 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
31 October – 1 November 2008
At the Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly
Organised and sponsored by
Minerva: the International Review of Ancient Art & Archaeology
CALL FOR PAPERS pdf link (opens in new window) |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| Mass Roman grave in Gloucester, an unprecedented example of the bubonic plague known to have ravaged the Empire in the 2nd/3rd century AD. Photo: Oxford Archaeology |
|
 |
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
| Dr Jerome M. Eisenberg, Dr Mark Merrony |
|
|
|
|
|
|
On 3 May the world awoke to yet another natural disaster of cataclysmic proportion: Cyclone Nargis, which ravaged the Irrawady region of Myanmar (Burma), brutally killing an estimated 100,000 people and leaving 2.5 million homeless, and in peril from disease, starvation, and water shortage. The impact of this tragic event was of such a magnitude that satellite images have revealed the landscape has been permanently reshaped. Inevitably this catastrophe will be regarded as an unprecedented phenomenon and linked with global warming. In a similar vein, other most topical issues affecting the modern world - ethnic cleansing in Darfur, rising sea levels, AIDS pandemic, globalisation of the economy - prompt the daily response ‘What is the world coming to?’ The astonishing truth is that the world has seen it all before.
Just nine days after the Myanmar catastrophe, a powerful earthquake measuring 8 on the Richter Scale struck Sichuan province in China. As we go to press the news has become increasingly bleak, with an estimated 70,000 dead, 300,000 injured, and five million homeless. As topical as this cataclysm may be, historians of antiquity penned many descriptions of such episodes: from the eye-witness accounts of Pliny the Younger, who described in graphic detail the great earthquake and volcanic destruction of Pompeii in AD 79, to the more obscure writings of the Byzantine court historian Procopius in the mid 6th-century AD. In light of the depressing circumstances in Sichuan Province, his account is especially poignant: ‘Earthquakes destroyed Antioch, the leading city of the East; Seleucia, which is situated nearby; and Anazarbus, most renowned city in Cilicia (modern Turkey). Who could number those that perished in these metropoles? Yet one must add also those who lived in Ibora; in Amasea, the chief city of Pontus (southern Black Sea); in Polybotus in Phrygia... in Lychnidus in Epirus (Albania); and in Corinth (Greece): all thickly inhabited cities from of old. All of these were destroyed by earthquakes during this time, with a loss of almost all their inhabitants.’
Arguably the greatest natural disaster in modern history, the 2006 Asian Tsunami is understandably regarded as an unparalleled event, leaving nearly 230,000 people dead or missing, and another two million homeless. Roman historical texts in fact reveal that tsunamis were an unwelcome feature of the ancient world. One of the best accounts of a tsunami is recorded by the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus in AD 365. This was caused by an undersea earthquake with an epicentre near Crete and an estimated magnitude of 8 or higher on the Richter Scale, causing widespread destruction in Greece, Libya, Cyprus, and Sicily, killing up to one million people. Marcellinus records: ‘the solidity of the whole earth was made to shake and shudder, and the sea was driven away... Many ships, then, were stranded as if on dry land, and people wandered at will about the paltry remains of the waters to collect fish and the like in their hands; then the roaring sea as if insulted by its repulse rises back in turn... the mass of waters returning when least expected killed many thousands by drowning... huge ships, thrust out by the mad blasts, perched on the roofs of houses... and others were hurled nearly two miles from the shore...’
According to Avert, the international AIDS charity, an estimated 33.2 million people were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2007 with 2.1 million deaths. The world is, however, no stranger to disease. In 2005, archaeologists from Oxford Archaeology made the gruesome discovery of a mass Roman grave in Gloucester containing the remains of at least 91 skeletons. It is thought that the cause of death may have been the Antonine plague, an outbreak of smallpox that swept across the Roman Empire from AD 165-189.
Recent analysis has demonstrated that the remains were of individuals who had been thrown into the grave over a short period of time during the late 2nd or early 3rd century AD. Louise Loe, Head of Burial Archaeology at Oxford Archaeology, has informed Minerva that ‘The skeletons of adult males, females, and children were lying in a very haphazard fashion, their bones completely entangled, reflecting the fact that they had been dumped, unceremoniously in a hurried manner... This has led us to conclude that the individuals were the victims of an epidemic that did not discriminate against age or sex’.
Earlier this year, the remains of hundreds of victims, believed to have been killed in a plague that swept Italy 1500 years ago, have been found south of Rome. The bodies of men, women, and children were found in Castro dei Volsci, in the region of Lazio, during excavations carried out by Lazio archaeological office. The individuals are believed to have been victims of the Justinianic Plague, a pandemic that killed as many as 100 million people around the world during a 50-year period in the 6th century AD. It spread through Europe as far as Denmark and Ireland. Surprisingly, this discovery is the first evidence of the devastating impact of the plague, which swept across the Mediterranean during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in the early 540s. According to some historians this episode changed the course of European history: subsequently the Empire entered a period of decline.
Global warming is without question the biggest issue threatening humanity in the modern era and for this reason is justifiably the most topical issue in the media and among the public. According to the influential Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the average global air temperature near the Earth’s surface increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C during the 100 years ending in 2005, and the average global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C during the 21st century. The IPCC has concluded that ‘most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (man-made) greenhouse gas concentrations.’ They envisage that increasing global temperature will cause the sea level to rise, the intensity of extreme weather events to increase, a change in the amount and pattern of precipitation, changes in agricultural yields, trade routes, glacier retreat, species extinctions, and increased disease effects.
While it is essential to take heed of these predictions in an attempt to prevent them, it is worth considering that our planet has witnessed sustained fluctuations in temperature and sea level over millions of years. Tangible evidence for this is provided by the raised beaches on the Gower Peninsula, Wales, caused by the Ipswichian Interglacial, a warming phase which began 135,000 years ago and ended about 73,000 years ago. During this phase of prehistoric global warming the sea level was about 7m higher than it is today. A combination of evidence from polar ice cores, alpine glaciers, and ancient tree ring sequences also paints a picture of radical climatic and sea level changes as far back as 800,000 years. Global populations were of course relatively sparse in prehistory compared with modern levels, but people were nonetheless forced to abandon their habitats or perish. These changes were not wrought by humanity, but by the changing orbit of the Earth around the Sun, the varying tilt of the Earth’s axis, and the wobble of the planet (the so-called Milankovitch cycles).
So what does this present past tell us? Above all, perhaps, that the planet can be as uncompromising as the people who populate it. Yes, the world has seen it all before; but the fundamental difference in the modern era is that natural disasters, disease, and climatic change are being exacerbated by humanity. It is of course the collective responsibility not just of governments, but of individuals, to do everything in their power to reduce carbon emissions. Only this will guarantee the survival of humanity and return the planet to what it was in the past: an ever changing world, but a more pleasant place to live. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| The Altar areas of the Temple of the Pontiac Mother of Gods at Balchik in the initial phase of excavations. Photo: Igor Lazarenko |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent construction work in the tourist resort of Balchik (ancient Dionysopolis) in Black Sea coastal Bulgaria unearthed the exciting discovery of a Greek temple. This is currently being excavated by a team from Varna Archaeological Museum under the direction of Dr Igor Lazarenko, and this programme of investigation has yielded an impressive monument and associated finds.
The temple, aligned on a north-south axis, is a rectangular structure measuring 11 by 8.5m, and comprises a naos (inner chamber), measuring 7.10 by 7.10m with a south entrance, and a pronaos (antechamber), 7.10 by 3m with a south facing entrance. In the entrance area the excavators uncovered a small enclosure containing an altar and a platform reached by three steps, marble benches, the remains of engaged fluted columns, an Ionian capital, and fragments of an Ionian entablature, and a pediment with the remnants of a bust in relief of the sun god Helios, characteristically with a radiant crown stood in his chariot between four horses. A fragmentary dedicatory inscription recovered in this area indicates, on stylistic grounds, that the temple was constructed around the middle of the 3rd century BC.
Adjacent to the platform area are the well-preserved remains of a large lustral basin about one metre in diameter. This is associated with a small altar and the basin most likely served the purpose of ritually cleansing the priests - by handwashing - during the ceremony of sacrificial rites. The lustral basin is similar to many examples known from the Greek world.
Some of the richest finds in the temple were the well preserved statues in the naos. Most of these are representations of the goddess Cybele. Originally a Hittite and Phrygian goddess, Cybele was the Mother of Earth, worshipped since Neolithic times in Anatolia. In the same vein as Gaia (‘Earth’) or her Minoan equivalent Rhea, Cybele embodies the fertile Earth, and was known in Ancient Greece by the title, Potnia Theron (Mistress of the Animals). She became known as a life-death-rebirth deity in connection with her resurrection of her son and consort, Attis; and is often associated with her lion throne and chariot drawn by lions. Curiously, inscriptions found in various locations within the temple precinct name her as Mater theon Pontia (Pontic Mother of the Gods), Mater Pontia (Mother of the Pont), thea Pontia (Goddess of the Pont), and Mater kathare (Pure Mother). These may be taken as clear allusions to the goddess as Mother of the Gods and Mother of the Sea (Pontus/Black Sea).
A splendid marble representation of Cybele depicts her enthroned, wearing a chiton (cloak) and a himation (Greek version of a toga), caressing a small lion with the remnants of a kettle-drum in her left hand. By contrast, the principal deity in the naos is a life-size headless statue of Cybele clad in a long chiton with generous drapery flowing over her right shoulder down past her left hip. Collectively the evidence provided by these inscriptions and representations are explicit testimony that the temple was dedicated to a localised version of Cybele - Mother of the Gods and the Sea.
Interestingly, the inscriptions also provide a crucial social index of officials associated with the temple between the end of the 2nd century and begining of the 1st century BC. Venerated citizens include the famous strategist Polyxenos from the Black Sea city of Messambria, and a dedication to Mokapporis from Thrace, appointed by King Remetalces I of Thrace as a Strategist, who helped defend Dionysopolis ‘against the common enemy beyond the Danube’. Also preserved is a register of 19 priests and officiants of the cult of the Mother of Gods. Intriguingly, another register includes a list of 84 priests and clergy, members of a religious circle who met to celebrate the cult on the first day of every month; fascinating evidence for the continuity of the temple’s association with Cybele through the Roman period.
The latest dedicatory inscription is engraved on the base of a silver statue restored by order of the emperor Licinius (r. AD 308-324). Evidence from roof-tile stamps indicates that the temple was last refurbished in the reigns of Valentinian I (364-375) and Valens (364-378). Shortly afterwards the temple was destroyed by fire, almost certainly in the Gothic invasion of AD 378, rather than by officials in the Christian era. This assumption is supported by the well-preserved interior of the naos, which did not show any signs of desecration. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| Professors Geoffrey Wainwright (left) and Tim Darvill (right) commencing their momentous excavation at Stonehenge. Photo: courtesy of Bournemouth University. |
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jacquetta Hawkes famously wrote that ‘Every generation gets the Stonehenge it deserves.’ The present fiasco over the World Heritage Site proves the truth of her comment. In September 1998, Chris Smith, then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, announced his intention to resolve the major problems that led Stonehenge to be described by the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons as a ‘national disgrace’ (see Minerva May/June 1999, pp. 22-25). His proposal was a ‘Master Plan’ that would provide: ‘free access for everyone... that would ‘combine the benefits of the A303 [trunk road] improvement with the conservation and enjoyment of the World Heritage Site... the reunification of Stonehenge which restores its dignity and its sense of isolation set amongst 450 Scheduled Ancient Monuments... and the protection of the archaeology forever.’
In December 2007 the Department for Transport announced that the A303 Stonehenge Improvement scheme had been scrapped because of its astronomical expense (£540 million). This news is essentially a double-edged sword. On the one hand this will be welcomed by archaeologists and environmentalists who have been campaigning for over a decade for an improvement in the landscape around the monument; on the other, it will also be perceived as a tragedy: after many years of consultation and expectation about routing the A303 in a tunnel under the monument and providing a world class visitor centre the situation is now back at square one.
This is clearly not the case with the first major excavation of the monument for several decades. Most recently Professor Tim Darvill of Bournemouth University and Professor Geoffrey Wainwright, President of the Society of Antiquaries of London, have carried out a two-week dig funded by the BBC and filmed as a Timewatch programme to be broadcast in the autumn. A key objective is to find out more about the mysterious bluestones, transported 250km to Stonehenge from the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire. Professors Darvill and Wainwright believe that these lie at the heart of the mystery and that they were chosen for their healing powers, a factor that may explain the function of the monument.
The highlight of their endeavours was the excavation of a 3.5 by 2.5m trench in which they unearthed a layer containing the sockets for the bluestones in the first phase of the monument 4500 years ago. A particularly interesting find was the presence of many bluestone fragments which, according to Professor Darvill were ‘broken up pretty systematically... because people wanted bits of those stones to take away,’ a factor he believes to be compatible with his ‘healing’ theory. Another interesting aspect of the excavation was the discovery that the bluestone sockets were uncovered in an unexpected sequence, cut through and into each other in a way that suggests a much more fluid chronology of the monument’s construction than previously thought.
The full significance of this exciting excavation will become clearer when the extracted samples of bluestone chippings, flint, pottery, bones, and other organic matter are analysed and interpreted. Concluding the dig, Professor Darvill believes this research ‘is going to fundamentally change perspectives on Stonehenge.’
Recently, as news began to filter through about this fascinating excavation, the Minerva offices were informed of a recent and remarkable interpretation of Stonehenge by Tony Johnson, a former colleague of the writer and one of the most experienced field archaeologists in Britain. His reading of the monument focuses on the inherent archaeological principles of the monument: how it was conceived and planned from a fixed mathematical proportion and precisely laid out geometrically - step-by-step - by prehistoric surveyors using cords and pegs. This new interpretation represents a refreshing departure from the scholarly fixation of Stonehenge’s perceived astrological function, and provides the most important step in understanding the Late Neolitic/Early Bronze Age mindset for a generation (see Minerva, this issue, pp. 35-38). If every generation gets the Stonehenge it deserves, then the excellent work of Professors Darvill and Wainwright and the incisive interpretation of Tony Johnson will combine to ensure that future generations are spared the pain and tedium vented on archaeologists of this generation by the New Age fringe based on fallacy rather than hard archaeological evidence. Stonehenge, this most iconic of British monuments, deserves no less. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
