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 Scientific Culture
Journal of Applied Science & Technology
to Cultural Issues

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor-in-Chief (Founder)

Professor Ioannis Liritzis

(Archaeometry, Archaeological Sciences, Archaeoenvironment, physical sciences in culture; Member
European Academy of Sciences & arts, Saltzburg, Austria; University of the Aegean, Dept of
Mediterranean Studies, Lab of Archaeometry, Rhodes, Greece (liritzis@rhodes.aegean.gr;
www.liritzis.gr; http://www.aegean.gr/aegean/en/intro_en.htm)

Editors

Prof. Dr. Markus Hilgert (Germany) (Professor of Assyriology/ Sumerology, Member European
Academy of Sciences & arts, Saltzburg, Austria; Heidelberg University, Germany; http://www.asia-
europe.uni-heidelberg.de/en/people/person/persdetail/hilgert.html; m.hilgert@smb.spk-berlin.de)
Prof. Vladimir Ivanovich Ionesov (Russia) (Archaeology- Cultural studies, Head, Department of
Theory and History of Culture, Samara State Academy of Culture and Arts, Samara; Russia;
ionesov@mail.ru; www.smrgaki.ru; www.acdis.net; http://smrgaki.ru/inst_ikskt/_____eng.html)
Dr. George P. Pavlidis (Senior researcher, image processing and multimedia applications in culture
and education, Head of the Multimedia Research Group, Athena Research Centre, Greece;
gpavlid@ceti.gr; http://multimedia.ceti.gr; http://georgepavlides.info)
Dr Marise Campos de Souza (Brazil) (Cultural heritage archaeologist, Instituto do Patrimônio
Histórico e Artístico Nacional – IPHAN Superintendência, São Paulo, Brazil, Chefe do setor de
Arqueologia do IPHAN-Estado de São Paulo; marisecampos@hotmail.com;
http://portal.iphan.gov.br/portal/montarPaginaSecao.do?id=10&sigla=Institucional&retorno=paginaI
phan)
Prof. Zheng Jie Jane (Hong Kong) (Cultural management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong,
Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, BA Programme in Cultural Management; janezzn@hotmail.com;
http://www.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/cum/en/prof_zheng.html)

Members of Editorial Board

Prof. Alonzo C. Addison (digital tools for heritage management and protection; Special Advisor to
the Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre;addison@cal.berkeley.edu;
https://berkeley.academia.edu/LonAddison; http://www.linkedin.com/in/lonaddison;
http://www.v-must.net/about/experts_advisory_board)
Dr Wolfgang H. Börner (Archaeology, Museen der Stadt Wien - Stadtarchäologie
Austria; wolfgang.boerner@stadtarchaeologie.at; http://www.wien.gv.at/archaeologie;
http://m.wien.gv.at/;t=to/advuew/internet/AdvPrSrv.asp?Layout=personen&Type=K&PERSONCD=
2011021205004309)
Prof. Jelle Zeilinga de Boer (Geology in Archaeology, Harold T. Stearns Prof. of Earth Science,
Wesleyan University, Middletown, USA , jdeboer@wesleyan.edu;
http://www.wesleyan.edu/ees/faculty.html
Dr Julien Curie (Geoarchaeology, Archaeosciences, UMR ArTeHiS 6298, UFR Sciences de la Terre et
Environnement, Université de Bourgogne; julien.curie@u-bourgogne.fr; http://www.artehis-
cnrs.fr/CURIE-Julien)
Prof. Catherine Cameron (Archaeologist working in the American Southwest Department of
Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder, USA, catherine.cameron@colorado.edu;
http://www.colorado.edu/anthropology/index.html)
Dr Dave Cowley (Archaeology, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of
Scotland, Edinburgh, dave.cowley@rcahms.gov.uk; http://www.rcahms.gov.uk/)
Assoc Prof Darren Curnoe (Biological anthropology and archaeological science, Australian Research
Council Future Fellow, School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences , University of New
South Wales, Sydney, Australia; darrencurnoe@icloud.com; d.curnoe@unsw.edu.au;
www.darrencurnoe.net/; http://www.bees.unsw.edu.au/darren-curnoe)
Prof. Boyce Driskell (Emeritus Director of the Archaeological Research Laboratory, Research
Professor (adjunct), Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee; bdriskel@utk.edu;
http://archaeology.as.utk.edu/people/boycedriskell.html)
Prof. Kord Ernstson (impact and archeology/ancient cultures & geophysics and archeology/ancient
cultures, Faculty of Philosophy I, University of Wu rzburg, Germany; kernstson@ernstson.de;
https://uni-wuerzburg.academia.edu/KordErnstson) http://www.ernstson.de/;
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kord_Ernstson)
Prof. Jean Ferrari (Philosophy, Academician, Dijon, France, Jean.Ferrari@u-bourgogne.fr;
http://www.acascia-dijon.fr/accueil/lacademie/membres-2/ferrari-jean/)
Prof. Arne Flaten (History & Digital Culture, Chair, Department of Visual Arts
Professor of Art History, Coastal Carolina University;
arflaten@coastal.edu;http://ww2.coastal.edu/arflaten/CV-FLATEN%202013%20arial.pdf;
http://www.coastal.edu/art/flaten.html)
Dr Javier Garcia-Guinea (Geoarchaeology, Research Professor of the Spanish CSIC (Consejo
Superior Investigaciones Científicas) Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, Spain;
Javier.Garcia.Guinea@csic.es ;
http://www.mncn.csic.es/Menu/Investigacin/Departamentosdeinvestigacin/Geologa/seccion=1219&idi
oma=es_ES.do)
Prof Robert Hannah (Professor of Classics - Greek and Roman Archaeology and Art;
Archaeoastronomy; the Classical Tradition. Dean, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, Acting Director,
NIDEA, The University of Waikato, New Zealand, email: roberth@waikato.ac.nz;
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/fass/about/staff/roberth)
Prof. Ahmad Sanusi Hassan ( Architecture; School of Housing, Building & Planning, University
Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia, sanusi@usm.my;
http://www.hbp.usm.my/HBP06/staff/psyhbp/psysanus.htm)
Prof. Charles Higham (Archaeology, New Zealand, Dept of Archaeology & anthropology, University
of Otago, New Zealand; http://www.otago.ac.nz/anthropology/arch/people/higham.html;
charles.higham@otago.ac.nz)
Prof Luis A. Hernández Ibáñez (virtual heritage, Department of Mathematical Methods and
Representation, Univesidade da Coruna, E.T.S. de Ingenieros de Caminos, C. y P.| Fac. Ciencias da
Comunicación, Coruña, España; lhernandez.udc@gmail.com; http://videalab.udc.es)
Prof. Nizar Abu-Jaber (Geology & Geochemistry in ancient material culture/Cultural Heritage &
science, Jordan; nizar.abujaber@gju.edu.jo;
http://www.gju.edu.jo/page.aspx?id=21&type=s&lng=en&page=54)
Prof.Zheng Yao Jin (Archaeological Sciences, Professor of the Department of History of Science and
Technology and Archaeological Science, Head of the Archaeometry Laboratory, University of Science
and Technology of China (USTC), zyjin@ustc.edu.cn; http://en.archlab.ustc.edu.cn/)
Prof. Miao Jianmin (scientific studies of cultural relics, Key Scientific Research Base of Ancient
Ceramics, State Administration of Cultural Heritage (The Palace Museum, Conservation Department
and Department of Objects and Decorative Art, China; miaojianmin@hotmail.com;
http://www.dpm.org.cn/shtml/2/@/8797.html#150)
Assoc. Prof. Ioannis Karapanagiotis (University Ecclesiastical Academy of Thessaloniki,
Department of Management and Conservation of Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage Objects,
Thessaloniki, Greece; y.karapanagiotis@aeath.gr; URL: www.aeath.gr)
Dr Gabriela Kilianova (Culture & Ethnology, Institute of Ethnology Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Bratislava; http://www.uet.sav.sk/; gabriela.kilianova@savba.sk, Slovakia)
Prof. Elleonnora Kurulenko (Cultural Science, anthropology, policy, Head of the Dept of Theory and
History of Culture, State Academy of Culture & Arts, Samara, Rector of Samara State Academy of
Culture & Arts, Russia;, ekurulenko@mail.ru; http://smrgaki.ru/inst_ikskt/_____eng.html)
Prof. Thomas Levy (Distinguished Professor of Archaeology, Norma Kershaw Chair in the
Archaeology of Ancient Israel and Neighboring Lands at the University of California, San Diego,
USA; thomasevanlevy@gmail.com; tlevy@ucsd.edu;
http://anthropology.ucsd.edu/faculty-staff/profiles/levy.shtml)
Prof. Assaf Yasour-Landau (Director, the Maritime Coastal Archaeology and Underwater Survey
Lab, University of Haifa, Israel;
assafyasur@hotmail.com;https://haifa.academia.edu/AssafYasurLandau)
Dr Jean P Massue (Physical Sciences in Cultural issues, EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement
Strasbourg, France; Member European Academy of Sciences & arts, Saltzburg, Austria;
jeanpierre.massue@free.fr)
Assoc. Prof. Fernando Feliu-Moggi (Cultural Studies, Associate Professor, Languages and
Cultures, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, USA; ffeliumo@uccs.edu;
http://www.uccs.edu/langcult/fernando.html )
Dr J Mckim Malville (Astronomy, Professor Emeritus, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary
Sciences, University of Colorado; Kim.Malville@Colorado.EDU;
http://aps.colorado.edu/directory_full.shtml)
Prof. Alexander Nehamas (Professor of the Humanities and of Comparative Literature, Princeton
University, USA; nehamas@Princeton.EDU;
http://philosophy.princeton.edu/content/alexander-nehamas;
http://www.princeton.edu/complit/people/display_person.xml?netid=nehamas)
Assoc. Prof. Calin Neamtu (Engineerer/Digital Modeling, Technical University of Clui-Napoca,
Romania; calin.neamtu@muri.utcluj.ro, cneamtu@mail.utcluj.ro
https://utcluj.academia.edu/NeamtuCalin; www.utcluj.ro)
Prof. Lorenzo Nigro (Phoenician Punic Archaeology, Sixteeth to eighteenth century Sicilian Fine
arts and history, Prehistoric Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Classical Archaeology,
Archaeology; Professor of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Art History, Sapienza University
Rome Italy; lorenzo.nigro@uniroma1.it; http://uniroma1.academia.edu/LorenzoNigro)
Prof Magda El-Nowieemy (Professor of Graeco-Roman Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of
Alexandria, Egypt. magda_now@yahoo.com; http://encls.net/?q=profile/magda-el-nowieemy;
https://alex.academia.edu/MagdaElNowieemy)
Dr David Peterson (Anthropology & Archaeological Sciences, Dept of Anthropology, Idaho State
University, Director of Archaeological Research in the Eurasian Steppes (ARIES);
davepeterson26@hotmail.com; www.linkedin.com/pub/david-peterson/35/322/587;
https://chicago.academia.edu/DavidPeterson)
Dr Eva Pietroni (art historian, a conservation specialist of Cultural Heritage and a musician;
Institute of Sciences and Technologies of Cognition & Institute of Technologies Applied to Cultural
Heritage of CNR, co-director of the Virtual Heritage Lab of CNR ITABC, Rome, Italy;
eva.pietroni@itabc.cnr.it;
http://www.itabc.cnr.it/en/organization/staff_and_contacts/eva_pietroni/1024)
Prof Teresita P. Pareja (Philosophy in Applied Linguistics, Chair, Languages and Literature
Department, College of Liberal Arts and Communication, De La Salle University-Dasmariñas,
Philipines; tisha1557@yahoo.com; http://www.dlsud.edu.ph/LLD.htm)
Dr Michael A. Rappenglück (Ancient Philosophy, archaeoastronomy, history of astronomy,
managing director of the vhs Gilching eV (School for Adult Learning), Germany; mr@infis.org;
http://www.infis.org/imprint.html; www.symbolforschung.org; www.astrogilde.de)
Dr Valentine Roux (Archaeology, Director of Research, French National Centre for Scientific
Research, Préhistoire & Technologie (UMR 7055), France (valentine.roux@mae.u-paris10.fr;
http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Valentine_Roux)
Prof Ana Maria Rocchietti ( Anthropology, Diretora escuola de Antropologia, Faculdade de
Humanidades e Artes, Universidade Nacional do Rosário-Argentina, Rosario - Santa Fe, Argentina;
anaau2002@yahoo.com.ar; http://www.fhumyar.unr.edu.ar/index.php?id=centros)
Prof. Bogdan C. Simionescu (Member of the European Academy of Sciences, Member of the
Romanian Academy, Department of Natural and Synthetic Polymers, "Gh. Asachi" Technical
University, Iasi, Romania and "Petru Poni" Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry, Romania;
bcsimion@icmpp.ro;
http://www.wmp.ajd.czest.pl/media/domeny/121/static/prof_zagr/CV_Simionescu.pdf; http://www.ad-
astra.ro/whoswho/view_profile.php?user_id=2657)
Dr Christopher M. Stevenson (Archaeologist-Obsidian studies; Anthropology Program, Virginia
Commonwealth University, Richmond; USA; cmstevenson23805@gmail.com;
http://www.has.vcu.edu/wld/faculty/stevenson.html)
Prof Glenn R. Summerhayes (Anthropology & Archaeology, University of Otago, NEW
ZEALAND; glenn.summerhayes@otago.ac.nz;
http://www.otago.ac.nz/anthropology/arch/people/summerhayes.html)
Assist. Prof Priya Thakur (Culture & Archaeology, Dept of History & Archaeology, Tumkur
University, India), priya912@gmail.com; priyathakur@tumkuruniversity.in;
http://tumkuruniversity.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/DR.-PRIYA-THAKUR.pdf)Dr Despoina
Tsiafaki (Archaeology-Cultural Heritage, ATHENA - Research and Innovation Center in
Information, Communication and Knowledge Technologies, Cultural and Educational Technology
Institute, Greece ; tsiafaki@ipet.athena-innovation.gr;
http://www.ipet.gr/index2.php?lang=en&mod=lab&id=1;
http://www.ipet.gr/index2.php?lang=en&mid=0&mod=person&id=5;
http://athena-innovation.academia.edu/DespoinaTsiafakis/CurriculumVitae )
Assoc. Prof. Yulia Ustinova (Ancient Greek religion and culture; Department of History, Ben-Gurion
University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel; yulia@bgu.ac.il; http://bgu.academia.edu/YuliaUstinova)
Prof. Ladislau Vekas (Member of European Academy of Sciences & Arts, Lab. Magnetic Fluids
Center for Fundamental and Advanced Technical Research, Romanian Academy, Timisoara Division,
Romania; vekas.ladislau@gmail.com; http://www.euro-acad.eu/organisation/delegations)
Prof. Fred Valdez (material culture, Dept of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts, The University of
Texas at Austin (fredv@mail.utexas.edu; http://www.utexas.edu/experts/fred_valdez)
Prof. Dr. Andreas Vött (Professor of Geomorphology, Natural Hazard Research and Geoarchaeology,
Institute for Geography, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany; voett@uni-mainz.de;
www.geomorphologie.uni-mainz.de)
Prof Marshal Weisler (anthropology, prehistoric archaeology, geoarchaeology on Pacific islands,
Professor, School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, Australia; m.weisler@uq.edu.au;
http://socialscience.uq.edu.au/marshall-weisler)
Prof. Willeke Wendrich (Joan Silsbee Chair of African Cultural Archaeoloy, Professor of Egyptian
Archaeology and Digital Humanities, University of California, Los Angeles, USA; Editorial Director
of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, Editor-in-chief of the online UCLA Encyclopedia of
Egyptology; wendrich@humnet.ucla.edu; http://nelc.ucla.edu/people/faculty/2-uncategorised/114-
willeke-wendrich.html)
Prof. Xiaohong Wu (Professor, School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, China;
wuxh@pku.edu.cn; http://web5.pku.edu.cn/kaoguen//szdw/kgjsff/;
http://www.harvard-yenching.org/scholars/wu-xiaohong)
Prof. Jing Zhichun (Canada Research Chair in East Asian Archaeology
Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Canada; jingzh@mail.ubc.ca;
http://www.anth.ubc.ca/Zhichun_Jing.1895.0.html)
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 i

Aims and Scope

SCIENTIFIC CULTURE is a peer-reviewed, open access international scientific journal, an open
information vehicle of academic community with a global coverage and issues touching local and
regional interest; it is intended as a starting point for presenting research devoted in the broad field of
diachronical Cultural Heritage. The journal provides a broader coverage of studying ancient cultures
with natural sciences focused on specific topics of global interest. Amongst the published themes
emphasis is given to: Ancient cultures; hidden information in art by symbolism; composition of
artifacts; parallels in ancient and recent cultural issues; the role of liberal arts to cultural background;
cultural development and the question of independent, autochthonous, interactive patterns;
theoretical approaches: archetypal concept and globalization effects; inter-, intra-settlement and
environmental interactions on cultural evolution; art and science, virtual culture, cognitive
archaeology via positive sciences etc.

Objectifs et portée
CULTURE SCIENTIFIQUE est un véhicule de l'information ouverte de la communauté universitaire
avec une couverture et les questions touchant l'intérêt local et régional et mondial; il est conçu comme
un point de départ pour la présentation des recherches dans le vaste domaine du patrimoine culturel
diachronique. La nouvelle revue fournit une couverture plus large de l'étude des cultures anciennes
avec les sciences naturelles ont porté sur des sujets spécifiques d'intérêt mondial. Parmi les thèmes
publiés, l'accent est donné à cultures anciennes; informations cachées dans l'art par le symbolisme;
Composition d'objets; parallèles dans les questions culturelles anciennes et récentes; le rôle des arts
libéraux à fond culturel; le développement culturel et la question des modèles indépendants,
autochtones et / ou interactifs; approches théoriques: les effets du concept et de la mondialisation
archétypes; inter-, intra-établissement et environnementaux interactions sur l'évolution culturelle; art
et la science, la culture virtuelle, archéologie cognitive via sciences positives etc

Ziele und Umfang

SCIENTIFIC CULTURE ist ein öffentlich zugängliches, internationales Wissenschaftsjournal, ein
offener Informationsträger der wissenschaftlichen Gemeinschaft mit einem thematisch weltweiten
Anspruch und Themen, die lokale und regionale Interessen berücksichtigen. Das wissenschaftliche
Niveau wird durch Peer-Review-Verfahren sichergestellt. Das Wissenschaftsjournal ist als Startpunkt
für die Veröffentlichung von Forschungsarbeiten gedacht, die im breiten Feld des diachronisch
verstandenen kulturellen Erbes ansetzen. Es wird einen weiten Umfang wissenschaftlicher
Untersuchungen alter Kulturen abdecken, wobei der naturwissenschaftliche Ansatz auf spezifische
Themen globalen Interesses abzielt. Unter den möglichen Publikationsbereichen des
Wissenschaftsjournals liegt der Fokus auf folgenden Themen: Alte Kulturen; symbolisch dargestellte
Information in der Kunst; Gestaltung von Artefakten; Parallelen in alten und neuen kulturellen
wissenschaftlichen Fragestellungen; die Rolle der Geisteswissenschaften mit Bezug zum kulturellen
Hintergrund; die kulturelle Entwicklung und die Frage nach unabhängigen, ursprünglichen und /
oder miteinander wechselwirkenden Mustern; theoretische Methoden: die Wirkungen des Konzepts
und der Globalisierung von Archetypen; Wechselwirkung von Wohnen, Besiedlung und Umwelt mit
der kulturellen Evolution; Kunst und Wissenschaft, virtuelle Welten, kognitive Archäologie
gegenüber deskriptiven Wissenschaften etc.

Topics
- comparative cultures
- conservation and restoration of cultural assets
- cybernetics in cultural systems
- Cultural dynamics via stochastic processes
- Cultural politics & technology
- revealing parameters of Tangible Cultural Heritage (chronology, provenance, technology,
characterization of monuments and artifacts, landscapes and sacred places)
- unfolding ideas and scientific thought of the past of Intangible Cultural Heritage (timing to execute
certain actions, archaeoacoustics, restoring oral histories, beliefs, practices, rituals, ceremonies,
customs, crafts and other arts via modern science, digital technologies)
- authenticity of material culture
 ii

- promote the added value of modern science in cultural heritage that refer, in the broader sense, to
humanities, i.e. use of the scientific data to social sensitization, social coherence and sustainable
development
- linking society, with modern technology, digital museums and economy
- show up interrelated topics of conservation, restoration, management, connecting always the emerged
value of cultural assets with scientific means.
- Linking anthropological reminiscent with the far past by reproduction and simulation of preserved
pieces of history
- Connecting distant cultures either far apart or as close neighbors and explaining their difference
- Scientific measures and documented criteria to protect cultural resources
- Proper maintenance and guarantee for existence of World cultural sites
- Strategies with scientific tools to support and expand sites protected by UNESCO
- Neurolinguistic approach to cultural evolution
- Documenting the beginning of civilization, writing, settlement, food production, celestial guiding of
everyday activities, movements etc.
- Human Evolution through technological tools: implications, interpretations, modeling.
- Cultural dynamics via stochastic processes
- Cognitive and preventive archaeology

The primary objective is to serve the academic community with the highest quality and speed and
non-profit one.

It is published online thrice per year (January, May and September) in PDF electronic format, and in
print, and contains research and theoretical articles on cultural issues coupled with science in English,
but also in French and German (with extended English summary) languages.

The SCIENTIFIC CULTURE stands upon the Culture and Cultural Heritage which comprises the
cultural legacy inherited from previous generations, a legacy which we often want to identify and
preserve because it reinforces our cultural identity or sense of who we are as a people. Communities
and nations are interested in celebrating and preserving their heritage, and governments have enacted
laws to protect cultural resources. In today’s spirit of globalization the identification and
documentation of past local or regional high development in material, technology and ideas stand
alone as anticipated peaks of acme in human evolution that distinguish and recognize the difference
between the similar.

Cultural Heritage law is absolutely vital to States, intergovernmental organizations and non-State
actors. The most important international organization that deals with Cultural Heritage is the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). UNESCO has been charged
with assisting States to develop legal instruments to better protect Cultural Heritage and to also help
in updating and reforming cultural policies. SC enters the current scientific media having a global
perspective, promoting key issues in the reconstruction of the past, decoding knowledge from
materials but also restoring the ideas behind those that shaped the cultural evolution. Prominent tools
are the science and technology, applied and innovative instrumentation, the documentation and
dissemination of cultural assets. As an end product SC will publish original articles having a
multipurpose aim in following categories: innovative research, applications, short correspondence
papers, matters arising, news items, meeting reports, book reviews.

At the initial issues the article submission and processing is free of charge. There will be a double
blind peer review and content of articles will be judged for their innovative nature, either as research
papers or applications, and short notes.

ISSN (online): 2407-9529

ISSN (print): 2408-0071
 SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 1-8
Copyright © 2015 SC
Open Access. Printed in Greece. All Rights Reserved.

Demystifying publishing to Europeana:

A practical workflow for content providers

George Pavlidis and Vasileios Sevetlidis

Athena Research Centre, University Campus at Kimmeria, GR-67100 Xanthi, Greece

Received: 25/10/2014
Accepted: 09/11/2014 Corresponding author: George Pavlidis (gpavlid@gmail.com)

ABSTRACT

Every organisation needs to introduce itself in a target audience, promote its products and establish its
presence amongst other competitive parties. This also applies to cultural institutions such as museums,
libraries, archives, private or public stakeholders. Usually their approach involves the use of IT and
especially the Web. Through these technologies they document, digitise, study, disseminate and exhibit their
cultural wealth. Of common practice is the usage of ontologies and metadata schemas to provide access to
those assets. The European Commission adopted the vision of a single access point to the European Cultural
Heritage, which would be open to the public. In order to achieve this vision the European Digital Library
was founded and the Europeana project was established. Europeana became an organisation that provides
technological expertise and legal support to those stakeholders who want to share their assets. In this paper
we describe the network structure of Europeana, the metadata technology and finally the workflow that
someone needs to comprehend and apply in order to become partner of Europeana as a content provider.

KEYWORDS: Europeana, cultural heritage, content delivery, content provider, publishing workflow.
2 Pavlidis & Sevetlidis
1. INTRODUCTION
Europeana is a cultural heritage organisation whose
goal is to provide access to Europe’s entire heritage,
to bring cultures together, to offer different ap-
proaches and point of views of any individual event,
to enchase the European identity and to create new
ways for people to engage with their cultural history
through one single access point, the Europeana por-
tal. More precisely, Europeana aims to develop a
European Digital Library containing digitised mate-
rial about the European scientific and cultural heri-
tage. In particular, the metadata description schema,
known as EDM (Europeana Data Model) (Euro-
peana, 2013a, 2013b), has adopted CIDOC-CRM core
(Doerr et at., 2007), while the consortium emphasises
the need for linking existed descriptions of the digi-
tised material in EDM descriptions, according to the
Linked Data approach (Haslhofer and Isaac, 2011;
Isaac et al, 2012).
Europeana published a fact-list (Europeana,
2013c) stating that the network contains over 30 mil-
lion records from more than 2300 European galleries,
museums, archives and libraries. Those records con-
sist of textual material such as books, journals,
newspapers, letters diaries and archival papers, mul-
timedia content such as paintings, photographs, mu-
sic, videos, TV and radio broadcasts, films, and the
latest addition of digital material the 3D objects. All
those digital items are accessible by everyone
through the Europeana portal, which supports 31
languages (Petras 2013).
The content that Europeana gives access to is de-
livered primarily through a network of cultural heri-
tage institutions (see Figure 1), whose goals are to
promote their content, provide better user experi-
ence, and cooperate with like-minded professionals
across Europe. The content that they provide to Eu-
ropeana is the metadata description of their collec-
tion of digital objects, which is displayed in the por-
tal and links back to their site. Additionally, Euro-
peana through its expertise is able to provide to its
partners tools and technology on data modelling,
guidance over digital artefact documentation, con-
sultation on copyright issues, and usage metrics. The
portal that contains and displays the digital cultural
items constitutes a single access point for multiple
purposes. Users can search and discover a great va-
riety of information, without leaving the main por-
tal. In other terms, the technology that integrates the
content material meets the user expectations that in
the fast, easy and accurate information discovery.
The fact that a significant number of European cul-
tural institutions joined the Europeana network,
means that the idea of information sharing and re-
use is spreading among the stakeholders.
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 1-8
2. EUROPEANA STRUCTURE
As every competitive organisation sets up a strategy
for future expansion, and course correction, Euro-
peana does just the same. Europeana, as published
in its strategy plan, focuses primarily on four sub-
jects: aggregation, facilitation, distribution, and en-
gagement (see Figure 2) (Europeana, 2011a).
In order to gather more digitised content, stan-
dardise, ingest it, and finally to apply the technology
of Linked Data, Europeana needs to expand its con-
tributor network. This network is divided in groups
with certain responsibilities. A content provider for
Europeana is any organisation that provides digital
content accessible via Europeana. The digitised con-
tent is the metadata description of cultural heritage
objects, enriched with a permanent URL link. Euro-
peana uses the link to point to the original source of
the digital object, through the portal. Europeana
only ingests and indexes the institutions' metadata,
while the digital object remains at the original insti-
tution. A content provider usually doesn't communi-
cate directly with Europeana in terms of content de-
livery. This task is up to an intermediary level of or-
ganisations, namely the aggregators. Aggregators
are defined as organisations that collect metadata
from a group of content providers and transmit
them to Europeana. Aggregators gather material
from individual organisations, standardise the file
formats and metadata, and channel the latter into
Europeana ac-cording to the Europeana guidelines
and procedures. The Network is presented in Figure
3; Europeana is at the top of the hierarchy, in the
middle layer are the aggregators who collect the
provided content form the bottom nodes, which rep-
resent the content providers. Aggregators also sup-
port the content providers with administration, op-
erations and training (Europeana, 2011b). Europeana
developed a metadata schema, the Europeana Data
Model (EDM) (Europeana, 2013d, 2013b) in order to
comply with the Linked Open Data specifications
(Heath and Bizer, 2011). Linked Data is about con-
necting related data that were previously unrelated
throughout the Web. This simply means:
The discovery of data may be more precise
The reusability of data may be more efficient
The information extraction may lead to ma-
chine generated knowledge
After the delivered content is transformed to the
EDM metadata schema, then the aggregator trans-
mits those data to Europeana via OAI-PMH (Lagoze
et al., 2005), which in return exposes the collected
metadata to search engines, making the content ac-
cessible on the web.
The Europeana Network is an open forum for ex-
perts, content providers and aggregators, providers
Demystifying publishing to Europeana: a practical workflow for content providers 3

of technical, legal and strategic knowledge, research-
ers and the creative industries. The analysis of do-
main representation of Europeana Network mem-
bers indicates that libraries and museums are well
represented. Archives, audio-visual archives and
publishers are certainly an area for development to
get more members in the Network. Europeana Net-
work tends to be more inclusive than its former
state, the Council of Content Providers and Aggrega-
tors (CCPA), was. This forum represents the diver-
sity of Europeana. It is part of the governance of Eu-
ropeana itself with six elected Network Officers sit-
ting on the Board of the Europeana Foundation
(Bergman-Tahon et al., 2013).

Figure 1. Europeana content providers affiliation

Figure 2. Subjects of Europeana strategic plan

Figure 3. The Europeana Network

holders were using rational databases. After the evo-

3. EUROPEANA SCHEMA lution of the Web, the need of information distribu-
tion emerged. So, the description of an object in Ex-
Taking advantage of digital era in cultural heritage
tensive Markup Languages (XML) structures came
domain usually means a series of actions that con-
as a solution. A XML structure, provides several ad-
vert artefacts in digital duplicates. These actions are
vantages, for example a XML structure offers the
interpreted in digitisation of the artefacts, objects
ability of creating custom tags, and defining object
documentation, virtual exhibition and information
properties. When the structure of an XML schema is
sharing. Extensive research has been done for the
defined to fit a specific description e.g. the documen-
documentation of an object. In the beginning, stake-
tation of a cultural heritage object, then the structure

SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 1-8

4 Pavlidis & Sevetlidis
becomes a metadata schema. Bearing in mind that a
metadata schema could be applicable on a specific
situation, an extensive list of metadata standard
schemas have been created. Europeana in order to
comply with its needs, created —and later evolved—
a metadata schema, that fits for the documentation
of authorship, intellectual rights, as well as informa-
tion sharing and re-use through Linked Open Data
technology.
3.1. Europeana Semantic Elements
The Europeana Semantic Elements (ESE) provides a
basic set of elements for describing objects in the cul-
tural heritage domain in a way that is usable for Eu-
ropeana. It is a Dublin Core-based application pro-
file providing a generic set of terms that can be ap-
plied to heterogeneous materials thereby providing
a baseline to allow contributors to take advantage of
their existing rich descriptions. ESE produces a flat
record, where it is not always possible to tell if a
value applies to the original object or to its digital
representation. The XML schema for ESE checks for
basic conformance to this specification and gives
instruction about the ordering of the XML elements
(Europeana, 2013e). Some generic rules are consid-
ered in order to map resources into ESE:
Map as many as possible of the original
source elements to the available ESE elements.
Always use the more specific dcterms refine-
ments if the semantic of the source term
clearly corresponds to the narrower term e.g.
dcterms:spatial or dcterms:temporal instead of
dc:coverage.
Providers are encouraged to include xml:lang
attributes in all appropriate metadata ele-
ments.
The persistent link to the provided object
should be given as a URL. These may need to
be constructed from metadata values and in-
formation external to the metadata.
If it is difficult to decide which ESE element to
map a source term to, consider how best to
meet expectations of the user and the func-
tionality of the system.
Where there are multiple values for the same
element repeat the element for each instance
of the value.
Consider how the data would perform in re-
sponse to "who, what, where and when" que-
ries. This therefore encompasses names, types,
places and dates.
To ensure that the data will be meaningful
when displayed in the new context, consider
adding a prefix or suffix.
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 1-8
3.2. Europeana Data Model
The Europeana Data Model (EDM) (Europeana,
2013d) is the proposed data architecture for structur-
ing the data that Europeana will be ingesting, enrich-
ing and publishing in the future. It improves the Eu-
ropeana Semantic Elements. While ESE was offering
a “flat” approach to the data, EDM, on the contrary,
has the potential for accommodating the richness of
all data standards, as well as the diversity of sectors
represented in Europeana (museums, archives, au-
dio-visual collections and libraries). EDM allows a
clear distinction between the provided objects
(painting, book, movie, archaeology site, archival
file, etc.) and its digital representation, as well as be-
tween the object and the metadata record describing
this object. It gives to the digitised object a new di-
mension, allowing multiple linking between its digi-
tal representations accessible over the web.
4. TECHNICAL WORKFLOWS
In this section we try to provide cultural stake-
holders with a comprehensive workflow, a reference
toolkit, for two major Europeana possibilities. The
first workflow summarises how an institution can
become a Europeana partner, which is a first step to be
able to publish data to Europeana. The second work-
flow is a comprehensive view of the steps to publish
cultural content to Europeana.
4.1. Becoming Europeana partner and Data
Submission
An institution has to follow some steps, to be able to
submit data into Europeana. Partners contributing
indirectly to Europeana will be provided with the
necessary requirements for the next steps by the ag-
gregator or project with which they are involved. The
aggregator team offers assistance and guidance
throughout the workflow. The steps involved when
contributing content to Europeana are as described
in Figure 4.
Step 1 - Partner Request to Europeana: The first
step is to get in touch with Europeana. Contacting
with Europeana is simple as visiting their website1
and especially their contact form2. The stakeholder
has to fulfil and apply a partnership request form3.
Afterwards, an Aggregation team will be notified by
Europeana and shortly after they will communicate
with the stakeholder. The communication is about
the possibilities of the provided content and guid-
ance through the overall process.
1 http://pro.europeana.eu
2 http://pro.europeana.eu/web/guest/contact
3 http://pro.europeana.eu/provide-data
Demystifying publishing to Europeana: a practical workflow for content providers
Step 2 - Data Exchange Information: A partner in-
stitution interested in contributing data to Euro-
peana will need to fill in the Data Exchange Informa-
tion Form provided by the aggregation team. The
form identifies types and numbers of objects, data
owners etc. With this information, Europeana will
discuss whether it is possible to provide the data
directly or if the submission should go through other
aggregators such as projects or national initiatives.
Figure 4. Partner’s registration process
Step 3 - Data Exchange Agreement: The cultural
heritage organisation and the Europeana Office for-
malise their direct collaboration by signing the Eu-
ropeana Data Exchange Agreement4.
Step 4 - Content Information Exchange: The cul-
tural heritage organisation submits the Content Con-
tribution Form (provided by the Europeana Aggre-
gation team) containing: type of submission
(new/update), licensing and metadata information,
and the transfer mechanism that will be used (pref-
erably OAI-PMH). The Europeana Aggregation team
reviews the submission request and feeds back to the
organisation.
Step 5 - Technical Guidance and Feedback: Along-
side Step 4, the Europeana Aggregation team vali-
dates the data transfer infrastructure of the cultural
heritage organisation. Subsequently, the team pro-
vides guidance and feedback on data collection
4http://pro.europeana.eu/documents/900548/380f8794-6db3-45de-acf4-
3d5721138d26
5
(harvesting) issues and metadata immigration, and
formalisation (mapping). The submitted datasets
must conform to the Europeana Semantic Elements
(ESE) v3.4 or Europeana Data Model (EDM) specifi-
cations' and the Mapping and Normalisation Guide-
lines5.
Step 6 - Publication: The Europeana Office runs
the operations through the Europeana production
environment and the publication process. When all
processes are completed, the cultural heritage or-
ganisation receives a notification from the Euro-
peana Aggregation team that the data has been pub-
lished on the Europeana portal.
Step 7 - Update: When the cultural heritage or-
ganisation updates or creates new datasets, the Eu-
ropeana Operations team will start again from step
6.
4.2. Data submission workflow
Each aggregator can receive the provider's re-
sources in a metadata schema that meets its expecta-
tions, for example project “OpenUP!” makes use of
the ABCD(EFG) schema (OpenUp! Project, 2013), the
CARARE project (Fernie et al., 2013) has an en-
hanced subset of the CIDOC-CRM schema (Doerr et
al., 2007), and the ATHENA project has created the
LIDO (Cobum et al., 2010) (also a CIDOC-CRM sub-
set). The workflow that defines the process of data
submission may vary from case to case. Every ag-
gregator has the liberty to expand the general outline
of the submission workflow, in order to fit its expec-
tations. The general outline consists of 5 steps as pre-
sented in Figure 5 and described below.
Step 1 - Data mapping: the content provider may
or may not provide resources directly in aggrega-
tor’s preferable metadata description schema. As a
consequence, it is aggregators’ responsibility to con-
vert the provided data to the native schema, and this
process is called Metadata Mapping.
Step 2 - Data quality check: the content providers
should check the quality of their resources before
submitting them. For the purpose of quality control,
providers should use specific software tools that ag-
gregators have provided with. If the submitted data
don't comply with aggregator's quality standard,
then they have to be corrected and resubmitted.
Step 3 - Repository: a toolkit that serves as a data
collector (harvester) stores the mapped metadata
into specialised aggregators' central databases. Those
databases of metadata descriptions are being called
repositories.
Step 4 - Mapping to EDM (or ESE): the metadata
that are mapped in aggregator's native schema are
5http://pro.europeana.eu/documents/900548/683de455-27a7-4dd6-81c7-
928120957dfa
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 1-8
6 Pavlidis & Sevetlidis
transforming to either ESEv3.4 or EDM metadata
schema.
Step 5 - Transmission of data to Europeana: Euro-
peana collects the metadata from the aggregators
that are prepared via transfer protocols such as OAI-
PMH, or via FTP requests.
5. CASE STUDY: MUSICAL INSTRUMENT
MUSEUMS ONLINE
The Musical Instrument Museums Online or MIMO
delivered to Europeana more than 43,000 record
Figure 5. The process of content submission to Europeana
Figure 6. Clavicorde lié dit de Lépante from Cité de la Musique
Initially, a data provider has to check whether the
format that his data are being represented. In the
case of MIMO, the original data were not according
to the EDM, but they were being represented in
LIDO's metadata scheme. Here is where Step 1 or the
data submission workflow should be taken.
The data provider moves on to check if the data
about to be delivered are in compliance with the ag-
gregator's rules and data policies. EDM allows dif-
ferent resources to be connected to each other, in
order to enrich the aggregated object. MIMO pro-
vided digital resources that span a wide range of
multimedia content from audio-visual to images of
musical instruments. Those objects could have more
than one digital representation, as shown in an ex-
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 1-8
items regarding musical instruments across six coun-
tries and it was the first time that an aggregator used
the Europeana Data Model (EDM). MIMO is a pro-
ject that reflects the process that a data provider
needs to do in order to deliver data to Europeana
(Europeana, 2011c). This section describes the proc-
ess from the data providers’ point of view, concern-
ing the original data mapping, the data quality
check, and the mapping from one metadata scheme
to another.
ample in Figure 66. In order to comply with the EDM
policy regarding usage and access rights, a decision
was made concerning the identity of each object: the
aggregator provided one edm:rights element to each
edm:WebResource. This was during Step 2 of the sub-
mission workflow. In order to implement the data
mapping MIMO had to link the LIDO properties to
EDM properties. For this purpose MIMO used the
EDM mapping template7. The process raised some
issues connected with the use of literals and refer-
ences in EDM's properties. Europeana does not use
any controlled list to define its contributors, so
6 http://europeana.eu/portal/record/09102/33711D0A88B8AD
6D719112CDD9D37EE77526BC94.html
7 http://labs.europeana.eu
Demystifying publishing to Europeana: a practical workflow for content providers
MIMO decided to use literals for the properties
edm:dataProvider and edm:provider. In contrast, the
properties edm:isShownAt, edm:isShownBy, and
edm:rights support references, i.e. URIs taken from
controlled lists. By the time that MIMO was about to
deliver its data, the implementation of EDM retained
the rights management approach of ESE (one rights
statement per record). Generally, EDM intents to
provide a separate rights statements per resource at
the ore:Aggregation level and at the edm:WebResource
level. With this option enabled the rights statements
could be concurrent. Another objective that MIMO
had to deal with was the further enrichment of the
objects. MIMO had a lot of information additionally
to the description that the objects provided them-
selves. Thus, two different approaches have been
chosen:
The first approach was to link the existing da-
ta to existing resources available in the seman-
tic web (for example, in order to provide spa-
tial information, MIMO used the contextual
entity edm:Place, using GeoNames8 to match a
URI regarding the coordinates of a location re-
lated to the object).
The other approach was to publish a new re-
source.
MIMO as an aggregator itself, created a domain-
specific thesaurus using the standard SKOS model.
This kind of information was linked to EDM via the
entity skos:Concept. The metadata representation was
in flat XML structure using the RDF syntax, due to
the fact that EDM XML schema was not stable dur-
ing MIMO's implementation.
6. CONCLUSION
Organisations that promote access in information
have an interest in reaching out more users and in-
creasing their website trafficking. Cultural heritage
organisations have the same interests. Nowadays,
users are attracted by the functionality that a service
offers and the interface it provides. Europeana is an
organisation that aims to develop a European Digital
Library that contains digitised material about the
European scientific and cultural heritage. Europeana
through its network of content providers, and gener-
ally its partners emphasises in innovative ways to
explore and exploit the current knowledge, and
transfer it to the public domain. By integrating the
Europeana API, organisations can give users access
to an unparalleled source of rich content. Profession-
als in the heritage sector might be interested in Eu-
ropeana because it is a platform for knowledge ex-
change between librarians, curators, archivists and
8 http://www.geonames.org
7
the creative industries. Also, Europeana is a prestig-
ious initiative endorsed by the European Commis-
sion, and is a means to stimulate the creative econ-
omy and promote cultural tourism.
There are many reasons why providing data to
Europeana is beneficial for an institution. Here are
just some of them:
Europeana enriches users' experience; users
can find not only an institution collections but
also related information held in other coun-
tries, or in other formats, so the data, the con-
tent and the institution gain in visibility from
association with linked material.
Users today expect data to be integrated; to be
able to see videos, look at images, read texts
and listen to sounds in the same place
Europeana will expose metadata to search en-
gines, making deep web content accessible.
Europeana drives traffic to the institution's
site by linking users back to your website.
Europeana provides a set of APIs through
which the content of Europeana may be re-
used or returned in its enriched form by
Europeana partners.
Knowledge transfer is a key reason for being
part of the Europeana Network. Europeana
gives an opportunity to keep up-to-date with
leading thinkers and practitioners in the fields
of metadata standards, multi-linguality, se-
mantic web, usability, geolocation and others.
The process of being Europeana partner is con-
stantly being simplified and every cultural institu-
tion is worth considering being a member of Euro-
peana Network. Europeana makes effort to automate
the process of content submission, in order to be
easeful and open to both partners and individuals,
who want to share their information.
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 1-8
8 Pavlidis & Sevetlidis

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was partially supported by the project 'Integrated platform for developing and managing 3D cul-
tural content (3DCMS)', which is a Greek National project (ESPA 2007-20013 – code 30SMEs2010) funded by
the General Secretariat of Research and Technology, Greece, under the framework 'Support for SME Re-
search and Technological Development', Action 'Strengthening New and Medium-Sized Enterprises', Opera-
tional Programme 'Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship', Priority Axis 1 – 'Creating and Exploiting Inno-
vation Supported by Research and Technological Development', and the Regional Operational Programme
of Macedonia and Thrace, Priority Axis 4 – 'Digital Convergence and Entrepreneurship in the Region of Cen-
tral Macedonia'.

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 SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 9-15
Copyright © 2015 SC
Open Access. Printed in Greece. All Rights Reserved.

Storing grains during Ninevite 5 period in the Khabour basin:

ways and methods used

Nancy Badra
Damascus University, Faculty of Literature and Humanity sciences, Dep. of Archaeology and Museum,
Mazzeh str., organization of those activities among the places Damascus, Syria
( nancy.badra@hotmail.com)

Received: 06/09/2014
Accepted: 01/10/2014

ABSTRACT

Within about 3000 BC began the process of urbanization, shifting to build big cities, northeast Syria, in the
beginning of the Early Bronze Age. The archaeologists were able to identify the above-mentioned
urbanization process in different civilized criteria according to the region where it was established. For
example, in the Upper Mesopotamia specifically from Nineveh, north of Iraq, to the Khabour Basin in the
northeast Syria called the Ninevite 5 period. This period was characterized by several features the most
important was the organization and functional specialization followed in the sites of the Khabour Basin, this
organization was differs somewhat from previous periods, and characterized by the presence of storage
facilities in the Middle Khabour Basin, it seems that these sites had shared the work among themselves to
serve certain purposes, either internal or external like export and trade. Thus, these storage facilities remain
one of the most special civilization characteristics till the end of the Ninevite 5 period, and then they have
been disappeared. On the other hand, the settlement stopped in some areas while stayed as it is in others for
some time before moving to the next period “Akkadian Empire”.

KEYWORDS: Ninevite 5, Khabour basin, Syrian Jazireh, Mesopotamia, Early Bronze Age, Storage facilities, grains.
10 Nancy Badra

1. INTRODUCTION The Early stage (2900-2700 BC), where only the

The urbanization process, shifting to build big cities,
in northeast Syria started at the beginning of the
Early Bronze Age, 3000 BC. This process was obvi-
ous after the emergence of big sites like Habouba
Kabira South, Tell Kanas and Tell Brak. Later on, the
researchers were able to identify the above-
mentioned urbanization process in different civilized
criteria according to the region where it was estab-
lished. For example, in the Upper Mesopotamia spe-
cifically from Nineveh, north of Iraq, to the Khabour
Basin in the northeast Syria called the Ninevite 5 pe-
riod “The first half of the Third millennium BC”.
Painted Ware prevailed (as shown in Figure 1).
b) The Middle stage (2700-2600 BC), where the In-
cised Ware replaced the Painted Ware.
c) The Late stage (2600-2550 BC), where the In-
cised Ware and the Excised Ware co-existed (Wilkin-
son and Tucker, 1995) (as shown in Figure 2).
In addition to these main types have found the
non-decorated Plain Ware, Plain Medium Ware, Fine
Ware and the cooking wares with coarse types and
different forms, as well as the Mettalic Ware.

2. NINEVITE 5: THE NAME AND THE

CHRONOLIGICAL ORDER
The name Ninevite 5 comes from the site of Nineveh
city, located on the east bank of Tigris, which is a
governorate in Iraq now, and Moussel is one of its
most important cities. Nineveh was discovered in
the 1930s where an archaeological expedition led by
K.Thompson and his assistant M.Mallowan dug a
sounding in Nineveh “Tell Kuyunjik” in 1930. The
sounding reached a virgin soil where the original
settlement was established on. That was the starting
point to categorize the chronological order of five Figure 1. The Painted Ware of Ninevite 5 at at Tell Leilan
distinctive periods all named Ninevite, and they
were as follows:
Ninevite 1 which goes parallel with Hasouna Pe-
riod (6500-5500 BC) where they found plain not-
masterly-made pottery without any decorations.
Ninevite 2 (5500-4500 BC) which had three distinc-
tive phases, the oldest one was characterized by pol-
ished pottery with straight lines, the middle phase
which is known as Samuraa phase and topped with
the newest phase which is Halaf and characterized
by the great painted pottery (Mallowan, 1987).
Ninevite 3 which goes parallel with Obeid period
(4500-3500 BC) where it included a good handmade
potteries.
Ninevite 4 (3500-3000 BC) where red potteries
found as well as crimson pottery that bears the char- Figure 2. The typical pottery of Ninevite 5 period “Incised and
acteristics of Uruk and Jemdet Nasr period (Jemdet Excised Ware”
Nasr that parallel sometimes with Ninevite 5 pe-
riod).
Ninevite 5 (3000-2500 BC) the thickness of this 3. GEOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND AND
layer was around 3,5 meters almost and provides RANGE
refined and unique potteries never found anywhere At the beginning of the Third millennium BC two
else in that abundance and before this period (Mad- geographical areas were identified which carried
hloom, 1976). characteristics of civilization in Jazireh region. An
The period was divided into three stages: Early, area extended west of the Khabour River to the
Middle, and Late according to the discovered potter- Balikh River on the Euphrates called Kranzhügel
ies in many sites. civilization and to the east of the Khabour River the
The three cultural stages were: civilization of Ninevite 5 (Schwartz and Akkermans,
2003).

SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 9-15

Storing grains during Ninevite 5 period 11

The Khabour Basin area in northeast of Asia, and

thanks to the area fertility, had been an important
population center and the cradle of many sites on the
banks of Khabour Basin (as shown in Figure 3). The
Khabour River divided into three main sectors, the
Upper sector which stretches from its source to the
city of Hassake, the Middle sector which extends
from Hassake to Tell Mashnaqa, and the Lower sec-
tor which runs from Tell Mashnaqa to its confluence
with the Euphrates River at the town of Bsireh (Ab-
del Salam, 1973).
The geographical range for the period of Ninevite
5, which is usually determined by tracking its pot-
tery, stretches from Jazireh Plain in Iraq to the far-
thest east to reach Rania Plains at Tell Baradasti, and
to the farthest west to reach the Zarqan Valley,
which is the seasonal tributary of the Khabour River.
Moreover, the Sinjar Mountain and Jabal Abdul Aziz
form the southern border of this civilization, and it is
noticed, as we move west, the Ninevite 5 effect is
weakened until it disappears entirely. In addition Figure 4. The areas which the civilization of Ninevite 5 that had
the sites of Balikh River do not give any evidence for spread on
the presence of the Ninevite 5 period in this region
(Wilkinson, 2004).
That research provided new information about
the existence of this period in several sites of the
Khabour Basin. For example, Tell Leilan which pro-
vides the most integrated chronological sequence
about the Ninevite 5 period, Tell Mozan, which con-
tains graves, included pottery from Ninevite 5 peri-
od. Tell Barri, which provides evidence for the exist-
ence of this period through the discovery of two
shrines. Tell Arbid, which reveals an important
structure that might be the administrative building
of this area. In addition to other buildings discov-
ered at Tell Chagar Bazar and in Tell Khazna where
a circular large structure was found, which the exca-
vators believe it was Ziggurat Temple, a big struc-
ture built on circular terraces and resembles the
temples which were built in Iraq. As well as a num-
ber of residences found in several sites. In the Mid-
dle Khabour Basin several sites were discovered
which, by their relatively small sizes, and by their
architecture, walls and equipment, indicate that they
used for certain functions like the treating, cleaning
and storing the grains in private places (Al Quntar,
Figure 3. The Upper, Middle and Lower sector of the Khabour
Basin
2008), as in Tell Gudeda, Tell Raqai, Tell Atij and Tell
Ziyadeh.
This organization in settlement in terms of the ex-
4. THE SETTLEMENT PATTERN AND istence of large sites in the Upper Khabour with res-
THE ECONOMIC AND ADMINISTRA- idential, religious and administrative structure as
TION SITUATION well as the existence of smaller sites in the Middle
Khabour with specialized functions, clearly suggests
The research work for Ninevite 5 period began in
that there was a kind of authority which organized
Syria in 1980s in the Khabour Basin.
and ruled that region.

SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 9-15

12 Nancy Badra

In spite of the functional specialization, the distri- tures. Some of these structures were surrounded by
bution of work among the sites, the separation of walls to protect them which indicated the important
large sites in the north, and the smaller sites in the role they played in this area during this period.
south, the settlement during this period was of rural
pattern. The sites were small to medium-sized com-
pared with other periods that settled in the region.
Furthermore, there was no significant wealth in the
settlements because they depended on the rural
chiefdoms system in their administration.

5. THE STORAGE FACILITIES AND THE

REASON OF STORAGE
The prevailed pattern in these sites was primarily
rural and the common activity among them was ag-
riculture, storage of agricultural products, and the
treatment of these products. What made us reach
this conclusion was the type of architecture and
equipment found there. The excavation showed a
network of storage facilities back to the beginning of
the third millennium BC which appeared in abun-
dance in the early stage of the Ninevite 5 period.
These storage facilities were of grid structure with
reed mat floors used as grain silos (Ristvet, 2005). At
Tell Ziyadeh (as shown in Figure 5).
Figure 6. The grid storage structure at Tell Raqai, levels 5-7
At Tell Atij two types of storage facilities, the grid
building and the vaulted and semi-vaulted silos
were discovered (as shown in Figures 7-8) to the
north of that Tell all the interior walls were plastered
and many of the vaulted silos were accessed from a
hole in the roof through the ups on a huge terrace
built around and near of the structures. One expla-
nation of having the access from the roof is that to
protect the grains from humidity. In the middle part
of the Tell rectangular grid structures built of mud
and coated on the inside with plaster were found,
inside this rectangular buildings an in situ set of
large jars containing some grains were discovered.
And all structures in this Tell surrounded by walls
served as protection.

Figure 5. The grid building and the big jars of storage at Tell
Ziyadeh

For example, a building that consists of several

terraces of clay which form separate parallel rows,
and in each row big jars containing grains was
found. This pattern was repeated in other sites like
Tell Kneidej where several rooms at levels 5-17 with
a grid pattern that do not contain doors were locat-
ed, and the entrance often was from a hole in the
roof. These patterns existed also at Tell Raqai in lev-
els 5-6-7 of the circular structure where several
rooms with a grid pattern were discovered and bore
the function of storing grains (as shown in Figure 6).
In the Middle and Late stage of the Ninevite 5 pe-
riod the size of these storage facilities and silos in-
creased and vaulted building came into existence as
Figure 7. The storage structure at Tell Atij during the Ninevite 5
well as the semi-vaulted ones besides the grid struc- period

SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 9-15

Storing grains during Ninevite 5 period
Figure 8. The location of the vaulted silos at Tell Atij
At the fourth level of the circular structure in Tell
Raqai, several rooms were discovered; some of them
served as administrative purposes according to the
mural which it was a piece of plastering above the
clay located in one of the room and which depicts a
man standing up wearing a short skirt and carrying
something in his hand, in addition to a few broken
prints of clay seals and parts of the animal figurines.
Some other rooms used for storing where some big
storage jars were found in the vaulted silos (as
shown in Figure 9) (Ristvet, 2005).
Figure 9. The circular building at Tell Raqai, level 4
Storage was not the sole function of these sites in
the Middle Khabour Basin. For example, there were
some sites specialized in grain processing like Tell
Gudeda and Tell Raqai. In Tell Gudeda, a structure
“structure 500” (as shown in Figure10) was found
containing an internal area with plastered walls and
a group of plastered basins used for washing and
preparing the grains before storing them. Moreover,
a few ovens (as shown in Figure 11) were located
near the above-mentioned structure where burned
grains were found near them. That indicates that
there was a roasting and grilling process before
13
transferring and storing the grains in other sites like
Tell Bderi, Tell Mulla matar, Tell Mashnaqa and Tell
Melebyie. In other areas of the Tell, some ruins were
found consisting of square rooms “2 2m” aligned to
an east-west axis. One of the small rooms is open
into a courtyard equipped with ovens and a plas-
tered basin (Sanchez, 2011). What makes Tell
Gudeda distinctive is the long plastered canal that
might be used for emptying these plastered basins
from the liquid starting from the upper basin to the
lower one. All that suggests large-scale economic
activities.
Figure 10. The 500 structure at Tell Gudeda
Figure 11. The ovens which used to roast and grill the grains at
Tell Gudeda
Also, in Tell Raqai, some places that equipped
with ovens and plastered basins were found next to
storage areas and administrative rooms where they
seem to be used for processing the grains before stor-
ing them (Weiss, 1994).
The Middle Khabour Basin during the Ninevite 5
period was a cluster of small-sized sites, the distance
between them was a few kilometers, where they
seem to form a co-operative network to do business.
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 9-15
14 Nancy Badra

Some processed and stored the grains and the others
sold them. Archaeological evidence about processing
and storing grains at the beginning of the third mil-
lennium BC has stirred the researchers interest
where several explanations and questions have been
arisen regarding the reasons behind founding those
villages in a marginal area in the south regarding
agriculture, whereas in the northern plains that en-
joys moderate climate appeared other patterns of
structures with different functions (as shown in Ta-
ble I).
All that led to pose questions and most important-
ly were: why were those storage facilities built?
What was the purpose of storing the grains? But due
to the lack of research and studies regarding this pe-
riod and this subject, a lot of theories and opinions
take the lead.
The first suggests that those storage structures
were built to store the grains planted in the northern
areas and transferred to the south to be placed in
special buildings and then to be exported through
the Khabour River after being processed. Schwartz
and Fortin (Fortin, 1998) see that the sites of the
Middle Khabour Basin simply served as stations to
ship the grains produced in the north through the
Euphrates to the south. Moreover, Schwartz
(Schwartz, 1994) indicates that the vaulted silos and
the grid structures were able to accommodate a great
amount of grains that way exceeds the local con-
sumption. Margueron affirms that the written tablets
discovered in Mary dated back to the beginning of
the second millennium BC show that local residents
had imported grains from the Khabour Basin
(Margueron, 2000).
The second theory, according to McCriston, sug-
gests that those storage facilities were built for local
consumption and the grains were used as food for
local residents, nomads, and as fodder for the live-
stock (Hole, 1999).
6. CONCLUSION
After presenting some theories and inquiries related
to the Middle Khabour sites, the logical explanation
to building them at the beginning of the third mil-
lennium BC during the Ninevite 5 period is to serve
a storing function in the first place. In order to pro-
tect the structures, walls and soil shields were built
around them and this explains the important job
which was carried out. Moreover, the sites were not
necessarily residential since the local residents
roamed in the areas and hills that formed a network
on the road that connects the area of the Upper
Jazireh with the sites of the Euphrates River like
Mary.
Those storage facilities were used as warehouses
to store the grains that might come from the agricul-
tural rain-fed areas of the north to be used by locals
in the sites of the Upper Khabour and to export the
surplus later on to other places like Mary.
The organization of those activities among the
places regarding processing, preparing, storing and
then shipping the grains through the Khabour River
to other places dictates the presence of an adminis-
trative authority often located in the sites of the Up-
per Khabour in the north. The types of storage struc-
tures had developed from grid buildings or small
boxes inside the grid buildings in the early stage of
Ninevite 5 period into semi-vaulted and vaulted
buildings in the middle and late stage of Ninevite 5
period. The storage structures had disappeared and
the villages in the Middle Khabour Basin were
abandoned in the period following Ninevite 5,
where settlement had ceased in some sites in the
Middle Khabour Basin, whereas it continued for a
short period in other sites like Tell Bderi. In the Up-
per Khabour Basin, the size of sites increased com-
pared with the Ninevite 5 period and an urban-
civilized state prevailed contrary to the rural state
during the same period.

Table I. A demonstration of storage structures and silos discovered during the Ninevite
5 period in the sites of Upper and Middle Khabour basin

Tell Arbid A mud-brick silo was found in sector D paved in mud-brick floor covered with mud to protect the grain from hu-
midity. Also small rooms and basin used to process the grains before storing them.
Tell Leilan A number of small rectangular rooms was discovered in sounding “1” used to store grains.
Tell A mud-brick oval wall found in sector A, stage MDXIII; inside it were rectangular rooms that might be served as
Mohammad storage warehouses, in addition to small vaulted rooms.
Diab
Tell Abu Hjeira Four complete buildings divided into chambers were located in sector B, layers 4-6 inside them were storage jars,
platforms, containers, and pottery wares.
Tell Jasaa al In the third layer of the Tell was a wall found with small buildings inside containing storing jars.
Gharbi
Tell Khazna 1 Several pottery jars for storage were found in tower “110” inside the Ziggurat Temple.
Tell Brak A courtyard containing several rectangular storage rooms were located in HS4 temple.
Tell Beydar A large storage structure containing big pottery jars for grains was discovered in sector “I”.
Tell Rad Shaqra A storage building containing 15 big pottery jars was found inside the wall in sector A beside an area especially for
basins and small square rooms that might be used to process the grains.
Tell Karma Rectangular rooms used for storing grains were located in the north and southwest side. In the east side, a work-

SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 9-15

Storing grains during Ninevite 5 period 15

shop for processing the grains was found as well as rectangular storage structures with plastered walls.
Tell Raqai A big circular structure (as shown in Figure 10) surrounded by different patterns of buildings and rooms was dis-
covered where storage chambers dug into the ground were located on the third level of the building, whereas the
third level of it hosted vaulted silos. As for the 5 th, 6th and 7th levels, a grid structure for storage was found. Besides,
some equipment like ovens and basins were found to process the grains.
Tell Atij Several vaulted silos accessed through a hole in the roof were discovered in the Northern sector. In the middle sec-
tion of the Tell, a rectangular storage structure was found as well as trapezoidal silos (as shown in Figures 8-9).
Tell Gudeda This Tell functioned as processing the grains stored in other sites because all the buildings and rooms were
equipped with basins, ovens, canals and tools used to process and roast the grains before storing them like structure
number 500 (as shown in Figures 11-12).
Tell Ziyadeh A rectangular grid structure comprises several storage areas was discovered in the northern section of the Tell (as
shown in Figure 5).
Tell Melebyie A number of small rooms shaped like basins were found in the northeast side of it dug into the ground that might
serve as storage structure.
Tell Mashnaqa A circular structure was located inside a grid of squares in the south eastern and southern side of the Tell. Inside
that structure, a big pattern jar used to store the grains was found as well as different types of chambers equipped
with shelves. Another building was found that resembles the grid one in Tell Ziyadeh.
Tell Kneidej Doorless rooms were located in the upper levels of 7-15 layers that might be accessed through a hole in the roof and
were used for storage.

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Madrid.
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 SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 17-26
Copyright © 2015 SC
Open Access. Printed in Greece. All Rights Reserved.

New marble sarcophagus from Syrian coast

Bashar Mustafa and Nidal Abbas

University of Damascus, member of interdisciplinary sciences and humanities group
(University of Granada) Granada, Spain, Francisco Dalmau St. 2, 3B. Postcode 18013

Received: 03/06/2014
Accepted: 09/11/2014 Corresponding author: Bashar Mustafa (bbmusta@gmail.com)

ABSTRACT

Two anthropomorphic Phoenician sarcophagi, located in a necropolis from the territory of the Phoenician
site Amrit are discussed in a formal analysis of each and a spatial contextualization of their discoveries from
rescue excavation. A comparison with other sarcophagi known in the region with similar characteristics, e.g.
raw materials, style, and the representation of gender across the entire Mediterranean basin, is made. The
origin and the date of the pieces as well as patterns of suppliers of these funerary containers to the Syrian
coast, and the socio-ideological significance of the sarcophagi, is made. These critically involved data offer a
substantive contribution to the social history of the Levantine Phoenicians in the earliest periods of their
cultural distinctiveness.

KEYWORDS: Phoenician anthropoid sarcophagi, Amrit, necropolis, archaeological analysis.

18
1. INTRODUCTION
There has been an increasing number of discoveries
of Phoenician sarcophagi in the southern region of
Syria on the Mediterranean coast. This area was
known in antiquity as the Aradiense territory (Sapin
1980; Elayi 1988; Al Maqdissi 1993, 448; Bader 1997;
Al Maqdissi and Benech 2009) (Tartus being1 today´s
Syria). The territory of Amrit (Harden 1963; Al
Maqdissi, 1993; Belmonte 2003; Akkermans and
Schwartz 2003), like its southern neighbor, Phoeni-
cian Sidon (Saida today´s Lebanon), stands within
the archaeological record of the Iron II age or the
Persian period (Aubet 2001).
The appearance of most of these unique pieces
(Phoenician anthropoid sarcophagi) dates back to
the eighteenth century (Elayi and Haykal 1996; Frede
2000).They were brought to light by the constant vis-
its and excavations of antiquarians – in this area in
particular, and in Middle East in general (Renan
1864; Dunand and Saliby 1956; id., 1961; id., 1985).
Since the date mentioned above, many of the
great museums of Western Europe have held them
(Hamdy Bey and Reinach 1892), treating them as
major pieces of art (Furtwängler 1893; Ferron 1993;
Frede 2002; id., 2009). Thus, the focus of their study
and assessment has followed stylistic and artistic
criteria, based on art history (Lembke 1998; id.,
2001).
However, among the numerous sarcophagi un-
earthed in the area, few have been analysed prop-
erly, because the vast majority of the findings are the
result of public works. Furthermore, excavations by
archaeologists have often pursued only the accumu-
lation of valuable grave goods to raise funds for
Western museums. Thus, the recent discoveries will
offer a closer look at these funerary objects. We pro-
pose a possible change to the context of the analysis
and evaluation of these funerary materials – in their
formal aspects (contextual and chronological) and
their interpretations (including socio-cultural). The
large numbers of anthropomorphic sarcophagi un-
earthed at Arados/Amrit implies their important
role in northern Phoenicia.
2. THE FIRST SARCOPHAGUS
2.1. Archaeological context
On December 10, 2004, during the process of road
improvement linking the neighborhoods around the
site of Amrit, a female sarcophagus was discovered.
The discovery site is located in an area known as al-
Bayada necropolis (Besançon et al 1994, 16; Dixon
2013), which extends over a few square kilometres,
1 Tartus city is known as Antarados.
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 17-26
Mustafa & Abbas
towards the north of the site of Amrit (approx. 2000
m) to the north lies the city of Tartus, and the road
connecting Lattakia to Homs is near the necropolis,
and Amrit Nahr separates the necropolis from the
Acropolis of the Amrit site (Figure1).
The kind of structure that protected the piece in
situ is unknown and no information is available on
the material found within the sarcophagus, or the
removal process to the Archaeological Museum of
the city. However, there are traces of blows to the
surface of the piece, suggesting how carelessly it was
treated before its exhibition at the museum.
Description: The massive sarcophagus consists of
two elements: the box and the lid or cover (Figure 2).
On this sarcophagus appears a slightly schematic
Figure of a recumbent female Figure. The shape the
sarcophagus itself is anthropomorphic, in this case a
female (?) adult (Figure 3).
The coffin lid is large, and broken below the neck.
A crack extends from left shoulder to the right side,
where loops are also damaged, as only two remain,
one in the back of the head, and the other below the
pedestal. The highlight of the lid and the box is high
relief moving both parts, so that the shoulders and
the waist are well marked (Figure 4).
Dimensions: l.883⁄16 in (2, 24 cm), h. 2649⁄64 in (0,68
cm), w. at the shoulder 3157⁄64 in (0, 81 cm) (Figure 5).
Preservation: Archaeological Museum of Tartus,
Syria (AO 3286). The head of the sarcophagus is very
well crafted, and finished with great care and atten-
tion, but is dam aged on the left side. The face of the
figure stands out for its symmetrical design, being
oval and tapering towards the chin. The face is gen-
tly framed by curly hair that almost covers the ears.
The hair is arranged in a semicircle, consistently
wavy in four rows.
The forehead, medium size, bears good propor-
tions in relation to the rest of the face. The eyes, with
heavily marked almond-shaped contours, are wide
open and expressive, while the nose is long and
slender. The mouth is relatively small and tight-
lipped. Finally, the face has a slightly pronounced
chin in high relief, accentuating the stiffness of the
face. Of note is the absence of any sculptural repre-
sentation of the rest of the body, clothing or any oth-
er object or symbol
New marble sarcophagus from Syrian coast 19

Figure 1. Map of Syrian coast, Amrit territory and location of both necropolis

Figure 2. Side view of the sarcophagi

Figure 3. Details of face Figure 4. Lateral view of the sarcophagi

SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 17-26

20
Figure 5. Dimension of the sarcophagi
2.2. Parallel and stylistic study
The female sarcophagus is in general not unusual on
the Phoenician coast, in terms of a number of fea-
tures, such as the form, quality, and expression
(Wenger 2003; Hermary and Merents 2014, 374).
Several sarcophagi of the same style were found at
different sites known to have been under “Phoeni-
cian” occupation. Current scholarship assumes that
Phoenician anthropomorphic sarcophagi follow an
Egyptian model (Torrey 1919/20, 18; Kukahn 1951,
23; Harden 1963, 112; Buhl 1983, 199; Lembke 1998;
Frede 2009; Dixon 2013).
However, the Phoenician workmanship had sev-
eral influences, including Persian and Greek (Torrey
1919/20, 17; Elayi and Haykal 1996; Frede 2002). The
best parallel can be found in the archaeological mu-
seum of Tartus (Syria) AO 635 (Figure 6), which dis-
plays female sarcophagus, found in the necropolis of
Ram az-Zahab (Lembke 1998; Hosh 2009. 121), also
in Amrit, in 1989.
The two sarcophagi have much in common re-
garding the anthropomorphic shape, with similar
ears, but the spiral curls in the sarcophagus from al-
Bayada “infra” appear to be less streamlined, while
on the other coffin the details are more finished, and
the shape of the face is more elongated and more
detailed. The recently found piece is dated to 470
B.C.E. (Hanna 1994; Lembke 2001).
The same type of hairstyle was recorded in a sar-
cophagus excavated in Ayaa (Elayi and Haykal
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 17-26
Mustafa & Abbas
1996), necropolis Saida (Phoenician Sidon) in 1887,
this one being deposited in the museum of Istanbul
AO 798 (Kukahn 1955; Jidejian 1995: 308) (Figure 7).
Figure 6. Head of the sarcophagi located at Ram az-Zahab
(Amrit).
Figure 7. Sarcophagi from Ayaa (Sidon)
The style is also anthropomorphic, and spiral
curls appear to be similar, and was dated to 500
B.C.E. (Kukahn 1955; Wenger 2003).
To these, we should add the parallel finding of a
female sarcophagus in Gadir (Cadiz, Spain), located
at Punta de la Vaca, in 1980 (Maestre Abia 2010, 122),
which is deposited in the Provincial Archaeological
Museum of Cadiz AO 9773 (Blanco Freijero and
Corzo Sánchez 1981; Buhl 1991; Almagro-Gorbea et
al 2010, 378). The circular curls and anthropo-
morphic form of the two pieces have almost equal
definition, and the faces, sculpted with great accura-
cy, are remarkable in both pieces. The style of the
piece from Cadiz was also estimated ca. 450 B.C.E.
(Almagro Gorbea and Torres Ortiz 2010, 43; Ferrer
Albelda 2010).
Although, all studies related to anthropomorphic
Phoenician sarcophagi show this particular type of
hairstyle, spiral curls finishing in bosses appear to be
sub-archaic in time, while the embossed elements are
smaller it may belong to the Late Archaic period
(Frede 2002).
All historical dates provided above are based on
stylistic parallels with other marbles coffins, indicat-
ing the difficulty of assigning an exact chronology to
these anthropomorphic sarcophagi.
New marble sarcophagus from Syrian coast 21

3. THE SECOND SARCOPHAGUS pomorphic sarcophagus. However, we have no fur-

3.1. Circumstance of discovery
In April 1999, during construction in Hay al-Hamrat
(a heavily populated area of the city of Tartus), a
necropolis was unearthed next to the road linking
Tartus and Tripoli, (approx. 3000 m) to the north of
the Amrit site, with the Gamka Nahr to the north,
and Island of Arados directly facing the necropolis
(lower left Figure. 1).
A set of tombs were found 5 m underground,
some of which housed five sarcophagi, of which on-
ly one was anthropomorphic (owing to their partial-
ly human form), the other three being rough marble
boxes or teke. Six square slabs protected the anthro-
pomorphic sarcophagus. Multiple bodies were bur-
ied in the five rectangular-shaped sarcophagi, while
only a single corpse was buried inside the anthro-
ther information about the body.
A local resident who witnessed the discovery re-
ported the finding to the Department of Antiquities
in Tartus. Immediately, a team of museum staff was
formed to carry out the excavation and removal of
the piece, which was then turned over to the city
museum, where the find was documented.
Description: The female sarcophagus consists of
two pieces: the box and the lid or cover made of
marble. The sarcophagus is designed such that the
box’s rim is flat where the cover is to be placed, giv-
ing it a good fit and almost perfect closure. Likewise,
it has a rectangular top with four loops: one in the
back of the head, two on the sides at shoulder
height, and the last one in the center of the base. All
of these facilitate the handling and placement of the
lid on the box. (Figure 8).

Figure 8. Side view of complete sarcophagi

The top bears a single bas-relief, apparently rep- ed, so that the features are well marked. Her
resenting the head of a young female. The rest of the smooth, almond-shaped eyes are not very large and
top is completely smooth, but arched. The shoulders have some highlights, such as thick-lined eyelids
are well marked to differentiate the area of the head. frame. She has a wide, short, straight nose. Below, a
The other end terminates in a four-sided base, which small mouth is carved with her lips closed and
is prominent and well developed. slightly tight, with the bottom lip thicker than the
The head is the only part of the Figure’s body upper one. Finally, the chin is rounded and small. It
shown in detail. Her body is in mostly good condi- has a low profile, but is well defined. The rest of the
tion, but the surface appears somewhat damaged by body lacks any sculptural representation, such as
the presence of a thin layer of limestone corrosion. A clothing or any other object or symbol.
short neck separates the head from the body. She
has an oval-shaped face framed by hair, which com-
pletely covers the ears. (Figure 9).
The hair has eight lines of undulating waves ter-
minating in concentric semicircles (Figure 10), which
cover the forehead with a sharp dividing line in the
center of the canvas, reaching the middle of the
forehead. The top part of her head has a smooth sur-
face, like that of a veiled woman.
The face has formulaic features, somewhat natu-
ralistic. The eyes and mouth are carefully delineat- Figure 9. Frontal details of female sarcophagi

SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 17-26

22 Mustafa & Abbas

Figure 10. Back view of the head

3.2. Stylistic study

This juvenile female sarcophagus is not the finished
sarcophagus and her hairstyle. These stylistic fea-
tures are the formal characteristics that many au-
thors have used for dating these objects.
Dimensions: L. 8355⁄64 in (2, 13 cm), H. 235⁄8 in (0,
60 cm), W. at the shoulder 2015⁄32 in (0, 52 cm). (Fig-
ure 11)
Preservation: Archaeological Museum of Tartus,
Syria (AO 1921). Figure 11. Complete dimension of sarcophagi
The date proposed by Simone Frede is the 5th
unique in this area, in terms of the shape of century
B.C.E (Frede 2002). However, we believe that it is
very difficult to determine time ranges through the
analysis of stylistic features alone.
However, if we consider the treatment of the
carved character’s hair as a new basis for how to
represent a particular feature of the figure (age, sex,
origin, etc.), this treatment of her hair recalls other
pieces from this territory that have the same stylistic
peculiarities.
Thus, the sarcophagus AO 791 held at the Istan- Figure 12. Head of female sarcophagi
bul Museum, found, according to the published ar-
chaeological records in Syria (Figure 12), has many
features in common with the others: the shapes of 4. ARCHAEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
their tops are smooth, without any sculptural repre- The sarcophagus was carved from marble, like most
sentation, except for the head; they also have four others found in the area (Harden 1963; Lembke
loops, two placed on the shoulders, and two others 1998; id., 2001; Frede 2009). Throughout the Levan-
located on the head and base; the execution of the tine coast of Phoenicia, there is no trace of marble
neck is practically the same. However, most striking quarries to provide blocks (Frede 2002; Dixon 2013,
are the parallels of the representations of facial fea- 170), so that all the marble must have been imported
tures and hair design. The design of the hair is sim- (Faegersten 2003).
ple and divided in the center of the forehead by a In general, it is believed to have come from the
middle strip of hair. The hair consists of soft, ruf- Greek islands, particularly Paros (Wenger 2003;
fling lines, which fall in short strands, completely Georgiou 2009).Analyses conducted on a coffin un-
covering the ears. Other documented pieces from earthed in Amrit and currently in the Museum of
Syria have slight differences in the lengths of hair, Copenhagen AO 13431 conclude that the marble
some of which continue to the jaw level. used was from Paros (Buhl 1974, 88-91). Archaeolog-
ical analysis of these funerary pieces (commonly
known as anthropoid sarcophagi) should be based
on the fundamental variables that characterize the
objects: the petrographic nature of the raw materials
used in their manufacture, and their dimensional

SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 17-26

New marble sarcophagus from Syrian coast
type (basic measurement–length, width, and height).
We considered these the most formal, essential, and
indispensable elements. These are part of the physi-
cal aspects of the coffins, so that they should be con-
sidered more significant in establishing measurable
and analytical variables. In other words, they are
empirical facts relevant for a formal archaeological
study. With these, we can proceed to an objective
comparison with other sarcophagi, and avoid mere-
ly assessing them by artistic or stylistic aspects.
Both female sarcophagi are made of marble. Of all
the sarcophagi found near Amrit – so far 30 coffins –
60% are marble2. This shows that marble was con-
sidered the prime material for manufacturing these
coffins. However, as mentioned above, the near ab-
sence of any petrographic analysis and the general
opinion of specialists indicate that the marble used
in the preparation of these sarcophagi, including all
those unearthed at Amrit, came from the quarries of
Paros Island of the Aegean Cyclades.
There is evidence that Paros marble was semi-
prepared for the shape of the lids and boxes of the
sarcophagi (which were made separately) (Martelli
1975, 14). Nevertheless, until now, no workmanship
has been documented, nor any clue has been found
for the process of preparing these massive stones
from quarries. In the area where these sarcophagi
were used, no evidence has so far been found for
possible workmanship or artisans, in either the
Phoenician homeland or the surrounding territory.
Assuming that the marble quarries for the blocks
were located far away from Phoenicia, the cutting or
shaping sites for the raw marble to be used in the
sarcophagi would most likely have been very close
to the coast. The marble would then be loaded on
ships for transport to its destination, presumably
somewhere on the Phoenician coast. Later, the mar-
ble blocks would be finished at a workshop, pre-
sumably very close to the coast. This is because of
the large size of the blocks and the difficulties of
transporting these massive sarcophagi. Finally, tak-
ing into account the destination of these burial con-
tainers, we cannot rule out that these sarcophagi
were finished by local craftsmen near the places
where they were deposited (either in collective mau-
soleums, in individual graves in cemeteries or iso-
lated graves, where they have been found today).
Given the measurements of the marble sarcophagi
discovered at Amrit (Fig. 13) (mainly the length,
height and width), we find that there are indeed two
groups of measurements.
The first size is smaller, less than 2.10 m. The se-
cond can be up to 2.20 m. This shows that the mar-
2 According to archaeological record: Seventeen marble sarcophagi have
been unearthed at Amrit site.
23
ble sarcophagi found near Amrit came from their
original source with certain patterns of pre dimen-
sions, depending on the age and size of the property
holder. This means that the formation and extraction
of modules varied, indicating that there were two
groups of distinct measurements, possibly suggest-
ing that they were produced for either individual
households or juvenile males and adult females. We
might also ask what role the sarcophagi served, with
respect to their function as transformed stones to be
used in funeral rites. The sarcophagus, as such, had
several roles. Firstly, the representation of a human
figure on the top symbolized that the deceased re-
mained alive, even though the sarcophagus con-
tained the corpse. Secondly, it was a container for
funerary objects to be buried with the deceased for
the afterlife. In our case, we have only the represen-
tation of the human figure, while we know nothing
about the occupant or the accompanying objects. In
social terms, the funerary objects that were to ac-
company the deceased in some cases assumed sym-
bolic meanings related to the person’s religious be-
liefs. In our case, we only have the representation of
the human Figure, which allows us to focus only on
their biological individuality and social rank. There-
fore, an exact chronological dating is not possible.
An analysis based on Carbon-14 may be necessary
to date the piece.
5. DISCUSSION
In the absence of human remains and objects con-
tained within the sarcophagi, archaeological studies
of the materials involved in the funeral rites should
be based first on the analysis of materials such as the
containers themselves. Therefore, for an appropriate
analysis of their chronology and craftsmanship, it is
necessary to concentrate on aspects of archaeological
interest, such as the raw materials used or the basic
measurement of the pieces, and the meaning of it
being a singular piece. Using the full measurements
of both marble sarcophagi found at the Amrit site,
the maximum lengths form two distinct groups,
showing a dense clustering within these metric di-
mensions.
This is possibly due to the existence of the pro-
duction of stone blocks with similar basic lengths.
Their development patterns are quite similar in
origin, although with minor variations. This means
that there are two different groups of sarcophagi:
the smaller between 2.10 and 2.15 m. and the larger
between 2.25 and 2.35 meters.
Thus, the treatment of marble blocks, according to
the above graph, indicates marks left by the owners
or artisans who made them. This is common in other
groups of sarcophagus measurements carved from
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 17-26
24
standardized blocks that supplied the territory of
Amrit. Similarly, it bears emphasizing that both of
the female sarcophagi found in Amrit lacked fine
polishing, in contrast with some other finished piec-
es, which were all made of marble and finished
much more finely.
This suggests that the final quality of both prod-
ucts was the result of local artisans using foreign
blocks of stone. The female sarcophagi we have ana-
lyzed has the head of a female, carved in bas-relief.
This raises the question of why a human being is
Figure 13. Length, width and high of marble sarcophagi
Thus, the human figure must have been very sig-
nificant during the time that these sarcophagi were
used. Its presence as a visual icon would have been
meaningful to the society that used it. Although it is
generally considered that the use of anthropo-
morphic sarcophagi originated in Egypt, this prac-
tice in the area of Amrit maintained its traditional
patterns, with the use of this style of burial container
in particular. That is, elite used well-protected buri-
als for anthropomorphic sarcophagi without direct
accessibility or possible symbols to make a distinc-
tion from other tombs.
Traditions regarding burial and the afterlife seem
to be a distinction. Also, the coffins lacked distin-
guishing features between Egypt and Phoenician
society.
6. CONCLUSION
The number of anthropomorphic sarcophagi found
on the Phoenician coast of Syria shed light on the
reconstruction of funerary customs of these enig-
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 17-26
Mustafa & Abbas
depicted. The person depicted on the cover could be
an idealized character design from the time of the
manufacture of these objects. Alternatively, it could
depict a real person represented according to social
status, gender, and age. Finally, it could even be an
attempt to trace roots. This depiction is taken as evi-
dence of their effort towards realism with a partially
human form.
The lid shows no particular traits of an ordinary
living being, so it appears that the sculptor decided
the characters depicted on each piece.
matic funerary pieces on Mediterranean coast of
Syria. They show many styles for depicting the hu-
man Figure, indicating a relevant social role during
the golden age of sarcophagi use. Although new
cases have been found in the area, due to lack of ar-
chaeological context or samples for radiocarbon dat-
ing, the task of assigning precise chronology remains
problematic. Thus, we believe that a reliable assess-
ment of chronological data only through artistic
characteristics is not possible. On the other hand,
what does seem archaeologically justifiable is that
the extraction and confirmation of the blocks in the
quarries of origin were treated differently according
to age and sex of those who used them.
These memorial monuments must have contribut-
ed to a greater distinction and exaltation of certain
families within the noble class of the society where
they lived and were buried. Also, they may have led
to the acceptance of symbolic elements in material
culture, indicating a social function and cultural sig-
nificance. Furthermore, they reflect religious beliefs,
which are adopted and interpreted into local repre-
New marble sarcophagus from Syrian coast 25

sentation patterns. The new findings in the northern cophagi was significant. In addition, as excavations
Phoenician site of Amrit show that the city’s role continue, new information will be provided by fur-
during the use of Phoenician anthropomorphic sar- ther discoveries of sarcophagi in northern Phoenicia.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest appreciation to sr. M. Hasan director of DGAM of Tartus (Syria). I appre-
ciate Dr. P. Aguayo, for the guidance given as a supervisor, and for his understanding and patience shown
during the preparation of this research.

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 SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 27-38
Copyright © 2015 SC
Open Access. Printed in Greece. All Rights Reserved.

Martyrdom as a form of embodiment in the Byzantine Culture

Christos D. Merantzas
Department of Cultural Heritage Management & New Technologies, University of Patras
(hmerantz@upatras.gr)

Received: 19/07/2014
Accepted: 11/11/2014

ABSTRACT

In this paper we will examine the anthropological dimensions of the Christian martyr’s embodiment of pain
which we consider to be a shaping factor of the identity of Byzantine culture. The Christian martyr’s cultural
presence gave Christians a meaning and a reason to exist as it heralded his/her salvation. Furthermore, the
dramatic depiction of martyrical scenes in Post-Byzantine monuments under the Ottoman rule, mainly in the
16th century, served an ideological purpose, as they encouraged an attitude of resistance against the
Ottoman conqueror with deep long-term social and political consequences for the conquered provinces
across the Balkan Peninsula.

KEYWORDS: Martyrdom, Embodiment, Christian martyr, Ulrich Tengler, Antonio Gallonio.

28
1. INTRODUCTION
The symbolic construction of the Christian martyr as
a process with a broad cultural character securing to
all the members of the community of Christian be-
lievers the exclusive privilege of access to the salva-
tion of the soul cultivated, through the adoption of a
pattern of sacrificial passivity, a new form of the
predisposition vis-à-vis salvation. Furthermore, the
cultivation of martyric consciousness through the
exploitation of relics strengthening the martyr’s
presence in time, and also vindicating the instru-
mentality of the therapy of the potential physical
pain of the Christian believer produced and simulta-
neously reproduced the perpetuation of martyrical
practices (DeSoucey et al. 2008: 99–121).
In reality, if Christian faith did not primarily serve
the stake of the consolatory intervention on the
body, thus, functioning in favour of the creation of a
symbolic capital regarding the therapy of pain, it
wouldn’t have met the widest acceptance, securing
the alignment of Christian believer with the basic
assumptions of their faith. To the extent that within
the body of the martyr what was objectified was the
subjective experience of faith, martyrdom acquired
as a cultural value a socio-therapeutic function. It is
for this reason also that the acceptance of the collec-
tively constituted vital energy, contained in the mar-
tyr’s objectified body, was capable of activating prac-
tices which aimed at religious, but also at political
ends. The reminiscence of the martyr during collec-
tive memorial ceremonies rendered him physically
present (Schudson 1989: 153–180).
2. THE BODY OF THE CHRISTIAN
MARTYR
The early Christian martyrological sources, witness-
ing an openly moral-regulatory intention, elevated
to an ideal state the bestializing barbarity of the exe-
cutioners of the Christian martyrs, in order to extol
the latter’s spiritual merits. The greater abhorrence
images of savagery and ferocity generated, the
greater probability there was to cultivate the dis-
tance of the Christian martyr from his torturers, be-
queathing thus to posterity the moral standards of
Christian transcendence. The image of physical tor-
ture simultaneously cultivated the reminiscence of
the “open” body of the martyr, on the one hand, in-
oculating the subconscious with the symbol of an
aversion, whereas consecrating, on the other hand, a
repressed surreptitiousness due to the exposure of
the internal organs of the human body (Williams
2004: 3–4).
In order to conceive the role and the function of
martyric torture as an established cultural practice
within the Christian world we shall have to fully
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 27-38
Ch.Merantzas
grasp the solid bond which linked the martyr and
the anchorite with regard to the manner they em-
bodied physical pain. In fact, the bio-psychical affin-
ity which flourished among the martyr and the an-
chorite was ultimately founded on the idea that the
salvation of the soul could not be realized unless
under conditions of resilience to pain and torture.
This wide acceptance of pain ascribed to the mar-
tyric event a convincing provability, rendering it a
unique testimony of holiness. In fact, it is martyrdom
that brought about the wide acceptance of the salva-
tional ideal (Jantzen 2004).
One of the early Christian texts depicting martyr-
dom, with respect to the manner in which it was im-
plemented as a practice of embodiment, dates back
to the first or second decade of the second century
AD. It is the Epistle to the Romans by Ignatius, Bishop
of Antioch [c. 37–c. 107] (Schoedel 1993: 272–358)
written on route from the same-named Syrian town
to the place of his execution in Rome (Castelli 2004:
78–85; Darling Young 2005: 83–85; Drobner 2007: 49–
52; Robinson 2009: 3–5). In the aforementioned Epis-
tle, the martyr affords the image of a man strongly
motivated by his love of Christ, with a persistence in
achieving his goal. However, the effort the martyr
strives to realize has to do with a different process of
“humanization,” founded in its turn on a novel per-
ception of the human body. His post-mortem life
required the preliminary acceptance of death, which
is founded on the emulation of the crucifixional mar-
tyrdom of Christ (Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Romanos,
4.6.3.1–3).
Consequently, the incorporation of the martyr in
the Society of Christ, as a performative sacrificial act,
becomes equivalent to the complete annihilation of
his body. The image of the martyric body is con-
structed through a series of exterminatory tech-
niques (Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Romanos, 4.4.1.1–
2.6.)–fire, crucifixion, wild beasts, mutilations, dis-
memberments, dispersion of the bones, the cutting
off of the members, the crushing of the entire body–,
which are in complete dissension with the tradi-
tional ideal of integrity ascribed to the body of the
free Roman citizen (Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Romanos,
4.5.3.1–6). In contrast of this ideal, for the Christian
martyr the dismemberment of the body became
equivalent to the transition from a state of servitude
to a state of post-mortem freedom. The sacrificial
practice which is met in the aforementioned text
thematizes the process of annihilation, via the ani-
mals, of all distance of the martyr from God (Igna-
tius of Antioch, Ad Romanos, 4.2.2.1–6). The martyric
body is rendered the object of consumption by the
beasts, the latter standing as mediators for its tran-
substantiation into “wheat” (σίτος) in the mouth of
God. The beast’s mouth allows, thus, for an inverse
Martyrdom as a form of Embodiment in the Byzantine Culture
significance, as Ignatius’ martyrdom reinserts into
the soteriological context of the sacrifice of Christ.
Consequently, the success of the martyric torture
and death is proportionate to the appetite of the wild
animals both in the literal and in the metaphorical
significance: the greater this appetite is, the greater
the probabilities of the extermination of the matyric
body are.
Furthermore, the denial of physical necessity,
through the elimination of all bodily needs and func-
tions represented by the duality of nourishment and
pleasure, which is stated in the text as the denial of
“men-pleasing,” (Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Romanos,
4.2.1.1–2) is equivalent to a new form of birth for
martyric consciousness. This is an inverse symbolic
accouchement (Ignatius of Antioch, Ad Romanos,
4.6.1.1.), which cannot be comprehended without
recourse to what Ignatius designates as “God-
pleasing.” Therefore, the acceptance of martyrdom is
perceived as a voluntary practice of perishing of the
body for the sake of the martyr’s spiritual existence.
Ignatius is thus elevated through martyrdom to a
glorifier of the lived access to God, as physical tor-
ture is the only means which allows proximity to
Him (Zanartu 1979: 324–341; Perkins 1995: 189-192).
Complete bodily annihilation grants, therefore, to
the martyr, as acting subject, the possibility of being
inserted in ecclesiastical time, thus increasing its
commemorative power.
Another martyr, Piοnius (Castelli 2004: 92–102),
bequeathed as a legacy to the Christian community
of Smyrna an autobiographic in all probability writ-
ing (Lane Fox 1987: 460–492), wherein he narrates
his arrest and imprisonment in the year 250 along
with other Christians on the day of the memorial of
the martyrdom of Saint Polycarpus. The aim of Pi-
onius is no other than to strengthen the institutional
gravity of martyric memory as a record of the lived
experiences from which the Christian community
can draw its values. In order to comprehend the con-
struction of Orthodox Christian memory and also its
idealization of death as a desire for spiritual perfec-
tion, we must have in mind that the martyr exists
only when there is realized, through torture and the
persistence of martyric pain, the replacement of his
integral physical body by a dismembered body. The
outcome of this act assumes a unique psychological
significance within the community of believers for a
memoria mortis which has enriched tremendously the
Christian historiography (Stephanie Cobb 2008: 72–
76). The incorporation of the martyr into the histori-
cal true of the Church takes place through the exhibi-
tion of his torture, which assumes the form of a pub-
lic spectacle (Martyrium Pionii presbyteri et sodalium,
2.4.3–4). The martyr is called to prove his faith in the
29
tradition of the Church, as also persistence in his aim,
which is none other than the conquest of the truth of
God. It is no accident that Pionius borrows his vo-
cabulary from the army (πειθαρχῆ σαι, ἀ γωνίζομαι
and the negative connotations αὐ τομολοῦ σιν,
ἀ στόχημα: Martyrium Pionii presbyteri et sodalium,
4.1.1–6.7), as the activity of the martyr denoted for
him an involvement with military life, but also the
acceptance of a discipline of military character, as
the martyr was presented as a “soldier of Christ.”
By striving to remain faithful to the teaching of
Christ Pionius is voluntarily led to death. Through
the latter what is revealed to him is a transcendent
reality, whilst the acceptance of martyrdom is
equivalent to the transition to Christian truth. For
Pionius, to consume his powers is not equivalent to
defect or “fail.” He is, thus, rendered an advocate of
the authentic and solitary truth of Jesus (Gradel
2004: 1–3). When he delivers his body to torture, Pi-
onius is aware that what is about to be subject to tor-
ture is not the immortal part of his body. The martyr
would prefer to live, but under the current circum-
stances such a thing is impossible (Martyrium Pionii
presbyteri et sodalium, 5.4.1–3). The voluntary accep-
tance of death constitutes for him a performative
practice aiming at maintaining the purity of the truth
of Jesus. The death sentence of Pionius in the fire
and the nailing to a wooden surface preceding it is
accompanied, as we are informed by the author who
completed his autobiography, by the miraculous
restoration of his body which has recovered, thanks
to a paradoxical event, his youthful athletic culmina-
tion (Martyrium Pionii presbyteri et sodalium, 22.1.1–
4.4).
Terms and expressions which denote the cruelty
of the inhumane methods of martyric torture are
dispersed in the Church History of Eusebius of
Ceasarea [c. 263–c. 339 AD] in a unique effort to
identify the martyr with the God-man, and also the
martyric achievements of the martyr with the cruci-
fixional death of Christ (Eusebius of Caesarea, His-
toria ecclesiastica, 5.1.41.2–8). Through the shocking
enumeration of a plenitude of instrumental mecha-
nisms of putting to death, Eusebius presents the
martyr as responding to the various methods of tor-
ture with bravery (Eusebius of Caesarea, Historia
ecclesiastica, 5.1.20.3). He, thus, renders martyric tor-
ture a derivation of an animal and corrupting de-
generation (Eusebius of Caesarea, Historia ecclesias-
tica, 10.4.12.1). In contrast to these inhuman practices,
the achievement of Christianity is the safeguard of a
permanent source of satisfaction, which is elevated
to a supreme value within immortality (Eusebius of
Caesarea, Historia ecclesiastica, 10.4.46.6–7). By exalt-
ing the vital functions over bodily pain, Eusebius
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 27-38
30
depicts the martyrs as participating with boldness
and bravery to a superior spiritual life. As he places
torture in the service of salvation, Eusebius removes
from pain its primacy in the hierarchy of animal
functions. Consequently, for the martyr, the very
instruments of pain are reduced, however oxymoron
this pattern may seem, to mechanisms aiming at its
inhibition. What is interesting is that the challenge of
pain is now transferred to the readers of the story of
martyrdom, who are asked to incorporate the mar-
tyr’s pain.
The very same manifestations of barbarity with
regard to the defenseless victim are to be found a
few centuries later in the narration–written by a dea-
con named Stephen of Saint Sofia in 807 or 809–of
the death of the ascetic martyr Stephen the Younger
who was tortured and executed in a merciless and
inhumane manner in the streets of Constantinople,
in November 765 (Auzépy 1997: 5–9, 18–19, 34–36).
The reader of the life of St. Stephen the Younger is
called to read with minute details the descriptions of
the inflictions of pain upon the body of the martyr
by his executioners; a fortiori these are not few, but
the entire people of the Byzantine capital. The narra-
tion of the horrible details of the martyrdom served
most probably the needs of a propagandistic dis-
course, which favoured the memory of the icono-
phile martyr, persecuted by the iconoclast emperor
of the Isaurian dynasty Constantine V. The high-
lighting of the details of the death of St. Stephen in
Constantinople’s Mese Odos by his biographer al-
lows the incurrence of hyperalgaesthesia to the read-
ers of its Vita. The interest in the narration is an ex-
treme example of cultural model legitimating prac-
tices of repulsion and barbarity in which the average
Byzantine man was addicted in his daily life.
In the narration of the death of St. Stephen, the
function of hyperalgaesthesia experienced by the
readers of his Vita depends on the salvational hope
through their exposure to an experience of extreme
horror: the martyr already dead, after receiving a
blow on the head with a stick, is dragged on the
ground. As the body collides from slab to slab, the
hands are cut off, the fingers fall from the nails, the
ribs are pierced, the blood runs from the veins and
dyes the soil and, last, the muscles are stripped from
the joints, allow for the bones to be revealed. Some-
one throws on the belly of the martyr a large boulder
which tears it in two, thus causing that his intestines
are gushed out on the street. The mob continues, yet,
to hit the soulless body with sticks and stones.
Meanwhile, a tavern owner grabs from the fire,
where he fries fish, a torch and delivers such a
strong blow to the cranium of the martyr that the
back part thereof becomes detached, leaving the con-
tent of the cranial cavity to be surged out. The latter
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 27-38
Ch.Merantzas
is collected by a believer, named Theodorus, who
wraps it up in his clothes. Last, the body of the saint
is dropped to the so-called ta Pelagiou, a site in Con-
stantinople which served as the usual place of the
deposition of the dead bodies of the convicts (St
Stephen the Younger, Vita, 70.10–71.9).
3. THE SPECTACULAR FUNCTION OF
MARTYRDOM WITHIN A BYZANTINE
CONTEXT
Byzantine authors were fully aware of the fact that
the preservation of martyric memory constituted the
material token of a unique spiritual challenge. The
reading of the life of the martyr, as also the viewing
of martyric depictions, made possible its manifesta-
tion, as it was situated not only in the dimension of
the present, but also in that of the future. By preserv-
ing the memory of martyrdom Christian writers
could, therefore, trace the inherited Christian identi-
ty which obeyed to the relentless need to be objecti-
fied. Martyric depictions created in their turn a sim-
ultaneity between the martyric performance and its
spectacle which aimed at preaching the Christian
faith, but also at converting people into it.
John Chrysostom showed a vivid interest in draw-
ing a parallel between the preservation of martyric
memory and the art of martyric painting (John Chry-
sostom, De sanctis martyribus, PG 50:712.15–40).
Memory, by analogy to the representational art, is
meant to preserve a living relationship with the mar-
tyric event. The close interdependence of the mar-
tyric event with its pictorial depiction bears witness
to the facticity as a lived experience (Mitchell 2002:
60–62). In reality, martyric depictions were tempo-
ralized in an ecstatic dimension of time, as they con-
densated time in an indivisible totality of past, pre-
sent, and future, thus transcending historical time
(Agamben 2005: 60–66).
Moreover, the influence upon the spectator of the
intense representation of the martyric event is ascer-
tained in a short speech of the 4th century AD writ-
ten by the Bishop of Amasea in Pontus Asterius
(Datema 1970). The speech refers to the martyrdom
of the female martyr St. Euphemia of Chalcedon,
who was tortured and martyred in 303 during the
persecution of Diocletianus. Herein are intertwined
the memorial character of the martyric event with
vivid depictions of the physical violence that the
martyr suffered. The description of the martyrdom
of St. Euphemia by Asterius belongs to the literary
category of the early Byzantine Ekphrasis, a verbally
description of an artistic work (Mitsi & Agapetos
2006: 15–38; James & Webb 1991: 1–17; Castelli 2000:
464–468). It is analogous to a painting composition–
divided into individual scenes–of which the bishop
Martyrdom as a form of Embodiment in the Byzantine Culture
was an eye-witness in a sheltered street close to the
grave of the martyr. For Asterius, the painting sur-
face allows a life-like depiction of martyrdom. The
transition from the rhetorical narration of martyric
torture to its iconographic depiction allows it to be
enriched with emotional charge. Asterius’ reflection
on art focuses on its autonomy. As a consequence,
the expressiveness of the painting surface, by attrib-
uting to the work of art a narrative substance, per-
mits the encounter between the narrative discourse
and the iconographic depiction, both conceived as
expressions of the martyric pain.
In the first scene of the martyrdom of St. Euphe-
mia there are represented the dramatic events of her
trial, in which the martyr incarnates the virtues of
prudency and valour (Asterius of Amasea, Ekphrasis
on the Holy Martyr Euphemia, 11.3.3.6–8). In the next
scene two semi-nude executioners torture the mar-
tyr: one of them holds her head still while the other
extracts her teeth by the use of a hammer and a drill.
In an effort to strengthen the verisimilitude of the
event, the artist, as we are informed by Asterius,
scattered on the painting surface spots of blood, so
that the very same spectator is in a position to par-
ticipate emotionally in martyric pain (Asterius of
Amasea, Ekphrasis on the Holy Martyr Euphemia,
11.4.1.1–8). The work itself seems, thus, to dramatize
to the extreme an algaesthetic situation.
In the following two scenes what is depicted is,
respectively, the martyr praying in prison and the
martyr being burnt, without a trace of dejection in
the fire (Asterius of Amasea, Ekphrasis on the Holy
Martyr Euphemia, 11.4.2.1–4.3.5). The dramaticality of
the bloody martyric event is rendered more evident
when the martyr is showed to be possessed by emo-
tional mutations which directly allude to the tradi-
tion of Greek tragedy, especially of Medea. As a re-
sult, the martyrdom of St. Euphemia did not consti-
tute a distant pictorial event but a process achieving
proximity, ritual reminiscence, last but not least sote-
riological signification, as it established a symbiotic
relation with the spectator.
Forgotten for centuries, Asterius’ text was recov-
ered during the Proceedings of the 7th Ecumenical
Council of Nicaea, held in 787 AD, and utilized
along with other texts for the legalization of the wor-
ship of the icons (Sahas 1986: 129–131). It was incor-
porated within a wider framework of argumentation
which touched upon issues related to the depiction
of the material substance of the body. More specifi-
cally, it was selected by the iconophiles as a typical
sample of a bodily representation demonstrating
how one can use the visible token of the martyric
event. The possibility of direct access to the original
experience of martyrdom, as it was outlined through
31
the depicted body of the martyr, is what at the end
renders the cultural history of the Christian martyr-
dom an event of critical importance and its empirical
content per se a transcendental value.
In the Life of the Patriarch of Constantinople Tara-
sius [c. 730–25 February 806] written following his
death by the deacon Ignatius (Efthymiades 1991: 73–
83; Efthymiades 1998; Pratsch 2000: 82–101), the
iconophile Patriarch who officiated the Proceedings
of the 7th Ecumenical Council was mentioned to
have contributed to the depiction of martyric events
in the mural decorations of churches. This point,
however, on which the text of the Life wished to fo-
cus, concerned the function of martyric depiction as
the corroboration of the martyric event (Dagron
2007: 97–98, 100). In the Life, written by Ignatius, the
intensity of the martyric experience depended on the
Christian believer’s emotional response. Here, the
aim of the depiction of martyrdom was to forge a
solid relationship of equivalence with any future
assumption of initiative when circumstances re-
quired it, leading to the infinite repetition of mar-
tyric resistance. Therefore, the memorial constitution
of martyrdom lied in the preservation of martyric
experience which may at any point be reproduced
(Ignatius, Vita Tarasii, 49.21–24).
In fact, in the martyric scenes cited by Ignatius
there are registered various methods of torture, such
as the torture in the pyre, the whipping, the disloca-
tion of the members through the usage of pulleys,
the incurrence of scrapes with iron nails, the dis-
memberment of body members, the throwing to the
lions, the fastening with straps on poles and the
death by sword, the breaking wheel, the stoning, the
piercing under the nails with sharp blades, the im-
mersion of the head in boiling water, last but not
least, the exposure of the body to frost. This mani-
fold of torturing practices activated within the Chris-
tian believers a set of affective reactions which were
conducive to the strengthening of their faith, thus
rendering the memory of the martyric event incum-
bent on the emotional intensity of its depiction, as
also on the frequency of its repetition (Ignatius, Vita
Tarasii, 53.10–15). At the exact moment when the
gaze of the believer-spectator encountered a torture
scene, there developed between the latter and the
martyric image a powerful emotional relationship,
which converted the distant act of martyrdom into
an experience of his own: tears, groans, and devout-
ness (Ignatius, Vita Tarasii, 50.4–5), devastation (Ig-
natius, Vita Tarasii, 50.7), sympathy (Ignatius, Vita
Tarasii, 50.14), and trepidation (Ignatius, Vita Tarasii,
50.14–15).
The iconographic use of the death of the martyrs
attached a privilege to the way of their life rendering
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 27-38
32
it an example to emulate in the eyes of Christian be-
lievers. The Christian apologists used the body of the
martyr in order to lead to the culmination of mar-
tyric anguish, thus exacerbating the symbolic effi-
cacy of martyrdom, or to outline the experience of
divine glory as an analgesic towards pain (Bataille
1988: 45–61). One of the most significant texts of the
late Middle Ages in the West referring to the Lives of
the saints, which knew an extremely large diffusion
as it focused on the barbarity of torture methods
(eighty-one types of torture are mentioned within it)
was the Golden Legend (Legenda aurea) of the Do-
minican monk Jacobus de Voragine (now Varazze)
(† 1298) in Italy (De Voragine 1993). What impressed
within this text was the contempt for any subjective
or emotional reaction due to physical harm and pain,
the latter was depicted almost without any impact–
with only two exceptions–upon the body of the mar-
tyr. Ninety-one out of a total of one hundred and
fifty-three chapters narrated the Lives of martyrs
who ended up being dismembered by their torturers.
Jacobus recognized that the use of martyrdom con-
stitutes the basic road affording access to sainthood.
For him, martyrdom takes place at three stages, each
one of which is differentiated into three distinct
methods of torture (Boureau 2007: 111–133). The ini-
tial stage aims at bending the resistance of the mar-
tyr, thus leading him to apostasy. At the intermedi-
ate stage, the body of the martyr is subject to torture
without ending up in death. At the last stage, the
body of the martyr is tortured to death and the latter
becomes a victor having secured heavenly glory.
This battle shows unobjectionally the power of aboli-
tion of death.
With regard to the pictorial arrangement of mar-
tyric pain and anguish the Byzantine art moved,
therefore, between two poles: on the one hand, the
internalization of pain in the case of the martyric
torture whereas, on the other hand, the externaliza-
tion of grief in the case of the crucifixional martyr-
dom of Christ. Byzantine art prior to the 12th cen-
tury had familiarized us to the “frozen gestures” of
the holy persons depicted in scenes of the martyr-
dom of Christ, as there was no intention to represent
the emotional involvement therein.
However, from the 12th century on, the mood
gradually changed. Furthermore, in the iconographic
milieu of the Crucifixion there was depicted an exul-
tation of emotions, as the lamenting spirit extended
to all the persons in the scene, thus causing a gener-
alized emotional charge (Maguire 1981: 91–108). The
iconography of the Crucifixion involved the specta-
tor in a climate of emotional tension and anguish
which functioned as the magnifier of the martyric
event and of the grief which is caused by it.
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 27-38
Ch.Merantzas
In fact, the depiction of experiences of intense
pain or grief was the result of the painter’s need to
denote the psychological disposition of the persons
and to cause sympathy from the side of the spectator.
This condition, directly relevant to the liturgical
hymns which focused on the theme of the anguish of
the Theotokos during the Holy Passion, deprived the
depicted persons of the atemporal or supratemporal
and idealized dimension thereof, thus attributing to
them a historical character by involving them in the
primordial anguish of finitude and death. In this
way, the depicted persons were imbued by emo-
tional drives and “humanized” (Velmans 2004: 129,
141–143, 169, 185–186). During the 12th century,
Byzantine art reached a culminating point due to the
unique emotional intensity transmitted by the depic-
tion of the Lamentation [1164], as in the case of the
Church of Saint Panteleimon in Nerezi, FYROM.
This scene was inspired by narrations of ecclesiasti-
cal authors such as Georgios of Nicomedia (Georgios
of Nicomedia, In SS. Mariam assistentem cruci, PG
100:1480B, 1488A) [9th century] or St. Symeon the
Translator (Symen the Translator, S. Mariae Planctus,
PG 114:216B–C) [10th century], where what was also
rendered clear was the insinuation of the Incarnation
from the way Virgin Mary embraced Christ in a bold
position, enclosing him between her legs. Also visi-
ble in the Lament of St. Symeon the Translator are
the most primary manifestations of the desperation
through the concretization of the will of the Virgin
Mary to follow her son to the grave (Alexiou 2002:
62–78). As the individual emotion of grief inundated
the scene, the spectator was called to sense the an-
guish of a corresponding scale to the anguish experi-
enced by the holy persons. As to the pictorial unfold-
ing of despair, manifest was also the intensity in the
scenes of the Lamentation to be found in the church
of the Virgin Mary of Perivleptos (now Saint Clem-
ent) in Ohrid [1294/95] of FYROM (Korunovski &
Dimitrova 2006: 154, fig. 116) or in the church of the
Annunciation of Virgin Mary in Gračanica [1320–
1321], Serbia (Velmans 2004: 258, pl. 93). Incessant
wailings of women, beatings of the hands on the
body, violent drawing and uprooting of the hair
witness the affective discharge of the ritual of lament.
In fact, these cultural models met a wide propaga-
tion, literary and artistic, in the late Middle Ages
(Barasch 1976: 1–33, 57–68).
On the contrary, in early Christianity, behavioral
patterns were promoted which denoted a more
modest manifestation of grief and pain, while aim-
ing at avoiding extreme emotional discharges. The
urge of John Chrysostom for self-discipline–in con-
trast to the affectively unconstrained gesticulatio–
rendered undesirable the unharnessed manifesta-
tions of affectivity which were characterized as mor-
Martyrdom as a form of Embodiment in the Byzantine Culture
bid (John Chrysostom, In Joannem, PG 59: 346.46–52).
After all, as the very same ecclesiastical author states,
the moderate expressions of grief, which witnessed a
stricter regulation of the behavior, were included
among the indications of high social rank (John
Chrysostom, In Joannem, PG 59:347.29–33). For John
Chrysostom, the development of a self-constraining
mechanism, in relation to the ritual lament on the
death of a beloved, constituted an essential factor for
the regulation of the social relations on the basis of
stable behavioral patterns (John Chrysostom, In
Joannem, PG 59: 347.49–55). However, his declared
desire to attain self-constraint on the occasion of the
ritual of lament became later on eventually unattain-
able (Alexiou 2002: 27–29).
4. THE ALGAESTHETIC IMAGE OF THE
CHRISTIAN MARTYR IN THE
POSTBYZANTINE CULTURE (16TH
CENTURY)
From the above-mentioned it becomes clear that the
depiction of martyric pain had a powerful performa-
tive character, as martyrdom not only urged its spec-
tators to function as eye-witnesses of a holy event,
but further invited them to participate in its drama-
tized revival (Cazelles 1994: 56–74; Thompson 2002:
27–52). Actually, the position of martyr in the wider
cultural context is the outcome of a series of symbol-
izations which are based not merely on his/her spir-
itual identity, as also in his/her function as the agent
of a universal drama par excellence. Thus, the depic-
tion of his/her dismembered body contributed to the
construction of a cultural space which maintained
the function not merely of sacred violence, but rather
of heinous horrendity (Baraz 2004: 164–167). The
iconographic depictions of torture and pain eventu-
ally constituted for the Christian believer a place of
sanctified alterity in relation to the desanctified place
of his/her executioners. As a consequence, the con-
trast between the public barbarity of the dismem-
bered martyr and the spirituality of the spectator-
believer incubates unobstructedly a spirit of active
resistance vis-à-vis the consolidated worldly power.
Among the records of violence reproduced pas-
sionately, especially from the 16th century and on-
wards, by the martyric compositions depicted in the
post-Byzantine churches belonged two elements giv-
ing special emphasis to the ideological message of
the iconographic material. These are, first, the fatal
vulnerability of the Christian martyr and, secondly,
the anonymity of the executioners in contrast to the
victims who are recruited by the collective body of
the Christians. In these terms, the depicted cruelty
on the part of the Ottoman ruler–with the intention
to inflict harm, injury, bodily malformation and
33
eventually death–, manifest the desire for complete
domination over the Christian martyr.
In the Post-Byzantine art, depictions of atrocities
which focused on the bodily tortures–we could in-
voke here a plenitude of testimonies from the nar-
thex [1541/1542] and the Northern exonarthex [1560]
of the Philanthropenon Monastery of St. Nicholas on
the Island of the Lake of Ioannina, in Epirus, Greece–
cannot always be verified. The historical accuracy of
some of them can indeed be established on the basis
of recorded events. The scenes of horrendous tor-
tures in the narthex and the exonarthexes of the Phi-
lanthropenon Monastery, which motivated–through
the depictions of numerous methods and instru-
ments of torture–an entire mechanism for the annihi-
lation of the material bodies and the decomposition
of the moral subjects, unfold before the eyes of the
spectator-believer the life-like function of bodily
pain. However, the depictions of violent tortures
have primarily a cultural value with regard to the
exposure of the internal organs of the body. The ex-
traction of the skin, which served to delimit the body
as the protective tissue between the inner world of
the self and the outer world of society did not
merely constitute an indication of occasional hor-
rendity. In reality, it operated as a concrete sign of a
treatment of the body which provoked the strong
revulsion of the spectator. After all, the medieval
punitive mechanisms, in the East as well as in the
West, exploited to the utmost the dynamics of the
martyric spectacle so that their recipient becomes
aware of the severe impact of the punishment and
avoid the future perpetration of a similar offence.
In the case of these martyric depictions the rela-
tionship developed between the depicted martyr
and the spectator-believer was cultivated even more
not only by the brutality of the torture, but also by
the spectacle of profuse bleeding, which sprang
quite frequently from the open bodies and the cut-
off members of the martyrs; these extremities served
the painter’s intention to exaggerate the dramatic
intensity of his work. The Eucharist symbolism of
blood, as the denotation of the living presence of
Christ and of His martyric passion, functioned as a
binding rule, thus exacerbating the need of the be-
liever to emulate the martyric resilience of the mar-
tyr. In its turn, the function of torture, having been
hoarded during the centuries of Christian history,
was turned into an embodied anguish constantly
present in the daily life of the believers. The bodies
of the Christian saints may seem deprived of any
socio-political importance, yet their iconographic
depictions in the context of the 16th century Otto-
man Empire attributed to them a deeply symbolic
character, as they turned them into powerful weap-
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 27-38
34
ons of political resistance (Kyriakoudis 2006–2007:
213). We shouldn’t forget that the principal aim of
the painters was to achieve, through the embodi-
ment of pain, the emotional identification of the
spectator-believer to the victim-martyr (Clover 1992:
61–62). What the painter of the Philanthropenon
Monastery, for instance, wished to unfold to all its
extent was, on the one hand, the preservation of the
tradition of martyrdom and, on the other hand, the
recruitment of fresh “faith fighters” with a view to
the weakening of the enemy of the Orthodox faith,
that is the Ottoman conqueror.
In the case of the Philanthropenon Monastery,
violence is experienced as an authentic driving im-
pulse: human members are dispersed on the ground
and profuse bleeding denotes a threatening envi-
ronment; the Monastery becomes a place where the
believer dwells in a state of permanent fear. How-
ever, no bodily expression of the depicted martyrs
testifies to some kind of response to the stimulus of
pain (Wolff & Langley 1968: 494–501). The latter is as
if it does not touch them, as they continue to show
complete self-constraint and undisturbed serenity.
Besides, we cannot ignore the fact that the depic-
tions of pain further reproduced the processes of the
gender constitution of the body at a definite place
and time. In the Philanthropenon Monastery, the
depictions of the semi-nude virgin martyrs whose
breasts the executioners are getting ready to cut off
or have already cut them off (Garidis & Paliouras
1993: 91, 101, 113–114, 116, 159, fig. 140, 153, 172–173,
177, 260; Acheimastou-Potamianou 2004: 109, 113,
117, 119–120, 125, 181, 200, fig. 84, 90, 93, 112) be-
come part of a symbolic capital which could be con-
sidered as having pornographic connotations (Cavi-
ness 2001: 115–124). In fact, the rendition of the acts
of torture in the case of the women martyrs focused
on their seminude body. In this way what was culti-
vated, probably deliberately, was a gender deter-
mined image of pain reproducing specific cultural
models which touch upon gender identity (Crachiolo
2004: 147–163).
In effect, these specific acts of torture served, on
the symbolic level, as acts of rape (Wolfthal 2000: 43–
44; Coyne Kelly 2005: 40–62; Vigarello 2001), to
which women martyrs were subjected by their male
executioners. But the same applied in turn to the
gaze of the male monk who found himself faced
with the naked body of the woman martyr on a daily
basis and could very easily phantasize with the
physical presence of her revealed female breast. The
tortures to which the seminude bodies of the Chris-
tian women martyrs were submitted were analogous
to the public executions of women which took place
in the 14th and the 15th centuries in Western Europe
who were finally burnt naked (Shahar 2001: 114–115).
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 27-38
Ch.Merantzas
In the environment of late medieval culture these
tortures served as models of moral integrity, chastity
and invincible faith (Salih 2001: 16–40; Bernau 2006:
104–121). In combination with the concealment of
the genitals of the male martyrs in the martyric
scenes, as the body constitutes the object par excel-
lence on which a gender group grounds its moral
perceptions, we could argue that these scenes culti-
vated in the eyes of the ascetic monks a negative
perception of human sexuality which exhorted to an
eroticism of a sadistic kind directed against the fe-
male body (Hearn & Burr 2008: 1–14).
Contrary to the martyr who underwent the an-
guish of torture, the latter’s depiction brought about
a new perception of human finitude which deeply
altered the relation to corruption and death, eventu-
ally leaving the body of the martyr intact, a material
proof of incorruptibility (Baert 2005: 149–152). The
tortured body was thus transubstantiated from a
dehumanized state into a new embodied life (Kay
2000: 3-20). Consequently, as the Christian believer
was confronted with biological death, he was led to
the adoption of a regulatory model of resistance so
that his acts for the sake of the salvation of his soul
were assimilated to those of the martyr. Only seen as
the undertaking of active resistance with the aim of
supporting the Christian faith can we interpret the
pleasure taken by the believer from the torture im-
agery of the Philanthropinon Monastery, to which
the painters dedicated at least one fourth of the total
painting surface of the monument (Fradenburg 2002:
34).
In fact, in the 16th century, the trend of “spectacu-
larisation” of martyrdom was adopted also by the
painters of the Philanthropenon Monastery, who
copied a variety of martyrdoms which had arrived
from the West thanks to the circulation of Western
copper-plate prints. The use, however, of the latter
was based on the symbolic function of the iconogra-
phy of martyrdom. As in the European Renaissance,
on the one hand, the role of martyrdom was repres-
sive, but also related to the political role of the
Catholic Church, in the scenes of martyrdom there
were traced the progressive changes which occurred
in the penal system as well as in the inflictions of the
sentences.
In the Post-Byzantine culture, on the other hand,
the corresponding iconographic compositions
documented primarily the ideological crystalliza-
tions of faith, as in the Orthodox world martyrdom
was the token of the inner quest of the Christian be-
liever for the salvation of his soul. For a world of
spirituality as is the one of the Byzantium, the image
formed an intangible reality. Thanks to its formative
dynamics, the image penetrated in the everyday life
of the Christian believer, both religious and secular,
Martyrdom as a form of Embodiment in the Byzantine Culture
aiming at producing an even greater degree of con-
formity to a strictly delimitated pattern of behaviour.
Besides their consolatory and soteriological mes-
sage, the plenitude of bloody martyric scenes in the
Philanthropenon Monastery helped the Christian
believer to endure situations of brutality and ex-
treme oppression, thus promoting an ideology of
resistance to the Ottoman rule (Cohen 2000: 40).
Therefore, the depiction of these scenes of violence
was integrated in the system of symbolic values
which aimed at securing the survival of the Christian
faith in conditions of extreme despair. The painters
showed special care for the realistic account of the
methods of torture and the detailed representation of
the wounds originating from them. The spectacle of
the open body caused to the spectator of martyrdom
a feeling of sympathy. Furthermore, the realistic to
the point of brutality depiction of such a violent
event as martyrdom functioned in favour of a proc-
ess of signification based on the organic assimilation
of the past to the present and the transformation of
the distant in time martyric event into a familiar real-
ity.
The strictness of the violent sentences imposed by
the Renaissance repressive mechanism was evi-
denced by the exhibitionist public execution of
criminals, heretics and any type of dissenters. This
system of sanctions was codified at the beginning of
the 16th century by the German lawyer Ulrich
Tengler in the Laienspiegel (1509). In this work
Tengler focused on the efficacity of torture (Sorensen
Zapalac 1990: 195). A series of acts of torture, such as
burning in the pyre, burial of the victim while still
alive, which was especially diffused in the 16th cen-
tury, hanging, martyrdom at the breaking wheel,
disembowelment and cutting-up, decapitation and
the dismemberment of the body, owed their effec-
tiveness to the insistence upon complete annihilation
of the tortured body. The Theban painters of the Phi-
lanthropenon Monastery first appropriated in their
depictions of martyrdom a number of tortures from
the Laienspiegel copying from the wood engravings
of the specific works many types of torture. As a
consequence, these depictions represent the basic
torture practices institutionalized and widely spread
already in the Middle Ages of the European penal
system. We must always, therefore, bear in mind,
while studying the visual tokens of painful torture,
that the relevant cultural practices aimed at the
complete annihilation of the bodily substance of the
believer-martyr. In fact, what the depictions of the
Philanthropenon Monastery show, such as dismem-
berments, mutilations, exposure of the dead bodies–
a material drawn from copper-plate models of the
15th and 16th centuries–constituted a common re-
35
pressive mechanism in Western Europe until the late
18th and the first half of the 19th century. The public
torture determined the identity of the penal system,
on the basis of which there was the reduction of all
the sanctions–and also the subsequent pain–to the
human body (Spierenburg 1984: 183–199). Prior to
the abolition of the public spectacle during the inflic-
tion of a punitive sanction, countless were the bodies
of the condemned to death who were sandwiched
between the gear wheels of a brutality incredible in
number and variety.
It’s worthwhile noticing at this point that for the
medieval penal justice there existed a relation of
equivalence between the criminal act and the sanc-
tion with the result that the sanction had to annul
each and every possibility for retribution of the
crime (Foucault 2012: 81–107). However, this expan-
sion of the scale of severity of the sanction, with the
use of various methods of violent and painful death,
functioned preventively for the spectators, as a regu-
latory model of compliance and obedience signified
by the violent system of punishment within which it
was reproduced. In several cases, the spectacularity
of the public torture was further exacerbated as the
very body was subjected to various types of sanc-
tions for different offences. The classification of sanc-
tions, according to the gravity of the punishment,
was governed more or less by a relation of propor-
tionality; thus, hanging was destined for thieves,
criminals and rapists were dismembered on the
breaking wheel, sodomists and heretics were burnt
on the pyre, the immoral female deviations, such as
infanticide and adultery, were punished with
drowning, whereas in the cases of incest and homi-
cides there corresponded the sanction of decapita-
tion (Evans 1996: 72; Briggs et al. 1996: 83–85).
By recognizing a great moral significance to the
martyrological narration of extreme forms of torture
the Counter-Reformation treatise of martyrdom by
the Jesuit priest Antonio Gallonio entitled Trattato
degli instrumenti di martirio–usale da gentili contro
Christiani, printed in Rome in 1591 initially in Italian
and then translated in Latin in 1594, offered a deci-
sive help to the Christians in order for them to resist
their opponents of faith (Gallonio 2002). Illustrated
with forty-six gravures by Antonio Tempesta which
presented, as narrative samples of horror a number
of bodily acts of torture gathered from Gallonio’s
text, rendered horror a familiar affective state for the
Christian believer (Touber 2009: 59–89). These depic-
tions, aiming at the creation of a post factum optimis-
tic spirituality, were gradually enriched, as they bor-
rowed material which did not belong exclusively to
the medieval practices of torture, but also to the Ro-
man arsenal of penal repression.
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No. 1, (2015), pp. 27-38
36 Ch.Merantzas

If we inquire into the wider cultural context of the
system of crimes and sanctions during the Middle
Ages, but later on in the Renaissance, we can easily
reach the conclusion that sanctions which exacer-
bated the agony of the victim, as also those which
manifested a merciless cruelty and were related to
the protracted dishonorment of the human body,
were recorded as dishonorable (Merback 1999: 141–
142). On the contrary, decapitation with the use of a
sword afforded an instant, glorious, and brave death
equivalent to the death in the battlefield without the
body being dishonoured and humiliated (Merback
1995: 267–279; Evans 1996: 55; Merback 1998: 14–23).
Besides this, the experience of violent death on pub-
lic sight granted for centuries a safe guarantee for
the restoration of the social order as mutatis mutandis
the religious symbols afforded a “macrocosmic”
guarantee by cultivating a permanent sense of spiri-
tual safety.
5. CONCLUSION
As it is elaborated through a wide range of icono-
graphic depictions in Byzantine and Post-Byzantine
culture, the visual representations of pain served to
render explicit the relation between martyric torture,
as a form of identification of the Christian believer
with the martyr, and the exercise of violence as a
means for existential safety and life after death. As a
result, during the Middle Ages, the depiction of pain
functioned, on the one hand, as a source of spirituali-
ty and, on the other hand, as a form of self-
regulation for the salvation of the soul. What must
be pointed out, however, is that the function of em-
bodied pain constituted an instrument of subjuga-
tion or resistance of the body within an established
system of power, secular or transcendent.
The Middle Ages bequeathed upon the Renais-
sance and the Enlightenment a prevalent perception
of pain as instrument of domination, an idea which
is difficult to accept viewed from the perspective of
contemporary civilization of the West (Pincikowski
2002, xvii–xxvi, 1–20). Through the spiritual trans-
figuration of martyric pain the medieval man recon-
ciliated himself with human finitude, but also ex-
perienced the intense desire of union with God. The
spiritual credit of bodily pain reflected upon specific
cultural perceptions, such as the faith in the absolute,
the cultivation of interiority, the perspective of be-
yond, the hope of eternal salvation, but also pro-
moted the cultural practices of self-confinement and
self-constraint. In the Medieval cultural milieu pain
functioned primarily as the material testimony of the
suffering (ἄ λγος) of the soul on the fallen state of
man and the Christian believer had to endure it stoi-
cally with the aim of attaining repentance. Thus,
martyric pain remained for centuries closely inter-
twined with the stake of the salvation of the soul; it
was also perceived as a means of liberation from the
constraints of transient life, endowed with a vital
significance for the treatment of the sorrowful
earthly reality (Cohen 1995: 47–74).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. This article is based on a paper that I
read at the Workshop entitled Embodied Identities: Figural and Symbolic Representation of the Self in Ana-
tolia, on 8 June 2014 (Koç University, Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations). I am indebted to Dr. Erica
Hughes for the opportunity to participate in the Workshop.

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 SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, Vol. 1, No 1, (2015), pp. 39-42
Copyright © 2015 SC
Open Access. Printed in Greece. All Rights Reserved.

Alabastron as a symbol of divine protection

Bashar Mustafa
University of Damascus, member of interdisciplinary sciences and humanities group
(University of Granada), Francisco Dalmau St. 2, 3B. Postcode 18013 Granada, Spain
(bbmusta@gmail.com)

Received: 10/10/2014
Accepted: 27/11/2014

ABSTRACT

In 2009, during the construction of a new campus at the university in Tartous, Syria, a new tomb was
discovered. Inside the grave was a sarcophagus with three pieces of alabastron. In this paper we critically
discuss the value of this magisterial material and its role in funeral rites. The answer may depend on ritual
practice, in which this unique material was used as an aristocratic symbol, and by examining how this
remarkable object was used throughout the regions surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.

KEYWORDS: Syria, Phoenicia, Sarcophagus, Alabaster

40 Bashar Mustafa

1. INTRODUCTION dated to have originated between the ninth and

During the construction of the public University, eighth centuries BC., (López Castro 2010: 78, 79).
Tishrin, in the city of Tartous (Syria), workers found
a Dromos type tomb. The specific area in which it
was found is called Ras Al-Shagry, which is located
two kilometers from the coast, about 500metersnorth
of Al-Bassel Hospital. The site of Amrit is situated
four kilometres away.
The tomb was found September 14, 2009, during
the construction work to pave a natural elevation of
the area and to build a structure on the campus. The
entrance to the large, plain chamber where the sar-
cophagus was found is over six feet deep and faces
east (Fig. 1 upper). The cover of the coffin was semi
displaced as a consequence of looting. It contained
the remains of the grave goods, the skeletal remains,
three alabaster vases—ostensibly scrambled—and
two sheets of gold.
The news of the finding was sent to the scientific
community of the Antiquities in Tartous and a team
of specialists was immediately created. They were
responsible for the excavation, context, documenta- Figure 1. Side view of the sarcophagus (upper) and Alabastron
tion, and removal of the sarcophagus and its con- (lower)
tents. All artefacts were transferred to the Museum
of Tartous. Another group is more recent, and only repre-
sented by alabastron of small size, standing about
2. THE THREE ALABASTRONS eight to nine centimeters tall, with an estimated date
The three vases are of the same shape: a cylindri- of origin between the sixth and fifth centuries BC,
cal body, flat base, a slightly narrower neck, and as and a distribution that denotes a more local constitu-
lender, circular lip at the mouth formed by a straight, ency, always associated with funerary rites. The
flat, thickened edge, which opens to the same diame- three new pieces of alabastron, discovered inside the
ter as the body. Slight differences can be seen be- anthropomorphic sarcophagus at Ras Al-Shagry are
tween the three cases, especially in length—between considered a good example of this second group of
eight and nine centimeters—and a somewhat throt- alabastron shape.
tled neck. The surfaces are well polished, although in Other examples of alabastron of this period were
some cases strong calcareous concretions have creat- also found within different anthropomorphic sar-
ed a rougher surface (Fig. 1 lower). cophagi in Ain Hilwah necropolis Sidon, Lebanon
and currently reside in the Archaeological Museum,
3. ALABASTER VASE Beirut (Inv. No. 4379). Furthermore, in Cyprus, an-
other alabastron was found in a coffin. It is currently
Alabaster appeared in many places in the ancient located in the Aarchaeological Museum of Larnaca
Eastern, Central, and Western Mediterranean world, (Inv. No. 467), (Doumet 1996: 13, 14, 15; Frede 2000:
and can be divided into several groups. 27, 55, 86,139).
The basic group is composed of bulbous shaped It has been suggested that, chronologically and
vessels, associated with several pot containers, and is contextually, it coincides with the second phase of
characterized by a larger size. Further, their func- production of alabastron, playing the role of container
tions varied according to the region. For example, in shapes and essences, but, begins to appear carved in
Egypt alabaster vases were used to store wine or oil some anthropomorphic sarcophagi lids, represented
(Pellicer 2007: 48). However, in the Iberian Peninsula in the left hand of the figure carved in some coffins
they were used as funerary urns, perhaps for protec- around the Mediterranean Sea. So far, there have
tion of the deceased in the afterlife. This purpose is been found three examples of sarcophagi showing
considered to be of Egyptian origin, which for vari- one of the character's hands, which are always fe-
ous reasons migrated to the Iberian Peninsula male. Vases very similar to these alabastron sarcoph-
(López Castro 2010: 78, 79).These jars of alabaster, as agi have also been found elsewhere. (Almagro
the polls to which they are associated, have been Gorbea & Torres Ortiz 2010: 44).

SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, 1, 1 (2015) 39–42

Alabastron as a symbol of divine protection
The first one is a female sarcophagus discovered
in 1980 in Cádiz, Spain (Kukahn 1951), holding in
her left hand a piece of alabastron. It is currently ex-
hibited at the Archeological Museum of Cádiz (inv.
No. 09773/1). Another, the Woman of Palermo sar-
cophagus, discovered in 1725, is displayed at the
Archeological Museum, Palermo (Inv. No. 5630). It
also shows in her left hand the same type of
alabastron. Finally, a fragment of a sarcophagus from
the Maghart Tabloun necropolis in Sidon, Lebanon,
discovered in 1861, is on view at The Archeological
Museum of The Louvre (inv. No. 4970). (Almagro
Gorbea & Torres Ortiz 2010: 44), In its fragmented
condition, it cannot be determined with certainty if it
belongs to a male or female character, though some
features lead us to believe it to be a female character.
4. MATERIAL
Although the raw material does not change through
time, alabaster, depending on the period and the
area of transmission, in the first phase was reached
to by exchanges and relationships between members
of higher social stratum who occupied the main reli-
gious and administration posts below the royal fam-
ily (López Castro, 2010: 80). In the Middle East,
Egyptian alabaster vases were found in the palaces
of Sidon, Samaria, in Syria in Minet el Beida, near Ug-
arit, and according to Pliny, alabaster also came from
the region of Damascus in Syria. There is evidence of
the presence of this type of aristocratic material in
different parts of Syria (Pellicer 2007: 47-48). It is
likely that the three alabastrons located inside the Ras
Al-Shagry sarcophagus could have been produced
locally.
5. SOCIAL VALUE
Alabaster was used as a raw material for vessels and
sculptures, and has always been considered to be
exclusively for use for aristocratic or sacred offerings.
It was first used in Egypt during the time of the
Pharaohs, where only nobles had access and em-
ployed this kind of raw material in funeral rites
(Almagro Gorbea 2009: 23). A diversity of alabaster
vessels has been found in many royal necropolises in
northern Egypt, as in the royal Tanis necropolis
(López Castro 2010: 80). On the other hand, using
alabastron inside anthropomorphic Phoenician sar-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. This work was partially supported by
the 7th Framework Programme “Project Name” funded by the EU within the Reflective Societies Work Pro-
41
cophagi, or their representations on the iconography
of their caps, has been interpreted as symbolic or
ritual objects, and not as mere products of luxury.
Therefore they were used as containers for perfume
invoking the life force of the goddess Astraté/Tanit
(Lopez Rosendo 2005: 671; Almagro Gorbea & Torres
Ortiz2010: 45).
In the Middle East, during the eighth century BC.,
the consumption of scented oils was attested as a
common practice precisely in Ugarit (Doumet, 1996:
12). Just as in archaic Egypt, alabaster vessels are
considered to have contained scented oils (Lopez
Rosendo, 2005: 670, 672), therefore, the main value
was allotted to the vase containing the substance
(ibid: 670, 672), being also significant that the raw
material was manufactured with the container. The
funeral activities related to the cult of Astarte always
considered the incorporation of scented oils and in-
cense as part of the rituals (Lopez Rosendo, 2005:
670). Later, the sense of the value of the contents and
the container changed, evidenced by only the repre-
sentation of the alabastron in the character's hand
carved on the sarcophagus. This representation now
assumes the entire meaning of the offering, becom-
ing a symbol that contains a magical force: a sacred
invocation as the triumph over death for the royal
family (Doumet 1996: 13-14).
What was the reason for depositing three
alabastrons in one sarcophagus? There may have
been different types of scented oils or perfumes in-
volved in the ritual of preparing the corpse for burial
in the tomb. This is suggested by the few differences
among the three alabastron, focusing on the size of
them, though all were involved in accompanying the
deceased into the afterlife.So far, only one alabastron
was documented by sarcophagus.
6. CONCLUSION
Alabaster has always been considered a symbol of
wealth in antiquity, although its use and the forms of
containers have changed according to the periods
and cultures. However the use of this unique type of
mineral has always been considered a reflection of
the importance of the personage attached to these
objects, along with the presence of the alabastron in
the funeral world, as a symbol of hope in the resur-
rection of the dead.
SCIENTIFIC CULTURE, 1, 1 (2015) 39–42
 42 Bashar Mustafa

gramme 2014-2010. The authors would especially like to thank the personnel of the Research Centre for their
support and technical cooperation.

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