The Forum

008

We Can Take It!

In “The State of the Profession” (Editor’s Page, AO 05:03), Hershel Shanks describes columns at Petra as resembling “Greek Doric columns, but instead of a scroll curling down either side of the capital, there were elephant heads whose curling tusks substituted for the scrolls.” A non-archaeologist inquires: Has our worthy Editor committed a capital offense in his description of these columns? Did the Greek Doric order become so “Ionized” that it grew curved scrolls?

Iufaa’s Shroud

Your excellent article on “The Shaft Tombs of Abusir,” AO 05:03, by Ladislav BaresÆ, left one question unanswered: Were the archaeologists able to save the bead netting that covered Iufaa’s mummy?

Ladislav BaresÆ replies:

The bead netting is one of the most beautiful examples of its kind ever found in Egypt. It was very poorly preserved, however. When we opened Iufaa’s sarcophagus, large portions of the netting were badly damaged and its thread had completely disintegrated. But the netting has been thoroughly documented—and a textile conservator has recently made a replica. In the future, we hope to reconstruct the netting using its original beads. The remaining netting is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, with other items from the burial. For more about the work of the Czeck Institute, please see our Web site (http://Egypt.cuni.cz).

Geologically Challenged?

As an archaeological geologist, I am always very pleased to see articles that integrate geology and archaeology. Suzanne F. Singer’s “Climbing Vesuvius,” AO 05:03, is such an article, but I wish the geology had been as carefully researched as the archaeology.

First, the 79 A.D. eruption of Vesuvius did not bury Herculaneum under a lava flow (magma or molten rock) but under a lahar, also known as a volcanic mud flow (a mixture of water and pyroclastic debris such as ash, cinders and pumice). Second, lava flows do not travel anywhere near 60 mph, though some lahars do. Finally, the material that buried Herculaneum is not tufa, a kind of calcium carbonate that forms around springs, but rather tuff, which is formed by the consolidation of pyroclastic debris.

Sacrifice of Innocents

I am surprised that you did not connect the near sacrifice of 009Iphigenia and Isaac (Theodore H. Feder and Hershel Shanks, “Iphigenia and Isaac: Saved at the Altar,” AO 05:03), as well as the death of Jephthah’s daughter, with the custom of child sacrifice in ancient Carthage. [See “An Odyssey Debate: Were Living Children Sacrificed to the Gods in Punic Carthage?” AO 05:03] These four events cannot be coincidental, and one surmises that throughout the Mediterranean basin such a practice was widespread.

Disrespecting Abimelech

In the sidebar titled “The Sacrifice of Jephthah’s Daughter” (Theodore H. Feder, “Iphigenia and Isaac: Saved at the Altar,” AO 05:03), nothing is said about the fourth panel, at lower right in the photo. While the events of the daughter’s sacrifice are shown in the first three panels, the last scene seems incongruous with the others and with the story as a whole. Also, what is the significance of the Arabic marginal notes?

Mr. Hicks correctly notes the change in subject matter in the lower right-hand panel of the page from the medieval manuscript Old Testament Miniatures, which consists of 283 illuminations of biblical scenes. While the first three panels illustrate events surrounding the death of Jephthah’s daughter (Judges 11), the panel at lower right depicts Abimelech’s killing his brothers (Judges 9:3–6).

The peregrinations of this splendid manuscript, originally created in Paris in 1250, explain its marginal notes. The Latin writing at the top and bottom of the page was added around 1300, probably in Italy. In 1604 the book was presented to Shah Abbas, the king of Persia, who had the Persian glosses added. The Hebrew transliterations were inscribed next to the Persian text in the 17th century by a Persian-speaking Jew.

The book later turned up in the hands of Giovanni d’Athanasi (1798–1854), a Greek collector who had bought it from an Arab. In 1833 Old Testament Miniatures was purchased at a Sotheby’s auction in London by Sir Thomas Phillipps, who acquired some 60,000 manuscripts during his lifetime. The American financier John Pierpont Morgan bought the book in 1916, and it is now housed in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City.—Ed.

We Can Take It!