Classics Confidential: Ella Sullivan
Ella Sullivan tells us about her research regarding Livia:
rogueclassicism
quidquid bene dictum est ab ullo, meum est
Archive for the month “August, 2011”
Circumundique: August 10, 2011
Yesterday around the Classical Blogosphere:
- Telamon: A Republican Crucified Man August 10, 2011 Dorothy King
- Turkey: Catching Smugglers Causing Storage Problems August 10, 2011 Paul Barford
- Guess What August 10, 2011 (N.S. Gill)
- Ancient Riots August 10, 2011 (N.S. Gill)
- Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilization (DARMC) August 10, 2011 Charles Ellwood Jones
- Roman Helmets August 10, 2011 Dorothy King
- Coming soon at the TLS: New bloggers for old August 10, 2011 Peter Stothard
- An African Lady in Roman York? August 10, 2011 Dr Jonathan Eaton
- There’s still enough to go around August 10, 2011 prometheuscomic
- 1st Installment of the Roman Bioarchaeology Carnival August 10, 2011 Kristina Killgrove
- PADIS: Palestine Archaeological Databank and Information System August 10, 2011 Charles Ellwood Jones
This Day in Ancient History: ante diem iii idus sextiles
Image via Wikipedia
ante diem iii idus sextiles
- 480 B.C. — Battle of Thermopylae ; death of Leonidas et al (by one reckoning)
- 480 B.C. — Battle of Artemesium (by one reckoning)
- 117 A.D. — dies imperii of the emperor Hadrian
- 275 A.D. — martyrdom of Alexander the Charcoal Burner at Cremona
- 295 A.D. — martyrdom of Susanna at Rome
- 1928 — birth of Emily Vermeule (Greece in the Bronze Age)
The Story of Rome
Short little video from our friends at the Royal Ontario Museum with Chris Smith (of BSR fame) narrating an overview of various aspects of Roman history:
Cleopatra’s Tomb Update (of sorts)
The beginning of a piece in Dominican Today:
The feat of Dominican archaeologist Kathleen Martinez, which has circled the globe with her project “In search of Cleopatra’s tomb,” continues attracting the attention of the world’s scientific community. And that’s the reason the scientist of Chinese origin Ng Tze-Chuen, known for his successful projects at NASA and the Russian Astronomy Center, will visit Dominican Republic for the first time.
Ng Tze-Chuen will spend two days on Dominican soil, during which he’ll define the needs which Dr. Martinez’s exploration has its final phase of the search of the tomb of Cleopatra, the last queen of the Nile. The scientist has sought to contribute by volunteering his knowledge to the project, noting its extreme importance for universal archaeology, as a result of the publication by National Geographic Magazine on the work carried out by the Dominican archaeologist. After his visit Ng Tze-Chuen will travel to Hong Kong to work in the design of a high tech robotic device that allows easier and more accurate access to the entangled Egyptian ruins.
During his stay in the country he’s scheduled to visit Foreign Relations minister Carlos Morales Troncoso and Santo Domingo Catholic University director, reverend Ramon Alonso Beato.
“Ng Tze-Chuen and I are joined by common things, he’s a dentist dedicated to the invention of robots and research devices and I’m a lawyer with a passion for archaeology. Both of us are chasing our dreams,” said Martinez after revealing that it’s the first time that a scientific personality of such importance comes to Dominican Republic.
Among Ng Tze-Chuen’s most important projects figure the robot built to enter the Great Pyramid at Giza, in Egypt and supports the Russian space program for the ongoing exploration of Fobos, Mars’ largest moon. [...]
… sounds like some sort of reality-show-in-the-making. Or — more likely — National Geographic is taking a credibility hit (I’m sure I’m not the only person complaining about their July issue’s coverage) with their Cleopatra issue and now is going to send a robot with a camera inside that it will broadcast ‘live’ …
Putin Dives Phanagoria
- Image via Wikipedia
From RIA Novosti:
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin traveled to the Taman Peninsula on Wednesday to perform yet another of his trademark adventure activities and scuba dive at a site known as the Russian Atlantis.
Putin is making the dive to publicize archeological restoration work on the submerged part of the ancient Greek city of Phanagoria .
“By scale and value, this monument can be compared to a rich oil deposit. Archeology is not measured in money but Phanagoria’s ‘capitalization’ is simply astronomical,” archeological expedition head Vladimir Kuznetsov said.
The Phanagoria project is funded by the Russian Geographical Society, led by Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu and closely linked to the ruling United Russia party.
Putin met with archeologists working in a field camp and is expected to dive to the bottom of the Taman Bay, in the Kerch Strait.
Putin was shown around the excavation site, starting with the Boyur Gora man-made mound dating back to the 4th century BC.
The mound is 10-11 meters high and about 100 meters in diameter.
“It is a unique architectural structure – an earth building,” Kuznetsov said.
Putin picked up a fragment of a handle from an ancient amphora.
“Can I take it?” he asked the archeologists.
“It might be useful in my household,” he added smiling.
Phanagoria was once the largest Greek colony on the Taman Peninsula, spreading on two plateaus along the Asian shore of the Cimmerian Bosporus.
The location of Phanagoria was determined in the 18th century, when marble statue bases with dedications to Aphrodite were discovered there.
Among the recent finds is an inscription indicating that a synagogue existed in Phanagoria as early as 51 AD.
The dive is the latest in a string of well-publicized adventurous activities by Putin, including flying warplanes, taking submarine dives, helping to put out fires in a firefighting aircraft, and tagging tigers.
… no comment on the wanting to take artifacts … if you’re not familiar with Phanagoria (which I only remember because of the name’s similarity to a certain magazineI used to glance at), here’s a paragraph from Wikipedia:
Phanagoria was founded ca. 543 BC by the Teian colonists who had to flee Asia Minor in consequence of their conflict with Cyrus the Great. The city took its name after one of these colonists, Phanagoras. “The unusual nature of the Taman peninsula near Phanagoria, with its ravines, crevices, hills, and low cones of active volcanoes, must have impressed the ancient colonists even more than it impresses us today”, Ustinova has observed.[2]
In the 5th century BC, the town thrived on the trade with the Scythians and Sindi. Located on an island in the ancient archipelago of Corocondamitis, between the Black Sea and the Palus Maeotis, Phanagoria covered the area of 75 hectares (185.3 ac), of which a third part has been subsequently submerged by the sea. In the early 4th century BC the burgeoning Bosporan Kingdom subjugated much of Sindica, including the independent polis of Phanagoria. The town’s importance increased with the decline of the old capital, Panticapaeum, situated on the opposite shore of the Bosporus. By the first centuries AD, Phanagoria had emerged as the main centre of the kingdom.
During the Mithridatic Wars, the town allied with the Roman Republic and withstood a siege by the army of Pharnaces II of Pontus. It was at Phanagoria that the insurrection broke out against Mithridates VI of Pontus, shortly before his death; and his sons, who held the citadel, were obliged to surrender to the insurgents. An inscription found during excavations testifies that Queen Dynamis honored Augustus as “the emperor, Caesar, son of god, the god Augustus, the overseer of every land and sea”.[3] The loyalty to Rome allowed Phanagoria to maintain a dominant position in the region until the 4th century, when it was sacked and destroyed by the invading Huns.
UPDATE (a few hours later): We’re now getting actual coverage of the dive from AFP (just the beginning bit):
Russia’s hard man Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pulled on a wetsuit Wednesday and went scuba diving at an ancient Greek Black Sea site in the latest populist stunt preceding next year’s elections.
State news reports said he descended just two metres (6.6 feet) and “luckily” discovered two sixth century urns in full presence of the media, because the water was so clear.
Television footage showed two moss-covered vases with ear-like handles sitting neatly next to each other on top of the sandy bottom as Putin swam into view.
“Treasure!” a dripping wet Putin told reporters with a big grin. “They drank it all already,” he added when asked if there was anything left in the jars.
Putin — a novice only attempting his third scuba dive — “came across” the objects during an expedition on the southern Russian coast near Ukraine.
“The head of the expedition said they are from the sixth century AD,” Putin said with a diving mask imprint still clear on his face. This would date them to the time of the early Byzantine era.
“When the ships were being loaded at the port, the jars would often break and then they would get tossed overboard,” Russia’s de facto leader explained.
Footage showed Putin accompanied on the diving raft by Russia’s emergencies minister Sergei Shoigu and the powerful metals tycoon Oleg Deripaska.
The Basic Element company chief reportedly told Putin that he forgot his diving suit and refused to go into the water.
“What, you ran out of money?” the LifeNews.ru website quoted Putin as asking the Russian oligarch. [...]
The cynic in me smells planted artefacts …
That Colosseum Bomb Scare
In case you didn’t hear about it on Sunday … here’s the version from Adnkronos:
A fake bomb caused police to evacuate hundreds of tourists on Sunday from the Colosseum, Rome’s most famous monument.
The alarm was raised by a tourist who spotted the wires emerging from a metal can and thought they were part of a detonating device. Police evacuated the first-century amphitheatre after receiving an anonymous threat by phone.
Authorities said as a precaution police destroyed the can, which contained the paint diluent turpentine and a nine volt battery connected to two electrical wires. Police said the device was harmless and could not explode or burst into flames.
The incident caused Rome’s mayor, Gianni Alemanno to return to Rome from a mountain break in the central Abruzzi region. He described the fake bomb as a “a joke, in exceedingly bad taste, or the work of a madman”.
The package was placed in an area where there is no public access, an arcade of the world-famous monument, in a manner that could give the impression that it was a bomb.
Classical Archaeology in the World Weekly News
Probably should have saved the Cleopatra one for today (the anniversary of her death) and presented these ones yesterday:
- King Midas’ Body Found (repeated a number of times throughout WWN’s history)
- Jesus’ Cross Found in Holy Land
- Gladiator’s Skull Found in Colosseum
- Meet the Monkey Who Ruled Rome For a Day (a mummy!)
- Hercules’ Gym Found
- Invitation to Last Supper is For Sale
- Mary Magdalen’s Mummy Found in Israel
- Archaeologist Discovers Lost Arms of Venus di Milo
- Severed Head of John the Baptist Found
- When Gladiators Became Sadiators
- Medusa Dog
- Stanley the Baptist
- Jesus Tomb Found
… and no, I don’t believe these ones either …
Roman Child Burial from Dorchester
From the Dorset Echo:
THE buried remains of a Roman child have been uncovered during the construction of the Charles Street development in Dorchester.
Stone foundations of Roman houses, painted wall plaster and coins have also been found.
Cowlin Construction, working for developers Simons Group, has put up posters on the sites boundary hoardings detailing any new finds.
Viewing holes have also been provided allowing the public to view any on-site activity.
Due to the potential archaeological sensitivities of the site, Cowlin has appointed Wessex Archaeology to ensure the development receives the specialist attention it needs.
Neil Holbrook, archaeology consultant to Simons Group, said: “During their initial excavation Wessex Archaeology uncovered the remains of a Roman child, not an uncommon find in a Roman town as bodies of children were often buried inside the settlement.
“Stone foundations of roman houses, painted wall plaster and coins have also been found.”
Andrew Pollett, Simons Group project director, said: “Dorchester’s archaeological heritage is extremely important to the projects team as well as the people of Dorchester.
“We hope the viewing hols provided by Cowlin Construction along with the archeologically posters will ensure everyone is kept up to date.”
The Charles Street site has an important Roman heritage and lies close to the southern edge of the Roman town, Durno-varia.
The row of trees along South Walks marks the line of reconstruction of the Roman town walls which was once close to the Roman public baths.
Construction on the first phase of the Charles Street development project began in June. It will provide new offices for West Dorset District Council and a library and an adult learning centre for Dorset County Council.
The first phase is due for completion in August 2012.
Once specialists have examined any finds they will be offered to Dorset Count Museum.
via Roman child’s remains dug up in Dorchester | Dorset Echo.
Greek plays: Sophocles’ Electra
Interesting review by Amanda Wrigley at the Screen Plays blog:
I just became aware of this blog, but it associated with an interesting research project … from their ‘about’ tab:
Welcome to the blog of the AHRC-funded research project Screen Plays: Theatre Plays on British Television. The project is based at the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM) in the School of Media, Arts and Design at the University of Westminster and runs from June 2011 to May 2014.
The project is concerned with all plays written for the theatre produced for British television since 1930. We will publish a database of these productions, a book and journal articles, and we will organise screenings, conferences and other events.
Circumundique: August 9, 2011
Around the Classical blogosphere yesterday:
- Greek and Latin inscriptions preserved in the United States of America August 10, 2011 Charles Ellwood Jones
- Aspergers in ancient Greece August 7, 2011 John Birchall
- Round-Up: August 9 August 9, 2011 laura-gibbs@ou.edu (Laura Gibbs)
- Man Was Never Made for Books August 9, 2011 Michael Gilleland
- Creation and Destruction of Ancient Art August 9, 2011 Dorothy King
- On This Day in Ancient History – Pharsalus August 9, 2011 (N.S. Gill)
- Fighting Hannibal – The Man and not the Phalanx August 9, 2011 Mike Anderson
- Telesphorus, a cult hymn from Epidaurus August 9, 2011 Nikolaos Markoulakis
- Open Access Journal: Lampeter Working Papers in Classics August 9, 2011 Charles Ellwood Jones
- The scale of looting in Turkey August 9, 2011 David Gill
- Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG®) Updates August 9, 2011 Charles Ellwood Jones
- How to look good, ancient: The empress as the Imperial model August 10, 2011 History of the Ancient World
- “This is Sparta!” – The Battle of Thermopylae August 10, 2011 Jennifer Lockett
Classics Confidential: Gabriel Bodard
Our long-time eamicus Gabriel Bodard gives and interesting interview on what Digital Classics is and where it is heading in the grand scheme of things:
This Day in Ancient History: ante diem iv idus sextiles
Image via Wikipedia
ante diem iv idus sextiles
- 30 B.C. — Suicide of Cleopatra
- 7 A.D. — dedication of the ara Cereris Matris et Opis Augustae and associated rites thereafter
- 70 A.D. — Roman forces breach the walls of Jerusalem
- 1911 — birth of A.N. Sherwin-White (The Roman Citizenship)
Wikieditions in the Works?
My spiders may have been slacking earlier today, but one of them just brought back something very interesting from the Wikimedia Boston list:
Hello Bostonians,
Prof. Gregory Crane (Head of Classics Department) from Tufts University is
looking for a ‘Classics’ experienced Wikimedian to assist on a new project.
The premise of the collaboration is to Wikisource and translatevClassic
texts, which will be annotated and interpreted collaboratively to form a
‘Wikiedition’. If you are, or know anybody in the intersection of the
Wikimedia and Classics please contact me.
- via: [Wikimedia-boston] Classicist wanted to collaborate with Tufts department on first ‘Wikieditions’ project. (the contact info is there)
Hopefully we’ll be hearing more about this project … it’s got huge potential (and I’ve suggested similar things in the past, back before there were wikis) …
Cleopatra in the Weekly World News
Image via Wikipedia
I used to love reading the Weekly World News and its occasional strange reportage about the ancient world (and no, I didn’t believe a word of it) … what follows is a long-time-coming list of pages from the WWN (via Google Books) of items pertaining to Cleopatra:
- Cleopatra’s Beauty Secrets Discovered (these reappeared in various versions throughout the years; oddly, many of these still appear in one legitimate newspaper or another every day)
- Will the Real Cleopatra Please Stand up? (a couple of competing reincarnation claimants; there are a few of these over the years)
- Cleopatra Was Ugly as a Pan of Warts (self explanatory … the story also reappeared a number of times over the years; never figured out how that lined up with the ‘beauty secrets’ stuff)
- The Oedipus Complex (an ancient psychiatric institute which catered to Tony and Cleo at some point)
- WWN Rome (headlines from an ancient tabloid; Cleo mentioned in one of them)
- Alien Camera Found (clearing up the business about the asp)
… and one which doesn’t deal with that Cleopatra, but the exploits of some actress in ancient Roman times named Cleopatra Jolix (I couldn’t resist):
Oh Noes! The Curse of Cleopatra
… someone arrived at rogueclassicism while searching for this:
Check out the DC Database for a synopsis and other info …
Ancient Rome on Google Earth
With school about to start, it might be salutary to remind folks of the existence of this interesting little high tech toy:
It’s Grim Up North
From the Chronicle:
A NEW comedy called It’s Grim Up North follows the exploits of dodgy Roman auxiliary soldiers building Hadrian’s Wall in AD126, and listeners wanting a good laugh can tune in via the internet to hear the world premiere of the radio sitcom pilot.
It’s Grim Up North has been penned by Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood, the Tyneside-based writers whose comedy stage play hits include Dirty Dusting, The Revengers, Waiting For Gateaux, Son of Samurai and Maggie’s End.
The duo, who also scooped the Best Comedy Screenplay award at last year’s New York-based Gotham Screenplay Festival, have set the action when the Roman soldiers were constructing the famous Northumberland wall that is today a World Heritage Site.
There are a variety of characters based around Drizzlewort, a milecastle on the wall: Britons from south of the wall, rebellious Picts and auxiliaries from sunnier parts of the vast Roman Empire, who dislike the constant rain in the wilds of Northumberland’s picturesque but cold and wet moors.
Cast member and director Jackie Fielding said: “We all had a great time recording the show. It’s very funny and the characters are fantastic.”
Trevor added: “We‘ve put the full episode on our website and made it available for download on iTunes. We’d like people to listen to it and give us feedback via our website.
“The Customs House theatre in South Shields and Sunderland University have worked with us on this project and their support has been invaluable.”
You can listen to the pilot (and read some more background) at Ed Waugh/Trevor Wood’s site (there’s a button near the bottom to listen/download) … I didn’t listen to the whole thing, but it seems to have potential.
Yewden ‘Brothel’ Reconsidered?
Hmmm … my Google+ spiders beat my gmail spiders on this one … it’s interesting how the BBC seems to be developing their critical sense of late:
New research has cast doubt on the theory that 97 infants were killed at a Roman brothel in Buckinghamshire.
In 2008, the remains of the newborn babies were rediscovered packed in cigarette cases in a dusty museum storeroom by Dr Jill Eyers from Chiltern Archaeology.
They were excavated from the remains of a lavish Roman villa complex in Buckinghamshire almost 100 years earlier, but had remained hidden ever since.
The story caught the attention of the world’s press last year as Dr Eyers suggested that the villa was operating as a brothel and its occupants committing infanticide to dispose of unwanted offspring.
The new research and the DNA results will feature on the forthcoming BBC Two series of Digging for Britain which starts the first week in September.
“Even now, a year after all the original press attention, every other day I’m getting inquiries about this story. It seems that everyone is intrigued by this puzzle,” said Dr Eyers.
She has now carefully plotted the infant burials and the associated artefacts from The Yewden Villa at Hambleden.
This revealed that all those infants that could be dated were buried between 150AD and 200AD, meaning all their deaths look like they took place in a 50-year period.
And she said she now had a whole host of other evidence from studying the landscape around the villa site to support her brothel theory.
She admitted: “To be honest, when I first put this idea forward last year, it was really to get people talking and debating, but the more I look into this, the more convinced I am by my original brothel theory.”
Brett Thorn, keeper of archaeology at the Buckinghamshire County Museum, has disputed her hypothesis.
“My main concern with the brothel theory is that it’s just too far away from any major population centres. I’m just not convinced,” he said.
He has put together an exhibition of other objects from the villa excavation that could point to the villa having associations with a series of mother goddess cults from around the world.
“There are a few significant religious objects from the site that indicate possible connections with a mother goddess cult,” he explained.
“They may indicate that the site was a shrine and women went there to give birth, and get protection from the mother goddess during this dangerous time. The large number of babies who are buried there could be natural stillbirths, or children who died in labour.”
Last year during filming for BBC Two’s Digging for Britain series, presenter Dr Alice Roberts noticed cut marks made by a sharp implement on one of the bones, a discovery that was not revealed to the public until now.
Cut marks can indicate anything from ritual practices involving human sacrifice, the de-fleshing of bones before burial, or the dismembering of a baby during childbirth to save the life of the mother.
Keri Brown at the University of Manchester carried out DNA tests on the 10 sets of the ancient bones to determine the sex of some of the infants.
It is common throughout history in cases of infanticide for girls to be killed rather than boys, but the opposite holds true for brothel sites. A brothel site at Ashkelon in Israel revealed that nearly all of the babies were boys.
Although the tests represented a very small sample of the total number of baby skeletons found, there seemed to be an equal number of victims of both sexes at the Buckinghamshire site, and so the mystery for now remains unsolved.
Dr Eyers said she believed that only further excavation at the site would clear up the mystery once and for all.
Of course, we need to remember this is TV hype, and the BBC is squeezing out another episode from something they sensationalized in the past. It’s interesting that the researchers seem to deal with some of the objections we mentioned in a previous post in regards to numbers over time:
Possibly more interesting (and sensationalizable), there was that claim of evidence of a dismembered child:
… which has been brought up in some hype video that just hit Youtube:
… other than that, I wonder if the program will deal with the large number of styluseseseses found at the site and the associated claims:
… we anxiously await to see this one …
@ Other blogs:
- Dead babies still are bad evidence for a Roman brothel (Rosemary Joyce … tip o’ the pileus to Terrence Lockyer)
Classics Confidential: Heather Rae
In another poster session interview, Heather Rae explains the changing image of ‘monsters’ according to their historical context:
