Archaeology Odyssey

According to Jewish law, worn-out documents bearing the name of God cannot be destroyed; instead, they are stored in a genizah prior to burial. The Cairo Genizah was the genizah of the Ben Ezra Synagogue, built in the 11th century C.E. in old Cairo (Fostat).

Until this structure is fully excavated, we can only tentatively identify it as a cistern, probably used to collect rainwater.

J. Connelly has suggested that the frieze depicts the Sacrifice of the Daughters of Erechtheus, not the Panathenaic Procession. (See “The Parthenon Frieze and the Sacrifice of the Erechteids: Reinterpreting the Peplos Scene,” Abstracts Architectural Institute of America, vol. 16 [1992], p. 25.) But the theory is in dispute.

The original betyl of the Wanasa’s sanctuary in Old Paphos, modern Kouklia, is on display in the Kouklia Museum in Cyprus.

All over the eastern Mediterranean, cultic installations are commonly associated with economic endeavors. In Cyprus the bronze “ingot god” from Enkomi is an example from a Late Bronze Age copper-producing site. The small shrine of late Cypriot Athienou, seven miles from Idalion, was closely associated with a copper-smelting installation. Athienou’s small sanctuary, with its hundreds of votive vessels, was excavated by Trude Dothan and Amnon Ben-Tor in the early 1970s.

R.O. Faulkner suggests in his article “The Battle of Megiddo” (Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 28 [1942], p. 15) that “it was Col. Lawrence [of Arabia], with his knowledge of ancient history, who first made the suggestion which prompted Allenby’s move.”

Armageddon, the site of the final battle between good and evil in the biblical Book of Revelation, probably derives from Har Megiddo, Hebrew for “mountain of Megiddo.”

Some sources state that the reclining figure from the east pediment of the Parthenon (see photo of Theseus sculpture in the sidebar “How the Marbles Changed History”) represents Dionysus, while still others identify it as Herakles or Theseus.

Only 60 percent of the new excavations is financed by public money. The remaining costs are met by private sponsors. The largest share, almost a quarter of the excavations’ expenses, is contributed by the German company Daimler-Benz AG, which made it possible to start digging in 1988 and has since supported the excavations. Also of great importance are the Friends of Troy, an international group of supporters, among them many Americans. This is not an exclusive circle: Membership is possible starting with a contribution of $100.

Hexameter, the meter used by Homer and other Greek oral poets, consists of five poetic feet—each of which can be a dactyl (long, short, short) or spondee (long, long)—and a sixth foot, which can only be a spondee.