Hodie est a.d. XII Kal. Nov. 2774 AUC ~ 15 Pyanepsion in the first year of the 700th Olympiad
In the News
- Ancient-DNA Researchers Set Ethics Guidelines for Their Work – The New York Times
- What was Jewish life in Israel like at the time of the Mishna, Talmud? – The Jerusalem Post
- Archaeologists Discover A 6th-century Coin Hoard In Ancient Phanagoria
- ‘Church of the Apostles’ in Bethsaida mysteriously buried, archaeologists discover – Israel News – Haaretz.com
- A Contessa Entellina riemergono tracce dal passato: scoperti nuovi resti di antichi edifici
- Anti-flood works on Acropolis do the trick | eKathimerini.com
- Illegal Excavations of Cultural Property Surged During Pandemic – ARTnews.com
- Rare biblical ‘balsam tree’ found on 2000-year-old amethyst seal – The Jerusalem Post
- Excavation season ends in Dascylium ancient city in NW Turkey
In Case You Missed It
Classicists and Classics in the News
- Obituary for Joe Schork – Classical Association of New England
- History professor Thomas Parker unexpectedly passes away at 71 | News | technicianonline.com
- The Color of Classics | Princeton Alumni Weekly
- The Hollowing Out of Stanford Classics
Greek/Latin News
- [Ephemeris] DE PRAESIDIS ACCVSA
Public Facing Classics
- Smells like witch spirit: How the ancient world’s scented sorceresses influence ideas about magic today
- Statue abuse and fake news | Blog post by Mary Beard | The TLS
Fresh Bloggery
- Minor Details and Obscured Lives – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
- Video #18: Athenian Democracy with Chandra Giroux – Peopling the Past
- Where Do Snakes Come From? A Spine-Tingling Explanation – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
- AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Der Nachlass Paul de Lagarde: Orientalistische Netzwerke und antisemitische Verflechtungen
- AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Aegyptus et Nubia Christiana. The Włodzimierz Godlewski Jubilee Volume on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday
- Orpheus and Eurydice, By An Unidentified 19th-Century Artist | The Historian’s Hut
- Een Macedonisch-Babylonische stad: Seleukeia – Mainzer Beobachter
- PaleoJudaica.com: Samaritan Sukkot 2021
- PaleoJudaica.com: Exhibition: “The Sanhedrin Trail”
- PaleoJudaica.com: Amethyst seal engraved with balsam tree excavated in Jerusalem
- Spencer Alley: Paolo de’ Matteis (Neapolitan Flourishes)
- The Shelbiad, Three Years On.
Association/Departmental Blogs and News
- BONES AND BEADS – Human Bioarchaeology https://www.dainst.blog/hub/2021/10/20/bones-and-beads/
- Bursaries for Work on Herculaneum | The Herculaneum Society
Other Blog-like Publications
Assorted Twitter Threads
Fresh Podcasts
Was life for our ancient ancestors brutish and short or did they exist as noble savages free and living in harmony with nature and each other? Many of our assumptions about ancient societies stem from renaissance theories about how society should be organized and what civilisation is. Dan is joined by David Wengrow, Professor of Comparative Archaeology at University College London and co-author of The Dawn of Everything to challenge some of these assumptions and show that they were founded on critiques of European society. David shines a light on the great variety of ancient civilisations, the different models of society they offer and how that might influence us today.
Gold and horses! 2,500 years ago, in the area of the Great Steppe that is now Eastern Kazakhstan, an extraordinary ancient Scythian culture reigned supreme. They were called the Saka, renowned for their skill as horse archers and for their elaborate elite burials. Ancient Persian and Greek sources labelled them a barbaric, nomadic people – a scourge on the ‘civilised’ world. But new archaeological discoveries from East Kazakhstan are revealing a very different picture. A picture that highlights how the Saka were a highly-sophisticated ancient society. A culture that boasted complex settlements, expert craftsmen, extensive trade routes and more, alongside their equine mastery and their staggering wealth. Now, for a limited time only, you can see some of these newly-discovered artefacts at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. The exhibition is called ‘Gold of the Great Steppe’. Running from 28th September 2021 to 30th January 2022, it is the first exhibition about this ancient culture ever to be shown in the UK. To find out more about the exhibition and what these newly-discovered artefacts are revealing about the Saka, Tristan headed up to Cambridge to interview Dr Rebecca Roberts, associated curator of ‘Gold of the Great Steppe’.
We’re back at Troy, where shirts are optional, digging up an artifact from a bygone era: late 90’s television. Joined by the wonderful Dr. Deborah Beck, expert Homerist from UT Austin, we we break down the 1997 Hallmark miniseries, The Odyssey. This movie, by its director’s own omission hones in on the action-adventure aspects of Homer’s Odyssey. But, we scholars ruminate, are those really the best parts of the story? We mediate again on the pitfalls of sticking to the plot of a story while missing its larger themes. We also tackle two of the great questions of our time: Iliad or Odyssey and who had the best mullet?
Fresh Youtubery
Book Reviews
- [BMCR] Carlo Di Giovine, Metafore e lessico della relegazione: studio sulle opere ovidiane dal Ponto. Il carro di Medea, Studi 1. Rome: Deinotera editrice, 2020.
- [BMCR] Marina Escolano-Poveda, The Egyptian priests of the Graeco-Roman period: an analysis on the basis of the Egyptian and Graeco-Roman literary and paraliterary sources. Studien zur spätägyptischen Religion, Band 29. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2020.
- [BMCR] Antoine Viredaz, Fragmenta Saturnia heroica: introduction, traduction et commentaire des fragments de l’Odyssée latine de Livius Andronicus et de la Guerre punique de Cn. Naevius. Schweizerische Beiträge zur Altertumswissenschaft, Band 47. Basel: Schwabe Verlag, 2020.
- Preliminary Results of the Studies in the South-Eastern Part of the Tanais Citadel in 2015-2019. | Spartokos a lu
- [BMCR] Rafael Ferber, Platonische Aufsätze. Beiträge zur Altertumskunde, 386. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2020.
Exhibition Related Things
- Penn Museum launches first post lockdown exhibit with major look at clothing from ancient Scythia to Marian Anderson
- Innovating From Antiquities, Rubens Masterfully Took Inspiration From a Wealth of Sources – ArtfixDaily News Feed
Dramatic Receptions
- Epic re-telling of The Odyssey on the Yorkshire coast features more than 400 aspiring actors and rising stars | The Scarborough News
- Troy Theatre and Dance presents Medea, a Greek tragedy – Troy Today
Online Talks and Professional Matters
- FIEC: SIBC Conference: 100th Anniversary of l’Année Philologique
- Job Listing: Museum Review Editor | American Journal of Archaeology
- See what’s happening today in Dr Pistone’s Online Classics Social Calendar
- SCS Calendar: Classics, Ancient History, and Classical Archaeology Webinars
Alia
- Is There Overlap Between Philosophy And PR?
- Arch-Tech: Purple Threads from the Days of David and Solomon – Biblical Archaeology Society
- Alexander the Great Tomb: All the Claims in One of History’s Greatest Mysteries
- How ideas from ancient Greek philosophy may have driven civilization toward climate change
- Malacandra as Utopia: Plato’s Republic as Reflected in C.S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet | Tor.com
- Romantic Red Flags in “The Iliad” | The University News
‘Sorting’ Out Your Day:
- Homeromanteion | Online Homeric Oracle
- Sortes Virgilianae (English)
- Sortes Virgilianae (Latin)
- Consult the Oracle at UCL
Today on the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar:
If it thunders today, it portends coughing sicknesses and cardiac issues.
… adapted from the text and translation of:
Jean MacIntosh Turfa, The Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar, in Nancy Thomson de Grummond and Erika Simon (eds.), The Religion of the Etruscans. University of Texas Press, 2006. (Kindle edition)
rogueclassicism 