Iconographic Evidence Research Articles

The earliest evidence of chicken in Italy

The chicken (Gallus domesticus) originates from the red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus), a bird found in south and south-east Asia. The timing of the initial domestication, as well as its spread to western Asia and Europe, are still unclear. In Italy, the species was likely to have been introduced in the early Iron Age, though the precise chronology of this event is hitherto unconfirmed. By the 6th – 5th century BC, chicken remains occur at several Italian sites. Probably, the bird was originally raised for its symbolic value rather than for food, as its presence in early and mid-Iron Age cultic archaeological contexts suggests.We have re-analysed remains identified as ‘chicken’ from a cinerary hut urn found at Montecucco in central Italy during a 19th century archaeological investigation, to verify identification and establish an ante quem date for the introduction of the chicken in Italy. The analysis of these remains, combined with a review of additional zooarchaeological and iconographic evidence, has allowed us to push back the date of the earliest presence of this bird in Italy to at least the first half of the 9th century BC. This has also relevance for our understanding of the dynamics of chicken diffusion in the rest of Europe.

Mary and Early Christian Women: Hidden Leadership by Ally Kateusz

Reviewed by: Mary and Early Christian Women: Hidden Leadership by Ally Kateusz Elizabeth Ursic (bio) Kateusz, Ally. 2019, Mary and Early Christian Women: Hidden Leadership. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Pp. 295. $31.00 In her compelling book, Mary and Early Christian Women, Ally Kateusz presents a multidisciplinary analysis of literary texts, church art, and church correspondence to show that women religious leaders preached, baptized, led communities, and served Eucharist in the early Christian church. She supports her literary and iconographic claims with official church commissions, directives, and commentaries, sometimes made by popes. She also shows how Mary, the mother of Jesus, was initially remembered and honored as a dynamic religious leader. Her thesis is that Mary’s recharacterization as submissive and demure as well as the absence of women religious leaders in later church text and art was the result of intentional church efforts after the sixth century to constrain women’s religious leadership and to create a “false imagination about the past.” Kateusz’s work on a discipleship of equals builds upon that of Harvard professor Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, and she adds new discoveries and current scholarship to the conversation. Kateusz points out that today’s leading scholars are nearly unanimous in their belief that firstand second-century followers of Jesus gathered in small meal groups with rotating, informal leaders, and she presents historical proof that some of these Jesus groups had female leaders. It is interesting to learn that a fourth-century Christian community justifies women’s religious leadership with Galatians 3:28, the same scripture passage often cited by Christian communities today. She includes a quote from a text written by Bishop Epihaneus of Salamis (ca. 310–403 C.E.): “They have women bishops, presbyters and the rest; they say that none of this makes any difference because ‘In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female.’” She also provides iconographic evidence of women and men officiating at the altar from the beginning of the Christian era. [End Page 107] The same fourth-century bishop also complained that a large geographic region of Eastern Christianity was breaking bread to the name of Mary. Kateusz frames these practices in the larger context of how Mary, the mother of Jesus, was remembered and honored in text and art. The Life of the Virgin is a biography of Mary’s life, and this narrative sheds light on how women participated in the ministry of Jesus. While the Gospel of Mark only depicts male disciples with Jesus as he heals Peter’s mother-in-law, the author of The Life of the Virgin remembers female disciples being there: “When the Lord entered Peter’s house and healed his mother-in-law, who was confined because of a fever, his all-holy and blessed mother, the Virgin Mary, was with him as well as the women who were disciples of the Lord.” In this text, women baptize and are present at the Last Supper. There is also gender parity of religious leadership. “She was always inseparable from the Lord and king her son, and as the Lord had authority over the twelve apostles and then the seventy, so the holy mother had over other women who accompanied him.” Significantly, after Jesus dies, in this account Mary teaches both male and female apostles and sends them forth to evangelize. So, how can it be that so few canonical textual references show this discipleship of equals occurring in the early church? Kateusz documents how scribes participated in erasure of evidence by destroying texts as well as obscuring evidence through translation. Examples include Chapter 18 of Paul’s Letter to the Romans, where the apostle Junia’s name was changed to Junius in certain translations. Excising female authority while male authority was left intact was also accomplished when words for male and female disciples were translated as male disciples and women. Narratives about women were also redacted, including multiple versions of the “Dormition of Mary,” about the death and ascension of Mary. The longest and most complete manuscript describes her as a liturgical leader who preaches the gospel, leads prayers, heals with her hands, exorcises, baptizes, and gives female evangelists books and writings to...

Segmente erschließen - Sujets erkennen - Kultur entdecken

The definition of subjects through the sequencing of cylinder seal rollings is a funda-mental step for the interpretation of a iconographic evidence. The perception of the images is largely determined by the arrangement of their symbols. In many cases, this is done intuitively, in that the unroller cuts the rolling in such a way as he perceives the motif arrangement at first glance. With cata- and anaphoric elements as well as the arrangement of the symbols aligned with the centre, this article describes essential compositional features that need to be perceived and considered when sequencing.

An addition to the corpus of maps by José Joaquim da Rocha (c. 1740-1807)

The purpose of this short article is simple: to attribute an anonymous manuscript map of the Colonia de Sacramento, a territory north of the río de la Plata, that had been contended between the Spanish and Portuguese empires, kept in the Biblioteca Pública Municipal do Porto, to the cartographer José Joaquim da Rocha (c. 1740-1807). The argument will be based on iconographic evidence, as no record about the map’s history is available. The analysis of the map will shed light on Rocha’s cartographic practices, and the attribution of the map to Rocha will shed new light on his career.

The Mysteries, Resurrection, and 1 Corinthians 15: Comparative Methodology and Contextual Exegesis

The Mysteries, Resurrection, and 1 Corinthians 15 focuses on the extent to which Paul’s understanding of the resurrection of the dead was affected by Greco-Roman cults. To accomplish her task, Moore delineates in her introduction what the concepts of afterlife and resurrection mean and the limitations of the study. “Afterlife” encompasses “all possibilities beyond the grave,” which includes resurrection, immortality of the soul, and transmigration of souls (p. xvi). Resurrection refers strictly to restoration of a physical body. The study is limited to a comparison between the Pauline understanding of resurrection and the most representative mystery cults of first-century Corinth: the Eleusinian mysteries, the local cult of Melikertes-Palaimon, and the cult of Isis.In ch. 1, Moore provides a brief literature review of previous comparisons between the mysteries practiced in Corinth and 1 Cor 15. While some scholars, such as Marvin Meyer, conclude that mysteries share enough of a cultural milieu that emergent Christianity could be considered a form of “mystery,” others, such as A. J. M. Wedderburn and N. T. Wright disagree, arguing that the Christian idea of resurrection is fundamentally at odds with the concept of the mysteries.In chs. 2 and 3, Moore examines literary and iconographic evidence providing information on the views of adherents of the Eleusinian mysteries and the cult of Isis. In the second chapter’s discussion of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Demeter’s daughter Persephone was captured by Hades and confined to the underworld. Demeter grieved over her daughter at the Temple of Eleusis. Eventually, Persephone was reunited with Demeter but needed to spend four months each year in Hades, resulting in infertility during the winter season. On her return to Hades, Persephone received special honors. Later literature, including Aristophanes’s Frogs, Plato’s Republic, and Pausanias’s Description of Greece, described how initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries believed that participation in the cult’s rituals would enable them to share in Persephone’s honor, resulting in an enjoyable, yet nonphysical, afterlife.In ch. 3, Moore asserts that the Isis cult promised adherents a blissful afterlife. According to literary sources, such as Josephus and Apuleius, Isis’s reign extended to Hades, and “her protection of her initiates extends to that realm” (p. 66). Ancient authors often identified or equated Isis with Demeter, so that Isis’s devotees shared similar expectations to those of the Eleusinian cult. Here, Moore needs to exhibit more care in her analysis, because in antiquity comparison of religious systems differed from equating those systems, as Josephus’s descriptions of Jewish sects as “philosophies” illustrates.Chapter 4 describes the practice of the mysteries in Corinth. Although Pausanias mentions a shrine to Isis on the road to the Acrocorinth, only Apuleius described her connection with the mysteries in the region of Corinth. On the other hand, grave inscriptions indicate Corinthian devotion to the cult of Demeter/Persephone, as represented in the Eleusinian mysteries. In addition, we have evidence of a local mystery of Melikertes-Palamaion, whose rituals included the ritual reenactment of his. This ritual also indicates that the cult’s “focus on the underworld and afterlife” (p. 90). This cult also understood afterlife as enjoying special status in Hades.Chapter 5 compares Paul’s understanding of the afterlife with the mysteries. Moore concludes that, while Paul’s views on the afterlife shared with the mysteries a common hope of life after death, his hope is fundamentally different from that of the Corinthian cults. Paul’s hope entailed participating in Christ’s resurrection, whereas the cults focused on participation in cultic ritual. However, in 1 Cor 15:29, where Paul addresses “baptism for the dead,” Paul appears to share his recipients’ understanding of the afterlife. Moore, however, contends that this practice was a funerary ritual to assist the dead on their way to the afterlife. Whatever may have been his personal views on the ritual, Paul used it to illustrate his point about the resurrection of the dead, since he asserted the practice made no sense if it were disconnected with hope in the resurrection (pp. 121–22).In conclusion, Moore has indicated the different religious matrixes of the Corinthian cults of the Eleusinian mysteries, Melikertes-Palamaion, and Isis. Her exegesis of “baptism for the dead” (1 Cor 15:29) is helpful. Nevertheless, she has neglected some problematic exegetical issues. In particular, she does not address the question whether the resurrection appearances of 1 Cor 15:3–11 were physical events or visionary experiences. Likewise, how does she answer those who say that the phrase “spiritual body” of 15:35–52 refers to some sort of noncorporeal existence? Finally, she may wish to consider expanding her comparison of the mysteries and Christian faith beyond 1 Corinthians. For example, an analysis of the mysteries of Samothrace compared with 1 Thess 4–5.

Royal "Chariot" Burials of Sanauli near Delhi and Archaeological Correlates of Prehistoric Indo-Iranian Languages

The article describes the royal cart burials excavated at the Late Harappan site of Sanauli near Delhi in the spring of 2018 on the basis of the available reports and photographs. The author then comments on these finds, dated to about 1900 bce, with the Sanauli cart burials being the first of their kind in Bronze Age India. In his opinion, several indications suggest that the Sanauli “chariots” are actually carts yoked to bulls, as in the copper sculpture of a bull-cart from the Late Harappan site of Daimabad in Maharashtra. The antennae-hilted swords associated with the burials suggest that these bull-carts are likely to have come from the BMAC or the Bactria and Margiana Archaeological Complex (c.2300–1500 bce) of southern Central Asia, from where thereis iconographic evidence of bull-carts. The ultimate source of the Sanauli/BMAC bull-carts may be the early phase of the Sintashta culture in the Trans-Urals, where the chariot (defined as a horse-drawn light vehicle with two spoked wheels) was most probably invented around the late twenty-first century bce. The invention presupposes an earlier experimental phase, which started with solid-wheeled carts that could only be pulled by bulls. An intermediate phase in the development is the “proto-chariot” with cross-bar wheels, attested in a BMAC-related cylinder seal from Tepe Hissar III B in northern Iran (c.2000–1900 bce). The wooden coffins of the Sanauli royal burials provide another pointer to a possible Sintashta origin. The Sanauli finds are considered in the context of the author’s archaeological model for the prehistory of the Indo-Iranian languages, which is adjusted to meet recent justified criticism.

Imbabura and Chimborazo at the cradle of Biogeography in the South American Andes

The biogeographic profiles produced between 1802 and 1803 by Alexander von Humboldt and Francisco José de Caldas can be postulated as synchronous, though dissimilar, infographics, centered respectively on two volcanoes in Ecuador: Imbabura and Chimborazo. This short article presents documentary and iconographic evidence to support this appreciation.

Working with fire: Making glass beads at Amarna using methods from metallurgical scenes

A series of archaeological experiments were carried out at the site of Tell el-Amarna, the short-lived capital city of king Akhenaten (who reigned c. 1348–1331BCE), in Middle Egypt between 2017 and 2019. These experiments, which were based on the iconographic evidence presented in two-dimensional metal-working scenes chiefly from Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181BCE) and Middle Kingdom (c. 2050–1710BCE) tombs, had the purpose of demonstrating that it is possible to carry out small-scale glass working, in particular the manufacture of beads, at household level using small and simple fire pits, which were ventilated with blowpipes. While glass rods and other items indicative of glass working have been found in the smaller houses at Amarna, firing structures are often absent from the archaeological record from the early excavations (1911–1936). If these firing structures - if they existed - were insubstantial and superficial features (rather than being larger ovens) they could easily have been missed by the early excavations. The feasibility of producing small items, such as beads, from glass, using a rudimentary fire pit, which leaves only a faint trace in the archaeological record, would eliminate the necessity of a superior industrial setup for this activity, such as a sophisticated workshop with complex firing structures. The results of the experiments presented in this paper suggest that it was possible to produce glass beads using a small fire pit using technologies borrowed or adapted from metallurgical processes. This makes it possible that the working of glass into beads took place throughout the city of Amarna, rather than only in a set of specialized workshops.

Hippopotamus hunting in Predynastic Egypt: Reassessing Archaeozoological evidence

Hippopotamus hunting as an iconographical motif is widely attested during most of Egyptian history. Both private and royal Egyptian tombs spanning from early Old Kingdom to Roman times show these images in their walls. The motif was often depicted in Predynastic iconography but, due to some of its particularities, some authors suggested that hippopotami were, in fact, not killed but rather captured alive. Decades have passed, and evidence both ar- chaeological and archaeozoological has since grown significantly. We now have enough sources to reassess the corpus of evidence to debunk or ratify such hypotheses. Particularly relevant to confirm these was the finding at Hierakonpolis of a young hippopotamus’ remains showing signs of having been kept captive in the village. Moreover, it is helpful to examine evidence not taken into account by the authors such as ethnohistorical research and the latest archaeozoological find- ings. The outcome of this research seems to suggest that the killing of hippopotami did, in fact, take place during hunting expeditions, due to the danger of transporting the beasts alive. Further- more, the idea of iconographic evidence as a narrative of actual events should be challenged and understood instead as being one of symbolic nature.

Iconographical Evidence of Herihor`s Northern political Expansion as a king

This paper studies a remarkable iconography belonging to Herihor as a king. The scene is located on the eastern inner wall of the court of the temple of Khonsu at Karnak. The iconography, with a preliminary characterization and translation of the accompanying texts, has been published previously but still offers possibilities for additional analysis. The contents offer more novel queries; among which one concerns Herihor`s relationship with Hathor of Dendera, based on the iconographic detail representing the king receiving his regal epithets incised inside cartouches. The study examines the relationship between the king and the goddess, and includes a discussion of the titles included only in the Hb-sd symbol surmounted by the crown of Upper Egypt. Throughout the interpretation of the symbolism expressed by the scene, the Study, arrives at the conclusions of an approximated geographical boundary; that Herihor, as a king, exerted control at least as far north as the region of Iwnt (Dendera).

Назорейский обряд на Енисее. Часть I

The material of the article is one of the mysterious images engraved on the planes of the Oshkolskaya Pisanitsa. Pisanitsa objects are located 270 km North of the city of Abakan in southern Siberia. Oshkol Pisanitsa was discovered by the expedition of Dr. Aspelin (1887). Here in the steppe landscapes along the rivers Ah-YUS and Khara-YUS was the state of the medieval Kyrgyz. The proposed monument from the materials of N. Rybakov, published for the first time, the Author interprets it as a visual reproduction of the rite-the nazorean oath. From ancient manuscripts or new Testament literature, we do not find any detailed description or iconographic evidence of the oath. Our information is too sparse and limited to fragmentary references to this rite in the religious history of antiquity. However, one of the important components in the appearance of the Yenisei characters is a twisted braid that hangs from under the tiara along the back of the head to the shoulders. This factor, without exception, is characteristic of all the characters of the Gentiles and has a convergence with the dress of the sect of the Nazarenes-Gnostics of the II-III centuries. Long hair, as an ethnographic accent, allows you to solve semantic problems more successfully. The image is part of a group of characters of clergymen in robes, which are a fact of multilayered syncretism-an alien sermon in the steppes of modern Khakassia in the Middle of the VIII century. Structural combinations of the rite state the influence of the early Christian religion of Palestine, layered on Manichaeism. Sectarian groups at one time advanced to the medieval Kyrgyz on the Yenisei.

Pontius Pilate as a Late Antiquity and Early Medieval Judge – Iconographic Representations

The image of a judge in Late Antiquity is shrouded in mystery as visual artefacts depicting court proceedings are scarce. Early Christian sarcophagi and miniatures adorning early manuscripts help in researching this topic. Illustrations of the trial of Jesus found there fully represent jurisprudence of the 4th and 5th century. Western artists had no knowledge of the hearing held at the beginning of the first century in Jerusalem, in a Roman province, hence they recreated what they knew from experience. The pictures presenting the trial of Jesus are probably the most important iconographic evidence of court proceedings in which a judge and an accused stand facing each other. Based on the iconography analysed, we can see that certain elements are recurrent. They include a curule seat, crossed legs of the judge, a laurel wreath, a table, presence of other persons wearing soldiers’ uniforms and clerks, whose role was probably that of a record taker. The image of Pilate in Late Antiquity is, in fact, a representation of early court scenes.

The Roman introduction and exportation of animals into Tunisia: Linking archaeozoology with textual and iconographic evidence

The Mediterranean basin was the core of the Roman Empire. Large communication networks were constructed and maintained that enabled the trade and distribution of large number of products between distant territories. North Africa, and more specifically Tunisia, was an important trading area. However, little information is available about the animal trade. To characterize this activity and evaluate its economic importance, in this study we examine which species were introduced and exported during the Roman era in Tunisia using archaeozoological data and contextualizing them with written and iconographic sources. This combined approach shows that the Romans were responsible for introducing and exporting numerous animals. We have documented the introduction of commensal animals, such as black rat (Rattus rattus) and house mouse (Mus sp.), wild animals such as fallow deer (Dama dama) and hare (Lepus sp.), and domestic animals such as rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) and cat (Felis catus). At the same time, North Africa supplied Rome with wild beasts such as lions, tigers, bears and camels. We suggest that the animal trade was an important economic activity for Tunisia not only for the export of wild animals but also for the import of animals that were mainly used for social purposes.

Reconstructing Lost Instruments: Praetorius’s <em>Syntagma musicum</em> and the Violin Family <em>c.</em> 1619

Michael Praetorius’s De organographia and Theatrum instrumentorum provide valuable clues that contribute to a new understanding of the violin family c. 1619, many surviving examples of which are reduced in size from their sixteenth- and seventeenth-century dimensions. The record of surviving instruments – especially those of the Amati family – alongside metrologic, documentary and iconographic evidence shows that Michael Praetorius describes a large instrument conforming remarkably well to the original dimensions of the basso da braccio (violoncello), as well as furnishing an excellent scale representation of the violin family as it was at the time of these works’ publication and an accurate tuning scheme.

Pictorial Depictions of Musicians, Musical Instruments and Music-Making in the <em>Stammbücher</em> of Paul Jenisch (1558–1647) and Johann Michael Weckherlin (1579–1631)

The Wurttembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart houses a rich collection of Stammbucher, including ones compiled by Paul Jenisch (1558–1647) and Johann Michael Weckherlin (1579–1631). These valuable sources (Cod. hist. qt. 298–299 and Cod. hist. oct. 218) offer a wealth of iconographical evidence concerning organology and performing practices.

Spätmittelalterliche Askesepraktiken als Ausdruck des epochentypischen Dolorismus

In the religious history of Europe, the High and Late Middle Ages were the era during which ascetic ideals reached their highest pitch. From late antiquity to the 11th century, self-castigation motivated by piety had been nearly exclusively the task of the ‘virtuosi’ of Christianity, of hermits, monks and nuns, to whom the ‘celsitudo perfectionis’ was reserved. It was not until the wake of the Gregorian Reform that a change in mentality took place in which asceticism waxed into an ideal for all pious laymen and especially -women. More and more, not only passive castigations such as fasting and chastity became important, but also active practices such as autoflagellation and the willing exposure to sickening situations. The present paper, based on written and iconographic evidence, largely deals with these religious performances as realities of late medieval pious life, considering shortly, too, statements of medieval theologians and mystics who tried to present an ‘algodicy’, i. e. an apologetic interpretation of the existence of pain as one step in God’s plan of salvation. The will to present the passion of the founder of Christianity in extremely cruel forms and to imitate his sufferings by doing penance for personal and general sinfulness emerge as major reasons for the quest for self-afflicted pain which cannot be understood without taking into account psychological approaches.

Straps, Tabs and Strings: Book-Marks in the Codices of the St Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai

ABSTRACT The paper examines the bookmarks recorded in the manuscript collection of the St Catherine’s Monastery Library in Sinai. It proposes a consistent classification and terminology and examines in detail the three main types of bookmarks, the board strap markers, the endband string markers and the leaf tab markers using the physical evidence collected through the St Catherine’s Library Conservation Project as well as iconographical evidence from Byzantine works of art. The bookmark structure, function and materials are explained in detail, and line drawings of their shape and construction are also provided. Special attention is given to leather straps fixed on the boards of codices which have been interpreted as ‘lifting tabs’ in the past and which are now reinterpreted as bookmarks.

The Sodales Flauiales Titiales, the Flamen Dialis, and the Propaganda of Domitian

Abstract I analyze the literary and iconographic sources of the Domitianic period in order to propose the co-ordination of the sodales Flaviales Titiales by the flamen Dialis during the rule of the last of the Flavians. The ideological relevance of Jupiter in Domitian’s propaganda is such that it influences the development of the imperial cult under his rule to the point of the fusion of the dynastic and divine discourses of legitimization, leaving iconographical evidence in the decoration of both the Templum Diui Vespasiani and the Templum Gentis Flauiae.

Feeding the dragon: The devouring monster in Anglo-Saxon eschatological imagery

This essay deals with two intertwined eschatological motifs of the literary and iconographic culture of early medieval England: the devouring devil, especially in the guise of a dragon, and the mouth of hell, fashioned as the jowls of a zoomorphic monster, arguably a distinctively English adaptation of the anthropomorphic mouth of hell of classical descent. The following analysis will outline the intricate, creative interplay of crucial themes of Christian eschatology and demonology, on which theimagery of the demonic devouring dragon and the mouth of hell can be said to ultimately rely. In particular, it will be argued that the coalescence of these two widespread motifs into the distinctively Anglo-Saxon imagery of the zoomorphic mouth of hell may have been triggered by the cosmology and eschatology of two apocrypha especially popular in early medieval England, the Seven Heavens apocryphon and the Gospel of Nicodemus, especially its section on the Descensus ad Inferos. The discussion of relevant textual, manuscript, and iconographic evidence willafford intriguing insights into the shaping of this syncretic blending, as well as hinting at the milieu where such a blending may have been if not initiated, then at least endorsed and popularised.Keywords: Anglo-Saxon eschatology; apocrypha; mouth of hell; source studies; manuscript studies

The Altars of the Martyrial Sanctuary of Cimitile (4th-10th Century)

The significant literary, archaeological, epigraphic and iconographic evidence allows a detailed analysis of the altars of the martyrial sanctuary of St. Felix at Cimitile between the Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages together with the modalities of deposition of the relics within them. Although the disappearance of numerous altars and the imperfect preservation of the nine specimens remaining do not allow an exhaustive classification, it is nevertheless possible to recognize a chrono-typological sequence, based on stratigraphic data, in association with the frescoes and comparisons of altars still existing in other churches.