Page from a copy of the Damascus Document found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/scrolls/images/damasc-b.jpg, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Although the Dead Sea Scrolls have been continuously studied since their discovery in 1947, many mysteries persist. Indeed, one of these mysteries first appeared more than a quarter century before the scrolls were discovered at Qumran. Who is the Teacher of Righteousness? This enigmatic figure appears in at least two of the major works from Qumran and has, at times, been thought to be the author of many others. Yet, as discussed by Angela Kim Harkins in her article “Are We Still Searching for the Teacher of Righteousness?” published in the Spring 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, we might never know the teacher’s true identity. That is, if there ever was one.

Founding the Dead Sea Scrolls Community

First identified in a text of the famous Cairo Genizah, translated and published in 1910, the Teacher of Righteousness is a central figure of the so-called Damascus Document. Among numerous details in the Damascus Document is a description of a religious leader known as the Teacher of Righteousness, who was opposed by a Wicked Priest. After several copies of the Damascus Document were discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls, it became clear that the document likely originated within the Qumran community, with some scholars arguing the Teacher of Righteousness was possibly the community’s founder. Meanwhile, a second text from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Commentary on Habakkuk, describes the teacher’s dramatic rivalry with other figures who contend with him for authority.

The eBook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Past, Present, and Future, brings together articles and interviews with the world’s leading experts on the scrolls. Receive your free copy today!

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

Despite these texts, the Teacher of Righteousness remains a mystery in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and many scholars have put forward various theories about the identity of both the teacher and his adversaries. Early on, most assumed the Teacher of Righteousness was an actual historical figure. Among the proposed identifications was the Hasmonean leader John Hyrcanus and Judah the Essene. More extreme and far-fetched theories even connected the Teacher of Righteousness with early Christianity, suggesting he could have been James, the brother of Jesus, or even John the Baptist.

More recently, scholars of the Dead Sea Scrolls have become less confident about identifying the mysterious Teacher of Righteousness with a real historical figure. As Harkins discusses in her article, scroll scholars “no longer read the texts about the teacher at face value, instead highlighting the possibility that the teacher was a conceptual or even mythical figure emerging from the exegesis of biblical prophetic texts.” Yet other scholars, writing in the pages of Biblical Archaeology Review, have suggested the Teacher of Righteousness was never intended by the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls to be a historical figure. That is, if there ever was such a figure.

Become a BAS All-Access Member Now!

Read Biblical Archaeology Review online, explore 50 years of BAR, watch videos, attend talks, and more

Related reading in Bible History Daily

What Are the Dead Sea Scrolls?

Dead Sea Scrolls History: Looking Back on the Last 75 Years

The Dead Sea Scrolls and the New Testament

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

Jesus and the Teacher of Righteousness—Similarities and Differences

Who Is the Teacher of Righteousness?

ReView: Dead Sea Scrolls Reflect Political History

The post A Dead Sea Scrolls Mystery appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Egyptian hieroglyphic writing was used mainly for monumental purposes, like in this painted relief from the Osiris temple at Abydos built by Ramesses II in c. 1270 BCE. The Walters Art Museum, Public Domain.

The Egyptian language is the sole representative of an autonomous branch of the Afro-Asiatic (formerly Semito-Hamitic) language family. As such, Egyptian is related to both the Semitic languages of the Levant and the various languages of northern Africa. Ancient Egyptian’s closest relatives include Semitic (such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Ethiopic) and Berber. Like the Semitic languages, Egyptian exhibits three sentence types: nominal, adverbial, and verbal, where the predicate is a noun, an adverb, or a verb, respectively.

Now extinct, Egyptian was the mother tongue of ancient Egyptians for more than four millennia, and it ceased to function as a living language only several centuries after the Arab conquest of Egypt in 641 CE. To some extent, it was likely read and understood beyond the borders of ancient Egypt, depending on territorial expansion and commercial ties. There clearly were numerous regional dialects of Egyptian spoken across the land, but given the nature of the Egyptian writing system, which is purely consonantal, dialectal variations became fully visible only in its final stage, Coptic, for which Egyptians of the first centuries of Common Era adopted the Greek alphabet. Before Coptic, we have only hints, such as in a letter from around 1200 BCE that has the writer complaining about his correspondent’s language being as incomprehensible as that of a southerner speaking with a northerner.

The elegant, symmetrical hieroglyphs on this alabaster vessel identify its owner as King Pepi I (2276–2228 BCE). They also indicate the jar was used at the Sed-festival celebrating the pharaoh’s 30-year jubilee. The Walters Art Museum, Public Domain.

The history of ancient Egyptian can be divided into two major phases that differ typologically in the nominal syntax and the verbal system: Earlier Egyptian and Later Egyptian. Earlier Egyptian was spoken until 1300 BCE, although in formal religious texts it survived until the second century CE. It expressed gender and number but lacked the definite article; and verbal phrases followed the verb-subject-object pattern (“listen-he to her”). Earlier Egyptian included three distinctive stages: Old Egyptian, Middle (Classical) Egyptian, and Late Middle Egyptian. Although Middle Egyptian gradually morphed into Late Egyptian (see below), it remained the standard hieroglyphic language for the rest of ancient Egyptian history. Used primarily in religious texts, Late Middle Egyptian extended into the Greco-Roman period and included the so-called Ptolemaic Egyptian preserved in extensive temple inscriptions of the period.

FREE eBook: Life in the Ancient World.
Craft centers in Jerusalem, family structure across Israel and ancient practices—from dining to makeup—through the Mediterranean world.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

Later Egyptian differs substantially from Earlier Egyptian in that it expressed grammatical categories with prefixes (not suffixes), shifting the verbal pattern to subject-verb-object (“he-listen to her”). It also began to use the numeral “one” as the indefinite article (“a” or “an”) and the demonstrative pronoun “this” as the definite article (“the”). As a written language, Later Egyptian lasted from 1300 BCE to the Middle Ages, and it included Late Egyptian, Demotic, and Coptic. As a spoken language, however, its earliest stage, which we call Late Egyptian, emerged already around 1600 BCE and remained in use until about 600 BCE, when it was superseded by Demotic. Demotic developed from Late Egyptian in the mid-seventh century and lasted until the fifth century CE, overlapping with the final stage of the Egyptian language, Coptic, which then survived as a spoken language until about the 11th century.

Inventory tags from Abydos are the earliest examples of hieroglyphic writing. Courtesy Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World.

The earliest known examples of Egyptian writing were excavated at Abydos, some 300 miles south of Cairo. They are inventory tags made of ivory and bone and measuring less than 1 inch per side. They each contain no more than three distinctive images, which likely identified commodities, their provenance, and quantity. Scholars generally consider these signs to be proto-hieroglyphs, as some of them later appear in actual hieroglyphic writing and seem to have phonetic value (in contrast to mere pictographs standing for concrete objects). Coming from the site’s extensive cemetery of Predynastic and Early Dynastic kings, these labels date from around 3400 to 3200 BCE and may thus predate the earliest known examples of cuneiform writing.

The Egyptian language was historically written in four distinctive scripts: hieroglyphic, hieratic, Demotic, and Coptic. Except for the last one, none of the writing systems expressed vowels. The earliest of these are hieroglyphs. Termed so by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, the hieroglyphs were mostly used to record monumental and sacral texts, such as on temple walls, statues, coffins, and stelae. All hieroglyphs are pictures of real or imagined things, such as legs, a papyrus roll, or a mythical creature. These can be used in three different ways. Hieroglyphic signs can function as ideograms, representing the actual depicted thing (for example, a picture of legs means “legs”). This is how we use emojis or understand “I NY” t-shirts. Hieroglyphic signs can also be phonograms, where these same pictures are used for their phonetic (sound) value, such as when the ground plan of a house (per) is combined with other signs to write such unrelated words as perit, “emergence.” This is how English is written, except that our signs/characters have highly abstract shapes and are limited to 26. Finally, most signs can be used as determinatives, added at the end of a word to help readers determine the general idea of the word written with phonograms and, hence, not representing the depicted thing. For example, three little circles following a word written with the signs for house and mouth indicate that the preceding signs are to be read phonetically to mean “seeds” and that the word has nothing to do with actual houses or mouths.

Religious texts and private documents written on papyrus mostly used the cursive script known as hieratic, as in this Book of the Dead from c. 1070–945 BCE. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, Public Domain.

When written with a reed pen and ink on papyrus or wood, hieroglyphs were produced in a much simpler way called cursive hieroglyphs, although it is still fairly easy to identify the individual shapes of their hieroglyphic counterparts. Early on, however, scribes developed a true cursive version of hieroglyphs that we call hieratic. The hieratic script was used widely to record administrative and religious texts and to write letters or literature. With the emergence of Demotic, in the mid-seventh century BCE, came an even more cursive and abbreviated script. The language of administration and literature, Demotic was written primarily on papyrus. Grammatically, it naturally developed from Late Egyptian, but its script is radically different—a more cursive variant of the hieratic script. One of the most curious examples of Demotic script is written in the Aramaic language to record biblical Psalms. This so-called Papyrus Amherst 63 was found in southern Egypt in the late 19th century and likely originated with the Jewish community on Elephantine.

Hieratic and its hieroglyphic counterpart of a section from the Maxims of Ptahhotep, a Middle Egyptian wisdom text attributed to the vizier Ptahhotep, from c. 2350 BCE. From James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian (2014), p. 7.

While cursive hieroglyphs, hieratic, and Demotic were mostly written horizontally from right to left, hieroglyphs could be written in any direction, except from the bottom up. As an example, our first image above reads vertically from the right; the second image reads horizontally from the center to both left and right and then vertically down. Finally, the hieratic text of the papyrus above reads horizontally from right to left, but in the opening vignette, the right four columns of hieroglyphs read vertically from left, while the four columns on the left read vertically from the right. This versatility was useful in producing symmetrical designs and could adapt to any accompanying pictorial elements.

FREE ebook: Ancient Israel in Egypt and the Exodus.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

The last stage of the Egyptian language, Coptic, which emerged in the third century CE, adopted the Greek alphabet. It was initially the language of the Christian church that grew to become the language of official administration, replacing Greek, before it, too, was superseded by Arabic. When the last hieroglyphic inscription was inscribed, in 436 CE, its language was already dead. It had become a mysterious language written with esoteric signs, until 200 years ago, when Champollion succeeded in cracking the code of Egyptian hieroglyphs and began to decipher the language behind them.

Demotic was both the latest form of cursive Egyptian script and a stage of the Egyptian language. Dated to December 6, 127 BCE, this inscribed sherd contains a record of an oath taken by one Patasetat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, Public Domain.

For much of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550–1200 BCE), Canaan was under intermittent Egyptian rule, and isolated Egyptian incursions into the southern Levant continued well into the early Iron Age. When we also consider the exceptional relevance of Egypt to the biblical traditions of Joseph, the Exodus from Egypt, and the emergence of ancient Israel, the importance for biblical studies of exploring the Egyptian sources becomes obvious. In Bronze Age Canaan, Egyptian presence is attested also in the archaeological record, such as in the destruction of Gezer or in Egyptian statuary found at Hazor.

When Canaan was dominated by Egypt, scarabs and other examples of material culture, such as statues and monumental art, streamed into the region. The most prominent and ubiquitous examples of Egyptian writing preserved in the Levant are scarabs. In Egypt proper, the better known texts relevant for biblical studies include the Bubastite Portal in the temple of Amun at Karnak that celebrates military victories in the Levant of Pharaoh Shoshenq I (biblical Shishak), who campaigned through much of Israel and Judah in c. 925 BCE (see 1 Kings 14:25–26; 2 Chronicles 12:4). BAR readers will also recognize the famed Merneptah Stele excavated at Thebes and containing the first mention of a people called “Israel.” Also important are lists of Canaanite cities conquered by Pharaoh Thutmose III (r. 1479–1425), sculpted on the temple walls at Karnak. To fully engage with this Egyptian evidence, one must read the Egyptian language.

During his 1458 BCE military campaign into the southern Levant, King Thutmose III defeated a coalition of Canaanite city-states, which are listed in this relief in the temple of Amun at Karnak. Hannah Pethen, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Students of Egyptian typically begin with Middle (Classical) Egyptian, which preserved a variety of literary works, including wisdom literature and stories like the Tale of Sinuhe and the Shipwrecked Sailor. In English, the most widely used teaching grammar of Middle Egyptian is James P. Allen’s Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, accessible from the Internet Archive. The handiest dictionary is Raymond Faulkner’s concise dictionary of Middle Egyptian. Finally, Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae is an electronic corpus of a wide variety of Egyptian texts for private study.

For a detailed discussion of the Egyptian sources for the history of Canaan, Donald B. Redford’s Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times is a good starting point, while the edited volume Did I Not Bring Israel Out of Egypt? explores specifically the biblical narratives of Exodus vis-à-vis biblical, archaeological, and Egyptian evidence.

Our website, blog and email newsletter are a crucial part of Biblical Archaeology Society's nonprofit educational mission

This costs substantial money and resources, but we don't charge a cent to you to cover any of those expenses.

If you'd like to help make it possible for us to continue Bible History Daily, BiblicalArchaeology.org, and our email newsletter please donate. Even $5 helps:

Related reading in Bible History Daily

What Is Biblical Hebrew?

What Is Akkadian?

What Is Aramaic?

What Is Hittite?

What Is Biblical Greek?

The Rosetta Stone: Key to Egyptian Hieroglyphs

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

You Too Can Read Hieroglyphics

Narmer’s Enigmatic Palette

When Pharaohs Ruled Jerusalem

Pharaoh’s Fury: Merneptah’s Destruction of Gezer

This article was originally published in Bible History Daily on May 3, 2024

The post What Is Ancient Egyptian? appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

The world’s most famous (and powerful) oracle resided at Delphi, high up the slopes of Mount Parnassus in the Temple of Apollo. In ancient times, supplicants would wind up the mountainside, patiently hoping for words of wisdom from the priestess (called the Pythia) in the temple’s adyton (inner chamber). Corbis

Archaeologists are good at recovering things left behind by the past, such as buildings, incense altars, tools and relief carvings. What they are not so good at recovering are the ideas, feelings and emotions—the innerness—of sentient ancient beings. It’s one thing to examine a temple’s holy of holies; it’s another thing to understand what went on there and what people experienced. Sometimes, however, there’s an exception to the rule.

Numerous classical authors report that natural phenomena played an essential part in one of their most sacred religious rituals: the oracle at Delphi. According to the geographer Strabo (c. 64 B.C.–25 A.D.), for example, “the seat of the oracle is a cavern hollowed down in the depths … from which arises pneuma [breath, vapor, gas] that inspires a divine state of possession” (Geography 9.3.5). Over the past five years, a team of researchers—a geologist, an archaeologist, a chemist and a toxicologist—has put that claim to the test, making it much more likely that we will actually understand what happened at Delphi.

FREE ebook. The Olympic Games: How They All Began. Read about the ancient origins of the Olympics, some 2,700 years ago. Download now.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

When ancient Greeks and Romans had to make decisions, they consulted the gods—by drawing lots, casting dice, interpreting dreams and analyzing such signs as sneezes, thunderbolts and flying birds. But for matters of the utmost importance, they sought to hear the words of the gods in the mouths of oracles.^a

Pythias were virgins who dedicated their lives to prophesying on behalf of the god Apollo. The first Pythia is said to have been the goddess Themis, who is depicted on a fifth-century B.C. cup (shown here) sitting on a tripod and holding a bowl and a sprig of laurel (Apollo’s sacred tree). According to Strabo (c. 64 B.C.–25 A.D.) and other sources, the Pythia was inspired by mysterious vapors, though these accounts have been largely ignored by modern researchers. Now, however, a team of archaeologists and geologists have proved that the Temple of Apollo sat directly above fault lines that likely released intoxicating carbon-based gases into the adyton. Was this the oracle’s secret?

Paradoxically, in male-dominated classical Greece the most influential voice, the Delphic oracle, belonged to a woman. The oracular temple was perched on the south slope of Mount Parnassus, surrounded by high cliffs, about 75 miles west of Athens. Getting to Delphi required either a long trek across the mountains or a sea voyage to the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth. However difficult the journey, thousands of visitors sought guidance from the holy woman, called the Pythia,^b who spoke on behalf of the gods.

The Pythia dealt less in visions of the future than in right choices: where to locate a new colony, when to attack an enemy, how to lift a curse, whom to choose as leader, what offering to make to which god. No kingdom, city or private person could afford to make critical decisions without consulting the Pythia. Thanks to her prestige, Delphi became the richest and most famous Hellenic sanctuary. The Greeks called it the omphalos, or “navel of the world.”

How could a mere mortal command such respect? The answer lies in the belief that Apollo—the god of revelation and inspiration—used the Pythia as his mouthpiece, taking possession of her during oracular sessions. The Pythia would fall into a trance, and the words she spoke were supposedly those of Apollo, delivered in a voice very unlike her normal tones.

Most scholars believe the Delphic oracle was established around the eighth century B.C., when founders of new colonies would consult the Pythia before setting out for the western Mediterranean, North Africa, Asia Minor or the Black Sea. The origins of the oracle are recounted in a story about a goatherd named Koretas, who pastured his flock on the slope of Mount Parnassus. Koretas noticed that when the goats grazed near a certain fissure in the mountainside, they began to bleat strangely. Approaching the fissure, he was filled with a prophetic spirit. Eventually, a woman—the first Pythia—was appointed to sit on a tripod over the cleft and give prophecies. Before she could mount the tripod, however, a goat had to be sacrificed to ensure that the day was propitious.

Image: Frank Ippolito.

During the classical period, supplicants would line up at dawn to walk along the Sacred Way, a steep path snaking up through the sanctuary toward the Temple of Apollo. The priests and temple attendants determined the order of the queue, giving priority to state embassies and then working their way down through military commanders, athletes, poets and, last of all, mere heads of families concerned about a child or an investment. The supplicants filed past bronze statues, war monuments and treasure houses dedicated in the past by grateful visitors. It would have been late in the day by the time the ordinary men at the rear reached the terrace of the temple and viewed the famous inscriptions, “Know Thyself” and “Nothing in Excess.”

Learn about the dazzling discoveries coming out of the Alexander the Great-era tomb at Amphipolis in Greece.

From here the way led up a ramp to a great colonnade of Doric columns, and then through a double door into the temple itself. Inside burned a constant pinewood fire tended by women of Delphi. The final approach to the oracle led downward into a sunken space below the level of the temple floor, where the visitor would be confronted by a gold statue of Apollo and the omphalos stone that marked the sacred spot. The Pythia sat in a recessed inner sanctum called the adyton, a Greek word meaning “not to be entered.” Standing outside the adyton, visitors would ask their questions and await the response.

Unlike itinerant prophets and omen-interpreters, the Pythia derived her power from the place—she could only prophesy while seated in the adyton within the Temple of Apollo. According to Strabo, the pneuma arose from a small opening (chasma ges) in the adyton: “Over the mouth [of the opening] a high tripod is set. Mounting this, the Pythia inhales the pneuma and then speaks prophecies in verse or in prose. The latter are versified by poets on duty in the temple” (Geography 9.3.5.).

Strabo was not the only ancient source to describe the adyton and the intoxicating gas. The second-century A.D. traveler Pausanias told of a spring in the temple’s adyton that made the Pythia prophetic. Also, in On the Obsolescence of the Oracles, the biographer Plutarch (c. 46–120 A.D.), who served as a priest of Apollo at Delphi, described an exhalation of vapor in the adyton that sent the Pythia into a trance.
Despite these testimonies, no serious scholar over the last 50 years has accepted the idea that the Pythia’s trance was caused by a gaseous emission.

FREE ebook: Ten Top Biblical Archaeology Discoveries. Finds like the Pool of Siloam in Israel, where the Gospel of John says Jesus miraculously restored sight to a blind man.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

Modern investigations began in the 1890s, when French archaeologists began to excavate the sanctuary at Delphi. They first moved the modern village of Kastri, household by household, from above the ancient sanctuary to the town of Delphi, west of the sanctuary. The French archaeologists uncovered the boundary wall of the ancient sanctuary, an entry gate, and the lower stretches of the Sacred Way. By 1893 they had reached the terrace of the Temple of Apollo—where they found that scarcely a stone remained in place above the floor. The columns had toppled, and the statuary had been carried off or destroyed. In the lower chamber, where the oracle once spoke, no trace of the ancient structure remained. Even the archaeologists’ attempts to reach bedrock were frustrated as water filled the excavated areas.

While the French team was excavating the temple, a young English scholar named A.P. Oppé published a report based on his visit to the site. Oppé proposed that the ancient sources had confused the fissure with a nearby gorge, and that the vapor was simply a fiction that had been passed down from source to source.¹

In 1927, after a hiatus precipitated by World War I, a scholar named M.F. Courby published the French team’s final report of the temple excavations. He described the bedrock under the center of the temple as “fissured by the action of the waters”—suggesting that the ancient traditions of an opening in the rock may have been correct.² By then, however, Oppé’s theory that the ancients simply misconstrued the facts had taken too strong a hold among scholars for the issue to be reconsidered. The final blow came in 1950: Pierre Amandry of the École Française d’Athènes stated definitively—or so it was widely believed—that exhalations of intoxicating gas could never have existed at Delphi. Only volcanic activity could produce such gas, Amandry (incorrectly) noted, and Delphi does not lie in a volcanic area.³ For almost half a century, debates about the geological origins of the oracle virtually ceased.^c

The first step toward a modern reassessment of the evidence was made in the 1980s by geologist (and co-author) Jelle Zeilinga de Boer, the senior member of our project in Delphi. De Boer was conducting surveys, under the auspices of the United Nations and the Greek government, to identify active fault lines. One area he studied was the south slope of Mount Parnassus, where he noted an exposed fault both east and west of the sanctuary of Apollo—though it could not be seen at the site of the temple, where it was covered by ancient construction and debris from rock slides. De Boer suspected that the fault did indeed run under the temple, but he gave the matter no more thought.

The acropolis in Athens is the most iconic remnant of the classical Greek world. Discover the site’s history and architecture in the article “Antiquity’s High Holy Place: The Athenian Acropolis“ by Harrison Eiteljorg, now available online for free.

It was not until the summer of 1995 that Zeilinga de Boer encountered an archaeologist, co-author John Hale of the University of Louisville, who assured him, first, that he could not possibly have seen any such feature at Delphi and, second (after Zeilinga de Boer described the fault in detail), that this might be a discovery of major importance. We decided to continue investigations at Delphi, eventually adding a chemist (Jeff Chanton of Florida State University and the U.S. Geological Survey Magnetic Laboratory) and a toxicologist (Henry Spiller of the Kentucky Poison Center) to the team.

In 1996, with the support of Rozina Kolonia, the director of the Delphi Museum, we conducted a survey of the site and found that the sections of exposed fault on either side of the sanctuary were indeed part of the same fault—an active fault extending about 13 miles east-west along the southern flank of Mount Parnassus. We named this fault the Delphi Fault.

This egg-shaped stone—the very stone described by the Greek writer Pausanias, who visited Delphi in the second century A.D.—represents the omphalos, or “navel of the world.” According to Greek legend, Delphi was fixed as the center of the world when Zeus released two eagles, one from the west and the other from the east, which met in the sky above Delphi. The original omphalos stone, now lost, was probably an archaic cult object that supplicants draped with wreaths, resembling the wreaths carved in relief on this stone. Erich Lessing

In subsequent seasons we identified a second fault, extending approximately southeast-northwest. This fault could be traced along a line of springs running through the center of the sanctuary. The highest spring, above the temple, is called the Kerna Spring; its water is currently channeled westward to modern Delphi. Further down the slope, though still above the temple, a mass of travertine (a kind of limestone) deposited by calcite-rich waters indicates another spring. There is also an elaborate channel for a spring built into the southern foundation wall of the temple itself. Although this spring is dry today, the early 20th-century French archaeologists found it difficult to reach bedrock within the sanctuary because their holes kept filling up with water. Down the slope below the temple, yet another spring emerges from a cleft in the bedrock near the Treasury of the Athenians.
We have named this southeast-northwest fault the Kerna Fault, after its highest spring. In de Boer’s opinion, the Kerna Fault intersects the Delphi Fault at or near the site of the temple.

What the ancient authors described as a fissure (chasma ges) in the rock over which the Pythia sat was probably a small fracture extending up from the intersection of these two faults. Very likely, this is also what M.F. Courby, in his 1927 publication of the French team’s excavations, was describing when he wrote that the bedrock was “fissured by the action of the waters.”

Greek geologists had already identified the limestone under the temple as bituminous (oil-bearing), with a petrochemical content as high as 20 percent. These petrochemicals appeared to be a possible source of gases. But how exactly could they be released from the rock into the atmosphere?

Become a BAS All-Access Member Now!

Read Biblical Archaeology Review online, explore 50 years of BAR, watch videos, attend talks, and more

The Delphi Fault is linked to one of Greece’s most geologically active features: the great rift, or graben, that today is filled by the waters of the Gulf of Corinth. This is a recent feature, geologically speaking, having formed roughly two million years ago. The rift continues to widen; as it does, motion occurs along faults and earthquakes are triggered. In 373 B.C., for example, earthquakes almost completely destroyed the Delphic temple on the north side of the gulf, as well as coastal towns on the south side.

As slippage occurs along the fault lines, adjacent rock masses are heated, vaporizing the lighter petrochemicals in the limestone and expelling gases upward along the face of the faults. Once faulting has opened such a pathway, gases continue to rise, although the volume would slowly decrease over time. We believe that this is exactly what happened at Delphi: The rock masses deep in the earth were heated, and they intermittently produced gases that rose up along the intersection of the two fault lines, eventually entering the adyton of the temple through one or more fissures over which the Pythia sat.

Read about the discovery in ancient Hierapolis of Pluto’s Gate, a site shrouded in misty poisonous vapors and considered sacred to the underworld deity Pluto.

Exhalations of gases from bituminous limestone have been observed by geologists studying underwater faults in the Gulf of Mexico. There light hydrocarbon gases—methane, ethane and ethylene, all of them intoxicants—have been found bubbling up from the rock below. Closer to Delphi, similar exhalations were detected near the Isthmus of Corinth, as well as on the island of Zakynthos.

We decided to test the spring water at Delphi, along with samples of the travertine rock that the ancient springs had deposited on the retaining walls and slopes around the temple. If significant quantities of gases had been emitted with the spring water, traces of these gases might be found in the travertine deposits. The very presence of travertine rock, formed from dissolved calcites in warm spring water, is evidence that the springs along the Kerna Fault had their origin at deep levels.

The water and travertine from the sanctuary of Apollo, which were analyzed by Jeff Chanton, revealed traces of the light hydrocarbon gases found in the Isthmus of Corinth and on Zakynthos. Could this explain the Pythia’s state of intoxication in ancient times?

Apollo sits on a carved ompholos stone—perhaps even a representation of the stone shown in the previous photo—on a coin (shown here) minted in Antioch in 225–223 B.C. Clearly, the Delphic oracle and its association with Apollo were well known throughout the ancient world in Hellenistic times. By the first century A.D., however, the Pythia’s powers were failing, perhaps because the volume of gases flowing into the adyton had decreased—and by the fourth century, the demise of the oracle was complete. Photo: American Numismatic Society.

The ancient sources describe two distinct types of prophetic trance experienced by the Pythia. First, and more normally, she would lapse into benign semi-consciousness, during which she remained seated on the tripod, responding to questions—though in a strangely altered voice. According to Plutarch, once the Pythia recovered from this trance, she was in a composed and relaxed state, like a runner after a race. A second kind of trance involved a frenzied delirium characterized by wild movements of the limbs, harsh groaning and inarticulate cries. When the Pythia experienced this delirium, Plutarch reports, she died after only a few days—and a new Pythia took her place.

According to toxicologist Henry Spiller, both of these symptoms are associated with the inhalation of hydrocarbon gases. Spiller studies the effects of such inhalants on young people, known as “huffers,” who breathe in fumes from gas, glue, paint thinner and other substances because of their intoxicating properties. Perhaps the Pythia too was high on one of these hydrocarbon gases.

It may even be possible to identify the kind of gas. Plutarch—who, we recall, was a priest of Apollo at the Delphic sanctuary—noted that the intoxicating pneuma had a sweet smell, like expensive perfume. Of the hydrocarbon gases, only ethylene has a sweet smell—so ethylene was probably a component in the gaseous emission inhaled by the Pythia.

Now, there is a good deal of evidence concerning ethylene intoxication, particularly from the early 20th century. In laboratory tests involving human subjects, the pioneering anesthesiologist Isabella Herb and other scientists studied the effects of light doses of ethylene. Ethylene worked twice as fast as nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and achieved similar effects with only half the quantity. In high concentrations, ethylene produced complete unconsciousness; in low concentrations, it induced a trance state. Ultimately, ethylene’s use as a medical anesthetic was discontinued because of its combustibility: A spark from electrical equipment in the operating room could ignite the ethylene canister, causing it to explode.⁴

From the evidence of “huffers” and the experiments with ethylene, we know that subjects normally react to inhaling small quantities of these gases by entering a benign “out-of-body” trance. They can remain seated and answer questions, but their tone of voice and typical speech patterns are altered. Recovery takes place as soon as the subject is removed from exposure to the gas, and complete amnesia about the trance follows. In a minority of cases (about one in six) in the ethylene experiments, subjects experienced delirium, or a “bad trip.” Experimenters had to use restraints to hold down those undergoing this delirium, which was accompanied by groaning, shrieking and a thrashing of the arms and legs.

FREE ebook: Island Jewels: Understanding Ancient Cyprus and Crete. Read the fascinating history of these mythical Mediterranean islands.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

Unfortunately, no detailed accounts of the Pythia’s behavior survive from the golden age (seventh to fifth century B.C.) of the Delphic oracle. By the time Plutarch took office as priest of Apollo at Delphi, the oracle’s powers had significantly diminished. According to Plutarch, emissions of pneuma in the adyton were slight and unpredictable, leading to the decline of the oracle itself. He suggested that whatever produced the pneuma in the rock below the temple had become exhausted, or that the fissures in the rock had been blocked up in the 373 B.C. earthquake. The Delphic oracle never recovered its former prestige after this earthquake, even though the temple was rebuilt.

The diminished flow of gas may not have been the only reason for the decline of the institution. Plutarch opined that the pneuma was merely a trigger for the prophetic trance, and that the Pythia’s lifelong training and psychological preparation played the most important role in her spiritual possession. In a memorable simile, Plutarch compared Apollo to a musician, the Pythia to a lyre, and the pneuma to the musician’s uncanny ability to produce music by touching the instrument. Perhaps there were socio-cultural reasons for the decline of the institution, or perhaps, as the gaseous emissions became less powerful, devoting one’s life to the oracle became less attractive.

Whatever the reasons for the oracle’s demise, we can no longer dismiss ancient traditions concerning its origins and power. Strabo, Plutarch and the others have been rescued by science from a century of calumny.

Read the Bible History Daily feature Medicine in the Ancient World.

The House of Apollo: A History

The Delphic oracle appears often in Greek myth, even in the account of the repopulating of the earth after a great flood. The high god Zeus, distressed over mankind’s wickedness, sends a flood to cover the earth, but two pious human beings, Deucalion (Prometheus’s son) and Pyrrha (Prometheus’s niece), survive by climbing Mount Parnassus. With the ebbing of the flood, the two descend the mountain and come upon the Delphic temple site, where they hear a voice: “Veil your heads and cast behind you the bones of your mother!” Like many of the Delphic oracles, this one is initially enigmatic, but Deucalion and Pyrrha soon realize that the earth is their mother; so they throw rocks over their shoulders, and the rocks are transformed into men and women, saving humanity from perdition.

Photo: Erich Lessing.

Another famous, or infamous, visit to the oracle was made by the young Oedipus—who, having been adopted as a baby, wanted to know the identity of his parents. (The third-century A.D. marble relief above shows Oedipus [center] sacrificing to the Delphic oracle in front of a statue of Apollo [left].) However, the Delphic oracle informed the young man that he would murder his father and commit incest with his mother. To foil the prophecy, Oedipus left Corinth, which he (erroneously) believed to be his native land. On his journey he killed another chariot-driver in a fit of ancient road rage—but unknown to him, the other driver was his father Laius, King of Thebes.

The oracle at Delphi was also consulted by non-mythical figures. In the sixth century B.C., King Croesus of Lydia, in western Anatolia, inquired whether he should attack King Cyrus of Persia. “If you attack,” replied the Pythia, “you will destroy a great kingdom.” Croesus attacked the Persians, suffered total defeat, and saw his kingdom absorbed into the Persian Empire. Croesus had destroyed a great kingdom—his own.

Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY

More than a century later, the philosopher Socrates—shown above in a Hellenistic bust—reminded the Athenians at his trial in 399 B.C. that the oracle had declared him the wisest of men, a fact that did not save him from execution.

Photo: David Harris/Collection Israel Museum

After Greece was conquered by Rome, a number of Roman emperors posed questions to the oracle. Nero (54–68 A.D.) was warned to beware the 73rd year, and he was later assassinated by troops who made the 73-year-old Galba emperor in his place. Hadrian (117–138 A.D.), shown in the bronze statue above, ever the intellectual, wanted to know the birthplace of the poet Homer. (The Pythia’s answer: Homer was the grandson of Odysseus and born at Ithaca.) The oracle advised Diocletian (284–305 A.D.) to persecute Christians—which Christians avenged by destroying a number of oracle sites in the fourth century A.D. Finally, the envoys of the pagan Roman emperor Julian the Apostate (361–363 A.D.) received word of the oracle’s demise from the Pythia: “Tell the king the fair-built hall has fallen; Apollo now has no house or oracular laurel or prophetic spring; the water is silent.”

Notes

a. The oracle at Delphi was not the only ancient oracle, though it was the most powerful. Other Greek oracles were located at Epidaurus and in Asia Minor at Colophon and Didyma. Italy’s most famous oracle was at Cumae (near Naples), where a sibyl, or priestess, prophesied in a cavern; originally, the sibyl’s utterances were inscribed on palm leaves.

b. “Pythia” derives from the original name of the site, Pytho. Homer, for instance, refers to Apollo’s “shrine in Pytho” (Odyssey 8.94). The name “Delphi” came later.

c. However, this was not so among such Greek scholars as Spyridon Marinatos (1901–1974), the excavator of ancient Thera (modern Santorini), which was buried in a volcanic eruption around 1638 B.C. Marinatos argued that Delphi’s active geological history made it difficult to know what changes might have occurred over the past two millennia. He also made a report on an anemotrypa (wind hole) in the modern town of Delphi—a small cleft in the rock that emitted gas with a sulfurous smell. Scholars outside Greece ignored these ideas.

1. A.P. Oppé, “The Chasm at Delphi,” Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. 24 (1904), pp. 214–240.

2. M.F. Courby, Topographie et architecture: la terasse du Temple: Fouilles de Delphes (1927), vol. 11, pp. 65–66.

3. Pierre Amandry, La mantique apollinienne a Delphes: Boccard (Paris, 1950), pp. 215–230.

4. See Isabella Herb, “Ethylene: Notes Taken from the Clinical Records,” in Anesthesia and Analgesia (December, 1923), pp. 210, 231–232; Herb, “Further Clinical Experiments with Ethylene-Oxygen Anesthesia,” Anesthesia and Analgesia (December, 1927), pp. 258–262; A.B. Luckhardt and J.B. Carter, “Physiologic Effects of Ethylene: A New Gas Anesthetic,” Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 80 (January–June 1923), pp. 765–770.

“Was She Really Stoned?” by Jelle Zeilinga de Boer and John R. Hale appeared in the November/December 2002 issue of Archaeology Odyssey. The article was first republished in Bible History Daily in May 2013.

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Lay That Ghost: Necromancy in Ancient Greece and Rome

Solomon, Socrates and Aristotle

Who Were the Minoans?

Stoa Poikile Excavations in the Athenian Agora

The Gospel of the Lots of Mary

Word Play

Our website, blog and email newsletter are a crucial part of Biblical Archaeology Society's nonprofit educational mission

This costs substantial money and resources, but we don't charge a cent to you to cover any of those expenses.

If you'd like to help make it possible for us to continue Bible History Daily, BiblicalArchaeology.org, and our email newsletter please donate. Even $5 helps:

The post The Oracle of Delphi—Was She Really Stoned? appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Who were the Galatians in the Bible? This map shows the regions of Anatolia during the first century C.E., when Paul would have traveled through the area. Recent archaeological discoveries suggest that the province of Galatia would have included the regions of Pisidia, Phrygia, Lycaonia, and Pamphylia at that time. Map: Biblical Archaeology Society.

Who were the Galatians in the Bible? The apostle Paul addressed one of his now-canonical letters to the “churches of Galatia” (Galatians 1:2), but where exactly were these churches located?

Galatia refers to a region in north central Turkey; Ankara, the capital of modern Turkey, was once a major Galatian city (Ancyra). The name of Galatia is derived from the 20,000 Gauls who settled in the region in 278 B.C.E. More than two centuries later, in 25 B.C.E., the area became a Roman province and was extended to the south. In Paul’s day, the new province included the regions of Pisidia, Phrygia, and Lycaonia. Scholars often refer to these new, southern regions as “south Galatia” and to geographic Galatia as “north Galatia.”

Yet recent archaeological discoveries suggest that Galatia extended even further south during the first century C.E.—meaning that the audience of Paul’s letter might be larger than earlier supposed.

In the Fall 2020 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Mark Wilson of the Asia Minor Research Center in Antalya, Turkey, examines the size of Galatia at the time that Paul visited and wrote his letter. As suggested by its title, “Galatia in Text, Geography, and Archaeology,” his article weighs all the available evidence for tracking down this province’s borders to determine the original audience of Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

Become a BAS All-Access Member Now!

Read Biblical Archaeology Review online, explore 50 years of BAR, watch videos, attend talks, and more

Dated to the late 40s C.E., this Latin inscription from Perga mentions Galatia and Pamphylia as a joint Roman province and names Sextus Afranicus Burrus as its procurator. Photo: Mark Wilson.

The Book of Acts records Paul’s travels through “south Galatia,” including the cities of Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts 13–16). Paul also visited Perga and Attalia in the region of Pamphylia on the Mediterranean coast (Acts 13–14). Three recent archaeological discoveries suggest that these cities in Pamphylia were part of Galatia when Paul visited the region:

The Stadiasmus Patarensis, a road monument from the city of Patara in the region of Lycia, dates to 46 C.E. and lists Pamphylia as a bordering province. While some scholars had thought Lycia and Pamphylia were a joint province at this time, this road monument contradicts that theory and shows that Pamphylia and Lycia were not a joint province when Paul visited the area.

Further, two Latin inscriptions, excavated from the city of Perga in Pamphylia, name Galatia and Pamphylia as a joint province during the late 40s and early 50s C.E.

These inscriptions show that the province of Galatia stretched from central Anatolia to the Mediterranean Sea during Paul’s day. Wilson concludes that the audience of Galatians would have included cities in Pisidia, Phrygia, Lycaonia, and Pamphylia. Learn more about Galatia in Mark Wilson’s article “Galatia in Text, Geography, and Archaeology,” published in the Fall 2020 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Subscribers: Read the full article “Galatia in Text, Geography, and Archaeology” by Mark Wilson in the Fall 2020 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Galatians 3:28—Neither Jew nor Greek, Slave nor Free, Male and Female

The Great Paul Debate

Who Governed the Roman Province of Lycia-Pamphylia?

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

On the Road and on the Sea with St. Paul

After the Flood!

Paul’s Contradictions

A version of this post first appeared in Bible History Dailyin September 2020

The post Who Were the Galatians in the Bible? appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

The dual cartouches of Ramesses III discovered in Jordan’s Wadi Rum. Courtesy Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Jordan.

The Jordanian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery of the cartouche of Pharaoh Ramesses III (1186–1155 BCE) carved into a rock face near Wadi Rum in southern Jordan. A first-of-its-kind discovery in the country, it has been hailed as “rare, tangible evidence of pharaonic Egypt’s historical presence in the region.” Although it is the first such inscription discovered in Jordan, a series of cartouches belonging to Ramesses III have been discovered elsewhere, marking out an ancient trade route between Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula.

FREE ebook: Ancient Israel in Egypt and the Exodus.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

Leaving a Mark

Among the countless carvings found throughout Wadi Rum, the inscription features two cartouches, one with the birth name of Ramesses III and the other with his throne name. “This is a landmark discovery that enhances our understanding of ancient connections between Egypt, Jordan, and the Arabian Peninsula,” said Lina Annab, the Jordanian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities.

Several other inscriptions of Ramesses III have been discovered outside of Egypt, carved along a lengthy trade route that connected Egypt with the Arabian Peninsula. These inscriptions have helped archaeologists pinpoint the route itself, with several cartouches found throughout the Sinai and Israel and one as far south as Tayma in Saudi Arabia. The Wadi Rum inscription, which is located close to the border between Jordan and Saudi Arabia, provides yet another marker on that route.

According to Zahi Hawass, the former Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, “The discovery is crucial. It could open the door to a deeper understanding of Egypt’s interactions with the southern Levant and Arabian Peninsula over 3,000 years ago.”

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Ramesses III in Arabia?

Pharaoh’s Mummy Reveals Murder, Palace Intrigue

Identifying Pi Ramesses

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

BAR Jr.: Gamma Rays Halt Deterioration of Mummy of Ramesses II

Egyptian Papyrus Sheds New Light on Jewish History

The post Pharaoh Ramesses III in Jordan appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Codex Aretinus 405 contains the only surviving copy of Egeria’s Travels.
Lameiro, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Egeria’s Travels is an early Christian pilgrimage account by an educated and well-traveled woman from the Roman province of Galicia (in modern Spain) that tells of her journey to and around the Holy Land. Dating to the late fourth century, this work is a rich source of geographical and historical information.

The account is unfortunately incomplete and survives in a single manuscript, now in the municipal library of Arezzo, Italy. Egeria’s work appears on pages 31–74 of Codex Aretinus 405, which was produced in the 11th century in the monastery of Monte Cassino. It is debatable how faithfully this copy transmits the original work. The parchment manuscript lacks the beginning and ending as well as four pages in the middle. Due to this state of preservation, the original title has not survived. The customary title derives from the work’s content and is variously given as Itinerarium Egeriae (Egeria’s Travels), Peregrinatio ad Loca Sancta (Pilgrimage to the Holy Sites), or Peregrinatio Aetheriae (Pilgrimage of Etheria).

The eBook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: Past, Present, and Future, brings together articles and interviews with the world’s leading experts on the scrolls. Receive your free copy today!

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

The author’s identity is similarly modern conjecture. Addressing her readers repeatedly as dominae (“ladies”), dominae animae meae (“my dear ladies”), and dominae sorores (“sister ladies”), she clearly was a woman—either a nun writing for fellow nuns or a noblewoman writing for her intimate circle of pious friends. The first scholar to publish the manuscript, G.F. Gamurrini, identified her with the fourth-century noblewoman Silvia di Aquitania. She was later identified with Galla Placidia (388–450), a daughter of the Byzantine emperor Theodosius I, and with “the religious person” whom the seventh-century hermit Valerius of Bierzo (in Galicia, Spain) praised, in a letter to his fellow monks, for her pilgrimage to the Levant. Since different manuscripts of this letter provide several different spellings of her name, she has been variously known as Aetheria, Etheria, and Egeria, the last of which is currently most widely used.

Although the surviving manuscript of Egeria’s Travels dates from the 11th century, the work was likely composed in the late fourth century. From internal evidence (e.g., historical events and names of local figures), scholars infer that Egeria traveled for three years sometime between 381 and 384. This early date makes her account the first Western report about the Christian communities in the Levant, and possibly the first female author from Spain. The text is written in a peculiar type of Late Latin, which was the original language of the composition. A blend of classical and colloquial constructions reflecting the style of the Latin Bible, Egeria’s style is simple and clear, though with numerous dialectal and regional idiosyncrasies.

Divided into two parts with epistolary features, the work possibly originated as two letters. The first one reports on four trips: (1) to Mt. Sinai and back to Jerusalem, via the land of Goshen (1–9); (2) to Mt. Nebo and the traditional tomb of Moses (10–12); (3) to Carneas in Idumea (13–16); and (4) the return voyage to Constantinople, with stops at Edessa, Charris, Tarsus, Seleucia, and Chalcedon (16–23). The second part concerns the liturgical rites Egeria observed in Jerusalem (24–45), the catechesis prior to and after baptism (45–47), and the anniversary celebrations of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (48–49), after which the text breaks off. It has been suggested that the lost parts of Egeria’s Travels contained descriptions of the holy buildings of Jerusalem, a trip to Egypt, Samaria, and Galilee (with a hike up Mt. Tabor), and details of an excursion into Judea.

Our website, blog and email newsletter are a crucial part of Biblical Archaeology Society's nonprofit educational mission

This costs substantial money and resources, but we don't charge a cent to you to cover any of those expenses.

If you'd like to help make it possible for us to continue Bible History Daily, BiblicalArchaeology.org, and our email newsletter please donate. Even $5 helps:

Egeria’s Travels was popular through the Middle Ages, and later works are known to have used Egeria’s account, including the 12th-century Liber de locis sanctis (Book About the Holy Sites) by Peter the Deacon, who apparently had the intact Codex Aretinus at his disposal.

The most recent English translation of Egeria’s Travels, with the facing Latin text, is Paul F. Bradshaw and Anne McGowan’s Egeria, Journey to the Holy Land (Brepols, 2020). The best critical edition of the Latin original appeared in the series Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, vol. 175 (Itineraria et alia geographica, pp. 37–90; Brepols, 1965); a different Latin edition (from Sources Chrétiennes, vol. 296) is available online.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Pilgrims’ Progress to Byzantine Jerusalem

Where Was Moses Buried?

3 Pilgrimage Paths from Galilee to Jerusalem

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

Text Treasures: The Pilgrimage of Egeria

Past Perfect: A Pilgrim on Mt. Sinai

A Pilgrim’s Journey

This article was first published in Bible History Daily on May 1, 2024.

The post Text Treasures: The Pilgrimage of Egeria appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

The oldest Hebrew Bible is preserved in the Aleppo Codex. What happened to the nearly 200 pages missing from the Aleppo Codex? Photo: David Harris/Ben-Zvi Institute in the Shrine of the Book.

The Aleppo Codex, the oldest Hebrew Bible in existence today, is so named because it was housed for half a millennium in Aleppo, Syria. The codex, also known as the Crown of Aleppo, was written by scribes called Masoretes in Tiberias, Israel, around 930 C.E. The Aleppo Codex is considered to be the most authoritative copy of the Hebrew Bible. While the Dead Sea Scrolls—which are a thousand years older than the Aleppo Codex—contain books from the Hebrew Bible, the scrolls lack vowels (as was the tradition in ancient—and modern—Hebrew) as well as a discussion of different textual problems and their solutions. The Aleppo Codex features both vowel markings and marginal notations.

Appearing in Aleppo, Syria, sometime in the second half of the 15th century, the Aleppo Codex was preserved nearly intact in a synagogue for centuries—until the 20th century. After the 1947 United Nations vote to partition Palestine and create independent Arab and Jewish states, riots broke out in Aleppo, and parts of the Aleppo Codex were destroyed. What remained of the codex was smuggled out of Aleppo and brought to Israel in 1957. The Aleppo Codex is now kept at the Shrine of the Book wing at the Israel Museum.

FREE ebook: The Dead Sea Scrolls: Discovery and Meaning. What the Dead Sea Scrolls teach about Judaism and Christianity.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

Between the 1947 riots in Aleppo, Syria, and the codex’s arrival in Israel in 1957, almost 200 pages of the Aleppo Codex went missing. What happened to the missing pages, which included all of the books of the Torah save for the last 11 pages of Deuteronomy?

In “The Mystery of the Missing Pages of the Aleppo Codex” in the July/August 2015 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, Yosef Ofer, Professor of Bible at Bar Ilan University, examines several theories as to what happened to the missing pages of the Aleppo Codex.

In his article, Ofer discusses the conclusions of journalists Matti Friedman and Yifat Erlich, who independently investigated when—and how—the pages of the Aleppo Codex went missing after the riots in Aleppo, Syria.

What happened to the missing pages of the Aleppo Codex, the oldest Hebrew Bible? Were they destroyed or stolen? If the pages were stolen, were they taken from the codex in Syria, during the codex’s journey through Turkey, or after the codex had arrived in Israel? To find out what Yosef Ofer believes to be the most likely answer, read the full article “The Mystery of the Missing Pages of the Aleppo Codex” as it appears in the July/August 2015 issue of BAR.

BAS Library Members: Read the full article “The Mystery of the Missing Pages of the Aleppo Codex” by Yosef Ofer in the July/August 2015 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

The Aleppo Codex Online

A Jewel from the Crown

The Aleppo Codex

Travelogue of the Aleppo Codex

Comparing Ancient Biblical Manuscripts

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

The Shattered Crown

The Aleppo Codex

The Mystery of the Missing Pages of the Aleppo Codex

The post The Aleppo Codex appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Garden of Eden. Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man. Mauritshuis, The Hague. Image: Public domain.

What do the Book of Genesis and the Epic of Gilgamesh have in common? Surprisingly, a lot.

Chapters 1–11 of Genesis reached their final form during the eighth–fifth centuries BC when the peoples of Judah were in sustained contact with Mesopotamian polities. And for this reason, Genesis 1–11 shares with the Epic of Gilgamesh stories of wily serpents, demigods, a catastrophic flood, supernatural plants, and herculean feats of engineering. Moreover, an unprovenanced cuneiform tablet from Kurdish Iraq published in 2014 adds one more commonality: an edenic divine abode desecrated by humans.^[i]

Parallels Between the Garden of Eden and the Sacred Cedar Forest

In the first half of the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero Gilgamesh is introduced as being full of potential but reckless in his rule over the city of Uruk. As a result, the gods create a rival for him, Enkidu, to distract the king and curtail his abuses of power. After Enkidu is awakened to the human experience by a week-long sexual encounter with a divine female seductress, he is introduced to Gilgamesh, and the two embark upon a quest to a sacred Cedar Forest. The first half of the epic, then, culminates in the story of the Cedar Forest, where Gilgamesh and Enkidu arrive in awe of its sanctity and abundance—only to transgress by killing its monstrous guardian, Humbaba, and his “sons.”

The cedar forests of Lebanon helped inspire the scene of the sacred Cedar Forest in the Standard Babylonian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh. Image: Jerzy Strzelecki / CC by-SA 3.0.

Our understanding of the Cedar Forest was significantly enhanced in 2014 by the publication of an unprovenanced cuneiform tablet (acquired by the Sulaymaniya Museum in Kurdish Iraq) that filled in previously lost portions of the epic. In this tablet, dozens of unknown lines recount vivid descriptions of the Cedar Forest and the dramatic events that transpired therein. Moreover, these lines share similarities with Genesis 2–3.

FREE ebook: From Babylon to Baghdad. Ancient Iraq. Learn about Iraq and its cultural heritage. Download now.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

In Genesis 2–3, the man and woman are placed in a divine garden only to desecrate it and invite the curse of God on the ground, serpent, and all wild beasts (Genesis 3:14, 17). Also, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh and Enkidu enter the Cedar Forest, only to transgress against this divine abode and thereby desecrate it and the creatures within.

When Gilgamesh and Enkidu arrive at the Cedar Forest, it is described as “the gods’ dwelling place, the goddesses’ exalted abode” (Tablet V:7). It is described as idyllic, lavishly appointed, luxuriant, even edenic. The forest’s undisturbed splendor is conveyed by the array of animal sounds, at times described using alliterations and assonance (V:17, iṣṣūru iṣṣanbur, “ceaselessly atwitter;” V:18, iḫabbubu rigmu, “reverberating chitter(s);” V:22, riq raqraqqu “with the clatter of the stork”) that make the Akkadian poetry sound as though it sings:

They stood in awe at the Forest,
Staring at the heights of the cedars,
Staring at the entrance to the Forest.
A path was worn where Humbaba came and went,
The way was made ready, and the road was accommodating.
They were looking at the Cedar Mountain,
the gods’ dwelling place, the goddesses’ exalted abode,
The cedar raises its luxuriant (boughs) over the face of the land(scape),
Its shade was inviting, altogether pleasing.
(With) entangled thorns, an entwined canopy,
There was no way (amidst) the [densely packed] cedars (and) ballukku-trees.
There were cedar saplings as far as the eye could see,
Cypresses [seedlings?] almost as far.
For one hundred (feet) high, the cedar was covered with knots,
Resin [dripped down] like drops of rain,
Streaming away in channels.
Bird(s) were ceaselessly atwitter throughout the Forest:
[x x x] were echoing back and forth, reverberating chitter(s).
[x x x] the zizānu-cicada(s) modulating a cry,
[x x x] were always singing, belting out [x x x]
The wood pigeon was [co]oing, the turtle dove replying.
With the [clatter?] of the stork, the forest revels,
The forest brims with joy [at the cackle of] the chukar.
Female monkeys shout, young monkeys whoop:
like an ensemble of singers and percussionists,
All day long, they rumbled in the presence of Humbaba.
(V:1–26)

At the same time, the revelry of birds such as the stork (raqraqqu) and chukar (tarlugallu), while fitting for an idyllic place known as the gods’ dwelling place, also serves as omens. In Mesopotamian literature, birds are often presented as carriers of divine messages. Birds not only travel between heaven and earth as they fly, but certain birds had calls that could be understood in human (i.e., Akkadian) words. And in Mesopotamian texts, the call of the stork and the chukar, in particular, were known to be cautionary. For example, the clattering beaks of the stork exclaimed, “Go away, go away” (rīqa, rīqa), and the chukar warned, “You have sinned” (taḫtaṭa). The menacing soundscape of stork and chukar anticipates Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s desecration of the Cedar Forest by violently killing its guardian and his bird-like younglings and hacking down “a lofty cedar, whose top reached to heaven.”

In the free eBook, A Digger’s Life: A Guide to the Archaeology Dig Experience, step into an archaeological excavation and find out what it takes to find, prepare for, and work on a dig.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

The ominous literary motif of birds is already hinted at in an Old Babylonian version of the epic, where Gilgamesh and Enkidu enter the Cedar Forest only to kill Humbaba’s seven “sons,” or “radiances,” as if they were baby birds:

(Gilgamesh said to him, to Enkidu:)
“It is now, my friend, that we must secure victory …!”
Enkidu responded to him, to Gilgamesh:
“My friend, trap the bird, then where will its hatchlings go?
We should look for (his) radiances later,
When the chicks wander about in the Forest.”
(Old Babyolonian Ishchali 10, 14–17)

The new tablet makes clear that the inauspicious signs of the stork and chukar were realized in the killing of Humbaba’s seven “sons.” It delineates the names of Humbaba’s “sons,” which evoke the sounds of the winged creatures that first appeared at the entrance to the Cedar Forest: Cicada, Screecher, Rumbler, Screamer, Whining, etc. (V:308). The discordant noises used to designate Humbaba’s “sons” serve as the narrative’s judgment against Gilgamesh and Enkidu’s violent desecration of the Cedar Forest and its creatures. In fact, after killing Humbaba and his “sons,” Enkidu worries out loud to Gilgamesh about what they have done, saying, “My friend, we have made the Forest a wasteland!” (V:303). ^[ii]

Both the Book of Genesis and the Epic of Gilgamesh describe a paradise that is beautiful and bountiful—but then lost. And, in both texts, humans’ short stay in a divine abode carries serious consequences. By eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden, humans come to experience death. By cutting down the lofty cedar and killing Humbaba and his younglings, Gilgamesh and Enkidu destroy paradise, and eventually, Enkidu pays for this transgression with his life. The texts then grapple with how to live in the resultant world of death, pain, and discord.

Adam E. Miglio is Associate Professor of Archaeology and Director of the Graduate Studies Program for Archaeology at Wheaton College in Illinois. He is an expert on Akkadian texts from Mari, and he has excavated in Kurdish Iraq, Turkey, and Israel-Palestine. He is also the author of The Gilgamesh Epic in Genesis 1–11: Peering into the Deep (2023).

Notes

[i] F.N.H. Al-Rawi and Andrew R. George, “Back to the Cedar Forest: The Beginning and End of Tablet V of the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgameš,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies 66 (2014), pp. 69–90.

[ii] Adam E. Miglio, The Gilgamesh Epic in Genesis 1–11: Peering into the Deep (New York: Routledge, 2023).

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Reading Genesis: Ten Methods

The Aramaic Afterlives of Genesis’s Giants

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

The Genesis of Genesis

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh—Like You’ve Never Seen Him Before

Symbols of the Goddess

World Wonders: The Demon Humbaba

Cedars of Lebanon: Exploring the Roots

The post Genesis and Gilgamesh appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Main hall of the Upper Room, located above the site suggested to be the location of the Last Supper. See The Holy Land, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Just outside Zion Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City sits a small building considered by many Christians to be the location of Jesus’s Last Supper, and by Jews and Muslims to be the place of King David’s burial. Known today as the Upper Room or Cenacle, it has been a pilgrimage site for nearly a millennium. Now, an Israeli-Austrian archaeological team has identified more than 40 medieval inscriptions and graffiti carved into the walls of the Upper Room, several of which belong to important historical figures.

FREE ebook, Who Was Jesus? Exploring the History of Jesus’ Life. Examine fundamental questions about Jesus of Nazareth.

Email(Required)

REQUEST FREE BOOK

Leaving a Mark on the Upper Room

The Upper Room is one of the holiest sites in Jerusalem and has been a major feature of Christian pilgrimage since at least the fourth century, although the current building was constructed around the 12th century as part of a Latin monastery. Like many holy sites around Jerusalem, including the Holy Sepulchre, centuries of pilgrimage have left their mark on the building.

Digitally remastered black-and-white multispectral image of the “Teuffenbach” coat of arms from Styria. Directly below, the half-erased date 14.. can be seen. To the right are two further inscriptions: the monumental Armenian Christmas inscription and a Serbian inscription “Akakius”. Courtesy IAA, Shai Halevi.

Using cutting-edge multispectral and RTI photography, a joint project by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Austrian Academy of Sciences has identified and studied more than 40 inscriptions and signs around the Cenacle that are barely visible to the naked eye. Among the carvings are several that can be directly linked to famous people or events. One such graffiti is the family crest of Tristram von Teuffenbach of Styria, who traveled to Jerusalem in 1436 with the then future emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Frederick Habsburg.

Carved Coat of Arms with the inscription “Altbach”. This image is almost identical to the coat of arms of the modern city of the same name in southern Germany. It appears to have been left by an unknown pilgrim from the local knightly family. The cut drawings above the coat of arms show elements connected to the Last Supper: a goblet, a platter, and a round piece of bread. IAA, Shai Halevi.

One particularly intriguing inscription is written in Armenian and simply reads “Christmas 1300.” Despite its terse nature, the inscription can be tied to the Mongol conquest of Syria and the Levant in 1299. Among the troops fighting on behalf of the Mongols was the Armenian king Hethum II. Alongside the Armenians and other Christian groups from the Caucasus and the Levant, the Mongols successfully drove the Mamluk forces out of the region. Internal conflict, however, made the Mongols’ success short lived. The Armenian inscription is evidence that the troops of Hethum II were among the Mongol forces that reached Jerusalem.

General View of the Hall of the Last Supper on Mount Sion. At the opposite corner, Shai Halevi can be seen documenting an Arabic inscription. IAA, Joshua Faudem.

Another inscription is the signature of one Johannes Poloner from Regensburg, Germany, who recorded his pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1421/22. Several other coats of arms and inscriptions were also found that record the presence of numerous other European pilgrims. However, the largest group of inscriptions belongs to Arabic-speaking Christians; one such Arabic inscription records the pilgrimage of a Christian woman from Aleppo.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Hunting for the Upper Room in Jerusalem

Did Jesus’ Last Supper Take Place Above the Tomb of David?

Jesus’ Last Supper Still Wasn’t a Passover Seder Meal

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

Site-Seeing: The Other Upper Room

Archaeological Views: Mount Zion’s Upper Room and Tomb of David

Was Jesus’ Last Supper a Seder?

The post The Hidden History of Jerusalem’s Upper Room appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.

Augustus of Prima Porta, Vatican Museum. Public Domain.

Excavations carried out in Italy on the northern slopes of Mt. Vesuvius by the University of Tokyo have uncovered what could very well be the villa that belonged to Augustus, the first Roman emperor. Also known as Octavian Caesar, Augustus founded the Roman Empire and ruled from 27 BCE until his death in 14 CE. According to Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius, Augustus died at a villa located on the north side of Vesuvius, near the city of Nola, and it was subsequently turned into a memorial site to honor the emperor. However, the precise location of the emperor’s villa had never been discovered.

Following the clues of ancient historians, the research team from the University of Tokyo, led by professor of Italian studies Mariko Muramatsu, began excavations in 2002 in the Starzadella Regina area of Somma Vesuviana in Campania. According to reports, underneath the remains of a building dating to the second century CE the team discovered another building from an earlier phase.

Become a BAS All-Access Member Now!

Read Biblical Archaeology Review online, explore 50 years of BAR, watch videos, attend talks, and more

Remains of what is believed to be the furnace that heated the emperor’s bathhouse. Image Credit: Research Division for the Mediterranean Areas, Institute for Advanced Global Studies, University of Tokyo.

Additional discoveries were made, including the remains of a warehouse used to store amphorae, which also date to the first century. Analyzing the volcanic pumice covering the ruins, the team determined that it originated from the pyroclastic lava flow, rocks, and hot gases from the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE.

Various amphorae discovered leaning against the wall of the ruined warehouse. Image Credit: Research Division for the Mediterranean Areas, Institute for Advanced Global Studies, University of Tokyo.

Unlike much of the ruins on the southern slope of Vesuvius, including Pompeii, reconstruction efforts appear to have occurred at the site in the decades following the cataclysmic eruption. A new temple-like structure was constructed atop the ruins of the villa in the middle of the second century. In contrast, Pompeii—which was covered in volcanic deposits several feet thick—didn’t see reconstruction efforts until the late Middle Ages.

“We have finally reached this stage after 20 years,” said Masanori Aoyagi, professor emeritus of Western classical archaeology at the University of Tokyo, who led the first research team that started excavating the site in 2002. “This is a major development that will help us determine the damage caused to the northern side of Vesuvius and get a better overall idea of the eruption in 79.”

The team hopes that studying how the ancients responded to large-scale natural disasters, like the eruption Vesuvius, can help modern researchers explore flexible responses for cataclysmic events.

Our website, blog and email newsletter are a crucial part of Biblical Archaeology Society's nonprofit educational mission

This costs substantial money and resources, but we don't charge a cent to you to cover any of those expenses.

If you'd like to help make it possible for us to continue Bible History Daily, BiblicalArchaeology.org, and our email newsletter please donate. Even $5 helps:

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Pompeii Fast Food Restaurant Uncovered

Excavating Pompeii’s Middle Class

The Destruction of Pompeii—God’s Revenge?

The Survivors of Mount Vesuvius

A Shrine, Frescoes, and…Pizza?

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

Discovering Herod’s Shrine to Augustus

Emulating Augustus

Augustus Takes the Cure

Climbing Vesuvius

Saved from Vesuvius

How to Find a Brothel in Pompeii

This article was first published in Bible History Daily on April 29, 2024.

The post Has the Site of Augustus’s Death Been Discovered? appeared first on Biblical Archaeology Society.