Ancient Religion

Award announcement for the 2015-2016 academic year will be made by May 1, 2015.
The application deadline for the 2015-2016 academic year is January 15, 2015, for funding to be disbursed on July 1, 2015.

Description and Application Procedures
Objective
The International Catacomb Society (ICS) founded the Shohet Scholars Program in 2001 to honor its founder, Estelle Shohet Brettman.

The ICS desires to support scholars of demonstrated promise and ability who are judged capable of producing significant, original research. Shohet Scholars may do their research in the fields of archeology, art history, classical studies, history, comparative religions, or related subjects. The focus of the work should be within the sphere of the Mediterranean world from the late Hellenistic Period to the end of the Roman Empire. The work does not need to be related to the Roman catacombs, although applications for projects focused on the catacombs are welcome. Of special interest are interdisciplinary projects that approach traditional topics from new perspectives. Successful applicants will be expected to present a public lecture in Boston reporting the methods, results, and significance of their work and submit a written article for publication by the ICS.

Description
One or more Shohet Scholars will be selected each year and supported for a period of one year. The primary intent of the grant is to support significant, innovative research that can be completed and reported within the award period. Grants may be made to start new projects or to cover specific expenses or phases of a larger project under the direction of the applicant. At this time, awards in the range of $5,000 to $30,000 will be made. The Shohet Scholars Program reserves the right not to make a grant in a year in which no applications meet the requirements of the program.

Eligibility
Scholars of all institutional affiliations who are US citizens and possess a doctoral degree or the equivalent are eligible. Independent, unaffiliated scholars without doctoral credentials may be considered if judged equivalent in experience, competence, and accomplishments to other candidates. Employees, contractors, and members of the Board of Directors or Advisory Board of the ICS and their families are ineligible. No applicant will be denied consideration or selection because of race, religion, or ethnic origin.

Applications - Please note new address!
Applications, supporting documents, and communications with the Shohet Scholars Program must be in English. They should be either sent combined into a single document as an email attachment to ahoek@hds.harvard.edu or mailed to Harvard Divinity School, c/o Professor Annewies van den Hoek (Shohet Scholars Program), Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138.

Include the following documents:

Applicant information sheet (download PDF)
Applicant’s curriculum vitae
Research proposal not exceeding 2500 words (approx. 10 pages, double spaced)
100-word abstract of the proposed research and its significance
Statement of permissions acquired for research and/or publication if the applicant proposes to conduct archaeological fieldwork or proposes a project involving items in museum collections, archives, or other situations requiring permission
Budget proposal—see guidelines below
In addition to the application materials submitted by the applicant, the following documents are also required:

Letters of recommendation from three individuals should be sent directly by the writers to the Shohet Scholars Program. These letters should address, in particular, characteristics and personal qualities indicative of the likelihood the applicant will carry out the research, contribute to the objectives of the program, and make a significant contribution to his or her field.
A letter from the applicant's department chairperson or other institutional officer confirming institutional support for the project should be mailed directly by the writer to the Shohet Scholars Program.
Applications will be evaluated by a jury of academic experts who take into account the quality and feasibility of the research project submitted, the time required to meet the objectives sought, the anticipated impact of the findings, and the excellence of the applicant’s skills as attested by diplomas obtained, letters of recommendation, and publications, papers, and presentations. Persons recommending or making selections of grantees will not be in a position to derive any direct or indirect private benefit if certain potential grantees are selected over others and will have no formal relation to applicants subject to their review. Decisions of the jury are final and, regrettably, neither oral nor written critique will be provided for unfunded applications.
Budget Guidelines
An applicant must submit and justify a detailed allocation of funds requested. The applicant must indicate the sources and amounts of all other funds allocated to him or her for the project if the budget is in excess of the maximum grant of $30,000. Funds may be used for research expenses directly related and essential to the project, such as equipment and supplies, travel and living expenses during fieldwork, and research assistance. Awardees may receive salary from their institutions for periods of exclusive work on the research (e.g., summer salary) or portions of time devoted exclusively to the project. Funds may not be used to pay salary and fringe benefit obligations of institutions, tuition, institutional overhead, other institutional support, or expenses incurred prior to the date of the award. The budget should include an item to fund one visit to Boston to present the results of the research. Travel expenses to attend professional association meetings will not be funded. No substantial variances may made from an awardee's approved budget without prior approval in writing from the Shohet Scholars Program. Applicants should budget to allow for fluctuations in the exchange rate, if necessary, as additional funds cannot be provided for this purpose after the award is made. Finally, awardees should be aware that the grants are subject to federal and state income taxes.
Deadlines
Award announcement for the 2015-2016 academic year will be made by May 1, 2015.

The application deadline for the 2015-2016 academic year is January 15, 2015, for funding to be disbursed on July 1, 2015.


Mailing Address
Application materials for the Shohet Scholars Program that are sent by mail instead of email should be sent by US Postal Service regular or express mail postmarked by the application deadline to Shohet Scholars Program at the following address: Harvard Divinity School, c/o Professor Annewies van den Hoek, Andover Hall, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138. Please do not use mail services that require a signature for deilvery.

Obligations of Shohet Scholars
Successful applicants will be expected to present a public lecture in Boston reporting the methods, results, and significance of their work. The lecture will take place after the grant period has ended at a time to be arranged. Two items are due three months after the end of the award period: a final report of expenditures and a written article on the funded project suitable for publication by the ICS.
Questions?
If you have any questions about the suitability of proposed projects, application procedures, or any other matters related to the Shohet Scholars Program, please do not hesitate to contact us at ahoek@hds.harvard.edu.

Organizzato da Antrocom Onlus e dal Museo delle Religioni “Raffaele Pettazzoni”, Velletri (Roma), nel periodo 7-11 luglio 2015.
Il convegno intende indagare da un punto di vista interdisciplinare i meccanismi soggiacenti alle funzionalità che il cibo e l’alimentazione possono svolgere nei contesti a carattere religioso e nelle credenze tradizionali. Aree culturali di interesse sono le civiltà del Mondo Antico, Medievale, Moderno e Contemporaneo, così come i contesti folklorici o di carattere etnografico.

Organized by Antrocom Onlus, Museum of Religions "Raffaele Pettazzoni", Velletri (Rome), in the period July 7 to 11, 2015.
The conference aims to investigate in an interdisciplinary point of view the mechanisms underlying the functionality that food and nutrition can play in religious contexts and traditional beliefs. Cultural areas of interest are the civilizations of the Ancient, Medieval, Modern and Contemporary World, as well as the folkloric or ethnographic contexts.

Study on a wooden cosmetic casket with bronze mounts from Late Roman Pannonia. Some of the representations on the panels were misunderstood by the craftsman, probably because of his barbarian origin. Certain scenes could be interpreted with the help of Germanic mythology.
The article contains de description of a pottery bowl with an inscription-like scratching on its rim. It is perhaps a written partly in cursive Latin and may contain runes as well.

= Folia Archaeologica 45, 1996, 157-180.

Roman statue that may have stood in a pagan sanctuary, and having an artificial hole on the place of its left hand, probably in order to perform oracle practices.

Akten des 6. Internationalen 
Kolloquiums über Probleme des Provinzailrömischen Kunstschaffens. Budapest 11-
16, Mai, 1999.
= Budapest Régiségei 34, 2001, 195-199

The fourth known pre-Columbian Maya codex—the only one discovered in the 20th century—was found by looters in the mid-1960s. First exhibited in New York in 1971, what has come to be known as the Grolier Codex is half of a hybrid-style 20-page, 104-year Mesoamerican divinatory Venus Almanac. With new radiocarbon dates that place it in the 13th century CE, it is likely to be the oldest surviving book on paper from the Americas as well as the only ancient Maya codex now residing in Mexico. Although most Mayanists have accepted it as authentic, based in part on the author’s 40 years of research,* it remains an unacknowledged Mexican national treasure as it has never been officially recognized except in the State of Chiapas. Mesoamerican Venus Almanacs were widely used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica to regulate practices of sacred warfare and ritual sacrifice, the goal of which was to obtain captives whose blood was shed to invoke the personified forces of rain and fertility. The Grolier Codex offers unique images of 10 of the 20 manifestations of Venus (named in the Maya Dresden Codex), greatly enriching our knowledge of these traditions documented in four other pre-Columbian codices as well as numerous archaeological and ethnohistoric sources. This article is a summary of the talk given on November 7, 2014 to the Pre-Columbian Society of Washington DC and includes a brief history of accounts of the discovery of the Grolier Codex and allegedly associated artifacts; photographic history; outlines the author’s comprehensive program of research, including several new scientific discoveries leading to an interpretation of the Codex—based on the Dresden Codex and other sources; and offers a new Latinized name that recognizes that the “Codex Mayano-Mexicanus” is an authentic ancient book deriving from the Maya culture and now properly residing in Mexico.

          *See <http://umd.academia.edu/JohnBCarlson>.

Also utilized as part of the November 7, 2014 talk are TWO 1983 historical STUDY GUIDE documents which can be viewed at the following academia.edu links:

• GROLIER CODEX Page Study Guide: Pages 1-9 and Reconstructed Page 10/11 (1983): 

https://www.academia.edu/7911420/GROLIER_CODEX_Page_Study_Guide_Pages_1-9_and_Reconstructed_Page_10_11

• GROLIER CODEX Comparative Study Guide (1983): Grolier pages 1-9 and reconstructed page 10/11 with Maya Dresden Codex Venus Almanac page numbers 48/1 – 50/2 with Venus Station and Directional Associations; Names (on Dresden Rows 17 & 22) of the associated Venus Impersonators; and Initial (1983) interpretations of the Grolier Codex scenes & iconographic interpretations. Over the three decades since 1983, some of the glyphic and iconographic interpretations have changed, as discussed in the presentation. The details are in press:

https://www.academia.edu/9208071/GROLIER_CODEX_Comparative_Study_Guide_1983_

*****

Religious modes form the structure of human culture whilst violence represent the basic anthropological constant. Therefore, the relation between religion and violence has
to be considered on the fundamental basis in order to determine their mutual relation and influence. Authentic Christian ethos considers history from the point of view of eschatological realism based on ontology which represent the measure and direction of any activism.

This volume brings together twenty-eight papers from an International conference on attitudes towards the past and the creating of identities in Antiquity. The volume addresses many different approaches to these issues, spanning over many centuries, ranging in time from the Prehistoric periods to the Late Antiquity, and covering large areas, from Britain to Greece and Italy and to Asia Minor and Cyprus.

The papers deal with several important problems, such as the use of tradition and memory in shaping an individual or a collective identity, continuity and/or change and the efforts to connect the past with the present. Among the topics discussed are the interpretation of literary texts, e.g. a play by Plautus, the Aeneid, a speech by Lykurgos, poems by Claudian and Prudentius, and of historical texts and inscriptions, e.g. funerary epigrams, and the analysis of the iconography of Roman coins, Etruscan reliefs, Pompeian and Etruscan frescoes and Cypriote sculpture, and of architectural remains of houses, tombs and temples. Other topics are religious festivals, such as the Lupercalia, foundation myths, the image of the emperor on coins and in literature, the significance of intra-urban burials, forgeries connected with the Trojan War, Hippocrates and Roman martyrs.

En las creencias egipcias, Nun (las aguas primordiales) venía a significar el momento de la no existencia, en tanto que la existencia, es decir, el inicio de la creación, se habría producido cuando Atum tomó conciencia de si mismo. Ese primer momento de la creación, el paso de la no existencia a la existencia, el paso del caos inicial al orden de la creación, es lo que los textos egipcios denominan Tiempo Primero, en el que Atum habría establecido los dos grandes principios por los que la creación y todo lo creado habrían de regirse desde entonces: Heka y Maat.

This work establishes connection between various festivals of the world to the the ancient tradition festivals that began and ended with the harvest season considered a significant events for humans since the dawn of civilization of fertile crescent of the world.

En el antiguo Egipto la función de mantener el orden de la creación estaba asignada a la diosa Maat, hija de Re, que nutría de justicia y equilibrio a las divinidades que eran objeto de culto en los santuarios. Gracias a las virtudes de que Maat estaba investida se podía conseguir el milagro de que la creación del mundo se repitiera, sin cesar, día tras día.