Stones Bones And The Sacred

A crucial text for any university course on the interaction of archaeology and the Bible The world of early Christians was not a world lived in texts; it was a world saturated with material reality and concerns: what, where and when to eat or drink; how to present oneself in the space of bodily life and that of death; how to move from one place to another; what impacted status or the adjudication of legal charges. All these and more controlled so much of life in the ancient world. The Christians were not immune from the impact of these realities. Sometimes they absorbed their surrounds; sometimes they quite explicitly rejected the material practices bearing in on them; frequently they modified the practice and the rationale to create a significant Christian alternative. The collection of essays in this volume come from a range of international scholars who, for all their different interests and critical commitments, are yet united in treasuring research into the Greek and Roman worlds in which Christians sought to make their way. They offer these essays in honor of one who has made a lifetime's work in mining ancient material culture to extract nuggets of insight into early Christian dining practices: Dennis E. Smith. Features Rich examples of method in the utilization of ancient material culture for biblical interpretation. Thirteen essays with a response from Dennis E. Smith Maps, diagrams, and plates

Leap across time with bestselling author Harvey Rachlin as he collects over 50 of the most fascinating objects in the world, under one book. The Mounted Hide of Stonewall Jackson's Battle Horse, The Black Obelisk, The Rosetta Stone, George Washington's False Teeth, Vice Admiral Lord Nelson's Uniform Coat, The Elephant Man's Skeleton, and Lincoln's Death Bed are just some of the objects Rachlin explores with wit, pick and an amazing sense of spectacle. Publisher's Weekly calls Lucy's Bone's, Sacred Stones, and Einstein's Brain "entertaining and enlightening." Library Journal declares Rachin's work "fascinating." Parade says it is "detailed and authoritative." It is also intensely moving as Rachlin weaves together seemingly disparate histories into a holistic statement that celebrates human endeavor. This book is not simply wonderful -- it is full of wonder.

Part travel memoir, part historical fiction and fantasy. A journey through Britain's most sacred ancient sites and indeed through time itself.

The material culture of Colossae is here for the first time given as full a collation as possible to the present day. 38 inscriptions, 88 coins and 49 testimonia are brought together in the context of a thorough overview of the site of Colossae. These include evidence that has been thought lost or has been overlooked or misinterpreted or has only recently been discovered. New readings, insights and analyses of the material evidence are brought into a highly creative exchange with the two letters of the Second Testament connected with the site. The texts thereby become additional evidence for an appreciation of the life of a city in the first two centuries of the Common Era. The fullest collation of evidence for the ancient Phrygian city in the Greco-Roman period was the coin catalogue assembled by Hans von Aulock (1987). The most recent catalogue of the inscriptions of Colossae was published by William Calder and William Buckler in 1939. There has never been a full inventory of ancient writings that bear witness to the site. Alan H. Cadwallader in his volume not only updates this material by subjecting it to thorough, critical analysis in the light of comparative evidence from across the Roman province of Asia and the Mediterranean world. New discoveries from the site and from museums and collections in the United Kingdom, Europe, Russia, Australia and the United States are introduced. Into this assemblage and interpretation are brought the letters to the Colossians and Philemon in the Second Testament writings of the Christian Church. For the first time, the letters are released to be players in the highly competitive environment of a city negotiating its way in the new realities of imperial Rome. Here the letters and their recipients become participants in the society of the day, contributing, critiquing and struggling to forge an identity for the Christ followers within that world. Echoes of the gymnasium, gladiatorial spectacles, cosmological speculations, religious devotion and sanction, family structures, commerce and industry, struggles for justice, intercity competition and legal negotiations are found in the letters, echoes that witness to their participation in the life of Colossae. This is a radical new approach, incorporating the turn to material culture as the embedding of literature and its consumers rather than an embellishing backdrop.

Courageous, passionate men and women battle for survival of their clans—in the shadow of the great mammoth who speaks with thunder . . . As the massive glaciers fade and the wide seas rise, the warm grasslands of the Americas bring prosperity to the gentle People of the Red World, followers of the Great Ghost Spirit, the White Mammoth. But farther north, where the harsh dry winds howl, another nation, the People of the Watching Star, are enmeshed with legends of an evil shaman and the man-eating monster called the wanawut. Relentlessly they have hunted the mammoth to near extinction. Now, as raiders and ravagers they are coming south to invade the villages of the People of the Red World. The only ones who can prevent the murder of innocents and the final slaughter of the mammoth are a young boy shaman to whom the animals speak, a man whose strength equals his conviction, and a woman who hopes that, beyond violence and cruelty, humankind will recognize a stronger power—the force of love.

Bones have many stories to tell, so many that it would be impossible to tell them all. The Path of the Bones belongs to no one and everyone. The Path of the Bones only understands bones. Beneath the skin, beyond physical, linguistic or cultural barriers, you and I are made of the same essence and held by the same skeleton. In a world full of barriers, in which we have to jump to relate to one another, bones speak a universal language that connect us. Bones, together with the elements of nature, are the basis of the spirituality of humanity. The cult of bones and the cult of the ancestors are very old, dating back to prehistoric times. The first rituals were born near the dead. Bones are not something out of the ordinary, yet there are still people who fear them. Bones are magical. Bones leave a trail that we can follow - it is up to us to follow that path of bones to the entrails of our own history.