The Archaeology of Daily Life: Ordinary Persons in Late Second Temple Israel

By David A. Fiensy

Have you ever wondered what it was like to live in the past? Did they experience reality in a much different way than we do now with our media, our fast travel, our fast food, and our leisure? Do you especially think about what it might have been like to have lived in Bible times? What would your childhood have been like? How would you have chosen a marriage partner? How would you probably have made a living? What sort of house would you have lived in? What diseases would have threatened your daily existence? How long would you have lived? How would you have practiced your religion? These are a few of the intriguing questions answered by this study. The book takes you on a journey into the past to view daily life through the lenses of not only texts but archaeological finds. The information from the past is also filtered through ethnographic studies of more contemporaneous, yet traditional, societies in the Middle East. The result is a presentation that may surprise you--even shock you--at times, but always will interest you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Release date: Jan 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781532673092

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The Archaeology of Daily Life

Ordinary Persons in Late Second Temple Israel

David A. Fiensy

The Archaeology of Daily Life

Ordinary Persons in Late Second Temple Israel

Copyright © 2020 David A. Fiensy. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Cascade Books

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

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www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-7307-8

hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-7308-5

ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-7309-2

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Names: Fiensy, David, author.

Title: The archaeology of daily life : oridinary persons in late second temple Israel / David Fiensy.

Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2020 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: isbn 978-1-5326-7307-8 (paperback). | isbn 978-1-5326-7308-5 (hardcover). | isbn 978-1-5326-7309-2 (ebook).

Subjects: LCSH: Jews—Social life and customs. | Jews—Economic conditions. | Palestine—History— To 70 AD. | Bible—Antiquities.

Classification: DS121.65 F54 2020 (print). | DS121.65 (ebook).

April 2, 2021

All scripture translations are my own except in two places where I refer to the New Revised Standard Version for comparative purposes.

Table of Contents

Title Page

List of Maps

List of Tables

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations of Secondary Sources

Abbreviations of Primary Sources

Introduction

1. What Were The Climate and Topography of Palestine/Israel?

2. What Was City Life Like?

What Was Village Life Like?

4. What Kind of House Would You Have Lived In?

5. What Would Your Family Dynamic Have Been Like?

6. What Would Be Inside Your House?

7. What Would You Do for a Living?

8. What Would Your Bones Tell Us?

9. What Chronic Disease(s) Would You Probably Have Contracted?

10. How Long Would You Have Lived?

11. How And Where Would They Bury You?

12. How Would You Practice Your Religion?

Summary

Appendix A

Appendix B

Bibliography

List of Maps

1.1 | Topographical map of Israel

2.1 | Palestine in the late Second Temple period

2.2 | Jerusalem in the first century CE

2.3 | Galilee in the first century CE

3.1 | Khirbet Karqush village plan

3.2 | Dead Sea Area (plus Herodium)

4.1 | Galilee and Northern Samaria

5.1 | The Dead Sea region

7.1 | Khirbet el-Buraq

7.2 | Galilee and the Golan (Meiron and Gamla)

9.1 | Galilee with malarial zones

12.1 | Lower Galilee (with Shikhin)

List of Tables

Intro. | Top archaeological discoveries for interpreting the historical Jesus

1.1 | Average annual rainfall by zones

1.2 | Average temperatures by zones

3.1 | Villages sizes

3.2 | Settlement categories

3.3 | Village/city contrasts

3.4 | Features in villages

| Appendix—Synagogue Sizes from the First Century CE

5.1 | Childhood phases

5.2 | Age at marriage

5.3 | Values of dowries at Elephantine

5.4 | Marriage/Divorce contracts

5.5 | Views of divorce and polygamy in the late Second Temple period

6.1 | Inventory of house items Masada/Naḥal Ḥever

6.2 | Clothing samples

6.3 | Food rations according to the Mishnah

6.4 | Cooking vessels

6.5 | Faunal remains

6.6 | Plant remains

7.1 | Gezer calendar

7.2 | Agricultural year

7.3 | Daily wages

7.4 | Annual wages

7.5 | Cost of bread

7.6 | Estimates of necessary farm sizes

7.7 | Women’s daily tasks

8.1 | The working class according to the skeletal remains

8.2 | Stature in the late Second Temple period

8.3 | Greek stature in the classical and Hellenistic periods

8.4 | Jewish stature, ancient and modern

8.5 | Stature comparisons (men)

8.6 | Stature comparisons (women)

9.1 | Major diseases in the ancient worldi

9.2 | Diseases of Deuteronomy 28

9.3 | Intestinal parasites in the Roman Empire

9.4 | Agrippa I’s death

9.5 | Seasons of mortality

9.6 | Malarial infections

9.7 | Skull pitting in ancient Israel

9.8 | Cribra orbitalia in the Roman empire

10.1 | Child mortality

10.2 | Infant mortality at Parvum Gerinum (Tel Jezreel)

10.3 | Youth mortality

10.4 | Youth mortality in the Greco-Roman world

10.5 | Life expectancy from birth

10.6 | Life expectancy from adulthood

10.7 | Life expectancy according to various findings

10.8 | Population percentages

12.1 | Archaeological distinctives of household Judaism

12.2 | Rules of uncleanness in the Torah

12.3 | Levels of uncleanness

12.4 | Levels of holiness

12.5 | Chemical analysis of clay lamps

12.6 | Further chemical analysis of clay lamps

12.7 | Grades of Purity in first century Judaism

List of Figures

1.1 | The Judean hill country

1.2 | Wilderness east of Jerusalem

1.3 | Sea of Galilee

1.4 | The Dead Sea

2.1 | The Tyropoeon street, Jerusalem

2.2 | Artist’s reconstruction of Jerusalem

2.3 | Inside a wealthy family’s house, Jerusalem

2.4 | Artist’s reconstruction of the wealthy family’s house

2.5 | The Pool of Siloam, Jerusalem

2.6 | Theater of Caesarea Maritima

2.7 | Promontory palace, Caesarea

2.8 | The circus of Caesarea

2.9 | Artist’s reconstruction of Caesarea Maritima

2.10 | The Aqueduct of Caesarea

2.11 | Decumanus street, Sepphoris

2.12 | Theater, Sepphoris

2.13 | Sepphoris aqueduct

2.14 | Artist’s reconstruction of Tiberias

2.15 | Mikveh at Magdala

3.1 | Village model

3.2 | Gamla synagogue

3.3 | Hill where Khirbet Qana located

3.4 | Cistern opening

4.1 | House at Umm Rihan

4.2 | Mansion of Jerusalem

4.3 | Villa of Sepphoris

4.4 | Capernaum house with communal courtyard

4.5 | Mansion at Ramat ha-Nadiv

4.6 | Underground stable

4.7 | Courtyard

6.1 | Inside Arab house

6.2 | Mediterranean diet pyramid

6.3 | Wine press

6.4 | Cooking pots

6.5 | Casserole bowl

6.6 | Arab men drinking coffee

7.1 | Terraces

7.2 | Olive crusher

7.3 | Threshing floor

10.1 | Mortality curve

11.1 | Tomb niches

11.2 | Herod family tomb

11.3 | Tomb niches

11.4 | Ossuaries

11.5 | Rolling stone tomb

11.6 | Façad of Beth She’arim catacombs

12.1 | The oral Torah

12.2 | Mikveh (Qumran)

12.3 | Mikveh (Yodefat)

12.4 | Mikveh (Jerusalem)

12.5 | Stoneware

12.6 | Herodian lamp

12.7 | Replica lamps from Briton and Asia

12.8 | Magdala synagogue

Acknowledgments

No work is ever done entirely alone. I owe a debt to many who have written on these topics before me, to those who helped in a specific way to understand and clarify the issues, and to those who assisted me in securing resources for this research. Special thanks go to Professors David Instone-Brewer, Hanna Cotton, Mordechai Aviam, and Andrea Berlin for reading portions of this manuscript and offering advice. I have benefitted greatly from their counsel. I also thank the library staff of Kentucky Christian University for their eager assistance in securing many resources through interlibrary loan. They have made this endeavor more enjoyable by their timely help.

Further, I wish to thank those who gave permission to use their figures or maps gratis in this volume:

•Shimon Dar gave permission for Map 3.1, Figure 4.1, and Map 7.1

•Balage Balogh gave permission to use Figure 4.6

•Bertelsman Unternehmensarchive gave permission to reuse Figures 6.1 and 6.6

•Danny Syon, Andrea Berlin, and the Israel Antiquities Authority allowed Figure 6.4

•Yossi Nagar and Hagit Torgeé gave permission for Figure 10.1

•Fortress Press graciously allowed the reuse of my previous publications that became Chapters 3,4, and 10 in this volume.

Many thanks for these permissions.

Most importantly, I thank Molly, the love of my life, for her support during my research time and her tolerance of my purchasing yet another book to read for this project.

Abbreviations of Secondary Sources

ABD: David Noel Freedman, ed. The Anchor Bible Dictionary. 6 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1992

ANRW: Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt

BA: Biblical Archaeologist

BAIAS: Strata; Bulletin of the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society

BAR: Biblical Archaeology Review

BASOR: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research

Bib: Biblica

BNP: Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider, eds. Brill’s New Pauly: Encyclopedia of the Ancient World. 15 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2006

BTB: Biblical Theology Bulletin

DDL: Edwin M. Yamauchi and Marvin R. Wilson, eds. Dictionary of Daily Life in Biblical and Post-Biblical Antiquity. 4 vols. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2014

EncJud1: Cecil Roth, ed. Encyclopedia Judaica. 16 vols. Jerusalem: Keter, 1972

EncJud2: Fred Skolnik, ed. Encyclopedia Judaica. 22 vols. 2nd ed. Detroit: Thomson/Gale, 2007

ESA: Eastern Terra Sigillata A (ceramic ware)

GLSTMP: David A. Fiensy and James Riley Strange, eds. Galilee in the Late Second Temple and Mishnaic Periods. 2 vols. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2014–2015

HTR : Harvard Theological Review

IDB: George Arthur Buttrick, ed. The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. 4 vols. Nashville: Abingdon, 1962

IDB (New): Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, ed. The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. 5 vols. Nashville: Abingdon, 2006–2009

IEJ: Israel Exploration Journal

IJO: International Journal of Osteoarchaeology

IJP: International Journal of Paleopathology

JBL: Journal of Biblical Literature

JJS : Journal of Jewish Studies

JRA: Journal of Roman Archaeology

JRS : Journal of Roman Studies

JSHJ: Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus

JSJ: Journal for the Study of Judaism

JSOT: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

LCL: Loeb Classical Library

LSJM : Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Henry Stuart Jones, and Roderick McKenzie. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon, 1968

NEA: Near Eastern Archaeology

NEAEHL: Ephraim Stern, ed., The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land. 4 vols. Jerusalem: IES, 1993 (Volume 5, Supplementary, 2008)

NH: Marvin W. Meyer, ed., The Nag Hammadi Library in English. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1977

NovT: Novum Testamentum

NRSV: New Revised Standard Version

NTS: New Testament Studies

OCD: N. G. L. Hammond and H. H. Scullard, eds. Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon, 1970

OCD3rev.: Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth, eds. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003

OEANE : Eric M. Meyers, ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East. 4 vols. New York: Oxford, 1997

OEBA: Daniel M. Master, ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013

OHJDL: Catherine Hezser, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Daily Life in Roman Palestine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010

PEQ: Palestine Exploration Quarterly

POT: James H. Charlesworth, ed. The Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament. 2 vols. New York: Doubleday, 1983, 185.

RevExp: Review and Expositor

RevQ: Revue de Qumran

TDNT: Gerhard Kittel et al., eds. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. 10 vols. Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964–1976

TZ: Theologische Zeitschrift

Abbreviations of Primary Sources

1QS: Qumran Community Rule

1QSa: Qumran Rule of the Congregation

11QT: Qumran Temple Scroll

4QMMT: Qumran Miqṣat ma’aseh ha-Torah (or Halakhic Letter)

4QSama: Qumran manuscript a of the Book of Samuel

Abod. Zar.: Abodah Zara

Ahil.: Ahilot

Ant.: Josephus, Antiquities

Apion: Josephus, Against Apion

‘Arak.: ‘Arakin

Arist.: Letter of Aristeas

b.: Babylonian Talmud

B. Batra: Baba Batra

Ber.: Berakot

B. Metzia: Baba Metzia

B. Qama: Baba Qama

Cant. R.: Canticles (or Song of Solomon) Rabbah

Clem.: Clement

Congr.: Philo, de congressu eruditionis gratia

CD: Cairo Damascus Document

Eccl. R.: Ecclesiastes Rabbah

‘Ed.: Eduyyot

‘Erub.: Erubin

Exod. R.: Exodus Rabbah

Gen. R.: Genesis Rabbah

Gitt.: Gittin

Gos. Ebion.: Gospel of the Ebionites

Gos. Mary: Gospel of Mary

Gos. Phil.: Gospel of Philip

Gos. Thom.: Gospel of Thomas

Haeres: Epiphanius, Haereseis

Ḥag.: Ḥagigah

Ḥall.: Ḥallah

H.E.: Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History

Ḥev.: Text from Naḥal Ḥever

Ḥull.: Ḥullin

Hypoth.: Philo, Hypothetica

j.: Jerusalem (or Palestinian) Talmud

Jdt.: Judith

Jos. Asen.: Joseph and Asenath

Jub.: Book of Jubilees

Kel.: Kelim

Keri.: Keritot

Ket.: Ketubbot

Kil.: Kilayim

L.A.E.: Life of Adam and Eve

Lam. R.: Lamentations Rabbah

Lev. R.: Leviticus Rabbah

Liv. Pro.: The Lives of the Prophets

LXX: The Greek translation of the Old Testament

m.: Mishnah

Ma‘as.: Ma’aserot

Ma’as. S.: Ma’aser Sheni

Macc.: Book of Maccabees

Maksh.: Makshirin

Meg.: Megillah

Mikv.: Mikva’ot

Mo’ed Qat.: Mo’ed Qatan

Mur: Text from Wadi Muraba’at

Ned.: Nedarim

Nidd.: Niddah

Ohol.: Oholot

Pan.: Epiphanius, Panarion

Pes.: Pesaḥim

Pliny, N.H.: Pliny, Natural History

POxy.: Papyrus Oxyrhynchus

Ps. Philo: Pseudo Philo (also called Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum)

Ps.-Phoc.: Pseudo-Phocylides

Qidd.: Qiddushin

Rosh H.: Rosh Ha-Shanah

Sanh.: Sanhedrin

Se: Text from Naḥal Ṣe’alim

Sem.: Semaḥot

Shabb.: Shabbat

Sheb.: Shebi’it

Sib. Or.: Sibylline Oracles

Spec. Leg.: Philo, de Specialibis Legibus

Sheq.: Sheqalim

Sir.: The Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach

Sukk.: Sukkah

Sus.: Book of Susanna

Syr. Men.: Syriac Menander

t.: Tosephta

Ta’an.: Ta’anit

Test. Iss.: Testament of Issachar

Test. Jud.: Testament of Judah

Tohor.: Tohorot

T. Yom: Tevul Yom

Virt.: Philo, de Virtutibus

War: Josephus, War

Yad.: Yadayim

Yebam.: Yebamot

Abbreviations Of Scriptural Books

1 Chr: 1 Chronicles

1 Cor: 1 Corinthians

Deut: Deuteronomy

Eccl: Ecclesiastes

Ezek: Ezekiel

Exod: Exodus

Gen: Genesis

Hab: Habakkuk

Isa: Isaiah

Jas: James

Jer: Jeremiah

Lam: Lamentations

Lev: Leviticus

Mal: Malachi

Matt: Matthew

Neh: Nehemiah

Num: Numbers

Prov: Proverbs

Pss: Psalms

Rev: Revelation

Sam: Samuel

Introduction

The purpose of this monograph is to reconstruct the world of the Jesus Movement in order to meet the ordinary people with whom it interacted. What experiences played a role in their lives that would influence the way they heard the teachings of Jesus? How can archaeology play a role in a new way in answering this question?

Two continental New Testament scholars recently lamented the lack of interaction with archaeological remains on the part of their colleagues. They complained that, for many, New Testament studies were an archaeology free zone. Although Old Testament scholars and church historians use material remains freely in reconstructing their respective histories, New Testament scholars mostly focus exclusively on the texts.¹ The lack of experience with archaeology (with the methods of excavation and dating) leads to the inability to use it in interpreting the New Testament.

On the other hand, the popular blogs about archaeological finds often make absurd and exaggerated claims and leave a false impression with their readers. These websites seem to have one agenda: using archaeology to prove the Bible. Although they are to be commended for calling the attention of the average reader to some archaeological finds, they usually press the inferences one can draw from them beyond reason.² If New Testament scholarship will make use of the increasingly vast source of data in the undertaking of exegesis, it must neither neglect archaeology nor assume that every potsherd proves yet another biblical chapter.³

Top Archaeological Finds in the Study of the Historical Jesus: Three Views

⁴

Although the use of archaeology on the European continent has been limited, it has found a bit more interest in North American New Testament scholarship.⁵ There have been a few voices in the last decades challenging us to consider the material remains as informants in our attempt to understand the world of Palestine/Israel in the late Second Temple Period. We will here survey the top archaeological discoveries cited by two prominent monographs—one in 1988 and one in 2001—and a seminal journal article from 2003. The three lists of the most important material remains—especially in interpreting the life and words of the historical Jesus—are rather similar in many places with a couple outliers thrown in:

Introduction Table

1

: Top Archaeological Finds for Interpreting the Historical Jesus

Charlesworth, after presenting the Burnt House¹¹ and the stoneware vessels as significant in the study of the historical Jesus, lists seven discoveries that have made an impact on this research. His conclusion is that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as the site of the crucifixion is the most important discovery to date. Of his seven top discoveries, six of them are in Jerusalem. Only the synagogues from the first century (just Masada, Herodium, and Gamla at his time of writing, but see Chapter 3) lie outside the holy city. All of the significant discoveries, except for the bones of the crucified man, are monumental ruins. In a later publication, in 2006, Charlesworth adds to these original seven top finds the excavations at Nazareth, at Cana, of the mansion at Ramat Ha-nadiv (see Chapter 4), at Herodium, at Caesarea Maritima (Chapter 2), and at Bethsaida. He also adds the Galilee boat, making his more complete list of fourteen items even more similar to the other two lists.¹² His expanded list also takes us farther from Jerusalem.

Crossan’s and Reed’s list is similar to Charlesworth’s in its selection of sites and items. Most of their top ten finds (as opposed to Charlesworth’s seven finds) are of large ruins: cities, houses, boats, and monasteries. Only the bones of the crucified man, the ossuary of Caiaphas, and the fragments of stone vessels (and of ritual baths) are small(er) finds. Unlike Charlesworth’s original list, however, is their geographical variation. Of the ten discoveries, only two and one half are in Jerusalem. The rest are in Galilee, the Golan, and elsewhere in Judea.

Witherington’s list is much like that of Charlesworth and Crossan/Reed. He lists the monumental ruins of cities along with the ossuary of Caiaphas, the Jesus boat, and the Pilate inscription. So far there is nothing unusual here. But he adds to this list the Rylands papyrus fragment of the Gospel of John, the oldest scrap of the New Testament found thus far. This can certainly be justified as an entry onto the list. But then he adds the Shroud of Turin and the James ossuary, both of which are considerably dubious with respect to provenance and date.

Still, apart from the Shroud of Turin and the James ossuary, the three lists are rather similar. They want to use mostly large, monumental ruins to interpret the life and teachings of Jesus. If we can just picture Jesus walking down the streets of Sepphoris, for example, perhaps we can understand his aims and his teachings a little better. If we can find the actual spot of Jesus’ crucifixion or construct an accurate model of the Temple, maybe we can answer some lingering questions about events that took place at those sites.

The excavation of these large ruins has given the New Testament interpreter much to chew on in reflecting on the world of late Second Temple Israel. Certainly, these finds have helped us construct some of the context for Jesus’ life and teachings. We have a much clearer understanding of the geography, economy, and culture because of these excavations. Every New Testament historian can be excited about those material remains and the insights they bring to the exegetical task of the New Testament interpreter. We must not now ignore these results. Indeed, Chapters 2–4 of this volume will describe some of them.

But should we remain fixed on the monuments? Is it time now also to push on and ask further questions? Where can one go from here to gain insights? After all, did most village residents visit the big cities that much? Did the large monuments really influence their lives? Apart from the bones of the crucified man, the fragments of the stone vessels, and the James ossuary—if one agrees that this relic actually is the ossuary of Jesus’ brother—there is very little here in these lists about ordinary people. The monuments were built by the elites, the wealthy, and the powerful—though they may have used lower-class labor and taxes to accomplish their task. But most of the population of late Second Temple Israel was not from that class. How can we hear from them?

Thus, while North American scholars have shown more interest in archaeology, there is still need to push forward beyond the monuments.

The Need for a Holistic Approach

Seeking to reconstruct the context for Jesus’ life and ministry based solely on the monumental remains is like an American tourist visiting China. He/she sees the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. Our tourist views some of the ancient palaces and the Terra Cotta Army. The visitor then returns home and announces that he/she now knows and understands China. We would all smile indulgently but not be convinced. Although viewing those sites would be important, it would not be adequate. If one has not met at least a few of the people, one does not know China. And the people one meets cannot be limited to the wealthy upper one per cent.

Likewise, believing that we know Jesus’ life and times because we have seen the ruins of Sepphoris, is not convincing. They are important; we must see them but they must not satisfy us. It is a bit more convincing to find information on his life and times in the remains of religious practices such as the ritual baths and stoneware vessels. But even they do not bring us to the people themselves. Nor can one, in meeting the people, focus on Herod the Great and his descendants, on the religious sects, or on the exciting manuscripts found near the Dead Sea. All of these elements must be a part of a complete investigation but we need more. Our task in this monograph is not to describe the Pharisees and Essenes, not to analyze the Dead Sea Scrolls, not to give a complete account of major events of the first century CE, although, at times, these things may enter peripherally into our quest.

In the pursuit of information beyond these issues, archaeologists have begun to examine remains that were not even considered some decades back. They microscopically look at latrine remains to understand ancient diets (there are clues in the pollen) and ancient diseases (eggs of parasites). They look at bones and teeth to check for signs of chronic illness and to determine demographics and longevity. They check out data on tombstones and ossuaries to sketch mini-biographies of ordinary persons. I hope to capitalize on all of these methods in this volume.

Our task, in so far as one can achieve it, is to meet the ordinary people. I want to visit the ordinary people in all their poverty, sickness, and pain. The biblical world was a third world country where daily suffering and horrible illness were taken for granted. If we can get a clearer view of the ancient persons who heard Jesus’ parables and Jesus’ Beatitudes, for example, it might give us insight and nuance in our modern reading of these texts. We surely do not hear them now as the ancients did.

Although I appreciate and have learned from the other studies on daily life, I also hope to add a dimension—not to mention topics—untouched in most of the other works. I want my portrayal of first-century Palestine/Israel to be a grittier story. Thus, I discuss unhappy topics like morbidity and mortality. I will talk about the treatment of children and women. The result may be disturbing in places but ultimately more satisfying in terms of the exegetical payoff for those interpreting the New Testament and/or the Mishnah. At least, that is my goal.

Other historians have made and are making similar attempts.¹³ Such a task is a growing area of interest in scholarship. The study of ancient history is no longer just about the great politicians and military conquerors. As Richard Horsley and John Hanson observed in their groundbreaking work of 1985:

Until very recently, the modern Western assumption has been that the common people have had little to do with the making of history . . . Standard treatments of Jewish history and the background of Jesus . . . Almost always discuss groups and figures from the ruling class and the literate stratum.¹⁴

In other words, Richard Horsley and John Hanson challenged, rightly so, the focus and near obsession with previous investigations into the great and wealthy people, the beautiful people. Horsley and Hanson, on the other hand, were interested in the ordinary people, for the upper class—the elites of antiquity—comprised a mere one to two percent of the population. Clearly, focusing on them was presenting a skewed view of history.

Likewise, and more recently, the classical historian Thomas Grünewald has written: Historians are recognizing that those on the margins of the community . . . have a significant effect on the historical process.¹⁵ Thus, social historians are now paying greater attention to those of lower social standing. He then explores the topic of banditry, the low-class version of politics, in the Roman empire. In my monograph, one could say, I will look at mostly those of that social stratum: the low-class, the poor, the working class, and non-famous—not necessarily infamous—persons of Palestine/Israel in the late Second Temple Period.

Our Sources

How will we get into this information? In the following chapters, we will freely use the ancient literary sources to supplement the archaeological finds (and, indeed, to interpret the finds). But here a word of caution is in order. Most of the literary sources are from the upper class, the elites, or aristocracy. This is true of Josephus, a priest from the wealthy Hasmonean family, and it is true of much of the rabbinic literature. The rabbis were educated, literate, and often wealthy persons. They were religious authorities and often large landowners. Their take on reality for the ordinary person might not have been accurate.

David Kraemer writes of this concern in his essay: (the rabbinic literature) is a literature which speaks for a small segment of the Palestinian Jewish population, motivated by its own particular elitist, polemical, and even sectarian concerns.¹⁶ Kraemer offers three checks on the bias of the use of the rabbinic literature: First, one may assume that details that are not directly in service of polemical rabbinic goals are accurate. Second, evidence from the rabbinic literature that is confirmed by contemporaneous literature—Josephus, the New Testament, and Greco-Jewish sources—has a good chance of accurately representing the ordinary people. Third, archaeology should be used to confirm or contradict the rabbinic evidence.¹⁷

These are helpful safeguards in our use of rabbinic sources to construct daily life in the late Second Temple Period. But to these I would add a fourth. In addition to the material remains mentioned by Kraemer, many archaeologists use cultural anthropology in order to understand the ruins they are looking at. They also will use demographic data from pre-modern societies to help interpret the remains. Lawrence Stager, an archaeologist investigating the Hebrew Bible era, wrote: ethnoarchaeological models forged from many of the same cultural and ecological constraints operative in the past, provide guidelines within which the archaeologist can reconstruct aspects of everyday life from the patterns of material remains.¹⁸ Likewise, Brent Shaw, a classical historian, maintained that the most reasonable guide remains comparative data from the same physical environments as the material remains under discussion.¹⁹ We will, then, make free use of ethnographic studies (traditional Arab villages in the modern era) as well as comparisons of morbidity in roughly similar environments and situations to help us interpret the material remains and literary sources.²⁰ If a custom referred to in the rabbinic literature is also found in some form in the contemporary Arab villages of Palestine and the wider region, it may have represented not just the elites but the common people as well.

The Chapters

After a brief look (chapter 1) at the climate and topography of Israel, the monograph will summarize what has been found, archaeologically, in the Jewish cities and villages of Palestine, also giving an accounting of housing types in the Hell II–ER II periods (Chapters 2–4). From there, we turn to a discussion of family (Chapter 5), home furnishings (Chapter 6), and daily labor (Chapter 7). Along the way, we discuss childhood, marriage, clothing, food, and the annual cycle for agricultural villages. We then turn to rather unhappy topics, based largely on the examination of ancient bones (Chapters 8–10). These chapters will indicate things such as stature and facial looks, diseases, and life-spans and mortality. We end the volume with two chapters on religion, one (Chapter 11) on death and burial, and the last (Chapter 12) on ritual purity and aniconic decorations. In each of these chapters, archaeology will play a crucial role.

1

. See Alkier and Zangenberg, Zeichen aus Text und Stein. The expression archaeology free zone originated with Peter Pilhofer (x).

2

. E.g., Leap, Archaeology Proves.

3

. For ideas in utilizing archaeology in interpreting texts, see: E. M. Meyers and J. F. Strange, Archaeology, the Rabbis, and Early Christianity,

28

–

29

; Charlesworth, Archaeology,

8

–

9

; E. M. Meyers and C. Meyers, Holy Land Archaeology; Hoppe, Biblical Archaeology,

4

–

8

; Starbuck, Things Forbidden?; James F. Strange, Sayings of Jesus and Archaeology,

296

–

97

; Reed, Archaeology,

18

; McRay, Archaeology,

17

–

19

; Levine, Archaeological Discoveries,

76

; Dever, Recent Archaeological,

32

–

35

; Dever, Biblical Writers,

124

–

28

; Dever, Ordinary People,

189

–

91

; Moreland, Burkes, and Aubin, Introduction,

1

–

2

. See also the table in Fiensy, Insights,

21

.

4

. For another, more popular view see, e.g., Shogan, Favorite New Testament Archaeological Discoveries.

5

. See the recent jointly authored essay by Charlesworth and Aviam, Reconstructing First-Century Galilee.

6

. Charlesworth, Jesus within Judaism,

103

–

30

.

7

. Crossan and Reed, Excavating Jesus,

2

.

8

. Witherington, Top Ten New Testament Archaeological Finds.

9

. Including Qumran in this category (Jewish resistance) seems odd to me although the site was destroyed by the Romans in c.

68

CE.

10

. Again, an odd designation. These were not just any villages but those destroyed completely by Rome in the war.

11

. Charlesworth, Jesus within Judaism,

106

. The Burnt House was destroyed when the Romans overran Jerusalem in

70

CE.

12

. Charlesworth, Jesus Research and Archaeology.

13

. E.g., see: Dever, Ordinary People; Borowski, Daily Life; Nakhai, Embracing the Domestic; Hezser, ed., OHJDL; King and Stager, Life in Biblical Israel; Yamauchi and Wilson, eds., DDL; Evans, Remains; Collins and Harlow, eds., Dictionary; Rousseau and Arav, Jesus and His World; Magness, Stone; Master, ed., OEBA; Gurtner and Stuckenbruck, eds., Encyclopedia.

14

. R. A. Horsley and J. S. Hanson, Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs, xii. Cf. also: C. Meyers, (Women’s Culture,

427

), who asks for a bottom to top perspective instead of the top down perspective that has dominated Syro-Palestinian archaeology; Donaldson (Rural Bandits,

19),

who observes that the peasants comprised

90

% of the population but most historical studies ignore them and focus on the ruling aristocracy; and R. A. Horsley (Sociology,

3)

: we are no longer satisfied with such an idealist individualist theological understanding of the biblical texts . . . biblical literature is about the problems and experiences of real people.

15

. Grünewald, Bandits in the Roman Empire,

1

.

16

. Kraemer, Food, Eating, and Meals,

404

. See also Hamel, Poverty and Charity; and Martin, Slavery,

117

.

17

. Kraemer, Food, Eating, and Meals,

404

–

5

.

18

. Stager, Archaeology of the Family,

18

.

19

. Shaw, Seasons of Death,

131

.

20

. The following ethnographies were consulted for this monograph: Amiry and Tamari, Palestinian Village Home; Canaan, Arab House; Dalman, Haus; Fuchs, Arab House; Fuller, Buarij; Hirschfeld, Palestinian Dwelling; Kramer, Village Ethnoarchaeology; Lutfiyya, Baytin; Sweet, Tell Toqaan; Tannous, Arab Village; Lancaster and Lancaster, Jordanian Village Houses; and Thompson, Land.

1

What Were The Climate and Topography of Palestine/Israel?

What would your daily life have been if you lived in Palestine in the late Second Temple Period (c. 37 BCE—70 CE)? Would you have been a farmer? Artisan? Lived in mountains? On a plain? In the desert? You could have done any of the above.

Herodian Palestine was about the same size as the state of Vermont in the United States. From the ancient city of Dan to the city of Beersheba, the boundaries in the Old Testament period, it is 150 miles (241 km.).²¹ Although Palestine is geographically a small land area, it had and has three distinct topographical and climatic regions²² (if we add the Transjordan area, then four regions). Let us look at each of these in three narrow strips running from north to south:

•Region 1 is the Coastal Plain.

•Region 2 is the Hill Country.

•Region 3 is the Jordan Rift.

The Topography of Palestine/Israel: The Three Zones

In spite of the small land area of Palestine, there is an interesting variety of topography and climate. One has the feeling of a larger country when one is there perhaps because of these differences. Certainly, a person’s life and yearly experiences would vary greatly depending on which of these zones he/she lived in.

The Coastal Plain

The coastal plain is that narrow strip of land that borders the Mediterranean Sea on its west. The northern part of the coast was called in the Old Testament the Plain of Sharon, the southern area the Philistine Plain. It is made of mostly alluvial soil and ranges from 10 to 15 miles (16–24 km.) wide. Its temperatures range from an average of 54 degrees Fahrenheit in the month of January to an average of 77 degrees Fahrenheit in the month of August. The average rainfall on the coast in November (as the rainy season begins) is one inch; in January (the height of the rainy season) five inches; and in April (as the rainy season ends) one inch. Snow and frost are rare on the coast, but the scorching east winds called the sirocco or khamsin are also less frequent.²³ If you lived on the coast, you would be used to relatively mild weather all year round. On the coast were cities with large Gentile populations such as Caesarea (Map 2.1), Lydda, Ptolemais, and Joppa (Map 1.1). A major highway for international travel and commerce, the Via Maris (way of the sea), ran up the coast of Israel, turned eastward through the Great Plain (Map 4.1), turned again north around the Sea of Galilee and on to Damascus.

The Central Highlands

Running from Upper Galilee south to the Negev is a range of mountains. This is the second region or climate zone of Palestine/Israel. In these low mountains (reaching 3,000+ feet, or 914 m., in places) it often snows in winter. They are mostly composed of limestone making numerous caves, hideouts for bandits in antiquity.²⁴ Let us discuss Galilee first and then move southward.

The Region of Galilee

The Jewish historian, Josephus (first century CE; War 1.22; 3.35–39) divided Galilee into two sections: Upper Galilee and Lower Galilee. The rabbinic collection called the Mishnah (collected in 200 CE; m. Sheb. 9:2) divided Galilee into three parts: Upper Galilee, Lower Galilee, and the Great Plain. A steep slope separates the Upper and Lower Galilee. To determine where the one ended and the other began, the reader may draw an imaginary line from the northern end of the Sea of Galilee westward toward the Mediterranean Sea.²⁵ The mountains of Upper Galilee reach a height of

Israel showing topographical regions (from west to east)

1. The Coastal Plain

2. The Hill Country

3. The Rift Valley from the north to the Dead Sea in the south, including the Judean Wilderness

Map

1

.

1

: Topographical map of Israel (created with Accordance)

3,900 feet (1188 m.) while those of Lower Galilee rise to just under 2,000 feet (609 m.). Lower Galilee is intersected by four valleys running east to west and finally drops in the south from a height of 1,500 feet (457 m.) at Nazareth to the Great Plain which is 492 feet (149 m.) above sea level. Upper Galilee extended over 180 square miles (466 sq. km.); Lower Galilee 470 square miles (1217 sq. km.).²⁶ Upper Galilee averages 40 inches of rain per year; Lower Galilee averages 24 inches.²⁷ The eastern part of Galilee is made of mostly hard, basaltic (volcanic) rock; the western of limestone, not as hard and more useful for building.²⁸ The valley called by Josephus the Great Plain (called in the Old Testament the Valley of Jezreel and by the Greek writers, the Plain of Esdraelon) is made of alluvial soil and is very fertile.²⁹

Archaeologists have confirmed that there was also a bit of a cultural divide between Upper Galilee and Lower Galilee. Upper Galilee was more conservative and isolated, speaking mostly Hebrew and Aramaic (as evidenced by the inscriptions found so far). It had only villages and small towns and no major trade routes dissected its region. Lower Galilee has produced more Greek inscriptions, had two fair-sized cities, Sepphoris and Tiberias, and one small city, Magdala/Taricheae (see Map 2.3).³⁰ It was more open to outside influences because important trade routes (such as the Via Maris) ran through it. The differences between the two Galilees have sometimes been exaggerated but that there were differences few would deny today. Jesus’ home town, Nazareth, was located in Lower Galilee.

There are today three hypotheses as to the origin of the citizens of Galilee. Some suggest that they were the remnants of the old Israelites, that is, those left over after the deportations in the eighth century BCE. Others offer that these folk were converted Iturians, that is, Gentiles, who became Jews when Alexander Jannaeus conquered the territory (first century BCE). Finally, others posit that the people were Jewish colonists who settled in Galilee after Alexander Jannaeus annexed the territory for Judea.

Which view does archaeology support? Jonathan Reed has done an effective job of presenting the data, pulled from archaeological surveys of Galilee. A survey involves having a team visit a site, randomly collect ceramics (potsherds) from the surface (no excavating), and then record the dates of the finds.³¹ He points out that there was an absence of any Galilean settlements for over a century after the conquest of the Assyrians (thus hypothesis 1 seems improbable). Further, the rule of Alexander Jannaeus (103–77 BCE) coincides with an increase of population. This looks to Reed like Jewish colonization not forced conversion of Gentiles. Reed suggests that the Galilean Jews originated as colonists from Judea. This view seems to be the consensus today.³²

The Great Plain (Map 4.1)

The large valley just below Lower Galilee (or, by some accounts, part of Lower Galilee), the Great Plain, called the Jezreel Valley in the Old Testament, was a very fertile, and thus, very desirable land. It forms a rough triangle measuring 20 miles (32 km.) on the south, and 17 miles (27km.) running from the south to the northeast and from the south to the northwest. It receives around 28 inches of rainfall on average each year.³³

The Hill Country of Samaria (Mount Ephraim or the Northern Highlands):

Moving further south but staying within the borders of our middle strip, we come to the mountains of Samaria (called Mt. Ephraim in the Old Testament), an area 37 miles (60km.) long and 25 miles (40 km.) wide. Elevations here reach 3,000 feet (914 m.) and annual rainfall is around 25 inches. This region was controlled by the Samaritans in the New Testament period. The hills are so steep in Ephraim (Samaria) and Judah, that they learned a long time ago to use terraces. Constructing terraces on steep hillsides forms an artificially level field for planting crops (see Figure 7.1 in Chapter 7).

Judea (or the Southern Highlands)

As one moves from west to east in the Southern Highlands, from the Mediterranean Sea to the peaks of the Hill Country, one first encounters a series of low hills called in Hebrew the Shephelah. These hills top out at 656 feet³⁴ (200 m.) and lead into the higher elevations of Judea. The area of the Shephelah stretches from north to south for 27 miles (43 km.) but is only 10 miles (16 km.) wide.

As we continue to move a bit eastward, still on our middle strip, we next climb to the higher hills of the Hill Country. These hills (or mountains as the Bible calls them) are formed of limestone and reach, at their highest point around 3,000 feet (914 m.) . Jerusalem, sitting on the watershed of our middle strip, is around 2,500 feet (762 m.) above sea level.³⁵ The Hill Country of Judah is a bit drier than the Northern Highlands of Samaria. Here rain averages 19 inches per year.³⁶ It averages 50 degrees Fahrenheit in January and 78 degrees in August.³⁷ If you lived in the Samaritan or Judean Hill Country, you would enjoy relatively mild temperatures and adequate rainfall.

Figure

1

:

1

: The Hill Country of Judah (photo by the author)

The Eastern Slope

Just east of Jerusalem and east of the watershed generally, in the Southern Highlands, begins the Judean wilderness. Some geographers divide this area into two sub-zones: Semi-desert and Desert.³⁸ The former is an area of diminished rainfall. It is a place of no forests and little rain because these hills are in the weather shadow of the hills to the west. The Eastern Slope runs from Jericho in the north to the southern end of the Dead Sea to the south, a distance of 60 miles (97 km.) but only 10 miles (16 km.) in width. This area averages around 4 inches of rain each year.³⁹ Few people lived here because the soil and lack of rain made agriculture difficult but it was a refuge for outlaws, rebels, and religious sects. Further east, begins the Desert, where rainfall averages less than four inches per annum.

Figure

1

.

2

: Wilderness just east of Jerusalem (photo by the author)

The Negev

Moving farther south (and still remaining in the middle topographic strip) we come to the Negev (desert land). Here the land receives only marginal annual rainfall. On farther south is the subtropical steppe, or treeless, flat landscape.⁴⁰

Table

1

.

1

: Average annual rainfall by region⁴¹

The Rift Valley

The rift begins all the way north to Mount Hermon. It is the highest mountain in Israel, reaching a height of 9230 feet (2813 m.). At its base lay ancient Caesarea Philippi (Map 2.1), one of Herod Philip’s cities, and the Old Testament city of Dan. Here begins the Jordan River which will flow through Lake Huleh (the small body of water north of the Sea of Galilee in Map 4.1), through the Sea of Galilee, and on toward the Dead Sea.

At Lake Huleh, the elevation is 220 feet (67 m.) above sea level⁴² but by the time the Jordan River reaches the Sea of Galilee, the shoreline is 656 feet (200 m.) below sea level.⁴³ While the actual Lake Huleh remained around three miles long and two and a half miles wide year round, there was a large swath of marsh area north of it running three and a half miles wide and nine miles long. Ancient settlement patterns show that no one wanted to live near this swamp. This was probably because in ancient times the region around Lake Huleh was malarial.⁴⁴ In the 1950s the Israelis began draining the swampy areas and the malarial infestation disappeared. This region receives around 25 inches of rain each year.⁴⁵

The Sea of Galilee averages 13 miles (21 km.) long (depending on water levels) and 8 miles (13 km.) wide at its widest point. Its average depth is 150 feet (46 m.).⁴⁶

Figure

1

.

3

: Sea of Galilee from Mount Arbel (photo by the author)

The river then proceeds another 65 miles (105 km.) until it empties into the Dead Sea, a large lake with no outlets, no fish or marine life, and unusually high salt and mineral content. The shoreline is around 1310 feet (399 m.) below sea level⁴⁷ and the sea has a depth of 1420 feet (433 m.), making it the lowest spot on earth. The Dead Sea measures approximately 47 miles (76 km.) by 10 miles (16 km.) across. It is 25% salt and minerals (compared to the 6% salt of the Atlantic Ocean).⁴⁸ In spite of this harsh environment, several important sites are found on its western shore (see Maps 3.2 and 5.1) and we will refer to these sites throughout this volume.

As the rift moves from the Sea of Galilee toward the Dead Sea, it becomes wilderness. The high hills of Samaria and Judea block most of the winter rains making for arid conditions. Annual precipitation here averages less than 4 inches. The temperatures also reach their highest level in Palestine along the Dead Sea. See the table below for average temperatures for each of the three zones or topographical strips:

Table

1

.

2

: Average temperatures (Fahrenheit) of the three topographical zones⁴⁹

The reader should bear in mind that these are average temperatures, taking into the calculation both the day time and night time measurements. At