Century BCE Research Articles

The Aramaic Inscriptions from Mount Gerizim: Production, Identity, and Resistance

Abstract The Aramaic inscriptions from Hellenistic Mount Gerizim have been the object of intense scholarly interest since their publication almost 20 years ago. Research has particularly focused on the ways that the inscriptions can inform our understanding of the emergence of a Samaritan group identity which was distinct from that of the Jews. This article seeks to contribute to these discussions by addressing 2 interrelated issues. Firstly, drawing on research by other scholars, it tentatively suggests that these inscriptions can be divided into two groups which represent different phases of production. Secondly, it explores the reasons for the apparent introduction of a sense of place in the later inscriptions, considering the broader political and administrative history of the district of Samaria in the 2nd century BCE.

Metics and Freedmen: Conflicts of Social and Juridical Status in the Classical and Hellenistic Greek World

Abstract Ancient Greek city-states, or poleis, had a bewildering number of terms for people who lived in them. In Athens, freedmen seem to be assimilated juridically to the status of metics (resident aliens), although socially there were ways of both denigrating freedmen and obscuring the distinction between metic and freed. Elsewhere we can see that under some circumstances distinctions between metic and freed were made, but not in ways that point to strong juridical differences. By looking at the development of both statuses historically, I propose that the juridical assimilation occurred in Athens because metic status was created first, in an historical context in which distinctions between citizens and foreigners was crucial: an imperial power with a strong economy was attracting many foreigners to the mother city. This line drawn between citizens and foreigners was expressed through the law in both the fifth and fourth centuries bce. But the social perception of metics changed in the fourth century, for historical reasons deriving from the assimilation of metics and freed into one category. Other areas of the Greek world with both metics and freedmen may have assimilated the two statuses initially, but over time split them apart.

The Earliest Peripatetic Commentators in the First Century BCE and the Old Academy: A Neglected Antiochean Legacy

The Earliest Peripatetic Commentators in the First Century BCE and the Old Academy: A Neglected Antiochean Legacy

ΦΙΛΙΣΚΟΣ Ο ΜΑΧΙΜΟΣ (to the Interpretation of the Graffito from Myrmekion)

The article publishes an ostracon with a two-line graffito found during the excavations of the Myrmekion settlement, dating from the II-I centuries BCE. The inscription on the shard Φιλίσκος ὁ μάχι|μος, which is most likely a private one (marking?), can be interpreted in two ways. In the first case, ὁ μάχιμος is interpreted in the broad meaning of 'warrior, fighter', representing a playful nickname of Philiskos, in the second – in a highly specialized one, used as a designation for foreign mercenaries in the Egyptian army of the Ptolemaic era. The involvement of documents fixing the presence of immigrants from the Bosporus in the Ptolemaic army allows us to consider the second reading option as quite possible. The graffito in question gives an occasion to turn once again to the interpretation of the lines 1-2 of CIRB 450 proposed by the author: Δολης ὁ [[Ἡ]]γοῦμεν|oς, which was seriously criticized by V.P. Yailenko. The analysis of the argument of an opponent reveals its inconsistency, and allows you to draw an interesting parallel between Δολης ὁ [[Ἡ]]γοῦμενος and Φιλίσκος ὁ μάχιμος in the first understanding of the graffito.

The composition and provenance of Late Bronze Age vitreous materials from Kefalonia, Greece

In this study, we present the results of the analysis of Late Bronze Age (LBA) vitreous materials from three cemeteries on the island of Kefalonia, Greece (Mazarakata, Metaxata, and Kokkolata-Menegata). A multianalytical approach (EPMA, LA-ICP-MS, MC-ICP-MS [Sr-Nd]) was used to determine the composition and provenance of a group of 14 glass beads, a glass fragment, and a faience bead, all dating to the 14th-11th centuries BCE. Most of the beads were produced using a plant ash alkali with one having a mixed alkali composition. Identification of the colorants revealed that the blue glasses were colored using Cu, Co-Cu, or Co. Cobaltiferous alum from the Western Desert of Egypt imparted the blue color to the cobalt containing glasses. Trace element and isotopic analysis showed that all the relief plaques were made using imported Egyptian glass. The isotopic signature of one relief plaque, a triple rosette motif unique to Kefalonia (K13-4), suggests that there may be greater geological variation among the currently identified LBA Egyptian silica and alkali sources or possibly the use of new raw material sources in the region. Silica and plant ashes from different regions were exploited for the manufacture of two beads of Near Eastern origin. One bead (M18-3) was made from an alkali derived from plants likely growing in river valleys in zones MP-1 (northern Iraq) or MP-3 (southern Iraq) and silica from zone MP-2 (deserts in western Iraq/eastern Syria). The other bead was unique in composition characterized by high chromium, silica from northern Iraq (zone MP-1 N), and plant ash from the desert (zone MP-2). Similarities to raw materials used to produce glass at Alalakh may tentatively suggest a similar origin. A Mycenaean Group B faience bead (Co-Cu blue) included in the study was manufactured with an alkali and a source of cobalt that did not come from the Western Desert. Further identification of the alkali type and the source of the raw materials for this faience bead was not possible but similarities were found to Group B beads from Psara and Mesara in Greece.

A Solution to the Duration Problem of Daniel 12:11–12

The last few verses of the Hebrew Book of Daniel are famously difficult. Among other issues, they present a duration problem that has long seemed intractable. But they also contain a key that provides a solution to the problem. That key is signaled by the lack of parallelism between the Aramaic expression of Daniel 7:25b and the Hebrew expression of Daniel 12:7b. The solution it allows is both accessible and expected. In his closing verses, the author of the book of Daniel created a mechanism to convey his view of the proper cultic calendar. That view places him securely among the other writers of early Jewish apocalypse literature and among the authors of much of the sectarian and non-sectarian literature of the last three centuries BCE. This paper reviews the duration problem and its elements. It also examines and discusses the prior attempts to solve the problem. It then presents and discusses a solution that was made available in the author’s text but has not been previously recognized. Keywords: Apocalypse, The Book of Daniel, Calendar Controversy, Zadokite Calendar

Aristophanes’Frogsand reading culture in Athens

AbstractAristophanes’Frogs, first performed in 405 BCE, is an important milestone in Greek cultural history. The play is evidence of the beginnings of the establishment of a literary canon in Athens. The paper shows that the deaths of Euripides and Sophocles, in combination with the emergence of a reading culture, marked a break in the ways in which tragedy was perceived in Athens. It makes use of Jan Assmann’s concept of a transition from ritual to textual continuity to explore this capital step in the process of the canonization of ‘classical’ tragedy that would arrive at its fulfilment in the course of the fourth century BCE.

Antilogies in Ancient Athens: An Inventory and Appraisal

Antilogies, or pairs of symmetrically opposed speeches or arguments, were generally ignored by Plato, Isocrates, Aristotle, Cicero, and Diogenes Laertius, and, later, by Eduard Norden, Hermann Diels, and most modern scholars of antiquity. As a consequence, until the end of the twentieth century CE, antilogies have been ignored or, at best, treated as a minor literary device to be mentioned only with reference to individual writings. Nevertheless, during the second half of the fifth century, antilogies were a crucially important form of argument and persuasion in ‘sophistic’ thought, philosophy, historiography, comedy and tragedy, and other fields. In order to redress the historical neglect of the art of antilogy, this essay provides an inventory (doubtless incomplete) of some 30 antilogies composed by playwrights such as Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, historians such as Herodotus and Thucydides, and, most importantly, ‘sophists’ such as Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodicus and Antiphon (in addition to a few other writers of the same period). Building on this inventory, the second part of the essay seeks to establish identifying features of antilogy and assess its cultural significance in the Athenian context (in the second half of the fifth century BCE).

Tacitus’ Critique of Republicanism in His Germania

Abstract Although Tacitus began his writing career during the Principate at the end of the first century CE, the dominant approach to thinking about political life was still guided by Republicanism, a constellation of concepts from the mid-first century BCE Roman Republic. Republicanism held that there was only one type of monarchy and that it necessarily precluded libertas. Tacitus, who was living under different iterations of monopolistic power in the Principate, questions this tenet by examining various Germanic tribes. The Germania explores different types of monarchical arrangements, showing that monarchy is not a one-size-fits-all form and that there are significant political differences among the Germanic monarchies, some of which preserve libertas. In this examination, he highlights the inapplicability of Republicanism to a system as dynamic as the Principate.

In the Garden of Xerxes’ Palace

Abstract Esther 1 tells us that Xerxes had a special garden that he used for his weeklong celebration given on behalf of the residents of the citadel of Susa. The description of the pavement in verse 6 indicates that this provided a foundation for an opulent decorated garden, drawing upon the many cultures over which the Persian empire of the fifth century BCE ruled. The purpose of this study will be to examine the material composition of that pavement, in particular the bahaṭ, a noun often translated as “porphyry.” Following a review of proposals and analyses of this term, a new suggestion will apply both comparative philology, place name analysis, and the archaeology of Persian period northeastern Africa to argue an alternative understanding of the noun bahaṭ, “colorful granite.” The goal of this study will be to provide a more accurate perspective on the overall composition of the pavement and its garden.

A View to a Kilt – The Late Bronze Age Aegean Costume in the Context of Social and Cultural Changes

Abstract The connection between the Late Bronze Age (LBA) Aegean costumes and social, cultural and political changes is a rather unexplored topic. Probably the only exception are kilts, the connection of which to such changes on Crete during the 15th century BCE remains a commonly discussed topic in studies focusing on the LBA Aegean iconography and other data sets. However, many questions remain open and the topic is far from exhausted. In this paper I build on the work of various scholars who have studied LBA Aegean kilts in the context of social, political and cultural changes. I diachronically study the changes in the representations of kilts since the beginning of the LBA in the Aegean until the end of the Palatial period on the Greek Mainland (ca. 1700/1600–1200 BCE). Moreover, I examine the spatial distribution of specific kilt types in different periods. In cases of several different kilt types appearing in contemporary contexts in the same region, I explore whether similar costumes might have had different social connotations within the same communities. Moreover, I examine the influence of elite power structures and socio-political changes on the perception of kilts. However, I do not observe kilts as passive reflections of specific social, cultural and political contexts, but rather as material forms actively used in the creation of social realities.

Uncovering the mystery of Al(III) doping of ε‐Fe2O3 in the ancient high‐iron black‐brown glaze

AbstractThe world's first high‐fired glazes were made in China, probably in the 16th century BCE, based largely on siliceous clay and calcareous wood ash. By the Song Dynasty (960–1279), this technology was at its zenith and included blackware glazes that exhibited reddish‐brown single‐phase, micron‐scale ε‐Fe2O3 films on their surfaces. However, it has been difficult to synthesize and replicate this effect on a larger scale and to a higher degree of purity through modern synthetic methods. To fully understand this effect, a strategy that combines nanomaterial science methods and theoretical calculation has been developed to study the hare's fur glazes of Song Dynasty (960–1279) Jian wares. Through our study of the original Song glazes, we show that a high‐alumina clay was used in creating the glaze, which introduced Al into the ε‐Fe2O3 lattices, playing a crucial role in metastable crystal stabilization. The explanation of both Al‐doping from clay, combined with a new understanding of ancient but effective firing manipulation, may provide alternative approaches for materials synthesis.

Crisis in motion: the final days of Iron Age I Megiddo

The destruction of Iron I Megiddo in the early 10th century BCE was a momentous event in the history of the southern Levant. It marked an abrupt break in the long cultural development of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. Despite extensive field research, essential questions related to this event remain unanswered, especially regarding the processes that took place in the city immediately before its destruction. In this article, findings from recent excavations in the south-eastern sector of the mound, where a detailed Iron I stratigraphic sequence was explored, are reported. In addition, finds from two nearby areas previously excavated were re-evaluated, focusing mostly on contextual aspects of the osteological data. This study sheds light on the deterioration of the city in the decades preceding its final demise, and suggests that the event was caused by human agents rather than a natural disaster. It also hints that in its last days, Megiddo may have been besieged, which explains the peculiar re-appearance of intra-mural burials at the site. The case of Iron I Megiddo provides a high-resolution snapshot of actions taken by the inhabitants of a Near Eastern city on the eve of a major crisis.

The Accusations of Misanthropy Against the Jews in Antiquity

Abstract: This article argues that the origin of the accusation of misanthropy against the Jews is Greek—not Egyptian, as other scholars have thought—and reflects a Greek interpretative framework. The depiction of the Jewish way of life as misanthropic may go back to Hecataeus of Abdera, at the very beginning of the Hellenistic era, or it may have developed later, in the context of Ptolemaic Egypt or during the Judeo-Seleucid conflict of the second century BCE. Accusations of misanthropy are often found to appear during conflicts between Jews and Greeks—be it in the Seleucid kingdom, in Alexandria at the beginning of the first century CE, or in Syria during the first century. Moreover, several authors who depict the Jews as misanthropes share a Stoic or at least a universalist ideological background. Finally, in a Roman context, the accusation of misanthropy becomes associated with an aversion to the phenomenon of Judaization or conversion to Judaism.

The Accusations of Misanthropy Against the Jews in Antiquity

Abstract: This article argues that the origin of the accusation of misanthropy against the Jews is Greek—not Egyptian, as other scholars have thought—and reflects a Greek interpretative framework. The depiction of the Jewish way of life as misanthropic may go back to Hecataeus of Abdera, at the very beginning of the Hellenistic era, or it may have developed later, in the context of Ptolemaic Egypt or during the Judeo-Seleucid conflict of the second century BCE. Accusations of misanthropy are often found to appear during conflicts between Jews and Greeks—be it in the Seleucid kingdom, in Alexandria at the beginning of the first century CE, or in Syria during the first century. Moreover, several authors who depict the Jews as misanthropes share a Stoic or at least a universalist ideological background. Finally, in a Roman context, the accusation of misanthropy becomes associated with an aversion to the phenomenon of Judaization or conversion to Judaism.

Concealing Structural Innovation in Greek Architecture: Flat-Arch Construction in the Third-Century BCE Stoa on Samothrace

Abstract New fieldwork at the Sanctuary of the Great Gods on the Greek island of Samothrace has uncovered the remains of flat arches in the Doric frieze of the Stoa, a long portico built in the second quarter of the third century BCE. The keystone frieze was used prominently in large-scale building in Rome and exemplifies how Roman architecture creatively combined Greek trabeated aesthetics with the structural potential of the arch. The keystone frieze discovered on Samothrace, however, predates by one and a half centuries examples known in Italy. This article queries whether flat relieving arches were more widely deployed in Greek architecture but have gone overlooked. Other early Hellenistic buildings on Samothrace tested the limits of stone spans and set the stage for structural innovation. The Stoa reveals a decisive transition between the relieving devices based on cantilevers used in fifth- and fourth-century BCE Athens and the wider adoption of plate-bande construction in late Republican Rome.

Can Antisemitism Be Traced Back to Ancient Rome?

Abstract: The political context and the comments about Jews found in Latin literature indicate that no discrimination against them is attested to in Rome in the period between the second century BCE and the second century CE. The expulsions from the city applied also to other foreign groups, and the occasional negative comments made by Roman politicians, historians, and poets are not intrinsically different from those regarding other foreign population groups. Although Jewish separatism and cases of alleged attraction to Judaism aroused some hostility, this hostility never led to open conflict of the kind that transpired in other centers of the Mediterranean. However, some disparaging comments about the Jews did not disappear with time, as with other peoples slandered by the Romans, and were later redeployed forming the basis upon which anti-Judaism and antisemitism developed.

A NOTE CONCERNING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN “BUTCHER DING” AND “NOURISHING LIFE” IN THE TRADITIONAL ZHUANGZI COMMENTARIES

AbstractThe present discussion aims to help corroborate recent claims that the link between nourishing life 養生 and the Butcher Ding 庖丁 vignette from chapter 3 of the Zhuangzi 莊子 (c. fourth to third century bce) might be taken seriously, while at the same time falsifying recent claims that it is nonetheless uncommon for the connection to be taken seriously. This is achieved by supplying several pieces of textual evidence from leading figures from throughout the history of Zhuangzi studies who all explicitly make the connection and take it seriously. Beyond corroborating one claim and falsifying the other, the present discussion provides renderings of much hitherto untranslated work so as to prevent future scholars from underestimating just how common it is to take the link between the Butcher Ding story and nourishing life seriously.

Can Antisemitism Be Traced Back to Ancient Rome?

Abstract: The political context and the comments about Jews found in Latin literature indicate that no discrimination against them is attested to in Rome in the period between the second century BCE and the second century CE. The expulsions from the city applied also to other foreign groups, and the occasional negative comments made by Roman politicians, historians, and poets are not intrinsically different from those regarding other foreign population groups. Although Jewish separatism and cases of alleged attraction to Judaism aroused some hostility, this hostility never led to open conflict of the kind that transpired in other centers of the Mediterranean. However, some disparaging comments about the Jews did not disappear with time, as with other peoples slandered by the Romans, and were later redeployed forming the basis upon which anti-Judaism and antisemitism developed.

Phoenician Iron Smithing and Cult at Persian-Period Tel Akko

ABSTRACT Renewed excavations on Tel Akko have uncovered evidence of large-scale Phoenician industrial iron smithing during the Persian period (sixth–fourth centuries BCE). It is distinguished not only by the scale of production but also by the integration of ritual activities with iron smithing. This article presents evidence for an iron workers’ cult at Tel Akko—a largely unexplored aspect of Phoenician religion and cultic practices.