{"product_id":"writing-on-the-wall-by-karen-b-stern-9780691210704","title":"Writing on the Wall","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFew direct clues exist to the everyday lives and beliefs of ordinary Jews in antiquity. Prevailing perspectives on ancient Jewish life have been shaped largely by the voices of intellectual and social elites, preserved in the writings of Philo and Josephus and the rabbinic texts of the Mishnah and Talmud.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCommissioned art, architecture, and formal inscriptions displayed on tombs and synagogues equally reflect the sensibilities of their influential patrons. The perspectives and sentiments of nonelite Jews, by contrast, have mostly disappeared from the historical record.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFocusing on these forgotten Jews of antiquity, \u003cem\u003eWriting on the Wall\u003c\/em\u003e takes an unprecedented look at the vernacular inscriptions and drawings they left behind and sheds new light on the richness of their quotidian lives. Just like their neighbours throughout the eastern and southern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and Egypt, ancient Jews scribbled and drew graffiti everywhere—in and around markets, hippodromes, theatres, pagan temples, open cliffs, sanctuaries, and even inside burial caves and synagogues.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eKaren Stern reveals what these markings tell us about the men and women who made them, people whose lives, beliefs, and behaviours eluded commemoration in grand literary and architectural works. Making compelling analogies with modern graffiti practices, she documents the overlooked connections between Jews and their neighbours, showing how popular Jewish practices of prayer, mortuary commemoration, commerce, and civic engagement regularly crossed ethnic and religious boundaries.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIllustrated throughout with examples of ancient graffiti, \u003cem\u003eWriting on the Wall\u003c\/em\u003e provides a tantalisingly intimate glimpse into the cultural worlds of forgotten populations living at the crossroads of Judaism, Christianity, paganism, and earliest Islam.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46852785864940,"sku":"9780691210704","price":70.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/2094183482434.jpg?v=1759164354","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/products\/writing-on-the-wall-by-karen-b-stern-9780691210704","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}