Category Archives: Artifacts

“Temples and Ritual in Antiquity” SANE Symposium at BYU

If you’re new here, you may want to sign up for email alerts or subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for reading!David Larsen posted a great notice over at Heavenly Ascents of the upcoming “Temples and Ritual in Antiquity” Symposium that will be held at BYU on November 7th, 2008.  It is being presented [...]

“New Proposed Location for Solomon’s Temple” at Meridian Magazine

Tradition has held that Solomon’s Temple, the first permanent temple that the Israelites built in Jerusalem around 968 B.C. and destroyed around 587 B.C. by Nebuchadnezzar, was located on the same site as the modern-day Muslim mosque, the Dome of the Rock.  A new archaeological team made up of Garth Norman, Lance Harding, Jason Jones, [...]

Early Christian Face Veiling

I came across some references to early Christian ritual vestments this morning in Matthew Brown’s The Gate of Heaven.  He cited The Awe-Inspiring Rites of Initiation by Edward Yarnold, and The Archæology of Baptism by Wolfred N. Cote.  I looked up these references and they were intriguing in describing an early Christian practice of face [...]

Temple imagery in “Gabriel’s Revelation” Discovery

The scholarly world is aflutter over the latest discovery of a 3-foot tall tablet being called “Gabriel’s Revelation,” “Hazon Gabriel,” or the “Vision of Gabriel.”  It contains 87 lines of Hebrew text written in ink on stone, and has been dated to the first century BCE.  The tablet was found near the Dead Sea in [...]

The Degree Ceremonies of Oxford University - Part 4

(Continued from Part 3)
Some more tidbits of information from Wells’ The Oxford Degree Ceremonies that might interest you:

The oath or charge to “observe the ’statutes, privileges, customs and liberties’ of his university” and the accompanying affirmation “Do fidem” (”I swear”) are most likely over 700 years old, and initially were important to keep a unity [...]

Time and Eternity: An Egyptian Dualism

As I was researching for the posts on the ankh, I came across some information which was interesting, describing the Egyptian concept of “time” and “eternity.” These concepts almost seem repetitive and redundant to our modern way of thinking, but to the Egyptians each of these terms represented something concrete and distinct, and both were [...]

The Egyptian Ankh, “Life! Health! Strength!” - Part 3

(Continued from Part 2)
The ankh symbol appears frequently with several other hieroglyphics in certain formulas and invocations that immediately call our attention.  These are wedja, seneb, djed, & was.
This table summarizes the different possible explanations for these hieroglyphics that I have been able to find: 

The Egyptian Ankh, “Life! Health! Strength!” - Part 2

(Continued from Part 1, which has been updated)
As I mentioned in Part 1, the more interesting aspects of the Egyptian ankh are not necessarily what it means standing alone, but how the Egyptians used it in their texts and illustrations.
There are three principal ways that the Egyptians used the ankh symbol, by itself, in their [...]

The Egyptian Ankh, “Life! Health! Strength!” - Part 1

Egypt figures a central role in the religion of the ancient Near East, where much of our canon of scripture owes its narrative and existence to this locale.  Even the Book of Mormon tells us it was written in “reformed Egyptian” (Mormon 9:32).  The most interesting aspect, to me, is the adoption into Egypt of [...]

Palm up/Palm down in Middle Ages & Renaissance Christian Art

In response to a comment by Rick on my post “Consecrate = ‘A Filled Hand’ in Hebrew” I did some searching to see if I could find any commentary or studies of palm up/palm down symbolism in scholarship or art. What I found was interesting.  The palm up/palm down posture has a significant place [...]

Consecrate = “A Filled Hand” in Hebrew

One of our readers, Dr. Kathy Larsen, pointed out a scripture yesterday that intrigued me. It is Leviticus 21:10:
And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes;
There [...]

Possible Site of Early Christian Ritual Worship Discovered

An ancient cave discovered under one of the world’s oldest churches in Rihab, Jordan, may be a site of the earliest Christian worship to ever be found.  Archaeologists have dated the cave to between 33 A.D. and 70 A.D.
The Associated Press reports that the Rihab Center for Archaeological Studies says that this cave “shows evidence [...]

The Altar of Incense as an Altar of Prayer

Some of our critics have been quick to contend that our modern temples and practices have no relationship whatever to the temples of ancient Israel. This is a quick judgment indeed. If one is willing to open their eyes that they may hear, and their ears that they may see, then many marvelous [...]

Temple Worship among Post-Exile Jews

First of all I’d like to thank all those who have participated in the TempleStudy feedback that was posted yesterday. I have received a good number of responses, and most were very positive. Some even compared my methodology, albeit detrimentally, as similar to Hugh Nibley’s, for which I could not be more flattered. [...]

Newport Beach California Temple Interiors Video

Here is yet another excellent temple video, this time of the interior of the Newport Beach California Temple. It was compiled by a member of the church, mikebatie on YouTube, from official photos published by the Church, taken probably during the time of the open house of the temple before the dedication. The [...]

Olivewood: A Singular Bookstore

I can’t remember where I originally heard about the new Olivewood bookstore. It may have been in the Bloggernacle somewhere - perhaps FAIR. In any case, I had heard enough about this store that I decided that I had to visit it. It is located at 3330 N University Ave. Suite C [...]

King Charlemagne in Royal Apparel

This unique coin is from sometime between 742 and 814 A.D. and depicts Charles the Great, also known as Charlemagne, arrayed in his royal apparel. Matthew Brown describes it thus:
…wearing a crown, a pleated robe, and an apron that is decorated with a tree. The king also holds the sword, which in ancient times [...]

Early Byzantine Veil with Gammadia

Last night a reader referenced me to what appears to be a new blog by Bill Hamblin, a well-known LDS scholar and Associate Professor of History at BYU, and particularly about a post of his of a couple week ago. Dr. Hamblin talks about early Byzantine veils, and especially one that he has photographs of [...]

Crowns with Strings, Ribbons, & Lappets

There is an interesting passage, of many, in Matthew Brown’s study of the temple, The Gate of Heaven, that caught my attention with regard to ancient crowns:
It is not known exactly what type of crown was worn by the Israelite kings, but we do know that the high priest of the temple wore a crown [...]

Stonehenge: An Ancient Temple

A group of researchers has just begun a two-week excavation at the well-known Stonehenge site in England in an attempt to discover, once and for all, the meaning behind the mysterious ruins. According to current scientific dating, Stonehenge dates back to about 3000 B.C., but it has perplexed archaeologists for years as to the [...]