A Bulla Day

Posted on February 22, 2018 by vanbraman

Today has been a bulla day on my Facebook feed and e-mail inbox. Today the finding of an important bulla was announced and the news went viral in the archaeological community.

For my followers who are not familiar with archaeology, a bulla is a seal impression. It is typically a small piece of clay that has been pressed with an inscribed seal on a document or other item. A bulla is usually only about a centimeter in size so they are very easy to overlook. Sometimes large quantities of dirt are wet sifted to look for bullae if there is a high likelihood that they may be found.

A bulla is an important find as it gives information about the people associated with an archaeological site.

Bullae, Juglet, Lachish, Hebrew StampsSometimes bullae are preserved, but they were often just thrown away or discarded after they served their purpose. Bullae were often used as seals for papyrus documents or letters.

About 50 years ago at Lachish a small juglet was found with 17 bullae contained in it. Someone was the ancient equivalent of a stamp collector. The bullae and juglet are now in the Israel Museum. See: Lachish at the Museum

Shebna Bulla, Lachish, bulla, impression One of the bulla found at Lachish was inscribed. “Belonging to Shebnayahu servant of the king”.  Shebna is mentioned in the Bible in Isaiah chapter 22. You can read more about Shebna at my friend Steve Rudd’s website. The link is in the picture above.

Isaiah Bulla, Isaiah the Prophet, Seal, Impression, OphelThe bulla whose discovery was announced today by Eilat Mazar is possibly of Isaiah the Prophet. The inscription definitely says Isaiah, but there is some discussion as to whether the second part says prophet. There is some very good evidence that it is.

You can find out more about the bulla, including a link to a nice video at Luke Chandler’s website. Isaiah’s Personal Seal Found?

Another good article is Has the seal of Isaiah the prophet been found? by Ferrell Jenkins.

Bulla, Hezekiah, Ophel, Mazar, impressionSomething very intriguing is that the Isaiah bulla was found only one meter from where a bulla for King Hezekiah was found in the Ophel Excavation headed by Eilat Mazar. Since King Hezekiah and Isaiah were often together it strengthens the possibility that the bulla announced today belonged to Isaiah the prophet.

The pictures of the two bullae come from the Eilat Mazar team. They look big in the pictures, but remember that they are only about a centimeter in size.

A large number of bullae were found in the same area, so it will be interesting if other biblical names were found among them.

There is an article in the upcoming issue of Biblical Archaeological Review. I hope my copy comes soon so I can read more about it.

Steven

 

 

 

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Mántou

Posted on February 21, 2018 by vanbraman

I have traveled to China for many years. However, I didn’t know until recently that I had a Chinese name or nick-name that my colleagues always use when referring to me.

I was having lunch with my colleagues during my last trip to Shanghai and it came up during conversation as they talked about what to order.

Steamed Bread, Steamed Buns, Chinese Nickname, Food, Chinese FoodThe Chinese name that they use for me is 饅頭 or Mántou. This translates to steamed buns or steamed bread. I found that this was the name given to me on my first trip to China way back in the late 90’s.

I had been thinking about this last week since it was the Chinese New Year, and decided that I needed to have some Mántou.

Luckily there are several Asian grocery stores near our office so it was easy to pick up some steamed buns.

Bamboo steamer, chinese food, mantou, steamed breadOf course then came the question of how to warm up the buns. I asked a friend of mine how to warm up the buns and she told me that I could wrap them in a wet paper towel and put them in the microwave.  However, this was after I had warmed up the first batch I picked up in my steam powered egg cooker. It worked out OK, but I decided that I needed to be even more traditional in my reheating method.

This week I stopped again at the grocery and bought a bamboo steamer set.

Mantou, Steamed bun, Chinese Bread, Steamer, Bamboo SteamerHere I have one of the buns ready to steam in the bamboo container.

Steamer, Bamboo, steam source, egg cooker, CuisinartOf course if you have a bamboo steamer you also need to have a source of steam. This is traditionally just a stockpot, pan or wok full of water with the bamboo steamer set above it.

However, I decided to still make use of part of my egg cooker. I found that the bamboo steamer fit just perfectly inside the raised edge of the egg tray as it was the same diameter as the metal dome of the egg cooker.

I then just needed to fill the water reservoir and turn on the egg cooker. Instant steam and just the right amount of time to heat up one of the Mántou that I had bought yesterday.

I am also thinking of other things that I can steam in my bamboo steamer 🙂

steamed bread, chinese bread, mantou, steamed bunsThe bun was delicious and I was soon remembering wonderful dinners that I have had in Singapore and Shanghai which included some wonderful steamed buns.

How did I get the nickname? Nobody would be quite honest with me 🙂

Steven

Posted in Bread, China, Culture, Food, Memories, Travel | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment