Grave of the Goliath family

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The tomb of the Goliath family is in Jericho . It dates to the first century AD and belonged to a wealthy family who likely held priesthoods in Jerusalem . The remains of the family members were deposited in stone boxes ( ossuaries ), some of which had short inscriptions. Through these texts the family tree of this family can be traced over several generations.

The grave complex consists of a courtyard and two chambers, each of which has various niches for ossuaries. Chamber A has three niches on the south and west side and two on the north side. The entrance from the courtyard is on the east side, there is also a small chamber for bones here. A total of nine ossuaries were found in this chamber. The bone chamber was found filled with bones from about 100 individuals. The entire chamber A (walls and ceiling) is stuccoed and painted in white. The paintings on the north and south sides are well preserved and show vines, leaves and birds. Wall paintings in tombs from this period in Judea are otherwise not often attested. The colors used are mainly various shades of red, brown and black. Chamber B two could be reached through a small passage on the north side of Chamber A. There are two niches on the north, west and east sides. Twelve ossuaries were found in this chamber.

A total of fourteen ossuaries bore 32 inscriptions, which allow the family buried here to be reconstructed. The inscriptions are mostly in Hebrew or Aramaic , or Greek painted on the ossuaries. The father of the family was therefore Yeho′ezer Goliath, son of Ele′azar, who was extremely tall according to the bone findings. His wife was Shelamsion (Ossuary XX and XXI). Different children are named on the ossuaries. One son was also named Yeho′ezer and in turn had a wife named Salome. Of particular interest is Ossuary VIII, whose inscription reads as follows: "οεοδότου ἀπελευθέρου βασιλίσσης Ἀγριππεῖνης σορός" ("Ossuary of Theodotos, the freedman of Queen Agrippina"). The Agrippina mentioned in the text is probably Agrippina the Younger , the wife of Emperor Claudius . Theodotos came into their possession as a slave, possibly as a prisoner of war or hostage. In this context he should have adopted his Greek name, his Hebrew name was probably Natanel (of which Theodotos is the direct translation). After his release, he seems to have returned to his family and was apparently buried in their graves. Whether Theodotos was brought to Rome as a slave during his time or not perhaps exercised a function in Judea itself ( e.g. as administrator of the large balsam plantations in the vicinity of Jericho) cannot be clarified. Another inscription on an ossuary concerns a certain Mariah and states that she is the daughter of Natanel and the granddaughter of Schelamsion. If one assumes that the Natanel named here is identical to the freed Theodotos, it follows that this was the son of Yeho′ezer. Other inscriptions refer to other family members.

Members of the Goliath family may have been priests who held important functions in the Temple of Jerusalem . It is known from other sources that many priests lived in Jericho. The slow integration of the Jewish Goliath family into the Greco-Roman culture ( Hellenization or Romanization ) can be seen from the inscriptions, some of which were written in traditional regional languages, but also in the national lingua franca, Greek .

literature

  • Rachel Hachlili : The Goliath Family in Jericho: Funerary Inscriptions from a First Century AD Jewish Monumental Tomb. In: Bulletin of the American School of Oriental Research. Number 235, 1979, pp. 31-66.
  • Rachel Hachlili: Jewish Funerary Customs. Practices and Rites in the Second Temple Period (= Journal of the Study of Judaism. Supplement 94). Brill, Leiden / Boston 2005, ISBN 90-04-12373-3 , pp. 287-289.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rachel Hachlili: Jewish Funerary Customs. Practices and Rites in the Second Temple Period. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2005, ISBN 90-04-12373-3 , pp. 287-289.
  2. ↑ Rachel Hachlili: Jewish Funerary Customs. Practices and Rites in the Second Temple Period. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2005, ISBN 90-04-12373-3 , pp. 133-138.
  3. ↑ Werner Eck : Rome and Judea. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-16-149460-4 , p. 170 f.
  4. ^ Text and translation after Werner Eck: Rom und Judäa. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-16-149460-4 , p. 171.
  5. ↑ Rachel Hachlili: Jewish Funerary Customs. Practices and Rites in the Second Temple Period. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2005, ISBN 90-04-12373-3 , pp. 183-185.
  6. ↑ Rachel Hachlili: Jewish Funerary Customs. Practices and Rites in the Second Temple Period. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2005, ISBN 90-04-12373-3 , p. 183 assumes that Theodotos stayed in Rome; Werner Eck and Hannah M. Cotton, however, suspect that he was active in the balsam groves near Jericho: Werner Eck, Hannah M. Cotton: A state monopoly and its consequences. Pliny, Naturalis Historia 12,123 and the price of balm. In: Rheinisches Museum für Philologie . Volume 140, 1997, pp. 153-161, here p. 155 ( digitized version ); Werner Eck: Rome and Judea. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-16-149460-4 , p. 171.
  7. ↑ Rachel Hachlili: Jewish Funerary Customs. Practices and Rites in the Second Temple Period. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2005, ISBN 90-04-12373-3 , p. 290.
  8. ↑ Rachel Hachlili: Jewish Funerary Customs. Practices and Rites in the Second Temple Period. Brill, Leiden / Boston 2005, ISBN 90-04-12373-3 , pp. 295-296.
  9. ↑ Werner Eck: Rome and Judea. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-16-149460-4 , p. 171.