Description: "In Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit Jodi Magness unearths 'footprints' buried in both archaeological and literary evidence to shed new light on Jewish daily life in Palestine from the mid-first century b.c.e. to 70 c.e. the time and place of Jesus' life and ministry. Magness analyzes recent archaeological discoveries from such sites as Qumran and Masada together with a host of period texts, including the New Testament, the works of Josephus, and rabbinic teachings. Layering all these sources together, she reconstructs in detail a fascinating variety of everyday activities dining customs, Sabbath observance, fasting, toilet habits, burial customs, and more" -- BACK COVER.
Brief description: Jodi Magness is the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. From 2017 to 2020, she served as president of the Archaeological Institute of America. In addition to Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, her research interests include ancient pottery, ancient synagogues, and the Roman army in the East. She has participated in over twenty different excavations in Israel and Greece, including as codirector of the 1995 excavations in the Roman siegeworks at Masada. Since 2011 she has directed excavations at Huqoq in Israel's Galilee.
Review Quotes: Fergus Millar
-- Oriental Institute, Oxford
"Jodi Magness brings literary evidence from both Jewish and New Testament writings together with extensive archaeological material to produce a literally 'down to earth' picture of the conditions and customs of daily life in the late Second Temple period. Essential reading for all who are interested in that period."
-- University of Nebraska-Lincoln
"A superb handbook on Jewish daily life in the late Second Temple period. Magness demonstrates how texts and archaeology, with careful scholarship, can illuminate each other. This book will be valuable for undergraduates, graduate students, and all scholars of the period for a long time to come." Lawrence H. Schiffman
-- New York University
"Magness's originality and her mastery of the sources make this a major contribution to our field." Exploring Our Matrix
"For anyone interested in the New Testament or its historical and cultural context, this is an important and very useful volume."