Pub Date : 2018-06-19DOI: 10.23943/PRINCETON/9780691161334.003.0002
K. Stern
This chapter examines how graffiti was inscribed and painted by ancient Jews to communicate with and about the divine. It begins with a discussion of paintings and carvings that cover the surfaces of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre—revered by many Christians as the site where Jesus was crucified and buried—and serve as physical vestiges of pilgrims' devotions, rather than marks of defacement. It then considers common assumptions that govern studies of ancient Jewish prayer before analyzing Aramaic and Greek signature and remembrance graffiti in the Dura-Europos synagogue and elsewhere in Dura, as well as devotional graffiti written by Jews in shrines shared by pagans and Christians, such as Elijah's Cave. The chapter suggests that certain acts of graffiti writing are in reality modes of prayer conducted by Jews and their neighbors alike, and that ancient Jews prayed in a variety of built and natural environments.
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Pub Date : 2018-06-19DOI: 10.23943/princeton/9780691161334.003.0001
K. Stern
This book examines graffiti associated with Jews from the ancient world. These markings—found on sites such as the shores of the Black Sea, the deserts of Egypt and Arabia, and the eastern stretches of Mesopotamia—shed important insights about Judaism and Jewish life in antiquity. The book includes case studies from multiple regions to explore connections between graffiti writing and the devotional, commemorative, and civic activities conducted by Jews and their peers. This introduction considers different definitions of graffiti by analyzing various presumptions about textual and pictorial production that have accrued over the centuries. It also explains how particular modes of reading can generate distinct insights about associated cultures and social dynamics, whether in modernity or antiquity, by focusing on one genre of modern graffiti, known as tags. Finally, it discusses the agency of graffiti, social (and spatial) dimensions of graffiti, and the impact of graffiti on landscapes.
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Pub Date : 2018-06-19DOI: 10.23943/princeton/9780691161334.003.0003
K. Stern
This chapter examines how graffiti was used by ancient Jews to communicate with and about the dead. Focusing on graffiti discovered in cemeteries and burial caves throughout Palestine during the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, it describes recurrences of graffiti in Jewish mortuary contexts and suggests that acts of carving them were systematic and deliberate exercises, undertaken by Jews inside cemeteries and burial caves throughout the ancient Levant. The chapter first considers the graffiti inside the mortuary landscape of the ancient city of Beit Shearim, which reveal new readings of the cultural matrix of burial populations at the site as well as insights into Jewish life (and death) in the late ancient Roman East. The mortuary graffiti found at Beit Shearim also offer important information about the relationships between regional Jews and contemporaneous rabbis, who may or may not have followed common practices relating to death and commemoration.
{"title":"Mortuary Graffiti in the Roman East","authors":"K. Stern","doi":"10.23943/princeton/9780691161334.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691161334.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines how graffiti was used by ancient Jews to communicate with and about the dead. Focusing on graffiti discovered in cemeteries and burial caves throughout Palestine during the Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine periods, it describes recurrences of graffiti in Jewish mortuary contexts and suggests that acts of carving them were systematic and deliberate exercises, undertaken by Jews inside cemeteries and burial caves throughout the ancient Levant. The chapter first considers the graffiti inside the mortuary landscape of the ancient city of Beit Shearim, which reveal new readings of the cultural matrix of burial populations at the site as well as insights into Jewish life (and death) in the late ancient Roman East. The mortuary graffiti found at Beit Shearim also offer important information about the relationships between regional Jews and contemporaneous rabbis, who may or may not have followed common practices relating to death and commemoration.","PeriodicalId":431895,"journal":{"name":"Writing on the Wall","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129006259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-06-19DOI: 10.23943/princeton/9780691161334.003.0004
K. Stern
This chapter examines graffiti associated with the public lives of Jews from Tyre and Asia Minor, showing that they serve as evidence of Jewish participation in public entertainments in the Greco-Roman world. When Jews and their neighbors inscribed graffiti in structures such as theaters and hippodromes, they activated their participation in public spectacles and public life. Numerous examples of public graffiti can be found in theaters and in the ancient city of Aphrodisias, while commercial graffiti exist in the reused Sebasteion and the so-called South Agora, also in Aphrodisias. These markings, the chapter argues, reveal that during periods of burgeoning anti-Jewish legislation and religious polemic, Jews reserved seats for themselves as spectators of public entertainments and drew menorahs where they sold their wares in public markets. They even attest to the presence of Jewish women in commercial settings.
{"title":"Making One’s Mark in a Pagan and Christian World","authors":"K. Stern","doi":"10.23943/princeton/9780691161334.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.23943/princeton/9780691161334.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines graffiti associated with the public lives of Jews from Tyre and Asia Minor, showing that they serve as evidence of Jewish participation in public entertainments in the Greco-Roman world. When Jews and their neighbors inscribed graffiti in structures such as theaters and hippodromes, they activated their participation in public spectacles and public life. Numerous examples of public graffiti can be found in theaters and in the ancient city of Aphrodisias, while commercial graffiti exist in the reused Sebasteion and the so-called South Agora, also in Aphrodisias. These markings, the chapter argues, reveal that during periods of burgeoning anti-Jewish legislation and religious polemic, Jews reserved seats for themselves as spectators of public entertainments and drew menorahs where they sold their wares in public markets. They even attest to the presence of Jewish women in commercial settings.","PeriodicalId":431895,"journal":{"name":"Writing on the Wall","volume":"263 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2018-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133563787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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