Uhle was born in Dresden, Germany on March 25, 1856 and received his Ph.D. in 1880 from the University of Leipzig. He married Charlotte Grosse from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he worked at the University of Pennsylvania for several years.

Trained as a philologist, Uhle became interested in Peru while a curator at Dresden Museum. In 1888, a close friend, Alphons Stübel, who had recently published an article on the history of Peruvian archaeology, suggested Uhle concentrate his studies on that region. He first traveled to South America in 1892 to initiate research in Argentina and Bolivia for the Konigliches Museum fur Völkerkunde in Berlin, Germany. In that same year he published "The Ruins of Tiahuanaco in the Highlands of Ancient Peru," with photographer and engineer B. von Grumbkow. This extensive work is considered the first in depth scientific account of the ancient site of Tiwanaku, Bolivia.

Uhle returned to South America in 1896, now sponsored by the American Exploration Society in Philadelphia. He also enjoyed the patronage of Mrs. Phoebe Hearst, the mother of William Randolph Hearst. He undertook excavations at Pachacamac, near the coast of Peru, and on Mochica and Chimu sites. His site report of work at Pachacamac was highly praised and is still used as a basic text for studying South American archaeology. He recognized versions of Tiwanaku stone sculpture imagery on ceramics, textiles, and other artifacts in these coastal sites. On this trip, he recovered approximately 9,000 artifacts spanning over 3,000 years of Andean pre-history. These included Nazca pottery, shells, textiles, metals, objects made of wood and other plant material, and objects constructed of animal materials such as feathers, bone, and leather. He concentrated on the dating of these artifacts, and established a system primarily based on textile design. Artifacts found in the Mocha Valley were dated based on the sequential position of Inca ceramic styles. This early dating was later advanced by American archaeologist Alfred Kroeber and is one of the key points in understanding the chronology of pre-Inca Peru. Uhle later worked in the highlands of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Chile. In 1917 he was the first to scientifically describe Peru's Chinchorro mummies.

Uhle also made a notable contribution to North American archaeology in excavations of the Emeryville shell-mound in San Francisco Bay, California. The German-Peruvian Max Uhle School in Arequipa, Peru was named after him.

Notes

Category:1856 births Category:1944 deaths Category:Andean scholars Category:German archaeologists Category:People from Dresden Category:Incan scholars

Mary Magdalene or Mary of Magdala (original Greek Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνή) Traditionally, this has been interpreted to mean that she was from Magdala, a town thought to have been on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. says that she was actually "called Magdalene." In Hebrew Migdal means "tower", "fortress"; in Aramaic, "Magdala" means "tower" or "elevated, great, magnificent".

There is also a short reference to a person named "Martha" among the disciples, possibly the same person who is named as the sister of Mary of Bethany.

Gospel of Philip

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Gospel of Philip, dating from the 2nd or 3rd century, survives in part among the texts found in Nag Hammadi in 1945.

Others' irritation from the love and affection presented by Jesus to Mary Magdalene is claimed in the apocryphal Gospel of Philip. The text is badly fragmented, and speculated but unreliable additions are shown in brackets:

And the companion of [the saviour was Mar]y Ma[gda]lene. [Christ loved] M[ary] more than [all] the disci[ples, and used to] kiss her [often] on her [mouth]. The rest of [the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval]. They said to him, "Why do you love her more than all of us?" The Saviour answered and said to them, "Why do I not love you like her?"

Gospel of Mary

Gospel of Mary is usually dated to about the same period as that of the Gospel of Philip. The Gospel was first discovered in 1896. The Gospel is missing six pages from the beginning and four in the middle.

Unfortunately, almost all of Mary's vision is within the lost pages.

When Mary had said these things, she fell silent, since it was up to this point that the Savior had spoken to her.

Mary is however defended by Levi:

"But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you to reject her? Surely the Savior knew her very well. For this reason he loved her more than us."

The repeated reference in the Gnostic texts of Mary as being loved by Jesus more than the others has been seen as supporting the theory that the Beloved Disciple in the canonical Gospel of John was originally Mary Magdalene, before a later redactor made changes in the Gospel.

Gospel of Thomas

Gospel of Thomas, usually dated to the late 1st or early 2nd century, was also among the finds in the Nag Hammadi library in 1945.

This is a gnostic saying. Some suspect that this saying uses male to refer to spirit, as in Sky-Father typical of the day, and female, the earthly element, as in Mother Earth. We still make these distinctions today by pointing upward for Father God and downward to Mother Earth. In this view, Jesus was not literally claiming to change her gender, but rather arguing that Peter was wrong to want to deny her a role among the disciples.

Mary Magdalene as viewed by Churches

Eastern Orthodox

The Eastern Orthodox Church maintains that Mary Magdalene, distinguished from Mary of Bethany and the "sinful woman", had been a virtuous woman all her life, even before her conversion. They have never celebrated her as a penitent. This view finds expression both in her written life (βίος or vita) and in the liturgical service in her honor that is included in the Menaion and performed on her annual feast-day. There is a tradition that Mary Magdalene led so chaste a life that the devil thought she might be the one who was to bear Christ into the world, and for that reason he sent the seven demons to trouble her.

Mary Magdalene is honored as one of the first witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus, and received a special commission from him to tell the Apostles of his resurrection. She is often depicted on icons bearing a vessel of ointment, not because of the anointing by the "sinful woman", but because she was among those women who brought ointments to the tomb of Jesus. For this reason, she is called a Myrrhbearer.

According to Eastern traditions, she retired to Ephesus with the Theotokos (Mary, the Mother of God) and there she died. (This previous statement appears to be a conflation of Turkish local traditions about St. John and the Virgin Mary Anglican and Lutheran Christians revere her as a saint and some call upon her for intercession. Catholic and Orthodox Christians venerate and honor the saints, including Mary Magdalene, through icons and images, special prayers, and other devotions. Veneration of the saints through such practices has alarmed most Protestant Christians who regard the practice as idolatry.

Ramon K. Jusino, an internet writer, offers an explanation of this view, based on the textual researches of Raymond E. Brown. The closeness described in these writings depicts Mary Magdalene, representing the Gnostics, as understanding Jesus and his teaching while the other disciples, representing the Church, did not. Kripal writes that "the historical sources are simply too contradictory and simultaneously too silent" to make absolute declarations regarding Jesus' sexuality. On the other hand, the historian John Dickson argues that it was common in early Christianity to kiss a fellow believer by way of greeting, and as such kissing would have no romantic connotations. Erhman further cites and as evidence for his proposition.

According to Harvard theologian Karen King, Mary Magdalene was a prominent disciple and leader of one wing of the early Christian movement that promoted women's leadership.

Asbury Theological Seminary Bible scholar Ben Witherington III confirms the New Testament account of Mary Magdalene as historical: "Mary was an important early disciple and witness for Jesus." In 1969 the Vatican, without commenting on Pope Gregory's reasoning, implicitly rejected it by separating Luke's sinful woman, Mary of Bethany, and Mary Magdala via the Roman Missal.

Jeffrey Kripal, a religion scholar, wrote, "Migdal or Magdala (meaning "tower" in Hebrew and Aramaic respectively) was a fishing town known, or so the legend goes, for its possibly connection to hairdressers (medgaddlela) and women of questionable reputation."

This impression of Mary is perpetuated by much Western medieval Christian art. In many such depictions, Mary Magdalene is shown as having long hair which she wears down over her shoulders, while other women follow contemporary standards of propriety by hiding their hair beneath headdresses or kerchiefs. The Magdalene's hair may be rendered as red, while the other women of the New Testament in these same depictions ordinarily have dark hair beneath a scarf. This disparity between depictions of women can be seen in works such as the Crucifixion paintings by the Meister des Marienlebens.

This image of Mary as a prostitute was followed by many writers and artists until the 20th century. Even today the identification of Mary Magdalene as the adulteress is prolonged by various Christian and secular groups today. It is reflected in Martin Scorsese's film adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis's novel The Last Temptation of Christ, in José Saramago's The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, Andrew Lloyd Webber's rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, Jean-Claude La Marre's Color of the Cross and Hal Hartley's The Book of Life.

Cultural references

In film and literature

Other

See also

Endnotes

References

External links

Category:1st-century Christian female saints Category:1st-century deaths Category:Anglican saints Category:Eastern Orthodox saints Category:Equal-to-apostles Category:Followers of Jesus Category:New Testament people Category:Palestinian Roman Catholic saints Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar Category:Roman Catholic saints Category:Saints from the Holy Land Category:Saints of the Golden Legend