Hellenistic Research Articles

The artistic complexity of the Antikythera Mechanism: a comprehensive tutorial

Recovered in 1901, from a first-century BC shipwreck, the Antikythera Mechanism is considered to be the oldest extant complex geared device. It was constructed in ~150 BCE and was essentially an analog computer, an astronomical and calendrical device, designed to predict astronomical phenomena, such as lunar and solar eclipses, to maintain calendar accuracy and to predict the dates of Panhellenic Games. The device was operated manually by a user, setting a date in a dial. All necessary calculations were made using a set of gears (at least 39), while the results were displayed on several scientific scales. The Mechanism’s miniature size, the elaborate gear trains, the use of eccentrical gears and the employment of a pin–and–slot gear system to calculate the anomalous orbit of the Moon, demonstrate that the Greek mechanicians of the Hellenistic period had become far more skillful in designing geared devices than the surviving written sources imply. Geared devices matching the complexity of the Antikythera Mechanism would not appear again in Europe until the mechanical clocks of the thirteenth century. The aim of this paper is to present this ancient elaborate device in the most comprehensible way.

The Precursors of Scientific Models in Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Ancient Greek World: A Comparative Study

This research traces and examines specific examples of the precursors of scientific models that were applied in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the ancient Greek world. The main purpose of the study is to compare the way that these different civilizations used models but also the purposes of their utilization in pre-Hellenic and ancient Greek science. A core question that arose is: Can we trace the roots of the utilization of what we nowadays call ‘‘scientific models’’ in ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Greek scientific activity? Another important question is how the application of models differs in the scientific activity of these civilizations. Based on an extensive review of historical books, papers, and web sources I inferred that ancient Egyptians and Babylonians utilized tools that nowadays we call mathematical and analogue or material models and the ancient Greeks utilized theoretical, fiction, and analogue models. Moreover, while the basic function of these tools seems to remain stable throughout the centuries, the core difference is detected in the purpose of their utilization in these civilizations and is related to the orientation of their scientific activity. Specifically, the scientific activity of Egyptians and Babylonians mainly aimed at solving practical problems related to spatial planning, architecture, and agriculture as well as issues related to religion while ancient Greek ‘‘episteme,’’ according to Plato, or ‘‘natural philosophy,’’ according to Aristotle, sought the acquisition of knowledge about the natural world, the understanding, description, and explanation of natural phenomena.

Forgotten Islands of the Past: The Archaeology of the Northern Coast of the Arabian Sea

The Indus Delta plays an important role in the archaeology of the northern coast of the Arabian Sea. Little was known of this region until a few decades ago. The first surveys were carried out in the 1970s and were resumed by the present author in the 2010s. They have shown the great potential of the area for the interpretation of sea-level rise and its related human settlement between the beginning of the Holocene and the Hellenistic period. In this territory, several limestone terraces rise from the alluvial plain of the River Indus, which were islands in prehistoric and early historic times. Many archaeological artefacts, along with marine and mangrove shells, have been recovered from their surface and radiocarbon dated. These discoveries help us to follow the events that took place in the region in well-defined periods and interpret some aspects of the prehistoric coastal settlement in relation to the advance of the Indus Fan and the retreat of the Arabian Sea. The following questions are addressed in this paper: who settled these islands, when and why? During which prehistoric periods were mangrove and marine environments exploited? And what were the cultural characteristics of the communities that seasonally or permanently settled some of the present ‘rocky outcrops’?

On the Question of the Adoption of the Epiclesis ‘Euergetes’ by Ptolemy III

In 2020, I published the monograph From Basileis-Pharaohs to Pharaohs-Basileis: The First 100 Years of the Ptolemaic Monarchy. In that book, I proposed to move the date of the famine that occurred during the reign of Ptolemy III from 245/244 BC to the period between 243 and 238 BC, drawing on the evidence of the Alexandrian ‘synodal’ decree of 3 December 243 BC. If my hypothesis is correct, it becomes necessary to reconsider the background of Ptolemy’s adoption of the Greek form of the sacred epiclesis ‘Euergetes’ (Benefactor), which earlier I associated with the help that the population of Egypt received from the king during that famine. In modern historiography, there are a number of alternative suggestions regarding the prior actions of Ptolemy III, supposedly consistent with the Hellenistic ideas about euergetism. Among them are the victorious end of the Asian military campaign (246–245 BC); suppression of unrest in Egypt; return to Egypt of the statues of local gods and cult objects that had been removed by the Persian conquerors; and deeds for the benefit of Egyptian temples and sacred animals. But these actions of Ptolemy III either did not meet the definition of a ‘beneficent act’ or concerned only ethnic Egyptians. Traces of the Greek semantic content of the epiclesis ‘Euergetes’ should be sought in the Alexandrian ‘synodal’ decree produced by the Egyptian priesthood. It contains a list of the king’s merciful acts during the first years of his reign, including the easing of fiscal policy and proclamation of a mass amnesty. Such actions were understood as euergetism in the Egyptian and Greek (especially Hellenistic) traditions. Either of them could become the reason for the official deification of the Hellenistic ruler. Responding with an apotheosis to a large-scale act of economic euergetism became everyday reality in the Hellenistic world. Amnesty for prisoners also directly brought the benefactor closer to the Olympian gods, led by Zeus himself.

Olivier ou palmier ?

Abstract The oldest Greek sources narrate how Leto at the time of childbirth held on to a palm tree on the island of Delos to help herself with the effort of contractions. Under this palm tree, the god Apollo was born, making it an element of sacred worship of which the ancients said that it never died. Despite the clarity of the sources in the plant identification from the 5th century BC onwards, we can observe an attempt to appropriate the sacred tree of Leto’s childbirth that is made manifest through written and visual sources. Thus, the olive tree or the image of Athena began to appear as protagonists of the myth. They began to oversee the birth of the god Apollo. This iconographic manipulation had a single purpose: to justify, through religion, the economic and political control of a key commercial centre in the Greek world.

An Early Iron Age Moat in Jerusalem between the Ophel and the Southeastern Ridge/City of David

Excavations on Jerusalem’s Southeastern Ridge, in the GivꜤati Parking Lot excavations, have exposed a man-made ditch, some 30 m wide and at least 6 m in depth, close to the hill’s summit. This paper presents the technical features of the ditch, including the rock scarps that delineate it from the north and south, as well as an enigmatic installation composed of a series of intertwined channels. Through comparison with data from previous excavations farther east, it is clear that this ditch traversed the entire width of the ridge, creating a disconnect between the Southeastern Ridge and the Ophel. Although the initial cutting of the ditch cannot be determined, it is clear that by the Late Iron IIA, the ditch served as a moat between the acropolis—possibly including the Temple Mount—and the city. This continued until the Late Hellenistic period, when construction activities backfilled the ditch, leading to its disappearance from the cityscape.

Bone Objects as Offerings of Animal Bodies in Archaic Greek Sanctuaries

During the late eighth and the seventh centuries BCE, objects worked from animal materials became a common form of offering at sanctuaries across the Greek world. Contemporary dedication practices of modified bone shafts at the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta and at two sanctuaries on Rhodes (Athena Kameiras and Athena Lindia) indicate that during this period there was an emphasis on creating and offering conspicuously organic objects made from the remains of animals. This article argues that perceptions of corporeality in the early Greek world permitted an understanding of the human body as a collection of separate parts. Examining the dedication of the modified bone shafts along with other ritualized acts (e.g., sacrifice and meat consumption) reveals that animal bodies could also be divided into distinct parts with separate functions. By repeatedly disassembling and transforming animal bodies, individuals in the Greek world offered bone objects that functioned as extensions of once-living animals, structuring and maintaining the relationships among humans, animals, and the divine.1

Subject Peoples and Civilizational Priority: Competition among Babylonians, Egyptians, and Judeans in the Hellenistic Era

AbstractThis article proceeds on the principle that we need to decenter dominant ethnic groups—primarily Greeks and Greco-Macedonians in the early Hellenistic era—in order to understand other marginalized viewpoints and experiences, including but not limited to those of Judeans (Jews). An analysis of the Babylonian author Bel-re’ushu helps to provide a new angle on Judean (e.g., Artapanus) and Egyptian (e.g., Manetho) participation within ethnic discourses that include claims to civilizational priority. I would suggest that the rhetoric of ethnic superiority in writings by subject peoples can be viewed as a symptom of ethnic interactions and not merely as a literary response to elite Greek claims regarding the inferiority of supposedly “barbarian” peoples. So it is not always the currently hegemonic Greeks that are the principal interlocutors in these ethnic discourses.

When did Daimones become Demons? Revisiting Septuagintal Data for Ancient Jewish Demonology

AbstractRecent research on Jewish demonology has been significantly advanced by evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls. In light of these advances, this article revisits the use of daimones and related terms in the Greek translations of Jewish scriptures commonly called the Septuagint (LXX). Against the tendency to conflate these LXX data into one intermediate stage in the development of the demonology of the New Testament, it calls for further attention to the particular dates and translational tendencies in specific LXX texts, as well as further attention to contemporaneous Aramaic and Hebrew sources. Accordingly, it situates the daimones of LXX Deuteronomy, the Greek Psalter, and LXX Isaiah alongside the emergent demonologies in the Aramaic Enoch literature, Jubilees, 4Q560, and 11Q11. Taken together, these sources attest new literary creativity surrounding transmundane powers among Jews in the Hellenistic period, shaped by distinctive concerns that cannot be reduced to a transitional, proto-Christian moment.

Conscription Lists, Military Forces, and Demography in Hellenistic Boiotia

ABSTRACT: This article presents a new attempt to estimate the size of the army and the population of Boiotia in the Hellenistic period. The calculation is based on an important type of epigraphic evidence in the region: conscription lists from the various cities of the Boiotian Confederacy, following a method initiated by Beloch. Confidence intervals are provided to estimate the age class of 20 in each city as well as whole districts where reliable data are available, and the population model is subsequently drawn from the work of contemporary statisticians. We reach a military potential of 11,000–14,500 men aged 20–49. This equates to a citizen population (including women and children) of 59,000–78,000 and to a total population of 75,000–115,000.

The Beginnings and Ends of Sacrifice: A Shared Reimagining of the Cultic Past in the Genesis Apocryphon and the Aramaic Levi Document

Abstract: The Genesis Apocryphon and the Aramaic Levi Document are two works of Jewish literature from the Hellenistic period that recount events from the lives of Israel’s ancestral heroes. These two compositions are rarely analyzed in relation to each other, despite their many striking similarities. In this article, we offer a sustained comparison of some of their shared features and themes, with a special emphasis on their retrojection of Israel’s sacrificial regulations into the pre-Sinaitic past. These points of contact in vocabulary, phraseology, and topical foci are so compelling as to suggest that these two compositions have a direct literary relationship and were almost certainly authored within a common social setting. In our view, the Genesis Apocryphon and the Aramaic Levi Document are part and parcel of a much broader Hellenistic-era Jewish Aramaic scribal tradition, representing the literary output of highly educated priests associated with the Jerusalem temple.

Review of

This is a review of the edited volume People on the Move Across the Greek World, edited by Chiara Maria Mauro, Diego Chapinal-Heras and Miriam Valdés Guía and published in 2022 by the Editorial Universidad de Sevilla (Seville University Press).

B2C E-Commerce Adoption among Elders in Greece

The use of e-commerce has a lot of potential to make the lives of older people better. It could give them power, the ability to manage and control their finances, lower care costs, and make them less reliant on others, so they could live on their own. Using a questionnaire survey, this study looks at whether individual characteristics of older Greek people could affect their adoption of e-commerce. Eight variables that could be linked to adoption: gender, age, marital status, residential status, level of education, experience with information technology, employment status, and income were examined. The results show that age, gender, residential status, education level, employment status, and income all play a big role in how older people shop online. The results of this study help service providers and the government understand how older people's individual characteristics affect online shopping. As a result, this knowledge would help them find and use the right strategies to improve online shopping.

A Critical Review of Water Reuse: Lessons from Prehistoric Greece for Present and Future Challenges

Wastewater treatment and reuse has passed through different development stages with time. This study reviews the most essential changes in water reclamation and reuses over millennia, focusing on initial approaches in the Hellenic world and discussing the current situation. Based on archeological evidence and time records, the awareness of the Greeks regarding land disposal, irrigation, and water reuse is highlighted. The latter has evolved into a plethora of applications, with Direct Potable Reuse (DPR) representing one of the last modern frontiers. Currently, advances in wastewater treatment and the spreading of wastewater treatment plants producing large amounts of treated effluents increase the potential for water reuse. This is regarded as a critical option for the continuing protection of water resources and human health, while concurrently satisfying water demand, particularly in areas subject to increased water scarcity. The main constraints in the expansion of water reuse practices are discussed, focusing on wastewater treatment efficiency and quality effluent standards issues, as well as on the lack of motivations related to the acceptability of this practice by final users. Against these challenges, the need for a transition from an “issue-by-issue” approach to a broader integrated water management framework is highlighted.

H19 The bronze diabetic

Abstract Many works of art throughout the centuries have not only garnered intrigue, but also debate among physicians relating to a possible medical diagnosis depicted by the artist. Representation of both anatomy and disease with the use of votive offerings and forms of grotesque art is well recognized. Such work was particularly prevalent in pieces produced during the Hellenistic Age and includes statuettes, anatomical replicas, coins and other art work. Diseases such as acromegaly, Gorlin syndrome, lymphoedema, neurofibromatosis and ophthalmic disorders, among others, have been represented in such pieces. It had been thought by the suppliants that in presenting these offerings to the Gods, particularly Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and son of Apollo, they could be cured from their ailments. An example of an artistic piece representing an individual with disease is that of a small bronze statuette described as a ‘Statue of an Emaciated Man’ and housed at the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington DC. It is a small bronze statue measuring at just 11.5 × 5 × 8.3 cm, and is thought to date from around the first century Bc to the first century Ad. It depicts a gaunt young man sitting atop a bench with his left hand held limply and an apparently swollen right foot. It has been suggested that this individual could have suffered from lead poisoning. However, lead neuropathy is typically symmetrical and emaciation is uncommon. A more common source of lead poisoning in ancient times was wine drinking, as lead was used both as a sweetener and preservative. In addition, occupational exposure was common as lead was used widely in pottery, painting, lead smelting and glass ceramics. A disease that could explain the three features of emaciation, wrist drop and a swollen foot is diabetes mellitus. Diabetes had been recognized in Egyptian manuscripts dating back to 1500 Bc commenting on ‘honey urine’. Diabetes has been well documented during the Hellenistic Age with Apollonius of Memphis in 250 Bc being credited for coining the term ‘diabetes’. Insulin insufficiency can cause emaciation mainly through ketosis. The neuropathy of diabetes mellitus can affect single nerves, and a radial nerve palsy resulting in a wrist drop has been recognized. The appearance of an apparent swollen foot could be due to a Charcot joint, which is a result of repetitive microtrauma-induced complications of polyneuropathy. In conclusion, we believe this statuette represents features consistent with diabetes mellitus and is a ‘bronze diabetic’.

HERMOGENES IN ASIA MINOR: GIVING SPATIAL PRESENCE TO TEMPLES OF DIONYSUS AND ARTEMIS LEUKOPHRYENE IN VIRTUAL SPACE

Abstract. Hermogenes and his works in Asia Minor is one of the central subjects of research in both classical architecture and archaeology. In this study, the questions of what role Hermogenes played in Hellenistic architecture, what he intended and built, and why Vitruvius gave him the highest praise are once again brought up. The Temple of Dionysus in Teos and the Temple of Artemis Leukophryene in Magnesia are masterpieces of the great architect Hermogenes, who left his mark on temple architecture in Asia Minor during the Hellenistic period. Both of these temples are now in ruins. The pedestals of several columns, the lower shafts of the columns and a few fallen Ionic capitals convey the buildings' former beauty, but few vestiges remain of these important sanctuaries. Yet these marble monuments still captivate the imagination, twenty-two centuries after they were built. As a result of a systematic and comprehensive application of digital 3D reconstruction methodology, 3D visualizations of these works of this famous architect of the Hellenistic period are created and presented.

LONG-RANGE METAL WEAPONS FROM KURUL FORTRESS IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT FINDINGS

Kurul Fortress is one of the fortified Northern Anatolian settlements
 noticeable for its finds representing the Late Hellenistic Period. The general character of
 the settlement reflects a fortified settlement with adjacent regular rooms surrounded by a
 main defensive wall supported by towers. According to the archaeological evidence
 obtained, it is understood that the settlement was fortified during the Pontic king
 Mithradates VI Eupator. The reign of Mithradates VI has an important role in military history
 due to the wars against the Roman Republic. In ancient sources, there are statements
 about how the third war (74-63 BC) brought destruction to the settlements in Pontos
 geography. Excavations carried out at Kurul Fortress present finds parallel to those
 described in ancient sources, with traces of fire reflecting a great destruction and
 numerous weapon finds. During excavations from 2010 to 2022, a total of 1,289 weapons
 were found, 967 of which are metal. Among the metal weapons in which iron and lead are
 used as raw materials, long-range weapons constitute the largest percentage. With this
 study, it is aimed to reconsider the long-range metal weapons found at Kurul Fortress with
 regard to the current data.

Traces of Greek Mythology in the Folk Music and Oral Literature of Bushehr

This article examines parts of the oral literature and music of Bushehr, a port city in southern Iran. There is a song in Bushehr's music that uses words like helleh (heːlle̞) and heliosa (heːlijosa), that have no meaning for the people of Bushehr. This paper suggests that the origin of these words goes back to Greek mythology and that they are the remains of hymns or spells recited in praise of Helios and other ancient gods. To this end, in addition to qualitative and field research, extensive historical studies were carried out, focusing on the Hellenistic period after the conquest of Iran by Alexander the Great. I suggest that although the evolution of music in Bushehr was influenced by the military domination of Greece through acculturation, the cultural background of Bushehr was not ineffective in accepting this. As a result, assimilation occurred, and some mythical elements of Greece were localised in Bushehr.

A History of Research on the Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls

The Aramaic Dead Sea Scrolls have attracted increasing scholarly attention since their official publication was completed in 2009. These manuscripts, representing about thirty distinct compositions, attest to the existence of a previously unknown Jewish Aramaic scribal culture that flourished in the early Hellenistic period (ca. late fourth to mid-second centuries BCE). The Aramaic Scrolls thus have the potential to illuminate an otherwise poorly understood period of Jewish history. In this article, I discuss the various scholarly approaches to their language, literary content, and social location, with a special emphasis on trends in the secondary literature since the late 2000s. This article will also provide interested students and scholars with an overview of the major themes and concerns found throughout the Aramaic Scrolls.

Measuring attitudes, motivations and barriers to presymptomatic dementia testing

AbstractBackgroundThe increasing biomarkers testing and new methods of presymptomatic screening for dementia have risen questions like: Should people get tested? Would they want to know whether they will get this fatal, untreatable disease? This has picked the demand for a well‐structured counseling program for dementia screening. In this direction, it is important to meet the needs of the target group; however, not much is known about people with a family history of dementia attitudes about testing, the motivations and barriers, and the expectations relevant to future counseling programs about testing for dementiaMethodThis study was comprised of a validation study of a new psychometric tool and a cross‐sectional survey to assess the attitudes, buries and motivations to dementia testing. The content of the questionnaire was based on (1) a literature review, (2) the Perceptions Regarding Investigational Screening for Memory in Primary Care (PRISM‐PC) Questionnaire (M. Boustani et al., 2008), (3) a board of Clinical expert opinions. Two hundred eight (208) people enrolled in this cross sectional study. Participants came from Greece, ages ranged from 18‐70 (M = 35.5, SD = 5.7). and the majority of the sample was female (93.3%). Psychometric properties were assessed through construct validity (principal component analysis) and internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha).ResultExploratory factor analyses revealed the presence of four factors. The first factor labelled as “Perceived harms of testing”, the second “Acceptance of testing”, the third “Perceived benefits of testing”) and the fourth factor “Need of knowledge”. The reliability of each factor separately was satisfactory to very satisfactory (.70‐.87). Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for all the final 25 items of the initial questionnaire was good (Cronbach’s α = 0.82), suggesting very satisfactory internal consistency.ConclusionThis is the first study that created a questionnaire for measuring the attitudes of Greek people towards dementia and genetic screening. Capturing data via this questionnaire might help clinicians, policymakers, and health services researchers in dementia understand better peoples’ perspectives related to the pros and cons of dementia screening and develop effective counseling programs and prevention strategies.