Category: Archeology

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Linkin’ Logs

Some things I’ve been meaning to post …

Adrian Murdoch gives us something to Cro about — a fifth-century mosaic.

Jim Davila reveals that one of the oldest active monasteries (fourth century!) is endangered by land-grabbing in Turkey.

David Meadows traces the ancient origins of pizza. (I know only its evolutionary Omega Point, which is at Revello’s in Old Forge, Pennsylvania.)

BMCR reviews a fascinating book that I talked up last week, The Trophies of the Martyrs: An Art Historical Study of Early Christian Silver Reliquaries. It is the archeological and art-historical complement to such excellent historical studies as Peter Brown’s The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity.

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The Virtue of Wanderlust

Now that all that New Year’s stuff is behind you, you’re probably getting around to planning your pilgrimages for the year. It’s a practice I’ve heartily recommended, for individuals, families, and friends. If you’re willing to travel within these United States, Happy Catholic has a deal for you. (More on that in the days to come.)

All this faithful tourism has deep roots in the age of the Fathers, and receives fascinating treatment in some recent books.

Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity: Seeing the Gods includes essays by seventeen scholars, and a little over a third of the book deals with Jewish and Christian notions of pilgrimage. The book breaks Christian pilgrimage down according to a very helpful typology: (1) scriptural pilgrimage; (2) pilgrimage to living saints; (3) relics; and (4) icons and images. (I think I’ve done all four. I’m waiting for magisterial confirmation on number 2.) For Christians, pilgrimage “is not a sacrament, has no doctrine, and unlike the Hebrew Bible and the Qur’an, the New Testament does not make it obligatory.” Yet we’ve always done it, as this book beautifully attests. The patristic quotations and citations are many and generously unabridged. Quite fascinating is the long discussion, late in the book, on pilgrimage as a metaphor for Christian life.

Also very helpful is The Trophies of the Martyrs: An Art Historical Study of Early Christian Silver Reliquaries, by Galit Noga-Banai of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Some of these reliquaries were, of course, the very destination for ancient pilgrims. In addition to the Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers, these reliquaries — the book includes photos of almost a hundred — are material evidence for the very early presence of the cult of the saints and the cult of relics.

Though neither of these books were composed as works of apologetics, they do serve to help Christians make their case.

And the beat goes on. Diana von Glahn’s The Faithful Traveler videos are an excellent way to plan for pilgrimages here on my little continent. Her first installment takes us to Philadelphia’s Miraculous Medal Shrine. Many years ago, I walked many miles on pilgrimage to visit there with my good friend and colleague David Scott.

Which brings us back to Happy Catholic and her pilgrimage, which includes David and me and Chris Bailey and others. Check it out.

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Dura-bility

Adrian Murdoch points us to new developments in our understanding of Dura Europos. Apparently, chemical warfare contributed to the ancient town’s demise.

Like Pompeii, Dura is one of those sites suddenly overcome and over-covered. So it preserves precious evidence of third-century life. There is a richly decorated house church — and a lavishly decorated synagogue. Some fascinating Jewish and Christian (and Jewish-Christian) manuscripts turned up as well, including a variant of the Didache and a Gospel harmony. The Wikipedia article links to several good, informative sites. Wikimedia offers good photos.

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The Pope Digs Early Christianity

And, yes, he’s Catholic, too. Check out his address to the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology a few days back.

Benedict XVI urged the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology to advance research into society’s Christian roots because society needs a culture more open to spiritual realities.

In the Pope’s address Saturday to the delegation of professors and students, which was led by the institute’s grand chancellor, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, the Pontiff wished to show “living appreciation” for the institute’s “precious and fruitful cultural, literary, and academic activity.”

The institute, the Pontiff noted, has as its principal objective “the study of the vestiges of ecclesial life throughout the centuries,” and offers the opportunity of penetrating into the complex reality of the Church of the first centuries, “to understand the past, making it present to the men of today.”

I tend to agree with the man. Read the rest.

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The Apologist

I apologize so often I should soon be numbered among the apologists. But every December it’s the same story. Since everything in the publishing business ends up being due “before Christmas,” all projects bunch up in three crazy weeks. I’m just now dotting the last i and crossing the last t. I’m also crossing my eyes and wishing for Z’s.

OK, so rank me among the martyrs instead. Now that the annual whining’s out of the way …

I have a lot of catching up to do, thanks to all of you who sent me wondrous links. I’ll post some with this note.

You’ve probably seen the news about the big antiquities bust in Italy. David Meadows offers a great round-up of stories. In the photo at MSNBC you can make out an early-Christian mosaic among the loot.

Unless you’ve been living in one of those cave homes of Cappadocia, you’ve already heard about Italian archeologists digging up the perfumed ointment of Mary Magdalene.

It pays to wait: Adrian Murdoch gives us the definitive word on the significance of the ancient battlefield discovered in Germany. (Adrian also has launched a new option for your old-news-gathering: Bread and Circuses by email.)

Adrian also posted a good summary of the big Byzantine coin hoard found in Jerusalem. You know, I could keep posting links to Adrian’s archives from the last couple of weeks, or you could just go browse them yourself!

Roger Pearse introduces us to a new find, a site called Fourth-Century Christianity. How cool is that?

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Brightest Bulbs on the Ancient Tree

Way cool: Ancient Roman Oil Lamp ‘Factory Town’ Found.

Dec. 5, 2008 — Italian researchers have discovered the pottery center where the oil lamps that lighted the ancient Roman empire were made.

Evidence of the pottery workshops emerged in Modena, in central-northern Italy, during construction work to build a residential complex near the ancient walls of the city.

“We found a large ancient Roman dumping filled with pottery scraps. There were vases, bottles, bricks, but most of all, hundreds of oil lamps, each bearing their maker’s name,” Donato Labate, the archaeologist in charge of the dig, told Discovery News.

Firmalampen, or “factory lamps,” were one of the first mass-produced goods in Roman times and they carried brand names clearly stamped on their clay bottoms.

The ancient dumping in Modena contained lamps by the most famous brands of the time: Strobili, Communis, Phoetaspi, Eucarpi and Fortis.

All these manufacturers had their products sold on the markets of three continents. Fortis was the trendiest of all pottery brands and its products were used up to the end of the second century A.D.