Classics Commons^™

"Fighting Over A Shadow?": Hellenistic Greek Cities And Greco-Roman Cities As Fora And Media For Multi-Level Social Signaling, Luann Wandsnider

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

The cities of Hellenistic western Anatolia and Roman Asia Minor served as fora for complex social, economic, and political transactions. This chapter introduces social signaling theory in which these transactions are considered as social signals emitted by individuals (i.e., citizens) and groups (i.e., cities) and emphasizes the different qualities of these signals, especially their materiality and differential costliness. Social signals convey information about the otherwise difficult-to-assess capabilities of individual and groups; only some have the talents or resources to emit a high-quality signal. At the individual level, the nature, location, and possibly size of a civic benefaction signal’s an individual’s …

Roman Baths At Antiochia Ad Cragum: A Preliminary Evaluation Of Bath Architecture As Social Signals In The Ancient Mediterranean World, Holly J. Staggs

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

In Rough Cilicia, monumental public architecture was built in the initial phase of the social and political formation of Asia Minor into the Roman Empire during the Imperial Period. As bathing complexes are the most abundant and diverse types of architecture in this region, it would be beneficial to analyze the role of the baths along with their importance in this new Greco-Roman society. This study will focus on two baths at the site of Antiochia ad Cragum, seating this effort in multi-level signaling theory to understand local scale patterning and revised world systems theory to understand regional scale patterning. …

Frank Moore Cross’S Contribution To The Study Of The Dead Sea Scrolls, Sidnie White Crawford

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

This paper examines the impact of Frank Moore Cross on the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Since Cross was a member of the original editorial team responsible for publishing the Cave 4 materials, his influence on the field was vast. The article is limited to those areas of Scrolls study not covered in other articles; the reader is referred especially to the articles on palaeography and textual criticism for further discussion of Cross’s work on the Scrolls.

A Symposium On The Legacy Of Frank Moore Cross: Introduction, Walter E. Aufrecht, Sidnie White Crawford

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

The papers following these remarks were presented in November 2013 at a symposium jointly sponsored by the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Schools of Oriental Research. Frank Cross was a president of both of these organizations, and so it seemed desirable to conduct a retrospective of his scholarly work under their aegis. Cross’s life and career was superbly highlighted in this journal by Peter Machinist (2013), and they need no further rehearsal here. Rather, our goal is to begin the evaluation of his work and its influence on the scholarly world.

Review Of The Dead Sea Scrolls In Context: Integrating The Dead Sea Scrolls In The Study Of Ancient Texts, Languages, And Cultures, Edited By Armin Lange, Emanuel Tov, And Matthias Weigold, In Association With Bennie H. Reynolds Iii., Sidnie White Crawford

Sidnie White Crawford Publications

These two massive volumes comprise the proceedings of a conference of the same name held at the University of Vienna in February 2008. The purpose of the conference, and the proceedings volumes, in the words of the editors, is “to integrate the Dead Sea Scrolls fully into the various disciplines that benefit from the discovery of these very important texts” (vol. 1, p. x). As a result, the papers contained in these volumes are wideranging, written by specialists in the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) as well as in other disciplines. The volumes will thus appeal to scholars in a variety …

Public Buildings And Civic Benefactions In Western Rough Cilicia: Insights From Signaling Theory, Luann Wandsnider

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

In the Hellenistic and Roman world of the eastern Mediterranean, Greek and Greco-Roman cities came to be defined by their physical cityscape. These buildings were constructed by specific city institutions, such as the council and the assembly, and financed through city funds, mass subscription and, importantly, public benefactions. Public benefactions, which also included support for festivals and competitions, were made by certain elite and usually wealthy individuals to the benefit of a defined community of citizens (and sometimes non-citizens, as in the case of fortification walls). Institutions within the benefiting community, again the council and the assembly, acknowledged these gifts …

The Development Of Tibetan Scholasticism: Shakya Chokden’S History Of Madhyamaka Thought In Tibet, Shakya Chokden, Matthew T. Kapstein, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Serdok Paṇchen Shakya Chokden (1428–1507) stands out as one of the most remarkable thinkers of Tibet. The enormous body of his collected works is notable for the diversity and originality of the writings it contains, and for their exceptional rigor. One of the few Tibetan intellectuals affiliated with both the Sakyapa and Kagyiipa orders, which were often doctrinal and political rivals (see chapters 7 and n), he was also among the sharpest critics of Jé Tsongkhapa (chapter 16), the founder of the Gelukpa order that would come to dominate Tibet under the Dalai Lamas. For this reason Shakya Chokden’s works …

Review Of Fauvel. The First Archaeologist In Athens And His Philhellenic Correspondents, By C. W. Clairmont, Effie Athanassopoulos

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Clairmont’s book is a selection of letters addressed to Louis-François-Sébastien Fauvel, the French Consul and antiquarian, who lived in Athens from 1803 to 1822. Fauvel came to Greece for the first time in 1780. He was sent to the Orient by Count Choiseul-Gouffier in order to study, draw and acquire antiquities for Choiseul’s collection. In 1784 Choiseul-Gouffier was appointed Ambassador in Constantinople and Fauvel continued his activities as a member of Choiseul’s retinue until 1792. Subsequently, Fauvel held the position of French Consul in Athens from 1802 until 1833. With the outbreak of the War of Independence, Fauvel left Athens …

Review Of The Dead Sea Scrolls And The Hasmonean State, By Hanan Eshel, Sidnie White Crawford

Sidnie White Crawford Publications

The purpose of this volume by the late Hanan Eshel is to “summarize the contributions of the scrolls to the understanding of the political history of the Hasmonean state” (p. 1). Eshel, an archaeologist, linguist, and historian who edited several manuscripts from the Judaean Desert finds and excavated in the region of Qumran, was committed to mining the Qumran scrolls for historical information, a position that has come into a certain amount of disfavor in recent scholarship. However, in this balanced and careful volume, Eshel demonstrates that the Qumran scrolls do contain nuggets of valuable information that add to our …

Buddhist Contributions To The Question Of (Un)Mediated Mystical Experience, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

In this article, I address divergent Buddhist positions on conceptual and non-conceptual understanding of reality and the process of transition from the former to the latter. My discussion is anchored in the context of a well-known problematic issue in the field of religious studies, namely, the question of (un)mediated mystical experience. Connecting uniquely Buddhist philosophical and contemplative perspectives with the questions debated in contemporary studies of mysticism, I argue that Buddhism can make significant contributions to that field. Not only does it provide refined models of mind, contemplative processes, and other elements that help us understand certain mystical experiences, but …

Lutheran Christian Hebraism In The Time Of Solomon Glassius (1593-1656), Stephen G. Burnett

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Lutheran Hebrew scholarship in the era of Orthodoxy has suffered the same kind of scholarly neglect as theology from this period. A few Hebraists such as Wilhelm Schickard or Wolfgang Ratke have been the subjects of monographs or collections of articles, while others receive mention in university histories or books related to Jewish-Christian relations in early modern Germany. Only within the past decade have scholars addressed this facet of Reformation-era Christian Hebraism. Johann Anselm Steiger examined the use that Johann Gerhard and Solomon Glassius made of post-biblical Jewish literature, while Kenneth G. Appold has stressed the pivotal role that Hebrew …

Shakya Chokden’S Interpretation Of The Ratnagotravibhāga: “Contemplative” Or “Dialectical”?, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

This reconciliation of the dialectical and contemplative approaches to the buddha-essence is related to and closely resembles Shakchok’s reconciliation of the two approaches to ultimate reality advocated respectively by Nihsvabhāvavāda (ngo bo nyid med par smra ba, “Proponents of Entitylessness”) system of Madhyamaka and Alīkākāravāda (rnam rdzun pa, “False Aspectarians”) system of Yogācāra. These approaches in turn are connected respectively to the explicit teachings (dngos bstan) of the second dharmacakra (chos ’khor, “Wheel of Dharma”) and the definitive teachings (nges don, nītārtha) of the third dharmacakra that he also presents in a reconciliatory …

Two Kings: An Account Of The Preparation And Performance Of The Role Of Edgar In William Shakespeare's King Lear, Ryan Kathman

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

This work is my graduate thesis documenting the creative process behind my performance of the role of Edgar in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s 2009 production of King Lear by William Shakespeare. It is comprised of five sections including an introduction, pre-rehearsal research, rehearsal and performance journal, post-production responses and conclusion. The introduction outlines my impressions of Edgar and King Lear prior to researching or rehearsing the role. In my research section, I attempt to better understand Shakespeare, his play and the role of Edgar by studying the playwright’s life and the history of the character and play, while also making …

Τρυφη And Υβρισ In The Περι Βιων Of Clearchus, Vanessa B. Gorman, Robert J. Gorman

Department of History: Faculty Publications

Recent discussions of the fragments of the Περι Βίων have seen the concept of pernicious luxury as a key to understanding aspects of this work of Clearchus. In particular, it is thought that Clearchus reflects a moralizing historiographical schema according to which wealth leads to an effeminate luxury (τρυφή), eventually producing satiety (κόρος), which in turn provokes the afflicted to violence (υβρις), ultimately bringing the subject’s destruction. We maintain, in contrast, that it is anachronistic to attribute this pattern of thought to Clearchus, and further, that the state of the evidence does not permit …

Why Not License Referees?, Thomas Nelson Winter

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

The referee system in scholarly publishing offers us many benefits and also carries with it attendant problems. The problems need to be addressed. Referees are arguably the linchpins of academic scholarship: they do the heavy lifting for editors, they provide editors with vicarious expertise, and they monitor the gateway to publication and thus to tenure and promotion. Their presence in the editorial process is the guarantee to deans and program directors that scholarship is scholarship. Referees are also, however, the bottleneck of the publication system. Dilatory or slothful referees idly and thoughtlessly put careers on hold.

The system needs changing. …

Review Of Katharina Galor, Jean-Baptiste Humbert, And Jürgen Zangenberg (Eds.), Qumran, The Site Of The Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeological Interpretations And Debates; Proceedings Of A Conference Held At Brown University, November 17-19, 2002, Sidnie White Crawford

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

The contributions in the volume include “Foreword,” by John J. Collins (p. vii); “Introduction: Qumran Archaeology in Search of a Consensus,” by Katharina Galor and Jürgen Zangenberg (pp. 1-9); “Some Remarks on the Archaeology of Qumran,” by Jean-Baptiste Humbert (pp. 19-39); “The 1996 Excavations at Qumran and the Context of the New Hebrew Ostracon,” by James F. Strange (pp. 41-54); “Back to Qumran: Ten Years of Excavation and Research, 1993–2004,” by Yizhak Magen and Yuval Peleg (pp. 55-113); “Hedging the Holy at Qumran: Walls as Symbolic Devices,” by Joan Branham (pp. 117-31); “Kh. Qumran in Period III,” by Joan E. …

Review Of Kenneth Liberman, Dialectical Practice In Tibetan Philosophical Culture: An Ethnomethodological Inquiry Into Formal Reasoning, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Chapters 4–9 are the most important part of the book. Here Liberman displays his interpretive skills to the fullest. He explores various aspects of directly observed, live debate processes, drawing on the work of Schutz, Husserl, Durkheim (to mention just a few), as well as Buddhist thinkers Nagarjuna, Sakya Pandita, Tsongkhapa, and others. Liberman exhaustively explains the organization and mechanics of debates, the public nature of reasoning, negative dialectics employed by debaters, strategies and techniques such as absurd consequences, hand-claps, ridicule, and repetition, and other matters.

Life In The Truck Lane: Urban Development In Western Rough Cilicia, Nicholas K. Rauh, Rhys F. Townsend, Michael C. Hoff, Matthew Dillon, Martin W. Doyle, Cheryl A. Ward, Richard M. Rothaus, Hülya Caner, Ünal Akkemik, Luann Wandsnider, F. Sancar Ozaner, Christopher D. Dore

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

What combination of forces precipitated urban development in the ancient Mediterranean world? Are the remnants of such forces identifiable in the archaeological record? Since the Mediterranean basin presented itself as an ethnically diverse region where goods and services were transported largely by water, to what degree was urban development at the local level stimulated by the expansion of overseas empires? More specifically, does a ›world system‹ theoretical construct adequately address the phenomenon of urban development in the ancient Mediterranean world? This construct has gained significant popularity with those attempting to explain the pace and scale of development in the pre-classical …

Philosemitism And Christian Hebraism In The Reformation Era (1500-1620), Stephen G. Burnett

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Jonathan Israel argues in his seminal work European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism (1985) that the early modern period marked a distinctive phase in the historical experience and consciousness of the Jews of Western Europe. He contends that the key factor that paved the way for these changes was the "political and spiritual upheaval which engulfed European culture as a whole by the end of the sixteenth century", above all what he terms the "Catholic-Protestant deadlock". The Protestant Reformation, which began in Wittenberg but quickly divided into several competing forms of Protestantism, evoked a Catholic Reformation in response. Polemicists …

Book Review: Living Together, Living Apart: Rethinking Jewish-Christian Relations In The Middle Ages, Stephen G. Burnett

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

The theme of Jonathan Elukin’s elegant and well-argued book is Jewish-Christian coexistence in medieval Europe—how was it possible given Christian prejudice and anti-Jewish violence? Older medieval Jewish history stressed the themes of “scholars and suffering,” embodying what the late Salo Baron termed a “lachrymose” view of Jewish history. In recent years historians have stressed how medieval Europe became a “persecuting society,” following the work of R. I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society (1987), and David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence (1996). Elukin argues for a different approach to medieval Jewish experience, eschewing a “one-dimensional narrative of victimization” (p. 4) …

Review Of Duckworth Companions To Greek And Roman Tragedy, Anne Duncan

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Duckworth's series, 'Companions to Greek and Roman Tragedy', is an excellent resource for students as well as for their teachers. The overall quality of the volumes in the series is high. Many of the volumes, in addition to being valuable textbooks, offer much to interest scholars. On the whole, the volumes in the series are written in clear, accessible prose, with technical and theoretical terms defined. They are a suitable length (generally around 130 pages of text) for use alongside either a translation of the given play or the play's text in Greek. Most volumes begin with a chapter on …

Jüdische Vermittler Des Hebräischen Und Ihre Christlichen Schüler Im Spätmittelalter, Stephen G. Burnett

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Bruder Konrad Pellikan, ein Franziskanermönch, war das heroische Beispiel eines christlichen Autodidakten der hebräischen Sprache. Im Jahre 1499 fing er sein Studium des Hebräischen auf der Basis seiner Analyse des hebräischen Bibeltextes mit einer wortwörtlichen lateinischen Übersetzung der späteren Prophetenbücher und auch mit den transkribierten Versen von Jesajas, die sich in Petrus Nigris Stella Messiae befanden, an. Im Juli des folgenden Jahres hatte er bei einem Besuch in Tübingen von Reuchlin eine Erklärung der Nennform (Infinitiv) des Verbs bekommen. Im August besuchte er den Ulmer Priester Johannes Böhm. Dieser stellte ihm zwei handschriftliche Fragmente von Moses Kimhis Grammatik zur Verfügung, …

You Can't Get There From Here: The Story Of The Third Conjugation, Thomas Nelson Winter

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

How does a student go from tetigit in the text to tango in the dictionary? Verbs in the third conjugation often prove difficult even for intermediate and advanced Latin students. The other conjugations all form the perfect stem with a v infix, with or without the thematic vowel. Third conjugation verbs form their perfect stem in five ways. Three of these ways correspond to Greek; the fourth way is with the standard u/v infix; and the fifth way is with no stem-change at all. A complete overview of these five types may preemptively spare your students time and grief.

Sample Editions Of The Oxford Hebrew Bible: Deuteronomy 32:1-9, 1 Kings 11:1-8, And Jeremiah 27:1-10 (34 G), Sidnie White Crawford, Jan Joosten, Eugene Ulrich

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

The following sample editions illustrate the theory and method of the Oxford Hebrew Bible. The Deuteronomy sample, edited by Sidnie White Crawford, concerns a text with one ancient edition, while the Kings sample, edited by Jan Joosten, and the Jeremiah sample, edited by Eugene Ulrich, concern texts with two ancient editions. The arguments that justify the editorial decisions are presented in the apparatuses and text-critical commentaries. (The detailed introductory chapters are not included.) The critical texts, following the conventions discussed in the previous article, contain the following sigla: a superlinear circlet to indicate an entry in the apparatus where the …

Later Christian Hebraists, Stephen G. Burnett

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Christian Hebrew scholarship as an academic discipline was born during the sixteenth century. The founding of chairs of Hebrew language at European universities, the emergence of Hebrew presses to supply the needs of Christian customers, the willingness of some Jewish experts to instruct Christian pupils, and above all the humanist motivation for a return to the sources of the Christian faith together made Hebrew education possible for greater numbers of Christian scholars than ever before. The majority of these scholars had only a smattering of Hebrew, and those such as Conrad Pellican, and Paul Fagius who could read and understand …

An Analytical Directory Of The Latin Endings, Thomas Nelson Winter

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

What reader of Latin has not paused while consciously trying the various possibilities on a final -a ending? Or marched in place momentarily while deciding that a final -is was nominative, not genitive? While English shows meaning by position-in-sequence, Latin shows meaning by case-ending and circumstance: where case-ending fails, circumstance is left.

This book deals with the circumstance. It is, then a backwards grammar. It assumes some familiarity with Latin, and familiarity with the cases. Its intended audience is intermediate Latin students, and teachers of intermediate Latin students.

This is a chapter from an unpublished work, Odds on Latin, a …

The Mechanical Problems In The Corpus Of Aristotle, Thomas Nelson Winter

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

This is a translation of the Mechanical Problems from the TLG Greek text. That it survives in the corpus of Aristotle has been prima facie evidence that Aristotle was the author, although there are many problems with this attribution. At many places I found indications that the date of the work was apt for Aristotle. But eventually, I saw a connection in Vitruvius (as described in the brief essay included here as “Who Wrote the Mechanical Problems in the Corpus of Aristotle”) that led to a conviction of the author's true identity. To “cut to the chase,” I conclude that …

Review Of Out Of The Cave: A Philosophical Inquiry Into The Dead Sea Scrolls Research, By Edna Ullmann-Margalit, Sidnie White Crawford

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Edna Ullmann-Margalit, a professor of the philosophy of science 1 at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has turned her interest in the Dead Sea Scrolls into a fascinating study of the scholarship on the Dead Sea Scrolls. As she makes clear in the introduction (p. 17), Ullmann-Margalit makes no claim to expertise in the Scrolls, but is rather engaged in “second-order” scholarship; her subject is the study of the Scrolls. The book is divided into an introduction and three chapters: Chapter 1, “Writings and Ruins: The Essene Connection”; Chapter 2, “A Hard Look at ‘Hard Facts’: The Archaeology of Qumran”; …

Review Of Judith Anne Brown, John Marco Allegro: The Maverick Of The Dead Sea Scrolls, Sidnie White Crawford

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Judith Anne Brown, the daughter of John Allegro, has written a fascinating account of her father’s life and career, in the process shedding a welcome light on one of the more maligned of the original editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls. B. was able to draw on her father’s personal papers and family archives (especially those of her mother, Joan Allegro) in constructing her account, and the result is a fuller, more personal picture than one normally expects from a scholarly biography.

By far the most rewarding chapters of this biography for Dead Sea Scrolls aficionados will be the chapters …

German Jewish Printing In The Reformation Era (1530-1633), Stephen G. Burnett

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

In this study I will consider how the Reformation affected the Jewish printers of sixteenth-century Germany and their businesses as they attempted to produce and sell Jewish books to a largely Jewish clientele. First I will present capsule histories of the various presses as they operated both before the suppression of the Talmud in 1553, and then afterwards in a new climate of restrictions and press controls. Then I will discuss aspects of the Hebrew printing business, including the creation of printable texts (authors, editors, and censors), customer demand for Jewish books, and how presses financed their activities. And finally, …