The Fall of Constantinople

Byzantine Constantinople fell today in 1453, after a siege that had begun on the 5th of April.

This map is believed to date from the 1420, and be based on a now lost original dedicated to Cardinal Orsini. It's not quite an image of the last days of the city, since a new set of walls was begun in 1431 in a final, failed attempt to stave off the Ottoman conquest as they had done in 1422. The perspective is dodgy, buildings have been omitted to highlight the Byzantine monuments ... but it's the oldest map of the city, and will have to do.

Map of Constantinople
from the Liber insularum archipelagi (The Book of the Islands of the Archipelago)by Cristoforo Buondelmonti (ca. 1380/90–post-1430)
Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice (Ms. cod. Marc. lat. xiv, 25=4595, p. 123): [image]

First Temple Bone Seal With the Name Shaul

Press release from the IAA reproduced in full:

A Bone Seal Engraved with the Name Shaul, from the Time of the First Temple, was Found in Jerusalem

Today (Tuesday) the Knesset presidium, headed by Speaker Reuben Rivlin, visited the City of David in Jerusalem. A Hebrew seal that dates to the time of the First Temple was displayed for the first time during the visit. The seal was found in an excavation that is being conducted in the Walls Around Jerusalem National Park, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and in cooperation with the Nature and Parks Authority, under the direction of Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the IAA, and underwritten by the ‘Ir David Foundation'.

The seal, which is made of bone, was found broken and is missing a piece from its upper right side. Two parallel lines divide the surface of the seal into two registers in which Hebrew letters are engraved:

לשאל

]ריהו

A period followed by a floral image or a tiny fruit appear at the end of the bottom name.

The name of the seal’s owner was completely preserved and it is written in the shortened form of the name שאול (Shaul). The name is known from both the Bible (Genesis 36:37; 1 Samuel 9:2; 1 Chronicles 4:24 and 6:9) and from other Hebrew seals.

According to Professor Reich, “This seal joins another Hebrew seal that was previously found and three Hebrew bullae (pieces of clay stamped with seal impressions) that were discovered nearby. These five items have great chronological importance regarding the study of the development of the use of seals. While the numerous bullae that were discovered in the adjacent rock-hewn pool were found together with pottery sherds from the end of the ninth and beginning of the eighth centuries BCE, they do not bear any Semitic letters. On the other hand, the five Hebrew epigraphic artifacts were recovered from the soil that was excavated outside the pool, which contained pottery sherds that date to the last part of the eighth century.

It seems that the development in the design of the seals occurred in Judah during the course of the eighth century BCE. At the same time as they engraved figures on the seal, at some point they also started to engrave them with the names of the seals’ owners. This was apparently when they started to identify the owner of the seal by his name rather than by some sort of graphic representation.”

It appears that the “office” which administered the correspondence and received the goods that were all sealed with bullae continued to exist and operate within a regular format even after a residential dwelling was constructed inside the same “rock-hewn pool” and the soil and the refuse that contained the many aforementioned bullae were trapped beneath its floor. This “office” continued to generate refuse that included bullae, which were opened and broken, as well as seals that were no longer used and were discarded into the heap of rubbish that continued to accumulate in the vicinity.

First Temple Inscribed Jar Handle

Press release from the IAA reproduced in full:

An Ancient Jar Handle Bearing the Hebrew Name Menachem was Uncovered in Ras el-‘Amud

Settlement remains dating to different phases of the Middle Canaanite period (2200-1900 BCE) and the last years of the First Temple period (eighth-seventh centuries BCE), including an inscription in ancient Hebrew script that mentions the name “Menachem”, were recently exposed in an archaeological excavation the Israel Antiquities Authority is conducting in the Ras el-‘Amud neighborhood, prior to the construction of a girls’ school by the Jerusalem municipality.

Among the remains from the First Temple period is a handle on which the Hebrew name (ל)מנחם , meaning (to) Menachem, is engraved. According to archaeologist Dr. Ron Beeri, the excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “This important find joins similar names that were found in archaeological excavations in the Ancient East and in Israel in particular. The names Menachem and Yinachem are expressions of condolence – possibly related to the death of family members”.

Dr. Beeri adds that such names already appeared earlier in the Canaanite period: the name Yinachem was found written on an Egyptian pottery sherd that dates to the eighteenth dynasty and the name Yinachemu is mentioned in the El-Amarna letters (from the fourteenth century BCE) as the name of an Egyptian governor on the Lebanese coast.

This is the first time that a handle with this name has been found in Jerusalem. The name Menachem is known from the corpus of Hebrew or Phoenician names and seals that bear this name were found in Israel, Assyria, Cyprus and Egypt. The name Menachem Ben Gadi is mentioned in the Bible. He reigned as king of Israel for ten years in Samaria and was one of the last kings of the Kingdom of Israel. According to Kings 2 Menachem Ben Gadi ascended the throne in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah, king of Judah.

Menachem, king of Israel, is also mentioned in the texts of the king of Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser III, as “Menachem of Samaria” and as one of the kings from whom he received tribute.

The Battle of Megiddo

Battles tend to be fought in areas that are strategically important, which is why some sites were the location of battle after battle throughout history - for example Chaeronea. Another example is Meggido.

Apparently the first battle of Meggido was fought on the 9th of May 1457 BC - it's the first 'well recorded' battle we have, its details carved into the walls at Karnak, so maybe the date is correct. There Thutmose III routed the Canaanites, and expanded the Egyptian Empire. (Incidentally, the revolt in the area had started under Hatshepsut, who is one of the first women warriors.

In 609 BC the Egyptians of Necho II marched into Judah; he routed Josiah's army at Meggido, and slew him.

In 1918 another battle at Meggido led to the British conquest of Palestine during WWI.

Not surprisingly Meggido is hotly tipped to be the site of the 'final battle' - Armageddon.

The Spartacus War: Crucifixion

Although it seems odd to begin blogging Barry Strauss' The Spartacus War with the end of Spartacus' life, I've decided to do so because it seems more timely. Thanks to the Kirk Douglas movie, this is what most people remember about him, and crucifixion - or rather false parallels between it and water-boarding - has been in the news.

Crucifixion was a painful and humiliating death, but it was never intended to be a form of torture used to extract information from enemies; the Romans preferred to bribe enemies rather than pretend to drown them. Water-boarding is torture, and if it needs to be done 193 times in the space of 30 days, it does not work to extract information.

Crucifixion was a form of punishment reserved almost entirely for slaves. Early in Spartacus' war, Gaius Verres' crucifixion of Publius Gavius, who had turned out to be a citizen, became a scandal thanks to Cicero; Verres had claimed the man was a slave that had run away to spy for Spartacus, but the truth will forever be lost in the mist of history and Verres' lies.

Although in the movie, Spartacus' supporters - run-away slaves - were the ones crucified, Strauss' brilliant history of the war reminded me that Spartacus himself also used crucifixion.

Towards the end of his war, trapped on the Melia Ridge by Crassus' army, according to Appian (B.C., 1.119):

Spartacus, who was expecting a reinforcement of horse from somewhere, no longer went into battle with his whole army, but harassed the besiegers by frequent sallies here and there. He fell upon them unexpectedly and continually, threw bundles of fagots into the ditch and set them on fire and made their labour difficult. He also crucified a Roman prisoner in the space between the two armies to show his own men what fate awaited them if they did not conquer. But when the Romans in the city heard of the siege they thought it would be disgraceful if this war against gladiators should be prolonged. Believing also that the work still to be done against Spartacus was great and severe they ordered up the army of Pompey, which had just arrived from Spain, as a reinforcement.

Spartacus' war is also sometimes called the Third Servile War, or third revolt of slaves during the late Republic; crucifixion had been used as a punishment during the earlier wars. Strauss feels that the 'warning' worked, and helped galvanize Spartacus' men at least in the short term. He also makes the point that it was an age of massacres. Crucifixion, because of the association with Jesus, has many connotations today - at the time it was simply another form of killing one's enemies.

The run away slaves were not crucified immediately following Spartacus' death in his last battle. Those that were famously crucified along the road from Capua to Rome were a smaller band of 6,000 men that had fled from the battle site in Lucania, and hidden out in the mountains. Crucifixion was an extra punishment - and disincentive to others - meted out by Crassus for his having had to hunt them down. The 6,000 were captured in the mountains, then marched down to Capua - where the rebellion had, as Strauss notes, started in the gladiatorial school. He also notes that 6,000 is, typically of ancient numbers, probably an approximation.

Barry Strauss' biography of Spartacus and history of the last Servile War makes for fascinating reading. I know that many readers of this blog are interested in crucifixion, and they will find a great deal more about it in his book.

Some of the other examples of ancient crucifixion Strauss mentions in passing include the following, making it clear that it was not an uncommon means of mass executions:

* Augustus crucifying 6,000 of Sextus Pompey's rowers in 36 BC, all slaves.

* Alexander Jannaeus, king of Judea, on the advice of Diogenes of Judea, crucified 800 Pharisees who had sided with the Seleucids during the civil war of 86 BC (the source is Josephus, and this dissertation has much more information about crucifixion, particularly in Israel)

* 2,000 crucified by Quintilius Varus in Judaea, as he put down a rebellion following Herod the Great's death (the source is Josephus).

* Countless accounts of crucifixion are recorded during the AD 70 siege of Jerusalem, with one source claiming that 500 were crucified a day.

* Alexander the Great crucified 2,000 at Tyre in 326 BC. Darius also used crucifixion, although there are some debates about the exact nature of these pre-Roman examples, which were akin to hanging someone by the arms, and could be done from a tree as well as on a cross).

Perhaps the most interesting observation Strauss makes is how expensive it would have been to crucify 6,000 men, and that Crassus, who presumably paid for this form of execution himself, was making a statement to future slaves that might be tempted to rebel, as well as staking his claim politically. It was a deterrent, and a dramatic visual one, reminding others not to try to follow in Spartacus' footsteps each time they went up and down the Roman road. It was capital punishment as an ostentatious display of Crassus' wealth and theatre on a grand scale. The choice of starting the miles of evenly spaced crucified rebels at Capua is unlikely to have been an accident.

Strauss covers most of the available information we have about crucifixion, including details we tend to forget, such as dog carrying away pieces of crucifixion victims because those considered lower in the social pecking order were crucified at ground level rather than a few feet above ground level. I'd also forgotten that the Romans, according to Pliny (N.H. 28.11.46), had kept relics from crucifixions - nails, rope, hair clippings - as a 'magic' charm to ward off malaria.

I highly recommend Barry Strauss' account of Spartacus:

The Spartacus War: The Revolt of the Gladiators - Amazon.co.uk
The Spartacus War - Amazon.com

New Early Hebrew Papyrus

The full IAA press release below:


A Rare 2,000 Year Old Hebrew Document Written on Papyrus was Seized in an Operation (6/5/09 )


A Rare 2,000 Year Old Hebrew Document Written on Papyrus was
Seized in an Operation

The director of the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery in the Israel Antiquities Authority: “It seems we are dealing with rare historic evidence regarding the Jewish people in their country from more than 2,000 years ago”.


A document thought to be an ancient text written on papyrus was seized yesterday (Tuesday) in an operation led by the Intelligence Office of the Zion Region and the Undercover Unit of the Border Police in Jerusalem, in cooperation with the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery and the Archaeological Staff Officer in the Civil Administration.

The document is written in ancient Hebrew script, which is characteristic of the Second Temple period and the first and second centuries CE. This style of the writing is primarily known from the Dead Sea scrolls and various inscriptions that occur on ossuaries and coffins. The document itself is written on papyrus. The papyrus is incomplete and was in all likelihood rolled up. It is apparent that pieces of it crumbled mainly along its bottom part. The holes along the left part of the document probably attest to the damage that was caused to it over time. The document measures 15 x 15 centimeters.

Fifteen lines of Hebrew text, written from right to left and one below the other, can be discerned in the document. In the upper line of the text one can clearly read the sentence “Year 4 to the destruction of Israel”. This is likely to be the year 74 CE – in the event the author of the document is referring to the year when the Second Temple was destroyed during the Great Revolt. Another possibility is the year 139 CE – in the event the author is referring to the time when the rural settlement in Judah was devastated at the end of the Bar Kokhba Revolt.

The name of a woman, “Miriam Barat Ya‘aqov”, is also legible in the document followed by a name that is likely to be that of the settlement where she resided: Misalev. This is probably the settlement Salabim. The name Miriam Bat Ya‘aqov is a common name in the Second Temple period. Also mentioned in the document are the names of other people and families, the names of a number of ancient settlements from the Second Temple period and legal wording which deals with the property of a widow and her relinquishment of it.

According to Amir Ganor, director of the Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery in the Israel Antiquities Authority, “Theoretically, based on the epigraphic style, the material the document is written on, the state of preservation and the text, which includes a historic date that can be deciphered, we are dealing with a document that appears to be ancient as defined by the Antiquities Law. Since this object was not discovered in a proper archaeological excavation, it still must undergo laboratory analyses in order to negate the possibility it is a modern forgery”. Ganor adds, “The document is very important from the standpoint of historical and national research. Until now almost no historic scrolls or documents from this period have been discovered in proper archaeological excavations. A historic document that can be definitely dated based on a reference to a historical event such as the ‘destruction of Israel’ has never been discovered. Much can be learned from this document about the names of people, their surnames names and the locations of settlements in Israel during this period. From an initial reading it seems that this document deals with the property of Miriam Bat Ya‘aqov, who was apparently a widow. The deciphering of the entire document by expert epigraphers and historians may shed light on how the people of the period managed their affairs and supplement our knowledge about their way of life. What we have here is rare historic evidence about the Jewish people in their country from more than 2,000 years ago, during the days following the destruction which sent the people of Israel into exile for a very long time – until the creation of the State of Israel”.


Photograph: The Scroll Conservation Laboratory, Israel Antiquities Authority.

The Veil: Marrakesh

Two years ago I noted that an increasing amount of women were wearing the veil in Istanbul.

A month ago I went to Marrakesh, having not been since May 2006. There were some notable changes in under three years.

In the past, women had often covered their hair, but very few had covered their faces. Now, many more women seem to chose to wear a veil that covers part of their faces. This photo shows the Niqāb - which does not cover the eyes.

There has also been a huge increase in tourism, and also in bad behavior.

Young men, behaving as they had seen actors behave in movies and television shows, and trying to re-create the scenes they saw without understanding the context. So a gang of young men will call out various things to a woman walking down the street, and become aggressive when they fail to 'pick her up'. Some also seem to behave in a 'ghetto gangster' manner clearly learnt from television rather than being indigenous to Moroccan culture.













In the past I felt comfortable visiting Marrakesh as a woman on my own - now Moroccan men grab my arm as I pass, and a suspiciously high number of men 'accidentally' slapped my arse with the palms of their hands as I walked by.

Some of this may have been 'learnt' from tourists, but ... most of it comes from television (there is now at least one satellite dish on every roof).

The 'bad' West is not the only thing coming through via televisions - so is Islamic preaching.

On the 6th of March Morocco cut ties with Iran, claiming that the Iranians were trying to push Shiism in Sunni Morocco - the number that 'converted' is not clear, but enough prominent people did for this to be called a "Shiite Tide".

The Pentagon has been worried for some time about the Wahhabi push in Mauritania and then up into Morocco proper through Western Sahara.

Throw in the Islamism in neighbouring Algeria, and preaching being piped in via satellite television ... and you have all the makings of a resurgence of Islamising in Morocco.

The women pictured here had a full face veil - not even her eyes showed - and wore gloves. Five years ago she would have been an extremely rare sight, but now women dressed this way are not unusual (though still uncommon). This full facial covering is known as a Boshiya, and tended to be limited to the Gulf (it covers more than the 'Shuttlecock' Burqa that is worn in Afghanistan, and which at least allows a hint of the eyes to be seen through it).

I find some of the behavior I see in London quite shocking - mass tourists on holiday in a Muslim country are probably even more shocking to the locals, and partly I feel that it's a reaction to increasing contact with the West.

Where it starts to bother me is when I see children wearing veils - which are not meant to be worn until puberty. With some children one has to factor in some leeway for looking younger than they are. Others are clearly five or six years old. They are not wearing veils for religious reasons. It could either be that they are trying to emulate their mothers, as children often do, or that they are being pressured to wear veils by their families.

Leviticus and Gay Marriage

Via Jim Davila's PaleoJudaica I came across this post on Belief Net against gay marriage citing - or rather not citing, but alluding to - a Midrash against it: Canaanites for Same-Sex Marriage by David Klinghoffer:

An ancient Biblical tradition, a midrash, relates that the Canaanites wrote marriage contracts between man and man and woman and woman, and that this was one reason the land "vomited" them up in favor of the Israelites who took their place.

It's one of those Biblical prohibitions that gets referred to, but doubted, because those who use it against homosexuality often forget to cite the source. So then those who are not against homosexuality claim it's a made up midrash ....

The main prohibitions on homosexuality in the Bible are Leviticus 18.22 and 20.13.

The midrash I believe that people are referring to is Sifra Acharei Mot, parashah 9:8.

It exists. It reflected the views of the Tannaim, wise men ... but ones who were writing in the century or so after the fall of the Temple. The Bible and midrashim say many things, and if we are to accept every word of them, then it would be ridiculous - they reflect the best learning of their day, but we have also moved on. Those who cite Leviticus against homosexuality often forget that the Bible is for slavery, for polygamy, against eating pork ...

When I'm having a bad day I watch episodes of The West Wing (I like to pretend everyone is that well intentioned). Jeb Bartlett put the case against relying too heavily on the Bible best in this scene:




I have no desire to be sold into slavery, so cannot see how anyone can justify condemning homosexuality using the same texts.

Update - Jim Davila has now added all the other suggestions for the midrashim here.