Res Antiquae VII (2010)

Volume VII, 2010, 448 pages

Res Antiquae (RANT) is a journal dedicated to antiquity. It deals with the antique civilizations that developped around the Mediterranean Sea and its aim is to establish links between the various disciplines that are too often separated.

ISSN 1781-1317

See the papers and the abstracts

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Les symboles divins solaires hittites. Circulation ou invention ?
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During Antiquity, Men live everyday the constant presence of the sun. Therfore their lifestyle is influenced by the sunlight and its positive heat. It could explain the fact that the Sun God becomes one of the main divinities. However civilizations from diverse regions of the Ancient Near East perceive the Sun in the same way. The representation is it invented in each place? Or is it broadcast a culture to another ? This concern centred on Anatolia is the heart of this paper that will attempt to highlight different points of view of the symbolism of the Solar divinity.
 

 

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L’apprentissage de la métrologie à Ougarit à la fin de l’âge du Bronze récent
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Within the lexicographic framework, the metrological texts in Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform discovered at Ras-Shamra provide a testimony for the formulation of metrological knowledge at Ugarit towards the end of the Late Bronze Age. I Have chosen to compare these data with the older material from Nippur and hope to show that the Ugaritic measures of content and surface show Old-Babylonian antecedents for some of their elements while others are of local origin.
 

 

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La littérature d'Ougarit, creuset de traditions venues d'outremer et d'outremonts
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The myths of Ras Shamra-Ugarit contain a western legacy illustrated by the gods Kôtharu wa Hasisu and Qadisu wa 'Amraru and related to the migration of skills. The eastern legacy is illustrated by the mythico-magic document “H˚oron and the snakes”, related to the transfers of knowledge. In the legends of Kirta and Aqhatu, several elements are related to the transmission of wisdom.
 

 

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La transmission de l'alphabet phénicien aux Grecs.  “Confrontation dialectique” des théories de B. B. Powell et de R. D. Woodard et synthèse de S.-T. Teodorsson
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Studies on the origin and development of the alphabet are very abundant: considering the last twenty years only, I listed more than thirty papers and monographs, which focus their attention on the mother script and antiquity of the Greek alphabet or the place and modalities of its transmission. In this paper, I shall comment three key theories, namely these of B.B. Powell (1991), related with Homeric epics, R.D. Woodard (1997), related with Cypriot syllabic writing, and S.-T. Teodorsson (2006), related with oriental literature. I chose them because they offer a global model of the alphabet’s historical reconstitution, which takes into consideration all parts of the question. Powell’s “Homer related” theory and Woodard’s, on a Cypriot origin, apparently completely opposed, seem to be combined to a certain degree by Teodorsson, who proposes a kind of compromise between literary influence and trade routes.
 

 

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Plato Ikhwanianus. Retour sur le récit platonicien de l'anneau de Gygès dans l'encyclopédie des Frères de la Pureté
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In the 52nd and last epistle of the Brethren of Purity, one finds a passage which is a very faithful translation of Plato’s famous narrative about the ring of Gyges. Taking into account the literality of the translation, the size of the passage (about 30 lines) and the precision of the reference made to the original text, it may fairly be assumed that it is a unicum in the history of the transmission of Plato to the Arab world. The purpose of this paper is to take up again this issue and try to bring up some new elements to the discussion.
 

 

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Le Platon arabe et les Sabéens de Harran. La "voie diffuse" de la transmission du platonisme en terre d'Islam
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In the absence of integral and litteral Arabic translations of Plato’s dialogues, the transmission of Platonism in the Muslim world was an indirect one, passing through different channels such as medical works, doxographies and gnomologies. The complexity and relative obscurity of this ‘voie diffuse’, in which according to Pierre Thillet oral transmission played an important role, led to all kinds of hazardous speculations about the existence of a Platonic Academy among the “Sabaens” in Ḥarrān, which was supposed to be still in activity in the Xth century. This article proposes a critical analysis of one of the most quoted “evidences” for this theory: al-Mas‘ūdī’s report about a Platonic inscription he claims to have seen on the door-knocker of the maǧma‘ of the Sabaeans in Ḥarrān. Rather than proving the existence of a “Platonic Academy” there, al-Mas‘ūdī offers us an eloquent illustration of the way Platonism was transmitted in the Muslim world.
 

 

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La migration du savoir entre les communautés : le cas de la littérature arabe chrétienne
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This paper addresses the important phenomenon of contacts and influences between the various religious communities of the pre-modern Near East in the field of the written heritage, and more particularly in that of Christian Arabic literature. The introduction discusses several examples of such interchange, on the one hand, between the various Christian communities (Melkites, Syrians, Copts) and between various language traditions (Syriac, Armenian, Coptic, Arabic) and on the other hand, between Christian and Muslim intellectual environments. The main part of the paper investigates the textual similarities that can be detected in the works of Sulaymān al-Ġazzī, Melkite bishop of Ghazza in the the tenth and eleventh centuries A.D., and the famous Epistles of the Iḫwān al-Ṣafā’ (Brethren of Purity). Some preliminary suggestions are given for the question as to how such similarities might have come about.
 

 

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L’influence du traité "Les airs, les eaux et les lieux" d’Hippocrate chez les penseurs arabes du Moyen Âge
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In this paper, I want to show the influence of the hippocratic treatise On airs, waters, places ((Περὶ ἀέρων, ὑδάτων, τόπων) and Galen’s commentary in particular, on the arabic scientific literature. Of course, we find it in medicine but also in geography. In this field, the Galen’s commentary of hippocratic text determined the base of the theory of geographical determinism, giving a conceptual structure (physic and even physiological) to the influence of the man’s environment. The mediaeval thinkers applied this theory to the humanity and in this context, the hippocratic opposition between Schythians and Egyptians is replaced by the one between Turks and Egyptians or Slaves and Blacks. They used it also to explain the physical constitution and the ethics of a specific population.
 
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Les débuts de l'alphabet en Orient et en Occident. Quelle ambiance !
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The creation of the alphabet and its diffusion occurred in a very particular climate, characterized by an extreme freedom and inventiveness.
This apparently irrepressible outburst appears not only in the very beginnings of the alphabet in the Middle East (from ca 2000 BC) but also when it was diffused in Asia Minor and Occident — in the Phrygian world, since the end of the IXth c., and in Greece and Italy, since ca 775.
 

 

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De Baghdad à Cordoue : une migration de la tradition grammaticale arabe
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The Arabic Grammatical Tradition aims at studying the Kalâm-ʾl-ʿArab or “Language of the Arabs”, relying on texts written before 130/750. ʾAbû ʿAlî al-Qâlî (Manâzgird 280/893 – Cordoba 355/966), after having learnt Arabic grammar in Baghdad, has left the city in 328/939 for teaching in Cordoba from 330/941, applying the principles of Basra Grammatical School Tradition. He wrote several books, but one of them may be considered as typical for this Tradition : “The Book of Shortened and Extended Noun”, a critical edition of which has recently been published by Dr. al-Haridi. Al-Qâlî does no more regard “shortened noun” (ʾism maqṣûr) and “reduced noun” (ʾism manqûṣ) as synonymous as Ancient Grammarians did. In his view, a shortened noun is a noun where a /y/ or a /w/ is included as a radical. He looks for a main structural principle organizing grammatical rules, putting aside the nawâdir or unusual words. So that we may think about him as occupying an intermediary position between Ibn Sarrâǧ and Ibn Ǧinnî in the history of Arabic Grammatical Tradition.
 
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La Chine illustrée d’Athanase Kircher (China monumentis illustrata, 1667). La découverte des caractères chinois et son apport aux débats sur les écritures au XVIIe siècle
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The discovery and knowledge of Chinese characters in the 17th century nourished reflections about the principal ideas that occupied the thinkers of the 17th century. Kircher, best known as an Egyptologist, popularized information about China. As for writing, the comparison with Egyptian hieroglyphs allowed him to oppose on one hand a writing which corresponded to ordinary words and language used in everyday life, and on the other the subtlety and the mystery of Egyptian hieroglyphs, which remained removed from the day-to-day life due to their inspiration stemming from more abstract ideas.
 
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L’apport des Hourrites dans les migrations du savoir en Anatolie à l’âge du Bronze
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In this contribution we find an approach of the problematic relating to the Hurrian influence on the Hittite Civilization during the Bronze Age.The Hurrian science and literature comes from the Sumerian country until Kizzuwatna (Cilicia) via Syria (Alep). During the 13th century B.C. the Hurrian rituals, the religious conceptions and the cultural influence arrived mightily in Hattusa, namely during the reign of Great King Hattusili III and Queen Puduhépa with aid of kizzuwatnean scribes such as the Great Sribe Walwaziti.
 
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Les échanges de motifs littéraires entre chrétiens et musulmans à l’époque ottomane : le cas de la tradition orale des âşık
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The analysis of the Turkish popular literature, which was told and sung by the âşık, the story-tellers who used to recite their folk stories in the remote villages of Anatoly, shows that though these folk stories are original, some of their episodes go back to former traditions, like the Armenian legends and the Byzantine epos. In the same time, the religious and/or ethnic minorities of the Ottoman Anatolia – Greek, Armenian and Georgian Christians, but also Jews and Shiite Muslims – developed various attitudes toward these Anatolian folk stories. In some cases, they adopted it as they were told and they introduced them in their own repertory. In other cases, they adapted, partially or totally, these folk stories, making their heroes Christians or Shiites, changing their names and their places of birth. All these attitudes show the extreme vitality of the oral tradition in Anatolia.
 
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La circulation des biens et des savoirs en Égypte romaine
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There is still a false look about commerce in Antiquity. Many clichés like life in autarky always exist. But, in Roman Egypt, commerce seems to be something of more complex.
There is local productions (like mining exploitations), but some towns are true centres of circulation of goodies coming from far away. Some sites testify of contacts with Arabia, India, Red Sea…by the way of ports like Berenice. Roads for caravans lie through deserts, with some military camps, wells and temples along them. Religious centres in commercial towns seem to be some keys to understand much the conception of commerce in Antiquity. In Roman Egypt, the emperor is portray like pharaoh offering local goodies (or exportation products coming in the site) to the pantheon. This fact could be easily explain: the piety of the king help to focalise the goodness of the gods on earthly economy.
 
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La mythologie ougaritique dans son cadre historique
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Scholarly opinion on the origins of Ugaritic mythology, in particularly the myths having to do with the storm deity Baʿlu, has varied considerably over the eighty some years since the discovery of these tablets. Traditional Mesopotamian sources were cited as parallels early on, then Amorite influence was posited.  Recently, the hypothesis of a Mesopotamian connection has been revived under a new form.  These varied explanations for a Levantine mythology showing similarities with other Near-Eastern mythologies, not to mention Aegean ones, will be passed rapidly in review and the peculiarities of the Ugaritic version will be emphasized.
 

 

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Transmission et vivacité des traditions céramiques locales durant l’occupation assyrienne. Le cas du bas Moyen-Euphrate syrien
S. SALMON. — The excavations on the site of Tell Masaïkh (Syria) brought to light a ceramic material, dated the Iron Age II. His study allowed the identification of typologies belonging to the Neo-Assyrian tradition and others which are certainly local…
 
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Migration des savoirs entre l’Elam et la Mésopotamie
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This article focuses on the transfer of knowledge and wisdom between Mesopotamia and Elam…
 

 

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Le développement de la coupole dans l’architecture iranienne à l’époque islamique : un exemple de diffusion du savoir
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The technical developpment of the dome has been improved step by step during the islamic period. Political rulers have understood that the knowledges in architecture may serve the spread of Islam. In Iran, the power encouraged different groups of builders that became under the supervision of experts in the art of construction true shools giving birth to different styles and moods in architecture. According to the territorial increase of Islam, teachers and their most skillful students were invited to built monuments through the islamic world. They greatly helped the spread of knowledges. With regard to the problem of the weight of the dome, they contribued to the progressive increase of its stability through more simple forms.
 

 

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Entre Rome, Babylone et les Indes. Bardésane, stoïcien universaliste
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About 218 AD, the Syrian author and nobleman Bardayṣan met with an Indian embassy, on its way to the Roman imperial court in the city of Emesa. We try to demonstrate that his report, strongly marked by his Stoic concepts about cultural identity and relativity, became the source of Greek and Arab knowledge about the Buddhists and the Brahmans, starting from his contemporary Philostrates to Abū ‘Īsā al-Warrāq and Ibn Zur‘a in the 10th Century.
 

 

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La reconstruction culturelle du monde indo-européen et la question de l'Orient. Perspectives en contraste
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This article aims to deal with some aspects of cultural comparison and reconstruction in Indo-European studies. It also will address the question of the status of some comparisons and reconstructions, when the possibility of Oriental influence arises.
 

 

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The Kouris Valley Project 2007-2009. An overview
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Le Kouris Valley Project est un projet de recherche mené par l’Université de Florence en collaboration avec les Universités de Chieti et de Turin dans la région de Kourion (Limassol, Chypre)… 
 
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Le Alpi orientali del versante italiano tra età del Ferro e tarda Antichità. Sintesi storica in funzione dei più recenti dati archeologici
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M. CAVALIERI, « Le Alpi orientali del versante italiano tra età del Ferro e tarda Antichità. Sintesi storica in funzione dei più recenti dati archeologici  », Res Antiquae 7, Brussels, 2010, p. 271-330.
 
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Dalla città romana alla città alto-medievale in Italia. Il modello classico urbano verso l’eterogeneità delle forme insediative medievali
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 L’article aborde le problème complexe de la transformation urbaine entre l’Antiquité tardive et le Haut Moyen Age ; le contexte enquêté est celui de l’Italie du Nord entre le iiie et le viiie s. de notre ère, en particulier les siècles de la domination lombarde de la péninsule. L’analyse de l’administration et de l’économie de la civitas est amplement étudiée, ainsi que le problème posé par des termes tels qu’urbs, civitas, municipium, toutes expressions provenant de formules issues de la tradition et du droit romains.
Après une étude de cas concrets en milieu urbain (Brescia, Milan, Vérone), les résultats montrent que le schéma idéal d’une ville lombarde en l’Italie du nord n’existe pas. Les recherches montrent les données archéologiques qui mettent en évidence la grande diversité de plans des centres urbains qui ont survécu à la transition de l’Antiquité tardive à l’époque médiévale.
 
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Die 10. Tafel des ḫišuu̯a-Festes
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La fête ḫišuu̯a, composée dans la forme classique à l’ordre de la reine Puduḫepa, comprend treize tablettes. Dans cet article, la dixième tablette est traitée sur la base de tous les textes identifiés actuellement.
 
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Dendour ou le temple exilé
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Dendour is a tiny but very interesting temple made by emperor Augustus in the Dodekaschenos, in the south of Egypt, next to the frontier with Nubia. Now, it is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York, USA because it was given to the American government as thanks for help in the Aswan project. It is dedicated to two drowned brothers, venerated as “saints” by the local people. The scenes show these young men (but also divinities particularly venerated in Nubia) honorated by Augustus who give them local goodies as gold, incense, ivory…The cartouche of the king are interesting: some contain his name of pharaoh but some only the title Per- aha. The localisation of these cartouches seems to be not free: it could be an expression of political message of Augustus in this area what suffer of many conflicts and  revolts involving Roman Empire and Nubian sovereigns as the queen “Candace”. 
 
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Pepy-ankh Heny le noir de Meir (tombe A2) a-t-il usurpé le titre de vizir ?
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The purpose of this article is to determine if Pepy-ankh Heny-Kem (tomb A2 at Meir) wrongfully took the title of vizier. The different arguments to know if he is a real vizier will be examined. A study of the viziers of the sixth dynasty is presented.  An examination of the family of Pepy-ankh Heny-Kem is also making. We propose a study of all the titles of Pepy-ankh Heny-Kem.
 
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Reines commagéniennes. La place des "basilissai" dans les hiérothésia et Iotapè Philadelphe
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What were the queens’ and princesses’ official functions in the Commagenian kingdom? The goal of this paper is to study their place in Antiochos I Theos’ religious reform (c 69-36 BC) especially on the Nemrud Daǧɩ. In a second section, we study Iotape Philadelphos’ role beside her husband, Antiochos IV Epiphanes (38-72 AD), and her presence in the Commagenian coinage.
 
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Le nom de la mer Rouge en égyptien ancien
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In 1931 to designate the Red Sea in the egyptian texts, Spiegelberg could list seven names. Eighty years later,  none of them still has this signification. The basic meaning of the nun, wadj wer, the ym and its various combinations, is fresh water from Egypt, that is to say : from the Nile.
 
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