A NOTE ON AN IRON AGE FOUR-HORNED ALTAR FROM TEL DOTHAN

Abstract

In a recent visit to the site of Tel Dothan the top of a four-horned stone altar of Iron Age type was unexpectedly observed among the structural remains exposed by Joseph P. Free in Area L of his excavations of the late 1950s. Owing to the location of this find within a well-dated building complex (labelled ‘House 14 ’) it can be dated with some certainty to the early Iron Age IIa, i.e. to the 9^th century BCE. Dated four-horned stone altars from this period from the northern Kingdom of Israel are extremely rare. ‘House 14 ’ was identified by the excavators as an ‘administrative building,’ but we suggest it probably had a primary cultic function.     

The land which bled forth its bounty: An exile image of the land of Israel

Abstract

The expression: “a land flowing with milk and honey” appears some 20 times in the MT version of the Hebrew Bible and is generally thought to express the overall productivity of the Land of Israel. It is one of the few expressions which is used in many literary strata of the text as a distinctive term to describe the Land of Israel and its produce, although its absence from poetic, proverbs and wisdom literature indicates that it was not seen as a universally useful expression. Appearing in writings attributed to J, E, Dtr¹ and Dtr², as well as the writings of the prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the expression is understood by medieval and modem commentators as a metaphor for abundant grazing land and date palm honey (i.e. abundant flora and fauna). It's presence in different literary strata of four of the five books of the Torah, in particular, seems to point to the antiquity and long term utility of the expression. Further investigation of this expression reveals that it may not be a realistic perspective on the ancient land of Israel, but rather a rather poignant, nostalgic, exilic, and purely metaphoric view of the land written at a period after the land had passed through a significant devastation. This article will investigate the language of this passage and attempt to locate it in its original historical context.     

Epidemics During the Anglo-Saxon Period (Reginald Taylor Prize Essay)

Abstract

Archaeological analysis of the fabric suggests that the nave of the Romanesque church was built from east to west in the usual way and not, as the current literature proposes, from west to east. This conclusion has implications for the iconography of the architecture in that various features in the two eastern bays of the nave can be assessed, not as pure decoration, but as liturgical markers for the position of the nave altar. Comparative study of individual features and related buildings suggest that the master mason was trained in East Anglia but worked to a brief drawn up in the ambient of the ‘school’ of Durham Cathedral. The same evidence confirms the established date bracket of the first two-thirds of the twelfth century, while the case for identifying the lost eastern half as part of Harold's mid eleventh-century foundation is rejected in favour of its belonging to the same twelfth-century build as the start of the nave.     

September 11: A Christian Fundamentalist Interpretation

Abstract

This article analyses sermons preached by Free Presbyterian ministers in the United States following the World Trade Centre tragedy and the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. It explores how these religious fundamentalists made sense of the event theologically. While terrorists carried out the attack, ultimately God was believed to have been responsible. It was considered God's way of punishing the American nation for its sin. Ministers' use of the Old Testament and God's covenantal relationship with ancient Israel is both the theological and historical backdrop to their explanation of September 11. Concentration on the Old Testament and fundamentalists' exegetical approach means that politics and religion are tightly intertwined. Emphasis on the militaristic portions of the Old Testament also helps justify the war in Iraq. Although Free Presbyterian doctrine is based on institutional separatism and believers' withdrawal from "the world" the sermons connect parishioners to their wider society through a shared sense of patriotic loyalty and national loss.     

The messiah epithet in the Hebrew Bible

Rather than a reference ''to a present, political and religious leader who is appointed by God, applied predominantly to a king, but also to a priest and occasionally a prophet'' as proposed in 1985 by the first Princeton Symposium of Judaism and Christian origins, the term 'MSH' in the Hebrew Bible is an epithet or title which functions within a literary and mythic but not an historical context. The role of the messiah as played in the Hebrew Bible is not uniquely Jewish, but functions within the symbol system of ancient Near Eastern royal ideology and functions within a theology of divine transcendence and immanence. The coherence of the mythic role of the messiah is identified in relation to concepts of messianic time, as in the functions of expiating and mediating transcendence, of maintaining creation through war against the powers of chaos and the establishment of eternal peace. David's role as messiah in the Psalter is described in his role as ideal representative of piety, and as ruler over destiny bringing the good news expressed in various forms of ''the poor man's song.'' Finally, the role of the messiah myth is integrated with utopian concepts of a new Israel.     

The Altars of Zeus and Hera on Mt. Arachnaion in the Argeia,Greece

Abstract

Pausanias (ii.25.10), who traveled extensively in Greece in the 2nd century A.C., mentioned the existence of two altars of Zeus and Hera on Mount Arachnaion above the village of Lessa in the Argeia of the Greek Peloponessos. Two travellers in the early 19th century climbed to the saddle between the two peaks of the mountain and saw there a quadrangular enclosure wall of polygonal masonry on a low hill which they assumed to be the site of these altars. Since then this identification has been accepted by most scholars, including J. G. Frazer. Since most altars of Zeus are found on or near the top of the mountains, I climbed the mountain to check this attribution.

A section of a crude polygonal retaining wall exists on the hill but no traces of the altars were found. Obsidian bladelets and sherds found on the surface suggest that the wall might mark the location of a farmstead or small settlement dating as early as the Bronze Age. On the summit of the western peak of the mountain two low foundations of rubble masonry and three concentrations of sherds and burnt animal bone fragments in a blackish-brown soil matrix were discovered. One of the foundations must represent the ruins of the chapel of Hagios Elias known once to have stood on the summit. The sherd concentrations, which date from the mid-8th century B.C. through at least the 6th century B.C., must represent remains associated with the altars of Zeus and Hera.     

Understanding Yhwh's Threats through Modern Politics—and Vice Versa

Abstract

Divine violence in the Hebrew Bible is regularly cited as primitive, irrelevant, and possibly unintelligible within a modern context. This paper presents a structural analogy between Yhwh's threats of destruction against Israel in Deuteronomy and threats against the disloyal made by the modern state. Deuteronomy expresses Yhwh's relationship with Israel in ancient Near Eastern suzerainty terms that reflect an unchallengeable demand for the vassal's undiluted loyalty. As in the treaties, this demand is backed with threats of destruction for the disloyal. Such threats are difficult to comprehend within a modern framework where loyalty demands and threats are largely illegitimate. However, the modern state provides a useful analogy because harsh state reprisals are legitimate against disloyal citizens. Contemporary examples from modern American responses to treason in the "Cold War" and the "War on Terror" illustrate the analogy with Yhwh's threatened destruction of disloyal Israel in Deuteronomy.     

Rethinking the Historiographical Impulse: The History of Ancient Israel as a Problem

The first part of this paper provides some insights into the problematic nature of the genre “history of ancient Israel”, both in terms of historiography and of historical epistemology. It is argued that the concept “history of ancient Israel” is essentially valid within a particular modern theological or biblical historiographical context. As such, this history of ancient Israel may indeed progress and generate new understandings but is nonetheless seriously limited by its main concern with “biblical Israel”. It is also proposed that in order to overcome these thematic and epistemological historical limitations, a wider history of ancient Palestine or the Southern Levant should be envisioned, into which to understand the epigraphic and archaeological realia of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, together with other contemporary polities in the region, and the later development of biblical traditions and texts. The second part of the paper addresses questions of ethnogenesis, socio-political organization and identity in the light of the previous discussion, setting the stage for an alternative history of Israel and other historical realities in ancient Palestine.     

'With a strong hand and an outstretched arm' the meaning of the expression byd hzqh wbzrw' ntwyh

The expression ''with a strong hand and an outstretched arm'' is usually understood as being an expression of the power of God. There are various suggestions as to which aspect of his power is indicated: The power of inflicting plague and sickness or his power as a warrior - or whether the expression is used as a counterpart to Egyptian royal terminology. It is suggested here that the expression does refer to the power of inflicting plague and sickness, for the following reasons: ''With a strong hand and an outstretched arm'' is a parallelism between two collocations of words, ''strong hand'' and ''outstretched hand'' (''arm'' + the verb ''stretch out''). When the two collocations, both containing the word ''hand'', were made to form a parallelism, the element ''arm'' was the added to one of them to achieve variation between the units of the parallelism. The element ''arm'', which often has a military connotation, is then an extraneous component to the expression. The outcome of ''stretching out the hand'' in the Pentateuch and the historical books is miraculous events, some of these being a number of the plagues. The expression does not seem to have any military connotation in the account of the Exodus. A comparison with the literatures of other Semitic languages shows that in the ancient Near East not only ''the hand'' of a deity inflicting plague and sickness can be found, but actually ''a strong hand''. In most of the occurrences of the expression in the Pentateuch apparently the entire experience of Israel in Egypt is signified. Only in Exod 3,19; 6,1; (where we cannot be sure whether the arm belongs to YHWH or to Pharaoh) and 6,6 the expression is connected to specific traditions in the account of the Exodus, and these are exactly the plague traditions.     

A problem in pseudo-philo and its possible solution

The enigma in Psedo-Philo Chapter 19: Istic mel, apex magnus, momenti plenitudo, et ciati guttum, is often emended by the commentators. We take it as it stands. As the surrounding texts reflects, Deut 34 and Pseudo-Philo always shows a deep understanding of the biblical text, we find that the often quoted utterings in Deut: ''a land flowing with milk and honey'' and: ''the place which the Lord your God will choose'' make sense for the first two parts of the enigma. The third part points to the coming great achievements: The death of Moses and the immigration to the Holy Land. Only the fourth part is pointing to the end of time.     

An Early Stone Carving from Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke,Casma Valley,Peru

Abstract

Excavations in 1987 at Pampa de las Llamas-Moxeke, one of the Earliest planned cities in the New World, uncovered a unique stone carving of a double-bodied snake and a human hand. It is likely that the carving was once part of a small altar associated with a large repository and redistribution center within the site. With an associated radiocarbon date of 1565 ± 70 B.C., the stone carping is the earliest securely-dated stone sculpture in Peru.     

’Elephants are contagious’: Fintan O'Toole's Ireland

The Lie of the Land: Irish Identities Fintan O'toole, 1998 Dublin, New Island Books pp. 172, ISBN 1.874.597.723, £9.99 (hb)     

Mapam in the War of Independence: From the war front to the opposition back benches

The article examines the first year of Mapam's existence, focusing on its role in the War of Independence and on the elections to the Constituent Assembly (the first Knesset), beginning with the election campaign through the negotiations on forming the government and the implications of Mapam's remaining in the opposition. It also discusses two issues that occupied a central place on Mapam's ideological agenda: the question of the “whole Land of Israel” and the attitude toward the Soviet Union. The article's main contentions are that beyond the internal and external arguments and disagreements, in the War of Independence Mapam was first and foremost the loyal soldier of the nation and remained in the opposition against its will.     

The West March on the Anglo-Scottish Border in the Twelfth Century,and the Origins of the Western Debatable Land

Abstract

'The West March on the Anglo-Scottish Border in the twelfth century and the origins of the Western Debatable Land'. Although there was a frontier zone between medieval England and Scotland where March Law applied, within that zone there was, at any rate in time of peace between the Crowns, an ascertainable frontier line. Two conflicting views on the location of this line west of the Cheviot are reviewed and a third proposal advanced. From William II's conquest of Cumberland in 1092 up to 1552, the line lay along the River Esk and Liddel Water, except when the Scots possessed Cumberland and Westmorland in 1136–1157 and 1216–1217. After 1136, David I granted to the lords of the English barony of Liddel additional land comprising the parishes of Kirkandrews-on-Esk and Canonbie, north of the Esk. From 1157, the barony remained a cross-Border holding until the Scots dispossessed the English lords of Kirkandrews and Canonbie between 1300 and 1318. The English lords continued to claim that land, however, and their claim was assigned to the English Crown after 1349. At that point, what had been a claim to private rights started to become confused with national sovereignty. In 1552, arbitrators partitioned what had become known as the Western Debatable Land, a no-man's-land, and the Border then assumed its present line.     

Cruck Construction: A Survey of the Problems

Abstract

Surviving churches and documents are analysed for what they may reveal about the architectural context of the mass in early-medieval Ireland. This shows that there is no evidence to support the widely held view that the congregation stood outside. Instead, the variable but relatively small size of these churches expresses the fact that they served smaller and more diverse communities than their high-medieval successors. The altars in large episcopal and/or monastic churches seem positioned further west than those in relatively small, pastoral churches. In part, this was probably to facilitate relatively complex eucharistic liturgies. Externally defined chancels appear for the first time in the late 11th century AD in response to an increased emphasis on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Significantly, they occur at a handful of important sites whose clerics and patrons were in direct contact with Lanfranc of Canterbury, a key exponent of this doctrine.     

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? Deuteronomy and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Abstract

Deuteronomy portrays itself as Moses's speech at the edge of the promised land. This article examines the book's attitudes towards the other within this rhetorical setting by concentrating on the indigenous peoples, also in contrast to those outside the land of Israel. It is pointed out that the ideology of Deuteronomy is very exclusive, and its treatment of indigenous peoples compatible with ideologies that accompany genocides and conquests. Mitigating such exclusive thinking can serve as a model for human interactions today, and this would also seem to be compatible with the overall thinking of the New Testament canonical documents.     

Mycenaean Burnt Animal Sacrifice at Eleusis

Burnt animal sacrifice is well attested in Greek historical times, but whether it was practised in the Mycenaean period is debated. Until now, the lack of architectural structures suitable for the ritual burning of animals and the ambiguity surrounding the interpretation of burnt faunal assemblages have been used as arguments against the occurrence of such sacrifices in the Late Bronze Age. In this paper, it is proposed that the platform in front of the Mycenaean Megaron B at Eleusis was an altar used for burnt animal sacrifices and that a group of burnt pig bones found in a drain in front of this platform was burnt ritually on the platform and then swept into the drain.     

Annual Report and Accounts for 2015

Abstract

This paper presents a case for identifying the Westminster Retable as the thirteenth-century high altarpiece of Westminster Abbey. It considers the evidence of the construction and size of the panel, and argues for the suitability of a panel painting for the high altar dossal at so comparatively early a date. The apostolic and eucharistic iconography of the paintings is also held to argue for such a function.     

Antique nation? 'Hellenes' on the eve of Greek independence and in twelfth-century Byzantium

Abstract

The Hellenic nation, as constituted in the early nineteenth century, is a recent construct; its name and the traditions to which it lays claim are ancient. In the context of modern debates about the antiquity of nations, and particularly the work of Anthony D. Smith, this paper sets out to make a comparative examination of the contexts and semantic field(s) in which the term 'Hellene' came to be revived by Greek-speakers, as a term of communal self-designation, at two widely separated turning-points in their history. All Greek quoted in the main text is also given in my own translation.