Amazing Archaeology: a course for Enjoy Learning, January to March 2020
Look out for the half term break - no class on 19th February
Session 1: How to be a god : looking at the beliefs and rituals that past cultures used to make gods out of their leaders and heroes.
Tutankhamun's burial was revisited, including features that suggest he was buried as the god Osiris.
Link for Harry Burton's photo's of the tomb being excavated: www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/gallery/
Tutankhamun's burial was revisited, including features that suggest he was buried as the god Osiris.
Link for Harry Burton's photo's of the tomb being excavated: www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/gallery/
Most ancient rituals are not described or recorded by their practitioners. However Herodian, writing in the early 300s CE, gave an account of the 'Apotheosis' ritual. Read an abridged version of his account here: apotheosis.doc
Ironically, Herodian was writing at a time when Christianity was rapidly becoming the religion to adopt if you wanted to get on in the Roman world. Until that point, though, it had become quite usual to deify the dead Emperor, and often his close family as well.
Herodian describes these events as taking place on the Field of Mars. This was originally outside the built up area of the city, but had become built up by the time he was writing. As the Apotheosis involved extensive burning of woods and aromatics, it must have filled the whole suburb with slightly narcotic smog. Herodian doesn't mention this.....
So I wonder if he was actually recording something he'd really seen, or making it up? Certainly he may have seen the elaborate obelisk erected on the Field of Mars by the Emperor Antoninus Pius. The base of this obelisk still survives in the Vatican gardens, and it is covered on all four sides with scenes of the Emperor's own apotheosis.
Herodian's account was clearly used as the reference for Domenico Zampieri's painting, below.
Herodian describes these events as taking place on the Field of Mars. This was originally outside the built up area of the city, but had become built up by the time he was writing. As the Apotheosis involved extensive burning of woods and aromatics, it must have filled the whole suburb with slightly narcotic smog. Herodian doesn't mention this.....
So I wonder if he was actually recording something he'd really seen, or making it up? Certainly he may have seen the elaborate obelisk erected on the Field of Mars by the Emperor Antoninus Pius. The base of this obelisk still survives in the Vatican gardens, and it is covered on all four sides with scenes of the Emperor's own apotheosis.
Herodian's account was clearly used as the reference for Domenico Zampieri's painting, below.
Session 2: Perfect worship: the accoutrements that enabled mere mortals to get the attention of the gods were big business. Not just the tall temples, made with the finest materials, but especially the incense and perfumes used to create the heady atmosphere.
Later, in Roman times, cinnamon had a legendary cost. Nero apparently burned a year's supply of connamon on the pyre of the wife Poppaea.
Cassia, a type of cinnamon, was being used in ancient Egypt even in 2000 BCE. It came from India. Tutankhamun's tomb contained spikenard-based perfume....a pungent base ingredient imported from the eastern Himalayas.
Smells were associated with health - inhaling a perfume was regularly used as part of a cure, and ancient temples, just like the later Christian monasteries, functioned as places of healing.
Temples were major importers and distributors of incense and perfume ingredients. At the temple at Edfu, between Luxor and Aswan, the perfume workshop is still identifiable.
Later, in Roman times, cinnamon had a legendary cost. Nero apparently burned a year's supply of connamon on the pyre of the wife Poppaea.
Cassia, a type of cinnamon, was being used in ancient Egypt even in 2000 BCE. It came from India. Tutankhamun's tomb contained spikenard-based perfume....a pungent base ingredient imported from the eastern Himalayas.
Smells were associated with health - inhaling a perfume was regularly used as part of a cure, and ancient temples, just like the later Christian monasteries, functioned as places of healing.
Temples were major importers and distributors of incense and perfume ingredients. At the temple at Edfu, between Luxor and Aswan, the perfume workshop is still identifiable.
Session 3: Clothing the Ancients:
Some fascinating accounts of the evidence from steppe-nomad 'kurgans', ranging from the Ukraine to the borders of China: blog.britishmuseum.org/what-do-nomads-leave-behind/
Siberian Times article on Ukok princess siberiantimes.com/culture/others/features/fashion-and-beauty-secrets-of-a-2500-year-old-siberian-princess-from-her-permafrost-burial-chamber/
Written with an anthropological slant as well as with good details of the archaeology: scfh.ru/en/papers/a-different-archaeology-pazyryk-culture-a-snapshot-ukok-2015-/
More detail and context on the Pazyryk discoveries: www.elixirofknowledge.com/2013/06/history-mystery-pazyryk-frozen-tombs-of_1912.html