Upon scrutiny, the accepted historical contextualization of the famous Uzziah Epitaph (IM 65.56.38 = CIIP 602) is revealed to be full of difficulties. While Garbini’s argument that the artefact is a modern fake is unconvincing, good reasons exist to explore it instead as an ancient forgery. The present article accordingly explores an alternative understanding of the inscription as the product of a hellenized fashion for the sight-seeing of celebrity tombs and an emergent culture of “biblical tourism” in Judea. From this perspective the “staged authenticity” of the epitaph is analyzed through the socio-rhetorical function of the object as understood and experienced within this context.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
ANET = James B. Pritchard, ed. Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3d ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969)
Anonymous. “Science: Ossuary.” Time xvii 3 (January 19, 1931).
Anonymous. “Returners from Exile Would Do Well to Caution Young Archeologists to Pay More Respect to Things Sacred to Christians.” Jewish Telegraph Agency xii 93 (April 25, 1931), 7.
Anonymous. “Did Not Intend Blow at Dr. Sukenik Pere Vincent Explains: My Pupil and I Have Known Him Eight Years.” Jewish Telegraph Agency xii 94 (April 27, 1931), 7.
Anonymous. “Berlin Storm over Palestine Archeological Find Now Reverberating in Palestine.” Jewish Daily Bulletin viii 1999 (July 5, 1931), 3.
Anonymous. “Tombstone of King Uzziah of Judah Is Acquired by Israel Museum,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency xxxv 240 (Dec 18, 1968), 2.
Anonymous. “Uzziah Stone Comes to Final Rest in Jerusalem.” Detroit Daily News (Friday, Dec 27, 1968), 20.
Aitken, Ellen Bradshaw. “The Cult of Achilles in Philostratus’ Heroikos: A Study in the Relation of Canon and Ritual.” In Between Magic and Religion: Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Mediterranean Religion and Society, ed. Sulochana Asirvatham, Corinne Ondine Pache, and John Watrous (Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), 127–135.
Albright, W.F. “The Discovery of an Aramaic Inscription Relating to King Uzziah.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 44 (1931), 8–10.
Albright, W.F. “A Biblical Fragment from the Maccabean Age: The Nash Papyrus.” Journal of Biblical Literature 56 (1937), 145–176.
Ameling, Walter, ed. Inscriptiones Judaicae Orientis II. Kleinasien (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004).
Avigad, Nahman. “The Epitaph of a Royal Steward from Siloam Village.” Israel Exploration Journal 3 (1953), 137–152.
Avigad, Nahman. “Aramaic Inscriptions in the Tomb of Jason.” Israel Exploration Journal 17 (1967), 101–111.
Avni, Gideon, and Zvi Greenhut. The Akeldama Tombs: Three Burial Caves in the Kidron Valley, Jerusalem (Jerusalem: IAA, 1996).
Avni, Gideon, and Boaz Zissu. “The ‘Tombs of the Prophets’ on the Mount of Olives: A Re-Examination.” In Viewing Ancient Jewish Art and Archeology: VeHinnei Rachel, Essays in Honor of Rachel Hachlili, ed. Ann E. Killebrew and Gabriele Fassbeck (Leiden: Brill, 2016), 16–32.
Ben-Asher Gitler, Inbal. Architectural Culture in British-Mandate Jerusalem, 1917–1948 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University, 2022).
Ben-Eliahu, Eyal. “Origin of the Uzziah Plaque.” Cathedra 98 (2000), 157–158 [Hebrew].
Ben-Eliahu, Eyal. “The Rabbinic Polemic against Sanctification of Sites.” Journal for the Study of Judaism 40 (2009), 260–280.
Bloch, René. “Show and Tell: Myth, Tourism, and Jewish Hellenism.” In Ancient Jewish Diaspora: Essays on Hellenism (Leiden: Brill, 2022).
Bloch-Smith, Elizabeth. “Death and Burial in Eighth-Century Judah.” in Archeology and History in Eighth-Century Judah, ed. Zev I. Farber and Jacob L. Wright (Atlanta: SBL, 2018), 365–378.
Dunn, Francis. “Pausanias on the Tomb of Medea’s Children.” Mnemosyne 48 (1995), 348–351.
Epstein, Joseph. “On the Epitaph of Uzziahu.” Tarbiz 2 (1930–1931), 293–294; 7 (1935–1936), 388 [Hebrew].
Garbini, Giovanni. “I sigilli del regno di Israele.” Oriens Antiquus 21 (1982), 163–176.
Garbini, Giovanni. “L’iscrizione del re Uzzia.” Oriens Antiquus 24 (1985), 67–75.
Gawlikowski, Michał. Monuments funéraires de Palmyre (Warsaw: Éditions scientifiques de Pologne, 1970).
Giambrone, Anthony. “Herod’s ‘Temple of the Most High God’ in Jerusalem: The Sacral Architecture of Judea’s Client King.” In Tempel, Synagogen, Kirchen und Moscheen: Sakralarchitektur in Palästina von der Bronzezeit bis zum Mittelalter, ed. Jens Kamlah and Markus Witte (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2023), 335–374.
Giambrone, Anthony. “A Philological Note on Josephus’ Phrase διὰ σπηλαίων βασιλικῶν (J.W. 5.147).” (forthcoming).
Gibson, Shimon. “Conrad Schick (1822–1901), the Palestine Exploration Fund, and an ‘Archaic Hebrew’ Inscription from Jerusalem.” Palestine Exploration Quarterly 132 (2000), 113–122.
Goodblatt, David. Elements of Jewish Nationalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2006).
Gurevich, David. “The Water Pools and Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the Late Second Temple Period.” Palestine Exploration Quarterly 149 (2017), 103–134.
Hachlili, Rachel. Jewish Funerary Customs, Practices and Rites in the Second Temple Period (Leiden: Brill, 2005).
Hachlili, Rachel. “Attitudes toward the Dead: Protective Measures Employed against the Desecration of Tombs, Coffins, and Ossuaries.” In Archeology of Difference: Gender, Ethnicity, Class and the “Other” in Antiquity, ed. Edward Douglas (Boston: ASOR, 2007), 243–255.
Henrichs, Albert. “The Tomb of Aias and the Prospect of Hero Cult in Sophokles.” Classical Antiquity 12 (1993), 65–80.
Ish-Shalom, Michael. “Midrash Eser Galuyot.” Sinai 43 (1958), 194–212.
Jones, Christopher. “A Syntax of Forgery.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 160 (2016), 26–36.
Kloner, Amos. “The ‘Third Wall’ in Jerusalem and the ‘Cave of the Kings’ (Josephus, The Jewish War 5.147).” Levant 18 (1986), 121–129.
Kloner, Amos, and Boaz Zissu. The Necropolis of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period (Leuven: Peeters, 2007).
Lufrani, Riccardo. The Saint-Etienne Compound Hypogea (Jerusalem): Geological, Architectural and Archeological Characteristics: A Comparative Study and Dating (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019).
Lufrani, Riccardo. “Have the Tombs of the Kings of Judah Been Found? A Response.” Biblical Archeology Review (September 2012). https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/scholars-study/have-the-tombs-of-the-kings-of-judah-been-found-a-response/.
MacCannell, Dean. “Staged Authenticity: Arrangements of Social Space in Tourist Settings.” American Journal of Sociology 79 (1973), 589–603.
McLean, B.H. An Introduction to Greek Epigraphy of the Hellenistic and Roman Periods from Alexander the Great Down to the Reign of Constantine (323B.C.—A.D.337) (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2011).
Michel, Cécile. “Fakes and Forgeries of Written Artefacts: An Introduction.” In Fakes and Forgeries of Written Artefacts from Ancient Mesopotamia to Modern China (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020), 1–22.
Na’aman, Nadav. “Death Formulae and the Burial Place of the Kings of the House of David.” Biblica 85 (2004), 245–254.
Naveh, Joseph. The Early History of the Alphabet (Leiden: Brill, 1982).
Naveh, Joseph. Studies in West-Semitic Epigraphy (Jerusalem: Magness, 2009), 141–158.
Olsen, Kjell. “Staged Authenticity: A Grande Idée?” Tourism Recreation Research 32 (2007), 83–85.
Patrich, Joseph. “Graves and Burial Practices in Talmudic Sources.” In Graves and Burial Practices in Israel and in the Ancient Period, ed. Ithamar Singer (Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1994), 206–209.
Ras, Keren. “Areas A1, B1 and B3, with an Emphasis on the Cemetery.” In Ramat Raḥel IV: The Renewed Excavations by the Tel Aviv-Heidelberg Expedition (2005–2010): Stratigraphy and Architecture, ed. Oded Lipschits, Manfred Oeming, and Yuval Gadot (University Park: Eisenbrauns, 2020), 37–68.
Satran, David. Biblical Prophets in Byzantine Palestine: Reassessing the Lives of the Prophets (Leiden: Brill, 1995).
Shanks, Hershel. “Have the Tombs of the Kings of Judah Been Found?” Biblical Archeology Review (July/August 1987), 54–56.
Simons, J. Jerusalem in the Old Testament (Leiden: Brill, 1952).
Sukenik, E.L. “An Epitaph of Uzziahu King of Judah.” Tarbiz 2 (1930–1931), 288–292, 383 [Hebrew].
Sukenik, E.L. “Funerary Tablet of Uzziah, King of Judah.” Palestine Exploration Quarterly 63 (1931), 217–221.
Sukenik, E.L. “Note on The Funerary Tablet of Uzziah.” Palestine Exploration Quarterly 64 (1932), 106–107.
Ussishkin, David. The Village of Silwan: The Necropolis from the Period to the Judean Kingdom (Jerusalem: IES, 1993).
Vilnay, Zev. Legends of Palestine (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1932).
Vincent, L.-H. “Bulletin.” Revue Biblique 41 (1932), 480.
Whittaker, Helène. “Pausanias and His Use of Inscriptions.” Symbolae Osloenses 66 (1991), 171–186.
Yezerski, Irit. “Typology and Chronology of the Iron Age II–III Judahite Rock-Cut Tombs.” Israel Exploration Journal 63 (2013), 50–77.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 173 | 173 | 27 |
Full Text Views | 21 | 21 | 3 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 175 | 175 | 25 |
Upon scrutiny, the accepted historical contextualization of the famous Uzziah Epitaph (IM 65.56.38 = CIIP 602) is revealed to be full of difficulties. While Garbini’s argument that the artefact is a modern fake is unconvincing, good reasons exist to explore it instead as an ancient forgery. The present article accordingly explores an alternative understanding of the inscription as the product of a hellenized fashion for the sight-seeing of celebrity tombs and an emergent culture of “biblical tourism” in Judea. From this perspective the “staged authenticity” of the epitaph is analyzed through the socio-rhetorical function of the object as understood and experienced within this context.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 173 | 173 | 27 |
Full Text Views | 21 | 21 | 3 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 175 | 175 | 25 |