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.
Oriental Institute, Oxford
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.
Sidnie White Crawford
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Magnesss originality and her mastery of the sources make this a major contribution to our field.
Lawrence H. Schiffman
New York University
About the Author
Jodi Magness is Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, her research interests include ancient pottery, ancient synagogues, and the Roman army in the East, and she has published and lectured extensively on these subjects. She has participated in twenty different excavations in Israel and Greece, including serving as codirector of the 1995 excavations in the Roman siege works at Masada. Her works include the award-winning books The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls and The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine.