Scribes and Schools in Monarchic Judah: A Socio-Archeological Approach (The Social World of Biblical Antiquity Series, 9)

241 Pages·1991·10.19 MB·English

by  David W. Jamieson-Drake

JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
SUPPLEMENT SERIES
109
Editors
David J.A. Clines
Philip R. Davies
THE SOCIAL WORLD OF
BIBLICAL ANTIQUITY SERIES
9
General Editor
James W. Flanagan
Almond Press
Sheffield
This page intentionally left blank
SCRIBES AND SCHOOLS
IN MONARCHIC JUDAH
A Socio-Archeological Approach
DAVID W. JAMIESON-DRAKE
The Almond Press • 1991
I dedicate this to my wife Vicky,
who kept me in touch with our children
and kept them loved
while I burned the midnight oil.
Copyright © 1991 Sheffield Academic Press
Published by JSOT Press
JSOT Press is an imprint of
Sheffield Academic Press Ltd
The University of Sheffield
343 Fulwood Road
Sheffield S10 3BP
England
Typeset by Sheffield Academic Press
and
Printed on acid-free paper in Great Britain
by Billing & Sons Ltd
Worcester
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Jamieson-Drake, David W.
Scribes and schools in monarchic Judah. - (The social
world of biblical antiquity ; 0265-1408, 9).
1. Palestine, history, B.C. 1225-B.C. 63
I. Title II. Series
993
ISSN 0265-1408
ISSN 0309-0787
ISBN 1-85075-275-3
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments 8
Preface 9
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION 11
Chapter 2
SETTLEMENT 48
Chapter 3
PUBLIC WORKS 81
Chapter 4
LUXURY ITEMS 107
Chapter 5
CONCLUSION 136
Tables 160
Maps 199
Charts 210
Bibliography of Sites 217
Selected Bibliography 222
Index of Biblical References 238
Index of Authors 239
LIST OF TABLES
1 Regional Population Shifts 61
2 Water Systems
Volume of Rock Excavated (in m3) 98
3 Nearest-Neighbor Statistics —
Sites South of Map Reference 1450 160
4 Settlement Size — by Century 161
5 Occupied Sites from the 'Israelite Period*
(Judaea, Samaria and Golan Survey) 163
6 Nearest-Neighbor Sites and Distances —
Sites South of Map Reference 1450 170
7 Nearest-Neighbor Program:
Identification and Triangulation Program
(Written in Ashton-Tate's dBASEIII+) 177
8 Public Works Catalogue
Excavated Sites South of Map Reference 1450 179
9 Encircling Walls — Sites South of Map
Reference 1450 183
10 Public Buildings — Sites South of Map
Reference 1450 (all measurements in square meters) 187
11 Encircling Walls and Public Buildings —
Combined Area (all measurements in square meters) 189
12 Luxury Items by Period.
Excavated Sites South of Map Reference 1450 191
13 Luxury Items by Century
Excavated Sites South of Map Reference 1450 193
14 Luxury Items — Aggregate Counts by Type,
Class, Century and Period 197
15 Handle-stamped Jars — Sites South of Map
Reference 1450 198
LIST OF MAPS
1 12th-CENTURY JUDAH
Sites South of Map Reference 1450 199
2 llth-CENTURY JUDAH
Sites South of Map Reference 1450 199
3 lOth-CENTURY JUDAH
Sites South of Map Reference 1450 200
6
4 9th-CENTURY JUDAH
Sites South of Map Reference 1450 200
5 8th-CENTURY JUDAH
Sites South of Map Reference 1450 201
6 7th-CENTURY JUDAH
Sites South of Map Reference 1450 201
7 6th-CENTURY JUDAH
Sites South of Map Reference 1450 202
8 llth-CENTURY JUDAH
Projected Land Use 202
9 lOth-CENTURY JUDAH
Projected Land Use 203
10 9th-CENTURY JUDAH
Projected Land Use 203
11 7th-CENTURY JUDAH
Projected Land Use 204
12 6th-CENTURY JUDAH
Projected Land Use 204
13 12th-CENTURY JUDAH— PUBLIC WORKS,
COMBINED AREA
Plot of Land Reference Points vs Area (z-axis) 205
14 llth-CENTURY JUDAH— PUBLIC WORKS,
COMBINED AREA
Plot of Map Reference Points vs Area (z-axis) 205
15 lOth-CENTURY JUDAH— PUBLIC WORKS,
COMBINED AREA
Plot of Map Reference Points vs Area (z-axis) 206
16 8th-CENTURY JUDAH— PUBLIC WORKS,
COMBINED AREA
Plot of Map Reference Points vs Area (z-axis) 206
17 7th-CENTURY JUDAH— PUBLIC WORKS,
COMBINED AREA
Plot of Map Reference Points vs Area (z-axis) 207
18 llth-CENTURY JUDAH— LUXURY ITEMS, AGGREGATE
Plot of Map Reference Points vs Number of Items (z-axis) 207
19 lOth-CENTURY JUDAH— LUXURY ITEMS, AGGREGATE
Plot of Map Reference Points vs Number of Items (z-axis) 208
20 9th-CENTURY JUDAH— LUXURY ITEMS, AGGREGATE
Plot of Map Reference Points vs Number of Items (z-axis) 208
21 8th-CENTURY JUDAH— LUXURY ITEMS, AGGREGATE
Plot of Map Reference Points vs Number of Items (z-axis) 209
22 7th-CENTURY JUDAH— LUXURY ITEMS, AGGREGATE
Plot of Map Reference Points vs Number of Items (z-axis) 209
7
LIST OF CHARTS
1 AVERAGE SITE SIZE (HECTARES) 210
2 NUMBER OF SURVEYED SITES IN JUDAH
(Judaea, Samaria and Golan Survey) 210
3 AREA IN EXCAVATED SITES (HECTARES) 210
4 PERCENTAGE AREA 211
5 AREA VS RANK 212
6 PUBLIC WORKS
No. of Sites, Walls and Buildings 213
7 AREA OF WALLS
(Circumference x Width; Square Meters) 213
8 PUBLIC WORKS
Public Buildings Area; Square Meters 213
9 PUBLIC WORKS
Combined Area; Square Meters 214
10 LUXURY ITEMS
By Class and Period 214
11 LUXURY ITEMS
By Class and Century 214
12 LUXURY ITEMS
Jewelry and Cosmetic Pallettes 215
13 LUXURY ITEMS
Metals 215
14 LUXURY ITEMS
Statuary, Weights and Imported 215
15 STAMPED JAR HANDLES 216
16 EVIDENCE OF WRITING 216
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Special thanks are due to several of my colleagues, with whom it has
been my privilege to work, study and share ideas.
Allen Zagarell provided guidance, especially in the formative stages
of this work. Roland Murphy and James Crenshaw kindly offered
their reactions to aspects of this study as well.
I especially wish to thank Professor David Clines, whose queries
enabled me to clarify and correct a great many points. His assiduous
efforts in this regard have greatly enhanced the final quality of the
work. I remain extremely grateful for his scholarly expertise and for
the patient good cheer of him and his staff.
8
PREFACE
The question of scribes and scribal schools serves a dual func-
tion in the present study. It is addressed as a significant prob-
lem in its own right, but it also functions as an occasion to map
out a strategy of approach to such problems generally. Like
many other studies, the present one attempts to relate the evi-
dence from textual studies to that obtained through study of
archeological remains. However, this study departs from the
procedures usually followed in integrating textual and
archeological data in that the archeologically based investiga-
tion is given precedence, so that the written evidence is
allowed to speak within an archeologically established context.
This reversal of the usual mode of examining the relationship
between the written and the archeological evidence mandates
a refocusing of the discussion and reframing of questions.
The question of the existence of scribes and scribal schools in
ancient Israel has been debated primarily by those interested
in biblical 'wisdom' literature. The terms adopted for this
debate have, naturally, been defined to serve the needs of the
approaches that use them: historical, literary-critical, liter-
ary-comparative, and the like. In placing the question of
scribes and scribal schools in monarchic Judah in a socio-
archeological context, the question itself has been reformu-
lated to a certain degree, and the terms utilized in the discus-
sion have had to be redefined. For instance, 'scribes' are
viewed in this study as 'professional administrators', the focus
changing from the mere fact of their literary skills to the
broader question of the function of those skills within the soci-
ety.
The shift in perspective from literary context to sociological
context will be explained in Chapter 1. There, the question of
scribes and schools will first be raised in the context in which it
has previously been debated, that is, the literary context. A
rationale for approaching this question from a different per-
spective, namely a socio-archeological one, is given. The issues
will then be redefined in sociological terms, in order to bring a