Hydrogeological insights in antiquity as indicated by Canaanite and Israelite water systems

Hazor, one of the largest fortified city during the Israelite (Iron-Age) period, encompasses a gigantic underground water system within its perimeter, supplying water to thousands of its inhabitants. It is considered as the ultimate example that Iron-Age engineers had mastered the concept of regional groundwater table. However, evaluating the hydrogeological conditions and the degree of success in finding water in Hazor and other contemporary cities, and thereby assess to what extent this concept was known at that time has seldom been done. Resurveying the water system of Hazor indicates that its water chamber was dug along a major strand of the Dead Sea Fault, a boundary between the Arabian and African (Sinai) plates. Hydrological simulations have shown that water ascends into the water chamber, utilizing this strand. Hazor's engineers initially planned to connect the city with the springs at the foot of the mound (tell) through a shaft and tunnel as has been done at other biblical cities, but adjusted their plan when groundwater was encountered within the mound perimeter. This accidental success as well as the failure to reach the aquifer in deep water wells dug in the contemporary cities of Lachish and Beer Sheba, imply limited hydrogeological understanding at the beginning of the first millennium B.C.E.     

试论东周王城的城郭布局及其演变

通过系统梳理东周王城的相关考古发掘资料,对东周王城城郭的认识有较大的突破。东周王城不仅存在内城外郭,而且在其晚期又于郭城之外的西南部形成一座小城,从而形成内城外郭和小城与大城南北并立的复杂形制。东周王城城郭的形成同时也有其历史背景。     

Of calves and kings: The Canaanite dimension in the religion of Israel

Abstract

In this article, the author studies the question how pastoral metaphors shape or construct the argumentative development and the internal structure of the Oracle against Babylon (Jer 50–51). Methodologically, the article draws on the insights provided by the cognitive linguistic approach to metaphor stating that metaphor is not merely a literary ornament, but rather a fundamental way in which people think. On the basis of these insights, the pastoral metaphors occurring in Jer 50,6–7; 8; 11–13; 17–18; 19–20; 44–45 and 51,38–40 are subjected to close scrutiny. It is shown that these metaphors display a strong internal development, challenging the view that the Oracle is an ongoing repetition of the same ideas. Moreover, the pastoral metaphors occur at structurally important positions in the Oracle, thus contributing to its overall architecture, and they provide important thematic links to other crucial texts in the book, e.g. Jer 25. Finally, the close analysis of the pastoral metaphors in Jer 50–51 has shed a new light on a number of the text's interpretational problems, for which new solutions were consequently proposed.     

内蒙古盛乐古城的考古新发现

在中国的正北方,东西横亘着一条茫茫的青色屏障,它就是中国史书中经常提到的“阴山”,也就是现在的大青山。它东起晋北,西与河套地区的狼山衔接,成为中国北方草原与中原农耕地带的自然分界线。历史上北方游牧民族与中原农耕民族在这里碰撞、对接、融合,留下了一幕幕千古传唱、可歌可泣、鲜活而又生动的历史故事。     

汶川姜维城发掘的初步收获

为了揭示岷江上游新石器时代文化,2000年春夏四川省文物考古研究所在汶川县姜维城遗址进行了调查、试掘,找到了距今约5000年的新石器时代原生文化堆积.2003年为弄清该遗址的文化内涵,我们又对该遗址进行了一定规模的发掘,出土了大量的陶片,石器和骨器.通过对出遗物的观察,与邻近的营盘山新石器时代出土的遗物大多相同或相近,与黄河中上游甘青地区新石器时代的彩陶文化关系密切.该遗址的发掘对研究黄河中下游与长江上游史前文化的相互交流与互动有重要的学术意义.     

泉城朔源 古城寻根 济南重要考古发现特展巡礼

在新中国60华诞和全运会举办之际,济南市博物馆推出济南重要考古发现特展。展览由济南市文化局、济南市文物局主办,济南市考古研究所、济南市博物馆承办。文物展品为山东省考古研究所、山东大学博物馆、济南市考古研究所、济阳县博物馆、章丘市博物馆、长清区博物馆等单位提供。     

河南省新密市发现龙山时代重要城址

新密古城寨龙山时代城址是中原地区目前发现规模最大、墙体保存最好的龙山时代晚期城址。城中发现了大型宫殿基址和大型廊庑式建筑,在中原地区龙山时代城址中都十分罕见。该城的发现,为探索夏文化、研究我国文明起源与国家形成,以及研究我国城垣建筑的起源与发展增添了重要资料。     

钴蓝颜料（Smalt）在故宫建福宫彩画中的发现

钴蓝颜料（Smalt）是一种产自欧洲的进口蓝色颜料,是一种经过研磨的钴玻璃粉末,从十五世纪中叶开始广泛用于欧洲油画与壁画中。在故宫的建福宫中发现有这种钴蓝颜料（Smalt）。但在明清文献中,钴蓝颜料（Smalt）尚无明确记载。本文主要对始建于乾隆七年（公元1742年）的建福宫内檐脊枋彩画进行了调查和采样,采用显微镜分析和显微激光拉曼光谱分析蓝色颜料的种类和彩画结构,特别是钴蓝颜料（Smalt）使用的时代和分布进行了认真的研究。分析结果表明：建福宫建造时,靛蓝是一种经常使用的蓝色颜料,故宫建福宫钴蓝（Smalt）颜料的使用时代晚于建筑的建成年代（公元1742年）,而且一般与颗粒大小接近的石青混用。     

Iron Smelting in Sudan: Experimental Archaeology at The Royal City of Meroe

The Royal City of Meroe, ca. 200?km north of Khartoum in the modern-day Republic of the Sudan, was an ancient capital of the Kingdom of Kush. From the 3rd century b.c. to the 4th century a.d., Kushite rulers controlled significant territory from the banks of the Nile at Meroe, in part through their ability to ensure the production of significant quantities of iron. The extensive archaeological remains of Meroitic iron production have been investigated over decades, and recently a series of experimental iron smelts in a replica Meroitic furnace has shed new light on the archaeometallurgical evidence. The data generated during the smelting campaigns has provided an understanding of the type of iron ore used, the construction and operating parameters of the furnace, and the workshop space created by the ancient iron smelters during the later and post-Meroitic times.     

The Queen and the City: Royal Female Intervention and Patronage in Hellenistic Civic Communities

In 196 bce , Queen Laodike III issued a decree (I.Iasos 4, I) to Iasos in Caria, Asia Minor, announcing that she was giving the Iasians a ten‐year supply of grain to alleviate their penury after her husband's conquest of their city, and she specified that the grain ought to be sold and the income used to provide dowries for the daughters of poor citizens. This and other donations were part of rebuilding efforts in the wake of military violence by Laodike's husband Antiochos III. For her beneficence, Laodike was honoured by cities with foundations of festivals, priestesses and sacred areas dedicated to preserving her cult. This reciprocity of goodwill was gendered, not only in the establishment of priestesses, but in the nature of the honours given; for example Iasos celebrated Laodike III's birthday with a procession of a maiden priestess and couples who were about to wed (I.Iasos 4, II), and the people of Teos dedicated a fountain in their city centre to Laodike and required that all brides should draw from it the water for their baths (SEG 41, 1003). Laodike's patronage and the cities’ responses to her bring to light the role of female citizens within the structures, perpetuation and ceremonial of the civic body. At the heart of honours given Laodike and her own self‐promotion was the identity of sister and mother, roles shaping her own queenship and the civic participation and power of the women she assisted.