Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

> listers,
> 
> with professor altmans ok i have added a html version of her essay on the
> james ossuary to my web site.  
> 
> http://web.infoave.net/~jwest/
> 
> just click on the archaeology section and you will see it at the top of the
> list.
> 
Interesting!  I confess that, looking at both the close-up photo and 
Yardeni's transcription in BAR, I don't see the evidence of two 
different hands that Risa does.  I do see some problems with 
Yardeni's drawing and her transcription.  As put forth by Dr. Altman, 
Yardeni shows a gap between the pe of YWSP and the aleph of 
)XWY, but in the photo no such gap is there.  Yardeni drew both the 
waw and the yod in )XWY the same length, but in the photo the yod 
appears to be markedly shorter, and both it and the yod at the 
beginning of Y$W( appear to have the pseudo-cuneiform wedges at 
the top that Risa says aren't there (they are omitted from Yardeni's 
drawing).  

Dr. Altman, again following Yardeni (apparently), says the first part 
of the inscription is in a line that clearly used a frame guide, while 
the second part can't hold a straight line.  But in the first part, in the 
photo, the word YWSP slants significantly downward, and both the 
ayin of Y(QWB and the waw of YWSP extend far below what would 
have been the baseline.  The rest of the inscription doesn't slope 
downward any more than this part, as far as I can see.  

The supposedly different script styles are severely overstated, IMO.  
The only letters common to both "parts" are ayin, waw and yod.  As I 
already mentioned, the yods appear to have the tittles in both parts.  
Even in Yardeni's drawing, none of the waws in either part have 
ornaments.  That leaves one ayin that is sort of squarish and one 
that is more rounded in places.  I really don't think one letter is 
sufficient evidence to claim two different hands of two different eras.

It looks to me as though the person making the inscription was 
sitting or standing near the right side of the box and didn't shift 
position as s/he wrote.  This accounts for the sloping of the 
inscription overall, the roundedness of the final ayin, and the slip 
with the top bar of the daleth.  I find the description of the heth in Dr. 
Altman's article amazing, considering that the H-type shape is the 
common form of this letter in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which we know 
were written on both sides of the BCE/CE line and have plenty of 
heths that are consistent with this one.

In conclusion, I have to disagree with my friend Dr. Altman on this 
one.  I can see how she reached her view, but I find the evidence 
lacking.  Of more concern to me are the serious problems with 
Yardeni's drawing of this inscription.

My two pistoozas' worth.
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"Ah, a bear in his natural habitat:
a Studebaker."