Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New Jewish Archaeology (2005 Fine), book

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Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New Jewish Archaeology (2005) is a book by Steven Fine.

Abstract

"Art and Judaism During the Greco-Roman Period explores the Jewish experience with art during the Greco-Roman period from the Hellenistic period through the rise of Islam. It starts from with the premise that Jewish art in antiquity was a "minority" or "ethnic" art and surveys ways that Jews fully participated in, transformed, and at times rejected the art of their general environment. Art and Judaism focuses upon the politics of identity during the Greco-Roman period, even as it discusses ways that modern identity issues have sometimes distorted and at other times refined scholarly discussion of ancient Jewish material culture. Art and Judaism, the first historical monograph on ancient Jewish art in forty years, evaluates earlier scholarship even as it sets out in new directions. Placing literary sources in careful dialogue with archaeological discoveries, this "New Jewish Archaeology" is an important contribution to Judaic Studies, Religious Studies, Art History, and Classics. The Revised Edition includes a new introduction, additional images, and color plates."--Publisher description.

Editions and translations

Published in Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2005.

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Part One: "The 'Most Unmonumental People' of the World": **1. Modern Constructions of Ancient Jewish Art

Building an ancient synagogue on the Delaware: Philadelphia's Henry S. Frank Memorial Synagogue and constructions of Jewish art at the turn of the twentieth century

• • 2. The old-new land: Jewish archaeology and the Zionist narrative
  • 3. Archaeology and the search for non-rabbinic Judaism
  • 4. Art history: textbooks and the rhetoric of Jewish artlessness
  • 5. Toward a new Jewish archaeology: methodological reflections
• Part Two: Art and Identity in the Greco-Roman World
  • 6. Art and identity in latter Second Temple period Judaism: the Hasmonean royal tombs at Modi'in
  • 7. Art and identity in late antique Palestine: the Na'aran synagogue
  • 8. Art and identity in diaspora communities in late antiquity: from Rome to Nehardea
• Part Three: Jewish "Symbols" in the Greco-Roman World
  • 9. Between Rome and Jerusalem: the date palm as a Jewish symbol
  • 10. "The lamps of Israel": the menorah as a Jewish symbol
• Part Four: Reading Holistically: Art and the Liturgy of Late Antique Synagogues
  • 11. Liturgy and the art of the Dura Europos synagogue **12. Synagogue mosaics and liturgy in the land of Israel
  • 13. Sanctity and the art of ancient synagogues
• Epilogue

External links

• Google Books (partial text)