Ianus Augustus, Caput Viae (Mengíbar, Spain): An interprovincial monumental border in Roman Hispania

Recent research undertaken as part of the Iliturgi Project has located the remains of an Early Imperial building complex linked to the Via Augusta. They include the foundations of an arch and a monumental platform whose size and characteristics allow it to be identified as the Ianus Augustus, a monumental complex near the River Baetis that marked the limit between the Roman provinces of Baetica and Tarraconensis. Its location makes it a reference point for our knowledge of the ancient geography of Hispania and for understanding Roman interprovincial frontiers. Geophysical prospections in its surroundings have also revealed the possible remains of a bridge across the river.

A concept “Riphaean Mountains” in ancient geocartography: myth, cosmology, symbol and/or reality?

One of the most mysterious concepts in ancient geography are the Riphaean Mountains that had for centuries been the object of mythological, cosmological, geographic, cartographic, and poetic discourses. Having originated as a designation of the northern (in relation to Greece) Thracian mountain, the name in the course of time became attached to the mountains located in the extreme north of the oecumene. Cosmological ideas explaining the rising of the earth’s surface to the north, the passage of the sun after sunset through the northern outskirts of the oecumene behind the Riphaean Mountains eastward, and many others were associated with these mountains. In ancient literature the Riphaean Mountains are often associated with a blessed people of the Hyperboreans who seemed to live beyond the Riphaean Mountains in a particularly favorable climate. In this paper the attempts of ancient cartographers to locate the Riphaean Mountains on a geographical map will be considered.

The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology

The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology brings together significant work by leading scholars of the archaeology of early Christianity in the Mediterranean and surrounding regions. The thirty-four contributions to this volume ground the history, culture, and society of the first seven centuries of Christianity in archaeological method, theory, and research. Collectively the essays emphasize the link between fieldwork, archaeological methods, and regional and national traditions in constructing our knowledge of the early church, Christian communities, and the context of the ancient Mediterranean. An introductory essay provides historical and chronological perspectives on the archaeology of the early Christian world. This is followed by two chapters on the archaeology of the earliest Christ followers, and a series of topical treatments that focus on significant types of objects common to Christian contexts, such as ceramics, lamps, and icons,and monuments and contexts ranging from Christian churches to martyria, catacombs, and baths. Finally, the volume locates the archaeology of the early Christian world in a series of regional studies stretching from Britain to Persia. These regional studies situate the archaeology of early Christianity in historical contexts shaped by ancient geography and modern national archaeological traditions. The thorough, carefully researched, and fully referenced essays offer the most intensive, state-of-the-art treatment of recent research into the archaeology of early Christianity currently available.

„Onnan egy másik helyre mentem...”

The heavenly and earthly journey of Enoch is an important part of the Book of the Watchers, chapters 1–36 of 1Enoch. The description of the travels of Enoch to the ends of the world is not only an important apocalyptic, eschatological text, but with its vivid description of the locations of the heavenly and earthly journey, it is also a source for the study of ancient geography. This study examines the geographical elements in 1Enoch 20–36 in light of the historically possible interactions of people living in the Near and Far East in the Second Temple Period. Whether they were involved in trade, or only visited neighbouring places as travellers, this text reflects their knowledge about geography.