Saturday, December 05, 2009

ALEXANDER THE ITSY BITSY AGAIN? Søren Holst e-mails:
Tangential to Biblical Studies proper, but still:

Danish archaologist Jeppe Boel Jepsen claims to be able to see that "a tiny image of a mysterious horned figure" found on a recently recovered ivory copy of a Danish golden horn usually dated to about 5t century CE, "now turns out to resemble pictures of Aleander the Great".

Boel Jepsen suggests that on the basis of this, the horns must be dated a couple of centuries older than assumed until now.

Report in Danish here:
http://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/artikel/348478

Horns here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Horns_of_Gallehus

The original horns were stolen and melted down in 1802 and it is uncertain how accurate existing copies, made from drawings, are. The ivory copy recently recovered in Russia was made directly from the original (although, here too, doubts about the accuracy remain) and given to zar Peter the Great in 1716.
You can read a Google translation of the Danish article here. For the recently discovered Alexander gemstone, see here and follow the links back.