An eclectic assortment of stuff: food, archaeology, fun, books, history, geekery, etc.
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Mar 6th, 2010
From the BBC: Lost Jewish tribe ‘found in Zimbabwe’.
In many ways, the Lemba tribe of Zimbabwe and South Africa are just like their neighbours.
But in other ways their customs are remarkably similar to Jewish ones.
They do not eat pork, they practise male circumcision, they ritually slaughter their animals, some of their men wear skull caps [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Jan 1st, 2010
From the Telegraph: Vatican reveals Secret Archives.
A 13th-century letter from Genghis Khan’s grandson demanding homage from the pope is among a collection of documents from the Vatican’s Secret Archives that has been published for the first time.
The Holy See’s archives contain scrolls, parchments and leather-bound volumes with correspondence dating back more than 1,000 years.
High-quality reproductions [...]
Posted in religion on Dec 2nd, 2009
What would you do if you were a Jewish rabbi threatened by the KKK? Ponder that for a moment, then go read about what Rabbi Michael Weisser did.
Posted in books & lit, history & archaeology, religion on Jul 6th, 2009
From The Independent: World’s oldest bible published in full online.
The oldest bible in the world was displayed in its entirety for the first time in 150 years today after researchers digitised its four sections kept in cities thousands of miles apart and placed the reunited text in cyberspace.
The Codex Sinaiticus, which was written some 1,600 [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Jun 29th, 2009
From Reuters: Rome catacomb reveals oldest image of St Paul.
Vatican archaeologists using laser technology have discovered what they believe is the oldest image in existence of St Paul the Apostle, dating from the late 4th century, on the walls of catacomb beneath Rome.
Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, revealing the find on Sunday, published a picture of [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Jun 13th, 2009
From the Beeb: Students unearth Saxon nunnery.
Archaeologists believe they could have found the first-ever excavated Saxon nunnery, on a dig in Gloucestershire.
The annual dig, by the University of Bristol, has unearthed remains of a Saxon building in the grounds of the Edward Jenner Museum, Berkeley. [continue]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on May 18th, 2009
From JTA.org: In rare ceremony, Jews redeem donkey in Australia.
It took nearly two years, cost more than $7,500, and involved two donkeys, one sheep, a case of mistaken sexual identity, several DNA tests and the unwavering faith of two fervently Orthodox Jews in Australia.
On Sunday, more than 1,500 mostly Orthodox Jews in Melbourne witnessed what [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Apr 3rd, 2009
From The Jerusalem Post: The monastery of the Gerasene swine.
On the east side of the Sea of Galilee lay a Jewish fishing village of pre-mishnaic times, at the mouth of Nahal Samak, the upper reaches of which were overlooked by the synagogue of Umm el-Kanatir. The village’s name was Kursi, and today it would have [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Feb 26th, 2009
From the Telegraph: Farmer builds model of Biblical temple .
Alec Garrard, 78, has dedicated a massive 33,000 hours to constructing the ancient Herod’s Temple, which measures a whopping 20ft by 12ft.
The pensioner has hand-baked and painted every clay brick and tile and even sculpted 4,000 tiny human figures to populate the courtyards.
Historical experts believe the [...]
Posted in Italy, history & archaeology, religion on Feb 13th, 2009
From ansa.it: Rome catacombs to reveal secrets.
Rome’s underground network of catacombs is set to reveal more secrets thanks to the creation of a new laser mapping tool.
A team of 10 researchers, led by archaeologist Norbert Zimmermann from the Vienna Academy of Sciences, has produced a scanner that is able to create a three-dimensional model of [...]
Posted in books & lit, history & archaeology, religion on Feb 8th, 2009
From Reuters: Ancient Syriac bible found in Cyprus.
Authorities in northern Cyprus believe they have found an ancient version of the Bible written in Syriac, a dialect of the native language of Jesus.
The manuscript was found in a police raid on suspected antiquity smugglers. Turkish Cypriot police testified in a court hearing they believe the manuscript [...]
Posted in Italy, history & archaeology, religion on Feb 4th, 2009
From discovery.com: Pagan Cult Mosaic Found Under Cathedral.
A Roman mosaic floor filled with scenes depicting pagan rites and oriental gods has emerged from the ground of a Catholic church in Italy, archaeologists announced.
View a slide show of the mosaic here.
The mosaic pavement, which measures 13 square meters (140 square feet) and dates to the fourth [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Jan 21st, 2009
From the Jerusalem Post: Lost & found.
Dotted across villages on the slopes of mountains that make up the lower Himalayan ranges in northeast India, thousands of Indians are adopting and practicing Jewish traditions in the hope of one day officially converting to Judaism and immigrating to Israel. In the states of Mizoram, Assam, Manipur and [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Jan 20th, 2009
From scotsman.com: How Mary Queen of Scots wrote of her fears for strife-torn nation.
Deep in an archive, more than two dozen letters written by Mary, Queen of Scots, lie largely unseen for centuries.
Many are written in a secret code as Mary fought to preserve and protect the Catholic faith in Scotland after the 1560 Reformation [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Nov 18th, 2008
From the Jerusalem Post: Was the Aksa Mosque built over the remains of a Byzantine church?.
The photo archives of a British archeologist who carried out the only archeological excavation ever undertaken at the Temple Mount’s Aksa Mosque show a Byzantine mosaic floor underneath the mosque that was likely the remains of a church or a [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Nov 18th, 2008
From discovery.com: First Islamic Inscription May Solve Qur’an Question.
An Arabic traveler who engraved his name on a block of red sandstone over 1,300 years ago may help solve a question about the Qur’an that has vexed historians for hundreds of years: Why was the text seemingly written without diacritical marks?
Diacritical marks, which include accent marks, [...]
Posted in religion on Nov 15th, 2008
From the Wall Street Journal: Professor Hired for Outreach to Muslims Delivers a Jolt.
Muhammad Sven Kalisch, a Muslim convert and Germany’s first professor of Islamic theology, fasts during the Muslim holy month, doesn’t like to shake hands with Muslim women and has spent years studying Islamic scripture. Islam, he says, guides his life.
So it came [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Oct 29th, 2008
From the BBC: Mystery of cardinal’s missing bones.
A forensic archaeologist has raised fresh questions over why no remains were found in the grave of an English cardinal in line to become a saint.
It comes just days before artefacts owned by Cardinal John Henry Newman go on display ahead of his possible beatification.
Tens of thousands of [...]
Posted in religion on Oct 29th, 2008
From the LA Times: Vatican switchboard sees a human touch as the answer.
Telecommunications technology of the early 21st century has produced a phenomenon known as "phone hell": an audio inferno where callers are tormented either by mechanized voices or human ones with less soul than the machines.
But the opposite exists. It can be found here [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Oct 27th, 2008
From The Guardian: Researchers dig up the dirt on father of Protestantism
German scientists have reconstructed an extraordinarily detailed picture of the domestic life of Martin Luther, the 16th-century reformer and father of Protestantism, by trawling through his household waste uncovered during archaeological digs on sites where he used to live.
Beer tankards, grains of corn, cooking [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Oct 13th, 2008
From the BBC: Uncovering north’s Christian past.
A group of archaeologists are trying to establish if Norsemen brought Christianity to Caithness before St Columba arrived on Iona.
The question has arisen after a dig at an ancient church site at the coastal village of Dunbeath.
Pottery dating back to the 6th Century has recently been found in the [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Oct 13th, 2008
From Haaretz.com: Monastery atop Church of Holy Sepulchre in danger of collapse .
The historic Deir al-Sultan monastery on the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is in danger of collapse.
The church is one of the most sacred sites in Christendom. By tradition, it is the site both of Golgotha where the [...]
Posted in religion on Sep 29th, 2008
From the Beeb: An unusual clean-up.
About a dozen men were scrabbling hard at an old, cracked wall. From time to time, they would stab a wooden pick inside the the jammed crevices, as if they were microscopic dental hygienists trying to scrape clean a vast, uneven mouth.
They were in action because this Monday night is [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Sep 28th, 2008
Our local church is small and ugly. So on Sundays I have to imagine that we have a stunningly beautiful building instead — something classy, perhaps medieval, and made of stone. I’m getting quite good at this imaginary church-swapping, and of course the web is a big help.
Today the featured church in my imagination is [...]