In The Field…
Earliest Iron Age house Discovered in Athens and Attica
Archaeologists from the University of Göttingen have discovered the earliest Iron Age house in Athens in Thorikos (Greece) south of Athens.
This is an important, unexpected, and unique finding for early Greek history: no building structures from this early period, from the 10th to the 9th century BC, have been excavated anywhere in Attica.
Silver artifacts reveal early trade between Egyptians and Greeks
A new report published in the Journal of Archaeological Science has analysed silver artefacts from Ancient Egypt, unveiling a trade network with the Ancient Greeks that was not only more extensive but also significantly older than previously believed.
“Egypt has no domestic silver ore sources and silver is rarely found in the Egyptian archaeological record until the Middle Bronze Age,” write the authors – archaeologists from Australia, France, and the United States.
Read more at Neos Kosmos.
Scholars Believe That Minoan Civilization May Have Used Celestial Navigation Techniques
Reported by Arkeonews:
According to a study done by an American researcher at the University of Wales, ancient civilizations may have used celestial navigation methods to travel.
Alessandro Berio, a skyscape archaeologist, discovered new evidence that the ancient Minoan civilization developed significant nautical technologies to aid in international sea trade, which is linked to the wealth and expansion of the culture throughout the Mediterranean. Because of its location, Minoan culture was based on open sea navigation and international trade cycles.
A New Chapter Of The Bible Found Hidden Inside 1,750-Year-Old Text
A new chapter of the Bible has been found, hidden inside a 1,750-year-old translation from the Gospel of Matthew. The chapter was found by medievalist Grigory Kessel, who used ultraviolet photography on manuscripts in the Vatican Library.
The hidden text was found as part of the Sinai Palimpsests Project, where researchers aim to recover texts that were erased and written over by scribes in the 4th-12th centuries CE. Palimpsest manuscripts – where earlier text has been washed or scraped off, then reused – were fairly common due to the scarcity of writing materials. However, centuries later text can be recovered by illuminating the manuscripts with fluorescence or different wavelengths of light.
More found at IFLScience.
A Sunken Nabataean Temple Dedicated to the God Dusares Discovered at Pozzuoli
Reported by Arkeonews:
Off the coast of Pozzuoli on the Phlegrean Peninsula in Campania, Italy, underwater archaeologists have identified a sunken Nabataeans temple with the discovery of two Roman marble altars.
The Nabataean kingdom was a Roman ally that ruled a territory stretching from the Euphrates to the Red Sea during the Roman period. The kingdom, centered on the capital city of Petra, was stationed in the desert areas of the Arabian Peninsula, but had, since the early imperial age, established its base inside the Pozzuoli port, the largest commercial port of the Roman Mediterranean.
The Nabataeans established a base at Puteoli and constructed a shrine dedicated to the tutelary god, Dusares.
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Quote Of The Month
Tears at times have the weight of speech. - Ovid
Resources
The Ancients: Babylon and the Bible (Podcast)
Jerusalem Unplugged: From the Iron Age to the age of Covid with Chandler Collins (Podcast)
Afterlives: Reception, Ownership, and Race: Netflix’s ”Queen Cleopatra”
Recommended Books
Foundation Myths and Politics in Ancient Ionia
by Naoíse Mac Sweeney
This book examines foundation myths told about the Ionian cities during the archaic and classical periods. It uses these myths to explore the complex and changing ways in which civic identity was constructed in Ionia, relating this to the wider discourses about ethnicity and cultural difference that were current in the Greek world at this time. The Ionian cities seem to have rejected oppositional models of cultural difference which set in contrast East and West, Europe and Asia, Greek and Barbarian, opting instead for a more fluid and nuanced perspective on ethnic and cultural distinctions. The conclusions of this book have far-reaching implications for our understanding of Ionia, but also challenge current models of Greek ethnicity and identity, suggesting that there was a more diverse conception of Greekness in antiquity than has often been assumed.
Artifact Of The Month
A relief depicting the Neo-Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BCE). A ruthless and brutal monarch best known for expanding the Neo-Assyrian empire from Mesopotamia to as far West as the Mediterranean Sea. Courtesy of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures of the University of Chicago (formerly the Oriental Institute).