“The Archaeology of Difference” Gender, Ethnicity, Class, and the “Other” in Antiquity: Studies
in Honor of Eric M. Meyers, edited by D. R. Edwards and C.T. McCollough. Boston: American
Schools of Oriental Research Volume 60/61, 2007. xiii + 416.
This Festschrift honors the life and work of Eric M. Meyers by focusing on different
models used to better understand the ancient past. In the introductory section titled, “Setting the
Stage”, McCollough and Edwards draw the reader’s attention to the different archaeological foci
that Meyers has studied over the years, such as ethnicity, gender, and death. As well as looking
at his contributions to the debate over “New Archaeology” and the championing of regional
analysis whether studying an isolated site or the effects of an empire. This introduction is
followed by a brief article by Neil Silberman drawing attention to the historical backdrop of
Jewish and Muslim cultural diversity and how archaeologists can aid in its defense.
Following the introductory section, the essays in the book are divided into two sections.
Section I: Neolithic through Persian Periods contains the following essays: The Emergence of
Social Complexity in the Neolithic of the Near East (Ofer Bar-Yosef); Gender and Social
Hierarchy in the Chalcolithic Period in the Light of the Peqi’in Cave, Israel (Zvi Gal, Howard
Smithline, and Dina Shalem); Ethnicity and the Archaeological Record: The Case of Early Israel
(William G. Dever); From Field Crops to Food: Attributing Gender and Meaning to Bread
Production in Iron Age Israel (Carol Meyers); Queen or Crone? Gendered Archaeology in an LB
Tomb at Gezer (Joe D. Seger); No Stelae, No Queens: Two Issues Concerning the Kings of
Israel and Judah (Gary A. Rendsburg); The Problem of the Other(ed) Woman in Nahum (Julia
M. O’Brien); Linguistic Variation Emphasized, Linguistic Variation Denied (Raymond F.
Person, Jr.); and Representing the Cushite Other: The Use of Cushite Phenotypes in Numbers 12
and Jeremiah 13:23 (Rodney S. Sadler, Jr.).
Section II focuses on the Hellenistic through Byzantine Periods and includes What Sort
of Jews Were the Tobiads? (Adam Porter); The Relationship Between Galilean Archaeology and
Historical Jesus Research (John Dominic Crossan); Zum Standort des Tempels (Volkmar Fritz);
“When I Went to Rome . . .There I Saw the Menorah . . .” The Jerusalem Temple Implements
During the Second Century C.E. (Steven Fine); Miqwaot and the Second Temple Sectarianism
(Carol Selkin Wise); The Stepped Water Installations of the Sepphoris Acropolis (Katharina
Galor); Stepped Pools and the Non-Existent Monolithic “Miqveh” (Stuart S. Miller); Jewish
Ossuaries of the Early Roman Period: Continuity and Change in Death Ritual (Byron R.
McCane); Attitudes Toward the Dead: Protective Measures Employed Against the Desecration
of Tombs, Coffins, and Ossuaries (Rachel Hachlili); Khirbet Qana’s Necropolis and Ethnic
Questions (Peter Richardson); Monumental Changes: Architecture and Culture in Late Roman
and Early Byzantine Sepphoris (C. Thomas McCollough); The Butchers of Sepphoris:
Archaeological Evidence of Ethnic Variability (Bill Grantham); Sepphoris and the Earliest
Christian Congregations (James F. Strange); The Lives of Glass-Workers at Sepphoris (Alysia
Fischer); Two Terracotta Figurine Fragments from the Sepphoris Acropolis (Melissa Aubin);
The Archaeology of Bethsaida and the Historical Jesus Quest (Rami Arav); Casesarea Philippi
(Paneas) in the Roman and Byzantine Periods (Vassilios Tzaferis); Rabbis, Romans, and Rabies:
Religion, Disease, and the “Other”: A Case Study (Barbara Geller): Celsus of Pergamum:
Locating a Critic of Early Christianity (Stephen Goranson); Marketing Religious Difference in
Late Antique Syria-Palestine: Clay Oil Lamps as Clientele Indicators (Eric C. Lapp); “Set the
Showbread on the Table Before Me Always” (Exodus 25:30): Artistic Representations of the
Showbread Table in Early Jewish and Christian Art (Zeev Weiss): Christian Among Jews in En-
Gedi (Anna de Vincenz); and Nomad Settlement in Palestine During the Late Byzantine-Early
Moslem Period (Ze’ev Safrai and Ofer Sion).
This volume contains many important essays, too many to do justice reviewing in such a
short article. The second section contains a number of essays on various aspects of the
archaeology of Sepphoris a testament to Meyers’ long relationship with the site, where he began
excavating in 1985 (p. 5). There are also a number of essays on miqvaot and archaeology in
Galilee, both areas focused on by Meyers throughout his career. These articles are of great use
for those especially interested in archaeological data on ethnicity and death during the Roman
and Byzantine Periods.
Dever’s article is an interesting case study of “Ethnicity in the Archaeological Record”
and is a good summary of early Israelite origins. He offers praise for Meyers work in Galilee
dealing with similar methodological issues when attempting to distinguish Jewish from Christian
ethnicity. Dever begins by reviewing the discussion amongst minimalists and maximalists
concluding that most deny the possibility of determining ethnicity from the archaeological
record. In this article Dever attempts to use an archaeological trait list as a basis for
distinguishing between different ethnic groups (pp. 53-54).
After summarizing the already widely discussed ethnic indicators, Dever presents two
arguments in support of a hill-country archaeological assemblage being evidence for “protoIsraelites.” After comparing this hill-country assemblage with other assemblages of known
ethnic groups (such as Canaanite, Egyptian, Philistine) it can be determined to be unique. Rather
than just referring to this group as “X-people”, Dever suggests we need only look to the
Merneptah Stele for the name Israel and therefore the identity of these “X-people” (p. 57). He
also suggests that, since the majority of scholars agree that a kingdom of Israel existed in the Iron
II and that there is great continuity between this cultural assemblage and that of the Iron I in the
highlands, than the early Iron I group can rightly be called “Proto-Israelite” (p. 59).
Dever does an admirable job of bringing ethnicity in the archaeological record to the
forefront, however even he remains slightly cautious labeling this early Iron Age people group
“Proto-Israelite” instead of simply “Israelite” as have Mazar, Stager, and others (p. 62). The
more important question for Syro-Palestinian archaeologists today is: where did this “ProtoIsraelite” ethnic group come from? The answer for this question seemingly must come from
Jordan where significant remains are being excavated from such site as Tall al-Umayri, Tall
Jalul, Kh. en-Nahas, and others.
There were several other chapters of interest. Seger examines the finds from a LB IB-IIA
burial chamber at Gezer in order to determine the living role of the female inhabitant (pp. 85-93).
She was buried with imported vessels from Cyprus and Egypt, including a glass vase that is one
of only six found in Palestine (p. 89). However the skeleton showed signs of osteoarthritis, as
did other individuals located in the tomb, typically indicative of manual labor (p. 91). Seger
concludes that it is likely this female held some higher status, but this status did not preclude her
from doing typical woman’s work, such as food preparation, agricultural work, sewing, and
caring for children (p. 92).
Rendsburg looks at what the lack of royal inscriptions and lack of queens in the courts of
Jerusalem and Samaria have to say about the kings of Israel and Judah (pp. 95-107). He believes
that the reason why no royal inscriptions have been found and why none will be found is due to
theological controls. The Bible puts a strong emphasis on humility (see Micah 6:8, Proverbs
11:2, Isaiah 11:4, etc.), and Rendsburg sees evidence of this humility in the stories of Ahab,
Hezekiah, and Shevna (Isaiah 22:15-16) (pp. 97-98). The Old Testament uses the term gevira or
“royal-lady” and never malacha or “queen” when mentioning royal women in the courts of the
kings of Israel and Judah. In the Ancient Near East it is typical for a king to be, in some fashion,
an earthly representative of the chief god, and often the queen would be portrayed as his consort.
Rendsburg surmises that by not elevating the queen to a position of prominence, and instead
having the king’s mother play a visible role, the kings of Israel and Judah were attempting to
meet Ancient Near Eastern protocol while still remaining theologically separate (p. 101).
There are an abundance of articles in this Festschrift, many full of useful information and
covering a vast spectrum of archaeological scholarship in Israel and Jordan. Due to the different
subjects covered, scholars in many different fields should find this volume useful. It is a
wonderful tribute to the career of Eric Meyers.