Liber Annuus

Cave 1Q was visited and looted on several occasions between 1947 and late 1948, before official excavations took place in 1949. This caused an upheaval of the archaeological context and a dispersion of the materials from the cave. As a result, we must ascertain the findspot and the subsequent history of acquisition of the archaeological artefacts assigned to the cave: those not coming from official excavations, but also some recorded in the excavation reports, which often omit information about the excavation process, how the archaeological materials were retrieved, and where they were found. In some cases, archival documentation allows us to recover this information and recompose the archaeological context of the cave in a more consistent way. Lamps Q43 and Q44, assigned to Cave 1Q, and belonging to a distinctive type barely attested outside Qumran, represent an interesting case study in this respect; especially if we consider that they have played a key role in the debate on the chronology of the scroll deposit inside the cave. The present work allows us to put forward some methodological considerations, to highlight some shortcomings in previous studies, and to underline the importance of a holistic approach to the investigation of the material context of the Qumran caves.

It has been just 40 years since the completion of the only excavations among the ruins of the historical site of Alexandrium, led by the late Yoram Tsafrir (1938-2015) of Hebrew University. It is documented that the late Virgilio Corbo OFM (1918-1991) of the SBF knew and visited Alexandrium as early as at least 1956, and wanted to start the excavations there, immediately after his 1980 discovery of the Doric peristyle courtyard in the Herodian royal palace of Machaerus, but his request was rejected by the Israeli authorities. Corbo had a very good reason to begin this fieldwork, as the Doric peristyle courtyard of Alexandrium is the closest archaeological and architectural analogy for the Machaerus royal court. In his sharp eyes, there was a serious scientific potential that the two surviving, similar Herodian monumental structures can mutually testify, authenticate, date and verify each other, through their architectural and archaeological legacies. The important academic mission of the comparative in-depth examinations, analyses and inspections was halted for another 40 years, for the next generation, and as it will be clear, provided an extraordinary, fantastic result.

Pottery lamps are frequent occurrences in late antique Levantine mortuary assemblages. This holds particularly true for communal tombs, in which their numbers can sometimes reach up to a few hundred pieces in a single burial space. The present paper distinguishes four major locations where lamps were generally deposited in these mortuary contexts: 1) the outer entrance areas of tombs, including the steps descending to tomb doors, 2) small niches carved into the outer or inner walls of tombs, 3) the immediate proximity of the deceased buried in the loculi or burial troughs of the tombs, including the separating walls and covering slabs of troughs, 4) and the tomb’s central chambers. Based on a database gathered for and presented in the present study, it is argued that while Location 1 lamps were definitely deposited with a commemorative intent, most probably mainly by later visitors to the tombs, Location 2 to 4 lamps reflect a wide array of practical and ritual considerations, from illuminating the dark inner spaces of tombs to providing apotropaic protection for the departed. On the strength of a brief survey of other regions of the Eastern Mediterranean, it is further argued that Location 4 lamp deposits with several dozens to a few hundred lamps attest to a specifically Levantine practice, which can be associated with Christian burial communities. The last section of this paper therefore reviews several early Christian texts to show that church authorities disagreed with the use of artificial light in funerary contexts in given periods and in certain cult settings only, while early Christian light symbolism provided fertile ground for using artificial light and lighting devices in ordinary mortuary contexts.

Paximadi Giorgio, Levitico. Traduzione e commentario in sinossi del Testo Massoretico e della Septuaginta, Cantagalli-Eupress FTL, Siena-Lugano 2022, 1115 pp. (M. Pazzini).

Bonelli Massimo, Un singolare aspetto della synkrisis nell’opera lucana. Tipologia della ricerca fra Gesù e la Chiesa (Studi e ricerche. Sezione biblica), Cittadella Editrice, Assisi 2022, 811 pp. (G.C. Bottini).

Di Segni Leah, An Introduction to Late Antique Epigraphy in the Holy Land (SBF. Collectio Minor 46), TS Edizioni, Milano 2022, 254 pp. (D. Bianchi).