GENDER and REPRESENTATION in ANCIENT SYNAGOGUES Carrie Elaine Duncan a Dissertation Submitted To
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THE RHETORIC OF PARTICIPATION: GENDER AND REPRESENTATION IN ANCIENT SYNAGOGUES Carrie Elaine Duncan A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Religious Studies Chapel Hill 2012 Approved by: Jodi Magness Elizabeth Clark Bart Ehrman Laura Lieber Zlatko Plese ©2012 Carrie Elaine Duncan ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT CARRIE ELAINE DUNCAN: The Rhetoric of Participation: Gender and Representation in ancient synagogues (Under the direction of Jodi Magness) Twenty four inscriptions from the late ancient Mediterranean world commemorate individual Jewish women using titles such as Head of the Synagogue, Elder, Mother of the Synagogue, and other terms seemingly indicative of religious leadership or authority. This project explores the social locations of these inscriptions’ production and display by considering issues such as geographical and chronological distribution, literacy and textuality, as well as visuality and non-verbal modes of communication. Whereas earlier studies asked whether these inscriptions prove that women acted as leaders in ancient synagogues, this study asks how inscriptions were read and seen by ancient audiences and what purposes the epigraphic representation of women served in ancient Jewish Diaspora communities. The question of women’s roles in ancient synagogues, rather than an end in itself, opens a wider door to explorations of gender and representation in the ancient world. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My gratitude towards those who have helped this project reach this point cannot be adequately expressed on paper. I am grateful for financial support from the University of North Carolina Graduate School in the forms of a Dissertation Research Fellowship in the fall of 2010 and a Paul C. Hardin Royster Society Fellowship in 2011-2012, as well as the many teaching opportunities, travel fellowships, and other forms of support offered to me. The Charlotte Newcombe Foundation awarded me a dissertation completion fellowship in 2011-2012, which I was greatly honored to receive. I am grateful to Amy Hirschfeld of the International Catacomb Society, Hannah Kendall of the Ashmolean Museum, and Andrew Reinhard of the American School of Classical Studies for their assistance with many of the images that appear in this dissertation. Thank you to my committee: to Bart Ehrman and Zlatko Plese in particular for the innumerable letters of recommendation written on my behalf and to Laura Lieber and Elizabeth Clark for their helpful, gracious, and timely feedback on an initial draft of this dissertation. Finally, with love and gratitude to Jodi Magness, my mentor of 15 years, who might not have known what she was getting into when I showed up at her door at age eighteen and said I wanted to be an archaeologist! For every prompt email reply, phone conversation, marked-up draft, honest opinion, recommendation letter, crisis negotiation, and sugar-free birthday cake, thank you. I am grateful also to Laurie Maffly- Kipp and Randall Styers, who have been interchangeably department chair and director iv of graduate studies for most of my time at UNC and have helped me in many ways, some of which I am likely not even aware. My brilliant and dedicated colleagues at UNC have provided seven years’ worth of support and camaraderie. In particular, I would like to thank the members of Team JOB, everyone from various writing and reading groups, and the women of my cohort: Jill Peterfeso, Cynthia Hogan, and Brandi Denison. Non-Carolina people nonetheless deserving of recognition are Ely Levine and Maria Doerfler. Finally, I am grateful to friends and family who have taken this circuitous journey with me. To Cori for all the care packages and phone calls, my brother Andrew for all the pep talks and encouragement, and my husband Peter for tech and design support, photographic assistance, and unstinting confidence in me – thank you. Above all, to my parents Mary and Phil Duncan, copyeditors par excellence, for everything. Thank you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES..........................................................................................................viii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION TO SYNAGOGUES, TITLES, AND INSCRIPTIONS....................................................................11 Introduction......................................................................................1 The early history of the synagogue..................................................4 Title Bearer Inscriptions................................................................15...15 Theoretical Considerations............................................................2727 Organization of the Study..............................................................3131 II. CHRONOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY....................................................43... 43 Introduction....................................................................................43.43 Religion, Gender, and Title............................................................45...45 Chronology....................................................................................52.52 Geography......................................................................................66 Conclusions....................................................................................98 III. ON THE USE AND ABUSE OF EPIGRAPHY.......................................9999 Introduction....................................................................................99 Textuality and the Linguistic Turn..............................................105...105 Ancient Literacy...........................................................................111111 Epigraphy as a Genre...................................................................121 vi Synagogues and Catacombs.........................................................136 Conclusions..................................................................................155 IV. MATERIALITY AND THE VISUAL RECEPTION OF INSCRIPTIONS.........................................................156156 Introduction..................................................................................156156 Where art and text collide: Reception Theory and Visual Culture..............................................................................167157 Materiality: Medium, Execution, Decoration..............................176176 Sophia of Gortyn and Marcella of Rome.....................................211 Conclusions..................................................................................216 V. WOMEN LEADERS...............................................................................219 Introduction..................................................................................219 Objectivism, Presentism, Feminism............................................221221 Power, Prestige, Leadership.........................................................232232 Financial Leadership in Synagogues...........................................245245 Inscribing Identity........................................................................265 Conclusions..................................................................................278 VI. CONCLUSION........................................................................................281 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................286 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Chronological Chart of Female Title Bearer Inscriptions..........................5555-56-56 2. Chronological Chart of Average Dates............................................................57 3. Map of Geographical Distribution of Inscriptions...........................................67 4. Geographical Chart of Inscriptions..................................................................70 5. Faustinus Family Tree....................................................................................131 6. Typical entry in Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe...............................158.158 7. Typical plate in Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe...............................160.160 8. Chart of Inscriptions’ Decoration...........................................................17.176-1776-177 9. Example of Inscription of average quality.....................................................183.183 10. Example of Inscription of high quality..........................................................184.184 11. Transcription of Rufina of Smyrna’s inscription...........................................186.186 12. Image of Gaudentia’s inscription...................................................................191.191 13. Image of Sophia of Gortyn’s inscription.......................................................212212 14. Image of Marcella of Rome’s inscription......................................................214 viii Chapter One: Introduction to Synagogues, Titles, and Inscriptions 1.1: Introduction Did women act as leaders in the synagogues of Late Antiquity? For those familiar with early Judaism, the instinctual answer is no. Judaism has historically been overwhelmingly male oriented in its authority structures: male deity, male priests, male rabbis. Yet, a small number of inscriptions have been taken as evidence for exceptions to this general understanding of exclusively male leadership among ancient Jews. These inscriptions