© ALINARI ARCHIVES / ART RESOURCE, NY
A unique Hebrew inscription discovered in 2018 continues to excite epigraphers and historians of the Second Temple period. Dated to the Herodian period (late first century BCE–first century CE), it provides one of the first archaeologically attested full spellings of the name Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) as it is pronounced in Hebrew to this day.1 However, it is not the only remarkable thing about the inscription.
The short, three-line inscription, which is incised on a limestone column, reads hnnyh br dydlos myrwšlym, “Hananiah son of Daedalus, from Jerusalem.” Who was this Hananiah? And even more intriguingly: Why did this Jewish man identify his lineage with the name Daedalus, the famous inventor and artisan from Greek mythology?
The salvage excavation that uncovered the inscription, less than 2 miles northwest of Jerusalem’s Old City, also identified the remains of a pottery workshop that operated from the second century BCE to the second century CE. Following the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, the facility was supervised by the Tenth Roman Legion and produced both vessels and building materials such as roof tiles and bricks. According to archaeologists, local Jewish craftsmen, artisans, and potters continued the production, preserving the requisite technology and sources of raw materials.
The inscription is written in square Hebrew script in a formal, commemorative style, and the fine execution indicates that it was produced by a master engraver using a thin chisel. The subject of the inscription bore one of the most common Hebrew names of his time, Hananiah. He further identified himself by his relationship (bar, “son of”) to a father (the patronym Dydlos, “Daedalus”), and his place of origin or residence (m-Yrwšlym, “from Jerusalem”). These four words reflect linguistic traits of the three languages current in Jerusalem prior to the destruction of the Temple, namely Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.
Perhaps signaling his personal or professional status, the writer chose the formal “Hananiah” instead of any of the abbreviated forms or nicknames (e.g., Hanan, Hanina) of this Hebrew name. The term “son of” is then expressed in Aramaic (bar) rather than Hebrew (ben), followed by the Greek patronym Dydlos, which is the most interesting aspect of the inscription.
Having a Greek name, even one known from Greek mythology, is not in itself unique during this period. We know of other individuals bearing a Hebrew name with a non-Hebrew patronym, such as the later rabbis Eliezer ben Hyrcanus and Yonatan ben Abtolmos. As such, the patronym bar Dydlos can be interpreted in two ways: Daedalus was either the name of Hananiah’s biological father or a nickname related to Hananiah’s trade or craft. If Daedalus was indeed the father, he was probably a Jew living in the Herodian period who was influenced (or his parents were) by Greek culture. Alternatively, he could have been one of the period’s many proselytes, or perhaps a “Godfearer” who believed in a single deity and observed the commandments relating to interpersonal matters.
PHOTO BY DANIT LEVY, ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY
If, on the other hand, Hananiah himself adopted the patronym Daedalus, it was a symbolic nickname denoting affiliation or identification with a prestigious profession—perhaps a master craftsman in the potters’ workshop excavated at the site. In Greek lore, Daedalus appears in the Iliad, where he is a royal architect and creator of wings for himself and his son Icarus (18.590–593). But it was otherwise a rare name, borne by only five people in the Greek onomasticon of non-Jewish names. Notably, three of them are designated as artisans. Similarly, there was a family of Greek poets from the isle of Chiros called Homerides, “the sons of Homer” (or “admirers of Homer”) who traced their descent from the ancient bard and recited his poems.
Hananiah likely adopted the name to strengthen his affiliation with a professional cadre, which was a practice known to various occupations in Jewish life in antiquity. In the late Second Temple period, “families” or “guilds” of craftsmen were charged with various kinds of labor needed in the Temple and were sometimes referred to by the name of an ancient pa-tron. In the Mishnah, for example, the sons of Phineas were over document seals, the sons of Petahiah over bird offerings, the sons of Gever over gate security, and the sons of Arza over cymbals (Sheqalim 5:1; Tamid 1:4, 3:8). Other guilds were designated by their “house,” such as “the house of Garmu over the making of the showbread” and “the house of Avtinas over the preparing of the frankincense” (Sheqalim 5:1; Yoma 3:11).
We may therefore conjecture that the use of the patronym Daedalus indicates that Hananiah adopted the name of the mythic Greek master craftsman to mark his affiliation with a group of artisans named for the legendary hero. To further strengthen his identity, Hananiah declares that he is from Jerusalem, which serves as another status symbol—he was not a villager but a cosmopolitan citizen of Jerusalem.
This simple four-word inscription thus affords a glimpse into the complexities of identities of Jews living in Judea at the end of the Second Temple period, when its metropolis was a place of contact with the Hellenistic world.
A unique Hebrew inscription discovered in 2018 continues to excite epigraphers and historians of the Second Temple period. Dated to the Herodian period (late first century BCE–first century CE), it provides one of the first archaeologically attested full spellings of the name Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) as it is pronounced in Hebrew to this day.1 However, it is not the only remarkable thing about the inscription. The short, three-line inscription, which is incised on a limestone column, reads hnnyh br dydlos myrwšlym, “Hananiah son of Daedalus, from Jerusalem.” Who was this Hananiah? And even more intriguingly: Why did this Jewish man identify […]
