These seven alphabetic gravestone texts and one-coin texts from Sidon date to the Hellenistic era based upon their religious themes and their Greek Island letter styles. In contrast, one earlier coin style from Sidon from the Persian period has the Phoenician letter style. Their underlying language is Akkadian which was the empire language of…[Read more]

This paper examines the collaborative project to preserve and interpret Har Hasetim, the Gladwyne Jewish Memorial Cemetery. In fall 2015, Villanova University professor Craig Bailey approached the Friends of the Cemetery, an organization affiliated with the local Beth David Reform Congregation, about jointly restoring Har Hasetim. The ensuing…[Read more]

More and more artists from all over the world are engaging in the production of AI art. Because of this, art historians need to start thinking about how the histories of AI art should be articulated. This paper aims to take part in this conversation by addressing the problem of whether the AIs created by human artists should be considered as…[Read more]

This paper provides evidence that Alphabetic Akkadian was being used in the Greek sphere of influence as an ancient authority temple language (like Latin in near modern Europe) prior to the mid-400’s BCE when the nationalistic fervor surrounding their war with the Persian empire replace it with Greek. Its Greek use is also evidenced by the 499 B…[Read more]

As revealed by later Greek records, the Naxos revolt was a socio-economic conflict between rural interests and commercial trading interests which led to the much larger Greek/Persian wars. While the socio-economic component is true, these three archaeological texts also show that the revolt was triggered by a drought and sustained by religious…[Read more]

The text on this large stone stele is a defense of Phoenician temple activity. Consequently, it was likely placed outside the main temple in the Phoenician trading port of Nora on the southern coast of Sardinia. Its theme is also Phoenician in that it is promoting emotion magic to overcome a drought. This drought is most likely the drought of 730…[Read more]

Three texts inscribed on gold foil were found in a holy relic repository located in a side room to a Pagan temple near Pygi, Italy. Their language is Alphabetic Akkadian yet their text styles are Phoenician and Etruscan. They are a philosophical debate about the cause and cure for a recent drought. The Phoenician text argues that emotion magic…[Read more]

Three previously untranslated Philistine (Sea Peoples) texts are translated in the empire language of Alphabetic Akkadian/Aramaic. Their script style is in the Minoan lineage which began with the Phaistos Disk and continued on with Linear A. Unlike those texts these texts are now fully alphabetic meaning their inner word signs are consonants…[Read more]

Two early and still readable linear texts were found carved on the walls of turquoise mine L at Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai of Egypt by William Petrie in 1906. They were never properly translated. These texts were inscribed within bas-relief steles indicating they were officially sanctioned texts. These texts reference a dimmed sun which would…[Read more]

Translations of three graffiti type texts dating from the last years of ancient turquoise mine at Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai blame jealousy for an ongoing drought. This drought is continuing due to the lack of magic crafters needed to overcome that negative emotional magic. These texts are in alphabetic Akkadian using a script which derives…[Read more]

The inscriptions at Wadi el-Hol just north of Memphis, Egypt are a late variant of Minoan Linear A showing its progression towards alphabetic writing with its treatment of phoneme signs more as wildcard signs able to be followed by any vowel sound. The Minoans were in Egypt during the early 18th dynasty as revealed by Minoan artwork discovered at…[Read more]

These are the first Minoan Linear-A translations ever made. Linear-A was solvable because its texts fit between the previously translated and highly pictographic Phaistos Disk (Olmsted May 2020) and the previously translated first alphabetic texts from the Sinai (Serabit el-Khadim) (Olmsted not yet published). The underlaying language of all these…[Read more]

The Phaistos Disk is a hybrid phonic and alphabetic text written in the empire language of Akkadian dating to about 1800 BCE. It is a philosophical debate about the cause of a recent drought and it represents the first use of alphabetic letters. It has many letter sign similarities with the pure Alphabetic Akkadian texts found at Serabit el Khadim…[Read more]

This chapter presents a comparative analysis of four Lebanese films in order to understand how they portray Muslim and Christian coexistence in midst of war.

This is the fifth episode of a five-part podcast series exploring the theology of prayer through a historic lens. The episode explores Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his theology of prayer through select excerpts from his work “Life Together”. The complete five-part series includes a theology of prayer in the works of: Saint Augustine, Saint Francis of…[Read more]

This is the fourth episode of a five-part podcast series exploring the theology of prayer through a historic lens. The episode explores Jonathan Edwards and his theology of prayer as seen in both an essay he authored as well as a sermon, “The Most High, A Prayer Hearing God” preached in 1735. The complete five-part series includes a theology of…[Read more]

This is the third episode of a five-part podcast series exploring the theology of prayer through a historic lens. The episode explores Martin Luther and his theology of prayer from select excerpts of his Large Catechism and Small Catechism. The complete five-part series includes a theology of prayer in the works of: Saint Augustine, Saint Francis…[Read more]

This is the second episode of a five-part podcast series exploring the theology of prayer through a historic lens. The episode explores Saint Francis of Assisi and includes his controversial “Prayer to Animals”, his “Creation Prayer”, as well as his own theological interpretation of The Lord’s Prayer. The complete five-part series includes a…[Read more]

This article explores the nature of remembering as a lake, with a lake, or through a lake; the differential relationships, knowledge, and perspectives contained within; and the potentially troubling implications found at the intersection of scientific and humanistic perspectives on lake being. It also reflects on the totalizing nature of assuming…[Read more]

Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are the only early Greek heroic epics to have survived the transition to writing, even though extant evidence indicates that they emerged from a thriving oral culture. Among the missing are the songs of Boeotian Thebes.

Homer’s Thebes examines moments in the Iliad and Odyssey where Theban characters and thematic eng…[Read more]