Palaeographic Aspects of the Jewish Script - 3rd Century BCE to 140 CE

Transcription

1 Palaeographic Aspects of the Jewish Script - 3rd Century BCE to 140 CE Ada Yardeni Introduction In the Hebrew script there are, as known, twentytwo conventional graphic signs. If several people will be asked to write, for example, the letter Alef in the modern Hebrew script style, the results will be different in details from one person to another even though all of them use the same writing instrument and the same paper. The differences will be in size, in the form and direction of the strokes, and in their meeting points with each other. In spite of the differences, we are able to identify this letter as Alef and as distinguishable from other letters in the alphabet, for example Bet. This is because all these people use a common script style. In this style each letter has a limited number of basic strokes (e.g., 3 for Alef, 3 for Bet, 2 for Gimel, etc.), which I call "the root of the letter' (fig. 1), as well Fig. 1. The roots of the Hebrew letters as a limited range of directions for each stroke and a limited number of meeting points between the strokes. The size of the letters, the form and 1 ornamentation of the strokes, however, are often an expression of personal interpretation. The identification of a script sign requires that we ignore the personal factor and relate only to the conventional basic form. Otherwise the script could not be used as a means of communication. The process of reading takes into account only the stylistic features of the script and ignores the personal features, which belong to the realm of Graphology. The evolution of the letter-forms, that is, their formal change in the course of time, is the result of several factors, both objective and subjective, at times interwoven. To these belong technical factors, such as the type and shape of the writingimplements and of the materials, the manner and the angle of holding the writing implement, and the speed of writing; personal factors, such as the skill and training of the writer or copyist, as well as his character, age and mental condition; cultural factors, such as literacy and the status of the written word within the writing group, as well as the influence of other scripts or of artistic fashions. An important factor is the mutual influence of different levels of writing, e.g., the cursive and formal hands, of one and the same script style. In addition to these above mentioned factors, there is the subjective factor of deliberate imitation of given forms or the creation of new forms. When a change in the letter-forms prevails within a certain group of people, in a certain place, at a certain period of time, this change may be regarded as a stylistic change. When this new script style is used for writing a language differing from the original, a new script may emerge and start a new route of formal evolution. Palaeographic analysis of letter-forms traces the stylistic changes that have occurred in the form of the strokes of the letters, in their directions and their meeting points, as well as in their ornamentation. In order to be able to describe the form of a letter, one has to analyze its basic elements. That task is easy when a script was made with a sharp instrument reflecting the skeleton of the letter (fig. 2). If, on the other hand, the script was made with an instrument that has a flat nib (fig. 3), the skeleton is disguised. It may be exposed by tracing the central axis of each stroke, provided one is familiar with the

2 3rd century BCE until about 140 CE, the year of the latest dated document found in the Judean desert 2. Fig. 5. Aramaic alphabet taken from papyrus Berlin Fig. 2. Skeletons of Hebrew letters Exiled to Babylonia after the destruction of the first Temple at the early 6th century BCE, the ancient Hebrew language and script were gradually replaced by the local Aramaic language and script for official and ordinary purposes (figs. 4, 5). Upon the return to Judea of many of the exiles, after about two generations, they continued to use Aramaic, which was the lingua franca in the time of the Persian Empire. In the wake of the fall of the Persian Empire in the late 4th century BCE, the Aramaic language Fig. 3. Writing implement with a flat nib (right angle) morphology of the letter. The palaeography of the Jewish script (the term was minted by F.M. Cross 1 ) is the study of the morphology of the letter-forms used in Judea from about the Fig. 4. A 5th century BCE Aramaic papyrus document from Egypt (Berlin 23000) 1 F.M. Cross Jr., "The Development of the Jewish Script', in: G.E. Wright (ed.), The Bible and the Ancient Near East, Essays in honor of W.F. Albright (Garden City 1961), pp Fig. 6. Drawing of Samaria Papyrus no. 2 from Wadi ed- Daliyeh (352 BCE) 2 See E. and H. Eshel and A. Yardeni, "A Document from Year Four of the Destruction of the House of Israel in Which a Widow Declared that She Received All Her Rights', Cathedra 132 (2009), 5-24 (Hebrew); ibid., "A Document from Year Four of the Destruction of the House of Israel ', in: DSD 18 (2011), 1-28.

3 documents in a similar script have been later found in Afghanistan 4. A group of dated Aramaic documents from the second half of the 4th century BCE has been discovered in a cave in Wadi ed- Daliyeh near Jericho (fig. 6). Aramaic script of the 4th century BCE also appears in papyrus fragments from another cave near Jericho (fig. 7). Late Aramaic script in various attestations of its evolution appears in many ostraca from the southern environments of Judea, and elsewhere in the land of Israel, some of which are dated to Fig. 8. Drawing of an Idumean Ostracon from Maresha bearing a draft of a marriage contract (176 BCE) Fig. 7. Drawing of Papyrus Abi'ur from Ketef Yericho and its alphabet gradually split into local and national dialects and local, variant scripts gradually evolved from the Aramaic mother script, among them the socalled Jewish script. Toward the Birth of the Jewish script The official Aramaic script of the 5th-4th centuries BCE prevailed throughout the vast Persian Empire and many documents in this script were discovered, mainly in the early 20th century, including the large group of Aramaic documents from Elephantine 3. 4th century BCE Fig.9. Drawing of a fragment of 4QSam.b. with alphabet 3 See, e.g., B. Porten and A. Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic Documents from Ancient Egypt, vols. 1-4 (Jerusalem ). 3 4 See J. Naveh and Sh. Shaked, Aramaic Documents from Ancient Bactria from the Khalili Collections (London 2012).

4 the 4th-2nd centuries BCE 5. The late Aramaic script of the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE (fig. 8) has many affinities with the script in the earliest scroll fragments from Qumran, and mainly the fragments of 4QSam.b (fig. 9). The dating of the document from Egypt that bears many Greek names may be dated to the second half of the 3rd century BCE (fig. 11). The script on an ostracon from Edfu has many affinities with the script of the fragments of the 4QJer.a scroll (fig. 12). The Sam.b and the Jer.a fragments, as well as a few short inscriptions discovered on Mount Fig. 10. Drawing of an Aramaic ostracon from Egypt (ca. 3rd century BCE) Fig. 12. Drawing of a detail of 4QJer.a scroll with alphabet (late 3rd or early 2nd century BCE) many undated documents in Aramaic script from the 4th to 2nd centuries BCE, which were found in Egypt (fig.10) and in Israel 6 is based on palaeographic and historical criteria. A papyrus Fig. 13. Drawing of a stone inscription from Mount Gerizim (ca. 2nd century BCE) Fig. 11. Drawing of an Aramaic document from Egypt (Papyrus Della Vida) bearing Greek names (ca. 3rd century BCE) 5 See, e.g., A. Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic, Hebrew and Nabataean Documentary Texts from the Judaean Desert and Related Material (TDT; Jerusalem 2000), vol. A, pp, ; vol. B, pp , and the related bibliography in vol. B, pp [265]-[277]; Y. Yadin and J. Naveh, Masada I, The Aramaic and Hebrew Ostraca and Jar Inscriptions (Jerusalem 1989); E. Eshel, in: A. Kloner and al., Maresha Excavations final Report III Epigraphic Finds from the Seasons (Jerusalem 2010), pp ; A. Yardeni and B. Porten, A Corpus of the Aramaic Ostraca from the Land of Israel (Forthcoming). 6 Many undated ostraca in a late Aramaic script style, apparently dating from as late as the 2nd century BCE were found in Maresha; these are going to be published by E. Eshel. 4 Fig. 14. Alphabet taken from the Maresha ostracon (176 BCE)

5 Gerizim (fig. 13) may be regarded as a link between the Aramaic and the Jewish scripts. Their script still resembles the Late Aramaic script, yet it also has many affinities with the Jewish script in its early phases. As none of the Qumran documents published until now bears a date, there is a gap of more than 200 years between the latest dated document in the Aramaic script found so far (the Maresha ostracon dating from 176 BCE; figs. 8, 14) to the earliest dated document in the Jewish script (papyrus Mur. 18 dated to the second year of Fig. 16. Drawing of an Aramaic ostracon from Egypt, showing final Lamed Fig. 15. Drawing of Papyrus Mur. 18 (55/56 CE) written in the "Jewish" cursive script Neron Ceasar, corresponding to 55/56 CE; fig. 15). The dating of the material is therefore based on palaeographical, archaeological and historical grounds. The earliest manuscripts from Qumran seem to be dating from the late 3rd and early 2nd centuries BCE in view of their affinity with the Aramaic documents from Wadi ed-daliyeh and from Edfu, and in consideration of the natural process of the formal development of the letters. Fig. 17. Looped Alef and Taw in the alphabet taken from an Aramaic document from Saqqara, Egypt (4th century BCE) Prominent Characteristics of Certain Late Aramaic and Early Jewish letters 7 Already in the late Aramaic script, medial and final forms of certain letters began to appear, as well as different formal types of individual letters (fig. 16). Both characteristics prevail in the Jewish script, while the different types of letter-forms prevail mainly in the cursive hand. 7 See the charts of the evolution of the different types of the Aramaic and Jewish letter-forms in Yardeni, TDT (above, note 5), vol. B, pp To these belong, among others, the looped Alef (fig. 17), the extreme cursive Bet, the tripod-type He, the two-strokes-type Waw, the comma-type Yod, the wavy-stroke-type Lamed, the circleand-down-stroke-type Mem, the backwardcurved-type Nun, as well as its extreme cursive form, and the looped taw. Already in the late Aramaic script, curved strokes began to straighten out and, as a result, angular joins are formed (fig. 18). This square appearance of the script is one of the defining features of the Jewish book-hand. Another feature of the early Jewish book-hand is the regularity of the writing, resulting from the suspension of the letters on straight guide-lines (not attested in Aramaic documents written in ink). At this early

6 periods, although isolated fragments may be dated earlier than the Hasmonean period (as mentioned above). The variety of different handwritings in the corpus of about 900 scrolls found in the caves of the Judean Desert, indicates an activity of many scribes, but no comprehensive palaeographic analysis has as yet been made of this corpus. However, about 50 manuscripts, and perhaps many more in this corpus, seem to have been written by a single scribe. 9 The Jewish Hasmonean and Herodian scripts are represented in a variety of letter-forms, ranging from elegant book-hand letter-forms to extreme cursive ones. As mentioned above, some of the letter-forms continued the route of evolution of certain types already appearing in the Aramaic script, while others reflect an internal process of evolution within the Jewish script. Fig. 18. Drawing of Samaria papyrus no. 1 (335 BCE) stage of independent development, the letters in the Jewish script were not yet adorned with ornamental additions, except for the inherited serifs in several letters such as, e.g., Bet, Dalet, Kaf, Mem, Qof, and Resh. The distinction between thick horizontal strokes and thin vertical strokes, characteristic of the late Aramaic script, is still attested in the earliest documents from Qumran, and occasionally even in later documents, but is not typical of the Jewish script. The process of splitting into different script-styles, i.e., the book-hand and the cursive hand, already began in the early stages of evolution of the Jewish script, but did not crystallize until the early 1st century CE. Main Periods in the Development of the Jewish Script Following F.M. Cross 8, three main periods in the development of the Jewish script are generally distinguished: 1. The Hasmonean period ( BCE); 2. The Herodian period (30 BCE-70 CE); 3. The Post-Herodian period (70 CE-135 CE). This arbitrary distinction is meant to facilitate the palaeographic description. In reality, the change in letter-forms is a continuous process with a living script. The majority of the Qumran Documents belong to the first two 8 Above, note 1. 6 Fig. 19. Drawing and alphabet of a column of 1QIsa.a Selected Documents Showing Characteristics of the Main Phases in the Development of the Jewish Script 1QIsa.a is an example of the Hasmonean handwriting from about the early first century 9 See A. Yardeni, "A Note on a Qumran Scribe', in: M. Lubetski (ed.), New Seals and Inscriptions, Hebrew, Idumean, and Cuneiform (Sheffield Phoenix Press 2007), pp

7 BCE (fig. 19). There are almost no ornaments added to the letters except for the independent stroke slanting to the left at the top of Waw, Yod and Lamed, and except for the serifs inherited from the Aramaic mother-script. However, the tops of Nun, Zayin and Gimel start to bend ruled in the years BCE, dated on historical and palaeographical grounds to the first quarter of the first century BCE, exhibits a variety of more or less cursive letter-forms, such as three forms of Mem and two forms of Lamed, and, as well, early and later forms of one and the same letter, Fig. 20. Drawing of the Prayer for King Jonathan (early 1st century BCE) backward, thus being the heralds of the sevenletter group Shin, Ayin, Tet, Nun, Zayin, Gimel, and Tsadi, which later became characterized by an identical ornament at the top of the left stroke of these letters. (Some generations later, when scribal instructions, reflecting the letter-forms prevailing at their time, were fixed for the writing of Torah scrolls, this group of seven letters was sanctified). Other characteristics of the 1QIsa.a scroll are the open Samekh and the letters Kaph, Mem, Pe and Tsadi, the medial forms of which still extend below the imaginary baseline, reflecting the original forms of these letters having long legs in the Aramaic script and later appearing in medial and final variants. The prayer for King Jonathan (figs. 20, 21) otherwise known as Alexander Jannaeus, who Fig. 21. Alphabet taken from the Prayer for King Jonathan such as an open and a closed form of Samekh, a semi-cursive Kaf in medial and final position, Waw and Yod adorned with a triangular loop instead of the former hook. A large amount of epigraphic material survives from the Herodian period. In addition to the Qumran documents there are many burial and ossuary inscriptions, as well as ostraca. The Masada finds belong to the end of this period. A significant increase in ornamental elements in the letters, in the form of independent additional strokes, is attested in the Herodian period (fig. 22). Characteristics of the period also include the levelling of the height of the letter-forms and the crystallization of different script styles, such as the calligraphic book-hand, which later developed into the ornamental script style used for Torah scrolls, and the standard cursive script 7

8 style, that prevailed in Judea during the late Herodian and post-herodian periods. Following are some examples of different script styles from the Herodian period: the Book-hand style in the Psalm scroll (figs. 22, 23); representative script Fig. 22. Independent ornamental additions in Herodian letters Fig. 25. The Uziyah epitaph Fig. 23. A detail of the Psalms scroll from Qumran carved in stone in an inscription from Jerusalem (fig. 24); a mixed script on the epitaph of King Uziah (fig. 25); incised script on ossuaries from the time of the loop-fashion (fig. 26); a semicursive hand in scroll fragments of Enoch manuscript g (fig. 27); a cursive script-style on ostraca from Masada (fig. 28). Many dated documents from the late Herodian and post-herodian periods have been found, Fig. 26. Drawings of ossuary inscriptions showing letters decorated with loops Fig. 27. Semi-cursive hand in a fragment of an Enoch scroll from Qumran (Enoch g; 4Q212) Fig. 24. The Beit Hatki'ah stone inscription from Jerusalem 8 mainly in the Wadi Murabba at and Na al Óever caves. The earliest of these is the already above mentioned deed of obligation from Wadi Murabba at (Mur. 18) dated to year 55/56 CE. Many different handwritings, in more or less cursive styles, appear in the documents from the post-herodian period. The Jewish book-

9 Fig. 30. Drawing of a Psalms scroll fragment from Nahal Hever Fig. 28. "Jewish" cursive script on ostraca from Masadah hand reached a high level of elegance and its letters are adorned with a variety of ornamental elements, as attested, for example, in fragments of the Genesis and Exodus scrolls from wadi Murabba at (fig. 29), in a fragment of a Psalm Fig. 29. Drawing of a detail of the Exodus scroll from Wadi Murabba'at scroll from Na al Óever (fig. 30), as well as in three Hebrew deeds dated to the year 134, also from Na al Óever (fig. 31). The standard and the extreme cursive hands appear in letters, such as the Bar Kokhba letters (fig. 32), as well as legal documents, such as a Hebrew sale contract from Wadi Murabba at (Mur. 30; figs. 33, 33a) and Babatha's marriage contract (NÓ 10; fig. 9 Fig. 31. Drawing of a Hebrew deed on papyrus from the Bar Kokhba period (NH 46)

10 Fig. 32. "Jewish" standard, cursive script in a Bar Kokhba letter (NH 57) Fig. 33a. Alphabet taken from Mur. 30 Fig. 33. "Jewish" extreme cursive script in a Hebrew deed from Wadi Murabba'at (Mur. 30) 34). An idiosyncratic handwriting, with unique ligatures, appears in a deed dated to the fourth year of the destruction of the House of Israel, i.e., 140 CE (fig. 35) 10. The Jewish cursive script (similarlly to the spoken Hebrew) fell into disuse shortly after the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt, being a mute witness to the tragic fate that overcame the Jews in Judea. The Jewish book-hand, however, in use throughout the Jewish Diaspora, continued to exist, and developed many different script styles, including various cursive styles, in widely dispersed Jewish communities 11. The Hebrew script used today is its modern descendant. 10 See above, note See A. Yardeni, The Book of Hebrew Script (Jerusalem 1991,1997). 10 Fig. 34. Drawing of Babatha's ketubbah (NH 10)

11 לוח אלפבית Fig. 35. Drawing of a Hebrew deed from about 140CE and its alphabet 11