Sample Sources
The sources below are those contained in our three curated collections—covering themes of Passover, Gender Roles, and Holocaust Resistance. They represent a fraction of the thousands of sources that will be available when the full site launches in 2024.
Papyrus, Rolled and Sealed
Papyrus, rolled and sealed, Samaria, 4th century BCE. This legal document had multiple seals affixed to it, apparently from different individuals (see the translation of this document, Slave Sale)…
Window Balustrade from Ramat Rahel Palace
Palm imagery is a common motif in decorative architectural elements like window balustrades. Each of the four columns in this partial restoration from the biblical period is six inches in diameter and…
French Lessons
[…] On my first research trip to France as a professional scholar in the summer of 1982, I set out to find the only fascist intellectual discussed in my dissertation who was still alive; his name was…
Cow and Calf
This drawing of a cow and her calf appears on the right side of a pithos (storage jar) from Kuntillet Ajrud. The cow and calf are a common motif associated with fertility and protection. Kuntillet…
Necklace of Beads
This necklace of beads is predominantly of orange glass but incorporates stone beads and gold spacers as well. The beads range in shape from bi-conical to cylindrical and also include larger…
Dancers on a Seal from Abel Beth Maacah
Seals from numerous sites in ancient Israel and elsewhere in the Levant have schematic depictions of two or three people with hands linked or raised, reaching toward each other. All the members of the…
Samaria Ostracon (A Shipment of Wine)
Samaria ostracon (A Shipment of Wine), early 8th century BCE, from the ruins of a building near the royal palace. The text can be read here.
Witnesses
A single witness may not validate against a person any guilt or blame for any offense that may be committed; a case can be valid only on the testimony of two witnesses or more. If a man appears…
A Ruling about Deferring Passover
The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, on the first new moon of the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, saying: Let the Israelite people offer the passover…
Marriage Contract
In the month of Tishri, that is Epeiph, year four of Darius the king, then in Elephantine the fortress, Ananiah son of Haggai, an Aramean of Elephantine the fortress of the detachment of Iddinnabu…
Children of Poland
In the city of Warsaw such a long time ago
Two hundred children stand lined row on row
With their freshly washed faces and freshly washed clothes
The children of Poland who never grow old
In the…