Lecture Summaries:  12 June, 2002

An Inscribed Silver Scroll from Samaria in the Collection of the PEF

by
Terence Mitchell
Former Keeper of Western Asiatic Antiquities, British Museum
and
Marilyn Hockey
Senior Conservator, Department of Conservation, Ceramic, Glass & Metals Section, British Museum

The identification and study of a rolled up sheet of inscribed silver in the collections of the Palestine Exploration Fund was described in this lecture.  This silver scroll had been excavated at Samaria in the early 1930s by a British Archaeological expedition led by J.W. Crowfoot.  It was contained inside a small copper cylinder and it was therefore assumed that it was some kind of handle. 

The silver scroll had only come to light because the copper has corroded to reveal it.  Terence Mitchell discussed the circumstances of its discovery, its probable date and the general background; Marilyn Hockey, who unrolled and preserved the fragile silver scroll, described how she achieved this operation. 

Finally Christa Müller-Kessler gave an account of the decipherment of the text, with some discussion of its linguistic context.