The monastery of Eusebius in Khirbet er-Ras (Kefar Truman)

The present paper publishes the archaeological remains of a monastery church excavated in 1958 at Khirbet er-Ras (Kefar Truman), Israel. The description of the architectural remains, including the three-aisled basilica and the structures surrounding it, is based on the archival documentation. This is followed by the detailed description and analysis of the church's mosaic pavements, preserved in the nave and in both side-aisles, with special emphasis on the mosaic decoration of the nave's central panel, set as a carpet design made up of florets enclosed by outlined scales, whose Levantine parallels are reviewed. In contrast to the sixth-century CE date proposed in previous reports, the setting of the floor is here placed into the third quarter of the fifth century CE based on Leah Di Segni's palaeographic date of the mosaic's inscription located in front of the sanctuary area. Using this revised date as a springboard for further discussion, a less linear stylistic development of mosaic floors covered by floral semis ornaments embedded in plain and outlined scales is suggested.

Celestial Aspects of Hittite Religion, Part 2: Cosmic Symbolism at Yazilikaya

Evidence of systematic astronomical observation and the impact of celestial knowledge on culture is plentiful in the Bronze Age societies of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Europe. An interest in astral phenomena is also reflected in Hittite documents, architecture and art. The rock-cut reliefs of 64 deities in the main chamber of Yazilikaya, a Hittite rock sanctuary associated with Hattusa, the Hittite capital in central Anatolia, can be broken into groups marking days, synodic months and solar years. Here, we suggest that the sanctuary in its entirety represents a symbolic image of the cosmos, including its static levels (earth, sky, underworld) and the cyclical processes of renewal and rebirth (day/night, lunar phases, summer/winter). Static levels and celestial cyclicities are emphasised throughout the sanctuary – every single relief relates to this system. We interpret the central panel with the supreme deities, at the far north end of Chamber A, as a reference to the northern stars, the circumpolar realm and the world axis. Chamber B seems to symbolise the netherworld.

The God Aion in a Mosaic from Nea Paphos (Cyprus) and Graeco-Phoenician Cosmogonies in the Roman East

This essay offers a new interpretive angle on a fourth-century CE mosaic from Nea Paphos in Cyprus, in which the central panel depicts the god Aion presiding over the contest between Kassiopeia and the Nereids. The mosaic, which has other mythological scenes, two of them focused on Dionysos, has been interpreted in an allegorical Neoplatonic key or else as encrypting an anti-Christian polemic narrative. Here I propose that Aion and the other cosmogonic motifs in the panels, including the birth and triumph of Dionysos, point rather to Orphic and Phoenician cosmogonies, which in turn had a strong impact and reception among Neoplatonists and intellectuals of the Roman and late Roman Levant.

Involving Research Participants in a Pan-European Research Initiative: The EPAD Participant Panel Experience

Background Patient, public and participant involvement (PPPI) is increasingly acknowledged as a key pillar of successful research activity. PPPI can influence recruitment and retention, as well as researcher experience and contribute to decision making in research studies. However, there are few established methodologies of how to set up and manage PPPI activities. Methods In this paper we describe the set-up, running and experiences of the EPAD participant panel. The EPAD study was established as a pan-European cohort study aiming at understanding risks for developing Alzheimer’s disease and building a readiness cohort for Phase 2 clinical trials. Due to the longitudinal nature of this study, combined with the enrolment of healthy volunteers and those with mild cognitive impairments, the EPAD team highlighted PPPI involvement as crucial to the success of this project. The EPAD project employed a nested model, with local panels meeting at least twice a year established in England, France, Scotland, Spain and The Netherlands, feeding into a central panel who met once a year at the project’s General Assembly. The local panels were governed by terms of reference which were adaptable to meet local needs. We discuss the recruitment opportunities employed by the centres and the set-up of the panels. Results Impact of the panels has been widespread, and varies from feedback on documentation, to supporting with design of media materials and representation of the project at national and international meetings. Conclusions The EPAD panels have contributed to the success of the project and the model established is easily transferable to other disease areas investigating healthy or at-risk populations.

Annotated Plates of Representative Textile Objects in the Synagogue

This chapter includes a section of plates in which ceremonial objects are illustrated and documented according to the communities in which they were used. It highlights the plates of textile that typically represent the ceremonial artistic concept of each community. It also describes the wrap from Rome that consists of fourteen pieces of undyed linen of various widths with linen strips that are embroidered with a pattern of vines. The chapter looks at a wrap from Rome that was stored in Museo Ebraico di Roma, which is made of seven pieces of rectangular fabric arranged symmetrically on each side of the central panel, which depicts the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. The chapter analyses the embroidery of two pieces of fabric to the right and left of the central panel of the wrap with the name of the donor, Joseph Samuel Sarina.

Los monoteísmos abrahámicos y las imágenes: un panorama.

This study is conducted through the form of a triptych. In the first part, we evoke the unprecedented situation in which the three monotheisms stand before the images, due, among other factors, to the Internet. We also aim to specify the meaning of every term used, in order to avoid simplifications in regard to their respective connections with the images. The second part, that is, the central panel of the triptych, intends to recall how each of the three religions, especially in its beginnings, dealt with images in general, and images of religious inspiration in particular. The third part examines the possible link between the hostility of nascent Islam towards the images and the well-known Controversy in Byzantium, also advocating the creation, within each of the three religions, of competent instances to designate those images that represent them properly.

TILE COMPOSITIONS FROM DECORATION OF STOVES IN BATURYN IN THE LAST THIRD OF THE 17th AND THE BEGINNING OF THE 18th CENTURIES

The tile compositions from decoration of Baturyn’s stoves are discussed. Based on the form, size and number of composite elements, the tile compositions are attributed to the tile panels and friezes. All finds had localized within two objects: hetman’s palace on the Citadel (two stoves) and a house of a Baturyn nobleman on the territory of Fortress (one stove). In the decorative construction of the polychrome stove in the Hetman’s palace, there was a tile panel, which included the large heraldic tile and a frame from the belt tiles. The frame is presented in two variants, and it’s probable to determine which of them covered the central panel. Besides that, in the central part of this polychrome stove, the tile frieze was located. Its central elements were represented by small round heraldic tiles. From the tile panel in the decoration of the second stove in Hetman’s house, only fragments of a monochrome green frame were found. The tiled panel from the stove of the dwelling on the territory of the fortress consisted of four square tiles which formed the heraldic image of the two-headed eagle. Graphic reconstructions of tile compositions can be used in future to reconstruct the decor of the stoves.

Primitive Passions, Blinding Visions: Arthur Rimbaud's “Mystique” and a Tradition of Mystical Ekphrasis

In 1935 the Dutch scholar Johannes B. Tielrooy argued that Arthur Rimbaud's prose poem “Mystique” (c. 1872) was an ekphrasis, or literary description, of the central panel of Hubert and Jan van Eyck's altarpiece Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (1432). Although this hypothesis was deemed credible for a number of years, it is now thought to be unlikely that the painting inspired the poem or that the poem is an instance of ekphrasis. However, Tielrooy's ekphrastic interpretation can still be used to reveal elements of the poem otherwise hidden to the reader. I demonstrate the potential of Tielrooy's speculative practice, what I call mystical ekphrasis, by juxtaposing Rimbaud's poem with a chromolithographic representation of one of Jean Fouquet's illuminations, with which the poem also has possible but not conclusive links.