Battle for Jambudvīpa

During the past century, numerous archaeological surveys and handbooks have been published that include summaries of the Levantine Bronze Age (fourth–second millennia BCE: ca. 3800–1100 BCE). The Archaeology of the Bronze Age Levant by Raphael Greenberg is the most recent and in-depth of these treatments. The ways in which such archaeological overviews are approached have evolved over time. The first of these summaries, notably by W. F. Albright (1940 and later editions), presents the results of excavations in pre-WWII Palestine. This was followed by K. Kenyon's 1960 (and later editions) publication, which integrates the contributions of post-WWII archaeology in Israel and Jordan, especially her excavations at Jericho and Jerusalem. These two books, as their titles suggest, linked the archaeological evidence to the biblical and historical record, and they had a broad appeal for both the academic community and the general public. Three decades later and following a dramatic increase in archaeological activity in the region, A. Mazar (1990) and A. Ben-Tor (1992) published updated archaeological summaries of the southern Levant. Both volumes, which served as textbooks for a generation of undergraduate students and valuable reference works, prioritize the archaeological data, examined together with the primary textual sources.Other surveys dedicated to the archaeology of this region emphasize anthropological approaches to reconstruct the social archaeology of the southern Levant (see, e.g., Levy 1995 and Yasur-Landau et al. 2019). One publication, J. M. Golden's (2009) Ancient Canaan and Israel: An Introduction, organizes the archaeological data thematically. Margreet Steiner and A. E. Killebrew's 2014 multi-author handbook is the most comprehensive archaeological treatment of this region and includes both the northern and southern Levant and Cyprus. It serves as a general resource and reference work for the broader Levant and its interaction with neighboring regions.Greenberg's 2019 monograph differs from these earlier publications in his prioritization of processes over agency. Additionally, it centers solely on the Bronze Age and focuses primarily on the archaeological data interpreted through the lens of socio-anthropological theory while minimizing the use of textual sources. As a coherent, up-to-date narrative written by a single author, it also avoids the pitfalls of earlier edited handbooks and surveys comprised of chapters of uneven quality and differing approaches.The Archaeology of the Bronze Age Levant appears in the Cambridge World Archaeology series, whose targeted audience comprises students, professional archaeologists, and academics in related disciplines. The aim of this series is to publish up-to-date surveys of the archaeology of a particular region that integrate findings, contemporary theoretical approaches, and intellectual trends with broader cross-cultural interpretations. Greenberg's volume is solidly situated in the socio-anthropological approach to Levantine archaeology and lives up to the goals of this series. It is written as a narrative that traces social and cultural change in the Levantine Bronze Age and how communities there interacted with the broader developments in the Near East and Mediterranean, ranging from emulation to resistance. Major transregional themes addressed include the emergence of states, international trade and elite networks, and external imperial ambitions. The author also considers the impact of landscapes and places of commemoration as reflected in the archaeological record. The book consists of seven chapters, including an introduction (Ch. 1) and conclusions that summarize the legacy of the Bronze Age Levant (Ch. 7).Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the Levant and its environment. In this volume, the Levant refers to a section of the eastern Mediterranean littoral, the rift valley and the highlands bordering the valley on either side, today forming the modern entities of coastal Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestinian territories, and Jordan. Greenberg outlines his rules of engagement and defines the Bronze Age as a period when key human institutions develop, subdividing these into cities, states, markets, military power, legal codes, and institutionalized religion. The fourth–second millennia BCE also witnessed the human impact on the physical landscape, including the appearance of the layered mound (tell), and the integration of the Levant into a Mediterranean world resulting in the establishment of contact networks and interaction (3). This chapter defines the geographical boundaries of the Levant and characterizes it as “a diverse patchwork of environmental affordances and potentialities” and an “ecological mosaic” with a range of microclimates that serve as a buffer to climatic change (6–7). Contrary to much recent scholarship on the importance of climatic change for settlement patterns, social organization, and economic development, Greenberg downplays its impact on the Bronze Age Levant.Chapter 1 also outlines the principal themes that form the framework for this book. They include the ebb and flow of centralization of power, which the author attributes to the tendency of people in the Levant to both emulate the political ideologies of neighboring regions and resist their practical application (13). In his approach, Greenberg begins with the material culture evidence, privileging excavation results over surveys. As contemporary texts are usually fragmentary and often not directly relevant to the material culture interpretation, he uses these texts sparingly, prioritizing the archaeological over the literary record. In each chapter, chronological parameters and the environmental setting are discussed. Main archaeological categories including settlement patterns, architectural features / built landscape, key artifact types, crafts/industries, and burials / mortuary practices are described in detail.Chapters 2 and 3 are devoted to the Early Bronze (EB) I, II, and III, a period of time spanning over a millennium (ca. 3800/3600–2400 BCE) and the focus of much of Greenberg's decades-long excavation and research. Greenberg traces several trends, including the transition from the village-based world of the EB IA, the establishment of more complex mega-villages, and the beginnings of inequality, that appear in the EB IB during the final centuries of the fourth millennium. The latter period also coincides with the first significant interaction between Egypt and the Levant, which Greenberg terms the “first Egyptian intrusion” (13, 57).The following millennium represents the crystallization of fortified population centers and the appearance of “urban ideologies” (13) in the EB II and III. Chapter 3 explores the nature of EB II–III Levantine society. A key question addressed is: Can the EB II fortified cities be considered “urban”? The physical features of these settlements meet some of the criteria usually defined as “urban” (e.g., fortifications and evidence of town planning), as exemplified in contemporary Mesopotamia and Egypt. However, other commonly cited features of urbanization, such as large, clustered populations, writing, and administration, are lacking. These characteristics suggest that the EB II and III Levant represents “partial” urbanization (what some have termed “complex villages”) or, as Greenberg proposes, a uniquely local, “Levantine” urbanism.Chapter 4 investigates the Intermediate Bronze Age (IBA), a 500-year period of time that in the southern Levant is marked by changes in settlement patterns including the abandonment of mound settlements, a shift in mortuary practices, and regional ceramic assemblages based on village workshops. The retreat from urbanism during the IBA is often attributed to the well-documented climatic change that occurred between ca. 2200 and 1900 BCE. However, Greenberg challenges this interpretation, noting (140) it is difficult to evaluate the impact of climate change on microregions within the Levant and the nature of human response to it. As he points out, counterintuitively, the number of settlements in drier, more marginal regions increases in the southern Levant during the final centuries of the third millennium, coinciding with a period of a warming climate.In Greenberg's account, the picture that emerges during the IBA is one of regionally diverse cultural assemblages that are difficult to place chronologically due to the dearth of uninterrupted stratified sequences in the archaeological record and insufficient radiocarbon dates. Although the IBA is culturally distinct from the EB III, some material-culture features demonstrate elements of continuity with the EB III and overlap with the MB I. These findings suggest that, chronologically, the IBA may have partially co-existed with the EB III and MB I, a phenomenon that Greenberg (182) terms in Chapter 5 as “archaeologically coeval.”Chapter 5 examines the first half of the second millennium, conventionally termed the Middle Bronze Age (MBA). The MBA is also often understood as a cultural “regeneration” that represents the apex of Bronze Age urban culture in the Levant. Following his goal of disentangling the textual and archaeological evidence, Greenberg constructs what he terms a new “conceptual scaffolding” (184), which is grounded in the archaeological evidence and radiocarbon dates. This approach leads him to decouple the end of the MB II from the documented expulsion of the Hyksos and link it with the eruption of the Thera volcano that occurred ca. 1600 BCE and doubtlessly had a profound short-term effect on the environment in the eastern Mediterranean.The remainder of the chapter presents the archaeological evidence, mainly from the southern Levant, arranged chronologically and regionally. Greenberg (264–65) concludes, somewhat controversially, that the end of the MB II is marked by societal collapse, coinciding with the period of the Thera eruption but unrelated to disruptions that may have resulted from New Kingdom Eighteenth Dynasty accounts of a “Hyksos expulsion” from Egypt. In his view, this “collapse” is best exemplified by two phenomena: first, what he considers to be a marked discontinuity between MBA and Late Bronze Age (LBA) material culture (a statement that not all archaeologists would agree with); second, a contraction in population that led to a decrease of settlements, both in size and in number, during the LB I.The LBA is featured in Chapter 6. Greenberg outlines the two main themes that serve as the framework for his narrative interpretation of this period: the expansion of Egyptian imperialism in western Asia and the impact of interconnected regional economic networks. Several dozen pages are devoted to the concept that the Levant was “under Egypt's heel.” This view is puzzling since archaeological evidence for Egyptian interaction during the LB I and LB IIA is scant, as Greenberg himself (299–300, 309) points out. Rather, our knowledge of Egyptian engagement in Canaan during this period depends largely on textual evidence: Eighteenth Dynasty annals, which describe periodic Egyptian campaigns to Canaan, and the mid-fourteenth-century BCE Amarna letters. Except for Jaffa, there is little archaeological evidence for an Egyptian occupation during the LB I and IIA. This changes in the thirteenth century BCE, when Egyptian intervention is archaeologically visible but confined to a number of sites that served as Egyptian strongholds, as summarized by Greenberg (291–99, 302–10). Outside of these strongholds, Egyptian artifacts in Canaan are not abundant and, when they do appear, are usually imported prestige objects. Based on the archaeological evidence, there is little support for the view that New Kingdom Egypt “annexed” the southern Levant as Greenberg maintains (287). Rather, the archaeological evidence suggests Egypt appears to have exercised varying degrees of informal to administrative imperialism during the course of the LBA. Though Greenberg emphasizes the role of Egyptian imperialism in the region, when considered in its larger eastern Mediterranean political context, one may question how much Egyptian imperialistic ambitions affected daily life or controlled socioeconomic, political, and cultural developments in the LBA Levant.The second part of this chapter discusses the LB II prestige economy, exemplified by discoveries from Hazor, Megiddo, and other small towns and nodes of ritual power. In this section, Greenberg justifiably highlights the role of interconnected networks in shaping the LBA Levant. The archaeological evidence is unequivocal. The large number of imported Cypriot and Mycenaean objects at Levantine sites and elsewhere reach their apex during the LB IIA and testify to the Levant's integration in LBA global networks. This coincides with a period during which direct Egyptian imperialistic control seems to have been minimal. Not discussed is the central role of copper from Cyprus and long-distance trade in tin in this imperial and elite-controlled exchange system. Unlike many scholars of this period, Greenberg (341–42) does not consider the end of the LBA and transition to the Iron I period, or what he terms the Terminal Bronze Age (ca. 1200–1100 BCE), to represent a period of societal collapse or significant disruption.In his final, seventh chapter, Greenberg considers the legacy of the Bronze Age Levant, asking “what changed, what stayed the same, and what was passed on to the following eras” (354). The first signs of early state formation can be discerned in the EBA. EB II and III polities, which can be described as “just short” of being towns and states, are, in Greenberg's view, the foundations for MBA, LBA, and later Levantine political entities. Another development is the Levant's unique ability to adopt innovations from neighboring cultures and its willingness to absorb technologies, peoples, and ideas. One of Greenberg's more interesting observations is the linear rise in the “capacity for violence” (355) over time, best evidenced by the increase in weapons and human-induced destructions during the course of the Bronze Age. As Greenberg concludes, ultimately it is the geographic characteristics of this region that shaped the Levant and its cultures, creating a uniquely Levantine idiom. Its diverse landscapes, microregions and climates, and lack of unifying geographic features tended to suppress the ability to accumulate great amounts of surplus or wealth (which, in turn, would have required the development of large bureaucracies). These tendencies also encouraged exploitation of the region by imperial powers. The result is the resilience, creativity, and flexibility to adapt to new situations as narrated in Greenberg's masterly, nuanced, and engaging account of the Bronze Age Levant.

Climate, environment and society in southern Italy during the last 2000 years. A review of the environmental, historical and archaeological evidence

Reviewed by: Arts, Crafts and Trades in Ancient and Byzantine Thessaloniki: Archaeological, Literary and Epigraphic Evidence by Anastassios Antonaras Laura N. Horan Anastassios Antonaras, Arts, Crafts and Trades in Ancient and Byzantine Thessaloniki: Archaeological, Literary and Epigraphic Evidence (Regensburg: Schell and Steiner 2016) 268 pp. This volume is the first comprehensive study of the ancient and Byzantine material culture of Thessaloniki. Its author, Anastassios Antonaras, a curator of Byzantine Art at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki, possesses an innate knowledge of the region and a depth of understanding of his historical subject. Drawing on textual, archaeological, and material sources, Antonaras reconstructs a vibrant city at the nexus of trade routes across the Mediterranean and the greater world. The volume focuses on a broad time span, beginning in ancient Thessaloniki and continuing through the end of the Late Byzantine period. Within this timeframe, the city saw dramatic rises and falls in technology, population, and trade. Antonaras explores many remains of material culture that would have formed part of the everyday existence of those living in the second largest city of the Byzantine Empire. This near encyclopedic book explores many facets of the city's arts and crafts, with a special emphasis on their manufacture, such as records mentioning the materials and evidence of known production sites. The book has two central portions of equal weight and importance: a comprehensive summary of known information about production in the city and a catalogue of documented production sites in the region. The first portion is divided into three expansive chronological periods: Hellenistic to Early Christian, Middle Byzantine, and Late Byzantine. The topics and trades discussed within this book could each be expanded into its own study, as demonstrated in the rich footnotes, primary sources, and bibliography. Each era of the book begins with a brief introduction that paints a general view of the city in terms of population, trade, and religion at the time. Following this overview, each section then focuses on brief segments relating to the types of crafts that were local to the region and time. These subsections lay out known examples of the arts and crafts, with little interjection or analysis. Instead, the author remains focused on presenting the material in a systematic and straightforward method, at times seeming to go out of his way to maintain a sense of impartialness towards the material. The crafts surveyed include not only more well-known media, such as textiles and glasswares, Antonaras' specialty, but also lesser studied ones, such as baskets, woven mats, and bone carvings. The crafts vary during each period; some such as metalworking, mosaics, and painting are discussed in all three time periods, whereas others are only found in one period. Even in repeated topics, however, the emphasis on a localness of time and space remains at the center of his writing. The decision of the author to organize the book chronologically, rather than discuss each craft as a whole, is an effective one. Copious figures and images accompany each section. In addition to discussions of the remaining material evidence, the author takes care to note evidence of related resources to the industry, such as relevant materials and written sources that mention the production. The thoughtful narration about the many crafts creates a rich understanding of the city's shifting environment. But, the most exceptional portion of this book is the extensive catalogue of attested workshops that follows the main [End Page 221] text. This section provides an invaluable resource to future scholars. Antonaras has compiled a brief description on each attested workshop with an individual bibliography provided for each site. Also included with each entry are excavation drawings, maps, and quality images of site remains and findings. This catalogue of sites is supported by a large, removable map at the back of the book, which plots all archaeologically attested workshops in the city, providing a visual compilation that recreates the craft industries of greater Thessaloniki over a millennium. An analysis of the map and the relevant sections of the book allows the reader to understand how certain sections of the city, for example, the cemeteries, changed over time. The map also allows scholars to place together the...

Caliphs and Merchants: Cities and Economies of Power in the Near East (700–950)

From books to movies, the media is now flush with spiritual and wellness tourist-related images, films, and fiction (which are primarily produced in the West) about Southeast Asia. Combined with the positive effects of spiritual practices, greater numbers of tourists are travelling to Southeast Asia for mindfulness, yoga, and other spiritual pursuits. Influenced by popular mass media coverage, such as Hollywood movies and literary bestsellers like Eat Pray Love (2006) and tourism imaginaries about particular peoples and places, spiritual tourists are visiting Southeast Asia in increasing numbers. They travel to learn about and practice mindfulness, so as to recharge their batteries, achieve spiritual fulfillment, enhance their spiritual well-being, and find a true self. However, there is a notable lack of scholarly work around the nature and outcomes of spiritual tourism in the region. Owing to its Buddhist temples, cultural heritage, religious history, infrastructure, and perceived safety, Chiang Mai in Thailand, in particular, has become a major spiritual tourism destination. Based on participant observation including informal conversations, and 10 semi-structured interviews in Chiang Mai during two summers in 2016 and 2018, our research explored why Western tourists travel to Chiang Mai to engage in mindfulness practices regardless of their religious affiliation. We explored their faith in their spiritual practice in Chiang Mai. Rather than the faith implied in religion, this faith refers to trust or confidence in something. Interestingly, none of the informants identified themselves as Buddhist even though many had practiced Buddhist mindfulness for years. They had faith that mindfulness would resolve problems, such as depression and anxiety, following life events such as divorces, deaths in family, drug abuse, or at least help free them from worries. They noted that mindfulness practices were a constructive means of dealing with negative life events. This study found that the informants sought to embed mindfulness and other spiritual practices into the fabric of their everyday life. Their faith in mindfulness led them to a destination where Buddhist heritage, history, and culture are concentrated but also consumed. Whilst discussing the preliminary findings through a critical lens, the research recommends future research pathways.

The purpose of this study is to examine the healing strategies employed by the inhabitants of Egypt during the Roman period, from the late first century BC to the fourth century AD, in order to explore how Egyptian, Greek and Roman customs and traditions interacted within the province. Thus this study aims to make an original contribution to the history of medicine, by offering a detailed examination of the healing strategies (of which 'rational' medicine was only one) utilised by the inhabitants of one particular region of the Mediterranean during a key phase in its history, a region, moreover, which by virtue of the survival of papyrological evidence offers a unique opportunity for study. Its interdisciplinary approach, which integrates ancient literary, documentary, archaeological and scientific evidence, presents a new approach to understanding healing strategies in Roman provincial culture. It refines the study of healing within Roman provincial culture, identifies diagnostic features of healing in material culture and offers a more contextualised reading of ancient medical literary and documentary papyri and archaeological evidence. This study differs from previous attempts to examine healing in Roman Egypt in that it tries, as far as possible, to encompass the full spectrum of healing strategies available to the inhabitants of the province. The first part of this study comprises two chapters and focuses on the practitioners of healing strategies, both 'professional' and 'amateur'. Chapter 2 examines those areas of ancient medicine that have traditionally been neglected or summarily dismissed by scholars: 'domestic' and 'folk' medicine with particular emphasis on the extent to which the specific natural environment of any given location affects healing strategies. Chapter Three examines the nature and frequency of eye diseases and injuries suffered by the inhabitants of Roman Egypt. Chapter Four examines the nature and frequency of the fevers suffered by the inhabitants of Roman Egypt, focusing first on the disease malaria, which is attested by papyrological, archaeological and palaeopathological evidence as having been suffered throughout Egypt. Chapter Five examines the dangers that the animal species of Egypt could pose to the inhabitants of the province, focusing particularly upon snakes, scorpions, crocodiles and lions, as attested by papyrological and epigraphic evidence such as private letters, mummy labels and epitaph inscriptions. The concluding chapter underlines the importance for a study of the healing strategies utilised in any province of the Roman Empire (or indeed any region in the ancient world) of taking into account the historical, geographical, cultural and social context of the location in question.

This paper demonstrates that the city gate was an elaborate structure designed both to control traffic in or out, and to facilitate the civic needs of the city life in ancient urbanism. The remains found at the city gates are in certain relationship with city gate activities, and can serve as indicators of Iron Age II urban societies and cultures. Both textual and archaeological evidence collected and analyzed in this study are fitted into the tasks of the city construction and the city gates was an essential element in urbanized city.<BR> Textual evidence from the Hebrew Bible and ancient Near Eastern texts illustrates how the city gates were utilized to fulfill their economic and administrative functions. Textual evidence shows that the city gate was used for various economic negotiations and storage of goods. Iron Age II economic activities at the city gate continued in Iron Age III, the fifth century BCE; a number of gates of Jerusalem were named after the wares of craftsmen or merchants who had traded at these gates.<BR> Archaeological evidence supports the idea of the city gate complex as a major economic and administrative locus during the Iron Age II period. Architectural complexities, installations, and artifacts clearly demonstrate that the city gates served daily matters. They provided insight into the variety of spatial activities in gate locales. Architectural features such as chambers, pillared buildings, open plazas, and storehouses were situated in convenient proximity to the city gates such that all the economic and administrative matters of the city life were easily handled and secured. The installations and artifacts found in situ at the gates and gate complexes such as seals, seal impressions, shekels, loom-weights, ostraca, basins, scales and weights, imported vessels, oil presses, shops at open plazas, and lmlk jars have shown that the city gates served economic and administrative functional roles.<BR> A city gate is not only an architectural construction that survives in the ancient sites, as an articulated architectural complex, it is a marker and window into how ancient people lived and how economic and administrative center served their needs. Thus, this study argues that based on the textual and archaeological evidence, the city gate area was the activity of the city, and archaeological remains serve as an indicator on Iron Age II urban society in ancient Israel.

The NT mentions 34 port cities, in many of which early Christian churches are attested: five in Judea (Gaza, Azotus, Caesarea, Joppa, Ptolemais), five in Syria/Cilicia (Antioch, Seleucia, Sidon, Tyre, Tarsus), two in Cyprus (Salamis, Paphos), two in Pamphylia (Attaleia, Perge), two in Lycia (Myra, Patara), one in Achaia (Corinth/Cenchreae), two in Macedonia (Philippi/Neapolis, Thessalonica), five in the province of Asia (Ephesus, Miletus, Smyrna, Troas, Assos, Adramyttium), five in the islands (Mitylene, Samos, Chios, Cos, Rhodes), one in Crete (Phoenix), two in Italy (Rome/Ostia, Puteoli), and one in Egypt (Alexandria). The three harbor towns in Galilee and the Gaulanitis (Capernaum, Magdala, Bethsaida) could be added. A new publication on the port cities of the Roman empire is thus of immediate interest for NT scholars.The 16 essays, all focused on the epigraphical evidence, constitute the first book arising from the Roman Mediterranean Ports project “which seeks a holistic understanding of early Imperial ports by addressing a range of key questions relating to their character, organization and roles” (p. 1). Simon Keay introduces the Portuslimen project in surveying the context of Roman Mediterranean port societies, and Pascal Arnaud and Simon Keay, the editors of the volume, provide an introduction to epigraphical evidence for port societies. Next, Dirk Steuernagel writes on the outposts of foreign merchants and their associations at Puteoli and Delos; Nicolas Tran on boatmen and their associations in the great ports of the Roman West; Dorothea Rohde on the Roman port societies and their collegia in Ostia and Ephesus; Hélène Rougier on occupations and social hierarchies in the ports of Hispalis, Arelate, Lugdunum, Narbo Martius, Ostia-Portus, and Aquileia; Catherine Virlouvet on warehouse societies; Taco Terpstra on the imperial cult and Roman overseas commerce; Jean-Jacques Aubert on law and life in Roman harbors; Sabine Panzram on Roman port city societies in Tarraco, Carthago Nova, and Gades in Spain; Michel Christol on ports, trade, and supply routes with a focus on Narbonne; Marc Mayer on the port society of Narona; Pascal Arnaud on municipal authority, central authority and civic euergetists in the port of Ephesus; Koenraad Verboven on the structure of mercantile communities; and Pascal Arnaud on the terminology and social-legal status of maritime shippers found in the roughly 600 relevant inscriptions (pp. 367–424, the longest essay in the volume). Nicholas Purcell summarizes, draws conclusions, and points to open questions in the concluding essay (“Reading Roman Port Societies”). All essays come with extensive bibliography. The indexes (pp. 444–55) cover emperors, names of individuals, consuls, deities, religious matters, geography, and, under varia, a subject index; there is no index of ancient references.Although there has been much progress, NT scholars often neglect to take into account the actual, real-life members of the congregations of believers in Jesus who listened to the texts collected in the NT being read and explained. It can be plausibly assumed that some of the people attending the Christian meetings in the large coastal cities worked as merchants and traders or worked in the harbor. The survey of the available epigraphical evidence by Rougier refers to the fact that the most frequently attested occupations are the negotiatores (merchants who engaged in overseas trade), navicularii (maritime transport), and nautae (river transport); other trading professionals are mercatores (merchants) and diffusores olearii (olive oil merchants). In connection with specific port related activities, for which there are fewer inscriptions, we find fabri navales (ship builders), stuppatores (rope makers), sacomarii (counterpoise makers or checkers), mensores frumentarii (grain measurers), saccarii (porters), saburrarii (ballast carriers), piscatores (fishermen), codicarii (boatmen), lenuncularii (boatmen), lyntrarii (boatmen), scapharii (boatmen), ratiarii (raftsmen), and urinatores (divers). Many port-based activities were seasonal, which means that “some of these workers became unemployed, while the others, free men or slaves, had to work elsewhere” (p. 137). Virlouvet’s essay references members of the elite who owned warehouse buildings and describes the managers of the warehouses, which were slaves of the family (horreari, conductores) who were responsible for the rental agreements for the storage units in the warehouse, for ensuring the safety of the stored goods, and for the accuracy of the registers listing the goods entering and leaving the warehouse. They worked with mensores, also slaves, who measured and counted foodstuffs in the large warehouses, assisted by office staff, bookkeepers, scribes, and archivists. Guards (custodes), mostly slaves, patrolled outside and inside the buildings. Porters (saccarii) worked on a day-to-day or a more regular basis; archeological evidence from the hinterland of Ostia demonstrates the hard life of these workers: more than half of the men whose skeletons were discovered had died before the age of 40, the skeletons showing “signs of deformities and whose teeth were in poor condition” pointing to the hard physical labor and the poverty of these men (p. 168).Rohde discusses three associations in Ephesus: (1) the silversmiths, who called themselves hieron synedrion (IK 13, 636), some of whom belonged to the neopoioi, the public cult officials of Artemis (IK 16, 2212); they had a stall on the Arkadiane, one of Ephesus’s most important streets (IK 12, 547), and “they agitated against Christians because they feared financial losses, as is known from a famous passage from the Acts of the Apostles” (p. 120), which can be used as primary evidence for the social stratum of membership in the collegium of the silversmiths and for the integral part they had in Ephesian society; (2) the worshipers of the Egyptian deities, the naubatountes who organized the navigium Isidis, the ritual opening of the seafaring season in the spring (IK 14, 1231); (3) the athletes, who maintained a branch of the Empire-wide association headquartered at Rome in Ephesus, honored the emperor (IK 14, 1124). Arnauld describes the association of ναύκληροι in Ephesus, “probably one of the corpora naviculariorum that had been granted the vacatio munerum” (p. 410, with reference to I. Eph. 542).In Acts 27:11, Luke mentions “the pilot” (κυβερνήτης; BDAG: one who is responsible for the management of a ship, shipmaster) and “the owner of the ship” (ναύκληρος, NIV, NRSV; BDAG: shipowner, charterer, captain, freight contractor) to whom the centurion listened rather than to Paul, whom he had to safely transfer to the city of Rome. Arnaud explains that the κυβερνήτης is the commander of a ship (p. 380), while the meaning of ναύκληρος did not have a stable and strict legal meaning (p. 386), although “by semantic tradition” it designated “the person who operated (and generally owned) the ship” (p. 409). Arnauld draws a composite picture of the average ναύκληρος/nauklerus from the epigraphic evidence (table 15.3, pp. 196–404): “someone who sailed, usually far away from home, and someone who would often live a life on board with his wife and children. A vast majority of them died and were buried far away from home, and those who died at home often mention their maritime travels, sailing specialisms or skill . . . the average person styled as naukleros in inscriptions was freeborn and peregrine” (p. 413).Panzram describes the society of Ostia with regard to its “openness” as a “cosmopolitan” society with “an economically, socially, and ethnically very heterogeneous population” (p. 219); if this is indicative of other port city societies, Christian missionaries would have found, at least potentially, various audiences at least willing to listen to their message. As regards the plan of the apostle Paul to proclaim the gospel in Spain, Tarraco, the urbs opulentissima in which wealthy migrants from the region lived, a city “open to foreigners of all parts of the Empire” (p. 223), was only four days of sailing from Ostia, Gades at the finis terrae, the harbor for the fertile land and the mines of Baetica, at a distance of seven days (p. 219). The fact that Paul, who had been planning a mission to Spain for some time, was welcomed by believers in Puteoli where he stayed for seven days (Acts 28:13–14), raises interesting possibilities. Verboven describes an inscription from the Augustan era that documents mercatores qui Alexandr(iai) Asiai Syriai negotiantur in Puteoli (CIL X, 1797), that is, merchants doing business in Alexandria (Egypt), Asia, and Syria; they honor a local aristocrat who may have financed their business ventures (p. 348). The archives of the Sulpicii, financial middlemen active in Puteoli in the middle of the first century, mention 273 persons, including 12 women, more than half of the persons mentioned being freedmen (p. 349); the archives document “voluntary social networks that potentially cut through geographical and cultural lines” (p. 352), including contacts with merchants from Baetica which are well attested at Puteoli (p. 348). Steuernagel discusses the statio of the Tyrians at Puteoli, a reference point for the Phoenicians and Syrians residing in the city (pp. 64–68). Could Phoebe, the prostatis in Cenchreae, one of the ports of Corinth, whom Paul recruited for some role in his planned visit to Rome and mission to Spain (Rom 16:1–2), have belonged to such a network? Or Lydia, the merchant dealing in purple cloth from Thyatira who lived in Philippi (Acts 16:14–15), a short distance from the port city of Neapolis (Acts 16:11)?

This paper examines the regional diversity in Buddhist heritage and its use for tourism in Asia, more specifically, South Asia and Southeast Asia. Based on an analysis of secondary sources and data from national tourism organisations, it illustrates inter-regional and intra-regional aspects of tourism related to Buddhist heritage. It is found that in spite of their archaeological nature, Buddhist sites in South Asia are converging points for Buddhist tourism, as these are directly related to the Buddha, and many international Buddhist monasteries enliven them with transnational Buddhist practice. Whereas in Southeast Asia, Buddhism is more of a cultural landscape that pervades from the village-level practice of Buddhism to monumental places dedicated to Buddha, which collectively form a major resource for cultural tourism. This paper argues that regional connections and religious and cultural similarities of Buddhist heritage in countries of Southeast Asia contribute to the cultural distinctiveness in the Asian paradigm that can foster sustainable development of tourism in the region.

By the beginning of the classical period, the archaeological evidence leaves no doubt about integration of Macedonia in the contemporary Hellenic world. If one turn to what the fifth-century authors have to say about the Macedonians, they note that their statements correspond to the picture emerging from the archaeological and epigraphic evidence. Herodotus presents Alexander I claiming both a Macedonian and a Greek identity as perfectly compatible. E. Badian asserted that Greek culture in Macedonia regressed during the first half of the fourth century. The picture of Macedonia in the second half of the fourth century would be incomplete without even a passing mention of its intellectual life. One might say that the distinction-indeed the opposition between and Greeks, went unheeded as long as the identity of the former was a matter of ethnological interest, but surfaced as soon as the Macedonians aspired to become major players in Greek politics. Keywords: Alexander I; archaeological evidence; Greek culture; Greek identity; Macedonians

The first illustrated, architectural history of the 'Alid shrines, increasingly endangered by the conflict in Syria The 'Alids (descendants of the Prophet Muhammad) are among the most revered figures in Islam, beloved by virtually all Muslims, regardless of sectarian affiliation. This study argues that despite the common identification of shrines as 'Shi'i' spaces, they have in fact always been unique places of pragmatic intersectarian exchange and shared piety, even - and perhaps especially - during periods of sectarian conflict. Using a rich variety of previously unexplored sources, including textual, archaeological, architectural, and epigraphic evidence, Stephennie Mulder shows how these shrines created a unifying Muslim 'holy land' in medieval Syria, and proposes a fresh conceptual approach to thinking about landscape in Islamic art. In doing so, she argues against a common paradigm of medieval sectarian conflict, complicates the notion of Sunni Revival, and provides new evidence for the negotiated complexity of sectarian interactions in the period.

Hace algunos años, Warwick Ball propuso que el Templo de Elagabal de Emesa, jamás encontrado, debe identificarse con el complejo de templos de Baalbek. Más recientemente, Gary Young ha pretendido mostrar la endeblez de las evidencias con que apoyó tal aserto, así como la falsedad de algunas de sus suposiciones. Tratamos de refutar a Young y demostrar que las evidencias textuales, arqueológicas y epigráficas en realidad apoyan la tesis de Ball, añadiendo algunas nuevas pruebas.

The first illustrated, architectural history of the 'Alid shrines, increasingly endangered by the conflict in SyriaThe 'Alids (descendants of the Prophet Muhammad) are among the most revered figures in Islam, beloved by virtually all Muslims, regardless of sectarian affiliation. This study argues that despite the common identification of shrines as 'Shi'i' spaces, they have in fact always been unique places of pragmatic intersectarian exchange and shared piety, even - and perhaps especially - during periods of sectarian conflict. Using a rich variety of previously unexplored sources, including textual, archaeological, architectural, and epigraphic evidence, Stephennie Mulder shows how these shrines created a unifying Muslim 'holy land' in medieval Syria, and proposes a fresh conceptual approach to thinking about landscape in Islamic art. In doing so, she argues against a common paradigm of medieval sectarian conflict, complicates the notion of Sunni Revival, and provides new evidence for the negotiated complexity of sectarian interactions in the period.Beautifully illustrated with over 120 colour imagesThe first study of Syrian 'Alid shrines as critical sites of Islamic pious practice in some of Islam's most important citiesUses architecture to present a more nuanced understanding of the history of sectarianismUtilises an unusually wide range of source materials including medieval Arabic textual sources, spatial and architectural analysis, archaeological investigation, epigraphy and GPS survey

The great Sun temple of Emesa, mentioned by Herodian in his account of the revolt of Elagabalus, has never been found. Recently, Warwick Ball has suggested that it is to be identified with the temple complex at Baalbek. The evidence which he provides for this assertion, however, does not prove his case and in some cases rests upon false assumptions. When the textual, archaeological and epigraphic evidence is examined, it is clear that the temple must have been in the city of Emesa itself, and therefore it is yet to be located.

In 1877 ERWIN ROHDE suggested the conjecture Argino instead of the manuscript reading argiro in Ampelius 8, 16. His conjecture did not find approval among editors of the late antique author and is virtually forgotten. A fresh look at ROHDE’S suggestion shows, however, that it is convincing with regards to palaeography and consents with literary and epigraphical evidence. With Argino instead of a conjecture like Bargyliis, the passage is no more a testimony for the Carian city of Bargylia, but for the Ionian Erythrae and its religious history (Aphrodite, Heracles, and the Sibyl).