Maia Atlantis: Ancient World Blogs

Next Pedrantry Target: The Daily Mail’s Snow Job

2012-02-04T14:24:11Z

Sometimes it’s just too easy … I’m sitting here idly catching up on emails etc. (we’re in the midst of report cards) and enjoying @SaveRome’s photos of snowfall in the forum (via Twitter/Instagram), when suddenly I’m confronted with the Daily Mail‘s headline on the snowfall:

Colosseum closes and drivers abandon cars as snow falls on Rome for the first time in 26 YEARS

… er, let’s look back a couple of years (almost to the day) when we had some nice photos of snow falling on the Colosseum:

Snow Closes Sites in Rome

… which later was supplemented with Max Nelson’s (UWindsor) photos of snow falling through the oculus in the Pantheon (remember: these photos are a couple of years old …):

Snow in Rome Redux

The Sun and Daily Mail should probably get together and have a review of how calendars and other assorted methods of reckoning time works …

Historic Scotland takeover of RCAHMS: Unwelcome, Unwanted and Wrong

2012-02-04T14:04:53Z

The current land grab that Historic Scotland is making for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) should keep anyone involved in archaeology, indeed the heritage industry in Scotland, awake at night.

Ministers of the Scottish parliament announced an “options appraisal” in November last year, the clear agenda of which is that RCAHMS will find itself folded into Historic Scotland in the next few years.

There is no doubt that this is a takeover attempt. Fair enough. Historic Scotland is desperate to justify its own existence. Scottish finance secretary John Swinney announced eye-watering and humiliating cuts to the agency’s funding from £47 million to £35.7m in 2014-15. Not an indication of any kind of interest in culture and history.

The problem is that Historic Scotland is anything other than a beacon of excellence. Over the past week it has become clear even to the most casual observer that Historic Scotland isn’t remotely up to the job. Five of the most senior members of the government agency have left over the past 18 months since the appointment of hapless chief executive Ruth Parsons, and 53 cases of bullying were reported in October alone last year.

The screams from RCAHMS are getting louder. "[A merger] is not something we relish having a 100 year history of working without government interference. They are a terrible organisation to work with and they care little for the sector and less for the archaeology," said one insider.

It is easy to see their point, the merger of English Heritage and the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) at the end of 1990s has not been a happy marriage. "It wasn’t quite the grand idea that some thought it might be. RCHME was never fully integrated into the work of English Heritage, with the National Monuments Record separate from the other English Heritage archives. Its research and recording programme lost emphasis in favour of other priorities," writes Peter Drummond, national chairman of the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland.

On top of that, unless it fits its own crude political agenda (£8.9 million for Bannockburn) the disinterest that the Scottish parliament has in managing the country’s heritage is palpable. Culture minister Fiona Hyslop's rejection of a plea to open a national tourism centre in Perthshire to celebrate its Roman heritage in October last year, as just one example, was as depressing as it was short sighted.

Aside from the fact that it is never a good idea for goverment to intefere in archaeological research, indeed any kind of scientific or academic research, it is hard to see how a merger between these two institutions can possibly be a good idea. All it does is prop up Historic Scotland.

Download HS_article Times

The Sun, Seven Wonders, and Blackened Pots

2012-02-04T13:53:55Z

Don’t like to start the day with a bit of pedantry, but when the Sun engages in pot-calling-the-kettle-blackery, I simply can’t resist … the incipit of a piece therein:

A QUARTER of clueless Brit holidaymakers claim to have visited historic Wonders of the World … which don’t even exist.

Top porkies include sightseeing at the Colossus of Rhodes, which was destroyed in 226 BC, and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, ordered to be destroyed by Roman Emperor Caligula in the Fifth Century.

via Brits’ seven blunders of the world (Sun)

… I guess for rags like the Sun, Caligula will live on and on in their hearts forever … or maybe someone just read the Wikipedia article a bit too quickly …

John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation Digital Library

2012-02-04T13:35:15Z

[First published in AWOL 3/27/09; updated 4/18/2010; updated 12/2/2010; updated 2/2/2012]

Since 1997, the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation has produced each year a volume devoted to a single archaeological museum, aiming to create a series whose scholarly prestige and aesthetic approach contribute to a deeper knowledge and further understanding of the various aspects of the history of Greek civilisation. These volumes are distributed free of charge to those who are on the foundation's mailing list, and to others who request them.

The foundation also issues them in open access digital format. The volume on Τhe Archaeological Museum of Pella is the most recent to appear. Thirteen volumes are now available:

Aravantinos, Vassilios. Τhe Archaeological Museum of Thebes [Thebes in Pleiades http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/541138/]
Colonia, Rosina. The Archaeological Museum of Delphi [Delphi in Pleiades http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/540726]
Dimopoulou - Rethemiotaki, Nota. The Archaeological Museum of Herakleion [Herakleion in Pleiadeshttp://pleiades.stoa.org/places/589802]
Fotopoulos, Dionissis; Delivorrias, Angelos. Greece at the Benaki Museum
Grammenos, D.V. The Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki
Hadjidakis, P. J. Delos [Delos in Pleiades http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/599587]
Hatzi, Georgia E. The Archaeological Museum of Olympia [Olympia in Pleiades http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/570531]
Kaltsas, Nikolaos. The National Archaeological Museum [Athens in Pleiades http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/579885]
Lilibaki-Akamati, Maria, Ioannis M. Akamatis, Anastasia Chrysostomou, Pavlos Chrysostomou Τhe Archaeological Museum of Pella [Pella in Pleiades http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/491688]
Papaggeli, Kalliopi. Elefsis: The Archaeological Site and the Museum [Elefsis in Pleiades http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/579920]
Steinhauer, George. The Archaeological Museum of Piraeus
Steinhauer, George. Marathon and the Archaeological Museum [Marathon in Pleiades http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/580021]
Trianti, Ismini. The Acropolis Museum

Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace

2012-02-04T13:05:49Z

In the episode “The Underwater Menace,” the Doctor, Ben, Polly, and Jamie arrive in the lost underwater city of Atlantis. The situation they find their combines the worst of both religion and science. Soon after arriving, the travelers are nearly sacrificed to the “living goddess Ando” who is depicted as part human, part fish. They are rescued when the Doctor sends a note (which he signs “Dr. W”!!!) to a professor he has figured out is there, Professor Zaroff, saying that an important secret will die with him. Zaroff turns out to be quite mad, having promised to raise Atlantis from beneath the sea, when in fact his plan is to lower the sea in a way that will split the planet, destroying the world. We thus have what is depicted as superstitious and primitive religiosity on the one hand, and the stereotypical mad scientist on the other.

The Doctor remains throughout a man of science. As one could have predicted, the Doctor and his friends manage to stop Zaroff. Because he had worked both to stop Zaroff and also save the Atlanteans, when they think the Doctor may have died in the process, the Atlanteans consider how to honor him appropriately, one suggests a monument in a rebuilt temple. But their leader rejects this idea, saying that it was gods and superstitions that allowed them to be manipulated as they were, and so he suggests that rebuilding Atlantis without temples or gods would be a more fitting tribute.

Here, then, we see the Doctor as more like the enlightened crew of the starship Enterprise than ever before. He does not merely see through superstition, but undermines it, working even if indirectly towards the elimination of gods and temples. This is a facet we will see revisited in a similar way in other episodes in the show’s history, such as “Planet of Fire” in the Peter Davison era. And in later times we will find that the Doctor did such things in a manner at odds with the time lords’ equivalent of the “Prime Directive.”

Of course, one should not oversimplify the matter. In the very act of traveling through time and space in a seemingly magical police box, and visiting a city that is myth rather than reality, the lines between magic and science, and between religious and scientific forms of delusion and madness, are once again transgressed.

This is one of the lost episodes of which a part was recently rediscovered, and so here is a clip:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Oldest case of prostate cancer

2012-02-04T13:05:10Z

This story was reported by The Portugal News back in November 2011, but seems to have been picked up only recently by other media.

Bikya Masr

An international research team in Lisbon has diagnosed the oldest case of prostate cancer in ancient Egypt and the second oldest case in the world.

Using high-resolution computerized tomography (CT) scanners, the researchers identified the cancer in a mummy subject known as M1.

“Cancer is such a hot topic these days; experts are constantly trying to probe in hopes of answering the one question- when and how did the ailment really evolve?” said Salima Ikram; member of the research team and professor of Egyptology at The American University in Cairo (AUC).

“Findings such as these bring us one step closer to finding the cause of cancer, and, ultimately, the cure to a disease that has besieged mankind for so long.”

MSNBC

A professor from American University in Cairo says discovery of prostate cancer in a 2,200-year-old mummy indicates the disease was caused by genetics, not environment.

The genetics-environment question is key to understanding cancer.

AUC professor Salima Ikram, a member of the team that studied the mummy in Portugal for two years, said Sunday the mummy was of a man who died in his forties.

She said this was the second oldest known case of prostate cancer.

"Living conditions in ancient times were very different; there were no pollutants or modified foods, which leads us to believe that the disease is not necessarily only linked to industrial factors," she said.

The Medical Daily (Christine Hsu)

The mummy was that of an adult male with a height of five feet and five inches who lived between 285BC to 230 BC and died when he was between the ages of 51 to 60-years-old, according to researchers.

Images also showed that the mummified man suffered from lumbosacral osteoarthritis and that there were several post-mortem fractures that were probably produced when the mummy was shipped to Europe.

Digital X-ray scans revealed that the mummy had been buried with crossed arms, a common pose in Ptolemaic mummies, which in the New Kingdom was often associated with royals.

M1 was buried with a cartonnage mask and bib, and had a decoratively painted veil.

Prostate cancer develops in the prostate, a walnut-sized gland in the male reproductive system, and may spread to other pelvic regions like the lumbar spine, upper arm and leg bones, the ribs, and can ultimately spread to most of the skeleton. Problems with urinating, sexual intercourse or erectile dysfunction are all likely symptoms of the disease.

More from Amara West excavations

2012-02-04T13:04:52Z

If you are not already signed up to the Amara West blog I do sincerely recommend it - they still have a couple of weeks of the season left and update the blog regularly. Here are a sample of recent posts, all with lovely photographs.

British Museum -nice objects among archaeological puzzles

With, amongst others, a photograph of a gorgeous faience scarab base showing a beautifully etched image of the Pharaoh Menkheperra as a sphinx.

Every house in the town has so far contained a central room for domestic activity and often a separate room for making bread and grinding cereals.

Less common are fine faience artefacts, an example of which turned up this week – we recovered a small but very finely carved scarab which depicts a representation of the king as a sphinx, a classic symbol of pharaonic power, with the name Menkheperra before it. This was one of the names of Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC), popular on amulets and scarabs long after his death.

British Museum - The Town Site - half way through the season

With some really good photos

With three weeks digging left, it’s a good time to reflect on the key discoveries of the season so far in the town of Amara West. Though these have included objects, from the spectacular to the mundane, the combination of stratigraphy and architecture unearthed has allowed us to interpret the purpose of buildings – and one of our key challenges has been to work out which walls belong to which structures, and in what order they were built.

British Museum - Excavating the cemeteries

I’m currently excavating a grave (317) in Cemetery D. It extends east-west and is around 2.5 metres in length, with a rather small shaft (only about 90cm long) leading to a small burial chamber around 1.2m wide. There are no remnants of a superstructure, and the roof of the chamber has been removed by surface erosion, where a scatter of schist stones suggests the grave was looted in ancient times.

We unearthed skeletal remains and some faience and shell beads scattered in windblown sand in the burial chamber, but below this we found another skeleton, undisturbed and intact. Among the most interesting things about this burial are the plant remains found associated with it, which when studied will tell us more about how the bodies were treated for burial.

British Museum - More on the hieroglyph inscription

With photos

All this work is providing us with a better understanding of the settlement of Amara West, and helps us date and interpret the buildings, features and objects we encounter.

For example, Elisabeth’s drawings have helped confirm the reading of the royal name at the end of the eroded inscription on a sandstone doorjamb (F990) found exposed on the surface east of the town wall. The signs written in the cartouche were not readable until seen in a variety of different lights, but also with a torch during the dark hours of the early morning. We are now confident it bears the name of Ramesses II.

Saqqara Dig Diary

2012-02-04T13:04:11Z

Saqqara.nl

Week 31 January - 2 February 2012

There we are again in Cairo, after an absence of two years due to the revolution in Egypt which made work in 2011 impossible. Field director Maarten Raven and his deputy Christian Greco arrived on the 31st, and the next day visited the offices of the Ministry of Antiquities in order to sign the contract for a continuation of our work at Saqqara. We were helped very efficiently by the new head of the department of foreign missions, and spent the rest of the day in talks with Kim Duistermaat, the director of the Dutch-Flemish Institute in Cairo (always our base while we are staying in Cairo), and with the architect Nicholas Warner, who has been responsible for the overall consolidation of our site over the past ten years. Bit by bit we received the news of everything that has happened here during (and after) the revolution, a process that is still going on and will take many more years to come to a new balance. Not all news is pleasant, and Egypt has clearly become a different country.

AERA Giza Plateau blog

2012-02-04T13:03:57Z

Aeraweb

The AERA (Ancient Egypt Research Associates) blog for the 2012 Field Season has been running for some weeks at the Giza Plateau, with four posts to date. Here's the most recent of the posts:

With two photos.

Posted by Rabee Eissa, SCA archaeologist

One of the most interesting things that I noticed in my excavation, in what seems to be a storage building that dates to the Old Kingdom in Giza, is a concentration of ash. This ash surrounded circular mud brick silos that had been constructed beside each other forming an L. The ash itself was very dark, dense and soft. Thinking about the silos and the ash, I remembered my mother and her storage methods for the butter. She put the butter in a big aluminum jar and surrounded the jar with a layer of soft ash to prevent the ants from reaching the butter. My colleague Hussein Rekaby, an excavation supervisor, told me that the people in his village near Aswan still use the same idea in their construction of storage silos. They start by spreading ash horizontally, then they put clay to make the base of the silo before building the silo itself. Hanan Mahmoud, hearing Hussein’s story, told me that she exposed a layer of ash deposit under a sequence of round mud brick silos when she excavated House E to the East of Queen Khentkawes tomb at Giza. We follow some of our ancestors’ daily life behaviors and customs.

Diario Djehuty

2012-02-04T13:03:40Z

Diario Djehuty

The Djehuty dig diary is in full swing for those of you speak Spanish, or are prepared to use a translation engine. Daily posts in January and February are accompanied by lovely photos.

There's also a summary, in English, of the 2011 season:
www.excavacionegipto.com/campana/nota_prensa11_ing.jsp.htm

Suez Museum relates the city’s history through ages

2012-02-04T13:03:27Z

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

Following almost six years of construction the long-awaited Suez National Museum had its official inauguration while the city was marking one year of Egypt’s Revolution.

While some of Suez inhabitants were protesting before the Suez governorate building, there were others at the city’s national museum celebrating its official opening.

Stretching over 6,800 square metres on the bank of the Suez Canal stands the two-story pyramid shaped building of the Suez National museum, relating the story of the city throughout the ages.

In a gala opening on Sunday evening, Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim officially inaugurated the museum. On display are 1500 artefacts from the prehistoric era to modern times.

Crocodile museum to open

2012-02-04T13:03:14Z

Ahram Online (Nevine El-aref)

Overlooking the Aswan Nile shore, neighbouring the ancient Egyptian temple of Kom Ombo, the first ever crocodile museum in Egypt is scheduled to be opened on Tuesday.

The museum, which is dedicated to the ancient Egyptian god Sobek, displays forty mummified crocodiles, ranging from two to five metres long, as well as crocodile foetuses and eggs. Also on show is a collection of wooden and granite crocodile statues and replicas of crocodile holes in rocks.

A visitor’s centre adorned with posters will screen a documentary before entrance to the museum, as an introduction to Sobek and crocodiles in Egypt.

Object Biography #2: A label of King Djer (Acc. no. 6763a)

2012-02-04T13:02:59Z

Manchester Museum (Campbell Price)

A really good piece, putting the label into its Abydos context. With photos and illustrations.

This small (1.8 x 1.9 cm) piece of incised bone doesn’t look like much, but it comes from one of Pharaonic Egypt’s most hallowed places. The Umm el-Qaab (Arabic for ‘Mother of Pots’) area of Abydos was the burial place of the first kings of Egypt. Abydos was sacred to later Egyptians as the cult centre of the Osiris, the god of the dead and of rebirth. Many hoped to make a pilgrimage to the site and those that did left offerings, evidenced by millions of pottery vessels – giving the area its modern Arabic name.

From as early as the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055-1650 BC), one of the early royal tombs was believed to be the actual burial place of Osiris.

New Book: Tutankhamen’s Curse

2012-02-04T13:02:45Z

The Bolton News ()

ANCIENT Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen holds as much fascination for us as Madonna or Angelina Jolie, according to egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley.

The Bolton-based academic, who is regarded as a leading authority in the field, has just published her latest book on the famous pharaoh, Tutankhamen’s Curse, and is now starting work on a text about Nefertiti.

She said: “I’m interested in what makes people celebrities and why we are interested in them — people like Tutankhamen and Nefertiti were the celebrities of the ancient world.”

Dozens of conspiracy theories surround the death of the pharaoh, but Dr Tyldesley says she doubted that Tutankhamen was assassinated, as some believe. “It would have been an odd thing to do,” she said. “He had been on the throne for nearly 10 years when he died, and seemed to be doing a good job.

Exhibition / Interview: “From Nubia to Sudan”

2012-02-04T13:02:32Z

Greek Reporter (by Zdravka Mihaylova)

Interview with Alexandros Tsakos and Henriette Hafsaas-Tsakos. With photos.

Last October the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art inaugurated the photo exhibition ‘From Nubia to Sudan through the Eyes of the Greek-Norwegian Archaeological Mission’ (6 October 2011-19 February 2012). The photographs have been taken by Alexandros Tsakos and Henriette Hafsaas-Tsakos during the periods they were working as an archaeological team, traveling and living in Sudan. Their subjects concern the history of Sudan and its people, their religious cults, from the ancient and medieval civilizations of Nubia to modern Islamic Sudan.

Between 2003 and 2008, Alexandros has worked for the Merowe Dam Archaeological Salvage Project, at Jebel Barkal, and at Akad. He has organized the Greek Community of Khartoum Cultural Center “Ergamenis”. He has led the renovation of the Museum at Jebel Barkal, and was the contractor of UNESCO for the rehabilitation of the Permanent Exhibition of Medieval Antiquities in the Sudan National Museum. During 2007-2008 he worked extensively on the Medieval collection stored in the Sudan National Museum. He has published several articles on Medieval inscriptions from Nubia, the latest of which concerns the Christian inscriptions from the island of Sai.

Exhibition: Papyri, Mummies, Gold in Warsaw

2012-02-04T13:02:18Z

The Warsaw Voice

A bowl retrieved from a tomb in Thebes, scarabs and other treasures of ancient Egypt unearthed during archeological digs are on show at an exhibition at the Archeological Museum in Warsaw until the end of May.

The exhibition is entitled Papyri, Mummies, Gold… Michał Tyszkiewicz and the 150th Anniversary of Polish and Lithuanian Excavations in Egypt. Count Michał Tyszkiewicz was the first Polish explorer who focused on ancient Egypt. A century and a half ago, he found gold, papyri and mummies by the River Nile. A part of his collection was lost, while 125 of the most interesting artifacts that have survived can be now seen in Warsaw.

Tyszkiewicz’s excavations took place in Karnak, Western Thebes, the Esna area, Wadi es-Sebua (Nubia) and in Saqqara. Tyszkiewicz had astonishing success. His collection of around 800 items was added to the collection of the Louvre Museum and laid the foundations for Egyptian collections at several museums in Lithuania.

Recent photos of Luxor's Avenue of Sphinxes

2012-02-04T13:02:05Z

Luxor Times

Photos on the above page.

After our report of the state of the Sphinx Avenue and how it was used as a rubbish dump (Read Here) and the follow up in the last printed issue of Luxor Times (Here) and the latest announcements concerning the Avenue and the partial opening in March 2012 (More details Here), There was a slow work has been going on lately in one section of the avenue which the Minister State of Antiquities, Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim said it will be excavated and not included in the opening ceremony in March.

Ottoman Cairo's ghosts hold delightful secrets

2012-02-04T13:01:07Z

Al Ahram Weekly (Gamal Nkrumah)

Agnieszka Dobrowolska, a conservation architect, travels, often alone or in the company of her co-worker and architectural partner, her husband Jaroslaw Dobrowolski -- author of The Living Stones of Cairo -- to bring back intriguing tales of magnificent buildings that she often restores to a semblance of their original sublimity and resplendence. Together, they authored numerous works including Heliopolis: Rebirth of the City of the Sun.

The couple is off to Dongola, Sudan, later in February. Convivial and not averse to a witticism, with a light touch and a clear ear, she had spent at least 15 years in chronicling, conserving and restoring the architectural treasures of Egypt. As an architect, she never planned for a career in conservation. Ever since her Egyptian sojourn, her work and the rich architectural heritage of Egypt have moved in tandem with her life.

Moreover, she has a fine ear for conversation and a taste for the historical, and in particular constructions constituting or chronicling history.

Photo for Today - the Ramesseum

2012-02-04T13:00:54Z

The Ramesseum

Egypt kisses tourist industry good-bye — starvation to follow

2012-02-04T12:52:40Z

As I understand it, Egyptian president Mubarak — a relatively mild ruler – fell from power because many Egyptians could not afford to buy bread. It was as simple as that.

But the unrest has been very bad for the tourism industry, which is a major part of the money flowing into Egypt. That income dropped 30% last year. The possibility of an Islamist government will not precisely encourage the US government to keep up its donations, which form another huge part of Egyptian national income.

The tourist industry is vital. In Luxor, when the tourists stopped coming after the Islamist massacres of a few years ago, it provoked street demonstrations in support of Mubarak! So closely are the incomes of local people connected with the dollars-on-legs arriving at the airport.

I have not felt any special urge to travel there at the moment, but I didn’t feel that trips to Luxor, or Sharm el Sheikh, or the Red Sea Resorts were particularly dangerous. Until today.

Today I read in the Daily Mail a story that crosses Egypt off the list of places that I would feel safe in visiting.

Security officials secured the release of two female American tourists and their guide, hours after they were kidnapped at gunpoint while vacationing in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula yesterday. …

Three other tourists in the convoy were robbed of their cell phones and wallets as the kidnappers took the guns away from their police escort.

The kidnappers demanded the release or retrial of several of their tribesmen being detained by the Egyptian government. The demands are similar to those of the Bedouins who kidnapped 25 Chinese workers earlier this week.

The tourist group that was attacked was traveling back to the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh after visiting St Catherine’s Monastery in the southern part of the region.

I think that’s pretty much “game over” for Egypt’s tourism industry. Sharm el Sheikh is a tourist farm, where tourists are farmed for money in return for sunshine and day excursions. I’d always thought of it as entirely safe.

The consequence of this must be yet further unrest. The reason Mubarak was ousted was poverty — and now the poverty must be getting worse, as the supply of money is cut off.

This is sad, sad news for Egypt.

MAYA 2012: Lords of Time

2012-02-04T12:43:47Z

Censer lid with portrait of a King One of 12 ceramic lids to a censer, or incense burner, that features portraits of Copan kings. Dated to circa 695 CE, it originally sat atop a large clay vessel used for burning incense. (27” tall x 16” wide x 15” diameter) Photo courtesy: Honduran Institute of Anthropology and History.

Did the Maya believe the world would end in December 2012? With MAYA 2012: Lords of Time – opening on the 5 May – the Penn Museum confronts the current fascination with the year 2012, comparing predictions of a world-transforming apocalypse with their supposed origins in the ancient Maya civilization.

Figurine of Maize God This jade figurine (2” x 4.25” x 1”), circa 541-42 CE, is from Copan, Honduras. The figurine rises from a shell, and represents the rebirth of the god of maize (corn). The story of the Maize God mirrors the cyclical planting and harvesting of maize, an essential food within Maya society. Photo courtesy: Kenneth Garrett.

MAYA 2012 leads visitors on a journey through the Maya’s time-ordered universe, expressed through their intricate calendar systems, and the power wielded by their divine kings, the astounding “lords of time.” Visitors explore the Maya world through a range of interactive experiences and walk among sculptures and full-sized replicas of major monuments while uncovering the truth behind these apocalyptic predictions.

The exhibition is presented in partnership with the Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia of the Republic of Honduras. MAYA 2012 features more than 100 remarkable objects, including artefacts recently excavated by Penn Museum archaeologists at the site of Copan, Honduras, and on loan from the Instituto Hondureño de Antropología e Historia. Visitors follow the rise and fall of Copan, moving across the centuries to discover how Maya ideas about time and the calendar have changed up to the present day. Contemporary Maya speak of their own heritage and concerns for the future.

“MAYA 2012 offers visitors a rare opportunity to view spectacular examples of Classic Maya art—some of which have never before been seen outside Honduras—and delve into the Maya people’s extraordinary, layered, and shifting concepts about time,” noted Exhibition Curator Dr. Loa Traxler. “MAYA 2012: Lords of Time uncovers a history and culture far richer and more surprising than commonly supposed.”

Deer effigy vessel This ceramic vessel, circa 437 CE from the Hunal Tomb, Copan, Honduras, once held a food offering made with cacao beans, the main ingredient in chocolate. (15.5” x 18” x 10.25”) Photo courtesy: Kenneth Garrett.

Dr. Traxler, Mellon Associate Deputy Director of the Penn Museum and co-author of The Ancient Maya, (Sixth Edition, 2006), is an archaeologist who excavated at the site of Copan with Penn Museum’s Early Copan Acropolis Program (1989 through 2003). Simon Martin, Associate Curator of the Museum’s American Section and a leading Maya epigrapher, is co-curator of the exhibition.

What is the 2012 Phenomenon?

In recent years, the media have been filled with claims that the ancient Maya predicted a cataclysmic event at the end of their calendar. Some believe that a celestial alignment will bring a series of devastating natural disasters. Others argue that this event will bring enlightenment and a new age of peace. As December 2012 draws closer, new predictions continue to emerge. But what did the Maya really believe?

The Maya and their Calendar

The ancient Maya civilization has long fascinated scholars and the public alike. For 2,000 years, the Maya flourished in southern Mexico and parts of Central America, their grand cities featuring temple pyramids, palaces, ball courts, and intricately carved stone monuments bearing royal portraits and a complex hieroglyphic script. They excelled in art, architecture, astronomy, and mathematics—developing a calendar system that amazes and intrigues to this day.

The Margarita Panel, a grand, modeled-stucco building panel, measures almost 9 feet high by 12 feet wide. Discovered by a Penn Museum excavation team in the 1990s, it features the emblematic name of Copan's royal founder, K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo'. The king's name is shown as two entwined birds: a quetzal bird (k'uk') and scarlet macaw (mo'), with crest elements that spell the initial part of the name yax meaning 'first' or 'green.' Carved around 450 CE it is in remarkable condition buried deep within the Copan Acropolis. MAYA 2012 features a replica of this monumental piece in its full-colour splendour. Photo courtesy: Early Copan Acropolis Project, Penn Museum.

The exhibition invites the visitor to explore the ancient Maya’s complex, interlocking calendar systems, which were based on an advanced understanding of astronomy and the night sky. Their most elaborate system, the Long Count, encompasses trillions of years, and one of its important cycles comes to a close on 23 December, 2012 (some scholars say 21 December, 2012). This is the origin of the Maya 2012 “end of the world” phenomenon.

Copan and the Lords of Time

The ancient Maya believed that their kings were embodiments of time. At the site of Copan, Honduras, a dynasty of 16 kings ruled for nearly four centuries, from 426 to after 800 CE. Discoveries from recent excavations—including work by Penn Museum archaeologists—provide new insights and remarkable artefacts to tell the story of these lords and their unique understanding, and use, of time. Tunnelling deep under the pyramids of Copan, archaeologists uncovered the tomb of the founder of the Copan dynasty, “Radiant First Quetzal Macaw.” The exhibition features jade jewellery and sophisticated ceramic vessels that accompanied the king on his journey into the Underworld.

Teotihuacan style Vessels with Carved Decoration This pair of colourful painted vessels combines the decorative style of Central Mexico and the Maya kingdoms. Ceramic with stucco and paint (each 4.75” diameter x 11.25” tall), circa 551 CE, they come from the Sub-Jaguar Tomb at Copan, Honduras. Photo courtesy: Kenneth Garrett.

Several important artefacts too massive to travel outside Honduras have been reproduced at full scale using state-of-the-art 3D scanning technology. These include the historically significant Altar Q, the ultimate symbol of the Copan dynasty that carries portraits of all 16 kings, and the Margarita Panel, a vibrantly painted architectural panel featuring the emblematic name of Copan’s first ruler, shown as two elegantly entwined birds.

In all, 75 Classic period Maya artefacts excavated at Copan are featured. An interactive multimedia touchtable allows visitors to explore the extraordinary tunnels and tombs under the pyramids at Copan, using the actual drawings and images from the archaeologists who first uncovered them.

The massive stone monument called Altar Q presents the royal succession of 16 kings from the Classic dynasty of Copan. This view of Altar Q shows (at centre left) the founder K'inich Yax K'uk' Mo' symbolically handing a staff of office to the last successor in the Copan dynasty, a king called Yax Pahsaj Chan Yopaat. The large square altar, or throne, was commissioned by the 16th king in 776 CE. MAYA 2012 features a replica of the altar. Photo courtesy: Kenneth Garrett.

The “Lost” History of the Maya

The fall of divine kings and the abandonment of a great number of Maya cities are referred to as the Maya “Collapse.” This exhibition connects the missing pieces of the Maya story following its still mysterious decline, taking visitors to the present day. The Maya did not disappear. Today, more than seven million Maya, speaking a variety of Mayan languages, live in Central America and Mexico, with more Maya people living around the globe.

Many aspects of Maya culture were lost during the Spanish Conquest. Only four Maya books remain from this period. Two reproductions, the Dresden and Madrid Codices, are partnered with an extremely rare manuscript written just after the Conquest, revealing the extent to which Maya concepts of time were altered. Fine ethnographic textiles and 20th century folk art masks from the Penn Museum’s own collection lead the visitor to meet the Maya in the contemporary world.

Throughout the exhibition, visitors are able to “meet” experts on the ancient Maya to hear their perspectives through a series of interviews. In the final section of the exhibition, several Maya people speak for themselves, sharing their perspectives on the end of the world predictions—and on the contemporary concerns of the Maya.

TICKET AND TOUR INFORMATION for MAYA 2012: Lords of Time:

General admission timed tickets (includes admission to the rest of the Museum) for individuals are available for purchase beginning February 1, 2012.
* Adult: $22.50
* Senior (65+)/Military: $18.50
* Students (full-time with ID)/Children (6 to 17 years): $16.50

Special exhibition timed tickets may be purchased online: www.penn.museum/maya2012, or by phone: 1.888.695.0888

Source: Penn Museum

More information:

Early Copan Acropolis Program: http://www.penn.museum/research-american-section/392-early-copan-acropolis-program.html

UNESCO page for Copan: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/129

Helping to conserve Albania’s cultural heritage

2012-02-04T09:59:52Z

Participants at the Sarajevo workshop making their own pest traps for museum use. Image: Heritage Without Borders

Heritage Without Borders (HWB), a newly established social enterprise founded at UCL (University College London) adopts an innovative approach to capacity building where communities require help and support to conserve their cultural heritage.

Following the success of HWB’s recent international projects in Turkmenistan and Bosnia and Herzegovina it has now been awarded £25,000 by the Headley Trust to run a conservation summer school in Albania.

HWB matches museum and conservation professionals with people who need help to conserve, interpret and use their heritage. Through HWB communities in countries lacking heritage resources can tap into specialist skills and practical training that would otherwise be impossible to obtain due to financial and geographical constraints. Meanwhile, qualified volunteers from the UK engage in an active collaboration with their hosts which leads to an exciting exchange of ideas. This experience gives HWB volunteers an experience that radically changes their outlook and transforms their future employment opportunities.

Sarajevo summer school

In September 2011, HWB ran a conservation summer school at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo. There were 26 attendees from Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Serbia, including students from the local Institute of Archaeology. The course was run by three skilled HWB volunteers, including a professional conservator (Dominica D’Arcangelo) and two conservation students from the UCL Institute of Archaeology (Nicola Harrison and Carmen Vida).

Two participants at the Sarajevo workshop presenting a condition survey to the rest of the group. Image: Heritage Without Borders

The week long course in Sarajevo gave participants the opportunity to learn about how preventive conservation is relevant to their daily work and provided practical solutions to their issues around collections care with funding and space shortages. Participants said they valued the experience of being able to meet and talk with other colleagues facing similar challenges. Likewise, HWB volunteers expressed how much they learned through their first-hand interaction with other museum professionals and university students from the participating countries.

Funding from the Headley Trust

The Headley Trust was so impressed with the success of the project in Sarajevo that they have agreed to give Heritage Without Borders funding to carry out a further summer school in Albania in 2012. This support will allow HWB to pay for accommodation, travel and subsistence for all local participants as well as for the HWB volunteer team. In addition, it is planned that additional follow-up projects will be run in regional museums. Long-term mentoring and support will also be provided through the programme.

‘Heritage Without Borders operates a unique model where collaborative problem solving, communication and cooperation provides the key to long-term sustainable solutions,” said Dominica D’Arcangelo, HWB Co-Director. “In Sarajevo we learned first-hand how building a professional network extends benefits beyond the immediate group of project participants. It has also become apparent in HWB’s first projects that students and heritage professionals who are early in their careers value the opportunity HWB gives them to build their confidence and skills.”

Brainstorming session on the final day of the Sarajevo workshop. Image: Heritage Without Borders

Comments from summer school participants in Sarajevo Included:

“On the first day I saw how this can help me in my work… The most fun thing during this school was packing [museum objects] and using some things that I didn’t know could be used…I will also try to organise collective education for my colleagues and I hope that my knowledge that I learned here can pass to my friends and colleagues from my museum…”
Stevan Salatic, regional museum in Trebijne

“It is nice now that we [participants from the course] are close. We can collaborate more – we can exchange ideas and help each other.”
Tatjana Mijatovic, National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Source: Heritage Without Borders

Heritage Without Borders works with a partner organisation in the Balkans, Cultural Heritage Without Borders (CHwB), a Swedish non-governmental organisation working to rescue and preserve tangible and intangible cultural heritage touched by conflict, neglect or human and natural disasters. CHwB provides invaluable guidance, administrative support and has made HWB’s work in the Balkans region possible. HWB will collaborate with CHwB on the programme in Albania.

Heritage Without Borders is a social enterprise that is currently registering for charitable status. To operate HWB depends on grants and donations. In January 2011, HWB received a grant from UnLtd, a charity which supports social entrepreneurs.

More information:

Heritage Without Borders Website: http://heritagewithoutborders.org/

The Headley Trust: http://www.sfct.org.uk/headley.html

Textes numériques : représentation et interrogation

2012-02-04T09:38:40Z

La séance du mercredi 8 février reviendra aux enjeux théoriques et pratiques de l’encodage des textes. Cette déviation par rapport au programme initial, qui prévoyait une séance sur les bases de données, nous permettra de dialoguer avec les maîtres d’œuvre de deux projets.

Enracinés l’un et l’autre dans les traditions intellectuelles des études classiques, ces projets rencontrent des questions d’une portée générale : modélisation et visualisation des inscriptions, pour le premier ; analyse du genre du commentaire, pour le second ; modes de collaboration et renouvellement des pratiques philologiques, dans les deux cas.

Voici donc le programme :

Marion Lamé, « Représenter scientifiquement le document épigraphique dans un espace numérique » (le carnet Épigraphie en réseau donne des informations sur le travail de thèse de Marion, qui concerne « la reine des inscriptions antiques », les Res Gestae Diui Augusti, et sur sa participation aux activités de la communauté internationale EpiDoc) ;
Bruno Bureau et Christian Nicolas, « Présentation mise à jour d’HyperDonat : pour une philologie digitale » (voir le site de ce projet collaboratif, ainsi que le carnet HyperDonat, dont l’équipe fait un usage très intéressant dans son étude du commentaire des pièces de Térence par le grammairien Donat. Les développements actuels de cette entreprise lui font aborder presque toutes les questions de l’édition savante numérique.

Au plaisir de réfléchir avec vous grâce à ces deux présentations : nous prendrons tout le temps d’interroger les intervenants et de discuter ensemble !

2012.02.06: David the Invincible, Commentary on Aristotle's Prior Analytics: Critical Old Armenian Text with an English Translation, Introduction and Notes. Philosophia antiqua, 122

2012-02-04T09:17:55Z

Review of Aram Topchyan, David the Invincible, Commentary on Aristotle's Prior Analytics: Critical Old Armenian Text with an English Translation, Introduction and Notes. Philosophia antiqua, 122. Leiden; Boston: 2010. Pp. x, 221. $138.00. ISBN 9789004187191.

2012.02.05: Legal Speeches of Democratic Athens: Sources for Athenian History

2012-02-04T09:17:55Z

Review of Michael Gagarin, Speeches from Athenian Law. The oratory of classical Greece 16. Austin: 2011. Pp. x, 396. $24.95 (pb). ISBN 9780292726383.

Wall Mile 33

2012-02-04T09:00:20Z

Wall Mile 33 from Milecastle 34

The landscape now takes on a more gentle aspect for the walker. We are also soon going to encounter the Military Road again after a long interval and it will be a close companion until we reach Newcastle. Meanwhile, the remains of the curtain wall are visible as a low mound with occasional blocks of stone poking out. Treat it gently and tread carefully. It continues like this until we reach the remains of Turret 33b (Coesike).

Turret 34b, with blocked doorway

Another of the short-lived turrets, with broad gauge footings cut away by the narrow gauge wall. Once again, the recess-filling wall is present, albeit not of the best quality workmanship, probably to enable a wall walk to cross it safely. The doorway still retains its blocking, so the turret was evidently not completely reduced upon abandonment.

The Military Road crosses the Vallum

To the south of us, the Military Road emerges from a softwood plantation to swoop across the Vallum and now keep pace with us, although still not actually on the curtain wall. We cross from walking behind the wall to walking along the berm and a field wall now sits just to the south of the curtain wall’s remains, beginning a gentle climb up towards Carraw Farm.

Milecastle 33

We proceed in this fashion until we come to Milecastle 33 (Shield-on-the-Wall), the side walls of which we have to cross, as the curtain wall is to our left and the field wall to our right.

The north gate and parts of the side walls of this long-axis milecastle are still exposed, perhaps a bit too much for those who worry about potential damage to the monument. One interesting detail to note is how excavation has changed its flora and made it stand out. Excavated in 1935–6, it usually shows as a patch of bracken, with an old spoil heap standing proud at its south-east corner (it is not generally thought good practice for archaeologists to leave their spoil heaps lying around, but it sometimes happens).

The north gate of Milecastle 33

Archaeological Digs

2012-02-04T08:46:23Z

Update:

Popular Archaeology, a new online magazine and companion website to Archaeological Digs, offers much more to readers than simply the latest dig information. Visit the site at http://popular-archaeology.com and see for yourself.

Students of archaeology and related subjects may now publish their best papers online for a global readership. See the Student Scholar Program for details.

See the latest dig postings, including archaeology field schools and job opportunities, by scrolling down below. New dig opportunities for 2012 will be posted. See below and stay connected!

There are archaeology field schools and research activities being conducted all over the world. Many archaeology excavations are conducted during the summer months; however, some are ongoing throughout the year, and some are being conducted even during the winter months in parts of the world where the climate is favorable. This weblog serves as a gateway to up-to-date information about current archaeological digs and archaeological job opportunities throughout the world. It also features special postings highlighting specific archaeological digs, and other links related to archaeology and archaeological digs.

See the new introductory website about archaeology for young people and educators: Archaeology Adventures

Translating Metaphor: He just snapped for no reason!

2012-02-04T07:00:40Z

I was reading 4 Maccabees in Greek this evening and was reminded of this audio clip from Brian Regan:

It’s the fascinating metaphorical extensions of the word: οἶστρος.

Here’s the entry from LSJ (with integrated supplement):

οἶστρος, ὁ, gadfly, breese, prob. Tabanus bovinus, an insect which infests cattle, τὰς μέν τʼ αἰόλος οἶ. ἐφορμηθεὶς ἐδόνησεν, ὥρῃ ἐν εἰαρινῇ Od.22.300; of the fly that tormented Io, A.Supp.541 (lyr.), Pr.567 sq. (lyr.) (also called μύωψ, ib. 675, Supp.308: but the two are distd. by Arist.HA490^a20, 596^b14).

2. an insect that infests tunny-fish, prob. Brachiella thynni, ib. 557^a27, 602^a28.

3. a small insectivorous bird, perh. Sylvia trochilus, ib. 592^b22.

II. metaph., a sting, anything that drives mad, κεραυνοῦ οἶ. E.HF862; οἴστροις Ἐρινύων Id.IT1456: abs., the smart of pain, agony, S.Tr.1254.

2. any vehement desire, insane passion, Simon.36.10 P., Hdt.2.93, E.Hipp.1300, Pl.R.577e, etc.; ὄρεξις μετὰ οἴστρου καὶ ἀδημονίας Epicur.Fr.483: c. gen. objecti, κτεάνων for wealth, AP11.389 (Lucill.): generally, madness, frenzy, S.Ant.1002, E.Or.791: pl., Id.Ba.665; μανιάδες οἶ. Id.IA548 (lyr.).

3. in good sense, zeal, οἶ. εἰς πᾶν ἀγαθὸν ἔργον PMasp.3.13 (vi a.d.).

And the text from the 4 Maccabees 2.2-3:

² ταύτῃ γοῦν ὁ σώφρων Ιωσηφ ἐπαινεῖται, ὅτι διανοίᾳ περιεκράτησεν τῆς ἡδυπαθείας. ³νέος γὰρ ὢν καὶ ἀκμάζων πρὸς συνουσιασμὸν ἠκύρωσε τῷ λογισμῷ τὸν τῶν παθῶν οἶστρον.

The semantic development here is pretty great:

Physical entity of the external world: gadfly.

Metaphoric Extension (my supposition): the sight of cattle freaking out while being bit by gadflies.

Semantic Bleaching: Any sort of sharp pain or sting.

Semantic Bleaching: An apparently inexplicable pain (i.e. the gadfly isn’t seen) giving the appearance of madness.

Metaphoric Extension: An inexplicable passion giving the appearance of madness.

Semantic Bleaching: inexplicable passion extended to both positive (zeal) and negative.

Specific Instantiation in 4 Macc 2:3: Sexual desire is irrational emotion.

This sort of metaphorical phenomenon is the grounding of all language use, too. Our ability to categorize and metaphorize our experience is what grounds language in the world. But translation as it is currently done, doesn’t account for this very well (whether we’re talking about “literal” or “functional” translation). Consider the NRSV’s translation here:

vs 2-3 It is for this reason, certainly, that the temperate Joseph is praised, because by mental effort he overcame sexual desire. For when he was young and in his prime for intercourse, by his reason he nullified the frenzy of the passions.

Aside from the incredibly awkward phrasing and the generally terrible way that most translations deal with translating texts involving sex (it always feels like they’re blushing when I read them), the bigger point is that all of the semantic entailments of the metaphor are lost here. The problem is how to regain them–if that’s even possible in English. In terms of the theoretical questions, we’re getting there slowly. We haven’t yet gotten there in terms of practice. Linguists have been working on these issues of meaning for a few decades now and they’re starting to get through (I hope). It’s what Rich Rhodes was talking about when he spoke of a 4G translation.

Filed under: Cognitive Linguistics, English, Greek, Hermeneutics, Language, Lexicography, Linguistics, Translation

How to feed a pregnant Neanderthal

2012-02-04T05:05:56Z
Shorter can be better: Case in point, Bryan Hockett has a short (five pages) paper in press in Quaternary International entitled "The consequences of Middle Paleolithic diets on pregnant Neanderthal women," and it is a must-read for anyone interested in prehistoric nutrition. In a nutshell, what he does here is consider what the hypothesized Neanderthals caloric requirements proposed by a number

Small Demons – Connecting all the details of books

2012-02-04T02:04:15Z

Small Demons is a new beta site dedicated to opening up the worlds inside of books by connecting all their details (people, places, and things). Small Demons is a Los Angeles based company that believes powerful and interesting things can happen when you connect all the details of books.
This site is the first step in showing what happens when you do just that.

Not just another search engine for what’s inside your favorite novel, Small Demons collects and catalogs the millions of references to real-world and fictional music, movies, people, and objects that are found in literature. Your new favorite restaurant could be on the next page of the book you’re reading, and Small Demons hopes to provide a place where you can draw meaningful connections between stories and everyday life.

See comments on Cool Hunting.

A Call to Russia

2012-02-04T01:25:02Z

Amnesty International is asking for people to send a message to Russia not to block with it's veto a resolution going through the United Nations Security Council aimed to stop the Syrian government from it's bloodshed of peaceful demonstrators.

Please take action to help the peaceful people of Syria!!!

Photo: Zeledi

On my way to Leiden…

2012-02-04T00:41:12Z

I’m leaving tomorrow morning for a workshop at the Lorentz Center at the University of Leiden focusing linguistic databases for biblical texts and languages:

Biblical Scholarship and Humanities Computing: Data Types, Text, Language and Interpretation

I’m hoping that I’ll have an opportunity to blog about it as we go, but I don’t know what things will look like until I get there. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to meeting a number of people whom I’ve only dialogued online (whether e-mail, this blog, or B-Greek).

From the description:

[T]he question to be discussed by biblical scholars and ICT specialists is: how to deal with a historically grown and changed set of literary and linguistic data? How can we analyse, store and retrieve linguistic data at the level of syntax and discourse, especially when we know that texts have been reworked and updated during the long period of their transmission?

The research question is: can one go beyond databases that just add learned annotations to linguistic knowledge? Some examples. When using the existing data base for research of ‘verbal valence patterns’ one will find patterns and functions not being present in classical lexica.

The organizing team, a collaboration by specialists in Greek texts, Hebrew texts and in data bases designed for research in the Humanities, will prepare this colloquium by debates and experiments on (1) linguistic system versus unique literary artefacts and (2) the challenges of historical change: texts, variants and ancient translations. So our aim is to start the colloquium with a presentation of some models to be discussed based on input from the various disciplines involved. After presentations of type (1) and (2) a computer specialist will react, ask questions and make proposals (3).

Filed under: Greek, Hebrew, Linguistics

Quotation Of The Day

2012-02-04T00:39:38Z

On Planned Parenthood and the Komen Foundation:

A multi-year concerted effort to shut down a nonprofit for ideological reasons, one even pursued in the halls of Congress: not just fine, but applauded. A pushback against said partisan efforts? Tyranny! Villainy! Oppression! – Daily Kos

WordChorus: Searching for Patterns in Ancient Greek Texts

2012-02-03T21:45:11Z

WordChorus: Searching for Patterns in Ancient Greek Texts!

WordChorus is a tool specifically designed to find patterns in Ancient Greek texts. Have you ever wondered how many verses in the Iliad begin with a rough breathing? Or how many words in Antigone end in the phoneme group οι, ει or αι? Do you want to count the number of accents in the Argonautica? If so, you have come to the right place!
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Greek Dissertations Online (beta)

2012-02-03T21:37:33Z

Εθνικό Αρχείο Διδακτορικών Διατριβών (EAΔΔ) - The National Archive of PhD Theses
Το Εθνικό Αρχείο Διδακτορικών Διατριβών (EAΔΔ) συγκεντρώνει τις διδακτορικές διατριβές που έχουν εκπονηθεί στα ελληνικά πανεπιστήμια ή σε πανεπιστήμια του εξωτερικού από Έλληνες διδάκτορες. Την ευθύνη συγκρότησης και διατήρησης του έχει το Εθνικό Κέντρο Τεκμηρίωσης (ΕΚΤ). Στο ηλεκτρονικό αποθετήριο του ΕΑΔΔ διατίθενται περισσότερες από 25.000 διδακτορικές διατριβές, με δυνατότητες αναζήτησης και πλοήγησης.

The National Archive of PhD Theses contains the PhD theses from all Higher Education Institutions in Greece as well as PhD theses completed by Greek scholars abroad. The National Documentation Centre (EKT) is the organization responsible for the collection, development and maintenance of the National Archive of PhD Theses. The digital repository contains currently, more than 25.000 PhD Theses, available to the end-users for searching or browsing.
Πλοήγηση στο ΕΑΔΔ ανά "Επιστημονικό πεδίο" : "History and Archaeology"

Browse

Discipline

Date

Author

Country

Language

Degree Grantor

The Parthenon Frieze Repository

2012-02-03T21:29:28Z

The Parthenon Frieze
The Parthenon Frieze Repository repository is an organized infrastructure of digital content, that offers free access to cultural material. The repository was carried out by the National Documentation Centre (EKT) and the YSMA-Acropolis Restoration Service of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism . The repository provides the possibility of immediate access to the frieze, both as a database for scholars and, as digital games for schools and their pupils. The Parthenon Frieze, a unique work of art, is also presented in the website www.parthenonfrieze.gr, which utilizes new technologies to present and elevate cultural content online.

Stone Block Numbering

Subject

Museum

Frieze Sides

Games

Educational booklets

About Parthenon

About Parthenon Frieze

Bibliography

Glossary

Contributors

My Huffington Post Piece on Renzo Piano’s Gardner Museum Expansion

2012-02-03T21:28:04Z
An ebullient Anne Hawley, director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, speaking at the press preview for the expansionBy sheer good luck, my drive back home from my visit to Salem, MA (where I reviewed for the Wall Street Journal...

Though I Speak With Tongues of Penguins and Polar Bears…

2012-02-03T21:01:04Z

Allan Bevere chose my caption as the winner of his latest caption contest. Here’s the photo with my caption:
“If I speak in the tongues of penguins and of polar bears, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

Pictures: Civil War Sub Finally Revealed

2012-02-03T20:52:40Z

Pictures: Civil War Sub Finally Revealed

Horace, Ars Poetica 120-219

2012-02-03T20:49:23Z

Titre: Horace, Ars Poetica 120-219
Lieu: Université de Cambridge / Cambridge
Catégorie: Séminaires, conférences
Date: 08.02.2012
Heure: 17.15 h - 18.45 h
Description:
Infomation signalée par Jacques Elfassi

Cambridge Classics Research Seminars
Lent Term 2012
Literature Seminar

The Seminar meets on Wednesdays, 5.15 pm to 6.45 pm in Room 1.04, Faculty of Classics.

8 February

Richard Hunter

Horace, Ars Poetica 120-219

Source : Université de Cambridge.

Iliad 10 and the Poetics of Ambush now on-line

2012-02-03T20:44:32Z

An on-line version of Parts I and III of Iliad 10 and the Poetics of Ambush: A Multitext Edition with Essays and Commentary is now available from the Center for Hellenic Studies. Hard copies may be purchased from Harvard University Press. Part II (texts and text commentaries) will be added soon.

The dog of Orion

2012-02-03T20:37:12Z

In a previous post, I attempted to describe folio 188r of the eleventh-century manuscript of the Iliad known as E4, in order to make some preliminary observations about the manuscript and its relationship to other Medieval manuscripts of the Iliad with scholia. It was a difficult task, even with the help of my colleagues Christopher Blackwell, Mary Ebbott, and Neel Smith. E4 has not been well studied, and it has many features that make it unlike the other manuscripts we have digitized as part of the Homer Multitext. It became clear to me as I was working on it that I could not fully appreciate 188r without understanding its facing page on the left side, folio 187v. I have now had the chance to study 187v in detail, and it has only confirmed my initial impression of the manuscript, that it is an unusual, very likely unique assemblage of text and paratexts that span multiple lines of transmission. The scholia contained on folio 187v, which comment on the text of 188r (containing Iliad 22.1–37), are particularly indicative of the unique character of E4.

Folio 187v is taken up by a hypothesis to book 22, a large selection from Porphyry, and scholia, both with and without lemmata, including comments on the text of the Iliad that is written on 188r. It should be noted from the beginning that there are two separate hands in this manuscript, which both Allen and Erbse deem to be contemporaneous. The first hand has written the hypothesis, the scholia immediately following it, and the text of the poem and paraphrase on the next folio. The second hand has written the selection from Porphyry and the scholia in the margins.

At the top of folio 187v is the excerpt from Porphyry’s Homeric Questions. The following is a transcription from Schrader’s (1880-1882) edition:
ἠγνόησαν οἱ πολλοὶ ὅτι ἡ κλίσις παρ’ Ὁμήρῳ τὴν περιοχὴν σημαίνει, καὶ πάντα τὰ ἐσχηματισμένα ἀπ’ αὐτῆς ῥήματα, οἷον <οἱ δὲ ῥηγμῖνι θαλάσσης κεκλίαται, χώρης ὀλίγην ἔτι μοῖραν ἔχοντες>· λέγει γὰρ ὅτι περιεχόμενοι ὑπὸ τῶν Τρώων ἐπὶ ῥηγμῖνι θαλάςσης συνηλάθησαν. οὕτως λύσεις καὶ τὸ <ὣς οἱ μὲν κατὰ ἄστυ πεφυζότες ἠύτε νεβροὶ ἱδρῶ ἀπεψύχοντο πίον τ’ ἀκέοντό τε δίψαν, κεκλιμένοι καλῇσιν ἐπάλξεσιν· αὐτὰρ Ἀχαιοὶ τείχεος ἆσσον ἴσαν, σάκε’ ὤμοισι κλίναντες> (Iliad 22.1–4)· λέγει γάρ· περιεχόμενοι τῷ τείχει οἱ Τρῶες, οἱ δ’ Ἀχαιοὶ τὰ σάκη περιέχοντες τοῖς ὤμοις. καὶ τὸ <εὗρεν ἔπειτα μάχης ἐπ’ ἀριστερὰ θοῦρον Ἄρηα ἥμενον, ἠέρι δ’ ἔγχος ἐκέκλιτο καὶ ταχέ’ ἵππω> (Iliad 5.355–356) δηλοῖ περιείχετο, καὶ τὸ <κεῖθ’ ἁλὶ κεκλιμένη ἐριβώλακος ἠπείροιο> (Odyssey 13.235), κεῖται περιεχομένη. πάλιν ὡσαύτως καὶ τὸ <ὅς ῥ’ἐν Ὕλῃ ναίεσκε μέγα πλούτοιο μεμηλὼς λίμνῃ κεκλιμένος> (Iliad 5.708) δηλοῖ περιεχόμενος. καὶ τὸ <οἳ δὴ νῦν ἕαται σιγῇ, πόλεμος δὲ πέπαυται ἀσπίσι κεκλιμένοι> (Iliad 3.134–5) ἀντὶ τοῦ περιεχόμενοι ὑπὸ τῶν ἀσπίδων. γέγονε δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ κλείω· τὸ γὰρ ἀποκλεισθὲν περιέχεται· <οὐδὲ πύλῃσιν εὗρ’ ἐπικεκλιμένας σανίδας> (Iliad 12.120). τὸ δ’ αὐτὸ παρίστησι καὶ τὸ <ἀλλ’ ἐν γὰρ Τρώων πεδίῳ πύκα θωρηκτάων πόντῳ κεκλιμένοι ἑκὰς ἥμεθα> (Iliad 14.739. 40), ἀντὶ τοῦ ὑπὸ τοῦ πόντου περιεχόμενοι.
The comment is part of a larger discussion of the meaning of the word κλίσις in Homer, and Iliad 22.1-4 is cited along with several other passages. The scribe of Ε4 saw that this passage in Porphyry was relevant to the opening lines of 22 (in which the Trojans rest by “leaning” on the walls), and so he copied it here. He links the excerpt from Porphyry to the text of the poem (on folio 188v) by means of a graphical sign, or siglum, which is reproduced in the appropriate place on the other folio.

Next follow several scholia, written across the full length of the page. These too are connected to the text of the poem by means of sigla (more on which below). After these scholia, the hypothesis begins, with a title written in crimson ink: ὑπόθεσϊς τῆς χι ὁμήρου ῥαψωδίας.

The hypothesis is followed by more scholia, which are contained within the same text block as the hypothesis. These scholia differ from the surrounding scholia in that they have lemmata. Very significantly, both of the scholia with lemmata recorded in this text block can also be found in A in some fashion. Let’s look at them more closely.

First, we find in crimson ink ὅν τε κύν’ὠρίωνα followed by a lengthy mythological note, whose content is attributed to Eratosthenes, the third head of the library of Alexandria (c. 235–c. 270). The following is Heyne’s (1834) transcription of the note:
Ὅν τε κύν’ Ὠρίωνος Τὸν ἀστρῶον κύνα οὕτως ἔφη. ἔνιοι δέ φασι τόνδε τὸν κατηστερισμένον κύνα, οὐκ Ὠρίωνος, ἀλλὰ Ἠριγόνης ὑπάρχειν, ὃν κατηστερισθῆναι διὰ τοιαύτην αἰτίαν. Ἱκάριος γένος μὲν ἦν Ἀθηναῖος ἔσχε δὲ θυγατέρα Ἠριγόνην, ἥτις κύνα νήπιον ἔτρεφε. ξενίσας δέ ποτε ὁ Ἱκάριος Διόνυσον, ἔλαβε παρ’ αὐτοῦ οἶνόν τε καὶ ἀμπέλου κλῆμα. κατὰ δὲ τὰς τοῦ θεοῦ ὑποθήκας, περιῄει τὴν γῆν προφαίνων τὴν τοῦ Διονύσου χάριν, ἔχων σὺν ἑαυτῷ καὶ τὸν κύνα. γενόμενος δὲ ἐκτὸς τῆς πόλεως, βουκόλοις οἶνον παρέσχε. οἱ δὲ ἀθρόως ἐμφορησάμενοι, οἱ μὲν εἰς βαθὺν ὕπνον ἐτράπησαν. ὀψέ τε ἐγερθέντες, καὶ νομίσαντες πεφαρμάχθαι, τὸν Ἱκάριον ἀπέκτειναν. ὁ δὲ κύων ὑποστρέψας πρὸς τὴν Ἠριγόνην, δι’ ὠρυγμοῦ ἐμήνυσεν αὐτῇ τὰ γενόμενα. ἡ δὲ μαθοῦσα τὸ ἀληθὲς, ἑαυτὴν ἀνήρτησε. νόσου δὲ ἐν Ἀθήναις γενομένης, κατὰ χρησμὸν Ἀθηναῖοι τόν τε Ἱκάριον καὶ τὴν Ἠριγόνην ἐνιαυσιαίαις ἐγέραιρον τιμαῖς. οἳ καὶ κατηστερισθέντες, Ἱκάριος μὲν Βοώτης ἐκλήθη, Ἠριγόνη δὲ παρθένος. ὁ δὲ κύων τὴν αὐτὴν ὀνομασίαν ἔσχεν. Ἱστορεῖ Ἐρατοσθένης.
This note is also found on the Venetus A manuscript, though it is not included in Erbe’s edition of the scholia (because Erbse excludes the mythological scholia or “D” scholia from his edition). It is also found in the Venetus B, but in the later, 12th or 13th century set of scholia on that manuscript. (Hence it postdates the construction of E4.)

A potentially very significant variation is recorded in this note on E4. What is significant about this note is not actually its content, but its lemma. The reading ὅν τε κύν’ὠρίωνα does not match the corresponding text of the poem on folio 188v of E4, nor is it found in any other manuscript, all of which read κύν’ὠρίωνος (“the dog of Orion”). In fact κύν’ὠρίωνα does not make much grammatical sense, though we could take the two accusatives, somewhat awkwardly, to be in apposition to one another (“the dog, Orion”). The Venetus Α scholia, however, record another discussion of this phrase, this one about the proper division of the words:
ὅντε κύν’ ὠρίωνος ὁ Σιδώνιος ὑφ’ ἓν ἀναγινώσκει. ἄμεινον δὲ κατὰ παράθεσιν, ὅτι οἱ κύνες πολλάκις ὀνομάζονται μετὰ τῶν κτητόρων, οἷον Κέρβερος Ἅιδου, Ὄρθρος Γηρυόνου, Ἄλκαινα Ἀκταίωνος· οὕτως κύνα Ὠρίωνος. τῷ δὲ κυνηγετικὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι καὶ πλησίον κατηστέρισαν τὸν κύνα.
“The dog of Orion”: The Sidonian reads it as one [word]. But it is better to read it as two, because dogs are often named with their owners, such as Kerberos of Hades, Orthros of Geryon, Alkaina of Aktaion; likewise the dog of Orion. Inasmuch as he was fond of hunting they also made his dog in the constellation next to him.
Dionysius Sidonius was an Aristarchean scholar who seems to have been very familiar with the methods and scholarship of Aristarchus. (See Nagy 2009: 151–152.) In this comment he seems to be arguing for a reading, perhaps known to Aristarchus, that represents κύν’ὠρίωνος as one word. The only way that such a one-word reading could work grammatically would be if the word were in the accusative case: that is to say, something like κυνωρίωνα. Is it possible that the source from which the scribe of E4 was copying his scholia with lemmata had this other reading? Could such a reading have been corrupted by the influence of the genitive in other sources, so that instead of κυνωρίωνα we find in E4 κύν’ὠρίωνα (divided into two words)? If so, E4’s lemma here would be the sole witness to preserve what seems to be an ancient variation that was being discussed in antiquity.

The other scholion recorded in this text block, also with a lemma in crimson ink, also has an interesting link to the A manuscript.
Εἶσϊ τὴν ἑώαν ἀνατολὴν. ἅνεισιν ἀνατέλλει.
A version of this comment is found in several other manuscripts of Homeric so-called D scholia, including the 9th century manuscript Z (= Romanus, Bibl. Naz. Centr. Gr. 6 + Matrit. B. N. 4626), but it is not in B, T, C, or Ge. In the Venetus A, however, ανεισιν ἀνατελλει is written here in semiuncial script above εἶσιν.
Detail from folio 282v of the Venetus A

This link is now a second indication that the scholia with lemmata in E4 are drawn from a tradition with ties to the Aristarchean scholarship that we find in the Venetus A.

In the left margin and at the bottom of the folio, surrounding the text block containing the hypothesis and these scholia are additional scholia. These scholia, like those above the hypothesis, do not contain lemmata, and are clearly drawn from other sources. The first two of these scholia are preceded by a siglum in the outer margin, while the final three are preceded by Greek numerals (in the form of letters of the alphabet). The numbered scholia correspond to the numbered scholia in B, E3, and C. The scholia connected to the text with sigla contain material from the so-called “D” scholia. These scholia can also often found in B, but in the second, later hand of B.

It is clear that the E4 brings together many different sources, which are used selectively and in combination. This is significant because it shows us that the Homeric scholia and other Homeric paratexts cannot be easily defined or placed in a neat stemma. Scribes clearly had a variety of sources available to choose from when constructing a manuscript. We should likewise assume that the text of the Iliad itself was collated in various ways as each manuscript was constructed. While many scribes may have simply copied an exemplar, we know that they often compared what they were copying to other exemplars and made changes, or else recorded variations in the margins. This practice is especially clear in the Venetus A (on which see Allen 1889). In its text and scholia E4 may well preserve vestiges of the scholarly controversies of antiquity that survive nowhere else.

References cited in this post

Allen, T.W. 1899. “On the Composition of Some Greek Manuscripts: The Venetian Homer.” Journal of Philology 26: 161-181.

Allen, T. W. 1931a. Homeri Ilias I-III. Oxford.

Dué, C., ed. 2009. Recapturing a Homeric Legacy: Images and Insights from the Venetus A Manuscript of the Iliad. Cambridge, MA and Washington, DC.

Erbse, H., ed. 1969-1988. Scholia Graeca in Homeri Iliadem I-VII. Berlin.

Heyne, C. G., ed. 1834. Homeri Ilias cum brevi annotatione curante C.G. Heyne; accedunt scholia minora passim emendata, necnon Heraclidis Allegoriae Homericae. Oxford.

Nagy, G. 2009. “Traces of an Ancient System of Reading Homeric Verse in the Venetus A.” In Dué 2009a: 133–158.

Schrader, H., ed. 1880-1882. Porphyrii quaestionum Homericarum ad Iliadem pertinentium reliquiae. Leipzig.

NIAC Alert: Persepolis Tablets Threatened By Senate Sanctions Bill

2012-02-03T19:40:34Z

National Iranian American Council (NIAC) has posted the following:

Alert: Persepolis Tablets Threatened By Senate Sanctions Bill
A Senatecommittee voted yesterday to make it easier for individuals to seize and auctionoff priceless ancient Persian antiquities held by American museums anduniversities in order to collect court judgments against the Iranian government. Already, lawyers are in court trying to seize the Persepolis Tablets – priceless2,500 year-old artifacts that provide a unique first-hand account of life inthe Persian Empire under Darius the Great. If this proposal becomes law, the Persepolis Tablets are almost certainto be confiscated from the universities and museums and sold to the highest bidders.
The Persepolis Tablets are a part of our rich heritage that shouldcontinue to be shared at museums and universities, not auctioned off like cheapitems on eBay.
Takeaction now to protect our heritage!
Thisproposal by Senator Menendez (D-NJ) will soon be considered by the full Senate aspart of its latest Iran sanctions bill – which builds on the broad Central Bankof Iran sanctions spearheaded by Senator Menendez just last December. This is perhaps one of the starkest examples yet of how broad sanctions punishordinary Iranians and Iranian Americans, not the Iranian government.
With the Iranian people facingunprecedented repression at home and economic warfare from abroad, we muststand united against collective punishment and the looting of our veryheritage.
The Iranian government has harmed manyinnocent lives, and its victims should receive just compensation. But wemust be able to protect the rights of victims without attacking our Iranianheritage.
Takeaction now to stop Congress from looting our history!
NIAC has led the Iranian-Americancommunity’s efforts to protect the Tablets, fighting in the courts, theCongress, and even the White House to protect them. In order to permanentlysecure these and all other priceless Persian artifacts under threat, NIAC hascalled on Congress to change the law to protect all cultural artifacts held byAmerican museums and universities so our heritage will never again come underattack
Persepolis in Pleiades http://pleiades.stoa.org/places/922695

Digital Library: Institut du Monde Arabe

2012-02-03T19:30:43Z

Institut du Monde Arabe Bibliothèque Numérique

Oeuvrant en faveur de l'établissement de ponts entre les cultures arabe et européenne, l'Institut du Monde Arabe poursuit énergiquement sa mission visant à introduire et diffuser électroniquement la culture arabe en Europe. Ainsi, le partenariat privilégié entre la Bibliotheca Alexandrina et l'Institut du Monde Arabe, a abouti à la création d'une bibliothèque numérique de plus de 1166 ouvrages et 19 titres de périodiques tombés dans le domaine publique mis à la disposition des étudiants, des chercheurs et des internautes du monde entier.

Afin de donner accès à la connaissance à tous et de combler le fossé culturel entre les nations, la préservation de la riche collection de la bibliothèque de l'Institut du Monde Arabe a été effectuée pour servir aux générations à venir ; et ce, en recourant à l'expertise de la Bibliotheca Alexandrina en matière de numérisation. La collection a été déjà numérisée et mise en ligne via une interface conviviale dotée des outils de navigation et des facilités de recherche nécessaires.
Books
Art (70)
Généralités (48)
Histoire et géographie (439)
Linguistique (119)
Littérature (199)
Philosophie (21)
Religion (179)
Sciences appliquées, Médecine, Technologie (37)
Sciences exactes, Sciences naturelles (21)
Sciences sociales (39)

Journals
Le Monde arabe dans la recherche scientifique : MARS (10)
Revue Africaine (67)
Revue Tunisienne (94)
أبولو (9)
الأديب (7)
الجنان (12)
الرواية (8)
الزهراء (2)
الزهور (4)
الشهاب (2)
المعرض (16)
المقتبس (4)
المقتطف (128)
الموسيقى (1)
جريدة أبي نظارة (10)
مجلة الرسالة (36)
مجلة الضياء (8)
مجلة المعهد الطبى العربى (20)
مجلة سيركيس (4)

Tampa and Almagia

2012-02-03T19:29:04Z

Detail of Apulian loutrophoros.
Gift of Mr & Mrs C.W. Sahlman.

I am grateful to Todd Smith, Executive Director of the Tampa Museum of Art, for clarifying which item in the collection is linked to Edoardo Almagià. The piece is an Apulian loutrophoros attributed to the White Sakkos painter acquired in 1987 from a private collector (inv. 1987.037). The private collector is reported to have purchased the pot from Almagià.

An Apulian loutrophoros features in an article by Michael Padgett ("A modern delight at the Tampa Museum of Art", Tampa Bay Magazine January / February 1991, 29-31 [p. 30]). It is recorded as the gift of Mr & Mrs C.W. Sahlman.

Tampa also holds pieces from the Keros haul of Cycladic figures. They, too, are derived from the Sahlman family.

Roy Zimmerman: You're Getting Sleepy

2012-02-03T19:20:33Z

I've been following Roy Zimmerman's output of musical satire since his 2004 album Faulty Intelligence, and I was certainly not disappointed by the recent You're Getting Sleepy. The CD's title is shared with the opening song and refers to the hypnosis that must be going on when half of the US electorate votes for the increasingly insane Republican Party. (Remember, Mitt Romney is their low-key, sensible and uncontroversial alternative!) As resident of a country whose entire spectrum of mainstream politics lies to the Left of Barack Obama, I of course have no problem with Zimmerman's stance. But nor do I really need to have my anti-Conservative flame fanned. I listen to Zimmerman for his razor wit and his musicianship.

These qualities are particularly in evidence on the blues tune "The Unions Are To Blame", the slickly soulful "Citizens United" (I had to look that up) and the country send-up "I'm So Friggin' Country". Zimmerman knows his Americana styles and moves effortlessly among them, which makes for nice variety. I sometimes feel bad for him when he lavishes this kind of attention on a topic that will only be notable and comprehensible for a few years ("Mister Bush Sends His Regrets"), but such of course is the nature of political satire. It buys a hard punch in the present at the price of a short shelf life.

So Dear US Reader: if you have a chance, definitely catch a Roy Zimmerman gig when he plays in your state! He's touring all 52 of them during the run-up to the presidential election. And everybody else, buy the album!

Read the comments on this post...

The New Brill Typeface

2012-02-03T19:15:10Z

Targuman Christian Brady tells us of a new Unicode typeface from Brill. It is really quite lovely and has great support for diacritical marks and Greek. Two things stopped me from adopting it as Abnormal Interest's official typeface. First it has no support for Hebrew or Arabic. Second, and more vexing, the more I considered using it, the more I thought I should charge my read(s) $2.00 or $3.00 per post or perhaps $1000.00 for access to the site!

And there is another problem with Brill’s font. It doesn’t seem to support Unicode 💩. Not sure what that is? Check it out at Boing Boing.

Y-chromosome admixture in self-identified Australian Aboriginals

2012-02-03T19:00:03Z

Forensic Sci Int Genet. 2012 Jan 30. [Epub ahead of print]

An investigation of admixture in an Australian Aboriginal Y-chromosome STR database.

Taylor D, Nagle N, Ballantyne KN, van Oorschot RA, Wilcox S, Henry J, Turakulov R, Mitchell RJ.

Abstract

Y-chromosome specific STR profiling is increasingly used in forensic casework. However, the strong geographic clustering of Y haplogroups can lead to large differences in Y-STR haplotype frequencies between different ethnicities, which may have an impact on database composition in admixed populations. Aboriginal people have inhabited Australia for over 40,000 years and until ∼300 years ago they lived in almost complete isolation. Since the late 18th century Australia has experienced massive immigration, mainly from Europe, although in recent times from more widespread origins. This colonisation resulted in highly asymmetrical admixture between the immigrants and the indigenes. A State jurisdiction within Australia has created an Aboriginal Y-STR database in which assignment of ethnicity was by self-declaration. This criterion means that some males who identify culturally as members of a particular ethnic group may have a Y haplogroup characteristic of another ethnic group, as a result of admixture in their paternal line. As this may be frequent in Australia, an examination of the extent of genetic admixture within the database was performed. A Y haplogroup predictor program was first used to identify Y haplotypes that could be assigned to a European haplogroup. Of the 757 males (589 unique haplotypes), 445 (58.8%) were identified as European (354 haplotypes). The 312 non-assigned males (235 haplotypes) were then typed, in a hierarchical fashion, with a Y-SNP panel that detected the major Y haplogroups, C-S, as well as the Aboriginal subgroup of C, C4. Among these 96 males were found to have non-Aboriginal haplogroups. In total, ∼70% of Y chromosomes in the Aboriginal database could be classed as non-indigenous, with only 169 (129 unique haplotypes) or 22% of the total being associated with haplogroups denoting Aboriginal ancestry, C4 and K* or more correctly K(xL,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S). The relative frequencies of these indigenous haplogroups in South Australia (S.A.) were significantly different to those seen in samples from the Northern Territory and Western Australia. In S.A., K* (∼60%) has a much higher frequency than C4 (∼40%), and the subgroup of C4, C4(DYS390.1del), comprised only 17%. Clearly admixture in the paternal line is at high levels among males who identify themselves as Australian Aboriginals and this knowledge may have implications for the compilation and use of Y-STR databases in frequency estimates.

Link

Rabbi admits Torah tales were a fraud

2012-02-03T17:32:45Z

NYT: Rabbi admits Torah tales were a fraud - US news - The New York Times - msnbc.com:

For years Rabbi Menachem Youlus, a self-described “Jewish Indiana Jones,” received plaudits from those captivated by his stories of traveling to Eastern Europe and beyond to search for historic Torahs that were lost or hidden during the Holocaust.

I've covered calling "bull" on Menachem Youlous here and here ...

OAPEN-UK focus groups, first report

2012-02-03T17:12:06Z

The JISC-funded OAPEN-UK (Open Access Publishing in European Networks) project have published a report on the first round of focus groups, held in the British Library late last year. Various groups of stakeholders (in this case academics who author research material) were brought together to discuss issues surrounding open access monograph publication. The conclusions and recommendations are perhaps less radical (or more practical?) than some discussions of open publication in this venue, but the report still raises some valuable issues. (Full disclosure, I participated in this session.)

The report can be found at: http://oapen-uk.jiscebooks.org/research-findings/y1-initial-focus-groups/authors-readers/

From my diary

2012-02-03T16:26:21Z

Because of the bereavement, I’m still having difficulty concentrating on anything, and this has very odd effects if you are sat at home, as I am.

I can’t do anything work related, or indeed anything leisure related either. I just don’t want to. It helps if I make myself go out and post a parcel (as I did this afternoon — a copy of the Eusebius book), but otherwise I just sit here. I’ve no energy. I don’t care about my projects at all. Things that are ordinarily of interest leave me cold. I can’t read many books at all.

It doesn’t help that it’s cold out with snow threatened. That doesn’t motivate me to go and see friends who knew her. Not when I might be stuck in a snowdrift.

There’s nothing for me to do, no-one to talk to, and it’s rather like being on Mars. Very spacey-feeling.

The sunlight drifts through the window, but I don’t care. Ordinarily I would travel out somewhere, but I don’t care enough to do so.

It seems to be important to make sure you eat properly. I don’t seem to be hungry a lot of the time. But you feel a lot more upset if you feel tired or haven’t eaten, it seems. So … food must be consumed.

I find that things are getting deferred that I ordinarily would deal with immediately.

I can’t listen to sad songs, and indeed what I can listen to is somewhat limited.

I get waves of pain, lasting 1-3 minutes, in which I can do nothing except walk around the house, saying her name and just hurting. Then it goes. At other times I just feel flat. The pain has been increasing for a while, curiously, but my feeling is that the underlying trend is upward.

It has helped a lot to get a short book on bereavement. It indicates some of what I can expect, which is rather helpful.

It’s also helped to have a set of photographs of her, which I begged from people who knew her at college. It’s only a few, but that’s probably all there ever were; there are none at all of me from my college days, not that I recall. You didn’t think of it, in those halcyon days. You would always be young, you thought. Of course seeing the photos brings pain, but it is a good pain.

I took the digital images — scanned – down to Boots on a memory stick and had them printed out on the 1 hr service, and they came out fine. I’ve looked at them a lot.

Talking to some people helps too. I have had some awful regrets; but talking to a college friend, it seems he was no more successful at that age with the girls than I was, and he tried a lot harder! So I am freed from wondering what would have happened if I had tried harder, and that does help.

The main thing seems to be to construct a narrative of her life, to come to terms with it, and to accept that she had a good life and is gone, but that I shall see her again. How the unbelievers manage without that last bit I do not know.

All very weird, this stuff. God, very kindly, has given me space to grieve, time when I don’t have to be working. Praise Him.

GEPHYRA 8 (2011) published…

2012-02-03T16:14:05Z

GEPHYRA 8, 2011.

Il cosiddetto «Ciprominoico 2»: Una decifrazione possibile? – Matilde Serangeli
At the current state of the studies concerning the decipherment of the so–called «Cypro–Minoan»…

Eumenes II and Apollonioucharax – Peter Thonemann
This article presents a revised edition of an important new Hellenistic document from Lydia,…

Three new sarcophagi from Kios (Gemlik) – Enver Sağır, Hüseyin Uzunoğlu, Koncagül Hançer
Three sarcophagi (Fig. 2) dated to the Roman Imperial Period were recently unearthed in Gemlik…

The funerary inscription of Gaius Tarquitius – Konrad Stauner
This article presents a fragmentary inscription of a Roman soldier named Gaius Tarquitius …

Parerga zum Stadiasmus Patarensis (5): STR 59 und Daseia von Bonda – Sencer Şahin
The road between Myra and Limyra (STR 59) was not built along the coast, …

Parerga to the Stadiasmus Patarensis (6): Route 54 (Patara – Phellos) and new inscriptions – Fatih Onur, Mehmet Alkan
In the field survey of the Stadiasmus Patarensis (SP) in 2009, the route between Patara and Phellos …

Parerga to the Stadiasmus Patarensis (7): New inscriptions from the territory of Phellos – Hüseyin Uzunoğlu, Erkan Taşdelen
Some results of the 2010 survey conducted in Central Lycia within the framework of the Stadiasmus …

Parerga to the Stadiasmus Patarensis (8): On the named places in the journeys of sacrifice recorded in the Vita of Saint Nicholas of Holy Sion – Mehmet Alkan
This paper aims to determine the route taken by Nicholas of Holy Sion in his journeys of sacrifice …

Iulius Tarius Titianus, Proconsul of Lycia et Pamphylia – Nuray Gökalp
The inscription presented here was found in a quarter of Antalya and contains an honorary decree …

A Revised Gravestone from Pisidian Apollonia – Asuman Coşkun Abuagla
A gravestone from Pisidian Apollonia, published, with mistakes, by Sterrett, has been revised …

Zu Inschriften aus Kleinasien II – Thomas Corsten
This article proposes thoughts and corrections to three inscriptions…

An interpretation of some unpublished in situ and recorded Rum Seljuk 13th c. external and internal figural relief work on the Belkıs (Aspendos) Palace, Antalya – Terrance Michael Patrick Duggan
This article is divided into four parts. Firstly, it notes the precedent provided by the conversion…

Unplanned reuse

2012-02-03T15:28:48Z

There’s really only one thing you can do with a book: read it. You can learn from it, cite it or feel that your life has been changed by it, but you can’t directly reuse it (well, apart from making it an
accessory piece of furniture, but that doesn’t make use of the contents of the book). One of the distinctive differences of digital scholarship is that, if it is well designed, it can be used for purposes the original author may not have foreseen. The original author may even discover unintended reuse for digital work, as I did recently.
I had been working on an image service using a URN notation to retrieve and view images of the famous Archimedes Palimpsest. Using a URN like
urn:cite:hmt:chsimg.081v–088r_Arch03v_Sinar_pseudo_no-veil
the service lets you do things like
Retrieve a binary image at a given size. . This is bifolio 81v–88r at 50 pixels wide.

Retrieve a region of interest . This extracts from the same image a region with a mathematical figure, the construction of Archimedes, Floating Bodies 1.proposition.1
open a pannable/zoomable version of the image in a web browser, either with or without a highlighted region of interest. Try these two links to the same bifolio illustrated in the static images above:
with no highlighted region
including highlighting of the mathematical figure
For a course I taught in English translation, I put together a text service, allowing you to retrieve passages of text by canonical reference. With a URN like this
urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0552.tlg008.chs03:1.proposition.1
the service lets you retrieve archival XML source for a passage. This request gets the XML source for Archimedes, Floating Bodies, postulate 1 — not necessarily a thing of beauty to the casual reader of Archimedes. But it’s trivial to associate an XSLT stylesheet to format the archival XML for reading in a browser, so here is the same passage associated with stylesheet for easy reading.
At some point, the penny dropped, and I realized it would also be trivial to mash up the two services. When I started work on the image service, I had not imagined that the digital images of the Greek palimpsest would be of any interest to Greekless readers of Archimedes, but the mathematical figures in the manuscript are extremely important even if you’re reading Thomas Heath’s public-domain English translation.
A minor addition to the XSLT stylesheet uses the markup indicating the presence of canonically identified figures in Heath’s translation to embed references to the image service.
Try this view of book 1, proposition 1, where any reader (Greek scholar or not) now gets to follow the text in Heath’s translation together with images in the only surviving Greek manuscript of Floating Bodies. Images of regions are embedded in the text, and are linked to the zoomable view of the whole bifolio.

London Arts Picks

2012-02-03T15:10:36Z

London Arts Picks:

Culture Concierge
What we love in London
03.03.2012

London is one of the cultural capitals of the world, so there is always a great deal to see and do. We're here to help you navigate through the almost overwhelming choices by presenting our top picks. This week it's what we love that's on in London.

Next week we'll be looking at archaeology and the ancient world.
Future emails will provide city guides to Istanbul and Venice, as well as regular London arts picks.

L’Âge du bronze dans l’espace Manche-Mer du Nord

2012-02-03T14:47:23Z

Une conférence d’Anne Lehoërff à la MESHS (Lille).

La Maison européenne des sciences de l’homme et de la société de Lille propose une conférence d’Anne Lehoërff, Maître de conférences en protohistoire européenne à l’université Lille 3, consacrée à l’Âge du bronze dans l’espace Manche-Mer du Nord le mercredi 8 février 2012 à 18h00.

L’Âge du bronze désigne une longue période comprise entre 2 200 et 800 avant J.-C. Dans les actuelles régions du Nord-Pas-de-Calais, des Flandres, du sud de l’Angleterre, vivent alors des sociétés de l’oralité, qui n’ont pas laissé de textes mais de nombreux vestiges matériels, témoins de leurs modes de vie, leurs pratiques religieuses, leurs connaissances techniques. Ce sont donc les archéologues qui écrivent leur histoire. Longtemps mal connue, assez peu développée, l’archéologie de ces périodes hautes a été marquée par un dynamisme sans précédent durant les vingt dernières années, en particulier grâce aux découvertes faites dans le cadre de l’archéologie préventive, celles qui sont réalisées pour la construction des routes, des lotissements, des espaces industriels, etc. L’archéologie est le plus souvent nourrie de découvertes modestes mais que les chercheurs d’aujourd’hui sont à même d’exploiter pour décrire l’environnement du quotidien, les milieux, le type de végétation, de cultures, d’alimentation, y compris pour des populations si anciennes.

L’archéologie est parfois faite, aussi, de belles découvertes. Ainsi, en 1992, dans le port de Douvres (Angleterre) fut mis au jour l’un des plus vieux bateaux maritimes connus, daté de 1550 avant notre ère, en plein Âge du bronze. Ce bateau, pièce maîtresse de l’histoire maritime, servait à des liaisons régulières de part et d’autre de la Manche et de la Mer du Nord, sur un trajet reliant Douvres vers Wissant ou ses environs. Les études des archéologues qui travaillent en collaboration dans ces régions soulignent un fait étonnant : la mer que nous percevons aujourd’hui comme une barrière était à l’époque un espace d’échanges et les frontières n’étaient pas sur les côtés mais dans les terres, à l’arrière de l’espace côtier. Où se situaient-elles ? Comment peut-on les appréhender à partir des données archéologiques ?

L’enjeu, derrière une histoire à si grande échelle, est de porter la réflexion sur les fondements à la fois historiques et géographiques de ce que nous nommons aujourd’hui l’Eurorégion.

Anne Lehoërff est Maître de conférences à l’université Lille 3. Auteur d’un ouvrage portant sur l’artisanat du bronze en Italie centrale entre 1200-725 avant notre ère (École française de Rome, 2007) [voir notice], elle a publié récemment « L’Âge du bronze est-il une période historique ? » dans l’ouvrage dirigé par Dominique Garcia, L’Âge du bronze en Méditerranée : recherches récentes (Errance, 2011) [voir notice] ainsi qu’un ouvrage d’entretien avec Jean Guilaine (Actes Sud, 2011) [voir notice]. Elle a également participé au Guide des méthodes de l’archéologie aux éditions La découverte [voir notice] et a dirigé l’ouvrage Construire le temps : histoire et méthodes des chronologies et calendriers des derniers millénaires avant notre ère en Europe occidentale dans la collection « Bibracte » (2008) [voir notice].

Anne Lehoërff est coordinatrice du projet « Boat 1550 BC », Projet INTERREG IV A « 2 Mers Seas Zeeën », qui permettra, autour de la reconstitution à l’échelle ½ du bateau retrouvé à Douvres, une exposition itinérante (accompagnée d’un catalogue), des conférences, des colloques, ainsi qu’un ensemble d’actions pédagogiques. Renseignements sur « Boat 1550 BC » sur le site de la MESHS.

Pour information

Conférence « L’Âge du bronze dans l’espace Manche-Mer du Nord : le regard de l’archéologie », le mercredi 8 février à 18h00 la MESHS : Espace Baïetto, 2, rue des Canonniers, Lille. Y aller. Renseignements de l’annonce sur le site de la MESHS.

Newly in Open Access: Deltion of the Christian Archaeological Society (Deltion)

2012-02-03T14:27:16Z

ΔΕΛΤΙΟN ΤΗΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗΣ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΛΟΓΙΚΗΣ ΕΤΑΙΡΕΙΑΣ - Deltion of the Christian Archaeological Society
ISSN: 1105-5758

Χριστιανική Αρχαιολογική Εταιρεία (ΧΑΕ) με ιδιαίτερη χαρά ανακοινώνει την έναρξη λειτουργίας της ηλεκτρονικής έκδοσης του ΔΕΛΤΙΟΥ ΤΗΣ ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΗΣ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΛΟΓΙΚΗΣ ΕΤΑΙΡΕΙΑΣ (Δελτίον). Οι εξελίξεις στον τρόπο επιστημονικής εργασίας και δημοσίευσης των αποτελεσμάτων της έρευνας μας οδήγησαν στην απόφαση, συγχρόνως με την έντυπη έκδοση του Δελτίου που εκδόθηκε για πρώτη φορά το 1892, να προχωρήσουμε σε παράλληλη ηλεκτρονική έκδοση προσφέροντας στους ερευνητές και το ευρύτερο κοινό εύκολη πρόσβαση, μέσω του διαδικτύου, στο περιεχόμενο του Δελτίου. Η ηλεκτρονική έκδοση του περιοδικού υλοποιείται σε συνεργασία με το Εθνικό Κέντρο Τεκμηρίωσης (ΕΚΤ).

The Christian Archaeological Society (ChAE) is pleased to announce the launch of the online edition of the Deltion of the Christian Archaeological Society (Deltion). The developments in research and scholarly communication have led to the decision to publish an online edition of the Deltion alongside the print edition, which began in 1892. The online edition facilitates access to the content of the Deltion for scholars and the wider public. The electronic publication of the journal is carried out in collaboration with the National Documentation Centre (EKT)

2006

Δελτίον XAE 27 (2006), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη του Νικολάου Β. Δρανδάκη (1925-2004)

2005

Δελτίον ΧΑΕ 26 (2005), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη του Γεωργίου Γαλάβαρη (1926-2003)

2003

Δελτίον ΧΑΕ 24 (2003), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη του Νίκου Οικονομίδη (1934-2000)

2004

Δελτίον ΧΑΕ 25 (2004), Περίοδος Δ'

2002

Δελτίον ΧΑΕ 23 (2002), Περίοδος Δ'

2001

Δελτίον ΧΑΕ 22 (2001), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη του Μανόλη Χατζηδάκη (1909-1998)

2000

Δελτίον XAE 21 (2000), Περίοδος Δ'

1999

Δελτίον XAE 20 (1998), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη του Δημητρίου Ι. Πάλλα (1907-1995)

1997

Δελτίον XAE 19 (1996-1997), Περίοδος Δ'

1995

Δελτίον XAE 18 (1995), Περίοδος Δ'

1994

Δελτίον XAE 17 (1993-1994), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη της Ντούλας Μουρίκη (1934-1991)

1992

Δελτίον XAE 16 (1991-1992), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη του André Grabar (1896-1990)

1991

Δελτίον XAE 15 (1989-1990), Περίοδος Δ'

1989

Δελτίον XAE 14 (1987-1988), Περίοδος Δ'

1988

Δελτίον XAE 13 (1985-1986), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη του Μαρίνου Καλλιγά (1906-1985)

1986

Δελτίον XAE 12 (1984), Περίοδος Δ'. Στην εκατονταετηρίδα της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας (1884-1984)

1983

Δελτίον XAE 11 (1982-1983), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη του Αναστασίου Κ. Ορλάνδου (1887-1979)

1981

Δελτίον XAE 10 (1980-1981), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη του Ανδρέα Γρηγ. Ξυγγόπουλου (1891-1979)

1979

Δελτίον XAE 9 (1977-1979), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη της Μαρίας Γεωργίου Σωτηρίου (1888-1979)

1976

Δελτίον XAE 8 (1975-1976), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη του Βίκτωρα Λάζαρεφ (1897-1976)

1974

Δελτίον XAE 7 (1973-1974), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη του Anatole Frolow (1906-1972)

1972

Δελτίον XAE 7 (1970-1972), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη του Παναγιώτη Μιχελή (1903-1969)

1969

Δελτίον XAE 5 (1969), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη του Δημητρίου Ευαγγελίδη (1888-1959)

1966

Δελτίον XAE 4 (1964-1965), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη του Γεωργίου Α. Σωτηρίου (1881-1965)

1964
Δελτίον XAE 3 (1962-1963), Περίοδος Δ'
1962

Δελτίον XAE 2 (1960-1961), Περίοδος Δ'

1960
Δελτίον XAE 1 (1959), Περίοδος Δ'. Στη μνήμη του Νίκου Βέη (1883-1958)

List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies

Open Access Journal: Totem

2012-02-03T14:15:18Z

TOTEM: The University of Western Ontario Anthropology Journal
ISSN (Print): 1203-8830
ISSN (Online): 1925-8542
TOTEM is a peer-reviewed, student-run journal of anthropology published annually in association with the Anthropology Society and the Department of Anthropology at The University of Western Ontario (U.W.O). TOTEM is currently on its 20th volume; the first volume was published in 1994. 2010-2011 was the first year TOTEM published online through the Scholarship@Western initiative, and 2011-2012 will be the first year we move to an online submission system. 2011-2012 will also be the first year that TOTEM will be selecting one student submission for an Editor's Recognition Award.

TOTEM’s mandate is to publish exceptional works of creative and original research by undergraduate and graduate students in any of the four sub-fields of anthropology including socio-cultural anthropology, archaeology, biological/physical anthropology, and linguistics. TOTEM is dedicated to providing a forum for undergraduates and graduate students in anthropology to present and discuss their work with their peers. Due to anthropology’s interdisciplinary nature, we invite students from other disciplines and institutions to submit papers of value or interest to anthropology and anthropologists.

Our editorial board consists of two Anthropology Department graduate students that are elected to act as co-editors, and our reviewers are drawn from all four fields of anthropology. This year’s co-editors are Andrew Wade, a bioarchaeologist in the fourth year of his PhD program, and Jennifer Morgan, a bioarchaeologist in the third year of her PhD program.

Additionally, we have a large number of peer-reviewers from the undergraduate and graduate Anthropology Department that change every year. We work in conjunction with the undergraduate Anthropology Society at UWO, and have future plans to work with the newly formed Western Anthropology Graduate Society.

TOTEM is also pleased to feature the artwork of David Kanatawakhon-Maracle.

Volume 19 (2011)
Issue 1

Volume 18 (2010)
Issue 1

Volume 17 (2009)
Issue 1

Volume 16 (2008)
Issue 1

Volume 15 (2007)
Issue 1

Volume 14 (2006)
Issue 1

Volume 13 (2005)
Issue 1

Volume 12 (2004)
Issue 1

Volume 11 (2003)
Issue 1

Volume 10 (2002)
Issue 1

Volume 9 (2001)
Issue 1

Volume 8 (2000)
Issue 1

Volume 7 (1999)
Issue 1

Volume 3 (1997)
Issue 1
Issue 2

Volume 2 (1995)
Issue 1
Volume 1 (1994)

List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies

Doctor Who: The Highlanders

2012-02-03T13:47:34Z

This second episode of the Patrick Troughton era, “The Highlanders” witnessed the arrival of a companion who would be with the Second Doctor throughout the rest of his stint: Jamie McCrimmon. This episode also witnessed something that William Hartnell had done, but which Patrick Troughton did much more comically: impersonations and disguises.
The episode featured strong female characters, eschewing the tendency of much science fiction (from which Doctor Who itself has not been immune) to have female characters provide shrieking reactions to monsters and people who find themselves captured or in danger and wait for males to come and rescue them. Even in the few years since the show’s beginning, one can see how the show reflects more progressive gender attitudes.
Listening to the episode, I found myself wondering how viewers in England and Scotland felt about its treatment of war between the two nations. Was this controversial territory, I wonder? If this episode had the potential to be controversial in one notoriously touchy area, namely politics and the history of conflicts between peoples and territories, the next will offer criticism of religion in a manner that seems to me to be unprecedented in the show’s history.

New book: Rice and Language Across Asia: Crops, Movement, and Social Change

2012-02-03T13:35:52Z

This special double-issue on the deep history of rice in Asia has just appeared in print, with a number of contributions deriving from the multi-disciplinary international symposium “Rice and Language Across Asia: Crops, Movement, and Social Change,” recently held at Cornell University, in Ithaca, on Sept. 22-25, 2011 (see http://conf.ling.cornell.edu/riceandlanguage/). The authors come from a variety of disciplines, including archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, genetics, and more:

Rice (ISSN 1939-8425), Volume 4, Numbers 3-4 / December 2011. Special Issue: “Rice and Language Across Asia: Crops, Movement, and Social Change.”
Guest Editors: Magnus Fiskesjö and Yue-ie Caroline HSING
Table of Contents: http://www.springerlink.com/content/1939-8425/4/3-4/

Preface: “Rice and Language Across Asia”, by Magnus Fiskesjö and Yue-ie Caroline Hsing, pp. 75-77

Pathways to Asian Civilizations: Tracing the Origins and Spread of Rice and Rice Cultures, by Dorian Q. Fuller, pp. 78-92

The Checkered Prehistory of Rice Movement Southwards as a Domesticated Cereal—from the Yangzi to the Equator, by Peter Bellwood, pp. 93-103

Millets, Rice, Social Complexity, and the Spread of Agriculture to the Chengdu Plain and Southwest China, by Jade d’Alpoim Guedes, pp. 104-113

Rice in Thailand: The Archaeobotanical Contribution, by Cristina Castillo, pp. 114-120

How Many Independent Rice Vocabularies in Asia?, by Laurent Sagart, pp. 121-133

Proto-Tibeto-Burman Grain Crops, by David Bradley, pp. 134-141

Rice in Dravidian, by Franklin Southworth, pp. 142-148

Northeast Asian Linguistic Ecology and the Advent of Rice Agriculture in Korea and Japan, by John Whitman, pp. 149-158

A Genetic Focus on the Peopling History of East Asia: Critical Views, by Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, Da Di and María Eugenia Riccio, pp. 159-169

Evaluation of Genetic Variation Among Wild Populations and Local Varieties of Rice, by Takashige Ishii, Takashi Hiraoka, Tomoyuki Kanzaki, Masahiro Akimoto and Rieko Shishido, et al., pp. 170-177

Studies on Ancient Rice—Where Botanists, Agronomists, Archeologists, Linguists, and Ethnologists Meet, by Jaw-shu Hsieh, Yue-ie Caroline Hsing, Tze-fu Hsu, Paul Jen-kuei Li and Kuang-ti Li, et al., pp. 178-183

The Origin and Spread of Early-Ripening Champa Rice: Its Impact on Song Dynasty China, by Randolph Barker, pp. 184-186

Discussant’s Remarks: Reviving Ethnology to Understand the Rice Neolithic, by Richard A. O’Connor, pp. 187-189

(via Magnus Fiskesjö by email)

Friday Varia and Quick Hits

2012-02-03T13:16:48Z

We awoke to a foggy morning and our drive to campus saw cloud-burst style snow showers. But the good news is that we’ll see balmy temperatures again today with highs in the 30s!!!

So with the arrival (once again this year) of spring, it seems like a great time for some quick hits and varia.

Guy Sanders has been on a roll lately with the links, so I’ll pass them on to you:

Deltion of the Christian Archaeological Society is now available online. This has suddenly made some other journals look really really behind. (Yes, I’m looking at you Journal of Roman Archaeology).

The Onassis Foundation has made available online the lovely A. Lazaridou ed., Transitions to Christianity: Art of Late Antiquity, 3rd-7th Century A.D. (New York 2011). Reading it online (through a rather clunky viewer will save you almost $30!).

Finally, Greece has made available an index of dissertations online and many of them have full text via a clunky online reader.

Ten “Metatrends” in technology and education from the NMC Horizon Project (pdf here). I am not entirely sure that Horizon needed “100 distinguished thought leaders from all over the world” to come up with this list.

The Sunoikisis Consortium is offering a fellowship for participants in the Kenchreai Archaeology Field School. Get your Corinthia on with Dr. Prof. Big Joe Rife.

An interesting tale of how Amazon’s clever marketing can help an author get noticed.

I sort of like Twitterfall.

The AIA might be a bit too ambivalent (for my taste) in their attitudes toward open access to their scholarly publications (via Dimitri Nakassis), American Journal of Archaeology does offer a nice list of blogs now on their page.

For some reason I am fascinated with these little interviews of famous techtypes. Here’s one on Jason Kottke. And this post by Mr. Kottke on how to pronounce things hilariously is hilarious.

Selling a story then creating a product. This is the essence of the interwebs.

And the Internets are now GOOD for you, but we need to figure out how to use it in order for it to make us happy.

Some interesting thoughts on Contemporary Archaeologies from the Paul Mullins, the President of the Society for Historical Archaeology (via Richard Rothaus).

Yesterday was Teaching Thursday.

This 6 by David Warner is just amazing.

A pretty amazing story of how the famous Dan Reetz saved some girls from sex traffickers using Metafilter.

Poor T-rex.

What I’m reading: T. F. Tartaron, D. J. Pullen, R. K. Dunn, L. Tzortzopoulou-Gregory, A. Dill, and J. I. Boyce, “Saronic Harbors Archaeological Research Project (SHARP): Investigations at Mycenaean Kalamianos, 2007-2009,” Hesperia 80.4 (2011), 559-643. (It’s almost 100 pages, so cut me a break!)

What I’m listening to: Gonjasufi, MU.ZZ.LE, Chairlift, Something.

Hoar frost

Base de données sur les auteurs ancien: édition patristique

2012-02-03T12:24:00Z

Base de données sur les auteurs ancien: édition patristique, Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée
Base de données éditée par l’Institut des Sources Chrétiennes (HISOMA - UMR 5189).

Cette base recense tous les auteurs anciens édités dans la collection Sources Chrétiennes ou susceptibles de l’être : il s’agit essentiellement de Pères de l’Église. Elle est régulièrement alimentée par tous les membres de l’équipe Sources Chrétiennes au fur et à mesure de la gestion des projets éditoriaux ; elle peut l’être également par toute personne désireuse d’enrichir la page d’un auteur qu’elle connaît bien.Elle permet de connaître de façon fine le contenu des volumes déjà parus, de ceux en cours de préparation, mais elle a aussi une finalité prospective, puisqu’elle indique les textes que Sources Chrétiennes souhaiterait éditer dans les années à venir et pour lesquels l’Institut cherche des collaborateurs.
Vous y trouverez notamment :

des informations sur l’état d’avancement des éditions, sur les colloques ou journées d’étude consacrés aux Pères
des éléments biographiques et bibliographiques, des liens vers des sites dédiés.

Consulter la base

CONF: Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Augustan Rome

2012-02-03T12:06:17Z

Seen on the Classicists list:

Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Augustan Rome
International Conference, Leiden University, 31 May and 1 June 2012

The Greek rhetorician and historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus settled in Rome in 30 BC. His rhetorical works, critical essays and history of early Rome (Roman Antiquities) are inextricably linked with the culture of Augustan Rome. In recent years, there has been a remarkable revival of interest in Dionysius. This international conference brings together the leading specialists in Dionysian scholarship: scholars working on rhetoric, literary criticism, Greek historiography and Roman culture. The conference aims to interpret the works of an important Greek scholar within the cultural, political and literary context of Augustan Rome.

Conference Website:

http://www.hum.leidenuniv.nl/gltc/actueel/conference-dionysius-of-halicarnassus-and-augustan-rome.html

Speakers:

Jeroen Bons (Utrecht University): ‘Dionysius on Isocrates’
Michael Edwards (University of Wales, Lampeter): ‘Dionysius on Isaeus’
Matthew Fox (University of Glasgow): ‘The Roman polis in Dionysius’
Dan Hogg (Cranleigh School): ‘How Roman are the Antiquities?’
Richard Hunter (Cambridge University): ‘Dionysius and the Idea of the Critic’
Casper de Jonge (Leiden University): ‘Composition in Augustan Rome. Dionysius, Horace and Longinus’
Stephen Oakley (Cambridge University): ‘The Invention of Detail in the Roman Antiquities’
Christopher Pelling (Oxford University): ‘Dionysius and Regime Change’
James I. Porter (University of California, Irvine): ‘Dionysius and the Sublime Style’
Clemence Schultze (Durham University): ‘Ways of Killing Women. Dionysius on Horatia and Lucretia’
Antony Spawforth (Newcastle University): ‘Dionysius, Declamation, and Augustan Cultural Politics’
Laura Viidebaum (Cambridge University): ‘Dionysius and Lysias’ Charm’
Nicolas Wiater (University of St. Andrews): ‘Parahistory: Language, Time, and Historical Consciousness in Dionysian criticism’
Harvey Yunis (Rice University, Houston): ‘Dionysius and Contemporaries on Demosthenes’

Registration:

Registration for this conference is now open. There are various options:

1) There is a limited number of places available for colleagues and students who would like to attend the conference papers on Thursday 31 May and / or Friday 1 June. Location: Gravensteen, Pieterskerkhof 6 in Leiden (45 seats). Single day rate (including lunch and refreshments) = 25 euro.

2) Two keynote lectures are open to the general public: both lectures will take place in the Klein Auditorium of the Academy Building, Rapenburg 73 in Leiden:
- Thursday 31 May at 4.00 pm: professor Christopher Pelling (Oxford): ‘Dionysius and Regime Change’
- Friday 1 June at 4.00 pm: professor Richard Hunter (Cambridge): ‘Dionysius and the Idea of the Critic’

Both keynote lectures will be followed by a reception. Participants are kindy requested to organize their own accomodation. A list of hotels in Leiden is available. A detailed programme will be circulated in due course. The conference is generously sponsored by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.

Contact:

If you are interested to attend the conference or one of the keynote lectures, please contact Casper de Jonge (c.c.de.jonge AT hum.leidenuniv.nl).

CONF: Metaphor in Greek and Roman Literature and Culture

2012-02-03T11:45:15Z

Seen on the Classicists list:

Metaphor in Greek and Roman Literature and Culture (a one-day workshop)
Friday 4 May, 2012
School of Classics, University of St Andrews

* Anna Uhlig (Cambridge): Sea as metaphor in fifth-century Greece.
* Sebastian Matzner (KCL): Metaphor’s other: making sense of metonymy.
* Nicolas Wiater (St Andrews): The erotics of mimesis: language, time, and desire in Greek classicism.
* Helen Lovatt (Nottingham): On the edges of images: blurring the boundaries between simile and
metaphor in Statius’ Thebaid.
* Victoria Rimell (Rome): Senecan dwelling and the conditions of metaphor.
* Shadi Bartsch (Chicago): The pleasure of the trope: pagan and Christian authors on the ethics of
metaphor.

All welcome. For registration information, please see:
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/classics/conferences/metaphor.shtml

For other queries, please contact Jason König (jpk3 AT st-andrews.ac.uk)

Reflections on a doctorate

2012-02-03T11:42:56Z

Only two research projects left to talk about in my survey of what I have done previously, and this is the biggy, the blast-from-the-past upon which your star will forever be hung, the doctorate. I cant even say PhD - you get a DPhil from Oxford, which will confuse people evermore.

My doctoral funding came from an EPSRC grant, working on an established, funded, project at the University of Oxford, which was split between The Department of Engineering Science and the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents, as a collaborative project between Professor Mike Brady, and Professor Alan Bowman. They were interested to see if they could use new and novel imaging techniques to try and read the damaged inscriptions on the Vindolanda stylus texts, above. At the start of 1999 I joined them on a 3 year project, where two doctoral students and a postdoc were employed. My role was to work in the space between the classicists and the engineers, given I had a training both in classics (but classical art!) and in computing science.

I'm not going to kid that this wasnt hard work, nor a tough time for me - but looking back, I see its part of the doctoral process that you generally get the stuffing knocked out of you, and then you rebuild yourself and are academically stronger as a result. Essentially, I hadnt done an undergraduate in Engineering, or Maths - but was being examined in Engineering. It was a steep learning curve, and I had a lot of catching up to do, learning a lot both about Latin and Probability Theory, Roman Archaeology and Parallel Computing. I successfully defended in January 2003 - although it took me months to even face doing the (2 hours worth) of corrections, and a further year to go back to the work and turn it into Image to Interpretation, my monograph published by OUP.

I published five pieces on my doctorate, as well as the book. One of them is pretty promissory (in general, something that has the words "Towards" in the title, you think, aye aye.....)
Terras, M (2000) Towards a reading of the Vindolanda Stylus Tablets: Engineers and the Papyrologist. Human IT , 4 (2/3) PDF.
Although the further three pieces are more substantive, the last one contains the maths:

Terras, M. and Robertson, P. (2004) Downs and Acrosses: Textual Markup on a Stroke Based Level. Literary and Linguistic Computing , 19 (3 ) pp.397 - 414 . PDF

Terras, M. (2005) Reading the Readers: Modelling Complex Humanities Processes to Build Cognitive Systems. Literary and Linguistic Computing , 20 (1 ) pp.41 - 59 . PDF

Terras, M and Roberston, P (2005) Image and Interpretation: Using Artificial Intelligence to Read Ancient Roman Texts. HumanIT , 7 (3) PDF.
The final paper is a contribution to an edited volume we were all asked to write a paper for, to reflect what research was being undertaken in our department at UCL, so it has crossovers with these two, above (and there is probably room, at some point, to discuss just how much you can publish in a paper that has already been covered elsewhere, in a different format, for a different audience, as its a pretty murky academic practice):
Terras, M (2006) Interpreting the image: using advanced computational techniques to read the Vindolanda texts. ASLIB Proceedings , 58 (1/2) 102 - 117. PDF.
It's only in the most recent couple of years that I've started to focus again on imaging of manuscript material, and how best we can tackle degraded texts. I'm working again with computer scientists and engineers on some fairly gnarly imaging problems, and its very rewarding - although the fun, now, is knowing I wont be examined at the end of it, and I dont have the "what will become of me!" stress that people have to face at the end of their doctorate (even though I am committed to helping my PhD students over those mental hurdles). It's now almost (six months short of) a decade since I handed in my PhD. How did that happen?????

Reviews from BMCR

2012-02-03T11:42:26Z

2012.02.04: Achim Lichtenberger, Severus Pius Augustus: Studien zur sakralen Repräsentation und Rezeption der Herrschaft des Septimius Severus und seiner Familie (193-211 n. chr.). Impact of empire, 14.

2012.02.03: Suzanne Saïd, Homer and the Odyssey (originally published 1998).

2012.02.02: Fabio Berdozzo, Götter, Mythen, Philosophen: Lukian und die paganen Göttervorstellungen seiner Zeit. Untersuchungen zur antiken Literatur und Geschichte, Bd 106.

2012.01.52: Michael F. Wagner, The Enigmatic Reality of Time: Aristotle, Plotinus, and Today. Ancient Mediterranean and medieval texts and contexts. Studies in Platonism, Neoplatonism, and the Platonic Tradition v. 7

2012.01.51: Nicolini on Hunink on Nicolini, Ad (L)usum lectoris: etimologia e giochi di parole in Apuleio. Response by Lara Nicolini.

Subscribe to Culture Concierge

2012-02-03T11:35:11Z

I'm setting up a "Culture Concierge" weekly newsletter with some friends. Mostly we'll be covering cultural events in London, but there will be city guides for cities such as Istanbul packed with great suggestions. The emails will be archive at the Friend of Dorothy blog. If you'd like to sign up, just click on the link below:

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This newsletter is part of a larger programme of creating a curatorial concierge service based on our experience in the art world.

A collaborative translation of Plato’s Protagoras

2012-02-03T11:30:00Z

Plato's Protagoras, a translation
This is an attempt at a collaborative translation of Plato’s Protagoras, a beautiful and challenging dialogue. The lead author is Dhananjay Jagannathan, a graduate student in ancient philosophy at the University of Chicago. Find out more about this translation.
Read the Protagoras, arranged by Stephanus page, with the Greek text, the collaborative translation, and Jowett's translation side-by-side. You can add comments and suggestions at the bottom of each page (see the latest comments, or subscribe to comments via RSS).

309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318
319 320 321 322
For other collaborative translations project see:
Suda On-Line

Lauren Hackworth Petersen, The Freedman in Roman Art and Art History

2012-02-03T11:18:28Z

Lauren Hackworth Petersen, The Freedman in Roman Art and Art History, Cambridge, 2012.

Éditeur : Cambridge University Press
312 pages
ISBN : 9781107603592
£30.00

From monumental tombs and domestic decoration, to acts of benefaction and portraits of ancestors, Roman freed slaves, or freedmen, were prodigious patrons of art and architecture. Traditionally, however, the history of Roman art has been told primarily through the monumental remains of the emperors and ancient writers who worked in their circles. In this study, Lauren Petersen critically investigates the notion of 'freedman art' in scholarship, dependent as it is on elite-authored texts that are filled with hyperbole and stereotypes of freedmen, such as the memorable fictional character Trimalchio, a boorish ex-slave in Petronius' Satyricon. She emphasizes integrated visual ensembles within defined historical and social contexts and aims to show how material culture can reflect preoccupations that were prevalent throughout Roman society. Interdisciplinary in scope, this book explores the many ways that monuments and artistic commissions by freedmen spoke to a much more complex reality than that presented in literature.

Lire la suite...

Luca Grillo, The Art of Caesar's Bellum Civile

2012-02-03T11:16:29Z

Luca Grillo, The Art of Caesar's Bellum Civile , Cambridge, 2012.

Éditeur : Cambridge University Press
234 pages
ISBN : 9781107009493
£55.00

Traditional approaches have reduced Caesar's Bellum Civile to a tool for teaching Latin or to one-dimensional propaganda, thereby underestimating its artistic properties and ideological complexity. Reading strategies typical of scholarship on Latin poetry, like intertextuality, narratology, semantic, rhetorical and structural analysis, cast a new light on the Bellum Civile: Ciceronian language advances Caesar's claim to represent Rome; technical vocabulary reinforces the ethical division between 'us' and the 'barbarian' enemy; switches of focalization guide our perception of the narrative; invective and characterization exclude the Pompeians from the Roman community, according to the mechanisms of rhetoric; and the very structure of the work promotes Caesar's cause. As a piece of literature interacting with its cultural and socio-political world, the Bellum Civile participates in Caesar's multimedia campaign of self-fashioning. A comprehensive approach, such as has been productively applied to Augustus' program, locates the Bellum Civile at the interplay between literature, images and politics.

Lire la suite...

This Day in Ancient History: ante diem iii nonas februarias

2012-02-03T10:19:40Z

ante diem iii nonas februarias

316 a.d. — martyrdom of St. Blaise

1995 — death of John Pinsent (classicist and founder of Liverpool Classical Monthly)

ΑΣΤΙΚΟ ΚΙΒΩΤΙΟ

2012-02-03T10:14:12Z
February 07, 2012 - 1:01 AM - Exhibition opening - 8 February - 24 March, 2012



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