Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Toto · 02-28-2011, 12:36 PM

Anyone in Boston might want to check this out:

McMullen Museum: Dura Europos - Crossroads of Antiquity

Review of the exhibit

Quote:

Organized by the McMullen and Yale University Art Gallery, “Dura-Europos: Crossroads of Antiquity” opens a thrilling window into a multicultural society through fascinating artifacts of great beauty and historical significance.
For Lisa R. Brody, who helped organize the exhibit, the 75 artifacts on display “provide glimpses into the lives of the people” who lived in Dura-Europos so long ago.
...

Visitors can stand before reconstructions of sacred spaces from the city where early Christians baptized their children, Jews gathered and adherents of mystery cults participated in forgotten rituals.

They can gaze upon some of the earliest painted images of Christ performing miracles, a statue of Hercules battling a lion, a Roman’s red wooden shield or an invader’s flattened iron helmet.

The exhibit includes the earliest known example of a baptistry, or baptisimal pool, along with 14 painted plaster scenes of Christian narratives such as Christ healing a paralytic or walking on water.

The exhibit includes four copies of wall paintings from the synagogue, one containing symbols of uncertain meaning.

Visitors can see a Mithraeum, a shrine for the mystery cult known as Mithraism, often practiced by Roman soldiers that featured secret rituals such as the killing of a bull.

The catalogue (or via: amazon.co.uk) is available on Amazon.

Quote:

The focus of an exhibition organized by the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College, Dura-Europos and the Yale excavation are here explored in twenty essays on topics such as the synagogue and baptistery, house groups and technology, archaeological and historical approaches to the study of local groups, as well as excavation and conservation practices in the 1930s. The book includes color plates of each object in the exhibition.

Toto · 05-05-2011, 10:47 AM

Another review

Quote:

In its day, the excavation of Dura-Europos between 1928 and 1937 caused a huge splash, comparable in headline coverage with the likes of Machu Picchu and King Tut's tomb. Dura-Europos, too, was situated in a far-flung, desolately picturesque spot: at the edge of the Syrian desert near Iraq on a long-abandoned plateau abutting the Euphrates. Celebrities like Agatha Christie made the daunting trek to be photographed at the site. Originally founded by the Seleucid branch of Alexander's empire about 300 B.C., the city hosted successive cultures, including the Romans, until it was sacked in A.D. 256 by Perso-Sassanians. It remained apparently undiscovered until, in 1920, British troops left over from World War I stumbled across fragments of murals while bivouacking in the area.

The excavation did not yield the kind of glowing loot that was found, say, in Troy or in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. Much of that had disappeared with the Sassanian sack. Rather, the treasures of Dura-Europos lay in the remnants of the city's dwellings and décor. Some 130 buildings were uncovered, astonishingly well-preserved due to dry desert conditions. The site revealed the first glimpse of a lavishly decorated synagogue, contradicting all assumptions about ancient Jewish life being strictly bound by Old Testament rules warning against the worship of graven images and the like. Excavators also found and preserved murals from a colorful, very early Christian house-church and various pagan temples with gorgeous mosaics and votive objects.

spin · 05-05-2011, 05:02 PM

Dura Europos exhibit in Boston

Perhaps it'll eventually make it to Fall's Creek.

Houdini's Moustache · 05-05-2011, 05:37 PM

So a Mithraeum is really just a piece of furniture? I thought that word referred to the actual building like 'church' does.

stephan huller · 05-05-2011, 05:43 PM

You stole my punchline, spin.

avi · 05-05-2011, 07:05 PM

Quote:

The exhibit includes four copies of wall paintings from the synagogue, one containing symbols of uncertain meaning.

Really?

wall paintings in a Jewish synagogue?

Sure????

Question for the spins and stephan hullers of this world, so smug in their confidence of knowing exactly how to interpret the "church house" with its adorable little "baptismal" fountain:

Quote:

the earliest known example of a baptistry, or baptisimal pool,

1. From which religious tradition, does one suppose, that this peculiar behaviour, of performing "baptism", originate? Does ritualistic washing with theological overtones, perhaps, just possibly, relate to Jewish praxis? No? Uniquely a christian function, is it then? Well, then, I guess that just about nails the coffin shut, right, it MUST be a christian house-church, what else could it be, since no other rationale exists for the basin?

2. Did the Jews living then, not have washing rituals???

3. Do none of the other houses in Dura Europos possess "baptismal" pools?

avi

mountainman · 05-05-2011, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spin

Dura Europos exhibit in Boston

Perhaps it'll eventually make it to Fall's Creek.

I took some photographs of a recently discovered "house-church" at Falls Creek. I should start my own exhibit. Here is a picture of the door to the "house-church". We can immediately see an ancient door. They may have worshipped Sol Invictus and the Moon.

There were obviously a few more recent make-overs on the windows of the Falls Creek "house church". But if we just look long enough at the door, we can tell immediately that it is "The Way". It is certain ancient and painted about the Sermon on the Mount. This is a picture of how they got to the Mount and Back! Obviously its the evidence we have been looking for for so long and just have not found until now. How exciting!

Quite obviously, it was built by christian hobbits! You can see a collection box inside the door, on the altar. There are a whole fabulous lot of photos of the murals on the inside walls. We may even have a picture of Gandalf. Early commentators have suggested either the Mount of Olivia Newton John, or Mount Doom. The foot-trails are definitely those described by Eusebius. We can quote the church historian to validate this archaeological find.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EUSEBIUS

“first to enter upon the subject”, and “to attempt to traverse, as it were, a lonely and untrodden path”.

Thus we could very well be looking at a door painted by Eusebius. I can imagine him out there trying to find the way home for all the christian hobbits, pausing at the high places on the path, and sketching his experience on the first house-church door he found. How the door found its way to Falls Creek is not important at the moment, but I can assure you it is well documented. They used a container very similar to the container used to ship the Duros-Europos house-church back to Yale in the early 20th century. artefacts.

So not only do we have evidence for the existence of an early christian house-chuch in rural Australia, we also have evidence that Eusebius's lonely and untrodden journey was recorded on the door to this house-church. A fragment of the top of the door has been sent to ANSTO for radiocarbon dating analysis.

This may lead to other theories. For example, did Thomas make it to Australia after converting the hindus and Buddhists in INDIA to the Roman State Christian Monotheistic house-church religion? What do the dreamtime stories say?

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05-05-2011, 05:02 PM	#3
spin Contributor Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: nowhere Posts: 15,747	Dura Europos exhibit in Boston Perhaps it'll eventually make it to Fall's Creek.

05-05-2011, 05:37 PM	#4
Houdini's Moustache Banned Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: Upper lip Posts: 101	So a Mithraeum is really just a piece of furniture? I thought that word referred to the actual building like 'church' does.

05-05-2011, 05:43 PM	#5
stephan huller Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: seattle, wa Posts: 9,337	You stole my punchline, spin.

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