From the Daily Review Atlas:

John Gruber-Miller, professor of classics at Cornell College, will deliver Monmouth College’s 27th annual Bernice L. Fox Classics Lecture on Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the Wells Theater.

Titled “Peeking into a Periegete’s Mind: Probing Pausanias’s ‘Description of Greece,’” the lecture is free and open to the public.

“The Roman travel writer Pausanias is our most important ancient source for the art and archaeology of ancient Greece,” said Gruber-Miller. “He wrote his ‘Description of Greece’ during the second century CE when the great renaissance of Greek literature and culture known as the Second Sophistic was in full bloom.”

Over the past two summers, Gruber-Miller and two undergraduate researchers have been probing Pausanias’s text, attempting to uncover the truth of what he writes. His illustrated Fox Lecture presentation will be divided into three parts: Pausanias’s research topics/questions, his methods for reaching answers and the development of his authority.

“At the same time, we will ask our own questions,” said Gruber-Miller. “Why should we read the travel writings of a Roman in Greek lands? What image and identity does Greece hold in our imagination? What can we learn about doing research today from an ancient writer?”

At Cornell, Gruber-Miller teaches a range of courses in classics, Greek and Latin and is the adviser for the college’s interdisciplinary classical studies program. He was the editor for “When Dead Tongues Speak: Teaching Beginning Greek and Latin,” which was published in 2006. Gruber-Miller received his bachelor’s degree from Xavier University and his master’s degree and Ph.D. from Ohio State University.

Established in 1985, the lecture honors the late Bernice L. Fox, who taught classics at Monmouth from 1947 until 1981. The goal of the series is to illustrate the continuing importance of classical studies in the modern world and the intersection of the classics with other disciplines in the liberal arts.

• via Cornell’s Gruber-Miller to give MC’s Fox Lecture – Monmouth, IL – Daily Review Atlas.

 

This is a rather interesting development … we’ll have to keep our eye on this to see where it goes:

Turkey’s culture minister on Thursday demanded Germany return an ancient sphinx uncovered from a German archeological dig nearly a century ago or it would revoke permits for other excavations.

Ertugrul Gunay told the Tagesspiegel daily in an interview that German authorities had until the start of the digging season in June to hand back the priceless artefact, thought to date from around 1400 BC.

The sphinx, dug up from the ancient city of Hattusha, the capital of the Hittite empire, in the early part of the 20th century, was taken to Germany for restoration but now sits in a Berlin museum, much to Turkey’s annoyance.

“If there is no commitment (to return the sphinx) by the beginning of the digging season, I am firmly determined to cancel the excavation licence for Hattusha,” said the minister.

Gunay also threatened several other German archaeological digs around the country, saying the permits could go to Turkish scientists.

“Turkey has new universities, new archaeological institutes as well as keen and successful archaeologists. If we do not see the hoped-for cooperation in this area, we would not hesitate to transfer the digs to our own universities.”

Germany is also embroiled in a row with Egypt, which has demanded the return of the 3,400-year-old bust of fabled beauty Nefertiti which currently has pride of place in the Neues (New) Museum in Berlin.

Cairo began to demand the restitution of the Pharaonic-era statue back in the 1930s, but successive German governments have insisted the piece was bought legally and that there are documents to prove it.

The foreign ministry in Berlin told AFP that experts from Germany and Turkey would hold talks in the first half of the year to determine the future of the sphinx.

• via Return our sphinx or else, Turkey tells Germany | The West Australian

As I recall, they were making similar demands a couple of years ago, but I can’t find any live links of that one  … the Wikipedia article on Hattusa says the one sphinx (of a pair) stayed in Germany as part of the usual ‘division of artifacts’ … not specifically Classical, all this, of course, but it likely will impact a number of digs if it isn’t resolved.

 

 

 

 

Kelli Rudolph speaks on “The Individual and the State” (the polutropos side to all this):

 

 

ante diem bis vi kalendas martias

Happy Bissextile!