Deal for Holy Land artefacts

Burchard of Mount Sion and the Holy Land

ion and regularity characterize the unique map of Palestine located in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence, 52 which is also included in a codex of the long version. (Figure 3) The map with the boxes appears uniform and undifferentiated. This regularity is apparently intentional. The red-framed text entries in black are, at least for the most part, distributed uniformly across the su...

Implications of some early Jewish sources for estimates of earthquake hazard in the Holy Land

For the past two millennia the Holy Land was under the yoke of successive invaders and oppressors, not a fertile ground for growth of historiographic traditions. Consequently, earthquake cataloguers had to rely largely on chronicles and texts written at distant administrative and cultural centers of the day, where earthquake destruction suffered by a culturally and economically depressed provin...

Runners prepare for Holy Half

As two of the top three Saint Mary’s administrators prepare to step down from their positions this spring — marking a new era at the College — students and faculty have the opportunity to meet two candidates vying for the position of vice president and dean of faculty at open forums this week. Saint Mary’s religious studies p ro fesso r Joe In c a n d e la and Dean of the Faculty a t Colgate Un...

Searching for the Holy Grail?

The supernatural characters and powers of sacred trees in the Holy Land

This article surveys the beliefs concerning the supernatural characteristics and powers of sacred trees in Israel; it is based on a field study as well as a survey of the literature and includes 118 interviews with Muslims and Druze. Both the Muslims and Druze in this study attribute supernatural dimensions to sacred trees which are directly related to ancient, deep-rooted pagan traditions. The...