The cave where the bullae were discovered / Photo credit: Assaf Stern, courtesy of the Nature and Parks Authority
Posted on 09/23/2018 3:17:34 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The bullae were used in ancient times for the sealing of letters and scrolls written on papyrus. If a letter arrived with a broken bulla, it meant it had been opened. Unfortunately, those letters and scrolls did not survive through the 2,200 years that have passed, only the seals remained, to tell the story of the archive.
Dr. Donald Zvi Ariel of the Israel Antiquities Authority, one of the world's leading experts on bullae, examined a group of 300 bullae and identified on the seal impressions figures of Greek gods such as Athena, Apollo and Aphrodite, as well as cornucopia, erotic scenes, and animals.
According to Dr. Ariel's estimates, "this archeological finding of more than 1,000 seals indicates a large archive of ancient private documents that existed at the site and possibly belonged to a well-to-do estate owner. It seems that the archive was abandoned abruptly and this fact is particularly interesting against the background of the events of the period known from scripture, when the Hasmonean king Yochanan Hyrcanus conquered the Edomites who lived in this area and forced them to convert to Judaism."
Old Maresha, which is now part of the Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park, is the richest source for scholars to study the multicultural world of the Hellenistic period in the Land of Israel.
According to excavation director Dr. Stern, "This find joins other fascinating finds discovered in Maresha from a time when the city was a central commercial crossroads. The study of the seals, and the various images that appear on them, can provide significant information about the life and the culture during this period in Israel."
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishpress.com ...
The cave where the bullae were discovered / Photo credit: Assaf Stern, courtesy of the Nature and Parks Authority
All the letters are in a jumble on the cave floor. Don’t walk there! ;)
The ancient equivalent of a mall kiosk that sells monogramed key chains?
So they found Blowsey-Ford's high school notes to boys in her class?
Reminds me of a sequence about seals in a Marx Brothers movie.
So mailmen have been hiding mail for centuries!
#5. Next, drawings on the cave ceiling of Christine Blowshard doing the Edomites. Pictures at 11:00, BC time.
It was a girls’ school, but I’m sure she looked for boys diligently enough.
Tel Maresha Caves Reveal Hellenistic Treasures
Biblical Archaeology Society Staff
09/18/2018
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/biblical-archaeology-sites/tel-maresha-caves-hellenistic-treasures/
The Hellenistic city of Maresha was home to a thriving multi-ethnic community of Nabateans, Edomites, Phoenicians, and Judeans from the third to second centuries B.C.E. Excavations at Tel Maresha, located 24 miles southwest of Jerusalem in Israel, have revealed a city of two parts: one above ground, containing houses and shops organized in city blocks, and one below, consisting of a massive system of caves hewn from the soft chalk underground.
Recently, excavations led by Ian Stern and Bernie Alpert from the Archaeological Seminars Institute and Hebrew Union College, collaborating with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, made two discoveries that shed further light on how ancient peoples used the subterranean complexes at Tel Maresha.
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The archaeologists found strewn across seven rooms broken pottery fragments as well as whole vessels. Since Maresha thrived in the Hellenistic period, the presence of Hellenistic pottery was not surprising. What did intrigue archaeologists was the discovery of two oil lamps and a casserole dish dating to the Roman period. Tel Maresha had been abandoned in 107 B.C.E. when the Hasmonean king John Hyrcanus I conquered the Idumean town.
“Since a number of subterranean complexes in the region had been utilized during the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (132–135 C.E.), this led us to believe that these rooms possibly served as a refuge for the Jewish population in the area during that rebellion,” said the researchers in a Hebrew Union College press release.
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