Neo-Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Northwest Semitic inscriptions shed light on Israel and J... more Neo-Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Northwest Semitic inscriptions shed light on Israel and Judah and their conquerors, rivals, and allies. Iron Age inscriptions offer alternative histories and speak to military and political engagements that are not mentioned in Kings. Such comparanda fill in the gap in the biblical texts regarding the spread and might of the Neo-Assyrian and Babylonian Empires, whereas linear, alphabetic texts give voice to Israel and Judah’s neighbors in the Levant. Inscriptions in Hebrew are central for scholarly reconstructions of the political and religious histories of this region. They are also important witnesses to the language varieties, literacy practices, and the scribal communities connected to the monarchies of Israel and Judah. Indeed, these materials offer a more complete portrait of the people who wrote 1–2 Kings. (For an offprint, please email me: amandel5@jhu.edu)
For the full publication: Mandell, Alice, "Iron Age Inscriptions and the Books of Kings: A Window into Geopolitics, Languages, and Literacies," in Steven L. McKenzie, and Matthieu Richelle (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Books of Kings, Oxford Handbooks (2024; online edn, Oxford Academic, 20 June 2024), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197610374.013.13
Maarav. A Journal for the Study of the Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures , 2023
The scholarly history of the Levantine alphabet centers on scribal literacies. Yet there is compe... more The scholarly history of the Levantine alphabet centers on scribal literacies. Yet there is compelling evidence that the script was used and taught in other communities of text-makers: the artisans involved in text-creation in stone, metal, ceramic, ivory, and other writing surfaces involving technical tools and specialized knowledge. The present essay explores the evidence for the intersection of craft and literacy practices in the inscriptional and archaeological record with a focus on the Bronze and Iron Ages. The proposed “craft-literacy” approach makes several suggestions about how scholars of alphabetic inscriptions might better theorize about the transmission of alphabetic literacies in the process of craft-production and the dissemination of inscribed objects. To this end, the present essay sets the study of Northwest Semitic epigraphy in conversation with material cultural approaches to the study of literacy, specifically “artifactual literacies,” an approach that evaluates the materiality of literacy and the ways in which textual-artifacts engage different audiences, and thereby participate in the transmission of knowledge. (Please email me if you want a copy: amandel5@jh.edu).
Past works have connected the design, execution, and content of Aaron’s inscribed clothing in the... more Past works have connected the design, execution, and content of Aaron’s inscribed clothing in the tabernacle-building narrative in Exod 28 and 39 to different types of ancient Near Eastern inscriptions. This largely form-critical enterprise sheds light on their power as inscriptions that draw authority from diverse text-types, including dedications, seals, and amulets. Yet the inscriptions set into Aaron’s clothing do more than tell us about the types of textual practices priests may have known about or engaged in—they project a priestly ideal of writing as a source of ritual authority. When the narrative description of these inscriptions is theorized through the framework of multimodality, we can see that they communicate through their semantic content and through their design, but also through their display features on Aaron’s body and their movement with him in the tabernacle. Exodus 28 and 39 embed a host of inscriptional practices into Aaron’s uniform in a way that transforms it into an archetypical priestly text, one that is mobile yet tied to the priesthood. In the story of the building of the tabernacle, this literary representation of Aaron’s inscribed clothing both anticipates and affirms the ritual authority of texts in priestly communities in the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem’s temple in the Neo-Babylonian period.
Lachish 2 is typically described as an enigmatic letter, one that consists mainly of the protocol... more Lachish 2 is typically described as an enigmatic letter, one that consists mainly of the protocol language used in letter introductions. However, past studies have wrestled with Lines 5-6 of this letter, and noted the linguistic crux posed by the verb ybkr. The present study argues that while Lachish 2 looks like a letter, it plays a different role than letters are traditionally conceived to do (as written communication media that articulate the words of a sender to a recipient). This text's form, organization, and focus on formulae, and its lack of clear message suggest that Lachish 2 was used as an instructional tool that outlines a letter's organization and sample epistolary formulae, serving perhaps as a template. This ostracon offers insight into both the practice of letter writing as seen from the internal perspective of a writer, and into education in the process of letter writing in the later days of the Judean monarchy.
This essay analyzes the aggregate of texts, images, and vessels in the area of the benchroom in B... more This essay analyzes the aggregate of texts, images, and vessels in the area of the benchroom in Building A of the Iron II site of Kuntillet 'Ajrud using the framework of monumentality. I examine the ways in which the monumentality of this space developed through central planning but also through the aggregation of material depositions left in the benchroom by diverse people. The ritual meaning of the benchroom and its importance as a communal monument at this site was interconnected to the message of protection communicated by its »top-down« design as a royal fort and by the royal decorative program of its painted walls. All of these aspects of the site conditioned the evolution of the benchroom into a communal monument where people could petition the gods for protection.
The study of ancient literacies is impacted by three key issues: the limitations of the written e... more The study of ancient literacies is impacted by three key issues: the limitations of the written evidence preserved in the archaeological record; the limited range of people that are represented through texts; and the limited ways in which the textual record reflects the literacy practices of ancient people. Three approaches can help to push past these challenges, to better understand ancient literacies: New Literacy Studies, situated learning and the Community of Practice approach, and the multimodality perspective regarding the analysis of texts. This chapter provides an overview of three ancient Near Eastern scripts (the Egyptian, cuneiform, and alphabetic scripts) that demonstrate how literacies in the ancient Near East were diverse and interconnected to different technologies, materiality, and roles of writing.
One Who Loves Knowledge: Festschrift in Honor of Richard Jasnow, 2022
This paper offers several case studies from the Canaanite Amarna Le!ters that demonstrate how cun... more This paper offers several case studies from the Canaanite Amarna Le!ters that demonstrate how cuneiform scribes tried to speak clearly to their scribal peers in Egypt through the medium of their scribal craft. (For the whole article, please contact me).
Inscriptions enable scholars to reconstruct different phases and varieties of Northwest Semitic
s... more Inscriptions enable scholars to reconstruct different phases and varieties of Northwest Semitic scripts and languages, and they can be informative about the geopolitical, royal, and scribal histories of this region (Sanders 2009; Rollston 2010; Schniedewind 2013; 2019; Mandell 2022a). Recent scholarship into text-audience interactions and literacy also highlights the importance of engaging with questions about the material, visual, spatial, and social dimensions of writing (Piquette and Whitehouse 2013; Mandell and Smoak 2017, 2018; Richey 2021). Such scholarship reminds us that these important aspects of ancient inscriptions should not be relegated to the periphery of scholarly attention. When we focus solely on the linguistic meaning of a text, we implicitly limit the scope of its meaning to ways in which ancient audiences engaged with a text’s words; that is, literacy and textual engagement and access are restricted to a person’s ability to write or read. When we analyze inscriptions more holistically, we see the limitations of the assumption of the primacy of written language over other aspects of textual production, design, and communication. Ancient texts were not always made to be read, and their words were not always how they made meaning.
This essay examines the aggregate of texts, images, and vessels in the area of the benchroom in B... more This essay examines the aggregate of texts, images, and vessels in the area of the benchroom in Building A of the Iron II site of Kuntillet 'Ajrud using the framework of monumentality. The monumentality of this space developed through central planning but also through the aggregation of material depositions left in the benchroom by diverse people. The ritual meaning of the benchroom and its importance as a communal monument at this site was interconnected to the message of protection communicated by its "top-down" design as a royal fort and by the royal decorative program of its painted walls. All of these aspects of the site conditioned the evolution of the benchroom into a communal monument where people could petition the gods for protection.
This article evaluates how the inscriptions on the high priest's uniform become animated and ritu... more This article evaluates how the inscriptions on the high priest's uniform become animated and ritualized with his movement in YHWH's tabernacle (according to the ritual logic of Exodus 28 and 39).
Overview of the study of Genesis in its ancient Near Eastern context, as approached by biblical s... more Overview of the study of Genesis in its ancient Near Eastern context, as approached by biblical scholars.
Inscribing Monumentality in the Ancient Levant and in the Hebrew Bible
Introduction and theoretical backdrop to the volume: Inscribing Monumentality
in the Ancient Leva... more Introduction and theoretical backdrop to the volume: Inscribing Monumentality in the Ancient Levant and in the Hebrew Bible
This review offers a summary of A Handbook of Biblical Hebrew and an proposal for replacing the "... more This review offers a summary of A Handbook of Biblical Hebrew and an proposal for replacing the "speech" community" model with the "community of practice" approach to the study of literacy practices.
KTU 3.9 classified as a contract between the head of a Marziḥu association at Ugarit and its memb... more KTU 3.9 classified as a contract between the head of a Marziḥu association at Ugarit and its members. This text tends to be discussed in reference to KTU 1.114, which narrates El’s humiliation after an evening of binge drinking with his Marziḥu association. This tablet is also studied as an early precursor to mrzḥ described in first millennium inscriptions and in Israelite prophetic texts (Jer. 16:5 and Amos 6:7). Some argue that this institution was a part of funerary rites to honor the dead, whereas others view the Marziḥu to be more of a drinking club under the auspices of local deities. In this study, I focus upon the tablet at hand. My reassessment considers its form, execution, language but also the social context underlying the use of the local written language and cuneiform alphabetic script to create a contract-like text. The sloppy execution of this tablet and the anomalous orthography have been attributed to an unprofessional writer, and interpreted as an index of literacy outside of the scribal profession. I address this proposal but conclude that KTU is not an actual contract; it is a scribal exercise that demonstrates the extended use of the local script tradition for genres of writing formerly restricted to Akkadian and logo-syllabic cuneiform. I also suggest, seeing that the choice in topic for this exercise contract is a feud in a drinking club, that we have here a sample of scribal humor.
This paper aims to bridge the gap between the study of language and material
culture in the stud... more This paper aims to bridge the gap between the study of language and material
culture in the study of Early Alphabetic inscriptions. I engage with recent writings in
sociolinguistics, new literacy studies, and multimodality theory to address the ways
in which the design, choice in script, and socio-cultural settings of ancient inscriptions
informed their meaning. I address the use of the early alphabetic script on the
Lachish Ewer and Kefar Veradim Bowl as a means of marking group membership.
Keywords: Early Alphabetic Inscriptions, Multimodality, Lachish Ewer, Kefar Veradim
Bowl
This study discusses how a material religions approach might be applied to the study of Israelite... more This study discusses how a material religions approach might be applied to the study of Israelite religions. After providing a discussion of recent theory on space and the body in the study of religion, we give several suggestions for how these ideas can apply to Israelite tomb and temple spaces. Our approach brings the study of Israelite religious texts and material culture (back) into the broader study of material religion. To this end, we prioritize the role that the body plays in shaping perceptions of these spaces and in determining the use of things in ritual practice.
Size Matters: Understanding Monumentality Across Ancient Civilizations (eds. F. Buccellati, S. Hageneuer, S. van der Heyden, and F. Levenson; Berlin: Transcript, 2019), pp. 309-343, 2019
Neo-Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Northwest Semitic inscriptions shed light on Israel and J... more Neo-Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Northwest Semitic inscriptions shed light on Israel and Judah and their conquerors, rivals, and allies. Iron Age inscriptions offer alternative histories and speak to military and political engagements that are not mentioned in Kings. Such comparanda fill in the gap in the biblical texts regarding the spread and might of the Neo-Assyrian and Babylonian Empires, whereas linear, alphabetic texts give voice to Israel and Judah’s neighbors in the Levant. Inscriptions in Hebrew are central for scholarly reconstructions of the political and religious histories of this region. They are also important witnesses to the language varieties, literacy practices, and the scribal communities connected to the monarchies of Israel and Judah. Indeed, these materials offer a more complete portrait of the people who wrote 1–2 Kings. (For an offprint, please email me: amandel5@jhu.edu)
For the full publication: Mandell, Alice, "Iron Age Inscriptions and the Books of Kings: A Window into Geopolitics, Languages, and Literacies," in Steven L. McKenzie, and Matthieu Richelle (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Books of Kings, Oxford Handbooks (2024; online edn, Oxford Academic, 20 June 2024), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197610374.013.13
Maarav. A Journal for the Study of the Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures , 2023
The scholarly history of the Levantine alphabet centers on scribal literacies. Yet there is compe... more The scholarly history of the Levantine alphabet centers on scribal literacies. Yet there is compelling evidence that the script was used and taught in other communities of text-makers: the artisans involved in text-creation in stone, metal, ceramic, ivory, and other writing surfaces involving technical tools and specialized knowledge. The present essay explores the evidence for the intersection of craft and literacy practices in the inscriptional and archaeological record with a focus on the Bronze and Iron Ages. The proposed “craft-literacy” approach makes several suggestions about how scholars of alphabetic inscriptions might better theorize about the transmission of alphabetic literacies in the process of craft-production and the dissemination of inscribed objects. To this end, the present essay sets the study of Northwest Semitic epigraphy in conversation with material cultural approaches to the study of literacy, specifically “artifactual literacies,” an approach that evaluates the materiality of literacy and the ways in which textual-artifacts engage different audiences, and thereby participate in the transmission of knowledge. (Please email me if you want a copy: amandel5@jh.edu).
Past works have connected the design, execution, and content of Aaron’s inscribed clothing in the... more Past works have connected the design, execution, and content of Aaron’s inscribed clothing in the tabernacle-building narrative in Exod 28 and 39 to different types of ancient Near Eastern inscriptions. This largely form-critical enterprise sheds light on their power as inscriptions that draw authority from diverse text-types, including dedications, seals, and amulets. Yet the inscriptions set into Aaron’s clothing do more than tell us about the types of textual practices priests may have known about or engaged in—they project a priestly ideal of writing as a source of ritual authority. When the narrative description of these inscriptions is theorized through the framework of multimodality, we can see that they communicate through their semantic content and through their design, but also through their display features on Aaron’s body and their movement with him in the tabernacle. Exodus 28 and 39 embed a host of inscriptional practices into Aaron’s uniform in a way that transforms it into an archetypical priestly text, one that is mobile yet tied to the priesthood. In the story of the building of the tabernacle, this literary representation of Aaron’s inscribed clothing both anticipates and affirms the ritual authority of texts in priestly communities in the aftermath of the destruction of Jerusalem’s temple in the Neo-Babylonian period.
Lachish 2 is typically described as an enigmatic letter, one that consists mainly of the protocol... more Lachish 2 is typically described as an enigmatic letter, one that consists mainly of the protocol language used in letter introductions. However, past studies have wrestled with Lines 5-6 of this letter, and noted the linguistic crux posed by the verb ybkr. The present study argues that while Lachish 2 looks like a letter, it plays a different role than letters are traditionally conceived to do (as written communication media that articulate the words of a sender to a recipient). This text's form, organization, and focus on formulae, and its lack of clear message suggest that Lachish 2 was used as an instructional tool that outlines a letter's organization and sample epistolary formulae, serving perhaps as a template. This ostracon offers insight into both the practice of letter writing as seen from the internal perspective of a writer, and into education in the process of letter writing in the later days of the Judean monarchy.
This essay analyzes the aggregate of texts, images, and vessels in the area of the benchroom in B... more This essay analyzes the aggregate of texts, images, and vessels in the area of the benchroom in Building A of the Iron II site of Kuntillet 'Ajrud using the framework of monumentality. I examine the ways in which the monumentality of this space developed through central planning but also through the aggregation of material depositions left in the benchroom by diverse people. The ritual meaning of the benchroom and its importance as a communal monument at this site was interconnected to the message of protection communicated by its »top-down« design as a royal fort and by the royal decorative program of its painted walls. All of these aspects of the site conditioned the evolution of the benchroom into a communal monument where people could petition the gods for protection.
The study of ancient literacies is impacted by three key issues: the limitations of the written e... more The study of ancient literacies is impacted by three key issues: the limitations of the written evidence preserved in the archaeological record; the limited range of people that are represented through texts; and the limited ways in which the textual record reflects the literacy practices of ancient people. Three approaches can help to push past these challenges, to better understand ancient literacies: New Literacy Studies, situated learning and the Community of Practice approach, and the multimodality perspective regarding the analysis of texts. This chapter provides an overview of three ancient Near Eastern scripts (the Egyptian, cuneiform, and alphabetic scripts) that demonstrate how literacies in the ancient Near East were diverse and interconnected to different technologies, materiality, and roles of writing.
One Who Loves Knowledge: Festschrift in Honor of Richard Jasnow, 2022
This paper offers several case studies from the Canaanite Amarna Le!ters that demonstrate how cun... more This paper offers several case studies from the Canaanite Amarna Le!ters that demonstrate how cuneiform scribes tried to speak clearly to their scribal peers in Egypt through the medium of their scribal craft. (For the whole article, please contact me).
Inscriptions enable scholars to reconstruct different phases and varieties of Northwest Semitic
s... more Inscriptions enable scholars to reconstruct different phases and varieties of Northwest Semitic scripts and languages, and they can be informative about the geopolitical, royal, and scribal histories of this region (Sanders 2009; Rollston 2010; Schniedewind 2013; 2019; Mandell 2022a). Recent scholarship into text-audience interactions and literacy also highlights the importance of engaging with questions about the material, visual, spatial, and social dimensions of writing (Piquette and Whitehouse 2013; Mandell and Smoak 2017, 2018; Richey 2021). Such scholarship reminds us that these important aspects of ancient inscriptions should not be relegated to the periphery of scholarly attention. When we focus solely on the linguistic meaning of a text, we implicitly limit the scope of its meaning to ways in which ancient audiences engaged with a text’s words; that is, literacy and textual engagement and access are restricted to a person’s ability to write or read. When we analyze inscriptions more holistically, we see the limitations of the assumption of the primacy of written language over other aspects of textual production, design, and communication. Ancient texts were not always made to be read, and their words were not always how they made meaning.
This essay examines the aggregate of texts, images, and vessels in the area of the benchroom in B... more This essay examines the aggregate of texts, images, and vessels in the area of the benchroom in Building A of the Iron II site of Kuntillet 'Ajrud using the framework of monumentality. The monumentality of this space developed through central planning but also through the aggregation of material depositions left in the benchroom by diverse people. The ritual meaning of the benchroom and its importance as a communal monument at this site was interconnected to the message of protection communicated by its "top-down" design as a royal fort and by the royal decorative program of its painted walls. All of these aspects of the site conditioned the evolution of the benchroom into a communal monument where people could petition the gods for protection.
This article evaluates how the inscriptions on the high priest's uniform become animated and ritu... more This article evaluates how the inscriptions on the high priest's uniform become animated and ritualized with his movement in YHWH's tabernacle (according to the ritual logic of Exodus 28 and 39).
Overview of the study of Genesis in its ancient Near Eastern context, as approached by biblical s... more Overview of the study of Genesis in its ancient Near Eastern context, as approached by biblical scholars.
Inscribing Monumentality in the Ancient Levant and in the Hebrew Bible
Introduction and theoretical backdrop to the volume: Inscribing Monumentality
in the Ancient Leva... more Introduction and theoretical backdrop to the volume: Inscribing Monumentality in the Ancient Levant and in the Hebrew Bible
This review offers a summary of A Handbook of Biblical Hebrew and an proposal for replacing the "... more This review offers a summary of A Handbook of Biblical Hebrew and an proposal for replacing the "speech" community" model with the "community of practice" approach to the study of literacy practices.
KTU 3.9 classified as a contract between the head of a Marziḥu association at Ugarit and its memb... more KTU 3.9 classified as a contract between the head of a Marziḥu association at Ugarit and its members. This text tends to be discussed in reference to KTU 1.114, which narrates El’s humiliation after an evening of binge drinking with his Marziḥu association. This tablet is also studied as an early precursor to mrzḥ described in first millennium inscriptions and in Israelite prophetic texts (Jer. 16:5 and Amos 6:7). Some argue that this institution was a part of funerary rites to honor the dead, whereas others view the Marziḥu to be more of a drinking club under the auspices of local deities. In this study, I focus upon the tablet at hand. My reassessment considers its form, execution, language but also the social context underlying the use of the local written language and cuneiform alphabetic script to create a contract-like text. The sloppy execution of this tablet and the anomalous orthography have been attributed to an unprofessional writer, and interpreted as an index of literacy outside of the scribal profession. I address this proposal but conclude that KTU is not an actual contract; it is a scribal exercise that demonstrates the extended use of the local script tradition for genres of writing formerly restricted to Akkadian and logo-syllabic cuneiform. I also suggest, seeing that the choice in topic for this exercise contract is a feud in a drinking club, that we have here a sample of scribal humor.
This paper aims to bridge the gap between the study of language and material
culture in the stud... more This paper aims to bridge the gap between the study of language and material
culture in the study of Early Alphabetic inscriptions. I engage with recent writings in
sociolinguistics, new literacy studies, and multimodality theory to address the ways
in which the design, choice in script, and socio-cultural settings of ancient inscriptions
informed their meaning. I address the use of the early alphabetic script on the
Lachish Ewer and Kefar Veradim Bowl as a means of marking group membership.
Keywords: Early Alphabetic Inscriptions, Multimodality, Lachish Ewer, Kefar Veradim
Bowl
This study discusses how a material religions approach might be applied to the study of Israelite... more This study discusses how a material religions approach might be applied to the study of Israelite religions. After providing a discussion of recent theory on space and the body in the study of religion, we give several suggestions for how these ideas can apply to Israelite tomb and temple spaces. Our approach brings the study of Israelite religious texts and material culture (back) into the broader study of material religion. To this end, we prioritize the role that the body plays in shaping perceptions of these spaces and in determining the use of things in ritual practice.
Size Matters: Understanding Monumentality Across Ancient Civilizations (eds. F. Buccellati, S. Hageneuer, S. van der Heyden, and F. Levenson; Berlin: Transcript, 2019), pp. 309-343, 2019
In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the frame around ancient Near Eastern text... more In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the frame around ancient Near Eastern texts and how they informed a text’s meaning and transmission. However, in scholarship on the written traditions of ancient Israel and Judah, there is a tendency to privilege scribal communities as the loci of textual tradition and transmission. The blessings in the biblical text and in the inscriptional record are seen to index scribal communities working within the framework of temple or palace institutions. However, Iron Age petitions, blessings, and apotropaic formulae were worn, worn, plastered, and inscribed in range of settings (e.g., funerary complexes, cultic spaces, gateways and on objects). The meaning of such texts was not static, but was largely dependent upon their changing material and social contexts. The following study will consider the role of writing at the Iron Age southern Levantine sites of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud and Ketef Hinnom. Rather than focus on scribal education or practice, I will discuss the ways in which the materiality and sites of display of these texts informed their function and transmission. My analysis give more serious attention to the ways in which these inscriptions texts were integrated into social and physical spaces. Once we consider the visual display elements of these inscriptions, we can begin to understand how the space around the text informed how people with a range of literacies “read” such inscriptions.
Presented: at UCLA's symposium on the alphabet: New Light on the Egyptian Origin of the Hebrew Al... more Presented: at UCLA's symposium on the alphabet: New Light on the Egyptian Origin of the Hebrew Alphabet (Dec. 2016)
The classification of the language of the Canaanite Amarna Letters is still a matter of contentio... more The classification of the language of the Canaanite Amarna Letters is still a matter of contention. The primary debate is whether or not the mixed Canaano-Akkadian forms are a reflection of a local dialect(s) of Akkadian, or a written scribal code––one that was quite distanced from the actual language underlying such messages. Recent petrographic and paleographic analyses further complicate the correlation between speech and writing in this corpus. Cuneiform scribes in the southern Levant worked for multiple polities; moreover, many tablets were created at quite a distance from the political centers generating this correspondence. A number of letters were actually written at Egyptian administrative centers across the Levant, and not at the local courts “sending” these messages. The Canaanite scribe emerges as the central figure in discussions of linguistic classification, as the language of these letters is a better reflection of scribal training during this period than what was actually spoken at local Canaanite courts. As such, there is a need for a reassessment of the scribal and administrative landscape of this period, in particular, the system of scribes and messengers bridging Canaanite polities and the royal court at Tell el-‘Amarna, Egypt. This system of communication was a dynamic, complex process that entailed at the very least four linguistic strata: the Canaanite dialect underlying the message; the written scribal code that preserved the message (a product of scribe’s education); the deconstruction of this message once delivered (along with any additional socio-political subtext); and its interpretation and final translation into Egyptian. I will (re)address the problem of “Canaano-Akkadian” and the ongoing messaging process from the perspective of the scribes composing and receiving these missives. I will focus upon the linguistic, orthographic, and rhetorical strategies that they employed to bridge the geographic and cultural gulf between Canaanite and Egyptian administrators. In particular, the Canaanite glosses resurface as unique evidence for how Canaanite scribes approached the problem of translation and linguistic “border-crossing” in such cross-cultural and multilingual exchanges. The cuneiform script was not limited to a technological tool in such interactions, but entailed participation in a much larger cultural horizon––one shared by cuneiform scribes in Canaan and Egypt, who were the gatekeepers facilitating diplomacy throughout this period.
The Proverbs Outside of Proverbs: Canaanite Parables as a Precursor to Israelite “Wisdom”?
The C... more The Proverbs Outside of Proverbs: Canaanite Parables as a Precursor to Israelite “Wisdom”?
The Canaanite scribes writing for the rulers of Tyre, Byblos, Jerusalem, and Shechem employed West Semitic expressions, metaphors, and proverbial sayings to enrich their letters. Past scholarship has proposed that such formulaic phrases were based upon expressions drawn from oral culture, which were then used in scribal training. This model has also been used to explain the origins of Israelite scribal training in the subsequent Iron Age. According to this view, scribes collected and preserved proverbial sayings and parables. In turn, proverbs and other “wisdom” literatures became a cornerstone of scribal training, drawing upon parallels in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Accordingly, texts such as the Gezer Calendar, the biblical acrostics, Proverbs, as well as the reference to the collection of proverbs in Prov. 25:1, are understood as evidence for the scribal origins of Israelite “wisdom” literature, or at the very least, its centrality to scribal education. The corpus of West Semitic texts from the Late Bronze Age offers insight into the use of proverbs in scribal practice, such as in the composition of letters and in the crafting of political arguments. I will offer a reassessment of the use of proverbs in scribal training in the Canaanite Amarna Letters and neighboring corpora. I will also discuss the use of proverbs outside of the book of Proverbs (e.g., in texts such as Habakkuk 2) to craft a political or religious argument. A comparison of these corpora elucidates the ways in which scribes harnessed such oral expressions to create compelling arguments that drew upon a shared cultural understanding. The use of proverbial language appealed to the authoritative nature of oral culture. In particular, the Canaanite Amarna letters elucidate how this facet of oral culture was harnessed and textualized by West Semitic scribes, and establishes a degree of continuity with scribal culture in the subsequent period.
The intellectual current in religious studies has transitioned away from past dualism that sought... more The intellectual current in religious studies has transitioned away from past dualism that sought to divide spirit from body. More recent scholarship has re-introduced the human body into discussions of ritual practice and its materiality, rather than ideology, as the primary lens with which to understand religious space. That is, more recent works in religious studies prioritize the material (i.e., the body) and the physical over the abstract. Scholars such as Kim Knott, Thomas Tweed, David Morgan, and Manuel Vásquez seek to rehabilitate the body as the primary locus of “space” and the main determinant of social and conceptual orientation in the evolution of ritual spaces. The body is no longer seen as being ancillary to religious and/or ritual space but is understood to be the force that delineates, determines, and orients religious experience. Such approaches have lead to a reassessment of the ways in which objects, things, words, and actions communicated and determined, and in turn, were determined by the use of such spaces. In light of such developments, there is a need to reexamine funerary spaces in ancient Judah and the ways in which these spaces and their respective texts, images, and material objects communicated, how they interrelated, and how they were approached or interpreted within these ancient funerary contexts. The meaning of the materiality of religions is not clearly defined, but depends on the perspective of the participants and its social context. This study will offer a reassessment of key Judean funerary spaces dating to the Iron II from an approach that considers their orientation and use in relation to the human body.
David Noel Freedman Prize Session. Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, November... more David Noel Freedman Prize Session. Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, November 2016.
The adoption formula in biblical literature has been discussed primarily in relation to the dynastic promise to David and its echoes in the Covenant Formula whereby YHWH, too, adopts Israel. This formula is typically understood as a technical legal formula that found its way into Israelite literature from ancient Near Eastern legal traditions and treaties—the assumption being that this was a textual borrowing. However, the adoption formula was a well-known performative utterance that was repurposed by Israelite prophets, political, and religious leaders in oral and written contexts. The language of adoption in biblical literature evolved from oral statements associated with the making and breaking of kinship ties and obligations, which became a means of expressing political alliances between elites in the ancient Near East. The diverse reconfigurations of the language of adoption (in P, the Deuteronomistic history, Psalms, and the prophets) did not draw upon one particular written genre, text, or stream of tradition per se, but had a wide range of cultural associations. It is argued here that the performance and ritual inherent to kinship making and renunciation were also central to the adoption of the adoption formula into biblical literature. That is, the oral and performative nature of adoption in the ancient Near East is at the heart of why the language of adoption and renunciation was so appealing as a metaphor for YHWH’s relationship with the monarchy and Israel.
Re-examining the Amarna Letters from the Egyptian Centers in the Levant and the “Canaanite” Featu... more Re-examining the Amarna Letters from the Egyptian Centers in the Levant and the “Canaanite” Features in the Amarna Letters from Egypt Petrographic analysis suggests that nearly 10% of the extent Amarna Letters were written at Egyptian administrative centers in the Levant. The clay composition of tablets from diverse rulers best matches the clays produced in and Gaza, Sumur, and Beth-Shean. This attests to a common practice whereby rulers in the Levant convened with Egyptian representatives and either dispatched their letters directly to Egypt using the Egyptian courier system, or they themselves traveled to Egypt. Also, several of the Egyptian Amarna Letters, in particular EA 96 and 369, feature Canaano-Akkadian orthographies. As such the boundaries between scribal schools working for these polities is not quite clear-cut. This presentation proposes a more systematic study of these letters in light of recent scholarship on the paleography, clays, and use of epistolary protocol in these letters. Such a reassessment elucidates the role of cuneiform scribes in the Levant, and moreover, the function of Canaano-Akkadian within the Egyptian administrative apparatus.
Oral Law and the ‘Adoption’ of the Adoption Formula in Biblical Literature
The adoption formula i... more Oral Law and the ‘Adoption’ of the Adoption Formula in Biblical Literature The adoption formula in biblical texts has been discussed primarily in relation to the dynastic promise to David, whereby members of the Davidic line derived legitimacy as the adopted sons of YHWH. The claim to divine paternity is a well-established phenomenon in ANE literature that is well attested in royal propaganda and commemorative texts from all periods. The adoption formula is typically approached as a textual tradition that finds its way into biblical literature from Mesopotamian legal traditions—the assumption being that this was a textual borrowing. However, as will be demonstrated, the adoption formula was essentially an oral formulation that was incorporated into a plurality of genres that include legal, narrative, liturgical, and prophetic texts. I first examine the use of this oral formula in Mesopotamian texts and then discuss its various reformulations in the Hebrew Bible. I argue that use of the adoption formula in biblical literature did not draw upon one particular written law or text, but rather upon the general knowledge of this formula in Israelite culture. The adoption formula was widely known as an oral formulation that was associated with family law, and the familial obligations, feuds, and inheritance protocols that were a part of daily life in Israel and Judah. This formula was then re-contextualized in biblical literature as a metaphor for YHWH’s adoption and consequent rejection of the monarchy and Israel as a whole.
This volume offers new perspective into the materiality of writing, by shifting the focus from tr... more This volume offers new perspective into the materiality of writing, by shifting the focus from traditional linguistic analysis to the means by which inscribed texts were created, shaped, and used as social tools in the different regions of the ancient Near East and Classical World. Priority in this volume is given to the non-linguistic modes by which text communicated to their ancient audiences. The papers here consider the size, scale, materiality, design, and the sociol-spatial aspects of writing which enhanced communication.
Reconstructing Israelite and Judean Religions provides an accessible summary of the archaeologica... more Reconstructing Israelite and Judean Religions provides an accessible summary of the archaeological, biblical, and para-biblical evidence for religious experience in ancient Israel and Judah. This book breaks away from the traditional approach to religious practice, which assumes an overly simple dichotomy between “folk” and “institutional” religion. Rather, Smoak and Mandell draw upon a wealth of contemporary sociolinguistic, sociological, and anthropological studies on human religious experience more generally to contextualize biblical narratives within their ancient cultic settings. This work offers a fresh perspective into religious experience that falls outside the of traditional scope of temple-centered practice (e.g., household religions, death, mortuary rituals, and conceptions of the afterlife, the role and location of magic in Israelite religious practice, techniques of divination in ancient Israel, the role of writing in cult and ritual, the role that the human body played in religious expression, and the relationship between gender and religious expression). Their approach offers a nuanced discussion of the diversity, complexity, and performative aspects of ancient Israelite and Judean religions that bridges the gap between the modern audience and ancient practitioner.
This will be the first book to present the Canaanite Amarna letters as both the earliest known vo... more This will be the first book to present the Canaanite Amarna letters as both the earliest known vocalized documents of Hebrew’s ancestors and as Late Bronze Age works of political and verbal art. Earlier scholars scoured them for evidence of regional dialects, sometimes without knowing where each tablet was actually from. This book rethinks what ancient language means when it can be accurately correlated with place, drawing on revolutionary new techniques that allow us to pinpoint the origins of each tablet’s clay. They show that much of what scholars had thought to be speech-based variation, revealing underlying oral language, is not a raw reflection of language but a deliberate craft. Yet the result does not downplay the history and variety of Hebrew and the ancient Semitic languages it was intertwined with, but rather places it in a richer cultural context where the crafting of material objects, the subcultures of scribes, and the problems of political power and change vie together with unconscious speech patterns to create the work of written language.
Letters from the Amarna Period presents selections from the diplomatic letters of the Late Bronze... more Letters from the Amarna Period presents selections from the diplomatic letters of the Late Bronze Age (LBA), with a focus on the Amarna Letters. This work offers an updated translation and much needed transcriptions of this corpus. Buccellati and Mandell have selected key diplomatic letters that elucidate the geo-politics of the LBA, and in particular, the interactions between the “greater” powers of the period (Egypt, Hatti, Mittani, and Babylonia) and the “smaller” powers that competed for regional dominance. This work lays out the letters according to their provenience and provides fruitful insight into the diverse scribal schools operating in the Periphery at this time. Buccellati and Mandell analyze the letters in such a way that highlights the scribal conventions and linguistic features unique to reach region. They include lists of the features characteristic of the letters from each geo-political region that will prove useful to scholars and students alike. The book also offers in-depth commentary about the geo-political context of each sub-corpus of letters, which makes for a helpful guide to their translation and interpretation. The critical apparatus presents a nuanced linguistic analysis of each letter and highlights the linguistic features that reflect the influence of the substrate languages in these regions. This work presents specialists and non-specialists alike with a glimpse into the dynamic and cosmopolitan world of LBA diplomacy.
Glossary and introduction to the glossary in A. F. Rainey's final publication of the Amarna Corpu... more Glossary and introduction to the glossary in A. F. Rainey's final publication of the Amarna Corpus: The El-Amarna Correspondence: a new edition of the cuneiform letters from the site of El-Amarna based on collations of all extant tablets. Collated, Transcribed, and Translated by Anson F. Rainey Z"l. Volume 1. Edited by William M. Schniedewind and Zipora Cochavi Rainey. Leiden: Brill, 2015.
This digital project builds upon past work conducted by Dr. Jeremy Smoak (UCLA) in 2015 to identi... more This digital project builds upon past work conducted by Dr. Jeremy Smoak (UCLA) in 2015 to identify and digitize a set of historical maps, architectural drawings, and images of Jerusalem to provide an alternative to traditional text-based atlases of the city. The project was inspired by his UCLA course " Jerusalem: The Holy City. " The first phase of the project was funded in 2015 by the Affordable Course Materials Initiative (ACMI) to create a cost effective alternative for students. The award targeted the effort of reducing the cost of textbooks for students while also encouraging instructors to create new and more accessible resources for undergraduate courses. The second phase of the project is currently being funded by an IDP CCLE grant in collaboration with two of the instructors for the class, Dr. Alice Mandell and Dr. Jeremy Smoak. The Digital Atlas of Jerusalem will create new avenues of exploration and inquiry about the role that space plays in religious expression. Specifically, the Digital Atlas will work to maximize the experience that students may have in understanding the diverse traditions that have contributed to the city's physical and religious history. Toward this end, the Digital Atlas will identify and digitize a series of historical maps together with an annotated list of pilgrimage itineraries of Jerusalem in order to help students conceptualize what the ancient writers experienced as they visited and lived in the city. For instance, students will be presented with the ability to read pilgrimage itineraries from the Christian-Byzantine period about the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and other Christian buildings and then locate them on maps and drawings of the city housed in the Digital Atlas. In so doing, students will be able to trace the journey of pilgrims from diverse traditions and regions and see images of the city from different historical eras. The goal of the project envisions that students will gain a more sophisticated understanding of how the physicality of the city changed over the millennia and how it contributed to diverse religious conceptualizations of the space in and around Jerusalem.
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Papers by Alice Mandell
the gap in the biblical texts regarding the spread and might of the Neo-Assyrian and Babylonian Empires, whereas linear, alphabetic texts give voice to Israel and Judah’s neighbors in the Levant. Inscriptions in Hebrew are central for scholarly reconstructions of the political and religious histories
of this region. They are also important witnesses to the language varieties, literacy practices, and the scribal communities connected to the monarchies of Israel and Judah. Indeed, these materials offer a more complete portrait of the people who wrote 1–2 Kings. (For an offprint, please email me: amandel5@jhu.edu)
For the full publication: Mandell, Alice, "Iron Age Inscriptions and the Books of Kings: A Window into Geopolitics, Languages, and Literacies," in Steven L. McKenzie, and Matthieu Richelle (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Books of Kings, Oxford Handbooks (2024; online edn, Oxford Academic, 20 June 2024), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197610374.013.13
tried to speak clearly to their scribal peers in Egypt through the medium of their scribal craft. (For the whole article, please contact me).
scripts and languages, and they can be informative about the geopolitical, royal, and scribal
histories of this region (Sanders 2009; Rollston 2010; Schniedewind 2013; 2019; Mandell
2022a). Recent scholarship into text-audience interactions and literacy also highlights the
importance of engaging with questions about the material, visual, spatial, and social dimensions
of writing (Piquette and Whitehouse 2013; Mandell and Smoak 2017, 2018; Richey
2021). Such scholarship reminds us that these important aspects of ancient inscriptions should
not be relegated to the periphery of scholarly attention. When we focus solely on the linguistic
meaning of a text, we implicitly limit the scope of its meaning to ways in which ancient
audiences engaged with a text’s words; that is, literacy and textual engagement and access are
restricted to a person’s ability to write or read. When we analyze inscriptions more holistically,
we see the limitations of the assumption of the primacy of written language over other
aspects of textual production, design, and communication. Ancient texts were not always
made to be read, and their words were not always how they made meaning.
(Contact me for the full piece)
in the Ancient Levant and in the Hebrew Bible
culture in the study of Early Alphabetic inscriptions. I engage with recent writings in
sociolinguistics, new literacy studies, and multimodality theory to address the ways
in which the design, choice in script, and socio-cultural settings of ancient inscriptions
informed their meaning. I address the use of the early alphabetic script on the
Lachish Ewer and Kefar Veradim Bowl as a means of marking group membership.
Keywords: Early Alphabetic Inscriptions, Multimodality, Lachish Ewer, Kefar Veradim
Bowl
the gap in the biblical texts regarding the spread and might of the Neo-Assyrian and Babylonian Empires, whereas linear, alphabetic texts give voice to Israel and Judah’s neighbors in the Levant. Inscriptions in Hebrew are central for scholarly reconstructions of the political and religious histories
of this region. They are also important witnesses to the language varieties, literacy practices, and the scribal communities connected to the monarchies of Israel and Judah. Indeed, these materials offer a more complete portrait of the people who wrote 1–2 Kings. (For an offprint, please email me: amandel5@jhu.edu)
For the full publication: Mandell, Alice, "Iron Age Inscriptions and the Books of Kings: A Window into Geopolitics, Languages, and Literacies," in Steven L. McKenzie, and Matthieu Richelle (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Books of Kings, Oxford Handbooks (2024; online edn, Oxford Academic, 20 June 2024), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197610374.013.13
tried to speak clearly to their scribal peers in Egypt through the medium of their scribal craft. (For the whole article, please contact me).
scripts and languages, and they can be informative about the geopolitical, royal, and scribal
histories of this region (Sanders 2009; Rollston 2010; Schniedewind 2013; 2019; Mandell
2022a). Recent scholarship into text-audience interactions and literacy also highlights the
importance of engaging with questions about the material, visual, spatial, and social dimensions
of writing (Piquette and Whitehouse 2013; Mandell and Smoak 2017, 2018; Richey
2021). Such scholarship reminds us that these important aspects of ancient inscriptions should
not be relegated to the periphery of scholarly attention. When we focus solely on the linguistic
meaning of a text, we implicitly limit the scope of its meaning to ways in which ancient
audiences engaged with a text’s words; that is, literacy and textual engagement and access are
restricted to a person’s ability to write or read. When we analyze inscriptions more holistically,
we see the limitations of the assumption of the primacy of written language over other
aspects of textual production, design, and communication. Ancient texts were not always
made to be read, and their words were not always how they made meaning.
(Contact me for the full piece)
in the Ancient Levant and in the Hebrew Bible
culture in the study of Early Alphabetic inscriptions. I engage with recent writings in
sociolinguistics, new literacy studies, and multimodality theory to address the ways
in which the design, choice in script, and socio-cultural settings of ancient inscriptions
informed their meaning. I address the use of the early alphabetic script on the
Lachish Ewer and Kefar Veradim Bowl as a means of marking group membership.
Keywords: Early Alphabetic Inscriptions, Multimodality, Lachish Ewer, Kefar Veradim
Bowl
The Canaanite scribes writing for the rulers of Tyre, Byblos, Jerusalem, and Shechem employed West Semitic expressions, metaphors, and proverbial sayings to enrich their letters. Past scholarship has proposed that such formulaic phrases were based upon expressions drawn from oral culture, which were then used in scribal training. This model has also been used to explain the origins of Israelite scribal training in the subsequent Iron Age. According to this view, scribes collected and preserved proverbial sayings and parables. In turn, proverbs and other “wisdom” literatures became a cornerstone of scribal training, drawing upon parallels in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Accordingly, texts such as the Gezer Calendar, the biblical acrostics, Proverbs, as well as the reference to the collection of proverbs in Prov. 25:1, are understood as evidence for the scribal origins of Israelite “wisdom” literature, or at the very least, its centrality to scribal education. The corpus of West Semitic texts from the Late Bronze Age offers insight into the use of proverbs in scribal practice, such as in the composition of letters and in the crafting of political arguments. I will offer a reassessment of the use of proverbs in scribal training in the Canaanite Amarna Letters and neighboring corpora. I will also discuss the use of proverbs outside of the book of Proverbs (e.g., in texts such as Habakkuk 2) to craft a political or religious argument. A comparison of these corpora elucidates the ways in which scribes harnessed such oral expressions to create compelling arguments that drew upon a shared cultural understanding. The use of proverbial language appealed to the authoritative nature of oral culture. In particular, the Canaanite Amarna letters elucidate how this facet of oral culture was harnessed and textualized by West Semitic scribes, and establishes a degree of continuity with scribal culture in the subsequent period.
The adoption formula in biblical literature has been discussed primarily in relation to the dynastic promise to David and its echoes in the Covenant Formula whereby YHWH, too, adopts Israel. This formula is typically understood as a technical legal formula that found its way into Israelite literature from ancient Near Eastern legal traditions and treaties—the assumption being that this was a textual borrowing. However, the adoption formula was a well-known performative utterance that was repurposed by Israelite prophets, political, and religious leaders in oral and written contexts. The language of adoption in biblical literature evolved from oral statements associated with the making and breaking of kinship ties and obligations, which became a means of expressing political alliances between elites in the ancient Near East. The diverse reconfigurations of the language of adoption (in P, the Deuteronomistic history, Psalms, and the prophets) did not draw upon one particular written genre, text, or stream of tradition per se, but had a wide range of cultural associations. It is argued here that the performance and ritual inherent to kinship making and renunciation were also central to the adoption of the adoption formula into biblical literature. That is, the oral and performative nature of adoption in the ancient Near East is at the heart of why the language of adoption and renunciation was so appealing as a metaphor for YHWH’s relationship with the monarchy and Israel.
The adoption formula in biblical texts has been discussed primarily in relation to the dynastic promise to David, whereby members of the Davidic line derived legitimacy as the adopted sons of YHWH. The claim to divine paternity is a well-established phenomenon in ANE literature that is well attested in royal propaganda and commemorative texts from all periods. The adoption formula is typically approached as a textual tradition that finds its way into biblical literature from Mesopotamian legal traditions—the assumption being that this was a textual borrowing. However, as will be demonstrated, the adoption formula was essentially an oral formulation that was incorporated into a plurality of genres that include legal, narrative, liturgical, and prophetic texts. I first examine the use of this oral formula in Mesopotamian texts and then discuss its various reformulations in the Hebrew Bible. I argue that use of the adoption formula in biblical literature did not draw upon one particular written law or text, but rather upon the general knowledge of this formula in Israelite culture. The adoption formula was widely known as an oral formulation that was associated with family law, and the familial obligations, feuds, and inheritance protocols that were a part of daily life in Israel and Judah. This formula was then re-contextualized in biblical literature as a metaphor for YHWH’s adoption and consequent rejection of the monarchy and Israel as a whole.