This book analyses social ideology and relationships in late Second Temple Judaea through studying extensive archaeological material and case-study sites. Suitable for students and scholars interested in the history, society, and archaeology of the Jews in the Second Temple period.
Provides an in-depth analysis of social ideology and social relationships in late Second Temple Judaea, studying a range of archaeological material and sites to better understand both communal and individual trends in Jerusalem and its environs.
Eyal Regev is Professor of Jewish Studies in the Martin (Szusz) Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. His books include The Sadducees and their Halakhah, Sectarianism in Qumran, The Hasmoneans: Ideology, Archaeology, Identity and The Temple in Early Christianity: Experiencing the Sacred. He has published several journal articles on the archaeology of Second Temple Judaea.
Introduction, 1. Ritual Baths, Imported Pottery, and Gentile Impurity: Judaean Ethnicity Markers in the Hasmonean Period,2. Pure Individualism: Non-Priestly Purity, Religious Experience, and the Self, 3. Family Burial Caves, Family Identity, and Family Structure in Jerusalem and its Environs, 4. Loculi and Ossuaries: The Family and the Individual in Judean Burial Caves, 5. Art as Style: Why were Ossuaries and Southern Oil Lamps Decorated?, 6. The Archeology of Sectarianism in Kh. Qumran: Spatial Organization, Ritual, Resistance, and Hierarchy, 7. Herod's Baths and Palaces: Judaean Identity, Court Society, and Royal Ideology, 8. Feasting Before the War: Social Structure and Organization of Masada's Rebels, Conclusions: The Judaean Individual within Judaean Society.