A review of Katell Berthelot, Jonathan Price (ed.), In the Crucible of Empire: The Impact of Roman Citizenship upon Greeks, Jews and Christians. Interdisciplinary studies in ancient culture and religion, 21.

abstract A foundational text in the study of Tannaitic Midrash and Halakhah, Sifre Deuteronomy 122 is a list of places where Halakhah ʿ qpt scripture. This word, ʿ qpt, has long been understood to mean ‘circumvent’, ‘bypass’ or ‘belie’, and the pericope has been read as a list of places where ‘Halakhah circumvents scripture’, and thus a testament…[Read more]

The ultimate cause of much historical, social and cultural change is the gradual accumulation of knowledge of the human environment. The invention of glass and microscopes and telescopes, substantially increased human knowledge of the human environment. Microscopes and telescopes would not have been possible without the prior discovery of…[Read more]

The invention of photography was only possible due to the camera obscura effect which produces an upside down image of a scene on the back wall of a box when light is reflected through a tiny hole in the box. The camera obscura effect has been known since classical times. The invention of photography required that the image be fixed and…[Read more]

The invention of motion pictures was only possible due to the prior discovery of the phenomenon of persistence of vision, the prior invention of photography and the ability to produce photographs with very brief exposure times. These discoveries were necessary before motion pictures could be invented, and given how human beings like to be…[Read more]

Book review of Archives, Ancestors, Practices: Archaeology in the Light of Its History, edited by Nathan Schlanger and Jan Nordbladh

Book review of Archives, Ancestors, Practices: Archaeology in the Light of Its History, edited by Nathan Schlanger and Jan Nordbladh

Ideally it would be fantastic to reconstitute the life history of a visual artefact, such as a pictograph site in the hope that it may help in es-
tablishing the meanings of these images, their role in the mental and physical landscape as well as the likely sensory and soundscape. This
is because human beings rely on their senses to understand…[Read more]

The act of classification has the widest implications for scholarship. Whatever the format, it involves the totality of our being. The use of our eyes indicates that decisions about whatever it is that we observe have already been made. Yet the interaction between the mechanical act of seeing and the mind or memory has rarely been registered. An…[Read more]

The act of classification has the widest implications for scholarship. Whatever the format, it involves the totality of our being. The use of our eyes indicates that decisions about whatever it is that we observe have already been made. Yet the interaction between the mechanical act of seeing and the mind or memory has rarely been registered. An…[Read more]

The boreal forest is a vast region. Therefore, the archaeological record, like anywhere else in the globe, is subject to revision as additional evidence is gathered. By conducting research in the same location over a long period of time, Hyslop was able to alter the methodological approach that he utilized while surveying the shorelines of Lac…[Read more]

The Berliner Repertorium (http://opus.ub.hu-berlin.de/repertorium/page/home), online since June 2017, provides a database of Middle High and Low German translations of Latin hymns, sequences, and antiphons until the year 1600. In this contribution on our database of hymn translations, the ‘Berliner Repertorium’, I will introduce you to its str…[Read more]

The ultimate cause of much historical, social and cultural change is the gradual accumulation of human knowledge of the environment. Human beings use the materials in their environment to meet their needs and increased human knowledge of the environment enables human needs to be met in a more efficient manner. The human environment includes the…[Read more]

Published in Sächsische Leute und Länder Benennung und Lokalisierung von Gruppenidentitäten im ersten Jahrtausend, and a considerably expanded version of a paper delivered at the Internationales Sachsensymposion in Leipzig, 2015.

The article considers the literary representation of Saxons in the works of the late antique authors Sidonius Ap…[Read more]

Published in Sächsische Leute und Länder Benennung und Lokalisierung von Gruppenidentitäten im ersten Jahrtausend, and a considerably expanded version of a paper delivered at the Internationales Sachsensymposion in Leipzig, 2015.

The article considers the literary representation of Saxons in the works of the late antique authors Sidonius Ap…[Read more]

This paper was written in order to study the development of stone tool technology throughout the Paleolithic. It finds the technology developed, with the simplest discoveries being made first and more complex discoveries being made later. The chemical structure and the properties of the raw materials determined that stone tools could be useful to…[Read more]

Illustration of various features in the arrangement of Linear B tablets in the photo plates of Scripta Minoa II, and a proposed rationale in terms of underlying art.

During the third millennium B.C.E., Tell Mozan, ancient Urkesh, expanded to include an extensive outer city. A variety of investigations in the outer city reveal a complex urban environment: a mix of planned and unplanned activity with the environment and large municipal works acting as constraining factors on more localized activity.

The ultimate cause of much historical, social and cultural change is the gradual accumulation of human knowledge of the environment. Human beings use the materials in their environment, including plants and animals, to meet their needs and increased human knowledge of the plants and animals in their environment enables human needs to be met in a…[Read more]

This volume comprises the conference proceedings of the international and interdisciplinary meeting held in Leipzig from November 9 to 11, 2015. Scholars from different research areas present masks from Egypt, Israel/Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Greece, mainly from the third to the first millennium BCE. The masks are…[Read more]