DAILY LIFE IN PALESTINE /ISRAEL IN THE ANCIENT PERIODS

DAILY LIFE IN PALESTINE /ISRAEL
    IN THE ANCIENT PERIODS

        Raz Kletter
           Helsinki
                2009
Notice: this file is intended for students of the course “daily life” for
academic studies only. Texts and pictures in this file are protected by
owner rights and are not to be used in any way without the appropriate
written permissions

AIMS OF COURSE
          “Daily Life in Palestine/Israel in Early Periods
1. Learning basic facts about daily life in the early periods
   (mainly Bronze-Iron) in Palestine/Israel and its
   immediate neighboring cultures (“Southern Levant”).
2. Initial glimpses of daily life in the great neighboring
   cultures (Egypt and Mesopotamia; to a lesser extent,
   Anatolia and the Aegean).
3. Asking what is “daily life”, how is it defined; how much
   is life in the ancient Near East different from our lives?
4. Time permitting, learning a few issues in greater detail
   to understand the current state of research.
5. Learning the use of both archaeological and written
   sources; though the course is basically archaeological.

Morning
Routine

GENERAL
MAP

The Main Archaeological Periods (dates and correlations approximate)
Name                  Date BC        Egypt               Mesopotamia
P.P. Neolithic (A-B) 8300-5900
P. Neolithic         5900-4900                         Halaf/Ubeid/Uruk
Chalcolithic         4900-3100                         Uruk/Jemdet Naser
Early Bronze (1-3)   3100-2200 Old Kingdom (1-5)       Early Dynastic/Akkad
EB4-MB1-I.B.         2200-2000 Intermediate I          Ur III/Isin/Larsa
Middle Bronze 2A-B 2000-1550 Middle Kingdom (12) Old Babylonian/Kasshite
                                 Intermediate 2 (13)/Hyksos (15)
Late Bronze (1-3)    1550-1200 New Kingdom (18-20) Kasshite/Middle Bab.
Iron 1               1200-1000 Intermediate 3          (since 1300 Middle Ass.)

Iron 2 (a-b-c)       1000-587    Late Dynastic (21-26) (Neo) Assyrian = Empire
                                                      (Neo) Babylonian=Empire

How did they
look?
 Nebamun 13c

                                     Ramses II 13 c

                                    Artemidoros, c 100AD

   Egypt, Mesopotamia –Pictures, statues, Mummies…

How did they look?

How did they look?

Ivories; Yurko-R3; Lachish-Sennacherib

Immortality-
Epic of Gilgamesh; Genesis

How Long is Life?
Life expectancy - Modern

Biblical Data- Kings of Judah

Life Expectancy- Ancient

Bad Old Age (Sumer)
Elderly man marries a young woman

Adad Guppi – Ideal Old Age (104 Years)

Main Reason for Shorter Lives

3       1

    2       Birth Stools
            1 Iran 19th c.
            2: Susa 2100-
            1900/Middle
              Assyrian
              3. Egypt
             Ptolemaic

Breast-feeding:
Egypt

                  Egypt 4
                  c birth

Recuperating from Birth
(Egypt, Ostraca from Deir
Medina, 13-12c)

                                       B. Women and child in bedroom. (The
                                       happy, ideal conditions hoped for)

A. Women suckles child in   C. Celebration, end of isolation period (?). Mother on
“birth arbor”; offered      bed in festival clothes; dwarf dances protective
mirror and eye make up –    dance; female guests offer flowers and perfume.
symbols of purity

Magic “knife” protects mother and child

                                                   Taweret

          Aha/Bes

Apotropaic wand. Hypo. ivory. Protective images.
Broken on purpose?

Breast Feeding

Aphek (L)
Revadim R)

Iron Age
figurines

CHILDREN

Ahnaten kisses a daughter
Unfinished statue
Egypt (El-Amarna)
LB 14th c

Children
helping in
harvest, Egypt

Circumcision

Shahadad,
Iran - Kramer

Shahadad- Size and Wealth

Population
Estimates
Early
Bronze
Age
C. 150,000

(6000x25)

Population
Estimates
Iron 2

Population estimate-
      Periods

Population estimates Van Beek (Yemen)

Family Life

Married Life

Couple plaque, Ur, 1900-1600 BC

Unknown couple 18-19th dyn [Henry Moore]

Welcome to
 Finland

Clay Plaque
Old Babylonian
    c. 1800
Woman drinks beer
 through straw

Egypt

Personal Identification
       (seals)

LEISURE - THE BANQUET

Molkki

Uruk c. 4000 BC

GAMES
Nefertiti plays
SENET

Games- EB to Modern

COSMETICS

Jewelry
   Egypt
Faience collar

Tell el Ajjul
MBII Gold
 Jewelry

“Sport”

Minoan Bull
Acrobatics

LEISURE
Banquet- Ashurbanipal and Wife

Mesopotamia
Khafaje ED
 c. 2600 BC

Lice

HYGIENE

Jerusalem
7th c

Roman

Spring Allergy Set

Child‟s coffin, Speos Artemidos, C. 850

„Brittle bone disease‟. Coffin for older
containing infant, first identified as monkey.
The bones become distorted and fragile,
unable to bear weight. Probably the infant
died before or during birth.

Opium (?) in LB Juglets

The Fractured
       skull of
    Meryrahashtef

Overseer of tenant farmers,
Sedment, 6th dynasty, Egypt.
No signs of healing.
Right- his naked statue
shown as a young person=
idealization

London medical
papyrus, 18th dyn.
 Combines recipes
 and magic spells
 against ailments.
Sometimes the text
outlines spells to be
 said when taking
       cures.
Mainly against skin
 and eye problems,
bleeding and burns

Medicine or
 Magic ?
Treatment
 against
Headache
  (Left)

and against
 Ear-ache
  (Right)

Jaffa A3018 - 2000 AD

Jaffa A3018

“Cupping Vessels”
   From Jaffa?

Cupping (Modern)

Dream List Papyrus, Deir el-Medinah, c. 1275 BC

Hieratic.
Vertical =Formula: “If
a man sees himself in a
dream…”
Horizontal= the dream
+ diagnosis as good or
bad + meaning.
Example: “If a man sees
himself in a dream with
his bed catching fire,
bad; it means driving
away his wife”.
Several owners inc.
father and son,
probably passing in a
family for a century.

The Good Life (after death), tomb of Nebamun, 1350 BC
  Naked serving girls; servants; his friends + relatives (married=pairs).
  Dancers + musicians sit on ground, singing (words written).