Pottery
Pottery is by far the most frequent type of material artifact and therefore
extremely important for archaeological analysis. The question of how far
pottery can directly define or identify the ethnicity of a given population is
particularly controversial. Jews, like others, mostly used pottery that was
produced locally, and in regions predominately populated by Jews, such as
Palestine, Jews produced their own pottery, which was then regionally dis-
tributed. There is no such thing as explicitly and exclusively “Jewish pot-
tery.” Of course, pottery forms changed over time. Some early Hellenistic
types developed from forms of the late Persian period; this was true of
cooking pots and storage vessels. Others adapted and further developed
Hellenistic forms, as is evident in the making of bowls and flasks. Apart
from the coastal region, imported ware was very rare until the second half
of the second centuryb.c.e.From then on, larger amounts of imported
wares such as Eastern red-slipped pottery(terra sigillata)and mold-blown
glass from Phoenicia became available and were readily absorbed by local
customers.Coins
The first clearly identifiable Jewish elements of material culture are coins.
It is commonly accepted that John Hyrcanus I (134-104b.c.e.) was the first
ruler to issue coins. He did so under his Hebrew name,Yehohanan.
Hasmonean minting started at around 120b.c.e., when autonomous cities
in the vicinity of Palestine also beganissuing their own denominations.
Hasmonean coins were issued in huge numbers only in bronze and are an
important sign both of the independence of the Hasmonean state and of
how firmly the realm was integrated into the material and political devel-
opments of the eastern Mediterranean (see fig. 11). Human and animal im-
agery was strictly avoided. Especially under Alexander Jannaeus (103-76
b.c.e.) and Mattathias Antigonus (40-37b.c.e.), Hasmonean coins used
generic Hellenistic symbols of prosperity and legitimate rule: cornucopias,
pomegranates, stars, anchors, helmets, wreaths, and diadems. Many coins
are decorated only on the margins and focus primarily on the title of the
ruler (“priest”; “high priest”; “king”) and of the ruled (“council of the
Jews”). Legends are mostly written in Paleo-Hebrew, but Aramaic and later
even Greek were used (e.g., one of Jannaeus’s coins has the Greek legend332jürgen k. zangenbergEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
Tuesday, October 09, 2012 12:04:12 PM