Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Digital Mishnah Project

http://dev.digitalmishnah.org/viewer/text/demo

From the home page:
The Digital Mishnah Project will provide users with a database of digitized manuscripts of the Mishnah from around the world, along with tools for collation, comparison, and analysis. This demo provides fully marked up transcriptions of twenty-two witnesses to a sample chapter, Bava Metsia ch 2, and illustrates basic functionalities. In a number of cases, the witnesses available for browse expand beyond the sample chapter to include all of Bava Qamma, Bava Metsi'a, and Bava Batra.

The browse function presents metadata and a rendering of the transcription that which can be viewed with their metadata and approximately as laid out in the original text.
The collate function allows for the detailed comparison of witnesses. At its core it runs a set of texts through CollateX, which aligns matching words ("tokens"). The Digital Mishnah site remerges this output with the original textual data and represents the results both as an alignment table, and as a text with critical apparatus. The user can determine the passage, the witnesses, and the order. Because we anticipate that a number of users will prefer a parallel-column ("synoptic") presentation, the collate page shows an arrangement of the selected passage arranged in parallel columns by witness in the user-specified order.

Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses

http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/amgg

AMGG has published through the University of Pennsylvania this resource for the pantheon and polytheism of the ancient NE. From the home page:
The Mesopotamian literary corpus is one of the oldest literatures in the world. It is infused with the divine, because religion played a crucial part in the way Mesopotamians expressed their thoughts about human life. Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic, with a pantheon consisting of hundreds if not thousands of gods of varying importance. This website offers information about the fifty most important gods and goddesses and provides starting points for further research.
From the "about" page:
The literary heritage of ancient Mesopotamia, the area roughly corresponding to the modern state of Iraq, is the oldest literature known to mankind. Many of the stories known from the Old Testament are rooted in older Mesopotamian myths, the most famous example being the flood story. In studying Mesopotamian literature and religion we can gain an insight into how ancient peoples imagined the world and coped with themes that are still relevant today: mortality and immortality, good and bad luck, order and chaos, and the unpredictability of the future.
Mesopotamian literature is infused with the divine. Religion played a crucial part in the way Mesopotamians expressed their thoughts about human life. Mesopotamian religion was polytheistic, with the Mesopotamian pantheon consisting of hundreds if not thousands of gods of varying importance. In ancient Mesopotamia, each city had a different patron deity. Each of the deities had different characteristics and peculiarities, such as the famous goddess Inana, later syncretized, i.e. merged, with the goddess Ištar. Inana/Ištar was the ancient goddess of love and war. She often created havoc because she tested the boundaries and limits of her power. This is best visible in the ancient Sumerian myth of Inana's Descent to the Netherworld, in which Inana tries to conquer the netherworld and with it death, but then brings procreation on earth to a halt. The god Enki then has to revive her so that normal life can resume on earth. But no one, not even a goddess, escapes death without paying a price: Inana has to find a substitute, who will go to the netherworld in her place. She comes upon her hapless husband Dumuzi, who far from mourning his wife's passing, is found celebrating. Dumuzi is then sent to the netherworld instead of Inana.
The complex mythology, or perhaps better mythologies, of ancient Mesopotamia cannot be understood without a basic insight into the functions and characteristics of Mesopotamian gods and goddesses. Thus, the god Enki, who also helped Inana and by extension the people, often helps mankind, for example in the Babylonian story of the flood. The flood story, well known from the Hebrew Bible, is attested in much older manuscripts from ancient Mesopotamia. The story of Atram-hasis, the Mesopotamian "Noah," is the original story of the flood, in which the god Enlil decides to destroy humanity, because the people annoy the gods with their noise. But Enki warns Atram-hasis and instructs him to build a boat that will help him survive the terrible flood.
Due to restrictions in space and funding, only the fifty most important deities could be included in this project. The entries are designed to serve as a starting point for further research. The learning aspects of this project are two-fold. First, it is designed to serve as a tool for independent learning, in particular for undergraduate students. Second, but no less important, is that the individual entries were written by PhD students of Assyriology at the University of Cambridge as an incentive to write concise but lively articles on the most important deities of Mesopotamian religion.

Timing, Development, and Feedback

The project began in November 2010 and this website went online in May 2011. Feedback is always welcome, please email amgg at oracc dot org.

Sponsors

The project was funded by a Teaching Development Grant from the UK Higher Education Academy's Subject Centre for History, Classics, and Archaeology in 2009-2010.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Encyclopedia of New Testament Textual Criticism

http://www.skypoint.com/members/waltzmn/#P

Actually, the full title of the home page is "A Site Inspired by the Encyclopedia of New Testament Textual Criticism."

It has hyperlinks to the terms covered, including an overview of textual criticism. Oddly, several basic terms are missing, e.g., lectio difficilior/facilior, primary canon.

Sunday, February 17, 2013

The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project

http://cal.huc.edu/

Hebrew Union College (Cincinnati) has just published what is sure to be a great resource for the Semitic studies.

From the site:

What is CAL?

A new dictionary of the Aramaic language, to be called The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon, has been in preparation by an international team of scholars since 1986, currently with headquarters at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. This major scholarly reference work will cover all dialects and periods of ancient Aramaic, one of the principal languages of antiquity, with a literature of central importance for history and civilization, and especially for the Jewish and Christian religions.

Why a New Lexicon?

Many dictionaries of some part of Aramaic exist, but individually and as a whole they are inadequate in important ways. Lexical treatment of Aramaic has been fragmented. Existing dictionaries treat one dialect, or one body of literature, but not the whole language. It is as though we had a dictionary of Shakespeare, and one of Hemingway, without having a dictionary of English! An additional hurdle in the path of users is that Aramaic dictionaries are written in an imposing variety of living and dead languages: not only English but also German, French, Russian, and Latin! Many of the existing dictionaries do not come up to modern standards of accuracy, and practically all are seriously incomplete and out-of-date. Practically every area of Aramaic studies has been enriched by recent discoveries: new inscriptions, new papyri, new scrolls, and new fragments from the Cairo Genizah, a synagogue store-room where a trove of manuscripts was discovered in the 19th century. These recently discovered materials demand inclusion in a lexicon.

A Comprehensive Lexicon

The new lexicon is to be comprehensive in the following ways: 1) it will take in all of ancient Aramaic, not just selected portions; 2) it will be based on a new and thorough compilation of all Aramaic literature, not just on existing dictionaries; 3) it will take account of all modern scholarly discussion of the Aramaic language.

Publication

(View current list of publications) The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon is to he published in book form, as a multi-volume set. In addition, the work of the project will lead to the compilation of textual, lexical, and bibliographic data bases which can be distributed and consulted through computers and related technology. Leading up to the lexicon volumes there have been and will continue to be a series of preparatory monographs, consisting of dialect dictionaries, manuals of procedure for the project, editions of texts with concordances, bibliographies, and the like. Our primary publisher is the Johns Hopkins University Press.

Project Support

The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon has received support in the form of outright grants and federal matching funds (requiring that the project raise equivalent funds from other sources) from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The National Endowment is a federal agency that funds the study of such fields as history, philosophy, literature, and languages. The project is also supported in part by private contributions and additional private and foundation support is being sought. Outsiode support is particularly needed at this crucial stage of citation collection.

The online Web Site

The current web site is a tool for scholarly research. It presumes that users are already familiar with the materials they are researching, and should not be misinterpreted as being a complete lexicon at this stage. Our intent is to put the actual lexicon online when at least 50% of all glosses are justified by extensive textual citations. When that occurs depends on funding levels.
 
For further information, please contact Prof. S. Kaufman. Please DO NOT send requests for for translations from Aramaic for engagement rings and tattoos!

Users please note: This online site is a work in progress and is constantly being corrected, updated, and augmented. IT SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED TO BE A COMPLETE DICTIONARY OF ARAMAIC UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Archaeological Survey of Israel (ASI)

http://www.antiquities.org.il/survey/newmap_en.asp#zoom=8.0000;xy:34.80852508545,31.298049926757

The ASI site features a grip over a map of Israel. Clicking one of the boxes in the grid brings information of the site including a history of excavation and bibliography. The site recommends Chrome as the browser, but even Chrome does not return satisfactory results. Perhaps the site is still tweaking the data.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Bullinger's Figures of Speech

http://archive.org/details/cu31924029277047

It's old, but it's still the definitive guide to figuration in the Bible; and it's an open access PDF (searchable) from the Cornell University Library. Bullinger's Figures of Speech Used in the Bible (New York: E. & J. B. Young, 1898).

Monday, February 11, 2013

Digital Karnak

http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/

Karnak is a truly fascinating place, and UCLA has made it easy to get a taste without leaving your home. The "Experience Karnak" tab, one of four on the home page, has links to an introduction, chrono-development of the structure, cultic information, and architectural information among others. There are a number of videos. The only weakness is that one would hope for more photographs of the various structures within the complex.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Bible History online

http://www.bible-history.com/links.php?cat=16&sub=41&cat_name=Ancient+Documents&subcat_name=Bible

This site has information as well as links to documents and photographs on biblical history. The categories are as follows:

Ancient Documents
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Israel
Ancient Near East
Ancient Other
Ancient Persia
Ancient Rome
Archaeology
Bible Animals
Bible Books
Bible Cities
Bible History
Bible Names A-G
Bible Names H-M
Bible Names N-Z
Bible Searches
Biblical Archaeology
Childrens Resources
Church History
Evolution & Science
Illustrated History
Images & Art
Intertestamental
Jerusalem
Jesus
Languages
Manners & Customs
Maps & Geography
Messianic Prophecies
Museums
Mythology & Beliefs
People - Ancient Egypt
People - Ancient Greece
People - Ancient Near East
People - Ancient Rome
Rabbinical Works
Second Temple
Sites - Egypt
Sites - Israel
Sites - Jerusalem
Societies & Studies
Study Tools
Timelines & Charts
Weapons & Warfare
World History

Bible Maps from Wayne Blank

http://www.keyway.ca/htm2002/keyway07.htm

As the name suggests, the site provides (rudimentary) maps for many ancient Near Eastern regions and villages/cities. Accompanying the maps are Scriptures pertaining to the toponyms.

Online Concordances: bible.gospel & bible.crosswalk

BibleGateway.com
http://www.biblegateway.com/
The site has a simple one-box search, but is searchable via translations in many modern languages and version (e.g., Arabic, English, Hindi) and some primary texts (e.g, Lenigrad Codex).

BibleStudyTools.com
http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/
The same applies to this site, except that the only ancient version appears to be the Vulgate.

Friday, February 8, 2013

SBL Seminary Papers

http://www.sbl-site.org/Meetings/AMseminarpapers.aspx

In lieu of the earlier, advanced release print versions of its seminar papers, SBL has made many available online. Some are in the form of audio files and some are PDFs. The papers are from the annual meetings, 2002-2010.

University of Oxford's Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI Wiki)

http://cdli.ox.ac.uk/wiki/doku.php

From the home page:
cdli:wiki represents the efforts of CDLI staff and collaborators to offer Assyriological tools for specialists in cuneiform studies, general content for informal learners, and information about the work flow of the project.
cdli:wiki is currently undergoing major revisions.
The articles will be arranged under five main categories placed in the navigation bar on the left: writing and language, history and chronology, archaeology, science and religion, and tools and resources. In the main column below we have placed a news feed (RSS) displaying recently added and updated articles from cdliwiki.
Important tools such as lists of year names and eponyms are found under the section "Chronology". Bibliographical resources, such as Abbreviations for Assyriology, are found under "Bibliographical tools".

The site has information on other Near Eastern languages as well.

Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period (RINAP)

The University of Pennsylvania has made available open-access a number of Royal Inscriptions from the Neo-Assyrian Period. The texts have the transliterated cuneiform on the left column and an English translation on the right. Clicking any of the transliterated text brings up various lexical information such as the period, written forms, nominalized forms, and frequency. Pop-up footnotes provide further information.

RINAP
Tiglath-pileser III
Shalmaneser V
Sennacherib
Esarhaddon
http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/corpus/

RINAP 1
Tiglath-pileser III
Shalmaneser V
http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap1/corpus

RINAP 3
Sennacherib
http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap3/corpus/

RINAP 4
Esarhaddon
http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap4/corpus/

There does not appear to be a RINAP 2.

More from the website:

Numerous royally commissioned texts were composed between 744 BC and 669 BC, a period during which Assyria became the dominant power in southwestern Asia. Six hundred to six hundred and fifty such inscriptions are known today. The Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period (RINAP) Project, under the direction of Professor Grant Frame of the University of Pennsylvania, will publish in print and online all of the known royal inscriptions that were composed during the reigns of the Assyrian kings Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BC), Shalmaneser V (726-722 BC), Sargon II (721-705 BC), Sennacherib (704-681 BC), and Esarhaddon (680-669 BC), rulers whose deeds were also recorded in the Bible and in some classical sources. The individual texts range from short one-line labels to lengthy, detailed inscriptions with over 500 lines (2500 words) of text.
These Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions (744-669 BC) represent only a small, but important part of the vast Neo-Assyrian text corpus. They are written in the Standard Babylonian dialect of Akkadian and provide valuable insight into royal exploits, both on the battlefield and at home, royal ideology, and Assyrian religion. Most of our understanding of the political history of Assyria, and to some extent of Babylonia, comes from these sources. Because this large corpus of texts has not previously been published in one place, the RINAP Project will provide up-to-date editions (with English translations) of Assyrian royal inscriptions from the reign of Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BC) to the reign of Esarhaddon (680-669 BC) in five print volumes and online, in a fully lemmatized and indexed format. The aim of the project is to make this vast text corpus easily accessible to scholars, students, and the general public. RINAP Online will allow those interested in Assyrian culture, history, language, religion, and texts to efficiently search Akkadian and Sumerian words appearing in the inscriptions and English words used in the translations. Project data will be fully integrated into the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) and the Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (Oracc).
The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the RINAP Project research grants in 2008, 2010, and 2012 to help carry out its work. The publications of the RINAP Project are modeled on those of the now-defunct Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia (RIM) Project and carry on where its Assyrian Periods sub-series (RIMA) ended.

Esarhaddon Text 98Images of Esarhaddon and his tutelary deities carved on a stele discovered at Zinçirli. Vorderasiatisches Museum, VA 2708 (Esarhaddon text no. 98). Drawing by Loretta James.