From the Cyprus Mail: ARCHAEOLOGICAL investigations at the edges and to the south of the Hellenistic-Roman theatre of Nea Paphos have identified significant structures of the ancient city, according to an official announcement by the Department of Antiquities yesterday. The investigations were carried out October 6 to November 17 of last year by the University [...]

From the BBC: Archaeologists at the Roman Vindolanda Fort & Museum have unearthed dozens of circular huts which they believe could have been used as temporary refuges. The excavation at the site in Hexham, Northumberland, has unearthed various finds from Roman Britain including letters, murder victims and shoes. It is thought the huts were built [...]

A very interesting item from Nature: Hadrian’s villa 30 kilometres east of Rome was a place where the Roman Emperor could relax in marble baths and forget about the burdens of power. But he could never completely lose track of time, says Marina De Franceschini, an Italian archaeologist who believes that some of the villa’s [...]

Rather peripheral, but perhaps of interest to readers of rogueclassicism … some academics have actually written (and have had published) a paper analyzing 700+ brain injuries in the Asterix comic series … here’s a bit from the middle of the Telegraph coverage:  [...] The main characters “thump” Romans, pirates and Goths but a “detailed analysis [...]

A very nice video report from Rome Reports: … amazing … need more reports like this.

ante diem xvii kalendas quinctilias Quinquatrus minusculae (day 3 of a five-day festival honouring the birthday (maybe) of Minerva ) Quando stercus delatus fas (“When the ‘trash’ is taken out”) and the Temple of Vesta is closed to the public 302 A.D. — martyrdom of Hesychius 303 A.D. — martyrdom of Vitus (and companions)  

The incipit of a potentially-disturbing item from CNN: NATO refused to say Tuesday whether or not it would bomb ancient Roman ruins in Libya if it knew Moammar Gadhafi was hiding military equipment there. “We will strike military vehicles, military forces, military equipment or military infrastructure that threaten Libyan civilians as necessary,” a NATO official [...]

ante diem xviii kalendas quinctilias Quinquatrus minusculae (day 2) — a five-day festival honouring the birthday (maybe) of Minerva 287 — martyrdom of Rufinus

Adrian Murdoch continues the series with a sunny sort of fellow: #24 Elagabalus: Emperors of Rome

idus junias Quinquatrus minusculae (day 1) ? — dedication of a Temple of Jupiter Invictus (and associated rites thereafter) 323 B.C.– death of Alexander the Great after a brief illness (according to one reckoning) 40 A.D. — birth of Gnaeus Julius Agricola 313 A.D. — Edict of Toleration of Licinius  

Tip o’ the pileus to Adrian Murdoch for alerting us via Twitter to some of the German/Austrian coverage of this very interesting publication of recent restoration of frescoes from the Hypogeum of the Aurelii, which has been under study by a Vatican-associated archaeology team. The fullest coverage is in L’Osservatore Romano … it waxes on [...]

Nestor is an international bibliography of Aegean studies, Homeric society, Indo-European linguistics, and related fields. It is published monthly from September to May (each volume covers one calendar year) by the Department of Classics, University of Cincinnati. May 2011 Issue.

Here’s something to occupy your weekend … from Fox (who, no doubt, will turn this into a documentary involving aliens): Can you do what the world’s archaeologists can’t? Can you explain this — thing? It’s been called a war weapon, a candlestick, a child’s toy, a weather gauge, an astronomical instrument, and a religious symbol [...]

Latest from the Hollywood Reporter: HBO is going back into business with Rome duo Jane Tranter and Anne Thomopoulos for a miniseries based on Robert Graves’ I, Claudius. The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed that the BBC Worldwide Productions duo will executive produce the co-production with BBC2. Graves’ novel was first published in 1934 as an [...]

Just when you think you can’t read anything in the Daily Mail that will surprise you (inter alia): Alexander Thynn, the 7th Marquess of Bath, is a descendant of the Roman historian Tacitus and is well known for his alternative views on relationships. via Police called to Longleat after ‘wifelets’ brawl over who gets to [...]

I’ve been sitting on this one for a few days, hoping some English coverage might appear, but that doesn’t seem to be happening.  In the Italian press, however, there is much coverage of some non-invasive testing of the Praeneste Fibula (on which is inscribed our oldest example of Latin), and it is now being declared [...]

Interesting coverage from the Guardian, which — even more interestingly — seems to go beyond the original Cambridge press release: To say it has been an archaeological mystery may be an understatement: why are fragments of beautiful but deliberately smashed bronze age figurines buried in shallow pits on a small, rocky Greek island whose main [...]

Rugby doesn’t get much airplay up here in the Great Humid North, so I can’t honestly say I’ve heard of Jamie Gibson, but it’s always nice to read when folks with a talent on a playing field also take part in activities in the Classics field. Some excerpts from the Express: JAMIE GIBSON is living [...]

This one’s been making the rounds of all my sources (i.e. email, Facebook, Twitter), so without further ado:

No, the job hasn’t been filled yet (I don’t think), but the  Daily Mail has a lengthy piece on the lifestyles of tutors of the rich and famous … it includes this: However, tutors exist in a world in which clients have so much money, their fees are almost irrelevant. Indeed, the more these parents [...]

Interesting item from the University of Bristol: A skeleton, possibly dating from Roman times, has been unearthed by archaeologists from the University of Bristol during a dig in the garden of vaccination pioneer Dr Edward Jenner in Berkeley, Gloucestershire. The archaeologists, led by Professor Mark Horton and Dr Stuart Prior, have been excavating part of [...]

A year ago (almost to the day) we were mentioning that the remains of some so-called ‘salt men’ from Iran had been saved from a sad decompositional fate in a museum and we also reminded folks of Adrienne Mayor’s plausible suggestion that such ‘salt men’ may have had some connection to tales of satyrs and [...]