This one’s been making the rounds of all my sources (i.e. email, Facebook, Twitter), so without further ado:

No, the job hasn’t been filled yet (I don’t think), but the  Daily Mail has a lengthy piece on the lifestyles of tutors of the rich and famous … it includes this:

However, tutors exist in a world in which clients have so much money, their fees are almost irrelevant. Indeed, the more these parents are charged, the happier they are.

‘Parents get carried away,’ said Will Petty, a tutor who went to Harrow, got an MA in philosophy at Edinburgh University and now works for London educational consultancy Bonas MacFarlane.

‘They think: “She’s only four, but why not get a Classicist?” They start out looking for just a normal tutor and end up with a skiing instructor or sailing expert because it’s an honour badge.

• via Meet the super tutors: hired to teach five-year-olds Ancient Greek, Chinese and philosophy | Mail Online.

… which got me thinking: imagine the job opportunities if it become de rigueur for everyone to have their own Classicist! Imagine the potential donations to keep departments alive … this could have interesting implications …

Interesting item from the University of Bristol:

A skeleton, possibly dating from Roman times, has been unearthed by archaeologists from the University of Bristol during a dig in the garden of vaccination pioneer Dr Edward Jenner in Berkeley, Gloucestershire.

The archaeologists, led by Professor Mark Horton and Dr Stuart Prior, have been excavating part of the garden of The Chantry, the former country home of vaccination pioneer, Dr Edward Jenner (1749-1823), during a series of annual digs since 2007. They have already established that Berkeley is an important Anglo-Saxon site with a mynster of the same scale and status as Gloucester.

Last week, they uncovered a skeleton believed to date from the Roman or possibly sub-Roman (that is the ‘Dark Ages’) period. The Roman occupation of Britain ended in 410AD, making this an extremely rare find of great historical significance.

As the skeleton was painstakingly excavated it became clear that it was cut in half by a later ditch. Roman material was found in this ditch, which could have either been deposited by the Romans themselves or later inhabitants of the area as they were robbing the Roman buildings nearby.

The skeleton is known to be adult but its sex has not yet been determined. It was found underneath the sealed remains of part of the Anglo-Saxon Mynster, founded in the 8th century. This latest discovery, however, clearly puts Berkeley on the map as an even earlier religious site than previously thought.

Professor Mark Horton said: “This was a completely unexpected but really important discovery because it fills in the history between the Roman villa that we believe is on the site and the Anglo-Saxon monastery discovered during earlier digs.

“It just goes to show that you never quite know what lies under your feet. It is unlikely that Dr Jenner was aware of these unexpected neighbours lurking at the bottom of his garden.”

Sarah Parker, Director of Dr Jenner’s House said: “Year on year the archaeology and recorded data that the University of Bristol uncovers from Dr Jenner’s garden never ceases to amaze. It reinforces the importance of this historic site alongside the Birthplace of Vaccination. We are very pleased to be working with the university, sharing history being made being with the public.”

• via Jenner’s garden skeleton | University of Bristol.

… I’m curious what the “Roman material” found in the ditch might have been

A year ago (almost to the day) we were mentioning that the remains of some so-called ‘salt men’ from Iran had been saved from a sad decompositional fate in a museum and we also reminded folks of Adrienne Mayor’s plausible suggestion that such ‘salt men’ may have had some connection to tales of satyrs and the like. Now, the fine folks at Past Horizons alert us to a recent study on the actual origins of the men themselves, inter alia:

Recently isotopic analysis was carried out on five of the salt-preserved bodies which are now dated to between  4th century BCE through to the 4th century CE. In an attempt to identify the geographical origins of these people, researchers from the Department of Environmental Sciences, Università Ca’ Foscari in Italy, matched osteological samples from various sites in Iran and those from the salt mine bodies. It was possible for them to hypothesise that two of the “mummies” may have come from the Tehran/Qazvin Plain region (local to the salt mine), and a further two appear on isotopic grounds to have come from the northeast of Iran or the Turkmenistan steppes. The fifth appears to have come from further afield.

… the article continues and includes some nice links for your further investigatory pleasure:

• Salt Men of Iran | Past Horizons