Italian government: “You took some photographs of ancient art!? PAY ME!”

Among the monuments of Mithras is CIMRM 584, a relief showing the tauroctony, Mithras killing the bull.  It was probably found in Rome, but is today in Venice, as part of the Zulian bequest.  I came across a photograph online, and added it to the catalogue of Mithraic monuments. While googling, I found another photograph […]

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From my diary

I’ve now returned working on the letter of Aurelius and Mizonius, to which the breviarium or summary of the canons of the council of Hippo was attached, and with which it is usually transmitted.  This is basically done, although I’ve had to look up a few phrases.  It was much easier to do, after spending so […]

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From my diary

Over the last few days I have been working on the static HTML files of the Tertullian Project.  My objective is to improve its metrics in the search engine race, but I have found much else to do. I’ve enabled HTTPS, as seems trendy today (and you get marked down for not having it). Most […]

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Did the priests of Isis have a cross marked on their foreheads?

In the museums of the world there are a number of Roman sculptures of a head, with particular characteristics.  The person depicted is completely bald, lacking even eyebrows.  Deeply incised upon the head, usually on the right but sometimes elsewhere, is a cross-shaped or X-shaped mark.  In some cases the mark is shaped like the […]

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From my diary

While under lockdown I have not been able to progress any of my projects very much.  I suspect the background strain is affecting us all.  Everyone is on edge, I notice.  But I am certainly more fortunate than most. After a break, I have started to nibble again at my translation of John the Deacon’s […]

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Did Aristocritus identify Zoroaster and Christ?

In a previous post here we discussed a medieval Christian Arabic collection of apocryphal oracles by pagan philosophers, predicting the coming of Christ.  Much of this material was discovered in 2007 by Andrew Criddle, who had a further suggestion relating to it, and what follows is his work.  I post it here because it should […]

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From my diary

I’ve been updating the Mithras site with images that people have sent me over the last year.  These go into the catalogue of monuments and inscriptions that I maintain, as and when I feel like it.  I’ve added an entry for the “new” Mithraeum at Ostia, which has been dubbed the “Mithraeum of the coloured […]

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Digging for gold: the archaeology of the internet and the “Electronic Journal of Mithraic Studies” (EJMS)

Back in the 1970s, following the international conferences on Mithraic studies, a rising young scholar named Richard L. Gordon created a journal specifically for Mithras studies.  He named it the Journal of Mithraic Studies, and got contributors, and supporters, and a publisher.  There was definitely a demand for such a journal, as somewhere to report […]

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The tomb of Aelia Arisuth in Libya

A few days ago a kind correspondent sent me details of the tomb of Aelia Arisuth, 8km west of Tripoli in Libya, which I have added to my digest of Mithras photographs.  It’s listed in the CIMRM as CIMRM 113.  The tomb contains two tomb niches, one for Aelia Arisuth herself, and one for her […]

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From my diary

A couple of busy days.  A look in the spam folder – Akismet is behaving erratically these days – revealed a week old but deeply interesting comment on the Printing banned by Islam? post from 2009.  I ended up adding a long extra section to the post, full of material about early Ottoman firmans – […]

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