Inscriptions of Israel/Palestine

Related Sites

While there are few websites that make available inscriptions from Israel/Palestine during the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods, the WWW does contain many resources for study of the epigraphy, archaeology and history of Israel/Palestine, the Near East, and the classical world.

Epigraphy

Several sites contain collections or samples of Northwest Semitic inscriptions from the biblical period. One of the most comprehensive of these sites is the Northwest Semitic Archive, which contains inscriptions in Ammonite, Aramaic, Edomite, Hebrew, Moabite, Philistine, Phoenician, Proto-Cannanite, and Proto-Sinaitic. The inscriptions are transcribed into Latin characters, and the searching can be somewhat cumbersome. The Ancient Hebrew Research Center's Ancient Semitic Inscriptions site contains a number of beautiful pictures of ancient Semitic inscriptions, and is useful for seeing and charting different Semitic scripts. Another ongoing collection of images of ancient documents is The West Semitic Research Project at the University of California. This site provides images, catalogues, and educational materials for the study of ancient Semitic texts. The Achaemenid Royal Inscription project contains an assortment of royal Persian inscriptions in a database, transcribed and translated. The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature is a well-designed site that provides both searchable transcriptions and translations of many Sumerian documents.

Some excellent educational websites use inscriptions from Israel/Palestine. The Sea Peoples and the Philistines on the Web is an interesting educational resource that discusses the evidence for the Philistines, and contains several excerpts from inscriptions. K.C. Hanson maintains a useful collection of inscriptions and documents relating to the study of early Judaism and Christianity. For most entries he includes not only basic information about the object, but also a transcription (for Semitic languages in transliteration), English translation, bibliography, and interesting set of discussion questions. Among some of the more interesting texts relating to this project are the Yavneh-Yam Ostracon, the Gezer Calendar, an inscription forbidding foreigners to enter into the Second Temple, the Theodotus inscription (the earliest synagogue inscription from Israel/Palestine), the Mithra altar, and an inscribed ossuary that may have belonged to the high priest Caiphas.

Among the online tools available for the study of inscriptions is a list of Greek Abbreviations and Letter Combinations (Ligatures) commonly used in inscriptions, scanned from Bernhard Abraham van Groningen, Short Manual of Greek Palaeography, (Leiden: 1940). As part of their work on the Diccionario Griego-Español (DGE), a new Greek-Spanish dictionary, scholars have developed and made available a Concordance of Greek Inscriptions that correlates the different editions of inscriptions that have been published several times. Website Attica at the University of Toronto contains a database of the names found in Athenian inscriptions. The Lexicon of Greek Personal Names is even more ambitious, seeking 'to collect and publish all ancient Greek personal names, drawing on the full range of written sources from the 8th century B.C. down to the late Roman Empire.' The Suda, a Greek reference work from the Byzantine period, is also now online. Latin inscriptions contain a bewildering array of abbreviations, which Tom Elliot has done an admirable job of assembling in Abbreviations in Latin Inscriptions. The Prosopographia Imperii Romani, in German, is a handy database of Latin names.

There are a few online collections of Greek inscriptions. The most interesting of these is the EpiDoc Inscriptions of Aphrodisias Project run out of Kings College, an electronic and searchable edition of 254 inscriptions from Aphrodisias, in Asia Minor. Most of the remaining online collections of Greek inscriptions focus on images. The US Epigraphy project is a large and growing guide to Greek and Latin inscriptions now located in the US, and contains many images. The Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents at Oxford has a large scale imaging project. Most of the online databases of Latin inscriptions are run out of Germany. The Epigraphische Datenbank Heidelberg is probably the most extensive of these, although the search screens are somewhat complex and sometimes does not work. The Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität Seminar für Alte Geschichte has an extensive searchable database of Latin inscriptions, with many from Israel/Palestine. The search screen is in German but even for those with no German it is not difficult to use (although the inscriptions contain no translations). The Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum contains the photos of the inscriptions (with links to the text) published in Conventus Astigitanus (CIL II²/5; 1998), Cordubensis (CIL II²/7; 1995) and Tarraconensis South (CIL II²/5 fasc. 1; 1995) of the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. II: Inscriptiones Hispaniae Latinae (CIL II²).

The major epigraphic societies, each of which maintains an informative website, are the American Society of Greek & Latin Epigraphy and the British Epigraphy Society. The former in particular contains an extensive list of web resources with descriptions. The EpiDoc Collaborative for Epigraphic Documents in TEI XML is devoted to developing scholarly standards for the digitalization of epigraphic materials.

Archaeology and Contexts

Inscriptions can best be understood in their local, archaeological contexts. For a quick guide to the state of archaeological excavations in particular sites in Israel, Archaeological Sites in Israel is quite useful. Compiled by the Israeli government, it links to brief descriptions of past and current archaeological work at each site.

Many of these sites also have dedicated websites. Here is a partial list of some of the more informative of these sites:

Ashkelon. The site has a few samples of recent finds and some bibliography.
Caesarea Maritima. Excavation reports and some learning materials.
Gesher Benot Ya'aqov. Middle Pleistocene period site south of Hula Valley. Narrative and bibliography on the significance of the site.
Har Karkom. Contains extensive excavation reports and maps of Mt. Sinai.
Megiddo. Official site of the excavation, with reports and information about the site.
Sepphoris. Official site with reports and pictures.
Tel Dor. Contains reports and maps of this coastal site that dates from the biblical period.
Tel es-Safi. Perhaps the biblical city of 'Gath of the Philistines'. Information site with some maps and multimedia.
Tel Halif. Focuses on the methodology of digital recording of the excavation than the excavation itself.
Tel Hazor. The largest biblical-era site in Israel. Contains latest report.
Tel Qasile. Photos, bibliography, and article.
Tel Rehov. Has a preliminary report and some pictures of artifacts from this large scale dig in the Jordan Valley.
Tiberias. A new dig of an important Hellenistic/Roman city.

Several other sites have educational value. The International Catacomb Society focuses on research on the Roman catacombs, with particular interest in Jewish catacombs. They contain a number of good maps of these catacombs as well as images and bibliographies available to members. The Israel Museum's Archaeology wing hosts several excellent online exhibits. They include: A Day at Qumran; More than Money; Wine and Beer in Ancient Times; and The Cradle of Christianity. Another online exhibit, Scrolls from the Dead Sea, offers a useful introduction to the community at Qumran. The Numismatic collection has several images of ancient coins online. The Virtual World Project is an innovative attempt to make accessible archaeological plans and multimedia presentations of sites in the ancient Mediterranean.

The Israeli Antiquities Authority runs a very informative and sophisticated educational site, The Jerusalem Archaeological Park, devoted to the archaeology of Jerusalem from its origins to the beginning of the twentieth century. The New Jerusalem Mosaic is another Israeli site devoted to the history of Jerusalem.

In addition to archaeology, both contemporary literature and history are contexts for the study of these inscriptions. Standard printed versions of the Bible, Mishnah, Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds can be found in a Hebrew website at http://kodesh.snunit.k12.il. Links to many other texts, both in the original and translation, can be found through the resource site of the Dinur Center for the Research of Jewish History. Although most of these texts are not suitable for serious research, they do offer convenient teaching aids.

There are a vast number of sites devoted to Greek and Latin archaeology and literature online. Probably the most extensive of these is the Perseus Digital Library; another useful entryway is the Stoa project. Diotima is devoted to women and gender in the ancient world. Metis provides access to many plans of and articles on archaeological excavations. The British Academy Research Project on Roman Law and Imperial Legal Pronouncements contains the beginning of the Latin text of the Codex Theodosianus.