ANTIQUITATIS

RES

JOURNAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY

Published online: January 2021,

pp. 3-15

• Abstract

  Anselm Kiefer was born in 1945, in Germany, and his father was an officer of the Wehrmacht. This circumstance naturally determined his essence and motivated a course, a frontier. Kiefer, the painter who first studied law, literature and linguistics, has been orienting himself since 1990’ for the study and plastic narration of antiquity and its most significant myths, namely in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Crossing borders - the essence of man, the secret of existence, history and art - Kiefer expresses, through his painting, his texts and his words, the confrontation with the collective memory.

Published online: January 2021,

pp. 16-34

• Abstract

  In this article we propose to identify the transmission of cultural memory of the Tower of Babel’s myth by means of artistic connections between Eastern Antiquity and Renascentist Europe, through perceptions of esthetic information. We also bring up a counterpoint to hegemonic view of art history, whose artistic references have been eurocentric and/or North-american, by presenting the works of a contemporary artist who lives in Southern Brazil.

Published online: January 2021,

pp. 35-57

• Abstract

  This paper aims to study how Babylon was portrayed in the 1916 film by David W. Griffith – Intolerance. This motion picture reveals a Babylon which is the direct result of the diverse visions and ideas the different historical actors had over the centuries. Through a historical analysis of Intolerance, a film that reached vast audiences at the time, one may be elucidated about the way the ancient capital was envisioned in the beginning of the 20th century, and which were the visual and textual sources used by the director to portray the city and its final fall.

Published online: January 2021,

pp. 58-63

• Abstract

  Reclaiming of the body in contemporary theater is linked to the nostalgia of the lost sacred, to a call to restore rituals. The European vanguard movements reveal a growing interest in the East and the consequent return of theatrical traditions that go back to Antiquity. In this study I will focus on contemporary creations that recover techniques from masks and puppets as a source of work for the scenic corporality, in some of Ariane Mnouchkine creations.

Published online: January 2021,

pp. 64-83

• Abstract

  This text has as analysis field the library of D. Teodósio I, 5th duke of Bragança, known only by a 16th century copy of his House’s inventory made after his death in 1563. As it would be expected, Antique culture is deeply represented in this great aristocratic library in all fields of knowledge – Philosophy, Poetry, Astronomy, Medicine, Theology, Civil and Canon Law. We will focus our attention on History, the most important section after Theology and Law, underlining the presence of Greek and Latin books and authors, both in their original version and in translation into vernacular languages, an eloquent testimony of the reception of Ancient Culture in Renaissance’s Portugal.

Published online: January 2021,

pp. 84-103

• Abstract

  D. João de Castro was born to an illustrious Portuguese family, and received the same education that was given to other young noblemen of his time and status: in the enlightened environment of the court of King D. Manuel I, they received at the same time a military training and an introduction to a traditional classical learning. Thus it is possible to understand how years later, in his writings, he showed an assiduous conviviality with Pliny, Ptolemy, Pomponius Mela, Vitruvius, and other authors of Antiquity. It is not improbable that the readings of his first years included also romances of chivalry, because he admired the exploits of Alexander the Great. The present paper, in addition to following briefly the military career of D. João de Castro, will be interested in his nautical writings, three rutters that were written in so many maritime journeys between 1538 and 1541: the «Rutter from Lisbon to Goa», the «Rutter from Goa to Diu», and the «Rutter of the Red Sea». Some attention will also merit the numerous letters he wrote during his years of residence in India. Thus, an attempt will be made to enumerate the literary echoes of Antiquity in the writings of D. João de Castro, bearing in mind that unlike many humanists of the time, whose life was completely passed in Europe, the celebrated Portuguese fidalgo and rutter-writer had the opportunity to travel extensively through extra-European spaces, confronting firsthand the geographical lesson of the classical authors with the human and geographical realities of the East.

Published online: January 2021,

pp. 104-131

• Abstract

  Tell el-Farʽa, situated some 11 km northeast of the West Bank city of Nablus, on the central mountains of Palestine, was identified in 1931, by the north American orientalist William Albright, as the ancient city of Tirzah. Nowadays, this hypothetical identification became dominant. Fifteen years later, beginning in 1946, the École biblique et archéologique française, of Jerusalem, under the supervision of the Dominican father Roland de Vaux, undertook nine archaeological seasons at Tell el-Farʽa. The work, conducted by the French team, has led to identification of seven major periods, from Pre-Pottery Neolithic to Iron Age.

  After a long period of archaeological inactivity, since 1961, Tell el-Farʽa has become again the centre of a research project, coordinated by an international team with University of A Coruña, NOVA University, Lisbon, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Palestine, through the Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage.

  In 2017 and 2018, the two first campaigns took place and in October 2019 the third season had the following objectives: studying architecture, material culture and absolute dating concerning Iron Age; surveying the wadi el-Farʽa and surrounding areas in order to understand the regional settlements and the political and economic influence of ancient Tell el-Farʽa between the Chalcolithic and Iron Age; study of toponymy of Tell el-Farʽa and its region; and restoration and valorisation of an Iron Age house excavated by the École biblique team in 1951.

   

   

Published online: January 2021,

pp. 132-160

• Abstract

  The Euphrates Valley was a scene of rivalries between the Hittites, Babylonians and Assyrians throughout the 13th century BCE. The Assyrians developed several strategies to control the valley through the establishment of governors or the creation of small settlements. Shalmaneser I was very active upstream of the confluence on the Habur, while the Middle Euphrates came into the Assyrian sphere during the reign of Tukulti-Ninurta I. Analysis of the available literature invites a multi-level approach to separate local events from matters affecting the geopolitical balance of the states.