Latest reviews from the American Journal of Archaeology
Seen on Classics (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):
The Department of Classics at the University of Georgia invites applications
for a Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics. The term of the appointment
is one year, with the possibility of renewal.We seek a broadly-trained generalist to teach all levels of Latin, Greek and
Classical Culture, with a special emphasis in Greek. Candidates must have
received the Ph.D. by the time of the appointment (Aug. 1, 2010). The
teaching load is 3-3, and the salary is $40,000.Interested candidates should send a letter of application and a complete
dossier, including CV, transcripts, and three letters of reference. Email
applications may be sent electronically to
classics AT uga.edu<classicssearch AT uga.edu>. Address regular or express mail to:
Chair, Classics Search Committee
Department of Classics, Park Hall
University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-6203
Applications received by March 10, 2010 are assured of consideration
(postmark for regular or express mail); however, all dossiers will be
accepted until the position is filled. Preliminary interviews of selected
candidates will be conducted at the CAMWS meeting in Oklahoma City.The University of Georgia is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action
employer.
- Classical Humanism has EVERYTHING to do with Justice
Claude Pavur
Saint Louis University
- Goneis in Athenian Law (and Perception)
David Whitehead
Queen’s University Belfast
New at Digressus:
- Efi Papadodima, “The Greek/Barbarian Interaction in Euripides’ Andromache, Orestes, Heracleidae:
- A Reassessment of Greek Attitudes to Foreigners” 10.1-42
- Review: Michael Vickers, Sophocles and Alcibiades: Athenian Politics in Ancient Greek Literature. Stocksfield: Acumen (2008). Reviewed by T. V. Buttrey. 10.43-49
- Reina Pereirag, “Orquídeas: Ensaio sobre a Intimidadena Antiguidade Clássica” 10.50-96
via Digressus, the internet journal for the Classical World.
Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):
Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network, in collaboration with the European Network of Research and Documentation of Performances of Ancient Greek Drama (Arc-Net), Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, Goethe Institute in Athens, Swedish Institute in Athens, The Embassy of Sweden, Department of Early Childhood Education-National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, the Embassy of Cyprus, the Dutch Institute in Athens, the Hellenic Centre of the International Theatre Institute, the Educational Television, the British Council in Greece, the Finnish Institute in Athens and other arts and educational organizations organizes international symposium entitled
«Ancient Greek Drama: contemporary approaches & education»
on the 26th-30th of March 2010 in Athens.
A number of prominent international researchers and theatre practitioners are taking part with lectures, discussions, practical workshops, and master classes.
The aim of the Symposium is to accommodate and foster dialogue concerning contemporary research and professional practice related to ancient drama and education (formal and non-formal).
It can be attended by teachers, artists, theatrologists, students of theatre and of education, and anyone who is interested in ancient Greek drama and education.
POSTSYMPOSIUMMASTERCLASSES
On Tuesday, 30 March 2010, two master classes will take place in Athens.
1. Michael Meschke, Emeritus Professor in Puppet Theatre, Stockholm, Sweden
2. Dr Maria Zannetou-Papacosta, drama/theatre educator, Primary School Principal, Cyprus
More information soon at www.Theatroedu.gr
Symposium languages: Greek & English
Submission of applications begins: 1st of February 2010
Places are limited. (Strict) order of priority will be observed.
Registration fee includes attendance in Keynotes speeches, participation in Workshops, light lunch on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, coffee at breaks, programme, and symposium material.
info: symposium2010 AT theatroedu.gr , (Natasha Merkouri) nm_558 AT hotmail.com
Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):
Registration is currently open for the 2010 Classical Association Conference in Cardiff. The full programme and booking form are available from the conference website at:
Bookings should be made by 26th February to avoid incurring a late booking fee.
CONF: ‘Mediterranean Identities: Formation and Transformation’, University of Leicester, 26-28 March 2010
Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):
Dear All,
We are pleased to announce that registration for this conference (see the email below) is now open: the registration form and full details of the programme are available at http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/classics/research/conferences/mediterranean.aspx. We ask that registration forms be returned to us together with payment not later than Wednesday 10th March. Please note that lunch and refreshments only are included in the conference fee: a list of local accommodation is available on the project website, www.mediterraneanidentities.com.
Student Bursaries
Thanks to the generosity of the Classical Association, we are able to offer six student bursaries covering the full conference fee, which are available to postgraduate students; preference may be given to doctoral students, but students on Masters programmes may also apply. If you would like to be considered for one of these bursaries, please email me (mark.bradley AT nottingham.ac.uk) with details of your affiliation, year of study and research topic, and a statement of how you believe the conference will contribute to the development of your research. It would be most helpful if you could do this by Wednesday 3rd March.
You can also apply to the Thomas Wiedemann Memorial Fund (http://www.thomaswiedemann.org.uk/) for a contribution towards the cost of travel and registration; please note that applications should be made within the next few weeks, and that you should normally seek half of your expenses from your own institution, which, if you are successful, the Wiedemann Trust will aim to meet.
Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):
‘Addressing Dress: Clothing in the Ancient World’
Chairs: Glenys Davies, Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones and Ursula Rothe (Edinburgh)CALL FOR PAPERS
Papers are invited for the session entitled Addressing Dress: Clothing in the Ancient World at the forthcoming Celtic Conference in Classics (University of Edinburgh, 28th-31st July 2010). In recent years, Classics at Edinburgh has become a centre for dress studies with several staff members and postgraduate students working in the field and producing a number of new studies exploring the topic from a variety of angles (e.g. D. Cairns, ‘Anger and the veil in ancient Greek culture’, Greece & Rome 48, 2001; L. Llewellyn-Jones ed., Women’s Dress in the Ancient Greek World, 2002; L. Cleland/M. Harlow/L. Llewellyn-Jones eds, The Clothed Body in the Ancient World, 2005; L. Cleland/G. Davies/L. Llewellyn-Jones eds, Greek & Roman Dress from A-Z, 2007; U. Rothe, Dress & Cultural Identity in the Rhine-Moselle Region of the Roman Empire, 2009).
The session aims to contribute to exciting new developments in dress-related research in Classics by bringing together scholars from a wide range of fields, historical periods and places in the hope of engendering debate and comparison across these lines. As such, we welcome contributions from both text- and material culture-based researchers working on any aspect of dress in
• ancient and classical Egypt
• the ancient Near East
• ancient Greece
• the Roman Empire (Republic/Principate)
• Byzantium & late antiquity in generalWe are also keen to inspire discussion on approaches to dress in the ancient period and hope to address some of the methodological problems inherent in trying to piece together ancient dress practices and their meanings from such a fragmentary source base.
We envisage papers on a wide range of subjects from class, status and gender to ethnicity and cultural identity as well as considerations of links between dress and political institutions or roles, all forms of resistance, and the role of dress in ancient literature. Papers could address very specific topics, such as the use and meaning of a particular garment or the role of dress in a particular classical work, or discuss broader phenomena by looking at wider patterns of social behaviour and their links to dress.
Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted as an email attachment to Ursula Rothe (ursula.rothe AT ed.ac.uk) by the 31st March 2010.
- ca 249 A.D. — martyrdom of Apollonia
Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):
You may recall the recent email regarding the abolition of the Chair in
Palaeography at King’s College London as part of a large-
scale ‘restructuring’ of the School of Arts and Humanities. It has now
been announced that one member of staff in Classical Art and Archaeology
at King’s will be made redundant before 31st August 2010. This decision is
outrageous for many reasons, not least that the members of staff in
question have been arbitrarily singled out for their subject specialisms,
despite the nature of their research and teaching as integral to the
Classics department as a whole.This proposal is damaging to the Classics Department at King’s and
distressing for the members of staff concerned. Furthermore, it is an
alarming indicator of a growing trend towards coercive and arbitrarily
managed approaches to supposedly ‘sub-critical’ subjects. Academics are
being dismissed not because their work lacks excellence but because of a
lack of ‘fit’ with some strategy devised by administration. This threatens
the very nature of academic freedom. It is vital that researchers and
students in these subjects present a united front to stop this trend from
gathering momentum over the next few years.Please consider offering support to your colleagues at King’s by writing a
letter to the Principal (address below) to oppose the proposed redundancy.
This proposition is part of the same scheme that threatens Professor
Ganz’s position but is a separate and similarly urgent issue. The campaign
to stop these cuts is ongoing, so please consider writing a letter even if
you have already done so for Palaeography.The full document outlining the ‘restructuring’ has recently been released
by King’s and can be accessed at
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/content/1/c6/06/80/12/AHConsultationDoc.pdf (details
on the Classical Art and Archaeology cut can be found on p.5, item 5). A
petition has also been established at
http://www.petitiononline.com/kclCAA/petition.html – please do sign this
in addition to sending a letter – and a website with more information and
links has been created at http://stopclassicsfacultycuts.webs.com.Many thanks for your continuing support.
The address to write to is: Professor Rick Trainor, The Principal, King’s
College, The Strand, London WC2R 2LS (principal) and copy to
Professor Jan Palmowski, Head of the School of Arts and
Humanities (jan.palmowski).
… addenda:
Apologies for any confusion my previous message may have caused. It has
not yet been decided which member of staff will be dismissed; this
decision will be made "on the basis of performance" (see p.5 of the
document,
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/content/1/c6/06/80/12/AHConsultationDoc.pdf). Any one
of the four current members of staff may lose their job. Please write to
retain all four positions in Classical Art and Archaeology at King’s.
I also note that there is a facebook group:
Raymond Laurence sends this along:
I was wondering if you would be willing to publicize Canterbury City Council’s desire to close its Roman Museum and the protest against this action?
The museum has an interesting history, it was largely created by a Luftwaffe bomb and during the clearance of the bombsite in 1944 an in situ Roman mosaic was discovered worked on by young enthusiasts such as John Wacher, Shepherd Frere and others. I attach a letter sent by students of the University of Kent to the Council. Significantly, 19,000 children visit the museum per annum and it plays a major educational role. It would seem the Tory Council refuses to even allow stakeholders such as Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Christchurch University or the University of Kent to devise a plan of action with the Museums’ Service to keep the Roman Museum Open.
>
Email to John Gilbey leader of the council and the main spokesman for closure = john.gilbey AT canterbury.gov.uk.Interestingly, this closure runs at loggerheads with Conservative Heritage policy.
> There are following for further info and expressions of outrage:
>
> a) An online petition has been organised http://www.petitiononline.com/Museums1/petition.html
>
> b) A website has been created with information on who to contact within Canterbury City Council – http://savecanterburysmuseums.wordpress.com/>
> c) There is also a Facebook group http://www.facebook.com/lloyd.bosworth?v=info&ref=name#/group.php?gid=234657429317Please do circulate this to colleagues as appropriate.
- 1909 — birth of David Daube
… promoting the new Acropolis Museum:
Renowned archaeologist Franck Goddio talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky [below] about his efforts to recover artifacts from the ancient cities of Alexandria, Heracleion and Canopus, with special attention to discoveries related to Cleopatra and her reign.
via Cleopatra’s Alexandria Treasures | Scientific American Podcast.
Intro to a nice little page on the exhibition … the page includes a ‘What Greek Hero Are You’ quiz and a number of audio bits:
Organized by the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, with loans from museums in the United States and Europe, this exhibition of approximately 100 objects defines various types of ancient Greek heroes between the sixth and first centuries BCE.
The conclusion to a piece at the Freep:
“Percy Jackson” stars 17-year-old Logan Lerman “3:10 to Yuma” as the title character, a troubled youngster who like a certain boy wizard discovers he has a magical heritage and then teams with his young friends to fight the dark forces aligned against him. Columbus directed the first two “Potter” films and was brought in by Fox with hopes that magic lightning can strike twice.
“Clash of the Titans” is a familiar brand name to fans from the 1981 movie of the same title. Like that film, this new model is more about an adrenaline adventure than meticulous scholarship. Leterrier “The Incredible Hulk,” “Transporter 2″ was playing with the idea of presenting Pegasus as a black horse with bat-like wings instead of the iconic white steed with angelic feathers. He and his star, Worthington, have already discussed the possibilities of a sequel, and Warner Bros. has high hopes for the movie.
The films follow a surge in more traditional sword-and-sandal movies in recent years. The decade began with “Gladiator,” which won the Oscar for best picture, and it was followed in 2004 by “Alexander” and “Troy.” It was the 2007 hit film “300,” though, that truly captured the attention of Hollywood executives with $456 million in worldwide box office off a $67-million budget.
The Zack Snyder film, the highest-grossing March release ever, was based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel about King Leonidas and his doomed army of Spartans; Miller is preparing a follow-up now titled “Xerxes,” which begins about 10 years before the events of “300,” and Snyder has expressed interest in it as a film property as well. “It’s the battle of Marathon through my lens,” Miller said.
Miller said he is not surprised Greece is resurgent in Hollywood. “Every generation returns to ancient Greece because, well, the stories are so damn good.”
via Clash of the Greek mythology movies | Detroit Free Press.
In medias res from an item in Psychology Today:
Would you like to be 80 and be physically health with dementia, or with a sound mind in a ruined body?
Pick only one.
In my work, I get to ask questions from the Geriatric Depression Scale like, “Do you think that most people are better off than you are?”
The 80something, I asked this of said, “No, not most, particularly some of the other people around here, whose minds are totally destroyed,” the fairly common response from many who still have a mind that always reminds me of the first line of Ginsberg’s Howl, “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness”-a line appropriate to the most garden variety of nursing homes.
I’ll call him Mr. Jones. He was a long-time, semi-prominent classicist who forsaking Herodotus–I told him I could barely finish the first book of The Histories, in English–now lies in bed when he’s not in his wheel chair, mostly watching TV. A Yankee fan, he’s happily waiting for the first spring training game only weeks away.
“If only I kind walk,” a refrain I’ve heard scores of times over the years, “my life would be so much better.”
But Jones, unlike some others or possibly me in the future, is making–pick your platitude–the best of a bad bargain and playing the hand fate dealt to him.
Jones told me that, like Thaoo, perhaps, he never expects to leave the nursing home.
“I recognize I can’t live on my own. My son says its an ordeal just to take me for a car ride. But my friends still visit.”
On his nightstand, I see a copy of a journal I never heard of, Classical Philology, so I know that there is more than the Yankees on his sound mind not in a sound body
via World’s Oldest Condor Dies–In A Cage | Psychology Today.
Going AWOL (ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/): Thoughts on developing a tool for the organization and discovery of open access scholarly resources for the study of the Ancient World (Charles E. Jones)
Website Review: The Ancient Agora of Athens
A very complex site without a carefully-defined audience. (Harrison Eiteljorg, II)
Cloudy Skies?
Computing in the clouds may have more costs than benefits. (Harrison Eiteljorg, II)
Using Old Data in New Ways
Repurposing data is a critical process for all scholars. (Harrison Eiteljorg, II)
Know Your Choices
New tools can be very useful — if they are used wisely. (Harrison Eiteljorg, II)
Miscellaneous Notes
An irregular feature of the CSA Newsletter
via CSA Newsletter.
Riapre al pubblico il Tempio di Venere di Pompei. Uno degli angoli meno conosciuti degli scavi archeologici è stato restituito ai visitatori dopo un intervento di riqualificazione. I lavori era diventati urgenti “dalla lunga assenza di manutenzione”, ha detto Maria Emma Pirozzi, direttore dei lavori e tecnico della Soprintendenza. Il tempio si trova nella parte occidentale della collina di Pompei, verso il mare e il fiume Sarno. Fu costruito subito dopo l’80 a.C. per onorare la dea Venere protettrice di Lucius Cornelius Sulla, assimilata alla Venere Fisica protettrice della città, e si trovava su un podio in tufo circondato da portico, abbellito da marmi. Gli ultimi interventi agli scavi hanno anche recuperato il il principale percorso di uscita dall’antica Pompei, che di collega la Piazza del Foro con il centro della Pompei moderna.
January’s news in Latin:
Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):
Teaching Controversial Topics: Marxist Theory, February 17th 2010,
The Coal Store, Pump House Building, The Peoples’ History Museum, Manchester
The Subject Centre for History, Classics & Archaeology is holding a joint workshop to investigate the teaching of Marxism within those disciplines as part of its ‘Teaching Controversial Topics’ series
The programme is as follows;
Programme
10:30 to 11:00 – Registration
11:00 to 12:00 – Session 1
Richard Alston – Royal Holloway:
“Marxism, Utopianism and Teaching the Roman City”
Michael Sommer – University of Liverpool:
“By the beard of the prophet! Marxian paradigms and ancient (hi)story/ies”
12:00 to 13:00 – Session 2
John Barrett – University of Sheffield
“Teaching Marxism as a question rather than as an answer”
Steve Roskams – University of York
“The Relevance of Marxism to Archaeological Theory and Practice: some York experiences”
13:00 to 14:00 – Lunch & Tour of The People’s Museum, Manchester
14:00 to 15:00 – Session 3
Catherine Feely – University of Manchester
“Theory and Practice: How and Why Should History Students Read Karl Marx”
Helena Sheehan – University of Dublin
“Teaching History of Ideas from a Marxist Perspective”
15:00 to 16:00 – Session 4
Round table discussion on the current challenges to teaching Marxism
There will be opportunities to explore the challenges of teaching Marxism to History, Classics and Archaeology students in the 21st century, as well as sharing experiences and resources.
We very much hope to see you there, as usual, lunch and refreshments will be provided at no charge. To register for this event you can do so electronically at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/heahistory/publications/ebulletin/news4/ or if you have any queries please send me an email on classicshea AT liverpool.ac.uk.
Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the folks mentioned in the quoted text, not to rogueclassicism!):
TELLUS ISSUE 1
Tellus is a new magazine for contemporary poetry engaging with ancient civilisations. To order a FREE copy of the first issue simply send your address to orders AT tellusmagazine.co.uk by February 26th.
Featuring Andrew Motion, Michael Longley and Maureen Almond alongside exciting new poets, the first issue boasts a vibrant and eclectic mix; from a Sardinian warrior statue we jump to the Babylonian Enlil’s frustration with the sheer noisiness of the people he has created, to a haunting lyric miniature of a speech by Deianeira from Sophocles’ Trachiniae, and to Lesbia, who finally gets a chance to speak her mind on Catullus 51. For further information please visit the website www.tellusmagazine.co.uk.
nonae februariae
- 218 B.C. — dedication of Temple of Concord by L. Manlius who had vowed the temple after defeating a mutiny of some of his troops in Cisalpine Gaul in 218 B.C.
- 46 B.C. — Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis commits suicide in the wake of defeat at Thapsus
- 2 B.C. — Augustus is hailed as pater patriae
The incipit of a piece in the Telegraph:
Clever children are almost four times more likely to suffer from the condition, which is also known as manic depression.
The latest finding, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, supports a commonly held belief that exceptional intellectual ability is associated with the mental illness.
Famous sufferers include Sir Winston Churchill, Lord Nelson, Alexander The Great, Michelangelo, Picasso, Mozart, Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Christopher Columbus.
While it seems that any list of maladies which looks for ‘historical’ sufferers is bound to include either Alexander or Caesar, this notion of a bipolar Alexander is new to me … where did this come from?
via Straight-A schoolchildren at higher risk of bipolar disorder, research claims | Telegraph.
Came across this one las week but couldn’t get it to post for some reason … it details the discovery via satellite imagery, off the shore of Baia, of what seems to be a Roman theatre:
Era il lontano 1956, quando Raimondo Bucher – ufficiale pilota da caccia – scoprì durante una ricognizione aerea, giacere a soli pochi metri dalla linea di costa, un’intera città romana collocata sui fondali del golfo di Pozzuoli. Come ebbe a dire poco dopo, durante un’intervista: «Era da poco passata la guerra, uscivo di pattuglia sul mare partendo dall’aeroporto di Capodichino. Dall’alto, in una giornata caratterizzata dalla straordinaria limpidezza del cielo e del mare, intravidi forme sottomarine simmetriche e regolari. Incuriosito, decisi pertanto di scattare dal cielo alcune fotografie, che ancora oggi restano per la loro limpidezza, testimonianza ineguagliata. Dopo lo sviluppo ebbi la sconcertante sorpresa: dalle stampe apparvero nella loro chiarezza quelle che inequivocabilmente erano mura, strade, e costruzioni di un’antica città sommersa. Erano i resti della antica città romana di Baia».
L’antico teatro: guarda le immaginiOPERA MURARIA – Oggi, a soli poco più di 50 anni di distanza, ritornando a “sorvolare” la zona interessata dai ritrovamenti è stato possibile osservare (grazie all’ausilio di moderni strumenti di telerilevamento satellitare), accanto a quelle antiche strutture d’età imperiale che giacciono in fondo al mare individuate dal Capitano Bucher, resti di un’opera muraria non ancora degnamente esplorata. Rilevati nei fondali della collina del Castello Aragonese, emergono per le loro caratteristiche essenziali, i resti di una particolare struttura dalla forma geometrica a semicerchio, che richiamano la pianta classica di un antico teatro romano d’età imperiale. La struttura, che si trova a pochi metri di profondità, è rivolta in direzione sud-est ed era capace di ospitare fino a 5.000 spettatori. Gli spalti, sfruttando la naturale conformazione del terreno, degradavano dolcemente dalla collina verso il mare. Stilisticamente il manufatto mostra una perfetta ed inalterata forma semicircolare interrotta da una murazione, forse utlizzata come fondale.
SPETTACOLO NELLO SPETTACOLO – Presumibilmente, ricalcando la linea di costa dell’antica «Baiae», offriva alle rappresentazioni del periodo uno scenario unico e inimitabile direttamente sul mare. Più elementi inducono a pensare che si tratti del famoso Teatro di Cesare in quanto la struttura risulta facente parte di un più ampio complesso residenziale definito Villa di Cesare (a conferma di quanto sostiene Tacito secondo il quale la villa di Cesare era posta su di un’altura dominante il golfo di Baia) successivamente inglobato nell’attuale fortezza Aragonese. Un grandiosa villa romana dunque i cui resti e il suo teatro si conservano inalterati ancora nelle profondità del nostro mare.
There is a slideshow of a dozen images of varying relevance at the original page …
Renowned archaeologist Franck Goddio talks with podcast host Steve Mirsky [below] about his efforts to recover artifacts from the ancient cities of Alexandria, Heracleion and Canopus, with special attention to discoveries related to Cleopatra and her reign. The exhibit Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt opens at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on June 5th. Web sites related to this episode include www.underwaterdiscovery.org
via Cleopatra’s Alexandria Treasures : Scientific American Podcast.
