Intentional Cooking Pot Deposits in Late Roman Jerash (Northwest Quarter)

Abstract – During the 2012 campaign of the Danish-German Northwest Quarter Project in Jerash, ancient Gerasa, three intentionally deposited cooking pots were found in a fill layer. Two of them were almost intact and discovered with ashes and other finds inside. Another one was fragmented and also held ashes inside. The cooking pot deposits are likely to have been termination deposits. It is the scope of this paper to discuss the context and function of these deposits and of comparable evidences. No completely conclusive explanation for the three deposited cooking pots from the Northwest Quarter can be given, but the context gives clear indications that they were deposited intentionally and were only in some sort of use for a short period of time. They were not part of an installation, such as a kitchen or production complex and they were not part of an ancient dump. The homogenous fill layers surrounding them indicate a rapid and intentional filling —a process in which these deposited pots played a role. We here suggest a possible ritual or magic function of these pots as termination deposits, but this can only be confirmed further by comparable finds excavated and documented in detail at other sites as well as better knowledge of the room that was backfilled and ritually closed with termination deposits. The main purpose of this article is to raise awareness of such deposits in archaeological contexts, which may too often be overlooked.Résumé – Le Danish-German Northwest Quarter Project à Jérash, l’ancienne Gérasa, a mis au jour lors de la campagne de fouilles de 2012 trois marmites de céramique, dont deux étaient presque intactes, déposées soigneusement dans une couche de remplissage. Elles contenaient de la cendre et d’autres trouvailles. L’article porte sur le contexte et la fonction de ces dépôts et sur des cas comparables. Les marmites du Northwest Quarter n’étaient en usage que pendant une courte période avant d’être délibérément déposées. La couche homogène dont elles proviennent n’offre aucune trace ni d’une cuisine ou d’une autre installation de ce genre, ni d’un dépotoir. Nous proposons donc que ces marmites aient peut-être été déposées dans un acte rituel ou magique. Mais cela ne peut être confirmé que par la mise au jour de trouvailles comparables et documentées sur d’autres sites ainsi que par une meilleure connaissance de la pièce qui fut comblée et rituellement scellée avec les dépôts. Le propos principal de cet article est de mettre en avant de tels dépôts, qui peuvent trop souvent passer inaperçus.مشروعجرش،جرشالقديمة،تمالعثورعلىثلاثأوانيللطبخفيطبقةترابيةمردومة،اثنتانمنهماكانتا على حالتهما تقريبا ً وجدتا مع رماد وموجودات أخرى بداخلها. أما الثالثة فكانت مهشمة وكان بداخلها رماد أيضا ً. ومن المرجح أن تكون هذه المعثورات عبارة عن أوعية للطهي. إن هذا المقال يتمحور حول مناقشة محتويات ووظيفة هذه الموجودات وحالتها ومقارنتها مع الأمثلة المشابهة. ولكن لا يوجد تفسير قاطع تماما ً يمكن إعطاؤه حول أواني الطبخ الثلاثة وأنها كانت من الربع الشمالي الغربي. إننا نقترح هنا أن الأوعية لعبت دورا ً في ممارسة بعض الطقوس الدينية وممارسات السحر، لكن لا نستطيع التأكد من هذا إلا بعد المزيد من الإكتشافات الموثقة والقابلة للمقارنة، ومعرفة تفاصيل الغرفة التي وجدت فيها والتي تم ردمها وإغلاقها تماما ً ولكن السياق يعطي مؤشرات واضحة على أنها أودعت عمدا ً وكانت فقط للإستخدام قصير الأمد، ولكنها لم تكن جزءا ً من شيء ثابت كأن تكون جزء من المطبخ أو مجمع الإنتاج كما أنها لم تكن من الردم القديم. إن الطبقات المتجانسة المحيطة بها تشير إلى وجود عملية ملء سريعة متعمدة - إن هذه العملية لعبت دورا ً في أوعية الطبخ. إن الهدف الرئيسي لهذا المقال هو زيادة الوعي حول مثل هذه الأوعية ضمن المفاهيم الأثرية التي من الممكن إعادة النظر فيها

The Paradox of Palmyra: An Ancient anomalopolis in the Desert

Palmyra, the UNESCO world heritage site that tragically made headlines following ISIS’s destruction of several of its key monuments in 2015, was once a thriving city in the heart of the Syrian Desert. Settled from Neolithic through modern times, the documented urban history of the site spans a millennium, from the late centuries bc until the late first millennium ad. Palmyra has often been cast as ‘the bride of the desert’, and the apparent paradox of a sizeable city 150-200 km from major areas of cultivation has spurred considerable scholarly interest. In this article, we discuss the roles of climate change, geopolitical changes, and nomad-settled interaction in the urban biography of Palmyra, drawing on published palaeoclimatological evidence and general evidence offered by urban development, epigraphy (inscriptions), and settlement size.publishedVersio

Andreas J. M. Kropp, Images and Monuments of Near Eastern Dynasts, 100 bc – ad 100

This substantial monograph is a revised and expanded version of the DPhil thesis by Andreas J. M. Kropp. It falls into six well-defined chapters: (1) Methods, dynasts, and kingdoms; (2) royal portraits, (3) royal palaces, (4) royal tombs; (5) kings and cults and finally (6) images and monuments: projections of royal ideology. The monograph focusses on six major « Client Kingdoms » of the period under consideration, the Kommagenian, Emesan, Ituraean, Nabataean, Hasmonaean, and Herodian dynasti..

Enhancing Writing Skills: An Analytical Study of Obstacles in Writing at B.A. Level in Najran University, KSA

Academic writing demands a deliberate endeavor and a conscious effort to achieve a desirable efficiency in the academic pursuits of learners. Academic writing is considered perhaps the most challenging and difficult skill in terms of L2. This study critically explores the obstacles in academic writing faced by students and teachers alike at Najran University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To investigate, a comprehensive questionnaire has been floated among professional teachers to get their expert opinions in order to identify some problems and form effective remedial strategies eventually. This paper will primarily focus on the two significant aspects of academic writing i.e. language skills (LS, Grammar etc.) and writing skills (WS, writing itself as a skill)

The experience of pilgrimage in the Roman Empire: communitas, paideiā, and piety-signaling

Pilgrimage of various types is well attested in the pre-Christian religions of the Roman Empire, but there is comparatively little evidence for the personal experiences of pilgrims. Some recent studies have argued that typical pilgrims of this period were members of the intellectual elite highly versed in literary culture (paideia) who saw sacred places as museums of Greek culture. In this paper, I try to reconstruct what we can about the experience of pilgrimage in early Roman Empire, looking at three cases studies: a. Philo’s somewhat idealized account of Jewish pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which stresses intense common feeling (or communitas, to use Victor Turner’s term) between participants; b. Pilgrimage to the oracle of Apollo at Claros, to which cities of Asia Minor and elsewhere sent sacred delegations, largely made up choirs of children who performed hymns at the sanctuary. It may be suggested that the experience of the pilgrimage was in large part an educative one - learning about Greek culture and learning how to behave in public; itmight even be seen as a sort of rite of passage. c. The healing-pilgrimages of Aelius Aristides to Pergamum and elsewhere. Aristides’ experience at Pergamum is full of paideia, though that was not the primary motivation, and it sometimes approaches communitas, though in the end the presence of other people tends to serve the purpose of an audience and foil for his own brilliance. Key aspects of his experience seem to be: a) suffering and b) a feeling of closeness to the god, sometimes bordering on identification with him

Divine symbolism on the tesserae from PalmyraConsiderations about the so-called “symbol of Bel” or “signe de la pluie”

An enigmatic symbol that is often depicted on the Palmyrene tesserae has commonly been interpreted as either the sign of the main god Bel or a mark of rain. This article brings together all appearances of the symbol and puts forward the hypothesis that it stands rather for something that cannot otherwise be represented, namely the notional presence of the divine at religious dining occasions. As such, it may be compared with the seemingly unessential labelling of obviously divine figures as ʾlhʾ or θεός.Un symbole énigmatique, souvent représenté sur les tessères de Palmyre, a généralement été interprété, soit comme le signe du dieu principal Bel, soit comme le signe de la pluie. L’article rassemble toutes les attestations du symbole et fait l’hypothèse qu’il s'agit plutôt de signaler quelque chose qui ne peut être représenté, c’est-à-dire la notion de la présence de la divinité aux dîners religieux. On peut donc le comparer au fait d’apposer sur des figures évidemment divines le qualificatif qui peut sembler inutile de ʾlhʾ ou bien θεός.خلاصة = فسر عادةً رمز ملغز، ممثل غالباً على بطاقات (تيسيرا) التدمرية، إما كإشارة للإله الرئيسي بل، أو كإشارة للمطر. يجمع المقال جميع الأدلة حول الرمز ويقدم فرضية بأن الأمر يتعلق بالأحرى بالإشارة إلى شيء ما لا يمكن تمثيله، أي مفهوم وجود الإله في الأعشية الدينية. بناءً عليه، يمكن للمرء أن يقارنه بحقيقة كونه يلصق بالشخوص الإلهية بوضوح نعت 'lh' أو θεός الذي يمكن أن يبدو عديم الجدوى

Sequential optimization of production of a thermostable and organic solvent tolerant lipase by recombinant Escherichia coli

Several medium formulations were screened for the production of a thermostable and organic solvent tolerant lipase by a recombinant Escherichia coli BL21. The highest lipase production (28.9 ± 4.1 IU/mL) was obtained in Luria Bertani medium with the addition of 1% (w/v) glucose. The medium formulation and fermentation conditions were then subjected to sequential optimization. Using a Plackett-Burman design, glucose, NaCl, temperature and induction time were found to be the most significant variables affecting lipase production, and these were then optimized using response surface methodology (RSM). The large value of R 2 (0.979) showed that the quadratic model used for the prediction is highly significant. The optimum levels of these four significant variables (glucose, NaCl, temperature and induction time) as predicted by RSM were 32.4 g/L, 5 g/L, 31.7°C and 2.1 h, respectively. The amount of lipase activity (50.2 ± 4.5 IU/mL) produced under these optimal conditions fitted well to the value (48.9 IU/mL) predicted by RSM. Production of lipase in optimized fermentation was about 2.5-fold higher than in non-optimized fermentation

C. Historiography : Danish Research from Johannes Østrup (1893) to the Palmyra Portrait Project

Since 2012 the Palmyra Portrait Project research group based at Aarhus University has been working on compiling as comprehensive a corpus of palmyrene funerary sculpture as possible . At present the corpus includes more than 3300 portraits, which is far beyond what any scholar thought still existed of these portraits . The corpus is currently being prepared for final publication. The corpus makes up the largest group of portraits stemming from the Roman period and coming from outside Rome its..

Food security in Roman Palmyra (Syria) in light of paleoclimatological evidence and its historical implications

Food security in ancient urban centers is often discussed but rarely formally modelled. Despite its location in an inhospitable desert where food production is a constant challenge ancient Palmyra grew from a small oasis settlement in to a major geopolitical player. Here, we present a spatially explicit reconstruction of the land use and agricultural yield expectations of its hinterland determining the maximum feasible population of the city. Coupling the hinterland carrying capacity model with palaeoclimatic data allowed us to track changes in the food security of the city in the face of changing climate. While initially the hinterland could provide ample food resources for the small settlement with time the deteriorating climate conditions after the Roman Optimum (100 BCE-200 CE) collided with rapidly growing population of the city. The nexus of these two processes fall at mid third century–a period of profound changes in the structure of Palmyrene society, its geopolitical situation and its historical trajectory. The results point to increasingly precarious subsistence levels as a likely factor behind rapid militarization, shift towards an autocratic regime and military expansion of the city in the late third century CE. As a well-established causal mechanism in many modern conflicts and crises, food security is also a potential causal factor behind historical events, if a hard one to prove due to the difficulty of identifying relevant data patterns. The methods presented establishes a robust research pipeline that can be used on other ancient urban centers, contributing to the construction of an empirically supported model of how food security shaped human history, past and present.publishedVersio