As long as we’re talking about Greek (see next post) we might as well mention an item from Washington University in St Louis which mentions the recent identification of a number of books which once belonged to Thomas Jefferson. Some excerpts:
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation and Washington University in St. Louis announced the discovery by Monticello scholars that a collection of books, long held in the libraries at Washington University in St. Louis, originally were part of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library.
These books, held at the university’s libraries for 131 years, have been confirmed by Monticello scholars as having belonged to Thomas Jefferson himself. They are part of the university’s rare books collection, and were not identified by the books’ donor in 1880 as a part of Jefferson’s personal collection.
Monticello scholars identified several notable books among the 28 titles and 74 volumes, including:
* Aristotle’s Politica, which was likely one of the last books Jefferson read before his death on July 4, 1826. * Architecture books used by Jefferson to design the University of Virginia, which, like Monticello, is recognized by the United Nations as a World Heritage Site. Two of these volumes, Freart de Chambray’s Parallele de l’architecture antique avec la moderne and Andrea Palladio’s Architecture de Palladio, contenant les cinq ordres d’architecture contain a few notes and calculations made by Jefferson. * A small scrap of paper with Greek notes in Jefferson’s hand tucked in a volume of Plutarch’s Lives. […]
The best part is that they have a high res photo of that small scrap of paper:
WUStL photo
They have ‘posed’ the scrap on the page of Plutarch’s Lives which compares Marcellus and Pelopidas, but I don’t think what is written thereon has to do with them. Seems to be an awful lot of ‘corrections’ being listed and I can’t figure out that word before ‘bibliothekes’ …
Erstwhile Classics prof Ken Mayer sent along an interesting item last week … it’s a photo of a can of Kuang Chuan Mountain Coffee (the company is from Taiwan) and the inverted image shows that there’s some sort of Greek manuscript lurking on the label:
photo by Ken Mayer (with permission)
What’s somewhat infuriating about this is that the company doesn’t appear to have an (English) web presence where one could research the label. Folks who want to try their hand at figuring out the text can check out largers sizes at Flickr:Kuang Chuan Mountain Coffee with Byzantine Greek manuscript. Feel free to provide glosses, etc. in the comments.
UPDATE (early the next morning): G. Dachris and Neils Grotum write in to identify the passage as the beginning of Thucydides Book 5 … (thanks!)
Every now and then, it turns out the journalists get it right. An excerpt from an item in the Telegraph last week:
Solar winds are plumes of electrically charged particles spewed out by the Sun that occasionally hit Earth. The planet’s protective magnetic field pushes these particles to the poles, where they react with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere to produce light. These eerily beautiful curtains of light are the aurora borealis and australis (or Northern and Southern Lights).
Sometimes a particularly violent solar blast known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) means the auroras are visible at lower latitudes. In AD37, according to the historian Seneca, the Emperor Tiberius saw a vivid red light in the sky and dispatched battalions to the seaport at Ostia, “in the belief that it was burning”. In London in 1839, fire brigades rushed north to put out a conflagration that turned out to be an aurora. The same thing happened in January 1938, when the Associated Press reported that a “ruddy glow led many to think half the city was ablaze”.
Now when I saw the mention of “the historian Seneca”, my alarm bells went off, but thanks to amicus noster John McMahon (who pointed me in the right direction and so gets the traditional tip o’ the pileus), it turns out the source for this actually is Seneca’s Quaestiones Naturales. Here’s the relevant bit via the Latin Library (1.15.5):
FWIW, plenty of news outlets (e.g. the Huffington Post) last week were suggesting we might be able to see the Northern Lights much further south due to solar flare activity, but I didn’t see any such thing …
A Toyota press release, via the fine folks at Engadget:
Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), USA, Inc. today announced that the general public has selected ‘Prii’ as the preferred plural term for Prius.
The Prius Goes Plural voting campaign was launched on January 10 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit and challenged the public to help the automaker determine the plural nomenclature of Prius. The campaign coincided with the world premiere of the Toyota Prius family of vehicles. With 25 percent of the votes, Prii becomes the word not only endorsed by the public who chose it, but also as the term recognized by Toyota. As such, Dictionary.com has updated its entry for the word ‘Prius’ to reflect this.
Toyota unveiled the winning word at the Chicago Auto Show this morning. Jay Schwartz, head of content for Dictionary.com, was on hand to inform the public that, as the plural of Prius has now been determined, the term ‘Prii’ will be reflected in Dictionary.com.
After the more than 1.8 million votes were cast during the course of the six-week campaign, Prii beat out its four competitors: Prius, Priuses, Prium and Prien. Prius came in at a close second with 24 percent of the votes. A video recap of the campaign and winning word celebration can be viewed at http://www.ToyotaPriusProjects.com.
“Community has always been a big part of the Prius brand, so it was only fitting that we invite the online communities to participate in the plural discussion,” said Colin Morisako, advertising manager for Toyota. “The people have spoken-Prii will be the accepted term used to describe multiple Prius vehicles going forward.”
I think the Engadget folks got it right … we are looking on admonishingly. They seem to be thinking Prius is a second declension masculine noun like dominus which has a stem ‘pri’ — which doesn’t make sense — or it’s like filius and has a stem ‘pr’ — which also doesn’t make sense. We probably should point out that the Latin word prius is actually an adverb (meaning ‘before’) which can’t be pluralized by dropping the -us and adding an -i.
… I’m glad I drive a Nissan (a Rogue, of course) …
One of the reasons I like having days off — it’s ‘Family Day’ here in Ontario (which curiously matches up with President’s Day in the U.S.) — is that it allows me time to give items the time they deserve and also to catch up on things which I’ve been putting off posting for various reasons. In this post’s case, we get to catch up on a pile of items which have a common theme of ‘footprints from the ancient world’. Back in 2007, we had our first post about footprints, when a Roman soldier’s sandal impression was found during excavations at Sussita. A couple of years later (in October of 2009), I never got around to blogging about some artisans’ footprints which turned up when archaeologists were removing the Lod Mosaic (now on exhibit at the Met) from its footings. Here’s the coverage from Arutz Sheva at the time:
The ancient footprints of the artisans who built a stunning 1,700-year-old mosaic floor in Lod were discovered recently when conservators from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) were in the process of detaching the huge work of art from the ground.
As the conservation experts worked on the plaster bedding to be done before detaching the mosaic, they were surprised to notice there were ancient foot and sandal prints beneath it. Clearly, the builders that had worked on the floor sometimes wore their sandals, and sometimes worked in their bare feet.
“It’s exciting. This is the first time I have ever encountered personal evidence such as this under a mosaic,” said Jacques Neguer, head of the IAA Art Conservation Branch, who referred to it as “a real archaeological gem that is extraordinarily well-preserved.” When removing a section of mosaic, it is customary to clean its bedding, and that way study the material from which it is made, and the construction stages, Neguer explained. “We look for drawings and sketches that the artists made in the plaster and marked where each of the tesserae will be placed.”
Neguer said this is also what happened with the Lod mosaic. “Beneath a piece on which vine leaves are depicted, we discovered that the mosaic’s builders incised lines that indicate where the tesserae should be set, and afterwards, while cleaning the layer, we found the imprints of the feet and sandals, sizes 34, 37, 42 and 44.” At least one imprint of a sole resembled a modern sandal, he added. Based on the concentration of foot and sandal prints, “it seems that the group of builders tamped the mortar in place with their feet.”
The mosaic is one of the largest and most magnificent ever seen in Israel, but although it was discovered in 1996, it was covered over again when no resources could be found for its conservation. Thirteen years later, the IAA received a contribution from the Leon Levy Foundation specifically earmarked for the preservation and development of the Lod site. The mosaic was re-excavated, exhibited to the public, and then conservators began the delicate process of removing it from the area for treatment in the IAA conservation laboratories in Jerusalem.
Measuring approximately 180 square meters, the mosaic is composed of colorful carpets that depict in exquisite detail mammals, birds, fish, floral species and sailing and merchant vessels that were in use at the time. It is believed that the mosaic floor was part of a villa that belonged to a wealthy man who lived during the Roman period.
The site, which is located in the eastern section of Lod, next to the entrance at Ginnaton Junction, is intended to become a springboard for tourism to the city. It is situated between HeHalutz and Struma Streets, which lead to the open air market and to the city’s center.
“It is fascinating to discover a 1,700 year old personal mark of people who are actually like us, who worked right here on the same mosaic,” Neguer remarked. “We feel the continuity of generations here.”
… we might as well include a couple of photos from there as well:
Niki Davidov (IAA) via Arutz ShevaNiki Davidov (IAA) via Arutz Sheva
In November of 2010, we did mention a brief item about a Roman legionary bath house being discovered in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, that was one of those situations where I posted the first instance of what was found … subsequent coverage included information about a dog’s footprint being found in one of the tiles at the site. An excerpt from the IAA’s official release:
Dr. Sion adds, “Another interesting discovery that caused excitement during the excavation is the paw print of a dog that probably belonged to one of the soldiers. The paw print was impressed on the symbol of the legion on one of the roof tiles and it could have happened accidentally or have been intended as a joke”.
… which brings us to our most recent example, a child’s footprints found near an outpost of that ubiquitous Ninth Legion, which keeps coming up . Some excerpts from Sky News‘ coverage:
Archaeologists made the remarkable discovery while excavating a muddy area of a former Roman settlement on the A1 near Leeming.
Helen Maclean of archaeology firm AECOM described the find as very rare.
“I’m not aware of many other footprints being found, everybody was quite amazed by it,” she said.
Photographs show a right footprint clearly visible in soft ground followed by two left prints – suggesting that the boy or girl who made them was hopping or skipping.
The perfectly-preserved footprints were uncovered in 2010 during a dig at Healam Bridge, but photographs have only now been released after Sky News heard of their existence.
The site was excavated as part of a £318m Highways Agency scheme to upgrade part of the A1 to a three-lane motorway.
The area where the child had been playing was close to a stream where archaeologists believe the Romans struggled to keep their feet dry.
Experts found evidence of repeated attempts to make the area less muddy, with stones and plant material spread on the soft ground.
“It was quite close to where the stream probably ran”, said Ms Maclean.
“The child was probably running through the mud, jumping in puddles or possibly just trying to avoid getting its feet wet.”
The dig was close to an imperial fort which served as a frontier outpost for the famous Ninth Legion which took part in the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43.
[…]
Archaeologists were unable to preserve the footprints and the photographs are the only evidence that remains of the child’s brief skip through the Yorkshire mud.
rogueclassicism 