Front Matter & Editorial

A unique assemblage of chalk vessels was unearthed in excavations at Har Ḥoma, five kilometers south of the Old City of Jerusalem. The assemblage, distinguished by the peculiar typology of its vessels, was found in a distinct and stratified fill containing pottery dating to the second half of the first century BCE, and it may be one of the earliest chalk-vessel assemblages uncovered to date. This paper presents a catalogue of the Har Ḥoma assemblage, followed by a brief overview of comparative early assemblages from sites in Jerusalem and Jericho, and a discussion of the archaeological and historical significance of the Har Ḥoma assemblage for the history and development of chalk vessels in the late Second Temple period.

Excavations at the southern tip of the ancient city of Jerusalem uncovered four pools from the Early Roman period: two, Silwan Pool and Birkat el-Ḥamra, within the city walls, and two smaller pools on the outskirts of the city. This paper provides archaeological data that supports the identification of Birkat el-Ḥamra with Solomon’s Pool and the Silwan Pool with the Siloam Pool, both of which are mentioned in contemporary historical sources. Furthermore, the function of the pools is discussed: the larger, Solomon’s Pool, seems to have been an open swimming pool, while the Siloam Pool was used for ceremonies and ritual immersion of pilgrims arriving at the city in the late Second Temple period.

From the time of Herod until the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE, there was a steady increase in the number of pilgrims in Jerusalem, reaching tens of thousands during each festival. Extensive supplies of ritually pure food prepared in pure cooking vessels were required for the pilgrims’ sacrificial meals in the Temple and throughout the city. A large quantity of cooking pots had to be supplied within a short period of time, and these vessels were like ‘disposable’ cooking pots as they had to be broken at the end of the pilgrimage. In this paper, I suggest identifying the Jerusalem International Convention Center site (JICC, also designated Binyene Ha-Umma), located on the city’s periphery, as the main production center for these cooking pots, the site expanding from the time of Herod onward to supply the needs of the thriving pilgrimage phenomenon. At the end of the pilgrimage events, some of these cooking pots were buried in an intentional manner in the city’s waste disposal site on the eastern slope of the City of David hill.

In the Byzantine period, and especially in the fifth–seventh centuries CE, a unique rural Jewish settlement developed at Susya, in Daroma (southern Hebron Hills). This uniqueness is expressed in various aspects of its material culture, including many ritual baths, which were found in almost every residence, in connection with agricultural production and even beneath the synagogue. This article presents data concerning the ritual baths, with special emphasis on ritual baths located near installations to produce oil and wine, and a ritual bath located in a subterranean space beneath the synagogue, offering a reexamination of the connection between purification and synagogues. The many ritual baths found at the site, long after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, seem to represent the aspiration of the members of the Jewish community at Susya to segregate themselves from the threatening Christian environment.

This article examines the assumptions and methodology underlying the correlation between stepped pools and stone vessels and purity laws and practices. It focuses on the way these are interpreted in light of Second Temple period and early rabbinic texts. The article further introduces more complex understandings of the emergence of ritual baths in the Hasmonean period as an expression of Jewish ethnic identity, and the flourishing of ritual baths and stone vessels in the first century CE, as an indication of social individualism. 

This article aims at determining the turning point in the adherence to the Jewish laws of purity in the Land of Israel, considering the situation before ‘the outburst of purity,’ its decline and final cessation. Four different stages were distinguished regarding the practice of purification: (1) prior to the appearance of the ritual bath (miqweh), before the Hasmonean Kingdom; (2) the period of ‘purity culture,’ when purity was widespread, becoming a central religious phenomenon; (3) individual purity; (4) the final decline of purity. Once the ‘purification water’ became unavailable, halakhic immersion was observed only by women, while symbolic purification continued in Hasidic communities, albeit without a formal halakhic status. This article further discusses the impact of the struggles between the different religious-social groups on the distribution of purity.

Jewish ritual immersion has been practiced among Jews for over two thousand years, from the late second century BCE until today. Although much has been written in recent years on various aspects of this ritual as it was performed in different periods, no study has surveyed the practice from the perspective of the longue durée—from its earliest manifestations until the modern era. The present study does just that; it examines the textual evidence and material remains that shed light on how the ritual was performed over the course of the past two millennia, exploring who practiced it in each period, and how it developed and changed over the centuries.

From the latter half of the first century BCE, an increased observance of Jewish purity laws is evidenced in Judea, focusing on Jerusalem and the Temple. This is further attested by the flourishing chalk-vessel industry, producing vessels for storage and table use, which according to Halakha did not contract impurity. This article is the final report of the chalk-quarry and vessel-production cave complex uncovered on the eastern slope of Mount Scopus, dated by pottery and coins to the first century CE, including a reconstruction of the technology for producing chalk vessels and quantification of vessel types. A few pottery vessels dating to the period between the revolts (70–132 CE) may indicate that chalk vessels continued to be produced in the cave after the First Jewish Revolt. Also included in this report are adjacent quarries, a winepress, water installations and tombs.