Digging Through the Bible by Richard A. Freund

Author:Richard A. Freund
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2009-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

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Searching Her Stories: Women in Ancient Israel

Figure 4.1. Livia Julia statuette from Bethsaida.

The study of archaeology can be deeply intertwined with the study of social history, though archaeologists rarely recognize this connection. In particular, archaeology can reveal new and intimate details about the lives of women in the ancient period—details unmatched by other historical records. The study of women in antiquity can be particularly frustrating because of how few written records document their lives, but archaeology has lifted the veil on key details regarding several ancient women.

I have learned about women in ancient Israel at three excavation sites. Bethsaida, Tiberias, and the Cave of Letters have revealed how archaeology can unravel the complex social history of women in antiquity. In the year 2000, when we were excavating at the Cave of Letters, I invited one of the most famous female classics scholars, Professor Hannah Cotton of the Hebrew University, to tell me what she had learned about one of the most intriguing women of antiquity, Babatha. We brought Dr. Cotton to the place where the archives of Babatha were discovered in the Cave of Letters, and she described to us the life of this remarkable woman as understood in her archives. The documents were found in the Cave of Letters during YigaelYadin’s excavations, and at the time it was not known how important the documents of Babatha really were. Dr. Cotton had spent a long part of her career researching these documents, and the moment that she stepped into the area where the archives were found she was nearly overcome by emotion. She said: “I feel like I know this woman.” As I sat there listening to her hour-long interview as we excavated (only a few minutes of the interview appeared in the television documentary on NOVA, “Ancient Refuge in the Holy Land”) I felt as if she was “channeling” the spirit of Babatha. I think that archaeology has that kind of power when it is in the hands of a scholar who can interpret the social implications of discoveries. Good scholars can reveal elements about ancient people that are not otherwise accessible through documents and artifacts. For this reason, I include research I have done on women in antiquity who may not be well known, but who actually were catalysts in their own periods for an enormous amount of change. Much of this research is a combination of data from literary texts and archaeology.

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