The Hebrew God: lectures from the Collège de France

Go to the Collège de France's website to download copies of course material from Thomas Römer's ongoing lecture series "Le dieu Yhwh: ses origines, ses cultes, sa transformation en dieu unique".


This comprises bibliographies and PowerPoint presentations (in French)

Jainism in 2nd century India

Article from the online edition of the Indian newspaper The Hindu reports on the discovery of a fragment bearing Tamil-Brahmin script at Pattanam in the Ernakulam district of Kerala that establishes the presence of Jainism on the west coast of India in the 2nd century AD.

"Hymns of Zoroaster": online article

This feature from the news website Today's Zaman looks at the historical background to Professor M.L. West's recently published "The hymns of Zoroaster: a new translation of the most ancient sacred texts of Iran".
For more details and book reviews, go to publisher I.B. Tauris' website.

SOAS Library has a copy at PLB295 / 733763

Syrian Christianity: 2 news reports

Syrian Christian texts preservation project
Report from the MSN website outlining a new project to "trace, catalogue and digitise lost documents relating to religious practices, culture and heritage of Syrian Christians of Kerala"

Threat to Syro-Orthodox monastery
Report from Zenit website on the accusations of proselytism against the monks of the Mor-Gabriel monastery in Turkey (founded in the 4th century AD) and other claims by the local community that are threatening the monastery's survival.
(Zenit is a non-profit Roman Catholic news organisation that aims "to view the modern world through the messages of the Pope and the Holy See")

Christian wedding, Jewish rites (New York Times article)

This feature from the New York Times looks at the growing popularity among evangelical Christians in the USA of incorporating Jewish marriage rituals into wedding ceremonies as a way of connecting to Christianity's Jewish origins. The feature also gives a short overview of the origins and traditions of the Jewish rites

"Jewish worship, pagan symbols"

This illustrated article from Biblical Archaeology Review examines the occurrence and context of zodiac and other "pagan" symbols that appear alongside Biblical scenes in mosaics discovered from the 1920s onwards in the 6th century Jewish settlements of the Jazreel Valley near Galilee, dating from the time when Talmudic Judaism was emerging .
The article includes a great many pictures of the mosaics, many of which are very well preserved

Mapping Buddhist monasteries: a work in progress

Mapping Buddhist monasteries : 200 -1200 CE 


** This wiki-site is a "work in progress" and so content is liable to change at short notice for the time being **

The aim of the project is to catalogue and map details of Buddhist monasteries and convents built across South Asia, South East Asia, Central Asia and East Asia between 200 and 1200 CE. Currently, over 500 are entered on the wiki. The content can be searched by region or tag.
As well as viewing location data for each monastery or convent, the wiki also has country / region chronologies and a detailed bibliography section with links to full-text where content is available via open-access. In depth information and pictures of individual monasteries are also available through links to other websites (although these seem to be particularly aimed at tourists and travellers)