Departments September/October 1996 - Archaeology Magazine Archive


Departments	Volume 49 Number 5, September/October 1996

In This Issue Tracking the DNA Story	DNA studies will make great contributions to our understanding of the human past. By Peter A. Young
From the President Intersecting Roman Worlds	The rise of Christianity must be understood as part of wider, complex cultural and social developments within the Roman Empire. By Stephen L. Dyson
Letters	Lure of the Deep; Mycenaean Jewelry; Morgan Misidentified; The Marsh of Palo Alto
Insight Wonders of Radar Imagery	Images from space, gathered in 1994 by radar mounted on the space shuttle Endeavor, are aiding an international team of scholars in their study of Angkor, Cambodia, and its region, where seven successive capitals of the Khmer Empire of Southeast Asia date from the ninth to the twelfth centuries. By James Wiseman
At the Museums Faking It	Third-century B.C. Greek statuettes, gold from a hoard of Hellenistic jewelry, fifth-century A.D. gilded Sassanian dishes, and a marble portrait of the Roman general Pompey are among more than 80 pieces to be exhibited at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. These works would appear to rank among the masterpieces of the ancient world; in fact, they include some remarkable forgeries, the subject of Discovery and Deceit: Archaeology and the Forger's Craft. The exhibition will be at the Nelson-Atkins Museum from October 11, 1996, until January 5, 1997, before traveling to the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where it will be open from February 8 until May 18, 1997. Reviewed by Angela M.H. Schuster
Books Re-creating the Temple of Athena	In a series of drawings appearing in two new books, Manolis Korres, the architect in charge of the Parthenon's restoration, suggests ways of reincorporating stray pieces of marble using a minimum of new stone. From Pentelicon to the Parthenon. By Manolis Korres. 128 pages. Athens: Publishing House Melissa, 1995. Distributed in the United States by the Foundation for Hellenic Culture, 7 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019-3402, tel. 212-308-6908. The Parthenon and its Impact in Modern Times. Edited by Panayotis Tournikiotis. 365 pages. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996. Reviewed by Spencer P.M. Harrington.
Multimedia Digitizing the Ancient Near East	A number of new CD-ROMs and World Wide Web sites offer information about biblical and ancient Near Eastern archaeology and history: BibleWorks for Windows (Hermeneutika, 1995); The Logos Bible Atlas (Logos Research Systems, 1994); PC Bible Atlas for Windows (Parsons Technology, 1995); The Dead Sea Scrolls Revealed (Logos Research Systems, 1994); Pathways Through Jerusalem (Softkey International, 1995); ArchNet: The World Wide Web Virtual Library for Archaeology; the Ancient World Web; the University of Michigan's Classics and Mediterranean Archaeology home page; and ABZU. Reviewed by Neil Asher Silberman.
Letter From Ontario A Finite Iroquoian Legacy	A number of fragile Iroquoian sites near Toronto, the fastest growing city in Canada, are threatened by developers' bulldozers. By Brian Fagan
Forum Classics for the Masses?	Classical archaeologists must help in the popularization of their field, or advertising copywriters will do the job for them, leaving scholars talking only with their peers while fellow citizens embrace noble fragments and colorful caricatures of antiquity. By Andrew Szegedy-Maszak