Another article by Guarducci "Osservazioni sulla croce di Ercolano", in Bullettino dell'Istituto Archeologico Germanico 60-61 (1953-1954): 224-233, later in her Scritti scelti (1983), is available, at least in part, at Google Books via this abbreviated URL (in Italian; if necessary search for "Ercolano"): <http://tinyurl.com/5htygt>

John's judicious comments are correct: Guarducci was a respected archeologist and epigrapher, but many thought that she was inclined to speculation and overstepping the evidence. It was she who proposed the reading "Petros eni" (Peter is here) of a graffito on the red wall of the paleo-Christian monument underneath the high altar of St Peter's Basilica as proof that it was Peter's burial place, but others have felt she was too enthusiastic in proposing a definitive interpretation of fragmentary and complex evidence.

The 1951 Holladay article I referred to earlier is available on JSTOR. -- Paul Chandler

2008/9/11 John Dillon <[log in to unmask]>

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

In the article from 1993 cited here, the archeologist and epigrapher Margherita Guarducci (1902-99) concluded that these objects (there seem to be two of them, one at Herculaneum and one at Popmpeii) are Tau crosses:

http://www.gliscritti.it/gallery2/v/album_022/

One should bear in mind both Guarducci's age at the time that this article was written and the views of some that her interpretations have at times exceeded the limits of the evidence available. Given that she made no secret of her devout Christianity and that some of her work dealt with matters that were sure to be controversial, it's not surprising that there would be such criticism. One has to proceed with caution here.

This might also be useful: Lorenzo Falanga, _ La croce di Ercolano. Cronistoria di una scoperta_ (Napoli: M. D'Auria, 1981; Quaderni dell'Associazione per lo studio e la divulgazione dell'archeologia biblica, quaderno n. 2).

Best,
John Dillon

On Thursday, September 11, 2008, at 12:38 am, George Hoelzeman wrote:

> On Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:03:45 +0200, Paul Chandler wrote:
>

> >Some suggest that the earliest surviving cross is from Herculaneum

> (before AD 79): <; cf. William L. Holladay,

> "The Herculaneum Cross", Journal of Bible and Religion, Vol. 19
> (1951): 16-19. I'm not sure what the modern scholarly consensus is
> about this cross. (Does
> anyone know?)
>
> This is EXTREMELY interesting. . . I, too, would be interested in any
> further research on the subject.
>

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