Ancient stormy weather: World's oldest weather report could revise bronze age chronology

An inscription on a 3,500-year-old stone block from Egypt may be one of the world's oldest weather reports -- and could provide new evidence about the chronology of events in the ancient Middle East.

A new translation of a 40-line inscription on the 6-foot-tall calcite block called the Tempest Stela describes rain, darkness and "the sky being in storm without cessation, louder than the cries of the masses."

Two scholars at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute believe the unusual weather patterns described on the slab were the result of a massive volcano explosion at Thera -- the present-day island of Santorini in the Mediterranean Sea. Because volcano eruptions can have a widespread impact on weather, the Thera explosion likely would have caused significant disruptions in Egypt.

The new translation suggests the Egyptian pharaoh Ahmose ruled at a time closer to the Thera eruption than previously thought -- a finding that could change scholars' understanding of a critical juncture in human history as Bronze Age empires realigned. The research from the Oriental Institute's Nadine Moeller and Robert Ritner appears in the spring issue of the Journal of Near Eastern Studies.

The Tempest Stela dates back to the reign of the pharaoh Ahmose, the first pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty. His rule marked the beginning of the New Kingdom, a time when Egypt's power reached its height. The block was found in pieces in Thebes, modern Luxor, where Ahmose ruled.

If the stela does describe the aftermath of the Thera catastrophe, the correct dating of the stela itself and Ahmose's reign, currently thought to be about 1550 B.C., could actually be 30 to 50 years earlier.

"This is important to scholars of the ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean, generally because the chronology that archaeologists use is based on the lists of Egyptian pharaohs, and this new information could adjust those dates," said Moeller, assistant professor of Egyptian archaeology at the Oriental Institute, who specializes in research on ancient urbanism and chronology.

In 2006, radiocarbon testing of an olive tree buried under volcanic residue placed the date of the Thera eruption at 1621-1605 B.C. Until now, the archeological evidence for the date of the Thera eruption seemed at odds with the radiocarbon dating, explained Oriental Institute postdoctoral scholar Felix Hoeflmayer, who has studied the chronological implications related to the eruption. However, if the date of Ahmose's reign is earlier than previously believed, the resulting shift in chronology "might solve the whole problem," Hoeflmayer said.

The revised dating of Ahmose's reign could mean the dates of other events in the ancient Near East fit together more logically, scholars said. For example, it realigns the dates of important events such as the fall of the power of the Canaanites and the collapse of the Babylonian Empire, said David Schloen, associate professor in the Oriental Institute and Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations on ancient cultures in the Middle East.

"This new information would provide a better understanding of the role of the environment in the development and destruction of empires in the ancient Middle East," he said. For example, the new chronology helps to explain how Ahmose rose to power and supplanted the Canaanite rulers of Egypt -- the Hyksos -- according to Schloen. The Thera eruption and resulting tsunami would have destroyed the Hyksos' ports and significantly weakened their sea power.

In addition, the disruption to trade and agriculture caused by the eruption would have undermined the power of the Babylonian Empire and could explain why the Babylonians were unable to fend off an invasion of the Hittites, another ancient culture that flourished in what is now Turkey.

A tempest of rain

Some researchers consider the text on the Tempest Stela to be a metaphorical document that described the impact of the Hyksos invasion. However, Ritner's translation shows that the text was more likely a description of weather events consistent with the disruption caused by the massive Thera explosion.

Ritner said the text reports that Ahmose witnessed the disaster -- the description of events in the stela text is frightening.

The stela's text describes the "sky being in storm" with "a tempest of rain" for a period of days. The passages also describe bodies floating down the Nile like "skiffs of papyrus." Importantly, the text refers to events affecting both the delta region and the area of Egypt further south along the Nile. "This was clearly a major storm, and different from the kinds of heavy rains that Egypt periodically receives," Ritner said.

In addition to the Tempest Stela, a text known as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus from the reign of Ahmose also makes a special point of mentioning thunder and rain, "which is further proof that the scholars under Ahmose paid close and particular attention to matters of weather," Ritner said.

Marina Baldi, a scientist in climatology and meteorology at the Institute of Biometeorology of the National Research Council in Italy, has analyzed the information on the stela along with her colleagues and compared it to known weather patterns in Egypt.

A dominant weather pattern in the area is a system called "the Red Sea Trough," which brings hot, dry air to the area from East Africa. When disrupted, that system can bring severe weather, heavy precipitation and flash flooding, similar to what is reported on the Tempest Stela.

"A modification in the atmospheric circulation after the eruption could have driven a change in the precipitation regime of the region. Therefore the episode in the Tempest Stela could be a consequence of these climatological changes," Baldi explained.

Other work is underway to get a clearer idea of accurate dating around the time of Ahmose, who ruled after the Second Intermediate period when the Hyksos people seized power in Egypt. That work also has pushed back the dates of his reign closer to the explosion on Thera, Moeller explained.

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Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Chicago. The original article was written by Susie Allen and William Harms. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Source link Science Daily

Objects and Memory

While on-line researching the significance of tangible objects.  I came across this article, Objects and Memory, about the recently opened 9/11 Museum in New York City. Below is an excerpt:

"Why do people associate thoughts and feelings with tangible symbols, and how is it that such ordinary objects become so important? What is it that transforms and elevates these things? In the film, authors, archivists, museum curators, experts from academia, and members of police and fire rescue teams offer insight into the human need to affirm community and continuity in the face of upheaval. These perspectives shed light on the process of building and retaining memories through inanimate objects — both in the retrieving of personal effects of the deceased and in the placing of symbolic tokens at the site of a tragedy."

Read full article on PBS.  Link here. 

Objects and Memory was produced by Jonathan Fein and Brian Danitz of EVER. Learn more about meaningful objects and the Objects and Memory educational initiative at www.objectsandmemory.org.

Ritual and Site

Why the need for site and object?  Objects serve as symbols for stories – stories are the belief system – objects acknowledge the belief system.  Is it the person/people who formulate the belief system that use site and objects as control?  Or is it our human sensual need for touch and seeing that that require we have something to hold, something to look at, a place to be?  Conclusion – I am interested in both aspects – how/why we make our own significant moments and how/why we buy into those that are set up for us. Also, our need to mark space and time. 

A bit of notes from looking around on-line:

People need rituals to mark passages of life and death. 

People need to go somewhere and do something to mark a loss or celebrate the new.  

Objects (souvenirs to be kept in remembrance of event - need tangible to remember - later photography becomes object) or objects used to perform ritual.  Space, gathering site needed to mourn or celebrate.  Marking the passage of time.  Recognize emotion.  Gather together or alone. 

Rituals mark the passage of time.  Birthdays, anniversaries.

Leaving coins on a grave - originates from Greek Mythology, paying ones way to a resting place in the under world Hades, place coin in mouth, no coin and you were left to wander and haunt in the upper world. 

Coins then moved to be placed on eyes, then feet and then grave.

Burial customs of Romans:

-The soul thought to need provisions in afterlife, ground above tomb a garden so spirit may wander about and enjoy.  

-Cenotaph - an empty tomb for someone who died at sea, the need to mark a space, the need for a site and the tangible.

Inhumation begins Paleolithic era.  Practical or esoteric - it is unclear.  Later peoples believed humans formed out of the earth, so possible giving back to earth was significant.

Interesting bits of info the above book.  Read for free on google.  Link here. 

The Dance, Historic Illustrations, by An Antiquary

Objects needed to make music.

Space needed to perform.

Costumes needed to adorn human body - or disguise.

Source link here.

Ghau

Image source from nepal crafts blog -  link here.

A Gau (also spelled Ghau or Gao) is a Tibetan Buddhist amulet container or prayer box, usually made of metal and worn as jewelry. As a small container used to hold and carry powerful amuletic objects, the Gau is culturally equivalent to Latin American package amulets, African-Americanconjure bags or mojo hands, South American charm vials, and American wish boxes.  Source link here. 

Seek and Display

I find the process, and need, that we have to search for tangible objects that existed before us most interesting. Through the tangible we gain an awareness, and understanding, of beliefs systems that supported commerce, politics and personal values. Once found, then we display. Displays are not haphazard. Contrived displays are based off of formal qualities of line, shape, texture and color.

S. Bettoney 
Roman Antiquities found by Mr. J. Robinson and others in 1880 
1880 (or later) 
  
Carte de visite 
Paul Frecker 
 
LL/12026 
  
A printed paper label neatly glued to the back of one of the cartes informs the reader that these are:

ROMAN ANTIQUITIES
FOUND BY
MR. J. ROBINSON AND OTHERS IN 1880

Photograph of a broken Cinerary Urn found embedded in calcined human bones and charcoal whilst digging for Roman Remains in the fourth field north of the Roman Station, Maryport, on the 26th April, 1880.

The pieces of the Urn - thirty-two in number- have been skilfully affixed by MR. WILLIAM BERRY GRAHAM, who has thus restored the Urn to the original form which the Potter gave it some 1,500 years ago."

Photographed by S. Bettoney of Crosby Street, Maryport [Cumbria].

Source link here. 

Steve Irvine, Artist

Copper Camera.  I found it here on Luminous Lint.

Amulets

The Amulets of Seramon

By Grant Ellis

Seramon, ancient priest of Thebes, has lain in state in a French museum since 1851. He died 3000 years ago, a royal scribe and a middle-class Egyptian of importance who wore an impressive necklace of amulets as protection against real and imagined dangers. His embalmers, according to their custom, wrapped additional protective amulets in linen and placed them on and in his abdominal and thoracic cavities after they removed his organs. None of these artifacts has ever seen the light of day. Seramon’s mummy remains intact and undisturbed.

In January 2007, an ambulance carried Seramon from the Museum of Fine Arts and Archaeology through the streets of Besançon to the University Hospital, where Dr. Samuel Mérigeaud was waiting in the Radiology Department. Seramon’s amulets had become the subject of Mérigeaud’s doctoral thesis in radiology. He needed detailed, realistic 3D images derived from CT scan data. This is a specialty of I.M.A SOLUTIONS, a French team of physicians and imaging experts who combine medical imaging expertise with a passion for Egyptology. Benjamin Moreno, a I.M.A SOLUTIONS co-founder, tells us about this collaboration and how the remarkable images of Seramon’s amulets were created.

Continue reading at apple.com/science.  Link here.

Tokens at the Foundling Museum in London

The exhibition is entitled Threads of Feeling: 18th Century Textiles left with Abandoned Babies at the London Foundling Hospital.  There is an on-line slide show of the fabric samples.

"These trinkets are transitional objects - severed umbilical cords - that embody the grief of separation".
"...sentimental objects, which seem to evoke larger narratives of loss and grief..."
 - The Tokens, Christopher Turner, Cabinet Magazine

Sometimes a token was broken in half, so if the mother returned she could match her half of the token with the token left with the child.  Seems as if this process was most often used by women who were illiterate.

An Introduction to the Tokens,  Janette Bright and Gillian Clark

"Tokens were left as 'identifiers' - they were not gifts for the children, keepsakes or love tokens, as has often been stated. They were official 'documents,' easily recognisable items that could be used to prove the identity of an infant if the parent or parents found themselves in circumstances to take it back. Since the tokens were first put on display in the 1860s, these small but speaking methods of identification have been giving life to individual moments of separation and loss. Yet having been removed from their admission records, these compelling scraps of personal history were themselves orphans. Now, thanks to eight years of painstaking work by Janette Bright and Gillian Clark, many of these tokens have been reunited with the children to whom they belonged, revealing the circumstances surrounding their arrival at the Foundling Hospital." -text and image from the Foundling Museum.

If no token was left with the child, a swatch of fabric would be cut from the child's clothes.  One half of the swatch was kept with the child's paperwork and the other was given to the mother.  I found the images above on the Textile Treasure Seeker blog.

Image source is History Guide.

Some other information I collected:
The hospital was established in 1741 for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children.  Children baptized and renamed.  Wet nurses paid well for keeping their babies alive.  Two-thirds of those died.  Over 16,000 children left between 1741 and 1760, 152 reclaimed.  Children left - illegitimate, poverty, rape, not married or simply unwanted.  Also found a foundling hospital in florence Italy, built 1419 and approx. 375,000 children were abandoned.  Rather than murder children, women could leave at hospital and therefore not have sinned. After the Civil War, poverty, immigration, inadequate housing and financial depression triggered the abandonment of children.  More info found here, The New York Foundling Hospital.  In the little research I have done on these three locations, it seems as if London was the only hospital that had tokens.  

Rubin Museum of Art

This summer I visited the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.  This is a wonderful place - if I lived in NYC I would take advantage of all the Rubin offers - exhibits, lectures, music, art making, film and a restaurant. You can link here to see the programs offered.   

Tibetan Amulet Box

One of my interests is objects made for reasons that support a belief system.  The amulet box has always interested me - a portable shrine.  Not only is it an object but it creates a space, a place to worship. I pulled some of my notes on other objects and spaces and posted information and my thoughts below. 

Ark of Covenant

From what I have read, the Ark has not been revealed but is housed in a church in Ethiopia. Someone is with the Ark at all times and the public is not allowed inside the building.

Stupa in Gotemba, Shizuoka City, Japan

Stupa crowning, Java, Indonesia

After the death of the Buddha, the relics of His body were collected from the funeral pyre and divided into eight parts. Stupas were erected on the relics. The practice of pilgrimage in Buddhism probably started with visits to these places, the purpose of which was to achieve personal advantage such as rebirth in a good location, as well as to honour the great master. 


The below text is from an exhibition at the Rubin entitled Pilgrimage and Faith.  Link here.

"For millennia people of all faiths have embarked on the practice of pilgrimage, journeying to a sacred place or shrine of special religious significance, while proceeding at the same time on an inner, spiritual journey. Objects associated with pilgrimage—whether works of high artistic skill or those intended for everyday use—often reveal deep human needs that transcend particular faiths.

Pilgrimage and Faith explores these important spiritual journeys in three of the world's largest religious traditions: Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. While reflecting on the shared goals of personal development and communal solidarity evident in each tradition, the exhibition also highlights their particular ritual practices and artistic expressions.

The exhibition features diverse examples of objects from each faith, including a Chinese Buddhist pilgrimage map, a Tibetan Buddhist hand prayer wheel, a twelfth-century Christian reliquary casket, Muslim clay prayer tablets."

Wade Davis: Dreams From Endangered Cultures

This is a wonderful presentation. An interesting story for me is related to the lack of experience with two-dimension. Davis tells a story when missionaries released photographs of themselves from the sky, the tribe was unaware of two-dimension, the photograph as object was foreign, never experienced, the tribe considered the individuals sent from the devil and therefore the missionaries were murdered upon arrival.

"Wade Davis is perhaps the most articulate and influential western advocate for the world's indigenous cultures. A National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, he has been described as “a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender of all of life’s diversity.” Trained in anthropology and botany at Harvard, he travels the globe to live alongside indigenous people, and document their cultural practices in books, photographs, and film. His stunning photographs and evocative stories capture the viewer's imagination. As a speaker, he parlays that sense of wonder into passionate concern over the rate at which cultures and languages are disappearing -- 50 percent of the world's 7,000 languages, he says, are no longer taught to children. He argues, in the most beautiful terms, that language is much more than vocabulary and grammatical rules. Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind." - source is TED.  link here. 

Anatomical Teaching Model of a Pregnant Woman

1639-1715 Wood and ivory. Source is Bioephemera. Link here.

In and Out of the Martial Bed by Diane Wolfthal

Well, a sick child and piled up grading cut my endeavor of making something for 30 days short. I made it further than I thought I would, so maybe that is worth something. Anyway, back in the studio today.

I have been interested in the history of the bed for a long time - finally found a book that is a wonderful read and great source of information.

"This book explores images whose sexual content has all too often been either ignored or denied. Each chapter is devoted to a place that artists associated with sexual activity or desire: the bed, the dressing area of the home, the window and doorway, the bath, and the street. By examining both canonical works, such as Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait and Petrus Christus’ Goldsmith’s Shop and long-neglected objects, such as combs, badges, and bathhouse murals, and by investigating a wide range of sexualities—same-sex desire, adultery, marriage, courtship, and prostitution—Wolfthal demonstrates how illicit forms of sexuality were linked to the “chaste sexuality” of marriage." - source is Yale University Press.

From the book, "...combs were personal objects that came in intimate contact with the beloved during the process of beautification."  The book offers several visuals combs and discusses how the act of combing ones hair was considered seductive.  I am interested in how objects become a significant part of a culture.  Combs "...designed to serve as love tokens."  The above image is by an anonymous English artist, around 1600, entitled Elizabeth Vernon, Countess of Southhampton and is discussed in the book.

Aphrodite

Objects and images made to remind us of our beliefs and to visually signify to others what our beliefs are.  I could forever research this topic. Leads me to The Museum of Jurassic Technology by David Wilson.  Interesting how this museum plays with our interpretation of objects and images.  

Lekythos (Oil Flask).  Mid 4th century B. C., 7.5 inches, ceramic, Late Classical Period. 

"Aphrodite was one of the earliest Greek gods, and we know the story of her birth from the 8th-century BC poet Hesiod: Aphrodite emerged from the sea—her name means ―"born from foam"—near the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. When she took her first step on dry land, Hesiod says, ―"the grass began to grow all around beneath her slender feet." Aphrodite’s birth was a favorite story for Greek artists. They used it as the basis for freestanding sculptures as well as objects like the oil bottle and wine cup on view here. The subject has remained popular ever since." - from MFA Educators Online.  Link here.

Figurine of woman nursing a child.  600-480 B.C., 7inches, Limestone.

"Aphrodite's origins are rooted in the goddesses worshipped by ancient cultures near Greece. The ancient Greeks considered Aphrodite a foreigner: born at sea, hailing from Paphos on southwestern Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. Cyprus was at the crossroads of Mediterranean trade routes—a place from which the religious and cultural ideas of the Near East traveled westwards. Aphrodite probably developed from a preexisting divinity, introduced to the Greeks through contact with Cyprus.These older goddesses lent Aphrodite many of her defining characteristics as a symbol of love, beauty, fertility, maternity, and strength."  - from MFA Educators Online.  Link here.

Second-century BC Greek terracotta from South Italy of Aphrodite flanked by cockle-shells.
Source link here.

The Prayer of Paris to Aphrodite

Museum

I think artists curating and exhibiting their work alongside museum collections is interesting.

"I support anything that brings new perspectives to museum collections, and nothing has been more successful at re-contextualizing collections than exhibitions organized by artists at numerous museums (which I’ve written about previously, on Jan. 31, 2011 and Jan. 3, 2009). No one has more invested in museum collections than artists, for whom they function as primary textbooks. And artists are free from the conventions of art history and the ethics of curatorial practice. The British Museum asked Grayson Perry to address its collections, and I’ve never seen an artist do a better job of it.

Perry turns out to be a wonderful teacher in The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman, which has been extended to Feb. 26, 2012. In displaying a selection of his large, figured pots alongside his choices from the museum storerooms, Perry sidestepped questions of technique and style (which he has obviously studied seriously) to concentrate on the objects’ uses. In doing so, he gave currency to a motley selection of objects, produced by anonymous craftsmen (hence, the exhibition’s title) over several thousand years of civilization.

He ignored obvious masterpieces in favor of objects that were mundane and occasionally fragmentary. Some were used as reliquaries, others were associated with shamanistic rituals and a number were pilgrimage souvenirs. He related his own transvestism to objects used in ceremonies of sexual role-playing, and ended the exhibition with his own, extravagant version of objects meant to accompany the dead on their journey." Andrea Kirsh, The Art Blog. Link here.

New York Historical Society

A few pics from the my visit to the New York Historical Society. I spend long stretches of time investigating small objects in museums. I am mostly interested in those objects that can be held in the palm of a hand and I am curious as to the purpose of the object. What ideas, needs and desires led to the formation/construction of such an object? Are these ideas cultural based? Purely functional? Purely sensual? All three? The attraction to the miniature is also here as there is some sort of magic in examining small objects, protecting them with one hand and the ease at which they can be carried with you. I also like that the objects have been touched.

Small Home Stoup

Not to be hung, placed by bedside.  Probably France and probably around 1900.  Source is Wiki media.

Research slow on this one. I am getting a lot of "soup" recipes. So, I have been making these bowl like forms, sometimes "shell-like" in appearance, for awhile now. My intent was to put water in them, as I made them out of material that would hold water, but somehow that idea kept getting put on the back burner. I do remember seeing home stoups when I was a kid - I think in my grandmother's house. I am interested in the time and care one takes to make one these and the need/desire people have/had to keep in their home. I am assuming there was a time when these items were massed produced. Most likely home stoups were mass produced after the Industrial Revolution - which I am assuming the one above is an example of. The structure was created to hold Holy Water so people could bless themselves in their home - most usually at night, before bed. Holy Water warded off evil spirits and forgave sins. So, this concept, of Holy Water, makes it necessary to construct this form. The form is literally a container for the idea. The object provides a service needed to satisfy a need/desire. Who created the need/desire? And why do people believe?

Rabbit's Foot

Why and how do objects hold memory for us? I remembered when I was kid that I had a rabbit's foot. With this memory I realized how awful it is to have an animal part for good luck - although the rabbit's foot may not have been real. I remember running my hands over the form and feeling the nails. I think my memory was jogged by scratching Buttercup (the dog) and then playing with her feet. Anyway, my interest in why we make and keep objects has been propelled since I started teaching visual culture. I also noticed that when I go to museum's I am taking a lot of images of objects for good luck, afterlife, etc... Egypt, 19th century sailors decorating carved whale bones for their loved one to insert in their corset.

Victorian silver mounted rabbit's foot charm.  

The sense of touch, sense of space. The small objects I make are all about the sense of touch. I am interested in how we have always made objects to label us and remind us. Touching these objects equally important as seeing them. Diane Ackerman's book, A Natural History of the Senses is discusses all the senses. Also, Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial is important here - she gave us a monument to touch. I am more interested in the smaller, intimate objects of a culture - the objects we stow away, we hide, we keep near us, we wear on our body. The objects we assign meaning to.