Ketubah of Antinoopolis, Letter of Resh Galuta and Aramaic Tombstone Inscriptions from Zoar Or What Was the Original Molad Calendar of Hillel Bar Yehuda?

This chapter deals with the determining of the time frame of possible transit navigation on the NSR. It includes also date of beginning and date of closing of transit ice-free zone (corridor) linking ports in the Europe with the ports of the Far East. The process of ice disintegration in individual seas leads to formation of ice-free zones allowing navigation of vessels that do not have ice reinforcements. It is assumed that those ice-free water zones are important, which open to general direction of connection with next sea and ultimately enable passage through all subsequent seas of the NSR. The results of studies of statistical data for the routes of vessels with very small draft (of 3.0–3.5 m) and vessels with a larger draft of depth restrictions of 14.5 m were presented. The PANAMAX-type vessels, commonly used in navigation, were accepted for further consideration. The average value, standard deviation, median and quartiles were presented. It is noticed that statistical results based on average value and standard deviation include discrete statistical data changes. It is assumed that they are inconvenient for the assessment of the situation and decision-making. For this reason, it was decided to approximate historical data from the eleven summer navigation seasons using the second-degree polynomial curves. The probability of existence of ice-free transit zone was applied on diagram for opening and closing ice-free transit zone (corridor) for western and eastern parts of the NSR. The probability of the transit zone free from ice in western part of the NSR does not exceed 89%. It shows, when planning vessel voyage schedule based on historical data, there is no 100% certainty that there will be ice-free conditions in western part of the NSR. The highest probability of an ice-free zone in western part of the NSR falls on Julian day 268. For the eastern part of the NSR (Chukchi and East Siberian seas), probability of existence to the given day ice-free transit zone is limited by opening curve of the transit zone in the eastern part of the NSR and curve of closing this zone to the given day of the year. Probability of existence ice-free transit zone in eastern part is 100%. Based on historical data, it can be expected that there were ice-free conditions in days from 258 to 271 with probability of 100% on eastern part of the NSR. The highest probability of existence ice-free zone along the whole NSR route and thus the most convenient conditions for successful completion of transit voyage is during 16 days from 258 to 271 Julian days. By means of polynomial function graphs for historical data, it can continuously determine probability of existence of transit zone for ice-free navigation in the western and eastern part of the NSR for any day of the year. The diagram can be used to plan beginning and completing dates of vessel’s voyage through the NSR, taking into account probability of existence of ice-free zone in selected area.

This paper is the text of a lecture held on February 6th, 2009, at the Istituto Svedese di Sudi Classici in Rome, during the annual meeting of the Società Culturale Classiconorroena. A rich selection of images and topics with symbolical or allegorical implications has long been investigated within the Anglo-Saxon poetical corpus. A recent thorough study – and new edition – of the text of The Seafarer by the Author has proved that themes like sea journeying, ship and winter cold were widely spread and accepted by scopas in a metaphorical sense, mainly as Christian symbols for man’s life, Church (or Christian faith, or soul) and sin, respectively. Germanic ethos or ideals may stand in the background, of course, and sometimes they have proved indeed decisive in giving poetry that realistic power and liveliness so peculiar to the Old English tradition. But a great part of the Anglo-Saxon poetical production – written down in steady Christian times and in a monastic milieu – shows undisputable evidence of being drawn from Christian sources, ultimately from Latin patristic literature. The works of the Fathers, in their turn, filter not only the Scripture, but also classical imagery and rethorical models; so that, in the end, all these tracks are left clean and clear-cut on the Anglo-Saxon ground as well. The aim of this paper is to investigate to what extent images like the winter cold and the sea sailing ship may act as symbols also in the medieval Scandinavian tradition, i.e. in Old Icelandic literature and on Viking Age rune stones. The Author’s first concern is about ice and cold imagery, as it results in Old English and Old Icelandic poetry, down to the Swedish Renaissance tradition of Olaus Magnus’ Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus and drawing for comparison back to the poetical stock of Latin literature possibly known to litterate men in medieval England and Iceland (see § 2). Recurrent ideas and phrases result common to both Latin and Germanic authors, for instance regarding winter cold binding or closing the ground, or ice building ‘bridges’ (that is, allowing to walk where usually river or sea waters run or flow). Great similarities occur in the treatment and phrasing of these stock images, so that bonds of cold and bridges of ice, but also some other hints of severe cold, such as hairs and beard frozen into icicles, are frequently met in natural descriptions of Scythia (by Latin poets) and Northern Europe (by Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon authors), being at the same time a signal of deep psycological discomfort and misery. Old Scandinavian reception of the rich symbolical Christian tradition concerning the ship and sea journeying is the second point of the present article (§ 3). First of all (§ 3.1), the ship appears on some Viking Age rune stones, which prove to be especially significant in Christian allegorical terms, since they show the shape of a ship surmounted by a great ornamental cross. These Swedish monuments form a typologically homogeneous group, in which the design and pattern model – with no realistic hint of mast and sail behind the richly decorated cross – certainly points to a symbolical meaning. The Author maintains that this metaphorical ‘crusade’ ship is taken as a figure of the Church: on board, the faithful is granted a safe passage to everlasting bliss, being this boat the only secure place in the dangerous sea of life in this world. In a more specific sense, this ship may be considered Christ himself as our Saviour on the cross; the easy visual proximity of the mast crossed by the yard and the Cross itself helps Christian authors and artists to elaborate upon this image as one of the most powerful allegories in the Christian doctrine. At last (§ 3.2), two very interesting examples of Old Icelandic ship allegories, which have hardly been considered by scholars, are briefly discussed. They occurr in the second booklet of the so-called ‘Physiologus manuscript’ (AM 673 a II, 4°, fols. 8r-9r), which is one of the oldest Icelandic manuscripts. Both ship allegories start as nautical catalogues, where parts of the ship are compared with Christian doctrinal elements or general topics, and with liturgical and monastic canon.

The article analyses two panels from the Dura Europos’s synagogue in which the sacrifice on Mount Carmel is depicted. What is particularly interesting is that in these two pieces of frescoes the artist has expanded the biblical story with an extra-biblical legend relating to the figure of Hiel. This legend is preserved in some late midrashim such as Midrash Devarim Rabbah, Midrash Shemot Rabbah and Yalkut Shimoni as well as in some Christian sources such as Commentary on the Books of the Kings attributed to Ephrem, and in Homily SS Petrum and Elijah attributed to John Chrysostom. Many scholars have used rabbinic sources to explain some of the scenes depicted in the frescoes of the Syrian synagogue. However, as W. G. Moon and U. Leibner have demonstrated, it is possible that these traditions circulated orally and were only later incorporated into rabbinic midrashim. This hypothesis is also corroborated by the fact that the legend of Hiel was known by Christian authors. Indeed, Syrian Christianity was developed within the Jewish communities and the first Christians probably attended and participated in the activities of the synagogues where, from the first century ce, the reading and commentary of the Hebrew Bible were some of the main activities. The article hypothesizes that the legend of Hiel was known to Syrian Judaism and it is likely that Christians would have learned about this tradition in the synagogue environment. It should be remembered that at Dura Europos itself, the church and the synagogue were only a few hundred meters apart. It may be assumed that Christians visited or attended the synagogue at Dura Europos where the legend of Hiel was discovered.

This paper will consider four Christian sources from between the second and fourth centuries CE, all of which in their own way represent Roman law as to some degree dependant on, inspired by, or compatible with that of Moses. The nuanced viewpoints put forward by each writer, however, evidence more particular agendas and responses to the challenge of following both God’s laws and those of Rome. Whether authors were writing in the pre- or post-Christianised Empire was a factor in some cases, as was the perceived relationship of certain authors between Christianity and Judaism. I will argue firstly that Roman law was primarily for certain early Christian authors a polemical tool by which to argue for the distinction between Christianity and Judaism. Secondly, I will show that by directly or indirectly connecting the Mosaic and Roman laws, Christian authors were able to further both pro- and anti-Roman agendas.

The article is dedicated to presenting the ancient Greek and Roman, as well as Christian sources regarding the virtue of Gratitude, to be observed in modern times among monuments of various categories – in painting and sculpture, commemorative decoration projects, as well as philosophical, theological, and literary texts discussing the desired characteristics of a righteous, fair, good man, and inscriptions reflecting sets of exceptionally positive virtues which described a given figure, especially rulers. Gratitude is inseparably connected with charity. It is manifested by feeling, repayment, and virtue. The idea of Gratitude has often been manifested by a stork, known for its extraordinary care towards parents already since antiquity. A proposition for representing the virtue of Gratitude was offered by Cesare Ripa in Iconologia (1593, illustrated edition 1603), commonly used by artists. It is personified by a woman holding a stork and a twig of lupine. However, the origins of its painting imagery with regard to Italian art prove to go beyond the publication of Iconologia. Stork as a symbol of Gratitude appeared already in Andrea Alciato’s Emblematum liber (1531) in the Gratiam referendam emblem (An obligation must be repaid). Its message was widely discussed in Pierio Valeriano’s Hieroglyphica (1556). The stork motif, on the basis of observing the animal’s habits and symbolism traditions reaching antiquity, became associated with man’s best qualities regard- ing their relations with others – helping other people and cooperating with them. What constituted the basis of such special status of Gratitudo virtue were ancient sources of knowledge about storks’ habits, reaching Sophocles’ tragedy Electra, Aristophanes’ comedy The Birds, Aristotle’s Historia animalium, Artemidorus’ Oneirokritika, Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, and Claudius Aelianus’ De natura animalium. A significant role in strengthening the beliefs about a stork and its habits was also played by Physiologus and Horapollo’s Hieroglyphica. In antiquity, the topic of Gratitude was examined by Aristotle, Cicero, and Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger. Among Christian authors, it was particularly discussed by St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. By analysing examples of both verbal and pictorial representations of the virtue of Gratitude, including various thinkers’ reflections on that topic, we find it closely related to justice, meaning a noble attitude towards helping others without expecting any prize, as well as remembrance about the received blessings.

Titus Livius (Livy) is mentioning some eclipses in his monumental history of Rome, entitled Ab Urbe Condita Libri. For two of these eclipses, Livy is also reporting the dates. One occurred during the Ludi Apollinares, in the year of the consulship of Lucius Cornelius. Livy dated the eclipse 11 Quintilis. Astronomy dated it 14 March 190 BC (Julian date). The other eclipse is that at the time of the Pydna battle and it is the lunar eclipse of 21 June 168 BC (Julian date). Livy tells that it occurred during the night between 3 and 4 September. The differences between astronomical and historical dates are due to the manner the lunisolar Roman republican calendar was managed in that period by the college of Roman pontifices. Here we discuss the eclipses reported by Livy to point out the problems of the Roman chronology, when it is involving the republican calendar.

The relationship between Maya and our calendar is expressed by a coefficient known as ?correlation? which is a number of days that we have to add to the Mayan Long Count date to get Julian Date used in astronomy. There is surprisingly large uncertainty in the value of the correlation, yielding a shift between both calendars (and thus between the history of Maya and of our world) to typically several hundred years. There are more than 50 diverse values of the correlation, some of them derived from historical, other by astronomical data. We test here (among others) the well established Goodman-Mart?nez-Thompson correlation (GMT), based on historical data, and the B?hms? one (B&B), based on astronomical data decoded from the Dresden Codex (DC); this correlation differs by about +104 years from the GMT. In our previous works we used several astronomical phenomena as recorded in the DC for a check. We clearly demonstrated that (i) the GMT was not capable to predict these phenomena that really happened in nature and (ii) that the GMT predicts them on the days when they did not occur. The phenomena used till now in the test are, however, short-periodic and the test then may suffer from ambiguity. Therefore, we add long-periodic astronomical phenomena, decoded successfully from the DC, to the testing. These are (i) a synchrony of Venusian heliacal risings with the solar eclipses, (ii) a synchrony of Venus and Mars conjunctions with the eclipses, (iii) conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn repeated in a rare way, and (iv) a synchrony of synodic and sideric periods of Mercury with the tropical year. Based on our analysis, we find that the B&B correlation yields the best agreement with the astronomical phenomena observed by the Maya. Therefore we recommend to reject the GMT and support the B&B correlation.

<p>Recently, a preprint in arXiv [1] and a series of news announced that Torino, as the roman Augusta Taurinorum, was founded on 30 January 9 BC. The assumption is based on the coincidence of the Julian date, obtained by means of astronomical calculations, and the date of the inauguration, by Augustus, of the Ara Pacis in Rome (historical date). Here we show that, in the framework proposed in [1], the abovementioned date of the foundation is impossible. The impossibility is based on the following fact. The Julian date (30 January 9 BC), proposed by the authors in arXiv [1], cannot definitely be the historical 30 January 9 BC of the Julian Calendar.</p>

Accuracy of the Hebrew calendar

The <scp>UK</scp>’s wet and stormy winter of 2013/2014

Demand and Design Considerations for Smallholder Farmers’ Weather Index Insurance Products

BackgroundLow birth weight (LBW) is a significant public health concern given its association with early-life mortality and other adverse health consequences that can impact the entire life cycle. In many countries, accurate estimates of LBW prevalence are lacking due to inaccuracies in collection and gaps in available data. Our study aimed to determine LBW prevalence among facility-born infants in selected areas of Kenya and Tanzania and to assess whether the introduction of an intervention to improve the accuracy of birth weight measurement would result in a meaningfully different estimate of LBW prevalence than current practice.MethodsWe carried out a historically controlled intervention study in 22 health facilities in Kenya and three health facilities in Tanzania. The intervention included: provision of high-quality digital scales, training of nursing staff on accurate birth weight measurement, recording and scale calibration practices, and quality maintenance support that consisted of enhanced supervision and feedback (prospective arm). The historically controlled data were birth weights from the same facilities recorded in maternity registers for the same calendar months from the previous year measured using routine practices and manual scales. We calculated mean birth weight (95% confidence interval CI), mean difference in LBW prevalence, and respective risk ratio (95% CI) between study arms.ResultsBetween October 2019 and February 2020, we prospectively collected birth weights from 8441 newborns in Kenya and 4294 in Tanzania. Historical data were available from 9318 newborns in Kenya and 12,007 in Tanzania. In the prospective sample, the prevalence of LBW was 12.6% (95% confidence intervals [CI]: 10.9%–14.4%) in Kenya and 18.2% (12.2%–24.2%) in Tanzania. In the historical sample, the corresponding prevalence estimates were 7.8% (6.5%–9.2%) and 10.0% (8.6%–11.4%). Compared to the retrospective sample, the LBW prevalence in the prospective sample was 4.8% points (3.2%–6.4%) higher in Kenya and 8.2% points (2.3%–14.0%) higher in Tanzania, corresponding to a risk ratio of 1.61 (1.38–1.88) in Kenya and 1.81 (1.30–2.52) in Tanzania.ConclusionRoutine birth weight records underestimate the risk of LBW among facility-born infants in Kenya and Tanzania. The quality of birth weight data can be improved by a simple intervention consisting of provision of digital scales and supportive training.

18. januarja leta 350 se je v Augustodunu kot uzurpator na oblast povzpel Flavij Magnencij. Konstans, ki se je poskušal rešiti z begom, je bil v kraju Castrum Helenae (danes Elne na jugu Francije) ujet in ubit. V zaostrenih razmerah, ki so sledile Magnecijevemu prihodu na oblast in Konstansovi smrti, sta bila v nekaj naslednjih mesecih za cesarja oklicana še dva nelegitimna vladarja.

Why would Latin authors between twelfth and fifteenth century take an interest in Jewish calendar? Mainly for two reasons. Its times for mean conjunctions of Sun and Moon (molad s) were much more precise than could be had from Christian ecclesiastical computus, so they would contribute to a better determination of Easter. Also, Jewish calendar (known in its present form since tenth century) was believed to have been valid already in biblical times, so that it was proper one to use for determining biblical datings, rather than Roman calendar. In short, main fields of interest were calendar reform and biblical chronology, topics touched on very often in medieval literature (cf. luminaries like Roger Bacon). There are also several Latin texts especially dedicated to Jewish chronology for one purpose or other. The earliest of these (Reinher of Paderborn, Compotus emendatus , composed in 1171) saw its first printing as recently as 1951, and again in 2011.The present work edits five further special treatises, apparently only ones of their kind before sixteenth century. They are so varied in form and content that each requires special editing, which this editor has done very conscientiously. The diverse texts includeLiber erarum (1188/91), a 12-page anonymous tract known from six manuscripts (thirteenth to fifteenth century) and a print from 1549; there is no modern edition until now. It contains a list of traditional eras (Spanish, Seleucid, Persian, Christian, Arab) relative to date 23 March 1191. It also offers data for Cremona, suggesting a connection with Gerard translator. However, editor judges it to be reworked from an original in Hebrew by a Jewish author. The text is purely computational, describing Hebrew chronological system and giving rules for finding molad for beginning of each lunar year and for various other times.Robert of Leicester, De compoto Hebreorum aptato ad kalendarium (1294), 65 pages in edition, known from two manuscripts of early to mid-fourteenth century. Not previously printed. It is the lengthiest and most sophisticated Latin treatise on Jewish calendation to be extant from Middle Ages, according to editor (p. 13), and edition is elaborate, including extensive notes on sources. The author's stated intention is to obtain knowledge of bygone ages, i.e., Biblical chronology, with Jewish calendar as a tool. So first we get a technical account of Jewish time reckoning, rules for converting Jewish into Julian dates, and finally datings of Creation, Noah's flood, exodus from Egypt, destruction of First Temple, conception of John Baptist and incarnation and crucifixion of Jesus. Robert also discusses controversy about whether Last Supper was performed with leavened or unleavened bread, a factor in Great Schism of 1054.Nicholas Trevet O.P., Compotus Hebreorum (1310), 13 pages in edition, known from one, early fourteenth-century manuscript. Not previously printed. The text is appended to a commentary on Leviticus and is meant to put feasts mentioned there into a calendrical framework. In fact, it mainly gives rules for finding weekdays for these feasts in a particular year of Jewish era. …

In an article written by Giulio Magli on the orientation of the Roman towns, Bononia, the Roman Bologna, is given as a specific example to support Magli’s thesis on the existence of preferred solar alignments of the urban layout. Assuming that the Roman towns had been oriented to the sunrise on the day of their foundation, Magli suggested possible preferred alignments according to Roman festivals, in particular the festival of Terminalia. Of Bononia, we know the date of foundation as Roman colony in 189 BC, given by Livy. We will show that, according to Roman chronology and Republican calendar, it is impossible that Bononia had been oriented to the sunrise on the day given by Livy. The discrepancy is huge. Moreover, the direction of the decumanus cannot match the dates of Terminalia for 189 BC. However, if we consider that the layout that we see today is that of a recolonization under Octavian, we can have a certain agreement between the direction of the decumanus and the sunrise on the day of Terminalia (within three days), and a perfect agreement with the day of the festival of Armilustrium. In the proposed discussion, we will stress in particular the problem of the discrepancy between the historical dates of Roman chronology and the Julian dates, those that we can find according to an astronomical analysis. This problem is general and must be properly considered in any archaeoastronomical analysis of Roman towns.