18-07-2016, 10:09 PM
Simple - the VM is just a copy with minor alterations. I mostly follow Diane's view that these originally Hellenistic images reached us through the Eastern trade routes. That is, very (too) simply put, they were used and maintained by traders who took them along with them East. That explains why we don't immediately recognize the human figures as typically Greek or Egyptian. They have been influenced by "Eastern" scribes with their own customs and (religious) taboos.
Some medieval additions must of course be assumed, like the crossbowman, but by and large everything seems like a lone survivor of a lost tradition.
I strongly believe that the 15thC copyists did not understand much of what they were copying, and likely got the assignment to copy these documents because of their antiquity or presumed value in trade. I lean more towards the "antiquity" side, while if you ask Diane she'll say value in trade. She thinks the documents were kept safe because they explained (making up an example here) how to get pepper from India to Europe and get lots of money from it.
We still have Egyptian papyri now, in 2016, so it is possible that some of them were found and copied. To me it seems clear though, that it was not an Egyptian work but rather one of Greeks living in Egypt, or Romans if we go to the first centuries CE - not much difference in this context, the Greco-Roman period is often taken as a whole.
So if I say the Ptolemaic or Hellenistic period is the sweet spot, I mean that whatever images reached us through some unique twist of fate were first made in that period, and in a "Greek" Egypt.
This is not aimed at you or anyone in particular, but I have never understood why so many people insist that the VM must have been a 15thC creation. Yes, the artefact is 15thC European - of course! But why can't it's contents be older, and why can't it have been a "blind" copy with minor alterations?
Some medieval additions must of course be assumed, like the crossbowman, but by and large everything seems like a lone survivor of a lost tradition.
I strongly believe that the 15thC copyists did not understand much of what they were copying, and likely got the assignment to copy these documents because of their antiquity or presumed value in trade. I lean more towards the "antiquity" side, while if you ask Diane she'll say value in trade. She thinks the documents were kept safe because they explained (making up an example here) how to get pepper from India to Europe and get lots of money from it.
We still have Egyptian papyri now, in 2016, so it is possible that some of them were found and copied. To me it seems clear though, that it was not an Egyptian work but rather one of Greeks living in Egypt, or Romans if we go to the first centuries CE - not much difference in this context, the Greco-Roman period is often taken as a whole.
So if I say the Ptolemaic or Hellenistic period is the sweet spot, I mean that whatever images reached us through some unique twist of fate were first made in that period, and in a "Greek" Egypt.
This is not aimed at you or anyone in particular, but I have never understood why so many people insist that the VM must have been a 15thC creation. Yes, the artefact is 15thC European - of course! But why can't it's contents be older, and why can't it have been a "blind" copy with minor alterations?