================================================================
ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME (AND CLASSICS)
================================================================
Somewhat vague feature on Forum Hadriani:

http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/roman-emperor-ruled-dutch-town

An illegal dig has led to the discovery of the site of “Germenicia” (surely
‘Germanicia’):

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=1219122200169-2010-12-19

Rethinking the dating of a fortress previously ascribed to King Solomon at
Tel Qudadibased on the find of a pottery sherd from Lesbos:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2010/12/king-solomons-f\
ortress-wasnt-after-all/1
http://www.aftau.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=13609
http://www.newkerala.com/news/world/fullnews-114714.html
http://www.physorg.com/news/2010-12-secrets-ancient-tel-aviv-fortress.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-12/afot-soa122810.php

Interesting find from Egypt of ostraca with names of Egyptian priests
(in Greek) dating from the Roman period:

http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/ancient-egyptian-priests-names-preserved-i\
n-pottery.html
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/41/2653/Heritage/GrecoRoman/Ancient-pr\
iests-list-revealed.aspx
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40833897/ns/technology_and_science-science/

What Ovid can teach West Point types about their lives as soldiers:

http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-arts/80650/ovid-metamorphoses-west-point

Brouhaha over a naked Aphrodite on the Cyprus passport (although no one has
yet posted a photo of which Aprodite it is … is it the thing that’s
accompanying this article?):

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20101224/tod-naked-aphrodite-on-cyprus-passport-c-7f\
81b96.html

More on the reburial of Allianoi:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/12/photogalleries/101229-roman-spa-\
city-filled-sand-allianoi-turkey-pictures/

Review of Caroline Alexander, *The War that Killed Achilles*:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-war-that-kille\
d-achilles-by-caroline-alexander-2171528.html

This week’s Schiff review:

http://www.cleveland.com/books/index.ssf/2010/12/stacy_schiff_conjures_a_fascin.\
html

Review of Tom Payne, *Fame*:

http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2010/12/from-the-iliad-to-us-weekly-t\
he-history-of-celebrity-gossip/67997/
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704774604576035523274398038.html

================================================================
EUROPE AND THE UK (+ Ireland)
================================================================
German archaeologists have found a 2600 years b.p. Celtic burial:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,736942,00.html
http://www.thelocal.de/sci-tech/20101228-32083.html
================================================================
NUMISMATICA
================================================================

Not sure if we’ve heard of this rather large hoard of third century coins
found at York:

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/8762741.Marjorie__75__finds_rare_coins_in_field/
================================================================
OBITUARIES
================================================================
Vendyl Jones:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/200784
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/141371
================================================================
Useful Addresses
================================================================
Past issues of Explorator are available on the web via our
Yahoo site:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Explorator/

To subscribe to Explorator, send a blank email message to:

Explorator-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

The Smarthistory folks discuss a well-known bust/portrait of Augustus in the British Museum:

• Head of Augustus | Smarthistory.

[this is something that the folks at WordPress seem to have automatically generated; kind of interesting, although I'm not sure of the Louvre connection or the claims about my 'busiest day']:

================

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 250,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 11 days for that many people to see it.

In 2010, there were 1312 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 2279 posts. There were 49 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 20mb. That’s about 4 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was March 8th with 1 views. The most popular post that day was d.m. Sir Kenneth Dover.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were atrium-media.com, twitter.com, Google Reader, news.discovery.com, and google.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for rogue classicism, rogueclassicism, arsinoe, cleopatra’s tomb, and traianos gagos.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

d.m. Sir Kenneth Dover March 2010
1 comment

Cleopatra, Arsinoe, and the Implications March 2009
19 comments

Cambyses’ Lost Army Found? Don’t Eat That Elmer … November 2009
18 comments

The Search for Cleopatra’s Tomb Redux May 2010
1 comment

The Search for Cleopatra’s Tomb: Update November 2009
4 comments