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A

Schools Publicationof the American

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Volume 47 Number 3

A Publication of the American Schools of Oriental Research

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September 1984

The coverphotographsof this issue of Biblical Archaeologisthighlight finds from Dura-Europos,Syria.Front cover: Cult relief from the Temple of Aphlad (see page 171).Back cover:Reconstructionof the niche of the mithraeum (see page 177).Inside cover, top: Excavationphotographof the west wall of the House of Assembly showing the Torahniche. Inside cover, bottom:Detail of the Exodus scene from the synagogue. These photographswere kindly supplied by the YaleUniversityArt Gallery.

Biblical Archaeolo A Publication of the American Schools of Oriental Research

Volume 47 Number 3

September 1984

Page 134

Page 147

Page 166

134 Long-distance Seafaring in the AncientNearEast

147 The Corinth that Saint Paul Saw

166 Dura-Europos:A Fortress of Syro-MesopotamianArt

RobertR. Stieglitz By providingfor increasedcommercial explorationand cultural exchange,the developmentof waterborne transportationprofoundlyaffectedthe world of the ancient Near East.

143 BAPortrait

SirHenryCreswicke Rawlinson:Pioneer Cuneiformist Philip G. Couture Although he never attendeda university,Rawlinson was able to decipherone of the most complicated ancient Near Easternscripts written with wedge-shapedcharactersBabyloniancuneiform.

JeromeMurphy-O'Connor,O.P Corinth in the first century A.D.was a wide-open boomtown at the crossroadsof the ancient world. Based on historical texts and extensive excavationsconductedat the site, this article recreatesthe city that was so importantto the Pauline mission.

Marie-HenrietteGates Concentratingon the synagogue, mithraeum, and Christian chapel of this ancient Syriancity, the author illustrates how the art and architectureof differentreligious faiths sharea common heritage.

183 BA Guide to Artifacts

160 The Museum Trail

ExcavatedIncense Burners

The Collections at YaleUniversity

MervynD. Fowler Many objectsthat have been identified as cultic incense burnerswere probablynothing of the kind. What are the reasons for and the implications of the misidentification?

Kenneth G. Hoglund The collections at Yaleoffervisitors variedand significant examples of the material culture of the ancient world.

DEPARTMENTS 131 133 187 192

Fromthe Editor'sDesk Introducingthe Authors Book Reviews Books Received

Biblical Archaeologist is published with the financial assistance of the Endowment for Biblical Research, Boston (formerlyZion Research Foundation), a nonsectarian foundation for the study of the Bible and the history of the Christian Church.

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SEPTEMBER 1984

129

Biblical

ASOR Awardsfor Study in the Middle East 1985-86

Archaeologist

Editor

Eric M. Meyers

ExecutiveEditor MartinWilcox AssociateEditor JamesW.Flanagan Assistant Editor

KarenS.Hoglund BookReviewEditor PeterB.Machinist EditorialAssistant MelanieArrowood

\I"Uj~"l

Idulq

Awardsofferopportunitiesfor humanistic study in the MiddleEast from prehistoricthroughIslamic times. Recipientsparticipatein the stimulating scholarlycommunity of the AlbrightInstitute in Jerusalem,the AmericanCenter of OrientalResearch in Amman, or the CyprusAmerican ArchaeologicalResearchInstitute in Nicosia.

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LindaHuff PromotionsDirector KennethG. Hoglund Subscriptions Manager HariniKumar EditorialCommittee LloydR.Bailey CaroleFontaine VolkmarFritz LawrenceT.Geraty DavidM. Gunn A. T.Kraabel BaruchA. Levine CarolL.Meyers JackSasson JohnWilkinson Biblical Archaeologist (ISSN 0006-0895) is publishedquarterly(March,June, September, December)bythe AmericanSchoolsof Oriental Research (ASOR),a nonprofit, nonsectarian educationalorganizationwith administrative officesin Philadelphia,PA.Subscriptionorders andall businesscorrespondence shouldbe sent to ASOR SubscriptionServices,4243 Spruce PA Annual 19104. Street,Philadelphia, subscription ratesare$16forindividualsand$25 forinstitutions.Thereis a specialannualrateof $10 for studentsandretirees.Currentsingle issues are$5 ($4forstudentsandretirees).Outsidethe U.S., U.S. possessions,and Canada,add $2 for annualsubscriptionsand$1 forsingleissues. Article proposals,manuscripts,and editorial correspondenceshould be sent to the ASOR PublicationsOffice, P.O.Box H.M., Duke Station, Durham,NC 27706. Unsolicited manuscriptsmustbeaccompaniedbya self-addressed, stampedenvelope.Foreigncontributorsshould furnishinternationalreplycoupons. shouldbeaddressed Advertisingcorrespondence to the AllanE.ShubertCompany,198Allendale Road, King of Prussia, PA 19406 (telephone: 215-265-0648). CompositionbyLiberatedTypes,Ltd.,Durham, NC. Printedby Fisher-Harrison Corporation, Durham,NC. Second-classpostagepaid at Philadelphia,PA 19104andadditionaloffices. Postmaster: Sendaddresschangesto ASORSubscription Services, 4243 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Copyright ? 1984 by the American Schools of Oriental Research.

The American Schools of Oriental Researchis offeringover$170,000in research,study,and travelgrantsfor the 1985-86 academicyearandthe summer of 1985.Awardsareavailableto undergraduates,graduatestudents, seminarians,and postdoctoralscholars.

Awardsinclude: 8,000-year-old humanstatuesat Ain Ghazal, Jordan. C National Geographic Society.

The American Schools of Oriental Research is dedicated to helping scholars and laymen alike discover the ancient Near East. As a member of ASOR, you can participate in this exciting work in archaeology, anthropology, history, literature, art, and biblical studies. Membership in ASOR includes * journals and monographs Sscholarships,fellowships, and travel grants * participation in field projects * lectures and special programs * annual membership meeting * tours of the Middle East and more Annual membership dues are determined by the subscription rates of the journals that the member wishes to receive, and begin at only $20. For details, write or phone American Schools of Oriental Research 4243 Spruce Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 Tel. (215) 222-4643

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National Endowmentforthe Humanities Post-DoctoralResearch Fellowships,stipends up to $25,000, in Jerusalemand Amman (pending receiptof funds from NEH) Annual Professorshipsin Jerusalem, Amman, and Nicosia, with roomand-boardbenefits KressFellowshipin Art History,in Jerusalem,with room-and-board benefits and stipend up to $2,700 BartonFellowshipin Jerusalem,with room-and-board benefits and stipend up to $2,000 Shell Fellowshipin Amman, with stipend up to $6,000 MesopotamianFellowship,with stipend up to $5,000 AlbrightFellowship,with stipendup to $5,000 EndowmentforBiblicalResearch (formerlyZRF)summer study and travelgrants,with stipends of $1,000 and $1,500 Honoraryawardsin Jerusalem, Amman, and Nicosia Application deadline for most awards is November 1984. For details and application information, write: ASOR Administrative Office 4243 Spruce Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 Tel. (215) 222-4643

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in the Mediterranean,and thus augmented the knowledge of the stars and their movements. The representationsof the earth as a sphere are alreadyknown in Hellenistic times in the form of the ancient astronomical instruments, the armillaryspheres.The origin of such ideas must be connected with the history of long-distanceseafaring and the development of celestial navigation in the ancient Near East, an art that pavedthe way for global navigation. The impact of the seafarers before 1200 B.C.E.is more difficult to assess. But we can be sure that the long-distanceventures undertaken in the BronzeAge resulted not only in the dissemination of people and materials but also in the diffusion of ideas. Unlike the ruins on land, remnants of early seafaringare rare,and it is only in our time that marine archaeologistshave been able to recoversome history from the seas. The epigraphicevidence and comparativedata from subsequent periods,however,suggest that the royalquest for wealth and luxury

142

playeda significant role in cultural diffusion via maritime interconnections. This process was evidently under way in the EarlyBronzeAge, and, although subject to interruptions, was a constant factorin shaping the civilizations of the ancient Near East. Bibliography Bass, G. F. 1972 The Earliest Seafarers in the Mediterranean and the Near East. Pp. 11-36 in A History of Seafaring Based on Underwater Archaeology, edited by G. E Bass. New York: Walker. Casson, L. 1971 Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Godley, A. D., translator 1963 Herodotus II. The Loeb Classical Library.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Graeve, M. C. de 1981 The Ships of the Ancient Near East. Leuwen: Department Orientalistieh. Howard-Carter, T. 1981 The Tangible Evidence for the Earliest Dilmun. Journal of Cuneiform Studies 33: 210-23. Johnstone, P. 1980 The Seacraft of Prehistory. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.


Jones, H. L., translator 1966 The Geography of Strabo VII. The Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Landstrom, B. 1970 Ships of the Pharaohs. Garden City: Doubleday. Oppenheim, A. L. 1954 The Seafaring Merchants of Ur. Journal of the American Oriental Society 74:6- 17. Rackham, H., translator 1942 Pliny: Natural History II. The Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Ranstrand, G., editor 1971 Pomponius Mela: Dc chorographia libri tres, una cum indice verborum. Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell. Rao, S. A. 1965 Shipping and Maritime Trade of the Indus People. Expedition 7: 30-37. Sasson, J. M. 1966 Canaanite Maritime Involvement in the Second Millennium .c. Journal of the American Oriental Society' 86: 123-38. Stieglitz, R. R. 1971 Maritime Activity in Ancient Israel. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Brandeis University. Thackeray, H. S. J.,and Marcus, R., translators 1966 Josephus: Jewish Antiquities V The Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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143

agent at Kandahar,Afghanistan.By 1843 he had become British consul in Baghdadand again turned his vigorous energies to making papersqueezes, or impressions, of the Bisitun inscription. This great and often dangeroustask was completed in 1847. We read with enchantment his own account of his daring and adventuresome efforts to copy this massive inscription chiselled in the wall of a seventeen-hundred-footcliff: ThisRockofBehistunis a veryremarkable natural object on the high roadbetween Ecbatanaand Babylon.... Thisrangeis rockyandabruptthroughout, but at the extremityit rises in height,and becomesa sheerprecipice.The altitudeI foundby tobe3,807feet,andtheheight carefultriangulation abovetheplainatwhichoccurthe tabletsofDarius [I]is perhaps500feet,orsometimesmore.. . Iused frequentlyto scaletherockthreeorfourtimesa day withoutthe aidof a ropeor a ladder,withoutany assistance,in fact,whatever.DuringmylatevisitsI havefoundit moreconvenient toascendanddescend the of where the track lies up a by help ropes precipitatecleft, and throw a plank over these chasmswherea falsestepin leapingacrosswould probablybe fatal. Concerning this great feat, a contemporaryAssyriologist, SirA. H. Layard,wrote, "Whilstwe areindebtedto his intrepidity and perseverancefor the transcriptof the record[atBisitun],we owe to his learningand researchthe translationof one of the most interestingfragmentsof ancient history." Rawlinsonbeganto publishthe text, his translationof Old Persian, and notes with unusual rapidity-in 1837, 1846, 1850, and 1853 (comparedto some recent scholars who have delayedfor many years beforepublishing their findings). Meanwhile, other scholars were also active in deciphering these wedge-shapedcharacterscalled cuneiform.Among the notablewereGeorgFriedrichGrotefend, a Frenchmannamed Eugene Burnouf, Christian Lassen, J. Oppert, EdwardHincks, and W. H. Fox Talbot. The Bisitun inscriptionswere trilingual,or in three languages, namely, Old Persian,Elamite,andBabylonian.Rawlinson had not realized that Grotefend had earlier (in 1802) deciphered Old Persian inscriptions from Persepolis. Linguist andphilologist Neils Westergaardfollowed with his solution to Elamite cuneiform in 1844.Astonishingly, in 1846 Hincks had simultaneously and quite independently of Rawlinson discovered the Old Persian vowel system. Sir Henry Rawlinson's great achievement in 1850/51 in solving Babylonian cuneiform becomes evident when one considers a single wedge-sign might stand for a syllable or for a whole word. The same sign might even represent several different syllables or several different words. To complicate matters more, several signs could be used to express the same word or name. Moreover, Old Persian cuneiform contained about fifty signs,1 while Babylonian

144


Above: Portraitof Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson reproducedby permission of the Tfusteesof the BritishMuseum. Below: The seal of Darius 1 (521-486 B.c.) illustrates the use of threelanguages (in this case, Old Persian,Elamite, and Babylonian)in cuneiform script.Ahl three say, "Iam Darius the king."

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was found to use over five hundred. At least twenty-six Babylonianvariantsof the name Xerxesare known! Because of Babyloniancuneiform'scomplex syllabic script, many skeptics doubted it could be deciphered. Recognizingthis, the RoyalAsiatic Society of GreatBritain and Irelandconducted perhaps one of the most unusual experiments in the history of Assyriology.It came about this way.In March 1857 the Society receivedfromTalbot, in a sealed packet, his translation of a cuneiform inscription of Tiglath-PileserI based on British Museum lithographs.Why sealed? Talbot'scoverletter explained:First, manypersonsrefusedto believethat Assyrian(Babylonian) could be read;second, it was well known that Sir Henry Rawlinson had announcedhis intention of publishinghis translationof this same inscription;and,third,if substantial agreementappearedbetween independentversions of the same inscription, then it could be provedtrue that Babyloniancould indeedbe read.Talbottherefore,without any communication with Rawlinson, was providinghis

independent translation before Rawlinson's was submitted. Talbot requested that the society not open his packet until afterRawlinson'stranslation. The council of the society discussed the proposal with Rawlinson, and upon his recommendation, invited two others, namely, Hincks and Oppert,to translate the same inscription independently.In addition,at Rawlinson'srequest,the council selected and appointed a committee of scholars to examine and report on the four sealed and independent translations. The prestigious committee was made up of Dr. Whewell, Sir GardnerWilkinson, George Grote, W, Cureton, and H. H. Wilson. Their conclusion? The resemblance was so close-no doubt could be raisedBabyloniancuneiformhadbeen deciphered!The following excerptfrom their translations illustrates this. Rawlinson ThenI wenton to the countryof Comukha,which wasdisobedientandwithheldthe tributeandofferingsdueto Ashurmylord. Talbot

I then advancedagainstKummikhi,a landof the

the EastIndiaCompany.Also in 1858he was appointedto the Council of India, and again in 1868, serving until his death.He was elected to Parliamenta second time in 1865. During his political careerhe often provokedmuch controversyby his outspoken views regardingthe dangersof Russia in the Near East. His knowledge of the Near East, naturalsagacity,high intellectual powers,anda commanding personalinfluence andreputationgavemuch weight to his counsels. Although much of his latter yearswas spent in English politics, he never ceased devoting time and energy to Assyriology.In 1866 he preparedfor the British Museum his noteworthy Miscellaneous

unbelieverswho had refusedto paytaxes andtribute

untoAshur,mylord.

Inscriptions of

Assyria. He made furthercontributions as Trusteeof the BritishMuseum from 1875to 1895andas lifetime director for the RoyalAsiatic Society,servingas its presidentfrom 1878 to 1881. Although he was somewhat imperious and abrupt with strangers,with his friends he was largeheartedand generous. Sir Henry Rawlinson died in Englandin 1895, thus bringing to an end a journey begun by him as a teenager,a journeythat helped pavethe way for others interested in travelingto past millennia. Note

'J.H. Breastedsaysthere are fortysigns (AncientTimes,

Hincks

At that time I went to a disaffectedpartof Cummukh,whichhaswithheldthetributebyweightand talebelongingto Assur,mylord. Oppert

InthesedaysIwentto thepeopleofDummukh,the enemywhoowedtributesandgiftsto the godAsur, mylord. With that crucial test, the year 1857 is generally consideredthe yearfordecipheringBabyloniancuneiform.Sir Henry Rawlinson, howevermust be given credit forgoing beyondhis predecessors.J.Oppertsaid, "Rawlinsonwas a man of genius, quick, of rarequalities, he had the gift of being exact."His achievementwas nothing less than a tour de force.Thus, the unlocking of cuneiformby Rawlinson, aidedby important contributions by his predecessorsand contemporaries, is one of the supreme achievements of nineteenth-century scholarship. It has been said the deciphering of various cuneiform scripts has made it possible to know more about life in the first and second millennium B.C.E. than in fifth- or sixth-century England! Along with his tireless research, Rawlinson continued his active military and political duties. He spent 1849 and 1850 in England but in 1851 he was appointed consulgeneral in Baghdad with the military rank of lieutenantcolonel. This gave him opportunity to carry on excavations initiated by A. H. Layard. Rawlinson returned again to England in 1856 and was subsequently knighted, elected to Parliament in 1858, and appointed a crown director of

page 193), whereas The New Bible Dictionary, edited by J. D.

Douglas,givestwofigures:fifty-one(onpage971)andforty-six(on

page 1351). Suggestions for Further Reading Breasted,J.H. 1916 Ancient Times:A Historyof the EarlyWorld.New York:Ginn and Company.Pp. 183-94. 1938 The Conquestof Civilization.New York:The LiteraryGuildof America,Inc. Pp.222-26. Deuel, L. 1961 The 7Teasuresof Time. Cleveland and New York:The World PublishingCompany. Finegan,J. 1949 Lightfromthe Ancient Past,firstedition. Princeton:Princeton University Press.Pp. 197. Lane-Poole,S. 1896 Rawlinson,Sir Henry Creswicke.Pp.326-31 in Dictionary of volume47, editedbyS.Lee.New York:MacNationalBiography, millan and Company. Layard,A. H. 1849 Nineveh and its Remains, volume 2. Pp. 134-51. Oppenheim,A. L. 1962 Assyria and Babylonia.Pp. 274-76 in The Interpreter'sDictionary of the Bible, volume 1. New York and Nashville: AbingdonPress. Price,I. M. 1909 The Monuments and the Old Testament. Philadelphia: AmericanBaptistPublication Society.Pp. 56-60. Wilson, H. H. 1861 The Journalof the RoyalAsiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland,volume 18. Pp. 150-219. Wiseman,D. J. 1962 Writing.Pp. 1341-51 in TheNew Bible Dictionary,editedby J. D. Douglas. GrandRapids,MI:Wm. B. EerdmansPublishing Company.


145

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1984 ARCHAEOLOGIST/SEPTEMBER BIBLICAL

Left:Mosaicportraitof St. Paul from the Baptistryof the Arians in Ravenna,Italy (A. . 493- 526).Below: Ruinsof the Templeof Octavia with the Acrocorinthvisible in the background.

henPaul decided to

The that

Saint

leave Athens for Corinth, several factors were undoubtedly involved in the decision. Certainly he could expect a better hearing in Corinth. Athens was an old city, which lived in and from its past. As the center of learning and art, it attracted benefactions from wealthy patrons,and its glorious history, reflected in magnificent monuments, made it a magnet for tourists, but it was no longer either productiveor creative (Geagan1979:378 - 89). Essentially a university town, it viewed new ideas with reserve,and its rigid hierarchyhad the weight of a great tradition behind it. Corinth, by contrast, was a wide-open boomtown. San Francisco in the days of the gold rush is perBYJEROME MURPHY-O'CoNNoR haps the most illuminating parallel.

Corinth Paul Saw

Sacked by the Romans in 146 B.c., it

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGISTISEPTEMBER 1984

147

to Acts 18,Paul'sfirstvisit to Corinthis datedby the referAccording ence in the secondverseto the edictof Claudiusandthe referencein theaction thetwelfthverseto theproconsulL.IuniusGallio.Traditionally, of Claudiusagainstthe Jewsof Romehas been assignedto A.D.49, but morerecentresearchhasmadeit virtuallycertainthatthe edictshouldbe datedto A.D.41 (Liidemann 1980:183- 95)andthatit wasof suchlocalsignificancethatit hadnothingto dowith the moveto Corinthof Aquilaand Priscilla,whom Paul encounteredshortly after their arrival(MurphyO'Connor1982:87-91). Gallio'sone-yeartermof officemust havefallenbetweenA.D.50 and 52, andthe balanceof probabilityhas led most scholarsto optforthe second year (A.D.51- 52). We know from his brother Seneca (Ad Lucilium

EpistulaeMorales,epistle104,page1;Gummere1962:191)thatGalliodid not servehis full term,andin myviewhe stayedin AchaeaonlyfromJune 1983:147).At the very to the end of OctoberA.D.51 (Murphy-O'Connor latest,therefore,Paulmust havecometo Corinthin the springof A.D.51, butI am personallyinclinedto placehis arrivalin the autumnof the previousyear.Thelengthofhis sojournis givenaseighteenmonths(Acts18:11), a figurethat is eminentlyplausibleif we take into accountthe time requiredto foundandstabilizethe volatileCorinthiancommunityandthe limits imposedon travelbywinterconditions. JeromeMurphy-O'Connor flowery language,the encomium of Aelius Aristides is not without truth: the new settlers were freedmen.' It receivesall cities andsendsthem Even though they had to start by roboffagainandis a commonrefugefor their and enterprise bing graves, all,likeakindofrouteorpassagefor the had colambition made driving all mankind,no matterwhereone center commercial a ony thriving would travel,and it is a common within two generations. By the all Greeks,indeed, as it for city middle of the first century A.D. some a kind of metropolis and were, families enjoyedinherited wealth, motherin this respect.3 but even they could recollect how The list of those who freand when it had been won. Corinth quented Corinth is also revealing. was still a city of self-made men. It to Favorinus,they were According the lived for future, and new ideas or pilgrims or envoys or "traders were guaranteeda hearing because The first undertravellers."4 profit could be found in the most un- passing the lines commercial importance of expected places. Athens was compla- the as the third city, just highlights cent. Corinth questioned. is the the influence that political Another factor in Paul'sdecision of economic concomitant power. to go to Corinth would surely have the reof evokes Mention pilgrims been its location. Straboput it very of Corinth for the sponsibility succinctly: Isthmian Games, the second in rank It is situatedon the Isthmusandis the of four great Panhellenic festimasterof two harbours,of which in the spring every celebrated vals, leads straight the one [Cenchreae] two it drew crowdsnot only to toAsia,andthe other[Lechaeum] years; from but from all the free Greece Italy.2 Greek cities of the east. The passing Since the city also controlled the travelleris well illustrated by land route from the Peloponnese, it Philostratus: was one of the great crossroadsof set sail [from the ancient world. Despite its Apollonius ... had been refoundedby Julius Caesar as a colony in 44 B.c. The majority of

148

1984 BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGIST/SEPTEMBER

in his companyforAchaea, Smyrna] and havinglandedat Corinthand worshippedthe Sunaboutmidday, with his usual rites, embarkedin the eveningforSicilyandItaly.s The walk across the Isthmus was infinitely preferableto the long, dangerous voyagearoundthe Peloponnes. Straboreportsthe proverb, "Whenyou double [Cape]Maleae, forget your home."6 The situation of Corinth, therefore, offeredPaul the possibility of influencing people from many different areas.The intense traffic in all directions assured him of superb communications. He could not have chosen a more suitable base for his move into Europe.But it took courage to make the choice. Both Strabo and Horace recordthe proverbial wisdom that it was not for every man to voyageto Corinth;7the original meaning of this was that only the tough survived there. From Athens to Corinth In orderto get from Athens to Corinth Paul had two options: a boat going from Piraeus via Salamis to Schoenus or Cenchreae, or the land route, which meant an overnight stop at Megara.Sailings were frequent but could be delayedby a multitude of factors rangingfrom adversewinds to unfavorableomens. The land route, at this time, was notorious for its brigands,and the dangerof the 9-kilometer section known as the Sceironian Rocks is graphically deicribed by Strabo: Theyleaveno roomfora roadalong the sea,but the roadfromthe Isthmus to Megaraand Attica passes abovethem. However,the roadapproachesso close to the rocksthat in manyplacesit passesalongthe edge of precipices, because the mountainsituatedabovethem is both lofty and impracticablefor roads.8 This was one of the many places where Paul could have experienced "dangerfrom robbers .... dangerin the wilderness"(2 Corinthians 11:26).

If Paul followed the land route, he would have crossed the diolkos at Schoenus. This was a pavedroad joining the Corinthian and Saronic gulfs in default of a canal. The road was first laid in the sixth century B.C.; about 460 meters of the road have been excavatedon the west side of the Isthmus. The width varies from 3.4 to 6 meters, but the channels cut in the paving to guide the wheels of the movable wooden platform (the holkos) are only 1.5 meters apart, showing that only light boats, not cargo ships, could be transported from one sea to the other (Wiseman 1978: 45). Earthenroads on either side were used by pack animals. The jostling, shouting multitude of laborersalong this road would have been Paul'sfirst concrete perception of Corinth'sreason for being. The volume of trade crossing the Isthmus was immense. In addition to providingemployment, it generated the transit taxes that constituted the major source of revenue for the city. Once Paul had pushed through the throng he was in a different world. The road led straight to Isthmia, whose temple dedicated to Poseidon was the focal point of the Isthmian Games. These were celebrated in the spring of A.D. 51, when it would have been possible for Paul to attend in person. Certainly, his skill would have been in demand, for those who came from afarwere housed in tents and all the shopkeepers of Corinth had their booths there. The event undoubtedly influenced his thinking in 1 Corinthians 9:24 - 27 (Broneer1962). From Isthmia the road ran southwest to Cromna, where it was joined by the main road from Cenchreae, then through modern Examilia, and finally entered the city via the Cenchreaean or Isthmian gates (Wiseman 1978: 64). On the 10-kilometer uphill walk through a series of little plateaus the traveller's eye is held by the steep-sided height of Acrocorinth. This rugged crag of

Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Everyathlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air;but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:24 - 27 graylimestone 574 meters high was from time immemorial the citadel of Corinth and, as Paul approached the city, he would have seen from afar the temples lining the roadto the summit. The City Walls WerePaul to have climbed Acrocorinth, what would he have seen? The answer is providedby Strabo,who did just that, either in 44 B.C. or on

his second visit in 29 B.C. The city [lies]in a level,trapeziumshapedplaceclose to the verybase of Acrocorinthus. Now the circuit

of the city itselfusedto be as much as fortystadia,andall of it thatwas unprotectedby the mountainwas enclosed by a wall; and even the mountainitself,theAcrocorinthus, used to be comprehendedwithin the circuit of this wall wherever wall-buildingwas possible, and when I went up the mountainthe ruins of the encirclingwall were plainly visible. And so the whole perimeter amounted to about eighty-fivestadia.9 The length of the city wall is closer to 10 kilometers and it enclosed an area of about 4 squarekilometers. This unit was linked to the port of


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the days of its glory it could affordto follow the best defensive line, the edge of the plateau, even though it was far outside the built-up area. Not only did this display confidence in the development of the city but in times of dangerthe extra space served to house the people and flocks of the agriculturalhinterland that fed Corinth. In fact, the city never expanded to fill the walled area.In the first century A.D. Dio Chrysostom could describe the amphitheater,which is inside its walls, as being "outsidethe city in a glen."10 Craneum Pausanias, who wrote a guidebook to Corinth just over a century after Paul's sojourn, also entered the city by the Cenchreaean Gate. As one goes up to Corinth are tombs, and by the gate is buried Diogenes of Sinope,whom the Greeks surname the Dog. Beforethe city is a grove of cypresses called Craneum. Here are a precinct of Bellerophontes, a temple of Aphrodite Melaenis andthe graveof Lais,upon which is set a lioness holding a ram in her fore-paw." The phrase "before the city" once

again indicates a spacious, open area between the gate and the buildings

aroundthe agora. Craneum was the most desirable quarterof Corinth. In the

The city of Corinth.

Lechaeumby the long walls 2.5 kilometers in length and 1.2 kilometers apart. It is understandablewhy Strabo should have seen the walls in a ruined state. They had been torn down by Mummius in 146 B.c., and

the first settlers did not have the financial resources to rebuild them. Their condition had deteriorated even further in Paul'sday.Peace had been firmly established throughout the whole region for two centuries, and so there was no incentive to invest the massive sums that rebuild-

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fourth century B.C.Theophrastus commented on its "crisp, clean air,"12 and in the first century A.D. Dio Chrysostom proclaimed it more beautiful than Ecbatana or Babylon.13 The same complimentary at-

ing required.On the contrary,the ruins were exploited as a quarryof cut stone. Apparentlyonly the gates were preservedas a symbolic statetitude is reflected in what Plutarch ment of the extent of the city, the wrote to console an exile: greatest in all Greece. That you do not live in Sardis is As Paul passed through the Cennothing; neither do all Athenians chreaeanGate he would surely have live in Collytus, all Corinthians in stood still in amazement. To one acCraneion [Craneum],all Laconians in Pitane.14 customed to eastern cities, such as walled whose or It was here in the wooded gentle Jerusalem Antioch, areaswere always filled to overflow- slopes at the base of Acrocorinth that the citizens came to take their ing, the vast open spaces within the wall would have been striking. ease, and peddlers hawked snacks of bread and fruit.'s When Corinth erected the walls in


Since no excavations have taken place in this area, it is impossible to say whether the edifices mentioned by Pausanias existed at the time of Paul'svisit. He could not have been long in Corinth, however,without hearing the legend of Bellerophon(tes) and his winged horse Pegasus, and the stories about Diogenes of Sinope. This fourth-centuryB.C. philosopher advocatedself-mastery through satisfaction of only minimal needs. He lived in a barrelin Craneum in orderto illustrate the extent to which he had succeeded in dominating his own needs. He raised biting reparteeto the level of moral epigram, and many legends grew up around his supposed encounter with Alexander the Great. When the most powerful man in the world inquired if there was anything he could do for him, Diogenes replied that he only requiredhim to move a little to one side, because he was blocking the rays of the sun. Although Paul would not have approvedof the form of Diogenes' existential witness, and would have repudiatedhis exaltation of the individual, the Apostle could well have identified with the reason why the philosopher had come to Corinth: Justasthe goodphysicianshouldgo andofferhis serviceswherethe sick are most numerous, so said he [Diogenes],the man of wisdom should take up his abode where foolsarethickestin orderto convict them of their folly and reprove them. 16

Did the Apostle also preach to the crowds in Craneum (compareActs 17:17b)?Or did he go there sometimes to escape from the manifold worries of his ministry? There certainly must have been moments, in his dark workshop, when he thought longingly of the clean air and the quiet beneath the trees.

Acrocorinth Like all the inhabitants, Paul would have been perpetually conscious of the craggy mass of Acrocorinth

Historical

Authors

Philostratus:FlaviusPhilostratus was born on the island of Lemnos about A.D. 170, and studied in Athens before going on to Rome where the wife of the emperor Septimus Severus (A.D.193-211) commissioned him to write a life of Apollonius of Tyana,an ascetic wanderingteacher with miraculous powers,who was active in the second half of the first-century A.D. It is unlikely, however,that Philostratus had any genuine information on first-centuryCorinth, in which he sets part of the ministry of Apollonius. Strabo:Born in Amasia in Pontus in 64 or 63 B.c., Strabowas of mixed Greek and Asiatic blood. Inheritedwealth enabled him to dedicate his life to scholarship and travel.He passed through Corinth on his way to Rome in 44 B.c., but it is not clear whether the first Roman colonists had alreadyarrivedat that moment. He also visited Corinth during a later journey to Rome in 29 B.c. His Geography was completed in 7 B.c. and slightly revised about A.D. 18, some three or four years beforehis death.

Dio Chrysostom:Dio Cocceianus Chrysostomus was born in approximately A.D.40 at Prusa in Bithynia. He arrivedin Rome duringthe reign of Vespasian(A.D.69 - 79) and adoptedthe Stoic-Cynicphilosophy.He was banished from Italy and his homeland in A.D.82, and he wandered about the empire for fourteen years.His exile ended in A.D.96, and thereafter, supportedby the emperorTrajan(A.D.98-117), he devotedhimself to propagatinghis philosophy in the form of discourses. He probablydied about A.D. 120.

Favorinus:Favorinus,who lived from approximatelyA.D.80 tOA.D.150, was a student of Dio Chrysostom and a teacher of Herod the Athenian, one of the great second-century-A.D. benefactorsof Corinth. A friend of Plutarch, he may have visited Corinth when exiled from Rome to the island of Chios. Plutarch:Plutarch came from a wealthy family of Chaeroneia,a small town some 65 kilometers north of Corinth. He was born in A.D.46 or 47. His studies at the Platonic Academyin Athens (aroundA.D.66) made him one of the best educated men of his age and his literary output was immense. His writings contain two specific referencesto visits to Corinth, but it's likely there were other visits. Thus he was an eye-witness of the first-centurycity. Pausanias:All that is known about Pausaniasis the little that can be inferredfrom occasional remarksin his Description of Greece. He was apparentlya native of western Asia Minor, and may have turned to medicine after being forced to abandonhis study of Homer. The fifth volume of his book, which includes ten volumes in all, was being written in A.D.174, and the work was finished, or the author had died, before A.D. 180. His discussion of Corinth is found in the second book. He is believed to have visited the city not long after A.D.165. Antipater of Sidon:Nothing is known about this Greek epigrammatist beyond the fact that he flourished about 130 B.c. Aelius Aristides:Bornat Hadrianiin Mysia in A.D.117,Publius Aelius Aristides used his family wealth to acquirethe best rhetorical training available.His careeras an oratorwas interruptedby an illness in A.D.142, and he spent severalyears recovering.He began to travel in A.D.153 and spent time in Greece and Rome but was stricken againwhen smallpox swept the empire in A.D.165. His public appearancesthereafterwere fewer and he died in A.D. 180. continued on page 152


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Alciphron:Alciphron was so insignificant a figure that he is not mentioned by any ancient author.His writings suggest that he borrowedfrom Lucian (who lived from approximatelyA.D.120 tOA.D. 180)and from the Greek comedies of the fourth century B.C.Thus he must be placed towardsthe end of the second century A.D. at the earliest. Philo: Bornin Alexandriaaround30 B.C., Philo spent all his life in his native city. The greaterpart of his careerwas devoted to an exposition of the Pentateuch in terms designed to make it both comprehensible and palatableto those broughtup on Greek philosophy.Eventuallyhe became head of the Jewish community in Alexandria,and headed the delegation of AlexandrianJewsto Rome in A.D.39-41 when Gaius was emperor.Philo died in A.D.45. Cicero:Born in 106 B.c., MarcusTullius Cicero had established himself as one of the leading lawyers in Rome soon after 80 B.C.He also playeda prominent role in public life, becoming praetorin 66 B.c., consul in 63 B.C., and proconsul of Cilicia in 51 B.C.Although he had no part in the assassination of Caesar,he subsequently approvedof the action and gave a series of speeches that stiffened the Senate'sopposition to Mark Antony, thereby incurringhis undying hatred.When Octavian assumed control in Rome in 43 B.c., he needed Antony's supportand so sacrificed Cicero, who was executed. Cicero published voluminously, and his precision and clarity ensured that his formulations became the model of Latin style for over a thousand years. Seneca:Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the son of Seneca the elder, was born in Corduba(present-dayC6rdoba,Spain)around3 B.c.He went to Rome as a youth and studied rhetoric and philosophy and soon became a wellknown orator.He was exiled by Claudius in A.D.41, but when Claudius marriedAgrippinaII in A.D.49, she urgedthat Seneca be recalled to tutor her son by a previous marriage,Nero. Along with AfraniusBurrus,the head of the PraetorianGuard,Seneca virtually ruled Rome in the first years after Nero became emperor.The ascendancy of Poppaea,however, who was first the emperor'smistress and then his wife, resulted in the deaths of Agrippinaand then Burrusand the retirement of Seneca. Finally,Seneca was forced to commit suicide in A.D.65. In addition to his public life, Seneca was a Stoic philosopher and writer. Among his works are the Epistolae Morales ad Lucilium, essays on ethics written for his friend Lucilius Junior. Theophrastus:Theophrastus,who lived from around372 to 287 B.c.,was a Greek philosopher who succeeded Aristotle as head of the peripatetics. He wrote on many subjects,but his works on plants areperhapsthe most important of his technical writings. Horace:Quintus Horatius Flaccus, the master Latin poet and satirist, was born at Venusia in Apulia in 65 B.c.He studied at Rome and Athens and later fought at Philippi with Brutus and the republicansin 42 B.c. Upon returningto Rome, the poet Virgil introduced him to Maecenas, who became his friend and benefactorand who gavehim the Sabine Farm,where, except for visits to Rome, he lived the rest of his life. His first book of epistles appearedaround20 B.c. Horace died in 8 B.c. Apuleius: Bornof wealthy parents in A.D.123 at Madaurusin Africa, Apuleius was educated first in Carthage,later at Athens, and finally at Rome. He traveledmuch but eventually returnedto Carthagewhere he was appointedchief priest of the province. A poet, philosopher,and rhetorician, he wrote the only Latinnovel that has entirely survived (The Golden Ass). Most of this materialhas been excerptedfrom the author'sbook St. Paul'sCorinth:Textsand Archaeology(Wilmington,DE:Michael Glazier, 1983).

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towering abovethe city. The 513-meter climb from the agora would have brought him past a series of small temples, of which only that dedicated to Demeter and Kor6has been exacavated.It had been brought back into use early in the history of the colony and may have been one of the places where his converts participatedin pagan cult-meals (1 Corinthians 10: 14- 21);the meals were apparently served in tents. Both Straboand Pausaniasmention a small temple of Aphrodite on the summit,17so it certainly existed for Paul to inspect. It is frequently represented on coins of the Imperial age, but in contradictorystyles. One block of stone discoveredduringthe excavations suggests that it was in fact Doric prostyle. It contained a statue of Aphrodite armed;'8the coins consistently show her naked to the waist holding the shield of Ares as a mirror (Frazer1913:31). The positioning of this temple highlights the association of Corinth with the goddess of love. Already in the fifth century B.C. Euripidescalled it "the sacredhillIts reputation as city of Aphrodite."19 sex city par excellence, however,was the result of Athenian propagandaand Strabo'stale of a thousand temple prostitutes20has been shown to be completely false (Conzelmann 1967).He was speaking of the pre-146B.c.city and simply misunderstood his sources. There was never any temple of Aphrodite in Corinth capableof containing that number. From the point of view of sex, Corinth was no better or worse than any other Mediterranean port-city. Also on Acrocorinth were the spring of Upper Peirene and a building dedicated to Sisyphus that was so ruined that Strabo could not work out whether it was a palace or a temple.2' It is not even mentioned by Pausanias, so it is unlikely to have been rebuilt in the Roman period.

No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be partnerswith demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lordand the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lordand the table of demons. Shall we provokethe Lordto jealousy? Are we strongerthan he? I Corinthians 10:20 - 22 Sisyphus, described by Homer as the "craftiestof men"22was considered one of the legendarykings of Corinth.23He was one of the dominant mythological associations of the city. Antipater of Sidon could call it "thetown of Sisyphus."24For many of Paul'scontemporaries,he would have functioned as a very powerful symbol. The futility of his task in Hades-to push a rock up a hill only to have it ever slip from his hands near the top so that he had to begin all over again- focused the sense of interior emptiness that many Greeks experienced (Dodds 1965).The traditional certitudes seemed to be no more than illusions; anxiety was a pervasivecondition, and many faced the future without faith or hope. The temporary success of the crafty trickster was the most that could be envisioned. Many of the converts that Paul in fact made at Corinth would have found it easy to identify with Sisyphus. It has been shown that most manifested conflicting signs of status: wealthy but Jewish,head of a large household but a woman, widely travelledbut a manual laborer, and so on (Meeks 1983: 51- 73). A feeling of frustrationwas inevitable; what was the point of a life in which the full exploitation of one's talents was blocked by circumstances outside one's control? We are not far from the sentiment of the absurdity of human existence that the Sisyphus myth articulated. The Upper Agora In describing Paul'stour of the agora I am going to assume that he approachedby the street at its

southwest corner and that he went around the area counterclockwise, as Pausaniasdid a century later.25 As he turned the corner Paul would have been struck by the sheer size of the esplanade, one of the largest in the empire. Unusually, it was divided into two parts by an incomplete line of buildings. The southern portion was roughly 2 meters higher than the northernportion, which was overtwice as large in area. In general terms, the upper agorawas reservedfor political and administrative functions, while the lower agoraserved the commercial needs of the city. The 160-meter-longSouth Stoa was one of the few buildings of preRoman Corinth to have survived the destruction of 146 B.c. The small shops at the west end possibly constituted the nucleus of the city during the century when it lay desolate but not completely abandoned.26 The early Roman colonists, however, had completely modified the rest. In the center, shops were ripped out to create an elliptical chamber in which the city council met. Its members were elected by an assembly of citizen voters, and its executive officers were four annually elected magistrates.A little further on was the FountainHouse, a cool and colorful place to congregate. Beyondthe steps leading up to the South Basilica were a series of offices for the officials of the Isthmian Games. These demanded the meticulous organization of today'sOlympic Games, not only for the sake of civic pride but also because the revenue generatedby the crowds of visitors made the event a prime economic asset.

At the end of the South Stoa, Paul would have been forcedto turn left across the front of a building that has been tentatively identified as the public recordsoffice, or possibly the library.A stairwayat the corner, beside an unidentified round monument, would have brought him down into the lower agora. The LowerAgora The JulianBasilica, on his right, was a twin of the South Basilica behind the South Stoa. Both were erected about A.D. 40 andmayhaveservedas commercial centers. The design is suitable for the display of a variety of goods, with storage space in a basement. Paul'seye, however,would have been drawnby the high, triplearched ornamental gate at the head of the ramp from the Lechaeum Road.It was flanked by the celebrated Fountainof Peirene and by a basilica that may have served as a law court. As Paul glanced down the Lechaeum Roadhe would have seen the shops on either side and might have caught a whiff of the meat and fish markets further along. These are mentioned in a Latin inscription (Kent 1966: 127)containing the term macellum, "meatmarket,"which in Greek dress is the word used by Paul when he advises those who had scruples about eating meat offered to idols, "Eatwhatever is sold in the meat market (en makelloi) without raising any question on grounds of conscience" (1 Corinthians 10:25). The one archaeological indication of the strong Jewishpresence in Corinth,27a broken lintel with the crude inscription [Syna]goge Hebr[aion],"Synagogueof the Hebrew,"was found on the Lechaeum Roadside of the gate. This has been taken by some to mean that the oldest synagogue in the city was located somewhere in the vicinity, but the date is uncertain. When Paul turned to continue on his journey,he would have been confronted by a gigantic statue of


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Above:Artist'sreconstructionof the agoraof Corinthin A.D. 50 based on a plan by Charles K. Williams II, directorof the Corinth excavations. This drawing is by Caroline Florimont.Below: Plan of the agoraat Corinth in A.D.50.

Athena on a pedestal wrought with figures of the Muses. The corner of his eye would then have been caught by the height of Acrocorinth, and it is difficult to avoid turning fully to contemplate that dominant mass. It continuously forces itself on one's attention. That would have brought him square in front of the bema. This was a largeplatform in the middle of the shops that bisected the agora.Dominating the lower agora from a height of 2 meters, it was the rostrum from which magistrates addressedthe city and had public proclamations read. It is a mistake to interpretActs 18: 12- 17 as if Paul were brought to trial at this spot. Nothing in the narrative suggests a formal legal process, and the setting is inappropriate for such an event. It is much more

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likely that Galliohadjustfinished makinga publicpronouncement when some JewsnoticedPaulpassing andhustledhim forward.Their intentionwasprobablyto makea dramaticgesturedisassociating themselvesfromhis missionaryactivity,which disturbedthe delicate statusquounderwhich the Jewish communitylived.The irregularity of the procedureis the best explanation of Gallio'ssummarydismissal of the accusation. Thatepisode,however,was still in the futureas Paulcontinuedhis firststrollaroundthe agora.The North-WestStoawas a purelycommercialestablishment,andso contrastedwith the edificeson the west side,which wouldhaveevokedin Paul'sminddifferentaspectsof the task he faced. Threeof the five structureson the west side weretemples,dedicatedto Fortune,Apollo,andAphrodite. Suchjuxtapositionunderlines both the extentto which religion penetratedeverysectorof Greeklife andthe varietyof deities;no tasteor sensibilityneedgo unsatisfied. These symbolswerethe dearand familiarthingsthat Corinthians wouldhaveto leavebehindthem if they acceptedPaul'smessage.For manythey werethe reassuringremindersof a secureandordered world. The remainingtwo structures broughtto the foreanotherdimension of his problem,the type of personalityhe wouldhaveto dealwith. Bothweregifts of the sameperson, whose sense of insecurity,despite wealthandadvancement,must have

band abovethe columns and on the pedestal; it read,"GnaeusBabbius Philinus, aedile and pontifex, had this monument erected at his own expense, and he approvedit in his official capacity as duovir"(Kent 1966: 73). This little exercise in selfgratification must have inspired some rather cynical reflections on the use of power,if it had not become a standing joke in the city. Undoubtedly some of Paul'sconverts would have thought of it when they read 2 Corinthians 3: 1-3.

death by the Corinthians after Medea herself had escaped their vengeance. Who knows what reflections such tragedies might have inspired in the mind of Paul?Can one say that they contributed nothing to his conviction that, without Christ, "allmen, both Jewsand Greeks, are under the power of Sin"(Romans 3:9)? The construction of the NorthWest Stoa and the adjoiningbasilica had cut off the original entrance to the Archaic Temple.Dating from the sixth century B.C., this was the Are we beginning to commend largest sanctuary in Corinth. It had been restoredby the Romans in the ourselves again?Or do we early part of the first century A.D. need, as some do, letters of Paul, therefore,would have passed recommendation to you, or the new main entrance, as he walked from you? on to the theater. This was an insti2 Corinthians 3:1 tution with which he was familiar from all the Hellenistic cities he had visited. Did he, or his readers,think The Roadto Sicyon of it when he wrote that he and his The steps leading up to the west ter- companions had become "aspectacle race would have brought Paulback [theatron]to the world"(1 Corinto his starting point, where the road thians 4:9)?The theater could seat from Acrocorinth became the road 14,000. to Sicyon. A graylimestone pavement to The east facade of the temple of the east of the theater is of particuOctavia was made up of shops with a lar interest. An inscription in bronze strong tower at each end. Beside it, a letters was let into the stone: much smaller temple of Hera Acraea "[ ] Erastusin return for his was set into the quarrythat isolated aedileship laid (the pavement)at his the Fountain of Glauce. "Intothis own expense"(Kent1966:99). Since she threw herself in the bethe pavement antedates the middle they say lief that the water would be a cure of the firstcenturyA.D., this person for the drugsof Medea."29The legis identified with the Erastuswho referred to here became one of Paul'sconverts is end, by Pausanias, that when Jason,the leader of the (Romans 16:23).Two aediles were abandoned elected each year, and rankedjust mythical Argonauts, Medea for Glauce, the former slew below the duoviri, who were the her rival by sending her a dress imeponymous magistrates of the city. been typical of a section of the popu- pregnatedwith drugs that burst into Their responsibilities included the lation. The fountain, accordingto flames as soon as Glauce put it on. management of the public markets. to was dedicated PoseiIf the story was vivid at the time It is not impossible that Paul first Pausanias, don.28On the base of one of the met Erastusin the latter's official of Pausanias,it must have been marble dolphins was an inscription, equally well known when Paul capacity-that is, when paying rent "GnaeusBabbiusPhilinus. Sacredto passed there a century earlier.A or taxes on his workspace, which little further on, isolated from its would explain why he calls Erastus Neptune."Beside it stood a small monument consisting of a circle of original context (Roux 1958: 122),he "thetreasurer"of the city. Corinthian columns surmounted by would have seen the tomb of Medea's Just after Paul had crossed this a conical roof. Precisely the same children; these innocent bearersof pavement he would have left the the ghastly garment were stoned to inscription appearedtwice, on the Sicyon Road,which there turned due


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ISm

Left:The Asclepion at Corinth.Above: The dining rooms of the Asclepion. Temple Abdton

1980:21). He and his friends, Aquila and Priscilla, could have workedin founaround the The colonnade west, and continued north to an area any one of a series of small shops the was not rebuilt tain courtyard scattered throughout the city. by that, from a recreationalpoint of Some of these lay along busy view, bore comparison to Craneum. colonists. Nonetheless, the open a little area have been would inside the Locatedjust streets, the roadsto Lechaeumand perfect city wall, wind from the sheltered which here ran along the edge of the piazza, by Sicyon, or fronted onto the agora. wall and the the Others were concentrated in specialcity surrounding plateau, was a spacious courtyard were three dining containing a large 2-meter-deep buildings. There ly built squares.The Peribolosof Apollo, located off the Lechaeum swimming pool. Pausaniascalls this rooms along one side. Each contained eleven couches with seven Road,was the oldest in the colony. facility Lerna.30It was servedby the in a hearth the there was same water supply as the temple of tables; Shortly before Paul arrived,another some of the Even center. some 150 meters to the had been completed north of the hill though Asclepius in held these rooms would functions northeast. on which stood the Archaic Temple, and it providesgraphicillustration social in character been have Erectedin the fourth century purely a -for the celebration of of the conditions under which he damthe was instance, B.C., healing sanctuary inthe location birth or in worked. when the was sacked marriage city aged a charconferred The shops in the North Market The was re146 B.C. evitably religious temple proper In the on onto a wide, coveredgallery acter 44 fronted stored by the Roman colonists of assembly. addition, have meat would been sacrificial running round all four sides of the B.C.,and its popularity is attested by the great number of ex-votos.Terra- part of the meal. Paul had to deal square.They had a uniform height with the problems that this posed of 4 meters and were just under 4 cotta replicas of various parts of the Corinof his converts for some and breasts and meters deep.The width variedfrom body (arms legs, gen(1 would have 4 meters. Frequentlythey had thians to and donated to the 2.8 8:10; 10:21).Many itals, eyes ears) the for a door or window communicating to continued area, frequent temple expressed the gratitude of pathe dining facilities and the nearby with the adjoiningshop. The doortients for the healing power of the god Asclepius. Paul would have seen swimming pool made it the closest way was the only source of light, and Corinth came to a country club these inert members as illustrative this would have createdproblems in 1983: the cold of winter. The heat of a braof everything that a Christian 161-67). (Murphy-O'Connor zier would have been counteracted not inbe: should "dead," divided, of action. This could The North Market capable loving by the draftcoming through the While ministering at Corinth, Paul have led him to think of the comdoor, and working conditions would himself manual labor of believers in terms of the have been decidedly uncomfortable. by munity supported to human a Corinthians The effect on Paul'shands would exhealthy body (Hill 1980), 9:3-19). According (1 in he was a tentmaker that first his cortheme Luke, plain why he wrote with such large appears (Acts letters (Galatians6:11). with would have been Corinth Corinbut his skills respondence (1 18:3), those of a leather-worker(Hock As Hock (1980:52) has shown, thians 12:12-31).

156


Temple

/

-

mu

DiningRoom

Im

(Troldntum)

--

--%'*Aphrodite?

uvnum

(Atrium) Courtyard

Shops and

I

:.

I _ Above: The Roman villa at Anaploga.Right: The harborof Cenchreae in A.D. 50.

See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. Galatians 6:11

Paul did not esteem manual labor;it was simply a means to the independence that his apostolate required, and the workshop was a very astute choice as a missionary center. It brought him into contact with a wide variety of people and provided a context in which a variety of individuals could meet him on various pretexts. A House Church As the number of Paul'sconverts grew it became necessary to find a place where they could assemble. The strained relations with the Jews excluded the synagogue,and Christianity's lack of status put any other public meeting-place out of the question. Privatehouses, therefore, became the centers of church life. The villa at Anaploga,one of the four houses of the Roman period excavatedat Corinth, can be dated to the time of Paul. The quality of the magnificent mosaic floor laid in the second half of the first century A.D. revealsthat the dimensions of the preexisting edifice (Miller 1972) satisfied the ambitions of a wealthy

d\o, Ct

r

\

L

0o

owner. It is, therefore,the sort of house in which Gaius acted as host to Paul and the whole church (Romans 16:23). Given the social conditions of the time, any gatheringthat involved more than very intimate friends of the family would be limited to the public areas of the house, the triclinium (dining room)and the atrium. In the Anaplogavilla the triclinium measured 5.5 by 7.5 meters, but the floor space of 41.25 squaremeters was diminished by the couches that lined the walls. The atrium located just outside measured 5 by 6 meters, but once again the amount of usable space was reducedby the 2-by-2-meterpool in the middle. Such figures go a long way towardsexplaining the problems

5o

lOm

that arose in the celebration of the Eucharistat Corinth (1 Corinthians 11:16- 34). At a minimum the community numberedbetween forty and fifty, which means that the overcrowdingwould have been uncomfortable,and everyonecould not be accommodated in the same room. Thus the friends of the host would be invited to recline at ease in the triclinium, while the rest were automatically made second-class citizens by being obliged to sit (1 Corinthians 14:30)in the atrium, a far from ideal accommodation on a wet winter's day. Cenchreae lived from its two harbors, Corinth Lechaeum and Cenchreae.The former, on the Corinthian Gulf, was far


157

the larger,with an inner harborof 100,000 squaremeters and an outer one of 360,000 squaremeters, the whole borderedby 7 kilometers of docks (Roux 1958: 103).This much has been gleaned from surface observation. Unfortunately,there have been no full excavations,and the textual data are too sparseto be helpful. We do not know if Paul ever went there. Certainly it was not the place for a relaxing walk, as Plutarch noted: Thewholelengthof the streeteven to the water'sedge was one mass of dust andconfusionby reasonof the great crowd of vehicles and people.31 Transittraffic from Cenchreae augmented the normal traffic between the port and the city. Cenchreae had a Christian community directed by Phoebe (Romans 16:2),and it would be unrealistic to imagine that Paul was not a frequent

of a wealthy commercial magnate. chapter6, paragraph23; Jones 1968:203. 2TheGeographyof Strabo,book 8, On the south mole were at least four 6, paragraph20; Jones 1968: 189. chapter blocks of warehouses. In the early oration 46, section 24; Behr 30Orations, first century A.D. two of the rooms in 1981. one of the blocks were thrown into 4Dio Chrysostom, The Thirty-seventh one in orderto create a small court- Discourse:The Corinthian Oration, paragraph8; Crosby 1962: 11. yardwith a quadrangularniche in STheLife of Apollonius ofTlana, book 7, one side. Some religious purpose chapter 10;Conybeare1969: 165. seems the most natural hypothesis. 6TheGeographyof Strabo,book 8, Its identification as a sanctuary of chapter6, paragraph20; Jones 1968: 189. 7Strabo:The Geographyof Strabo,book Isis in the first century is subject to 8, chapter6, paragraph20; Jones 1968: 191. caution. Around the center of the Horace:Epistles, book 1, epistle 17, line 36; port we can assume the sort of Fairclough1970:363. stores, shops, and bars typical of so 8TheGeographyof Strabobook 9, many small ports of the Mediterchapter 1, paragraph4; Jones 1968:245. 9TheGeographyof Strabo,book 8, raneanto this day. Paul'sDeparture When he eventually departedfrom Corinth, what were Paul'ssentiments as he left Cenchreae on a small Ephesus-boundfreighter (Acts 18:18)and sailed out past the massive statue of Poseidon that held a

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the church at Cenchreae, that you may receive her in the Lordas befits the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a helper of many and of myself as well. Romans 16:1 - 2 visitor. It would have been a pleasant 9-kilometer walk, particularly if he used the less travelledroadthat followed the flank of Mount Onium. As he droppeddown the last few kilometers he would have seen the harborspreadout before him. The shape of the harboris known in some detail from excavations (Scranton,Shaw,and Ibrahim 1978).The breakwaterscompleted early in the first century A.D.enclosed an area of 30,000 square meters, hardly justifying Apuleius' description of Cenchreae as "agreat and mighty haven ... with the ships of many a sundry nation."32The only basis for identifying the largebuilding on the north mole as a temple of Aphrodite is Pausanias;33in Paul's day it could have been the dwelling

158

dolphin in one hand and a trident in the other (Frazer1913:17)?One thing is sure, and his future relations bear this out, he would not have agreedwith Aelius Aristides that Corinth was the place "where one would rest as on a mother's lap with most pleasure or enjoyment."34 Notes In this paperI havemade extensive use of the dataaccumulatedin the twenty volumes of the series Corinth.Results of Excavations Conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (1930-) and in the journalHesperia,but it would havebeen tedious to document every sentence. A convenient summary is providedby James Wiseman (1979:509-33). Relevantclassical texts have been collected in my book St. Paul'sCorinth:Textsand Archaeology (MichaelGlazier, 1983). 'The Geographyof Strabo,book 8,

BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGIST/SEPTEMBER 1984

chapter6, paragraph21, Jones 1968: 191- 93. 10TheThirty-firstDiscourse: The Rhodian Oration,paragraph121;Cohoon and Crosby 1961:127. "Description of Greece,book 2 - Corinth, chapter2, paragraph4; Jones 1969:255-57. 12DeCausis Plantarum,book 5, chapter 14, paragraph2. '3TheSixth Discourse:Diogenes, or on Tyranny,discourse6, paragraph4; Cohoon 1961:253. 14Moralia,On Exile, page 601B;De Lacy and Einarson1968:531. ISAlciphronthe Rhetor's:Lettersof Parasites (book3), letter 24 (iii.60);Bennerand Fobes 1962:209. 16DioChrysostom,The EighthDiscourse, On Virture,paragraph5; Cohoon 1961:379. '7Strabo:The Geographyof Strabo,book 8, chapter6, paragraph21;Jones 1968: 193. Pausanias:Description of Greece,book 2Corinth, chapter5, paragraph1;Jones 1969: 271. Description of Greece,book 18Pausanias, 2- Corinth, chapter5, paragraph1;Jones 1969:271. 19TheGeographyof Strabo,book 8, chapter6, paragraph21;Jones 1969: 193. 20TheGeographyof Strabo,book 8, chapter6, paragraph20; Jones 1969: 191. 21TheGeographyof Strabo,book 8, chapter6, paragraph21;Jones 1969: 195. 22Iliad,book 6, line 154;Murray1965: 273. 23Pausanias,Description of Greece,book 2- Corinth, chapter3, paragraph11;Jones 1969:265. 24TheGreekAnthology, Book 9: The Declamatory and DescriptiveEpigrams,epigram 151;Paton 1968:79. 25Descriptionof Greece,book 2Corinth, chapter2, paragraph6, through chapter3, paragraph1;Jones 1969:257 - 59. Disputationes, book 26Cicero, Tusculanes 3, section 53; King 1950. 27philo,The Embassy to Gaius, section

281; Colson 1962: 143. 28Descriptionof Greece,book 2 Corinth, chapter2, paragraph8; Jones 1969: 259. 29Pausanias,Description of Greece,book 2- Corinth, chapter3, paragraph6; Jones 1969:263. 30Descriptionof Greece,book 2 Corinth, chapter4, paragraph5; Jones 1969: 269. 31Moralia,The Dinner of the Seven Wise Men, page 146E;Babbitt 1962:351. 32TheGolden Ass of Apuleius, book 10, paragraph35; Adlington 1965:537. 33Descriptionof Greece,book 2 Corinth, chapter2, paragraph3; Jones 1969: 255. 34Orations,oration 46, section 24; Behr 1981.

Bibliography Adlington,W.,translator 1965 Apuleius: The Golden Ass, Being the Metamorphosesof Lucius Apuleius, revisedby S. Gaselee. Series:LoebClassical Library.London and Cambridge,MA:Heinemann and HarvardUniversity Press. Babbitt,E.C., translator 1962 Plutarch'sMoraliaII. Series:Loeb Classical Library.Cambridge,MA, and London:HarvardUniversity Press and Heinemann. Behr,C. A., translator 1981 P Aelius Aristides. The Complete Works,Volume2, OrationsXVIILIII.Leiden,the Netherlands:E. J. Brill. Benner,A. R., and Fobes,E H., translators 1962 The Lettersof Alciphron,Aelian and Philostratus. Series:LoebClassical Library.Cambridge,MA, and London: HarvardUniversity Press and Heinemann. Broneer,O. 1962 The Apostle Pauland the Isthmian Games. The Biblical Archaeologist 25: 1-31. Cohoon, J.W, translator 1961 Dio ChrysostomI. Discourses I-XL. Series:LoebClassical Library.Cambridge,MA, and London:Harvard University Press and Heinemann. Cohoon, J.W.,and Crosby,H. L., translators 1961 Dio ChrysostomIII. Discourses XXXI-XXXVI. Series:LoebClassical Library.Cambridge,MA, and London:HarvardUniversity Press and Heinemann. Colson, E.H., translator 1962 Philo X. The Embassy to Gaius. Indices to VolumesI-X. Series:Loeb Classical Library.Cambridge,MA, and London:HarvardUniversity Press and Heinemann.

1968 The Geographyof StraboIV Books Conybeare,E C., translator VIII- IX. Series:LoebClassical Li1969 Philostratus. The Life of Apollonius of T~anaII. The Epistles of Apollonbrary.Cambridge,MA, and London: ius and the T7eatiseof Eusebius. HarvardUniversity Press and Heinemann. Series:LoebClassical Library.CamJones,W H. S., translator bridge,MA, and London:Harvard 1969 Pausanias. Description of Greece I. University Press and Heinemann. Series:LoebClassical Library.CamConzelmann, H. 1967 Korinthund die Miidchender Aphrobridge,MA, and London:Harvard dite. Zur Religionsgeschichteder University Press and Heinemann. StadtKorinth.Nachrichten von de Kent, J.H. Akademie der Wissenschaftenin 1966 Corinth VIII/3.The Inscriptions 1926-1950. Princeton,NJ:The G6ttingen 8: 247-61. American School of Classical Crosby,H. L., translator 1962 Dio ChrysostomIV Discourses Studies at Athens. XXXVII-LX.Series:LoebClassical King, J.E., translator 1950 Cicero.7TsculanesDisputationes. Library.Cambridge,MA, and London: HarvardUniversity Pressand Series:LoebClassical Library.CamHeinemann. bridge,MA: HarvardUniversity De Lacy,P.H., and Einarson,B., translators Press. 1968 Plutarch'sMoralia VII.Series:Loeb Lidemann, G. Classical Library.Cambridge,MA, 1980 Paulus der Heidenapostel, band 1, and London:HarvardUniversity Studien zur Chronologie.G6ttingen: Press and Heinemann. Vandenhoeckund Ruprecht. Dodds, E. R. Meeks, W.A. 1965 Paganand Greekin an Age of Anx1983 The First Urban Christians. The Social Worldof the Apostle Paul. iety. Cambridge:CambridgeUniNew Haven,CT:YaleUniversity versity Press. Press. Einarson,B., and Link, G. K. K., translators 1976 De Causis Plantarum. Series:Loeb Miller, S. G. Classical Library.Cambridge,MA, 1972 A Mosaic Floorfrom RomanVilla at and London:HarvardUniversity Anaploga.Hesperia41:332- 54. Press and Heinemann. J. Murphy-O'Connor, 1982 Pauline Missions beforethe JerusaFairclough,H. R., translator 1970 Horace. Satires,Epistles and Ars lem Conference.Revue Biblique 89: Poetica. Series:LoebClassical Li71-91. 1983 St. Paul'sCorinth.Textsand Archaebrary.Cambridge,MA, and London: HarvardUniversity Press and ology. Wilmington, DE: Michael Heinemann. Glazier. Frazer,J.G. Murray,A. T., translator 1913 Pausanias'Description of Greece, 1965 Homer. The Iliad. Series:Loeb Volume3, translationwith comClassical Library.Londonand Cammentary.London:Macmillan. bridge,MA:Heinemann and HarvardUniversity Press. Geagan,D. 1979 RomanAthens: Some Aspects of Paton, W.R., translator Life and Culture. I. 86 B.C.- A.D.267. 1968 The GreekAnthology III. Series: LoebClassical Library.Cambridge, Pp. 371- 437 in Aufstieg und Niedergang der r6mischen Welt,VII/I1, MA, and London:HarvardUniveredited by H. Temporini.Berlin:de sity Press and Heinemann. Gruyter. Roux, G. 1958 Pausaniasen Corinthie (LivreII, 1 ca Gummere, R. M., translator 1962 Seneca. Ad Lucilium Epistulae 15).Textetraduction.Commentaire MoralesIII. Series:LoebClassical archdologiqueet topographique. Paris:Belles Lettres. Library.Cambridge,MA, and London:HarvardUniversity Press and Scranton,R., Shaw,J.W, and Ibrahim,L. Heinemann. 1978 Kenchreai.EasternPortof Corinth. I. Topographyand Architecture. Hill, A. E. 1980 The Templeof Asclepius: An AlterLeiden,the Netherlands:E. J.Brill. native Sourcefor Paul'sBodyTheolo- Wiseman, J. 1978 The Land of the Ancient Coringy?Journalof Biblical Literature99: 437 - 39. thians. G6teburg:Astrom. 1979 Corinth and Rome I: 228 B.c. - A.D. Hock, R. F. 1980 The Social Context ofPaul's Minis267. Pp. 438-548 in Aufstieg und try.Tentmakingand Apostleship. Niedergangder rimischen Welt, Philadelphia:FortressPress. VII/1,edited by H. Temporini.Berlin: de Gruyter. Jones,H. L., translator


159

T~p?P

alS~ii~r ~

':

A

I'tl

tablet is the only copy to preservethis portion of the text in an Old Babylonian edition. YaleBabylonian Collection 2178

This tablet presents a portion of the adventures of the famed Mesopotamian hero Gilgamesh. Of the many versionsof the Gilgamesh epic, this

(reverse).

The at

Collections Yale University by KennethG. Hoglund

The

YaleUniversityArt Gallery,the oldestuni-

versity art museum in America, was founded in 1832 when a small building was erected on the New Haven campus to house the university's growing collection of American paintings. Like most of the galleries established by American colleges and universities in the nineteenth century, Yale'scollec-

160


tion was intended to provideart students with models for study rather than to document the artistic and cultural expressions of the past. It was not until the early decades of the twentieth century that the Gallery,augmented by several significant collections of ancient Near Eastern and classical artifacts,would emerge as one of the leading American collections of ancient art. In the meantime,

Above: Photographmade from a nineteenth-centurylantern slide of students drawing from casts in the Yaleart department.Right: An eagleheaded human figure. This ninth-century-B.c.bas-relieffrom the palace of Ashurnasirpalat Nimrud was obtained for YaleUniversity by the American missionary William F Williams (YaleUniversityArt Gallery

1854.3).

world events during the mid-nineteenth century influenced Yaleto develop other interests in the ancient Near East. The decades of the 1840s and the 1850s were marked by the first expansion of American Protestantmissions as clergy traversedthe globe spreadingthe Christian message.Yalewas one of the leading institutions in supplying Protestant clergy for the mission field. During these same decades, the British explorerAusten Henry Layard was conducting his landmark excavations at several ancient sites along the Tigris River. His spectacular discoveries at Nimrud, Nineveh, and other sites broughtthe grandeurand extent of the Assyrian empire to the attention of Europefor the first time. His publication Nineveh and Its Remains (Layard1849)attractedwide notice from the British public who viewed these discoveries as confirming the truth of the Old Testament. A great cry was raised for the incredible sculptures and reliefs unearthed by Layardto be brought to Englandfor display, and hundreds of pieces were sent by torturous and dangerous routes to come to a final rest in the secure halls of the British Museum. The English thirst for Assyrian antiquities was contagious, and soon American institutions were seeking similar monumental testimony to the world of the Old Testament.In 1850 the young missionary Dwight Marsh was the only American in Mosul, the city across the river from Nimrud, as Layardwas completing his second and final season of excavationat Nimrud - "Calah"of the Old Testament (Lloyd 1955: 156). Marsh visited Layardand presented him with the idea of donating several sculpted

reliefs from the palace of Ashurnasirpalat Nimrud to the American people. Layardwas taken with the idea and gave Marsh two reliefs. Marsh, an alumnus of Williams College, promptly sent them to his alma mater, and in 1852 the first Assyrian reliefs to be displayedin the New Worldarrivedon American soil. Awareof Williams College'scoup, severalAmerican schools, including Yale,sought to obtain reliefs for their own collections. Other American missionaries had ar-

The YaleUniversityArt Gallery.


161

Above:A ceramic "Bilbil"jug from Cyprusin the Rebecca Darlington Stoddard Collection at the YaleUniversityArt Gallery (1913.9).Below: This mold-blown glass jar of the first century A.D.is signed by the glassmaker Ennion and is in the Hobart and EdwardSmall MooreMemorial Collection at the YaleUniversityArt Gallery (55.6.66).

162


rived in Mosul in 1851 and 1852, among them a former Yale student, William F. Williams. Yale's president, LeonardBacon, appealedto Williams to secure some Assyrian reliefs for Yale. Layardhad ceased excavating in 1851, but the excavations at Nimrud were resumed that same year by Henry Rawlinson, who was also largely responsible for the successful decipherment of Akkadian. By approachingRawlinson, Williams was able to obtain additional reliefs from the palace of Ashurnasirpal not only for Yale, but also for Amherst College and Union Theological Seminary, both institutions having expressed a keen interest in obtaining Assyrian antiquities (Stearns 1961: 8). In 1853, Yale received four specimens from this groupof Assyrian reliefs, only the second such consignment to arrivein America. Since 1853, Yale'sAssyrian reliefs have been prominently displayed in a variety of locations around the campus before being installed in their present home in the Art Gallery in the early part of this century. Visitors to the Art Gallery not only have the opportunityto closely examine these superb examples of Neo-Assyrian art, but in knowing something of the past of these reliefs, may cherish their association with famed explorers and intrepid missionaries. Yale'searly acquisition of Assyrian antiquities may also haveheraldedthe intense interest in the Mesopotamian cultures which later generations at the university would demonstrate. The Art Gallery's collections of ancient art underwent a period of rapidexpansion throughoutthe first half of the twentieth century benefitting from several generous gifts of largecollections assembled by private individuals. One such gift was a remarkable assemblage of over 900 whole ceramic vessels from the Levant,known as the Whiting Palestinian Collection. Coveringmost of Palestinian ceramic history from the Chalcolithic period to Byzantine times, the Whiting Collection was received in 1912 before the details of Palestinian ceramic chronology had been workedout. The scarcity of space in the Art Gallery has prevented the collection from being exhibited, but Yalehas frequently loaned pieces to other institutions for display and has actively utilized the collection for instructional purposes. Another major gift of ancient art was the RebeccaDarlington StoddardCollection of Greek and Italian Vases, donated in 1913. This carefully assembled group of ancient vessels features a strong representation of Mycenaean wares as well as Cypriot, Attic, and Roman vessels. Many outstanding pieces of the StoddardCollection are on public display in the Gallery'sancient art area.Additional smaller collections of ancient glass and other small objects, much of which is on display, provide visitors with an unusually fine representationof the aesthetic and technical skills of the ancient world. The Gallery has recently published a beautifully produced, comprehensive catalogue of their ancient glass collection (Matheson 1980).

has

Yale facts

nearly from

arti100,000 Dura-Europos.

The Yale Art Gallery has not only benefitted from the generosity of donors but has amassed important materials as the result of Yale'sexcavations throughout the Near East. One of the more significant field projects undertakenby the university was the excavations at Gerasa (Jerash),located in the Transjordanabout twenty-five miles north of Amman. The excavationswere conducted from 1928 to 1934, in association first with the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem,then later with the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR).Yale's efforts did much to reveal the splendor of this ancient city, andwere the subject of a majorsummary reportpublished by ASOR (Kraeling 1938). The excavations' archives along with many artifacts, including several large floor mosaics, are now housed at the Art Gallery,though space limitations do not allow for any of the material to be displayed. Perhaps the best-known Yale excavation was the prolonged investigation of Dura-Europosin Syria, conducted from 1928 to 1937 in association with the French Academy. The university was fortunate to receive an immeasurably valuable portion of the excavatedmaterials numbering nearly 100,000 individual artifacts. This large collection and the excavations which recovered them havebeen summarized in an illustrated monograph by SusanMatheson, associate curatorof ancient art at the Yale Art Gallery (Matheson 1982). Among the many remarkablypreserveditems at Yalearethe niche fromthe mithraeum, various sculpted reliefs of the deities worshipped at Dura, painted panels from the Christian building, and a number of the decorative ceiling tiles from the synagogue (see Gates, this issue). Among the smaller objects are a vast assortment of objects of everyday life such as basketry,commonware ceramic vessels, personal cosmetic implements such as razors and mirrors,and many pieces of jewelry.In sum, the Yalematerials from Dura-Europos offer a surprisingly detailed glimpse into the life of the ancient inhabitants of this strategic Roman outpost in the Syrian frontier. For the last three years many artifacts from DuraEuropos have been on public display as part of a special exhibition entitled "Life in an Eastern Province: The Roman Fortress at Dura-Europos."The exhibit opens with a marvelous overview of the discovery and excavation of the site and then presents a selection of artifacts which emphasizes Dura-Europos'importance to archaeology, the history of religions, and military history.In the exhibit, visitors may view many of the most significant finds from Dura which have been carefully selected and displayedby the Art Gallery'sstaff. Though the exhibit is

This relief is the earliest depiction of Zeus Kyrios-Baalshamin(31/32

A.D.)at Dura-Europos.The god is seated on a throne and wears a

long-sleevedtunic typical of the local dress. YaleUniversityArt Gallery 1913.45.

scheduled to end early this fall, the majorartifactswill be reinstalled on a smaller scale, and a useful checklist is availableon the special exhibition (Kieferand Matheson 1982). While at the YaleArt Gallery,visitors will also want to see the other outstanding collections on display.In addition to its ancient art holdings, the Gallery is known for its extensive holdings of American paintings and decorative arts, its important collections of Italian Renaissance art, and the Societ6 Anonyme Collection of twentieth-century art, formedin partby the artist Marcel Duchamp. A twenty-minute walk fromthe YaleArt Gallerywill bring one to the university'sPeabodyMuseum of Natural History. While most of the Peabody'semphasis is on the realm of plants and the animal kingdom, the ancient kingdom of the pharaohs along the Nile River is also amply represented. Much of the museum's holdings on ancient Egyptis displayedin an extensive interpretiveexhibition, "The Past Rediscovered:EverydayLife in Ancient Egypt."A wide rangeof artifacts,stretchingfromthe Paleolithic to the Ptolemaic periods, is on display and a checklist is also availableon the exhibition (Scott 1983).


163

Above left: A modern impression of a Sumerian cylinder seal bearingthe inscription "Sealof the servant of Gudea, ensi of Lagash."YaleBabylonian Collection 9685. Above right: A clay model of the entrails of a sheep used in the instruction of students in extispicy. YaleBabylonian Collection 2168. Below left: Frontand back views of the world'soldest literary catalogue (circa 2050 B.c.),listing various Sumeriancompositions by their first lines or "incipits."YaleBabylonian Collection 3654. Below right: Small terra-cottaplaque of a shrine,probably used in private devotions. YaleBabylonian Collection 10035.

The more

Yale than

Collection is cuneiform tablets

Babylonian 40,000

This exhibit is scheduled to end early this fall. One can hardly leave off a review of the collections on the ancient Near East at Yale without noting the famed YaleBabylonianCollection. While not a museum per se, the BabylonianCollection is one of the most important resources in America for the study of the ancient Near East. This is a working collection of more than 40,000 cuneiform tablets and inscribed objects available to researchers on appointment. The number of items alone establishes it as the largest collection of cuneiform tablets in the United States and as one of the largestin the world. The BabylonianCollection was begun in the first decades of the twentieth century with the financial support of the famedmultimillionaire, J.PierpontMorgan.Under the shrewd direction of its first curator, Albert T. Clay, the collection steadily accumulated wellpreservedexamples of cuneiform texts frommost periods of Mesopotamian civilization. It was Clay's practice to purchase large lots of tablets for a fairly low price, then

164


a

collection of inscribed objects.

working and

after selecting the best-preserved or most significant tablets from the lot, he would sell the remainderto other institutions, often for the same price as he had originally paid for the group. Clay's approach to purchasing clay tablets in bulk, regardlessof the manner in which they came on the antiquities market, was common for his day but is no longer the practiceof the BabylonianCollection. In fact, the Collection has been one of the leaders in advocating responsible observance of the legitimate concerns of Near Easterncountries overthe illegal removalof antiquities from their borders.The Babylonian Collection observesthe antiquities laws of all the Near Eastern countries, and refuses to either purchase or accept as a gift any objects removedfrom a country afterthe promulgation of laws banning such exports. While a majority of the tablets were acquiredeither as the result of purchases or donations, some represent Yale'sshare of excavated materials from joint expeditions to sites throughout the Near East. Even though the pace of excavation in the Mesopotamian heartland has slowed in the last few de-

cades, the Babylonian Collection has managed to make significant additions through the receipt of several private collections of considerable size. The primarypurposebehind the Collection is to support the extensive educational programsof Yale'sDepartment of Near EasternLanguagesand Literatures,though its concerns are not restricted by classroom walls. The Collection supports Yale's distinguished publications programin Near Easternstudies, which includes the presentation of primarymaterials in "YaleOriental SeriesBabylonian Texts"and "BabylonianInscriptions in the Collection of J. B. Nies," as well as interpretive studies now issued in a series titled "Yale Near Eastern Researches."Having mastered the process of baking and cleaning cuneiform tablets to conserve their own holdings, the BabylonianCollection staff is frequently called upon to help conserve other tablet collections, both institutional and individual. One long-standingprojectof the collection staff has been the registrationof other institutional tablet collections, and thus the Yaleoffice serves as a clearinghouse for information on collections throughout the United States. It would be impossible to describe here even in a cursory fashion the thousands of important cuneiform documents preservedin the Collection, but as the present curatorProfessorWilliam W.Hallo and his staff continue cataloguing the Collection's holdings, additional significant texts are bound to turn up. The Collection also possesses the largest assemblage of seals in the United States, including many outstanding examples of seal impressions on dated tablets. A portion of this Collection has been recently catalogued and published in a beautifully produced volume from the Yale University Press (Buchanan 1981).A fine grouping of models, liver omen texts, and various figurines rounds out this exceptional resource for the study of the cuneiform languages and literatures. The extensive coverageand remarkabledepth of the collections at YaleUniversity are a tribute to the dedication and resourcefulness of generations of scholars and benefactors. While the holdings at Yalewill provide materials for students from many differentfields, any visitor may derive pleasure and considerable information from viewing the public displays. A varied and significant offering of the material culture of the ancient world is housed at Yale,waiting to be viewed and enjoyed. Acknowledgment I would like to thank Susan Matheson, associate curatorof ancient art at the YaleArt Gallery,and Dr. Gary Beckman, assistant curator of the Yale BabylonianCollection, for their gracious and invaluable assistance in supplying much of the backgroundinformation for this article. Thanks are also due to Professor William W. Hallo, curatorof the BabylonianCollection, forgenerous-

ly giving of his time to share the wonders of some of the world'soldest literature which has been entrusted to his charge.

Bibliography Buchanan,B. 1981 Early Near Eastern Seals in the YaleBabylonian Collection. New Haven:YaleUniversity Press. Kiefer,K., and Matheson, S. 1982 Life in an Eastern Province: The Roman Fortress at DuraEuropos.New Haven:YaleUniversity Art Gallery. Kraeling,C. H. 1938 Gerasa, Cityof the Decapolis. New Haven:American Schools of Oriental Research. Layard,A. H. 1849 Nineveh and Its Remains. London:JohnMurray. Lloyd,S. 1955 Foundationsin the Dust: A Storyof MesopotamianExploration. Harmondsworth,Middlesex:PenguinBooks. Matheson, S. 1980 Ancient Glass in the YaleUniversityArt Gallery.New Haven: YaleUniversity Art Gallery. 1982 Dura-Europos:The Ancient City and the Yale Collection. New Haven:YaleUniversity Art Gallery. Scott, G. 1983 The Past Rediscovered:EverydayLife in Ancient Egypt.A Checklist of the Exhibition. New Haven:PeabodyMuseum of Natural History. Stearns,J. 1961 Reliefs from the Palace of AshurnasirpalII. Series:Archiv for Orientforschung15, Graz.

YaleUniversityArtGallery 1111Chapel Street

New Haven,Connecticut06520 (203)436-0574 Gallery Hours are 10 AM to 5 PM, Tuesday through Saturday,Sundays2 PM to 5 PM. The Gallery is closed on

Mondaysand majorholidays.There is no admission charge. PeabodyMuseumof NaturalHistory 170WhitneyAvenue New Haven,Connecticut06520 (203)432-4044 The Museum is open 9 AM to 4:45 PM, Mondaythrough Saturday,Sundays 1 PM to 4:45 PM. The Museum is

closedon majorholidays.Admissionis $1.00foradults, $.50 forchildren.Admissionis freeon Thesdays.

on Collectionis opento researchers TheYaleBabylonian basisonlyduringregularworkinghours. anappointment For more information,contact ProfessorWilliamW. Hallo, Curator,YaleBabylonianCollection, 324 Sterling

MemorialLibrary,YaleUniversity,New Haven,Connecticut06520.


165

Dura-Europos A

Fortress

Art of Syro-Mesopotamian

BYMARIE-HENRIETTE GATES

n antiquity theNearEastwas

an area of deliberate cultural conservatism that is particularly striking in the area of religion. The basic architecturalplans and concepts of interior decoration used in religious structures remained unchanged despite often considerable differences among the religions themselves. Perhapsno site in the Near East can illustrate this tendency towardsyncretism in religious art as lucidly as the ancient city of Dura-Europos,located in what is today southeastern Syria. Dura-Europoswas founded in the fourth century B.C.on the west bank of the EuphratesRiver as a military and commercial outpost by foreign, non-Mesopotamiancolonizers -that is, Macedonian Greeks in the wake of Alexander the Great'sconquering army.This city was never during its five-and-one-half-century life span (fromapproximately300 B.C. to 256 A.D.) an independent administrative unit. At its founding Dura-Europoswas part of the Hellenistic Seleucid kingdom; later it was engulfed by the Parthianempire, and eventually ended its days as a Roman colony. It was, therefore,subject to numerous cultural influences throughout its history, and the many religious monuments excavatedin the city clearly indicate this. In addition to temples of local Mesopotamian derivation, excavatorshave un-

In situ wall painting from the mithraeum, dating around 240 A.D. depicting the warriorgod Mithra as a mounted hunter. The height of the painting is approximately1.70 meters.

covereda remarkablesynagogue,a shrine to the Mithraic mystery cult, and the earliest known Christian chapel. A close look at these religious monuments, however,particularly the wall paintings that were present in each, reveals the basic conservatism of the city. Although the iconographicalrepertoireused in each of these three places of worship was designed specifically for the require-

ments of the individual cult, their general architectural and decorative schemata - those elements that distinguish these shrines from secular structures-are standardfor any religious building at Dura-Europosand in preclassical Mesopotamia as well. Thus, new cults were made to conform to preexisting architecturaland pictorial norms, sometimes even to the extent of contradictingproscriptions within their rites.

Despite foreign the of was

local

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influences, tradition

Dura-Europos

all-pervasive.

soldiery, Greek civilians, and a local group;the latter, through the lure of civilized comforts and inevitable intermarriage,must have rapidly increased in number while the original Greek population dwindled. Nonetheless, Greek remained the official languagethroughout the city's history and time was reckoned accordingto the Seleucid calendar. By the time the city was incorporated into the Parthianempire in 113 B.c., it had greatly expanded,

first over the open squareof the agora (no longer an essential feature as the city became orientalized), then aroundthe Hellenistic nucleus. The stability brought about by a peace treaty in 20 B.c. between Par-

Historical Background Dura-Europoswas founded around 300 B.C.,some twenty-three years after the death of Alexander the Great and the division of his empire. Originally known as just Europos, the city was founded by a shadowy figure, the general Nikanor, in behalf of his commander and king, the Seleucus Nikator. It was Nikator, however,who was worshippedas the founding father of the city throughout its history. Europoswas laid out according

to the standardHellenistic grid, in marked contrast to the winding streets of the typical Near Eastern city. In the center of this Hellenistic city was the open agora,a porticoed piazza lined with small shops that has no eastern equivalent. The citadel and postulated official residences were located to the northeast, but today,they have almost entirely disappearedbecause of the collapse of the bank into the Euphrates River.The early settlers of Europosconsisted of Macedonian

thia and Rome encouragedEuropos to enjoy a period of extended prosperity that is reflected by a boom in temple construction. Significantly, the deities worshippedin the temples were all native Syriangods of illustrious Mesopotamian ancestry, such as Hadad,Aphlad, or Atargatis,while others, such as the omnipresent Bel Shamin, attest to the strong Palmyreneelement in the city's population. These cults continued uninterruptedlythroughout the period of Roman conquest (165 A.D.) and eventual colonization (211 A.D.) when the city was officially

made to shed its name Europosfor the Semitic one, Dura, meaning fortress. (The compound Dura-Europos is a modern convention.) Although Roman cultural influence seems to have been minimal, it


167

As a result of Breasted'sreport, the FrenchAcademyundertook, first independently, and later with the increasingly important participation of Yale University, a series of ten campaigns at Dura-Europosfrom 1922 to 1936. They exposed from one-fourth to one-third of the entire city. The remains along the inner face of the western city wall were particularlywell preservedas a result of the desperateefforts of the Durenes to defend their city against Sassanian Persians in the mid-third century A.D.In an attempt to reinforce the city wall on the side exposed to the plain, the Durenes constructed a huge artificial embankment, first by filling in the street just inside the city wall, then by condemning the houses alongside this Limestone cult relief of 159 A.D.from the Templeof the Gaddd.Tycheor Fortuneof Dura is Wall Street, and filling them with being presented the laurel crown by the Seleucus Nikator who is dressed in military attire. rubble. Among the buildings inThe figureon the left is the dedicant of the relief, Hairan. The relief is 62 centimeters high and volved were the synagogue,the is in the YaleUniversityArt Gallery. mithraeum, and the Christian some French soldiers who were chapel, as well as the Temple of the brought to Dura three foreign cults, their off Gods in the northwest as witnessed by the construction of amateur Palmyrene day doing spending corner of the around their a synagogue,a mithraeum, and a fortifications, which campsite. archaeology Christian chapel. These three, how- The paintings belonged to what many years later would be examined would later be identified as the by Breasted. ever, appearin native Durene guise, The Durenes also decided upon and are resemble each of the other, closely second-century-A.D.Temple second to a defensive scheme to proRoman. It is essential unGods known as the hardly Palmyrene (also vide a of the scenes derstandthat Roman dominance at lower, open areabehind the Temple Bel). Among which Breasted saw was one of a was historical new ramparton which to engagethe carefully Dura-Europos labeled of the and that it cannot claim depiction import only (Good enemy in hand-to-handcombat. To T7hche of do this, they sheared awaythe easton of the her feet effect any profound any poised on Fortune) Dura, back and architectural the of a artistic feapersonified Euphrates ern half of the rampartand, unfortucity's and seated to the right of her coltures. The local tradition of Duranately, the structures beneath it. from This scene Thus the facades of the Christian was It rehas league Palmyra. Europos all-pervasive: Hellenistic mained oblivious to outwardforms charchapel and neighboringbuildings antecedents; good lost all but their foundations, whereacteristic of Hellenistic are the Greeks, by Dura, however, imposed by as their back walls remained standlimited abilities of the local artist. oriental Parthians,or by imperial Thanks to this painting, the city was ing at their original heights. Beyond Rome. identified from its first moment of this fortuitous rampart,the rest of of the Site the city sufferedfrom the ravagesof discovery.Breastedimmediately Discovery the Sassanians,who capturedand Dura-Europosfirst came to the atpublished his findings in a monotention of the scholarly world in graphhe entitled, with considerable destroyed it in 256 A.D.Fortunately 1922 when JamesHenry Breastedof acumen, The Oriental Forerunners the well-preservedsection of the city the Chicago Oriental Institute preof Byzantine Painting. His intuition gives remarkableinsight into the resented to the FrenchAcademy of In- that an early stage in the developligious complexities of the first cenment of Byzantine art was evident at turies of our era. scriptions and Lettersa reporton some extraordinarywall paintings Dura-Europoswas confirmed not that he had had the good fortune to only by subsequent excavations of Religious Art and Architecture wall paintings but also by the dissee during a visit to Iraqtwo years The religious artifacts from Duraearlier.They had been discoveredby covery of an early Christian chapel. Europosare often noted as having a

168


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basic "oriental"character.Commentators have attributed this to either a return to Mesopotamian traditions as a direct result of Parthianinfluence, or to various elements that can be traced back "ultimately"(to quote Rostovtzeff)to Mesopotamian sources. This so-called oriental, or Syro-Mesopotamianquality, is in fact precisely the essence of Durene culture. One cannot correctly interpret the religious structures, whether pagan,Jewish, or Christian, from any perspective other than within the context of a typical, provincial Syro-Mesopotamiancommunity that is part of a long conservative history of religious and secular building. Beforepresenting the synagogue, mithraeum, and Christian chapel, one must consider the other, more popular expressions of religious art at Dura-Europos,so that the case for continuity in these three exceptional buildings will be clearer. Dura'sprimarygods, as mentioned earlier,were old, local Syrian deities such as Aphlad and Hadad. They were, consequently, housed in equally traditional surroundings. The architecturalplans and decorative programsfor their temples were rigorously Mesopotamian. In the second-century-A.D.Temple of the Palmyrene Gods, for example, all of the elements of the ancient Mesopotamian temple were present. One

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11 - Praetorium

12-Amphitheater 13- Bath 14-Templeof Jupiter Dolichenus(Dolicheneum) 15- Palaceof the DuxRipae 16- Military Temple 17-Templeof ZeusTheos 18- Houseof Nebuchelus 19- Houseof the Frescoes 20-Templeof the Gadd6 21 -Templeof Atargatis

22-Templeof Artemis-Nanai 23- Houseof the LargeAtrium 24- Houseof Lysias 25-Templeof ZeusMegistos 26- RedoubtPalace

Plan of the Roman city of Dura-Europos.Drawn by David O. Kiphuth.

entered from the street into a large courtyardframedby small chapels or temple dependencies. At least one altar, often with steps leading up the side, was set in the court. At the back of the court was located the broad-roomtype cella, or sanctuary, with a niche for the cult statue at the back. Evenwhen reconstructed the Dura temples remain faithful to their Mesopotamianprototypes, for mudbrick construction allowed little variety in exterior decoration. Moreover,like Mesopotamian temples, those at Dura-Europosexhibit few departuresfrom the basic plan. They are usually located in residential quartersand resemble pri-

vate houses in layout. Thus the intended parallel between religious and secular architecture in the ancient Near East is underlined:The former provideda dwelling for the deity and the latter provideda house for his mortal servants. All of the temples at DuraEuroposfollow another typical Mesopotamian practice-that is, they were embellished with programs of painted decoration. Among the best of the Dura wall paintings were from the Temple of the Palmyrene Gods. Unfortunately, they were uncoveredbefore formal excavations began, and thus are preservedtoday only in copies. The damagedscene

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGISTSEPTEMBER1984

169

from the cella is particularly interesting. It shows the donor Konon, son of the hellenized Durene Nikostratos, performinga sacrifice with the assistance of two priests. He is surroundedby members of his family. All of the figures face the viewer in a convention of frontality that may have been a gift of the Parthians and which was, in any case, standardfor artistic representations

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wall paintings illustrating cult ceremonies and the temple deity. In tandem with this conservative architecture,Durene religious iconographyis also derivativefrom earlier Mesopotamian sources. Two examples may serve to illustrate this dependence on early motifs. The first, a relief from the first-centuryA.D. Temple of Aphlad, is a fine blend of hellenized form set in an

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at Dura. This scene was one of three registers (the other two were essentially lost) divided horizontally by architectural moldings. One may compare this composition with the reconstruction of the cella from the Temple of Zeus Theos. There the worshippersare arranged,again in three registers,on the two sidewalls. Their attention, and that of the Durenes in the room, would have focused upon the back wall where a figure of the cult deity occupied the entire space. This scheme emphasized the orientation of the cella, and was used to a similar effect in the synagogue,in the mithraeum, and in the Christian chapel. Early Mesopotamian temples were, so far as we can tell, all decoratedin this manner, with registers and panels of

170

old Mesopotamian framework.The god Aphlad was the son of the Syrian god Hadad-a majordeity worshipped some two thousand years earlier at the neighboring site of Mari. Aphlad'ssanctuary at DuraEuroposwas nestled in the inner southwestern corner of the city wall and although it was badly damaged in the rampartbuilding of 254 A.D., all of the features of the standard Durene temple were evident. But the cult relief itself had been covered with a protective coating of plaster and is thus well preserved.Aphlad is representedhere in Greek, or perhaps Roman, military garb(the sleeves seem Roman),and he wears a Parthiancrown on his head. One might compare,among numerous earlier examples, the ninth-century-


chariot drawnby a griffin. As a final indication of the close link between Aphlad and his preclassical forebears,it should be noted that the Durene god holds a stylus in his right hand. It is certainly significant that three of the donors listed in this temple have theophoric names composed with Nabu, who was the ancient Mesopotamian patron deity of scribes, and bore the stylus as his attribute. Two-dimensionalrepresentations of gods in their shrines show a similar derivation from ancient Mesopotamian art. A typical graffito from Dura portraysthe great Palmyrene deity Bel Shamin seated in his temple with a priest officiating outside. The standardMesopotamian representation of a god in his temple

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Above:This limestone cult relief from the Templeof Aphlad dates to 54 A.D.and portraysa devotee offeringa sacrifice to Aphlad. Thegod is shown standing on the backs of two animals- a pose attested in the art of Mesopotamiaand Anatolia some two thousand years earlier.The relief is approximately 51 centimetershigh and is in the Damascus Museum.Below: Graffitofrom the Templeof the PalmyreneGods showing the deity Bel Shamin seated in his temple.

is exactly the same as is shown in ar Akkadian cylinder seal (twenty-thir century B.C.) that depicts the god of sweet waters, Enki, enthroned in his aquatic home with a worshipper outside the gate. From such abbreviated illustrations of a temple and its cult image, it is not difficult to trace the process whereby the cult niche or aedicula of these temples evolved. Two columns supportinga vault or gable that framed a cult scene at the back served as a microcosm of the entire sanctuary. Some of the Durene temples showed signs of having been partial-

Tp: Copyof a painting from the Templeof the PalmyreneGods. The donor Kononis shown surroundedby members of his family as he performsa sacrifice. Middle: Drawing by E E. Brownof the second centuryA.D.painted naos in the Templeof Zeus Theos. Bottom:The scenes at Dura-Europosof people standing on the backs of animals have many predecessorsin earlier Near Easternart. One such parallel is this scene from an Akkadian cylinderseal of the twenty-thirdcentury B.c.Here the weather god is shown ridingin a chariot being drawn by a griffin. Courtesyof the PierpontMorganLibrary,New York.


171

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Above:Plan of the synagoguein block L7 of Dura-Europos.Below: The synagogue wall paintings from the northwest cornerof the House of Assembly as reconstructedin the National Museum, Damascus.

near the city wall, the areaof DuraEuropos'latest expansion under the Romans.The mithraeum reflects the immediate presence of Roman troops in the city, for the cult of Mithra, a warriorgod and mediator of pacts, held a particularappealfor Roman soldiers. The synagogue served a local community of Jewish merchants whose commerce prospered because of the Roman garrison in the city. In contrast, the Christian chapel representeda very modest offshoot of a parent church in Edessa and was probablypreventedfrom expanding by Roman restrictions on Christianity. Whereas the mithraeum, synagogue,and chapel mirror religious trends throughout the Roman empire in the second and third centuries A.D., the buildings

themselves are strictly appropriate to Dura. They must, therefore,be examined in the context of the Dura community and must not be isolated as examples of certain categories of religious architecture and art. The Synagogue The synagoguewas the most elaborate and, consequently, the most spectacular of the three sanctuaries. It involved two building phases: The first phase was the conversion of a private house into a place for religious use, while the second phase, taking place some seventy-fiveyears later in 244/5 A.D.,involved expand-

ing and embellishing the earlierversion. The later complex occupied the width of an entire block. At the front was a suite for the congregation elder and a guest house for traveling Jewishmerchants; through it ly adaptedfrom preexisting secular

gious tenets, the synagogue,the structures - a transformation that mithraeum, and the Christian could easily be made to conform to chapel all adheredto local Durene the standardsof local religious archi- practices in plan and decoration. tecture. Even the three foreign sanc- Moreover,as they date to the same tuaries, whose appearancecoincided period and followed similar systems with the arrivalof Roman administo modify Durene norms, they even bear strong resemblances to each tration after 165 A.D.underwent other. such a transformation.Despite apAll three sanctuaries are located contradictions in relitheir parent

172


one gained access to the courtyard of the synagogue proper. Behind this court was the sanctuary, or House of Assembly, which was a broad room (11.5 by 7.5 meters) with the main entrance in the middle of the east wall and a secondary door at the southern end of the same wall. The Torah niche was set against the sanctuary's west wall, opposite the central entrance. It has been stated that

Above: Westwall photo montage of the synagogue.Below left: Isometric view of the synagogueruins showing the level of preservation.The west wall which borderedWallStreetavoided serious damage since it was coveredby the rubble fortification embankment. Drawing by Henry Pearson.Below right: A schematic arrangementof the synagogue wall paintings.

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Solomon AnointedKing?(WA 1);2. Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (WA 2); 3. Moses Receives the Law(11);4. Davidthe King; 5. Moses and the BurningBush (1);6. Exodus and Crossingthe Red Sea (WA 3); 7 Moses Smitesthe Rock (WB 1);8. Aaronand the Tabernacle(WB 2); 9. AbrahamReceives the Promise(IV); 10. Generationsof Israeland the GreatTree;11. EzraReads the Law 12. Templeof Solomon (WB 3); 13. Returnof the Ark(WB 4); (111); 14. ElijahRevivesthe Widow'sSon (WC 1); 15. Mordecaiand Esther (WC 2); 16. Sacrificeof Isaac; 17.Samuel AnointsDavid(WC 3); 18. Pharaohand the Infancyof Moses (WC 4); 19. Jacob at Bethel21 (N A 1);20. Battleof Ebenezer (N B 1);21. Hannahand Samuel at Shiloh(N B 2); 22. Visionof Ezekiel(N C 1);23. Davidand Saul in the Wildernessof Ziph(E C 1);24. Cleansing of the Temple(E C 2); 25. Setting up of the Tabernacle(S B 1);26. ? (S C 1);27 Elijahand the Widowof Zarephath(S C 2); 28. Victoryof Elijahoverthe Priestsof Baal (S C 3 and S C 4).

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the placement of this niche resolved for the first time the difficulty of having the congregationface the Torahniche, Jerusalem,and the interior of the room simultaneously (Kraeling1956: 25). One must note, however,that all of the religious structures immediately inside the city wall have their cult niche along the western wall of the building; the synagogue is merely following this standardpractice. Finally,the House of Assembly was lined with rows of benches at the foot of the walls, thereby seating first 65 people, and

then 124 in a later, expanded scheme. The synagogue thus follows the principles of religious architecture outlined abovefor Durene temples. Because the west wall of the House of Assembly borderedWall Street, it was preservedalmost to its original height by the rubble fortification embankment. In keeping with Durene religious architecture, it was decoratedwith multiregistered wall paintings, as was the entire room. The three registerswith figural compositions are divided

into panels illustrating biblical scenes. As far as they are understood today, they cannot be made to fit satisfactorily into any unified cycle or theme. But they can be summarized best as narrativeillustrations of the history of the Jewishfaith from Moses and the Exodus,the Ark of the Covenant, and the Temple of Solomon to scenes of deliverance and prophecy- all serving to reaffirm most vividly for the local Jewish community the close covenant binding them, as people of Israel, to God.


173

19

IGlass fragmentfrom the bottom of a fourth-century-A.D. bowl. In the center of the upperregisteris a gabled Torahark with open doors revealingsix Torahscrolls on four shelves. All rights reserved,The MetropolitanMuseum of Art; RogersFund, 1918(18.145.1a, b).

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in the synagogueat Dura-Europos hasattractedmuchattenThetionniche overthe yearsbut surprisinglyfew scholarshavequestionedits

precisefunction.Wasit a fixed repositoryfor biblical Scrollsor more simplya placewherea scroll(orscrolls)wasputon displaywhennotin use duringthe service?I preferthe latter,andsomeyearsagosuggestedsucha possibility for the somewhat contemporaryPalestiniansyngogueat Khirbet Shemac in Upper Galilee, (Ancient Synagogue Excavations at Khirbet Shemac, Upper Galilee, Israel, 1970-1972, American Schools of

OrientalResearchandDukeUniversityPress,Durham,NorthCarolina, 1976,page53). The most obviousproblemwith the interpretationof the niche at as a shrinemeantto containall of the biblicalscrollsis its Dura-Europos size.Itsrathershallowdepth(41centimeters)andits narrowwidth(84centimeters)make it most unlikelythat it was intendedto hold all of the scrollsrequiredto conductanentirecycleof servicesthroughoutthe year. It shouldbe notedthatat Dura-Europos eachof the biblicalbooks,includingthe fivebooksof the Pentateuch,probablyexistedasa separatelyrolled scroll(megillah)-with perhapsthe exceptionof the TwelveMinorProphets,whichmayhavebeengroupedtogetherin onescroll.Therollingof the Pentateuchas one hugescrollwasa laterpractice(earlymedieval?). was The alternativeinterpretation-thatthe niche at Dura-Europos the placewherethe scrollor scrollsbeingreadin worshipweredisplayed whennot in use-is morereasonable. distinctfromthe to thisdayhavea displayrepository, Mostsynagogues Ark,wherethe Torahscrollis set out at a particulartime in the service room whenit is notbeingread.Inthe firstbuildingphaseat Dura-Europos, 7 mayhavefunctionedas a permanentstorageareaforscrolls.Thelectern in the centerof the sanctuary,or ratherthe purportedplacewhereit was thoughtto havebeen,is wherethe scrollwouldactuallyhavebeenread, with individualsbeingcalledforwardto recitetraditionalblessingsbefore andafterthe readingof the scroll.In the secondbuildingphasethe situationis abitmorecomplicated,thoughoneofthesmallerroomsofftheforecourtcouldeasilyhavefunctionedas a permanentstorageareaforscrolls. served In short,we neednot assumethat the niche at Dura-Europos the samefunctionas the Torahshrinesin Palestineandthosedepictedin ancientPalestinianandRomanart.Thereis no doubt,however,that the nicheplayeda centralpartin the service. EricM. Meyers

174


The first decorativeplan for the House of Assembly was simple and dates to the second building phase around 244/5 A.D.It involved the Torahniche and the wall space above it. The niche, where the scrolls were kept, consisted of a standardaedicula design of two columns framinga niche whose vault was embellished with a molding imitating a conch shell. Originally a canopy with a hanging curtain was attached on top in orderto shield the scrolls from view. On the lintel were depicted symbols essential to Judaism:in the center was a scroll chest in the shape of a temple (perhapsa faithful copy of the first temple in Jerusalem); to its left was the gold, sevenbranchedcandlestick or menorah with the palm branch and citron of the New Year;on the right side Abrahamwas shown about to sacrifice Isaac with the hand of God miraculously providinga sheep. The area abovethe Torahniche was painted with a large tree, probably the tree of life, with an empty throne and table awaiting the messianic king at its foot. This basically symbolic pictorial programwas abandonedfive years later, however,in conjunction with a far more ambitious scheme of decorating the entire room with paintings whose subjects were no longer symbolic in theme but were strictly narrative.This change must reflect an increase in the size and prosperity of the community from 244/5 to 249/50 A.D.,for it corresponds to the expansion of the seating area.It must also reflect a reaffirmation of the community's faith and piety, perhapspromptedby shifts in the political situation outside of the city. Whateverits explanation, if a decorative programof this sort is unexpected from our present knowledge of synagogue art, it certainly conforms quite reasonablyto local religious practices. The twenty-eight panels preserved (andvisible today in a reconstructed House of Assembly in the

Scene of the Exodus and the Crossingof the Red Sea. This panel (WA 3) from the House of Assembly shows the disproportionatelylargeMoses representedthree times. On the far right he leads the children of Israel out of Egypt,in the center he causes the waters of the Red Sea to close and drown the pharaoh'sarmy,and on the left he parts the waters, allowing the Israelites to cross and continue on to the promised land.

Damascus Museum) represent only half of the original series. The west wall with the Torahniche was found standing almost intact, but the two side walls were sheared off by the rampartcut and the east wall was barely preserved.Nonetheless, what remains gives an unusual and provocative insight into third-centuryA.D.Judaismin the Diaspora. The artists followed a rigid system of conventions that needs to be explained. All laymen, whether Samuel anointing David or the pagan priest of Bacal,are depicted wearing the standardHellenistic clothing of a tunic with a himation or long, wrappedcloak. In contrast, court and temple personnel are distinguished by their oriental garbbaggy trousers, soft boots, and a belted tunic with long sleeves - a convention that holds true regardless of nationality and thus is equally suited to an Egyptianpharaohor to the oriental Ahasuerus, the Persian king in the book of Esther.With little exception, all figures face the viewer in what is termed Parthian frontality-a system common to all Durene wall painting. Finally, depiction of narrative(drawnfrom biblical texts and more frequently from Aramaic translations or paraphrases of them) takes precedence ovel symmetrical composition. The narrative may thus proceed from left to right, from right to left, from foregroundto

background,or the reverse,merely according to what the artist considered was most expedient and effective. All of these conventions are to be considered in interpretingthe following outstanding panels. The very long panel in the upper right corner of the west wall (WA 3) is perhaps the most successfully ambitious narrativescene. It illustrates

The

Exodus the

shows ing of range able

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the Exodus story and shows the full range of artistic conventions at the artist's disposal: the disproportionately large Moses who appearsthree times and dominates the panel; the abbreviatedrenderingof crowdsof people, with only the front line properlydepicted;and the use of small details to pinpoint the narrative (forexample, the pillars of fire and darkness and the two clouds of hail). The first scene at the far right of the panel portraysthe Exodus;the central scene shows the drowningof the Egyptians,and the third scene, on the left, depicts the Israelites crossing the Red Sea. That these

three scenes arrangedfrom right to left do not match the actual sequence of events also reflects the liberties that the Durene artists felt they could take. Similar compositional distortions occur in the exceptional panel that occupies the entire bottom register of the north wall (N C 1).It can best be entitled the parableof Ezekiel and the Destruction and Restoration of National Life. In the middle of the panel two large figures of Ezekiel, wearing a tunic and himation and in a pose of proclamation patterned after Roman imperial sculpture, divide the narrativeinto two sections. The narrativethen commences on the left and moves towardthe center: Ezekiel, portrayed as a prince of his people (hence in Persian garb),is first set down by the hand of God in the Valley of Dry Bones; he then appears,again under the command of God, to prophesy that the bones will come togetherwhich they do as an earthquake tears aparta mountain; finally, four winds (shown as psyches) restore breath to the inanimate bodies. The narrativethen moves to the areabetween the two central figures of Ezekiel where a group of people are shown representingthe restored children of Israel.The scene to the far right of the panel was modified several times and is difficult to interpret. It may referto the catastrophic


175

events leading to the BabylonianExile and may serve as an illustration of God'spunishment for impiety. Thus, the entire composition would have visually communicated to the congregationthe parableof their nation's rebirth as part of God'scovenant to his people. Other panels are much simpler in composition and execution. The story of Mordecaiand Queen Esther, a theme dear to Mesopotamian Jews, is found in a prominent place to the left of the Torahniche (WC 2) and drawsits inspiration primarily from Parthiancompositions. Other panels are completely static, as is the representation of cosmic Jerusalem(W B 3) with its seven city walls painted in the seven planetary colors of the Babyloniancosmology and surroundinga hellenized Temple of Solomon. The finest paintings were reserved for the four narrowpanels framing the redesignedarea above the Torahniche. The upper left panel (II)is damagedbut must have shown Moses receiving the laws on Mount Sinai. On the right is a fine painting of Moses before the burning bush (I).Below them stand the portraits of Ezrareadingthe laws after his return from the Exile (III)and Abrahamreceiving the covenant of God (IV).The four figures framed the focal point of the entire decorative program- a central panel with an enthroned king, the King of All Israel. Thus was completed the historical narrativethat translated in visual terms the very special nature of the synagogue congregation's bond to God. There is no doubt that the elaborate nature of these wall paintings is exceptional, even when the limited skills of the Durene artists are considered. The synagoguepaintings are also considerably more elaborate than the paintings found in other buildings at Dura-Europos.This is perhaps in part a result of the remarkable preservationof the synagogue paintings, whereas other pos-

176

Detail of the parable of Ezekiel and the Destruction and Restorationof National Life in a wall painting (panel N C 1)from the House of Assembly. The central scene shows the four winds, portrayedas Psyches, restoringbreath to the inanimate bodies.

sibly comparableexamples from the center of the city have now been lost. But it also results from what appearsto be a departurefrom the standardthemes of Durene representations in paint towardnarrativeart and in this the Durene artists proved unusually resourceful. There is no need, however,to postulate that the Durene synagogueartists were copying programsfrom other synagogues or illustrated manuals. The conventions that the artists used are paralleled in other paintings at Dura, and the concept of decoratingthe walls of sacredbuildings is basic to Durene religious architecture.It is far more reasonableto credit the synagogue artists with an original programadaptedfrom local practices than to search for outside sources for which there is no supporting evidence. Two other unusual sanctuaries at Dura-Europos-the mithraeum and the Christian chapel- pale somewhat in comparison to the synagogue for they were built by modest congregations. Since the two reflect comparablereligious trends and markedly similar architectural


systems, they shall be considered together. The Mithraeum and the Christian Chapel Forseveral centuries the Mithraic cult, a religion popularwith Roman soldiers, was a powerful rival to Christianity. Mithraism, however, bore within it the seeds of its own decline. It was a mystery cult for men only and was restrictedto a small body of initiates. Christianity, since it drew its members from the entire family structure, steadily gained adherents at the expense of Mithraism, which disappearedby the sixth century A.D. At Dura-Europosthe sanctuary to the god Mithra, located in the northwest corner of the city wall, was built during the same period as the synagogue,with which it shares several features. The mithraeum, however,was always intended as a religious structure. It was built on a previously vacant lot and was dedicated in 168 A.D.Unlike standard mithraeums, this sanctuary was not in an undergroundcrypt, symbolizing the cave in which Mithra fought

his heroic and symbolic battle against the bull, but instead it was set abovegroundlike all Durene temples. It consisted of a long, narrow room with the cult niche at the western end. Like the Torahaedicula this niche was framedby two columns or piers painted to imitate marble. It was approachedby seven steps that symbolized the seven stages of Mithraic initiation and again alluded to the seven planets. The barrel-vaultedniche contained two successive but coexisting reliefs of Mithra tauroctonos, the bullTopleft: Franz Cumont (left) the motifs slayer.Among painted and Michael I. the niche were the framing larger Rostovtzeffphotofigures of two magi recalling the graphedin the mithraeum following its discovery in the Moses-Ezra-Abraham panels in 1932. Dr. Cumont, a BelThe hunt scenes painted synagogue. gian scholar, excavated at Duraon the side walls were a commercial Europosin 1922 and 1923 with the assistance of the FrenchAcademy. job:Mithra stares out at the viewer Laterexcavation at the site was underwith a rigidity typical of these taken by ProfessorRostovtzeff,the leader of scenes. There are numerous similar the YaleUniversity expedition. Topright: Excavationphotographof the late sanctuaryof hunt scenes at Dura-Europos.An the mithraeum.Bottom:Isometric drawing by original adaptationof the scene, Henry Pearsonof the last redecorationof the mithroewhich took place around240 A.D.The area of the however,occurs in the synagogue urnm niche is shaded. where an artist transferredthe hunt pattern to his representationof the The Christian chapel is the Battle of Ebenezer(N B 1).Therefore um placed at one end from which to the sources of the mithraeum'sart most modest of these three strucaddresslargegatherings.Secondly, and architecture,as well as its entire tures. It was convertedduring Dura's the small room in the northwest cordecorativescheme, remain basically final decade from a privatehouse ner of the house was made into a Durene; this would have seemed un- built in 23213A.D.This conversion baptistry.It was the only decorated canonical elsewhere in the Roman involved two majorchanges. First, room in the building. As might be but blended in sucthe main hall was empire certainly living expanded expected by now, it too had an into the adjoiningroom with a podi- arched niche at the western end to cessfully at Dura-Europos.

BIBLICALARCHAEOLOGISTISEPTEMBER 1984

177

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Above left: Excavationphotographof the northwest cornerof the baptistryin the Christianchapel showing part of the font and the painted registersof the north wall. Above right: The niche of the baptistryin situ. Bottom left: The niche is shown in this drawing by the expedition'sartist, Henry Pearson.The main scene portraysJesus as the good shepherdwith his flock. Just below him and to the left is a sketchy renderingof Adam and Eve.The drawing is taken from Kraeling1967.Bottom right: Diagramof the decorations on the north and south walls of the Christianbaptistry.These drawings are by Henry Pearsonand are taken from Kraeling1967.

house the baptismal basin. The decoration of the columns to imitate marble, the stars painted in the vault, and the small floral panels framingthe arch of the niche are identical with the motifs inside the mithraeum niche. This chapel is painted with appropriatescenes against the back wall of the niche and in registers

178

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BIBLICAL 1984 ARCHAEOLOGIST/SEPTEMBER

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along the side walls. They are decidedly primitive in style. A scene of the Good Shepherdwith his flock occupies the niche along with the smaller figures of Adam and Evelocated just below and slightly overlapping him. Stylistically comparable are the paintings of Christ healing the paralyticand Christ walking on the Sea of Galilee located on the

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upper registerof the north wall. The lower north register,depicting the three women's visit to Christ'stomb on Eastermorning, is somewhat more carefully composed. Links with the synagoguepaintings are especially visible in a further scene of the Samaritanwoman at the well, a renderingwhich is very close to the synagogue panel of Elijahand the

Top:This section of panel N B 1 from the synagogueportraysthe Battle of Ebenezer.It can be comparedto numerous hunt scenes at DuraEuropos,such as the one in the mithraeum which is shown at the beginning of this article. Bottom: The story of Mordecaiand Queen Esther,a theme dear to MesopotamianJews,is shown in this detail of panel W C 2 from the synagogue.


179

Suggestions for FurtherReading The Excavations at Dura-Europos,PreliminaryReports.

New Haven:YaleUniversityPress.

FirstSeason,Spring1928.Baur,P.V.C., andRostovtzeff,M. I., editors, 1929. Second Season, 1928-1929. Baur,P.V. C., and Rostovtzeff,M. I., editors,

1931.

AAn?

Third Season, 1929-1930. Baur,P.V. C., Rostovtzeff,M. I., and Bellinger,

A. R.,editors,1932. FourthSeason,1930-1931.Baur,P.V.C., Rostovtzeff,M. I., and Bellinger,A. R.,editors,1933.

Fifth Season, 1931-1932. Rostovtzeff,M. I., editor, 1934.

SixthSeason,1932-1933.Rostovtzeff,M. I.,Bellinger,A. R.,Hopkins, C., andWelles,C. B.,editors,1936. Seventh and Eighth Seasons, 1933- 1934 and 1934- 1935. Rostovtzeff,

widow Sareptah(panel S C 2). None of the chapel paintings, however, demonstrate any artistic skill; those in the preservedupper register are hardly better than graffiti and must be the work of a zealous but untrained member of the congregation who adapted,accordingto his own limited abilities, various scenes from a popularharmony of the Gospels. It is, therefore,fruitless to attempt to establish iconographical

ties between this series of paintings and early Christian art in the West. The chapel is, again, strictly Durene. The similarity in internal layout and decoration between this baptistry, the mithraeum, and certain aspects of the synagogue,is striking. Beyondtheir comparablesolutions to the problems of adaptingpreexisting forms to their divergentrequirements, all three derive stylistically from a local imitation of Palmyrene art. Forinstance, the Hypogeum of the Three Brothersat Palmyrais an elegant version of the niches in the Dura-Europosbuildings - the barrel vaulting with a patterned ceiling, the painting at the back of the vault, the frontal figural representations all appearas a harmonious arrangement of what the Durene shrines sought to emulate. But the real innovation of the Dura synagogueand, with less success, the Dura chapel, is that their artists struggledto carry

180

M. I.,Brown,E E.,andWelles,C. B.,editors,1939. Ninth Season,1935-1936.Rostovtzeff,M. I.,Bellinger,A. R.,Brown, E E.,andWelles,C. B.,editors.

PartI: The Agora and Bazaar, 1944. PartII: The Necropolis, 1946. PartIII: The Palace of the Dux Ripae and the Dolicheneum, 1952. The Excavations at Dura-Europos,Final Reports.

New Haven:YaleUniversityPress

VolumeIII, PartI, Fascicle1:Downey,S. TheHeraclesSculpture, 1969. PartII, Fascicle2:Cox,D. H. TheStoneand Plaster Sculptures,1977(LosAngeles). VolumeIV, PartI, Fascicle1:Toll,N. TheGreenGlazedPottery, 1943. Fascicle 2: Cox, D. H. The Greek and Roman Pottery,1949

PartII, Pfister,R., andBellinger,L. TheTextiles,1945. PartIII, Baur,P.V.C. TheLamps,1947. PartIV, Fascicle1:Frisch,T.G., andToll,N. TheBronze

VolumeV,

Objects, 1949. PartV, Clairmont, C. The Glass Vessels, 1963. Fascicle 3: Dyson, S. L. The Commonware Pottery, the Brittle Ware,1968.

PartI, Welles,C. B.,Fink,R. 0., andGilliam,J.F.,The Parchmentsand Papyri,1959.

VolumeVI, Bellinger,A. R. TheCoins,1949. VolumeVIII,PartI, Kraeling,C. H. TheSynagogue,1956.

PartII, Kraeling,C. H. The Christian Building, 1967.

General Texts Cumont, E 1926 Fouilles de Doura-Europos(1922-1923),two volumes. Paris:Paul Geuthner. Hopkins, C. 1979 The Discovery of Dura-Europos,edited by B. Goldman. New Haven:YaleUniversity Press. Perkins,A. 1973 The Art of Dura-Europos.Oxford:ClarendonPress. Rostovtzeff,M. I. 1938 Dura-Europosand its Art. Oxford:ClarendonPress.


the Mesopotamian traditions of wall painting beyond the static towarda renderingof narrative. Conclusion In conclusion, there are two points which must be stressed with regard to the Dura-Europosfinds. The first -the close relationship between the basic design of the pagan Durene temple and that of the synagogue, the mithraeum, and the Christian chapel-is one which has been demonstrated throughout this article. The second concerns the broadernature of Near Easternart. All ancient Mesopotamian art, with only a few exceptions promptedby political motivations, served a religious function. Concurrently,all religious structures requiredthe addition of artwork in orderto be distinctive from their secular counterparts. Thus votive sculptures and wall paintings with religious themes were dedicated by devotees of the

various cults as a propertoken of their piety and as the only means of elevating these divine houses beyond the standardsof human dwellings. This tradition is contraryto the Greco-Romannotion of art as an aesthetic creation with its religious function assuming a secondary role. A provincial community like DuraEuroposwas only superficially influenced by Greco-Romantrends filtering in from artistic centers like Palmyra and it preferredinstead to cling to its Near Easternheritage. Perhaps one can see in the Christian chapel at Dura-Europosa manifestation of the religious art that would emerge in the West and which was, ultimately, deriving its conceptual sources from the ancient Orient. Acknowledgment All photographsfor this article, unless indicated otherwise, were supplied by the YaleUniversity Art Gallery.

OF.)F~~ CO pI U

W. EAlbright

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Institute of ArchaeologicalResearch in Jerusalem is pleasedto announce new Academic Excavation Appointments Fieldtrip Publication Fellowships programs and improved Researchlibrary Workshops Scholars'residence Forfurtherinformationcontact: ASORAdministrativeOffices 4243 SpruceStreet Philadelphia,PA 19104 Tel:(215)222-4643

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181

BA

GUIDE TO ARTIFACTS

In 1973 excavatorsat Beer-shebadiscovereda dismantled horned altar of stone. The superimposeddrawing shows how it might have appeared in its original setting. Excavationphotographis by Zev Radovan.

Incense Burners Excavated by MervynD. Fowler t mightbe difficultat firstforone to appreciatethe

enthusiasm that is often generatedby the discoveryof an incense burner or the like. Why on earth should these objects, which frequently come to light, cause so much excitement? To answer this question we must recognize that archaeologists in Syria-Palestinestill lack a consensus on criteriafor identifying buildings as "sanctuaries."Welook, therefore,to excavatedcultic objectsto confirm the identification. Since incense featuredprominently in Israelite ritual, the incense burner is generally assumed to be one such artifact.But let us examine this claim.

Excavatorsin Palestinehaveuncovereda varietyof objects that they venture to identify as incense burners or incense altars,some of which doubtless had a cultic function. Among these are square homed altars, usually carefully carved out of limestone. Besides the altars of burnt offeringsfromthe FirstTempleperiodfoundat Arad (Aharoni 1969: 31-32) and Beer-sheba (Aharoni 1974), much smaller horned altarshave survived from IronAge Palestine.These havebeen identifiedas "altarsof incense." is now lost to us, although if The significance of the hornms served a practicalpurpose,as seems likely, they could they well havebeen used originallyto immobilize an unwilling


183

Farleft: The excavatorof Tel Dan, AvramBiran,believes this is "notan altar of incense, but of burnt offerings."In this photographthe author is pointing to a channel cut into the limestone block that is thought to have drained the blood from the sacrifice of small animals. Photographis by S. J.Tanner,courtesy of the TelDan Expeditionof Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Near left: Horned altar from Megiddo. Photographis used courtesy of the Israel Departmentof Antiquities and Museums.

victim; the design would then have been handed down to the altar of incense, where the horns may have done no more than supportan incense bowl. In contrastto the altar of burntofferings,the discoveryin situ of a homed altarof incense is not necessarily proofof a public shrine. These objectsappearto havebeen employedin privatecultic practice also, since severalhave been recoveredfrom private houses of the IronAge.Whetherone such artifactowedservice to a public or a private cult can only be conjectured from its size and findspot. At Arad,two incense altarsof stone, 0.4 and0.5 meters high, were found on the steps leading up to the Holy of Holies of the Israelite sanctuary (Aharoni 1969: 31-32). These altars,the tops of which areconcave,providefurther evidence of objects that played a part in ancient Israelite ritual. It is doubtful, however,that every similarly identified artifactwas so employed in ancient Israel. We will do well to remember that incense had, and still has, many uses in the East.In partsof south Arabiait is burned at the time of the taking of an oath, while Bedouin have used it to fumigate the hair. The Jews of Yemenused to burnfrankincenseat funeralsand to assist

The Holy of Holies at Arad. This photographshows the sanctuary as it was found with the two altars lying on their sides. Thephotograph is from "TheIsraelite Fortressat Arad,"by Z. Herzog,M. Aharoni,A. Rainey,and S. Moskovitzin the Bulletin of the American Schools of OrientalResearch254.

184


labor during childbirth. In the ancient world, incense featuredprominently as a healing agent for all manner of ailments, sometimes functioning in a fumigatorycapacity. The Near Easthas neverbeen freefromoffensiveodors, and the currentpractices of dryingout animal droppings overbrushwoodin the sun and of bringinglivestock into the home arebut two of the manyconditions that promote the breedingand spreadof germs.In ancient Israel,the drying of meat and the decomposition of sewageand garbage wereamongnumerousadditionalfactors,all ofwhich called for the application of an air-purifyingagent. Accordingly, incense andotheraromaticswereburnedas deodorants. In ancient Israelite sacrificial ritual this also would have served to act as an insecticide, as well as a protection against disease. Incense Burnersor Braziers? The artifactsin question include round stands cut out of limestone, sometimes foundtogetherwith a potterybowl, similarly crowned tubular pottery stands, and pottery models, supposedly of shrines. It is quite possible that some of these so-called cultic objects were no more than braziersforheating in winter. This may be true of the rectangularclay standswith side openings that come fromthe EarlyBronzeIIIsanctuaryat et-Tell,the supposed clay incense altarfromTaanach,anda bronze openworkstand of uncertain provenancefrom Megiddo. That the brazierwas employed in ancient Israelis attested in Jeremiah36:22-23. Here it is said of Jehoiakim (who ruled about 608-598 B.c.):"Itwas the ninth month, and the king was sitting in the winter house andtherewas a fireburningin the brazierbeforehim"(RevisedStandard Version). Appropriately,in the Hebrew calendar the ninth month, Kislev, fell in mid-winter.Braziersare known to have been used in the royalpalaces of Kilamuwaand Barrakibin Syria.They have been excavatedfrom the throne rooms having a layout that exemplifies Syrian and Assyrian throne rooms of the ninth and eighth centuries

Left:Identified as an incense burner,this object was found in a domestic house at Tell Qiri dating from the twelfth to eleventh centuries B.c. Right: Cult stands and bowls from the small Philistine shrine at Tell Qasileh (twelfth century B.c.).

incense could be droppedon any fire in a the brazier, discoveryof such an objecthardlyjustifies the description "incense burner." B.C.Although

Other Uses The designation "incense stand,"ubiquitous throughout scholarly literature,is in fact a misnomer. Since some of the stands from the end of the Late Bronze Age in Israel through IronAge I were found together with a bowl, it appears that the stands themselves had no specific function other than to support such bowls. Nor can we always be surewhether a particularbowl andstandonce formeda set. The situation at Lachish is typical. The excavator is writing about a groupof supposed cultic vessels found in the small Israelite sanctuary there: "Ofthe four incenseburners, two stands are fenestrated. Only two of their bowls were found with them. We are unable to ascertain which of the stands and bowls belong to one another, or whether different stands were used for the same bowl" (Aharoni1975:26). The incense contained in the bowls would, of course, need to be fired,yet one cause of concernto archaeologists is that many of the so-called incense burnersfound at the varioussites in Palestine show no evidence of combustion whatsoever. Taanachis a case in point. Despite the fact that the tell has yielded many differenttypes of stand,not one shows the slightest signs of burning. The obvious explanation for this is that the function of these objects was by no means confined to the burningof incense: They may well have served a variety of uses, either sacred or secular,including sacreduses as libation funnels, libation stands, and objects for holding sacred plants used in agriculturalrituals. Clearly,the precise function of these supposedcultic objects is often a question of speculation. As one eminent Israeli archaeologist confided to me recently, "To be an archaeologist you need a good imagination." Clearly, many objects classified as cultic incense burners were probably nothing of the kind. It is often

stressed that discardedcultic objects were consideredtoo sacred to be put into profaneuse and that, consequently, they endedtheir daysin cultic garbagedumps,the so-called favissae (a phenomenon that is cited frequently as evidence, per se, of a cultic site). If this is so, then the discoveryof an allegedcultic objectin secondaryuse raises the question of whetherit was everconsideredto havebeen cultic by its redeployer.At Canaanite Hazorthe drainage canal in the temple in areaH is said to have been made of "disusedincense standswith triangular'windows'"(Yadin 1975: 113-14). On the abovepremise, however,it is more likely that either the standswere neverincense burnersin the firstplace,or,if they were,then they werenot employed as cultic objects. LaterAltars The discoveryof supposedincense altarsin Palestine continues into Babylonianand Persianperiods. At Tell Jemmeh, thirteen were uncoveredin levels 203 to 195, all but one decoratedwith geometric or conventional designs, as well as naturalistic representations of palm trees and animals. Foursimilarly decoratedexamples,togetherwith two others were found at Gezer in Macalister's ill-defined "Hellenistic" stratum (coveringabout 500-100B.c.). Comparable finds are reported from Tell el-Farcah(s),Samaria, and Makhmish, while lower Transjordan has yielded burners from Petra, Tell elKheleifeh, and Khirbet Tannur, and the Jordanvalley an examplefromTelles-Sacidiyeh. Fenestratedjar holder or incense stand discoveredin a domestic room complex at the IronAge II settlement of TellHalif (Lahav).


185

Manyof these aresmall and cuboidwith fourlegs, the last-named specimen being cut from a block of soft limestone that originallymeasuredat least 7 centimeters long, 6.7 centimeters wide, and 7 centimeters high. Neither the lateness of these objects,nor their decoration has done anything to alleviate the problem of identifying their originalfunction(s),however.It is unlikely that all of these artifactsdid serviceto public cult. At Ur, SirLeonard Woolley concluded that Neo-Babylonian examples belonged only to privatehouses, while Nelson Glueck was unsure whether one such objectfromKhirbetTannurwas everan incense burner.The identity of a cuboidstandfrom Lachish, 16.5centimetershigh with sides each measuring 11to 12centimeters in width, has also been questioned. It bears an Aramaic inscription that has been dated to the fifth or fourthcentury B.c.The inscriptionbegins with the wordlbnt, "incense,"andthe standis commonly held to be a cultic object. William Foxwell Albright, however, has arguedthat it is nothing more than a cosmetic burnerthat belongs to the secular world of cosmetics and the beautification of women (Albright1974). Conclusion the above On evidence, it is clear that many objects incense burnersnever served that function. as classified be Nor can we always sure whether those that did serve that function bearwitness to the cultic rites with which we are so anxious to identify them. Doubtless, incense featuredprominentlyin Israeliteritual,but to use the term incense indiscriminately, with its cultic overtones,

conceals the varietyof use to which variousspices and the like were put. Suggestions for FurtherReading Fowler,M. D. 1984 ExcavatedIncense Burners:A Case for Identifying a Site as Sacred? Palestine Exploration Quarterly 116 (forthcoming). Repletewith references,this article providesa moretechnical examination of the subjectof the presentarticle. Groom,N. 1981 Frankincenseand Myrrh.A Studyof theArabianIncense Trade. London:Longman.A comprehensive,yet readableaccount. Shea,M. O. 1983 The Small CuboidIncense- Burnersof the Ancient Near East. Levant 15: 76-109. This is a recent study of the later altars discussed above.

Bibliographyof Articles Cited Aharoni,Y. 1969 The IsraeliteSanctuaryat Arad.Pp.25-39 in New Directionsin BiblicalArchaeology,editedby D. N. FreedmanandJ.C. Greenfield. GardenCity, NY:Doubledayand Company. 1974 The HomedAltarof Beer-sheba.TheBiblicalArchaeologist37: 1-6. 1975 Investigations at Lachish: The Sanctuaryand the Residency (LachishV).Series:TelAvivUniversityInstituteof Archaeology Publication4. TelAviv:GatewayPublishersInc. Albright,W.E 1974 The LachishCosmetic Burnerand Esther2:12.Pp.25-32 in A Light Unto my Path:Old TestamentStudiesin Honorof Jacob M. Myers,editedby H. N. Bream,R. D. Heim, andC. A. Moore. Series: GettysburgTheological Studies 4. Philadelphia, PA: TempleUniversity Press. Yadin,Y. 1975 Hazor:The Rediscoveryof a Great Citadel of The Bible. New York:RandomHouse.

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Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt,by ErikHornung, translated by JohnBaines, 295 pp. Ithaca, New York:Cornell University Press, 1982; $25 (Cloth). Originally published as Der Eine und die Vielen, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1971). A debatearosein the nineteenth century and still goes on: Were the ancient Egyptians simply polytheists, or were they in some sense monotheists? Or was there at least a historical tendency towardmonotheism, a development towarda belief in a transcendentGod who standsabovethe multitude of individualgods?Hornungentersthis debate, arguing vigorously and convincingly against the notion that the Egyptianswerein anywaymonotheists duringthe entire pharaonic period-except during the reign of Akhenaton. Hornung approachesthe question by inquiring into the fundamental characteristics of Egyptian religion:How did the Egyptiansperceive,andthink about, and talk about, their gods? Hornung discusses the Egyptian terms for god (chapter 2), the names and combinations of the gods (chapter3), their depictionsandmanifestations(chapter4), their characteristics(chapter5), divine action and human response(chapter6), andthe classificationandarticulation of the pantheon, as well as a considerationof the natureand validity-of Egyptianlogic (chapter7). Hornung is in constant dialogue with Siegfried Morenz'sEgyptian Religion (Ithaca:Cornell University Press, 1970).The centralquestion both addressis the relationship between the unity of god andthe pluralityof gods ("theOne and the Many"of the original German title of Hornung'sbook) in Egyptianreligious belief. Morenz believed that behind the countless deities in the pantheon there was a growingawarenessof the existence of a single God.Homungsees no such movementtowardmonotheism. Hornung shows that the term the god or god in Egyptian wisdom literatureneverrefersto a divinity of a higher orderthan other gods;nor does this term imply an underlying monotheism; god or the god is a neutral term that can apply to any deity one might encounter. The process of syncretism, in which one god temporarily inhabits another, is by no means a move towardmonotheism, but rathera countercurrentto it, a way of formingnew entities for worship and of avoidingthe isolation of one god from the others. Homung says that the Egyptian gods do not transcend time or space-contrary to the usual understanding of what a god is. Gods are not eternal, nor is their existence unconditional or absolute. For the Egyptians, existence is inherently limited and limiting. Gods are born, grow old,

and die. Only the realmof the nonexistent, the primordial darkness and chaos representedby the snake Apopis, is eternal. The nonexistent, while a source of constant danger, also provides the potential for regeneration. Whateverexists, human or divine, when exhausted and dead, may pass through nonexistence to emerge regenerated, a process identified with the rising and setting of the sun. Yet,Hornungargues,even this potential forrejuvenation is not eternal. One day the realm of the nonexistent will utterly absorbeverythingandeveryone,including the gods. Only the nonexistent is eternal. (Hornungmay here be giving too much prominence to a poorly attested idea.) At the head of the Egyptian pantheon there is a supreme being. The qualities of supreme being do not, however,attach to any one god. Many gods can be called "lordof all that exists" "sole"or "unique"one. In the act of worship, (which Hornung defines broadly to include "ethicalattachment andobligation"),one may havesingled out one god and addressedthis one as alone significant. Only to this extent is Homung willing to concede unity in the realm of the divine. To explain the apparent contradiction inherent in speaking of many different gods as supreme, as well as other inconsistencies in Egyptian religion, Hornung describes Egyptianthought as the "logicof complementarity."Unlike the bivalent logic of A or not-A, complementary logic allows something to be both A and not-A, dependingon the point of view andmoment of observation (Homungcomparesthe logic of quantummechanics).The sky can be now a cow, now water, now the goddess Nut, now the goddess Hathor. Only the heretical monotheist Akhenaton insisted on a bivalent logic, affirmingthe One to the exclusion of the Many. Intriguingas Hornung'scharacterizationof Egyptian thought is, it may be unwarrantedto conclude frominconsistencies in Egyptianreligious statements that Egyptian thought is akin to multivalent logic. When we place side by side documents of different types -by different individuals fromdifferentperiodsandplaces- inconsistencies and contradictionswill inevitablyappear.Further,the major religious texts are themselves composed of different layers,which accruedwith little thoughtbeinggiven to the resulting inconsistencies. The Egyptians were certainly tolerant of inconsistencies, but toleration of inconsistencies is at best only loosely comparable to quantum logic, for the latter grows out of a demand for consistency in descriptions of observed data. Furthermore, Egyptian religious thought-like religious thought elsewhereoccasionally embraced paradox as a way of expressing mysterious truths. This book is an incisive introduction to Egyptian religion, scholarly and analytical yet charged with a certian moral energy deriving from the author's belief in the ongoing relevance of the intellectual attitudes of ancient Egypt. The Egyptian mode of thought, according to

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Hornung,views truth as multiple anddynamicandis thus inimical to absolutes and dogmatisms. In Egyptian thought no point of view can transcendhistorical space or legitimately claim absolute validity, for "Godhas never spoken his last word"(page254). Michael V.Fox University of Wisconsin-Madison Inanna:Queen of Heaven and Earth,by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer,xix + 227 pp., New York:Harper & Row, 1983; $ 7.95 (Paper),$16.95 (Cloth). It is the thesis of this book that Sumerianreligious beliefs includeda self-contained,coherent,andconsistent conception of the pantheon. This thesis, which runs counter to most previousviews on the subject,is not explicitly stated; rather,it is implicitly defendedand illustrated by appeal to the example of Inanna.The relation of this goddess to the rest of the pantheon is charted in genealogical terms (pagesx- xi) and, more particularly,narratedin terms of the tales aboutthe goddesscontainedin a varietyof literary genres- myths, lamentations, hymns, love songs, and others (pages1-110). These are said to addup to a kind of biographyof the goddess or, as it is here called, a "Cycleof Inanna."The biographytraces Inanna'sdevelopmentfrom flighty young girl, through courtship and nuptials, to the disillusionment of marriedlife as her husband, Dumuzi, neglects her for his royal duties and earns her deadly hostility. Ifthis description of the life cycle of a Sumerianheroine seems oddlymodern,oruniversal,it is no coincidence. Out of a welter of literarysources, often fragmentary,contradictory,or subject to very divergent understandings, Diane Wolksteinhas chosen those sourceswhich, suitably arrangedand interpreted, illustrate certain folkloristic motifs. Her work drawsto some extent on that of younger Sumerologists such as Bendt Alster, David Reisman, and William Sladekbut it rests in the first place upon the pioneering researches and translations of Samuel Noah Kramerandhas had the benefit of his review.Nonetheless it can easily be faulted. It should not be regardedas an authoritative presentation of the material in question: It omits whole compositions - indeed whole cycles of compositions, such as the three great hymns to Inanna attributed to the princess-poetessEnheduanna-which are equallyvalidforan assessment of the goddess;it rearranges the material in a way which, even with the help of the "Notes on the textual editing" (pages 205-207), makes collation with the originals difficult; it chooses between widely divergenttranslations in an eclectic manner- as illustrated for example by a comparison of the first two stanzas on page41 with the translations by Kramerin J.B. Pritchard (Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old

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Testament,thirdedition, Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press, 1969, page 639) and Thorkild Jacobsen(The Treasuresof Darkness,New Haven:YaleUniversityPress, 1976, page 28 and following). Given these and other reservations,why then call the book to the attention of the readerof a magazine such as BA at all? The reasons are threefold. One is the contribution of Kramer,who has devoteda lifetime to the recovery and reconstruction of Sumerian literature and who has never ceased to strive for better renderingsand better understandingof the texts; the present volume reflects this continuing role and addshis own reflections on that role and some of the conclusions to which it has led him (pages 115-135). The second is the contribution of ElizabethWilliams-Forte,who has carefullyselected over a hundredphotographsand line drawingsas graphicillustrations of the subject matter of the texts from the contemporaneous artistic repertoire and then explained these selections in useful and responsible annotations (pages 174-199; note, however, that the jacket photoand page 82-are printed from impressions, hence in mirrorimage;this was a votive seal and thus probablynot intended to be impressed at all). And, finally, though it is hardto accept her "Interpretationsof Innana'sstories and hymns"(pages136-173), the principal authorhas alerted us to the possibilities of a holistic, folkloristic reassessment of Sumerian poetry. Perhaps such a reassessment will eventually help win overduerecognition for what is at once the world'searliest literary corpus and the latest to be recovered. William W Hallo YaleUniversity Inanna:Queen of Heavenand Earth,by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer,xix + 227 pp., New York:Harper & Row, 1983; $ 7.95 (Paper),$16.95 (Cloth). A woman who gets drunkwith her grandfatherandmakes off with his most trusted possessions that he mistakenly gave her at the height of his inebriation; a wife that consigns her husband to hell as her replacement, she having gotten there in the first place because she wasn'tsatisfied being "queenof heavenandearth"but felt compelledto add the netherworldto her dominions - is this a woman who can serve "asinspiration, guide and model - for ourselves as well as for our children"(page xv)? The book under review was conceived by Wolkstein, a "story-tellerand folklorist,"to present the goddess for just such a purpose, and if this purposehas been served,it is only by presenting a very incomplete portraitof the goddess Inanna. The volume consists of a selection of stories and hymns about Inanna translated from the Sumerian by Kramer(with slight modifications and rearrangementby

Wolkstein),an introductionto the Sumeriansandthe story of the recoveryof the myth of Inanna'sDescent by Kramer, an interpretation of the Inanna texts by Wolkstein, and annotationsto the illustrations (fromancient artifactsand monuments) by E. Willams-Forte.The contributions by Kramer,the Nestor of Sumerianstudies,areup to his usual standard.Forthose wanting a more scholarlypresentation of the translations,or who areperhapsworriedabout how Wolksteinmay havealteredthe texts, Kramerprovidesconvenient notes on his sources and on what changes were made for this edition. His introduction to the Sumerians is the best ten-page"allyou'veeverwanted to know about the Sumerians"one could ask for, and the story of his recoveryof a Sumerian myth is an excellent window for laypersonson the arduoustasks of the philologist. Wolkstein'scontribution is problematic. The selection of Inannatexts was hers, and because she had begun the volume in quest of an "inspiration,guide, model,"she deliberatelyomitted one of the most importantaspects of Inanna:She is the goddess of war.As evidence, I quote only three not atypical lines of a hymn to Inanna, as translated by Kramer in J. B. Pritchard'sAncient Near Eastern Texts (page580): Inthevanofbattle,everythingwasstruckdownbeforeyou, Myqueen,youareall devouringin yourpower, Youkepton attackinglike an attackingstorm. Such lines could be multiplied ad infinitum. Another hymn includes, in a catalogueof Inanna'sattributes,"quarrel, rebellion, struggle, battle and massacre."That same hymn, to be sure,attributesto Inanna"mercy,compassion, care"as well as "desirabilityand libido."But this is the whole point: Inanna is a complex and highly ambivalent figurewho cannot be simplified to fit the modern reader's need fora sanitized role model. And might there not be an unconscious bit of sexual discrimination at work in the mind of a storyteller who allows her heroine to be a girl, a lover,a mother, and a queen but not a warrior? Wolkstein also misses another unpleasant aspect of Inannathat is evident in some of the texts she has selected. Inannais powerhungryandmanipulative.Heracquisition

appointment of love. Morespecifically, she was the avatar of all that men -who wrote down these stories - fear in women. Inanna, accordingto the Sumerians, could turn men into women (shudder),and it is with this in mind that one must interpretthe behaviorof her husband Dumuzi, when she returned from the netherworld. Rather than mourning her, he was spendidly dressed,sitting upon his "magnificentthrone."But not because (with Wolkstein) "kingshiphas become his path"(page162)but because he's happyto be rid of her!Inannacaught Dumuzi celebrating her death, ratherthan mourningit. Not to be outdone, she unhesitatingly consigned him to the netherworld as her substitute. Wolkstein'scommentary on the Inanna stories and hymns is unfortunatelyfilled with misinterpretationsand misunderstandings of things Sumerian, couched in a vocabularyheavily influencedby neo-Jungians,the human potential movement, and pop structuralism. The occasional insights are obscuredby all-too-frequentinterpretations that are utterly groundless. The selection of illustrations and their annotation arein generalquite professional, but there aresome inaccuracies:The goddesson the frontispiece is probablyNinhursag, not Inanna;the plaque on page 43 is from Susa, not Mesopotamia, and it does not represent the "sacredmarriage";the couple on page 111have their hands on each other's shoulders, not "encirclingthe partner'swaist"(page199). Despite all the criticisms above, the book is not without merit. My teen-agedaughter,who has formost of her life avoidedanythingsmacking of Sumer,unwittingly pickedthe book up andcouldn'tput it down.Neither could her friends, with whom she shared it. If this book turns people on to the Sumerians,entices them to go on to the popular works of Kramerand Jacobsen, or only makes them awareof the existence of Sumerian culture, then it has done a good deed. JerroldS. Cooper The JohnsHopkins University

of the me - the norms or powers of civilization - from the

drunkEnki is but one example in Sumerianmythology of her unwillingness to be satisfied with the already considerablepowerwith which she was originally endowed. And an unbiased reading of Inanna's Descent can only lead to the conclusion that Inanna went to the netherworld because, in the text's words, she "cravedthe Great Below," in addition to the "Great Above" which was already hers, and not, as Wolkstein suggests, in search of knowledge, or, as she suggests a few pages later, to be with her sister Ereshkigal who "had gone into labor and needed to be reborn" (page 160). Inanna not only embodied all that is delightful in love, delight that is amply attested to in the texts selected by Wolkstein, but she also embodied the danger and dis-

Reconstructing History from Ancient Inscriptions: The Lagash-Umma Border Conflict, by Jerrold S. Cooper, Series: Sources from the Ancient Near East 2/1, 61 pp. Malibu, California: Undena Publications, 1981; $8.65 (Paper). As the inscriptions insist, "it was a famous victory."The Lagash-Umma border war presents the modern reader with an object lesson in techniques of historical reconstructionusing tendentious,incomplete,and often misunderstoodsourcematerial.There is good precedentfor this: The inscriptions themselves present the protracted, bloody dispute as another sort of object lesson, in which human outrageand divine retribution are visited upon a


189

greedy and unreasonable foe. JerroldCooper has in mind forthe willing readerthe formerobject lesson, and toward this end providesfull translations and annotations of the ancient commemorativerecordsdealingwith the dispute. Cooper exploits the differences and similarities among these accounts to show how history can be written from such evidence.His workis aimed at both the generalreader and the informedspecialist, andboth should find much to interest them here. Cooper is at pains to point out the daunting limitations of our sources - broken,often unintelligible monuments whose texts seem to offera medly of artful prose propaganda;political and diplomatic buzzwordsand formulas-but he shows that they arenonetheless worthy of the historian'sattention. Assyriologistsareof necessity used to the "casestudy" approachto history, as for most of Mesopotamianhistory single cases are all they have to deal with, and they try to make patterns from them. In this manner, the LagashUmma boundarydispute can be taken as a representative the conflicts that aroseamongrapidlyexpandingsouthern Mesopotamian city-states in the mid-third millennium B.C.Read in this mode, the dispute is instructive: The cities were nearly equal in strength,so the fortunesof war seesawed back and forth. Parity called for alliance and diplomacy in the hope of outflanking the enemy. The dispute was over highly productive arable land. Battles werefought,truces werereachedthat wererecordedin clay and stone; then, when one side was ready,battle resumed again. The student of earliest political history will find here the main sources for our notions of what statecraft was like in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia. While Cooper touches on this aspect of his work in his first chapter,his interestslie elsewhere:first,what reallyhappened;second, how can we know what happened;and, third, what does this teach us about the possibilities and limitations of ancient sources? Cooper's object lesson therefore unfolds on two planes: first, the events as narrated in the texts; and, second, the narrationsthemselves. This is an ambitious undertaking,branchingout into many avenuesof humanistic inquiry. Cooper is at his best with his sources. He knows the texts and their problems intimately and has

cessful in the target tongue and a step forwardin comprehendingthese sources. Chapter5, "HistoricalTraditionand the Languageof History,"shows how a historical inquiry can expandinto a literaryone, because whateverone'sdefinition of history, as the wordwas originallyconceived,thereis an important literarycomponent to it. Borrowing,editing, telescoping, and creativity are all considered in a few suggestive paragraphs.Whereas chapter4 seems to exhaust the evidence forthe time being, chapter5 is more of an appealfor furtherresearch-where the authorstoppedbeforehis project got out of hand. Chapter 1 is a bit of a catchall, and, I think, should have been rewritten entirely for the general readerto tell him who, what, when, and where. As it is, the piece reads more like a distillation of recent researchon a variety of Early Dynastic issues than like the mise-en-scene one would hope for.It will not be easy goingforone not familiar with most of the technical literaturehe cites. Naturally the reader can offer a quibble or two. Chronicles are known as early as the nineteenth century B.C.,hardlya "millennium"afterour texts; note 28 on page 33 should be note 19 on page 15;note 8 on page 39 seems rathertoo much of a digression; page 23 should make it clearthat the rulers'subordinatesarein factmentioned frequently as "captions"in other early inscriptions, though not in the integral text. One can offera suggestion or two as well. Concerning the bewildering variety of media for our inscriptions slabs,steles, boulders,clay vases,clay cones andjars,disks, stone tablets, cylinders- these offerus a lesson too, if only we could divine it. I wonderif this varietyhas something to do with the divine sanction implied in manyof the texts and their anticipated audience. Forinstance, the possible associationof cones andjars(page15)suggeststhat the clay jars were not so much a medium as a vessel. They contained something relevantforthe text, either anothercopy of the same text in a more precious medium or, as seems likely too, some symbolic or magicalmaterial(grain,earth) that cannot now be known. An examplein stone ("Frontier of Shara")strongly implies that the text could be part of a complex dedication that contained some physicalsymbol of the events commemoratedin the texts. Other"editions"

mastered a goodly tradition of scholarship on them (chapter 4), not only on the texts themselves but also on the period they date to. His reconstruction of the course of events seems plausible and can take an honorable place among the others, especially since it has the advantage of new sources and studies that have appeared in recent years. His account is inherently logical, well written, and easy to follow and it is a masterly contribution to early Mesopotamian political history. His interpretation is worthy of the most exacting specialist's detailed consideration. His translations (chapter 6), a compromise between the scientific "Assyriological" type and a free style, seem to me suc-

were set out in media chosen to reach different anticipated audiences: monuments in the disputed territory, disks in walls, slabs and steles in ceremonial or monumental complexes, and (may one suggest it?) river-smoothed boulders redeposited symbolically in water, perhaps in a part of a temple complex that utilized a pool or stream for the perusal of Enki, one of the divine administrators of the oath. In the argot of modemrncommunications, we seem to have here a "media blitz;',"offering a lesson of its own in early human written communications; and to help us visualize it, Cooper includes some admirable photographs. The media "spread"reinforces the tone of the texts. The

case - or, if one prefers, another kind of object lesson-

of

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1984

191

bitterness, hatred, and violence that come of jealous weakness areamply reflectedin the extraordinaryassortment of surfaceschosen to hold the message.These issues were deeply felt and important in their time. A greatdeal of researchand reflection have gone into FrederickE. Greenspahn, Hapax Legomena in Biblical this monograph,one of the few by an Assyriologist that Hebrew A Study of the Phenomenon and its seeks to engage the interest of both his colleagues and a TreatmentSince Antiquity with Special Reference wider public. Forthis alone, as well as for its success, it to VerbalForms. Society of Biblical Literature deservesthe interestedreader'sthanks.The generalreader Dissertation Series 74. Chico, California: Scholars will findherea lot to challengeandinteresthim, even if not Press, 1984, xiv + 260 pp. List: $16.50 (Cloth), thread of the is accessible. Whatever $10.95 (Paper).Member: $10.95 (Cloth), $7.50 every argument easily "object lesson" he chooses to make his own from the (Paper). materials here offered, he has the opportunity to see Baruch Halpern, The Emergence of Israel in Canaan. precisely how specialists go about reconstructing their Society of Biblical LiteratureMonographSeries 29. most ancient history from texts. How hollow and forlorn Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1983, xiv + 334 pp. List: $36.75 (Cloth), $24.50 (Paper). the "famousvictories"of the pastwill look, no doubt,to the Member: $24.50 (Cloth), $16.50 (Paper). modern reader.His own society's "famousvictories"are more than these Howard and Clark Kee, Miracle in the Early Christian gory surely glorious morallyjustified World. A Study in Sociohistorical Method. New squabbles! Haven: Yale University Press, 1983, xii + 320 pp. $22.50 (Cloth). BenjaminR. Foster YaleUniversity

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