Technology and Engineering 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 shape of the gap rather than its subject: what sort of thing is unresolved.
Filter By Specialty 99 fields, 1 selected
Showing 3 of 608 questions, filtered to 1 specialty.
dating 1
When something happened, where the sources disagree or are silent.
Amarnath Cave
How far back does continuous veneration at Amarnath Cave extend beyond the documented mid nineteenth century pilgrimage?
Open Amarnath Cave
Why It Is Open The cave is named in the Nilamata Purana and in Kalhana's Rajatarangini, but neither text's date of composition is settled, so their references cannot fix how far back the site's veneration actually runs.
What Would Settle It A codicological or paleographic dating study of the manuscript traditions of the Nilamata Purana and the Rajatarangini, or an independently dated inscription or record naming the cave before the nineteenth century.
Expertise Needed Indology, manuscript studies, Sanskrit philology
Question posed in
Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Denise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.).
Historicity 1
Whether a person or event is historical, legendary, or a composite of both.
Parshvanatha
Which of the twenty four Tirthankaras are historically attested?
Open Parshvanatha
Why It Is Open Critical scholarship accepts Parshvanatha and Mahavira as historical figures. Jain tradition holds all twenty four to be historical teachers. For the remaining twenty two there is no independent attestation, so a single answer applied across the group would misdescribe most of it in one direction or the other.
What Would Settle It Independent attestation for any individual Tirthankara beyond the two, whether inscriptional, textual from outside the tradition, or archaeological.
Expertise Needed Indology, Jain studies, and South Asian archaeology.
Question posed in
The Jains, Paul Dundas, Second edition, page 19.
identification 1
Which thing an old name actually refers to.
Soma
What plant was the soma of the Rig Veda and the haoma of the Avesta?
Open Soma
Why It Is Open At least three serious candidates have been argued at length and none is established. Wasson proposed Amanita muscaria in 1968; Flattery and Schwartz proposed Peganum harmala in 1989; ephedra is favoured on the grounds that it is the plant used in the living Zoroastrian Yasna, a ritual with no recorded break. Each fits some of the textual evidence and fails on other parts of it.
What Would Settle It A securely dated archaeobotanical find from an Indo-Iranian ritual context with residue analysis, or a philological argument that settles the disputed Rig Veda passages. A fourth possibility deserves testing: that the hymns are liturgical praise rather than pharmacological description, in which case a mild plant is sufficient and the search for a potent one is misconceived.
Expertise Needed Indology, Iranian and Avestan philology, archaeobotany, ethnobotany
Question posed in
Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality, R. Gordon Wasson.