Tip o’ the pileus to David Emery, who sent this one in a few weeks ago (yes, it’s been languishing in my mailbox) … a very lengthy, interesting article on the Getty Aphrodite return in Smithsonian Magazine, written by Ralph Frammolino of Chasing Aphrodite fame:

• via The Goddess Goes Home (Smithsonian Magazine)

An interesting item the folks at the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum were promoting back during Hallowe’en:

• A Roman Lead Curse Tablet

… it involves imprecations hoping for a malaria-like fever to be imposed on someone, specifically before the end of February. Considering that February is a ‘month of fever’, I wonder whether the curse-tablet folks had a ‘run’ during that month …

Seen on the Classicists list:

Submissions are invited for the 2012 issue of New Voices in Classical
Reception Studies.

The journal is particularly concerned with promoting the work of scholars
(both early career and established) who are new to publishing in the field
of Classical Reception Studies. Articles are welcome on any and all
aspects of the reception of Greco-Roman antiquity.

Papers should not normally exceed 6,000 words (not including endnotes) though shorter papers are also welcome. (If you wish to submit a longer paper, please contact the editor in advance). All submissions will be peer- reviewed by members of an international advisory board. Papers should also be accompanied by a short CV (which will not be sent to the referees. The referee process is mutually anonymous).

The deadline for submissions for the 2012 issue is January 31st 2012. The journal is e-published annually in the late Spring/early Summer. Articles for consideration by the editorial team should be sent to the editor, Dr Trevor Fear (t.fear AT open.ac.uk), as email attachments (contributors are asked to consult the house stylenotes available on the journal’s website prior to sending in submissions). The editor is also happy to receive informal inquiries at any time.

In Classical Receptions Journal 3.2: Simon Perris, Proems, codas, and formalism in Homeric reception

… Table of Contents for the November 2011 issue …

From the Cyprus Mail:

AUSTRALIAN archaeologists have announced the end of their excavations in Nea Paphos uncovering more of the mediaeval walls built on top of an ancient theatre, and exploring a water fountain a stone’s throw away.

A team of 20 archaeologists and students from the University of Sydney opened up two trenches between October 1 and 28 at the site, which marks the spot which was once the capital of the island during the Roman and Hellenistic period.

The team kept a blog throughout the excavations, documenting progress and giving specialists space to explain their role.

“As a supervisor this year, I’d like to motivate my team with helpful phrases like ‘dig harder’… Only joking, everyone is hugely enthusiastic and working as a smooth, well-oiled machine in the trenches,” Rhian Jones wrote on October 5.

The theatre was build around 300BC when the city of Nea Paphos was founded. But earthquakes in the fourth century AD eventually spelled its demise.

The team also explored the nymphaeum – a water fountain house probably built in the first century AD – where people could get fresh cool water.

The nymphaeum was close to the north-eastern city gates and near the theatre’s main entrance.

The team’s main job however was to completely record and interpret finds from previous seasons for an academic publication of the architectural history of the theatre, expected in two years.

The Nea Paphos site is home among others to the House of Dionysus and the House of Orpheus, Greco-Roman house types arranged around a central court; the Villa of Theseus built over the ruins of earlier Hellenistic and early Roman periods; the Agora, whose foundations still remain; one of the largest basilicas built in the fourth century AD; and a Byzantine castle.

• via: Australian team completes Paphos dig(Cyprus Mail)

… we first started paying attention to this dig (it appears) back in June: Finds from Nea Paphos