Science Atlas
Things this atlas does not know. Each entry is a question that specialists
have posed and not settled, recorded with what would actually resolve it and which
expertise the answer needs.
These are kept deliberately, rather than quietly omitted. An atlas that shows
only what it is sure of implies a confidence it has not earned, and the gaps are often where
the interesting work is. Several sit exactly where two fields fail to meet: identifying the
hyssop of the Hebrew Bible needs a botanist and a philologist of Biblical Hebrew, and neither
one settles it alone.
Grouped by the expertise recorded on each question, in the words the question itself uses. Most of these are held by a single question.
Filter By Specialty 99 fields, 1 selected
Showing 2 of 608 questions, filtered to 1 specialty.
Vedic philology, Indo-Iranian archaeology 2
Gayatri Hymn
When were the family books (Mandalas 2 to 7) of the Rig Veda actually composed?
Open Gayatri Hymn
Why It Is Open The hymn's placement in the family books, the oldest stratum of the Rig Veda, is secure on internal linguistic grounds. The absolute date of that stratum is not: proposed dates range across the whole second millennium BCE, and no inscription, datable artefact or external synchronism fixes any point in that range.
What Would Settle It A securely dated inscription, artefact or archaeological correlate that can be tied to the language or content of the family books, comparable to the role the Mitanni treaty plays in dating other early Indo-Iranian material, would anchor the range.
Expertise Needed Vedic philology, Indo-Iranian archaeology
Question posed in
The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India, Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton.
Gayatri Mantra
When was the Gayatri mantra, in the family books of the Rig Veda, actually composed?
Open Gayatri Mantra
Why It Is Open The Gayatri's placement in the family books, the oldest stratum of the Rig Veda, is secure on internal linguistic grounds. The absolute date of that stratum is not: proposed dates range across the whole second millennium BCE, and no inscription, datable artefact or external synchronism fixes any point in that range.
What Would Settle It A securely dated inscription, artefact or archaeological correlate that can be tied to the language or content of the family books, comparable to the role the Mitanni treaty plays in dating other early Indo-Iranian material, would anchor the range.
Expertise Needed Vedic philology, Indo-Iranian archaeology
Question posed in
The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India, Stephanie W. Jamison and Joel P. Brereton.