A world-renowned expert from the Forensic Department of the Israel Police examined the written pottery fragments and identified 12 different manuscripts with varying degrees of certainty * Meaning: Many in the Kingdom of Judah could read and write
How many people were literate in the Kingdom of Judah? And what does this say about the date of the composition of biblical books such as 18 and 600 Kings? Researchers from Tel Aviv University used cutting-edge image processing and computational learning technologies, and even the senior expert for comparing manuscripts of the Israel Police, to examine 12 ancient texts from the Tel Arad military post, which date back to approximately XNUMX BCE, and came to the conclusion that they were written by no less than XNUMX writers - A finding that indicates that in the Kingdom of Judah of that time many of the inhabitants were literate and literacy was not the exclusive property of the aristocracy and a handful of royal scribes.
The special interdisciplinary research was conducted by Dr. Aryeh Schaus, Ms. Shira Feigenbaum-Golovin and Dr. Barak Sober from the Department of Applied Mathematics, Prof. Eli Pisetzky from the Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy and Prof. Israel Finkelstein from the Department of Archeology and Eastern Civilizations The ancient name of Yaakov M. Alkov at Tel Aviv University. The expert for handwriting comparison is Ms. Yana Gerber, a world-renowned expert, who served for 27 years in the laboratory for testing forged documents in the Department of Criminal Investigation (MZF) and the national unit for the detection of serious and international crime (HIAHABL) in the Israel Police.
"There is a lively debate in research as to whether the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings were compiled in the last days of the Kingdom of Judah, or after the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians," explains Dr. Schaus. "One way to decide the question is to ask when there was potential for the writing of such complex historical compositions. After the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC, we find very little archaeological evidence of Hebrew writing in and around Jerusalem, while the period before the destruction of the Temple has an abundance of written documents. But then the question arises: who wrote these certificates? Is it a society with a broad literate layer, or is it a handful of literate people?"
To answer this question, the researchers examined the writings of Arad: ostracones (fragments of pottery with ink inscriptions on them) that were uncovered at the Tel Arad site in the 60s. Tel Arad was a small military outpost on the southern border of the Kingdom of Judah, whose built-up area was about two dunams and between 20 and 30 soldiers were stationed there.
"We examined the question of literacy in an empirical way, from different directions of image processing and computational learning," says Ms. Feigenbaum-Golovin. "These are areas that, among other things, help today in the identification and analysis of manuscripts, signatures, etc. The big challenge was adapting modern technologies to 2,600-year-old ostracans. After much effort, we managed to produce two algorithms that know how to compare letters and answer the question of whether two given ostracon were written by two different hands."
In 2016, the researchers published in PNAS that 18 texts, the longest of the Tel Arad inscriptions, were written with a high statistical probability by at least four algorithmically different writers, and in light of what is written in them - the researchers came to the conclusion that these are at least six different writers. The research made waves around the world.
Now, in a research precedent, the researchers from Tel Aviv University decided to compare the algorithmic methods, which have been perfected since then, with the forensic method. For this purpose, Yana Gerber, an expert in comparing manuscripts and checking documents from the Israel Police, was added. After a thorough examination of the ancient manuscripts, Ms. Gerber found that the 18 texts were written by at least 12 unique writers with varying degrees of certainty. Gerber examined the original ostracon from Tel Arad at the Israel Museum, the Land of Israel Museum, the Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archeology of Tel Aviv University and the Antiquities Authority warehouses in Beit Shemesh.
"This research was very exciting, perhaps the most exciting in my professional career," says Ms. Gerber. "These are ancient Hebrew inscriptions that were written in ink on fragments of pottery in letters that were not familiar to me before. I studied the characteristics of the script in order to conduct an analysis and comparison between the manuscripts, and I used the skill and knowledge I acquired during my undergraduate studies in classical and ancient Greek archeology at Tel Aviv University. I delved down to the microscopic details in writings written by people from the days of the First Temple, starting with routine issues, such as orders concerning the movement of soldiers and the supply of wine, oil and flour, through correspondence with neighboring fortresses, and ending with orders that reached the Arad fortress from high ranks in the Jewish military system. I felt that time stood still and there is no gap of 2,600 years between the writers of the Ostracans and us."
Gerber explains: Since the act of writing is the result of complex and unique systems - the vision system, data processing and motor actions of many muscles, Each person's handwriting is unique - and no two have the same handwriting. Comparing handwriting refers to the set of writing features that allow an expert to determine that a given document was written by a certain person: the fluency of the writing, the nature of the writing, the writing skill, its speed, the relationship to the line and the writing area, the spaces between the letters/words/lines, the size of the writing and the relative size of the letters within the writing They are only some of the parameters used to identify manuscripts. It should be noted that according to a ruling of the Supreme Court, in Israel a person can be convicted of crimes based on the opinion of a handwriting expert.
Says Dr. Schaus: "We were in for a big surprise: Jana recognized more writing hands than our algorithms. It should be understood that currently, our algorithms are of a "careful" nature - they know how to identify cases in which the texts were written by people with distinctly different handwriting; In most cases they avoid judgment. On the other hand, an expert in the comparison of manuscripts knows not only how to find differences between writers in a more precise way, but in some cases also to come to the conclusion that different texts were actually written by one person. And of course, in terms of the conclusions, it is very interesting to see who the authors are. Thus, thanks to the findings, we built an entire tree of correspondence from the military citadel, who wrote to whom and in what matter.
For example, in the area of Arad, the area of the book between the Kingdom of Judah and Edom, there was a force whose soldiers are called in the inscriptions 'Kiteim', apparently Greek mercenaries. Someone on behalf of the Chaitim forces, probably a commander or a Jewish liaison officer, asked for supplies. So he writes to the storekeeper of the citadel in Arad, 'Giving to Lachiit', meaning give to Lachiit, flour, bread, wine and so on. Now, thanks to the identification of the manuscripts, we can say with high probability that it is not one Jewish commander, but four different commanders at the very least. It seems that each time a different officer is sent to join the patrol, in shifts."
According to the researchers, the findings shed new light on Jewish society on the eve of the destruction of the First Temple - and on the background for composing biblical rituals.
"You have to remember that this is a small outpost, one of a line of outposts, on the southern border of the Kingdom of Judah," says Dr. Sober. "If we found at least 12 different writers among 18 texts in total, we can conclude from this that there is a high level of literacy in the entire kingdom. The command and liaison ranks at the outpost, and even the storekeeper of the outpost Eliashiv and the deputy storekeeper Nahum, could read and write. Someone had to teach them, which means we have to assume that educational frameworks existed in the Kingdom of Judah. Of course, we are not talking about almost absolute literacy like today, but it seems that a significant part of the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah were literate. This is important for the discussion of the composition of biblical texts. If there are two or three scribes in the whole kingdom who know how to read and write, there is no real reason for writing complex texts."
"Whoever wrote the biblical compositions did not do it so that we would read them 2,600 years from now, he did it to promote the ideological messages of his day," Prof. Finkelstein concludes. "There are different opinions regarding the date of composition of biblical texts. One opinion is that the historical texts in the Bible - from Joshua to 7 Kings - were written at the end of the XNUMXth century BC, that is, very close to the period of the Arad inscriptions. It is important to ask to whom these texts were written. According to one opinion, there were reading stands - individual literates stood and read to the public who could not read. High literacy in Judah illuminates things in a different light."
Prof. Finkelstein adds: Until now, the discussion of literacy in the Kingdom of Judah was based on circular arguments, that is, on what was written within the Bible itself, for example, on scribes in the Kingdom. We copied this discussion into empirical lines. If in a remote place like Tel Arad there are in a short period of time a minimum of 12 writers on 18 inscriptions, out of a population of Judah estimated to be no more than 120,000 people, this means that literacy was not the exclusive domain of a handful of royal scribes in Jerusalem. Therefore, the writing of biblical texts was not intended only for the eyes of the aristocracy. Even the storekeeper from the Arad outpost could read them."
The article will be published on September 9, 2020 at 14:00 EST in the USA, that is, at 21:00 Israel time, and at that time it will be available at the link:
More of the topic in Hayadan:
6 תגובות
All the research to find out that the book people knew how to read?
I'm sorry to say, but your comment is really ridiculous. It is clear from the paragraph that the writer is talking about what happened in the past, why do you think people don't understand what is written without punctuation? What did you want him to punctuate the word for you so you could understand it? come on.
The Levi tribe was landless. A tiny part of them actually worked in the sanctuary, but the majority were scattered among the tribes of Israel when their role was mainly teaching.... This was their livelihood and from which they supported themselves and they were the ones who among others spread the art of writing and learned the laws of the Torah.
A And it was in those days, and there was no king in Israel;
And there was a man of Levi, who lived in the mountains of Ephraim,
And he took him a wife, a concubine, from the house of Judah.
XNUMX And she committed fornication against him, his concubine, and went with him to her father's house, to the house of Judah's bread; And be there for four months.
XNUMX And a woman got up and went after her, to talk about her heart to bring her back, and a boy with him, and a pair of donkeys;
A man from the tribe of Levi "lived on the border of the tribe of Ephraim"
On the study of writing, we have an interesting find such as the ostracon (a fragment of pottery on which the common people used to write) from Tserbata:
http://hebrewarchaeology.blogspot.com/search/label/%D7%90%D7%95%D7%A1%D7%98%D7%A8%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%9F %D7%A2%D7%96%D7%91%D7%AA %D7%A6%27%D7%A8%D7%98%D7%94
In the Land of Israel, they wrote on potsherds, what is amazing in the ostracon is the price of a tserbata that speaks to a child practicing writing....on the bottom line of the ostracon (unfortunately, it is not possible to insert photos "in response") all the alpha markers - the ancient Hebrew house - are listed, and from them the child who practices composes the words that are in the upper part of the ostracon. Above the letters of the ancient Hebrew script, the decipherer of the Ostkon marked the Assyrian alpha house that we use today above every letter.
The ancient Hebrew script is still used by the Samaritans today and there is no Samaritan who does not know how to use it. All their holy books are written in this script…..of course….as well as the tablets of the covenant they gave in Sinai….
Literacy can also be learned from a number in the book of Judges, which covers one of the difficult periods that passed through Israel after Joshua and before Samuel:
In the book of Judges XNUMX it is told about the battle between Gideon and the Midianites. During the pursuit of the Midianites, Gideon asked for food from the people of Sukkot and the people of Panuel, but was answered with mockery. After the battle it is said:
XNUMX And Gideon ben-Joash sat down from the battle, from above, the clay.
Yad And he captured a boy from the people of Sukkot, and they threw him; And he wrote to him the heads of Sukkot, and the elders of it, seventy and seven, a man.
And he came to the people of Sukkot, and said, "Here is a sacrifice and a sacrifice: for you have disgraced me by saying, take a sacrifice and a sacrifice now in your hand, for we have given it to your flying men." , bread.
XNUMX And he took the elders of the city, and the thorns of the desert, and the deserters; And he knew by them, the people of Sukkot.
XNUMX And the tower of Penuel was broken down; And he will kill the people of the city.
The interesting thing about the story is that the captured boy was caught outside the city, probably tending his sheep or working in the field, and this boy himself writes the names of the dignitaries in the village. In another nation at that time, it is doubtful whether among all the people of the village one could be found who could write...
In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses directs Joshua to the swearing-in ceremony on Mount Ebal as follows Deuteronomy chapter XNUMX:
And you shall build there an altar to the Lord your God: an altar of stones, you shall not lay iron on them. And you shall build the altar of Jehovah your God with whole stones; And thou hast made a burnt offering upon him, unto the Lord thy God. XNUMX And thou didst sacrifice peace, and didst eat there; And rejoice before Jehovah your God. XNUMX And you wrote on the stones, all the words of this Torah - in the good well. {S} Well well - "in huge letters".
Indeed, Joshua performs the ritual with slight changes according to the topography that the terrain dictates:
Let Joshua build an altar to Jehovah, the God of Israel, on the mountain, Eybal
Not as Moses, the servant of Jehovah, commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the Torah of Moses, of an altar of whole stones, which
He did not wave an iron at them; And they burnt offerings to Yahweh on it, and sacrificed wholes (see my article on the "whole" sacrifice).
Levi wrote there, on the stones, the Mishnah Torah of Moses (Book of Deuteronomy), which he wrote before the children of Israel.
If the laws and commandments were written on the walls, apparently in the desert they also learned to write and read, and the Torah with the laws and commandments was indeed given in Sinai...or is the Torah an ancient version of the protocols of the elders of Zion? Weave along and across them stoats like the ones I described below.
In relation to the size of the population, in my opinion, the numbers that Finkelschein points out are very biased downwards....at that time Assyria was already hovering in the area and the Assyrian annals point out that the numbers are much higher in relation to the population in the Land of Israel.
Sargon besieged Samaria for 3 years until he conquered it and exiled 27 thousand people. In the inscription of Sennacherib it is said: "And as for Hezekiah the Jew, who did not surrender to the Uli: 46 cities in the form, and the small cities that were many in the region, by destroying them with battering rams, by bringing siege tools and by foot attacks, and by digging holes and holes under the wall, I afflicted them and took them. 200,150 people, great and small, women and men, horses, mules, donkeys, camels, cattle and sheep without number, I brought from there and counted as booty. The Tanakh confirms that only Jerusalem survived after the last three citadels fell at the hands of Sennacherib - Azkah, Marsha, and Kish. On which there are also plastic descriptions of the killing and looting. Therefore, in my opinion, Finkelstein underestimates the size of the population.
Just a note: I find it difficult to read the words of a person who talks about the literacy ability of other people, and at the same time writes things like, "Even the storekeeper from the Arad outpost *could* read." The past form in this practice differs from the present form only in scoring, "could" (missing dream) in the past and "could" (full dream) in the present, but both behave in the same way. In the spelling without the punctuation, the spelling is also the same, "Yachal". It is written about Joseph in the Bible "and Joseph could not hold back...", he could in the past. I couldn't resist either.
It could very well be that these were the "academic studies" that those serving in remote places received
very interesting
And could it be that as part of a conscript's military training - you are taught to read and write? You come to a place like Tel Arad which is in the middle of nowhere, and there are many other middle of nowhere places like this, sitting for years and years, getting paid as a professional deputy. How long does it take to teach the guys to use this new and effective technology called a reporter?