Material Culture of the Second Temple Period (pre-70 CE)

This chapter surveys the breadth and significance of archaeological evidence related to the investigation of Jewish populations of the Second Temple period, from the eastern and southern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, and Arabia (pre-70 CE). Archaeological, papyrological, and epigraphical data, commonly subsumed under the rubric of “material culture,” reveal information otherwise unattested in contemporaneous literary sources, concerning fundamental diversities in the devotional, domestic, and mortuary practices, social frameworks, and identities of ancient Judeans and Jews. By defining associated terms, examining some of the methodological challenges inherent to their application, and offering an overview of selected data, this chapter highlights specific contributions of material culture toward the improved historiography of ancient Judean and Jewish populations during periods of Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman hegemony.