DailyHebrew.com

… and the SBL meeting.  I look forward to meeting with many old friends and making a few new ones. 

There is a nice article in Archaeology Magazine about this year's excavation at Zincirli and the new inscription, which I promised back at the end of July would be very interesting! 

A bit about the context of the findspot:

The stele was found in an annex to what is most likely Kuttamuwa's house, in a residential district outside the city's royal citadel and acropolis. (In an earlier phase, this annex was a kitchen that contained two large, circular clay bread ovens.) The 800-pound, three-foot-tall basalt monument was inserted into a flagstone platform against a wall in a corner of the small room and surrounded by remnants of food offerings, such as animal bones, and fragments of stone bowls similar to the ones depicted in it, indicating that the room was a private shrine. "It's possible that there was originally a cremation urn somewhere in the vicinity," says Schloen, "but at a later time when this room went out of use, it was moved or lost—or we just haven't found it yet."

Description of the image:

The inscription is etched above a masterfully carved image of the deceased, who sits at an offering table filled with food, symbolizing the lavish banquet he hoped to enjoy in the afterlife: duck in a pedestaled stone bowl, two loaves of bread that conform to the upward-curved shape of a flat-footed bowl, a ball of meat, and a square pyxis, likely an ivory box with a lid, which would have contained condiments for the feast. What is most striking about the image, notes Schloen, is how well it was executed. "If you look closely, the quality of the carving is really extraordinary," he says. "There are fingernails on those fingers!"

Kuttamuwa is shown with a beard, wearing a pointed cap with a tassel on it and a fringed cloak, which is how kings were typically portrayed. Even though he was only an official, explains Schloen, for some reason, the artist made no iconographic distinction between royalty and non-royalty. In his left hand, Kuttamuwa holds a pinecone, a symbol of eternal life or regeneration, especially important in the surrounding Amanus Mountain region famous for its pine forests that provided a wealth of timber. In his right hand, Kuttamuwa grasps an Assyrian-style metal fluted drinking vessel, probably made either of silver or gold, and most likely filled with wine.

More coming at SBL…

UPDATE: The link is active!

On the heels of D. Schloen's Saturday ASOR talk and of D. Pardee's presentation on the new Zincirli Inscription at SBL this coming Sunday, the NY Times is publishing an article with photograph (!) tomorrow (11/18) in the Science section.  I will post a link to the article as soon as it is available.  

This product has been on the horizon for about a year now and finally looks to be actualized.  Mac users who have a PC version will be able to migrate their titles (most importantly this one!) for only the cost of the base package ($60) according to Phil Gons. (HT: Peter Bekins)