Queries & Comments

008

Not Clothed as in the Past

Generations of archaeologists from the past are sometimes pictured in BAR as functioning very well with their clothes on. Now it appears that the new generation of archaeologists are incapable of keeping theirs on, to the extent we see skimpier and skimpier outfits.

Can you explain this?

Aren Maeir responds:

As someone who has been in the field almost 30 years (yikes, that is a long time), actually, I have seen a completely opposite trend from what Ms. McCall has noted. When I was a student, many of us worked in short clothes and often in bathing suits, thinking that it was cool to get a suntan. We never thought of sunscreen, dehydration or melanoma. Nowadays, the overall majority of archaeologists in the field are much more aware of this, and most excavations dig with tarps, and the teams wear hats, high SPF sunscreen, and often (as I do) wear long but breathable clothes.

The court is out, and it’s definitely been decided that melanoma and kidney stones are not fun!

An Octogenarian’s Education

As a novice in Biblical archaeology, I can only marvel at your articles and admire the penetrating, thoughtful analysis of your readers’ comments. Thank you for teaching scientific reasoning as well as civility in your debates. My few years of reading BAR have been quite an education for an octogenarian.

David’s Tomb

Carbon Dating the Tomb

As an avid BAR reader, I have a question regarding Jeffrey Zorn’s article “Is T1 David’s Tomb?” (BAR 38:06). The picture of the rectangular depression or basin at the back of T1 on page 50 shows a carbon buildup on the ceiling as well as triangular niches cut into the wall for oil lamps. Has this carbon layer been tested to determine the date(s)? Successive layers should be able to be dated.

Jeffrey Zorn responds:

I have not heard if the layers have ever been tested. At the most such a test would only provide a date before which the feature on which the carbon material was deposited was created. Such a test would not provide a date for when the feature was first created. For example, if the earliest carbon layer on the walls of the tunnel gave a date of A.D. 100 it would show that the walls were created before that date, but not how much before.

Machaerus and Herod Antipas

More Questions About Herod Antipas

It was a real delight to read the two interrelated articles on Machaerus and Herod Antipas in your September/October 2012 issue (Győző Vörös, “Machaerus: Where Salome Danced and John the Baptist Was Beheaded,” and Morten Hørning Jensen, “Antipas—The Herod Jesus Knew”). However, they raise a few questions. Do we know the name of the Nabataean princess, daughter of Aretas IV, who had married Herod Antipas long before Salome danced for him?¹ Did this marital union, which lasted for about 40 years, produce children? What is the later history of the “young dancer” Salome? Did she marry a member of the Herodian house?

Finally, why did John the Baptist condemn the marriage of Herod Antipas and Herodias? This is especially intriguing because Herodias’s husband, Philip the Tetrarch, was already dead when Herodias married Herod Antipas.

The writer is the former director general of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities.—Ed.

Morten Hørning Jensen responds:

Thank you for the interesting questions. We do not know the name of Aretas’s daughter, and we are not informed about any children between her union with Antipas, though they were married “for a long time,” as Josephus states (Antiquities 18.109). We do not know exactly how long. They were likely married in connection with Antipas’s partly successful persuasion of Augustus to make him Herod the Great’s heir in 4 B.C.E. (Antipas wanted to be sole heir and king but was only awarded a “fourth part” as tetrarch.) According to at least one source, Augustus was fond of matchmaking his vassals with daughters of other vassals in order to secure political stability across borders (Suetonius, Augustus 48). Antipas’s marriage to Aretas’s daughter surely 011 was intended to serve such a purpose, but Aretas’s reaction to Antipas’s treatment of Aretas’s daughter resulted in border disputes and finally a war, which Antipas lost severely—rescued only by Roman intervention. We do not know precisely when Antipas divorced his first wife, but the consensus puts it around 29 C.E.

According to Josephus, the dancer Salome was married to her uncle Philip the Tetrarch (Antiquities 18.136). Since he died in 34 C.E., this marriage lasted only for a short while. She later married Aristobulus, the son of Herod of Chalcis and nephew to Agrippa I. They had three sons: Herod, Agrippa and Atristobulus.

Jewish to Gentile

Didn’t Jesus Interact with Gentiles?

In “From Jewish to Gentile: How the Jewish Movement Became Christianity” (BAR 38:06), author Geza Vermes claims that Jesus of Nazareth addressed only the Jews, “the lost sheep of Israel,” and Jesus’ own perspectives were exclusively Jewish. He cites a few passages from Matthew to support his claims.

In Mark, Matthew and Luke, Jesus visits the region of Gerasenes or Gadarenes and heals a man who had been possessed by multitudes of demons. This was a gentile city filled with citizens who were culturally more Greek than Semitic. This would account for the pigs in the Biblical story. Jesus was asked to leave this region, which was probably due to the fact that he had just caused the death of over 2,000 pigs—an immense loss for any town in those days. Eventually, the healed man pleaded with Jesus to accompany him. However, under Jesus’ loving instructions, the man chose to go into the gentile region of the Decapolis to share with the people how much Jesus had done for him. Truly, the first evangelist according to the Gospels! Gospel authors write that all the people (I presume they were gentiles) were amazed!

Jesus also visited the city of Tyre and Sidon, which were primarily prosperous Roman cities with a gentile population during the first century A.D. Before he visited Tyre and Sidon, he pronounced judgment on Jewish Chorazin and Bethsaida, suggesting that if the pagan cities Tyre and Sidon had experienced what Chorazin and Bethsaida did, they would have long ago repented in sackcloth and ashes.

I am puzzled by the author’s conclusion that Jesus was concerned only with the Jews.

Professor Geza Vermes responds:

According to the Gospels, Jesus very occasionally visited cities outside the Holy Land, but to my knowledge it is nowhere stated that he preached to non-Jews or tried to turn them into his followers.

012

First Person

Forgers Use Cost/Benefit Analysis

Editor Shanks reasons that the Jehoash Inscription (“Authentic or Forged? What to Do When Experts Disagree,” BAR 38:06) is authentic because, in his opinion, it would not seem reasonable for a forger to inscribe four separate lines across an undeniable, existing ancient crack, for fear that the entire piece would break during the process. A reasonable opinion that reasonable men might make.

But forgers are not reasonable men. We must look at this through the eyes of a forger, not those of reasonable men. The forger is a con artist of the highest rank, and each one works in a very narrow area of expertise. In the case of a forger who specializes in ancient artifacts, he must be prepared to produce a product that will not only pass the scrutiny of scientific examiners but also the examination of those nonexpert investigators who would stand back from the scientific details, look at the object in its entirety and ask the embarrassing common sense questions.

Of all the criminal classes, forgers are on the whole the most meticulous. Their craft demands it. A forger who is not meticulous on the details quickly becomes an ex-forger. The master antiquities forger who is creating a masterpiece of deceit is not interested in deceiving the tourist or the amateur collector, but instead the possible battalions of scientific and linguistic experts who are likely to descend on his product—indeed his success depends on attracting these very experts. The more experts of the highest credentials that he is able to deceive, the better the provenance his object earns: The experts themselves provide him with his ironclad provenance.

Weighing the benefit vs. the cost to the forger (the possibility of breaking the tablet during the inscription process), it is well worth the risk. It is the scale of the payoff, not the risk, that matters.

We must look at the question as a cost/benefit analysis. For in the end, moral considerations aside, the forger is in fact a businessman who deals in a high risk game. Cost/benefit drives his entire strategy. For such a man, if the inscription across a crack is possible, I believe he may just take that chance.

As always, I love your publication. Keep the objective analysis coming.

A Metallurgist Evaluates the Jehoash Inscription

Re: Hershel Shanks’s “Authentic or Forged? What to Do When Experts Disagree.” I am a metallurgist who frequently encounters this issue.

The description of 0.5–1.0 micron (0.5–1.0 millionth of a meter) gold particles in the patina of the Jehoash Inscription appears to provide a valuable and independent basis for validating its authenticity. Fire temperatures could have been well in excess of 1,000 degrees centigrade. A small amount of the gold will vaporize at these temperatures. Copper alloyed with the gold has an even higher vapor pressure at these temperatures. The gold and copper vapor will condense as very fine solid particles which then drop back to the earth as a fine mist that could pervade everything. The very fine and uniform size of the particles is consistent with this process. Thus the presence of the fine gold particles could point to the inscription being present at a time of a very intense fire.

The BAR write-up does not provide any additional information about the actual chemistry of the small particles other than that they were gold. More information on the metallurgy of the particles and the temperature levels in the fire would help to develop this theory further.

It is my opinion, based upon the evidence provided, that the inscription is obviously old.

The answer I give when there is disagreement among experts is to have everyone put their facts on the table where they can be thoroughly evaluated. Unfortunately, vested interests or agendas sometimes also have to be weighed when evaluating disputed testimony.

Finally, it would help if the experts 012 in different fields would venture out from their narrow fields and begin to understand different scientific areas that address the same issue. (See Yonatan Adler, Archaeological Views: “At the Interface of Archaeology and Texts” in the same BAR issue.) Crossing fields can lead to a much better understanding of an issue. It also requires work and coming out of your comfort zone.

An Ancient Forgery

Couldn’t the Jehoash Inscription be simply a very OLD forgery?

Love the ’zine!

Yes, that is the view of Robert Deutsch, a leading Israeli dealer in antiquities.—Ed.

What If …

I trust that Hershel Shanks, as an attorney, will appreciate this “hypothetical” situation regarding “Should Israel Return the Tablets of the Law to Egypt?” (BAR 38:05).

Assume that in an excavation near Rome, the Temple menorah depicted on the triumphal arch as part of the booty from the sacking of the Jerusalem Temple were recovered. Could the Italian government legitimately claim “national patrimony” so as to prevent transport (“repatriation”) to Israel?

Josephus vs. Jeremiah

Brilliant and Beautiful

The article “Josephus vs. Jeremiah” by Avishai Margalit in the September/October 2012 issue was flat out brilliant, as well as beautifully written. It was a pleasure to read.

Potpourri

Enjoying and Employing BAR

I want to take this opportunity to say “Thank you!” for a wonderful magazine. I am an ordained minister of 36 years in the United Methodist Church, where I’ve had the joy of serving my Lord as I serve His people. I’ve been reading BAR for some 25 years now, and I’ve enjoyed every issue. I read every part of the magazine. From time to time, I use some of what I read in messages, Bible studies, small group discussions, and such.

Grace and peace.

It’s a Female Hand

In WorldWide (“Saida, Lebanon,” BAR 38:06), the 7-inch-tall bronze right hand can be further identified as female. Comparing the index finger, also called the pointer finger, to the ring finger length has been shown to determine sex. Men have a longer ring finger compared to index finger. Whereas females tend to have both fingers of the same length or the index finger longer. The statue clearly shows an elongated index finger compared to ring finger. Hence, the hand statue was modeled by a woman.

Corrections

There are a couple of errors reported in “19th-Century Americans in the Holy Land” (Strata, BAR 38:06). Edward Robinson taught briefly at Andover Theological Seminary (not Andrews Theological Seminary) but for a longer period at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, when he was called to be that institution’s first professor in 1837. His first exploratory trip to the Holy Land was in 1838 (not 1832).

Keep up the good work!

The writer is an archaeologist and professor of Old Testament at Fuller’s regional campus.—Ed.

The Dreamland exhibit mentioned in “19th-Century Americans in the Holy Land” was held at the National Library of Israel, which is located on the Hebrew University campus but is not part of the university.—Ed.

Not Clothed as in the Past