“Archaeology and Ancient Jewish Life” Series
The Katz Center is pleased to partner with the Penn Museum for this series of talks exploring the archaeology of the ancient Jewish world. From Babylonia to Jerusalem and back again, three speakers look at particular sets of objects and sites, contextualizing them and asking what they can tell us about the Jewish cultures that produced them.
The Murašû texts, excavated in the nineteenth century by the Penn Museum, record the activities of an entrepreneurial family in fifth century BCE Nippur. The texts, along with records from a town called Yāhūdu, document Judeans living in the Babylonian countryside and working in the land-for-service sector of the Achaemenid empire. This talk will contextualize their experiences and consider the contribution of these sources to understanding the social location of Judeans in Babylonia, from the time of the exile to the years beyond the return.
This talk will take place online. Register here: https://upenn.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lAHx4WtfQguuOlLOgoGgNw