Hodie est a.d. VI Non. Mart. 2776 AUC ~ 10 Anthesterion in the second year of the 700th Olympiad

In the News

• Bronze Age well contents reveal the history of animal resources in Mycenae, Greece
• Xiplomacy: Why exploration of Greek, Chinese civilizations is beneficial to the whole world – Chinadaily.com.cn
• Legendary beasts from ancient literature may have been whales gulping down fish | Natural History Museum
• A paradox for George’s marbles | ArtsProfessional
• The case for returning the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece has never been stronger
• Five discoveries that changed our understanding of how the ancient Egyptians created mummies

In Case You Missed It

• Hiker discovers 2,500-year-old ancient receipt from reign of Purim king’s father | The Times of Israel
• Inscription Naming Persian King Darius, Father of King Ahasuerus, Discovered in Southern Israel – Archaeology – Haaretz.com
• 2,000-Year-Old Ancient Roman Dry Cleaner Unearthed at Pompeii – ARTnews.com
• RePAIR Archaeology Artificial Intelligence Italy Art | Hypebeast

Classicists and Classics in the News

• W&M researcher tracks ancient Greek comic poet’s influence on modern sitcoms – W&M News
• Lowering the Flag: John Richard Wilson | The Quad

Greek/Latin News

• Ephemeris ~ CASUS GRAECUS 
• Ephemeris ~ DISCIPULAE VENENATAE Scelus in scholis Persicis 
• Akropolis World News ~ Ῥωσία

Public Facing Classics

• An American Tragedy: On the Suicide of Liberal Education – Public Discourse
• Blue monkeys, bull-leaping and child sacrifice: why were the Minoans so weird? | The Spectator
• The ancient relationship between comedy and politics | The Spectator

Fresh Bloggery

• Laudator Temporis Acti: Confession of a Jesuit Father
• Laudator Temporis Acti: The Study of a Lifetime
• Let Nothing External Spark Joy, the Stoic Way – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
• Laudator Temporis Acti: A Reason to Live
• AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Open Access Monograph Series: Proceedings of the International Conference on Cultural Heritage and New Technologies, Vienna
• AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Männlichkeit verhandeln: Von Lüstlingen, Kriegern und wahren Römern (1./2. Jh. n. Chr.)
• AWOL – The Ancient World Online: In Search of the Origins of Lower Egyptian Pottery: A New Approach to Old Data
• The Best Omen – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
• AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Western Anatolia before Troy: Proto-Urbanisation in the 4th Millenium BC? Proceedings of the International Symposium held at the Kunsthistorisces Museum Wien Vienna, Austria, 21-24 November, 2012
• Reclining Bacchus, By An Unknown 17th-Century Artist | The Historian’s Hut
• Hedonisme (1): Aristippos’ genotzucht – Mainzer Beobachter
• Comb made from human skull found – The History Blog
• PaleoJudaica.com: Today is Mani’s death day, maybe.
• PaleoJudaica.com: Biblical Studies Carnival 204
• MARGINALIA: That March Boy Martial
• Biblical Studies Carnival 204 for February 2023 – Reading Acts
• They Might Be In De Nile But I’m Going In Seine
• A Philosopher is Done with Doing – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
• Happy World Book Day! – Classical Studies Support

Association/Departmental Blogs and News

• DAI Istanbul Brochure 2023 – DAİstanbul
• Actualité | Des thermes antiques à Yenne (Savoie) | Inrap

Other Blog-like Publications

• Classical Culture in British India, Part II: Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Poet and Classicist – Antigone
• The Bar Hill Comb
• Golden necklaces discovered in Bronze Age tomb
• March Schedule & Calendar – by M. – Ovid Daily
• Archaeologists have discovered sandstone blocks belonging to a pharaoh’s temple covered with hieroglyphs in Sudan – Arkeonews
• Epicurus on the Values of Family and Friendship
• The strange journey of the Parthenon Marbles to the British Museum | Aeon Videos
• Art and Antiquities an Attractive Market for Money Laundering, FATF Argues
• Discover Ancient Mesopotamia Through 7 Key Artifacts
• 4 Battles From Alexander the Great’s Legendary Persian Campaign
• The Coins of Carthage During Hannibal’s War With Rome
• The Earliest Known Author May Have Been a Woman from Mesopotamia – HISTORY
• Ancient Egyptian discovery rewrites history of Sudanese kingdom
• Hieroglyphs discovered in Old Dongola, Sudan

Assorted Twitter Threads

• @DocCrom on Martial, Epigrams 8.30

Fresh Podcasts

• Ancient History Fangirl: Inventing Medusa: Reclaiming the Gorgon Girl (With Natalie Haynes) on Apple Podcasts

The traditional myth about Medusa is that she was the monster—a fearsome snake-haired gorgon who could turn men to stone with a glance—and her killer, Perseus, was the hero of the tale. But give the story a closer look, and it’s not even clear the Greeks always saw it that way. Ancient depictions of this myth don’t always show Perseus as the hero. And there’s evidence that gorgons originally had a protective role in Greek iconography. In this episode, Natalie Haynes—bestselling author of Stone Blind—guides us in retracing the clues the ancients left us to reclaim our Gorgon Girl.

• Creepy Classics: The Story of the Unidentified Flying Object on Apple Podcasts

Rome is at war, and strange ships accompanied by men in shining white are seen in the sky… This story is inspired by Livy, History of Rome, 21.62.5 and 24.10.10, and is followed by a discussion including ancient UFOs, dream interpreters, and dream books.

• Tides of History: The Phoenician Mediterranean on Apple Podcasts

Soon after 1000 BC, Phoenicians began to take ever-longer voyages away from their homeland. Within just a few decades, they were already present at the far end of the Mediterranean and even further, past the Straits of Gibraltar on the Atlantic coast of Iberia. The process of creating an interconnected Mediterranean had begun.

Fresh Youtubery

• Skulls and Animate Houses: The Development of Sedentism and Agriculture in Central Anatolia – YouTube | Oriental Institute
• Bugle/Bulimia #etymology – YouTube | Alliterative
• Sydnor Roy on purposeful change in Herodotus’ Histories – YouTube | Herodotus Helpline

Book Reviews

• BMCR ~ Kiersten Neumann, Allison Thomason, The Routledge handbook of the senses in the ancient Near East. Routledge handbooks. Abingdon; New York: Routledge, 2022

Exhibition Related Things

• Photo exhibit to turn spotlight on Persepolis’ engraved stones – Tehran Times
• Museum of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Art Reopens

Dramatic Receptions

• Review: Musical ‘Hadestown’ explores Greek underworld at Bushnell
• Mojada updates Medea at the Phoenix – University of Victoria

Online Talks and Conference-Related Things

• See what’s happening today in Dr Pistone’s Online Classics Social Calendar
• SCS Events Calendar

Jobs, Postdocs, and other Professional Matters

• Placement:Service | Society for Classical Studies

Alia

• The Ancient Greeks Were Only 10 Years Away From Inventing The Steam-powered Water Pump
• The Forgotten Legacy of Byzantine Education and Learning
• Why is there a replica of a Roman temple on West 51st Street?
• The Apollonian and Dionysian: growing up in the Algarve and living in Lisbon – Portugal Resident
• The Accidental Anonymity of Ancient Portraits | The Art Institute of Chicago
• Who Is Really Buried in KV55, Egypt’s Most Mysterious Tomb?

Diversions

• Latin Wordle – latindictionary.io
• GNT Wordle
• Verbdum – Ludus verborum cotidianus

‘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 the end of threatening business.

… 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)

Hodie est Kal. Mart. 2776 AUC ~ 9 Anthesterion in the second year of the 700th Olympiad

In the News

• Comb made from human skull found among A14 artefacts – BBC News
• Comb made from human skull may have been used in Iron Age rituals | Live Science
• Châlons-en-Champagne: the Customs mobile scanner is at the service of archaeologists
• Steel was already being used in Europe 2,900 years ago, shows study
• Scoperta una tomba di coppia. Lui e lei. 30enni vissuti 3200 anni fa. Sepolti insieme nel letto, sull’oro – Stile Arte
• Mysterious Grave for a Couple Discovered in Armenia – ARTnews.com
• Inscription bearing Persian King Darius the Great’s name discovered – The Jerusalem Post
• Hiker discovers 2,500-year-old ancient receipt from reign of Purim king’s father | The Times of Israel
• Ancient Roman ‘spike defenses’ made famous by Julius Caesar found in Germany | Live Science
• Roman ‘dry cleaners’ shop uncovered along Pompeii street | Miami Herald
• Capo Bove. Il georadar rivela strutture – forse romane – sepolte sotto questo prato – Stile Arte
• Crime in Art Law: Digitalisation, Trafficking, Destruction
• Archaeological survey sheds new light on Sassanid architecture – Tehran Times
• 3000 reperti archeologici di Ercolano in 3D. Presto potranno essere visti da tutti via internet – Stile Arte

In Case You Missed It

• As good as gold … why toothpicks and hair locks are the new treasure | Kate Mavor | The Guardian
• Archaeologists dig new part of Pompeii for rare treasures

Greek/Latin News

• Nuntii Latini mensis Februarii 2023 – Bremen Zwei

Public Facing Classics

• Is it a dildo or is it a …?

Fresh Bloggery

• Egyptian perspectives: Oracles of the Lamb and the Potter on Greco-Macedonians and other foreigners (third-second centuries BCE) | Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World: The Websites of Philip A. Harland
• Late Antique Mining on Cyprus | Archaeology of the Mediterranean WorldLaudator Temporis Acti: The Body Politic
• MASSIVE Redbubble shops sale! | Greek Myth Comix
• Laudator Temporis Acti: Live Free or Die
• AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Greek Tragedy and Modernist Performance: Hellenism as Theatricality
• Glory and Worthless Wealth – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE
• AWOL – The Ancient World Online: (u)Mzantsi Classics: Dialogues in Decolonisation from Southern Africa
• AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Excavating the Future: Archaeology and Geopolitics in Contemporary North American Science Fiction Film and Television
• Celtic figurine, now with hinged phallus action! – The History Blog
• At What Age Did Ancient Greek Women Typically Marry? – Tales of Times Forgotten
• Alchaudonios de Arabier – Mainzer Beobachter
• Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues: CBA Closes its Archaeology Discussion List
• PaleoJudaica.com: Ostracon mentioning Darius I found at Lachish
• PaleoJudaica.com: Saranda synagogue signage restored
• Laudator Temporis Acti: When One Is Old
• February 2023 in Turkish archaeology | Turkish Archaeological News
• Champollion and the Gaul. On a mysterious Eauze inscription | Antiquity at the BnF
• MARGINALIA: All About That JCL Motto: A Keynote Address

Association/Departmental Blogs and News

• The Largest Theater in Ancient Asia Minor Rediscovered – Pergamon Micro-Region
• Book Club | March 2023: Speeches of Demosthenes – The Kosmos Society

Other Blog-like Publications

• Steel was already used in Europe 2900 years ago
• Evidence of steel tools being used in Europe during Late Bronze Age
• Longest hieratic papyrus on display in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum
• March 1st | Fastorum Liber Tertius: Martius – by M.
• Golden necklaces discovered in Bronze Age tomb
• New discoveries at Roman Pompeii

Assorted Twitter Threads

• @DocCrom on Martial, Epigrams 8.36

Fresh Podcasts

• This Week in the Ancient Near East: A Mediterranean Metal Mystery, or, Those Tin Ingots from Uzbekistan? Yeah, Well, They’re at the Bottom of the Ocean on Apple Podcasts

Central Asian tin in a Late Bronze Age shipwreck at the bottom of Mediterranean raises questions like, “who brought the tin thousands of kilometers west from what’s now Uzbekistan,” and “who’s tin was it when the boat sank.” Ok, they’re not questions like, “what is best in life” or “are you going to eat that sandwich” but they’re what we’ve got.

• The Delicious Legacy: Salt- A Brief History on Apple Podcasts

Salt! Homer, Plato, Plutarch, Pliny and Livy all wrote about it in various forms. Life saving, literally we can’t survive without salt our bodies won’t function. Preserving in more than one ways, giving us the chance to have food in the lean harsh winters… Delicious in so many ways. And yet not known too well, commonly misunderstood, and with many myths attached to it. Let’s explore the deep, ancient and fascinating history of salt!

• Dan Snow’s History Hit: The Mysterious Voynich Manuscript on Apple Podcasts

Matt Lewis continues his Mystery Month on Gone Medieval with another tantalising enigma of the Middle Ages – possibly the most mysterious manuscript that exists anywhere in the world. Carbon-dated to the early 15th century, the Voynich manuscript is hand-written in an unknown script, embellished with illustrations and diagrams, showing people, fantastical plants and astrological symbols. Yet the origins, authorship, and purpose of the manuscript continue to baffle experts, which have even included British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II. Matt finds out more from Raymond Clemens, Curator of Early Books and Manuscripts at Yale University.

• The Dirt Podcast: Achoo, and Welcome to The Dirt on Apple Podcasts

This week, Amber is recovering from a nasty cold that has left her normally dulcet tones extremely froggy. So we’ve made lemons out of that germy lemonade (ew, sorry). It’s an episode about the archaeology, prehistory, and history of the common cold! Learn how to tell if a skeleton had the sniffles, figure out if there are ghosts in your colon, uncover the great Vitamin C scam, and more!

• History Hack: History Hack: Persian Wars, Battle of Plataea on Apple Podcasts

Roel Konijnendijk joins us to talk all things Ancient Greek, but more specifically the battle of Plataea during the second Persian war.

• The Partial Historians: Special Episode – Our Top Ten at Ten on Apple Podcasts

On the 1st March 2013, something momentous happened. We published our first episode of the Partial Historians podcast! Clearly, this is an event akin to Hannibal crossing the Alps or the expulsion of the kings. Well, perhaps not quite. But it certainly changed our lives forever in ways that we could not imagine. Therefore, we decided to mark the occasion by getting together and discussing our Top Ten Moments from the Roman Republic thus far. We hope you enjoy our chat about the Republic as much as we have enjoyed making this show for the past ten years….

• Thin End of the Wedge: 52. Birgül Öğüt: phytoliths in west Asian archaeology on Apple Podcasts

Birgül explains about her work using microscopic plant remains to understand life in ancient western Asia. What are phytoliths and how do we find them? How can such microscopic evidence tell us about building use, for example? And where do they sit in the archaeological toolkit?

Fresh Youtubery

• 49. Numerian – What’s That Smell? – YouTube | Classical Association Northern Ireland
• Cleopatra’s Needle – The Harrowing Journey from Alexandria to London – YouTube | Dig it With Raven
• Ancient Greek Theatre For Modern Veterans: PETER MEINECK On The Need For Military Voices In Academia – YouTube | Moan Inc.

Book Reviews

• BMCR ~ Stephen R.L. Clark, Cities and thrones and powers: towards a Plotinian politics. Brooklyn: Angelico Press, 2022.
• BMCR ~ Christopher A. Faraone, Sofia Torallas Tovar, Greek and Egyptian magical formularies, vol. I: text and translation. California classical studies, 9. Berkeley: California Classical Studies, 2022.

Exhibition Related Things

• Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth and Reality | The Past
• The Capitoline Museums’ New Republican Rome Archaeology Exhibition | Art & Object
• Celtic coin hoard exhibition opens at La Hougue Bie – BBC News

Online Talks and Conference-Related Things

• The character of the cemetery at Phaleron
• “Dorian” “Civic” Dining? Rethinking the Syssition on Crete and at Sparta
• The long journey of the house mouse from central Asia to the western Mediterranean
• See what’s happening today in Dr Pistone’s Online Classics Social Calendar
• SCS Events Calendar

Jobs, Postdocs, and other Professional Matters

• Lecturer (Doctoral Schedule) – Classical and Oriental Studies Hunter College
• Placement:Service | Society for Classical Studies

Alia

• Nestor – March 2023 issue available
• 4 Battles From Alexander the Great’s Legendary Persian Campaign
• Ancient Romans Used “Magic” To Keep Restless Spirits Down, Bizarre Grave Suggests | IFLScience

Diversions

• Latin Wordle – latindictionary.io
• GNT Wordle
• Verbdum – Ludus verborum cotidianus

‘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 a year of strife and arguing.

… 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)