Queries & Comments
It’s a Triumph!
BAR’s report on research into the color of the Arch of Titus is fascinating (Steven Fine, Peter J. Schertz and Donald H. Sanders, “True Colors: Digital Reconstruction Restores Original Brilliance to the Arch of Titus,” BAR, May/June 2017). As a professor of art history, this piece looks like a peep-hole into a magic world of polychromatic revelation. Words fail me to thank you.
Colorful Revelations
Regarding the article on restoring the color of the Arch of Titus, are the bowls on the showbread table known to have been gold as depicted—or could they have been stone, as was required for certain ritual purposes?
Steven Fine Replies: As in our world, there were many different kinds of vessels available for use in first-century Judea. Very fine glass, for example, was well known, and even a vessel by the famous glassmaker Ennion was discovered in Jerusalem. Stone vessels were very popular, but so were terracotta.
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