Biblical anthropology and the idea of human prehistory in late antiquity

Late Antiquity is an important period in the history of anthropology because it marks a divide between the naturalistic and rationalistic anthropological ideas of Greco-Roman philosophers and the "biblical anthropology" that was formulated by Medieval Christian writers. The biblical anthropology that emerged in Late Antiquity addressed the question of the origin of the first humans, our relationship to the natural world, and the original state of mankind. While early Christian philosophers based much of this biblical anthropology on the Genesis account of early human history, they also utilized a great deal of Greco-Roman philosophy in order to expound a vision of human prehistory that profoundly influenced anthropological thought well into the modern era.     

The renaissance of a renaissance man

Machiavelli's Virtue. By Harvey C. Mansfield (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998) xvi + 372 pp. $15.00, £11.95 paper.

From Poliziano to Machiavelli: Florentine Humanism in the High Renaissance. By Peter Godman (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998) xviii + 366. $49.50, £33.50 cloth.     

The renaissance in Switzerland

The geographical position of Switzerland made contact with Renaissance manifestations in Italy and Germany easy even if the country was too small and poor for notable buildings or works of art. Participation in the wars in north Italy increased interest in military and governmental aspects of the Renaissance.Basel was an early centre for printing, and its presses, particularly when intelligently directed by the Amerbach family and by Froben, contributed largely to the availability of Greek and Latin texts.Erasmus lived for many years in Basel and attracted numerous scholars - Bär, Glarean, Capito, Beatus Rhenanus, Vadian, Oecolampadius, Zwingli and Myconius wrote near-classical Latin and all had some knowledge of Greek. Konrad Witz, Manuel, Urs Graf and Asper were painters of repute: Dürer and Holbein did some of their work in Basel.The Swiss cities, Basel, Zurich, St Gall, Glarus and Bern, encouraged scholarship and education: with Tschudi, Justinger, Schilling and Anshelm, a new approach to the writing of history was possible. Paracelsus and Gessner made contributions to medicine and natural science.     

The renaissance in Switzerland

The geographical position of Switzerland made contact with Renaissance manifestations in Italy and Germany easy even if the country was too small and poor for notable buildings or works of art. Participation in the wars in north Italy increased interest in military and governmental aspects of the Renaissance.Basel was an early centre for printing, and its presses, particularly when intelligently directed by the Amerbach family and by Froben, contributed largely to the availability of Greek and Latin texts.Erasmus lived for many years in Basel and attracted numerous scholars - Bär, Glarean, Capito, Beatus Rhenanus, Vadian, Oecolampadius, Zwingli and Myconius wrote near-classical Latin and all had some knowledge of Greek. Konrad Witz, Manuel, Urs Graf and Asper were painters of repute: Dürer and Holbein did some of their work in Basel.The Swiss cities, Basel, Zurich, St Gall, Glarus and Bern, encouraged scholarship and education: with Tschudi, Justinger, Schilling and Anshelm, a new approach to the writing of history was possible. Paracelsus and Gessner made contributions to medicine and natural science.     

Multiple births in Graeco-Roman antiquity

In classical antiquity multiple births aroused ambivalent reactions, ranging from acceptance and valuation to rejection and elimination. This paper analyses the reception of twins and multiple births of a higher degree (triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets), healthy or physically abnormal, in Greek and Roman societies, and reviews ancient written and iconographic sources relating to medical, social and religious history.     

炉渣分析揭示古代炼铜技术

对古代炼铜工艺、熔炼过程及其炉渣进行了分类,建立了以铜和硫的赋存状态与相对含量（Cu／S）鉴别炉渣种类,进而结合其它遗迹遗物来揭示古代炼铜技术的研究方法。     

Enjoying the saints in late antiquity

The discovery at Mainz by Franĉois Dolbeau of a new collection of sermons of Augustine has enabled us to study, in far greater detail, the attitude of Augustine to the reform of the cult of the martyrs between 391 and 404. This study aims to understand Augustine's insistence on the need to imitate the martyrs against the background of his views on grace and the relation of such views to the growing differentiation of the Christian community. It also attempts to do justice to the views of those he criticized: others regarded the triumph of the martyrs over pain and death as a unique manifestation of the power of God, in which believers participated, not through imitation but through celebrations reminiscent of the joy of pagan festivals. In this debate, Augustine by no means had the last word. The article attempts to show the continuing tension between notions of the saints as imitable and inimitable figures in the early medieval period, and more briefly, by implication, in all later centuries.     

On the antiquity of leprosy in western Micronesia

The presence of leprosy in China is documented to 190 BC , and possibly earlier.; It is believed to have spread from China to Japan. Its presence in Oceania has heretofore been documented only since the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries AD, and has been attributed to migration of people from China into the Pacific subsequent to western contact and trans-Pacific trade. In the osteological analysis of 700 skeletons from pre-Spanish archaeological contexts on the islands of Guam and Saipan in western Micronesia, at least six cases of leprosy have been discovered. Radiocarbon dating places two of these in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries AD, one in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, and one in the seventh to eleventh centuries. This clearly indicates that the introduction of leprosy pre-dates western contact and suggests possible contact with, or immigration from, China or Japan.