Previously it has been assumed that the majority of Greek temples were oriented towards the eastern horizon, in the direction of sunrise. The author of this thesis conducted a GPS temple orientation survey of eight Greek Doric temples and concluded that these structures were actually oriented to the western, not eastern, horizon, in the direction of sunset. The following facts support this hypothesis: (1) of the eight temples surveyed, the western orientations of six were more precise than their eastern orientations, (2) in the Archaic and Classical periods of ancient Greece, architecturally aligning structures to the western horizon could have been accomplished with far greater ease and higher precision than to the eastern horizon, (3) literary evidence by Vitruvius supports this claim of western temple alignments, and (4) the lengths of each temple surveyed appear to have been determined via the same technique which oriented them to the sun on the western horizon.

Claudius Aelianus was recognized by Philostratus and the author of the Suda as a participant in the literary and intellectual movement of the Second Sophistic. Philostratus' biographical sketch in the Lives of the Sophists, however, makes it clear that Aelian did not perform publicly as did the other sophists whom Philostratus described; Aelian's retiring and scholarly nature is emphasized by Philostratus, who implies that Aelian's choice of literature over performance followed a pattern established by Demosthenes and Cicero. Most scholarship on the Varia Historia during the past 150 years addresses the question how Aelian made his collection, i.e. what sources he accessed. This directly reflects modern use of the Varia Historia as a quarry from which to mine information about the ancient world. Such scholarship must conclude that Aelian was not a modern research scholar with the goals, techniques, and readership of the modern "scientific" historian. What then were his goals, techniques, and readership? The Varia Historia cannot be fairly assessed without taking into account its membership in the genre of the miscellany. The Imperial miscellanist concerns himself with a specific subset of traditional literature: the material which supplements the standard literary education and may be termed polymathic. The miscellanist assumes a readership with whom he shares certain educative goals: specifically, further detailed education in literature beyond the primary level, including further work in the encyclic artes and a general increase in detailed information "for its own sake." Because the miscellanist adopts the stance of a mature amateur scholar gathering data for a younger reader, he reveals a patronizing tone in his collection. The data the miscellanist offers his reader is presented in a manner characterized by rroiKiXia or "variety"; as such it reflects the Imperial attitude toward the cultured person's correct use of leisure. An analysis of passages from the Varia Historia reveals that Aelian conceives his reader as a young person currently in the process of acquiring paideia. In his miscellany Aelian has provided this reader with material that conveys a moral message at the same time that it provides models of the correct way to respond to traditional literature.

<p> The dissertation explores the phenomenon of long-running border wars, which are believed to have been ubiquitous in Archaic Greece. Two most famous confrontations are examined in depth: the war between Eretria and Chalcis over the Lelantine Plain, and the struggle between Sparta and Argos over the territory of Thyreatis. It is suggested that in the Archaic period these disputed territories were contested in recurrent ritual battles. The battles took place in the framework of peace agreement between the neighboring cities, so that the disputed territory constituted a sacred common space for the opposing cities. The participants in ritual battles belonged to the social class of <i> hippeis,</i> for whom the battles both expressed their local identity and reaffirmed the Panhellenic values, underlying aristocratic inter-<i> polis</i> ties. The ritual battles reenacted mythical destructive confrontations, which were imagined to result in death of all combatants; however, the ritual battle themselves, which were normally non-lethal, were led according to strict rules and represented the enactment of the hoplite ideal. The tradition of the aristocratic ritual battles began to break down in the middle of the sixth century, when, following the adoption of a more aggressive style of warfare, the border territories that had been ritually contested became annexed by one city-state. However, the myths of confrontations between neighboring cities did not lose their ideological power. In the Classical period, these myths constituted a contested ideological territory in the inter- and intra-<i>polis</i> struggles between democratic and oligarchic political camps. In particular, the myths about the confrontation between neighboring cities were adopted by democratic regimes as their foundational narratives. </p>

<p> Thessaloniki, a city with an Ottoman, Byzantine, and Sephardic past, is located in the Balkan area of Macedonia, in northern Greece. Its history is the story of people who have come from someplace else. For several hundred years, the majority population of the city was comprised of Spanish speaking Sephardic Jews who contributed to all aspects of the development of the city. This significant presence is no longer visible unless one specifically knows where to look for its traces. It is not a history that has been silenced or erased, but rather obliterated. In this dissertation, I present the documented presence and transformations of the Jewish population in Thessaloniki from the earliest contributions to present day. This work on absence uses visual anthropology to explore the present day urban environment through an ethnographic account of the city of Thessaloniki. The visual is used to investigate how cities present their past and how people learn to see the world, what reflects their world vision, and the ways their vision is socially and culturally influenced. Anthropology is concerned with material artifacts that act as representatives of the past and as visual symbols. This is a work about what happens when intentionally omitted histories remain absent from the public sphere. What remains physically present but unrepresented proves equally important in creating and reinforcing memory. Our relationship to our environment also may be compromised by what is absent. This project examines absence through the circumstances by which the past is represented in the present, and looks at how the past is experienced in ways that may be used to invoke, challenge, or re-direct the way a community is remembered.</p>

The otherworldly depiction of Jesus in coordination with the origin and function of descent-ascent language in the Gospel of John is the subject of this study. In Chapter One it is found that the gospel explicitly and repeatedly refers to Jesus' heavenly origin, his divine titles, his descent from heaven, and his ascent back to his celestial home in order to emphasize his preeminent revelatory authority. Furthermore, it would appear that the gospel attempts to suppress a competing revelatory point of view in which heavenly visions and heavenly ascensions by mortals are normative. A review in Chapter Two of the way in which modern scholars have attempted to come to terms with these matters indicates that the Fourth Gospel depicts its protagonist according to one trans-cultural conceptual paradigm containing a descent-ascent pattern for revelatory figures in order to oppose an alternative paradigm in which both divine descent-ascent and human ascent-descent patterns are present. Focusing upon ancient Jewish and Christian angel stories, Chapter Three demonstrates that an essential difference between the two paradigms has to do with whether the locus of divine-human discourse is earth or heaven. In the EARTHBOUND paradigm revelation is transmitted solely upon the earth and the heavenly messenger possesses unrivaled revelatory authority. But in the alternative HEAVENWARD paradigm the role and status of the heavenly messenger are patently subordinated to the mortal who is permitted to see if not actually journey up into the celestial world. Chapter Four's selective but narratologically-informed reading of the Gospel of John shows how the gospel's depiction of its protagonist according to the EARTHBOUND paradigm methodically suppresses and deconstructs revelatory and salvific beliefs rooted in the HEAVENWARD viewpoint. Of particular interest is the way in which an historically necessary departure from the EARTHBOUND schema, by ironically representing the ascent of Jesus as a lifting up upon the cross, effectively puts to death (from the gospel's point of view) ideas about the possibility of mortals ascending to heaven with or without Jesus prior to the end of their own lives.

<p> Neighborhood Politics investigates the role of commoners in the social production of an ancient city. Traditional archaeological approaches examine cities primarily through the lens of elite power and agency. Recent approaches have taken a bottom-up approach to research. Neighborhood Politics explores the ancient city as a product of both commoner and elite agencies, power, and practices. Neighborhood Politics proposes a novel methodology: 'neighborhood archaeology.' Neighborhood archaeology emerges out of household archaeology and community archaeology. In order to fully understand urbanism, neighborhood archaeology examines commoner houses, related buildings, and their inhabitants as complex socio-spatial contexts. Consequently, neighborhood archaeology here highlights the multiple contours and tensions of authority, identity, and space that characterized an ancient neighborhood. Investigations in El Purgatorio's residential district focused on architecture, domestic assemblages, and urban planning in order to understand the diverse social identities, shared practices, and built environment of El Purgatorio's commoners. Investigations examined the social history of the Casma Polity's capital city, the configuration of community there, and local-regional linkages from the perspective of commoners' everyday lives. For El Purgatorio's commoners, social diversity was configured around household composition and labor output. Diversity was materialized in unequal access to space, building materials, and construction labor. Urban hierarchies were concretized during neighborhood feasts that simultaneously created neighborhood solidarity. Elites provided raw materials for the neighborhood economy; but commoners prepared food and chicha for ritual and quotidian consumption, some of which was returned to elites in tribute. Diverse residence and circulation patterns show that the neighborhood was a negotiated landscape created through both commoner authority and the extended authority of elites from the monumental district. Neighborhood Politics highlights the complexity of urban identities, the significance of everyday activities, and the tensions in the built environment of the residential district at El Purgatorio.</p>

<p> Pompeii suffered a famous volcanic disaster in 79 AD. This led to a tremendous loss of life. This thesis examines that loss of life and the geography of death left behind by the eruption. Where did the citizens of Pompeii die, and how could they have avoided their fate? These are issues that are examined through geographic methodologies and the use of GIS. The results indicate a people that could have been spared with proper hazards management, and one that shows through mapping the large loss of life that accompanied one of history's most famous volcanic eruptions.</p>

A multidisciplinary approach is utilized to assess the organization and use of ancient and medieval Near Eastern textual deposits. An elaborate survey of the published material in ancient Near Eastern studies and library and archival studies indicates a general and pervasive insensitivity to and misuse of key terminological constructs. The indistinct portrayal of the nature of ancient libraries and archives is identified as of particular concern; as well as a widespread disregard for the recognition of textual collections older than the famed Library of Alexandria. This dissertation endeavours to indicate the presence of distinct textual collective units in the ancient Near Eastern context on equal footing with their much later counterparts and more broadly defined than the traditional library and archive, to include entities such as the geniza, building and foundation deposits, and so forth. Furthermore, the ancient temple library, as a restricted and well-regulated collective entity, is suggested as representative of literary standardization in the Near East, and the canonization process of the Hebrew Bible, in particular. Ancient archives are attested as equally prevalent textual units, clearly distinguishable from adjunct textual deposits, often loosely, but incorrectly, termed "archives" in modern scholarly discourse. In conclusion, this dissertation reconsiders the status of the two traditionally most valued ancient textual entities, the Library of Assurbanipal and the Library of Alexandria, and concludes that these entities are atypical examples of ancient textual collections. As closest claimants to the improbable and often religiously imbued ideal of universal collection of information, these libraries erroneously became the impossible standards by which all ancient collections were measured and found wanting. As alternate, the applicability of the theoretical constructs proposed in the earlier part of this dissertation, such as the introduction of an in

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Alberta, 1998. / "Spring 1998." Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-269). Also issued online.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Yale University, 2002. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. [237]-259].