A Handbook of a Kherep-Selket from the Tomb of Iufaa: The Book of Primeval Snakes

Summary The Late Period shaft tombs at Abusir are located in the North-Western part of the Abusir necropolis and were built during a rather short span of time at the very end of 26th Dynasty, between 530 and perhaps 525 BC. Among those, the tomb of Iufaa stands out by its size and by the extent of its interior decoration. Significant amount of the decorated space in Iufaa’s burial chamber were reserved for a series of texts and images that may be best denoted as a “Snake Encyclopedia”. The individual parts of this textual corpus cover the main parts of the arch of the western wall in the burial chamber of Iufaa. The opposite side of the burial chamber, the arch of the eastern wall, bears two texts (accompanied with images) that concern Underworld/divine snakes as well. Although this “encyclopedia” of Underworld serpentine beings still provides us with much more questions and puzzles than answers and insights, it also sheds a new light upon the religion, cult and afterlife beliefs of the Saite-Persian and Graeco-Roman Egypt. It witnesses the importance of giant snakes or primeval creatures in serpentine form that were believed to dwell in the Underworld and were directly linked to cosmogony and periodical renewal of the sun and of the world. As manifestations of Re and Osiris, the snakes become lords of life and death, hypostaseis of the cyclically rejuvenated Creator. The idea of renewal and rebirth is also closely connected with ritual purity and purification rites. Thus, the “Snake Encyclopedia” is accompanied by a corpus dedicated to the ritual cleansing of the pharaoh and of the deceased, which is represented textually and pictorially on the northern wall of Iufaa’s burial chamber and which features serpentine primordial beings as well. But the focus on not generally transmitted, pre-cosmological concepts is connected to yet another important aspect of the composition and other texts from Iufaa’s tomb, that have most probably served as a compendium of secret knowledge for the magicians of Selket. This motif helps us to interpret one of the main tasks of the composition in focus: it probably served to accumulate and transmit sacred knowledge and to use it to ensure that the deceased would be accepted into the blessed Afterlife.

My rural, vernacular house in context to COVID-19

Vernacular architecture offers clues and lessons to people. Purpose of this paper is thus to explore and identify attributes of a particular piece of vernacular architecture and try to relate it in context to COVID-19. It highlights attributes of the house in context to reimagining and redesigning built environment in days of COVID-19. Said piece of vernacular architecture is my ancestral house which no more exists since 55 years in a village I am from. Its plan, form, building materials and setting in a village teaches few things. House of single storey in mud construction was over a small plot of about 9 meters by 12.5 meters. Top of compound wall was above eye level offering great privacy and insider naturally avails environ offering pleasant solitude, the need of COVID-19. When one entered plot of house from road through compound gate on south-west direction of a plot, one is in a small courtyard. Immediate to entrance at compound gate was a room of about 2.5 meters by 2.5 meters with a veranda of about 2 meters by 2.5 meters. This space called “Gadaaro” was for male guests and males of a family. Courtyard which contained two cows continued beyond Gadaaro. Abutting on northern wall of a plot were walls of 3 rooms namely kitchen (northwest), a general room and a bed room (north east). From a courtyard one could enter to a general room leading to kitchen on its west and bed room on its east. Plan remained closer to what one needs to reimagine today in COVID-19. Construction from local building materials; mud-walls and a country tiled sloping roof offered many things expected in COVID-19. Findings here are that environ, house plan and construction materials has to be such that one can leave in for a long period without coming in contact with outdoors for days. House plan shall be fully contained and complete in itself.

NEW RESULTS OF THE RESEARCH ONTO THE EARLY IRON AGE BURIAL MOUNDS AT THE KHANKAISKY DOL BURIAL GROUND

The article presents the results of the study of mounds N26 and N33 at the Khankarinsky Dol burial ground, located in the Krasnoshchekovsky district ofthe Altai Territory. The excavations were carried out by the Krasnoshchekovskaya archaeological expedition of Altai State University with the participation of students of the Barnaul State Pedagogical University. As a result of the excavations, it was revealed that both mounds had been robbed, which makes their chronological attribution difficult. At the same time, the inventory in the form of fragments of gold foil was found only in mound No. 33. Recorded during the excavation of mound No. 33 features of the burial rite is the position of the deceased on his right side, facing to the East, accompanying burial of the horse along the Northern wall of the grave, ritual food, have certain analogies to previously explored objects of the Pazyryk culture on the necropolis Khankarinsky Dol and the nearby burial grounds Inskoy Dol and Chineta-II. In addition, such signs of the funeral rite find parallels with similar indicators for the sites of the Pazyryk period excavated in the Central and South-Eastern Altai. Mound No. 26, taking into account the analysis of the burial structure, the eastern orientation of the deceased, the presence of ritual meat food, the location next to the chain of mounds of the Pazyryk culture, gives reason to tentatively attribute it to the Scythian-Saka period. Keywords: funeral ceremony, Scythian-Saka period, burial mound, altai, artifacts

A Shooting Experiment with Reconstructed Scythian Arrows and Bows : New Data on the Iron Age Siege at Dédestapolcsány-Verebce-tető

The archaeological research of the last decades revealed that around the beginning of the Middle Iron Age, at the end of the 7th century BC, the territory of Northeast Hungary and Western Slovakia and the eastern part of today’s Czech Republic were hit by an extensive series of attacks. Approximately 20 fortified settlements are known today where bronze arrowheads, found along pristine hillfort walls, bear witness to devastating sieges that occurred almost simultaneously. The most spectacular evidence of the Early Iron Age attack series in the territory of Hungary is the fortified settlement at Dédestapolcsány–Verebce-tető, located at the fringes of the Bükk Mountains. Hundreds of early Scythian-type cast bronze arrowheads have been discovered there, scattered along the northern wall of the defensive earthworks surrounding the inhabitation zone. Recently, as part of a new research project, we have conducted a shooting experiment using reconstructed Scythian-type bows and arrows to obtain additional information about the efficiency of the bows and arrows used in the siege, as well as about the probable progress and details of the event.

The image of a city in the mosaics of the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem

Аниконическая иконография церковных соборов в виде архитектурных мотивов, которая представлена в мозаиках базилики Рождества Христова в Вифлееме 1169 г., встречается сравнительно редко. Известно несколько ее примеров в византийских и западноевропейских памятниках IXX вв. В рукописях IXXII вв. встречается комбинация архитектурных композиций и антропоморфных изображений участников соборов. Аниконические мотивы в Вифлееме соответствовали не только обращению к древней программе мозаик самой базилики при реставрации XII в. или идеологии и политике крестоносцев, но и традиции нефигуративного искусства византийского мира, существовавшей вплоть до XII в. Иконография городов в топографических напольных мозаиках Иордании получила особое распространение в VIII в., в чем очевидна связь с актуальностью аниконического искусства именно в этот период. Закономерно, если циклы напольных мозаик Святой земли послужили одним из источников монументальных мозаик базилики в Вифлееме. Aniconic iconography of Church Councils in the form of architectural and urban motifs, which is represented in the mosaics of the northern wall of the central nave of the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 1169, is relatively rare. Several examples of such type are known in Byzantine and West European monuments of the 9th 10th centuries. A combination of architectural compositions and anthropomorphic images of church fathers, emperors, participants of Councils could be found in manuscripts of 9th 12th centuries. The aniconic motifs in Bethlehem corresponded not only to the appeal to the early mosaic program of the basilica during the restoration of the 12th century or to the ideology and politics of the crusaders, but also to the tradition of non-figurative art of the Byzantine world, which existed until the 12th century. The Eastern Christian Monophysite tradition and Islamic monuments could also have an influence on the aniconic motifs in the mosaics of the Bethlehem basilica. The iconography of cities in topographic floor mosaics on the territory of Jordan became especially widespread in the 8th century some of the monuments were created during the period of the formation of iconoclasm, as in Umm al-Rasas and Main, which clearly shows the relation with the relevance of anionic art at that time. It is quite natural if such cycles of floor mosaics of the Holy Land served as one of the sources of aniconic monumental mosaics on the northern wall of the central nave in the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Un paesaggio con imbarcazioni nel santuario repubblicano di Brescia

The article takes up a fresco, published in 2002 by Elena Mariani, depicting a seascape with two ships, parts of rocks and of a lighthouse. The painting comes from the western hall of the Republican sanctuary of Brescia and in particular from the sector near the northern wall of the environment, near the newsstand (aedicule). It is proposed a dating of the finding within the first half of the I century BC and its relationship with the decorative project in the ‘second style’ of the sanctuary; it is also proposed a possible placement in the upper part of the back wall of the aedicule and a possible commemorative function of the enterprises of a person involved in the activities of realization of the temple.

LATE ANTIQUE FORTIFICATIONS OF KYTA

The defensive system of the Bosporan city of Kyta was studied practically throughout all field seasons, from 1972 to 2012. The investigated objects were published, which allowed the author to draw a conclusion about the role of Kyta as a fortified city. In the field seasons 2016–2017. in the central coastal part of the settlement, in the eastern section of excavation I, another small section of the fortress wall and tower of the late antique period was discovered. Its peculiarity is that it was erected not on the already known external borders of the city, but inside it and protects only a small seaside area. The time of the construction of the tower and the wall is determined by the find under the foundation of the northern wall of the tower (masonry 106) of the stater Radamsad 614 g. b.e. (317–318 AD). This is the first line of fortifications built at such a late time in Kyta.

Synagoge oder Studierzimmer? Ein jüdischer Gebetsraum des 13. Jahrhunderts in Erfurt

In the early 12th century, a Jewish community first settled in the medieval city of Erfurt (Thuringia). The synagogue, the mikvah (ritual bath), and several private dwellings of this community are preserved until today. A room in one of the private houses formerly inhabited by Jews has a wooden beam ceiling, dating from 1244, which is colourfully painted with tendrils, leaves and blossoms. This ceiling was added to the room together with other extensive refurbishments: the former door in the eastern wall was replaced with a built-in cupboard, a new door as well as a recess for an oil lamp were added to the northern wall, and the room received an oriel window. Furthermore, the ceiling shows the remains of suspensions for lamps, and traces of shelves are still visible on the walls. As an ensemble, these alterations suggest that the chamber was converted into a prayer room in the mid-13th century. As the only preserved example of a medieval Jewish private room for prayer, it constitutes an important source for understanding Jewish piety in the German-speaking lands.

The Gulf Stream North Wall: Ageostrophic Circulation and Frontogenesis

Eastward zonal jets are common in the ocean and atmosphere, for example, the Gulf Stream and jet stream. They are characterized by atypically strong horizontal velocity, baroclinic vertical structure with an upward flow intensification, large change in the density stratification meridionally across the jet, large-scale meanders around a central latitude, narrow troughs and broad crests, and a sharp and vertically sloping northern (poleward) “wall” defined by horizontal maxima in the lateral gradients of both velocity and density. Measurements and realistic oceanic simulations show these features in the Gulf Stream downstream from its western boundary separation point. A diagnostic theory based on the conservative balance equations is developed to calculate the 3D velocity field associated with the dynamic height field. When applied to an idealized representation of a meandering jet, it explains the spatial structure of the associated ageostrophic secondary circulation around the jet and the positive frontogenetic tendency along the northern wall in the meander sector located upstream from the trough. This provides a basis for understanding why submesoscale instabilities and cross-wall intrusion and streamer events are more prevalent along the sector downstream from the trough and at the crest where there is not such a frontogenetic tendency. An important attribute for this frontogenesis pattern is the 3D shape of the jet, whose idealization is summarized above.

Traces of the strong earthquakes in ancient Mikhaylovka archeological monument, Kerch’ Peninsula, Crimea

In the paper there are results of archeoseismological study of an antic archeological monument – Mikhaylovka hill-fort located in Kerch’ peninsula. Studied deformations complex includes: systematic tilts, shifts and collapses of building constructions of latitudinal strike northward. Building elements of longitudinal strike tilted, shifted and collapsed westward. We revealed one counterclockwise rotation in a wall part which was not anchored. Most impressive and unique is shearing and shifting southward of a significant fragment of northern city wall. The revealed deformations in the trench No. III of Mikhaylovka hill-fort undoubtedly demonstrate their seismogenic origin. Large number of double walls – original walls and counterforce ones – “krepida’s” testifies on at least two events of destruction and deformation in Mikhaylovka fort-hill. Local seismic intensity was apparently (VIII) ≤ Io ≤ IX. According to numismatic founds and fire traces first earthquake occurred in beginning of II century AD, second earthquake - in III century AD. Maximum summary seismic oscillations during first earthquakes propagated apparently in latitudinal direction which led to wedging of significant part of the northern wall of the hill-fort. Seismic shocks during second earthquakes went along NNW-SSE axis. This direction is testified be systematic character of tilts, shifts and collapses of the walls of both directions.