Votive Offerings from the Late Roman Period in the Te'omim Cave, Western Jerusalem Hills (In: Expressions of Cult in the Southern Levant in the Greco-Roman Period)
The Te’omim cave is situated on the western edge of the Jerusalem Hills. The cave consists of the main hall (approximately 50×70 meters with a maximum height of about 10 meters). Several passages lead from the main hall to other small chambers and systems of crevices. The cave detailed description is presented. The Te’omim cave has been researched by archaeologists since the late 19th century till now. Modern excavations discovered multiple artifacts of various periods of time, including Neolith, Bronze and Iron Ages, Roman and Byzantine periods and etc. Recent finds are described in the paper. In the antique times calcite deposits in the cave main hall were quarried to produce “calcite alabaster”. This is the first “alabaster” quarry known in the southern Levant. Quarry faces, toolmarks and unfinished blocks remained, and they are described in the paper.
Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928) was a pioneer in the academic study of myth in its historical and archaeological context, and was also one of the first women to make a full-time career as an academic. In her introduction to this book (1903), making the point that 'Greek religion' was usually studied using the surviving literary retellings of myths and legends, she states: 'The first preliminary to any scientific understanding of Greek religion is a minute examination of its ritual'. Using the then emerging disciplines of anthropology and ethnology, she demonstrates that the specific mythological tales of the Greeks embody systems of belief or philosophy which are not unique to Greek civilisation but which are widespread among societies both 'primitive' and 'advanced'. Her work was enormously influential not only on subsequent scholars of Greek religion but in the wider fields of literature, anthropology and psychoanalysis.
Lewis Richard Farnell's five-volume The Cults of the Greek States, first published between 1896 and 1909, disentangles classical Greek mythology and religion, since the latter had often been overlooked by nineteenth-century English scholars. Farnell describes the cults of the most significant Greek gods in order to establish their zones of influence, and outlines the personality, monuments, and ideal types associated with each deity. He also resolutely avoids the question of divine origins and focuses instead on the culture surrounding each cult, a position which initially drew some criticism, but which allowed him more space to analyse the religious practices themselves. Written to facilitate a comparative approach to Greek gods, his work is still regularly cited today for its impressive collection of data about the worship of the most popular deities. Volume 4 focuses on the cults of Poseidon and Apollo.
The oil lamps discovered in the thirties by Baramki never stopped raising questions about their origin and date of manufacture, especially regarding the disc oil lamps which were found in two parts – never to joined to a functional lamp (Fig. 1a,b and c). The style of the decoration and the tendency to cover with ornaments the entire space of the shoulders was compared by the author already in 1970 to resemble embroidery, influenced by the art known at Palmyra, that decorated the funeral sculptures, as both the disc and the decorations around do not follow any local tradition. Ties between Palmyra and the south are known to have existed already in the 2nd and 3rd century CE. A most interesting factor which links these lamps to a narrower regional circle of production, noticed by the author, but was not presented clearly, are the craters found at Mamre by Mader decorated with applied decorations (Fig. 5), such as the Abstracts 637 mask and the wreath, and also the geometric patterns on the shoulders. These lamps and decoration disappeared from the local scene just like the craters.
The fact that these un-fused oil lamps and the figurines which share decorative elements with the lamps, were not found with the moulds required for their production, it may suggest that the lamps were brought from elsewhere to be assembled for use for the Jewish population and which for unexplained reasons, was never done. It may suggest a practice from the Jewish population to keep with the Mishnaic Law (Kelim b; a and b) because its parts, especially a lamp, are pure before making a complete vessel.
The distribution of those lamps that were decorated as mentioned above are restricted (up to now) to Bet Nattif only, and the others pear-shaped lamps were restricted or also made in the southern region. This overlap more or less with that of the decorated craters with applied discs (Map 1) influenced by Parthian culture during the 3rd century CE.