History

This article proposes Arthur Danto’s ‘analytical narrativism,’ and his conceptualization of history as representation, as an unexplored path which can be an alternative to the development of postnarrativism from Hayden White’s ‘figurative realism.’ Danto’s historiographic can shed some light on postnarrativism and on the present-day dilemmas which cloud the academic debates around the writing of history. The article also highlights the need for interdisciplinary dialogue.

In 1971, Paul Berg asked Francis Crick about his views on a controversial proposed experiment involving recombinant DNA; to Berg’s surprise, Crick had no comment to make. This article first describes the multiple reasons why Crick did not respond to Berg, including psychological factors that affected Crick at the time, the limits of his unstated reflexively positivist approach to social issues, and his reluctance to pursue social or political issues when challenged. Crick’s lack of involvement in discussions about recombinant DNA, (...) including in the Asilomar process, is then used to explore two other notable absences from Asilomar: the immunologist Niels Jerne, who was invited to be on the organizing committee but was not involved for reasons that are unclear; and molecular biologist and biological weapons campaigner Matthew Meselson, whose presence would have added a layer of understanding to the discussions, particularly regarding the threat of bioweapons. These enigmatic absences raise questions about the representativeness of Asilomar and suggest future investigations as to how the legacy of Asilomar was shaped both by those who were present–and by those who were not. (shrink)

This study explores the Śrīvaiṣṇavas’ commitment to upholding both the Sanskrit and Tamil scriptures or ubhayavedānta (literally, the dual Vedāntas). In particular, it focuses on how one of the most influential post-Rāmānuja ācāryas in the community, Vedāntadeśika (1269–1369), supported the two-scriptures principle in his Dramiḍopaniṣattātparyaratnāvalī. In this work Vedāntadeśika summarizes and translates the Tamil scripture, the Tiruvāymoḻi of Nammāḻvār, arguably the most authoritative South Indian Vaiṣṇava poet of a group collectively known as the Āḻvārs (ca. sixth to tenth century), into (...) Sanskrit. I argue that Vedāntadeśika’s main goal is to secure the status of Nammāḻvār’s Tiruvāymoḻi as the Tamil Vedānta or Upaniṣad (and as the Tamil Veda in some cases). His attempt to bridge the gap between the Sanskrit and Tamil scriptures can be seen in three different aspects: their scriptural status, theology, and linguistic expression. Vedāntadeśika reinforces the scriptural status of the Tirūvāymoḻi, restructures the text so that it consistently illustrates God’s qualities, similar to the Sanskrit Upaniṣads, and, through the linguistic medium of Sanskrit, deemphasizes the poetic tropes of classical Tamil love poetry. While there were other summaries of the Tiruvāymoḻi before, during, and after his time, Vedāntadeśika’s summary is remarkable for its systematic approach and clear agenda. (shrink)

Commentaries represent the best-known evidence for scholarly activities and the exegetical tradition of Mesopotamia. However, commentaries were not the only textual expressions of exegetical activity and scholarship took many different forms. The aim of this article is to elucidate the ways and purposes of the use of various hermeneutic practices other than the writing of commentaries. By analyzing mostly hemerological compilations and simultaneous bilingual compositions, a particular kind of bilingual text, this article illustrates the multiplicity of forms, functions, and scholarly (...) strategies of exegesis and how they are deployed for different kinds or genres of texts. These alternative strategies will be compared to commentaries and their unique features and limitations will be highlighted through an analytical approach. (shrink)

Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb (d. 1318) has been called the “first world historian” because of how foreign historical sources are treated in the second volume of his Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh. New manuscript materials have shown, however, that his contemporary courtier and historian, ʿAbd Allāh Qāshānī, is likely the real author of much of the Jāmiʿ. This article advances the discussion about the creation of Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh by describing and analyzing an alternate version of Rashīd al-Dīn’s introduction to the collection. This alternate introduction, (...) preserved in a single manuscript in Munich, suggests that Rashīd al-Dīn initially had a very different purpose in mind for his world history than what has come down to us, envisioning it not as an ecumenical description of the world but as a programmatic argument for his patrons’ sovereign legitimacy. Examining this alternate introduction forces us to rethink Rashīd al-Dīn’s historiographical motive. It also helps answer open questions about the structure of Jāmiʿ al-tawārīkh, its production, and how Qāshānī’s text came to be included in it. (shrink)

In the eleventh century Yang Ningshi 楊凝式 (873–954) was simultaneously praised as a supreme master of cursive script and dismissed as utterly incompetent with regular script. This article demonstrates that the Chive Flowers Letter (Jiuhua tie 韭花帖), the only one among Yang’s five surviving works written in regular script, is the key to solving this historical paradox. It argues that the Chive Flowers Letter followed the popular guides to letter writing (shuyi 書儀) in the epistolary culture of the late Tang (...) and Five Dynasties and represents the tamed side of Yang’s calligraphy that was rejected by Huang Tingjian and many Northern Song “classical prose” (guwen 古文) scholar-officials for an ideological rather than aesthetic reason. This study also reveals how the traditional Chinese historiography on calligraphy and beyond might have been manipulated to serve ideological agendas. (shrink)

Manuscripts excavated and looted from tombs in recent decades have greatly enriched our understanding of Western Han verse. Some of these documents have been designated by scholars as poems, and a few have even been assigned to particular poetic genres. In this article, however, I am less concerned with sorting texts into neat formal or generic categories and more interested in exploring the range of texts and contexts in which verse was employed. To that end, I introduce, analyze, and at (...) least partially translate five new or little-known texts retrieved from various Western Han sites that make extensive use of rhyme and metrical rhythm: *Xiangma jing 相馬經 from Mawangdui M3, Tang Le 唐勒 from Yin- queshan M1, Wang Ji 妄稽 and Fan yin 反淫 from the looted Peking University manuscript corpus, and *Daowang fu 悼亡賦 from Haihunhou M1. Some of these documents are very similar to sources in the transmitted literature, while others are quite different from any verse previously known from the period. Taken together, however, they greatly enhance our understanding of the different ways verse functioned in various Western Han cultural contexts. (shrink)

History and Memory in the Abbasid Caliphate: Writing the Past in Medieval Arabic Literature. By Letizia Osti. Early and Medieval Islamic World. iIB. Tauris, 2022. Pp. xiii + 183. $115.

À la découverte du jaïnisme: Une tradition indienne. By Nalini Balbir. Les Éditions du Cerf, 2024. Pp. 450, color illus. €36.

The Women Who Ruled China: Buddhism, Multiculturalism, and Governance in the Sixth Century. By Stephanie Balkwill. University of California Press. Pp. xx + 262. $34.95 (paper); open access.

Strange Tales from Edo: Rewriting Chinese Fiction in Early Modern Japan. By William D. Fleming. Harvard East Asian Monographs, vol. 465. Harvard University Asia Center, 2023. Pp. xii + 295. $49.95.

The Betrayal of the Humanities: The University during the Third Reich. Edited by Bernard M. Levinson and Robert P. Ericksen. Studies in Antisemitism. Indiana University Press, 2022. Pp. xx + 600. $40 (paper).

When considering questions of integration, assimilation, and adjustment in the formative centuries of Islam it is vital to think about the individuals who converted to Islam. The gradual nature of conversion and the enduring ties of Muslim converts to their former coreligionists kept them in a liminal position. My analysis will evolve around three spheres of inquiry: linguistic, social, and practical. Linguistically, I show how ecclesiastical Syriac and rabbinic Hebrew terms that refer to apostates speak of individuals who did not (...) burn all bridges but retained some level of contact with their former coreligionists. With respect to society, I discuss the place of converts to Islam as treated by the law of their former religions, and, finally, I dwell upon the persistence of former religious practices among converts to Islam. By viewing converts as liminal figures and unpacking the concept of liminality in its historical context I hope to contribute to the theoretical discussion regarding the process of conversion to Islam in the early and late formative Islamic periods and to argue against its presentation in linear terms. (shrink)

While the extant Tibetan biographies of Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna (982–1054) are abundant, most of the datable ones were completed three hundred years after Atiśa’s death. However, two Tangut manuscripts offer early biographical accounts of Atiśa as they were written in the Tangut State (1038–1227). Centering around Atiśa’s life at Vikramaśīla and his journey to Tibet, the narratives within the Tangut texts both resonate with and diverge from the more conventional accounts found in sources like the Extensive Biography (Rnam thar rgyas pa) (...) and the Well-Known Biography (Rnam thar yongs grags). As a result, these Tangut sources emerge as invaluable resources for studying the biographical tradition of Atiśa, as well as the dissemination of his life story in the unique context of the Tangut State during the rise of Tibetan Buddhism therein. This article introduces and translates two Tangut biographical accounts along with relevant Tibetan textual materials. Its aim is not only to present these new sources but also to utilize them to examine the development of Atiśa’s biographical tradition. Furthermore, it demonstrates how Tibetan and Tangut studies can be methodologically integrated. (shrink)

The discovery of the Amarna letters in 1887 and their subsequent translation made it possible for ancient Near Eastern specialists of the time to shed new light on the sociopolitical conditions of Syria-Palestine during the Late Bronze Age. In reviewing the scholarly literature of the period and following decades, we may see that the situations of internal conflict described in the letters allowed researchers to draw a general picture of ancient indigenous political communities that was undoubtedly aligned with the imperial (...) perceptions of non-European peoples current during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This article explores the conceptions and descriptions that several scholars expressed about Amarnian Syro-Palestinian or Canaanite societies from the discovery of the letters up to the 1970s. The analysis also seeks to contextualize the covert imperial gaze expressed by these scholars as well as their more overt orientalism within the geopolitical situations in the Middle East at the time. Finally, the article assesses a turning point, instigated by Mario Liverani, in the interpretation of Amarna politics and its relationship with the fading imperialist gaze in the historiography of the region since the 1980s. (shrink)

This article is based on the corpus of Aramaic epigraphic cadastral documents published in Bezalel Porten and Ada Yardeni, Textbook of Aramaic Ostraca from Idumea, vol. 5 (University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns, 2023). The lexicon and syntax of these texts present a number of intriguing phenomena, and the examination of these phenomena allows the clarification of the reality behind the words. In particular, this article discusses ellipsis, omissions, and the syntax of captions as part of scribal conventions, as well as some (...) technical terms and groups of lexemes that belong to the vocabulary of the land descriptions. (shrink)

Arab Traders in Their Own Words: Merchant Letters from the Eastern Mediterranean around 1800. By Boris LieBrenz. Handbook of Oriental Studies I, vol. 165. Brill, 2022. Pp. ix + 701. $215.

The Collapse of Heaven: The Taiping Civil War and Chinese Literature and Culture, 1850–1880. By Huan Jin. Harvard University Asia Center, 2024. Pp. xiii + 339. $59.95.

Exploring Writing Systems and Practices in the Bronze Age Aegean. By Philippa M. Steele. Contexts of and Relations Between Early Writing Systems, vol. 7. Oxbow Books, 2024. Pp. xxi + 169, illus. $80.

The Inscription of Things: Writing and Materiality in Early Modern China. By thomas Kelly. Columbia University Press, 2023. Pp. xii + 354. $140 (cloth); $35 (paper); $34.99 (ebook).

Messianism and Sociopolitical Revolution in Medieval Islam. By Said Amir Arjomand. University of California Press, 2022. Pp. xii + 359. $95, £80 (cloth and ebook).

The Stage in the Temple: Ritual Opera in Village Shanxi. By David Johnson. Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, BerKeLey, 2022. Pp. vi + 190. $25 (paper); $24.95 (ebook).

The Frau Professor Hilprecht Collection of Babylonian Antiquities: Essays Dedicated to Manfred Krebernik during the Colloquium Held on March 17–18, 2022, at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. Edited by Jacob Jan de Ridder and Peter Stein. Texte und Materialien der Hilprecht Collection, vol. 14. Harrassowitz Verlag, 2023. Pp. xii + 247, illus. €98.

This paper delves into the historical development of recombinant DNA technology, examining the pivotal controversies surrounding public health and commercialization that emerged with the prospect of gene cloning in the 1970s. The analysis will focus on the recombinant DNA experiments planned, conducted, and aborted by Janet Mertz and John Morrow, two graduate students at Paul Berg’s Laboratory at Stanford University. Their experiments, as I show, served as catalysts for both fear and excitement within the biomedical research community and beyond. This (...) paper begins by reconstructing in some respects Mertz’s and Morrow’s investigative pathways, their contributions to technical developments in gene cloning, and their youthful perspectives on genetic engineering. While Mertz’s initial experimental plan led to the establishment of the Asilomar I Conference in 1973, Morrow’s subsequent cloning experiment, in collaboration with Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer, played a crucial role in shifting scientific and public sentiments around recombinant DNA, intensifying the tension between safety concerns and commercial aspirations before, during, and especially after the more famous Asilomar II Conference of 1975. The latter part of this paper briefly examines the commercial fate of early gene cloning within the context of the complex interplay between scientific advancements, societal and public health concerns, and proprietary interests that culminated in Genentech’s cloning of the artificial insulin gene. This paper concludes by discussing how concerns about responsible research practices and biosafety regulation were by the late 1970s increasingly overshadowed by critiques concerning the impact of regulations and academic patenting on scientific competition and laboratory culture. (shrink)

Psychology today pathologizes all aspects of the human condition without ever examining its own ills, which have caused it to become fragmented. People from non-Western backgrounds are often adversely affected by the limitations of the discipline, and often avoid treatment altogether. By contrast, a true “science of the soul” has existed for millennia in all the world’s diverse spiritual cultures. Although a plethora of modern therapies are now available, they are hindered in their efficacy by having become entirely divorced from (...) sacred reality. This work argues that it is necessary to restore this “science of the soul” by drawing on the perspective of non-Western wisdom traditions as understood since time immemorial. Examples are given of the fundamental differences that are found between modern psychology and the traditional psychologies of various religions, which also existed in the West prior to the Enlightenment era. Furthermore, this book will show how non-Western philosophy can help rehabilitate an authentically healing psychology in support of promoting sound mental health in our afflicted modern culture. Sacred psychologies, therefore, afford us the best opportunity to tackle the innumerable challenges that confront human beings today, such as trauma, mental illness, addiction, death, and the meaning of our lives. (shrink)

O que é o tempo? Como ele foi vivido ao longo da história, e como ele se apresenta no mundo atual? O tempo pode ser acelerado, retardado, economizado, temido? A resposta a essas perguntas e a muitas outras é aqui oferecida ao leitor por meio de uma incrível viagem por diferentes povos, épocas e lugares, cada um com suas ideias, palavras, imagens, técnicas e sentimentos em relação a esse componente fundamental da nossa existência. Explorando uma enormidade de temas e de (...) perspectivas, com uma abrangência geográfica à escala do globo, João Paulo Pimenta traz não apenas um detalhado estudo das representações sociais do tempo, mas igualmente das múltiplas ações concretas tomadas para seu ordenamento, contagem e controle. Seus nove capítulos cruzam, a cada passo, as ciências naturais e os sistemas simbólicos e religiosos, as forças econômicas e os quadros políticos e sociais. Não menos notável é o emprego sofisticado de uma variada documentação visual, que nos convida a ampliar nosso olhar para como o tempo representa uma dimensão constitutiva essencial do que nos faz humanos. Com uma escrita clara, elegante e direta, O Livro do Tempo marcará época e ativará tanto o historiador profissional como o leitor cultivado. (shrink)

Chris Ealham's book reveals a fascinating dialogue between a prominent individual figure (José Peirats, 1908–1989) and the anonymous masses in the history of Spanish anarcho-syndicalism, and vice versa. Peirats would hardly be known without Spanish anarcho-syndicalism, while Spanish anarcho-syndicalism would have been less relevant if José Peirats had not been included in its ranks. -/- What is remarkable is that, despite Ealham's honest confession of his sympathy for some of the working-class movements in general and for anarcho-syndicalism in particular (3), (...) his research is highly critical of both anarcho-syndicalism and Peirats's numerous personal and ideological errors and contradictions. We need not go far to find examples: in his book, Ealham makes no effort to conceal that Peirats can be described at times using adjectives such as homophobic, sexist (or rather, antifeminist), anti-intellectual, antinationalist, and anticommunist (226). Nevertheless, his negative elements paled in comparison with his achievements. -/- Peirats was born in La Vall d'Uixó (Castellón); he was a brick-maker, anarchist militant, and later a noted writer and historian. The moral influence [End Page 188] coming from his mother and maternal uncles was decisive in the young Peirats's character and training. His informal education, together with his move to Barcelona, awakened his early militancy. In spite of having to work very hard from a young age, he was lucky enough to be educated later at the Ateneo Obrero Racionalista in Sants (a neighborhood in the southern part of Barcelona). There, he started having contact with the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), joining the union when he was just fourteen years old. During Primo de Rivera's dictatorship (1927–1930) Peirats was devoted to avoiding—sometimes fighting back against—State repression of syndicalists. He also continued doing manual work while cultivating his intellectual training and techniques as a working-class writer. -/- With the coming of the Second Republic (1931), the general attitude within the CNT was that nothing revolutionary would be achieved by collaborating with professional or parliamentary politics: "radicals like Peirats gave no quarter to the new regime. After the enforced interregnum of the dictatorship, they were primed and ready for direct action" (47). Nonetheless, the CNT was not united on this issue and the disputes over ideological tactics came swiftly. At this point, Ealham pinpoints a three-fold division within the CNT: one revolutionary, one syndicalist, and another anarcho-syndicalist (55–56). The divisions and differences would become even more marked when the CNT took part in the Frente Popular with four anarchist ministers (Federica Montseny, Joan Peiró, Juan García Oliver, and Juan López Sánchez): "the anarchist leaders opted simply to ignore what remained of the old state and accept a policy of 'democratic collaboration' with the other anti-fascist forces on behalf of unity in the fight against authoritarianism" (90). Peirats vehemently opposed this strategy that placed the CNT inside a republican state, and from this time on, including during the Spanish Civil War "conferences, meetings, and plenums were organized like witch-hunts" (104). -/- After Franco's triumph, Peirats did not follow in Montseny's or Germinal Esgleas's footsteps—that is, he opted against a diplomatic passport or any special safe conduct, but joined the multitudes of Republican soldiers and civilians who escaped in their retirada (retreat) towards France (119). In fact, after going through a French internment camp, he asked himself whether the best option was to return to Franco's Spain or try his luck abroad. Without any hint of cowardice, he knew that in Spain he could only expect his death... (shrink)

Hacia 1922 la líder anarquista Federica Montseny comenóz a publicar novelas breves románticas en varios periódicos anarquistas. Fueron casi cincuenta escritos en los que dejó plasmada la misión social de todo escritor anarquista: diagnosticar los males de la sociedad, denunciar dicha realidad que no suele ser muy justa para la clase trabajadora y, por último, promover soluciones a largo plazo mediante una pedagogía social o una especie de propedéutica capaz de enseñar a la clase proletaria cōmo defenderse física y moralmente (...) de los ataques de la clase burguesa, para así lograr una sociedad mās justa en todas las esferas de la vida. El propōsito de este trabajo serā analizar cōmo Montseny gestionō esa misiōn social en el caso concreto de las mujeres a través de estos temas: enaltecimiento de la maternidad consciente, defensa de la libertad (sexual) e independencia de las mujeres, separaciōn sexo/amor, control de la natalidad, incorporaciōn de la mujer al mundo laboral, denuncia de la doble moral hombre/mujer en torno a la virginidad, etcétera. También veremos que aparecen dos grandes estereotipos o arquetipos humanos en dichas novelas – que obedecen a lo que se ha llamado sexualidad de clase, ambos enfrentados en la lucha de clases de dos mundos antagōnicos: el del burgués (libertino, desocupado, despia-dado) y el de la mujer proletaria (dōbil, indefensa, sana y sobre todo, pobre pero honrada). (shrink)

Catalan anarchist Salvador Puig Antich was part of the military branch of a small revolutionary organization called the Movimento Ibérico de Liberación/Grupos autónomos de combate (Iberian Liberation Movement/Autonomous Combat Groups) (MIL/GAC). He participated in bank robberies (“expropriations”) meant to finance clandestine propaganda and support striking workers. After a series of such robberies, in September 1973 Puig Antich and comrade Xavier Garriga were ambushed by police; in the melee, Puig Antich was injured and deputy inspector Francisco Anguas Barragán was shot to (...) death. There are still different explanations of what happened at that time; independent researchers suggest the policeman died from shots fired both by his own colleagues and by Puig Antich. Before the tribunal took place, however, the prime minister was assassinated by Basque ETA (Euzkadi Ta Askatasuna) separatists, and subsequent desire for revenge on the part of the authorities, together with a summary military trial, full of irregularities, produced two death sentences. Despite an international solidarity movement against Puig Antich's death penalty, he was executed by garrote on March 2, 1974, setting off protests and strikes in Barcelona, foreshadowing the end of the Franco dictatorship in 1975. (shrink)

En este trabajo me voy a centrar en los antecedentes intelectuales y en los programas educativos que la Casa del Obrero Mundial desplegados durante su existencia; de ahi que sea imprescindible analizar la influencia crucial que Francisco Ferreri Guardia y su «Escuela Moderna» tuvieron en la formación de la clase obrera mexicana. Tambien veremos algunas de las redes internacionales que se crearon entre los anarquistas de diferentes países y, en definitiva, de qué modo ciertas ideas cruzaron el Atlántico.

En cierto sentido, América no existe. O para ser más exactos, no existe más que como reflejo europeo, como respuesta a una obsesión suya. En cierto sentido, América existe. Y, al menos en el mundo moderno, existe más que ninguna otra cosa, pues existe como residuo irreductible, como conato, como algo que persevera en su ser y que, aun siendo este un ser irreversiblemente híbrido, impreciso –vale decir, esencialmente mestizo–, infunde así sus renovadas energías a Occidente.

This work explores the scantly studied Spanish anarchist exile that followed the Spanish Civil War and lasted until Francisco Franco’s death and, arguably, beyond. The article is built around the controversial case of Juan López Sánchez (1900-1972) –one of the four anarchists that became ministers during the Second Spanish Republic. In what follows, the work traces the panoramic historical, geographical and ideological journey of Juan López Sánchez mainly through his correspondence, with particular attention to his brief French exile. -/- Este (...) trabajo explora el exilio anarquista español que siguió tras la Guerra Civil y que duró hasta la muerte de Franco y, discutiblemente, más allá. Dentro de este exilio, hasta cierto punto académicamente desatendido, mi texto se centra en el polémico caso de Juan López Sánchez (1900-1972) –uno de los cuatro anarquistas que se convirtieron en ministros durante la Segunda República. A continuación reconstruyo panorámicamente la trayectoria histórica, geográfica e ideológica de Juan López Sánchez principalmente a través de su correspondencia, poniendo especial atención a su brevísimo exilio francés. (shrink)

Equestrian images of Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, can be studied through written sources. This article focuses on the articulation between monumental sculptures that stood in public spaces and mosaic images recorded in the palaces of Ravenna and Pavia. This allows to reflect on the relationship between statuary and two-dimensional images in the depiction of the sovereign in Late Antiquity. Analysis of the main theoderician images known shows a renewed emphasis in representative media on two-dimensional images that served to place (...) Theodoric in the tradition of the empire he led, presenting him at the same time as a leader with new ambitions for his realm. (shrink)

An essential element among medieval church furnishings was the tabernacle or sacrament house, where the consecrated Host was placed for storage toward the end of the Mass. While the most numerous and best studied of such tabernacles to survive are in and around Germany, this article offers a first comprehensive account of medieval tabernacles preserved in the Basque Country (País Vasco/Euskadi) of northern Spain; scholars have hitherto overlooked these tabernacles. The focus here is on tabernacles created between the councils of (...) Lateran IV (1215) and Trent (1545–1563), when a lack of clear prescriptions resulted in considerable variety. All examples studied were produced in the late Gothic and early Renaissance styles, and these tabernacles’ forms fall into two types: wall niches and freestanding towers. Many tabernacles consist only of architectural frames, but some feature elaborate iconographic programs; while some are true works of art, many others are rather modest or based on fine models but executed in a provincial manner. A fascinating aspect is the Atlantic geographic connections that become manifest in the Basque tabernacles, particularly to northern France and the Low Countries, with which the Basques were closely linked through maritime commerce. (shrink)

The iconography of Maria Regina in eighth-century Rome illustrates a deep connection between sacred painted images and architectural spaces in the basilicas of San Clemente, San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, and Santa Susanna. This essay focuses on the concept of zones of transition, i.e., liminal spaces, within sacred buildings. Distinct iconographic similarities among these sites suggest a common prototype drawn upon by artisans working at the same time. Altars situated in these transitional areas served both funerary and catechumenal purposes, emphasizing (...) Mary’s role as intercessor and guide. This consistent depiction underscores her significance in rites of passage, providing spiritual support during transitions such as physical death and the figurative death of baptism, thereby highlighting her importance in these ritual contexts. (shrink)