rogueclassicism

Lost City of Altinum Found

Excerpts from a piece in the Times of London:

The bustling harbour of Altinum near Venice was one of the richest cities of the Roman empire. But terrified by the impending invasion of the fearsome Germanic Emperor Attila the Hun, its inhabitants cut their losses and fled in AD452, leaving behind a ghost town of theatres, temples and basilicas.

Altinum was never reoccupied and gradually sunk into the ground. The city lived on in Venetian folk tales and historical artefacts but its exact position, size and wealth gradually faded into obscurity.

[...]

The team behind the study located the ancient city by studying hundreds of aerial photographs of the region, mostly taken by private companies for cartography purposes.

In July 2007, during a particularly dry summer, crops were suffering from drought and were highly sensitive to the subsurface presence of stones, bricks or compacted soil. On the image taken by the mapping company Telespazio, the lighter crops indicated stonework, while the darker patches revealed depressed features such as pits and canals.

The team, reconstructing the town using the aerial images and knowledge of Roman architecture, was able to identify temples, theatres, a basilica, the marketplace and city walls as well as hundreds of smaller structures. Also visible is a large canal, which would have been used for the transportation of oils, wines and foreign luxuries inland to the Roman capital of Milan and other powerful cities such as Verona.

[...]

The team behind the study hopes to carry out carefully planned excavations in the future, but is first collecting more aerial images. It is taking pictures every ten days, as different conditions will show up different features more clearly. By the end of 2009 the experts aim to have compiled all the data and produced an even more detailed map of Altinum.

Some comments from team leader Paolo Mozzi (as told to ANSA):

”Until now we only knew that Altinum was there, we didn’t know what it was like … ‘In size it’s comparable to Pompeii, and Altinum is the only large Roman city in northern Italy and one of the few in Europe that wasn’t buried by modern and medieval cities that rose up later. That’s the reason we can see the Roman age structures of the city so well … These results show that the Romans successfully managed to exploit the watery environment many centuries before the city of Venice began to emerge on the archipelago in the middle of the lagoon … ‘We see a walled city, a theatre, an amphitheatre outside the walls, the basilica, the forum with its market, then a principle road connected to the Via Annia (the Roman road through northern Italy) … ‘You can also see a canal that divides the city in two and heads towards the lagoon. Considering the sea level in Roman times, that canal must have been connected to the lagoon as well as with nearby rivers”

The BBC coverage below includes an animated flyover (without sound) of the site; the Science magazine coverage has some more photos.

• Italian archaeologists find lost Roman city of Altinum near Venice (Times)
• Maps reveal Venice ‘forerunner’ (BBC)
• Ancient forefather to Venice mapped (ANSA)
• Ancient Roman City Rises Again (Science)
• Pattern of Ripening Crops Reveals a Buried Roman Metropolis (Discover)

Additional coverage (later):

• Scientists map ‘lost’ city of Altinum near Venice, Italy (NY Daily News)
• Venice “Ancestor” City Mapped for First Time (National Geographic)
• Ancient Roman City Lost, Now Found (Spiegel)

A Museum at Troy?

Item from Today’s Zaman:

Dr. Ernst Pernicka, a German archeologist who is leading the excavation of Troy, has stated that establishing a Trojan museum is a priority on both his and Turkey’s agenda.

Pernicka noted that the establishment of such a museum requires the support of politicians and their advocacy for the return of Priam’s Treasures and other pieces from the site currently on display in museums in other countries, according to the Anatolia news agency.

Pernicka stated that recent decisions by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism regarding the potential Trojan museum are very positive developments both for him and for fans of Troy worldwide.

Pernicka, underlining the steps put forward toward the opening of an international architectural contest this summer, continued: “Of course, after the creation of a Trojan museum, we will have hope in terms of bringing the Trojan treasure and Trojan pieces from other places around the world back to Turkey. However, we are not the authority in this. The deal, as a whole, depends on the decisions of politicians. Of course, everyone’s goal is the creation of the museum and the exhibition of these pieces.”

The head of Troy’s excavation team pointed out that Troy is important for the world for several reasons.

The German archeologist, recalling that Troy is the setting of one of the earliest masterpieces of European literature, noted: “This is the place where the events in ‘The Iliad’ happened. Moreover, the start of archaeology and the point where it turned into a science emerged here. The evolution of Troy started here. The exit point of Aegean archaeology together with the digs performed here is again Troy. This land has several peculiarities. We can multiply these through exploration, but Troy captures one of the most important places in the world’s cultural heritage.” Pernicka pointed out that as the Trojan horse has been famous for 2,500 years and since the site was valued as a holy place during antiquity, tourism in Troy started eons ago and still continues today.

• Political will needed to open Trojan museum in Çanakkale

Antikythera Mechanism Older than Previously Thought?

Jo Marchant (Decoding the Heavens) writes, inter alia, in a post at New Scientist:

I gave a talk on the device at London’s Royal Institution last night. One new clue I mentioned to the origin of the mechanism comes from the Olympiad dial – there are six sets of games named on the dial, five of which have been deciphered so far. Four of them, including the Olympics, were major games known across the Greek world. But the fifth, Naa, was much smaller, and would only have been of local interest.

The Naa games were held in Dodona in northwestern Greece, so Alexander Jones of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World in New York has suggested that the mechanism must have been made by or for someone from that area.

Intriguingly, this could mean the device is even older than thought. The inscriptions have been dated to around 100 BC, but according to Jones the device may have been made at latest in the early second century BC, because after that the Romans devastated or took over the Greek colonies in the region, so it’s unlikely that people would still have been using the Greek calendar there.

That festival should be called “Naia”, I think, in honour of Zeus Naios. Whatever the case, I’m not sure one can infer that with Aemilius Paulus’ destructive foray into the area around Dodona that a calendar would cease to be used, especially in a religious context — Dodona presumably would be using the calendar of Epirus, about which I don’t think we know very much.

• World’s first computer may be even older than thought

Marathon Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

A piece in the Scotsman on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder includes this tidbit:

The modern understanding of PTSD dates from the 1970s, largely as a result of the problems that were still being experienced by US military veterans of the war in Vietnam.

One of the first descriptions of PTSD was made by the Greek historian Herodotus. In 490 BCE he described, during the Battle of Marathon, an Athenian soldier who suffered no injury but became blind after witnessing the death of a fellow soldier.

I couldn’t recall this one, so I tracked down what Herodotus said (6.117 – Rawlinson translation):

There fell in this battle of Marathon, on the side of the barbarians,
about six thousand and four hundred men; on that of the Athenians,
one hundred and ninety-two. Such was the number of the slain on the
one side and the other. A strange prodigy likewise happened at this
fight. Epizelus, the son of Cuphagoras, an Athenian, was in the thick
of the fray, and behaving himself as a brave man should, when suddenly
he was stricken with blindness, without blow of sword or dart; and
this blindness continued thenceforth during the whole of his after
life. The following is the account which he himself, as I have heard,
gave of the matter: he said that a gigantic warrior, with a huge beard,
which shaded all his shield, stood over against him; but the ghostly
semblance passed him by, and slew the man at his side. Such, as I
understand, was the tale which Epizelus told.

Pseudo Plutarch tells the same story in passing, but gives a different (but similar name … Babbitt translation):

Datis, the Persian satrap, came to Marathon, a plain of Attica, with an army of three hundred thousand, encamped there, and declared war on the inhabitants of the country. The Athenians, however, contemning the barbarian host, sent out nine thousand men, and appointed as generals Cynegeirus, Polyzelus, Callimachus, and Miltiades. When this force had engaged the enemy, Polyzelus, having seen a supernatural vision, lost his sight, and became blind.

The Cambridge Companion to Herodotus (p. 214-15) labels this as a case of “hysterical blindness” … not sure that’s the current term for it. Of course, the locus modernicus for all this PSTD in the ancient world is Jonathan Shay’s Achilles in Vietnam … I couldn’t find a reference to this case therein; not sure if it’s included in Odysseus in America (on my ‘to buy’ list) …

JOB: Generalist @ Wayne State (one year)

Seen on the Classics list …

We finally have full approval to fill a one-year position at Wayne State in Detroit. The official posting follows; please note the very short deadline for applications.

The Department of Classical and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures of Wayne State University seeks a classicist for a one-year lectureship beginning August 2009. This is a full-time, non tenure-track position with benefits. We specifically seek a candidate who can teach Classical Civilization, Greek Mythology, and/or Etymology. The teaching load is three courses each semester. Preference will be given to candidates with independent undergraduate teaching experience and a Ph.D. in Classics or a related field; candidates must have at least the M.A. Salary, to be determined, will depend on qualifications and experience.

The application consists of a letter of interest and a C.V., both to be posted online at https://jobs.wayne.edu under position number 036389. Applications will be reviewed starting August 1st. Please arrange for three letters of reference to be sent to Dr. Margaret E. Winters, Chair, mewinters AT wayne.edu, (CMLLC, 487 Manoogian, Wayne State University, Detroit MI 48202.) Questions should be addressed to Dr. Winters.

Wayne State University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Employment
Opportunity employer, which complies with all applicable federal and
state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. Wayne
State University is committed to a policy of nondiscrimination and equal
opportunity for all persons regardless of race, sex, color, religion,
national origin, age, disability or veteran status, or any other
characteristic protected by applicable law.

More Hagia Sophia Angels

Tip o’ the pileus to Trevor Watkins for drawing my attention to another item in Hurriyet … most notable is this photo:

• Three more angels appear in Hagia Sophia

CONF: ‘The gods of SMALL THINGS’

Seen on the Classicists list:

21-22 September 2009 the Ure Museum, Department of Classics,
University of Reading, will be hosting an interdisciplinary conference
entitled ‘The gods of SMALL THINGS’. This two-day interdisciplinary
conference, which seeks to investigate the cumulative value of non-
prestige ex votos, will include a public lecture by Jean-Marc Luce
(Toulouse), "From miniature objects to giant ones: the process of
defunctionalisation in sanctuaries and graves in Iron Age Greece".
Full details of the conference, including programme, abstracts, and
booking forms, as well as our poster, may be obtained from the
conference website, http://www.reading.ac.uk/ure/godsofsmallthings/

To register to attend the conference, preferably before 15 August,
please send the booking form to Nina Aitken
<n.l.aitken AT reading.ac.uk>. The booking form is available at
http://www.reading.ac.uk/ure/godsofsmallthings/smallthings_booking.pdf

Thanks to generous funding from the Classical Association and the
Hellenic Society we are able to provide grants to assist eligible
students who wish to attend this conference. Interested students
should contact Marianne Bergeron <m.e.bergeron AT reading.ac.uk> no later
than 15 August.

We would be grateful if you could print out and post the conference
poster, which is available at
http://www.reading.ac.uk/ure/godsofsmallthings/GOST-poster.pdf

Any further enquiries may be addressed to one of the conference
organisers:

Katerina Volioti <k.volioti AT reading.ac.uk>
Amy C. Smith <a.c.smith AT reading.ac.uk>
Marianne Bergeron <m.e.bergeron AT reading.ac.uk>

A Three-Act Tragedy of Greek History

Folks might want to check out an interesting post over at the Toynbee Convector, where David Derrick has glossed a collection of essays (The Legacy of Greece) as a three act ‘tragedy’:

• From synoikismos to dissolution