ROGUECLASSICIST’S BULLETIN ~ June 11, 2025

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LEGENDA
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Archaeology in the age of big data: User-friendly software streamlines analysis of past collections
https://phys.org/news/2025-06-archaeology-age-big-user-friendly.html

How was the wheel invented? Computer simulations reveal the unlikely birth of a world-changing technology
https://phys.org/news/2025-06-wheel-simulations-reveal-birth-world.html

Ancient Pharaonic Wall, Bronze Workshops Among New Finds in Luxor, Egypt – GreekReporter.com

Ancient Pharaonic Wall, Bronze Workshops Among New Finds in Luxor, Egypt

How I uncovered a potential ancient Rome wine scam
https://phys.org/news/2025-06-uncovered-potential-ancient-rome-wine.html

How I uncovered a potential ancient Rome wine scam
https://theconversation.com/how-i-uncovered-a-potential-ancient-rome-wine-scam-258215

2,700-year-old kohl from Iran reveals first known use of graphite in ancient eye makeup | Archaeology News Online Magazine

2,700-year-old kohl from Iran reveals first known use of graphite in ancient eye makeup

Archaeologists unearth Roman-era sarcophagus showing Greek gods in drinking contest | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/sarcophagus-greek-gods-drinking-israel-b2767866.html

Romans traded exotic animals across empire | University of Cincinnati
https://www.uc.edu/news/articles/2025/06/romans-traded-exotic-animals-across-empire.html

Mysterious grave of woman and girl from 400 B.C. discovered in idyllic German town | Fox News
https://www.foxnews.com/travel/mysterious-dumped-bodies-woman-child-found-archaeologists-picturesque-town

[AI?]Wall and vault collapse in Pompeii after Campi quake | The Jerusalem Post
https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-857302

Excavations reveal a vast Roman villa complex
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2025/06/excavations-reveal-a-vast-roman-villa-complex

Hoard of 13 Roman coins unearthed near Boughton in Norfolk | Eastern Daily Press
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/25230561.hoard-13-roman-coins-unearthed-near-boughton-norfolk/

Roman-era ‘fast food’ discovered in ancient trash heap on Mallorca | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/romans/roman-era-fast-food-discovered-in-ancient-trash-heap-on-mallorca

Ancient Roman Fast Food: Songbirds Were a Popular Snack in 1st-Century Mallorca – Arkeonews
https://arkeonews.net/ancient-roman-fast-food-songbirds-were-a-popular-snack-in-1st-century-mallorca/

A Roman Giant Emerges From Dutch Soil in Nijmegen – And Urban Development Might Destroy It

A Roman Giant Emerges From Dutch Soil in Nijmegen – And Urban Development Might Destroy It

Decorative terracotta pieces challenge existing ideas on Carpetania’s role in Mediterranean globalization
https://phys.org/news/2025-06-terracotta-pieces-ideas-carpetania-role.html

[AI?]Intact Roman pot found at Drumanagh leaves archaeologists ‘breathless’ | The Jerusalem Post
https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-857307

[AI?]British Museum denies report of Parthenon Sculptures loan deal | The Jerusalem Post
https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-857303

David Frost is wrong about the Elgin Marbles
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/06/11/david-frost-is-wrong-about-the-elgin-marbles/

Rome to open up Caelian Hill with new green areas, walks and views
https://www.wantedinrome.com/news/rome-caelian-hill-new-green-areas-views.html

Pompeii, Hercules’ Garden House inaugurated. Philologically reconstructed garden
https://www.finestresullarte.info/en/museums/pompeii-hercules-garden-house-inaugurated-philologically-reconstructed-garden

Picasso Forgery at Heart of Busted Greek Antiquities Ring – tovima.com

Picasso Forgery at Heart of Busted Greek Antiquities Ring

Stolen Syrian antiquities flood online marketplace after Assad fall | The National
https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/2025/06/11/syrian-antiquities-facebook-marketplace-trafficking/

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey takes over Findlater Castle for filming
https://www.scotsman.com/regions/aberdeen-and-north-east/christopher-nolan-the-odyssey-filming-scotland-moray-findlater-castle-5171858

What was the early modern reception and status of Herodotus? – Herodotus Helpline

What was the early modern reception and status of Herodotus?

Vol. 18 (2024) | Histos
https://histos.org/index.php/histos/issue/view/3

Reading the Roman Revolution 23: Crisis in Party and State | Archaeology of the Mediterranean World

Reading the Roman Revolution 23: Crisis in Party and State

Laudator Temporis Acti: The Monotonization of the World
https://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2025/06/the-monotonization-of-world.html

Murdered Immigrant Children and a Plague: A Different Medea Story – SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE

Murdered Immigrant Children and a Plague: A Different Medea Story

(1) Aeneid II.199-297 – by publius vergilius maro
https://aeneiddaily.substack.com/p/aeneid-ii199-297-48d?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1678986&post_id=164267966&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=q7tlq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

A Metaphor About Academic Writing – Noodlings

A Metaphor About Academic Writing

PaleoJudaica.com: Mythological sarcophagus relief excavated in Caesarea
https://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2025/06/mythological-sarcophagus-relief.html

On the Origins of Naqraus, the Legendary First Antediluvian King of Egypt – JASON COLAVITO
https://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/on-the-origins-of-naqraus-the-legendary-first-antediluvian-king-of-egypt

Batumi Archaeological Museum Treasure. Catalog | Spartokos read

Batumi Archaeological Museum Treasure. Catalogue

Karthago: archäologische Stadtbiographie – Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Karthago: archäologische Stadtbiographie

Traité d’accentuation grecque – Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Traité d’accentuation grecque

Judea under Greek and Roman rule – Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Judea under Greek and Roman rule


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AUDIENDA
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Vespasian #1 – Welcome to Vespasian – Life Of The Caesars

Vespasian #1 – Welcome to Vespasian

The Ultimate Mesopotamian Mystery – Dan Snow’s History Hit | Acast

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VIDENDA
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(824) CASA DEL GIARDINO DI ERCOLE – Ricostruzione filologica del giardino – YouTube

Understanding Ancient Egypt with Kara Cooney
https://ancientnow.substack.com/p/understanding-ancient-egypt-with?utm_source=podcast-email&publication_id=752411&post_id=164740970&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_content=watch_now_button&r=q7tlq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

(824) Inside the Curia Julia Then and Now – YouTube

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NOTANDA
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The Next Ovid(s) | ScuolaNormaleSuperiore
https://www.sns.it/it/evento/next-ovids

The Conversation: How I uncovered a potential ancient Rome wine scam

Dan Henson/Shutterstock

Conor Trainor, University College Dublin

Before artificial sweeteners, people satisfied their cravings for sweetness with natural products, including honey or dried fruit. Raisin wines, made by drying grapes before fermentation, were particularly popular. Historical records show these wines, some known as passum, were enjoyed in the Roman Empire and throughout medieval Europe. The most famous of raisin wine of the period was Malmsey, with varities of this type produced across the Mediterranean.

Today, the popularity of raisin wines has declined, although some still are held in very high esteem. The best-known of these are Italy’s appassimento (literally “withering”) wines, such as Amarone. High-quality modern raisin wines from the Veneto region of Italy are left to dry for three months before being pressed and undergoing fermentation, a time-consuming process.

Ancient sources describe similar techniques for producing raisin wines. Columella, a Roman agricultural writer, noted that drying and fermentation together took at least a month. The Roman author, Pliny the Elder, mentioned a process in which grapes were partially dried on the vine, then further dried on racks before being pressed eight days later.

For the past ten years, I have been studying the process of how this wine was created at the archaeological site of Knossos in Crete. While famous for its earlier, Minoan, remains, Crete was renowned throughout the Roman empire for producing high-end sweet raisin wine, which was traded far and wide.


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High-quality raisin wines required patience and time but it seems as if Knossos’s wine producers might not have been following these traditional methods.

What my archaeological investigations of a wine production site, as well as at wine shipping container (amphora) production sites at Knossos, is that Cretan wine-producers may have been deceiving their Roman-era customers with a knock-off version of passum.

Crete’s winemaking legacy

Remains of a wine production facility in Knossos present a picture of winemaking practices a generation or so before the Romans conquered Crete. More intriguingly, ongoing studies of excavated Roman-era pottery kilns revealed a repeated pattern of four key artefacts being produced in one region of Knossos: amphorae for transporting wine, amphora stands for filling them, large ceramic mixing bowls, and ceramic beehives.

Crete, the largest Greek island, has been producing wine for thousands of years. Archaeological evidence from Myrtos suggests winemaking as early as 2170 BCE. Its strategic location between Greece and North Africa made it a valuable asset and in 67 BCE, after a brutal three-year campaign, the Romans conquered the island.

Following the conquest, Crete’s economy underwent major changes. The Romans established a colony at Knossos, transformed the governance system, and significantly expanded wine production. Rural activity surged, and archaeologists have found large numbers of amphorae (clay jars used for transporting wine) suggesting that Cretan wine was exported in huge quantities.

Romans bought so much Cretan wine partly because of shipping routes. Grain shipments that helped feed the people of Rome frequently stopped at Crete en route from Alexandria to Italy, allowing merchants to load additional cargo. But demand was also driven by the reputation of Cretan raisin wine, which was considered a luxury product, much like Italy’s appassimento wines today. Beyond taste, it was also valued for supposed medicinal properties. The Roman army physician Pedanius Dioscorides wrote in his famous five-volume medical work Materia Medica that the wine cured headaches, expelled worms and even promoted fertility.

The sudden rise in demand for sweet Cretan wine in Rome and on the Bay of Naples in the early days of empire may have encouraged winemakers to speed up production.

Pliny the Elder described one shortcut for making raisin wine – boiling grape juice in large pots. However, the mixing basins found at Knossos show no evidence of heating. This suggests another possibility: adding honey to wine before packaging. The beehives, excavated from Roman-era pottery kilns and identifiable by their rough interior surfaces designed for honeycomb attachment, hint at a connection between winemaking and honey. Similar discoveries at other Greek sites suggest that honey and wine may have been mixed before shipping.

This method would have been quicker and cheaper than drying grapes for weeks. But if Cretan producers were substituting honey for traditional drying techniques, was this truly raisin wine? And, were Roman consumers aware? The vast quantities of Cretan wine imported into Rome suggest that buyers weren’t too concerned either way. Based on the sheer volume of now-empty wine amphoras from Crete that have been found in archaeological sites in Rome, I suspect that the populous of Rome likely cared less about authenticity than we do today.The Conversation

Conor Trainor, Ad Astra Research Fellow / Assistant Professor, University College Dublin

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.