Thelxinoe ~ Classics News for June 7th, 2023

Hodie est a.d. VII Id. Iun. 2776 AUC ~ 19 Thargelion in the second year of the 700th Olympiad

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The discovery of grapes pips at Late Antique Avdat in the northern Negev has us asking questions, like who makes wine in the desert anyway, and how do you get the wine from the desert to the people? Is this a story of wine fancying monks or Breaking Bad style middlemen? Pour a glass and settle in with our contestants!

This week we sit down for a fascinating, lively discussion with author Margalit Fox about her 2013 book, The Riddle of the Labyrinth: the Quest to Crack an Ancient Code.  The story centers around the race to decipher the mysterious “Linear B” script. The first large supply of this script was uncovered on clay tablets on Crete by archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans in 1900, but remained a puzzle for years after Evans failed to crack it.  Young genius (and amateur scholar) Michael Ventris has long been famous for finally getting the job done in 1952, but is that all there is to the story?  Ms. Fox introduces us to classicist Alice Kober of Brooklyn College as the woman who dedicated her life to solving the mystery and is truly the unsung heroine in the narrative.  Tune in and hear how Kober’s painstaking, deliberative work paired with Ventris’ own extraordinary skills finally solved one of the great archaeological mysteries of our time.

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‘Sorting’ Out Your Day:

Today on the Etruscan Brontoscopic Calendar:

If it thunders today, it portends an outbreak of disease, but not many will perish from it. Meanwhile, grains will be plentiful but soft fruits will dry up.

… 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)

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