The Adyton at the Temple of Apollo at Bassae: Multiple Cult Worship in the Adyton

<p>Situated on Mount Kotilion in the Peloponnese, the Temple of Apollo at Bassae sits high in the middle of a mountain range. Upon rediscovery, it became evident that most of the offerings had long since disappeared, and this was in turn paired with a lack of primary literature. Though the temple is mentioned in Pausanias’ work, discussion about the cultic aspects of the temple is severely lacking. This leads to a large gap in the knowledge of the temple’s religious function. It is for this reason that the architecture of Bassae is explored to help understand the cultic aspects of this temple. This thesis shows that multiple cults were celebrated at the temple of Bassae, and that there is a high probability that multiple cult worship occurred in the adyton of the building. The cult at Bassae has been celebrated since geometric times, and worship to Apollo was fairly consistent until the sanctuary’s demise in the third century BCE. Three epikleseis are often associated with this temple: Apollo Epikourios, Apollo Bassitas and Hyperborean Apollo. The epithet of Epikourios comes from Pausanias’ passage, and nowhere else. The original reason for this epithet may be either medicinal or martial, and both are explored within this thesis. Bassitas is another epithet provided. However, this is in the form of a singular archaeological find, a small bronze tablet found in the wider Kotilion sanctuary. The third epithet, Hyperborean, is a tenuous but commonly made connection. This epithet relies heavily on the localised subject matter of the sculptural programme at Bassae. The architecture of the building is also in need of discussion. The temple at Bassae is famed for its odd, and in some cases, unparalleled architectural design. The temple is on a north-south axis, and features not only a northern entranceway, but also an opening in the eastern wall, leading into the adyton. This eastern doorway allows light to enter twice a year, which hits the southern wall. The decorative features of the temple are unparalleled, with the first known Corinthian column and extended engaged Ionic columns. These unusual design features create a focus within the adyton. Within the adyton, four positions can be considered possible sites for housing offerings or cult statues. These include the southwest corner, the centre of the southern wall, the centre of the northern limits of the adyton directly south of the Corinthian column, and finally, the Corinthian column itself. The evidence for these positions being a focus for cult comes from architectural features, such as the paving of the adyton floor, the light phenomenon and a small plinth. These four positions are by no means definite, and this thesis discusses the probability of each of these positions in terms of the likelihood of them being the focus of a cult. While the southwest corner is the most likely position for a cult statue, the Corinthian column seems the least likely. The architecture at the Temple of Apollo at Bassae strongly suggests worship occurring inn the adyton of the temple, and it seems likely it was at least one of these three epithets that was celebrated in one of the four positions in the adyton.</p>

The Adyton at the Temple of Apollo at Bassae: Multiple Cult Worship in the Adyton

<p>Situated on Mount Kotilion in the Peloponnese, the Temple of Apollo at Bassae sits high in the middle of a mountain range. Upon rediscovery, it became evident that most of the offerings had long since disappeared, and this was in turn paired with a lack of primary literature. Though the temple is mentioned in Pausanias’ work, discussion about the cultic aspects of the temple is severely lacking. This leads to a large gap in the knowledge of the temple’s religious function. It is for this reason that the architecture of Bassae is explored to help understand the cultic aspects of this temple. This thesis shows that multiple cults were celebrated at the temple of Bassae, and that there is a high probability that multiple cult worship occurred in the adyton of the building. The cult at Bassae has been celebrated since geometric times, and worship to Apollo was fairly consistent until the sanctuary’s demise in the third century BCE. Three epikleseis are often associated with this temple: Apollo Epikourios, Apollo Bassitas and Hyperborean Apollo. The epithet of Epikourios comes from Pausanias’ passage, and nowhere else. The original reason for this epithet may be either medicinal or martial, and both are explored within this thesis. Bassitas is another epithet provided. However, this is in the form of a singular archaeological find, a small bronze tablet found in the wider Kotilion sanctuary. The third epithet, Hyperborean, is a tenuous but commonly made connection. This epithet relies heavily on the localised subject matter of the sculptural programme at Bassae. The architecture of the building is also in need of discussion. The temple at Bassae is famed for its odd, and in some cases, unparalleled architectural design. The temple is on a north-south axis, and features not only a northern entranceway, but also an opening in the eastern wall, leading into the adyton. This eastern doorway allows light to enter twice a year, which hits the southern wall. The decorative features of the temple are unparalleled, with the first known Corinthian column and extended engaged Ionic columns. These unusual design features create a focus within the adyton. Within the adyton, four positions can be considered possible sites for housing offerings or cult statues. These include the southwest corner, the centre of the southern wall, the centre of the northern limits of the adyton directly south of the Corinthian column, and finally, the Corinthian column itself. The evidence for these positions being a focus for cult comes from architectural features, such as the paving of the adyton floor, the light phenomenon and a small plinth. These four positions are by no means definite, and this thesis discusses the probability of each of these positions in terms of the likelihood of them being the focus of a cult. While the southwest corner is the most likely position for a cult statue, the Corinthian column seems the least likely. The architecture at the Temple of Apollo at Bassae strongly suggests worship occurring inn the adyton of the temple, and it seems likely it was at least one of these three epithets that was celebrated in one of the four positions in the adyton.</p>

A Handbook of a Kherep-Selket from the Tomb of Iufaa: The Book of Primeval Snakes

Summary The Late Period shaft tombs at Abusir are located in the North-Western part of the Abusir necropolis and were built during a rather short span of time at the very end of 26th Dynasty, between 530 and perhaps 525 BC. Among those, the tomb of Iufaa stands out by its size and by the extent of its interior decoration. Significant amount of the decorated space in Iufaa’s burial chamber were reserved for a series of texts and images that may be best denoted as a “Snake Encyclopedia”. The individual parts of this textual corpus cover the main parts of the arch of the western wall in the burial chamber of Iufaa. The opposite side of the burial chamber, the arch of the eastern wall, bears two texts (accompanied with images) that concern Underworld/divine snakes as well. Although this “encyclopedia” of Underworld serpentine beings still provides us with much more questions and puzzles than answers and insights, it also sheds a new light upon the religion, cult and afterlife beliefs of the Saite-Persian and Graeco-Roman Egypt. It witnesses the importance of giant snakes or primeval creatures in serpentine form that were believed to dwell in the Underworld and were directly linked to cosmogony and periodical renewal of the sun and of the world. As manifestations of Re and Osiris, the snakes become lords of life and death, hypostaseis of the cyclically rejuvenated Creator. The idea of renewal and rebirth is also closely connected with ritual purity and purification rites. Thus, the “Snake Encyclopedia” is accompanied by a corpus dedicated to the ritual cleansing of the pharaoh and of the deceased, which is represented textually and pictorially on the northern wall of Iufaa’s burial chamber and which features serpentine primordial beings as well. But the focus on not generally transmitted, pre-cosmological concepts is connected to yet another important aspect of the composition and other texts from Iufaa’s tomb, that have most probably served as a compendium of secret knowledge for the magicians of Selket. This motif helps us to interpret one of the main tasks of the composition in focus: it probably served to accumulate and transmit sacred knowledge and to use it to ensure that the deceased would be accepted into the blessed Afterlife.

A Mortuary Complex with Animal Skulls at Khankarinsky Dol, a Scythian Age Cemetery in the Northwestern Altai

This article presents a description of Khankarinsky Dol mound 34 on the left bank of the Inya River, 1–1.5 km southeast of Chineta, Krasnoshchekovsky District, Altai Territory. Excavations revealed a cist with a supine burial of a male, whose head was oriented to the east. Beyond the eastern wall of the cist, a horse cranium and three crania of sheep were placed. Features of the burial rite suggest that the burial belongs to the Korgantass type, which is distributed over the Altai-Sayan and Kazakhstan, with certain parallels in northern China. Principal categories of offerings are analyzed, including those associated with the horse. On their basis, the horse harness is reconstructed. On the basis of the typology of artifacts and radiocarbon analysis, the burial was dated to the 5th to 4th centuries BC (possibly late 5th to early 4th centuries BC). The Korgantass burials at Khankarinsky Dol and elsewhere in the Altai Mountains indicate a migration from the eastern part of the nomadic world, apparently from northern China or the Trans-Baikal region.

The volcanic geology of Morella Crater, Ganges Cavus and Elaver Vallis, Mars

Mars contains a large number of yet unexplained collapse features, sometimes spatially linked to large outflow channels. These pits and cavi are often taken as evidence for collapse due to the release of large volumes of pressurized groundwater. One such feature, Ganges Cavus, is an extremely deep (~ 6 km) collapse structure nested on the southern rim of Morella Crater, a 78-km-diameter impact structure breached on its east side by the Elaver Vallis outflow channel. Previous workers have concluded that Ganges Cavus, and other similar collapse features in the Valles Mariners area formed due to catastrophic release of pressurized groundwater that ponded and ultimately flowed over the surface. However, in the case of Ganges Cavus and Morella Crater, I show that the groundwater hypothesis cannot adequately explain the geology. The geology of Morella Crater, Ganges Cavus and the surrounding plains including Elaver Vallis is dominantly volcanic. Morella Crater contained a large picritic to komatiitic lava lake (> 3400 km3), which may have spilled through the eastern wall of the basin. Ganges Cavus is a voluminous (> 2100 km3) collapsed caldera. Morella Crater, Ganges Cavus and Elaver Vallis illustrate a volcanic link between structural collapse, formation and potential spillover of a large lake, and erosion and transport, but in this case, the geology is volcanic from source to sink. The geologic puzzle of Morella Crater and Ganges Cavus has important implications for the origins of other collapse structures on Mars and challenges the idea of pressurized groundwater release on Mars.

CHRISTIAN BURIAL GROUND IN THE VILLAGE OF KHUNZAKH (BASED ON THE MATERIALS OF THE DAGESTAN-GEORGIAN JOINT ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION)

The article introduces the materials of the archaeological excavations of the Dagestan-Georgian archaeological joint expedition on the identified Khunzakh burial ground in 1978-1979, located in the villages. Khunzakh, on the Khunzakh plateau (Republic of Dagestan). The hunzakh plateau is the Central part of the medieval state formations of Sarir and then the Avar Kingdom, which were the most important Christian centers of the Eastern Caucasus in the IX-XIII centuries.As a result of the work carried out, 11 burials were identified, Dating from the IX-XV centuries. All burials were covered with a cultural layer containing archaeological material of the XI-XIII centuries. The identified burials represent three types of funerary structures: 1) an elongated pit of sub-rectangular shape with rounded corners or elongated-oval shape; 2) elongated sub-rectangular pits, slightly tapering to the end North-Eastern wall (in the "legs"), with ledges-shoulders along the side longitudinal walls and with a sketch of their small stones above the pit; 3) elongated sub-rectangular pits, slightly tapering to the end North-Eastern wall (in the "legs"), with ledges-hangers around the perimeter of the pit. Ledges-hangers, obviously, were used for installation of overlappings from stone slabs or wooden planks. The funeral rite is generally monotonous and is characterized by the placement of corpses in elongated pits carved into the rock, with orientation along the Central axis along the line SVV-SWZ, with the position of the deceased stretched out on his back, head in the Western sector, more precisely on the SWZ, the absence of burial equipment. The main features of the funeral rite and Dating of the burial ground allow us to refer it to the number of early Christian monuments of Sarir and consider it as a monument reflecting the process of Christianization of the population of medieval Hunzakh.

Disappearance on Display: Vanished Torah Arks in Medieval Synagogues and Their Presentation

In planning the museum in the medieval Synagogue in Erfurt more than 10 years ago, there was one big problem: the building had gone through many changes over the centuries, which wiped out almost all traces of the synagogue’s use. The Bimah was destroyed, presumably during the pogrom on 21 March 1349. By converting the former synagogue into a warehouse (following the pogrom), a big gateway was inserted into the eastern wall, at the place of the former Torah Ark. Only the light cornice is still recognizable on the synagogue’s walls. To find an adequate solution for displaying the vanished Torah Ark in the Old Synagogue in Erfurt, we compared examples in other locations in Europe, suggesting the presentation eventually chosen for the Old Synagogue of Erfurt.