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Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Publié par GIACOBBE GIUSTI le 1 juin 2018
Publié dans: Aegean (Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean),Caucasus, Catacomb culture, Srubna culture, Beaker culture, Unetice culture, Tumulus culture, Urnfield culture, Hallstatt culture, Apennine culture, Ca, Anatolia, Caucasus, Elam, Egypt, Levant, Mesopotamia, Sistan, Canaan Late Bronze Age collapse South Asia (c. 3300–1200 BC) Indus Valley Civilization Bronze Age South Asia Ochre Coloured Pott, Bronze scull-cap helmet,, Bronze wheel pendants, Zürich, c. 1550–1000 BC., Bronzekultwagen, aus Acholshausen, Chadwick and Corcoran, Nora and J.X.W.P. (1970). The Celts. Penguin Books. pp. 28–29. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Kruta, Venceslas (1991). The Celts. Thames and Hudson. pp. 93–100. Jump up^ Gim, Cuirasse de Marmesse, bronze, âge du bronze, musée des antiquités nationales, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Elmo da Pocking, Expansion of the Urnfield Culture in Europe., German National Museum ( Nuremberg / Germany )., German National Museum ( Nuremberg / Germany ). Bronze scull-cap helmet, Urnfield culture, 12th century BC, from Thonberg ( Kronach / Bavaria ), Historical Museum of the Palatinate, "Bronze wheels of Hassloch", BC 900-800, permanent exhibition display case, Speyer, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, J. M. Coles/A. F. Harding, The Bronze Age in Europe (London 1979). G. Weber, Händler, Kieger, Bronzegießer (Kassel 1992). Ute Seidel, Bronzezeit. Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart (Stut, Middle-Danube Urnfield culture Velatice-Baierdorf in Moravia and Austria Čaka in western Slovakia Gáva culture Piliny culture Kyjatice culture Makó culture, Roman museum Kastell Boiotro ( Passau ), Roman museum Kastell Boiotro ( Passau ). Urnefield culture helmet from Pocking., Senza categoria, Simbols from the Urnfield culture., Thonberg ( Kronach / Bavaria ), Tumulus culture Followed by Hallstatt culture, Villanovan culture, Urnfield culture, Urnfield culture Bronze Age cultures of Europe Archaeological cultures of Central Europe Archaeological cultures of Southern Europe Archaeological cultures of Southeastern Europe Archaeological cultur, Urnfield Culture in Europe., Urnfield culture (c. 1300 BC – 750 BC) was a late Bronze Ageculture of central Europe, often divided into several local cultures within a broader Urnfield tradition. The name comes from the cu. Tagué : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Poster un commentaire

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Expansion of the Urnfield Culture in Europe.

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

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Simbols from the Urnfield culture.

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Roman museum Kastell Boiotro ( Passau ). Urnefield culture helmet from Pocking.

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Roman museum Kastell Boiotro ( Passau ). Urnefield culture helmet from Pocking.

Elmo da Pocking

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Historical Museum of the Palatinate, « Bronze wheels of Hassloch », BC 900-800, permanent exhibition display case, Speyer, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

German National Museum ( Nuremberg / Germany ). Bronze scull-cap helmet, Urnfield culture, 12th century BC, from Thonberg ( Kronach / Bavaria )

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Bronzekultwagen, aus Acholshausen

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Bronze wheel pendants, Zürich, c. 1550–1000 BC.

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture 
UrnfieldCulture.jpg
Geographical range Europe
Period Bronze Age Europe
Dates c. 1300 — c. 750 BC
Major sites Burgstallkogel (Sulm valley)
Preceded by Tumulus culture
Followed by Hallstatt culture, Villanovan culture
Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Approximate historical map of the spread of the spoke-wheeled chariot, 2000–500 BC
Bronze Age
↑ Chalcolithic
Near East (c. 3300–1200 BC)

Anatolia, Caucasus, Elam, Egypt, Levant, Mesopotamia, Sistan, Canaan
Late Bronze Age collapse

South Asia (c. 3300–1200 BC)

Indus Valley Civilization
Bronze Age South Asia
Ochre Coloured Pottery
Cemetery H

Europe (c. 3200–600 BC)

Aegean (Cycladic, Minoan, Mycenaean),Caucasus, Catacomb culture, Srubna culture, Beaker culture, Unetice culture, Tumulus culture, Urnfield culture, Hallstatt culture, Apennine culture, Canegrate culture, Golasecca culture,
Atlantic Bronze Age, Bronze Age Britain, Nordic Bronze Age

East Asia (c. 2000–300 BC)

Erlitou, Erligang, Gojoseon, Jomon, Majiayao, Mumun, Qijia, Siwa, Wucheng, Xindian, Yueshi
↓Iron Age

The Urnfield culture (c. 1300 BC – 750 BC) was a late Bronze Ageculture of central Europe, often divided into several local cultures within a broader Urnfield tradition. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were then buried in fields. Over much of Europe, the Urnfield culture followed the Tumulus culture and was succeeded by the Hallstatt culture.[1] Linguistic evidence and continuity with the following Hallstatt culture suggests that the people of this area spoke an early form of Celtic, perhaps originally proto-Celtic.[1][2]

Chronology

It is believed that in some areas, such as in southwestern Germany, the Urnfield culture was in existence around 1200 BC (beginning of Ha A), but the Bronze D Riegsee-phase already contains cremations. As the transition from the middle Bronze Age to the Urnfield culture was gradual, there are questions regarding how to define it.

The Urnfield culture covers the phases Hallstatt A and B (Ha A and B) in Paul Reinecke‘s chronological system, not to be confused with the Hallstatt culture (Ha C and D) of the following Iron Age. This corresponds to the Phases Montelius III-IV of the Northern Bronze Age. Whether Reinecke’s Bronze D is included varies according to author and region.

The Urnfield culture is divided into the following sub-phases (based on Müller-Karpe sen.):

date BC
BzD 1300–1200
Ha A1 1200–1100
Ha A2 1100–1000
HaB1 1000–800
HaB2 900–800
Ha B3 800–750

The existence of the Ha B3-phase is contested, as the material consists of female burials only. As can be seen by the arbitrary 100-year ranges, the dating of the phases is highly schematic. The phases are based on typological changes, which means that they do not have to be strictly contemporaneous across the whole distribution. All in all, more radiocarbon and dendro-dates would be highly desirable.

Origin

The Urnfield culture grew from the preceding tumulus culture.[1] The transition is gradual, in the pottery as well as the burial rites.[1] In some parts of Germany, cremation and inhumation existed simultaneously (facies Wölfersheim). Some graves contain a combination of tumulus-culture pottery and Urnfield swords(Kressborn, Bodenseekreis) or tumulus culture incised pottery together with early Urnfield types (Mengen). In the North, the Urnfield culture was only adopted in the HaA2 period. 16 pins deposited in a swamp in Ellmoosen (Kr. Bad Aibling, Germany) cover the whole chronological range from Bronze B to the early Urnfield period (Ha A). This demonstrates a considerable ritual continuity. In the Loire, Seine and Rhône, certain fords contain deposits from the late Neolithic onwards up to the Urnfield period.

The origins of the cremation rite are commonly believed to be in Hungary, where it was widespread since the first half of the second millennium BC.[3] The neolithic Cucuteni–Trypillia culture of modern-day northeastern Romania and Ukraine were also practicing cremation rituals as early as approximately 5500 BC. Some cremations begin to be found in the Proto-Lusatian and Trzciniec culture.

Distribution and local groups

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Europe in the late Bronze Age.

The Urnfield culture was located in an area stretching from western Hungary to eastern France, from the Alps to near the North Sea. Local groups, mainly differentiated by pottery, include:

South-German Urnfield culture

  • Northeast-Bavarian Group, divided into a lower Bavarian and an upper Palatinate group
  • Lower-Main-Swabian group in southern Hesse and Baden-Württemberg, including the Marburger, Hanauer, lower Main and Friedberger facies
  • Rhenish-Swiss group in Rhineland-Palatinate, Switzerland and eastern France, (abbreviated RSFO in French)

Lower-Rhine Urnfield culture

  • Lower Hessian Group
  • North-Netherlands-Westphalian group
  • Northwest-Group in the Dutch Delta region

Middle-Danube Urnfield culture

Sometimes the distribution of artifacts belonging to these groups shows sharp and consistent borders, which might indicate some political structures, like tribes. Metalwork is commonly of a much more widespread distribution than pottery and does not conform to these borders. It may have been produced at specialised workshops catering for the elite of a large area.

Important French cemeteries include Châtenay and Lingolsheim (Alsace). An unusual earthwork was constructed at Goloring near Koblenz in Germany.

Related cultures

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Villanovan cinerary urn from Chiusi9th-7th century BC.

The central European Lusatian cultureforms part of the Urnfield tradition, but continues into the Iron Age without a notable break.

The Piliny culture in northern Hungary and Slovakia grew from the Tumulus culture, but used urn burials as well. The pottery shows strong links to the Gáva culture, but in the later phases, a strong influence of the Lusatian culture is found. In Italy the late Bronze Age Canegrate and Proto-Villanovan cultures and the early Iron Age Villanovan culture show similarities with the urnfields of central Europe. Urnfields are found in the French Languedoc and Catalonia from the 9th to 8th centuries. The change in burial custom was most probably influenced by developments further east.

The Golasecca culture in northern Italy developed with continuity from the Canegrate culture.[2][4] Canegrate represented a completely new cultural dynamic to the area expressed in pottery and bronzework, making it a typical western example of the Urnfield culture, in particular the Rhine-Switzerland-Eastern France (RSFO) Urnfield culture.[2][4] The Lepontic Celtic language inscriptions of the area show the language of the Golasecca culture was clearly Celtic making it probable that the 13th-century BC language of at least the RSEF area of the western urnfields was also Celtic or a precursor to it.[2][4]

Placename evidence has also been used to point to an association of the Urnfield materials with a Proto-Celtic language group in central Europe, and it has been argued that it was the ancestral culture of the Celts.[5] The Urnfield layers of the Hallstatt culture, Ha A and Ha B, are succeeded by the Iron Age « Hallstatt period » proper (Ha C and Ha D, 8th-6th centuries BC), associated with the early Celts; Ha D is in turn succeeded by the La Tène culture, the archaeological culture associated with the Continental Celts of antiquity.

The influence of the Urnfield culture spread widely and found its way to the northeastern Iberian coast, where the nearby Celtiberians of the interior adapted it for use in their cemeteries.[6] Evidence for east-to-west early Urnfield (Bronze D-Hallstatt A) elite contacts such as rilled-ware, swords and crested helmets has been found in the southwest of the Iberian peninsula.[7] The appearance of such elite status markers provides the simplest explanation for the spread of Celtic languages in this area from prestigious, proto-Celtic, early-Urnfield metalworkers.[7]

Migrations

The numerous hoards of the Urnfield culture and the existence of fortified settlements (hill forts) were taken as evidence for widespread warfare and upheaval by some scholars. Written sources describe several collapses and upheavals in the Eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia and the Levant around the time of the Urnfield origins:

  • End of the Mycenean culture with a conventional date of c. 1200 BC
  • Destruction of Troy VI c. 1200 BC
  • Battles of Ramses III against the Sea Peoples, 1195–1190 BC
  • End of the Hittite empire 1180 BC
  • Settlement of the Philistines in Canaan c. 1170 BC

Some scholars, among them Wolfgang Kimmig and P. Bosch-Gimpera have postulated a Europe-wide wave of migrations. The so-called Dorian invasion of Greece was placed in this context as well (although more recent evidence suggests that the Dorians moved in 1100 BC into a post Mycenaean vacuum, rather than precipitating the collapse). Better methods of dating have shown that these events are not as closely connected as once thought.

More recently Robert Drews, after having reviewed and dismissed the migration hypothesis, has suggested that the observed cultural associations may be in fact partly explained as the result of a new kind of warfare based upon the slashing Naue II sword,[8] and with bands of infantry replacing chariots in warfare. Drews suggests that the political instability that this brought to centralised states based upon maryannu chariotry caused the breakdown of these polities.

Settlements

The number of settlements increased sharply in comparison with the preceding tumulus culture. Unfortunately, few have been comprehensively excavated. Fortified settlements, often on hilltops or in river-bends, are typical for the Urnfield culture. They are heavily fortified with dry-stone or wooden ramparts. Excavations of open settlements are rare, but they show that large 3-4 aisled houses built with wooden posts and wall of wattle and daub were common. Pit dwellings are known as well; they might have served as cellars.

Open settlements

The houses were one or two-aisled. Some were quite small, 4.5 m × 5 m at the Runder Berg (Urach, Germany), 5-8m long in Künzig (Bavaria, Germany), others up to 20 m long. They were built with wooden posts and walls of wattle and daub. At the Velatice-settlement of Lovčičky (Moravia, Czech Republic) 44 houses have been excavated. Large bell shaped storage pits are known from the Knovíz-culture. The settlement of Radonice (Louny) contained over 100 pits. They were most probably used to store grain and demonstrate a considerable surplus-production.

Pile dwellings

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Site of a hill fort, Urnfield Culture, Burgstallkogel (Sulm valley)

On lakes of southern Germany and Switzerland, numerous pile dwellings were constructed. They consist either of simple one-room houses made of wattle and daub, or log-built. The settlement at Zug, Switzerland, was destroyed by fire and gives important insights into the material culture and the settlement organisation of this period. It has yielded a number of dendro-dates as well.

Fortified settlements

Fortified hilltop settlements become common in the Urnfield period. Often a steep spur was used, where only part of the circumference had to be fortified. Depending on the locally available materials, dry-stone walls, gridded timbers filled with stones or soil or plank and palisade type pfostenschlitzmauer fortifications were used. Other fortified settlements used rivers-bends and swampy areas.

At the hill fort of Hořovice near Beroun (CR), 50 ha were surrounded by a stone wall. Most settlements are much smaller. Metal working is concentrated in the fortified settlements. On the Runder Berg near Urach, Germany, 25 stone mouldshave been found.

Hillforts are interpreted as central places. Some scholars see the emergence of hill forts as a sign of increased warfare. Most hillforts were abandoned at the end of the Bronze Age.

As far as we know, there are no special dwellings for an upper class, but few settlements have been excavated to any extent. In the Franche-Comté, caves were used as dwellings, perhaps in times of trouble.

Material culture

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Urnfield pottery
Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Urnfield weapons

Pottery

The pottery is normally well made, with a smooth surface and a normally sharply carinated profile. Some forms are thought to imitate metal prototypes. Biconical pots with cylindrical necks are especially characteristic. There is some incised decoration, but a large part of the surface was normally left plain. Fluted decoration is common. In the Swiss pile dwellings, the incised decoration was sometimes inlaid with tin foil. Pottery kilns were already known (Elchinger Kreuz, Bavaria), as is indicated by the homogeneous surface of the vessels as well. Other vessels include cups of beaten sheet-bronze with riveted handles (type Jenišovice) and large cauldrons with cross attachments. Wooden vessels have only been preserved in waterlogged contexts, for example from Auvernier (Neuchâtel), but may have been quite widespread.

Tools and weapons

Further information: Frankleben hoard

The early Urnfield period (1300 BC) was a time when the warriors of central Europe could be heavily armored with body armor, helmets and shields all made of bronze, most likely borrowing the idea from MycenaeanGreece[9]

The leaf-shaped Urnfield sword could be used for slashing, in contrast to the stabbing-swords of the preceding tumulus culture. It commonly possessed a ricasso. The hilt was normally made from bronze as well. It was cast separately and consisted of a different alloy. These solid hilted swords were known since Bronze D (Rixheim swords). Other swords have tanged blades and probably had a wood, bone, or antler hilt. Flange-hilted swords had organic inlays in the hilt. Swords include Auvernier, Kressborn-Hemigkofen, Erbenheim, Möhringen, Weltenburg, Hemigkofen and Tachlovice-types.

Protective gear like shields, cuirasses, greaves and helmets are extremely rare and almost never found in burials. The best-known example of a bronze shield comes from Plzeň in Bohemia and has a riveted handhold. Comparable pieces have been found in Germany, Western Poland, Denmark, Great Britain and Ireland. They are supposed to have been made in upper Italy or the Eastern Alps and imitate wooden shields. Irish bogs have yielded examples of leather shields (Clonbrinn, Co. Wexford). Bronze cuirasses are known since Bronze D (Čaka, grave II, Slovakia). Complete bronze cuirasses have been found in Saint Germain du Plain, nine examples, one inside the other, in Marmesse, Haute Marne (France), fragments in Albstadt-Pfeffingen (Germany). Bronze dishes (phalerae) may have been sewn on a leather armour. Greaves of richly decorated sheet-bronze are known from Kloštar Ivanić (Croatia) and the Paulus cave near Beuron (Germany).

Chariots

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Miniature bronze wagon.

About a dozen wagon-burials of four wheeled wagons with bronze fittings are known from the early Urnfield period. They include Hart an der Altz (Kr. Altötting), Mengen (Kr. Sigmaringen), Poing (Kr. Ebersberg), Königsbronn (Kr. Heidenheim) from Germany and St. Sulpice (Vaud), Switzerland. In Alz, the chariot had been placed on the pyre, pieces of bone are attached to the partially melted metal of the axles. Bronze (one-part) bits appear at the same time. Two-part horse bits are only known from late Urnfield contexts and may be due to eastern influence. Wood- and bronze spoked wheels are known from Stade (Germany), a wooden spoked wheel from Mercurago, Italy. Wooden dish-wheels have been excavated at Corcelettes (fr), Switzerland and the Wasserburg Buchau (de), Germany (diameter 80 cm).

In Milavče near Domažlice, Bohemia, a four-wheeled miniature bronze wagon bearing a large cauldron (diameter 30 cm) contained a cremation. This exceptionally rich burial was covered by a barrow. The wagon from Acholshausen (de) (Bavaria) comes from a male burial.

Such wagons are known from the Nordic Bronze Age as well. The Skallerup wagon (da), Denmark, contained a cremation as well. At Pekatel (Kr. Schwerin) in Mecklenburg a cauldron-wagon and other rich grave goods accompanied an inhumation under a barrow (Montelius III/IV). Another example comes from Ystad in Sweden. South-eastern European examples include Kanya in Hungary and Orăştiein Romania. Clay miniature wagons, sometimes with waterfowl were known there since the middle Bronze Age (Dupljaja, Vojvodina, Serbia).

The Lusatian chariot from Burg (Brandenburg, Germany) has three wheels on a single axle, on which waterfowl perch. The grave of Gammertingen (Kr. Sigmaringen, Germany) contained two socketed horned applications that probably belonged to a miniature wagon comparable to the Burg example, together with six miniature spoked wheels.

Hoards

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Bronze wheel pendants, Zürich, c. 1550–1000 BC.

Hoards are very common in the Urnfield culture. The custom is abandoned at the end of the Bronze Age. They were often deposited in rivers and wet places like swamps. As these spots were often quite inaccessible, they most probably represent gifts to the gods. Other hoards contain either broken or miscast objects that were probably intended for reuse by bronze smiths. As Late Urnfield hoards often contain the same range of objects as earlier graves, some scholars interpret hoarding as a way to supply personal equipment for the hereafter. In the river Trieux, Côtes du Nord, complete swords were found together with numerous antlers of red deer that may have had a religious significance as well.

Iron

Crescent shaped Urnfield razor[clarification needed]

An iron ring from Vorwohlde (Kr. Grafschaft Diepholz, Germany) dating to the 15th century BC is the earliest evidence of iron in Central Europe. During the late Bronze Age, Iron was used to decorate the hilts of swords (Schwäbisch-Hall-Gailenkirchen, Unterkrumbach, Kr. Hersbruck) and knives (Dotternhausen, Plettenberg, Germany) and pins. The use of iron for weapons and domestic items in Europe only started in the following Hallstatt culture. The widespread use of iron for tools only occurred in the late Iron AgeLa Tène culture.

Economy

Cattle, pigs, sheep and goats were kept, as well as horses, dogs and geese. The cattle were rather small, with a height of 1.20 m at the withers. Horses were not much bigger with a mean of 1.25 m.

Forest clearance was intensive in the Urnfield period. Probably open meadows were created for the first time, as shown by pollen analysis. This led to increased erosion and sediment-load of the rivers.

Wheat and barley were cultivated, together with pulses and the horse bean. Poppy seeds were used for oil or as a drug. Millet and oats were cultivated for the first time in Hungary and Bohemia, rye was already cultivated, further west it was only a noxious weed. Flax seems to have been of reduced importance, maybe because mainly wool was used for clothes. Hazel nuts, apples, pears, sloes and acorns were collected. Some rich graves contain bronze sieves that have been interpreted as wine-sieves (Hart an der Alz). This beverage would have been imported from the South, but supporting evidence is lacking. In the lacustrine settlement of Zug, remains of a broth made of spelt and millet have been found. In the lower-Rhine urnfields, leavened bread was often placed on the pyre and burnt fragments have thus been preserved.

Wool was spun (finds of spindle whorls are common) and woven on the warp-weighted loom; bronze needles (Unteruhldingen) were used for sewing.

There is some suggestion that the Urnfield culture is associated with a wetter climatic period than the earlier Tumulus cultures. This may be associated with the diversion of the mid-latitude winter storms north of the Pyrenees and the Alps, possibly associated with drier conditions in the Mediterranean basin.

Funerary customs

Giacobbe Giusti, Urnfield culture

Excavated tumulus at Marburg.

An urn for the ashes and dishes for grave offerings.

Typical burial of cremation urn.

Graves

In the tumulus-period, multiple inhumations under barrows were common, at least for the upper levels of society. In the Urnfield period, inhumation and burial in single flat graves prevails, though some barrows exist.

In the earliest phases of the Urnfield period, man-shaped graves were dug, sometimes provided with a stone lined floor, in which the cremated remains of the deceased were spread. Only later, burial in urns became prevalent. Some scholars speculate that this may have marked a fundamental shift in people’s beliefs or myths about life and the afterlife.

The size of the urnfields is variable. In Bavaria, they can contain hundreds of burials, while the largest cemetery in Baden-Württemberg in Dautmergen has only 30 graves. The dead were placed on pyres, covered in their personal jewellery, which often shows traces of the fire and sometimes food-offerings. The cremated bone-remains are much larger than in the Roman period, which indicates that less wood was used. Often, the bones have been incompletely collected. Most urnfields are abandoned with the end of the Bronze Age, only the Lower Rhine urnfields continue in use in the early Iron Age (Ha C, sometimes even D).

The cremated bones could be placed in simple pits. Sometimes the dense concentration of the bones indicates a container of organic material, sometimes the bones were simply shattered.

If the bones were placed in urns, these were often covered by a shallow bowl or a stone. In a special type of burial (bell-graves) the urns are completely covered by an inverted larger vessel. As graves rarely overlap, they may have been marked by wooden posts or stones. Stone-pacing graves are typical of the Unstrut group.

Grave gifts

The urn containing the cremated bones is often accompanied by other, smaller ceramic vessels, like bowls and cups. They may have contained food. The urn is often placed in the centre of the assemblage. Often, these vessels have not been placed on the pyre. Metal grave gifts include razors, weapons that often have been deliberately destroyed (bent or broken), bracelets, pendants and pins. Metal grave gifts become rarer towards the end of the Urnfield culture, while the number of hoards increase. Burnt animal bones are often found, they may have been placed on the pyre as food. The marten bones in the grave of Seddin may have belonged to a garment (pelt). Amber or glassbeads (Pfahlbautönnchen) are luxury items.

Upper-class graves

Upper-class burials were placed in wooden chambers, rarely stone cists or chambers with a stone-paved floor and covered with a barrow or cairn. The graves contain especially finely made pottery, animal bones, usually pork, sometimes gold rings or sheets, in exceptional cases miniature wagons. Some of these rich burials contain the remains of more than one person. In this case, women and children are normally seen as sacrifices. Until more is known about the status distribution and the social structure of the late Bronze Age, this interpretation should be viewed with caution, however. Towards the end of the Urnfield period, some bodies were burnt in situ and then covered by a barrow, reminiscent of the burial of Patroclus as described by Homer and the burial of Beowulf (with the additional ship burialelement). In the early Iron Age, inhumation became the rule again.

Cult

The Kyffhäuser caves in Thuringia contain headless skeletons and split human and animal bones that have been interpreted as sacrifices. Other deposits include grain, knotted vegetable fibres and hair and bronze objects (axes, pendants and pins). The Ith-caves (Lower Saxony) have yielded comparative material.

In the Knovíz-culture, human bones with cut-marks and traces of burning have been found in settlement pits. They have been interpreted as evidence for cannibalism. As these bones form a large part of the burials known this may have been a quite regular treatment including the ritual manipulation and dismemberment of human corpses. Moon-shaped clay fire dogs are thought to have a religious significance, as well as crescent shaped razors.

An obsession with waterbirds is indicated by numerous pictures and three-dimensional representations. Combined with the hoards deposited in rivers and swamps, it indicates religious beliefs connected with water. This has led some scholars to believe in serious droughts during the late Bronze Age. Sometimes the water-birds are combined with circles, the so-called sun-barque-motif.

References

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Chadwick and Corcoran, Nora and J.X.W.P. (1970). The Celts. Penguin Books. pp. 28–29.
  2. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Kruta, Venceslas (1991). The Celts. Thames and Hudson. pp. 93–100.
  3. Jump up^ Gimbutas, Marija (1965). Bronze age cultures in Central and Eastern Europe. Mouton Publishers. pp. 274–298.
  4. ^ Jump up to:a b c Stifter, David (2008). Old Celtic Languages (PDF). p. 24.
  5. Jump up^ Chadwick with Corcoran, Nora with J.X.W.P. (1970). The Celts. Penguin Books. pp. 28–33.
  6. Jump up^ Cremin, Aedeen (1992). The Celts in Europe. Sydney, Australia: Sydney Series in Celtic Studies 2, Centre for Celtic Studies, University of Sydney. pp. 59–60. ISBN 0-86758-624-9.
  7. ^ Jump up to:a b Koch, John T. (2013). Celtic from the West 2 – Prologue: The Earliest Hallstatt Iron Age cannot equal Proto-Celtic. Oxford: Oxbow Books. pp. 10–11. ISBN 978-1-84217-529-3.
  8. Jump up^ Drews. R (1993) « The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe Ca. 1200 B.C. » Princeton University Press ISBN 0-691-04811-8
  9. Jump up^ « Bronze Age cultures in Central and Eastern Europe ». google.dk.

Bibliography

  • J. M. Coles/A. F. Harding, The Bronze Age in Europe (London 1979).
  • G. Weber, Händler, Kieger, Bronzegießer (Kassel 1992).
  • Ute Seidel, Bronzezeit. Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart (Stuttgart 1995).
  • Konrad Jażdżewski, Urgeschichte Mitteleuropas (Wrocław 1984)
  • Association Abbaye de Daoulas (eds.), Avant les Celtes. L’Europe a l’age du Bronze (Daoulas 1988).
  • Frans Theuws, Nico Roymans (eds.), Land and ancestors: cultural dynamics in the Urnfield period and the Middle Ages in the southern Netherlands, Amsterdam Archaeological Studies, Amsterdam University Press, 1999, ISBN978-90-5356-278-9.

Urnfield culture at Wikimedia Commons

 

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Mosaic from Thmuis, Egypt, created by the Hellenistic artist Sophilos

Publié par GIACOBBE GIUSTI le 24 Mai 2018
Publié dans: El-Aref, Nevine (30 October 2013). "Alexandria's Graeco-Roman Museum to reopen within 18 months". Retrieved 4 August 2016. Supreme Council of Antiquities Museums: The Graeco-Roman Museum, Giacobbe Giusti,  Graeco-Roman Museum, Graeco-Roman Museum, Graeco-Roman Museum is an archaeological museum located in Alexandria, Egypt., Graeco-Roman_Museum, Hellenistic artist Sophilos, Joann Fletcher (Cleopatra the Great: The Woman Behind the Legend, New York: Harper,, misaik, Mosaic from Thmuis, Egypt, created by the Hellenistic artist Sophilos, Mosaic from Thmuis, Egypt, created by the Hellenistic artist Sophilos (signature) about 200 BC, now in the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, Egypt. The woman depicts the Ptolemaic Queen Berenike II (w, mosaik, Senza categoria, Supreme Council of Antiquities Museums: The Graeco-Roman Museum. Tagué : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Poster un commentaire

Giacobbe Giusti, Mosaic from Thmuis, Egypt, created by the Hellenistic artist Sophilos

Mosaic from Thmuis, Egypt, created by the Hellenistic artist Sophilos (signature) about 200 BC, now in the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, Egypt. The woman depicts the Ptolemaic Queen Berenike II (who ruled jointly with her husband Ptolemy III) as the personification of Alexandria. Dr. Joann Fletcher (Cleopatra the Great: The Woman Behind the Legend, New York: Harper, 2008

Giacobbe Giusti,

Graeco-Roman Museum

Floor plan of the museum

Giacobbe Giusti,

Graeco-Roman Museum

The main entrance

The Graeco-Roman Museum is an archaeological museum located in Alexandria, Egypt. Erected in 1892, it was first built in a five-room apartment, inside one small building on Rosetta Street (later Avenue Canope and now Horriya). In 1895, it was transferred to another, larger building near Gamal Abdul Nasser Street. The museum contains several pieces dating from the Graeco-Roman (Ptolemaic) era in the 3rd century BC, such as a sculpture of Apisin black granite, the sacred bull of the Egyptians, mummies, sarcophagus, tapestries, and other objects offering a view of Greco-Roman civilization in contact with ancient Egypt.

The museum’s collection is the product of donations from wealthy Alexandrians as well as of excavations led by successive directors of the institution, both within the town and in its environs. Certain other objects have come from the Organization of Antiquities at Cairo (particularly those of the Pharaonic period) and from various digs undertaken at the beginning of the century in Fayoum and at Benhasa. Housed within a historic building whose beautiful neoclassicalfacade of six columns and pedimentbears the large Greek inscription ‘MOYΣEION’ (MOUSEION). The museum consists of 27 halls and an attractive garden, which offer an excellent introduction to Egypt’s Greco-Roman period.

The museum has been closed for renovations since 2005.[1] As of June 2017, the building was still surrounded by scaffolding.

References

  1. Jump up^ El-Aref, Nevine (30 October 2013). « Alexandria’s Graeco-Roman Museum to reopen within 18 months ». Retrieved 4 August 2016.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graeco-Roman_Museum

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Flight into Egypt, Saint Catherine’s Monastery

Publié par GIACOBBE GIUSTI le 24 Mai 2018
Publié dans: Flight into Egypt, Flight into Egypt, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Giacobbe Giusti, Flight into Egypt, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai" (Greek: Ιερά Μονή του Θεοβαδίστου Όρους Σινά), lies on the Sinai Peninsula, Saint Catherine's Monastery (Arabic: دير القدّيسة كاترين‎; Greek: Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης), officially "Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount S, Saint Catherine, South Sinai Governorate, Egypt, Senza categoria, Syriac Sinaiticus and, until 1859, the Codex Sinaiticus.[3][4] A small town with hotels and swimming pools, called Saint Katherine City, has grown around the monastery.. Tagué : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Poster un commentaire

Giacobbe Giusti, Flight into Egypt, Saint Catherine’s Monastery

Saint Catherine’s Monastery, 12th century

Giacobbe Giusti, Flight into Egypt, Saint Catherine’s Monastery

Saint Catherine’s Monastery, 12th century

   Giacobbe Giusti, Saint Catherine’s Monastery

 
Katharinenkloster Sinai BW 2.jpg
Monastery information
Order Church of Sinai
Established AD 565
People
Founder(s) Justinian I
Site
Location Saint Catherine, South Sinai Governorate, Egypt
Website www.sinaimonastery.com
Official name Saint Catherine Area
Type Cultural
Criteria i, iii, iv, vi
Designated 2002 (26th session)
Reference no. 954
State Party Egypt
Region Arab States

Saint Catherine’s Monastery (Arabic: دير القدّيسة كاترين‎; Greek: Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης), officially « Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai » (Greek: Ιερά Μονή του Θεοβαδίστου Όρους Σινά), lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai, in the city of Saint Catherine, Egypt in the South Sinai Governorate. The monastery is controlled by the autonomous Church of Sinai, part of the wider Eastern Orthodox Church, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Built between 548 and 565, the monastery is one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world.[1][2]The site contains the world’s oldest continually operating library, possessing many unique books including the Syriac Sinaiticus and, until 1859, the Codex Sinaiticus.[3][4] A small town with hotels and swimming pools, called Saint Katherine City, has grown around the monastery.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Catherine%27s_Monastery

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Stele Ra-Horakhty Louvre

Publié par GIACOBBE GIUSTI le 11 décembre 2017
Publié dans: art, egypte, egypte antique, Egyptian antiquities, Egyptian antiquities louvre, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Osiris, Ra-Horakhty-Atum, Senza categoria, stele egypt, Stele Ra-Horakhty Louvre. Tagué : , , , , , , , , , , , . Poster un commentaire

Giacobbe Giusti, Stele Ra-Horakhty Louvre

English: Upper tier: the priest Padiuiset burning incense in honour of Ra-Horakhty-Atum; Lower tier: offering formula to Osiris. Coated and painted wood, ca. 900 BC (22nd Dynasty).
Français : Registre supérieur : le prêtre Padiouset offre de l’encens en l’honneur de Rê-Horakhty-Atoum ; registre inférieur : formule d’offrande à Osiris. Bois enduit et peint, vers 900 av. J.-C. (XXIIe Dynastie).
Giacobbe Giusti, Stele Ra-Horakhty Louvre

Giacobbe Giusti, Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai, Egypt

Publié par GIACOBBE GIUSTI le 10 décembre 2017
Publié dans: Paul Getty Museum, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Saint Catherine's Monastery (Arabic: دير القدّيسة كاترين‎; Greek: Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης), officially "Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount S, Senza categoria, The Icons of Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt, J. Paul Getty Museum, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tagué : , , , , , , , , , . Poster un commentaire

Giacobbe Giusti, Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai, Egypt

Bush of genista in place of the Burning Bush, Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai, Egypt

Giacobbe Giusti, Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai, Egypt

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai, Egypt

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai, Egypt

Giacobbe Giusti, Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai, Egypt

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai, Egypt
Katharinenkloster Sinai BW 2.jpg
Monastery information
Order Church of Sinai
Established AD 565
People
Founder(s) Justinian I
Site
Location Saint Catherine, South Sinai Governorate, Egypt
Website www.sinaimonastery.com
Official name Saint Catherine Area
Type Cultural
Criteria i, iii, iv, vi
Designated 2002 (26th session)
Reference no. 954
State Party Egypt
Region Arab States

Saint Catherine’s Monastery (Arabic: دير القدّيسة كاترين‎; Greek: Μονὴ τῆς Ἁγίας Αἰκατερίνης), officially « Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai » (Modern Greek: Ιερά Μονή του Θεοβαδίστου Όρους Σινά), lies on the Sinai Peninsula, at the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai, in the city of Saint Catherine, Egypt in the South Sinai Governorate. The monastery is controlled by the autonomous Church of Sinai, part of the wider Eastern Orthodox Church, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Built between 548 and 565, the monastery is one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world.[1][2] The site contains the world’s oldest continually operating library, possessing many unique books including the Syriac Sinaiticus and, until 1859, the Codex Sinaiticus.[3][4] A small town with hotels and swimming pools, called Saint Katherine City, has grown around the monastery.

Christian traditions

According to tradition, UNESCO World Heritage Site. was a Christian martyr sentenced to death on the breaking wheel. When this failed to kill her, she was beheaded. According to tradition, angels took her remains to Mount Sinai. Around the year 800, monks from the Sinai Monastery found her remains.

Although it is commonly known as Saint Catherine’s, the monastery’s full official name is the Sacred Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount Sinai. The patronal feast of the monastery is the Feast of the Transfiguration. The monastery has become a favorite site of pilgrimage.

History

Bell tower at Saint Catherine’s Monastery

Saint Catherine’s Monastery, 1968
Saint Catherine’s monastery, 1852

The oldest record of monastic life at Sinai comes from the travel journal written in Latin by a woman named Egeria about 381–384. She visited many places around the Holy Land and Mount Sinai, where, according to the Old Testament, Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.[5]

The monastery was built by order of Emperor Justinian I (reigned 527–565), enclosing the Chapel of the Burning Bush (also known as « Saint Helen’s Chapel ») ordered to be built by Empress Consort Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, at the site where Moses is supposed to have seen the burning bush. The living bush on the grounds is purportedly the one seen by Moses. Structurally the monastery’s king post truss is the oldest known surviving roof truss in the world.[6] The site is sacred to Christianity, Islam and Judaism.[7]

A mosque was created by converting an existing chapel during the Fatimid Caliphate (909–1171), which was in regular use until the era of the Mamluk Sultanate in the 13th century and is still in use today on special occasions. During the Ottoman Empire, the mosque was in desolate condition; it was restored in the early 20th century.[8]

During the seventh century, the isolated Christian anchorites of the Sinai were eliminated: only the fortified monastery remained. The monastery is still surrounded by the massive fortifications that have preserved it. Until the twentieth century, access was through a door high in the outer walls. From the time of the First Crusade, the presence of Crusaders in the Sinai until 1270 spurred the interest of European Christians and increased the number of intrepid pilgrims who visited the monastery. The monastery was supported by its dependencies in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Crete, Cyprus and Constantinople.

Ossuary in Saint Catherine’s Monastery

The monastery, along with several dependencies in the area, constitute the entire Church of Sinai, which is headed by an archbishop, who is also the abbot of the monastery. The exact administrative status of the church within the Eastern Orthodox Church is ambiguous: by some, including the church itself,[9] it is considered autocephalous,[10][11] by others an autonomouschurch under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem.[12]The archbishop is traditionally consecrated by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem; in recent centuries he has usually resided in Cairo. During the period of the Crusades which was marked by bitterness between the Orthodox and Catholic churches, the monastery was patronized by both the Byzantine emperors and the rulers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and their respective courts.

On April 18, 2017, an attack by the Islamic State group at a checkpoint near the Monastery killed one policeman and injured three police officers.[13]

Manuscripts and icons

Ashtiname of Muhammad

6th-century hot wax icon

The monastery library preserves the second largest collection of early codices and manuscripts in the world, outnumbered only by the Vatican Library. It contains Greek, Arabic, Armenian, Coptic, Hebrew, Georgian, Aramaicand Caucasian Albanian texts.

In May 1844 and February 1859, Constantin von Tischendorf visited the monastery for research and discovered the Codex Sinaiticus, dating from the 4th Century, at the time the oldest almost completely preserved manuscript of the Bible. The finding from 1859 left the monastery in the 19th century for Russia, in circumstances that had been long disputed. But in 2003 Russian scholars discovered the donation act for the manuscript signed by the Council of Cairo Metochion and Archbishop Callistratus on 13 November 1869. The monastery received 9000 rubles as a gift from Tsar Alexander II of Russia.[14] The Codex was sold by Stalin in 1933 to the British Museum and is now in the British Library, London, where it is on public display. Prior to September 1, 2009, a previously unseen fragment of Codex Sinaiticus was discovered in the monastery’s library.[15][16]

In February 1892, Agnes Smith Lewis identified a palimpsest in St Catherine’s library that became known as the Syriac Sinaiticus and is still in the Monastery’s possession. Agnes and her sister Margaret Dunlop Gibson returned with a team of scholars that included J. Rendel Harris, to photograph and transcribe the work in its entirety.[17] As the manuscript predates the Codex Sinaiticus, it became crucial in understanding the history of the New Testament.

Giacobbe Giusti, Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai, Egypt

Moses & Bush Icon Sinai c12th century.jpg
 The Icons of Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Sinai, Egypt, J. Paul Getty Museum

The Monastery also has a copy of the Ashtiname of Muhammad, in which the Islamic prophet Muhammad is claimed to have bestowed his protection upon the monastery.[18]

The most important manuscripts have since been filmed or digitized, and so are accessible to scholars. A team of imaging scientists and scholars from the US and Europe used spectral imaging techniques developed for imaging the Archimedes Palimpsest to study more than one hundred palimpsests in the monastery library.[19] The library will be extensively renovated for some time.[20]

As of 5 September 2017, there are about 130 palimpsests identified at St. Catherine’s Monastery.[21] Since 2011, scholars have recovered 74 palimpsests, containing 6,800 pages of text.[21]This includes « 108 pages of previously unknown Greek poems and the oldest-known recipe attributed to the Greek physician Hippocrates ».[21]

Works of art

The complex houses irreplaceable works of art: mosaics, the best collection of early icons in the world, many in encaustic, as well as liturgical objects, chalices and reliquaries, and church buildings. The large icon collection begins with a few dating to the 5th (possibly) and 6th centuries, which are unique survivals; the monastery having been untouched by Byzantine iconoclasm, and never sacked. The oldest icon on an Old Testament theme is also preserved there. A project to catalogue the collections has been ongoing since the 1960s. The monastery was an important centre for the development of the hybrid style of Crusader art, and still retains over 120 icons created in the style, by far the largest collection in existence. Many were evidently created by Latins, probably monks, based in or around the monastery in the 13th century.[22]

Giacobbe Giusti, Monastery of St Catherine, Sinai, Egypt

A panorama of St Catherine’s

Saint Catherine’s Foundation

The Saint Catherine’s Foundation is a UK-based non-profit organization that aims to preserve the monastery. The conservation of its architectural structures, paintings, and books comprise much of the Foundation’s purpose. The Saint Catherine’s Foundation works with its academic partner, the Ligatus Research Center at the University of the Arts, London, to raise awareness of the monastery’s unique cultural significance via lectures, books and articles.[23] Founded on November 2, 2007 at the Royal Geographical Society in London needs new funds for the conservation workshop, digitization studio and full complement of conservation boxes designed to protect the most vulnerable manuscripts of the monastery. About 2000 manuscripts should be stored in boxes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Catherine%27s_Monastery

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Merneptah Stele

Publié par GIACOBBE GIUSTI le 10 décembre 2017
Publié dans: ancient egypt, ancient Egypt stele, Ancient Egypt, British Museum, Ancient History. New York, art, Ashkelon, Gezer and Yanoam are given the determinative for a city – a throw stick plus three mountains – the hieroglyphs, Biblical World, Oxford University, British Museum stele egypt, Egypt, Egypt, Canaan and Israel: History, Imperialism, Ideology and Literature: Proceedings of a Conference at the University of Haifa, egypte, egypte antique, Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egyptian Museum in Cairo stele, Encyclopedia of Ancient History. New York, End of the Bronze Age. Princeton University Press., 麥倫普塔赫石碑碑文(Flinders Petrie, Six Temples at Thebes, London (1897), Tafel 14), 麦伦普塔赫石碑, Flinders Petrie's, giuacobbe giusti, Institute of Southern Adventist University, Literary, Political and Religion History, the Archeology, Geography and Natural History of the Bible., Merneptah Stele, Merneptah Stele—also known as the Israel Stele or the Victory Stele of Merneptah—is an inscription by the ancient Egyptian king Merneptah (reign: 1213 to 1203 BC) discovered by Flinders Petrie in , Senza categoria, Skirts of Canaan in the Iron Age, The Oxford History of the Biblical World, 参见 米沙石碑 但丘石碑 引注, 法老麥倫普塔赫塑像 (位于卢克索). Tagué : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Poster un commentaire

Giacobbe Giusti, Merneptah Stele

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Merneptah Stele
Merenptah Israel Stele Cairo.jpg

The Merneptah Stele in its current location
Material Granite
Writing Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs
Created c. 1208 BC
Discovered 1896
Present location Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Identification JE 31408

The Merneptah Stele—also known as the Israel Stele or the Victory Stele of Merneptah—is an inscription by the ancient Egyptian king Merneptah (reign: 1213 to 1203 BC) discovered by Flinders Petrie in 1896 at Thebes, and now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.[1][2]

The text is largely an account of Merneptah’s victory over the Libyans and their allies, but the last 3 of the 28 lines deal with a separate campaign in Canaan, then part of Egypt’s imperial possessions. The stele is sometimes referred to as the « Israel Stela » because a majority of scholars translate a set of hieroglyphs in line 27 as « Israel. » Alternative translations have been advanced but are not widely accepted.[3]

If this consensus is correct, the stela represents the earliest textual reference to Israel and the only reference from ancient Egypt.[4] It is one of four known inscriptions that date to the time of and mention ancient Israel, the others being the Mesha Stele, the Tel Dan Stele, and the Kurkh Monolith.[5][6][7] As a result, some consider the stele to be Flinders Petrie‘s most famous discovery,[8] an opinion with which Petrie himself concurred.[9]

Description and context

Flinders Petrie‘s 1897 mirror image copy of the main part of the inscription (all 28 lines)

The stele was discovered in 1896 by Flinders Petrie in the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes, and first translated by Wilhelm Spiegelberg. In his « Inscriptions » chapter of Petrie’s 1897 publication « Six Temples at Thebes », Spiegelberg described the stele as « engraved on the rough back of the stele of Amenhotep III, which was removed from his temple, and placed back outward, against the wall, in the forecourt of the temple of Merenptah. Owing to the rough surface, and the poor cutting, the readings in many places require careful examination… The scene at the top retains its original colouring of yellow, red, and blue. Amen is shown giving a sword to the king, who is backed by Mut on one side and by Khonsu on the other ».[10]

Now in the collection of the Egyptian Museum at Cairo, the stele is a black granite slab, over 3 meters (10 feet) high, and the inscription says it was carved in the 5th year of Merneptah of the 19th dynasty. Most of the text glorifies Merneptah’s victories over enemies from Libya and their Sea People allies, but the final two lines mention a campaign in Canaan, where Merneptah says he defeated and destroyed Ashkalon, Gezer, Yanoam and Israel.

Egypt was the dominant power in the region during the long reign of Merneptah’s predecessor, Ramesses the Great, but Merneptah and one of his nearest successors, Ramesses III, faced major invasions. The problems began in Merneptah’s 5th year (1208), when a Libyan king invaded Egypt from the west in alliance with various northern peoples. Merneptah achieved a great victory in the summer of that year, and the inscription is mainly about this. The final lines deal with an apparently separate campaign in the East, where it seems that some of the Canaanite cities had revolted. Traditionally the Egyptians had concerned themselves only with cities, so the problem presented by Israel must have been something new – possibly attacks on Egypt’s vassals in Canaan. Merneptah and Ramesses III fought off their enemies, but it was the beginning of the end of Egypt’s control over Canaan – the last evidence of an Egyptian presence in the area is the name of Ramesses VI (1141–33) inscribed on a statue base from Megiddo.[11]

Lines 26–28

Libyans (Tjeḥenu) are described by determinatives: foreign person + people + foreign country(=state/country of Libyan people)

The bulk of the inscription deals with Merneptah’s victory over the Libyans, but the last 3 of the 28 lines shift to Canaan:[12]

The princes are prostrate, saying, « Peace! »
Not one is raising his head among the Nine Bows.
Now that Tehenu (Libya) has come to ruin,
Hatti is pacified;
The Canaan has been plundered into every sort of woe:
Ashkelon has been overcome;
Gezer has been captured;
Yano’am is made non-existent.
Israel is laid waste and his seed is not;
Hurru is become a widow because of Egypt.

The « nine bows » is a term the Egyptians used to refer to their enemies – the actual enemies varied according to time and circumstance.[13] Hatti and Hurru are Syro-Palestine, Canaan and Israel are smaller units, and Ashkelon, Gezer and Yanoam are cities within the region; according to the stele, all these entities fell under the rule of the Egyptian empire at that time.[14]

Line 27

« Israel »

Petrie called upon Wilhelm Spiegelberg, a German philologist in his archaeological team, to translate the inscription. Spiegelberg was puzzled by one symbol towards the end, that of a people or tribe whom Merneptah (also written Merenptah) had victoriously smitten—I.si.ri.ar? Petrie quickly suggested that it read « Israel! » Spiegelberg agreed that this translation must be correct.[1] « Won’t the reverends be pleased? » remarked Petrie. At dinner that evening, Petrie who realized the importance of the find said: « This stele will be better known in the world than anything else I have found. » The news of its discovery made headlines when it reached the English papers.[1]

The line which refers to Israel is:

i i z
Z1s Z1s
r		 i A r
Z1		 T14 A1 B1
Z2s
f
k
t		 G37

[a]
b
n
O1
r
t		 N33B
Z2
f
ysrỉꜣr fk.t bn pr.t =f
Israel waste [negative] seed/grain his/its

Determinative

While Ashkelon, Gezer and Yanoam are given the determinative for a city – a throw stick plus three mountains – the hieroglyphs that refer to Israel instead employ the throw stick (the determinative for « foreign ») plus a sitting man and woman (the determinative for « people ») over three vertical lines (a plural marker):

T14
A1 B1
Z2s

The determinatives « people » has been the subject of significant scholarly discussion. As early as 1955, John A. Wilson wrote of the idea that this determinative means the « ‘ysrỉꜣr » were a people that: « The argument is good, but not conclusive, because of the notorious carelessness of Late- Egyptian scribes and several blunders of writing in this stela ».[15] This sentiment was subsequently built upon by other scholars.[16]

According to The Oxford History of the biblical World, this « foreign people » « sign is typically used by the Egyptians to signify nomadic groups or peoples, without a fixed city-state home, thus implying a seminomadic or rural status for ‘Israel’ at that time. »[17][b] The phrase « wasted, bare of seed » is formulaic, and often used of defeated nations – it implies that the grain-store of the nation in question has been destroyed, which would result in a famine the following year, incapacitating them as a military threat to Egypt.[17]

A portion of line 27, translated as « Israel [foreign people] »

According to James Hoffmeier, « no Egyptologists would ever read the signs of a foreign ethnic entity as indicating a foreign land, but a people group.’[18]

In contrast to this apparent Israelite statelessness, the other Canaanite groups fought by Egypt: Ashkelon, Gezer, and Yano’am, are described in the stele as nascent states.[19]

Alternative translations

While alternatives to the reading « Israel » have been put forward since the stele’s discovery – the two primary candidates being « Jezreel »,[20][21][22] a city and valley in northern Canaan, and a continuation of the description of Libya referring to « wearers of the sidelock »[c] – most scholars accept that Merneptah refers to « Israel ».[d]

Interpretation

It is not clear, however, just who this Israel was or where they were located.[25][e] For the « who », if those depicted on the battle reliefs of Karnak are the Israelites, then Merneptah’s Israelites are therefore Canaanites, because they are depicted in Canaanite costume; if, on the other hand, the Karnak reliefs do not show Merneptah’s campaigns, then the stele’s Israelites may be « Shasu », a term used by the Egyptians to refer to nomads and marauders.[27]

Similarly, if Merneptah’s claim to have destroyed Israel’s « seed » means that he destroyed its grain supply, then Israel can be taken to be a settled, crop-growing people; if, however, it means he killed Israel’s progeny, then Israel can be taken to be pastoralists, i.e., Shasu.[28] The normative Egyptian use of « wasted, bare of seed » was as a repeated, formulaic phrase to declare victory over a defeated nation or people group whom the Egyptian army conquered and had literally destroyed their grain supply in the specific geographic region that they inhabited.[17] Michael G. Hasel, arguing that prt on the stele meant grain, suggested that « Israel functioned as an agriculturally based or sedentary socioethnic entity in the late 13th century BCE »[29] and this in some degree of contrast to nomadic « Shasu » pastoralists in the region. Others disagree that prt meant grain, and Edward Lipinski wrote that « the « classical » opposition of nomadic shepherds and settled farmers does not seem to suit the area concerned ».[30] Hasel also says that this does not suggest that the Israelites were an urban people at this time, nor does it provide information about the actual social structure of the people group identified as Israel.[29] Biblical scholar Thomas L. Thompson writes that « this name in the Merneptah inscription of the late thirteenth-century might conceivably understand it as the name of a region, in polarity with the clearly geographical name: Canaan. » Also, « The group « Israel » … are rather a very specific group among the population of Palestine which bears a name that occurs here for the first time that at a much later stage in Palestine’s history bears a substantially different signification. » For, « References to the Merneptah stele are not really helpful. This text renders for us only the earliest known usage of the name ‘Israel.' » So, « to begin the origins of biblical Israel with Merneptah … on the grounds that we have extra-biblical rather than biblical attestation is willful. These texts are, mirabile dictu, even less relevant than the biblical traditions. »[31]

As for its location, most scholars believe that Merneptah’s Israel must have been in the hill country of central Canaan, but some think it was across the Jordan, others that it was a coalition of Canaanite settlements in the lowlands of the Jezreel valley (the potential Israelites on the walls of Karnak are driving chariots, a weapon of the lowlands rather than the highlands), and others that the inscription gives very little useful information at all.[32]

Karnak reliefs

The stele was found in Merenptah’s funerary chapel in Thebes, the ancient Egyptian capital on the west bank of the Nile. On the opposite bank is the Temple of Karnak, where the fragmentary copy was found. In the 1970s Frank Yurco announced that some reliefs at Karnak which had been thought to depict events in the reign of Ramesses II, Merenptah’s father, in fact belonged to Merenptah. The four reliefs show the capture of three cities, one of them labelled as Ashkelon; Yurco suggested that the other two were Gezer and Yanoam. The fourth shows a battle in open hilly country against an enemy shown as Canaanite. Yurco suggested that this scene was to be equated with the Israel of the stele. While the idea that Merneptah’s Israelites are to be seen on the walls of the temple has had an influence on many theories regarding the significance of the inscription, not all Egyptologists accept Yurco’s ascription of the reliefs to Merneptah.[33]

Notes

  1. Jump up^ In the original text, the bird (a sparrow) is placed below the t sign (a semicircle) but for reasons of legibility, the bird is here placed next to the t sign.
  2. Jump up^ Whether the Egyptian scribes used these determinatives consistently in general and in the Merneptah Stele in particular, is in itself a matter of some debate.[14]
  3. Jump up^ Nibbi suggests that the first character in « I.si.ri.ar » was misread – rather than G1, Nibbi suggests G4, and that such an amendment would allow the characters to be translated as « wearers of the sidelock », which refers to Libyans in other sources such as the Book of Gates. Nibbi supports this by noting that the male figure has an apparent outgrowth of hair on the side of his head.[23]
  4. Jump up^ Hassel (2008): « The view that the term ysry·r/l is a possible territory within Canaan but not associated with biblical Israel was proposed by Othniel Margalith (1990). His conclusions are based on the suggestion by G. R. Driver (1948: 135) that the Egyptian letter ‘s’ in the word could also represent the Hebrew zayin. Accordingly, the name ysry·r/l could be translated as Iezreel « which might be an inexperienced way of rendering Yezreel, the valley to the north of the country » (Margalith 1990: 229). As others have pointed out elsewhere, Margalith’s attempts to identify the entity ysry·r/l with Israel or Jezreel through Ugaritic vocalizations and a Sumerian title of a king are not convincing for an Egyptian inscription with a clear context for this entity in Canaan (Hasel 1994: 46; 1998a: 196–97; compare Kitchen 1966a: 91). » and « The suggestion of equating the ysry·r/l of the stela with Jezreel has now been taken up anew by I. Hjelm and Thomas L. Thompson (2002: 14) without any reference to earlier discussions. The identification is rife with difficulties. First, the Egyptian signs for « bolt » (Gardiner 1957: 507, O34) and « folded cloth » (Gardiner 1957: 507, S29) in Old Egyptian represented the sound s. In the New Kingdom, Hebrew zayin is rendered q or t in Egyptian and not s (Kitchen 1966a: 91, 1966b 59; Helck 1971: 18, 554, 589). Second, ysry·r/l does not include the Egyptian equivalent of ayin needed for the reading yzrªl. Third, the reading “Jezreel” must assume that the determinative for people used with ysry·r/ l was a scribal error, because it does not fit the designation of a geographical location. The orthographic and philological reasons mitigate the reading of ysry·r/ l as Jezreel (see also Kitchen 2004). »[24]
  5. Jump up^ Davies (2008): « Assuming we have Merneptah’s dates correctly as 1213-1203, and that the reading « Israel » is correct, the reference places an Israel in Palestine in the thirteenth century. The word read (probably correctly) as « Israel » also has a sign indicating a people and not a place. That makes the alternative reading « Jezreel » less likely — though Hebrew « s » and « z » could both be represented by the same Egyptian letter; also, since « Jezreel » is partly made up of the word for « seed », the inscription could be a pun by a Semitic speaking scribe. It might also be considered that Merneptah would find it easier to fight in the plain of Jezreel than in the highlands. »[26]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merneptah_Stele

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

麦伦普塔赫石碑

维基百科，自由的百科全书
本条目的部分内容翻译自英語維基百科条目Merneptah Stele（版本228741644）並以知识共享-署名-相同方式共享3.0协议授权使用。原文作者列表請參閱其页面历史。
Giacobbe Giusti, Merneptah Stele

法老麥倫普塔赫塑像 (位于卢克索)

麥倫普塔赫石碑（The Merneptah Stele），别名以色列石碑（the Israel Stele）或法老麥倫普塔赫胜利纪念碑（Victory Stele of Merneptah）。这座石碑是一座大型暗色花岗岩石碑，为古埃及法老阿蒙霍特普三世（Amenhotep III）所立。后来法老麥倫普塔赫（Merneptah）在公元前1213年到前1203年在位，他在此石碑上刻下碑文。碑文内容纪念了法老麥倫普塔赫的一次重要战役的胜利，此战埃及军队击败了Libu 和 Meshwesh两支利比亚人部落以及他们的海上民族盟友。碑文的最后两行提及了先前发生在迦南的一次战役，法老麥倫普塔赫在碑文中声称在此战中他击败了亚实基伦（Ashkelon，迦南地的非利士人城邦）、基色（Gezer，迦南地的城市）、雅罗安（Yanoam）、以色列（Israel）等民族的军队。[1]

埃及学家弗林德斯·皮特里（Flinders Petrie）于1896年在底比斯古城的法老麥倫普塔赫祭庙中发现了这座石碑。[2] 皮特里有评论说，“这座石碑的名声会超过我发现的所有其他东西”。[3]如今它收藏在开罗的埃及博物馆。碑文的一个不完整的抄件在卡纳克被发现。[4] 石碑高度为318厘米或大约10英尺，宽度163厘米。[5]碑文的主体先是叙述文字，最后以一首诗歌结束，这正是当时埃及新王国时代的碑文风格。碑文记载的年代为“（法老麥倫普塔赫在位）五年，夏季第三月，三日”，大约为公元前1209或前1208年。

麥倫普塔赫石碑碑文(Flinders Petrie, Six Temples at Thebes, London (1897), Tafel 14)

碑文声名显赫的原因在于这是唯一提到以色列（ « Isrir » 或者 « Israel »）的古埃及文字记录。同样碑文也是至今为止发现的证明以色列存在的年代最古的证据。因此许多学者将此石碑称为以色列石碑。这个称谓有些误导的性质，因为碑文内容明显不是为以色列而作的，仅仅是在行文中提到一次以色列罢了。

只有一行提到了以色列，该行的译文为：“以色列惨遭蹂躏，几乎灭种”（ »Israel is wasted, bare of seed »）。该行另一种译文为“以色列荒芜，其种无存”（ »Israel lies waste, its seed no longer exists »）。碑文提到迦南地的内容很少。以色列仅仅是和亚实基伦（Ashkelon）、基色（Gezer）和雅罗安（Yanoam）一起在碑文中提到一次罢了。法老麥倫普塔赫是在碑文中插入了这行提到他在迦南地的战役，但碑文主要内容是他对利比亚部落和海上民族的战役的胜利。提到麥倫普塔赫的迦南地战役的碑文内容是，“迦南悲哀地臣服。亚实基伦被征服。基色被攻占。雅罗安不复存在。以色列惨遭蹂躏，几乎灭种。”

现在人们对于碑文的分歧集中在法老麥倫普塔赫的迦南战役是否真实发生。另外人们对碑文是否真实描述迦南战役也产生了疑问，怀疑碑文是否同亚述文献一样从来不承认亚述的战败。持怀疑观点的人们指出，另一篇关于卡叠石战役的碑文明确了麥倫普塔赫的父亲拉美西斯二世对迦南地的统治十分稳固。因此麥倫普塔赫即位后再次征服迦南地的战役就显得奇怪了。除非当地爆发了叛乱，以至于麥倫普塔赫认为有必要为了重建埃及统治而敉平叛乱。如果是这样的话，那麥倫普塔赫对迦南地的统治不怎么稳固。

i i z
Z1s Z1s
r		 i A r
Z1		 T14 A1 B1
Z2s

以上为碑文“以色列”的古埃及象形文字。由于碑文中“以色列”只出现一次，使得专家搜集信息推断此处“以色列”的所指较为困难。碑文明确此“以色列”是指一个民族，而不是国家。因为此处“以色列”象形文字中没有“国家”这个表意符号。碑文中和以色列同列的敌人亚实基伦（Ashkelon）、基色（Gezer）和雅罗安（Yanoam），象形文字符号组合中有“城邦”的表意符号。这个“城邦”符号形如“一根投掷棒加三座山”。而我们所见的“以色列”的象形文字符号组合却使用了另一个表示埃及之外民族的表意符号，形如“一根投掷棒加一个男人加一个女人，在这个男人和女人的下方有三条竖线”。埃及人使用这个符号来表示游牧民族，或者说是没有自己固定城市的民族。于是碑文的这种表达方式暗示了在法老麥倫普塔赫第五年，以色列人处在半游牧状态或者居于乡村的状态。[6]除了这个分析之外，学者对当时以色列的其他状况得出结论非常少。

Giacobbe Giusti, Merneptah Stele

碑文亚实基伦的写法。注意“一根投掷棒加三座山”的符号表示“城邦”，比较上述的碑文“以色列”写法。

Donald Redford提出的理论认为此“以色列”是一支与贝都因人类似的游牧人，埃及人称之为“Shasu”。Redford注意到法老阿蒙霍特普三世的Soleb temple里的记载公元前15世纪的“Shasu”族群的列表中，有一个是“Yhw，在Shasu之地”。Yhw被认为是Yaw或Yahweh的早期形式。而Yahweh正是希伯来语圣经（基督教的圣经旧约）里以色列的上帝。这个以色列人和Shasu存在关系的学说被质疑。因为在麦伦普塔赫石碑碑文中，以色列人并未被描绘为Shasu。碑文中以色列人与迦南城邦亚实基伦人、基色人和雅罗安人，两者在服装和发型上别无二致。[7]碑文中的亚实基伦人等城邦人民正在保卫自己的城市。“以色列”人紧接着在这些迦南地的城邦人民之后被提到。看来人们对此不会形成成熟可靠的结论。在麦伦普塔赫石碑之后，下一个提到以色列的非圣经文献就是300年后的米沙石碑。米沙石碑碑文记载了以色列王暗利和摩押人的战争。麦伦普塔赫石碑时代200年后扫罗成为以色列联合王国的王。这200年的历史圣经的记载很粗略。以色列如何转变为一个王国仍然需要研究。无论如何，麦伦普塔赫石碑是以色列历史的重要资料，它是关于“以色列”的第一次官方纪录，尽管信息不多。

Institute of Southern Adventist University 的Michael G. Hasel提出，在公元前13世纪晚期，以色列已经成为迦南地的一支成熟的政治力量。他认为麦伦普塔赫石碑固然没有使得我们明确当时以色列的社会状况，但碑文的确提到以色列意味着他成为埃及人在迦南地必须面对的政治实体。[8]

碑文片断“以色列荒芜，其种无存。”(« Israel is laid waste; its seed is not. »)
i i z
Z1s Z1s
r		 i A r
Z1		 T14 A1 B1
Z2s
f
k
t		 G36

[9]
b
n
O1
r
t
f
ysrỉr[10] fk.t bn pr.t =f
Israel waste [negative] seed/grain his/its
以色列 消耗 [表否定意] 种/谷 他的/它的

参见

引注

  1. 跳转^ Carol A. Redmount, ‘Bitter Lives: Israel in and out of Egypt’ in The Oxford History of the Biblical World, ed. Michael D. Coogan, (Oxford University Press: 1999), p.97
  2. 跳转^ Ian Shaw & Paul Nicholson, The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, British Museum Press, (1995), pp.183-184
  3. 跳转^ Flinders Petrie: A life in archaeology. Margaret Drower, 1985
  4. 跳转^ Redmount, op.cit., p.97
  5. 跳转^ Alessandro Bongioanni & Maria Croce (ed.), The Treasures of Ancient Egypt: From the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Universe Publishing, a division of Ruzzoli Publications Inc., 2003. p.186
  6. 跳转^ Redmount, op.cit., p.97
  7. 跳转^ Stager, Lawrence E., « Forging an Identity: The Emergence of Ancient Israel » in Michael Coogan ed. The Oxford History of the Biblical World, Oxford University Press, 2001. p.92
  8. 跳转^ M. G. Hasel, « Israel in the Merneptah Stela, » BASOR 296, 1994, pp.54 & 56, n.12.
  9. 跳转^ In the original text, the bird (a swallow) is placed below the t sign (a semicircle) but for reasons of legibility, the bird is here placed next to the t sign.
  10. 跳转^ According to Flinders Petrie.

参考

  • Coogan, Michael D., 1999. The Oxford History of the Biblical Word, Oxford University Press
  • Görg, Manfred. 2001. « Israel in Hieroglyphen. » Biblische Notizen: Beiträge zur exegetischen Diskussion 106:21–27.
  • Hasel, Michael G. 1994. « Israel in the Merneptah Stela. » Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 296:45–61.
  • Hasel, Michael G. 1998. Domination and Resistance: Egyptian Military Activity in the Southern Levant, 1300–1185 BC. Probleme der Ägyptologie 11. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 90-04-*10984-6
  • Hasel, Michael G. 2003. « Merenptah’s Inscription and Reliefs and the Origin of Israel » in Beth Alpert Nakhai ed. The Near East in the Southwest: Essays in Honor of William G. Dever, pp. 19–44. Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 58. Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research. ISBN 0-89757-065-0
  • Hasel, Michael G. 2004. « The Structure of the Final Hymnic-Poetic Unit on the Merenptah Stela. » Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 116:75–81.
  • Kitchen, Kenneth Anderson. 1994. « The Physical Text of Merneptah’s Victory Hymn (The ‘Israel Stela’). » Journal of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities 24:71–76.
  • Kitchen, Kenneth A. Ramesside Inscriptions, Translated & Annotated Translations. Volume 4: Merenptah & the Late Nineteenth Dynasty. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2003. ISBN 0-631-18429-5
  • Kuentz, Charles. 1923. « Le double de la stèle d’Israël à Karnak. » Bulletin de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale 21:113–117.
  • Lichtheim, Miriam. 1976. Ancient Egyptian Literature, A Book of Readings. Volume 2: The New Kingdom. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • Manassa, Colleen. 2003. The Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah: Grand Strategy in the Thirteenth Century BC. Yale Egyptological Studies 5. New Haven: Yale Egyptological Seminar, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University. ISBN 0-9740025-0-X
  • Redford, Donald Bruce. 1992. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  • Redmount, Carol A. ‘Bitter Lives: Israel in and out of Egypt’ in The Oxford History of the Biblical World, ed: Michael D. Coogan, (Oxford University Press: 1999),
  • Stager, Lawrence E. 1985. « Merenptah, Israel and Sea Peoples: New Light on an Old Relief. » Eretz Israel: Archaeological, Historical and Geographic Studies 18:56*–64*.
  • Stager, Lawrence E. 2001. « Forging an Identity: The Emergence of Ancient Israel » in Michael Coogan ed. The Oxford History of the Biblical World, pp. 90–129. New York: Oxford University Press.

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

Publié par GIACOBBE GIUSTI le 8 octobre 2017
Publié dans: A bixi-born Yan Temple Renovation Stele, A herm of Demosthenes, ancient Egypt  and in Central America, Ancient Near East, Mesopotamia, Greece, Egypt, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, art rupestre, Baal with Thunderbolt, British Museum stele, Buddhist Stele from China, Calakmul, China's Muslim, Code of Hammurabi, Early Medieval Scotland, Egyptian grave stela of Nehemes-Ra-tawy, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Etruscan language., funerary stele of Thrasea and Euandria, Greekherm, highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea, King Ezana's stele at Aksum, king Yuknoom Took' K'awiil, Manchester Museum, Maya stelae, Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Mesoamerican civilisations, Ming dynasty, neolithic Sardinianmenhir, Nestorian Stele, Notable steles, Petit Chasseurin Sion, Switzerland, Pre-Columbian America, Princess Nefertiabet's funerary slab stele, Rodney's Stone, Senza categoria, stele at Mount Tai with the personal calligraphy of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Stele Forest Museum, Stele N from Copán, Honduras, depicting King K'ac Yipyaj Chan K'awiil Smoke Shell, stele of Naram-Sin, a 23rd-century BCMesopotamian king., Stone monuments, Takasaki, The Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq, The Merneptah Stele, Thracian goddessBendis, Totem poles, Yamanoue Stele (681) in Takasaki. Tagué : , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Poster un commentaire

Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

Stele N from Copán, Honduras, depicting King K’ac Yipyaj Chan K’awiil (« Smoke Shell »), as drawn by Frederick Catherwood in 1839

A stele (/ˈstiːli/, STEE-lee)[Note 1] is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected in the ancient world as a monument. Grave steles were often used for funerary or commemorative purposes. Stelae as slabs of stone would also be used as ancient Greek and Romangovernment notices or as boundary markers to mark borders or property lines.

The surface of the stele usually has text, ornamentation, or both. The ornamentation may be inscribed, carved in relief, or painted.

Traditional Western gravestones may technically be considered the modern equivalent of ancient stelae, though the term is very rarely applied in this way. Equally, stelae-like forms in non-Western cultures may be called by other terms, and the words « stele » and « stelae » are most consistently applied in archaeological contexts to objects from Europe, the ancient Near East and Egypt,[1] China, and sometimes Pre-Columbian America.

Thrasea and Euandria.

Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

The funerary stele of Thrasea and Euandria, c. 365 BC

Steles have also been used to publish laws and decrees, to record a ruler’s exploits and honors, to mark sacred territories or mortgaged properties, as territorial markers, as the boundary steles of Akhenaton at Amarna,[2] or to commemorate military victories.[3] They were widely used in the Ancient Near East, Mesopotamia, Greece, Egypt, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and, most likely independently, in China and elsewhere in the Far East, and, independently, by Mesoamerican civilisations, notably the Olmec[4] and Maya.[5]

Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

Stela of Iddi-Sin, King of Simurrum. It dates back to the Old Babylonian Period. From Qarachatan Village, Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan. The Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraq

The large number of steles, including inscriptions, surviving from ancient Egypt  and in Central Americaconstitute one of the largest and most significant sources of information on those civilisations, in particular Maya stelae. The most famous example of an inscribed stela leading to increased understanding is the Rosetta Stone, which led to the breakthrough allowing Egyptian hieroglyphs to be read. An informative stele of Tiglath-Pileser III is preserved in the British Museum. Two steles built into the walls of a church are major documents relating to the Etruscan language.

Standing stones (menhirs), set up without inscriptions from Libya in North Africa to Scotland, were monuments of pre-literate Megalithiccultures in the Late Stone Age. The Pictish stones of Scotland, often intricately carved, date from between the 6th and 9th centuries.

An obelisk is a specialized kind of stele. The Insular high crosses of Ireland and Britain are specialized in steles. Totem poles of North and South America that are made out of stone may also be considered a specialized type of stele. Gravestones, typically with inscribed name and often with inscribed epitaph, are among the most common types of stele seen in Western culture.

Most recently, in the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, the architect Peter Eisenman created a field of some 2,700 blank steles.[6] The memorial is meant to be read not only as the field, but also as an erasure of data that refer to memory of the Holocaust.

Egypt

Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

Egyptian Hieroglyphs on an Egyptian funerary stela in Manchester Museum

Many steles have been used since the First Dynasty of Egypt. These vertical slabs of stone depict tombstones, religious usage, and boundaries.[7]

Urartu

Urartian steles were freestanding stone obelisks that served a variety of purposes, sometimes they were located within temple complexes, or set within monumental rock-cut niches (such as the niche of the Rock of Van, discovered by Marrand Orbeli in 1916[8]) or erected beside tombs. Others stood in isolated positions and, such as the Kelashin Stele, had a commemorative function or served as boundary markers. Although sometimes plain, most bore a cuneiform inscription that would detail the stele’s function or the reasons for its erection. The steel from Van’s « western niche » contained annals of the reign of Sarduri II, with events detailed yearly and with each year separated by the phrase « For the God Haldi I accomplished these deeds ».[9] Urartian steles are sometimes found reused as Christian Armenian gravestones or as spolia in Armenian churches – Maranci suggests this reuse was a deliberate desire to capitalize on the potency of the past.[10] Some scholars have suggested Urartian steles may have influenced the development of the Armenian khachkar.[11]

Greece

Greek funerary markers, especially in Attica, had a long and evolutionary history in Athens. From public and extravagant processional funerals to different types of pottery used to store ashes after cremation, visibility has always been a large part of Ancient Greek funerary markers in Athens. Regarding stelai (Greek plural of stele), in the period of the Archaic style in Ancient Athens (600 BCE) stele often showed certain archetypes of figures, such as the male athlete.[12] Generally their figures were singular, though there are instances of two or more figures from this time period.[13] Moving into the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, Greek stelai declined and then rose in popularity again in Athens and evolved to show scenes with multiple figures, often of a family unit or a household scene. One such notable example is the Stele of Hegeso. Typically grave stelai are made of marble and carved in relief, and like most Ancient Greek sculpture they were vibrantly painted.[14] For more examples of stelai, the Getty Museum’s published Catalog of Greek Funerary Sculpture is a valuable resource[15]

China

Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

A bixi-born Yan Temple Renovation Stele dated Year 9 of Zhizheng era in Yuan Dynasty (AD 1349), in Qufu, Shandong, China
Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

Chinese ink rubbings of the 1489 (left) and 1512 (right) steles left by the Kaifeng Jews.

Steles (Chinese: bēi 碑) have been the major medium of stone inscription in China since the Tang dynasty.[16]Chinese steles are generally rectangular stone tablets upon which Chinese characters are carved intaglio with a funerary, commemorative, or edifying text. They can commemorate talented writers and officials, inscribe poems, portraits, or maps, and frequently contain the calligraphy of famous historical figures.[17] In additional to their commemorative value, many Chinese steles are regarded as exemplars of traditional Chinese calligraphic scripts, especially the clerical script.[18]

Chinese steles from before the Tang dynasty are rare: there are a handful from before the Qin dynasty, roughly a dozen from the Western Han, 160 from the Eastern Han, and several hundred from the Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern, and Suidynasties.[19] During the Han dynasty, tomb inscriptions (墓誌, mùzhì) containing biographical information on deceased people began to be written on stone tablets rather than wooden ones.[19]

Erecting steles at tombs or temples eventually became a widespread social and religious phenomenon. Emperors found it necessary to promulgate laws, regulating the use of funerary steles by the population. The Ming dynasty laws, instituted in the 14th century by its founder the Hongwu Emperor, listed a number of stele types available as status symbols to various ranks of the nobility and officialdom: the top noblemen and mandarins were eligible for steles installed on top of a stone tortoise and crowned with hornless dragons, while the lower-level officials had to be satisfied with steles with plain rounded tops, standing on simple rectangular pedestals.[20]

Steles are found at nearly every significant mountain and historical site in China. The First Emperor made five tours of his domain in the 3rd century BC and had Li Si make seven stone inscriptions commemorating and praising his work, of which fragments of two survive.[21] One of the most famous mountain steles is the 13 m (43 ft) high stele at Mount Tai with the personal calligraphy of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang commemorating his imperial sacrifices there in 725.[21]

A number of such stone monuments have preserved the origin and history of China’s minority religious communities. The 8th-century Christians of Xi’an left behind the Nestorian Stele, which survived adverse events of the later history by being buried underground for several centuries. Steles created by the Kaifeng Jews in 1489, 1512, and 1663, have survived the repeated flooding of the Yellow River that destroyed their synagogue several times, to tell us something about their world. China’s Muslim have a number of steles of considerable antiquity as well, often containing both Chinese and Arabic text.

Thousands of steles, surplus to the original requirements, and no longer associated with the person they were erected for or to, have been assembled in Xi’an’s Stele Forest Museum, which is a popular tourist attraction. Elsewhere, many unwanted steles can also be found in selected places in Beijing, such as Dong Yue Miao, the Five Pagoda Temple, and the Bell Tower, again assembled to attract tourists and also as a means of solving the problem faced by local authorities of what to do with them. The long, wordy, and detailed inscriptions on these steles are almost impossible to read for most are lightly engraved on white marble in characters only an inch or so in size, thus being difficult to see since the slabs are often 3m or more tall.

There are more than 100,000 surviving stone inscriptions in China. However, only approximately 30,000 have been transcribed or had rubbings made, and fewer than those 30,000 have been formally studied.[19]

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

A relief sculpture showing a richly dressed human figure facing to the left with legs slightly spread. The arms are bent at the elbow with hands raised to chest height. Short vertical columns of hieroglyphs are positioned either side of the head, with another column at bottom left.
Stela 51 from Calakmul, dating to 731, is the best preserved monument from the city. It depicts the king Yuknoom Took’ K’awiil.[22]
Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments
Intricately carved free standing stone shaft sculpted in the three-dimensional form of a richly dressed human figure, standing in an open grassy area.
Stela H, a high-relief in-the-round sculpture from Copán in Honduras

Maya stelae

Main article: Maya stelae

Maya stelae were fashioned by the Maya civilization of ancient Mesoamerica. They consist of tall sculpted stone shafts or slabs and are often associated with low circular stones referred to as altars, although their actual function is uncertain.[23] Many stelae were sculpted in low relief,[24] although plain monuments are found throughout the Maya region.[25] The sculpting of these monuments spread throughout the Maya area during the Classic Period (250–900 AD),[23] and these pairings of sculpted stelae and circular altars are considered a hallmark of Classic Maya civilization.[26] The earliest dated stela to have been found in situ in the Maya lowlands was recovered from the great city of Tikal in Guatemala. During the Classic Period almost every Maya kingdom in the southern lowlands raised stelae in its ceremonial centre.[25]

Stelae became closely associated with the concept of divine kingshipand declined at the same time as this institution. The production of stelae by the Maya had its origin around 400 BC and continued through to the end of the Classic Period, around 900, although some monuments were reused in the Postclassic (c. 900–1521). The major city of Calakmul in Mexico raised the greatest number of stelae known from any Maya city, at least 166, although they are very poorly preserved.

Hundreds of stelae have been recorded in the Maya region,[27]displaying a wide stylistic variation.[25] Many are upright slabs of limestone sculpted on one or more faces,[25] with available surfaces sculpted with figures carved in relief and with hieroglyphic text. Stelae in a few sites display a much more three-dimensional appearance where locally available stone permits, such as at Copán and Toniná.[25] Plain stelae do not appear to have been painted nor overlaid with stucco decoration,[28] but most Maya stelae were probably brightly painted in red, yellow, black, blue and other colours.[29]

Horn of Africa

Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

A sword symbol on a stele at Tiya

The Horn of Africa contains many stelae. In the highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea, the Axumites erected a number of large stelae, which served a religious purpose in pre-Christian times. One of these granite columns is the largest such structure in the world, standing at 90 feet.[30]

Additionally, Tiya is one of nine megalithic pillar sites in the central Gurage Zone of Ethiopia. As of 1997, 118 stele were reported in the area. Along with the stelae in the Hadiya Zone, the structures are identified by local residents as Yegragn Dingay or « Gran’s stone », in reference to Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (Ahmad « Gurey » or « Gran »), ruler of the Adal Sultanate.[31]

The stelae at Tiya and other areas in central Ethiopia are similar to those on the route between Djibouti City and Loyada in Djibouti. In the latter area, there are a number of anthropomorphic and phallic stelae, which are associated with graves of rectangular shape flanked by vertical slabs. The Djibouti-Loyada stelae are of uncertain age, and some of them are adorned with a T-shaped symbol.[32]

Near the ancient northwestern town of Amud in Somalia, whenever an old site had the prefix Aw in its name (such as the ruins of Aw Bareand Aw Bube[33]), it denoted the final resting place of a local saint.[34]Surveys by A.T. Curle in 1934 on several of these important ruined cities recovered various artefacts, such as pottery and coins, which point to a medieval period of activity at the tail end of the Adal Sultanate’s reign.[33] Among these settlements, Aw Barkhadle is surrounded by a number of ancient stelae.[35] Burial sites near Buraolikewise feature old stelae.[36]

Notable steles

Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

King Ezana‘s stele at Aksum
Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

A victory stele of Naram-Sin, a 23rd-century BCMesopotamian king.

Gallery

Giacobbe Giusti, Stone monuments

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    Egyptian grave stela of Nehemes-Ra-tawy, ca. 760–656 BC

     

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stele

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