Open Questions

Open Dragon's Blood

Why It Is Open Pliny and other classical writers use cinnabaris for both the red resin later called dragon's blood and, separately, the mineral cinnabar, mercury sulfide, and scholars disagree over which passages refer to which substance.

What Would Settle It A study disentangling the classical vocabulary for red resins and red minerals, establishing which passages securely name the Socotran dragon tree resin.

Expertise Needed Classical philology, history of pharmacology

Question posed in Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.).

Open Frankincense and Myrrh Blend

Why It Is Open The nativity account names the two resins together but does not describe them blended or burned as one compound, and a genuine combined incense recipe naming both resins together has not been located.

What Would Settle It A study of ancient or early Christian liturgical incense recipes identifying the earliest instance in which frankincense and myrrh are compounded into a single burned mixture, rather than named or given as a symbolic pair.

Expertise Needed Liturgical history, history of pharmacy

Question posed in Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.).

Open Juniper

Why It Is Open Juniper is used in numerous ancient contexts, medicinal, embalming and ritual, but no single dated text or excavation has been confirmed as the earliest securely dated reference to its aromatic or incense use specifically.

What Would Settle It A study of ancient Egyptian or Near Eastern medical and ritual texts fixing the earliest securely dated mention of juniper's aromatic or fumigant use.

Expertise Needed Egyptology, archaeobotany

Question posed in Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.).

Open Lavender

Why It Is Open Lavender's Latin name derives from washing, its best documented ancient use, and no specific dated source for lavender burned as incense, as opposed to used in bathing, has been confirmed.

What Would Settle It A study of ancient or medieval texts distinguishing lavender's earliest attestation as a burned aromatic from its far better documented use in bathing and laundry.

Expertise Needed Classical history, history of perfumery

Question posed in Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.).

Open Nag Champa

Why It Is Open Nag Champa's origin is commonly attributed to a twentieth century Indian ashram or mission, but no specific, checkable, dated source for its first formulation has been located.

What Would Settle It A documented company or ashram history naming the specific date and maker of the first Nag Champa formulation, as opposed to a general or promotional claim.

Expertise Needed Modern religious and commercial history

Question posed in Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.).

Open Palo Santo

Why It Is Open Palo santo's traditional use predates any documentation checked so far, and no specific dated colonial era or archaeological source naming it has been located.

What Would Settle It An ethnohistorical study of early colonial Spanish accounts of coastal Ecuadorian and Peruvian ritual practice, or an archaeobotanical identification of Bursera graveolens residue from a securely dated find.

Expertise Needed Ethnohistory, archaeobotany

Question posed in Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.).

Open Pine

Why It Is Open Pine is native and ritually used across multiple, unrelated regions and periods, so no single earliest attestation can honestly be named without first specifying which tradition's use of pine as incense is being dated.

What Would Settle It A comparative study establishing the earliest securely dated attestation of pine resin or needles burned as incense in a specific named tradition.

Expertise Needed Comparative religion, archaeobotany

Question posed in Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.).

Open Rose

Why It Is Open Rose's documented ancient uses are overwhelmingly as a garland, perfume or, later, a distilled water, and no specific dated source for rose burned as incense specifically has been confirmed.

What Would Settle It A study of ancient or medieval aromatic use texts distinguishing rose's earliest attestation as a burned incense from its far better documented uses as a garland and distilled perfume.

Expertise Needed Classical history, history of perfumery

Question posed in Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.).

Open Saffron

Why It Is Open Saffron's cultivation and harvest are widely reported as depicted in Bronze Age Aegean wall painting, but a specific, checkable excavation report or scholarly publication establishing the secure date of that evidence, and confirming what it actually depicts, has not been confirmed.

What Would Settle It Citation of the excavation report or scholarly publication dating the Bronze Age Aegean saffron harvest imagery and confirming its subject.

Expertise Needed Aegean archaeology

Question posed in Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.).

Open Sage

Why It Is Open Sage's ceremonial use among Indigenous peoples of western North America is a living tradition, and no specific, dated, non-intrusive documentary or archaeological source establishing its earliest attested use has been located.

What Would Settle It An archaeobotanical study identifying Salvia residue from a securely dated site, or a documented early written account naming the practice without describing closed ceremonial content.

Expertise Needed Archaeobotany, ethnohistory

Question posed in Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.).

Open Sandalwood

Why It Is Open Sandalwood appears in Sanskrit literature whose precise dating is disputed among scholars, and in early Chinese Buddhist sources, without it having been established which candidate reference is earliest on a securely datable basis.

What Would Settle It A philological study fixing the earliest securely datable Sanskrit or Chinese text naming sandalwood specifically, rather than aromatic wood generally.

Expertise Needed Philology, Indology

Question posed in Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.).

Open Storax

Why It Is Open Genesis 37:25 and other passages mention tsori, translated balm, among trade goods, but scholarly identification of tsori is divided between storax, mastic gum and other resins, so it cannot honestly be cited as storax's own earliest attestation without settling that identification.

What Would Settle It A study settling the botanical identification of the Hebrew term tsori among its candidate resins.

Expertise Needed Biblical philology, archaeobotany

Question posed in Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.).

Open Sweetgrass

Why It Is Open Sweetgrass's ceremonial use is a living Indigenous North American tradition, and no specific, dated, non-intrusive documentary or archaeological source establishing its earliest attested use has been located.

What Would Settle It An archaeobotanical study identifying Hierochloe residue from a securely dated site, or a documented early written account naming the practice without describing closed ceremonial content.

Expertise Needed Archaeobotany, ethnohistory

Question posed in Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.).

Open Tobacco

Why It Is Open Multiple archaeological finds across the Americas have been proposed as early evidence of tobacco use, but which specific, securely dated find or residue analysis is genuinely the earliest has not been confirmed here.

What Would Settle It A residue analysis study identifying nicotine biomarkers from a securely dated, named excavation, compared against other candidate early pipe finds.

Expertise Needed Archaeobotany, archaeochemistry

Question posed in Encyclopedia of Religion, Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.).

Open Aqidah al-Tahawiyya

Why It Is Open Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi's own lifetime, 853 to 933, is well established, but no source pins the creed's actual composition to a specific year or even a decade within it.

What Would Settle It A securely dated manuscript, a contemporary reference to the work's composition, or a philological study anchoring its text to a particular stage of al-Tahawi's career.

Expertise Needed Islamic intellectual history

Question posed in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs (eds.).

Open The Threefold Refuge (Tisarana)

Why It Is Open Tradition places its first use at the very start of the Buddha's teaching career, but the Buddha's own chronology is unsettled among historians, and no source assigns the formula a specific year.

What Would Settle It A firmer scholarly resolution of the Buddha's own chronology, or textual evidence dating the formula's earliest use independently of the traditional narrative that carries it.

Expertise Needed Buddhist studies

Question posed in The Foundations of Buddhism, Rupert Gethin.

Open The Mardin Fatwa of Ibn Taymiyya

Why It Is Open Ibn Taymiyya's own lifetime, 1263 to 1328, and Mongol rule over Mardin are both well documented, but no source pins the fatwa itself to a specific year within that span.

What Would Settle It A securely dated manuscript of the fatwa, or a documented occasion, such as a specific delegation from Mardin, that the text can be tied to.

Expertise Needed Islamic legal history

Question posed in Ibn Taymiyya (Makers of the Muslim World), Jon Hoover.

Open Statue of Gommateshwara Bahubali

Why It Is Open No inscription at Shravanabelagola records the name of the sculptor or workshop that carved the image, even though the patron, Chavundaraya, is well attested. Digambara colossal images of this scale from the tenth century rarely name their carvers at all, so the silence is consistent with the period's own convention rather than a loss of a record that once existed.

What Would Settle It A donative or masons' inscription naming a sculptor or guild, of a kind found at other Hoysala and Ganga-period sites but not yet identified at Shravanabelagola itself, or a documentary source from the Ganga court not yet examined.

Expertise Needed South Indian art history, Ganga-period epigraphy

Question posed in The Jains, Paul Dundas, Gommateshwara / Bahubali colossus at Shravanabelagola, attribution gap.

Open Leshan Giant Buddha

Why It Is Open No inscription, temple record or contemporary chronicle names the sculptor, master mason or workshop who carved the statue, even though the monk who conceived the project and the two officials who later funded its completion are all recorded by name.

What Would Settle It A Tang-period donative or masons' inscription naming a carving workshop, of a kind found at other major Tang Buddhist rock-carving sites but not yet identified at Leshan itself, or a documentary source from the Jiannan Xichuan administration not yet examined.

Expertise Needed Chinese Buddhist art history, Tang-period epigraphy

Question posed in Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference), Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, s.v. "Leshan Giant Buddha", attribution gap.

Open Dura-Europos Synagogue Frescoes

Why It Is Open The synagogue's dedicatory Aramaic inscription names the community elders and officials responsible for the 244 or 245 CE renovation, but no painter or workshop. Neither the founding excavation report nor later scholarship consulted for this entry identifies who executed the cycle.

What Would Settle It A signed or otherwise attributable inscription, a stylistic link to a documented workshop active elsewhere in Roman Syria, or comparative technical analysis of pigment and technique connecting the Dura Europos paintings to a named or identifiable school of painters.

Expertise Needed Ancient art history, Roman provincial archaeology

Question posed in Kraeling, "The Synagogue" (Dura-Europos Final Report VIII, Part I), 1956, Carl H. Kraeling.