2003 Volume 39
This issue of Buried History brings the journal’s
publishing schedule almost up to date. Volume 40 will be published toward
year end and will, like this volume, include papers of lectures delivered
during the year.
The Institute was honoured to have the 2003 Petrie
Oration delivered by Prof Rosalie David. The paper presented at the
lecture begins this issue. Rosalie is a prolific author and her stature
as an Egyptologist was recognized in 2003 with the award of an Order
of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s Honours List. She is
the KNH Professor of Biomedical Egyptology, and Director of the KNH
Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at the University of Manchester. Rosalie
has been responsible for reviving the scientific analysis of Egyptian
mummies and it is therefore fitting that a couple of later papers in
this issue deal with two of the Institute’s mummies.
The 2003 Beasley Lecture sponsored by the Institute
and delivered in both Sydney and Melbourne was given by Right Reverend
Paul Barnett. His topic is current and he presents forceful arguments
to support his position. Paul has had a distinguished career as an educator
and bishop within the Sydney Anglican community. Most recently he was
Master of Robert Menzies College at Macquarie University. Paul is known
for his research into early church history, especially in Asia Minor,
where he has also traveled extensively.
The paper describing the analysis of the mummified
child’s head focuses on the dental evidence. Pamela Craig is a
dentist who has a special interest in Forensic Dentistry. She teaches
Oral Anatomy and Radiology at the School of Dental Science, The University
of Melbourne and is an honorary forensic Odontologist to the Victorian
Institute of Forensic Medicine. Janet Davey, who incidentally is no
relation, teaches ancient Egyptian history at the College of Advanced
Education in Melbourne. She has studied Egyptology at the University
of Manchester and is soon to return there for a post-graduate program
in Biomedical and Forensic Egyptology. She is the founder of the Melbourne
Mummy Project which has marshaled scientific expertise in Melbourne
for the study of ancient remains.
The paper about the Institute’s child mummy
presents some of the findings of the Melbourne Mummy team. In addition
to those already mentioned the authors are Dr David Ranson, a Forensic
Pathologist, Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, Lee Coleman,
Pediatric Radiologist, Royal Children’s Hospital and Alan McKenzie,
a Diagnostic Radiologist. Other members of the team are acknowledged
at the conclusion of the paper. The Institute has been delighted to
have such a distinguished panel of experts studying its collection.
Some of the material in the paper was presented during a demonstration
inquest held at the Victorian Coroner’s Court during Professor
David’s visit in 2003.
The report on the survey expedition to the el-Kharga
Oasis in the Western Desert of Egypt was prepared by a group of Melbourne
based scholars working on Coptic material. Dr Matthew J Martin is at
the Melbourne College of Divinity, Simone Rickerby has a position at
Whitley College and Dr Geoffrey Jenkins is an Honorary Fellow at Deakin
University.
We are again pleased to have material from Matthew Whincop. Matthew
is at Durham University where he is completing a doctorate on Syrian
Iron Age pottery. He is therefore well placed to review the recently
published volume on the archaeological record in Syria.
The revised format of Buried History represented by
the last issue was welcomed and we trust that this volume receives similar
endorsement. We acknowledge all our authors and the referees who have
assisted in the task of preparation.
Christopher Davey
February 2004
Table
of Contents
Papers
William Petrie and the Egyptology
Collection at the Manchester Museum, England - A. Rosalie David
Read Abstract
The Birth of Christianity -
Paul Barnet Read Abstract
A Radiographic Study of the Head
of a Child from Graeco-Roman Egypt - Pamela Craig and Janet
Davey Read Abstract
A Mummified Child - Janet
Davey, David Ranson, Pam Craig, Lee Coleman and Alan McKenzie Read
Abstract
Ain Sa'af, Kharga Oasis, Egypt
Preliminary Survey, 2002-2003 - Matthew J Martin, Simone Rickerby,
R Geoffrey Jenkins Read Abstract
Reviews and Brief
Communications
Matthew Whincop:
The Archaeology of Syria: From Complex Hunter-Gatherers to Early Urban
Societies (ca. 16,000-300 BC) by Akkermans, P.M.M.G. and Schwartz, G.M.
- Read Review
Abstracts
William Petrie
and the Egyptology Collection at the Manchester Museum, England.
A. Rosalie David
Sir William Flinders Petrie (the grandson
of Captain Matthew Flinders who explored the coast of Australia between
1797 and 1803) had a brilliant career as an archaeologist that spanned
five decades, and his contribution to the subject in developing scientific
methodologies for excavation is unparallelled. Initially, it wasAmelia
B.Edwards, a founder of The Egypt Exploration Fund in London, who recognised
Petrie’s genius, and ensured that he was recruited as one of the
Fund’s first archaeologists. However, disagreements with the Committee
led to a parting of the ways, and in 1886, he had no excavations in
view and his career faced premature extinction. Amelia Edwards then
introduced Petrie to Jesse Haworth, a textile manufacturer with an interest
in Egyptology who lived in Manchester, England. He took up the support
of Petrie’s work and, for many years, he financed his excavations.
Finds from these sites came to form the basis of two major collections:
at The Petrie Museum, University College London, and at The Manchester
Museum, University of Manchester. The recent establishment of the endowed
KNH Centre and Chair for Biomedical Egyptology at the University of
Manchester has fulfilled Jesse Haworth’s hope that the university
would establish a professorship in Egyptology. Read
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The
Birth of Christianity
Paul Barnet
Crossan and Casey are examples of those
who say that in the first twenty years Jesus was re-defined as ‘Son
of God’ and ‘Lord’. These and other accounts make
inquiry into those two decades quite critical. We are able to affirm
the broad lines of the narrative of Acts by undisputed information in
Paul’s earliest letters and by the data in the ‘we’
passages in Acts. Case studies in Rom 1:1-4 and in the recorded teaching
of Philip points to the pervasive influence of the ‘teaching of
the apostles’, Peter’s in particular. The pre-history of
the underived Gospels of Mark and John, as well as the Synoptic sources
Q, L and M are to be sought in this critical two-decade period immediately
‘after Jesus’. Read
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A
Radiographic Study of the Head of a Child from Graeco-Roman Egypt
Pamela Craig and Janet Davey
In the case described,
a request to ascertain the age at death of a Graeco-Roman mummified
head by dental radiographic means revealed some unexpected and interesting
information. The radiographic study revealed extensive dental caries,
an unexpected low level of wear on the teeth, and evidence of possible
interceptive orthodontic treatment having been carried out on the child’s
teeth prior to death. The authors argue that that the latter may have
contributed to the death. Read
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A
Mummified Child.
Janet Davey, David Ranson, Pam Craig, Lee Coleman and Alan McKenzie
The investigation of a child’s mummified
human remains from the Graeco-Roman Period, as part of the Melbourne
Mummy Project has produced some interesting results that may offer an
alternate explanation for the poor condition of the remains. The body
wrapped in linen and decorated with mismatched cartonnage coverings
shows signs of being interred for some time before mummification. Although
removal of the brain and internal organs has occurred post mortem, there
is other evidence suggesting that the body has suffered unexplained
injuries and damage not necessarily due to poor mummification techniques.
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Ain Sa'af, Kharga Oasis Egypt Preliminary Survey, 2002-2003
Matthew J Martin, Simone Rickerby, R Geoffrey Jenkins
Members of an Australian archaeological mission conducted preliminary
survey work at the site of Ain Sa’af in the Kharga Oasis of
Egypt's Western Desert, over two short seasons in 2002 and 2003.
The site of Ain Sa’af is located three kilometres north of
the famous early Christian necropolis of Bagawat, on the plain at
the foot of the western side of the Gebel al-Teir, and five kilometers
north of the ancient town of Hibis, the capital of the Great (Kharga)
Oasis. (Fig 1). The site was named by the Kharga Antiquities Inspectorate
when they investigated the area in the 1980s and 1990s. The ancient
name of the site is not known. Read
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Reviews and Brief Communications
Akkermans,
P.M.M.G. and Schwartz, G.M. - The Archaeology of Syria: From Complex
Hunter-Gatherers to Early Urban Societies (ca. 16,000-300 BC)
Reviewed by Matthew Whincop
This much anticipated synthesis of recent
developments in Syrian Archaeology is, as its back cover reminds us,
the "[f]irst book to present a comprehensive review of the archaeology
of Syria from the end of the Paleolithic period to 300 BC." With
such a broad period and diverse cultural history in mind, this book
is certainly a good introduction to the archaeology of the region. Read
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Reviews and Brief
Communications
Places
Hidden in the Old Testament - Paul J.N. Lawrence
The Old Testament contains some 8,500 proper names,
of which several thousand are place names. The overwhelming majority
of these place names have been identified as place names and have
been translated as such.
In this article I hope to look at two examples
where the traditional Hebrew text of the Old Testament may conceal a
hidden place name, and briefly comment on an example of the process
in reverse. Read More...
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Exploring
the Bronze Age in Cyrus: Australian Perspectives - Jennifer
M. Webb,
Jennifer M. Webb, Exploring the Bronze
Age in Cyprus. Australian Perspectives, Museum of Antiquities, Maurice
Kelly Lecture, University of New England, 2002 (36pp)
Reviewed by Kathrun O. Eriksson
This lecture was the fifth in a series
of public lectures established to honour Dr. Maurice Kelly and to recognise
his vision in establishing in the the 1950’s the Museum of Antiquities
at the University of New England – the onlt archaeological museum
at a non metropolitan university in Australia. The Museum has acquired
quite a significant collection of Cypriot artifacts since it was established.
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