New archaeological findings have challenged that misconception that Jewish people always kept kosher. Until recently, it was believed that kosher was always kept, but Israel’s Ariel University’s findings suggests that Jew people never really kept Kosher in ancient times.
Archaeologist Yonatan Adler made this new finding when he found out that his colleague Omri Lernau had discovered the remains of skate, catfish, and shark in ancient Judean settlements, which is now southern Israel. None of these fish are Kosher so Adler’s curiosity was piqued. The remains dated back to thousands of years ago when the Torah and the Law of Kashrut were introduced at Mount Sinai in the rabbinic tradition.
Adler wanted to know why these people ate treyf. Did they not know the rules? Or did they simply not believe in them? Did we not get the facts right before? Or was this an entirely different case? Sometimes, archaeology fails to find the entire truth. It can get us very close to the truth, but whether or not the entire truth is revealed comes down to history and several other factors.
For both Lernau and Adler, this discussion of kosher in ancient times became a topic of interest. They decided to dig deeper into the findings. Regarding these new findings, the pair revealed to the press that, around the first millennium BC, Jewish kosher law was not followed. Lernau and Adler found fish remains at the two ancient Judean settlements, the Kingdom of Judah in the south and the Kingdom of Israel in the north. (In Judah, catfish was more popular.) These findings will help scholars and scientists complete the picture of the social life of the time.
Adler was working on the Origins of Judaism Archaeological Project. He believed that he could find out a lot about the people and their lives by looking at their garbage. According to Adler, the new findings will shed some light on already existing research.
The average Judean denizen lived under the rule of the king and was a farmer. Except for some societal elite, everyone else was illiterate. So when literate people wrote down the laws, the common people could not read them. They did not hear about the laws from others either because the vast majority were illiterate. This is why higher-ups adopted Kashrut and why the more common people knew nothing about it.
Adler was disappointed with the fact that there are no writings that could help him understand the history better, but he believes that archaeology is the best tool for piecing together history and understanding how the people back then lived.
Around the same sites, some archaeologists found pig remains. The remains were found in the garbage of both the Judah and Israel kingdoms. For Adler and Lernau, this was a big historical discovery that will inspire people from different disciplines to work together.
