Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Greg Jordan <jordan AT chuma.cas.usf.edu>]

On Wed, 3 Oct 2001, Walter Mattfeld wrote:

> Excavations at Tadmor have revealed some Bronze Age sherds, NO Iron Age
> (Israelite period), and NO STRUCTURES before the 1st century BCE. An
> underground tomb however was found from the 2nd century BCE.
> 
> The Excavators suspect that the area was a nomadic encampment, hence the
> bronze age sherds. ONLY in the 1st century BCE did structures arise. Cf. my
> article on Tadmor at the following url for the details

Walter,

Since when is a tomb not a structure? It was an expensive vaulted brick
tomb, partially aboveground (mausoleum), with local pottery and imported
goods, in the sanctuary grounds of the Temple of Baal Shamin. Not exactly
the thing you'd expect to find in a nomadic encampment.

The 2nd millennium Kueltepe-Kanis and Mari references are in
business contracts and such, to people being from the place, as
their home - even when they traveled and did business abroad - which is
not what you would expect from a nomadic encampment. 

Tiglath Pileser I boasted of bringing its plunder to Ashur circa 1110 BCE
- sounds like more than tents and baskets.

Boehme and Schottroff (Palmyrenische Grabreliefs, 1979) seem to think
there may have been an occupation gap, but ending in the Achaemenid
period. They find a Palmyrene name in Polybius for a commander under the
Seleucid Antiochus III, circa 217 BCE. The Temple of Bel seems to have
been built on top of a cleared-away tell.

All in all, I think Tadmor is a poor choice of a city to use to date a
text from, since there is so much uncertainty. Better the Hellenistic
cities with definite foundation dates. 

Greg Jordan
University of South Florida
jordan AT chuma.cas.usf.edu