DICE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD According to the Father of History Herodotus, the Lydians claimed to have invented dice games, but that is not true. We have found dice in Egypt going way back to c. 3000 BC, almost 2,000 years before the Iron Age Lydians. “And the Lydians themselves say that the games which…
The Jewish Roman World of Jesus | The Jewish World of Jesus: An Overview
Source: The Jewish Roman World of Jesus | The Jewish World of Jesus: An Overview
The Land of Israel Under Roman Rule | My Jewish Learning
The Land of Israel Under Roman Rule Judea becomes a Roman tributary. Source: The Land of Israel Under Roman Rule | My Jewish Learning
Emperor Nerva’s Reform of the Jewish Tax
Under Domitian (emperor from 81 to 96 C.E.), the Fiscus Iudaicus was administered very harshly, and there was no shortage of informers (Suetonius, Domitian 12.1–2). In particular, new victims of the tax were non-Jews who “lived a Jewish life without publicly acknowledging that fact” (i.e., Jewish sympathizers and gentile Christians) and Jews who “concealed their…
From damage to discovery via virtual unwrapping: Reading the scroll from En-Gedi | Science Advances
Computer imaging techniques are commonly used to preserve and share readable manuscripts, but capturing writing locked away in ancient, deteriorated documents poses an entirely different challenge. This software pipeline—referred to as “virtual unwrapping”—allows textual artifacts to be read completely and noninvasively. The systematic digital analysis of the extremely fragile En-Gedi scroll (the oldest Pentateuchal scroll…
Scientists Read Ancient Hebrew Scroll Without Opening It
The charred manuscript is too delicate and damaged to unfurl. So researchers figured out how to read it from the outside. At first glance, you could easily mistake this scorched, 2,000-year-old scroll for a hunk of lump charcoal. It’s been burned and crushed, it crumbles at the touch, and it looks absolutely, hopelessly unreadable. Yet…
Restored splendor at the Catacombs of Domatilla – La Croix International
Restored splendor at the Catacombs of Domatilla. Recent renovations at Rome’s largest underground cemetery located south-east of the city, have revealed several previously unknown frescoes. The Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archeology, which is responsible for the Roman catacombs, has unveiled the latest restorations of the Catacombs of Domitilla south-east of the Eternal City. According to the German…
1 Timothy 2: Paul’s Original Language, Timothy’s Original Context – The Junia Project
It was to Timothy, in Ephesus, that Paul wrote his letter warning against false teaching. Given the context his warnings were well-deserved. Throughout history, the church has been characterized by a male-dominated social hierarchy. This worldview has been so pervasive that some even consider it to be “God’s created order.” In light of the prevalence…
Theodora, Praxedes, and the Role of Christian Women in Ancient Rome
Yeah, that sounds a lot like a dissertation title, but the images of women in Roman mosaics from the second through ninth centuries in Rome, as well as art on early Christian sarcophagi suggest tha… Source: Theodora, Praxedes, and the Role of Christian Women in Ancient Rome
Roman Inscriptions | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Relatively few inscriptions survive from the Roman Republic; the vast majority belong to the Imperial period—that is, from the time of the first emperor Augustus (27 B.C.–14 A.D.) until the third century A.D. The number of inscriptions set up in the late Roman period (fourth–sixth century A.D.) was much reduced but still much larger than…