ANCIENT JUDAICA FROM THE COLLECTION OF DANIEL M. FRIEDENBERG LOTS 307-337 For as long as he can remember, Friedenberg was deeply involved in studying Jewish history specifically through Jewish cultural heritage. In his childhood home in New York City, Friedenberg's father had a private museum of Jewish art and artifacts. The bulk of this collection consisted of Jewish medals and plaques, which were later gifted to the Jewish Museum in New York. In the early 1950s, the younger Friedenberg would accompany his father on his frequent visits to the Jewish Museum, where he soon became a volunteer, then a board member, and eventually the Curator of Coins and Medals. Friedenberg inherited the collecting heart from his father, who died in 1957. He realized it would be his role to continue the family tradition in both the study and collection of Jewish cultural history. With several of Friedenberg's other antiquities scattered throughout this catalogue, the following 31 lots are the first single owner collection of ancient Jewish art ever to be offered through a major auction house. The importance of the collection lies, in part, in the wealth of objects with overtly Jewish symbolism, as well as many non-Jewish items in the collection that are relevant to the desire to record ancient Jewish cultural history, such as a group of Early Christian oil lamps that illustrate Old Testament stories.

A WEST SEMITIC HAEMATITE SCARABOID

CIRCA 5TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

A WEST SEMITIC HAEMATITE SCARABOID
Circa 5th Century B.C.
The underside engraved with a two line inscription reading, "Belonging to Hâ'nan...Nannay," perforated horizontally
11/16 in. (1.7 cm) long

Lot Essay

According to Ezra 2:46 and Nehemiah 7:49 in the Old Testament, the children of Hâ'nan were among those who returned to the Holyland from Babylon by permission of Cyrus, King of Persia.

For other seals with the name Hâ'nan, see nos. 28, 161, 162 and 932 in Avigad, Corpus of West Semitic Stamp Seals.

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