Divinity Atlas

Open Questions

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.

You can send evidence on some of these. A pilot is open on 55 questions in one field, Palaeography. Each says what would resolve it; send something that meets that bar, with a source anybody can check, and an editor will weigh it. Sending evidence does not guarantee the question will be resolved, and it does not have to be your field to read what is being asked. See what is open.

Grouped by the field an answer needs. A question sitting between two disciplines appears under both, which is why the group counts add up to more than the number of questions.

Filter By Specialty 99 fields

Showing 481 to 500 of 781 open questions, page 25 of 40.

Not Yet Classified 508

Menog-i Khrad (Spirit of Wisdom) Who compiled the Menog-i Khrad, and can it be dated more precisely than the broad Sasanian-to-early-Islamic span?

Open Menog-i Khrad (Spirit of Wisdom)

Why It Is Open The text names no individual author or compiler and, like most surviving Pahlavi andarz literature, is transmitted as an anonymous product of the Zoroastrian priesthood. Its manuscript tradition post-dates its composition by centuries, leaving both authorship and a precise date unrecoverable from the text itself.

What Would Settle It An independent contemporary Sasanian or early Islamic-era reference naming the text or its compiler would settle this; absent that, a philological study placing its Pahlavi against securely dated Pahlavi texts could narrow the range.

Expertise Needed Iranian philology and Zoroastrian textual studies

Question posed in Pahlavi Texts, Part III: Dina-i Mainog-i Khirad (E.W. West), E.W. West, translator.

Arda Viraf Nameh (Book of Arda Viraf) Who composed the Arda Viraf Nameh, and how much of the surviving text reflects its Sasanian-era narrative setting rather than later redaction?

Open Arda Viraf Nameh (Book of Arda Viraf)

Why It Is Open The text is framed as a first-person report of Viraf's own journey rather than a work with a credited literary author, and no compiler is named in the surviving manuscript tradition, which itself postdates the narrative's dramatic setting by an uncertain span.

What Would Settle It An independent contemporary or near-contemporary Sasanian or early Islamic-era reference to the text or its compiler would help settle authorship; a philological study distinguishing linguistic strata within the surviving Pahlavi could help separate earlier from later material.

Expertise Needed Iranian philology and Zoroastrian textual studies

Question posed in The Book of Arda Viraf (Martin Haug and E.W. West), Martin Haug and E.W. West, translators, with Dastur Hoshangji Jamaspji Asa.

Sefer HaRazim (Book of the Mysteries) Who compiled Sefer HaRazim, and can its date be fixed more precisely within the late antique period?

Open Sefer HaRazim (Book of the Mysteries)

Why It Is Open The text presents itself as angelic revelation rather than the work of a named human author, and it survives in no single complete manuscript, only later medieval copies and Cairo Geniza fragments assembled into a modern critical reconstruction, so neither its compiler nor a precise date can be read directly off any single witness.

What Would Settle It An earlier or more complete manuscript witness, or an external contemporary reference to the text, would help fix its date and origin; comparative philological work situating its Greek-influenced Hebrew more precisely within the late antique Jewish magical corpus could narrow the range further.

Expertise Needed Jewish studies and late antique magical and esoteric textual studies

Question posed in Sefer Ha-Razim: The Book of the Mysteries (Michael A. Morgan), Michael A. Morgan, translator, based on Mordecai Margalioth's critical Hebrew reconstruction.

Chachapoya What Were the Chachapoya's Own Deities and Cosmology?

Open Chachapoya

Why It Is Open The Chachapoya left no deciphered writing system, and Spanish chroniclers who might have recorded their beliefs encountered them only after Inca conquest had already reshaped their political and religious institutions in the late fifteenth century. Their monumental architecture, sarcophagi and mummy bundles are extensively documented archaeologically, but the specific deities, cosmology and ritual meaning behind that material record are not confidently known from any surviving account.

What Would Settle It Further bioarchaeological and iconographic study of undisturbed Chachapoya funerary sites, such as the Laguna de los Condores mausoleums, that could recover painted or carved religious imagery predating Inca influence, together with any Chachapoya-specific vocabulary that might survive embedded in later colonial-era Quechua or Spanish records of the region.

Expertise Needed Andean archaeology and bioarchaeology

Question posed in Chachapoyas: Cultural Development at an Andean Cloud Forest Crossroads (Church and von Hagen), Warren B. Church and Adriana von Hagen.

Yarsanism What would a dated, sourced count of Yarsani adherents over time require, given that no state census counts them as a distinct category?

Open Yarsanism

Why It Is Open Yarsani adherents are folded into Iran's broader Muslim population in its national census, and no other government or denominational body maintains a count of them; every published figure is an undated snapshot from fieldwork, advocacy or journalism rather than one point in a tracked series.

What Would Settle It A dedicated demographic study, most plausibly built from community register data the Yarsani community itself might keep informally, or from a specially commissioned survey, giving dated counts that could be compared over time the way this axis compares other bodies.

Expertise Needed Demography, Iranian religious minority studies

Question posed in The Religious Textual Heritage of the Yarsan (Ahl-e Haqq), Philip G. Kreyenbroek.

Angel Prayers Oracle Cards Who illustrated Kyle Gray's Angel Prayers Oracle Cards?

Open Angel Prayers Oracle Cards

Why It Is Open No illustrator is credited on the creator's own product page, the publisher's listing, or any retailer listing checked. Kyle Gray's later decks in this registry, credited to a named illustrator, make the silence here look like an omission rather than a genuinely uncredited work, but that could not be confirmed either way.

What Would Settle It The deck's own guidebook or box, examined directly, or a publisher catalogue record naming the illustrator.