Writing on the Wall
：Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity
Publication subTitle ：Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity
Author： Stern Karen
Publisher： Princeton University Press
Publication year： 2018
E-ISBN: 9781400890453
P-ISBN(Paperback): 9780691161334
Subject： B9 Religion;B92 宗教理论与概况;B929 宗教史、宗教地理;B985 Judaism (Hebrew);C912.4 cultural anthropology, social anthropology;J2 Drawing
Keyword： 犹太教（希伯来教）,宗教史、宗教地理,宗教理论与概况,文化人类学、社会人类学,宗教,绘画
Language： ENG
Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.
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 inscriptions displayed on tombs and synagogues equally reflect the sensibilities of their influential patrons. The perspectives and sentiments of nonelite Jews, by contrast, have mostly disappeared from the historical record. Focusing on these forgotten Jews of antiquity, Writing on the Wall takes an unprecedented look at the vernacular inscriptions and drawings they left behind and sheds new light on the richness of their quotidian lives.
Just like their neighbors throughout the eastern and southern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and Egypt, ancient Jews scribbled and drew graffiti everyplace--in and around markets, hippodromes, theaters, pagan temples, open cliffs, sanctuaries, and even inside burial caves and synagogues. Karen Stern reveals what these markings tell us about the men and women who made them, people whose lives, beliefs, and behaviors eluded commemoration in grand literary and architectural works. Making compelling analogies with modern graffiti practices, she documents the overlooked connections between Jews and their neighbors, showing how popular Jewish practices of prayer, mortuary commemora
Chapter