Writing on the Wall

Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity

Karen B. Stern

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English

Princeton University Press
03 November 2020

History of art: ancient & classical art; Graffiti & street art; Ancient history: to c 500 CE; Jewish studies

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 commemoration, commerce, and civic engagement regularly crossed ethnic and religious boundaries.

Illustrated throughout with examples of ancient graffiti, Writing on the Wall provides a tantalizingly intimate glimpse into the cultural worlds of forgotten populations living at the crossroads of Judaism, Christianity, paganism, and earliest Islam.

By: Karen B. Stern
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9780691210704
ISBN 10: 0691210705
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 03 November 2020
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Karen B. Stern is assistant professor of history at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. She is the author of Inscribing Devotion and Death: Archaeological Evidence for Jewish Populations of North Africa.

Reviews for Writing on the Wall: Graffiti and the Forgotten Jews of Antiquity

Winner of the Jordan Schnitzer Book Award for Jews and the Arts: Music, Performance, and Visual, of the Association for Jewish Studies Finalist for the Award for Excellence in the Historical Study of Religion, American Academy of Religion This thought-provoking book takes a new approach to the graffiti found in holy sites, tombs and sometimes civic structures. ---Juan P. Lewis, Journal of Religion & Society This thought-provoking book takes a new approach to the graffiti found in holy sites, tombs and sometimes civic structures, regarding them as words that do things rather than simply record a visit. ---David Frankfurter, Journal of Roman Studies