What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?



The Romans Carry off the treasures of the Temple
Relief fromTitus Arch, Rome

The “Three Weeks”, a period of mourning for the loss of the Temple observed by the Jewish people, began this Monday night on the 17th day of the Hebrew month of Tammuz.  During that period we recall the awful climax of the Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans in the year 70 CE in which the Temple and the city of Jerusalem were destroyed.  Tradition holds that on 17th of Tammuz the walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans.

Amongst Jews there has always been a tension between admiration for the great achievements of the Romans and anger and resentment for the way in which they abused their power.  A story in the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 33 b) illustrates this well.



Roman Bathhouse - Hypercaust

Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Jose, and Rabbi Shimon were sitting together and Yehuda, the son of proselytes, sat before them.  Rabbi Yehuda opened the conversation, saying:  "How beautiful are the works of this nation (the Romans).  They have established markets.  They have built bridges.  They have opened bathing-houses." 

Rabbi Jose said nothing, but Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said: "All these things they have instituted for their own sake. Their markets are gathering-places for harlots.  They have built baths for the purpose of indulging themselves in their comforts.  They have built bridges to collect tolls from those who cross them." 

This month two discoveries in Jerusalem were announced that illustrate both the technical achievements and the brutality of the Romans.

Roman Road Beit Hanina: Assaf Peretz
Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority 

The Romans are famous for their roads.  A good transport system was vital for the military, financial and administrative maintenance of their empire.  Major roads were built to a high technical standard with inns and forts along the way.  The routes and sometimes the surfaces of major Roman roads have survived for thousands of years.  In the Beit Hanina neighbourhood of Jerusalem an archaeological excavation preceded the laying of a new drainage pipe.  The work revealed a beautifully preserved section of a major road from the Roman period linking the port of Jaffa to Jerusalem.  The surface is made of large flat stones that would have been comfortable to walk on.   It is well worn – a testament to the volume of traffic it carried. 

In Roman times, like today, there were two main routes from Jaffa to Jerusalem.  They followed a common path from the coast as far as Lod.  From there one road led through Sha’ar HaGai following today’s Route 1.  A second headed further north via Modi’in and Beit Horon along the line of our Route 443.  It is a section of this road that was discovered in Beit Hanina.  In some places a modern road had been laid only a few centimetres above the Roman road.  The Roman surface must have been visible until just a few decades ago.

In the year 70 CE the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem.  A terrible famine resulted that was made worse by the rebels who hunted for food in the homes of their fellow Jews.  The historian Josephus wrote: 

As the famine grew worse, the frenzy of the partisans increased with it….For, as corn was nowhere to be seen, men broke into the houses and ransacked them.  If they found any, they maltreated the occupants for saying there was none.  If they did not, they suspected them of having hidden it more carefully and tortured them. ...

Many secretly exchanged their possessions for one measure of corn - wheat if they happened to be rich, barley if they were poor.  Then they shut themselves up in the darkest corners of their houses where some through extreme hunger ate their grain as it was.  Others made bread, necessity and fear being their only guides.  Nowhere was a table laid… (Jewish War, V, 428).

The Finds: Photo Vladimir Naykhin
Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority

Three whole cooking pots and an oil lamp were discovered in the cistern of a house that had stood near the Western Wall in the area of Robinson’s Arch.   The residents of the house had gone down into the cistern to eat their remaining food in secret.  The archaeologist directing the excavation, Eli Shukron, said that these are the first finds that connects us directly with the famine during the siege of Jerusalem.



And finally here is a clip from the Monty Python film The Life of Brian on the same theme.  John Cleese who plays Reg tries to arouse his fellow members of the “People’s Front of Judea” to rebel against the Romans but encounters some difficulty.



Of Stamps and Seals and Purity

Act 1:   Bringing the Mishna to life 

The announcement from the Israel Antiquities Authority came just before Chanukah.  The timing was a tour guide’s dream.  Every guide in Jerusalem would be talking about how over 2,000 years ago on that first Chanukah the Maccabees found just one flask of oil in the Temple with the seal of the High Priest certifying its purity.  Now we had a real seal from the Temple!

A small piece of fired clay the size of a button had been discovered in the soil under the Herodian street near the south west corner of the Temple Mount.  It was inscribed with two lines of Hebrew letters and dated to the late Second Temple period.  It was, said the announcement, “probably used as a voucher certifying the ritual purity of an object of food in the Temple”.  The inscription read “"דכא ל'ה.  The excavators, Ronny Reich and Eli Shukrun explained that this meant “Pure for G-d”.  This inscribed piece of clay was direct archaeological evidence of the workings of the Temple.  It may not actually have been the High Priest’s seal on a flask of oil but it was almost as good.

An inscribed piece of clay from the Second Temple.  Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority

Within a few days Professor Shlomo Naeh from Hebrew University had helped us keep our feet firmly on the ground.  The object could not have been used as a stamp to impress on a container – because the inscription was positive not negative.  It couldn’t have been used to seal a container and ensure the ritual purity of the contents - it had no way of being attached.  His careful reading of the Mishna (Shekalim, 5, 1-5) showed that this was a voucher or token used in the purchase of sacrifices in the Temple.

A person bringing a sacrifice would pay for it at the Temple “office” and receive a voucher inscribed in Aramaic.  He would then exchange the voucher for the appropriate sacrifice.  The inscription on the clay object, Professor Naeh explained, was exactly as described in the Mishna and the Jerusalem Talmud.  It specified the type of sacrifice (in this case a ram), the day of the week (Sunday) and the family of priests who were serving in the Temple that week (Yehoyariv).  These tokens never left the Temple precincts so it’s no wonder that they are rarely found now. 

This inscribed piece of clay is tiny, 2 centimetres in diameter, and yet it helps to bring the workings of the Temple and the pages of the Mishna to life.  Sometimes it’s the little things that count.

Here are links to the press releases from the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Hebrew University.

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Act 2:   Early Competition for the OU

In the 6^th century CE, when the land was under Roman Byzantine rule, Acco and its surrounding area was predominantly Christian.  A Jewish housewife living in that setting would have had to take extra care that the food she bought was kosher.  She could of course go directly to the source and see the food being prepared with her own eyes.  But if that wasn’t possible she might do what many of us do today and rely on a hechsher – a stamp or seal or label that told her that the food was prepared in accordance with Jewish law.  

Earlier this month the Israel Antiquities Authority announced the discovery of a tiny ceramic stamp during excavations at Horbat Uza east of Acco in the north of the country.  It was found during a rescue dig there prior to the building of a new railway line.  The stamp is about 1,500 years old and it was used to stamp a hechsher onto bread.

A 1,500 Year Old Bread Stamp.  Photo: Dr Danny Syon courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority

The potter had engraved the image of the Temple Menorah, the symbol of a Jewish bakery, on the face of the stamp before firing it in a kiln.  Afterwards the word “Launtius” had been scratched in Greek letters on its handle.  The excavators concluded that a batch of stamps was made each engraved with the menorah.  The baker then scratched his name, Launtius, on the handle of his own stamp.  Each loaf he baked would have been stamped with the image of the menorah and with his name.  This combination would assure the buyer that the bread was kosher.

Christian bread stamps inscribed with a cross were much more common in this period.  Bread stamps like this one with a menorah have come to light before but never in a controlled excavation.  This find testifies that there was a Jewish community in Uza in Byzantine times and suggests that the baker in Uza was producing baked goods for the nearby town of Acco.  It shows us that the hechsher has a history that goes back at least 1,500 years.  It’s another small discovery with a big story to tell.

Here’s a link to the Israel Antiquities Authority press release.

Welcome to the Tour With Jack Blog

Dear Friends,


Welcome to the Tour With Jack blog. The blog is a way for you to be more involved with the Tour With Jack experience. I'm hoping that you will let me know what you like about the tours we run, what else you would like to see and also share your thoughts and experiences about touring in Israel with us at Tour With Jack.

For my part, I want to share with you the fun of being a guide: the funny things that happen along the way, the ideas behind the tours, the excitement of new discoveries and interesting stories and ideas I come across from the world of tour-guiding in Israel.

Here's a story from one of my tours. Archaeologists Ronny Reich and Eli Shukrun have been exploring the water systems in Ir David. They have challenged cherished views about the dating of a couple of well known features of Jerusalem’s history. They published evidence to suggest that “Hezekiah’s Tunnel” was built well before the reign of King Hezekiah and maybe 100 years before the Assyrian Siege of Jerusalem. More recently, they have shown that while Herod may have started the building of the Western Wall it was not finished in his reign. Here’s the Israel Antiquities Authority press release with photos.

                                              

Reich and Shukrun came to this conclusion whilst preparing a path for visitors through a water channel that runs under the Second Temple Period street alongside the Temple Mount. Two thousand years ago Jews used it to try to escape from the Romans who were destroying the Temple and the city of Jerusalem.  Now tourists can walk through this channel all the way from Ir David to the corner of the Western Wall. They come out just by Robinson’s Arch where the paving stones were smashed by falling masonry when the Romans destroyed the Temple.

My story took place in June last year – before this water channel was open to the public and before most of us even really thought of such a possibility.  I was with my tourists by Robinson’s Arch explaining about the arch itself, the great staircase it supported and about the 4^th Century inscription on the wall there.  Suddenly, to our surprise, up popped two guys from a hole in the 2^nd Temple pavement and asked if they could borrow a pen!  It was a classic moment.

You never know what will happen next on a tour in Jerusalem. Every day, something new is discovered about the past. Come on a tour and learn more about the amazing history of Israel. Or, let me know what you want to see and we will try to make it happen!