Impostor or secret diplomat? On the trail of an Armenian bishop (Blog, Der Standard, 13 Oct 2026) Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Samvel L. Grigoryan Der Standard

Impostor or secret diplomat? On the trail of an Armenian bishop (Blog, Der Standard, 13 Oct 2026) Johannes Preiser-Kapeller, Samvel L. Grigoryan https://www.academia.edu/178887671/Impostor_or_secret_diplomat_On_the_trail_of_an_Armenian_bishop_Blog_Der_Standard_13_Oct_2026_?email_work_card=title Blog: History of Austria (original in German language published on the website of the Austrian newspaper "Der Standard" on 13 Oct 2026: https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000342788/hochstapler-odergeheimdiplomat-auf-den-spuren-eines-armenischen-bischofs) In 1293, a bishop from distant Armenia traveled through Tyrol. His identity and the purpose of his journey remained a mystery for a long time. In this guest blog post, historians Samvel Grigoryan and Johannes Preiser-Kapeller describe the curious story of an apparent medieval impostor. Carole M. Cusack, From Unity to Fragmentation: Baha’i, Divine Polity and Esperanto to Invented Religions, Micro-Nations and Societal Fragmentation Carole Cusack https://www.academia.edu/178888312/Carole_M_Cusack_From_Unity_to_Fragmentation_Baha_i_Divine_Polity_and_Esperanto_to_Invented_Religions_Micro_Nations_and_Societal_Fragmentation?email_work_card=title Religions and New Spirituality in East Asia and Beyond, CESNUR Conference, Weixin Shengjiao College, Taiwan, 10-12 October 2026. The Iranian Mirza Hosayn Ali Nuri (1817–1892), known as Bahāʾu’llāh (“Glory of God”) founded the Baha’i faith in 1863 as an offshoot of the Bābī sect, founded by Mīrzā Mirza ʿAlīi Moḥammad Muhammad (the Bāb, “gateway”, 1819–1850) in 1844. Baha’i began as a Twelver Shia offshoot but developed into a universal monotheist tradition. The idea of a universal language and a universal divine polity are sourced from the Bible, and in modernity connected the Baha’i faith to the United Nations and the artificial universal language Esperanto, developed by L. L. Zamenhof (1859-1917) and launched in 1887. These developments in new religion, new language, and global cooperation suggested a certain optimism about the future as 1900 loomed. In the twenty-first century, the situation is reversed; sovereign citizens and the founding of micro-nations link with the proliferation of personal spiritualities/ invented religions, and strategies of linguistic variance, including revitalisation of Indigenous and regional languages. This paper argues that democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and civil liberties favoured the growth of individualism and enabled the diverse manifestations of politics, religion, and cultural identity. Yet, these relatively innocuous developments have a shadow side, the erosion of democratic governments, the collapse of multi-lateral treaties, and the assault on rights and freedoms.

Nigro 2026 SA 32 1 The Spring Hill at Tell es Sultan in the Late Bronze Age Lorenzo Nigro 2026, Scienze dell'Antichità 32.1

https://www.academia.edu/178884962/Nigro_2026_SA_32_1_The_Spring_Hill_at_Tell_es_Sultan_in_the_Late_Bronze_Age?email_work_card=title This article presents a new reconstruction of the urban, political and social layout of Tell es-Sultan/Jericho in the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1550–1200/1190 BC). It draws on the latest results of the Italian-Palestinian Expedition and on a critical reassessment of the data from earlier expeditions. Jericho was destroyed at the end of the Middle Bronze III and almost abandoned in the Late Bronze IA. From the mid-15th century BC onward it regained an urban form, smaller than before but still structured, and became part of the system of vassal centres of the Egyptian empire of the 18th and 19th Dynasties. The paper focuses on the “Spring Hill”, the eastern acropolis of the site. New excavations there have clarified its complex stratigraphy and defined the role of the so-called “Middle Building”. This building is interpreted as the residence of the local governor and as a seat of administrative and ideological functions, as a 14th-century BC cuneiform tablet shows. The study of the necropolis, especially Tombs 4, 5 and 13, adds a complementary picture. It shows a socially stratified elite with access to Cypriot, Aegean and Egyptian imports, active in the same chronological horizons as the residence on the acropolis. Taken together, the topographical, architectural, funerary and historical-political data show that Late Bronze Age Jericho was not a marginal or abandoned site. It was a resilient urban centre, though reduced in size. The city came to an end within the first quarter of the 13th century BC, probably through a combination of earthquakes and military action in the Ramesside period. Finally, the article confirms that there is no archaeological basis for linking this phase of the city’s history to the biblical account of Joshua 6, which was written many centuries later in the ideological and political context of the 1st millennium BC.

Middle Bronze Age Decorated Antler Horse Bits Linking Denmark, Hungary and Early Mycenean Greece Kristian Kristiansen 2026, Mediterranean Horizons Archaeological Studies in Honour of Søren Dietz

https://www.academia.edu/178217119/Middle_Bronze_Age_Decorated_Antler_Horse_Bits_Linking_Denmark_Hungary_and_Early_Mycenean_Greece?email_work_card=view-paper My starting point involves three decorated antler horse bits that are geographically widely separated, but clearly connected in terms of their style and dating: one from Denmark, another found as part of a set of horse antler bits in a pottery vessel at a Middle Bronze Age tell in Szazha- lombatta, Hungary, and one recovered from an early Mycenean, Late Helladic I elite settlement context Kristian Kristiansen University of Gothenburg, Dept of historical studies, Faculty Member University of Copenhagen, The GLOBE Institute, Faculty Member https://gu-se.academia.edu/KristianKristiansen

Svend Hansen, Kupferne Angelhaken des fünften Jahrtausends v. Chr. aus Măgura Gorgana bei Pietrele an der Unteren Donau Svend Hansen 2026, Das Altertum

https://www.academia.edu/178519746/Svend_Hansen_Kupferne_Angelhaken_des_f%C3%BCnften_Jahrtausends_v_Chr_aus_M%C4%83gura_Gorgana_bei_Pietrele_an_der_Unteren_Donau?email_work_card=title Svend Hansen German Archaeological Institute, Eurasien-Abteilung, Director Freie Universität Berlin, Prehistoric Archaeology, Honorarprofessor https://dainst.academia.edu/SvendHansen

From Imaginative Geographies to Proto-Ethnographic Descriptions of the Levant (1798-1914) Emanuel Pfoh

https://www.academia.edu/144638286/From_Imaginative_Geographies_to_Proto_Ethnographic_Descriptions_of_the_Levant_1798_1914_?email_work_card=title Emanuel Pfoh University of Helsinki, Faculty of Theology, Docent https://helsinki.academia.edu/EmanuelPfoh

Vie dei pastori, vie dei briganti, , Invigilata Lucernis 47, 2025, 77-84 Giusto Traina

https://www.academia.edu/178728860/Vie_dei_pastori_vie_dei_briganti_Invigilata_Lucernis_47_2025_77_84?email_work_card=title Luis rivero garcía (Huelva); Enrico siMonetti (Napoli); Rossana valenti (Napoli); Christiane veyrard-cosMe (Parigi); Andrew Wallace-Hadrill (Cambridge); Vincent zarini (Parigi); Nelu zugravu (Iași) COMITATO EDITORIALE Immacolata aulisa (Bari); Pietro Berardi (Bari); Graziana Brescia (Bari); Antonella Bruzzone (Sassari); Maria Innocenza caMPanale (Bari); Irma ciccarelli (Bari); Fatima El Matouni (Verona); Filomena giannotti (Siena); Gavin Kelly (Edimburgo); Patrizia Mascoli (Bari); Matteo Massaro (Cassino); Alessandra roMeo (Cosenza); Stefania santelia (Bari); Elisabetta todisco (Bari) Le procedure di revisione sono formalizzate in modo da garantire trasparenza e autonomia dei revisori rispetto agli organi della Rivista. La redazione sottopone preliminarmente tutti i contributi pervenuti a un procedimento di doppia lettura anonima (double-blind peer review) affidato a specialisti italiani e stranieri dei relativi settori. Rivista di scienze dell'antichità e del tardoantico Giusto Traina Università Del Salento, Beni Culturali, Faculty Member Sorbonne Université, Ufr d'histoire, Emeritus https://unile.academia.edu/GiustoTraina

Generationengerechtigkeit, Staatsverschuldung und ökologische Transformation der Gesellschaft Jakob Tanner

Generationengerechtigkeit, Staatsverschuldung und ökologische Transformation der Gesellschaft Jakob Tanner https://www.academia.edu/124859625/Generationengerechtigkeit_Staatsverschuldung_und_%C3%B6kologische_Transformation_der_Gesellschaft?email_work_card=title Jakob Tanner, Generationengerechtigkeit, Staatsverschuldung und ökologische Transformation der Gesellschaft, in: Jan Logemann, Stefanie Middendorf, Laura Rischbieter (Hg.): Schulden machen. Praktiken der Staatsverschuldung im langen 20. Jahrhundert, Frankfurt a.M.: Campus 2023, S. 319-331. Die Staatsverschuldung wird häufig als Überwälzung einer Last auf künftige Generationen dargestellt. Dabei werden die Interessen «unserer Enkel» als Argument bemüht, um öffentliche Investitionen, die für die Umsetzung internationaler Klimaziele nötig sind, zu bekämpfen. Der Aufsatz zeigt demgegenüber, dass Generationengerechtigkeit nur möglich ist, wenn heute grosse Summen für eine sozialverträgliche ökologische Transformation von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft ausgegeben werden.