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Ritual and changes in belief
Worship, ritual and religious change, including Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions.
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Jericho’s Plastered Skulls: Faces of the Dead and the Limits of Ancestor Interpretation
From bone and plaster to imaging and facial reconstruction: evidence for mortuary treatment and hypotheses about memory, kinship and worship.
Plastered skull from Jericho, Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, displayed at the British Museum. An ancient modeled face on human remains, not a modern facial reconstruction
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Weighing the Heart in Egypt: Justice, Ritual and the Afterlife
Reading judgment before Osiris through Maat, the heart and the Book of the Dead: ethics, texts and ritual without assuming a single timeless scene.
Funerary papyrus fragment depicting judgment before Osiris, Egypt, ca. 230–150 BCE; Metropolitan Museum 66.99.142. The scale contains a small figure of Maat
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Inanna and Ishtar’s Descent: What Changes between the Narratives?
Seven gates, rescue, substitution and interrupted life: distinguishing the Sumerian and Akkadian narratives and the limits of comparison.
K.162, Akkadian copy of Ishtar’s Descent from Ashurbanipal’s library at Nineveh, seventh century BCE, British Museum. Not a tablet of the Sumerian Inanna composition
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Yahweh’s Temple at Elephantine: Worship beyond Jerusalem
What does the petition of 407 BCE reveal about Yaho’s temple, its priests and their links with Judah and Samaria?
Modern view of Elephantine Island and the Nile near Aswan; geographical context, not the remains of Yaho’s temple
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From the Embodied God of Ancient Texts to Philosophical Transcendence
From Genesis and Exodus to Philo, Maimonides, Augustine, Aquinas, Avicenna and kalām: changing rules for reading body and emotion, with distinct doctrines of incorporeality, immutability and simplicity and diverse schools.
Three distinct axes, not one historical transition or a doctrine shared by every school
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When Israel’s God Encountered Greek Philosophy
From Greek Torah and Philo to Christian reception, Arabic philosophy and Maimonides: changing language of perfection, creation and logos, with distinct schools and graded transmission evidence.
Gold coin of Ptolemy II, Alexandria, ca. 261–246 BCE; the illustrated obverse bears Arsinoe II’s head. Context for Hellenistic Egypt, not a portrait of Philo or proof of a Torah translation commission. [24]
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Allah in the Quran
Traces Allah before the Quran, then examines divinity, al-Raḥmān, angels, intercession and prophets in its discourse, separating linguistic kinship from doctrinal identity.
Quran manuscript folio, Met 1979.201, late eighth–early ninth century, Central Islamic Lands; ink, colours and gold on parchment. Later codex transmission, not a seventh-century copy or an image of the verses cited here. [28]
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How did the Trinity emerge?
A history of witnesses and formulation, from letters and gospels to fourth-century terminology and two creeds, distinguishing texts, interpretation and reception.
Modern timeline of witnesses and formulations, not one birth date for belief or immediate consensus. It distinguishes 381 from the expanded creed’s attestation in 451
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Judaism between exile and Christianity
Following Jewish diversity from exile to Roman times and changing angels, evil, resurrection and visions, distinguishing textual testimony, historical reconstruction and cultural-influence hypotheses.
Modern explanatory timeline of political and institutional changes, not dates for the birth of every belief or one uniform doctrinal path
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Allah before Islam
Following the name from inscriptions and personal names to Quranic discourse, distinguishing continuity of language from changing belief and stone testimony from scholarly interpretation.
BES19s 77.1, Firʿ Wadi al-Khudari, Mafraq, Jordan. Its reading invokes Allat and then Allah. This photograph shows stone and writing; animal and human drawings are not identified as depictions of these deities. Original preserved without cropping or alteration
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Did Zoroastrianism Change Judaism?
Established historical contact and debated influence: comparing Avestan layers with Jewish resurrection and angels while separating resemblance from transmission, narrative setting from composition.
Achaemenid gold daric with royal figure, approximately fourth century BCE, The Met 52.127.1. Imperial context, not Zoroaster or Ahura Mazda and not evidence of resurrection’s transmission to Judaism. Original preserved; display copy uncropped
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Akhenaten and Aten
Solar disk, Amarna, Amun erasures and the Great Hymn: assessing Akhenaten’s exclusive theology without equating it with every Egyptian’s religion or assuming transmission to Moses.
Akhenaten offering a duck, limestone relief with paint, Dynasty 18, The Met 1985.328.2. Aten rays and hands survive; the complete disk is not preserved here. The museum gives a probable Amarna origin. Original preserved; display copy uncropped
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The Ark of the Covenant: A Throne without a Statue?
Cherubim, kapporet, voice and cloud: what texts say about Yahweh’s presence, and what remains interpretation in comparisons with thrones and Egyptian shrines.
Modern comparison of evidence and two readings: throne and Eichler’s frame alternative. Not Ark appearance or a Yahweh image; neither consensus nor proven chronological sequence
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How did “the adversary” become Satan?
From human opponents and Balaam’s angel to Job, Zechariah and Chronicles, then Enoch, Jubilees, Qumran and the New Testament: expanding opposition, and what names and roles can establish.
Modern functional comparison of different witnesses, not a fixed chronology or historical portrait. A council role alone does not date Job
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From gods to angels
From Ugarit’s council to heavenly beings in Kings, Job, Daniel, Tobit and Enoch: continuity of structures, roles and names, and the limits of proving an individual god became an angel.
Modern analytical diagram separating structure, role and identity. Comparative questions, not an archaeological chain proving a god became an angel
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From a national god to the god of the universe
Exclusive allegiance and denial of other gods: inscriptions, Assyrian/Babylonian crises and Second Isaiah, separating events from composition and disagreements over monotheism.
Cyrus Cylinder, Babylon, after 539 BCE; British Museum 90920. Actual artifact; inscription does not name Yahweh
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Yahweh and Asherah
Blessings at Kuntillet ʿAjrud and el-Qom, female figurines and reform narratives: separating evidence from interpretation while examining worship before Yahweh’s exclusivity.
Female pillar figurine from Lachish, ceramic, about eighth–seventh century BCE; Metropolitan Museum 34.126.53, height 18.4 cm. Actual artifact; attribution to Asherah is unresolved
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The Warka Vase and Head: When the Sacred Became Recognizable
Offerings, Inanna’s emblems and authority at Uruk, alongside a female face probably from a composite statue: what the objects establish and how far goddess, priestess and ruler can be identified.
Warka Head, white marble, about 21 cm high; late fourth millennium/ca. 3000 BCE. Eye and eyebrow inlays lost. Possibly Inanna; lighting warms the stone’s colour. Iraq Museum, photo, 2019
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Why Did People Elongate Their Children’s Skulls? From Neolithic Head Shaping to Ubaid Figurines
Head-shaping evidence from the Zagros, Jericho and Tell Zeidan, and possible identity, beauty and status motives: what bones establish and how far they explain Ubaid figurine heads.
Modern guide to vault growth, morphology and diagnostic limits. It gives no procedure for head shaping, represents no archaeological skull and reconstructs no site-specific equipment
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Houses and Ancestors at Çatalhöyük: When Architecture Became Memory
Subfloor burial, architectural continuity and the kinship of the dead: what the evidence reveals about memory and affiliation, and the limits of ancestor and descent interpretations.
Modern building-biography guide: construction, occupation, transformation and closure. Some sequences preserve rebuilding in place; memory is an interpretation to test, not a belief recovered from a plan
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Living Above the Dead: Subfloor Burial Before Çatalhöyük
From Aşıklı and Balıklı to Boncuklu: burial, kinship and building continuity, and the limits of interpretations involving memory, ancestors and the underworld.
Boncuklu today: replica houses, visitor-centre interior, interpretative garden and pond, Figure 6 of the 2026 study. Modern facilities, not an excavation photograph or burial-ritual reconstruction
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The Natufians: What Happened to Religion When People Began to Settle?
Houses, graves, ornaments, feasts and place memory before fully developed agriculture: Natufian evidence and its limits for reconstructing rituals, ancestors and gods.
Aerial view of Shubayqa 1, northeast Jordan, Figure 1 in Richter et al. (2017), with a location map. Natufian architecture; no specific religious function is established
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Eridu: Can We Watch the Temple Being Born?
From eighteen architectural levels to the evidence at XI: what does Eridu’s sequence reveal about temple formation, and where does architectural continuity stop short of identifying Enki?
Eridu ziggurat remains, photographed by David Stanley on 11 April 2016. The visible architecture postdates the Ubaid; it is not a photograph of its earliest temples or evidence of their deity’s identity
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Ubaid Figurines: Why Do Their Faces Look Nonhuman?
Elongated heads, slit eyes and a nursing mother: how can we understand Ubaid figurines through artistic tradition, cranial modification and burial without turning a reptilian resemblance into an assumed identity?
Two female Ubaid figurines from Ur; British Museum, 122872 and 122873. At right, a nursing woman whose head is missing. Photograph: Zunkir, CC BY-SA 4.0; appearance alone does not establish identity
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Ubaid Culture: The World Before Sumer’s Cities
Pottery, water, houses, networks and Eridu: how can we read the transformations preceding Sumer’s cities without assigning Ubaid communities an unproven language, state or divine names?
Ubaid bowl from Eridu cemetery, grave 136; mid-sixth–fifth millennium BCE. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 49.133.2. A specific archaeological object, not a representation of all Ubaid pottery
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Çatalhöyük: Where Was the Sacred Without a Known Central Temple?
Houses, burials, horns, colour and memory: how can we interpret ritual life at Çatalhöyük, and what does the 2025 kinship study add, without turning archaeological remains into an unrecorded creed?
House remains in an excavated area of Çatalhöyük, photographed on 12 June 2013. Architectural layers are visible; the photograph does not identify this building as a temple or a “history house”
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Göbekli Tepe’s T-Shaped Pillars: Humans, Ancestors or Gods?
Hands, dress, abstraction and the central pair: what do Göbekli Tepe’s pillars establish about human form, and what remains open about ancestors and gods? With Urfa Man and the 2025 Karahantepe announcement.
A carved arm beside a fox relief on a pillar in Building D at Göbekli Tepe, photographed in 2019. Human and animal features occur together; the photograph does not establish a divine identity
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Göbekli Tepe: Temple or Social Centre?
How have domestic and food-processing evidence changed our understanding of Göbekli Tepe? Buildings, pillars, feasting and social networks reveal the possibilities and limits of interpreting ritual before writing.
Building D at Göbekli Tepe, photographed in 2019. Central and perimeter pillars show the building’s arrangement. The visible shelter and support braces are modern conservation measures, not a reconstructed ancient roof
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Before We Knew the Names of Gods
What can burials, skulls, figurines and buildings tell us about early beliefs? A study of archaeological evidence and the boundary between observation and interpretation, from Jericho to Göbekli Tepe and Çatalhöyük.
Building C at Göbekli Tepe, southeastern Turkey, photographed in 2019. T-shaped pillars and communal architecture in a settlement with a ritual component; any proposed divine identities remain unknown. Some pillars have been restored
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