A Muscular Christian in Palmyra

Palmyra [Tadmor] 1872, 1874

Like a shrinking beauty, Tadmor sits in solitary grandeur behind her own desert mountains: and those who would see her in her calm retreat must leave the beaten tracks of tourists, and cross "the great and terrible desert."

During ten years, I had seen many tourists arrive at Damascus, eager as devotees to gaze on this queen of ruins ; but owing to the expense, danger, and general hardships of the journey, few of the multitude had been permitted to look upon her beauty. Of these few, fewer still had free leisure to become acquainted with all her charms.

I may consider myself the most fortunate of tourists, in that I twice succeeded in visiting Palmyra under the most favourable circumstances.... I shall take my readers by my latest route, through a region seldom explored.

So begins the account of the Reverend William Wright, a Presbyterian missionary  in Syria and a perfect example of 'muscular Christianity', that late Victorian British breed of manly men "going through the world with rifle in one hand and Bible in the other."

Eastern Gate, Damascus

The Presbyterian Church in Ireland had sent him to Damascus in 1865 as Missionary to the Jews.  Any Church which sought the salvation of the Jews was, they thought, bound to prosper. But, as always, the Jews were not very interested in being converted, and so instead Wright concentrated on bringing education to the poor.

Unlike many other missionaries, he believed that educating people in mathematics, geography, and Arabic was as important as studying the Bible.  He believed in education for women, and was proud that he had Moslem, Druze and Christian children sitting side by side in his classrooms.

When he returned to Britain, he published An Account of Palmyra and Zenobia with Travels and Adventures in Bashan and the Desert.  The first edition of this rare book has just been reprinted (with original photographs and engravings).* The Rev. Wright assures us, "This book was written partly in the saddle and partly in the tent, and almost wholly amid the scenes and adventures which it describes. It should therefore not be lacking in local colour."  

Truly, the missionary brings the world of late Ottoman Syria to life.  And these were dangerous times. 

During that spring [of 1874] the Bedouin plundered the whole eastern borders of Syria. Caravan after caravan with Baghdad merchandise was swept off into the desert.  Spearmen, like swarms of locusts from the east, spread over Jebel Kalamoun, and having slain the shepherds, and stripped any men or women who fell in their way, drove before them all the flocks and herds of the region.

Feeble fanaticism held sway in the city, and absolute anarchy reigned in the rural districts ; and so great was the terror of the peasantry, that, though they were actually starving, they could not move from their villages, except in large armed bodies, and even thus they sometimes fell a prey to the Ishmaelites.

In this state of the country, I had almost given up my [plan], when two daring explorers, the Honourable C. F. P. Berkeley and wife, arrived in Damascus. Coolness and courage had carried them safely through Petra and Karak, and all the trans-Jordanic regions, where they were sometimes beset with savage and furious mobs. Their faces were set towards Tadmor [Palmyra], and the prospect of danger only gave a keener zest to the projected tour. The season was already far advanced for making the journey to Palmyra, and so we resolved to start at once. 

Wright's Account tells the wonderful story of his lengthy stay among the ruins of Palmyra and his later travels in the Bashan (the rough and rocky basalt terrain nowadays known as the Hauran).  It is partly a tale of adventure, partly of his missionary efforts, and partly of his own archaeological research -- for the good reverend was also a  fine linguist and could read ancient inscriptions in Palmyrene Aramaic, Syriac, Hebrew, Hittite, and Egyptian Hieroglyphs as well as, naturally enough, Greek and Latin.**

It was not, however, a great time to be travelling in Syria.  The Ottoman empire in its dotage was corrupt and violent. Heavy Turkish taxes on the peasants led to famine whereupon the Bedouin attacked and robbed those who remained. As Wright comments, "These spoilers follow on each others heels, and that which the Turkish caterpillar leaves, the Bedouin locust devours."

He also gives a vivid account of a caravan raid.  The Bedouin he describes are very different from the desert dwellers of romantic fiction.  What had happened was this:

The caravan was conducted by the hardy villagers of Jebel Kalamoun, who were bringing provisions for their families from the Euphrates, and they had, besides, Persian carpets, and tobacco and other valuable merchandise for Damascus.... [W]ith the first onset, the Bedouin cut off and captured a number of stragglers. The remainder of the caravan was then drawn up in a circle, and the camels were tightly bound together in a living rampart, from behind which the villagers fired on their assailants.

The Arab force consisted of about twenty horsemen, accompanied by forty dromedaries, each carrying two armed riders.  The Bedouin ... galloped round and round the circle, making a feint here and an attack there, till the villagers were weary of rushing round their rampart, and their ammunition was exhausted. Thus they continued hour after hour, till near sunset, when a wounded camel staggered and fell, and broke the line.  Quick as lightning, the Bedouin rushed in at the breach, the camels started off in all directions, and the active horsemen, with their flashing spears, decided the victory in a few minutes.

The Bedouin took possession of, and carried off, all that the caravan contained—120 loads of butter and an enormous number of donkeys, mules, camels, horses, and arms, valued at £ 4000. In addition to this they stripped all the travellers, and left them naked in the blazing desert. They even stripped the dead. 

Not surprisingly, in the face of such dangers, Wright recruited a large company of guards from the irregular Syrian police and some Turkish soldiers for his journey to Palmyra.  Despite some close calls on the road, all was not glum.  We get a glimpse of his crew being attacked by a mischievous mule.

The gentleman in the pith helmet is the Rev. William Wright.  His unsheathed sword does not impress the mule who is swinging about three 30-foot [10 m] ladders to its own great delight:

A Turkish soldier who had got a [ladder] punch in the back, rushed up valiantly to chastise the "father of ladders," as the mule was called; but before he reached the object of his wrath a sweep of the ladders unhorsed him, to the great amusement of all the spectators. 

They resumed the march to Palmyra. As they approached, ruins on surrounding hilltops rose into view, and beyond the final pass, they could see the tops of the colonnades within. Perhaps there is no view of Palmyra which gives so much excitement as this.

On the left, the yellow mountains towered over [the city]; and on the right, green gardens of palm and olive surged around it.  On the outer side, these gardens are girt by the desert, which stretches away to the horizon, smooth as the sea, and the yellow sands, which shimmer golden in the sunlight, are flecked by the silver sheen of extensive salt lakes

They begin their descent, thrilled with expectancy and delight.

As we swept through the pass, Tadmor lay beneath us; and its ruins, which seemed graceful and fantastic as frostwork on glass, stretched out for more than a mile before us, and ended in the massive Temple of the Sun.

This is what the missionary saw: 

As we approach it in front, we see, over the patched and broken walls, columns standing, and leaning about at every angle, as though the temple enclosure were a huge lumber-yard of columns. Around the outer wall is a deep ditch, and the entrance is reached by a raised causeway flagged with broad stones, among which I recognized a panelled stone door. The sheikh and a crowd of his people are sitting on stones in the gate. Camels and mules pass in and out, and women with jars of water on their heads, and babies on their shoulders.

Within, we find the whole area of the temple filled with clay-daubed huts, so that we can only get an idea of the place by climbing over them. We pass on straight to the Holy of Holies, which we explore with our handkerchiefs held to our noses, for the inmost shrine is the cesspool of the community.

We hurry out to the fresh air; but it is not fresh, for all the offal and filth of the houses are flung out into the narrow lanes, and lie rotting in the sun. Wherever we go among these human dens there reek filth and squalor, and the hot pestiferous atmosphere of an ill-kept sty.

Of course, the intrepid Doctor of Divinity does not lose heart.  Look up, dear sir, look up!

Towers of Death

He next tackles the lofty funeral towers. The long ladders carried by that obstreperous mule were hauled to the towers along with stout ropes and grappling-irons.  Earlier travellers had been unable to explore the structures due to lack of such equipment.

Even so, it looked daunting:

I shall never forget the consternation with which I first saw the tomb-towers. There they towered up to heaven, more than one hundred feet [30 m] high, most of them horribly cracked and toppling over; even the stones seemed rotten. And was I to throw a grappling-hook over those lofty pinnacles, and commence slack-rope practice up those "bowing walls," which were only waiting for an excuse to fall ?

But what's the use of being a muscular Christian if you don't give it a try? The towers turned out to be surprisingly accessible.

We began quietly with the smallest towers, and proceeded steadily to the largest, and in less than three hours of hard work, we had thoroughly explored them all. I stood on the top of every tower, and we had only twice recourse to the ladders; and even then I think we might have dispensed with them. The ropes were used for measuring, and the grappling-irons were not used at all.

Immense treasures, especially works of art, were alleged to have been found in such tombs, but any such valuables were long gone: 

I can now assure all those who sighed to explore the upper stories of the tomb-towers, and whose imaginations revelled in their undisturbed treasure, that the highest recesses had been ransacked before I scaled them, and that nothing remained but a few mutilated mummies and a great number of bones and skulls.

Zenobia in Palmyra

Like most other 19th century learned gentlemen, Wright had great faith in the credibility of the Roman historians.  He had read them all, in Latin and Greek, and believed implicitly what they told him about Zenobia, her womanly graces and accomplishments, her vast learning and martial bearing.  In addition to the historians, Wright was able to read the Palmyrene inscriptions, several of which mentioned Zenobia and her warrior husband, Odenathus.  With slight scepticism, he also adds information culled from what he calls 'the living tradition' of Sitt Zeinab (Lady Zenobia), the tales told by the current inhabitants of Palmyra -- as if these impoverished Arabs were direct descendants of Zenobia's people:

For much of the traditions to which I attach weight, I am indebted to the late Lady Ellenborough, who spent a great deal of time at Palmyra, and busied herself in weaving together the local stories regarding the great desert queen. Chiefly from this source I derived my information regarding Zenobia's military camps, and the routes by which her armies marched to meet Aurelian.

With this grand story in mind, he begins his search for the statue of Zenobia. He offers the workmen a 5-piastre reward if they can find her head.

And how the descendants of the proud Tadmorenes delved in the debris of the beautiful city for the head of the illustrious queen that once ruled the East, and set at defiance the Romans! The diggers strained every nerve and muscle to secure the reward!

Suddenly, while on a ladder examining inscriptions, Wright hears a tremendous yell burst from the excavators, a shout of triumph, "We have got the head of Sitt Zeinab!" shouted the chief of the party, holding a large stone in his hands. It was the head of a Palmyran lady with carefully folded turban (left) which had clearly been broken off a statue.  She wore a broad jewelled band across the forehead, and other bands extended from the middle of the forehead downwards toward the ears, with jewels in each. The head was not as grand as Wright expected, and it was considerably battered.

I was reconciling myself to it with the reflection, that perhaps, like heroes generally, the heads of female statues are less impressive on close inspection, when another yell of triumph ... made the ruins of old Palmyra resound again.  Nothing like it had been heard since the day that the Tadmor cavalry, with Zenobia in glittering armour at their head, drove [the Persian Emperor] Sapor the Great, across the Euphrates.

My excavators, seeing that I was pleased with their find, as I was tenderly removing the sand of ages from the folds of the turban, and doubtless thinking that I ought to be encouraged, had delved deeper and brought to the surface the female head of another statue (left).

There are circumstances, as the Rev. Wright wryly remarks, under which one may have too much of a good thing.

In the end, he was left with the tantalizing inscription  honouring Zenobia and her missing statue that he had been copying while his workers searched for the head -- which is virtually all we still have of her even today.  From his translation of the Palmyrene:

The statue of Septimia, the daughter of Zabbai, the pious and just queen, The Septimii Zabda, General-in-Chief, and Zabbai, General of Tadmor, Excellencies, have erected it to their sovereign, in the month of Ab, the year 582 [= August 271 A.D.]

and in Greek:

Septimia Zenobia, the illustrious and pious queen.

* My warm thanks to Dr Maria Nilsson, currently resident in Luxor, Egypt, for bringing this reissue of Wright's Account of Palmyra and Zenobia to my attention.  I also thank  the publisher, Forgotten Books, for generously offering a temporary free download in e-book form (unfortunately, this offer has now expired). The text with better quality illustrations is available free of cost at University of Washington's Electronic Text Archive but without the charm of reading Forgotten Books' classic reprint.

For the earlier visit of Robert Wood and his friends James Dawkins and John Bouverie to Palmyra in 1750-1753, see the post at The Lure of the East; and the work of their Italian artist and architect in A Short Tribute to Giovanni Battista Borra. 

** Rev. Wright was an active member of the Society of Biblical Archaeology and of the Palestine Exploration Fund and author of several highly serious books. From 1876 he was Editorial Superintendent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, where his aid to translators of the Revised New Testament was of the highest value. He died on July 31st, 1899. Obituary here.

Illustrations: all from University of Washington,  Electronic Text Archive. By kind permission and in accordance with their requirements.
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THE PRESENCE OF THE PAST

As an archaeologist, I love it when the present intersects with the past -- or, even better, when the past erupts into the present -- so I'll go a bit off topic today and tell you about a fantastic new exhibition by the Dutch artist Gerti Bierenbroodspot.  Since I'll be helping the artist install the show, there won't be any other postings until after the opening.

The Presence of the Past: Lost Archaeological Worlds 

2 October 2011 - 31 December 2011

It opens next week at Castle (in Dutch, Slot) Zeist.

What's a modern artist doing in the Baroque country palace of Count Willem Adriaan van Nassau (Slot Zeist)?

It happened like this.

When Bierenbroodspot was shown around the palace built by the bastard Count (for such he, sadly, was), she saw a suite of rooms -- ungilded, unembroidered, and unsilked, a great rarity in the lavish palace -- and pictured in her mind's eye the bare bones of an archaeology in the making.  It would be a place, no less, where the gold of her own paintings would find an inspired home. 

So, first, she transformed three stately 17th century rooms into an imagined excavation ground. 

Sand and rocks from the desert frame treasures brought back from her travels in the Middle East and North Africa.  

The visitor peers into a pyramidal case set on stilts, 1.60 m high (5'3"), and higher still in the next room, and the next, so you see the peaks rising as you pass from room to room.  Each is filled with tumbled masonry and shattered stones, sculptures thrown together haphazardly by time and history.

These are the milestones marking her journeys across Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and the trouvailles of a decade's habitation in an old caravansarai -- her own 'high place' -- above the site at Petra in Jordan.*   

Now picture yourself walking into an undiscovered tomb just as the sun first strikes what is fallen in the dust some millennia ago.  Look up: those are the storied places picked out on the walls, pinpoints of light in the darkened rooms, Bierenbroodspot's paintings inspired by voyages in these magical lands. 

Out of the chaos of happenstance, the works of art come into the blinding light.

The Emperor's Dream, tempera on canvas, 3.5 x 2.0 m [11.5'x 6.6']: Bierenbroodspot 2011

 
Imagine, now, reversing the arrow of time, as if looking through the Hubble telescope, and the distant past is transformed into a future space.  That is Bierenbroodspot's wondrous world, full of revelation, amazements, and mystery.  These are the living, dreaming spaces that Bierenbroodspot recreates in The Presence of the Past.

Paintings and sculpture: some nitty gritty background

Bierenbroodspot’s paintings are grounded in gesso (liquid lime mixed with Arabic gum) which dries to a hard fresco-like surface. Underlayers of green umber and dark blue indigo give the canvas as much a sculptural as painted texture. Gold mica flakes and black mica flakes are worked in layers of paint and scraped with a palette knife. 

Bierenbroodspot uses gold as a colour, gilding in a way never done before. The gold is translucent, not glittering, a colour like an unearthly strong yellow ochre.

Just as the artist is bringing a more sculptural quality into her paintings she is painting her sculpture, as the ancients did, breaking down the barriers between dimensions. 

Stones of white or flushed palest rose alabaster absorb the colours: murex purple, red sand, lapis lazuli, oils of ultramarine or emerald green, metallic paints (iridescent silver or bronze). Bierenbroodspot says,

My stones must pulsate with life – it does not matter any more what form, what style: only the material and the magic is a personal choice.

Bronze Sculptures

Bronze casting is a technical affair in which at least four or five different specialists take part: and most modern sculptors usually leave it all up to them -- they don't even watch while their bronze statues are being made.

Arslantepe (SE Turkey), Painted bronze, 2010

But she does.  Bierenbroodspot is at home with the sounds of chisels and the clanging hammers of burr-removers, the smells of hot wax, hot metal, stearine, fish glues, acids, and plasters.  She puts her own varnishes onto plaster moulds with mysterious markings and seams:

It is that thread of mystery -- the alchemy of the bronze process that is unchanged over time.

The artist transforms something silent and vanished into what is marvellous and beautiful. This is a parallel world, a place that may once have existed in time, been inhabited and gone. Descending through layer and layers of time, the one appears in the light of the other. They fit together perfectly. And together, they become something totally different.



Time Travel in Blue

As a backdrop to the exhibition, a film of the artist's theatre performance, Time Travel in Blue (previewed earlier this year at the Park Theatre, Alphen a/d Rijn) will be shown in the cinema at Slot Zeist.** The event features Bierenbroodspot, composer/cellist Ernst Reiseiger, percussionist Alan Ganga-Purvis, and Senegalese singer Mola Sila, with fashion-diva Fong Leng as the goddess Inanna. 

More Time Travelling With the Artist

A new book by Bierenbroodspot, The Presence of the Past, has just been published by Bekking & Blitz (specialist publishers of museological and historical works) to coincide with the occasion of the exhibition at Slot Zeist.  

I've swiped this text from the book's back cover:

This is the live journal of Dutch artist Gerti Bierenbroodspot’s journeys into the timeless ancient world.

Bierenbroodspot brings her ‘iconic landscapes’ to life with hundreds of new, unpublished photographs of her years living and working in the deserts of Egypt, Libya, and Syria, and at her caravanserai beside the rose-red city of Petra in Jordan. These are pictures of her Time Travels, the objects and adventures and dreams that she takes with her into her studio. 

160 pages, full-colour, published October 2011 

And, finally, a sneak preview....

Memories of Libya

A second art adventure will take place in Amsterdam when Bierenbroodspot opens her show, 'Memories of Libya' at the Morren Gallery.

These are her contemplative memories of travels in pre-revolutionary Libya and the many weeks spent in her makeshift studio opposite the entrance to Lepcis Magna.  The ruined city was for her like a giant sculpture-garden, a paradise of carved stone, giant in proportions and symmetry. Granite columns with white marble Corinthian capitals cast dark shadows onto crumbled walls clad in slabs of swirling onion-skin (cippolini) marble....

16 October - 20 November 2011.
Prinsengracht 572, Amsterdam

*Bierenbroodspot was knighted by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 1999 (Order of the Netherlands Lion) as the latest in the line of great Dutch artists who travelled and worked in the East. King Hussein of Jordan made her a Knight of the Hashemite Kingdom in recognition of her contributions to European-Jordanian relations (1995). She is also an honorary citizen of the city of Baalbeck in Lebanon.

** Director Erik de Goederen, Blikvanger Produkties, Linschoten.



Illustrations

Upper left: photo credit Michiel1972 at nl.wikipedia [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], from Wikimedia Commons

Paintings and sculpture © Bierenbroodspot
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Hatshepsut and the Turin Papyrus Map

This is probably the world's oldest topographical map. 

It was drawn about 1150 BCE by an Egyptian scribe named Amennakhte who prepared it for a quarrying expedition into the Wadi Hammamat ('Valley of Many Baths') in the middle of the Eastern Desert.  The map shows a 15-kilometre (9.5-mile) stretch of the wadi and its surrounding hills.  The fragment pictured above -- at the far left of the 280 cm (9'2") long papyrus -- shows the ultimate destination of the journey: the quarry (where they extracted a beautiful grayish-green stone to carve into statues of gods, king, and nobles), a gold mine, a small settlement, and a temple dedicated to the god Amun (the large white area in the middle subdivided by walls).  Our scribe helpfully labelled the map's main features; for example, he tells us where the roads lead to, notes the distance between quarry and mine, and gives the locations of more scattered gold deposits in the hills. Unlike modern maps, however, the top of the map is orientated to the south-west; that is, to the source of the Nile river in Nubia, so we have to read it more or less upside down. 

While the scribe's map was chiefly intended to be a guide to the gold mines and quarry, he also carefully indicated three separate roads that ran all the way from the Nile Valley, past the quarries and mines, onwards to the shores of the Red Sea (called Yam on his map).  

The first of the roads is labelled 'The road that leads to Yam", which heads southeast towards the port of Quseir (now a scuba-diving hot-spot on the Red Sea Riviera; approx. at number 17 on the map).  The second road is simply 'Another road that leads to Yam"; exact destination unknown.  The third road is described as "road of Ten-pa-mer", which means "the road belonging to the harbour'.

That's the road we want! 

For that is the road leading to the harbour of Saww/Mersa Gawasis on the Red Sea.  As we now know, this port was the jumping-off point for deep-sea voyages to Punt, some 1,200-1,300 km (800 miles) away to the south.  Punt itself has only been recently located -- thanks to some cutting edge science -- in what is now Eritrea: that's how Hatshepsut comes into this story, for it was she who sent the most famous naval expedition to Punt (read all about that voyage at Eti, the Eritrean Queen of Punt?). 

One of Hatshepsut's Punt ships setting sail, with red-painted Egyptian men at the oars and Red Sea fish in the waters beneath

That expedition made it possible for the female pharaoh to boast:

                 My southern boundary is as far as the lands of Punt.

But she was not the first ruler to send a fleet to the very edge of the known world.  Egyptians were sailing from Sww/Mersa Gawasis long before her time.  First to take the plunge was Senusret I (ca 1956-1911 BCE), the second king of the 12th Dynasty who left a record of his achievement at Saww.*

The Harbour of Saww

Mersa Gawasis is located on a fossil coral terrace at the northern end of Wadi Gawasis, above what is now the dry remains of an ancient bay that once flowed through a channel into the Red Sea.  When Senusret's men were here, the site was a sheltered lagoon, lush with mangroves, and deep enough for launching large ships to sail the Red Sea. Over the intervening millennia, 3 metres (9') of sand blew onto and covered the terrace slopes. After the sand heaps were removed, archaeologists discovered eight man-made caves cut about 20 metres deep into the terrace which had been used as harbour storerooms and workshops -- all much as they were left almost 4,000 years ago.**

Even before exploring the caves, there was evidence that Middle Kingdom sailors were putting out to sea from this harbour in their quest for the fabulous goods to be found at Punt -- myrrh, ebony, gold, ivory, live baboons, and exotic animal skins.  An inscribed stela with the name of Senusret's vizier, Intef-iker, found in a shrine described ships built on the Nile at Coptos in Upper Egypt for a voyage to Bia-Punt ('the mines of Punt'***) involving more than 3,200 men.  Those sea-going ships must have been dismantled for transport and carried by men and donkeys more than 150 km (95 miles) along the wadi routes of the eastern desert and then reassembled at the port. 

More inscriptions were awaiting discovery.

Outside Cave 2, twelve niches cut into the rock once held inscribed stelae. One such stela was carved with an offering scene to the god Min ('lord of the eastern desert') and bore a cartouche with the royal name of Pharaoh Amenemhat III (ca 1831-1786 BCE).  Under the god's image, the text recorded an expedition led by two royal officials to Punt.

Not to be outdone, the cartouche of his successor, pharaoh Amenemhat IV (1786-1777 BCE), was found on one of 43 wooden cargo boxes.  Covered with gypsum plaster to protect its contents, an inscription in black ink, written on the box's side, (above left) described its contents as ... the wonderful things of Punt. 

But even greater treasures were now about to be found....

Hatshepsut's Ali Baba Cave

This is what the archaeologists saw after they had cleared over 6 metres ( 17') of windblown sand from the entrance to Cave 2.  

Two large wooden objects hove into view -- curved cedar steering-oar blades, each over 2 metres long.  This may not look like much to normal people but it's quite enough to set an archaeologist's heart going pitter-patter. The oars may be the very ones used on one of the 21-meter-long (70') ships taking part in Hatshepsut's own 15th-century naval expedition to Punt. Well-preserved and intact, the oars are the first complete parts from a sea-faring ship ever to have been found in Egypt.  Near the oars were found pieces of pottery dating from 1500 - 1400 B.C.

As the excavations continued, the archaeologists discovered more ship timbers, including a complete deck-level beam (3.29 m long, 0.28 wide, and 0.18 thick), planks and decking, and their fastenings.  The precisely-bevelled deck beams, hull planks, and copper fittings belong to the oldest deep-sea vessels ever found anywhere.  Extensive damage to the planks by marine worms or borers provide irrefutable evidence of seafaring.

Clearing the Decks 

The finds suggest that Punt ships were being disassembled outside the caves.  

What seems to have happened was this.

After a successful voyage, ships anchored on the lagoon's edge below the cave terraces.  As the cargo was unloaded, shipwrights inspected the hulls, marking damaged timbers with red paint (traces of which remain).  Shipbreakers then dismantled the hulls, pulling planks off the ship, and carried the timbers into the caves.  There, they cleaned the planks and prepared them for storage or  recycling, or even to be used as fuel for cooking or warmth.

Anchors Away

About 25 limestone anchors (left) have been found, the largest ones weighing as much as 55 kg (120 lbs).  The white limestone used for their manufacture comes from a quarry about 10 km (6.2 miles) to the west of the harbour.  Those anchors which can be dated to the Middle Kingdom are the oldest certain anchors yet known from Egypt.  

Sailing means sails and rigging, too.  Completing the marine equipment in the caves are fragments of linen (cf.: the square sails pictured on Hatshepsut's ships [above] almost certainly of linen) as well as rigging ropes, and hanks of marine rope.

Money for old rope

About 30 coils of ship rope were found neatly laid and knotted on the floor of Cave 5 (left).

High-quality rope was expensive in ancient Egypt  A coil of ship's rope 100 cubits long (45-50 m; 165') would have cost a silver deben -- equal to the price of two fine cattle.  Why did the sailors leave so much valuable rope behind?  Perhaps its worth was diminished by several months at sea.  Yet the ropes had been carefully coiled lengthwise and wound in the middle as to allow easy storage for future use -- a technique for storing long ropes still used nowadays to prevent them from getting entangled.  This suggests either that there were not enough bearers to carry it back to the Nile ... or that they had intentionally left the rope ready for an anticipated future sea-going operation. 

But, as far as we know, the sailors didn't come back.  For reasons unknown, after Hatshepsut's time they never returned to these caves at the port of Saww.




* Earlier expeditions to Punt took place but we don't know their port(s) of departure.  The oldest known expedition was organized by Pharaoh Sahure of the 5th dynasty (2458-2446 BC). Around 1950 BC, in the time of King Mentuhotep III, 11th dynasty (2004-1992 BC), an officer named Hennu and three thousand men from the south transported material for building ships through Wadi Hammamat and on to Punt.  Did either expedition leave from Mersa Gawasis?  There are neither inscriptions nor pottery to suggest such early voyages in the areas excavated.

** Excavations since 2001 have been under the direction of the Archaeological Expedition of the University of Naples "l'Orientale" and Italian Institute for Africa and Orient (IsIAO), Rome, in collaboration with Boston University.  The final report on the 9th season can be found at Archaeogate.

*** The location of Bia-Punt is unknown.  It's thought to lie somewhere in the north of Sudan, perhaps near today's Port Sudan.


My thanks to the journalist Angelika Franz, whose article, 'Das sagenhafte Goldland Punt' in bild der wissenschaft  09/2011, stimulated my interest again in Saww/Mersa Gawasis.  Also, have a look at the Min of the Desert project, which has reconstructed an ancient Egyptian seagoing ship using ancient techniques, many suggested by the Mersa Gawasis finds.


Other main sources include J.P. Delgado, 'Nautical and Maritime Archaeology, 2006-2007 Seasons', AJA 112, 2008, 307- 309; Abel Monem A.H. Sayed, "The Land of Punt: Problems in the Archaeology of the Red Sea" in Hawass & Pinch Brock (eds), Egyptology at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century, Cairo, 2003, 432-439; J.A. Harrell, the Turin Papyrus Map From Ancient Egypt, University of Toledo, Ohio website; C. Ward & C. Zazzaro, 'Evidence for Pharaonic Seagoing Ships at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis, Egypt,' International Jrl of Nautical Archaeology (2009). 

Illustrations

Top centre: left half fragment of Turin map.  Photo credit: J. Harrell (via Wikipedia)

Upper left: map of Red Sea area via Geology Magazine

Middle centre: A relief at the temple of  Hatshepsut in Thebes, carved ca. 1480 B.B., showing a merchant ship on the trading expedition to Punt. Vessel artifacts match this depiction. Photo credit: Stephane Begoin via Discover Magazine.

Lower middle left: Cave entrances on terrace, via Memphis Tours Egypt Blog

Next left: Inscribed wooden cargo box via Archaeogate

Lower centre: Steering-oar blades exposed on a deep deposit of windblown sand in the entrance to Cave 2. Photo credit: Ward & Zazzaro 2010, Fig. 2

Next left: Anchor and associated ceramics in WG 36 via Archaeogate

Lowest left: Coils of rope in Cave 5 via Archaeogate

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Mistress and Commander, Royal Navy

Warship Ahoy!

A woman is to command a frontline warship for the first time in the 500-year history of the Royal Navy.

For most of history, the Royal Navy saw fit to allow women to serve only as carved figureheads or by lending their names to military vessels. But now the navy is set to hand command of a major warship to a female officer.

Lieutenant-Commander Sarah West, 39 (left), is to take control of HMS Portland in April 2012, a 5,000-ton Type 23 frigate that is prepared for 'total warfare'. 

To be selected to drive a front line operational Frigate is an honour for any Officer, and there is no doubt in my mind that Lt-Cdr West both deserves this opportunity and will be the first of many women to take on the challenge (comment of a female ex navy officer).

Her appointment is a remarkable achievement because women were not even allowed to go to sea with the Navy until 1990.  The fact is that all the jibes made in the early Nineties, when women were permitted to sign up for most areas of active service across the Forces, have proved unfounded. There hasn’t been a crisis over women’s loos and it seems they can also find reverse gear.  The Senior Service now has 620 female officers, and Wrens (Women's Royal Naval Service) make up ten per cent of an average warship's company. 

Until now, women naval officers have only taken charge of small ‘non-fighting’ ships. Lt-Cdr West herself has captained four minehunters – including her current ship Pembroke – which only carry weapons for self-defence. Whereas the Portland (below) carries surface-to-surface missiles for tackling ships, surface-to-air missiles for shooting down aircraft and a helicopter for hunting and destroying submarines.  It also carries a 4.5in gun, Stingray anti-submarine torpedoes and is bristling with radar and sonar devices to guide its weapons and help with navigation.

A spokesman for the Royal Navy dismissed suggestions that they had caved in to political correctness by appointing a woman to captain such a powerful ship.

Lt-Cdr West will have responsibility for potentially taking a crew of young sailors in a state-of-the-art warship costing hundreds of  millions of pounds into a warzone, a senior source said. She is hardly going to be entrusted with that purely as a token gesture.

 Sarah West was born in Lincolnshire and studied mathematics (honours) at the University of Hertfordshire before entering Britannia Royal Naval College in 1995.  She joined the Royal Navy as a warfare officer and also took a law degree while on active service in the Middle East. She is an expert in large-scale naval planning, mine clearance, weapons-systems and underwater warfare. Before you ask, Lt-Cdr West is unmarried.  Undoubtedly, she's been occupied elsewhere.  As a woman captain recently described her own experience of leading a ship: "It was like having a lot of brothers who are fun to be around but also can be really annoying at times."

Lt-Cdr West will be promoted Commander at the end of 2011 and will take over the Portland next April -- the first 'Mistress and Commander' of a warship in the Royal Navy's history.

Congratulations, Maam; fair winds and following seas to you!



My thanks to IntLawGrrls for first notice of Lt-Cdr West's appointment (with a warm nod to their foremother, the female pirate, Grace O’Malley) And a reminder of our post in March 2008 celebrating the first female 4-star general in the US Army: 'Thumbs Up for an Uppity Four-Star Woman, Sir!'

Sources for this post: Sarah West, Wikipedia; Martin Wainwright, 'Royal Navy appoints first female warship commander', Guardian.co.uk, 8 Aug. 2011;  Rowan Pelling, 'Women pilots were not just a flight of fancy',  Telegraph, 9 Aug. 2011;  Ian Drury, 'On the bridge, first woman to command one of our warships', MailOnline, 8 Aug. 2011;  John Kay, 'Woman to run a navy warship for 1st time ever', The Sun , 21 Aug. 2011.

Illustrations

Top left: Lt Cdr Sarah West. Photograph: Ben Sutton/PA (via MailOnline, above)

Centre: HMS Portland returning to its home port of Plymouth. BBC Devon 16 Nov. 2010
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The Little Queen at Hadrian's Wall

Once upon a time, a little queen married a man from Palmyra at Hadrian's Wall. 

At Hadrian's Wall?

Well, only a stone's throw away.

To wit, at the Roman fort of Arbeia.  On the North East coast of England, just beyond the end of Hadrian’s Wall, Arbeia was the easternmost garrison fort on the Wall.  Originally built during the reign of Hadrian c. 129 CE, it guarded a small seaport at the mouth of the River Tyne near its outlet into the North Sea (nowadays South Shields)

The Gatehouse Reconstruction
viewed from across the principia

The wooden fort was rebuilt in stone in the 160s. Around the end of that century, it was further transformed into a supply base: all the barracks in the northern half of the fort were pulled down and replaced by granaries. Arbeia could now hold enough grain to supply more than 40,000 men for three months.  A good supply system was one of the foundations of the Roman army's phenomenal success. Bulky stores and equipment would be ferried up the east coast, perhaps from the legionary base at York, and then distributed under military supervision along the Wall line.  In this way, Arbeia became a bustling port.  A small civilian settlement, at least partly inhabited by the wives and families of the soldiers, grew up nearby. 

In 208 CE, the emperor Septimius Severus came to this northern limit of empire to launch a series of campaigns against the troublesome Caledonian tribes in Scotland.  It was his last hurrah: he died at York in 211 CE at a time when he had not only proved victorious but had concluded a perpetual peace.  As part of his military preparations, Severus had embarked on major construction work at two of the forts behind Hadrian's Wall -- Arbeia (South Shields) and Coria (Corbridge)

As it happens, the lives of our little queen and her Palmyran husband were entwined with those very forts at much the same time as Severus came north.

The People of the Wall

Very few of the 'Romans' who lived along Hadrian's Wall were from Rome itself, or even Italy.  The Roman north was a cosmopolitan place with a great mixing of people from all over the empire.  Surviving inscriptions show that, at one time or another, they included Germans, Spaniards, Gauls, Africans, Syrians, Arabians,  and people from Dacia (modern Romania).

In the late second century, among this foreign flock was a man called Barates and his wife, Regina. 

Ladies first.

This is Regina (Latin for 'Queen'; or perhaps, in this case, 'Queenie') -- pictured sitting in a gabled niche on her tombstone.  Her face has been hacked off but the rest of the elaborate monument, carved in the local buff sandstone, is wonderfully preserved. 

Regina sits on a high-backed wicker chair, her distaff and spindle in her lap, a wool basket by her left side.  With her right hand she opens a jewel box and in the box are rings, bracelets and beads.  She wears a long-sleeved robe over her tunic, a necklace with a cable-pattern design and a bracelet on each wrist.  Her hair is pinned up in one of the ornate styles dictated by the fashion of the day.

Her image is typical of a high-status Roman matron and is symbolic of traditional values, with the distaff and spindle suggesting wifely domesticity.  In short, Regina’s tombstone portrays a paragon of female Roman virtue.

What's wrong with this picture?

The Latin Inscription (RIB 1065)

D(is) M(anibus) Regina liberta et coniuge
To the spirits of the departed [and to] Regina, his freedwoman and wife

Barates Palmyrenus natione
Barates of Palmyra [set this up]

Catuallauna an(norum) XXX
[she] a Catuvellaunian by tribe, [died] aged 30

The inscription tells us all that we shall ever know of Regina.  It gives her name, that she was 30 when she died (though not whether she died from disease or in childbirth), and that she was a Catuvellaunian - a member of the largest southern British tribe.  Her homeland covered what is now Hertfordshire -- about as far as it's possible to get from Hadrian's Wall while still being in the province of Britain.  This makes her a native of one of the most civilized Celtic tribes, whose chief town, Verulamium (St Albans) enjoyed the rank of municipium, which allowed its magistrates to become Roman citizens. Presumably she grew up speaking a native British language.  Perhaps her name, Regina, is a translation of the girl's original Celtic name, which might have included the element Rigan, 'queen'. 

How in the world did our 'queen' become a slave (for she can't have been a freedwoman, without first having been enslaved)? 

Regina, the slave

Despite being against the law, it was, sadly, a common practice -- particularly in Celtic regions -- for families to sell their daughters if they could not afford to raise them.  By this means poor parents reduced the number of mouths to feed.  It is difficult to see how a Catuvellaunian girl of the late second century could be sold into servitude except by a voluntary act on the part of her parents.  

So, it seems that her husband, Barates, bought her, later gave her her freedom and then married her, a not uncommon arrangement. 

But how the devil did he find her? 

Here's how I think it happened.

On Hadrian's Wall, eighty milecastles (or small forts) were placed at intervals of roughly one Roman mile to guard gateways through the Wall.  At milecastle 55 in Cumbria, some 70 km (40 miles) to the west of Arbeia, this building inscription (RIB 1962) was found:

CIVITATE CATVVELLAVNORVM TOSSODIO
The tribesmen of the Catuvellauni, Tossodius.' [T, the native commander of the contingent]

Since these Catuvellauni were involved in the reconstruction of Hadrian's Wall, their presence in the north can probably be dated to the time of Septimius Severus in the early third century. That puts Regina's tribesmen at the Wall at pretty much the right time. Q.E. (not exactly) D. but as credible a source for the girl as we are likely to find.

Barates the husband

Barates, as he told us in Latin, was even more foreign and from a land still farther away than Regina: he is Barates of Palmyra. 

Palmyra in the Syrian desert is some 4,000 km (2,500 miles) distant, as the falcon flies, from Arbeia.  As if to stress his pride in this exotic origin, under the Latin inscription, his dead wife's epitaph continues in perfectly-formed swirling Palmyrene letters:

The Palmyrene Inscription 

RGYN' BT HRY BR'T' HBL
Regina, the freedwoman of Barates, alas

This is a typical Palmyran formula for the dead: name + descent or description + lament.  Oddly enough, Regina's name has been written as if it were Semitic: RGYN' -- but no such name exists at Palmyra.  Barates (whose name, on the other hand, is common there) seems to have made it up for the occasion.  It's odd that he didn't translate her name -- Palmyran inscriptions often do translate foreign names, sometimes quite literally -- so 'Regina' could have become MLKT' (Palmyrene for 'Queen').  At a guess, MLKT' may only refer to a royal person, as later Zenobia will be given this title; it's not just a pretty name.

The sculptor who carved this inscription was clearly literate in Palmyrene: he's not copying signs but writing them fluidly.  His Palmyrene is perfectly correct; more correct, in fact, than his Latin: the words Regina, liberta, coniuge, and Cataullana, should normally be in the dative (this memorial is dedicated 'to'...) but they are not; the four words are accusatives with final -m omitted.*  So there's good reason to think that the epitaph was the work of a man whose first language was Palmyrene.  The somewhat erratic Latin letters, too, as compared to the confident Palmyrene script, show that it was probably carved by a Syrian sculptor.  In truth, the whole monument is Palmyran in style: its characteristic closely detailed and linear cutting is very similar to that of funerary sculpture from Palmyra itself.**  This distinctive style also helps us date Regina's tombstone to the late second century; that is, at approximately the time of Severus' campaigns.  It seems logical to connect the arrival of Barates at Arbeia either with Severus' army or, possibly, with the Syrian entourage of his wife, Julia Domna -- the first of the Syrian empresses -- who was with the emperor in Britain and at his deathbed. 

Who was Barates?

By an amazing stroke of luck, Barates's own tombstone has also been found (RIB 1171).  He was buried at the Roman fort of Coria, situated beside the lowest fordable point of the river Tyne (modern Corbridge), just 35 km [22 miles]  from Arbeia.

D(is) M(anibus) [Ba]rathes Pal/morenvs vexila vixit an LXVIII

To the spirits of the departed [and to] Barathes the Palmyran, standard-bearer (vexillarius), who lived 68 years

What he meant by calling himself a vexillarius is disputed. This normally refers to a 'standard bearer', a low-ranking officer in the Roman army.  There is no evidence, however, for any Palmyran military unit in Britain.  Still, he could have been (say) a centurion serving in another unit.  It then wouldn't be strange to find him living not too far from Arbeia: upon discharge, many soldiers simply continued to live where they had served.  But if he were a retired soldier -- as at the age of 68 he would have been -- he should be called ex vexila[rio].  So, many think he was not a military man at all but was a trader in vexilla -- flags, standards, and ensigns -- for which there supposedly would have been plenty of customers along the Wall.  That doesn't feel quite right either, I think, as military standards don't wear out quickly enough to make a good living out of the trade.  Certainly, the richness of Regina's tombstone suggests that he was prosperous.  We don't know, of course, if he outlived Regina by many years, or if he was already much older when they married. Yet there was time enough for something to change: his own tombstone was of much poorer quality and written only in Latin.

This could mean that his trade, whatever it was, was flourishing at the time of Regina's death but went downhill after that.  So, for what it's worth (which isn't much) I think that his prosperity was somehow tied to the presence of the emperor and other Syrians in the north -- for why would he have written Regina's epitaph also in Palmyrene if there were no one there to read it?.  When everyone else left after the emperor's death, Barates stayed on -- declining in wealth, perhaps, but living to a ripe old age. 





* It's a little more complicated: the dedicatee in such Latin texts can also be in the nominative or genitive but the forms of Regina's inscription cannot be interpreted as these cases either.  Rather, the four words are accusatives (the object of the implied verb [set up]) -- a characteristic found in the Greek in Greek-Palmyrene honorific texts at Palmyra.  For a full discussion, see J.A. Adams, Bilingualism and the Latin Language, CUP, 2003, 253-255.

**  Martin Henig, 'Roman Sculpture from the Hadrian’s Wall Region'  A second tombstone from the same workshop is that (left) of a Moor named Victor, a 20 year old freedman, surely the boy-lover of the Spanish cavalryman who 'devotedly' dedicated it, Numerianus of the Ala I Asturum.

I am indebted to Jonathan Eaton of the Imperium Sine Fine blog for highlighting Regina's tombstone in a recent post.  In the comments, Dr Eaton also noted that, "According to the CSIR, the form of the final letter of the Palmyrene script did not outlast the third quarter of the 2nd Century AD in Palmyra."  This means that the sculptor had left Syria by that time which possibly fits with my suggestion that Barates and the other Palmyrans who came to northern Britain had some connection with the campaigns of Septimius Severus. See also the discussion of the dating of Victor's tombstone (above) in the comments on the blog post.

Main sources for this post (in addition to Imperium Sine Fine ): M. Henig, 'Roman Sculpture from the Hadrian’s Wall Region', on the Hadrian's Wall Research Project at Durham University; P. Ottaway, M. Cyprien, A Traveller's Guide to Roman Britain, 1987, 66ff; A. Cavla, 'Social Roles and Gender in the Roman World', on the site of The Roman Military Research Society; A.R. Birley, The People of Roman Britain, 1979, 127, 147; J.A. Adams, Bilingualism and the Latin Language, CUP, 2003, 253-255; ICONS: A Portrait of England.

Illustrations

Upper left: Arbeia fort at South Shields from Archaeology.co.uk 

Regina and her inscriptions: from Imperium Sine Fine

Tombstone of Victor the Moor (Arbeia).  Photo credit davidparsonsb at Photobucket
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Zenobia and the Manichean Convert (Part III)

(Click here for Part I & II)

Walk therefore in joy, drawn to the land of light

Whatever the true history of Nafsha, sister of Queen Tadhi (= Zenobia), there can be no doubt that the Manichean missionary, Mar Adda, believed that he had miraculously healed and so converted a high-born lady of Palmyra. As a result,  many other people were confirmed in the faith as well.  But did he really convert the queen herself, as he claimed?

And also Queen Tadhi, Nafsha's sister and the wife of the Caesar (kysr), came before Mar Adda with great ... and from him received the truth.

We needn't take this too seriously: kings and queens seemed remarkably convertible whenever Mani or one of his disciples performed a miracle or two.  It's standard Manichean hyperbole.  What is interesting is that, even by their own accounts, such royal conversions usually followed a missionary's success as healer rather than as proclaimer of a unique revelation. 

Still, healed is healed and it would be surprising if Zenobia had not become a fan of the Manicheans.  That is what seems to have happened.

For the next part of the story, we leave the Sogdian documents and return to the Coptic historical texts (see Part I).

Holy Men on the Move

The Coptic fragment which refers to Queen Thadamor (= Zenobia) makes no mention of Mar Adda.  Perhaps the unfolding events took place after he had left Palmyra to go to 'the great Alexandria' -- the farthest point of his mission, according to Middle Persian sources.  In any case, the scene now shifts to his younger colleague, Abiesou, whom Mani had sent to accompany Mar Adda on his western mission ...  and a previously unknown episode in the history of Palmyra is revealed: 

He (Abiesou) again went in before Queen Thadamor and she looked favourably on him.  Abiesou the teacher had confidence [in her and settled] there with other brothers.  She became a [great protectress] of the church in that place....

The most likely dates, I think, both for Mar Adda's Egyptian mission and Abiesou's meeting with Zenobia,would be 269-272 CE, that is, the years when the queen ruled over Egypt.  In what happens next, it isn't clear whether Abiesou acted at the urging of Thadamor/Zenobia or if it was his own idea:   

... after which Abiesou the teacher sent Sethel, the deacon ... to the fort of Hira [Abiran] so that they might build up the church in that place.  They healed numerous people.  The matter came before Amaró the king, who was the son of Lahim, so as to enable the brothers to go to his house for a cause of healing.  They befriended him by doing good. He helped us greatly and took care of us.  He became a great protector of the brothers, openly granting us his help and his protection....

Thus, the mission spread out from Palmyra, back across the Euphrates and into the desert areas between the Roman and Persian empires. That region was dominated by the Tanukh, an Arab tribe that had recently migrated into this part of the world.  In the 3rd century CE, they founded the town of al-Hira ('camp') --  7 km/4 miles from what is now the holy city of Najaf in Iraq.  According to Arab legend, Amaró was the first king of al-Hira and his name in Arabic, Amr ben Lakhm, was taken by his descendants of the Lakhmid dynasty of the city.  The Lakhmids were traditionally allied to the Persians and fought as their main desert allies in Roman-Persian conflicts.  We have every reason to think that they were already close allies of the Sasanians: King Amaró is mentioned as one of the supporters of Narseh I (r. 293-302 CE) in the Paikuli inscription, written soon after events of 293 to justify Narseh's right to the throne after he had violently deposed the former crown prince.*  So, by crossing back into the territory of a Persian client, the Manichean missionaries were playing a dangerous game.

End Game

During the last years of Mani's life, the new religion experienced ups and downs  inside Persia itself.  The Zoroastrian clergy (led by the high priest Kirdir) were furiously opposed to the upstart religion.  Worse, they regarded the Manicheans as heretics since they had assimilated some Zoroastrian concepts and names of deities into their system.  As the Zoroastrian 'Acts of the Religion' emphasizes: The most dangerous enemy of religion is the heretic who betrays the stronghold from within.  Political reasons, too -- not least, I would think, their missionary activities on both sides of the frontier and in client kingdoms -- made them seem a subversive element at a time when the Sassanians were facing renewed conflict with Rome.

In January 274 (or 276), Persian fury boiled over.  Their implacable opponent,  Kirdir, finally managed to set the King of kings Bahram I against the prophet. A telling encounter between Mani and Bahram is preserved. Mani arrives at the royal palace to be told that he is unwelcome. "What wrong have I done?" he asks the king.

The King said: "I have sworn not to let you come to this country".  And in his anger he spoke thus to the Lord [Mani]. "What are you good for since you go neither fighting nor hunting? But perhaps you are needed for this doctoring and this physicking? and you don't even do that!"

Mani was imprisoned, crucified (or, more likely, impaled), and his corpse flayed. It was said that Kirdir had his skin stuffed with straw and hung outside the city walls.   After his death, the Manicheans faced their bloodiest period of persecution:  

... Manichaeans were struck down, idol temples were destroyed, and the dens of the foreign gods were ruined and turned into thrones and seats for the gods.

Persecution continued until 293 CE ... and then a true miracle happened.

The 'Living Spirit' 

The reverse of the Coptic page that tells us about the Manicheans at Palmyra and at al-Hira preserves a short text that continues the story after the death of Mani:

He told us that the king [Amaró] had arrived in the neighbourhood of our shepherd Innaios, together with the noble Persians who were his assistants.  He spoke to him.... He asked him to go to the king [of kings].  He achieved mercy for us from him and stopped the destruction.

King Amaró apparently wrote several letters on behalf of the Manicheans to his overlord Narses, seeking an end to the persecution.  The 'shepherd' Innaios, possibly now the leader of the sect, carried the letters to Persia and managed to have an audience with Narses.  The persecution came to an end. 

So, in a way, it was because of Thadamor/Zenobia that they were saved.  The favour she showed to the sect during her lifetime led directly to their mission to the Lakhmids of Hira.  Now, twenty years after her demise, Amaró still provided the Manicheans with protection and vitally needed shelter from persecution.

If only for a time.

Under the successor of Narses (Hormizd II), the Zoroastrian priests once again clamoured for the extirpation of the sect and persecution was renewed. 

The End of the World

What happened next is entirely a matter of legend.  As legends will, as circumstances change, old stories shift and are turned, twisted, and refined in a poet's mind until little remains but names and dimly-remembered places.  Just so, in Arab legend, Zenobia and Amaró of al-Hira become deadly enemies.  All else is forgotten as they dual in the desert....  

Those stories are told in 'The Zenobia Romance I' and II: Truth or Fiction, brilliant inventions, true, but not nearly as enlightening as the history revealed by the Manichean fragments.



* § 92: Amru King of the Lahmids

Sources are the same as those listed in Part I and II; in addition, I have used part of my own account of Kirdir's career from Zoroastrian Stuff III

Illustrations

Above: Leaf from a Manichaean Book. Khocho, Temple α. 8th-9th c. Manuscript painting, MIK III 4979. Via Washington.edu

Middle:  Fragment of a Manuscript. Khocho. 8th-9th c. Painting on paper. MIK III 4937. Via Washington.edu

Below: The execution of Mansur al-Hallaj (858-922): Persian mystic, Sufi, and perhaps crypto-Manichean. Via Wikipedia.
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