The Kelsey Museum is the brainchild of Francis W. Kelsey, Professor of Latin at the University of Michigan from 1889 to 1927. Kelsey pursued an active program of collecting antiquities for use in teaching, and launched the first university-sponsored archaeological excavations in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern regions in 1924. Most of the artifacts in the Kelsey Museum come from excavations carried out in Egypt and Iraq in the 1920s and 1930s.

In 1928, shortly after Kelsey’s death, the Museum of Classical Archaeology was installed in Newberry Hall on State Street. It was renamed in honor of Professor Kelsey in 1953, and enlarged with the construction of the William Upjohn Exhibit Wing in 2009. In addition to conserving and exhibiting its collections, the Museum still sponsors field projects in countries around the Mediterranean (although the artifacts recovered in those excavations now all remain in their countries of origin), and it plays a vital role in undergraduate and graduate teaching and research.

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Time to get back to Eutychius… This is more Old Testament stuff: Joshua.  The invasion of the Israelites into Canaan is depicted in rather similar language to the Muslim invasion, doubtless intentionally.

6. After the death of Moses, there took command of the people Yūshā‘ (29), son of Nūn, and held it for thirty-one years.  After crossing the Jordan, he besieged Rīha (30) for seven days.  On the seventh day, the sons of Israel blew the trumpets around the city of Rīha with loud clamor.  By the vehemence of their cries and the sounds of their trumpets the city walls collapsed and all the men, children and women who were in the city were killed.  After conquering Rīha, he celebrated the passover in the desert of Rīha.  Then he sent his army against the city of ‘Ānī (31) and to Bayt II (32) to have news of the city.  But the inhabitants of ‘Ānī moved against them and killed thirty-six of Yūshā‘’s men.  Then Yūsha‘ sent an army of thirty thousand men against the city of ‘Ānī.  Yūsha‘, son of Nūn, followed the soldiers secretly.  The king of ‘Ānī went out with his men against the soldiers of Yūsha‘.  The sons of Israel engaged them in a long pursuit until they had moved away from the city.  Yūsha‘, then, with his men broke into the city of ‘Ānī, destroyed it and burned it, killing all the men and women who were there.  Then he chased the king of ‘Ānī, killed his men, took the king alive and ordered him killed by making his body hang on a cross.  Yashū‘ then went up with his soldiers to the mountains of Canaan.  In the desert the sons of Israel had stopped practicing circumcision, but when they occupied the territories of the Jordan and surrounding regions and mingled with their peoples, God ordered Yashū‘, son of Nūn, to prepare knives and circumcise the sons of Israel with them.  He did as God had ordered.  There is an Ethiopian tribe, the Buğāhs (33), who still practice it today.  He then wrote for the sons of Israel the second law with his blessings and curses (34).

7. When the king of Gī‘ūn (35) heard of Yūsha‘, he wrote to him asking him to make a covenant with him and sent him many gifts.  Yūsha‘ granted him his protection and confirmed him in his charge.  When the king of Ūrashalīm, named Nīsādūq, the king of Gibrūn, the king of Yarmūth, the king of Lākhīs and the king of ‘Aqlūn (36) understood that the king of Gī‘ūn had put himself under the protection of Yūsha‘, son of Nun, they gathered, moved against the city of Gī‘ūn and besieged it.  The king of Gī‘ūn wrote to Yūsha‘, son of Nūn, informing him of the fact. Yūsha‘ gathered an army, went out to fight them and defeated them.  [The kings] sheltered in the cities of ‘Arīqā and Mafīdā (37). God rained hail stones on them that killed them.  The sun remained motionless for Yūsha‘, son of Nūn, without moving to the east or west, until God gave him victory over them and the five kings fled into the cave of a mountain where they hid (38).  Yūsha‘ took them out of the cave, killed them and had their bodies hung up. Then Yūsha‘ left the city of Mafīdā and went to the city of Libna (39). He besieged it, took it and killed the king and all who were there. From the city of Libna he marched against the city of Lākhīs, conquered it and killed the king and all who were there.

8. When the king of Ghazza became aware of the fact that Yūsha‘ had besieged the city of Lākhīs, he went out with his soldiers to help the king of Lāhīsh against Yūsha‘, son of Nūn.  But Yūsha‘ won the victory over him and killed him along with his men.  From Lāhīsh Yūsha‘ went to the city of Aqlūn, laid siege to it, conquered it and killed the king along with all the inhabitants. Then he marched against the city of Hibrun, besieged it, took it and killed the king and all who were there. Then he went out against the city of Dibīr (40), besieged it, conquered it and killed the king and all who were there.  When Yābīn, king of Hāsūr (41), heard these things, he sent messengers to the king of Marūn (42), to the king of Shimrūn (43) to the king of Akhshāf (44), to the king of Saydā (45), to the king of ar-Rāma, ai Muwābiyyūn, the Harrāniyyūn, the Awābiyyūn, ai Qarrāriyyūn, ai Yābūsāniyyūn, ai Sanābiyyūn (46) and all the inhabitants of the sea coast to gather together. The kings and all their men gathered and there were so many that they were as numerous as sand.  Then they went out to fight Yūsha‘, son of Nūn, who moved against them and routed them, killed them and set fire to their tents, and cut the hocks of their beasts and they were all pierced with the sword as far as the city of Mārūn (47) and Saydā, without anyone finding a way out. Then he took the kings and killed them. The kings that Yūsha‘, son of Nūn, killed occupying the territories were altogether thirty-five: the king of the Sanābiyyūn, the king of the Muwābiyyūn, the king of the Kan‘āniyyūn, the king of the Qarrāriyyūn, the king of the Yābūsāniyyūn, the king of the Awāniyyūn, the king of the Girsāniyyūn, the king of Ūrashalīm, the king of ‘Ānī, the king of Sābā (48), which is in the vicinity of Bayt Īl, the king of Hibrūn, the king of Yarmūt, the king of Lākhīsh, the king of ‘Adūlām (49), the king of Gadar (50), the king of Dabīr , the king of Hāsīr (51), the king of Hurmā (52), the king of ‘Arād (53), the king of Libnā, the king of Lālām, the king of Abdād, the king of Hāfir (54), the king of Fīq (55), the king of Sadūm (56), the king of Shimrūn (57), the king of Barmūth (58), the king of Hafīr (59), the king of Qadas (60), the king of Rāhib, the king of Mardūth, the king of Sīqūm, the king of Bātindūn (61), the king of Ğabal al-Ğalīl (62) and the king of Kirsā (63), who were exactly thirty-five (64). Yūsha‘ fought for six years against kings and nations until he conquered and governed the countries.

9. Later he divided the territories and countries among the sons of Israel for fourteen years, and he ruled the people for eleven years in peace and quiet.  In his day there prophesied Il‘āzar, son of Harūn, and Finhās, son of Il‘āzār, son of Harūn.  Yūsha‘, son of Nūn, died at the age of one hundred and ten years and was buried in the mountains of Ğal’ād (65) together with the flint knives which he used to circumcise the sons of Israel in Ğalğal (66).  After the death of Yūsha‘, son of Nūn, the people were administered by the priest Finhās, son of Il‘āzār, son of Harūn.  He was priest for twenty-five years.  The Jews believe that the aforementioned Finhās, the priest, is the prophet Iliyā, whom the Arabs call al-Khidr (67).

Let’s carry on from where we left off in September 19, 2016, when last we looked at Chapter 1.  All of this material is derived from the Old Testament, albeit with some imaginative reworking, and it is of no historical value except as indicating how people in the Muslim world thought about this narrative in the 10th century AD.

2. Shīt was two hundred and five years old when Anūsh was born.  After Adam’s death, Shīt’s family separated themselves from the family of Cain, the accursed one.  Shīt took his first-born Anūsh, Qīnān, son of Anūsh, and Mahlali’il, son of Qīnān, along with their women and their children and made them climb to the top of the mountain, where Adam was buried.  Cain and all his sons remained in the place where Abel was killed (9). Shīt’s sons lived on that mountain, pure and holy, and they heard the voices of the angels because they were close to them and they glorified and praised God together with the angels. Therefore they, together with their women and their children, were called children of God. They did not work, they did not sow, they did not reap.  They only fed on the fruits of the trees.  There was no envy among them, nor injustice, nor lies. And when they swore an oath they used to say: “No, for the blood of Abel”. They went to the top of the holy mountain every day and prostrated themselves before God by invoking blessings on the body of Adam.  When Shīt felt death approaching, he made his sons swear on the blood of Abel that none of them would ever come down from that holy mountain nor would they allow any of their children to come down among the sons of Cain, the accursed one.  Shīt lived in all nine hundred and twelve years.  Anūsh had Qīnān at the age of one hundred and ninety years.  In his time the sons of Cain, the accursed, made drums, cymbals, lyres and harps.  They were the first to work iron and copper and all that could be obtained, and they finally made tents in which they lived.

3. Anūsh was three hundred years old when Cain was killed, the accursed son of Adam and murderer of his brother Abel.  It happened that Lāmikh, the seventh descendant of Cain and a shepherd, shot a dart, as a game, that struck his grandfather Cain killing him.  Cain had continued to roam the woods, because he was a wanderer, never stopping in one place.  Cain died at the age of nine hundred and thirty years.  Anūsh lived in all nine hundred and five years.  Qīnān had had Mahlali’il at the age of one hundred and seventy years.  Feeling close to death, Qīnān called Mahlali’īl to himself and made him swear by the blood of Abel that he would not allow any of his sons to come down among the sons of Cain, the accursed.  Qīnān lived in all nine hundred and ten years.

4. Mahalali’īl had Yārid at one hundred and sixty-five years.  Qīnān died when Mahlali’il was one hundred and thirty-five years old, and was buried in the Cave of the Treasures.  When Mahlali’īl felt close to death, he called to his son Yārid and made him swear by the blood of Abel that he would not allow any of his sons to come down from the mountain among the sons of the murderer Cain, the accursed one.  Mahlali’il lived in all eight hundred and ninety-five years. Yārid had, at one hundred and sixty-two years, Akhnūkh.

Of the sons of the murderer Cain, the men behaved like stallions and whinnied after the women.  The women, in turn, were no better and behaved shamelessly like the men.  They fornicated and committed adultery among themselves, in front of everyone, in the open, and two or three men had the same woman together.  The elders were more libidinous than the young, fathers lay with their daughters and their sons with their mothers. The children did not know who their fathers were, nor did the fathers know who their children were.  They played every kind of musical instrument and the echo of their cries and their games reached the top of the holy mountain.  On hearing their cries, a hundred men among the sons of Shīt met together with the intention of descending from the mountain among the sons of Cain, the accursed one.  Yārid exhorted them to swear on the blood of Abel that they would never come down from the holy mountain, but they did not receive his words and went down.  When they were down, they saw the daughters of Cain with beautiful faces, naked and without any modesty, and were seized with burning lust.  The daughters of Cain looked at them, they saw that they were beautiful and gigantic and they fell on them like beasts, soiling their bodies.  Thus it was that Shīt’s sons perished, fornicating with the daughters of Cain.  From their union with the sons of Shīt, the daughters of Cain, the accursed, gave birth to the giants (10).  In the Torah it is said that the sons of God, also called sons of Elohīm, when they saw that the daughters of Cain were beautiful, descended to live among them and the giants were born.  They are therefore mistaken and do not know the truth, those who assert that the angels have descended among the daughters of Adam.  They were instead, the sons of Shīt, come down from the holy mountain among the daughters of Cain, the accursed, because the sons of Shīt, both for their purity and because they lived on the holy mountain, were called sons of Elohīm, that is children of God.  As for those who claim that the angels have descended among the daughters of men, well they are in error, because the substance of the angels is a simple substance and by their nature they cannot have sexual relations.  Man, on the other hand, is a compound substance and by his nature can have sexual relations, as is the case with animals.  If the angels could have sex they would not have left any woman among the daughters of the man without contaminating her.  When the sons of Shīt, who had come down from the mountain among the daughters of Cain, the accursed, wanted to return to the holy mountain, the rocks of the mountain became like fire and it was not possible for them to return to the mountain.  Later, group by group, [others also] came down from the holy mountain among the daughters of Cain, the accursed one

As every year, I collected again the major works published on Roman religion in the last year. Similarily to the previous years, the number of recently produced works are increasing. In less than a year, around 40 books were published and I’m sure I missed some titles (you can comment below some important works I forgot to mention).

The most important work on Roman religion published in 2018 was the paradigmatic work of Jörg Rüpke, who wrote a new history of Roman religion. The book – published originally in German – was translated in English and Italian too. The Lived Ancient Religion project finished last year produced numerous important works focusing on Roman prayer, Isiac cults, funerary religion and Roman sanctuaries in provincial context. Many other works are in preparation which means, we will see a lot of new books on Roman religion in 2019 too!

You can find the list of the latest works on Roman religion since 2013 HERE.

It’s almost the end of the year, it’s -1 here in North Dakotaland, and the Archaeology of the Mediterranean World team is more or less comfortable by the fire. 

I have a pretty good feeling about 2019 and some ideas rattling around in my head that could be pretty fun, kind of interesting, and, if nothing else, neat.

If nothing else, there’s a pretty great list of works entering the public domain on January 1, 2019 including J.B. Bury’s A History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian. And Freud’s The Ego and the Id.

If these don’t tickle your fancy, maybe there’s something else in this list of quick hits and varia:

• TAG 2019: Slow Archaeology (CFP).
• They’ll pay you to live on… Antikythera.
• (An)Archaeology Zine.
• Database of Classical Scholars.
• Katalymata ton Plakoton on Cyprus.
• A Guide to Pitching Your Book at Conferences.
• Archaeology of Strikes and Revolution.
• Rome in Ruins.
• The sounds of Greece (H/t to Matt Baumann!).
• Free Mars!
• Creepy video game archaeology of an abandoned cult.
• What they took with them.
• MSG and Xenophobia (H/t to Dimitri Nakassis).
• What I’m reading: M. P. Leone and J.E. Knauff, Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism. Second Edition (2015). 
• What I’m listening to: Oliver Nelson, The Blues and the Abstract Truth, and Afro/American Sketches.

Mr. Caraher, tear down this wall!

• Thesis
• Peer Reviewed

Elite Theban Women of the Eighth-Sixth Centuries BCE in Egypt: Identity, Status...

• Li, Jean
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UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2010)

The roles and status of women in ancient Egyptian society remain imperfectly defined particularly in the Third Intermediate and Late Periods. Egyptology has generally examined women from the perspective of fertility and sexuality, thus defining the social roles of...

• Thesis
• Peer Reviewed

Raising the Dead: The Bioarchaeology of the Saite and Roman Period Wall of the...

• Kaiser, Jessica Elisabet
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UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2018)

This dissertation examines the extent to which sociopolitical changes from the Saite to Roman periods of Egyptian history affected the lives of a non-elite population from the Memphite region in Lower Egypt. This examination is accomplished through a...

• Thesis
• Peer Reviewed

Transfiguring the Dead: The Iconography, Commemorative Use, and Materiality of Mummy...

• Jimenez, Lissette Marie
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UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2014)

The mummy shrouds, often overlooked or dissected into dichotomous parts because of their Hellenistic and Egyptian hybrid pictorial nature, provide unparalleled insight into religious and social facets of life and death in Roman Egypt. Moving beyond the aesthetic properties of these objects and focusing...

• Thesis
• Peer Reviewed

The Provincial Cemeteries of Naga ed-Deir: A Comprehensive Study of Tomb...

• Kroenke, Karin Roberta
• 
  

UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2010)

Abstract...

• Thesis
• Peer Reviewed

Gods Who Hear Prayers: Popular Piety or Kingship in Three Theban monuments of...

• Ausec, Cindy Lee
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UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2010)

For the past 50 years, Thutmose III's and Ramesses II's Eastern Temples at Karnak and the Eastern High Gate of Ramesses III's mortuary temple at Medinet Habu have been accepted as monuments that fulfilled the religious needs of the general populace of...

• Thesis
• Peer Reviewed

The Use of Egyptian and Egyptianizing Material Culture in Nubian Burials of the...

• Minor, Elizabeth Joanna
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UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2012)

The ancient Nubian Classic Kerma culture remains understudied despite the excavation of the burials of the main community at the Kingdom's capital at Kerma almost one-hundred years ago. The finds and associated archive from this historical excavation remain...

• Thesis
• Peer Reviewed

The Theology of Hathor of Dendera: Aural and Visual Scribal Techniques in the...

• Richter, Barbara Ann
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UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2012)

The Ptolemaic temples are some of the best-preserved examples of Egyptian religious architecture; they represent the culmination of a long line of development, reflected in an increase in the number and polyvalency of hieroglyphic signs and iconographic elements...

• 1 supplemental PDF

PERTHSHIRE, SCOTLAND—According to a report in the Daily Record, conservationists inspecting a fifteenth-century tomb at Dunkeld Cathedral found stone carvings that had been hidden from view for some 600 years. The tomb, built in 1420 for Bishop Cardeny, is thought to have originally been placed in a freestanding location, and later moved and placed against a wall. Colin Muir of Historic Environment Scotland said the conservation team does not yet know why the tomb was moved. “Conservation works to protect the fabric of the tomb are currently being planned, and we hope to undertake further investigation of what may lie behind it,” he said. As part of the investigation, the researchers recorded the carvings with 3-D photogrammetric technology and created a model of the tomb. To read about a recent discovery relating to early Christianity in Scotland, go to “Fit for a Saint.”