Category موضوعي
Evidence and research methods
Reading evidence, comparing interpretations and assessing the limits of inference.
Advanced search →Artifact 9 Entity 197 Period 2 Person 50 Site 17 Study 82 Ancient text 10
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Original photograph
Researcher
Joseph A. Fitzmyer
American biblical and Dead Sea Scrolls scholar (1920–2016), who studied Qumran retellings of Abraham’s test.
Modern view of the Qumran archaeological site, the setting of scroll research; not a portrait of Fitzmyer or an image of manuscript 4Q225
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Original photograph
Site
Troy / Hisarlık
Archaeological site in northwestern Turkey associated with Troy in Greek tradition.
Archaeological walls at Troy/Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, photographed in 2012. The site’s remains alone do not establish the Iliad’s detailed account of the Trojan War
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Original photograph
Site
Mount Olympus
Mountain in northern Greece associated in ancient traditions with the divine community’s dwelling.
Slopes of Mount Olympus, Greece, photographed in 2018. A geographical view; the gods’ residence in the epics belongs to their poetic representation of the world
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Original photograph
Translator
Samuel Butler
English writer and translator of Homer who lived from 1835 to 1902.
Samuel Butler’s self-portrait of 1878, held by St John’s College, Cambridge. A digital reproduction of a painting, rather than a photograph of the person
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Original photograph
Researcher
Carolina López-Ruiz
Scholar of ancient Mediterranean religions, mythologies and exchange between Greek and Semitic traditions.
Swift Hall at the University of Chicago, photographed in 2023. University context associated with López-Ruiz’s work; not a portrait or a photograph of her office
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Original photograph
Researcher
Sang Youl Cho
Researcher who studied the ranks and roles of heavenly beings in Ugarit and the Hebrew Bible.
New College courtyard, University of Edinburgh, photographed in 2017. Institutional context for Cho’s thesis, completed in 2007; neither a portrait nor a photograph from the thesis year
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Original photograph
Researcher
Aaron Tugendhaft
Scholar of the ancient Near East and the relationship between religion, politics and the arts.
Deep Springs College and its valley in California, photographed in 2017. A view of an institution where Tugendhaft taught, rather than his portrait
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Original photograph
Researcher
Bernardo Ballesteros
Scholar of early Greek poetry and its comparison with Mesopotamian and Near Eastern literature.
Vestibule dome in the University of Vienna’s main building, photographed in 2016. Institutional context associated with the scholar, rather than a portrait
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Original photograph
Concept
Sumerian language
Ancient language of southern Mesopotamia, clearly attested in third-millennium BCE texts and maintained in learning and ritual after its spoken use declined.
Tablet of a Sumerian lament with Akkadian translations of many lines, about the second–first centuries BCE; Met 86.11.286a. A late witness to the language’s continued scribal and ritual use
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Original photograph
Researcher
Amir Gilan
Tel Aviv University scholar of Hittite texts and ancient Anatolia, studying religion, ritual, literature and historiography.
Smolarz Auditorium at Tel Aviv University, 30 June 2012. Context for the university associated with Amir Gilan; not his department’s building or his portrait
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Original photograph
Researcher
Jenny Strauss Clay
Professor emerita at the University of Virginia, specializing in early Greek poetry and its gods and human–divine relations.
The Rotunda and Lawn, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 14 March 2011. Institutional context for Jenny Strauss Clay; a campus view, not her portrait
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Original photograph
Researcher
Adrian Kelly
Professor of Ancient Greek Literature at Oxford and Balliol, researching early poetry and the traditions shaping it.
Front quadrangle of Balliol College, Oxford, 21 January 2004. A view of the college associated with Adrian Kelly; it does not establish his position in that year or locate his office
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Original photograph
Researcher
Christian Zgoll
Scholar at Göttingen working on ancient languages and comparative mythology, including Greek poetry and Hittite texts.
The Aula at Göttingen University, 3 April 2016. Institutional context for Christian Zgoll, not a portrait or identification of his office
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Original photograph
Researcher
Erik van Dongen
Researcher who examined Kumarbi–Hesiod connections in a 2010 doctoral thesis at University College London.
University College London portico, 25 March 2015. Institutional context for Erik van Dongen’s 2010 thesis; a later photograph, not a portrait or identification of his office
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Original photograph
Researcher
Ola Wikander
Scholar of ancient Near Eastern texts and the Hebrew Bible at Lund University, studying Ugaritic and shared poetic imagery.
Ola Wikander at the Oslo Book Festival, 18 September 2010. Photograph by decltype; identity and date follow the photographer’s source metadata
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Original photograph
Researcher
Ian Rutherford
Specialist in Greek literature and religion at the University of Reading, studying contacts with Anatolia and Egypt.
The Whiteknights campus of the University of Reading, with the Humanities and Social Sciences building, 10 November 2007. A view of the university associated with Ian Rutherford’s work
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Original photograph
Researcher
Calvert Watkins
Scholar of Indo-European languages and ancient poetry (1933–2013), who worked at Harvard and then UCLA.
Harvard Yard in winter, 7 January 2010. Calvert Watkins worked at Harvard until his retirement in 2003; the photograph shows the campus after that date
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Original photograph
Researcher
Gary Beckman
Scholar of the Hittite language, Hittite religion and ancient Near Eastern history, associated with the University of Michigan.
Angell Hall at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 8 March 2022. Institutional context for Gary Beckman, who joined Michigan in 1992; not a portrait or identification of his office
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Original photograph
Researcher
Patrick Gray
Religious studies scholar at Rhodes College, researching the New Testament, early Christianity and biblical interpretation.
Halliburton Tower on the Rhodes College campus in Memphis, Tennessee, on 24 October 2009. The photograph provides context for the institution where Patrick Gray teaches religion, early Christianity and its Greco-Roman setting
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Original photograph
Researcher
Ignace J. Gelb
University of Chicago Assyriologist (1907–1985), studying ancient languages, writing and personal names, including Amorite names.
Detail of the entrance and modern architectural relief at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, University of Chicago, on 11 November 2023. The institute moved into this building in 1931; Ignace J. Gelb’s work was associated with the institution from 1929. The relief belongs to the twentieth-century architecture
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Original photograph
Researcher
Kathryn Slanski
Yale scholar of Mesopotamia, studying texts, images, inscribed monuments, law and authority.
Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, on 20 April 2026, seen from Elm and High Streets. It provides context for the university that Kathryn Slanski joined in 2004
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Original photograph
Researcher
Jack M. Sasson
Hebrew Bible and ancient Near Eastern cultures scholar, Vanderbilt professor emeritus, also specializing in Mari’s archives.
Kirkland Hall at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, on 26 October 2023. The photograph shows part of the institution associated with Jack M. Sasson’s work in biblical studies and Assyriology
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Original photograph
Researcher
Nathan J. Chambers
Scholar of Genesis interpretation and Christian theology, studying Genesis 1 and creation from nothing.
Cosin’s Hall on Palace Green in Durham, England. The original photograph dates from July 2006; this crop was made available later by the source. The building provides context for Durham University, where Nathan J. Chambers completed his thesis in 2017
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Original photograph
Researcher
Gordon H. Johnston
Old Testament scholar at Dallas Theological Seminary, examining biblical literature and its ancient Near Eastern contexts.
Hieroglyphic texts on the walls of Unas’s pyramid at Saqqara, from the late Fifth Dynasty, around the twenty-fourth century BCE. Photograph taken on 13 October 2017. The image provides context for ancient Egyptian texts used in scholarly comparisons of creation traditions
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Original photograph
Researcher
James P. Allen
Egyptologist and Brown professor emeritus, studying ancient Egyptian language, literature and religion, including the Pyramid Texts.
University Hall at Brown University, Rhode Island, in a photograph dated 1 April 1997. It illustrates the university that Egyptologist James P. Allen joined in 2007
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Original photograph
Researcher
Bruce Wells
Hebrew Bible and ancient Near Eastern law scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, studying legal texts and litigation.
The Main Building Tower at the University of Texas at Austin at dusk, dated 29 September 2013 in the capture metadata. The photograph provides context for the university where Bruce Wells works on Middle Eastern studies and ancient law
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Original photograph
Researcher
David P. Wright
Hebrew Bible and ancient Near Eastern law and ritual scholar, professor emeritus at Brandeis.
Shapiro Campus Center at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, on 7 April 2017. The photograph shows part of the institution associated with David P. Wright’s research on the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near East
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Original photograph
Researcher
Michael A. Knibb
British scholar of early Jewish literature, Ethiopic versions and the Septuagint (1938–2023), known for work on Enoch.
The Strand Building of King’s College London on 17 April 2020. The photograph illustrates the university setting associated with Michael Knibb’s work on the Old Testament and Ethiopic literature. He joined the college in 1964 and retired in 2001
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Original photograph
Researcher
Thomas Römer
Scholar of Hebrew Bible history and composition, holding the Biblical Milieux chair at the Collège de France.
Thomas Römer at the Collège de France in Paris on 23 June 2023. This portrait of the Hebrew Bible scholar was cropped at the source from a group photograph taken during Jutta Urpilainen’s visit to the institution
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Original photograph
Researcher
Yitzhaq Feder
Scholar of purity, expiation and ritual in the Hebrew Bible and its ancient setting, including Hittite comparisons.
The University of Haifa on Mount Carmel and neighbouring buildings. Capture metadata dates the photograph to 13 February 2009; Haifa Municipality released it in June 2010. It shows the institution whose website records Yitzhaq Feder’s former teaching and research affiliations
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Original photograph
Researcher
Jacob Milgrom
Jewish biblical scholar (1923–2010), noted for studies of Leviticus, priestly traditions, purity and offerings.
Jacob Milgrom, the Hebrew Bible scholar known for his research on Leviticus, offerings and purity. The source record dates this portrait to 13 September 1995 and credits Dr. Jo Milgrom
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Original photograph
Researcher
Amy-Jill Levine
New Testament and Jewish studies scholar at Hartford International University, studying Jewish contexts of early Christianity.
Amy-Jill Levine speaking at the German Protestant Kirchentag gathering in Nuremberg on 8 June 2023. Her photograph accompanies the introduction to her research on the New Testament and Jewish–Christian relations
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Original photograph
Researcher
Marc Zvi Brettler
Hebrew Bible scholar and professor emeritus at Duke, studying biblical texts historically and literarily.
Perkins Library at Duke University in the United States, dated 10 November 2006 in the source record. The photograph shows part of the university setting associated with Marc Zvi Brettler’s work in Judaic and Hebrew Bible studies
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Original photograph
Researcher
Kathryn M. Schifferdecker
Old Testament scholar at Luther Seminary, studying biblical interpretation and creation theology in Job.
Bockman Hall on Luther Seminary’s campus in Saint Paul, Minnesota, photographed on 5 January 2013. This institutional view provides context for Kathryn Schifferdecker’s work as an Old Testament professor at the seminary
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Illustration
Study
A story's date is not its manuscript's date: how do we date ancient texts?
A story and its surviving manuscript may be centuries apart. Examples from Sargon, the flood, Enoch and the Qur'an explain how we date each stage.
Original IL Archive diagram of four distinct historical clocks: narrated event, composition, copy and material support. Modern methodological artwork, not a manuscript or artifact image
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Illustration
Entity
Radiocarbon dating
A probabilistic date range for organic material; for parchment it dates animal skin rather than ink directly.
Original clock diagram for dating organic material; it does not reproduce the Birmingham manuscript
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Original photograph
Study
Enoch and the Apkallu: Wisdom before the Flood
Kings,sages and the ancient scribe: primeval knowledge,instruction and limits of proposed transmission into Enochic literature.
Nimrud, ca. 883–859 BCE; Met 84.11, public domain. Winged figure proposed as apkallu; not Enoch’s portrait
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Illustration
Entity
Enmeduranki
Primeval king in Mesopotamian wisdom tradition; distinguish from his sage and Enoch.
Modern distinction between king, sage and Enoch; seventh position proves neither personal identity nor a composition date
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Illustration
Entity
Apkallu
Akkadian word for sage; lists,images and roles require their own textual contexts.
Modern comparison of Oannes, Enmeduranki, Watchers and Enoch in the cited passages; neither genealogy nor proof of borrowing
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Original photograph
Study
Sons of God and Watchers: How a Brief Story Expanded
From four Genesis verses to angelic descent, teaching and giant spirits in Enoch: texts, manuscripts and limits of comparison with Mesopotamian sages.
Assyrian apkallu from Nimrud, ca.9th–8th century BCE; Met 54.117.26, public domain. Comparative context, not an Enochic Watcher
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