© 2024 Connecticut Public

FCC Public Inspection Files:
WEDH · WEDN · WEDW · WEDY · WNPR
WPKT · WRLI-FM · WEDW-FM · Public Files Contact
ATSC 3.0 FAQ
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Cancer Answers is hosted by Dr. Anees Chagpar, Associate Professor of Surgical Oncology and Director of The Breast Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and Dr. Francine Foss, Professor of Medical Oncology. The show features a guest cancer specialist who will share the most recent advances in cancer therapy and respond to listeners questions. Myths, facts and advances in cancer diagnosis and treatment are discussed, with a different focus eachweek. Nationally acclaimed specialists in various types of cancer research, diagnosis, and treatment discuss common misconceptions about the disease and respond to questions from the community.Listeners can submit questions to be answered on the program at canceranswers@yale.edu or by leaving a message at (888) 234-4YCC. As a resource, archived programs from 2006 through the present are available in both audio and written versions on the Yale Cancer Center website.

Yale Art Gallery May Hold World’s Oldest Known Virgin Mary Painting

A painting that one scholar believes may show the Virgin Mary hangs in a room at the Yale University Art Gallery. The painting would have appeared on the wall of a "house church" in ancient Dura-Europos.
Davis Dunavin
A painting that one scholar believes may show the Virgin Mary hangs in a room at the Yale University Art Gallery. The painting would have appeared on the wall of a "house church" in ancient Dura-Europos.
A painting that one scholar believes may show the Virgin Mary hangs in a room at the Yale University Art Gallery. The painting would have appeared on the wall of a "house church" in ancient Dura-Europos.
Credit Davis Dunavin
A painting that one scholar believes may show the Virgin Mary hangs in a room at the Yale University Art Gallery. The painting would have appeared on the wall of a "house church" in ancient Dura-Europos.

Just over 200 years after Jesus died, in 240 A.D., someone made a wall-painting of a woman in a house in the ancient city of Dura Europos, now in modern Syria.

Almost seventeen centuries later, in the 1920s, Yale archeologists found the painting while excavating Dura. 

And, a few years ago, the Yale University Art Gallery opened a room devoted to artifacts from Dura—they’re just a small selection of the some 12,000 artifacts that were collected from excavations over the years. That’s where the painting can be found, tucked away in a corner.

“We see a figure, leaning over, and there’s a round structure in front of her,” says Yale curator Lisa Brody, pointing out the painting. “This has traditionally been identified as the Samaritan woman at the well. And people have accepted it because it made sense. There was no reason people saw to question it.”

But in a new book, The World’s Oldest Church, Fordham University professor Michael Peppard suggests the painting might not be the woman at the well, but a very early representation of the Annunciation; that’s the moment Mary learned she would give birth to Jesus. It’s one of the most important moments in Christianity, and one of the most depicted moments in art history. Over the centuries, artists from Leonardo Da Vinci to Dante Rossetti to Andy Warhol have painted scenes of the Annunciation.

And Peppard believes this one may be the first depiction of the Annunciation, and even the the earliest known painting of the Virgin Mary.

“I started to uncover this whole tradition of the Annunciation to Mary at a water source,” he says; “It turns out this tradition comes primarily from the East. It’s well-represented in Syria.”

Peppard says if this is indeed Mary, then the Annunciation may have non-Western origins.

“Most of what Western Christians know comes out of the Western tradition based in Rome, that came down through Europe,” he says, “but there’s this very robust and ancient tradition coming out of Syria, the cradle of Christianity.”

The house in Dura where the painting of the woman was found is believed to be the oldest example of a ‘house church’—a meeting place for Christians in the days before monasteries and cathedrals.

Today, there’s a war in Syria, and the Islamic State controls territory that includes the ruins of Dura. The militant group is known for looting and destroying historical artifacts. Brody says archaeologists know those ruins held a lot more treasures. But it may be too late to save them.

“We have reports from dawn to dusk, hundreds of people digging holes in the surface of the archeological site,” she says. “Aerial photographs that show the entire surface covered with these holes. People searching for antiquities to sell on the black market.”

That means, ultimately, almost everything left to see and appreciate from Dura might be in New Haven, Connecticut.

In April, Yale and the United Nations are hosting a colloquium to talk about what universities and museums can do to protect ancient art from threats like the Islamic State.

Copyright 2016 WSHU

Davis Dunavin loves telling stories, whether on the radio or around the campfire. He fell in love with sound-rich radio storytelling while working as an assistant reporter at KBIA public radio in Columbia, Missouri. Before coming back to radio, he worked in digital journalism as the editor of Newtown Patch. As a freelance reporter, his work for WSHU aired nationally on NPR. Davis is a proud graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism; he started in Missouri and ended up in Connecticut, which, he'd like to point out, is the same geographic trajectory taken by Mark Twain.

Stand up for civility

This news story is funded in large part by Connecticut Public’s Members — listeners, viewers, and readers like you who value fact-based journalism and trustworthy information.

We hope their support inspires you to donate so that we can continue telling stories that inform, educate, and inspire you and your neighbors. As a community-supported public media service, Connecticut Public has relied on donor support for more than 50 years.

Your donation today will allow us to continue this work on your behalf. Give today at any amount and join the 50,000 members who are building a better—and more civil—Connecticut to live, work, and play.

Related Content