Bird Remains from Two Sites on the Red Sea Coast and some Observations on Medullary Bone

This paper discusses the bird remains found in the Roman levels of the military fort of ‘Abu Sha’ ar and of the ancient harbour of Berenike. Food procurement was essentially based on wild resources at ‘Abu Sha’ ar and this is also reflected in the bird remains. Only 28 per cent of the bird bones at the low status site of ‘Abu Sha’ ar are from domestic fowl, whereas at the commercially important town of Berenike 92 per cent were. Medullary bone was present in 66 per cent of the 161 chicken remains at Berenike. The occurrence and formation of medullary bone in modern domestic fowl is discussed and possibilites from its study in the chicken remains from Berenike are presented.     

Locating the Harbour: Myos Hormos/Quseir al-Qadim: a Roman and Islamic Port on the Red Sea Coast of Egypt

Recent maritime investigations at Quseir al-Qadim, on the Red Sea coast of Egypt, have revealed the importance of this port in both the Roman and later Islamic periods. This paper outlines the key evidence for the location of the harbours, from survey, sedimentological analysis and selective excavation. The Roman harbour, occupied between the 1st century BC and the 3rd century AD, was located in a now-silted lagoon. Over 100 sedimentological cores indicated its siltation process. By the time the site was reoccupied in the 12th century AD, the harbour was reduced to a small bay at the entrance to the former lagoon.
© 2007 The Author     

The “Metal Army” of Alexander in the War against the Indian King Porus in Three Persian Alexander Books (Tenth‒Fourteenth Centuries)

The article focuses on a very particular episode of the eastern Alexander legend, i.e. the building of an extraordinary “metal army” employed by Alexander in his war against the Indian King Porus, which is present in at least three Persian accounts written between the tenth and fourteenth centuries CE: the “Book of Kings” (Shāh-nāmeh) by Ferdowsi, the “Book of Dārāb” (Dārāb-nāmeh), attributed to Tarsusi, and an “Alexander-book” (Eskandar-nāmeh) in prose copied by ?Abd al-Kāfi ibn Abu al-Barakāt. Compared to the most remote source, the text of Pseudo-Callisthenes, and to the closest ones (the Armenian version of the fifth century, the Syriac text of the sixth?seventh centuries, and the Hebrew version of the tenth?eleventh centuries), it is argued that the Persian authors have not passively received the inherited materials; on the contrary, they have been able to liven up the scene of Alexander’s battle against the Indian King Porus by bringing onto the battlefield a fiery and phantasmagorical army of metal, giving us one of the more amazing episodes in the eastern legend of the great Macedonian.     

Pests in an ancient Egyptian harbor

Our investigations combine detailed identification and interpretation of plant remains and associated fauna and their mode of arrival in one of the rock-cut galleries, Cave 3, at the site of Mersa/Wadi Gawasis on Egypt’s Red Sea coast. The site served as a staging area and harbor from which Middle Kingdom pharaohs launched seafaring expeditions to the land of Punt in the early second millennium BC. Quantities of wood, including ship timbers, fastenings, debris related to ship dismantling and reworking, and charcoal were excavated and analyzed. Evidence of marine mollusk infestation (shipworm) was abundant in Cave 3, as were the remains of insect pests of stored foods. We also report on a unique find of a plaster “spill” that preserved the floor of Cave 3 as it was when people worked in the gallery ca. 3800 years ago. The plaster spill created a sealed deposit of plant and insect remains with a diagnostic ceramic fragment, allowing us to securely associate insect remains and “hollow” spikelets of emmer wheat (Triticum dicoccum) recovered from the gallery. An impression of the beetle Trachyderma hispida and its associated exoskeleton fragments provide new evidence of this species as a potential pest not yet reported from an archaeological grain storage site in Egypt. The finding of Tenebroides mauritanicus from the same deposit is the earliest known association of this pest with stored grains. These unique finds shed new light on the risks associated with preserving food supplies, combating pest infestation, and dealing with marine organisms on land and at sea in the pharaonic harbor.     

The Belgammel Ram,a Hellenistic‐Roman Bronze Proembolion Found off the Coast of Libya: test analysis of function,date and metallurgy,with a digital reference archive

The Belgammel Ram was found off the coast of Libya in 1964, and examined during 2008–9. The following techniques were used: surface non‐contact digitizing using a laser scanner, reflectance transformation imaging using polynomial texture mapping and hemi‐spherical harmonics, digital photogrammetry with dense surface modelling, structured light optical scanning, and X‐ray fluorescence analysis. For internal structure the ram was examined by X‐radiography and 3‐D X‐ray tomography. Metallurgical composition was studied by micro‐drilling and subjecting the samples to scanning electron microscope X‐ray micro‐analysis, micro X‐ray fluorescence and X‐ray backscatter. The lead isotope composition was analysed. The alloy has average percentage composition Cu = 86.9, Sn = 6.3, Pb = 6.6, and Zn = < 0.10. The Belgammel Ram is probably a Hellenistic‐Roman proembolion from a small military vessel or tesseraria. The archived data are at the Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Engineering Sciences, Material Data Centre, University of Southampton ( muvis@soton.ac.uk ).     

The domestic fowl and other birds from the Roman site of Mons Claudianus,Egypt

At the Roman quarry settlement of Mons Claudianus in the Eastern Desert of Egypt extreme aridity has preserved large amounts of organic matter. Amongst the faunal remains were several hundred bird bones, together with feathers and egg shell. The majority of the bird bones have been identified as domestic fowl Gallus gallus. Other species are rare: they include a few passage migrants and resident species. Finds of spurred tarsometatarsi and bones with medullary deposits indicate that both male and female domestic fowl are represented. It is likely that they were transported to the site from the Nile valley alive; some may have been kept at the settlement. Cut marks suggest that some at least were eaten, but the birds may have been used for different purposes, both secular and ritual. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Daoguang Response to the Āfāqī khoja Jahāngīr during the 1826–1828 Jahāngīr Uprising

This study examines Qing state attention to the Muslim challenger Jahāngīr, leader of Xinjiang’s 1826–1828 Jahāngīr Uprising. It considers how imperial agents, guided by Emperor Daoguang, defined and processed this contender, as well what this rendering implied for views of “Hui Frontier” Muslims. As will be seen, Jahāngīr was depicted as not just “treacherous” and duplicitous, but also an external “barbarian.” This image – crafted from military reports, imperial edicts, confessions, ritual, sentencing, and punishment – served to clarify a narrative with two salient characteristics. First, the khoja was set as the keystone of the conflict, the management of whom signaled a restoration of imperial integrity. Second, he was differentiated from local Turkic Muslims “Hui,” who (with ambiguity) were framed as Qing subjects. This rendering mirrored earlier Qing (esp. Jiaqing Reforms) depictions of borderland rebel leaders, suggestive of a solidification of the “idea” of Xinjiang as interior to the empire.     

HASMONAEAN MODIʽIN AND BYZANTINE MODITHA: A TOPOGRAPHICAL–HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT

Abstract

The location of ancient Modi‘in, the hometown of the Hasmonaeans – as mentioned in 1 Maccabees and the writings of Josephus – has been in dispute ever since geographical–historical research on the site began. In this paper we explore the various possible locations for Modi‘in and propose a different geographical solution to the problem.     

Pliny the Elder and Sr–Nd isotopes: tracing the provenance of raw materials for Roman glass production

In Roman and Byzantine times, natron glass was traded throughout the known world in the form of chunks. Production centers of such raw glass, active from the 4th to 8th century AD, were identified in Egypt and Syro-Palestine. However, early Roman primary glass units remain unknown from excavation or scientific analysis. The ancient author Pliny described in 70 AD that besides Egyptian and Levantine resources, also raw materials from Italy and the Gallic and Spanish provinces were used in glass making. In this study, the primary provenance of 1st–3rd century AD natron vessel glass is investigated. The use of combined Sr and Nd isotopic analysis allows the distinguishing and characterizing of different sand raw materials used for primary glass production. The isotope data obtained from the glass samples are compared to the signatures of primary glass from known production centers in the eastern Mediterranean and a number of sand samples from the regions described by Pliny the Elder as possible sources of primary glass. Eastern Mediterranean primary glass has a Nile dominated Mediterranean Nd signature (higher than −6.0 ? Nd), while glass with a primary production location in the western Mediterranean or north-western Europe should have a different Nd signature (lower than −7.0 ? Nd). Most Roman glass has a homogeneous ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr signature close to the modern sea water composition, likely caused by the (intentional) use of shell as glass raw material. In this way, strontium and neodymium isotopes now prove that Pliny's writings were correct: primary glass production was not exclusive to the Levant or Egypt in early Roman days, and factories of raw glass in the Western Roman Empire will have been at play.     

Discovery of Ancient Harbour Structures in Calabria, Italy, and Implications for the Interpretation of Nearby Sites

During underwater survey around Crotone, Calabria, Italy, in 2005, structures from two harbour phases were located, possibly dating from the Archaic Greek and Roman periods. Both harbours are close to the Greek and Roman architectural remains on Capo Colonna, as well as to underwater deposits of large stone blocks and other, previously-excavated sites. With the discovery of these harbour structures, new hypotheses arise for understanding the building-material deposits and excavated sites. A critical component of these hypotheses is the assessment of local geological data, specifically ancient sea-level, in relation to the archaeological record.
© 2007 Author     

AN INSCRIBED NABATAEAN BRONZE OBJECT DEDICATED TO OBODAS THE GOD FROM WĀDĪ MŪSĀ, SOUTHERN JORDAN

Abstract

A part of a Nabataean bronze inscribed object has been found recently in Wādī Mūsā, near Petra, Jordan. The text, which is dated to the reign of the last Nabataean king, Rabbel II (ad 70–106), is of great interest since it contains words that occur for the first time in Nabataean. It mentions a dedication made by a priest and his son to ‘Obodas the God’ in Gaia. In sum, it adds significant new data to our knowledge of the Nabataean kingdom and its religion.     

The Roman Shipwreck of Antirhodos Island in the Portus Magnus of Alexandria,Egypt

Between 1998 and 1999 three excavation campaigns were undertaken on a shipwreck at the now‐submerged site of the ancient Portus Magnus, off the coast of Alexandria. The site, close to the island of Antirhodos, was identified through geophysical and archaeological surveys carried out by the Institut Européen d’Archéologie Sous‐Marine (IEASM), directed by Franck Goddio. The remains of the ship lie c.5 m deep and are spread over c.350 sqm. No cargo has been found. Artefacts recovered, the details of the ship's architecture and radiocarbon dating all suggest it sunk between the end of the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE. Its dimensions correspond to those of commercial ships of the Roman era. Identification of the wood used contributes significantly to our knowledge of materials used in naval architecture of this period.     

HELLENISTIC ARCHITECTURE IN JAFFA: THE 2009 EXCAVATIONS OF THE JAFFA CULTURAL HERITAGE PROJECT IN THE VISITOR'S CENTRE

Abstract

In 2009 the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project undertook a pilot-project excavation within the soon-to-be-renovated visitor's centre in Qedumim Square. These excavations were intended to clarify stratigraphic questions within area C of Jacob Kaplan's excavations (1961, 1965) and to lay the groundwork for future excavations by the project which was founded in 2007 as a partnership between UCLA and the Israel Antiquities Authority. Along with achieving these goals, the excavations exposed one of the best preserved examples of Hellenistic architecture in the southern Levant and confirmed the employment of a Hippodamian-style town plan from as early as the late Persian period.