Month: September 2013

Layoffs at Nemea … Stephen G Miller Weighs in

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

From eKathimerini:

The possible dismissal of seven temporary guards from the archaeological site of Ancient Nemea as part of government plans to streamline the Greek civil service, may force the closure of the site, Dr. Stephen G. Miller, director of Nemea excavations, has warned.

In an open letter addressed to the general public recently, Miller lamented the consequences of such a decision, citing Nemea’s importance to ancient Greek culture and the modern Greek tourism industry.

“The firing of seven guards would leave active only three permanent guards, which would not even be sufficient to leave the site and museum open to the public. This means that visitors will now find it closed,” wrote Miller.

In antiquity, the sanctuary at Nemea hosted ancient Greek athletics and poetry competitions once every four years, rotating with Delphi, Isthmia and, most famously, Olympia. Today the site attracts more than 50,000 visitors a year.

Miller, a University of California archaeologist who first began digging at Nemea in 1973, is responsible for uncovering much of what remains of the ancient sanctuary and stadium. He has also spearheaded the Society for the Revival of the Nemean Games, a movement intended to resurrect the competitive and egalitarian spirit of ancient Greek athletics.

“I always welcomed the chance to use my research as a basis for educational experience,» noted Miller, “one that provided every visitor to Nemea a chance to learn more about their roots in ancient Greece.”

The decision to cut back on security comes at a time when Greece’s understaffed museums have become increasingly vulnerable to thieves and the illegal antiquities trade. An armed robbery last February at the Museum of Ancient Olympia, Nemea’s sister sanctuary, for example, resulted in the theft of 70 ancient artifacts.

“If this [the lay-offs] happens, I will look at myself in the mirror and realize how mindless, how deluded I was. I will have wasted my entire life’s work,” Miller wrote.

Speaking later to Kathimerini English Edition, the archaeologist reiterated these sentiments.

“Forty-five years ago I fell in love with Greece and decided not only to move here, but to devote every ounce of my energy to its excavations. Was that decision ultimately a mistake? We fought hard for what the foreign visitor now sees at Nemea. But when will the Greek state take care to attend to its most valuable possessions – its archaeological parks and museums?”

One wonders why the powers that be aren’t remembering Olympia (Theft at Olympia)

Bestiaria Latina Blog | Latin Proverbs and Fables Round-Up: September 28

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

@ Bestiaria Latina Blog

Latin Proverbs and Fables Round-Up: September 28
http://bestlatin.blogspot.com/2013/09/latin-proverbs-and-fables-round-up_28.html

The Golden Beer of Danish … Sussita??

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

Actually … this is an item about the dig season at Sussita … the inicipit of Ha’aretz’ coverage:

An unexpected discovery awaited a team of Israeli archaeologists in a drainage canal dating from roughly 2,000 years ago: an aluminum bottlecap. From a beer bottle.

No, the good people of ancient Sussita weren’t producing aluminum metal. The meaning of the startling discovery is that millennia after its construction, the drainage canal was still working, centuries after the city’s final destruction by earthquake

Made of aluminum and feather-light, the bottle-cap floated on rainwater that washed into the canal, says Dr. Michael Eisenberg, head of an Israeli archaeological team digging the site.

This canal, or less romantically – a sewer, passed beneath the floor of the public bathhouse being excavated in the city, which the Greeks called Antiochia Hippos. Its end was discovered several hundred meters away by Eisenberg and his team.

The archaeologists believe this remarkably robust sewage system drained effluent from a postulated public toilet near the bathhouse. If the sewer’s upper opening is found, the public toilet will be found as well, Aizenberg postulates.

Happily for historians, the Sussita sewer system contained not only a beer bottlecap but much more. For instance several hundred bronze coins, swollen and rusted from eons of exposure to urine, were also found inside.

Ten dice made of bone found near the coins provided further evidence of the sewer’s function: Eisenberg believes that the city’s inhabitants gambled with dice as they sat in the bathroom. Just as latter-day man accidently drops his phone into the john, thus the people of yore apparently let coins and dice fall into the sewer.

Now these artifacts are helping researchers to learn about the inhabitants’ customs.

Serious about exercise at Sussita

In this last summer digging season, the team unearthed a palaestra — a plaza surrounded by columns, where the city inhabitants exercised and which was part of the bathhouse.

The sewage canal passed beneath the floor of the bathhouse’s small pool, whose location shows the ancients also appreciated a good view: it overlooks the low-lying Sea of Galilee and the city of Tiberias on its western shore.

The pool was tiled with high-quality limestone tiles. Some of its walls were decorated with tiles of limestone and marble, and in other places the pool walls were plastered in bright shades of red. […]

… only Arutz Sheva seems to have identified the brand of beer (Beer Cap Found Embedded in Archeological Excavation), hence my title.  That said, I’m not sure why we haven’t heard more from this dig:

JOB: Early Christianity@Tufts

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

seen on various lists

Assistant Professor of Early Christianity

The Tufts University Department of Religion seeks a specialist at the rank of Assistant Professor in Early Christianity. Applicants should possess a PhD or equivalent and should demonstrate a solid grounding in and critical understanding of the historyof early Christianity as well as of interactions among Judaism, Christianity, and Greco-Roman religion. The successful candidate must be able to teach courses in early Christianity, the New Testament and the early Church in addition to courses in her/his specialty. Beyond contributing to the core curriculum in the Department of Religion, we seek candidates whose research has the potential to expand approaches to the digital humanities at
Tufts as well as to augment the strengths of its Perseus Digital Library in Greek, Latin, or other languages complementary with the successful candidate’s research program.

In addition to an active research program, candidates must demonstrate a commitment to excellence in teaching and advising. The Department of Religion confers the B.A. degree, and individual faculty members also sometimes advise students majoring in related interdisciplinary programs. Opportunities exist for the successful candidate in this position to advise the research of students pursuing the master’s degree in the graduate
programs housed in the Department of Classics.

Applicants should submit a cover letter, CV, and three confidential reference letters to Interfolio [https://secure.interfolio.com/apply/21945.] Review of applications begins
October 1, 2013, and will continue until the position is filled. Tufts  University is an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to increasing the diversity of our faculty. Members of underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

Questions about the position should be directed to Brian A. Hatcher, Chair, Department of Religion, Tufts University at brian.hatcher AT tufts.edu. For help with Interfolio, please email help AT interfolio.com or call (877) 997-8807.