Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity

Description

Few direct clues exist to the everyday lives and beliefs of ordinary Jews in antiquity. Prevailing perspectives on ancient Jewish life have been shaped largely by the voices of intellectual and social elites, preserved in the writings of Philo and Josephus and the rabbinic texts of the Mishnah and Talmud. Commissioned art, architecture, and formal

Karen B. Stern is assistant professor of history at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. She is the author of Inscribing Devotion and Death: Archaeological Evidence for Jewish Populations of North Africa.

"Winner of the Jordan Schnitzer Book Award for Jews and the Arts: Music, Performance, and Visual, of the Association for Jewish Studies" "Finalist for the Award for Excellence in the Historical Study of Religion, American Academy of Religion" "This thought-provoking book takes a new approach to the graffiti found in holy sites, tombs and sometimes civic structures."---Juan P. Lewis, Journal of Religion & Society "This thought-provoking book takes a new approach to the graffiti found in holy sites, tombs and sometimes civic structures, regarding them as words that do things rather than simply record a visit."---David Frankfurter, Journal of Roman Studies