Ancient Statues, Christian City

Yardeni dated the charred En-Gedi Leviticus scroll (EGLev) to the second half of the first or early second century CE. Paleographic evidence is often ambiguous and can provide only an imprecise basis for dating EGLev. Nevertheless, a series of important typological developments evident in the hand of EGLev suggests a date somewhat later than the Dead Sea Scrolls of the first–second centuries, but clearly earlier than comparanda from the sixth–eighth centuries. The cumulative supporting evidence from the archeological context, bibliographic/voluminological details (wooden roller and metallic ink), format and layout (tall, narrow columns)—each individually indeterminative—also suggests dating EGLev to the period from the third–sixth centuries CE. I argue that EGLev should be dated to the third–fourth centuries CE, with only a small possibility that it could have been written in the second or fifth centuries, which is possibly supported by radiocarbon dating.

This article discusses the diachronic development of the Chinese long passive. The diachronic analysis is built on structural analysis of the long passive and the WEI ... SUO passive. I show that both constructions involve a highly restricted embedded clause (a vP) and that both are derived via Aʹ-movement. Based on their structural parallelism, I argue that the WEI ... SUO passive, which first appeared in Late Archaic Chinese (fifth century BCE ~ third century BCE), is the direct ancestor of the long passive. The long passive inherits its Aʹ properties and biclausal structure from the WEI ... SUO passive. I also show that the diachronic development from the WEI ... SUO passive to the long passive took place in two steps: (i) the loss of SUO following a morphophonological change in Early Middle Chinese (second century BCE ~ second century CE, and (ii) the replacement of WEI by BEI in Middle Chinese (third century CE ~ sixth century CE).

Introduction In recent decades, attention has increasingly been paid to the shifting and multifaceted meanings of the “mystical” in a variety of cultural, historical, and linguistic contexts and discourses. As a result, scholars largely agree that the term “mysticism” can neither be uncritically imposed on ancient texts nor commonly utilized to connote a single, universal, timeless phenomenon. With this in mind, this essay adopts a contextualized perspective and aims to elucidate the manner in which distinct notions, embedded in early Jewish sources, can be categorized as “mystical.” I discuss this topic with a focus on one heuristic model: the Merkavah mysticism of the Hekhalot literature. Merkavah Mysticism of the Hekhalot Literature Merkavah mysticism developed out of exegesis of, speculations on, and expansion of the vision of God's celestial chariot-throne (the Merkavah/מרכבה) in Ezekiel 1, 10, as well as Daniel 7. Variants are found in diverse early Jewish sources, such as Qumranic texts, earlier apocalyptic and gnostic sources, the Talmud, and other rabbinic writings. The Hekhalot corpus includes its first developed expression. This literature derives its name from the Hebrew word for palaces or temples ( Hekhalot /היכלות). This name corresponds with one of its key themes: the ascent of humans through divine celestial palaces or temples, and their visions of God and his chariot-throne. The Hekhalot corpus is distinctively multifaceted, composed of several pseudepigraphic compositions written primarily in Hebrew and Aramaic, and attributed to early rabbis of the second century CE. The precise historical date, provenance, social context, textual boundaries, and transmission of these compositions are ambiguous. The literature contains traditions from the Second Temple period and has strong connections with Qumranic, apocalyptic, rabbinic, and gnostic sources. However, it evolved through a long process of writing, editing, and redacting and is commonly assumed to have been formed in Babylonia and Palestine between the fourth and ninth centuries CE, perhaps even later. Despite its collective title, the Hekhalot literature is fluid and diverse, including a variety of texts, themes, practices, topics, and literary genres. A Paradigmatic Model For a number of interrelated reasons, this remarkable cluster of writings serves as a highly suitable paradigm for the present investigation of early Jewish mysticism.

enhance their power through the export of their cultural institutions. This top-down cultural alignment, reinforced through the introduction of imperial mass media, sometimes goes to the extreme of supplanting local languages with the language of Empire. These efforts lead to inevitable clashes between dominant/“global” and subject/“local” societies, with results that are often surprising in their variety. In this article, I hope to demonstrate how the history of traditional theatre in the eastern Mediterranean, culminating in the early years of the Eastern Roman or “Byzantine” Empire, 2 can be used as a case study in what might be called glocal cultural historiography. Traditionally dated from the fourth through fifteenth centuries CE, the Eastern Empire, although politically Roman, was rooted in a sophisticated Hellenistic cultural scene first established in Classical Athens. Byzantines used their “global” Hellenistic culture to project their power and mystique throughout the known world. However, this elite culture was dynamic and open to interventions from non-Hellenistic localities, interventions that by the sixth century CE had led to the downfall of one of the institutions most cherished by the Greeks—their state-supported theatre.

This final chapter demonstrates the importance of contextualizing epigrams into the sociohistorical circumstances of their era if we want to achieve a deeper comprehension of the transformations that various motifs undergo through space and time. The chapter analyses a cluster of epigrams on imperial gardens that date from the first to the seventh century CE, and shows how these poems reflect diverse views about imperial power, aesthetics, pagan culture, and Christianity. The chapter discusses first an epigram from the Neronian era, then moves forward to late antiquity to consider a sequence of garden epigrams from the age of the Emperor Justinian (sixth century CE). The chapter concludes with an explicitly Christian garden epigram from the reign of the Emperor Heraclius (seventh century CE).

Spirits and liqueurs in European traditional medicine: Their history and ethnobotany in Tuscany and Bologna (Italy)

Introduction Investigating Glassmaking in the Early Medieval World UCL-Qatar has embarked on a rigorous scientific project that aims to understand the production and trade of glass objects within the Byzantine Empire and Abbasid Caliphate—two contemporary and often rival regional powers. “Glass from Byzantium to Baghdad: Trade and Technology from the Byzantine Empire to the Abbasid Caliphate” is a QNRF-sponsored research project that combines archaeological and scientific evidence to compare the technological traditions and economic networks in place within the lands of the eastern Mediterranean and Arabian Peninsula during the early medieval era. This paper presents some of the very first chemical analytical data ever produced for glass artifacts excavated from archaeological sites within the GCC region. This data enables us not only to identify the type of raw materials and aspects of the manufacturing technology used to make glass, it also allows scholars to better contextualize this material by addressing various economic aspects related to the production, consumption, and trade of glass objects in the early medieval world. In addition to shedding light on how glass was made and traded, the chemical analysis of excavated glass artifacts helps scholars elucidate what material- and knowledge-interactions people in the medieval world may have had, and whether such interactions went beyond cultural, political, or geographic boundaries. Case Study Islamic Glass from the Site of Kush, UAE The first major case study in this investigation are the glass artifacts excavated from the archaeological site of Kush. Located in the Shimal area of Ras al-Khaimah (Fig. 1), Kush is one of the largest archaeological tells in the UAE. The tell was first noted by scholars in 1977, and was excavated from 1994 to 2000. Archaeological investigation shows that the settlement was occupied from the 5th century to the 13th century CE; situated just inside the Gulf on the edge of what was once a lagoon, the site was involved in the long-distance trade of goods with both the East and the West during much of its history. Among the artifacts that were recovered from excavation were more than 5000 fragments of glass, which suggests glass vessels played an important role in the daily lives of people living at Kush. Because there is as yet no evidence for glassmaking or glass working in Eastern Arabia, it is likely that most of the glass was imported from the major contemporary glass producers that were located to the north and northwest in the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Iran. Small samples were removed for analysis from 43 fragments of glass vessels excavated from Trench A at Kush. These glasses are translucent and come in a variety of colors including turquoise, aqua, light green, green, yellow green, dark yellow, amber, and purple hues as well as colorless glass. Over the course of time, the glass artifacts have deteriorated, leaving flakey white and black weathering layers that obscure the surface. The chemical composition of the glass samples was determined using electron probe microanalysis (EPMA); 23 glass forming compounds and elements were measured, the results given as weight percent oxides. The chemical data sheds light on three aspects of the glass from Kush: 1) the raw materials used to make the glass, 2) the technological tradition of glassmaking and possible provenance or origin of the glass objects, and 3) changes in glass chemistry over time. The Kush glass objects are all made from soda-lime-silica glass, a type which dominated ancient and medieval glass production and continues to dominate production even today. In terms of the raw materials used to make the glass, the relatively high magnesia and potash content of the sampled vessels (with an average of 3.9 wt% MgO and 2.5 wt% K 2 O) indicates that the glasses were made using plant ashes rather than mineral soda as a fluxing agent to lower the melting temperature of silica. Because mineral soda was the dominant flux used by glassmakers in Syro-Palestine and Egypt until the 9th–10th centuries CE, it is likely that the Kush glass vessels dating to this period were instead imported from Mesopotamia, where plant ash glass technology was in continual use since the Bronze Age. This suggests that at this time, Kush was primarily involved in the trade of raw glass or finished glass objects not with the main glassmaking regions within the former Byzantine Near East, but rather with the central Mesopotamian regions of the Abbasid caliphate of which the Arabian Peninsula was a part. Plant ash is a chemically complex source of soda, and typically has a high concentration of other chemical compounds, making plant ash a rather “dirty” material. However, the Kush samples have lower phosphorus content than might be expected from a plant ash-based glass, which could suggest the plant ash soda was purified in some way during processing. In many of the samples, trace amounts of antimony, manganese, copper, cobalt, tin, and lead could indicate some degree of glass recycling was also taking place. In some cases the addition of metals to the raw glass was intended to colorize the glass, as in the case of the unique bright turquoise glasses that have high traces of antimony, copper, tin, and lead. The manganese content of the Kush samples is also notable; manganese is typically added to create purple or colorless glass, but manganese is present in relatively high levels in some of the green, aqua-green, and yellow-green glasses found at Kush. The glass from Kush was also sampled to assess change over the course of time. The Kush glass can be divided into chronological periods based on their typological features and excavation context, and the samples were taken from vessels dating to four different periods of Kush's Early Islamic era of occupation history: the 7th–8th centuries CE (Period II), the late 8th-early 9th centuries CE (Period III), the 9th-late 11th centuries CE (Period IV), and the late 11th-early 12th centuries CE (Period V). However, the chemistry of the glass does not appear to reflect any major compositional changes over time. The glass samples from the 9th–11th centuries are of particular interest, as they coincide with a time of flourishing population and economy within the region; there may be some degree of standardization reflected in the 9th–12th century glass samples, as is suggested by the narrower range of potash levels. Conclusions and Future Work In comparison to glass made using mineral soda, plant-ash based glass is more chemically complex. As such it requires a more rigorous analytical program. The data provided in this preliminary study using electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) gives a good general impression of the glassmaking technology of the Kush samples, but it is expected that a better technological assessment and interpretation will result from the application of a new chemical analytical technique: laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS). This technique goes beyond the detection capabilities of EPMA and enables measurement of the trace element composition of glass to parts per million (ppm). Trace element analysis of the Kush glass will thus allow us to discriminate between discrete glass groupings, and to better interpret the economic networks and patterns of trade that took place in the Gulf region during the Early Islamic era. Acknowledgments We would like to thank Philip Connolly for providing the EPMA data for the Kush samples discussed above. This presentation was made possible by NPRP grant 7-776-6-024 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.

As the third volume of a multivolume set on Chinese phonetics, this book examines the phonetical system of Modern Chinese and phonetical changes from Middle Chinese to Modern Chinese. Chinese language history is generally split into three phases: (1) Old Chinese, the form of the Chinese language spoken between the 18th century BCE and the 3rd century CE, (2) Middle Chinese, between the 4th century CE to around the 12th century CE, and (3) Modern Chinese, since the 13th century. This volume studies the phonetical systems of Modern Chinese, including the initials system, vowel final system, nasal final system, entering final system, and tonal system. The author discusses the distinct change of these systems from the period of Middle Chinese to that of Modern Chinese and studies the formation of the standard pronunciation of the common language of the modern Han nation. This comprehensive groundwork on Chinese phonetical history will be a must read for scholars and student studying Chinese language, linguistics, and especially for beginning learners of Modern Chinese phonetics.

In order to identify new crops in the 1st millennium ce in northern Italy, a complex and diversified territory, archaeobotanical macroremains from 155 sites dating between the 2nd century bce and 12th century ce were analysed. In more than half of the sites, taxa were encountered that had never previously been recorded from the area. The new crops are about 30, mainly (~ 70%) fruit plants in the broad sense, which have a clear peak in this time period. Based on the available data, the most prominent time for the introduction of new food plants (both imports and cultivars) seems to have been the Roman Imperial period (1st–2nd century ce), but also later, in Late Antiquity (3rd–6th century ce) and the Middle Ages (7th–12 century ce), there was no lack of new arrivals. Some fruit trees, such as Prunus persica (peach) and Pinus pinea (stone pine) immediately played an important role, and have continued to do so over time, as these are still grown in the area now.

Stable isotope analysis and differences in diet and social status in northern Medieval Christian Spain (9th–13th centuries CE)

The mapping and mapmaking practices of the historical (19th century CE) and modern (20th century CE) cartographers shaped the geographical knowledge across the Sinai Peninsula. Similar knowledge was mainly sourced and transformed from the intangible geo-heritage of the local Bedouins in the form of inherited and undocumented oral knowledge. The Mount Sinai vicinity in the northern half of the High Mountains of Sinai Peninsula continues to be the centre of focus of the peninsula's historical and contemporary geographical knowledge; it has been the main inland destination for pilgrims, travellers, tourists and scholars since the 4th century CE. This role was acknowledged through a historical bias in the geo-descriptive accounts and maps; both provided a continuous chronological record for the transition in geographical knowledge on and off the maps from metaphysics to what is predominantly philosophy of science. This paper discusses the mapping and mapmaking practices in the 19th century CE and its revival by Sinai Peninsula Research 2000−2013 CE (SPR). The SPR survey re-documented and reintroduced the old mapping and mapmaking practices, remarkably discovering that the vicinity has not been cartographically surveyed on ground by the consecutive authorities for 150 years.

The Jewish Quarterly Review, XCIII, Nos. 3-4 (January-April, 2003) 631-635 Stefan C. Reif. A Jewish Archive from Old Cairo: The History of Cambridge University's Genizah Collection. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 2000. Pp. xx + 277, ill., maps. One of the most spectacular yet quiet revolutions in the modern study of the history of the Mediterranean world has resulted from the recovery just over a hundred years ago of the contents of an attic storehold in the Ben Ezra Synagogue of Old Cairo. The Cairo "genizah" (the technical, religious term applied to a storage area for consigning, or "hiding away" the worn remains of texts considered narrowly or generally sacred, or even heretical, but in either case unfit for ritual use), has yielded an unprecedented cache of more than 200,000 fragmentary documents, most of which date from the 9th through the 15th centuries CE. The story of a major part of this treasure trove, its origins, rediscovery and relocation from Cairo to Cambridge University , and the significance of its contents is the subject of this much needed survey by Stefan C. Reif. Reif, the Director of the Genizah Research Unit and Head of the Oriental Division at the Cambridge University Library, Professor of Medieval Hebrew Studies in the Faculty of Oriental Studies and Fellow of St. John's College, combines a deep scholarly mastery of the material with an admirable pedagogic commitment to popularize the results of a century of scholarship . In this book Reif has succeeded in realizing his goal to "not restrict the activities of the Genizah Research Unit to the kind of technical conservation , manuscript research and bibliographical publication . . . but also to convey the excitement of the Genizah text to those with no more than a modest interest in what was happening a thousand years ago in the Mediterranean " (p. xiii). In so doing, he tells his story and translates exemplary documents with energy, expertise and even humor. In short, this book delivers an authoritative summation of the current state of genizah studies and a gracefully written popular entrée to the subject suitable for both specialists and non-specialists. Reif has structured the book in ten chapters, each of which is followed by a very useful annotated bibliographical "guide to reading." The first chapter introduces the reader to the formation of the Egyptian Jewish center in Fustat following the Islamic conquests beginning in the 7th century CE. Fustat was "the first city to be founded by the Muslims in Egypt" and grew under Islamic rule into "the unrivalled centre of Egyptian economic and political life." The neighboring new suburb of Cairo, located along the Nile about two miles to the northeast, gradually came to replace Fustat, beginning in the 10th century, as the administrative capital of the Fatamid caliphate, and eventually eclipsed it altogether. At its zenith under the Fatamids from the 632THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW 10th—12th centuries, however, prestigious Fustat continued to attract Jewish immigrants and was home to a variety of different Jewish populations, including Jews from the Land of Israel, from Babylonia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and further west. Internally, the Jewish community was divided theologically between Rabbanites and Karaites, and despite their differences these two groups at times intermarried and otherwise closely associated with each other. In short, Fustat, or "Old Cairo" as it came to be known, was a major urban center and familiar junction for a variety of Jewish communities around the Mediterranean. The Ben Ezra synagogue in Fustat where the manuscript fragments came to be deposited was built in the 10th century, not as a church as some have speculated, but expressly to serve Jews. Though the original building was destroyed in the early 1 1th century, it was reconstructed around 1040 on the same site, whose environs existed at the crossroads of a vast trading network that stretched from India and East Asia to the northwestern Mediterranean . The Synagogue's liturgical rites, customs, architecture, furnishings, library and the diverse riches of its genizah can be explained in part, Reif suggests, by this geographically strategic location. After locating the reader geographically and historically, Reif sets about narrating the modern encounters with the contents of the Ben Ezra...

The Viking Age (c. 750–1050 CE) was a time of extensive upheaval and disruption across the northern world. From the late eighth century, historical sources indicate that viking groups were engaging in both short-term and extended campaigns of raiding and plunder. In addition to seeking portable wealth and commodities, it is apparent that raiders also sought captives, many of whom were taken and held in encampments where they were ransomed, exploited, or sold into slavery. While these sites served an important function as defensive strongholds and staging posts for viking raiding activity, recent studies have demonstrated that they were also militarized centres of production and exchange that, in some cases, became nodal marketplaces that were embedded within both regional and long-distance networks of communication and trade. Focusing in particular on the ninth century, this study will examine the ways in which captive-taking and slaving intersected with the emergence and development of these locales, as well as the role of these activities in shaping wider processes of communication, diplomacy, and cross-cultural interaction within landscapes of conflict and settlement.

Characterisation of Byzantine and early Islamic primary tank furnace glass

Closure of Khor Al Balid and Khor Rori harbours/estuaries with coastal uplift and aridity in the 12th – 15th c. CE and evidence for an extreme overwash event in the 18th – 19th c. CE: Implications for ancient port sites in southern Oman