Front Matter & Editorial

The site of Mordot Arnona is located c. 750 m northeast of Ramat Raḥel, on the eastern outskirts of the Arnona neighborhood of Jerusalem. Recent salvage excavations at the site showed that in the late eighth and the first half of the seventh century BCE, Mordot Arnona held great significance in the physical and political landscape of the area south of Jerusalem, serving as an administrative center, as evidenced by its monumental structures and the dozens of stamped jar handles. In this paper we present for the first time a rare corpus of 17 jar handles bearing ‘private’ stamp impressions, one of the largest exposed in excavations in the region of Judah, alongside 124 lmlk stamped jar handles and 33 handles incised with concentric circles. Furthermore, we discuss their role, function and significance in Judah’s administration system on the eve of Sennacherib’s campaign.

Two inscriptions recently found on jar fragments at Tel Moẓa help clarify the reading of two previously uncovered inscriptions at the site. The four ancient Hebrew inscriptions, all inscribed on jars before firing, render a unique formula, where both the sender and recipient are mentioned, representing a new, heretofore unattested category of ownership inscriptions. Drawing both on the stratigraphic and epigraphic evidence, all four inscriptions can be placed in the seventh century BCE, a time when Tel Moẓa appears to have been an important economic and administrative center, as well as a cultic one.

Among the epigraphic finds that Itzhaq Beit-Arieh published from Tel Malḥata, Inscription No. 4, the focus of this paper, is unique among the Iron Age ostraca, as it is written in both the Edomite and Hebrew languages. The context of the inscription is clear: a registration of amounts of one or more unknown commodities, with certain amounts described as ‘diminished.’ This paper offers a reassessment of Beit-Arie’s interpretation of the inscription, suggesting that it testifies to interaction and cooperation among several scribes adhering to different scribal dialects. It further discusses the broader implications of the inscription for the research of early Edomite writing.

A copper-alloy object bearing an incised Aramaic inscription in lapidary script was found on the surface, about halfway up the hill of Tulûl Mas‘ud, in the Sharon plain. The object was recently studied by a multidisciplinary research group of specialists in archaeology, epigraphy, forensic science and analytical archaeology to better understand the artifact in its original cultural and spatial setting. The results attest that the object was probably connected with a nearby Persian-period sanctuary.

One of the most important epigraphical finds of ancient Idumea, which has led scholars to believe that a Sidonian/Phoenician community was present in Marisa during the Hellenistic period (fourth–second centuries BCE), is the well-known inscription uncovered at the site in 1905, reading “Apollophanes son of Sesmaios, Chief of the Sidonians at Marisa.” This inscription was discovered in a large, lavishly painted tomb in the city’s necropolis, allegedly supporting a presence of a Sidonian/Phoenician community in Marisa. Following a comprehensive examination of the material culture from Marisa vis-à-vis that of other Phoenician sites, this commonly-held assumption is put to question. Phoenician pottery, very common in Phoenician cities of the Hellenistic period, such as ‘Akko and Ashqelon, is absent from Marisa, and the Greek onomasticon of Hellenistic Marisa also lacks Phoenician names and includes mainly Idumean and Greek names common in the East. Also, the numismatic evidence from Marisa does not seem to support a Sidonian presence. In this paper I argue that the term ‘Sidonians’ in the Hellenistic context at Marisa implies an instrumental context rather than an ethnic one.

A stone fragment bearing a Hebrew or Aramaic inscription was discovered in the debris piled up along the Early Roman period Stepped Street in the Tyropoeon Valley, on the west slope of the City of David hill. The inscription preserves part of a list mentioning proper names and sums of money. Similar lists are known from the Second Temple period, commonly interpreted as payment received or rendered from individuals. This is the first inscription to be found inside the city. It is unclear whether the inscription was connected to the ossuary on which it was inscribed, perhaps by the ossuary craftsman?

Gideon Foerster’s excavations at Herodium in 1968/69 yielded a simple ring, which was published only in 2018. The inscription on the ring was read as Πιλάτο(υ), i.e., ‘of Pilate.’ Various interpretations were offered for the inscription, all generally linking the ring directly or indirectly to Pilate. This paper shows that, apart from the problematic reading, everything we know about the Roman administration in the provinces speaks against such an assumption, especially the use of the Greek language in an administrative context in the first half of the first century. Alternative readings for the letters and other ways to understand them are discussed.

This paper focuses on the study of the contents of inkwells dating to the Early Roman period, using an array of analytical techniques: portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (pXRF), Raman spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy combined with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS). Our goal was to shed light on the chemical composition of the inks used for writing in the late Second Temple period in Israel, particularly those which may have been similar to that used in the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS). An understanding of the ancient ink’s chemistry has important implications for conservation and preservation purposes, and may reveal important information about ancient scribal practices and writing schools. Although most of the analyzed inkwells revealed no ink residues, molecular traces of bone-derived carbon were detected in one sample, plausibly originating from bone black pigment used in ancient ink. Organic residues from three other inkwells may be the remains of ink binders.

The corpus of surviving Nabataean inscriptions consists of thousands of graffiti written on rock faces and bedrock from Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Egypt, while a few such inscriptions are known from the Negev. The Nabataean inscription presented here was incised in the dark-brown patina of a limestone bedrock outcrop near ‘Avedat, a region dotted with many petroglyphs and inscriptions. The inscription is written in a typical Nabataean signature-type formula, comprising the name of the author preceded by a blessing and ending with the general greeting of well-being. The isolated location of the inscription should probably be connected with the historic Nabataean trade route between Petra and Gaza.

A milestone located in Bet Ḥananya, below one of the arches of the Hadrianic High Aqueduct to Caesarea (Canal B), was subjected to a 3D scan. This technique enabled the reading of the inscription on the milestone and thereby, to date the stone to the period of the dual reign of Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus (161–169 CE). It also became apparent that the stone marked the fourth mile station from Caesarea. This paper suggests that the milestone is in situ and marked a segment of the Roman imperial road between Caesarea and the legionary base at Legio. The road was submerged in the fourth century CE when a reservoir was created behind dams built across Naḥal Tanninim.

A Roman imperial boundary stone, erected under Diocletian in c. 300 CE, was reused as a covering stone of a fourth-century CE grave. It bears the Greek names of the villages Ramathana and Kapharnapha, identified as the late Ottoman villages Ramtaniyye and Kafr Nafaḥ. This is the first instance where ancient names were preserved by the modern ones in the central Golan Heights, overturning previous assumptions in this regard. Archaeological evidence from both sites confirms their existence in the Roman and Byzantine periods. It seems that the preservation of the name of Kafr Nafaḥ is due to its location along an important road. Although the original location of the stone remains unknown, its findspot suggests that the boundary between the two villages was near Kafr Nafaḥ.

Two Greek inscriptions, set in a mosaic pavement in the pool adjoining the eastern side of the theater of Shuni, celebrate the foundation of this structure by the otherwise unknown governor of First Palestine Flavius Marcianus Antipater, whose term of office can be dated by his titulature to the second half of the fifth or the early sixth century CE. One of the inscriptions, though fragmentary, can be recognized as an epigram. Both inscriptions exhibit a high level of sophistication, fitting the site where they were found, the location of a renowned Maiumas festival known for its cultural refinement.

A salvage excavation on the southern part of Mount Zion uncovered building remains dating from the Byzantine period. A bilingual Greek-Georgian mosaic inscription was discovered in one of the rooms of the building complex. Based on this finding, and in light of the early written sources, the author proposes to identify the building with the Monastery of the Iberians.

A unique mold-made oil lamp dating from the Early Islamic period was found in the Old City of Jerusalem. It was inscribed in Greek on the upper and lower parts of its body, including the shoulder and the base. The lamp is of the Jerash type, produced between the late sixth and mid-eighth centuries CE. The lamp owner was most likely a Greek-speaking Christian—a resident of the city or a visitor from across the Jordan—on pilgrimage or on a commercial or social journey, attesting to a continuous presence of Christian visitors in the Holy City in the Early Islamic period.

Excavations in the Giv‘ati Parking Lot in Jerusalem uncovered extensive architectural remains dating from the Iron Age to the Early Islamic period, the latest dating to the Abbasid period. The remains from the Abbasid period comprise a large commercial area where a metal industry operated. This paper presents an Abbasid-period stone mold for casting metal artifacts engraved with an Arabic inscription, whose purpose and meaning are discussed by the authors based on parallels from material finds and written sources.

Excavations in the Strauss Building, located next to the Western Wall Plaza in the Old City of Jerusalem, yielded a unique ornamental two-level terracotta pen-and-inkwell case, comprising an upper level with a rectangular pencase and a bowl-shaped inkwell holder, and a lower level with two compartments. The sides of the pencase have incised decorations depicting a throne and a throne room, and the base bears an Arabic inscription composed of a paraphrase of two verses from a maqāma poem by Badī‘ al-Zamān, and the name of the poet or/and the owner, Mūsā. The dating of the pencase to the Fatimid period is determined by the lifetime of Badī‘ al-Zamān, who died in 1008 CE, and by eleventh-century CE pottery found with the pencase. The pen-and-inkwell case, made of Moẓa clay from the vicinity of Jerusalem, is a local production for a Jerusalem intellectual.

A unique lead seal of the Byzantine Patriarch of Jerusalem, Leontios II (1176–1184/85), was discovered in a salvage excavation in Jerusalem’s Old City. This is the first seal of this patriarch to have been found, confirming the sojourn of Leontios II to the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1177–1178. It also sheds new light on the attempts of the Byzantine emperor, Manuel I Komnenos, to maintain his influence over the reigning Jerusalem dynasty.

Epigraphic transition to writing in the vernacular languages was one of the most striking phenomena in the sociocultural history of medieval Europe from the twelfth century onward, affecting all domains of written culture and progressing at different paces in different places. This transition took place in the Crusader states, as in France, in the mid-thirteenth century, but here with a radical turn from medieval Latin to Outremer French—an Old French dialect used in the Latin East. This paper examines isolated French words (names) in the extant inscriptions from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, tracing the transitional stages and identifying the actors and events instrumental in this shift. Is this transition simply a reflection of the limited preserved corpus of inscriptions? or can it be related to the history of the Crusader Kingdom, specifically the sojourn of the French King Louis IX in the Holy Land? This paper subsequently focuses on how the Outremer French inscriptions were viewed by the nineteenth-century orientalists and relates to the role that the inscriptions played in the conception of language in terms of national identity, and their place in the museums of France.

A metal object found on the surface at the ‘Atlit Castle was identified as a book fitting. Although such mounts could have served other functions, such as inlays, belt or girdle mounts, this artifact was probably an anchor-plate, part of a book clasp for a medieval codex, possibly of religious content, bound in a leather cover. Visual testing inspection and SEM-EDS analysis of the book fitting have shown that the item was made of a heterogeneous composition of copper alloy. This book fitting joins a growing corpus of metal artifacts from the Latin East, establishing a metallurgical database for future comparative analysis of book fittings and similar artifacts. The identification of the item as a book fitting, and its plausible dating as a piece of medieval book furniture, supports its origin in the Frankish occupation of the site.

The subject of this paper is an inconspicuous stone lintel kept in the Rockefeller Museum, Jerusalem, heavily marked with graffiti and writing. The stone exhibits various kinds of markings: drawings of coats of arms, pilgrim names and ad hoc inscriptions, clearly carved by Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land during the Mamluk period. The scribbles allude to the inner way of thinking of the pilgrims, offering unique information as to the personal motives for undertaking the arduous travel and insights into the making of Western Christian societies in the European late medieval period. Most of the markings on the stone lintel are ascribed to a group of German pilgrims, who stayed at a pilgrim hospice in Ramla in 1486. The stone lintel bears witness to the experience, identities and nature of social interactions of the pilgrims in a way that no plain building stone could.

More than 100 previously undocumented Hebrew epitaphs (many of them fragmentary) dating from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century were uncovered in the ancient Jewish cemetery of Ẓefat (Safed) through the initiative of the Safed Religious Council. This is by far the largest corpus of ancient Hebrew inscriptions found in one site in Israel. Information gleaned from the engraved names of the deceased attests to a diverse and vibrant Jewish community that existed in the city during these centuries, according with accounts in other historical sources. The study of the epitaphs enriches our knowledge concerning, for example, the existence of certified physicians in Ẓefat and the presence of an unrecorded yeshiva (Talmudic Academy). Interestingly, most of the deceased were honored by the addition of formal titles, such as ‘Rabbi,’ for men, and ‘Dona,’ for women. This study describes in detail 28 of the most complete and legible epitaphs, attesting to a wide range of local and foreign Jewish ethnicities.

A unique Byzantine-period villa unearthed in Herẓliyya was identified as a luxurious country residential complex. Based on the inscription set in the mosaic floor of the triclinium, and the small finds, it is suggested to date the villa to the fifth century CE. The architectural style indicates that it belonged to a wealthy owner, perhaps a Samaritan, due to the presence of a miqweh and the absence of figurative images in the mosaic.

A building identified as a monastery, probably associated with the nearby Byzantine settlement at Ḥorbat Ḥur, was paved with four mosaic pavements containing four Greek inscriptions and one bilingual inscription in Greek and local Syriac. The inscription in the prayer hall indicates that the building was a monastery, probably founded in 575 CE. The monastery’s cemetery, located to its southwest, was well-preserved including four sealed graves of adult males, possibly monks. The mosaic art in the monastery deviates from the period’s trends, depicting figurative images and implicit crosses. This, and the location of the monastery, suggest that the monastery served a diversified Christian population.