Ritual Purity in Daily Life after 70 CE: The Chalk Vessel Assemblage from Shuʿafat as a Test Case

What is it about?

Chalk vessels became common at Jewish sites throughout the Southern Levant beginning in the late 1st century BCE, apparently because Jews considered stone to be impervious to ritual impurity. It is commonly thought that a drastic decline in the phenomenon occurred after 70 CE as a direct result of the Temple’s destruction—on the assumption that the central motivation for Jews’ observance of the purity regulations was the Temple cult. These notions are reconsidered here in light of an impressive assemblage of chalk vessels recently unearthed at Shuʿafat, occupied during the brief 70–132 CE interwar period. The character of this assemblage, presented here preliminarily, suggests that both use and production of chalk vessels continued unabated for decades after 70 CE, contradicting the notion that the chalk vessel industry was reliant on a functioning Temple and that observance of the purity laws was inexorably linked with the Jerusalem cult.

Featured Image