Some items that caught my eye as I was lounging with my iPad: The sanctuary of Hecate at Lagina August 21, 2011 Dorothy King PAS Survey PhDs August 21, 2011 Paul Barford On This Day in Ancient History – Consualia August 21, 2011 (N.S. Gill) explorator 14.18 August 21, 2011 david meadows Polyremes from the [...]

ante diem xi kalendas septembres 1540 – Death of Guillaume Bude 1752 – Death of William Whiston (translator of Josephus, among other talents)

Western Influences Art in the East August 19, 2011 Dorothy King A maxim by Libanius, on the love of learning and literature August 19, 2011 Roger Pearse Round-Up: August 20 August 20, 2011 (Laura Gibbs) Slimming Roman Style August 20, 2011 Caroline Lawrence More Tunisian Mosaics August 18, 2011 Latin Resources A Brief History of [...]

From PressTV: A team of Albanian and American archaeologists has found the remains of a Roman ship off the Karaburun Peninsula in Albania’s southern coast.Researchers discovered the 30 meter-long ship wreck at a depth of 50 meters and believe it to date back to a time between the second and first century BCE, BalkanInsight reported. [...]

Audio + transcript at NPR: ‘Sword Of Damocles’ Reference Sometimes Misused : NPR.

Okay, okay … I know yesterday I was doubting whether that pot in a London (Ontario) museum was Roman, but after watching a zillion folks trying to figure it out yesterday and today on Twitter and Facebook, it suddenly struck me: it’s an octopus trap. Here’s a detail from a famous fishing mosaic in the [...]

Deep in my ‘to blog’ file is an item clipped from the Telegraph, inter alia: Polar bears have been kept in menageries for millennia. The Egyptian king Ptolemy II kept one in Alexandria in the third century bc. via: Ten facts about polar bears To which I naturally responded, “Whaaaaaaa?” … some poking around, though, [...]

Don’t buy this for a second, but we should probably put it on record in case it pops up again (and it’s fun to say ‘Samoan Minoan’): SAMOAN MINOANS FROM ANCIENT CRETE: The Origin of Polynesia | Scoop News.

Very interesting item from Spiegel, although there does seem to be some ‘playing to the crowd’ in this one: When the prefect Flavius Cerialis hosted a banquet at Vindolanda, a Roman fort in what is now northern England, the aroma of grilled chicken, goose and venison, seasoned with pepper from India, filled the air. Plenty [...]

The Classics Confidential folks talk with Christopher Lillington-Martin about his work with Procopius:

We mentioned Vladimir Putin’s little aquatic adventure at Phanagora t’other day, and it (the ‘adventure’, not our mention) garnered quite a bit of media attention. Rosemary Joyce has a nice oped on the whole spectacle, which concludes with some interesting views on archaeology in Russia nowadays: [...] Nationalist politics puts a special spin on the [...]

From Hurriyet (with some egregious typos in regards to names): New excavation work in the ancient city of Tlos in Muğla’s Fethiye district has unearthed several ancient sculptures of Roman emperors. The archaeological team found sculptures of Roman emperors Hadrian; Antonius Pius and his daughter Faistinaminor; Mareus Aurellus as well as the Goddess Issis, according [...]

Interesting article by Christopher Krebs (of A Most Dangerous Book fame) in History Today: via Tacitus: The Continuing Message | History Today. … responding/reconsidering this item from back in 1981 in the same publication by Irene Coltman Brown: Tacitus and A Space for Freedom

ante diem xiv kalendas septembres Vinalia — the second major wine festival of this name celebrated by the Romans 43 B.C. — the future emperor Octavian enters his first consulship; Octavian’s adoption by Julius Caesar formally recognized 14 A.D. — Augustus dies at Nola 232 A.D. — birth of the future emperor Probus 304 A.D. [...]

Ancient Roman jar full of holes baffles archaeologists. bit.ly/q9ZUTN #archaeology #roman— Owen Jarus (@ojarus) August 18, 2011 … might have to take the drive to look at this one … UPDATE (an hour or so of websurfing later): I don’t think the item in question is Roman … here’s some comparanda: 08-05-09/19 ISRAELITE VOTIVE GIFT [...]

Tip o’ the pileus to Vicky Alvear Shecter for this one … a very nicely-put-together article in History Today on the fire and the reactions to it: Galen and the Great Fire of Rome | History Today … for my part, I was unaware of the letter mentioned; not sure how I missed it.

The Vindolanda Trust tweeted this item from Law Pundit … seems Apple needs to do some Classical archaeology courses: LawPundit: The “Wafer Thin” Writing Tablets of Vindolanda Precede in Design the Thin Tablet Design Claim of Apple for the iPad2 by ca. 2000 Years: Does Modern Greed Know No Bounds?.

In contrast to some of the other ones posted yesterday, this video from the Royal Ontario Museum is pretty good. Christopher Smith of BSR fame gives us an intro to Roman Religion:

… just a few posts from the end of the day; gotta keep the info flowing: Rome: These Being the Words of Marcus Tullius Cicero August 17, 2011  (Juliette) Modern-Day Amazons. Love it! August 15, 2011 Yurie Hong Increasing Fertility in the Roman Late Republic and Early Empire August 17, 2011 History of the Ancient [...]

Hot off the Twitterfeed from the Caerleon dig (I’ll post some coverage on this dig later today, hopefully): Hobnail footprint in a tile from trench 1 twitpic.com/67xf58— Caerleon Dig (@CaerleonDig) August 18, 2011

Don Lavigne of Texas Tech tells us about his work with Archilochus (interesting ideas about performance in different contexts):

The BBC is really starting to bug me as regards coverage of archaeology. Of late, it appears the only things it feels worth covering are those which ‘happen’ to be associated with its Digging for Britain series. The problem is, of course, that there generally isn’t anything ‘new’ about it, but my email and social [...]

ante diem xv kalendas septembres 29 B.C. — dedication of the Temple of Divus Julius (and associated rites thereafter) 2nd century A.D. — martyrdom of Florus and Laurus in Illyria 328 A.D. — death of Helena, mother of Constantine  

I think back in February I missed posting about the House of the Vestals in Rome being opened to the public. Here’s a nice AP video that popped up:

Can’t say that I like the latest trio of short vids from the ROM … we mentioned the meh factor in the Pantheon video (below), and now I’ve been alerted to two others … the first is  ostensibly on ‘Bread and Games’, but really is about the theatre in Bosra and doesn’t really say anything [...]