“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus…”

What do we know about Caesar Augustus? Or, should I say, what do I know about him? Not too much, but…this research is certainly quite fascinating. Augustus reformed all of Rome and his legacy on Roman culture and society far outlasted his lifetime, and echos down to this day. Here is a really interesting summary of recent research on Augustine’s reforming work in Rome, and it was solidly grounded in Roman religion. Read this blog post and you will find a link to the whole paper.

The Domus Augusti (the house of Augusti) built on the Palatine Hill, is the best surviving example of Early Augustan painting and art and is a testament to the Emperor himself.

Dear Friend of Issues, Etc.,

How does the science of archaeology confirm the facts recorded in the New Testament Gospels? What has archaeology discovered about the world and time of Jesus’ public ministry, death and resurrection?

We answer these questions in our recent in-depth series “Biblical Archaeology” with New Testament authority Dr. Craig Evans.  You can listen to this five part series here.

Thanks for listening.

Wir sind alle Bettler,

Todd Wilken, host

Issues, Etc.

www.issuesetc.org

Here is the fascinating story of how scientists used St. Nicholas’ skull to do a reconstruction of his face, and the results look identical to an ancient icon of Nicholas of Myra. Read the story here. Here is what Nicholas looked like, first the reconstruction of his head and face based on the analysis of his skull, then below it, an ancient icon of Nicholas:

Remember the media frenzy around the alleged Mayan calendar declaring that 2012 the world would end. I actually even had a couple pastors kind of hitting the panic button, begging for resources they could use to set their people’s minds at ease. Well, turns out this was all pretty much of a bunch of baloney. You read why here. Here’s the article:

Did you know that the whole thing about the Mayan calendar predicting the end of the world in 2012 was based on one broken and eroded tablet of glyphs? The idea is that in the Mayan Long Count calendar, our current era (the 13-Bak’tun cycle) ends on the 23rd of December 2012 and that this end date isn’t just the end of a historical era and the beginning of a new one, but rather the end of all eras. The sole reference to the 2012 apocalypse, however, is a highly nebulous line on a 1300-year-old stone tablet found in Monument 6 in the Tortuguero archaeological site in the southern state of Tabasco.

Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History and Mayan experts in general have not been big fans of the Mayan apocalypse theory because they say it projects a Western obsession with eschatology onto Mayan culture. Nor have they found the various translations of that one line of hard to read glyphs particularly persuasive.

Or that’s what they said in public anyway. The Mexican government has been holding out on us, for the Tortuguero tablet is not the sole reference to 2012. There is a second one engraved on the face of one of the bricks in the nearby Comalcalco temple.

Arturo Mendez, a spokesman for the institute, said the fragment of inscription had been discovered years ago and has been subject to thorough study. It is not on display and is being kept in storage at the institute.

WHAT ARE THEY TRYING TO HIDE? Oh sure, a handful of scholars knew about this brick, but they’re obviously in on it.

[University of Texas at Austin Mayan epigraphy expert David] Stuart said the date inscribed on the brick “‘is a ‘Calendar Round,’ a combination of a day and month position that will repeat every 52 years.”

The brick date does coincide with the end of the 13th Baktun; Baktuns were roughly 394-year periods, and 13 was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas. The Mayan Long Count calendar begins in 3114 B.C., and the 13th Baktun ends around Dec. 21, 2012.
But the date on the brick could also correspond to similar dates in the past, Stuart said.

“There’s no reason it couldn’t be also a date in ancient times, describing some important historical event in the Classic period. In fact, the third glyph on the brick seems to read as the verb huli, ‘he/she/it arrives,’” Stuart wrote. “There’s no future tense marking (unlike the Tortuguero phrase), which in my mind points more to the Comalcalco date being more historical than prophetic.”

A likely story, Mr. “Stuart”, if that’s your real name.

In order to continue to pull the wool over out eyes until it’s too late, the National Institute of Anthropology and History will hold a round table of 60 Mayan experts next week at the Palenque archaeological site where they will “explain” the Mayan Long Count calendar’s vision of historical cycles. Doubtless those 60 experts will be paid with third class berths on the top secret giant arks being built in underground shipyards to save the privileged few from the extinction of our species.

An interesting story about a new book that has been published The Paintings of the Roman Catacombs. Here is a web site devoted to the Roman catacombs.

You may have heard about the “discovery” of a document that is being hyped by the media and opportunistic “scholars” as being the “greatest find” ever in the history of archeology related to Christianity, with claims that this find is akin to the Dead Sea scrolls in its importance for Christianity. The best response at this point is simply to tell people that there is, at present, very little actual information about the discovery and the document itself is written in some sort of Hebrew based code-language. It is also very important for people to keep in mind that there were swirling about in the days after Christ’s life a number of heretical sects and groups that combined elements of Christianity and Judaism with various pagan philosophies and religious opinions. There is nothing surprising therefore to find that there may be a document produced by one of these sects. What it contains remains unknown. It may be a wonderful discovery providing yet more extra-Biblical evidence confirming the historicity of the canonical Scripture. Or it may not be. At this point, it is best to ignore the media hype and chatter and wait for some sober-minded evaluation and judgment. I remain disgusted by so-called “scholars” who literally bank on the general public’s ignorance about things that have been well know for many years. Here is but one example of the media-hype over this set of metal plates.

An interesting news story has appeared documenting the discovery of the oldest known portraits of Andrew and John found, in Rome. They were discovered, or perhaps better, uncovered using new laser technology that allowed crustations to be removed without harming the underlying paint. And, what caught my eye in this story is that St. Peter is portrayed as being simple one of the four apostles portrayed, no indication of Peter being supreme or chief of the Apostles. I find this very interesting, considering the portraits date from the late fourth century. So, for what it is worth, here is the story, and you can find see pictures of the various images as well. Here are copies below:

St. John

St. Andrew

St. Paul

St. Peter

This is completely fascinating! From The History Blog. Because there are no images of Mary or the saints on this box, I think the likelihood that it was owned by a wealthy Lutheran is very high.

The J. Paul Getty Museum has utilized a technology called Augmented Reality to display the details of a collector’s cabinet from Augsburg, Germany, (made ca. 1630). The cabinet is an incredibly complex piece of furniture that was designed to showcase its owners’ most precious collectibles. It opens on four sides to expose a bewildering array of drawers, cubbies and richly decorated surfaces.

Visitors aren’t allowed to touch it, of course — it’s a delicate piece — so the Getty decided to provide a virtual experience of the cabinet’s wonders both for the museum visitors and for visitors to its website.

“We are always looking for ways in which we can enhance the viewer’s experience,” says Erin Coburn, head of the museum’s Collection Information & Access department. During a discussion about the pavilion’s reopening, she says, “A curator suggested we do something to help people understand the Augsberg cabinet in a way other than just staring at it.”

Coburn and her colleagues created an “interactive” — a virtual model that computer users can spin, open and reassemble. This model is accessible via two touch screens in the gallery and on the Getty’s website at http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/north_pavilion/cabinet/index.html.

The Getty also has enabled online computer users to view and interact with a floating 3-D simulation of the cabinet, thanks to Augmented Reality technology, which combines the real and the virtual in real time.

There’s a wee delay while it loads, but nothing dramatic. Not only can you move all the way around it and zoom in to every section, but there are explanatory details on the most salient features of each side. Click on the “Overview” button for an awesome animation of the whole cabinet spinning around with its drawers pulled out. When you click “Show Structure” the outer walls go transparent and you can see the guts of the piece, exploring all kinds of drawers and pull-out trays in annotated detail.

I love it when technology makes history accessible. No more roped off velvet chairs and plexiglass walls keeping our collective grubby hands off of beautiful, fascinating objects.

Protip: It plays a little better in Firefox than it does in Internet Explorer. Mainly the browsers both handle it fine, but IE gave me trouble when I tried to click on the drawers and pull-outs in the “Show Structure” mode.

Talk about your once-in-a-lifetime archeological moments. Please read this note my colleague, Dr. Christopher Mitchell, shared with a number of us at CPH last night. Exciting!

You may have heard that this summer (2008) an important Hebrew inscription from ca. 1,000 BC (reign of King David) was found at a military outpost called Khirbet Qeiyafa in Judah where the hills meet the Shephelah. The archaeological team included David Adams from Concordia Seminary, who said he was only the third person to hold the ostracon since it was buried 3,000 years ago. It is the oldest Hebrew inscription ever found by at least 500 years.

It, and the archaeological site, confirm aspects of the biblical record about David and the kingdom of Israel. This is a hot topic because the biblical "minimalists" think King David was only a tribal chieftan and the nation of Israel did not exist until centuries later. The inscription is scheduled to be published in the January 2009 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review, although David Adams said it might be delayed to the next issue after that.

The official web site for the excavation is maintained by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem; however, it does not have any information about this inscription. Their web page with photos includes one at the bottom of David Adams:

I understand that this inscription will receive great attention at the SBL annual meeting and ASOR meeting in Boston in about two weeks.