Archaeology, Papyri, and Inscriptions
Jürgen K. Zangenberg
Next to literary texts, the remains of material culture are an essential
source for understanding Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple period.
This article surveys archaeological, epigraphical, and papyrological mate-
rial from Palestine and the Diaspora in chronological order. The criteria
for defining an object as “Jewish” and for including it in this discussion
are deliberately broad. Religion does not play the decisive role. While
there can be no doubt that material culture can serve religious functions
in a given society, many archaeologists rightly warn not to overemphasize
the religious character of artifacts. Not all artifacts had a religious mean-
ing, and religion was not the only meaningful component even of a reli-
gious artifact like an altar or a temple. Moreover, the question is often not
whether an object can be identified as Jewish, butwhat typeof Judaism it
might reflect.
Ancient cultures, and among them early Judaism, were constantly in
contact with each other. Responses to the “other” were never uniform but
complex and diverse, dependent on prevailing regional and social condi-
tions. Boundaries were often blurred. Some elements of material culture
reflect no particular religious affiliation, others acquired different mean-
ings according to the cultural context in which they were used, and still
others are regional phenomena that would be absent if the same religious
group had lived elsewhere. A large part of material culture sits right on the
margins, where clear “decoding” is difficult. Consequently, this survey will
discuss not only material that reflects early Judaism — that was made for
and used by Jews to practice their religion — but also elements of material
culture that were commissioned or built by Jews even if these structures
had no particular religious functions. The survey will also touch on non-322EERDMANS -- Early Judaism (Collins and Harlow) final text
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