Innholdsfortegnelse for AH 46 i Ancient History Magazine

Divination just might be one of the most foreign elements of the ancient world to modern audiences. We still have gods, we still have religion, but few of us, if any, turn to divination to seek answers to specific questions or to foretell the future. Indeed, fortune tellers are often dismissed as charlatans or simply performers. However, for much of human history, across a range of time and cultures, divination has been a legitimate recourse for people seeking clarity. The flight of birds, the sound of the wind through the leaves of a tree, the shape and form of a sacrifice's liver were all real to people in the ancient world. The messages they discerned from them mattered. This issue, hopefully, demonstrates just how widespread and diverse the applications of…

Evidence has been found indicating that coal was systematically used by Bronze Age people, in what is now China approximately 3700 years ago. This pushes back the previously known date by some twelve centuries. Coal is a sedimentary deposit which is readily combustible. According to the US Geological Survey, “It is formed from plant remains that have been compacted, hardened, chemically altered, and metamorphosed by heat and pressure over geologic time.” It is found all over the world, particularly where prehistoric forests and marshes thrived before being buried and compressed over millions of years. While evidence for the use of coal as a fuel for fire has been found at several prehistoric archaeological sites, evidence for the systematic exploitation of coal as a fuel before 500 BC has been lacking.…

24 miles north of Fårö, and island just off Gotland, midway between mainland Sweden and Estonia in the Baltic Sea, lies Gotska Sandön, a small, sandy, uninhabited island. It was not always uninhabited, however, as archaeologists have discovered evidence for 20 hearths on the island. The purpose of the hearths is unknown. Johan Rönnby, a professor of marine archaeology at Södertörn University and a participant in the excavation, has suggested that the site may be connected to seal hunting. “Seal hunters may have come from the island of Gotland and landed on Sandön to boil seal blubber. This could have been what the hearths were used for, but we don't yet know,” he said. He also suggests that the site may have been a trading post. Using the carbon-14 method,…

SPECIAL IDENTITY, INSTITUTION, AND ICONOCLASM Hatshepsut was the daughter of a pharaoh (Thutmose I), sister and wife of a pharaoh (Thutmose II), and stepmother of a pharaoh (Thutmose III). However, she was not meant to be pharaoh herself. She was the Great Royal Wife, the chief consort of Thutmose II. She was also ‘God's Wife.’ In this role, Hatshepsut served as a chief priestess in the Temple of Amun-Re in Thebes. Thus, as King's Daughter, Great Royal Wife, and God's Wife, Hatshepsut had great status in Egypt, but these were all part of the traditional roles for a royal woman. These positions all reflected Maat – the concept of cosmic order, balance, and harmony, personified as a goddess, that governed the world – to the Egyptian mindset. What threatened tradition…

THEME: Looking into the future INDEPENDENT GREEK DIVINERS Divination is the interpretation of signs which are thought to be sent by the supernatural. Humans have, during their evolution, developed in such a way that they are primed to expect, and to look for, signs – this has been called ‘omen-mindedness’. These signs are then connected to an agent: are the bushes rustling on account of the wind, an animal, another human, or perhaps the supernatural? Occurrences that cannot be explained in another way (there was no wind, and after close inspection no animal or other person can be found) are seen as signs from the supernatural. This implies that the supernatural is believed to exist in some way and is willing to communicate with humans. An accepted idea that follows from…

THEME: Looking into the future BIRDS AND LIGHTNING IN ANCIENT ROME Rome was not always the empire we know it as; it started out as a humble agricultural society. The Roman religion was one of farmers, closely associated with everyday life in the country-side. The altars were sods stacked on top of each other where-upon the produce of the land was shared with the gods. Mars, who guarded the boundaries of the land that fed you. Vesta, who took care of the warmth in your house, your warm food, and the warmth of your family. The lares, the guardian spirits of fields and vineyards and the Lar Familiaris, the guardian spirit of the familia. Jupiter, for sun and rain, the penates who guarded the storehouse, and many others so important…

INGREDIENTS (4 flatbreads) Bread » 500 g spelt flour » 25 g bread starter or 7 g dried yeast » 275-300 ml tepid water » 10 g salt » 4 tbsp olive oil » 2 tbsp honey » 8 laurel leaves Topping » 2 peaches or apples » 1 fig or 4 dates » 4 tbsp salt (feta) cheese » hazelnuts » optional: pepper, honey PREPARATION Add the spelt flour, sourdough (or yeast), tepid water, salt, olive oil, and honey to a bowl. Mix well with your hands until the dough comes together. Turn it out onto the table and knead for about ten to fifteen minutes until smooth. If using sourdough, put the dough in a well-oiled bowl. Cover and let it rise in a warm place for one…

The Cambridge Companion to the Ancient Greek Economy Edited by Sitta von Redenl ISBN: 978-1108404846 Cambridge University Press (2022) - £29.99 www.cambridge.org The study of the ancient Greek economy occupies an unusual place in modern scholarship. The Greeks, for example, did not record data which are central to modern economics. Indeed, there is a general lack of evidence that can be utilized for the study of the ancient Greek economy, with most of what we have, particularly for the Classical period, coming from Athens, which could easily lead scholars to make generalizing Athenocentric conclusions about the entirety of the Greek world. The Cambridge Companion to the Ancient Greek Economy, edited by Sitta von Reden, seeks to address these issues, offering, according to the back cover, a “comprehensive introduction to the…

THE SEER IN ANCIENT GREECE By Michael A. Flower University of California Press, 2008 ISBN: 978-0520252295 A comprehensive study of the position of the seer in ancient Greek society, from itinerant diviners to seers’ role in the ancient Greek military. Flower's discussion covers everything there is to know about a seer, such as the different methods of divination available in ancient Greece, ancient Greek attitudes towards seers, and women's roles in ancient divination. DIVINATION, PREDICTION AND THE END OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC By Frederico Santangelo Cambridge University Press, 2013 ISBN: 978-1009296359 Roman politics was intimately intertwined with religion, including divination. This book explores that relationship in the context of the late Roman Republic, a time of political turmoil, and how divinatory practices changed over the period, as well as discussing…

UNROLLING HISTORY THE GOSPEL OF JESUS’ WIFE On September 18, 2012, Harvard scholar Karen King announced the existence of a remarkable shred of papyrus. The text was written in Coptic, the language of the Egyptian Christians, and mentioned a Jesus referring to someone as “my wife”. King went on to say that she would publish the snippet in the Harvard Theological Review and hyped her discovery up by referring to it as the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife, although there was no evidence that it was a gospel. The fragment did not contain enough words to establish a literary genre. King also said that the Wife of Jesus Fragment, as it ought to have been called, was presumably too young to constitute evidence of Jesus’ marital status, but that nuance was…

Seeking propitious signs before a battle, when men were possible mere moments away from death, would have been a great morale boost. Thus, it is no surprise that seers performed sacrifices before battle. Famously, before the Battle of Plataea, the Spartans and Tegeans refused to advance because the omens in their sacrifices, likely performed by Tisamenus of Elis, were not favourable (Herodotus, 9.61). Seers almost certainly accompanied armies on campaign. The Ten Thousand seem to have had many seers among their number (Xenophon, Anabasis 6.4.15). However, many times, it is generals who are the ones who receive and interpret signs. Already in Homer, we see military leaders interpreting signs on the battlefield, such as Hector observing the flight of birds before deciding to cross the ditch before the Achaean camp…

THEME: Looking into the future ORACLE BONES AND STATE AUTHORITY IN SHANG CHINA The Shang state existed from around 1600–1046 BC in the Yellow River basin, in what is now north-central China. It was an agricultural state centred on a capital city ruled by a dynastic clan, and in possession of a sophisticated bronze culture typified by a wide range of ritual vessels. The oracle bones themselves attest to a culture of record-keeping, apparently having been kept in archives, and date from around 1200 BC onwards. The Shang were not the only Bronze Age state in what is now China, or the only polity to use bones for divination – various sites elsewhere reveal walled cities, metal production, and other indicators of social stratification. In some cases, such as the material…

THEME: Looking into the future ARTEMIDORUS’ ONEIROCRITICA Perhaps the most famous dream interpretation of the ancient world are the six dreams interpreted by Joseph (Genesis 37-41). These involve various dreams: his own, his fellow prisoners, even the pharaoh's. Joseph declares that the interpretation of dreams belongs to God (Genesis 40:8), and other ancient religions, too, placed significant importance on the interpretation of dreams, regarding them as religious experiences, even down to catering for having dreams within temple precincts. Almost every ancient culture regarded dreams and dream interpretation as important whether it be Assyrian, Chinese, Egyptian, Hebrew, Celtic, Greek, Roman, or any other. On the other hand, we might argue that the inclusion of dreams and their interpretation in historical and literary accounts, such as the many in Herodotus, are more likely…

SPECIAL POLITICS AND COLONIZATION IN ARCHAIC ATHENS During the Archaic period of ancient Greek history, Athens seems relatively unimportant. While city-states like Chalcis, Eretria, Corinth, and Miletus were establishing colonies throughout the Mediterranean and Black Sea, Athens seems to have undertaken what is termed ‘internal colonization’, content with the land of Attica. Yet, by the beginning of the sixth century BC, we see Athenians striving to exert control over much of the Aegean. Early Athens Athens at the beginning of the sixth century BC was vastly different from Athens of the fifth century BC, which most people will be familiar with. For one, while Athenians claimed the unification of Attica was completed by Thesus, as Thucydides records (2.14-16), this was a later fabrication to legitimize Athens’ regional power by projecting…

SPECIAL BEAUTIFICATION IN CLASSICAL ATHENS There are many women who are said to be beautiful in Athenian literature. However, what made these women beautiful is not usually elaborated on. Instead, the audience is left to project their own ideas of beauty onto the characters. The literary sources do give us some indication as to Athenian beauty standards in terms of women's bodies. Women's breasts were frequently compared to small fruit and vegetables, such as quince (Aristophanes, Acharnians 1198-9; Assemblywomen 901-5). Xenophon says it was important that women could control their appetites (Economics 7.6), and elsewhere, in his Memorabilia, he says that women “soft and plump, with high feeding” (2.1.22) are lascivious, suggesting that men found women with a slim figure attractive, but this may be connected to Xenophon's advocation of…

THEME: Looking into the future DIVINATION AND SEDITION IN THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE Esarhaddon (r. 680–669 BC) came to the Assyrian throne after his father, Sennacherib, was assassinated by his own sons. The two months that followed saw an armed struggle between Esarhaddon and his brothers. Esarhaddon emerged victorious, and in the aftermath, put many of their co-conspirators to the sword. Assyrian kingship & divine punishment Sennacherib's murder was sufficiently scandalous that it was recorded in the Hebrew Bible. The biblical version of events presents Sennacherib's fate as a divine punishment from the god YHWH. The god was angry with Sennacherib for campaigning against Judah. Similarly, a literary composition, found at the Assyrian capital of Nineveh (modern Mosul), portrays the king's death as the result of his failure to respect the…

Shang oracle bone divination appears to have involved preparation of the bones and turtle shells beforehand, selecting good specimens and flattening the bones to allow better heat application and carving of the written charges. Experimental archaeology suggests that pits were carved into them in the places where heat would be applied. The initial inscriptions and resulting cracks were subsequently carved out more clearly and inked, likely for better record keeping. However, the process of interpretation is lost; academic studies have suggested that interpretation was based on variations in horizontal cracks produced by the heat, over which the diviner would have had some degree of control. Much about the process and inscriptions remains unknown – there is debate over whether the inscriptions themselves were intended as questions or charges, while many…

ANCIENT COOKING A ROMAN FRESCO THAT LOOSENS TONGUES What do we see in this ancient fresco? Honestly, it is hard to say. The fresco is not very clear, and there is not much context to it. There is certainly a silver goblet of wine on a silver tray. I see some fruit: two citrus fruits (no pineapples), two dates, and fruit that looks like small apples, peaches, or figs. There is also one of these on the flatbread. The little white lumps in the foreground could be nuts or peeled chestnuts. There is also a leaf of some kind, maybe laurel, which was used for baking bread in ancient cuisine. And then the flatbread itself. Is it a flatbread at all? Maybe it is just an earthenware plate with a…

LIVING LIKE AN ANCIENT CORRESPONDING ACROSS THE EMPIRE Ancient Rome had no universal postal service and how a letter travelled to its recipient depended greatly on the status of the sender. At the top of the mailing list was the Roman emperor and his functionaries. For them, an efficient mail service was not a matter of exchanging social niceties but an essential component of a functional empire. As a result, from the time of Augustus, Rome had a dedicated courier service – the Cursus Publicus – which carried imperial mail to the far corners of the empire. Really urgent messages were sent by ship if the conditions were right, and otherwise by horseman. A courier on horseback had a set of dedicated waystations (mansiones) along his route which allowed him a…