100 years of Dura Europos

It was more than 100 years ago, in March 1920, that British troops camping in the ruins of some unknown ancient fort on the Euphrates, named Al-Salihiyah in Arabic, during the skirmishing that followed the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of the First World War, dug a trench and excavated some astonishing wall paintings. The officers in charge, along with the Civil Commissioner, managed to call in an American archaeologist who happened to be in Syria at the end of April, James Henry Breasted, first director of the Oriental Institute in Chicago (founded the previous year, 1919). Breasted visited in May, in dangerous conditions and with the British about to withdraw. He stayed only a day, managing to clear and take photographs of the murals that depict the sacrifices of Conon and Julius Terentius in what later became known as the Temple of Bel or the Temple of the Palmyrene Gods.

FRESCO PHOTOGRAMMETRY: DOCUMENTING THE IMPERIAL CULT CHAMBER AT LUXOR TEMPLE

This paper discusses the photogrammetric and epigraphic documentation of the late-Roman frescoes in the Imperial Cult Chamber at Luxor Temple by the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, Epigraphic Survey Project. It presents a brief history of the room and overview of research related to it, while relaying the epigraphic documentation technique and methodology employed, and the use of photogrammetry to achieve those objectives.

A.M. POZDNEEV – THE DIRECTOR OF THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE AND OF THE VLADIVOSTOK MEN'S GYMNASIUM

The article reveals an important stage in the work of Alexey Matveyevich Pozdneev, the first director of Oriental Institute and head of the Vladivostok men's gymnasium. The conditions of functioning of these educational institutions, organizational and everyday difficulties are analyzed. The author explores the problem based on the materials of the central and regional archives.

CATHOLIC VIEW OF THE PROBLEM OF CHURCH UNION IN V.V. ROZANOV’S JOURNALISM

The article retraces the “ecumenical” period of V.V. Rozanov (1856-1919), which came at the time of the late 1890s - early 1900s, outlining the philosopher’s views on Catholicism and the unionist problem. These themes, practically untouched in Russian science, were elaborated in the Catholic works within the walls of the Pontific Oriental Institute in Rome. The author introduces the texts, previously unknown to the national specialists on Rozanov. They manifest the intent to present Rozanov as an apologist of Catholicism. The grasp of meanings of the polemical writing of Rozanov’s journalism becomes an axiological guideline of the article, which otherwise leads to a shift of the accents towards the conclusions desirable for the Catholic side. The methodological guideline remains the correlation of the nature of the evolvement of the study of Rozanov’s heritage with the external revision of the unionist question and the attribution of its results to the “new theism” elaborated by the thinker. The author finds the omission of the Catholic side in ignoring the historiosofical constant of Rozanovian thought, in the light of which, the absence of a solution to the unionist problem in the frame of the current cultural paradigm becomes a surety of a different comprehension of the Universal Church.

Manuscript of "majmuai tazkor" compiled by Sadri Ziyo

In this article analyses one of the famous person of Bukhara khanate in the end of XIX – beginning ХХ century Muhammad Sharif Sadri Ziya and one of his historical heritage, which kept under the number of 2193 of the Oriental Institute of Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan «Majmuai tazkor».

A Family of Lector-Priests at Edfu: Oriental Institute Stela E11455 and the 'Ib Family during the Early Eighteenth Dynasty

This article presents the study of two stelae from Edfu dating to the early Eighteenth Dynasty that represent members of the same extended family of lector-priests from Edfu (Oriental Institute E11455 and Princeton Y1993-151). The texts of both stelae were published in the early twentieth century; however, neither stela has been comprehensively published. The two stelae present the opportunity to revisit the family’s genealogy and chronological position. The study also considers dating criteria for late Second Intermediate period and early Eighteenth Dynasty stelae and assesses the contemporary positioning and role of lector-priests. Finally, it briefly addresses the influence of documentary scribal culture on monumental inscriptions vis-a?-vis the late Second Intermediate period–early New Kingdom Tell Edfu Ostraca.