interior, where there was not.
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 2021
Archaeologists and historians have routinely attributed “branded” goods to particular regions and... more Archaeologists and historians have routinely attributed “branded” goods to particular regions and cultural groups, often without rigorous analysis. Phoenician cedar oil is perhaps one of the best-known examples from antiquity. Hellenistic Tel Kedesh in the Upper Galilee region of the Levant is particularly relevant for these discussions by virtue of its strategic role as a border settlement in Phoenicia during one of the most dynamic periods in ancient history. As a concise contribution to these discussions, we present here an interdisciplinary analysis of amphoriskoi found with ca. 2,000 impressed sealings from the archive complex of the Persian-Hellenistic Administrative Building. While the building was constructed under the Achaemenids and occupied in both the Ptolemaic and Seleucid eras, the archive was in use only under the Seleucids in the first half of the of the 2nd century b.c.e. Blending organic residue analysis with archaeological and textual data has allowed us to identi...
Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 382 (2019), pp. 211-241.
In the 1999 season of excavation at Tel Qedesh, in northern Israel, a small, perfectly intact sta... more In the 1999 season of excavation at Tel Qedesh, in northern Israel, a small, perfectly intact stamped bulla dating to the Persian period was found. The bulla originally sealed a papyrus document. Thanks to its excellent preservation, it is possible to identify a series of key aspects of the object: the motif and type of seal used to stamp it, the way the bulla was created, and even the way in which the original document was folded and tied. These details allow us to identify the probable origin and date of the seal and contextualize its associated bulla within the site of Qedesh. This evidence, in conjunction with information from the late 5th century b.c.e. Murašû archive in Nippur, allows us to suggest that the seal’s user may have been a person with Tyrian ties—perhaps a member of the Tyrian diaspora—who acquired his seal in Nippur and traveled to Qedesh where he used it to seal a document.
Tel Anafa II, iii comprises the last installment of final reports on the objects excavated at the... more Tel Anafa II, iii comprises the last installment of final reports on the objects excavated at the site between 1968 and 1986 by the University of Missouri and the University of Michigan. It joins Tel Anafa II, i, in which the local and imported pottery of the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods was presented, and Tel Anafa II, ii, which contained studies of the glass vessels, lamps, metal objects, and groundstone and other stone tools and vessels. In this current volume we present studies of all remaining categories of finds from the excavations: pottery of the Bronze and Iron Ages, imported Attic pottery, Medieval pottery, jewelry of stone and glass, equipment related to textile manufacture, figurines, and, finally, the stucco wall decoration that inspired the name of the site's main structure: the Late Hellenistic Stuccoed Building (LHSB).
Program & Abstracts of the international conference at the Allard Pierson Museum, 23-24 January 2... more Program & Abstracts of the international conference at the Allard Pierson Museum, 23-24 January 2018.
Papers are invited for an international conference on Hellenistic sealings & archives to be held ... more Papers are invited for an international conference on Hellenistic sealings & archives to be held at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam on 23 – 24 January 2018 in collaboration with the Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO). The organizers welcome papers on subjects related to sealings and archives around the Hellenistic Mediterranean and Near East (ca. 4th-1st cent. BCE), which may include seal stamps and rings, gems and coins, papyri and literary studies as well as modern (digital) technologies related to research and presentation. Abstracts of max. 500 words for 45-minute papers may be submitted to Branko van Oppen at B.F.vanOppen@uva.nl by 3 November 2017. Decisions will be communicated within one month of the closing date.
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