Christopher Rollston, associate professor of Northwest Semitic languages and literatures at the George Washington University, has been asked to publish 19 ancient inscriptions which were excavated in 1968 in Jordan (they were thought to be lost, but were recently found in the estate of the late excavator). The ostraca were discovered at the site of Machaerus, a famous archaeological site connected with the Maccabees, Herod the Great, and his son Herod Antipas as well as with John the Baptist. The inscriptions date to the first century CE (Common Era) and most are written in Aramaic (and at least one in Greek). Rollston worked with the science department at GW to use multispectral imaging on the ostraca. They are part of the collection of the Cobb Institute of Archaeology (at Mississippi State).
Rollston is available to talk by phone, email and in-person at a D.C. bureau or on-campus at GW’s on-campus broadcast studio.
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