Some interesting comments by Stephanie Dray: Teen Celebs of the Augustan Age by Stephanie Dray | Bookalicious.

Image via Wikipedia Tip o’ the pileus to Richard Campbell for pointing this one out … Sands of Time is one of those online art dealers who regularly sell ancient items and currently they’re offering a very interesting little mosaic which is labelled as first century A.D. and “possibly” coming from Volubilis. So far, nothing [...]

Here’s an interesting detail about Mr Assange that just popped into my mailbox: Mr. Assange’s exploits were detailed in a 1997 book he co-authored called Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier. The book chronicles some of the most notorious hacking incidents of the 1980s and 90s – back when Mr. [...]

Nice article in Scientific American: via Archimedes Coins “Eureka!” in the Nude–and Other Crazy Ah-Ha Moments of Science | Scientific American.

From the Waterloo Record: It was a time of change, a time when the developments of a single culture were felt, as never before, beyond its borders. The Hellenistic Age spans the roughly 300 years between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC — [...]

This one was kind of difficult to track down because the coverage in English was so vague. The inital report in Earthtimes went thusly: The Italian government is going to court in Berlin this week to claim an early Greek metal helmet, which it claims was stolen from an archaeological site in Italy in 1993, [...]

Haven’t had a post from the Merriam-Webster ‘Ask the Editors’ folks for a while … they just hit my inbox with an explanation of Xmas: If you need a bit more auctoritas, N.S. Gill recently blogged in much the same spirit …

I doubt this brief item from Japan Times will get much attention elsewhere: An excavation team from Kyoto University working in Lebanon has found a lead plate believed to date from between the second and fourth centuries that was apparently used to invoke the spirits of the dead. The 6-cm-wide, 14.7-cm-long plate, discovered near the [...]

Amazingly brief item in Kathimerini: The Culture Ministry yesterday rebuffed a report in the Times newspaper suggesting that Minister Pavlos Geroulanos had offered to forgo its claims to the Parthenon Marbles, which are on display at the British Museum, in return for a long-term loan of the artifacts. Sources at the ministry told Skai that [...]

Really? Bloomberg reporting on something in the (now behind a payfer wall) Times: Greece offered to end the long- running dispute with Britain over the Elgin Marbles by saying it would forgo its claim in return for a long-term loan of the artefacts, once a frieze on the Parthenon, the London-based Times reported, citing Greek [...]

Interesting item from EurekAlert which will likely be picked up by a few sources: Naukrtis, a Greek trade emporium on Egyptian soil, has long captured the imagination of archaeologists and historians. Not only is the presence of a Greek trading settlement in Egypt during the 7th and 6th century B.C.E. surprising, but the Greeks that [...]

Image via Wikipedia ante diem viii idus decembres 346 A.D. — a bit out of our period, but today is the feast day of St. Nicholas of Myra (yes, ‘the’ Saint Nick) …

The incipit of a piece from ANSA: Pompeii on Friday saw its fourth wall collapse this week, the cultural heritage branch of the UIL trade union reported in Rome. UIL said it had already warned of dangers to the wall before the 2,000-year-old site’s famed Gladiators’ School caved in and spurred an international outcry on [...]

As many of my readers know, in addition to rogueclassicism I put out a weekly newsletter called Explorator in which I hubristicly try to cover the whole world of archaeology in the popular press. As might be imagined, much of what gets posted to rogueclassicism appears there (including additional links to similar stories), but items [...]

Potentially interesting item from the Telegraph: The Maremmano horses of Lazio, the region around Rome, are believed to be the descendants of steeds ridden by emperors such as Marcus Aurelius 2,000 years ago. Their distinctive characteristics include a strong build, a broad chest, thick manes and tails, and robust legs. The archetype of the breed [...]

Via Blogging Pompeii and Adrian Murdoch comes an audio interview with Andrew Wallace-Hadrill on Vatican Radio: Vatican Radio – Preserving Pompeii. Inter alia, Wallace-Hadrill says “The whole site is at risk” … “What’s missing is a proper system of maintenance and monitoring …” He also notes that  Pompeii is relatively well-off financially compared to other [...]

Interesting item from the Telegraph: Alexander Hardcastle spent a decade searching for the fabled theatre, which is said to be buried beneath the remains of Akragas, a city established by Greek colonists six centuries before Christ on the southern coast of Sicily. The World Heritage site is best known for the Valley of the Temples, [...]

Excerpt from the end of an opEd piece in the Guardian: We could be entering a period of history as in the ancient world where people relied on the oral tradition and eventually wrote down some time later what they thought people might have said or thought. Did Thucydides actually hear Pericles’ funeral oration or [...]

As news filters out of an impending ‘official inspection’ of the condition of Pompeii, La Stampa includes an interesting detail: L’ispezione è coperta da stretto riserbo. Nessun contatto con la stampa, anzi l’annuncio, fatto filtrare, che non ci saranno dichiarazioni prima dell’invio della relazione all’Unesco. Alle 14 la Soprintendente ha dato disposizione di bloccare l’accesso [...]

I’ve never seen this series before (it seems to come from Spain, but it’s in English) … you may or may not enjoy it (the names are fun if nothing else):