How Alexander became a Jewish Name?

By Yehuda Shurpin, Chabad.org

Original title: Why Is Alexander a Jewish Name?

Throughout history, Jews have been careful to retain their distinctly Jewish names. In fact, our sages tell us that although more than two centuries of exile and slavery in Egypt had all but assimilated the Children of Israel into the idolatrous society of Egypt, one of the reasons why they merited their miraculous redemption was that they retained their Jewish names.1

Traditionally, Jewish names are Hebrew, Yiddish or Ladino. Some other names that have crept in over the years and have become accepted as Jewish names are actually translations of Jewish names in foreign languages.

The name Alexander, however, is unique. It originates from the Greek king Alexander the Great, ruler of Macedonia, who established the largest empire the ancient world had ever seen. In other words, its origin is definitely not Jewish.

Another difference: When names of non-Hebrew origin are written in Hebrew documents, such as a bill of divorce, there is a specific style of spelling used. Alexander, however, is spelled according to the Hebrew rules.2

How did Alexander gain such a special place in Jewish nomenclature?

Simeon the Just and Alexander the Great

The following is recorded in the Talmud3 and Megillat Ta’anit:4

On the 21st Kislev5 of the year 3448 from creation (313 BCE), after Alexander the Great brought an end to Persian rule and marched through the Land of Israel, the Kutheans, bitter enemies of the Jewish people, convinced Alexander that the Jews rebelled against his sovereignty and that their Holy Temple in Jerusalem should be destroyed.

Alexander marched on toward Jerusalem at the head of his army. Hearing of this, Shimon HaTzaddik (Simeon the Just), who was then the Kohen Gadol (High Priest) and one of the last remnants of the Men of the Great Assembly, donned the priestly vestments and went to greet Alexander, along with a delegation of Jewish dignitaries bearing torches.

The two groups walked toward each other all night. When dawn arrived, Alexander asked the Kutheans, “Who are these people coming to meet us?”

They said to him, “These are the Jews, who have rebelled against you!”

The two camps met each other at Antipatris. When Alexander saw Shimon HaTzaddik, he descended from his chariot and bowed before him.

“Should a great king such as yourself bow to this Jew?” asked the members of his entourage.

“I do this,” he replied, “because the image of this man’s face appears before me and leads me to victory when I am on the battlefields.”

Alexander then asked the representatives of the Jewish people why they had come to him.

“Is it possible,” they replied, “that gentiles will try to mislead you into destroying the Temple, in which we pray for you and that your kingdom not be destroyed, and we should remain silent and not tell you!?”

“Who are these people who want to destroy it?” asked Alexander.

“They are these very Kutheans who stand before you,” replied the Jews.

“If so,” said the king, “they are given into your hands to deal with as you please.”

The Jews destroyed the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim, plowing the area and sowing it with leeks (as a sign of complete destruction), just as they sought to do to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

The description of this encounter in traditional Jewish sources stops here. However, In the Sefer Yosippon,6 another crucial part of the story is added:

Shimon HaTzaddik then took Alexander the Great on a tour of the Holy Temple. Alexander, impressed, wished to donate gold to have an image of himself placed in the Holy Temple so that he would be immortalized. Shimon demurred, saying that it was forbidden for the Jews to have graven images, and certainly not in the Temple. He suggested that he instead give the gold to the poor. And as for memorializing the occasion, Shimon suggested an even better way: all male kohanim born that year would be named “Alexander.”

Alexander liked the idea, and the Jews, who were very thankful to Alexander for all that he did for them, including sparing the Holy Temple from destruction, gratefully named their children after him. Thus, the name Alexander forever became a Jewish name.

FOOTNOTES

1.See Midrash Vayikra Rabbah 32.

2.Igrot Moshe, Orach Chaim, vol. 4:66 & vol. 5:10.

3.Talmud, Yoma 69a.

4.Megillat Ta’anit, ch. 9.

5.This follows the date in Megillat Taanit. The Talmud records it as 25 Tevet.

6.Sefer Yosippon, ch. 10. (Not to be confused with Josephus. There is much discussion about the authorship of Yosippon and whether it is, in fact, Josephus. However, that is beyond the scope of our discussion.) In Antiquities of the Jews, book 11:8, Josephus mentions Alexander’s visit to the Temple, but does not mention the part about the priests being named after him.

By Yehuda Shurpin

Ancient Coin Discovery With An Astronomical Mystery

What does the ancient coin found recently off the shores of Israel depict?

You never know what discoveries are waiting to be found in old records or artwork. A recent archaeological find sent us down just such an astronomical rabbit-hole, leading us to ideas that are fun and interesting to consider.

It all started with the recent amazing discovery of the ancient Roman coin off the coast of Haifa, Israel in the Mediterranean Sea. The bronze coin depicts the zodiac sign of Cancer, along with the Moon goddess Selene and crescent Moon. The ancient coin would have been part of a set of twelve, depicting the houses of the zodiac. The coin was recovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Maritime Archaeology Unit.

“This is the first time such a coin has been discovered off Israel’s coast,” says Director of the Maritime Archaeology Unit Jacob Sharvit in a recent press release. “It (the coin) is a rare addition to the National Treasures collection.”

The ancient coin was found as part of a horde from a presumed ancient shipwreck. From the inscription on the obverse, researchers know that the coin was minted in Alexandria, Egypt during year eight of the reign of Roman emperor Antonius Pius, which would translate to 144-145 AD.

Now, I noticed something intriguing on the image, and did some brief research.

The ancient coin also shows a bright ‘star’ near the Moon. I began to wonder if this depicted a real astronomical event, visible from the Mediterranean region in the years before the coin was minted. Now, no bright star exists in Cancer; I therefore suspected it was actually a bright planet, say, Jupiter or Venus. I did a search using the Occult 4.2 program and the planetarium program Stellarium (which takes in to account the ~26,000 year precession of the equinoxes and stellar proper motion over the centuries), and found one event that was especially intriguing: the dusk conjunction of the waxing crescent Moon and Jupiter on the evening of June 4th 140 CE… in the sign of Cancer.

Dusk looking west from the Mediterranean region on the evening of June 4th, 140 AD. Credit: Stellarium

Not only did this occur in the reign of Antoninus Pius, but it would have been visible right before the death of his beloved wife Faustina the Elder in late 140 AD… perhaps the ancient coin commemorates her passing? Certainly there’s record of Pius’s devotion to Faustina, and his subsequent campaign to deify Faustina after her death.

The Moon occults Jupiter on June 4th, 140 CE. Credit: Occult 4.2.

Of course, the modern science of astronomy has its hoary roots in the archaic practice of astrology. Ancients watched the sky, noted what they saw and assigned import to them versus human and terrestrial affairs. We all remember the astrologer’s admonition to Julius Caesar to ‘beware the Ides of March,’ and astronomical historians from Kepler and Newton onward have gone broke trying to link the ‘star’ that guided astrologers to Bethlehem with a true astronomical phenomenon.

Under one possible scenario, a court astrologer could have assigned significance to the conjunction of Jupiter with the Moon in Cancer, a portent that later moved a grieving Pius to commemorate the death of his wife, casting her as the Moon goddess Selene.

The base of the column of Antoninus Pius in Rome, depicting Pius and Faustina. Credit: Saiko/Wikimedia Commons 3.0 license.

I ran this idea past fellow amateur astronomer John Flannery, and he had some interesting ideas. He noted that while it’s tempting to assert that the dots on the shell of the Crab depict the open cluster Praesepe (Messier 44), Steve O’Meara also notes in a past Sky & Telescope column that individual stars in the cluster would be hard to discern with the naked eye.

Flannery also pointed me toward another interesting possibility for the mystery star: the 141 CE apparition of Halley’s comet. I ran a simulation using data from NASA/JPL/Horizons, and 1P/Halley would have been at Right Ascension 9 hours, 13’ 12’, Declination +24º 10’ on April 28th, 141 CE in the adjacent constellation of Leo the Lion shinning at +1st magnitude while the Moon was in Cancer at dusk.

Halley’s Comet in late April, 141 C.E. Credit: Stellarium.

“In astrology, the Moon rules the sign of Cancer,” says Flannery. “Regardless of what the coins depict, I think it is an extraordinarily beautiful set (referring to the twelve coin zodiac set) and shows delicate workmanship.”

We may never know for sure. What could prove or refute the assertion is the discovery of earlier (pre-second century) coins, with the same Moon-star Moon goddess inscription.

Beyond just being a fun astronomical mystery, such depictions of astronomical events in art, text or ancient coins are important in pinpointing dates and events in the past. For example, one recent ancient Chinese text may have chronicled the earliest depiction of aurora, and another text may note a sunset annular eclipse alluded to in the Book of Joshua.

In any event, this is all speculative, but it’s fun to consider. In regards to astrology, Shakespeare said it best: “The fault… is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”

Dawn looking east on the morning of September 8th, 2026. Credit: Stellarium.

In the meantime, you can enjoy another such tryst of the crescent Moon, Jupiter in Cancer at dawn on the morning of September 8th, 2026, followed by a fine occultation of the king of the planets for North America on the next lunar cycle on October 6th, 2026. Be sure to watch if skies are clear as the celestial drama unfolds in the dawn, and wonder just what folks might have seen in the sky, nearly two millennia ago.

Occultation path for the October 6th, 2026 event. Credit: Occult 4.2.

Lead image credit: Roman coin recently discovered off of the coast of Haifa, Israel. Credit: Danfa Gazit/Israel Antiquities Authority.

Source: https://www.universetoday.com/157170/ancie...

Pottery Shard May Show Missing Link to First Written Alphabet

By Patricia Claus

Early writing found on a 3,500-year-old pottery shard in Israel may represent the “missing link” in the development of the first alphabet, according to researchers who published their findings recently in Smithsonian magazine.

The inscription, which has been under study since it was first unearthed in 2018, makes researchers think that it means that a standardized script — essential in any true alphabet — arrived in Canaan earlier than previously thought.

The letters used resemble Egyptian hieroglyphs – but they are not true hieroglyphs.

The letters are now believed to be the very oldest writing ever recorded in the ancient land of Israel, forming the basis of writing systems that developed later in time.

Pottery shard showing early alphabetic language, found at Tel Lachish, Israel. Credit: Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

Pottery shard showing early alphabetic language, found at Tel Lachish, Israel. Credit: Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences

A report from the Jerusalem Post states that archaeologists unearthed the fragment as part of excavations that were undertaken at Tel Lachish in south-central Israel in 2018. The Tel Lachish archaeological site was once home to a large Canaanite city.

They were able to date the pottery shard using radiocarbon dating of grains of barley found alongside it, pinpointing its origin back to 1450 B.C., when the area was a center of Canaanite society. The archaeologists published their findings in the journal Antiquity.

Only six letters on two lines, the writing was inscribed millennia ago on the soft surface of a clay pot. Haggai Misgav, an epigraphist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who was a co-author of the study, told interviewers from Haaretz, she believes that the first three letters spell out the word “ebed,” meaning “slave” or “servant.”

Oddly, the inscription was most likely part of a person’s name. According to archaeologists, a popular naming convention in ancient times combined “servant” with the name of a local god to show  the person’s devotion to that deity.

The second line on the shard is believed to be the word “nophet,” meaning “nectar” or “honey.”

Tel Lachish front gate in Israel. Tel Lachish may be the area where the first written alphabet may have developed. Credit: Wilson44691 / CC BY-SA 3.0

Tel Lachish front gate in Israel. Tel Lachish may be the area where the first written alphabet may have developed. Credit: Wilson44691 / CC BY-SA 3.0

Missing link may connect Egyptian alphabetic inscriptions to later Canaanite writing

Because the text is short and incomplete, researchers have not yet definitively determined what the inscription says for certain. At this time it is also unknown whether the writing was meant to be read from left to right or right to left.

The researchers believe that the script represents a “missing link” connecting alphabetic inscriptions already discovered in Egypt and the Sinai peninsula with later writing originating from Canaan.

The writing uses an early version of the alphabet in which letters resemble the Egyptian hieroglyphs from which they evolved.

The new discovery appears to disprove a previous hypothesis which held that the alphabet only came to Canaan after Egypt came to rule the area.

Tel Lachish, Israel. Credit: Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Tel Lachish, Israel. Credit: Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Lead author Felix Höflmayer, an archaeologist from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, told interviewers from the Jerusalem Post “In the Late Bronze Age, between 1550 and 1200 B.C., the region was under the Egyptian empire.

“The Egyptians imposed their administrative system and their own writing and many experts thought that the early alphabet might have been introduced in this context; but now we can see that it was already in use at least by the 15th century B.C., when there was not such a large-scale Egyptian domination.”

Because of its abundant water sources and fertile earth, early Canaanites flocked to the Tel Lachish area and a large city flourished there for much of ancient history, according to information from the Jewish Virtual Library.

The Canaanites established a fortified citadel there in approximately 2000 B.C. After a fire destroyed the city sometime around the end of the 12th century B.C., the area was rebuilt as an Israelite fortress-city which was part of the Kingdom of Judah.

Unfortunately, Tel Lachish was destroyed once again in an Assyrian attack in the year 701 B.C. Well-known to have been an important site since time immemorial, archaeologists have been digging there since the 1930s.

Benjamin Sass, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University who was not involved in the excavation and subsequent study of the shard, told interviewers that dating the barley discovered alongside the pottery fragment may not have pointed to an accurate date for the inscription itself, since the grain might have been harvested after the vessel was created.

“The data published so far makes (the team’s timeline) a possibility, but by no means a certainty,” he notes in an article in Live Science. 

Researchers already know for certain that the writing used by Canaanites eventually split into the alphabet that ancient Israelites employed to write the Hebrew Bible and another version of an alphabet used by Phoenicians.

After the collapse of the Bronze Age, around 1200 BC, alphabetic writing advanced and developed further, since the major powers around the Mediterranean collapsed, spurring small city-states to use their own, local languages more and more.

According to Lydia Wilson, who had written on the development of early languages in an earlier article in Smithsonian, variations of the alphabet that was used in Canaan therefore spread from what is now Turkey all the way to Spain — eventually going birth to the Latin alphabet used in western languages today.

Höflmayer told the Jerusalem Post “All alphabets have somewhat evolved from hieroglyphs, the Phoenician one, the Hebrew one, the Greek one, the Latin one and so on.

“Now we know that the alphabet was not brought to the Levant by Egyptian rule. Although we cannot really explain yet how it happened, we can say that it was much earlier and under different social circumstances.”

Tower of Jericho: One Of The Earliest Stone Monuments Of Humanity

An ancient tower at the archaeological site of Tel Jericho was built to exploit the primeval fears of Jericho's residents, according to new findings.

The 8000 BCE Tower of Jericho at the site of Tell es-Sultan..jpg

"We believe this tower was one of the mechanisms to motivate people to take part in a communal lifestyle," one archeologist says.

Discovered by archaeologists in 1952, a 28-foot-high stone tower discovered on the edge of the town of Jericho has puzzled scientists ever since. Now, eleven millennia after it was built, Tel Aviv University archaeologists at the ancient site Tel Jericho are revealing new facts about the "world's first skyscraper."

The Tower of Jericho is an 8.5-metre-tall (28 ft) stone structure, built in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A period around 8000 BC. It is considered as one of the earliest stone monuments of humanity.

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The Wall of Jericho was discovered by John Garstang during the excavations of 1930 to 1936, which he suggested were those described in the Book of Joshua in the Bible and dated to around 1400 BC. Kathleen Kenyon discovered the tower built against the wall inside the town during excavations between 1952 and 1958, in trench I. Kenyon provided evidence that both constructions dated much earlier, to the Neolithic, which is the latest part of the Stone Age, and were part of an early proto-city. The tower highlights the importance of Jericho for the understanding of settlement patterns in the Sultanian period in the southern Levant.

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The tower was constructed using undressed stones, with an internal staircase of twenty-two steps. Conical in shape, the tower is almost 9 metres (30 ft) in diameter at the base, decreasing to 7 metres (23 ft) at the top with walls approximately 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) thick. The construction of the tower is estimated to have taken 11,000 working days.

tower-reconstruction.png

Recent studies by Ran Barkai and Roy Liran from Tel Aviv University have suggested astronomical and social purposes in the construction of the tower. Showing an early example of archaeoastronomy, they used computer modelling to determine that the shadow of nearby mountains first hit the tower on the sunset of the summer solstice and then spread across the entire town. Noting that there were no known invasions of the area at the time of construction, the defensive purpose of the tower, wall and ditch at Jericho has been brought into question. No burials were found and suggestions of it being a tomb have been dismissed.

Discussing in The Jerusalem Post, Barkai argued that the structure was used to create awe and inspiration to convince people into a harder way of life with the development of agriculture and social hierarchies. He concluded: "We believe this tower was one of the mechanisms to motivate people to take part in a communal lifestyle."

A stairway (and tower) to Heaven

"Reconstruction of the sunset revealed to us that the shadow of the hill as the sun sets on the longest day of the year falls exactly on the Jericho tower, envelops the tower and then covers the entire village," the researchers explained. "For this reason, we suggest that the tower served as an earthly element connecting the residents of the site with the hills around them and with the heavenly element of the setting sun." Its construction may be related to the primeval fears and cosmological beliefs of the villagers, they note.

Tel Jericho, located in modern day Jericho in the West Bank, is one of the most ancient sites in the world. The eight and half meter tower, which was built with a steep flight of stairs approximately one meter wide, rises above a four-meter wall that probably encompassed the city. The existence of the tower led to Jericho's identification as the first city in the world, even though it was in fact a settlement of pre-agricultural hunter gatherers.

"This was a time when hierarchy began and leadership was established," Dr. Barkai told the Jerusalem Post. "We believe this tower was one of the mechanisms to motivate people to take part in a communal lifestyle."

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The undressed stone tower, placed in the centre of the west side of the tell, contained an internal staircase with 22 stone steps.

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These stair steps are the first known staircase up to the top, made by flat cut blocks of limestone. The high quality of masonry work clearly shows that this was the work of a new people, with a long tradition in stone masonry.

Debunking old theories

Some researchers have proposed that the tower and wall together comprised a system of fortification and a defense against flooding. Others have suggested the tower and wall as a geographical marker, defining the territory of the early residents of Jericho, and a symbol of the wealth and power of the ancient village.

In a 2008 article, the Tel Aviv University researchers proposed that the tower and wall of Jericho should be seen as cosmological markers, connecting the ancient village of Jericho with the nearby Mount Qarantal and sunset on the longest day of the year. The new paper fortifies their hypothesis.

This idea is based on the fact that the axis of the flight of stairs in the tower was built at a precise angle to the setting of the sun on the longest day of the year behind the highest peak overlooking Jericho, Mount Qarantal. They believe that it is humanity's first skyscraper, however small, and also the world's first public building.

Story Source: Materials provided by American Friends of Tel Aviv University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference: Roy Liran and Ran Barkai. Casting a shadow on Neolithic Jericho. Antiquity, Volume 85, Issue 327, March 2011 [abstract]

Madain Project

Neolithic Cat Burial in Cyprus: The oldest known evidence of taming of cats!

The bones of a cat were found near human bones in a grave uncovered in Cyprus, dating from 7,500 to 7,000 years B.C., during excavations carried out under the supervision of Jean Guilaine of the Collège de France. Jean-Denis Vigne, CNRS research director, showed that this was the oldest known evidence of the taming of cats.

It is generally taken for granted that cat domestication began in Egypt, with the first clear evidence dating from 2,000 years B.C. French researchers writing in Science magazine show that the process actually began much earlier than that. The evidence comes from the Neolithic, or late stone age, village of Shillourokambos on Cyprus, which was inhabited from the 9th to the 8th millennia BC.

The cat is buried together with its "master", 3D reconstruction of the Early Aceramic Neolithic grave of Shillourokambos.

The cat is buried together with its "master", 3D reconstruction of the Early Aceramic Neolithic grave of Shillourokambos.

At the end of the 1980’s, the discovery of the jawbone of a cat on the island of Cyprus, at Khirokitia, in sediment from the Neolithic Age dating from more than 6,000 years B.C., had already suggested that the domestication of this species could have begun earlier and elsewhere than in Egypt.  The distance of the island of Cyprus from the continent and the absence of a local feline species during the Neolithic Age clearly implied that Neolithic populations had voluntarily introduced the animal to the island. 

Digs at the site of Shillourokambos, led by Jean Guilaine under the direction of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus and the French School of Athens, have recently unearthed a burial site in which a cat and a human are associated.  It dates from 7,500 to 7,000 B.C. Not only is it older by almost one thousand years than the first evidence of the presence of the cat in Cyprus, but it leaves no doubt as to the existence of a strong association between humans and cats as of that time, at least at the symbolic level. The cat buried with the human was approximately eight months old and had almost reached its adult size.  The morphology of the skeleton suggests that it was a big cat, similar to wild cats found in the Near East today. The morphological modifications of the skeleton associated with domestication are not yet visible, justifying the use of the term “tamed”, rather than “domesticated”.

“This particular relationship between humans and cats could have begun at the very beginning of agriculture, when cats were attracted into the villages because mice came to eat the stored grain”, explains Jean-Denis Vigne.

The complete body of the animal was buried in a small pit at about twenty centimeters from the human grave. The tomb, particularly rich in offerings in comparison to other graves known from this period in Cyprus, suggests that the individual had a special social status. Τhis grave certainly bears witness to relationships between humans and cats in the 8th millennium B.C., not restricted to the material benefit of humans but also involved in spiritual links.

Photo of the discovery.

Photo of the discovery.

Domestication and taming 

Archaeozoologists generally use the word domestication when they have good evidence for morphological modifications such as the decrease of the general size or the shortening of the face and tooth raw. However, morphological modifications may not appear for some considerable time after the original association with man. We use the term ‘taming’ for the early history of the domestic cat when no morphological modification is visible. In addition this term, which has also been used by Malek for the same stage of domestication, fits well the status of cat as an ‘exploiting captive’. Cultural situation of Shillourokambos. The cultural characters of the late 9th millennium Shillourokambos archaeological assemblages are very similar to those of the mainland for the same period. Indeed, it has now been established that Cyprus was settled by Neolithic farmers from the continent who brought with them both crops and herds.

Brief description of the human burial 

The sub-circular (55 x 60 cm) grave was situated in the upper part of the archaeological deposits, just under the 25/30 cm thick arable ploughed earth. It had been dug into the remains of a mud building which dates to the middle phase of the occupation of Shillourokambos. It contained the complete skeleton in primary position of a human of 30 years of age or older; the body, which had partly collapsed during decomposition, had probably been buried in a bag, in a semi-sitting position, facing West; the arms were crossed against the chest and his legs completely folded. The list of the ten ceremonial items is as follows: a marine shell, a stone pendant, a very uncommon discoid flint scraper, two small polished axes (one of them broken), a pumice stone, a fragment of ochre, a large flint piercing tool, and several non-retouched flint blades and bladelets. This is the only burial with such a high number of offerings for the whole Preceramic and Aceramic Neolithic in Cyprus.

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Description of the cat grave and skeleton 

The grave was oval (43 x 25 cm) and ca. 15cm deep. It was dug into and filled with the same archaeological layer as the human burial, at the same level and 20 cm away from its southeastern edge. A small asymmetric mound of sediment all along the North edge of the grave was probably composed of the packed down-products of the excavation of the grave, attesting man-made excavation. The cat skeleton was complete, except the last lumbar vertebra, sacrum, pelvis, possible baculum, tail bones and a few elements of the limb extremities. The missing parts were all situated at the highest level, suggesting that the complete body had been buried and that the uppermost parts were destroyed by ploughing; the skeleton laid on its left side, the head to the West and the back to the South, i.e., in the same orientation as that of the human skeleton; the head was bent backwards in relation to the neck; fore and rear limbs were grouped under the stomach, respectively backwards and forwards stretched, but the removal of the limb extremities precludes any explanation to this peculiar arrangement. The finds have been withdrawn as a block, for laboratory excavation and casting. The entire skeleton was articulated, a small amount of movement to the anatomical arrangement being due to collapse during the decomposition process. There is no indication about the origin of the death. Microscopic examination did not reveal any cut or burn marks. The absence of significant quantities of sediments between the right and left rib series indicates that the thoracic cavity had not been opened before the burial.

Though severely damaged, the skull was sufficiently well preserved to allow a good determination of the species among the different small felids of Western Asia, according to the morphological criteria which allow clear-cut distinctions between them. Lengths of the limbs long bones are much larger than the ones of historical and present-day domestic cats

(Source: “Early taming of the cat in Cyprus”, by J.-D. Vigne, J. Guilaine, K. Debue, L. Haye & P. Gérard)

3D reconstruction of Shillourokambos site.

3D reconstruction of Shillourokambos site.

The 'Jericho Skulls' - Decoration in Burial Practices 9,000 years ago!

About 9,000 years ago this human skull was covered with plaster and the eye-sockets inlaid with cowrie shells, perhaps to represent the dead individual. This is how the archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon interpreted the skull when she excavated it along with a group of six others at Jericho in 1953. If correct, it would make this the oldest portrait in the Ashmolean Museum.

The skull belonged to an adult male and shows evidence of being artificially shaped (possibly by wrapping cloth around his head when an infant); he may have been identified as somebody special from this early age. We don’t know how he died but the removal of the skull may have been carried out after the flesh and sinews had decayed. Plaster was carefully modelled over the front of the skull but does not extend over the back, which was perhaps originally provided with some other material to look like hair.

The plastered skull dates to around 7000 BC, a time when clay was helping to transform settled communities, including the creation of figurines of animals and humans as well as early forms of pottery. It was one way that they could remember their dead, perhaps helping to bring a community together through memories of their ancestors.

Plastered skull from Jericho, around 7000BC, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Plastered skull from Jericho, around 7000BC, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Jericho was founded around 9600 BCE and developed into a large settlement with a population of two thousand by about 7000 BCE. During the Neolithic period (abt 10000 BCE to 4500 BCE), the people of Jericho had a mortuary practice of burying loved ones under their houses. Sometimes these bodies were complete and sometimes the head was removed and only the skull was buried.

Before the head was buried, the skull was defleshed and the mandible was removed, then facial features were reconstructed with plaster. So that the plaster crania retained the identity of the family member, individual facial characteristics were painted on with red and black paint. In many cases the eye orbits were inlaid with shells and the crania were decorated with hair and mustaches.

Example of eye-sockets inlaid with cowrie shells.

Example of eye-sockets inlaid with cowrie shells.

Jericho skull at the British Museum. 

Jericho skull at the British Museum. 

Israeli Archeologists Discover Dead Sea Scroll Fragments

Israeli archaeologists have unearthed two dozen Dead Sea scroll fragments from a remote cave in the Judean Desert, the first discovery of such Jewish religious texts in more than half a century. The Israel Antiquities Authority revealed on Tuesday that a four-year-long national excavation project, which was launched to prevent the looting of antiquities, had uncovered dozens of 2,000-year-old biblical scroll fragments. 

The scrolls contain verses from the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets, including Zechariah and Nahum, and are written in Greek — with the exception of God’s name in Hebrew.

The scroll fragments were recovered from what’s known as the Cave of Horror, where Jewish refugees are believed to have hidden during a failed uprising against the Roman Empire nearly 1,900 years ago. 

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Earlier discoveries of the Dead Sea Scrolls contain parts of all but one book in the Hebrew Bible, as well as the earliest copy of the Ten Commandments. The ancient scrolls are mostly written on parchment and papyrus and are believed to date from the 3rd century B.C. to the 1st century A.D. 

Of the most recent finds, Avi Cohen, CEO of the Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage, said they were “not just important to our own cultural heritage but to that of the entire world.”

“The scroll fragments containing biblical texts, the coins and the additional finds from the Second Temple Period that were found in this unique project directly attest to the Jewish heritage of the region and the inseparable bond between the Jewish cultural activities and our place in this land,” Cohen said. 

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