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InscriptiFact: A Better Way To Read Inscriptions

The technology of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) can change the way you read ancient inscriptions. Developed by HP Labs and utilized by USC with its collection of 40,000 inscriptions, RTI enables the viewer to see the ancient inscription—from Ugaritic texts to the Dead Sea Scrolls—with lighting from all different angles.

Bruce Zuckerman, professor of Hebrew Bible and director of the West Semitic Research Project, has penned a column in this month’s issue of Biblical Archaeology Review (available online in its entirety) explaining the technology and its availability online through InscriptiFact. Registration is free. Zuckerman explains how the technology works.

It involves taking a series of successive images all around an object with the light for each picture situated at a different angle and height but always from about the same distance. This can be done in a light dome or by moving a single light around an object and taking a series of pictures, thus building a virtual light dome. A software program then takes the data from these pictures (a typical set is 32) and builds from them a master image, called a texture-map, which can be displayed on a computer.

You can see the technology in action in this three-minute video. You might want to skip the first 50 seconds to jump right to the display of RTI. It’s fantastic.

Tagged Museums, Technology

New Book: Archaeology in the Israel Museum

When teaching a group in Israel, one never lacks for books to recommend. The major exception to this is a resource for the Israel Museum. The archaeology wing is a natural place to conclude one’s studies in Israel, viewing many of the artifacts that we have talked about during the course. But a tour of several hours only provides just a taste and students are always disappointed when I inform them that there is no book surveying the collection. A brief and limited work was published in 1984 but this has been difficult to find.

A book review in the latest issue of Biblical Archaeology Review reveals that this significant gap has now been closed. Chronicles of the Land: Archaeology in The Israel Museum Jerusalem is a 352-page work that takes the reader on a tour of the most important discoveries on display in the newly reopened archaeology wing. Steven Fine’s review (pages 64-65) is enthusiastic: “This is more than just a coffee-table book to be schlepped home by excited tourists….Scholars from many fields will find much here than enhances their work….Chronicles of the Land marks an event to be celebrated by all readers of BAR, by scholars and by all who delight in marvelous museums.”

With 326 full-color illustrations, the book is not inexpensive ($58). Since the book is published by the Israel Museum, I was not expecting to find it available outside of the gift shop. But I see that Amazon has a few copies, discounted to $48. For those not on a student budget, this is a happy day.

Tagged Museums, Resources

Weekend Roundup

Jezreel is one of my favorite biblical sites and I’m happy to see that excavations will begin again under the direction of Norma Franklin of Tel Aviv University and Jennie Ebeling of the University of Evansville. A new website has the details.

The Sea of Galilee dropped nearly a foot last month and is now 17 inches below the red line.

Shmuel Browns went on a Photo Walk in Jerusalem and would like our feedback in deciding which image he should submit to the competition.

Browns is also offering a free guided tour of Khirbet Qeyiafa on October 14 at 9 am.

A volunteer at the Gezer excavation this summer writes of her experience on the ASOR blog, noting that they ended the season on what they believe is a 10th-century floor.

The Virtual Amarna Project is now online. “This archive resulted from the 3D digitisation of objects from the ancient Egyptian city of Amarna using a Konica Minolta Vivid 9i system. Data includes images, 3D PDF files, meshes (obj) and point clouds (ascii).”

Another resource is the Amarna Tablet Photograph Database Online where you can view the inscriptions held by the Vorderasiatisches Museum of Berlin.

Aaron Burke is interviewed about the excavations in Jaffa (Joppa) on the LandMinds radio show (part 1, part 2).

Jimmie Hardin will be lecturing on the archaeology of David and Solomon at the University of Mississippi on October 26.

One million visitors viewed the Dead Sea Scrolls in their first week online.

HT: ANE-2, Jack Sasson

Tagged 10th Century, Egypt, Jerusalem, Jezreel Valley, Lectures, Museums, Shephelah

Weekend Roundup

Corrections and Updates to “Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E.”

This article updates the cutoff point for the inscriptions treated in the book mentioned in the title, which was mid-2002, to July 31, 2008. It evaluates 32 proposed identifications (IDs) of biblical persons in ancient Near Eastern inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E. All 32 IDs or non-IDs are listed and indexed at the end.

Shmuel Browns explains the significance of Khirbet Qeiyafa and concludes with a report of Israel Finkelstein’s paper on the Large Stone Structure and the Stepped Stone Structure in the City of David. He dates the SSS to both the Iron Age and the Hellenistic period.

An ancient shipyard near Rome is being excavated.

Dan Brown and the Grail That Never Was. Paleobabble posts a link to a scholarly article that is “a succinct, readable dismantling of Brown’s bogus history.”

Antioch on the Orontes was a significant city in the early church. Today known as Hatay, the city’s museum boasts some impressive mosaics and other finds. But most is in storage until a new museum is built.

The new museum is to have the capacity to host 800 people at a time and 10,700 square meters of exhibition space.
Visitors who come to the Hatay museum can see around 906 square meters of mosaics at this point, though around 300 square meters are still in the museum’s warehouse due to space shortages. In fact, the museum’s total holdings include 35,433 pieces, but only 1,425 of these are on display due to serious space problems.
With pieces from the Hittite, Hellenic, Byzantine and Roman eras on display, the Hatay Archeologicy Museum was always known as the second most significant mosaic museum in the world, following Tunisia’s Bardo Museum. That is, until last week, when the Gaziantep Zeugma Mosaic Museum opened, and the Hatay Archeologicy Museum dropped to third place for mosaics.

I’m surprised the Medeba Museum in Jordan is not ranked in the top three.

HT: Jack Sasson

Nude fishermen mosaic in Antioch (Hatay) Archaeological Museum

Tagged Italy, Jerusalem, Museums, Shephelah, Turkey

New Site: Bible and Archaeology

Bible and Archaeology is a virtual museum of many of the most important artifacts, sites, and ancient texts related to the Bible. Three features make this online exhibit particularly helpful.

The photos can be viewed in high-resolution. For one example, the image of the Merneptah Stele is the best I’ve seen.
The artifacts are listed in chronological order. That makes it easier to find what you’re looking for, even if you don’t know the correct name (is it the Dan Stele or the Tel Dan Inscription?).
Each photograph has a brief explanation of the significance of the artifact and its relationship to the Bible. You can do do additional research if you desire, but the description provides the basics.

Note: it may be user error, but I had better success viewing the some of the high-res images in the Chrome browser than in Firefox.

The Gallio Inscription, before it was put on display in the Delphi Museum

Tagged Museums, Resources

More Sounds of the Shofar

I have received, via Jack Sasson’s list, notice of a book accompanying the exhibition at the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem. Sound the Shofar – A Witness to History
Filip Vukosavovic (ed.)
ISBN – 965-7027-23-3
Paperback, 72 pages (55 English, 15 Hebrew)
Price: $20 From the Introduction:

The shofar is a natural sound-producing wind instrument made out of Bovidae horn. It has been a part of human history for thousands of years and is probably among the earliest musical instruments played by mankind. Moreover, the shofar is one of the oldest and most recognizable symbols of Judaism, which has been in continual use in a wide variety of circumstances for more than 3,000 years. In this catalogue, which accompanies the exhibition Sound the Shofar – A Witness to History, at the Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, we examine the shofar not only as an artifact, but as an integral and everlasting part of Jewish history, faith and tradition. Throughout the ages, the shofar has been a powerful witness to the tumultuous history of the Jewish people in times of rejoicing and triumph, as well as sadness and catastrophe. The catalogue, like the exhibition, is divided into two parts. In the first section we discuss the zoology and anatomy of the animal horn from which a shofar is created. In the second section we explore the history, iconography and function of the shofar in Judaism from its earliest attestation in the Bible until the present day.

It appears that shipping to addresses outside of Israel costs $10. The book is published by the museum and does not seem to be available via regular book channels. Reader Paul Mitchell has sent along some comments and links to more sounds of the shofar.

We read in the Bible of "horns," and in English this is sometimes interpreted as a "trumpet." Usually the instrument wasn’t metal (maybe never, I’m not sure) but was a ram’s horn (a foot long, curved), and sounds like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Epf_ylf6Pk&feature=related …or that of an ibex with a curly 3-4 ft long horn, and sounds like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb4gKuoxXxI&feature=related You have to wonder if anyone figured out cutting holes in it might make it more versatile, like a flute. When I was in Israel I bought both a ram’s horn, and, an ibex horn. Both are in the congregational resources room now, and used to show the kids mostly what these horns from the Bible are like. But the best sound I could ever replicate was a sad moan you might hear from an asthmatic goat who had just been stepped on while in his deathbed. Here is a short clip that shows the ibex horn can be played quite expertly (the example is disappointingly short): http://www.jpost.com/VideoArticles/Video/Article.aspx?id=237645 The horns were used for signaling various things, from warnings to battle orders, to temple commencements. Here is an expert Jewish cantor, in robes, giving varied riffs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jR20-0sy1Y&NR=1 Josh 6:5 It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him." You might get a small idea of this ancient sound of horns and shouting at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8xxXYq3IVM&feature=related (these guys blow the horn as good as I do… a herd of my comrade asthmatic goats). If someone in your congregation is PC-savvy, these clips might be good to save to a sound-file for classes. 1 Kings 1:34 There let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over Israel; and blow the horn, and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’ 2 Kings 11:14 When she looked, there was the king standing by a pillar according to custom; and the leaders and the trumpeters were by the king. All the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing trumpets. Ps 98:6 With trumpets and the sound of a horn; Shout joyfully before the LORD, the King. UPDATE: Someone replied with this link, and man oh man can this guy blow!! Imagine you are in the city of Jericho and a whole nation of horns are blowing this at you, unsheathing their swords etc. GULP. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXw3LgmGUI8&feature=related

Blowing the shofar at the Western Wall

Tagged Museums