Czech archaeologists have rediscovered a Meroe-period temple that had been lost to the desert sands of Sudan in the nineteenth century. Riddles written in the ancient Akkadian language have been translated from a copy of a 3,500-year-old clay tablet from southern Mesopotamia by Nathan Wasserman of Hebrew University, and Michael Streck of the Altorientalische […]
“What modern people are doing with online social networks is what we’ve always done—not just before Facebook, but before agriculture,” said James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego. By studying the Hadza, who live as hunter gatherers in Tanzania, Fowler and Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School found that social networks could have con […]
Underwater archaeologists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Greece’s Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities in Athens are using an autonomous diving robot to search for shipwrecks from the Age of the Minoans, more than 3,000 years ago. “Ships were the way that people communicated and moved about the ancient world. So if we can find […]
In Turkey, drought has revealed a large, 1,600-year-old harbor town that archaeologists are calling Bathonea. The port is located some 13 miles from the center of Istanbul. “The discoveries made are now shedding a completely new light to the wider urbanized area of Constantinopolis. A fantastic story begins to unveil,” commented Voker Heyd of the University […]
Italy has returned a sculpted head of Domitilla Minor, which was stolen from Sabratha in the 1960s, to Libya. A y-shaped Roman building has been discovered in eastern England, near the ancient town of Venta Icenorum. “It’s very unusual to find a building like this where you have no known parallels for it. What they were […]
As well as practising field archaeology, we are students of history and publish new articles here regularly. Our focus is on the appearance of divine men in Classical Antiquity and our approach is archaeological.
The earliest New Testament codex says that the disciples were called Chrestians first at Antioch - and then it was changed to read 'Christians', which has a very different meaning.
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Right: We examine primary sources and here, show how the oldest New Testament codex has been altered, so that one of its most famous phrases has been misread and misunderstood for centuries.
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Alexander the Great had a vision of a unified and civilized world, with himself as its leader, and split vast quantities of blood trying to achieve it. Such was his power that his influence prevails in our lives today. Yet there is much about him we still do not know.
Greek archaeologist Liana Souvaltzis digs under the gaze of the world’s media. For years, she has been searching for one of the great mysteries of ancient history–Alexander the Great’s final resting place. Combing the mountains and valleys of Egypt’s remote western desert, she continues her quest despite universal scepticism.
However, Liana’s search is highlighting interest in the work of modern academics who are discovering new clues about this extraordinary leader.
Alexander was taught the arts and sciences by Aristotle. A brilliant military tactician, he worshipped the god Amun whom he regarded as his father. He was epileptic and homosexual and when his partner died he sacrificed the entire 5,000 occupants of a village for him. After a drinking bout in Babylon, the dying Alexander asked to be buried in Siwa. His golden sarcophagus was put into a vast mobile temple and taken to Egypt, where it seems to have disappeared.
Dr. Rosalie David of Manchester University heads a team of forensic scientists ready to go to Egypt at short notice to help with major discoveries. If Liana ever finds Alexander, his DNA might solve questions about his parentage and whether he was poisoned.
Alexander’s legacy was the concept that a man can be a god as well. Because of the vase empire that he established, the idea has affected many religions and cultures. Buddhism and Christianity share the belief in a man-god, and in Islamic writings Alexander’s conquests are used as a precedent for Mohammed’s quest to create God’s kingdom on earth.
Alexander the God King is a fascinating journey into ancient times, which separates truth from legend and shows how the vision of one man of destiny changed the very course of history.
Roman floor mosaic, El Djem, Tunisia, late 2nd century.
Images of Apollo Helios, as here, are derived from the image of Alexander the god.
Haloed Apollo in mosaic - full
From Hadrumentum, now in the museum at Sousse.
The conventions of this representation, head tilted, lips slightly parted, large-eyed, curling hair cut in locks grazing the neck, were developed in the third century BCE to depict Alexander the Great (Bieber 1964, Yalouris 1980). Some time after this mosaic was executed, the earliest depictions of Christ will be beardless and haloed.
Coin of Philip II
Apollo with the features of Alexander
Haloed Apollo
From the Roman colony Hadrumentum.
The conventions of this representation, head tilted, lips slightly parted, large-eyed, curling hair cut in locks grazing the neck, were developed in the third century BCE to depict Alexander the Great (Bieber 1964, Yalouris 1980). Some time after this mosaic was executed, the earliest depictions of Christ will be beardless and haloed.
Marble portrait of Alexander
This portrait of the great leader was acquired in Alexandria.
Alexander was always shown clean-shaven, whereas all previous portraits of Greek statesmen or rulers had beards. This royal fashion lasted for almost five hundred years and almost all of the Hellenistic Greek kings and Roman emperors until Hadrian (AD 117-38) were portrayed beardless. Alexander was the first king to wear the royal diadem, a band of cloth tied around the hair that was to become the symbol of Hellenistic Greek kingship.
Earlier portraits of Alexander, in heroic style, look more mature than the portraits made after his death, such as this example. These show a more youthful, though perhaps more god-like character. He has longer hair, a more dynamic tilt of the head and an upward gaze.
Silver tetradrachm of Alexander the Great
Thought to be from the mint of Amphipolis (modern Amfípolis, northern Greece), 336-323 BCE
Silver decadrachm of Alexander the Great
If they were issued by Alexander then they are remarkable historical documents. On the front of the coin is depicted a figure on horseback, presumably Alexander, attacking a figure riding an elephant, perhaps intended to represent Porus, or a generic Indian warrior. On the back is a standing figure wearing a Macedonian cloak, a Persian head-dress and Greek armour. He is almost certainly intended to represent Alexander the Great, but carries in his hand a thunderbolt, a clear sign of divinity. If Alexander was the issuer of these coins, it is undeniable that he is making claims to divinity in his own lifetime.
Said to be the only image of Alexander to survive from his lifetime
It is generally accepted that this coin is from a series issued by the victorious Alexander, perhaps after his return to Babylon in 324 BC, although there is no firm evidence for its place of production, and Alexander's name is absent from these coins and their accompanying issues.
Astronomical Diary concerning month VI and VII of the fifth year of Artašata who is called Darius
The only (accepted) primary source on Alexander is the Astronomical diary that was kept in the Esagila, the temple of the Babylonian supreme god Marduk. It is written in Babylonian.
BM 36390
obv: Astronomical diary describing the omens related to the battle of Gaugamela (British Museum)
Alexander the Great - from Delos
This fragment, discovered on the island of Delos, was thought at one time to represent the Cycladic river-god Inopos, but is now accepted as the portrait of a Hellenistic king, perhaps Mithradates VI or Alexander the Great. The idealized face (similar to that of the Venus de Milo) and the device of partially swathing the figure in drapery date the piece to the end of the second century BCE. It is a fine example of the classicizing production of Cycladic workshops of the time.
Alexander as kosmokrator, ruler of the universe.
Bust from Amisos, now in the Koninklijke Musea voor Kunst en Geschiedenis, Brussel
Bust of Alexnader Cosmocrator ca 200 CE
The deified ruler wearing a chlamys, his mane-like hair surmounted by disc with eight-pointed starburst, his face with youthful features, full lips and heavy-lidded eyes, traces of red pigment on curls and disc, repaired, mounted 14¼ in. (36.3 cm.) high
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