Living water : images, symbols, and settings of early Christian baptism /
:
This general survey of early Christian baptismal iconography and architecture integrates visual depictions and physical settings of baptism with textual evidence for its practice and purpose. An opening overview of pictorial art (paintings, relief sculpture, mosaics, and ivories) prompts questions about components of the actual ritual which are treated in the literary sources. The study's second half considers selected baptismal structures, examining the symbolism, purpose, and possible meaning of their spatial design and decorative programs. In most instances the synthesis of documentary and material evidence is enriching and complementary. However, even when physical and textual data diverge, their discontinuity demonstrates the variability of ritual performance and the perennial distinction between ideal and actual practice..
:
1 online resource (xxiv, 305 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 283-297) and index. :
9789004189089 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Adventus Domini : eschatological thought in 4th-century apses and catecheses /
:
Translation of: Kristus på keisertronen.
Translated from the Norwegian. :
1 online resource (xxiv, 309 pages, [37] pages of plates) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 286-304) and index. :
9789004304208 :
0920-623X ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Ancient Jewish art and archaeology in the diaspora /
:
Jewish Diaspora in Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods from first to the eighth centuries C.E. is the subject of this work. The author thoroughly investigates origin, symbolism and significance of the mainly synagogal and funerary art forms in the Diaspora. Ancient Jewish Art and Archaeology in the Diaspora is the companion volume to the successful Ancient Jewish Art and Archeaeology in the Land of Israel (1988) by the same author. The geographical area covered includes Syria, Asia Minor, North Africa and Mediterranean Europe. The first section examines the characteristic features of Diaspora Art synagogue architecture and art (including the Torah shrine and mosaic pavements). Another section deals with burial and funerary practices. Of special importance are the sections on the Biblical scenes , designs and iconography of the Dura Europos synagogue, and the Jewish symbols such as the Menorah, ritual objects, the Ark, the conch and the Torah Scrolls . The book is richly illustrated with more than 325 drawings and photographs, some in colour.
:
1 online resource (xxxiii, 499 pages, [64] pages of plates) : illustrations (some color), maps. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 466-486) and index. :
9789004294042 :
0169-9423 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
From single sign to pseudo-script : an ancient Egyptian system of workmen's identity marks /
:
Writing is not the only notation system used in literate societies. Some visual communication systems are very similar to writing, but work differently. Identity marks are typical examples of such systems, and this book presents a particularly well-documented marking system used in Pharaonic Egypt as an exemplary case. From Single Sign to Pseudo-Script is the first book to fully discuss the nature and development of an ancient marking system, its historical background, and the fascinating story of its decipherment. Chapters on similar systems in other cultures and on semiotic theory help to distinguish between unique and universal features. Written by Egyptologist Ben Haring, the book addresses scholars interested in marking systems, writing, literacy, and the semiotics of visual communication.
:
1 online resource (xvi, 291 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004357549 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
From temple to church : destruction and renewal of local cultic topography in late antiquity /
:
Destruction of temples and their transformation into churches are central symbols of late antique change in religious environment, socio-political system, and public perception. Contemporaries were aware of these events' far-reaching symbolic significance and of their immediate impact as demonstrations of political power and religious conviction. Joined in any "temple-destruction" are the meaning of the monument, actions taken, and subsequent literary discourse. Paradigms of perception, specific interests, and forms of expression of quite various protagonists clashed. Archaeologists, historians, and historians of religion illuminate "temple-destruction" from different perspectives, analysing local configurations within larger contexts, both regional and imperial, in order to find an appropriate larger perspective on this phenomenon within the late antique movement "from temple to church".
:
1 online resource (xi, 378 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and indexes. :
9789047443735 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Egypt at its origins 2 : proceedings of the international conference "Origin of the State, Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt", Toulouse (France), 5th-8th September 2005 /
:
"The proceedings of the Second International Conference about Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt (Toulouse, France, 2005) present the results of the latest research on the rise of the Pharaonic culture in Ancient Egypt. It contains 65 contributions by 80 authors from different countries. The articles in this volume have been organised in nine thematic sections: craft and craft specialisation; physical anthropology; geoarchaeology and environmental sciences; interactions between Upper and Lower Egypt; interactions between the desert and the Nile Valley; foreign relations; birth of writing and kingship; cult, ideology and social complexity; excavations and museums."--BOOK JACKET.
:
xli, 1236 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789042919945
9042919949
Creation, covenant, and the beginnings of Judaism : reconceiving historical time in the Second Temple period /
:
This study examines the relationship between time and history in Second Temple literature. Numerous sources from that period express a belief that Jewish history began with an act of covenant formation and proceeded in linear fashion until the exile, an unprecedented event which severed the present from the past. The authors of Ben Sira, Jubilees , the Animal Apocalypse , and 4 Ezra responded to this theological challenge by claiming instead that Jewish history began at creation. Between creation and redemption, history unfolds as a series of static, repeating patterns that simultaneously account for the disappointments of the Second Temple period and confirm the eternal nature of the covenant. As iterations of timeless, cyclical patterns, the difficult post-exilic present and the glorious redemption of the future emerge as familiar, unremarkable, and inevitable historical developments.
:
1 online resource (xii, 216 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-208) and index. :
9789004281653 :
1384-2161 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Sources of evil : studies in Mesopotamian exorcistic lore /
:
Sources of Evil: Studies in Mesopotamian Exorcistic Lore is a collection of thirteen essays on the body of knowledge employed by ancient Near Eastern healing experts, most prominently the 'exorcist' and the 'physician', to help patients who were suffering from misfortunes caused by divine anger, transgressions of taboos, demons, witches, or other sources of evil. The volume provides new insights into the two most important catalogues of Mesopotamian therapeutic lore, the Exorcist's Manual and the Aššur Medical Catalogue, and contains discussions of agents of evil and causes of illness, ways of repelling evil and treating patients, the interpretation of natural phenomena in the context of exorcistic lore, and a description of the symbolic cosmos with its divine and demonic inhabitants.
:
1 online resource (xiii, 382 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004373341 :
1566-7952 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Studies in the cult of Yahweh.
:
These two volumes collect some of the most influential and important scholarly essays by the late Morton Smith (1915-1991), for many years Professor of Ancient History at Columbia University in New York City. Smith was admired and feared for his extraordinary ability to look at familiar texts in unfamiliar ways, to re-open old questions, to pose new questions, and to demolish received truths. He practiced the \'hermeneutics of suspicion\' to devastating effect. His answers are not always convincing but his questions cannot be ignored. The essays of Volume I center on the Hebrew Bible (\'Old Testament\'), Ancient Israel and Ancient Judaism, of Volume II on the Christian Bible (\'New Testament\'), Early Christianity and Ancient Magic. Volume II also contains an assessment of Smith's scholarly achievement and a complete list of his publications.
:
1 online resource (viii, 334 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004295872 :
0927-7633 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Urban dreams and realities in antiquity : remains and representations of the ancient city /
:
A unique variety of approaches to all aspects of urban culture in the ancient world can be found in Urban Dreams and Realities in Antiquity , a collection of 19 essays addressing ancient cities from an interdisciplinary perspective. As the title indicates, the volume considers both how ancient people lived in their cities as physical structures and how they thought with them as ideas and symbols. Essays in this volume deal with texts and sites from Spain to South India, but there is a particular focus on the archaeology and epigraphy of Roman-era Italy, civic identity in the Roman provinces, the Hebrew Bible and Early Christian literature, Vergil and other imperial Latin authors.
:
1 online resource (xiv, 533 pages) : illustrations, maps. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004283893 :
0169-8958 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.