horn

[etan ayalon]

Dear Mr. Lubman,
As an Israeli archaeologist and a (not so religious) Jew I would be very happy indeed to find a shofar in one of my excavations. Indeed, I never heard of any! It was tempting to think that they deteriorated as most organic materials do in this country, but Dr. Moshe Sadeh told me that horn is made from nail material which does not deteriorate unless burned in fire. Anyhow, biologists should answer you about it. It is indeed strange that horn is mentioned 70 times in the Ols Testament (with a lot more in the Mishnaic-Talmudic literature) but no one has ever been found. By the way, I read that the word shofar derives from the name of the wild ram and not the goat as you wrote, and the ram is the issue (the Jewish sources connect the use of the horn with the ram in the sacrifice of Isaac).
You can find a little material about it in:
Benzoor, N. 1990\91. Musical Instruments in Biblical Israel (Haifa Museum of Music and Ethnology, Catalogue No. 168). Haifa, Israel.
If you can't find it I can send you a photocopy (it's not much). Suppose I don't have to mention Goodenough on the shofar in art etc.
It is interesting to note that besides the absence of horns in archaeological finds several Red Sea conchs used for blowing were found in Biblical sites in Israel (see in the same catalogue). Yadin even tried one found in Hazor and ir worked well after 3000 years! See:
Yadin, Y. 1975. Hazor, The Rediscovery of a Great Citadel of the Bible (Weidenfeld and Nicolson).London and Jerusalem, pp. 192-193.
However scholars writing on the subject agree that these conchs were not the shofar. I wonder.
Last and not connected with horns - years ago I excavated two c. 4th century CE installations equipped with pottery jars embedded horizontally in the walls with their openings towards the center of the reservoir (see Ayalon, Israel Exploration Journal 29, 1979). They are usually thought to be fishponds (piscina) and I published them as such but am still unhappy about it. While looking for other possibilities of using pottery vessels I read about metal or pottery jars used in ancient theaters as accustic elements! Do you have any data about it or know someone who might be interesting in the subject?

Best wishes

Etan Ayalon
Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
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