Detail of a leopard from late antique synagogue mosaic | C4-6CE, restored at Maon-Nirim in the Negev | Image Source
On AJR
Our July Forum commences! Art and Religion in Antiquity, responding to Fine’s The Menorah and Jensen’s The Cross:
Felicity Harley-McGowan, “SBL 2018 Book Review Panel: Art and Religion in Antiquity”
Harley-McGowan: “This review session furnished an opportunity to engage the methodological approaches used by Jensen and Fine, and the skills deployed by them. In reflecting on and celebrating what they have achieved, we should seek to ensure that more scholars are trained in addressing visual and material evidence, and in making use of it across a variety of disciplines and projects.”
David Frankfurter, “Jewish (and Christian) Symbols in the Late Modern Period: Jensen’s Cross and Fine’s Menorah”
Frankfurter: “There are two themes that I do think could bring these symbols together, and in their material rather than abstract manifestations. First, both authors alert us in various ways to the vitality and importance of the symbol in motion – in procession – rather than emblazoned on a coin or a door lintel. And from this processional vitality comes the second theme that struck me as key in the discussion of these symbols: their intrinsic agency as material things – that is, not just what they convey in terms of “memory” or “tradition” but their capacity to work in the world.”
Articles and News
Report by Dr. Victoria Leonard from the Women’s Classical Committee on editing women historians into Wikipedia.
Jenny Cromwell illumines some of the sparse evidence of how scribal education worked in rural Egypt.
(Currently) open access special issue ICS journal on memory, place, and Roman Syria.
Eline Scheerlinck in the first of two pieces on the integration of Arab-Muslim government and Egyptian villages after the Arab conquest.
The New Testament Review tackles and critiques Adolf von Harnack’s influential work on Marcion.
Terrific photos of house church archaeological remains at Dura Europos.
Report on P.Bas. 2.43: possibly the oldest Christian documentary evidence from Roman Egypt.
Why not “dark ages”? Why Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages matter? This is an experiment trying to argue for it in 10 tweets (w/footnotes). It is subjective, but hopefully balanced. Not meant to replace, but to inspire other (twitter) takes on the subject. A thread. (a) 1/ pic.twitter.com/FmH31TysPh
— Mateusz Fafinski (@Calthalas) 8 July 2019
This beautiful Pentateuch includes an Aramaic translation from the Hebrew Bible in the leftmost column. The floral decoration is heavily influenced by contemporary Christian tradition. Harley MS 7621, f.142v. Digitised here: https://t.co/spL56u0QSj #AtoUnknown #Hebrew pic.twitter.com/CD7MrjCjKs
— BL Hebrew Project (@BL_HebrewMSS) 11 July 2019
It’s here! Sequel to one of my fave books: more intellectual history of early Xtian Studies in the US! (Cat is, for the moment, feigning disinterest / but we all know it’s an act) #lateantiquity pic.twitter.com/2Y4gr3mlno
— Matthew Chalmers (@Matt_J_Chalmers) 8 July 2019