Inside BAR
“David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments … on lyres and on lutes, and on timbrels and on rattles, and on cymbals (2 Samuel 6:6). In this issue, we present articles on all manner of instruments including the lyres, flute, rattles, sounding brass and cymbals.
Until recently, many scholars contended that there was no native evidence of ancient musical instruments in Israel. In “The Finds that Could Not Be,” Bathja Bayer presents that evidence. Dr. Bayer is a musicologist with a mission—to convince scholars and skeptics that ample archaeological discoveries paint a detailed picture of musical life in ancient Israel. Born in Germany, Dr. Bayer immigrated to Israel at the age of seven. Now senior lecturer in Hebrew University’s Department of Musicology, she is also active in the University’s Jewish Music Research Center.
Two instruments Dr. Bayer cites in her article are bone flutes, one fragment found at Dothan in 1962 but not recognized, and another found during the first excavation season at the City of David in 1978. “How Scholarly Communication Works” traces the investigative steps, from the Jerusalem flute to the eventual identification of the Dothan fragment.
More support for Dr. Bayer’s case comes from a seal, engraved with a lyre, reportedly discovered in Jerusalem. Eminent Jerusalem archaeologist, Professor Nachman Avigad of Hebrew University, recently published his interpretation of the seal, described in “What Did David’s Lyre Look Like?” The beautifully detailed lyre seal is displayed in a unique Israeli museum. “The Dagon Collection: A Glimpse into Agricultural History” relates the fascinating history of this museum and its founder, Dr. Reuben Hecht—Israeli pioneer, agricultural innovator and renowned art collector.
“Sounding brass” is mentioned in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Was it a musical instrument? William Harris, professor of Classics at Middlebury College, became intrigued by this question while working with metal sculpture. To find the answer, Harris relates he had to “probe into ancient technology.” The answer comes across loud and clear in “Sounding Brass and Hellenistic Technology.” Harris has made practical use of his expertise in metalworking and science; he built his family’s Vermont geodesic dome residence and says he “enjoys living in an area that has more cows than people.”
Continuing BAR’s coverage of Ebla matters, “Ebla Scholarship a la Syrienne” reports a Syria Times story describing a recent symposium of Syrian scholars. The symposium participants castigated former Ebla epigrapher, Professor Giovanni Pettinato, and declared the Hebrew language to be “no more than a Canaanite dialect.”
January brings BAR readers our annual roundup of “Excavation Opportunities 1982” at digs in Israel, Jordan and Egypt. This year the choice is rich—from underwater excavation in King Herod’s harbor at Caesarea to revealing the original site of Jerusalem at the City of David. Ellsworth Rosen, a volunteer last summer at the City of David excavations, vividly evokes his experiences in “The Volunteer’s Contribution to Archaeology and Vice Versa.” Mr. Rosen, Public Relations Director of the combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, has published children’s science books as well as an article in the New York Times.
To complement our section of articles for potential volunteers, Oded Borowski contributes another BAR Jr. column, “Digging, Dug, Gone.” Borowski describes the precise plotting of an excavation site before the first shovel breaks the ground and then relates the steps archaeologists take to preserve a record of the site while it is being “destroyed.”