NewsTracker Answers for week of July 15, 2024

Q: Bulgarian archaeologists digging in an ancient Roman sewer were surprised to find a well-preserved marble statue, taller than a man. They suspect pagans hid the statue to protect it from Christian zealots, who often destroyed the heads of pagan deities. Where is Bulgaria on the Black Sea?

Circle the area on this map

Q: The statue was “found it by accident” during a routine archaeological dig near Bulgaria’s southwestern border with which country?

A. Greece

B. North Macedonia

C. Romania

D. Serbia

A. Greece borders Bulgaria to the southwest, Turkey to the southeast, the Black Sea to the east, Romania to the north, and Serbia and North Macedonia to the west. Construction workers in Rome found another ancient marble figure in a sewer system last year.

Q: What is now Bulgaria became a province of the Roman Empire in 45 AD. When did Christianity become the state religion of the Roman Empire?

A. About 100 years later

B. About 200 years later

C. About 300 years later

D. About 400 years later

C. Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380 under an edict of Emperor Theodosius, who also banned visits to pagan temples and abolished pagan holidays. It is believed the statue was hidden about that time as anti-pagan riots broke out around the empire and early Christians destroyed temples and statues.

Q: The Bulgarian archaeologists speculate that the statue portrays the Greek god Hermes. What did the Romans call this deity?

B. Jupiter

B. Jupiter

C. Mars

D. Mercury

D. Hermes and Mercury were the messengers of other gods as well as the gods of thieves, travelers, and merchants.

Q: Where were 2,000-year-old religious statues destroyed in this century?

A. Afghanistan

B. China

C. Egypt

D. India

A. In 2001, Taliban soldiers used rockets and tank shells to destroy two giant Buddhas carved into an Afghanistan hillside about 2,000 years earlier. Churches, mosques, synagogues, and temples as well as texts and artifacts have been destroyed by religious foes over many thousands of years.