A Persianizing Cup from Lydia

The kantharoid-cup examined here may serve as an examplar of the various currents which are evident in the pottery producing traditions of archaic Lydia. Although our knowledge of Lydian pottery is still in great need of enrichment features derived from other regions are apparent in finds made in the Sardis area, and beyond. The kantharoid cup is clearly decorated in a manner firmly anchored in archaic Lydian practice, but ultimately derived from an East Greek source. Its shape, however, is borrowed from eastern traditions, specially – as realia and iconographic representations show – from the Achaemenid repertoire. It is in this context, as an item of emulation of élite practice, that the adoption of this particular shape in Lydia is best understood.     

The Actions of Abraham: A Life of Ethical Contradictions

ABSTRACT

Taking my point of departure in questions of ethnogenesis within the regions of Yehud and Idumea in the pre-Hasmonean period, I analyze the interrelationship of the themes of conflict and reconciliation in the composition of Genesis. I pay particular attention to perceptions of Idumea in narrative reiterations which tie the Cain story to the narratives about the destruction of Sodom and the Jacob-Esau conflict story in order to raise the question of whether the narrative strategy reflected in these stories might justify a further analysis of the Jacob and Joseph stories as contributions to a larger mnemonic discourse, bearing a utopian trajectory aimed at a realization of Ezekiel 16's reconciliation between Idumea, Yehud and Samaria.     

中年况味 一杯欲罢不能的下午茶

奢华酒店给予人的独特印象,往往不在于造价高昂的硬件设施,反而是一两处让人流连的小天地,有时只是一个点缀、一杯醇香,却让客人感受到“世外桃源”的怡神宁心。     

A Changing House: The Life Peerages Act 1958*

The year 2008 marks the 50th anniversary of the Life Peerages Act 1958. The first life peer to obtain his letters patent was Lord Fraser of Lonsdale (Sir William Jocelyn Ian Fraser) on 1 August 1958. The first life peer to be introduced in the Lords was Lord Parker of Waddington (Sir Hubert Lister Parker) on 21 October 1958. The first woman peer to receive her letters patent dated 8 August 1958 was Baroness Wootton of Abinger (Barbara Frances Wootton), and the first woman peer to take her seat in the Lords was Baroness Swanborough (Dame Stella Isaacs, marchioness of Reading), ahead of Baroness Wootton on 21 October 1958. This article gives an overview of the background to life peerages and women peers before 1958, including the importance of two peerage cases, the Wensleydale case 1856 and the Rhondda case 1922. It does so with particular reference to women and the house of lords. It also considers the passage of the act itself; the initial life peers created in 1958; final equality between men and women peers achieved by the Peerage Act 1963; and the impact of life peers on the House since 1958.