Friday, May 12, 2017

Bar Kokhba letters anniversary

ON THIS DAY IN 1960, Yigael Yadin made his famous announcement of the discovery of a cache of documents from the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt. The anniversary was noted by Haaretz in 2015, but I cant find any notice of it in the media this year. The announcement was one of the most dramatic moments in the history of Israeli archaeology. You can read about it here.

This year's anniversary almost counts as a cosmic synchronicity, because it comes the day before Lag B'Omer. This holiday has become, among other things, an annual commemoration of the Bar Kokhba Revolt.

A couple of years ago I collected past PaleoJudaica posts on the Bar Kokhba Revolt, including ones on its connections with Lag B'Omer. I also linked to posts on the site of Betar (Battir), the central site of the revolt, on which more here and in yesterday's post. Yesterday's post also collected recent posts on Philip Esler's new book on the Babatha archive.

Since the roundup two years ago, there have been posts on the archaeology of the revolt (more or less) here, here, here, here, here, and here. Posts on last year's archaeological expedition to re-explore the the Cave of Skulls are here, here, here, and links. Recent posts on coins of the Bar Kokhba Revolt are here and here. Other posts on the Bar Kokhba Revolt from the last couple of years are here, here, here, here, and here.