Sample Sources
The sources below are those contained in our three curated collections—covering themes of Passover, Gender Roles, and Holocaust Resistance. They represent a fraction of the thousands of sources that will be available when the full site launches in 2024.
Prisoners, Naked and Bound, in Embossed Relief
Prisoners, naked and bound, in embossed relief, Assyria, Iron Age II, 9th century BCE. These prisoners, from a city in Syria, were conquered by the army of Shalmaneser III, King of Assyria (reigned…
Words Taken to Heart: Four Answers to One Question
You Will Be Wrapped in Silk
“And how do you merit to live so long?”
—Because I know there is need to consider.
At my birth someone said, “He will be wrapped
in silk.” And now the guests are…
Fierce Attachments
My mother and I are out walking. I ask if she remembers the women in that building in the Bronx. “Of course,” she replies. I tell her I’ve always thought sexual rage was what made them so crazy.…
Tomb of Pharaoh’s Daughter
The cemetery in the village of Silwan, on the hill east of the City of David, included some aboveground tombs, cut out from the cliffs on three or four sides so that they look like buildings. These…
Budapest Diary: In Search of the Motherbook
Few children know the stories of their parents. During my childhood, I knew only that mine were an impossible match—which did not prevent my mother from spending day and night at my father’s bedside…
A Tale of Love and Darkness
Even after the mourning period was over, when the flat was finally empty and my father and I locked the door and were alone together, we hardly talked to one another. Except about the most essential…
The Island on Bird Street
Freddy laid the soldier on the floor and said, “Now that I have a rifle and bullets, I’ll join the uprising tonight. But Henryk will stay with you. His wound isn’t serious. The bullet can be gotten…
Ivory-openwork Panel with a Sphinx Striding through Lotus Flowers
Sphinxes are among the most ubiquitous images on Iron Age Levantine ivories. The sphinx combines the features of several animals; it has the head of a human, the wings of an eagle, and the body of a…
Kriza
The Woman:I married him and he never gave me any trouble. His mother, she lives with us here. This house is his mother’s house. When we are there, together, in the other room, she lights candles here…
Assemblage of Containers from Ketef Hinnom
About a thousand items that had accumulated over time were found in the repository of Cave 25 in the Ketef Hinnom cemetery. They included jewelry, ivory and bone inlays, arrowheads, tools, and a large…
Men Doing Obeisance to Sennacherib
The six men from Lachish in this section of Sennacherib's palace relief are dressed quite differently from the men shown in other sections. They are clad in the simplest of short-sleeved, unbelted…
Bone Comb
This comb is from a Philistine site at Ekron, but combs looked the same throughout the region.