Enter Lachish

I would like to use the King and Stager image of the house for my second illustration. I will scan this and other pictures before break.

         As I head into the gate of Lachish with Midyan I notice that the great amount of energy that is always around the gate seems to be multiplied today. Everyone was talking, there were royal people sitting on raised platforms, there were tons of people milling around talking, and the threshing floor was completely covered. One of the royal men who I recognized as ______ got up to speak. “Men and women of Judah I am Eliab Uzson as I am sure you are all here to talk about the invasion Rehoboam. We of Lachish will stand strong against his invasion, we will be like a house made of ashlar and resist their push, we will not be like a brick wall in an earth quake.” So that explains why everyone is here. People are anxious about the invasion. People want to store as much food as possible, so that is why the threshing floor is so full. The more grain they are able to thresh now will mean more grain supply during the invasion. People must not be rushing to fill their cisterns because they are relying on the well.

         Despite the scare of an invasion, I felt relieved. This means that my son and I will stay together because Balak (patriarch) will not separate us because no one will be leaving the city because of the invasion, rather people will be taking refuge in the city. That is what Midyan and I will be doing. I will ask Balak for permission to stay in his house during the invasion. As we walk past the gate and into the city, the maze of streets are alive with preparations for Rehoboam, a man that has been invading Judah with his army. He has already taken over some of the surrounding towns and villages. We arrive at Balak’s house, he is the illustration of being put together. For example his house’s plaster is always in tact. Just like the plaster he demands that his Bet-ab be in the same impeccable shape. When his 1^st son died, my husband, it seemed more annoying than sad to him. He did not want to deal with a widow and a young boy milling about in his Bet-ab.

 

Fig. 7 A threshing floor in Santorini in Greece

Zurek, Stan. "Threshing Floor." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 21 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T hreshing_floor >.

Avraham, Faust, and Shlomo Bunimovitz. "The Four Room House: Emobdying Ancient Israel." Near Eastern Achaeology 2nd ser. 66.1 (2003): 22-31. JSTOR. Web. 20 Nov. 2011.

Possible new Direction?

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It would make more sense for the house to be outside the settlement near a spring.

            It was the time of year that my husband would normally have been making pottery, but the clay pit next to the house was empty. His trade was going to die with him for he had never taught Midyan (our son) to make pottery. It was a great way to feel wealthier, for the wealthy people in town would give us food for his pottery. We were never malnourished. I regret not making Midyan learn the trade. Now our whole settlement seemed useless. We had a kiln that just sits there in the yard, the entire clay pit, and a large supply of clay nearby that will not be used again. The times seem dire for us.

            It was time to visit the leader of my husband’s Bet Ab who lived in Lachish. I wish I could go back to my family, but I must see his. He paid my family for the marriage, and had taken good care of me. We had delivered a son to our clan, and tried to have other sons and daughters of the clan. By law I was part of his Bet Ab now. I had a feeling about what he was going to say, where he wanted me to work in Lachish, and my son to help one of his uncle’s outside the settlement. I do not want to separate from my son.

Figure 5: An example of a kiln that could have been used to fire pottery. This is a vertical (updraft) kiln. -http://www.itarp.uiuc.edu/atam/teaching/gvexhibit.html

Figure 6: A reconstruction of Lachish.

- http://www.biblebasics.info/natcit/lachish.htm

Meyers, Carol. "The Roots of Restriction: Women in Biblical Israel." The Biblical Archaeologist 41.3 (1978): 91-103. JSTOR. Web. 04 Nov. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.corn ell.edu/stable/3209454?&Search=yes&searchText=%22family+life%22&searchText=widow&searchText=lachish&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoAdvancedSearch%3Fq0%3Dlachish%26f0%3Dall%26c1%3DAND%26q1%3Dwidow%26f1%3Dall%26c2%3DAND%26q2%3D%2522family%2Blife%2522%26f2%3Dall%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don%26Search%3DSearch%26sd%3D%26ed%3D%26la%3D%26jo%3D&prevSearch=&item=1&ttl=6&returnArticleService=showFullText>.

Herrmann, Siegfred. A History of Israel in Old Testament Times. 2nd ed. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981. Print.

The start of a day

            It is morning, so I travel to the well on the north-eastern side of Lachish to get water for the day. To get there I have to pass the palace in the center of the city where I can overhear the talk of the city. The main subjects today are people talking about trade or the invasion of the Pharoah Shishak’s army in Judah. However, I cannot listen for long because I need to start baking, and to do so I need that water. At the well there is a long line of women and children waiting to receive their water. Here the talk is more along the lines of repairs that need to be done to the house before winter sets in. This is a subject I can relate to. Ever since my husband died I have not had enough time to take care of the house, the child, and myself. If only he were still here. Eventually I get my and make my way back to the house.

            I have a nice house. It has four rooms, with the main room being open, roofless and gets plenty of light. My son who is only 4 years old is still asleep in the back room. Because my husband was a potter the western side of the house was his workshop. It is such a shame that he never was able to pass on his skill to our son. I look about the house, and think about what the other women were complaining about. Their problems seemed petty compared to what I am faced with. For instance the plaster around the house was not just beginning to peel off, the entire northern wall the plaster was almost wholly removed! That absolutely needs to be fixed or else it may collapse. Hoever, for now I must make bread.

Fig 2. The well at Tell-Lachish

Fig 3. This is a model of what Lachish may have looked like. Note the palace in the center.

I am sorry about this, but I have two pictures from Stern's encyclopedia that  I would like to  include, but cannot figure out how to get them electronically. How would you suggest doing this?

Bibliography:

         The Anchor Bible Dictionary on CD-ROM. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1997. Print

         Stern, Ephraim, ed. "Lachish." The Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land. Vol. 3. Israel: Israel Excavation Society and Carta, 1993. 897-910. Print.

        "Lachish: the Well Shaft." BibBible.org. Web. 23 Oct. 2011. <http://bigbible.org/israel/lakish/DCP_1257.html>.

         "Judah." Fontes - Educational Technology at LSTC and MTS. Web. 23 Oct. 2011. <http://fontes.lstc.edu/~rklein/Documents/judah.htm>.

10/05--Aspects of Life

            As a newly widowed woman, I would like to discuss what happens to a widow in Judah. This means talk about what levirate is. Were there other options for Ascah? I will talk about how she gets her food. I will also move the time period to ca. 1100 when Rehoboam was either in control, or just lost control of some of the cities to the Shishak. I would like to illustrate that a widow’s life style was not a maltreated lifestyle. Widows were treated with respect, and people try and help the socially disenfranchised. Ascah will also have a child, but a young child. This means that Ascah will be closer to 23. This is a very interesting geographic area because of the border conflict issues, and there were Canaaninte people living amongst the Judeans. I would like to take a look into what a Judean would think of such people. Ascah represents a key to looking into family dynamics, city dynamics, racial (Judean/Canaanintes) dynamics, and an insight into the socially disenfranchised of ancient Israel.

Note: Shephelah-Lachish

(http://www.followtherabbi.com/Brix?pageID=1866)
(Have a better map that has a more reliable source, but do not know how to copy it from the doucment. However, by cross checking the two I can tell that Lachish is in the correct place.)

Sources:
Fensham, F. Charles. "Widow, Orphan, and the Poor in Ancient near Eastern Legal and Wisdom              Literature." Journal of Near Eastern Studies 21.2 (1962): 129-39.JSTOR. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.cornell.edu/stable/543887?seq=2&Search=yes&searchText=ancient&searchText=widow&searchText=israel&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dwidow%2Bancient%2Bisrael%26gw%3Djtx%26acc%3Don%26prq%3Dshephelah%26Search%3DSearch%26hp%3D25%26wc%3Don&prevSearch=&item=18&ttl=3161&returnArticleService=showFullText&resultsServiceName=null>.
AND
Wright, G. E. "Judean Lachish." Biblical Archaelogist 18.1 (1955): 9-17. JSTOR. Web. 4 Oct. 2011. <http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.cornell.edu/stable/3209101?&Search=yes&searchText=lachish&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dlachish%26gw%3Djtx%26acc%3Don%26prq%3Dancient%2Bfamily%2Bdynamics%2Bisrael%26Search%3DSearch%26hp%3D25%26wc%3Don&prevSearch=&item=3&ttl=2365&returnArticleService=showFullText>.


P.S. The second source is from 1955, should I try and find a more current article on Lachish, or is this going to be pretty good?

Ascah

Name: Ascah
Age: Approximately 30
Profession: Widow
Gender: Female
Time period: Late Bronze 1/Early Kassite/Middle Assyrian/Mitanni/New Kingdom: Dynasties 18-20. Just around the year 1500 BC.
Geographic Region: Shephelah--Behind the Hill Country of Judah

After the lecture of grain harvesting and widows, I decided that a widow has the potential to create a very interesting story. As a woman who must rely on scavenging the remains of fields after a harvest, she will be able to observe the different farming practices. She will be an outsider looking in at civilization. This will create insight that an insider would not get. The main reason I chose the geographic region is because I would very much like to learn more about the terraced hills. This concept is very intriguing to me. In Shephelah there are rolling hills, and it is extremely fertile. Because it is a disputed border zone I believe that Shephelah will contain a very rich history. I am very excited about doing more research about what life for Ascah would hold, and how Shephelah functioned at 1500 BC.
--Harrison (Hank) Stein
JWST2662

P.S. I hope this is detailed enough or is how you wanted this written.

Bibiliography:
Rainey, A. F. "The Biblical Shephelah of Judah." Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Researc       251 (1983): 1-22. JSTOR. Web. 23 Sept. 2011 <http://http://www.jstor.org.proxy.library.cornell.edu/stable/1356823?&Search=yes&searchText=shephelah&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dshephelah%26acc%3Don%26wc%3Don&prevSearch=&item=1&ttl=465&returnArticleService=showFullText>.


I can't figure out how to format on the blog.