Ancient History

Since the 1980s, many researchers have been interested in the question
of the boundaries of Greek territories. However, the study of Argos reveals
the difficulties which exist in finding concrete markers of the domination
of a city on the limits of its territory. On the contrary, the Argive
border areas are characterized by a certain fluidity in their definition:
the kômai, which are established there, keep a certain independence
and can easily change their allegiance. The city of Argos is then defined
spatially not by clear and precise borders, but by accumulation of kômai
which integrate the political system of Argos.

A talk given at the Conference on Liturgical Renewal organised by the Greek theological journal, Synaxi, in Athens on 5-6 February 1999. Its author is the Rector of the Church of St. Irene Chrysovalantou in Toronto. He holds a doctorate in theology and teaches theology at Sherbrooke University, Quebec. His article appeared in Greek in Synaxi, No. 71 (July-September 1999), pp. 22-37. It appeared in English in Sourozh, May 2000. The translation is by Dr. Elizabeth Theokritoff.

Aunque el tema del comercio pŭnico no es ni mucho menos novedoso, ni son pocos los trabajos que tratan sobre las lineas generales que regían la actividad co-mercial de Cartago en Occidente, creemos que merece la pena volver una vez más sobre tal punto. Las ...

Remote sensing survey in southern Jordan has identified at least three Roman temporary camps that indicate a probable undocumented military campaign into what is today Saudi Arabia, and which we conjecture is linked to the Roman annexation of the Nabataean kingdom in AD 106.

In my previous video titled ‘The Sothic rise recorded in the Ilahum Papyrus was on May 27, 845 BC during Ramesses III's 7th year’ I dated the latter part of Ramesses III’s 7th year to 845 BC while Egyptian chronology dated it to 1179 BC, which means the 20th Dynasty during which Ramesses III reigned is 334 years too early. However, Egyptologists oppose redating Egyptian dynasties to three centuries later than that given by the conventional chronology. This is because according to them it would revise the linked chronology of Hittite history. Given the dependence of Hittite chronology on Egyptian chronology, a lowering of Egyptian dates would result in a lowering of the end of the Hittite New Kingdom.

Mursili II was a king of the Hittite Empire circa 1321–1295 BC (according to the short chronology of the ancient Near East). The solar eclipse mentioned in a text dating to the reign of Mursili II could be of great importance for the absolute chronology of the Hittite Empire within the chronology of the Ancient Near East. This eclipse is now more commonly identified as the one of June 24, 1312 BC, which was visible in totality in northern Anatolia in the afternoon.

A solar eclipse happened 333 years after the June 24, 1312 BC solar eclipse currently accepted by Egyptologists for Mursili II’s historical solar eclipse. This eclipse was on August 2, 979 BC and I believe this was the correct eclipse of Mursili. And if Mursili II’s solar eclipse happened at the latter part of Mursilli’s 10th year instead of its early part which is how Egyptologists dated it, then Mursili II’s reign was dated 334 years too early. This is consistent with my claim that Egyptian chronology for dynasties earlier than Piye’s 25th Dynasty are at least 334 years too early.

Literary and archaeological sources have preserved a rich history of Southern Europe and West Asia since the Bronze Age that can be complemented by genetics. Mycenaean period elites in Greece did not differ from the general population and included both people with some steppe ancestry and others, like the Griffin Warrior, without it. Similarly, people in the central area of the Urartian Kingdom around Lake Van lacked the steppe ancestry characteristic of the kingdom’s northern provinces. Anatolia exhibited extraordinary continuity down to the Roman and Byzantine periods, with its people serving as the demographic core of much of the Roman Empire, including the city of Rome itself. During medieval times, migrations associated with Slavic and Turkic speakers profoundly affected the region.

By sequencing 727 ancient individuals from the Southern Arc (Anatolia and its neighbors in Southeastern Europe and West Asia) over 10,000 years, we contextualize its Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age (about 5000 to 1000 BCE), when extensive gene flow entangled it with the Eurasian steppe. Two streams of migration transmitted Caucasus and Anatolian/Levantine ancestry northward, and the Yamnaya pastoralists, formed on the steppe, then spread southward into the Balkans and across the Caucasus into Armenia, where they left numerous patrilineal descendants. Anatolia was transformed by intra–West Asian gene flow, with negligible impact of the later Yamnaya migrations. This contrasts with all other regions where Indo-European languages were spoken, suggesting that the homeland of the Indo-Anatolian language family was in West Asia, with only secondary dispersals of non-Anatolian Indo-Europeans from the steppe.

The genetic formation of Central and South Asian populations has been unclear because of an absence of ancient DNA. To address this gap, we generated genome-wide data from 362 ancient individuals, including the first from eastern Iran, Turan (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan), Bronze Age Kazakhstan, and South Asia. Our data reveal a complex set of genetic sources that ultimately combined to form the ancestry of South Asians today. We document a southward spread of genetic ancestry from the Eurasian Steppe, correlating with the archaeologically known expansion of pastoralist sites from the Steppe to Turan in the Middle Bronze Age (2300-1500 BCE). These Steppe communities mixed genetically with peoples of the Bactria Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC) whom they encountered in Turan (primarily descendants of earlier agriculturalists of Iran), but there is no evidence that the main BMAC population contributed genetically to later South Asians. Instead, Steppe communities int...

Southeast Asia is home to rich human genetic and linguistic diversity, but the details of past population movements in the region are not well known. Here, we report genome-wide ancient DNA data from eighteen Southeast Asian individuals spanning from the Neolithic period through the Iron Age (4100-1700 years ago). Early farmers from Man Bac in Vietnam exhibit a mixture of East Asian (southern Chinese agriculturalist) and deeply diverged eastern Eurasian (hunter-gatherer) ancestry characteristic of Austroasiatic speakers, with similar ancestry as far south as Indonesia providing evidence for an expansive initial spread of Austroasiatic languages. By the Bronze Age, in a parallel pattern to Europe, sites in Vietnam and Myanmar show close connections to present-day majority groups, reflecting substantial additional influxes of migrants.

Thanh Hoa is one of the 28 provinces and cities in Vietnam which have sea and islands, which leads to Thanh Hoa’s involvement in Vietnam national maritime strategy. In the course of history, the two wars against the French colonialism and the US imperialism to defend the country have proved its vital role. The paper clarifies the role of the sea and islands in Thanh Hoa province, which means a great deal in Vietnam maritime strategy now.

Aim. To compare the levels of ceruloplasmin in tears, saliva and blood serum of patients with herpetic stomatitis and eye herpes to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment. Methods. Ceruloplasmin levels were determined in tears, saliva and blood serum of 30 children, 22 adult patients with herpetic keratitis and 27 children with acute herpetic stomatitis. Biological fluids of 62 healthy individuals were used as the control group. Results. In patients with eye herpes infection, сeruloplasmin levels increased in oral fluid and blood serum and markedly decreased in tears of both affected and intact eye. Ceruloplasmin levels in biological fluids normalized only among children with light forms of eye herpes at discharge. In the case of acute herpetic stomatitis, ceruloplasmin levels increased in oral fluid and blood serum, depending on the severity of the disease. After the treatment, ceruloplasmin levels in tears, oral fluid and blood plasma normalized only in children with dendritic ul...

Who created the epigraphs?
Village of Artisan guilds; they were engravers, artists, scribes; cāli 'Interlocking bodies' (IL 3872) Rebus: sal 'workshop' (Santali) Rebus: śālika (IL) village of artisans + kul ‘tiger’rebus: kol ‘working in iron’.

Zwischen dem 5. und 1. Jhdt. v. Chr. betrachteten politische Theoretiker in China und Europa Musik als nützlichen Maßstab für den politischen Charakter und Zustand von Gesellschaften und ihren Machthabern. Auch wenn ihre Ansichten keiner wissenschaftlichen Basis entsprangen, können schriftliche Überlieferungen und archäologische Quellen heute herangezogen werden, um Musik und damit zusammenhängende kulturelle Äußerungen im Umfeld der Macht und ihren unmittelbaren Einflussbereichen zu verorten. Sie können so über Identität, Selbstverständnis, Ansehen und Status informieren: vom Haushalt über den Staat, bei Eroberungen und Machtausübung, im Fall von Widerständen und Rebellionen sowie in der Rechtsprechung, Diplomatie und Schlichtung. Allem Anschein nach können diese Quellen in der Tat etwas Neues über Machtbeziehungen, Ideologie und politischen Wandel in der antiken Welt vermitteln. Sie dienen zudem als indirekter Indikator für politische agency in schriftlosem Umfeld.

The relative frequency of the common phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) mutation R408W and its associations with polymorphic RFLP, VNTR, and short-tandem-repeat (STR) sites in the PAH gene were examined in many European populations and one representative North American population of defined European descent. This mutation was found to cluster in two regions: in northwest Europe among Irish and Scottish peoples, and in eastern Europe, including the Commonwealth of Independent States. This allele was significantly less frequent in intervening populations. In eastern European populations, the R408W mutation is strongly associated with RFLP haplotype 2, the three-copy VNTR allele (VNTR 3), and the 240-bp STR allele. In northwestern European populations, it is strongly associated with RFLP haplotype 1, the VNTR allele containing eight repeats (VNTR 8), and the 244-bp STR allele. An examination of the linkage between the R408W mutation and highly polymorphic RFLP, VNTR, and STR haplotypes su...

Tulisan ini memaparkan tentang discourse kelompok beragama yang ignore terhadap Covid-19. Ada anggapan dari mainstream umat beragama bahwa kelompok ini tidak menggunakan akalnya tetapi menggunakan egonya sehingga mempunyai implikasi sosial yakni menularkan virus SARS-CoV-2 ke orang-orang di dekatnya. Singkatnya kelompok ini konservatif dan ‘anti-sains’. Tulisan ini memberi perspektif yang berbeda bahwa kaum beragama yang ignore terhadap Covid-19 menggunakan agama demi melindungi dirinya atau demi kepentingan survival-nya di level eksistensial dari represi discourse modernkapitalisme. Problemnya, discourse kelompok ignorance ini justru melegitimasi (membenarkan) discourse politik sekuler Barat yang telah mengandangkan agama ke ‘agama’ dalam definisi yang dikonstruksikannya. Padahal, dalam Islam, Ilmuwan Muslim terdahulu menjalankan hidup asketismenya justru melalui jalur sains demi mencari kebenaran Allah yang mewujud pada alam semesta (ayat kauniyah). Di sini ada sinergi dan keseler...

Several Greek and Latin sources provide a link between Dionysius I of Syracuse, the mythical hero Diomedes, and the Adriatic cities. This reflects Dionysius’ colonizing efforts in that area, though the lack of archaeological evidence proves that his success did not last for long.

The study was devised to understand the contribution to nephrology ofDe Medicina Methodicaof Prospero Alpini published in 1511, at a time when the fame of the professor reached the azimuth. We have analyzed the contents of chapters devoted to nephrology in that book of Prospero Alpini and the novelties of his message. Prospero Alpini (1563-1616) taught at the University of Padua (1594-1616), at the same time of Galileo Galilei, Santorio Santorio, and Girolamo Fabrizi dAcquapendente, when measurements (pulse, temperature, perspiration) were introduced into medicine. He was a travelling physician to whom we owe fundamental contributions to the use of urine to prognosticate life and death (De Praesagienda vita et morte aegrotantium libri septem, Venetiis, apud Haeredes Melchioris Sessae,1601). As prefect of the Botanical Garden - the first ever and a model in the world - he could turn the study of simples into cures(De Medicina Methodica Libri Tredecim. Patavi, apud Franciscum Bolzetta...

Cults for Greco-Egyptian gods such as Isis, Sarapis, Anubis, and Harpocrates enjoyed great interest in the Greek world of the Hellenistic period. This article analyses the agency of women in these cults in Hellenistic Athens and Delos. It poses the question whether the agency of women can be directly compared to the agency of men. It identifies, first, reservations in modern scholarship about women in positions of religious power, and, second, institutional boundaries that excluded women from official priestly positions. It demonstrates the ways in which women nonetheless held agency within family networks, and, third, possessed ritual competencies beyond formal offices and a relationship to deities on a personal level.