NEW YORK, NEW YORK—Students under the direction of Steven Fine, a biblical archaeologist at Yeshiva University, are attempting to decipher the script on a 1,600-year-old sandstone Jewish tombstone taken from the majority Christian city of Zoar in modern-day Jordan. The artifact came to Fine’s attention when he was contacted by a pastor at a northern California church and sent a photo of the headstone. He would later travel to California and collect the item for more study. So far the students have translated what they can make out of the Talmudic Aramaic inscriptions. They determined that the tombstone belonged to a woman named Sa’adah, though they don’t know her age at death since, according to Jewish custom, it’s not written on the artifact. The students are still studying the tombstone, which they were also able to date to the A.D. fifth century by reconciling two dating systems referred to in the Aramaic.
Decoding a Jewish Tombstone
News December 17, 2013
Recommended Articles
Digs & Discoveries September/October 2023
Dramatic Entrance
Top 10 Discoveries of 2022 January/February 2023
Neolithic Hunting Shrine
Jibal al-Khashabiyeh, Jordan
Letter from Jordan November/December 2019
Beyond Petra
After the famous city was deserted, a small village thrived in its shadow
-
Features November/December 2013
Life on the Inside
Open for only six weeks toward the end of the Civil War, Camp Lawton preserves a record of wartime prison life
(Virginia Historical Society, Mss5.1.Sn237.1v.6p.139) -
Features November/December 2013
Vengeance on the Vikings
Mass burials in England attest to a turbulent time, and perhaps a notorious medieval massacre
(Courtesy Thames Valley Archaeological Services) -
Letter from Bangladesh November/December 2013
A Family’s Passion
(Courtesy Reema Islam) -
Artifacts November/December 2013
Moche Ceremonial Shield
(Courtesy Lisa Trever, University of California, Berkeley)