Summary Outline -- Lecture 10
What is the principle of the Hippodamian town plan? This principle
says that when you come to build a city, you do not just build randomly,
or you do not just let the city grow organically, but you give thought
before you start building as to how it will be laid out, with certain things
laid out in certain places-all of this, by the way, going back to certain
Greek philosophical ideals about what the ideal city should look like.
In our last lecture, we looked broadly at the effect of Hellenization,
the spread of Greek culture in the ancient Near East in the wake of
Alexander’s conquests. In this lecture, we’ll look specifically at the
impact of Hellenization on the non-Jewish peoples in ancient Palestine.
In the Hellenistic period, the city of Ammon was renamed Philadelphia and
made independent of Tobiad rule. The Tobiads continued to rule the rest
of the district and established a new capital for themselves named Tyros,
located midway between Jericho and Ammon (or Philadelphia) in a valley
that is well watered with many natural springs. The ancient Jewish historian
Josephus described a large building there decorated with animal carvings,
with elegant fountains all around and, in a cliff nearby, caves converted into
living and dining quarters. Dating from the early 2nd century B.C., these
features are all evident in the archaeological remains at Tyros. We are not
exactly sure what the large building was, but the best guesses are either a
temple or a pleasure palace.
In Idumea, which had been settled by Edomites after the Babylonian capture
of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., the most important Hellenistic city was Marisa. In
this city dwelt not only Idumeans but also Hellenized Sidonians from
Phoenicia. Excavations at this site have revealed a kind of city plan,
introduced by the Greeks throughout the ancient Near East, called a
Hippodamian town plan (associated with Hippodamus of Miletos, who lived
around 500 B.C.). The Hippodamian town plan was based on the principle
that cities should not be built randomly or simply allowed to grow organically;
instead, certain structures should be laid out in certain places. This type of
planning can be traced back to Greek philosophical ideas about what the ideal
city should look like. The area within the city walls is divided by a grid of
north/south, east/west streets, and parts of the city are zoned for such
purposes as industry, worship, education, and commerce. Also, the burial
caves evidence Alexandrian influence in their layout and decoration, and the
names in these tombs of local Idumeans and Hellenized Sidonians reveal that,
in later generations, members of families adopted Greek names rather than
their local native names.
Hellenistic influence on the Phoenicians is also evident along the coast. At
Tel Dor, for example, excavations have revealed an imported marble image
of Hermes. The city has a Hippodamian town plan, but interestingly, we also
see houses built with a typically Phoenician kind of construction called pier-
and-rubble masonry.
It’s interesting that this Hellenistic culture is found among some of the native
non-Jewish populations in Palestine. In our next lecture, we will consider the
impact of Greek culture on the Jewish population of Judea.
Important Terms
Edomites: The Iron Age inhabitants of the area southeast of the Dead Sea.
Marisa (Hebrew, Maresha; Arabic, Tell Sandahannah): Main city in
Hellenistic-period Idumaea, inhabited by Idumaeans and Hellenized Sidonians.
Sidonians: Natives of the Phoenician city of Sidon (in modern Lebanon).
Tobiads: A Judean dynasty that governed the district of Ammon in the
Persian and Hellenistic periods.
Questions to Consider
1. What would be the significance of the Qasr el-Abd at Iraq el-Amir if it
was indeed a temple?
2. What does archaeology tell us about the impact of Hellenization on local
Semitic (non-Jewish) populations?
Lecture 10-Transcript
The Hellenization of Palestine
In our last lecture we looked at AleXander’s conquests and the policies of
Alexander and his successors, the Ptolemys and the Seleucids and the effect
of Hellenization, the spread of Greek culture on the area of the Ancient Near
East in the wake of Alexander’s conquests. What I would like to do in this
lecture is look specifically at the impact of Hellenization, Greek culture, on
the native peoples of ancient Palestine, not the Jews, not the Judeans, but the
other non-Jewish peoples in the area of ancient Palestine.
We are going to start specifically with a site located in the area of ancient
Ammon, remember the biblical kingdom of the Ammonites located in the
area of modern Amman and Jordan. This area, in the Persian period, was the
medinah the district of Ammon. It was governed by a Judean named Tobias
and later by Tobias’ successors who are called the Tobiads.
In the Hellenistic period, that is after the conquest of Alexander, the city of
Ammon, which is modern day Amman and Jordan, which by the way in the
Hellenistic period was renamed Philadelphia, that city was made independent
of Tobiad rule. The rest of the district, then, was ruled by the Tobiads but not
the city of Ammon itself, it was independent.
The Tobiads, then, establish a new capital city for themselves, not the city
of Ammon, but another city in the district. This new capital is at an ancient
site called Tyros or today called by the Arabic name Iraq el-Amir. We have
archaeological remains of the capital city of the Tobiads at Iraq el-Amir. It
is a site that is located today approximately midway between Jericho and
Amman in Jordan. The area of the capital is spread out in a valley which
is very well watered, lots of natural springs. The buildings that were built
by the Tobiads in this capital city are described by Josephus, the ancient
Jewish historian.
Specifically, Josephus describes what was built by one of the Tobiads, a man
named Hyrcanus. Hyrcanus was one of the successors of that original Tobia.
He lived in the early 2nd century B.C. Let us now consider and look closely
at Josephus’ description of what Hyrcanus built at this capital city, ancient
Tyros modern Iraq el-Amir.
So Josephus says “He [Hyrcanus] also erected a strong castle (baris), and
built it entirely of white stone to the very roof, and had animals of prodigious
magnitude engraved upon it. He also drew around it a great and deep canal
of water.” So notice here that Josephus here describes Hyrcanus building a
strong building which he calls in Greek a “baris” of white stone carved with
animals and surrounded by water.
“He also made caves of many furlongs in length, by hollowing a rock that
was over against him; and then he made large rooms in it, some for feasting,
and some for sleeping and living in.” So Josephus describes caves that were
made into living and dining quarters surrounding this strong building called
the “baris.”
Josephus says,
He introduced also a vast quantity of waters which ran along it, andwhich were very delightful and ornamental in the coiut. But still hemade the entrances at the mouth of the cave so narrow, that no morethan one person could enter by them at once. Moreover, he builtcourts of greater magnitude than ordinary, which he adorned withvastly large gardens. And when he had brought the place to thisstate, he named it Tyros. This place is between Arabia and Judea,beyond Jordan, not far from the coimtry of Heshbon.
When Antiochus IV Epiphanies, the Seleucid king became king, Hyrcanus
committed suicide. Apparently, political reasons, he was aligned with the
wrong side so in 175 B.C. Hyrcanus committed suicide. At Iraq el-Amir
we have archaeological remains that seem to correspond with Josephus’
description of the buildings that were built by Hyrcanus. Very interesting,
by the way, some of these buildings are unfinished, which corresponds with
what we know that Hyrcanus committed suicide when Antiochus became
king. So apparently at that point not all of the building had been finished
being built.
The major building that is located at Iraq el-Amir today is a building that
seems to correspond with the baris, this strong building made of white stone
and carved with animals that Josephus describes. Today, this building, which
is apparently the ancient baris, is called by the Arabic name the Qsar el-Abd.
lt is a large rectangular building that was originally two stories high, had
porches at either narrow end, and four towers in the corners. The building
still stands today pretty much to its original two-story height, in fact, you
can still see windows in the original second story level. It is a very large
building. What is so interesting about it is that it corresponds with Josephus’
description of having animals carved in decoration around it.
The building, when you approach it today, is surrounded by springs and is so
big that it dwarfs people who walk around it. One of my favorite shots shows
a couple of friends sitting by one of the blocks of stone in the walls of this
building which gives a sense of its immense size. Again, this corresponds
nicely with Josephus’ description.
The animal friezes, the animal decorations, the carvings of animals are still
on the building as well. As you walk around the building, you can see various
kinds of animals, many of them felines, including some which decorate the
base of the building and have holes in the mouth. Why do they have holes
in the mouth? Because, apparently, these were originally fountains that had
water spouting out of the mouth. Notice very nicely that the artist who carved
these stone reliefs of the animals took advantage of the natural rock which is
modeled, which is different colors, and corresponds with the spots that you
might see in the hide of a feline like a leopard, for example.
Furthermore, we have remains in the cliffs surrounding the Qasr el-Abd of
caves. Caves which correspond again with what Josephus describes of caves
being converted into living quarters and dining quarters. One of the caves
is inscribed by the entrance with the name Tobia. Remember that Hyrcanus
was a member of the Tobiad Dynasty.
One of the big questions about the Qasr el-Abd is what exactly was it? The
Greek term “baris” is usually translated as we saw castle or fortress. The
fact that this building has towers at the four corners does in fact give it the
look of a fortress or a fortification. But when you look at the entrances to
the building, the porches on either side, you can see clearly that they were
not protected, they were just open entrances. Clearly this could not have
functioned as a fortress. It may have been described by Josephus with a word
that means “fortress” but it really could not have functioned as a fortress.
Besides, notice all the decoration with the animal reliefs and the fountains
with the water, that does not really Ht a fortress. So if it is not a fortress, what
is it?
Some scholars have suggested maybe it was a temple. Because we have
other temples in Syria that have a similar arrangement with the towers at the
corners that originally led up to a two-story level and the roof Some scholars
think maybe it was a temple. If it was a temple, it is very important because
it would be a temple that was built by a Jewish Dynasty. It would then be an
example of a Jewish temple of the Second Temple period located outside of
Jerusalem. That would be very rare.
It is not actually completely unattested. It would not be unique because
we know that there were other Jewish temples outside of Jerusalem in the
Second Temple period. Specifically there were a couple in Egypt. One at a
site called Elephantine and another at a site called Leontopolis. There were
in fact Jewish temples in antiquity in the Second Temple period outside of
Jerusalem, but we do not have archaeological remains of those temples. If
this was in fact a Jewish temple outside Jerusalem, it would be the only
example we have where we have archaeological physical remains of that
building.
The identification of a temple is also problematic. Some scholars have
suggested well it does not actually fit a temple either; in fact, it does not
look like either a fortress or a temple. It instead looks like a palace, a
pleasure palace. This suggestion has been made in particular by an Israeli
archaeologist named Ehud Netzer.
Let us now consider another part ofthe country and another native population.
We are going to turn now to Idumea. Remember that in the Persian Period,
Idumea was a district which was inhabited by the descendents of the biblical
Edomites who were called Idumeans.
Before 586 B.C. this area had been the southern part of the kingdom of
Judah, but from the Persian period on, it now becomes known as Idumea.
The population is not Jewish at this point, it is Idumean. Before 586 B.C.
when this area was still part of the kingdom of Judah, the most important
city in this area in the southern part of Judah was Lachish, which we talked
about when we talked about Hezakiah because Lachish was destroyed by the
Assyrians before they came and besieged Jerusalem in 701 B.C. So Lachish
had been the most important city in this area before 586 B.C.
In the Hellenistic Period, the most important city in the area is the city of
Marisa. Marisa is the ancient Greek name of this city. The Hebrew name is
Maresha and we will see that it has actually another name in Arabic. What
was the population of this city, of Marisa, in the Hellenistic Period? They
were Idumeans but in addition to Idumeans, Hellenized Sidonians, that is
Phoenicians from the city of Sidon who were Hellenized, who had adopted
Greek culture. What we have here is a non-Jewish population consisting
of Idumeans, descendents of biblical Edomites, and Hellenized Sidonians,
Hellenized Phoenicians.
Marisa is the Greek name of the site, Maresha in Hebrew, but in Arabic
the name of this site is Tell Sandahannah. That is a strange name but it is
actually an interesting name. How did it get that name, Tell Sandaharmah?
In the Middle Ages, the crusaders built a church nearby that was dedicated
to St. Anne and part of that church still stands today on a hill near the site
of Marisa. The Church of St. Anne eventually gave its name to the site in
Arabic, because Sandahannah is a corruption of Santa Anna. So in Arabic,
the site then takes the name of the nearby church dedicated to St. Arme,
Santa Anna.
Marisa has a very interesting excavation history. It was excavated back in
1900 by two British archaeologists named Bliss and Macalister. In 1900
Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire. When Bliss and Macalister came
to excavate at Marisa, they had to get a permit from the Ottoman authorities.
The Ottoman authorities gave them a permit but with a condition, on
condition that they leave the site looking as they had found it. So what did
Bliss and Macalister do? They started to dig, they took the top of the site
which is actually a tell, a mound, and they started to dig. Very soon as they
started to dig, they started to come down on the walls of buildings.
What did they do? Every time they started to come down on walls that defined
a room, they would dig out the interior of the room and throw the dirt onto
one of the four walls and clear the other three walls. Then when they finished
the excavation, they took all of the dirt that was piled on the fourth wall of
every room, and backfilled, piled it back into the room. So today, when you
go to Marisa, to the top of the site, there is nothing to see because it was all
backfilled in 1900. In fact, the only plan that We have of the ancient site is
the plan that Bliss and Macalister made when they excavated in 1900.
If we look at this plan of the site that they made in 1900, what do we see? We
see several very interesting things. First of all notice that the town is enclosed
by a fortification wall, it is rectangular in shape with square towers coming
out. Within this area of the fortification wall, we can clearly see two streets
that are running east/west through the city and three streets that are running
north/south. In other words, what we see are streets creating a grid of blocks
with the streets running north/south and east/west and intersecting each other
at right angles, therefore dividing the city into blocks of buildings.
Furthermore, if we look at this plan of the city carefully, we can see that in
the center of the city is an open area with two big open squares, and on the
right-hand side of the city is another big open area with a building in the
middle. What we are seeing here at Marisa is the introduction of a new kind
of city plan associated with the Greeks. Specifically what we see at Marisa is
something called a Hippodamian town plan.
When the Seleucids and Ptolemys built Greek style cities through their
kingdoms, they built them with a typical Greek style city plan that is called
a Hippodamian town plan. This kind of town plan is called Hippodamian
because the ancient Greeks associated it with a man named Hippodamus of
Miletos who apparently lived around 500 B.C. Now whether Hippodamus
of Miletos really invented this kind of city plan, we do not know, but the
ancient Greeks associated him with it and therefore it becomes known as a
Hippodamian town plan. When Greek style cities begin to be built throughout
the Ancient Near East after Alexander’s conquests, they are often built then
with a typical Greek style plan which is this Hippodamian town plan.
What is the principle of the Hippodamian town plan? This principle says that
when you come to build a city, you do not just build randomly, or you do
not just let the city grow organically, but you give thought before you start
building as to how it will be laid out with certain things laid out in certain
places, all of this, by the way, going back to certain Greek philosophical
ideals about what the ideal city should look like.
So one characteristic of a Hippodamian town plan is that the inside of the
city, the area within the walls, is divided into blocks by a grid of streets
that run north/south and east/west. Another principle of Hippodamian town
planning is the idea of zoning. The idea that you reserve certain parts of the
city for certain purposes. Your industrial area, your cultic area, the education
area, the commercial area, and we see that here at Marisa. We see a Greek
style city plan with a grid of streets running north/south, east/west, and in
the very center of the city, a large open space which was the marketplace of
the city, the commercial heart of the city, which is what is called in Greek,
an ‘agora’ which simply means a big open area where people can congregate
and conduct commerce and people can set up stalls and sell whatever it is that
they are selling, usually this area then bounded by various public buildings.
On one side of the city here, we then see another big open space, clearly
a public space with a building in the middle. If you look closely you can
see that that building is divided into three rooms. That building is a temple.
Because the population of this city was not Jewish, this was a temple
dedicated to non-Jewish gods, presumably a triad of gods, that is three
different gods suggested by the division of the temple into three room. What
we see here at Marisa, then, is Greek influence on the layout of this city in
the Hellenistic period.
If you go to Marisa today and you walk around the top of the site, there is
nothing to see, but more recent Israeli excavations on the slopes outside the
city wall have uncovered some very interesting things, including extramural
houses, that is suburban houses located outside the walls. These houses are
very nicely built. This was apparently a population that was affluent. The
houses are large, they are built of stones. Inside the houses are entrances to
underground caves. In fact, the slopes of the tell are literally honeycombed
with caves that were cut by hand into the soft chalk. All of this area around
Marisa are hills of very soft chalk, so soft that you can actually carve into it
with your fingernail.
These caves were made from quarrying rock. That is the rock that was used
to build the houses in the town was quarried and what you had left then
were caves that were underground. These caves were then used for various
purposes. We have caves that were used as storage areas, for example cellars
for storing food and cisterns for storing water because it remains cool
underground. We have industrial installations in the caves including olive
presses. We have dove cotes or columbaria. Some of the caves were even
used for burial, as tombs.
Let us take a look at a couple of examples of these. For example, we have a
cave with an olive press. Olive presses actually have two main parts to them.
The first part consists of having to take the olives and crush them. That is the
first part of the process, so we see a crushing stone for crushing the olives.
The second part is then taking the crushed olives and gathering them up into
a basket and then pressing the basket with the crushed olives so that the olive
oil comes out. We are looking here at a cave with the area for the press and
the olive oil would come out. In fact, notice that in the middle of the press,
there is an area carved on the wall where there is a little altar where perhaps
some offerings could be made either to ask the god for a good harvest or
perhaps to thank the god for a good harvest.
Apparently, Hom the number of olive presses that we have at Marisa, we can
deduce that the production of olive oil was a major component of the local
economy. In fact, it has been estimated that the 20 olive presses at Marisa
would have produced 270 tons of olive oil per year, far more than the local
people would have needed, so clearly they were producing olive oil for the
purposes of selling on the market and exporting it.
In addition to the olive presses, we have caves at Marisa that were used at
dove cotes, for raising doves. These are called columbaria caves, coming
from the Latin word columbus, or dove. These caves were used for raising
doves or pigeons that could be used for various purposes. You can use the
guano, for example, from the birds for agriculture for fertilizing your fields.
You can use doves and pigeons as carrier birds. You can use them for food,
that is, you can eat them. You can use them for purposes of worship, that is,
you can offer them to gods.
There are over 60 coltunbaria caves at Marisa with a total of some 50,000
to 60,000 little niches can/ed on the sides of the walls which were used for
actually holding the birds. The largest columbaria cave at Marisa is called
the Suk in Arabic which means the marketplace. The inside of this cave is
absolutely overwhelming. You go into it and you just have rows and rows
and rows of these little niches carved in to the walls of the caves where the
birds originally were kept. Notice, by the way, that the niches start relatively
high up on the walls. That was to keep the birds away from predators, so
cats and other kinds of predators on the ground would not be able to reach
the birds.
This suggests then that the economy of Marisa was based largely on raising
pigeons and doves and the production of olive oil. Hence we see this very
affluent settlement.
Some of the caves at Marisa were used for burials. The most famous of
the burial caves is a cave that was discovered in 1902. What happened
actually at that time is some local villagers found the cave and reports of
this cave reached Jerusalem, and a couple of scholars, French scholars in
Jerusalem, rushed down to Marisa and recorded the paintings in the cave. It
is a good thing because the paintings that decorate this cave were afterwards
completely destroyed. Today, they have been reconstructed. So you can go
into the cave and see modern reproductions, but the paintings eventually
were completely destroyed and the record that we have of them is the record
that was made by these two scholars who rushed down in 1902.
What we have here is a very interesting kind of burial cave. It is cut into
bedrock. It has several halls. The halls of the cave are lined with long narrow
niches for individual bodies. These individual niches are called loculi, that
is a Latin word plural, singular, loculus. This is very interesting. This is the
first example that we have of a burial cave in Palestine with these kinds of
niches, with these loculi which is going to become very popular and common
afterwards, but this is the first appearance that we have.
Where do loculi come from? This idea of loculi comes from the great center
of the Hellenistic world Alexandria. Alexandria was the cultural capital of the
Hellenistic world. Apparently what we see here is influence ‘from Hellenistic
Alexandria on the burial customs of the local population.
We also see that in the paintings in this tomb. Where running above the
loculi, we have a continues painted frieze, a continuous painted strip which
shows, among other things, a man on a horse hunting and a man behind
him blowing a trumpet. Then a very, very strange series of animals, some
of which are real but just exotic types of animals, but some of which are
imaginary, for example, fish with elephant trunks and animals that look like
they came out of a Dr. Seuss book, for example.
What is the story with these animals‘? Where is this coming from? What
we see here, again, is Alexandrian influence. Not only was Alexandria the
cultural capital of the Hellenistic world, but it was also the seat of, of course,
the great library and a zoo. A zoo where various exotic animals collected from
around Africa were kept. Picture books of these exotic animals circulated
around the Hellenistic world and served as a source of inspiration and art.
Apparently what we see here is some of that influence, that is this notion of
decorating, in this case a tomb, with pictures of exotic animals and in some
cases imaginary animals. To us, at least, they are imaginary, but I should
mention by the way that in antiquity people believed that these sorts of
animals, these kinds of hybrid animals actually existed.
So again, the layout of this tomb and the decoration of the tomb, reflect
Hellenistic influence on the local population which in this case are local
Idumeans and Hellenized Sidonians. We even see that in their names because
sometimes their names are inscribed next to the burial niches. We can even
see that in later generations, members of families adopted Greek names
rather than their local native names.
We also have Hellenistic influence on the Phoenicians living along the coast.
One example of a Phoenician city is Tel Dor. This is a wonderful example
of a Hellenized Phoenician city. The site of Tel Dor has been undergoing
excavation for a number of years.
Among other things, the excavations have brought to light remains of houses
of the Hellenistic period which, again, reflect a Hippodamian town plan. So
we can see elements of a Hippodamian town plan in the layout of the city
with a grid of streets. But V€l'y interesting in these Hellenistic Phoenician
houses we also see a very distinctive type of architecture.
Look at the way these houses are built. You can see that the walls are build
with alternating stretches of rubble, that is uncut Held stones, and nicely cut
ashlar, nicely cut stone. So you have sections with rough stones, nice smooth
stones, rough stones, nice smooth stones. This kind of construction is called
pier and rubble masonry. What is so interesting about it is, it is characteristic
of Phoenician architecture.
Not only do we see it here at Dor and at other Phoenician sites, but we even
see it at Carthage in Tunisia, North Africa which was originally founded
as a Phoenician colony and there too we see this very distinctive type of
Phoenician architecture.
Among the Hellenistic remains that have come to light is a marble head of
a little statue called a Herm. First of all, marble in and of itself is not local.
We do not have any marble native to Palestine. So automatically you know
that this had to have been imported. What exactly is a herm? This head is
the head of a herm, but what exactly is a herm? Herm is short for Hermes.
Hermes is the Greek name of this god. You might know him as the Roman
Mercury. You are probably familiar with him best because today people
who sell flowers often use the symbol of this god as the icon with the little
wings on the hat and the little wings on the feet. Because, of course, today
we associate Hermes as the messenger god which he was in antiquity. But
he was also other things in antiquity. One of the things that Hermes did in
antiquity was mark boundaries or borders between things. So you often find
statues of Hermes, called Herms, set up at the entrances to places.
I show a picture of a Herm, a statue of a Herm, from the Greek island of
Delos marking the entrance to the marketplace there. Notice that very
typically these Herms are such that only the head is carved. The body is just
a plain pillar, and the only part of the body that is carried on the pillar are the
genitals that is the only part that is represented. The rest of it is just a plain
pillar because among other things, Herms were also associated with fertility.
What is so interesting here is that we then see the influence and the impact
of Greek that is Hellenistic culture on some of these native non-Jewish
populations in Palestine. In our next lecture, we are going to turn and
consider the impact of Greek culture on the Jewish population of Judea.
