Posts

Showing posts from April, 2007

Balkan amphorae

Illyrian ships found under a swamp near Capljina, Bosnia-Herzegovina date to the 2nd century B.C. and were apparently shipping wine, according to a preliminary analysis of the remaining amphorae.

More Egeria

A few days after Egeria's mention here, the Reverend Chloe Breyer gives her a more thorough treatment in Slate: The ease with which she attained military escorts through far-flung and dangerous places suggests high connections in the imperial court. Indeed, one line of research makes her out to be the daughter of a Spanish member of the court of Theodosius the Great, emperor from 379 to 395, and possibly the leader of what St. Jerome rancorously described as a wealthy and ostentatiously behaved travel party heading to the East at about that time.

Roman tomb find

Archaeologists have uncovered a Roman-era tomb on the Greek island of Kefalonia. The AP report is vague, but there's a photo of seating in what looks like a theatre of some kind. The caption implies that this is in the same area as the tomb. More details in the coming days, hopefully.

Religious tourism, then and now

Image
The "Burning Bush" at St. Catherine's Monastery, Egypt. Photo by piddy77 . The NYT's Michael Slackman reports today on the doings of Egypt's chief archaeologist in the Sinai peninsula. His team has recently unearthed a military fort which dates to the period of the Exodus, but he doesn't think much of the Exodus itself: “Really, it’s a myth,” Dr. Hawass said of the story of the Exodus, as he stood at the foot of a wall built during what is called the New Kingdom. Whatever the official position of the state, local tourism businesses remain happy to capitalize on eager believers: In Egypt today, visitors to Mount Sinai are sometimes shown a bush by tour guides and told it is the actual bush that burned before Moses. It's unclear whether Slackman is referring to the bush in Saint Catherine's Monastery , which has enclosed the purported site of Moses' vision since the third century. In any case, pointing out the bush to wide-eyed religious