Nemean Meteor?
Image via Wikipedia An item up at Fortean Times about Ernst Chladni caught my eye a couple of days ago because it included this paragraph: In fairness to the Age of Reason’s meteorite debunkers, an awful lot of superstition and folk tales fell from the sky. The large meteor that came down on Ensisheim, Alsace, [...]
And nobody will really know where lieth those little things with the sort of raffia work base, that has an attachment …
ANA-MPA just set the record, I think, for vagueness in archaeological reporting: A clay vessel and a large fragment of pottery were located at the bottom of the sea by two foreign nationals on board the French flag leisure boat “ISALIO” that had anchored at Garitsa Bay off the Ionian Sea island of Corfu. The [...]
Another Cleopatra Beauty Secret?
We’ve heard of assorted beauty secrets from the Egyptian queen before, but this one is — as far as I can tell — absolutely new: The cosmetics industry is always creating rejuvenation and beauty products. Historical beauty icons often provide inspiration for new formulas to be created. Such is the case of gold lifting, a [...]
Citanda: The Deadly Styx River and the Death of Alexander
I don’t think we mentioned that, subsequent to all the news coverage about the possible poisoning of Alexander, Adrienne Mayor’s ‘working paper’ on the subject became available at the Princeton/Stanford Working Papers in Classics site: The Deadly Styx River and the Death of Alexander (pdf) Here’s the abstract: Plutarch, Arrian, Diodorus, Justin, and other ancient [...]
CONF: Clash of the Titans – Leeds colloquium
Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the people/institution mentioned in the post, not to rogueclassicism!) In the week of its official DVD release, the Classics Department at the University of Leeds is pleased to ‘Release the Kraken’ with a half-day colloquium on Leterrier’s Clash of the Titans on Friday, 29 October 2010. Schedule [...]
Manicure Set from Myra-Andriake (Turkey)
The only version in English that I can find of this (in multiple newspapers) has the story tied to that Swedish phallic thing that was in the news for most folks last week. Here’s what’s important for us: Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient Roman personal care set at Myra-Andriake in Antalya’s district of Demre, Turkey. [...]
Conserving Your Summer
One of the potential ‘career areas’ I don’t think we stress enough in the Classics world is conservation, so here’s a piece from UD Daily wherein a student describes her experiences: This summer I am working in the conservation lab at the archaeological site of Poggio Colla in the Mugello Valley of Tuscany, Italy. Poggio [...]
Citanda: Classics and Classical Civilisation
This is one of those features in the Independent where they break down what’s involved in a university subject, give info about the requirements, etc.: Classics and Classical Civilisation – A-Z Degrees, Getting Into University – The Independent.
Mosaics at Chedworth Roman Villa
From the BBC: More Roman mosaics have been uncovered at Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire. The mosaics have been hidden for centuries but have now been unearthed by archaeologists. They will now be permanently displayed as part of a £3million project to develop the ancient site. The work is all part of a project to [...]
Restoring Eastgate Roman Tower
From the BBC: A Lincolnshire hotel is working with English Heritage to restore one of the county’s most important Roman sites. The North Tower of the East Gate in Lincoln is one of only a few surviving Roman gates in Britain. It was first excavated in the 1960s, but now requires major restoration work to [...]
This Day in Ancient History: ante diem iii kalendas sextilias
nte diem iii kalendas sextilias ludi Victoriae Caesaris (day 11) after 101 B.C. — dedication of the Temple to “The Fortune of this Day” (Fortuna Huiusce Diei) and subsequent rites thereafter; presumably this is one of the temples vowed prior to the Battle of Vercellae 69 A.D. — destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (Av [...]
Greek Bearing … Fruit?
Some good news from the Telegraph: Some 160 pupils in three schools will be given lessons in the native tongue of Archimedes and Herodotus from September. The move follows the successful introduction of Latin to dozens of state primaries in England. The Iris Project, a charity campaigning for the teaching of the Classics, which is [...]
Jade Figure from Viminacium?
Blic has the story … here’s the important bits: Director of Archaeological Park Viminacium, Miomir Korac, has said for Tanjug while major excavation was taking place at the Roman amphitheatre site at Viminacium, a sculpture made of jade and of excellent craftsmanship was discovered. “Only a few days ago we had the discovery of jade [...]
This Day in Ancient History: ante diem iv kalendas sextilias
ante diem iv kalendas sextilias ludi Victoriae Caesaris (day 10) 67 A.D./C.E. — fighting in Jerusalem between pro-surrender-to-the-Romans groups and their counterparts; the former set fire to some food supplies which apparently contributed to the fall of the city three years later (!) (need to track this one down) ca. 260 — martyrdom of Lucilla [...]
Citanda: Pompeiian Graffiti
Nice introduction to the subject in Smithsonian Magazine: Reading the Writing on Pompeii’s Walls |Smithsonian Magazine.
Romans in Wales
Wow … the archaeologist types in Wales keep coming up with discoveries. In the past week, I’ve read of three major finds … typically, things from Wales don’t seem to make it beyond the local papers, but the first two items are a bit different. Here’s the Telegraph coverage about a Roman villa find in [...]
First Elephant in Britain?
Image via Wikipedia As I dig deeper into my pile of things I’ve marked with little purple question marks, I find an interesting item I first came across toward the end of May. Something called the Londonist had a feature called An Historic London Elephant Parade which included this in its timeline: 43 AD: Emperor [...]
A Couple of Podcasty Thingies
I’ve got all sorts of little items lingering in my mailbox and need some principle of organization for them, I think. First, though, we should draw your attention to a couple of podcast type things … the first: Evaluating Alexander the Great is actually the free ‘first lecture’ in a series at learnoutloud.com. This particular [...]
Also seen: Other famous dads who might have inspired DoNotVoteForMyDad.com
Inter alia: -Agamemnon. According to legend, this ancient Greek king sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia so the ships would sail. Her website might have run more along the lines of DoNotMakeMyDadYourHereditaryMonarch.com … I’m sure there’d be pop up ads from carpet distributors and ax manufacturers … via PostPartisan – Other famous dads who might have inspired [...]
This Day in Ancient History: ante diem v kalendas sextilias
ante diem v kalendas sextilias ludi Victoriae Caesaris (day 9) ca 68 A.D. — martyrdom of Nazarius and Celsus
This Day in Ancient History: ante diem vi kalendas sextilias
ante diem vi kalendas sextilias ludi Victoriae Caesaris (day eight) 64 A.D. — the Great Fire of Rome (day ten) ca 250 A.D. — martyrdom of the Seven Sleepers ca 305 A.D. — martyrdom of Panteleon
Tweets
iPhone auto-corrects ‘Gordian’ to ‘hoedown’. Apple need to invest in some classical education for their software engineers. via Tweets for week ending 2010-07-25 | JamesCousins.com.
Asterix Update
No, not the loveable short Gaul, but the shipwreck. From the BBC: Dr Jason Monaghan said Asterix is the most historically valuable Roman artefact in northern Europe. He said a public private partnership could be the way forward. Dr Monaghan said: “It’s a very exciting idea, but Guernsey is actually quite a small place and [...]
Congrats to Mary Beard!
I forgot to mention this one yesterday, but our favourite Cambridge Don has been adlected as a Fellow of the British Academy! She allowed herself a little boast on her blog last week, and rightly so! Congrats!
CONF: Greek Memories
Seen on Classicists (please send any responses to the people/institution mentioned in the post, not to rogueclassicism!) Greek Memories: Theory and Practice Department of Classics & Ancient History, Durham University Ritson Room, 27-28 September 2010 Memory, and its correlate, forgetting, are at the centre of a recent surge of studies focused on the construction of [...]
