The Oxford History of the Biblical World (39 page)

A Canaanite caravan arrives in Egypt in this drawing of a nineteenth-century
BCE
tomb painting from Beni Hasan in central Egypt. Such depictions provide information about Canaanite culture, including dress, weaponry, hairstyles, and types of trade. Some of the items depicted are paralleled in archaeological discoveries from the Middle Bronze Age in Palestine. (Erich Lessing/AH Resource, NY)

Faience tiles from Medinet Habu, idealized but detailed depictions of Egypt’s enemies that served as decoration for the temple and place of Rameses III (1184–1153
BCE
). Shown here are, from the left, a Libyan, a Nubian, a Syrian, a Shasu bedouin, and a Hittite; each figure is about 2.5 centimeters (9.75 inches) high, (©jurgen Liepe, Berlin)

Some of the more than forty anthropoid coffins from the fourteenth to twelfth centuries discovered by archaeologists and grave robbers at Deir el-Balah, near the Mediterranean coast about 13 kilometers (8 miles) southwest of Gaza. Once attributed to the Philistines and other Sea Peoples, such coffins were probably used by Egyptians stationed abroad during the latter part of the Late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age. (©The Israel Museum, Jerusalem/Nahum Slapak)

A typical Israelite pillared house. On the ground floor, food was prepared and the family’s animals were stabled. On the second story, warmed in winter by the cooking fire and the heat of the animals, dining, sleeping, and other activities took
place.
(Courtesy Lawrence E. Stager)

Bronze bull figurine from the Iron I period (late first millennium
BCE
) in the central hill country of Palestine, 18 centimeters (7 inches) long. The bull may be either a symbol of a deity or a pedestal for a statue. The Canaanite gods El and Baal and the Israelite god Yahweh all have bull imagery associated with them. (© zev Radovan, Jerusalem)

Detail of relief on the sarcophagus of Ahiram, king of Byblos in Phoenicia in the late eleventh century
BCE
. Holding a lotus blossom in one hand and a cup in the other, the king is seated on a winged-sphinx throne, facing a table on which offerings have been set. His feet rest on a footstool, reminiscent of descriptions of the biblical ark
Of the Covenant.
(Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY)

Three joined fragments of the stela found at Dan, memorializing the victories of an Aramean king (probably Hazael) over, among others, the kings of Israel and Judah in the mid-ninth Century
BCE
. (© Zev Radovan, Jerusalem)

A seal impression on clay, or bulla. After a papyrus document had been rolled and tied, it was sealed with one or more lumps of clay on which individuals would impress their seals. Dozens of bullae like this were excavated in debris resulting from the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in the early sixth century
BCE
. This bulla, purchased privately, was made by a seal belonging to “Berechyahu, the son of the scribe,” the longer form of the name of Baruch the son of Neriah, the scribe who wrote down the words of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 36.4). (© zev Radovan, Jerusalem)

Bronze cast of a Hebrew seal. The original, now lost, was found at Megiddo in 1904. It was made of jasper and was 2.7 centimeters (1 inch) high. Above the exquisite image of a roaring lion is the owner’s name, Shemaand below is his title, “the servant of Jeroboam II.” The date of the script makes it likely that the Jeroboam in question was Jeroboam II, king of Israel from 788 to 747
BCE
. (© zev Radovan, Jerusalem)

Detail from the reliefs from the palace of the Assyrian king Sennacherib showing his capture of the Judean city of Lachish in 701
BCE
. In this scene, an Assyrian soldier is escorting two Judean captives, perhaps royal officials, before the king (not shown); their hands are raised in a plea for mercy. (Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY)

Detail from the sixth-century
CE
mosaic map of the Holy Land in the Church of St. George in Madaba, Jordan. This part of the map is its central portion, and depicts the Byzantine city of Jerusalem. A colonnaded main street
(cardo maximus)
traverses the city from north (left) to south (right), with the Church of the Holy Sepulcher represented on its west side. Excavations in Jerusalem have uncovered details corresponding to
those Shown On the map.
(Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY)

Silver quarter-shekel of Judah. Inscribed
Yehud
in Aramaic script and dated to the early fourth century
BCE
, this is the single most discussed Jewish coin of any era. The obverse shows the head of a bearded, helmeted Greek warrior. On the reverse, on a winged wheel, sits a bearded male divinity, variously identified as the Jewish god Yahweh, the Greek god Zeus, or some other Greco-Phoenician deity. (© zev Radovan, Jerusalem)

A silver tetradrachm minted during the second Jewish revolt against Rome (132–35
CE
). The obverse shows the faóade of the Temple of Jerusalem, with the ark of the Torah between the central pillars; the inscription, in Hebrew reads “Simeon,” the given name of the leader of the revolt (Bar Kokhba). On the reverse are Jewish symbols and the legend “for the freedom of Jerusalem.” (© British Museum)

Detail from the Arch of Titus, in the Forum in Rome. Erected after his death in 81
CE
, the monumental arch commemorated Titus’s victory in the First Jewish Revolt a decade earlier. In this scene Roman soldiers are carrying the seven-branched menorah from the Jerusalem Temple in a victory procession. (Aimari/Art Resource, NY)

The Early Monarchy