From: ane-digest-owner@oi.uchicago.edu To: ane-digest@oi.uchicago.edu Subject: Ancient Near East Digest V1 #66 Reply-To: ane@oi.uchicago.edu Errors-To: ane-digest-owner@oi.uchicago.edu Precedence: bulk Ancient Near East Digest Sunday, 27 March 1994 Volume 01 : Number 066 In this issue: Easter egg-breaking Serabit el Khadim Re: Easter egg-breaking Book of the Upright Bibliography Re: Easter egg-breaking Easter egg breaking Easter Eggs ANE Administrative [none] ' Re: Easter egg-breaking Easter Eggs yet again Gilgamesh/Bilgamesh Re: Gilgamesh/Bilgamesh [none] Arch. Conference, Israel LMLK, Rosette,"Private", etc. New Precolumbian history list - AZTLAN Re: Easter Eggs yet again hibis reconstruction Mystery text Davidic Dynasty More Arrabah milestones, Israel RE: 'Presuming' a Davidic Dynasty Sheba Mystery Text Davidic Dynasty & Methodology Re: =20 =20 See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the ANE or ANE-Digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: e.d.wardini@easteur-orient.uio.no (Elie Wardini) Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 11:40:15 +0100 Subject: Easter egg-breaking Quoting a contributor to a Lebanese news group (scl): On Easter Sunday, Fadi and his brothers would come over and challenge us to their "break-an-egg-a-thon"! Eventually, we started preparing hard boiled, albeit not coloured, eggs ourselves and wait for them to come over. (for those not in the know, egg-breaking competitions require a minimum of 2 players and 2 hard-boiled eggs. each contestant holds an egg in his fist, letting only the little-end of the egg appear, and then the first contestant hits the other's egg with his. the egg which breaks as a result will be handed over to the other contestant.) end of quote. Where does this egg-breaking tradition come from? Does it exist other places? is Lebanese (surely not?). Elie Wardini Department for East-European and Oriental Studies Semitic languages Post Box 1030 Blindern 0315 Oslo Norway tel. off.: +47 - 22 85 71 21 home: +47 - 22 19 03 49 fax: +47 - 22 85 41 40 e-mail: e.d.wardini@easteur-orient.uio.no ------------------------------ From: ncs3@cus.cam.ac.uk (Nigel Strudwick) Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 11:04:56 +0000 (GMT) Subject: Serabit el Khadim I recall hearing about archaeologists working relatively recently at Serabit el Khadim, and I was asked about it today by a student. Does anyone know anything more? Thanks Nigel Strudwick ------------------------------ From: Peter D Manuelian Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 07:36:38 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: Easter egg-breaking This is hardly a scholarly reference, but I remember playing the egg-breaking game as a kid, so there is an Armenian tradition as well. Peter Der Manuelian Egyptian Dept. MFA pdm@world.std.com ------------------------------ From: Jeff Tigay Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 08:17:51 -0500 (EST) Subject: Book of the Upright One detail may be added to Terense Kleven's remarks about the Book of the Upright: The presumed Hebrew Vorlage of "the Book of Odes" is sefer hashir (sh-y-r), and many scholars assume that sh-y-r and "Upright" -- yashar (i.e., y-sh-r) are metathesized forms of each other. Some assume that sh-y-r is the original, since all the citations from it are in poetic form. ============================================= Jeffrey H. Tigay (jtigay@ccat.sas.upenn.edu) Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies University of Pennsylvania, 847 Williams Hall Philadelphia PA 19104-6305 ============================================= ------------------------------ From: e.d.wardini@easteur-orient.uio.no (Elie Wardini) Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 14:23:03 +0100 Subject: Bibliography I am trying to compile a complete bibliography of Ebbe Egede Knudsen's works. He is professor in Semitic languages here at the University of Oslo. I am able to get hold of his newer articles, but his older ones (pre 1980) er more difficult to locate. If any of you have references to his works, could you please send me a copy?` Thanks in advance, Elie Wardini Department for East-European and Oriental Studies Semitic languages Post Box 1030 Blindern 0315 Oslo Norway tel. off.: +47 - 22 85 71 21 home: +47 - 22 19 03 49 fax: +47 - 22 85 41 40 e-mail: e.d.wardini@easteur-orient.uio.no ------------------------------ From: Lana.Troy@egyptologi.uu.se Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 16:54:45 +0100 Subject: Re: Easter egg-breaking To add to the non-scholarly references to Easter egg-breaking, I was introduced to the custom by Polish friends, and later heard E egg-breaking anecdotes (including pointers on how to win)about Danish Easter. [I seem to get the feeling that people are longing for spring and Easter break.] Lana >This is hardly a scholarly reference, but I remember playing the >egg-breaking game as a kid, so there is an Armenian tradition as well. > >Peter Der Manuelian >Egyptian Dept. >MFA >pdm@world.std.com > > > ************************************ * Docent Lana Troy (assoc. prof.) * * Department of Egyptology * * Uppsala University * * Gustavianum * * S-753 10 Uppsala /SWEDEN * * Lana.Troy@egyptologi.uu.se * * Voice 46-18-182079 * * Fax 46-18-127412 * ************************************ ------------------------------ From: "MARTHA A. MILLS" <71167.1004@CompuServe.COM> Date: 23 Mar 94 12:29:03 EST Subject: Easter egg breaking Again, not scholarly, but it is an old Eastern Orthodox custom; not only in Greece, but in most countries having an Eastern Orthodox presence. Martha A. Mills 71167.1004@Compuserve.com ------------------------------ From: "Joseph F. Angel" Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 13:38:40 -0600 Subject: Easter Eggs Continuing the non-scholarly citation thread, the custom of Easter egg breaking contests, by the rules outlined by Elie Wardini, also exists among Jordanians and Palestinians. There are numerous people in this part of Canada who are descended from Ukranian immigrants, and Pysanka (Easter eggs) are quite a folk-art form among the older set. I am talking about the batiked ones, with delicate patters made with diazo dyes on beeswax-masked RAW hen's, goose' and even quali's eggs. The carry a variety of Christian and pre-Christian (?) cultic symbols. No egg breaking contests with those! Joe ======================================= Joseph F. Angel, Professor and Head, Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan,Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada S7N 0W0 Tel 306-966-4361 FAX 306-966-8718 ------------------------------ From: cejo@midway.uchicago.edu (Charles E. Jones) Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 16:03:35 CST Subject: ANE Administrative I'll be away from e-mail until 4th April. If any of you should have any problems with the ANE list, please be patient for the next ten days or so. In a real emergency contact John Sanders at the Oriental Institute Computer Lab. - -Chuck- ------------------------------ From: knudsen@papyrus.berkeley.edu (Joan A. Knudsen) Date: Wed, 23 Mar 94 15:30:47 PST Subject: [none] An elderly lady on our recent Cal Alumni tour to Egypt is trying desperately to locate a copy of the Newsweek publication: "Museums of Egypt," in the Great Museums of the World series. It was published in 1980, has a lot of color photos and an introduction by Bob Bianchi. Does anyone know where I might find a copy for her? Thanks, Joan Knudsen knudsen@papyrus.berkeley.edu ------------------------------ From: redmount@garnet.berkeley.edu Date: Wed, 23 Mar 1994 19:24:01 -0800 Subject: ' ------------------------------ From: Michael Fuller Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 09:12:05 -0600 (CST) Subject: Re: Easter egg-breaking I have participated in this Easter practice with the family of Abouna Louis [priest for the Syriac Orthodox Church of Mary in Hasake, Syria] after we attended the Easter mass. He explained that the winner will have good luck. I visited 4 other Christian families (3 Syriac Orthodox and 1 Armenian family); each family made eggs in reserve for quests to use. These events are in my field notes from 15 April 1990. The church gave each person a small, oval shaped sticker for their clothing. The sticker bears the image of Christ standing at the open door of the tomb. A bi-lingual (Arabic and Syriac) inscription on the sticker reads " The Centre of Religious Education of Syrian Orthodox congratulates you at Easter". On Wed, 23 Mar 1994, Elie Wardini wrote: > Quoting a contributor to a Lebanese news group (scl): > > On Easter Sunday, Fadi and his brothers would come over and challenge us > to their "break-an-egg-a-thon"! Eventually, we started preparing hard > boiled, albeit not coloured, eggs ourselves and wait for them to come over. > (for those not in the know, egg-breaking competitions require a minimum of > 2 players and 2 hard-boiled eggs. each contestant holds an egg in his fist, > letting only the little-end of the egg appear, and then the first > contestant hits the other's egg with his. the egg which breaks as a result > will be handed over to the other contestant.) > > > > end of quote. > > > Where does this egg-breaking tradition come from? Does it exist other > places? is Lebanese (surely not?). > > > > Elie Wardini > Department for East-European and Oriental Studies > Semitic languages > Post Box 1030 Blindern > 0315 Oslo > Norway > > tel. off.: +47 - 22 85 71 21 > home: +47 - 22 19 03 49 > fax: +47 - 22 85 41 40 > e-mail: e.d.wardini@easteur-orient.uio.no > > > ------------------------------ From: "Richard Beal" Date: 24 Mar 1994 12:36:31 U Subject: Easter Eggs yet again Easter Eggs yet again Concerning the Easter egg breaking contests, my family too did them when I was a child, but there is no known Eastern Rite Christian connection in my ancestry; my family is German with some British admixture. So I suspected that the custom was a bit more widespread. A little looking in my library has turned up the following: John Brand, Observations on the Popular Antiquities of Great Britain (written in 1795) (on vol. 1 p. 169 of the postuhumous 3rd edition of 1853) describes the English custom of coloring Easter eggs w. wth the children subsequently engaging in egg breaking contests of the types others have described on this list, using the plainer less fancily died eggs. Comparison to Mesop. Christians is noted on p. 171. He suggests that the reason for this custom is that eggs were not eaten during Lent by both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians and so Easter was the first time eggs were again eaten. I hope this is helpful. Richard Beal c/o The Oriental Institute 1155 E. 58th St. Chicago, Ill. 60637 r-beal@uchicago.edu ------------------------------ From: Michael Dick Date: 24 Mar 1994 16:02:52 -0500 (EST) Subject: Gilgamesh/Bilgamesh Can an somebody tell me the evidence for the early reading of GISH+BIL2 as BIL3. How do we surmise an initial "B" (rather than the later OB? "G")? Is there a syllabary? Is the earliest evidence for a "G" the OB reading dGe-el-ga in an omen text? Michael Dick DICK@SIENA ------------------------------ From: Jose Rubio Pardo Date: Thu, 24 Mar 1994 17:05:20 -0500 Subject: Re: Gilgamesh/Bilgamesh On Thu, 24 Mar 1994, Michael Dick wrote: > > Can an somebody tell me the evidence for the early reading of GISH+BIL2 as > BIL3. How do we surmise an initial "B" (rather than the later OB? "G")? Is > there a syllabary? Is the earliest evidence for a "G" the OB reading dGe-el-ga > in an omen text? > Michael Dick > DICK@SIENA > - -------------------------------------- If you did not before, check S. Mowinckel "Wer was Gilgamesh?", _Acta Orientalia_ 15 (1937), 141-160 (also in K. Oberhuber, _Das Gilgamesh-Epos_, Wege der Forschung 215, Darmstadt 1977, 153-170). Also in _Bilgamesh und Akka_ (W. H. Ph. Roemer, AOAT 209/1, 1980), for example the text A (BJRL 19, 1935, 369 ff.) writes bil4 where the rest of the texts uses to write bil3 (lines 2, 3, 10, [in line 24 -not in text A-, text I (UM 10/2,5) gives bil4, and B and J give bil3], 40, in line 51, all the texts [B, G, and probably H and I] give bil4, etc.). Other problem would be the writting GISH.GIN2.MASH (check J. H. Tigay, _Literary-Critical Studies in the Gilgamesh Epic..._, Dissertation, Yale 1971). I do not know if this can help you. - ------------------------------------- Gonzalo Rubio Near Eastern Studies Johns Hopkins U. Gonzalor@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu - ------------------------------------- ------------------------------ From: RSHEPARD@ucs.indiana.edu Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 14:02:15 EST Subject: [none] help ------------------------------ From: ofer avi Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 22:29:35 +0200 (IST) Subject: Arch. Conference, Israel The 20th Archaeological Conference in Israel took place in March 23-24, 1994. Only one session dealt with early periods (Bronze and Iron ages). Yossi Stepanski described his survey south of Hazor, and tried to identify cities from the Naphtaly list. Sam Wolf dealt with `Ein Hagit, an Iron 1 site (ca. 1150-1050 BCE) between Dor and Yokne`am; the pottery comes from various origins, but Sam tends to identify the inhabitants as Canaanites (his lecture about this ethnic question is scheduled for the next SBL/ASOR Meeting, followed by my response). Nurit Feig reported about an Iron 2 agricultural site at Beit S.afafa, in the Hinterland of Ramat Rahel, north of Jerusalem. An enormous wine press was detected (with capacity of 20 cubic meters). Nurit relates it to the enormous quantity of LMLK jars found in Ramat Rahel, and thinks that it supports Barkay view that this site is MMST of the LMLK imprints. However, it seems obvious to me (and to others) that her site strengthens Aharoni's identification of Ramat Rahel with Beit haKerem ("The House of the Vineyard"), an identification which is anyway the best one because of the location of Byzantine Bethcharma (by the way, to my opinion there was also another town called "Karem", in the site of `Ein Karim - probably that town which is mentioned in Joshua 15, 59c). Zvi Lederman (with Shlomo Bunimovitz) described the renewed excavation in Beth Shemesh, including the Iron 2 gate (9th-8th cent. BCE) which was detected this summer. Alon de-Groot (with Zvi Greenhut) described the intense settlement around Jerusalem in the Iron 2 (esp. 8th cent. BCE), and the excavations of el-Burj [which has to be identified with the Gibeonite city Be'erot - A.O.] and the large site of Mos.a [biblical haMos.a]. Avi Ofer PS I apologize if the names of some of the participants are misspelled - there was no English documentation in the congress booklet). ------------------------------ From: ofer avi Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 23:11:49 +0200 (IST) Subject: LMLK, Rosette,"Private", etc. Following Barkay message forwarded by Chuck last week - We are also very interested in the Judean imprints. esp. rosettes but=20 actually in all of them. Please inform us too, by e-mail, following the=20 guidelines of Barkay. If you have information about Rosettes, which are=20 the special subject of our research, please send graphic information (if=20 any) by snail (or, if you have MIME, by e-mail too). If someone forgot=20 absolutely how to use the snail (as I do - A.O.), he may note it and we=20 will forward the e-mail information to Barkay... Some more information about current state of research: From=20published and reported material, 1,494 LMLK and 240 Rosettes are=20 known to us. However, Barkay has the largest corpus of LMLK, which - he=20 says - is close to 2,000 by now.=20 Cahill described 28 types of Rosette stamps, but there is a possibility=20 that there were more than one seal of each type (Ofer is suspicious about= =20 it). Lemaire described 22 "=FBseals" (actually TYPES of seals) of LMLK, but= =20 Ofer shows that there are more, and maybe even much more. However, the=20 LMLK cannot be separated from the "officials" ("private") seals, from=20 which more than 40 types/seals are known. Cahill and Ofer tend to date=20 the Rosettes to about 6-8 years during the reign of Yehoyakim, based on=20 some stratigraphical evidence. However, this =FBis not sure at all, of cour= se. Ofer thinks that LMLK and Rosette had the same use, and the difference=20 in quantity is explained by the great decline from Hezekiah time to the=FB= =20 of late Iron 2. More detailed information is to be found in two articles, (Cahill; Cahill= =20 and Ofer), written 3 years ago, submitted to IEJ almost 2 years ago, will= =20 appear some day... Some more information and analyses were included in=20 Ofer's Hebrew dissertation. Thank you in advance for the information. We will report to the lis=FBt=20 about the development of our researches in this field. Avi Ofer & Jane Cahill (written by Avi, as is clearly seen from the English syntax...) for snail/fax address: ********************************** Avi Ofer (Judean Highland Regional Project) Kibbutz Ma'anit 37855 ISRAEL Phone: 972-6-375308 Fax: 972-6-375156 ("For Avi Ofer") E-mail: aofer@ccsg.tau.ac.il ********************************** ------------------------------ From: Jim Cocks Date: Fri, 25 Mar 94 16:45:26 EST Subject: New Precolumbian history list - AZTLAN AZTLAN is an open, unmoderated forum for debate, discussion, and the exchange of information by students and scholars of the Pre-Columbian history of the Americas. This is taken to mean the civilizations ranging from Mexico to Chile. AZTLAN is ready to distribute newsletters from study groups, and to post announcements of meetings and calls for papers, short scholarly pieces, queries, and other items of interest. The list currently does not maintain a FTP directory. Archives of AZTLAN and related files are stored in the AZTLAN FILELIST. To receive a list of files send the command INDEX AZTLAN to LISTSERV@ULKYVM or listserv@ulkyvm.louisville.edu . AZTLAN is associated with The History Network, and co-operates fully with other lists similarly associated. To subscribe to AZTLAN, send the following command to LISTSERV@ULKYVM or LISTSERV@ulkyvm.louisville.edu in the BODY of e-mail: SUBSCRIBE LISTNAME Your-first-name Your-last-name For example: SUBSCRIBE AZTLAN Joe Shmoe." Owner: James Cocks ------------------------------ From: Donald Haggis Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 17:21:22 +0500 (EST) Subject: Re: Easter Eggs yet again Having been brought up Greek Orthodox, I was exposed annually to the ritual breakage of the eggs that adorned the table of every early morning feast on Megalo Sabbato. The striking and uniformly red color of the eggs I had always thought significant and representing some aspect of the death-rebirth cycle implicit in the liturgy and cult activity. The red perhaps symbolic of the blood of Christ; death of Christ; the breaking of the egg symbolic of birth/rebirth. I am however, no expert on eastern Christianity and only became cognizant of the liturgy after studying ancient Greek in college. Donald Haggis Department of Classics UNC-Chapel Hill ------------------------------ From: Eugene Cruz-Uribe Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 16:35:00 -0700 (MST) Subject: hibis reconstruction - --Boundary (ID CYUANmqgRSHoKCFXx9o5/g) Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII - --Boundary (ID CYUANmqgRSHoKCFXx9o5/g) Content-type: MESSAGE/RFC822 Date: Tue, 22 Mar 1994 08:31:00 MST Subject: Hibis Reconstruction Sender: Eugene Cruz-Uribe To: ane@mithra-orinst.uchocago.edu Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Posting-date: Tue, 22 Mar 1994 09:24:00 MST Importance: normal A1-type: MAIL Recently there was a report concerning the dismantling and possible restoration of Hibis Temple in Khargha Oasis. According to the story Ali Hassan of the EAO announced that an Italian engineering firm had been awarded the contract to dismantle the temple and make arrangements to re-erect it either on the same spot or 300 meters away on higher ground. The reason given for the need to move the temple is that it has been shifting on its foundation due to increased agricultural activity in the area. I have had the fortune (or misfortune) of having done a bit of work on and around Hibis Temple for the past ten years (see preliminary reports in JARCE and Varia Aegyptiaca). The main problem is the poor foundation upon which the temple rests. The problem goes back to ancient times when the first of several additions were added to the temple, starting during the 29th dynasty (Achoris). Soon after that large cracks appeared in strategic places which resulted in a series of "reconstructions" in ancient times. Once the temple was abandoned it filled with occupation debris until its excavation at the beginning of this century. I am currently writing a detailed article on this subject for JSSEA. In recent times several modern reconstruction efforts have added injury to a precarious situation. First, there is a belief that new agricultural activity is the culprit for the problems of the temple. This is mistaken. In actuality intense farming has been found immediately around the temple for the past century. The main difference between the current situation and the early 1900's is one of style. When Winlock excavated the area it was mainly a date palm grove. Since then north of the temple remains a palm grove, but west and south of the temple have been converted to crofarming, with usually 3 crops a year. This multi crop per year farming has been going on for about twenty years and this is perhaps what is causing a continual fluctuation in the ground water. As a result, the shifting in the foundations has reopened old cracks in the walls and created a series of new one in the roof and most of the external walls. Over the past 10 years series of wooden scaffoldings have been erected such that the entire exterior wall surface is covered by scaffolding. The big problem remains what to do with the temple. The EAO conducted a series of excavations to the north of the temple on "higher ground" in hopes of having a ready made site. Unfortuantely what happened was that they discovered the late period cemetery. In addition to convert that cemetary site to a place to hold the temple would be monetarily impractical. Ali Hassan favors redoing the foundation at the existing site. I also favor this, but the subsurface is of a very unknown nature. Thus far the only investigations of the soil/composition of the substructure was conducted by Winlock back in 1909 and that was cursory at best. The next biggest problem will be in the actual dismantling of the temple. The sandstone walls of the temple are fragile to say the least and this is exacerbated by the many reconstructions that have taken place. In many cases the reconstruction is stronger than the original and this has caused its own problems with flaking and cracking. Lower courses of the temple often have a variation of salt disease. Luckily the entire temple was rephotographed in 1985 by the Centre du Documentation in conjunction with my project. I worry a great deal about what will happen to the numerous painted surfaces (most of the interior of the temple has it painted surfaces surviving). Time will tell. I apologize if I have rambled a bit here, but the fate of Hibis Temple is a concern for myself. I have a few more volumes of publication still to produce on the temple and hope only good can come out of the announced reconstruction. Eugene Cruz-Uribe Assistant Dean College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Northern Arizona University gdc@nauvax.ucc.nau.edu 602 523-2572 (office) 602 523-6777 (fax) The next biggest problem will be in the actual dismantling of the temple. The sandstone w - --Boundary (ID CYUANmqgRSHoKCFXx9o5/g)-- ------------------------------ From: David Edward Armstrong Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 18:59:02 -0800 Subject: Mystery text I have an account of Mot being killed in terms that are surely related to viniculture: The pruners of the vine prune him. The binders of the vine bind him, He is felled in his vineyard like a vine. but it has recently been pointed out to me that this imagery may be describing El. Ofhad, does anyone know which it might be or where I might a full version of the text? Dave Eh? David E. Armstrong U.S.C. School of Religion ------------------------------ From: Date: Sat, 26 Mar 94 13:06 +0200 Subject: Davidic Dynasty I have always amazed at the endurance which the Davidic Dynasty had in ancient Judah (over 400 years by Biblical account). I can't think of any other dynasty's which lasted as long in the ancient near east, but perhaps I am overlooking some. Does anyone know of other long enduring dynasties outside the ANE? Bill Schniedewind > ****************************************************************** Dr. William M. Schniedewind Albright Institute of Archaeological Research Land Mail: 12 Otniel, PO Box 8571, 91083 Jerusalem ISRAEL E-mail: wsch@vms.huji.ac.il FAX: 011-972-2-717537 Phone: 011-972-2-715133 ****************************************************************** ------------------------------ From: ofer avi Date: Sat, 26 Mar 1994 16:29:04 +0200 (IST) Subject: More Arrabah milestones, Israel Following my message from January: another 2 concentrations of milestones= =20 were =FBfound in the Arrabah. As far as I understand, they were found 1 and= =20 2 miles south of the previous one - namely, on the road to Eilat/Aylah.=20 The preservation of th=FBe new stones is not so good, but they seem to=20 proove anyway the existence of this Arrabah Roman/Byzantine road to Aylah. Happy Passover / Easter to all subscribers of the list, Avi Ofer. ------------------------------ From: Date: Sat, 26 Mar 94 18:15 +0200 Subject: RE: 'Presuming' a Davidic Dynasty I think there is a good reason to "presume" the historicity of the Davidic Dynasty, especially given the recent inscriptional evidence from Tel Dan which mentions byt dwd. I realize that some (e.g., Thompson) would gainsay this evidence, but it really seems hard to get around. There is no other reasonable interpretation of byt-dwd in the Tel Dan inscription other than a reference to the "house of David." Moreover, I don't really understand why we're so eager to dismiss David & Solomon. Regards, Bill Schniedewind, AIAR (Jerusalem) ------------------------------ From: JWBAKER@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU Date: Sat, 26 Mar 94 12:39:35 CST Subject: Sheba I find myself asking about ironworking once again. W.B. Yeats has a poem called "On Woman" which is about Solomon and (the Queen of) Sheba. In this poem, Sheba is presented as one having special knowledge of smithing, mostly in terms of sexual imagery connected with smithing. My wife, an English teacher, is interested in finding out if Yeats was himself responsible for connecting Sheba with smithing, or if the connection had already been made in some tradition (midrashic? patristic?) that Yeats knew of. Can anyone shed any light on this link between Sheba and ironworking? Thanking you in advance for your help, John W. Baker Rice Univ. ------------------------------ From: Ted Lewis Date: Sat, 26 Mar 94 14:48:36 EST Subject: Mystery Text Regarding D.E. Armstrong's query: Your mystery text is KTU 1.23 (= CTA 23 = UT 52) lines 9-10. Text 23 is also known as "Shachar and Shalim" or "The Birth of the Beautiful (or Gracious) Gods" and you can find the full text in most of the standard translations of the Ugaritic texts (J.C. L. Gibson, Canaanite Myths and Legends, p. 123; J.C. de Moor, _An Anthology of Religious Texts from Ugarit_, p. 120; A. Caquot & M. Sznycer, _Textes Ougaritiques_, p. 370, etc.) The attribution of the killing to Mot is due to the preceding lines (1.23.8-9) which read: Mot w sr (Motu-wa-sharru: compound name like Kothar-wa-Hasis) sits enthroned In one hand a scepter of bereavement, In the other a scepter of widowhood. (D. Tsumura in UF 6 1974 compared this to an Aramaic incantation bowl picturing the angel of death with a sword in one hand and a spear in the other.) As for the El imagery, you are correct that he is associated with vineyards in the marzeah text of KTU 1.114 where he invites the gods to his drinking banquet and then proceeds to drink to the point of total inebriation. This is not,however, El's role in text 23 where he spends his time in a more creative fashion engendering Dawn and Dusk. See M.H. Pope, "Ups and Downs in El's Amours" UF 11 1979 and F.M. Cross, _Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic_ pp. 22-24 and decide for yourself whether El is full of vim and vigor or a deus otiosus.) Hope this helps, Ted Lewis Univ. of Georgia ------------------------------ From: Date: Sun, 27 Mar 94 0:15 +0200 Subject: Davidic Dynasty & Methodology I certainly understand reservations about using the Bible as evidence for the historicity of David & Solomon. On the other hand, I don't see any extra-biblical evidence for anything in Israel in that time period which would confirm *or* negate the existence of David & Solomon. One may easily say that the Bible exaggerates their importance, although this assumption is not corroborated by external sources either. Certainly, there is reason for caution in the use of the Bible as a historical source, and we must recognize the tendenz of the author(s), editor(s), & redactor(s). That said, I still see no reason just to dismiss their very existence. And, I see no other interpretation of byt dwd in the Tel Dan inscription which makes sense. Not that it directly "corroborates" any particular detail in the DtrHistory or Chronicles' accounts. Unless a better hypothesis is presented on the basis of evidence, I prefer to work with the hypothesis of a "house of David" as is now further supported by the Tel Dan inscription than to work with no hypothesis at all. Yours, Bill Schniedewind, Albright Institute (Jerusalem) ------------------------------ From: ofer avi Date: Sun, 27 Mar 1994 19:18:50 +0200 (IST) Subject: Re: =20 =20 =FBSome of you (but not all) receive my messages with =3D20 as end-of-line,= =20 =3DFB=FF=FB, etc., and ask me to do something about it. Our system manager in Tel-Aviv tells me that we use MIME, which is an=20 advanced procedure enabling to mail graphics (sometimes it is called=20 "metamail"), and those of you who do not have it may get these signs. =FBSo= =20 from his part, the problem is at the other end of the line... I asked =FBour staff whether I can bypass this procedure, but did not get= =20 yet any answer. On the other hand, you people may try ask your system=20 staff to upgrade their procedure - mailing graphics may be quit useful. I apologize once again for the discomfort, and try to do my best to avoid i= t. Avi Ofer. ------------------------------ End of Ancient Near East Digest V1 #66 ************************************** To subscribe to ANE-Digest, send the command: subscribe ANE-digest in the body of a message to "Majordomo@oi.uchicago.edu". 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