Classics

Food Taboos and Biblical Prohibitions

Reassessing Archaeological and Literary Perspectives
Edited by Peter Altmann, Anna Angelini, and Abra Spiciarich

[Nahrungstabus und biblische Verbote. Eine Neubewertung archäologischer und literarischer Perspektiven.]

2020. VI, 158 pages.

Archaeology and Bible 2

eBook PDF
ISBN 978-3-16-159440-3
Open Access: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Sponsored by: Schweizerische Nationalfonds (SNF)
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Published in English.
This volume investigates the biblical food prohibitions with regard to their materiality, their nature as comparative cultural objects, and their anthropological nature, bringing together contributions from archaeology, ancient Near Eastern studies, and anthropological and textual perspectives.
This volume presents contributions from »The Larger Context of the Biblical Food Prohibitions: Comparative and Interdisciplinary Approaches« conference held in Lausanne in June, 2017. The biblical food prohibitions constitute an excellent object for comparative and interdisciplinary approaches given their materiality, their nature as comparative objects between cultures, and their nature as an anthropological object. This volume articulates these three aspects within an integrated and dynamic perspective, bringing together contributions from Levantine archaeology, ancient Near Eastern studies, and anthropological and textual perspectives to form a new, multi-disciplinary foundation for interpretation.
Survey of contents
Peter Altmann/Anna Angelini/Abra Spiciarich: Introduction: Setting the Table – Peter Altmann/Anna Angelini: Purity, Taboo and Food in Antiquity. Theoretical and Methodological Issues – Stefania Ermidoro: Animals in the Ancient Mesopotamian Diet. Prohibitions and Regulations Related to Meat in the First Millennium BCE – Youri Volokhine: »Food Prohibitions« in Pharaonic Egypt. Discourses and Practices – Abra Spiciarich: Identifying the Biblical Food Prohibitions Using Zooarchaeological Methods – Jonathan S. Greer: Prohibited Pigs and Prescribed Priestly Portions. Zooarchaeological Remains from Tel Dan and Questions Concerning Ethnicity and Priestly Traditions in the Hebrew Bible – Deirdre N. Fulton: Distinguishing Judah and Philistia. A Zooarchaeological View from Ramat Raḥel and Ashkelon – Débora Sandhaus: Continuity, Innovation and Transformation in Cooking Habits. The Central and Southern Shephelah between the Late Fourth and the First Centuries BCE
Authors/Editors

Peter Altmann Born 1974; 2004 ThM and 2010 PhD in Old Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary; 2016 Habilitation from the University of Zurich; since 2008 doctoral and then post-doctoral researcher in Hebrew Bible Studies at the University of Zurich.

Anna Angelini Born 1979; 2003 MA in Hebrew Language at the University of Milan; 2008 PhD in Classics at the University of Siena; since 2012 Post-doctoral researcher at the University of Geneva and Lausanne; since 2020 Post-doctoral researcher at the University of Zürich.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2031-0412

Abra Spiciarich Born 1989; 2015 MA in Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv University; since 2016 doctoral student in Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures at Tel Aviv.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5713-6270

Reviews

The following reviews are known:

In: Journal for the Study of the Old Testament — 47 (2023), pp. 120–121 (Peter J. Atkins)
In: Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft (ZAW) — 134 (2022), p. 274 (S. Schulz)
In: Old Testament Abstracts — https://app.box.com/s/4n2u3wtr10yupmcyoaupfmk1v9swni6p / 44 (2021), p. 262 (Christopher T.Begg)
In: Catholic Biblical Quarterly — 83 (2021), pp. 528–530 (James W. Watts)