Re: [Megillot] Jewish Iliad or Oddity?

[RUSSELLGMIRKIN]

Dierk,   < Russell, on the identifiable masonry as Roman, cf. G.A. Smith_ Jerusalem, The topography, economics and history from the earliest times to A.D. 70, vol. II, p. 425, #1, London 1907 >   I haven't found Smith's 1907 book on Jerusalem available locally, but a later edition of his Historical Geography of the Holy Land recognizes the castle and caves at Araq el-Emir as having been constructed by Hyrkanus the Tobiad in the 170s BCE (see p. 384 and note).  The castle is now "without controversy" dated by archaeologists to the Hellenistic period on architectural grounds based on its alternate binder-stretcher construction as well as its Hellenistic architectural ornamentation.   While the site of Araq el-Emir contains both Hellenistic and Roman era pottery fragments, its architectural remains are restricted to the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods.  I would speculate based on more recent publications on Araq el-Emir that the Roman masonry was either misidentified in Smith or (less likely) refers to structures in the nearby village rather than the castle itself.  But thanks for the bibliography - I will track it down and read it with interest. < 1QM is not to be brought into a serekh line with 1QS, 1QSa and 1QSb, neither systematically nor terminologically - not even sociologically. Otherwise any taktika written at any time would be related to the yachad, btw. Albeit the fact that all orders are derivatives of basic conflict solutions, Schiffman is apparently not familiar with the traditional roots - and only that's important here - of the military orders in 1QM... >   These comments don't correspond with the analysis in Schiffman's book, which show close correspondences in laws found in the texts under discussion and doesn't address itself to military matters.  I cannot agree with your assertion that the serekh terminology in 1QM does not link it to the other Serekh texts.   I'll discuss the location of Daphne near Antioch in 2 Maccabees in a separate thread.   Best regards, Russell Gmirkin