Month: August 2010

Nysa Dig Resumes

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

From Hurriyet:

Archaeologists have begun excavations at the ancient Greek city of Nysa, in western Turkey, where they hope to find new artifacts around the theater, agora and gymnasium.

Professor Vedat İdil, head of the excavation team from Ankara University, said the team, comprised of Turkish, Canadian and American architects, archaeologists and historians, plans to work until October this year.

Nysa is located in the Sultanhisar district of Aydın province, 50 kilometers east of the Ionian city of Ephesus. There are important ruins on the site from the Hellenistic period, the Roman period and the Byzantine era. Much of the open-air Greek theater and its walled entrances are still intact. The library currently has three walls.

There are remnants of a gymnasium, a Roman bath and a bouleuterion. The 100-meter Nysa Bridge, a tunnel-like substructure, was the second largest of its kind in antiquity.

via: Excavations begin in Nysa in western Turkey | Hurriyet

n.b. … in case you were wondering,  this Nysa (in Caria) is not to be confused with Nysa-Scythopolis (in Israel)

Latest from Peperikon

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

The last bits from a piece at Novinite:

The latest Perperikon finds presented Tuesday include a human idol from the 5th century BC, a bronze axe and a Thracian war knife. The archeologist explained that during the first day of the excavations they also found a medical instrument from Roman times, which has been used to remove from skin a worm-parasite and then clean the wound.

Other unique discoveries include a Roman lamp from the 3rd century with the picture of a scarcely clad female dancer waiving a scarf above her head, a number of antique coins, a silver coin with Tsar Ivan Alexander and his son Mihail, and a medieval silver tiara. The finds are very important because they are not very typical for this area and are proof for Bulgarian presence here in 1343, according to Ovcharov.

The archeologist informed that this summer the digs are subsidized with BGN 118 000 which will allow for 3-month work and a team of over 100. In addition to the connection between the palace and the Perperikon Acropolis, the archeologists will study for the first time the northeastern sector of the Acropolis with the full study of the latter being the final goal.

Ovcharov declared the excavations and the research show Perperikon is the largest ancient city in the Rhodope Mountains and one of the largest on the Balkans during the Antiquity and the Middle Age, much larger than the Bulgarian historical coastal towns of Sozopol and Nesebar.

The first few paragraphs are a response to claims of ‘relationships’ between archaeologists and treasure hunters in Bulgaria.

d.m. Colin Austin

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

From Cambridge City News:

Cambridge professor Colin Austin, one of the world’s leading specialists on ancient Greek texts, has died of cancer at the age of 69.

Australian-born Prof Austin was educated in England and France – his mother tongue was French.

He studied at Oxford and came to Trinity Hall as a research fellow in 1965.

He was made a director of studies there, and remained a fellow until he retired in 2008.

Prof Austin, a fellow of the British Academy, taught in the Faculty of Classics in Cambridge and was treasurer of the Cambridge Philological Society for 40 years.

Colleagues said he had “a remarkable gift” for reconstructing fragmentary poetic texts preserved on Egyptian papyri.

Prof Austin had been working on a new edition of Greek New Comedy poet Menander.

He is survived by his wife Mishtu, their two children and four grandchildren.

Classical Barbie

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ 1 Comment

Speaking of Cleopatra (see next post), I was just yakking on Facebook about the existence of a Cleopatra Barbie, news of which my spiders brought me from a blog called comigirl … turns out these things are genuine collectibles. She doesn’t appear to available at Amazon yet (click the comigirl link to see this Cleo), but there are a number which might be of interest, including a Barbie of Liz Taylor as Cleopatra:

… and a Medusa Barbie (if you’ve got 500.00+ dollars):

… and an Aphrodite Barbie (cheap at almost 300 bucks:

… and Athena Barbie (cheapest of them all … less than 200 bucks:

… not sure if Princess of Ancient Greece Barbie counts (she’s really cheap):

… no Artemis Barbie? No Amazon Barbie? No Gladiatrix Barbie?

ADDENDUM (an hour or so later): See, this is why folks have to be all over social media … turns out one of my Twitter followers (Liz Gloyn) is a Ph.D. candidate who works — in her ‘spare time’ —  on the ‘reception’ side of these Classical Barbies and has even written a paper on the subject, which you can access from her page at Academia.edu: