the city (Damascus Gate), and in the second half of the second century
c.e.another arch was built to demarcate the civil and military parts of the
city (Ecce Homo Arch). The chance find of a cuirassed bronze torso of
Hadrian in 1975 near Tel Shalem, twelve kilometers south of Scythopolis,
and the results of subsequent excavations (more bronze fragments, a
bronze head of a boy, and a fragmentary inscription) throw fascinating
light on one particular victory celebration. Both the statue and the inscrip-
tion belonged to a triumphal arch that was erected by the senate and peo-
ple of Rome after the fighting had ended in early 136, to commemorate
Hadrian’s personal efforts in suppressing the revolt and to celebrate the re-
organization of Judea as Syria Palestina.
The surviving Jewish population shifted south to Darom and north to
the Galilee, where Jewish cultural life was gradually reconstituted along
new lines that included prayer in synagogues and study of religious law.
Material traces of the revival do not begin to appear until one or two gen-
erations after the crushing of the Second Revolt, so they fall beyond our
chronological scope.
It is significant that Hellenization did not end during the period of
Jewish reconstruction but was resumed and even intensified by the new
elite comprised of rabbis and other scholars. Crucial institutions were di-
rectly continued (above all the synagogue), while other elements of mate-
rial culture, such as stone vessels and ossuaries, gradually disappeared. Ele-
ments of Hellenistic art and architecture played a much greater role than
before the revolt. Late Roman and Byzantine synagogues are a good exam-
ple; they were lavishly decorated with mosaics representing complex theo-
logical concepts and central scenes of salvation history, but the frequent
use of animals and human figures goes well beyond the limits of what
most Jews would have considered tolerable before the year 70.Textual Discoveries from Palestine
Apart from Egypt, where large numbers of texts on perishable material
such as papyrus, leather, and wax tablets made of wood have been found,
the Judean Desert, especially its caves on the western side of the Dead Sea,
has proved the major source for such texts since the late 1940s. Popularly
known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, they are more properly referred to as docu-
ments from the Judean Desert. The texts were found at different places,
come from different periods, and fall into various categories.353Archaeology, Papyri, and InscriptionsEERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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