Non-standart position of the false door in Giza tombs - a builing mistake or a least-evil solution?

Author(s):  
Sergey V. Vetokhov

In the chapels of a number of tombs in the Giza necropolis, both rock-cut and stone (mastaba), the false door – the main place of worship of the tomb – is sometimes not located on the west wall. Given that the tradition of placing the false door precisely on the western wall had deep roots for centuries, these cases raise a legitimate question about the reasons for such an anomaly. But the paucity of examples, both in Giza and in other necropolises, made it difficult to conduct a broad analysis of this phenomenon. This question has been repeatedly raised in the literature, but it is still debatable. And after the discovery of new examples at the site of the Russian Archaeological Mission at Giza of the Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS (RAMG), it became necessary to return to this problem to analyze it, to structure and summarize the early information, to try to understand the nature of the occurrence of such cases. A total of nine such cases are known in the Giza necropolis; all of them date from the time of the V–VI dynasties, when the necropolis is drastically compacted – and the tombs are occupied by any vacant space. It was not always possible to place false doors on the western wall of the chapels for each individual burial. As a result, sometimes the builders deliberately placed a false door not on the western wall but in the immediate vicinity of the burial to emphasise the connection between them.

Author(s):  
Faith Mabera ◽  
Yolanda Spies

R2P invokes the power-morality nexus in international relations and interrogates the rules of engagement that anchor international society. Conceptualization of R2P as a liberal Western construct can therefore be divisive, especially when operationalization of the norm—as happened during the 2011 intervention in Libya—feeds into a West-against-the-Rest narrative. This is unfortunate because the R2P doctrine has deep roots in the non-Western world—Africa in particular—and Global South perspectives continue to strengthen its conceptual development. Emerging powers challenge the status quo of structural power and their rhetoric on R2P often invokes mistrust of Western altruism in international politics. Their actions, on the other hand, prove that they are no less prone to realpolitik in the normative domain. State actors in the normative middle of international politics, including developed as well as developing countries, are well placed to bridge the West-versus-the-Rest schism and to provide leadership in the R2P discourse.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Luluk Fikri Zuhriyah

<p>Islam has been an interesting object of study for both Muslims and non-Muslims over a long period of time. A number of methods and approaches have also been introduced. In due time, Islam is now no longer understood solely as a doctrine or a set of belief system. Nor is it interpreted merely as an historical process. Islam is a social system comprising of a complex web of human experience. Islam does not only consist of formal codes that individuals should look at and obey. It also contains some cultural, political and economic values. Islam is a civilization. Given the complex nature of Islam it is no longer possible to deal with it from a single point of view. An inter-disciplinary perspective is required.</p><p>In the West, social and humanities sciences have long been introduced in the study of religion; studies that put a stronger emphasis on what we currently know as the history of religion, psychology of religion, sociology of religion and so on. This kind of approach in turn, is also applied in the Western studies of the Eastern religions and communities.</p><p>Islam as a religion is also dealt with in this way in the West. It is treated as part of the oriental culture to the extent that—as Muhammad Abdul Raouf has correctly argued—Islamic studies became identical to the oriental studies. By all means, the West preceded the Muslims in studying Islam from modern perspectives; perspective that puts more emphasis on social, cultural, behavioral, political and economic aspects. Among the Western scholars that approach Islam from this angle is Charles Joseph Adams whose thought this research is interested to explore.</p>


Author(s):  
Penelope M. Allison
Keyword(s):  
The West ◽  
C 50 ◽  

The walls of this unit have coarse plaster and the pavement was of cocciopesto. There appears to have been a wooden stairway along the west wall, two stone blocks (each of h.: c.50 mm, and dimensions: c.450 mm × 350 mm) 2.2 m from the south wall and set at right angles to the wall forming the base. Elia reported that no finds were made here. However, the excavators recorded: part of an inscribed amphora, probably a spindle and a spindle whorl, and a small ceramic pot, on the pavement; a bronze lock bolt at 2.5 m above the pavement; and an iron door key and two nails in the lapilli. According to Elia, this was a workshop. An entrance in the east wall had been closed when a latrine was added to room 31 in the Casa del Menandro. An inscription, painted in black, was observed near the blocked doorway to the latter room. Elia believed that this unit had originally been part of the Casa del Menandro but had been separated from it and was disused at the time of the eruption. The finds, while rather small and loseable, might point to its use as a location for spinning during its final occupancy phase.


Author(s):  
Penelope M. Allison

In November 1926 the excavators recorded moving lapilli from in front of this house and from the entrance but no finds were reported in these areas. On 8 July 1932 they recorded removing disturbed volcanic deposit from the middle levels in the northeast area of this insula. A breach (min. h.: 2 m), now patched, in the south end of the west wall of room 2 and 1.05 m above the floor, presumably penetrated into this space and documents disturbance after ad 79. Elia observed that the room had been covered and had been divided for all or part of its length by a ‘tramezzo ligneo’ which Ling interprets as a wooden partition to screen the stairway. In the north-east corner, are three masonry steps from a stairway which Ling argued ascended along the east wall. Ling argues that the installation of this stairway would have put out of commission the recess and lararium painting (dimensions: 0.55 m × 0.4 m) behind it. The remains of a late Third Style decoration are found on the walls. The loose finds from near the north entrance of this space and from near the entrance to room 3 were predominantly door-fittings, with the possible exception of a small marble base. A small key reported in the latter location may originally have been from storage furniture but was unlikely to have been in use as no other remains of such furnishings were recorded. The only other find in this area was a glass vessel of unknown type. Elia called this room an ‘atrium’. The finds are not particularly diagnostic but, even if this area was disturbed, they hint that it had been relatively unencumbered with furnishings, probably serving predominantly as a reception and access area for the rest of the house. The breach in the south end of the west wall of this room implies that it may have been disturbed after ad 79. The walls had a simple painted decoration but this room had no evident fixtures. According to Elia it was an ‘oecus’. The limited ceramic finds (a jug, a terra sigillata dish, and a lamp) are associated with lighting and probably with the serving or storage of foodstuffs.


Antiquity ◽  
1945 ◽  
Vol 19 (75) ◽  
pp. 113-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. W. Crowfoot

Dura is one of the buried cities which has swum into our ken since the end of the Some paintings accidentally uncovered by a British officer first led D Breasted to the site. He was followed by Cumont and in 1928 a large expedition under Professor Rostovtzeff was sent there by Yale University and the French Academy of Inscriptions. By 1937 about one third of the site had been excavated and work was suspended through lack of funds.Dura has been compared with Pompeii but it would be hard to imagine two places more dissimilar in appearance and history. Unlike Pompeii, Dura is a grim looking site : its most striking features are the west wall on the desert side and the citadel above the Euphrates, both built of dull grey gypsum blocks : between them stretches a waste of mud brick walls. And its history covers a far longer period. Once the site of a small oriental village, it was converted by the Macedonians into a strong-point on the road between Antioch on the Orontes and Seleucia on the Tigris ; the date of its foundation is not known, but Seleucus I was regarded as the founder and it must have been about 300 B.C.


Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adis Duderija ◽  
Ghulam Rasool

This article aims to explain the ideas and the significance of Dr. Bilal Philips, a prominent ‘Salafi‘preacher, a major proponent of Neo-Traditional Salafism, and how his writings and activities can aid us in understanding the dynamics regarding the nature of Salafism in the West as a discursive tradition with deep roots in the Islamic intellectual history, as well as an element of global Salafi movements. As such, the article focuses primarily on identifying and analyzing Philips’ ideas on what constitutes a proper approach to interpreting the Qur’ān and Sunna in the light of the Islamic legal and exegetical tradition. After discussing the reasons why the ideas of Philips are significant for understanding Salafism in the West, the article focuses on his views on the conceptual relationship between sunna and hadīth, the broader hermeneutic characterization of the main four Sunni schools of thought (madhāhib), and issues pertaining to the correct methodology of Qur’ānic exegesis (tafsīr). The article also discusses the internal factionalism and the contentedness of the category of Salafism among western Salafis by examining one critique levelled at Philips by his fellow Salafis residing in the West, with the view of not only understanding and situating the views of Philips more accurately but also to provide an avenue to understand the internal Salafi dynamics in the West in particular.


2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-276
Author(s):  
Géza G. Xeravits

This note deals with two panels of the west wall of the Dura synagogue, the details of which were interpreted by some scholars as probably connected to depictions of goddesses. Close investigation of these details, however, does not substantiate this view. The images, both in themselves and as parts of a larger composition, need not be interpreted as displaying conscious allusions to pagan female divinities.


1898 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-347
Author(s):  
T. Watters

When you enter the chief hall of a Buddhist temple in China you cannot fail to notice two rows of large yellow figures—one along the east and the other along the west wall. These figures, which are usually numbered and labelled, are called the Eighteen Lohan, and if you ask your guide what they are he will probably reply “belong joss.” This answer may not be deemed satisfactory, but further inquiry will only elicit the information that these are images of Buddha's eighteen great disciples. The names, however, show that this information is not quite correct, some of them being unknown to the original Buddhist canon. If you go on to Korea and visit the curious old Buddhist temples in that country, you will find that Buddha's Hall has rows of similar figures, but sixteen in number. If you continue your journey and visit Japan, you will find there also Sixteen Rakan lining the side walls of the Buddhist temples. Lohan and Rakan are for A-Io-han, the Chinese way of expressing the Sanskrit word Arhan for Arhat. Suppose you could go back and travel to Lhassa, there also you would find Sixteen Arhats, or as they are called there, Sthaviras, in the Chief Hall of Buddha's temples. Tibet, however, seems to have also its Eighteen Lohan, imported from China apparently in modern times.


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