Annewies van den Hoek
Annewies van den Hoek, Ph.D (1988), was lecturer in Jewish and Early Christian Greek at Harvard Divinity School (1989-2016) and is now happily retired. She continues to do research and write, and is also research associate at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (HMANE). Among her works are a monograph on Clement of Alexandria and Philo (Brill, 1988), a Greek text edition of Stromateis IV in Sources Chrétiennes (Cerf, 2001), co-authored with Claude Mondésert, S.J. Further "Light from the Age of Augustine," a catalogue of late Antique ceramics (2002 1st. ed. and 2003, 2nd ed.), co-authored with her husband John J. Herrmann., and "Pottery, Pavements, and Paradise. Iconographic and Textual Studies on Late Antiquity." (Brill, 2013), also co-authored with her husband John J. Herrmann. Currently she works on a commentary of Philo's De Cherubim for the Philo of Alexandria series, published by Brill.
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Early Christian and Jewish Studies by Annewies van den Hoek
gripping story: a fascinating set of characters, reversals of fortune, intrigue, a villain, who happens to be an erratic and oppressive ruler, innocent victims, and a conclusion that vindicates the providential power of God. It hardly qualifies as a historical record since the narrative is filled with fictitious dialogues, rational explanations, emotional reactions, and wishful thinking. Yet in spite of its highly rhetorical character, the Legatio does reflect a historical situation with real people and real places; it is one of only a few surviving contemporary accounts of the life and reign of the emperor Gaius Caligula. The intention of this paper is to shed some light on a place in which the art of rhetoric, the skills of material culture, and the earthly labor of archaeology intersect. In fact, archaeologists use Philo’s account in the final paragraphs of his Legatio (349–373) as evidence to interpret excavations in Rome and as a document on the location where his very Legatio took place.
gripping story: a fascinating set of characters, reversals of fortune, intrigue, a villain, who happens to be an erratic and oppressive ruler, innocent victims, and a conclusion that vindicates the providential power of God. It hardly qualifies as a historical record since the narrative is filled with fictitious dialogues, rational explanations, emotional reactions, and wishful thinking. Yet in spite of its highly rhetorical character, the Legatio does reflect a historical situation with real people and real places; it is one of only a few surviving contemporary accounts of the life and reign of the emperor Gaius Caligula. The intention of this paper is to shed some light on a place in which the art of rhetoric, the skills of material culture, and the earthly labor of archaeology intersect. In fact, archaeologists use Philo’s account in the final paragraphs of his Legatio (349–373) as evidence to interpret excavations in Rome and as a document on the location where his very Legatio took place.
Louvre appear to be made of coarse-grained,
very white dolomitic marble from the north
Aegean island of Thasos, and permission was
given to test twelve of them in a non-destructive
way using a mobile X-ray fluorescence
(XRF) spectrometer. Coarse-grained, white
dolomitic marble sources were rare in antiquity,
and if these Thasian-looking sculptures
proved to be dolomitic rather than calcitic, it is
highly likely that they were in fact made of
Thasian marble. Ten of the twelve sculptures
did prove to be dolomitic marble and therefore
very probably Thasian in origin. This new
information makes it possible to expand and
enrich our knowledge of the exportation of
marble from Thasos in both geographic and
chronological terms. The tests furthermore
confirm that dolomitic marble from Thasos
was preferred for colossal replicas of Athena of
the Velletri type and also reveal that a group of
imperial portraits in Algeria were carved from
marble blocks from Thasos. One test offered
confirmation that a fragment in the Louvre
was part of a relief in Izmir.
travertine widely diffused in Roman Imperial
times, is generally believed to come from quarries at Aïn
Tekbalet in Algeria. A trip to these quarries, however,
made it clear that this cannot be their place of origin.
A visit to the quarries of Bou Hanifia, also in western
Algeria, on the other hand, made it evident that this was,
in fact, the source. Analysis of stable isotopes of carbon
and oxygen of the samples collected at Bou Hanifia is
underway and the few available results are presented.
Optical inspection is the basis for assigning a number
of previously unrecognized artifacts in Algeria, Tunisia,
and Sardinia to Bou Hanifia, and it is possible to support
one of these attributions with isotopic analysis. Artifacts
from Aïn Tekbalet are proving more difficult to identify
with confidence.
on the coast in eastern Algeria makes it possible to
give a preliminary characterization of the Filfila quarries
and to separate them isotopically from the nearby quarries
of Cap de Garde. Inspection and isotopic testing of
artifacts from museums and sites in Algeria and elsewhere
make it clear that architectural decoration was produced
in marble from both quarries and was exported throughout
the central Mediterranean, reaching Tunisia, western
Libya, and central Italy. The most widespread product
seems to have been vividly marked column shafts, primarily
from Cap de Garde but also from Filfila. Other forms
of architectural decoration, including capitals and plaques
of streaked marble, were widely distributed as well. An
early and unusual acanthus pillar in Cap de Garde or Filfila
marble is carved in a rich Hellenistic style. In the 3rd
century AD, capitals made of plain white marble from the
two quarries closely follow designs seen in central Italy.
and their stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen analyzed. These laboratory data have been supplemented by macroscopic observations of color and structure. In many cases it has been possible to attribute the marble of artifacts to quarries in Greece, Turkey, Tunisia, and Algeria itself. In some cases macroscopic and isotopic data contradict one another, and in others it seems clear that the marble came from currently unknown quarries.
quarries near Ephesos, is reported and shown
to be isotopically quite distinct from Cap de Garde, the
Algerian marble site traditionally considered to be the
main source of greco scritto. Isotopic and EPR analyses
carried out on 58 artifacts from North Africa, Italy and
Asia Minor demonstrate that all the true greco scritto
samples (36 artifacts) come from the newly discovered
site. The remaining 22 samples are related veined varieties
originating from different sites including Hasançavuslar
(45%), Cap de Garde (23%) and other not identified
marble quarries (32%). It is suggested that Hasançavuslar
was the major, if not unique, source of the greco
scritto marble actually used in antiquity.
are characterized isotopically and in terms of their grain size and optical characteristics. On this basis the marble of architectural decoration from the cities of Hippo Regius, Rusicade, Calama, Thibilis and Caesarea is assigned to these quarries, as well as to Carrara in Italy and Proconnesus in Asia Minor.
means of x-ray diffraction and the application of acid to the surface of marble. Stylistic and typological comparisons
are used to identify a prefabricated Thassian product at Urbisaglia. Specialized uses of Thassian
dolomite by local sculptors are spotlighted at Rome. Stylistic analysis also indicates that most sculptors carving
dolomite in Rome had no evident connection with Thassos or Macedonia. In most cases, the dolomite seems
to have been exported as raw material.
- Scenes from the Old Testament
- Scenes from the New Testament
- Non-Biblical Christian Images
- Pagan and Epic Imagery
- Imperial Imagery
- Ampitheatre Scenes
- Scenes from Nature and Daily Life