The Forum

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A Rose by any Other Name…

In a letter in the May/June 2005 issue, Lynne Norris asks, “Can’t we find a term other than ‘prostitution’ to refer to a sexual activity that is part of a religious practice?” She suggests that the young women who performed sex at a temple at Pompeii (see “The First Days of Pompeii,” 08:01) may have been serving as priestesses.

Many years ago Morton Smith of Columbia University suggested that the women who engage in these temple rites be called “lay sisters.”

Merytamun the Fair

The cover of the March/April 2005 issue, showing a bust of Ramesses II’s daughter-wife Merytamun, is a triumph. I find myself looking at it again and again.

The Better Half

As Heather McCarthy says, women in Egypt’s 19th and 20th Dynasties enjoyed a high degree of recognition (“Place of the Beautiful Ones,” 08:02). But I would suggest that this increase in the importance of the Great Royal Wife began earlier, in the late 18th Dynasty. The queens Tiye (Amenhotep III), Nefertiti (Akhenaten) and Ankhesenamen (Tutankhamun) played significant roles in their courts. The use of their figures in the impersonation of the guardian goddesses on sarcophagi, their prominence in the Karnak temples, and the dedication of temples in their honor suggest that the emergence of significant wifely political and religious influence dates back to at least the reign of Amenhotep III (1390–1353 B.C.).

Kung Fu, Greek Style

It is fascinating to learn of ancient cultural exchanges between India and the West (Elizabeth Rosen Stone, “East Meets West,” 08:02). I would like to add another example: the martial arts.

It is likely that Asian martial arts originated in Greece. East Asia has no documented history of systematic unarmed combat prior to a relatively late period. The Chinese say they received the martial arts from India in the Buddhist period. Where did India get them? I believe that Alexander the Great’s soldiers introduced India to pancratium—a kind of kick-boxing contested in the ancient Olympic Games. It is also possible that Greek mercenaries working for the Persian monarchy introduced pancratium in India prior to Alexander, but there is no direct evidence for this.

Women Scholars

Thank you for pointing out the important role women play in archaeology and classical studies (Jack 008Meinhardt, “Indiana Jane: Is a Woman’s Place in Archaeology?” 08:02). Some of the women whose work is admired worldwide are Irene Winter of Harvard University, an expert in Mesopotamian archaeology; the University of London scholar Elizabeth Moore, who specializes in Southeast Asian art and archaeology; the Italian scholar Annamaria Ciarallo, who is overseeing research on the foods and plants of ancient Pompeii; Maria Olivia of the University of Naples, who is doing advanced research on the Herculaneum papyri; and Joanna Spurza of Hunter College, who is conducting fascinating studies of the temple of the Vestal Virgins. Of course, countless other women have made indelible contributions to our understanding of the ancient past. One of the liveliest is the socialite-archaeologist Iris Love, who excavated at Knidos in Turkey and advised the Italian director Franco Zeffirelli on the character of a female archaeologist in Tea With Mussolini (and who also who organizes an annual party for dachshunds in New York’s Central Park).

Character Assassination

Since the great explorer, writer, sailor and archaeologist Thor Heyerdahl is no longer with us, I must defend him against character assassination (Horizons, “The Guardian Gods: Easter Island,” 08:02).

You say, “DNA analysis of skeletal remains confirms that the settlers [of Easter island] were of Polynesian stock—debunking Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl’s theory that that the island was populated by migrants from South America.” A single skeleton on Easter Island, however, doesn’t prove a thing; many more would have to be examined before anything could be known. Thor Heyerdahl always said that some Polynesians settled on Easter Island but the original settlers came from South America.

My advice? Get your facts straight.

We asked Jo Anne Van Tilburg, director of the Easter Island Statue Project and a research associate at UCLA’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, to respond to Mr. Moore’s letter.—Ed.

Jo Anne Van Tilburg replies:

Although I neither wrote “The Guardian Gods” nor was consulted as to its content, the editor of Archaeology Odyssey invited me to respond to Sam A. Moore, who felt the need to defend Thor Heyerdahl against “character assassination.”

I have worked as an archaeologist on Easter Island since 1982, and I met Heyerdahl there in 1984. We disagreed on many things, sometimes harshly, but I liked him. We had dinner together several times and I visited him in his home on Tenerife. I wrote his obituary for the Manchester Guardian.

The reference to Heyerdahl in the Archaeology Odyssey article did not impugn his character. It did, however, remark upon his scholarship. While “debunked” may be a strong word, it appears in the context of a true statement.

Mr. Moore is right that “one skeleton” does not establish cultural origins, but he is wrong in assuming that “one skeleton” is the basis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis on Easter Island. According to published literature, mtDNA evidence of Polynesian origins is drawn from thousands of dated samples in multiple Pacific locations, and reliably traces present-day Polynesians to human expansion eastward out of Southeast Asia (probably from Mangareva, one of the Gambier Islands). Research supported by Heyerdahl and the Kon-Tiki Museum detected the Polynesian genetic motif in a large sample of pre- and post-contact Easter Island skeletal material.

Due in part to the practice of cremation during much of Easter Island’s prehistory, skeletal remains from secure settlement-era contexts have not been available for analysis. This is unfortunate, but in the total evidentiary context it is not overly significant. After over 100 years of archaeological and ethnographic work on Easter Island (including Heyerdahl’s own Norwegian Archaeological Expedition of 1955–1956), there is no convincing evidence in support of South American contact with Easter Island.

Please note also that the settlement date has been revised to about 800 A.D., and new evidence suggests that statue carving began around 1000–1100 A.D. and extended to 1500–1600, with some statues possibly carved after European contact. Also, the island was not formed by “a single massive volcano,” as stated in the article, but by three submarine volcanoes. And we now know that there are more than 300 ceremonial platforms.

Sweet Death

Reading “Ancient WMDs: Torches & Poisons & Bees” (Adrienne Mayor, March/April 2005), I recalled a story about the first-century B.C. king Mithridates. After losing a battle, the king retreated to an island known as the Island of Mad Honey. When he saw that the enemy was in pursuit, he and his men secretly sailed off from the other side of the island. The enemy arrived and ate enormous amounts 050of honey. Hours later Mithridates and his men returned to find most of the enemy dead or in such a weakened state that they were easily slain. The island was ablaze with rhododendrons, the source of the poisonous honey.

An Asinine Mistake

I had to laugh when I read “Daphne is Mine!” in the March/April 2005 issue of Archaeology Odyssey. The article refers to a “bronze penny in Roman coinage” as an ass. The correct word is as. The extra “s” adds a welcome but inadvertent touch of drollery, especially in conjunction with the following sentence in the article: “Evidently love came cheap in Pompeii: An inscription found at the Lupanar records that prostitutes serviced their clients for as little as two to four asses.”

Felix culpa!—Ed.

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Errata

We regret the omission of photo credits in “The Guardian Gods” (08:02). All three pictures were taken by the photographer Richard Nowitz, whose wonderful images we use whenever we can.

A Rose by any Other Name…