#classicaltwitter ~ January 29, 2017

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

http://twitter.com/rogueclassicist/status/825737631107518464

http://twitter.com/rogueclassicist/status/825741792926715904

http://twitter.com/rogueclassicist/status/825742372768251905

http://twitter.com/rogueclassicist/status/825743061758177281

http://twitter.com/rogueclassicist/status/825744693841580033

http://twitter.com/rogueclassicist/status/825745270503784448
http://twitter.com/rogueclassicist/status/825745437747462145

http://twitter.com/rogueclassicist/status/825747554994417664
http://twitter.com/rogueclassicist/status/825747810893041666

http://twitter.com/rogueclassicist/status/825749928882364416

http://twitter.com/rogueclassicist/status/825750405099429888

http://twitter.com/rogueclassicist/status/825827721670492160

http://twitter.com/rogueclassicist/status/825828647969968129

http://twitter.com/rogueclassicist/status/825829831829024768

http://twitter.com/rogueclassicist/status/825832877862567938

The Ancient World in Streaming Media ~ January 29, 2017

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

We had to do some tweaking of spiders and the like, but this seems doable now (n.b. there might be some duplicates from the previous installment as well)

Descriptions, where given, come from the media producers

………………………….

Recentiores:

Ancient Greece Declassified

06 What Is Greek Tragedy? w/ Rush Rehm (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides)

http://greecepodcast.libsyn.com/06-what-is-greek-tragedy-w-rush-rehm-aeschylus-sophocles-euripides
Jan 29th 2017, 19:28

When in Rome

Episode XVIII – Diocletian’s Palace
https://soundcloud.com/wheninromepodcast/episode-xviii-diocletians-palace
Jan 3rd 2017, 03:54

The History of Exploration Podcast

Episode 7 – Eudoxus of Cyzicus Doesn’t Always Drink Beer, But When He Does…

Episode 7 – Eudoxus of Cyzicus Doesn’t Always Drink Beer, But When He Does…


Jan 7th 2017, 23:56

MythTake

Episode 18: Homeric Hymn to Dionysus
http://alisoninnes.podbean.com/e/episode-18-homeric-hymn-to-dionysus/
Jan 8th 2017, 22:58

The History of Ancient Greece Podcast

030 – Herodotus and the Rise of Persia
http://www.thehistoryofancientgreece.com/2017/01/030-herodotus-and-rise-of-persia.html
Jan 23rd 2017, 05:04

Sermones Raedarii

Sermo Raedarius XXV
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/sermonesraedarii/episodes/2017-01-24T09_40_25-08_00
Jan 24th 2017, 17:40

Sermo XXIV
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/sermonesraedarii/episodes/2017-01-18T09_47_41-08_00
Jan 18th 2017, 17:47

Quomodo Dicitur? Podcast

QDP Ep 32: De Synonymis

QDP Ep 32: De Synonymis


Jan 23rd 2017, 07:00

Literature and History

Episode 34: The Traditions of Our Forefathers (Euripides’ The Bacchae)
http://literatureandhistory.com/
Jan 24th 2017, 22:22

Roman Emperors: Totalus Rankium

47 Carus
http://totalusrankium.podbean.com/e/47-carus/
Jan 28th 2017, 13:56

The Almost Forgotten

Episode 2.2 – The Diadochi Part 2 – Perdiccas and Eumenes
http://almostforgotten.squarespace.com/podcast/2017/1/17/episode-22-the-diadochi-part-2-perdiccas-and-eumenes
Jan 18th 2017, 02:14

The History of Greece

001 – Proem

Jan 22nd 2017, 00:00

Life Of Caesar

Life of Augustus #50 – Imperium
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LifeOfCaesar/~3/LezEgoIR-3A/
Jan 20th 2017, 07:04

Maeve In America

The Dan-el Episode – Odyssey of the Undocumented

Jan 17th 2017, 11:00

Greek and Roman Drama – Theatre History & Modern Performance (APGRD Public Lectures)

Bodies and Texts: Attitudes towards Ancient Tragedy

Jan 10th 2017, 16:51

Flash Point History

Punic Wars – Part VI – Delenda Est Carthago
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/flashpointhx/episodes/2017-01-19T16_16_15-08_00
Jan 20th 2017, 00:16

The Archaeology of the Mediterranean World

Adventures in Podcasting: David Pettegrew, the Isthmus, and Corinthian Awesomeness

Adventures in Podcasting: David Pettegrew, the Isthmus, and Corinthian Awesomeness


Jan 18th 2017, 14:44

The Partial Historians

Episode 67 – Coriolanus – Exiled!

Episode 67 – Coriolanus – Exiled!


Jan 8th 2017, 09:24

Emperors of Rome

Episode LXIII – Women Poets

Jan 24th 2017, 04:06

From Youtube:

British School at Rome

Society for Classical Studies:

British School at Rome:

Alliterative:

Ancient Blogger:

… that’s all for this week; we’ll try to make this a weekly thing

The Ancient World in Streaming Media ~ January 15, 2o17

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

Preface: years and years ago, my first foray into ‘ancient history newsletters’ was a thing called The Ancient World on Television (AWOTV). It was very popular, but unfortunately over time, the stations which purported to be presenting ‘history’ documentaries (e.g. the History Channel) became more interested in ‘reality’ shows and it became increasingly frustrating trying to find material. Over the past while I’ve been toying with the idea of sort of resurrecting the AWOTV, but this time focusing on things like podcasts (note the list of podcasts on the title bar above this) and a variety of things from Youtube (documentaries, lectures, etc.). The initial idea — I’ll see how long this works — is to present links to podcasts which were updated that week (if possible), some ‘blasts from the past’ which might be of interest, and some video content. It’s not meant to be exhaustive, but should give you enough material to occupy your downtime as needed. Ideally this will be posted on a weekly basis (probably on Sundays). So without further ado, my initial foray into this project:

Recentiores:

Alia:

From Youtube:

Time Commanders: The Battle of Zama (BBC):

The Colosseum before the scaffolding came down (Darius Arya):

Lecture: Cycle céramique. Γιώργος Κυριακόπουλος (Ecole Francaise d’Athenes … lecture in Greek):

Lecture: Arredi di lusso da Ercolano. Maria Paola Guidobaldi (British School at Rome … lecture in Italian; not really video)

Lecture: New Discoveries in Ancient Turkey. C. Brian Rose (Penn Museum):

Artifact Peregrination Score: Thinking Out Loud About Provenance, Collection History, etc.

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

T’other day, as is often the situation, my mind wandered as I was stuck in traffic during the daily commute. Specifically it wandered to the topic of antiquities auctions, controversies over “provenance”, controversies over whether art objects and papyri were legitimate or forged, and how all these matters were as much an issue now — if not a greater issue — as they were a couple of decades ago when I was taking my first trek down the internet superhighway. It occurred to me that the ‘war on antiquities collection’, like the ‘war on drugs’ was pretty much an abject failure. It also occurred to me that if I challenged the current thinking of many, many people I respect, I’ll probably be very unpopular. If nothing else, I hope what follows will provoke a reinvigorated discussion of artifact collecting and related concerns.

We begin with the well-known idea that artifacts are dug out of the ground, sometimes legally in the context of a genuine archaeological dig and sometimes illegally, in other contexts. Antiquities have market value and always have; so much so that there is an ancillary problem of fake artifacts that we often have to deal with as scholars. Another ancillary issue which has bothered me for ages is that artifacts with probably scholarly value vanish into private collections, where they cannot be studied by folks like me. Their value as a ‘commodity’ outweighs their value as an evidentiary piece of the cultural puzzle.

We have long been told — and scholarly societies are increasingly under pressure to follow this line of thinking — that when scholars do comment on possibly-looted or definitely-looted artifacts, we only encourage looting. This has long bothered me as a somewhat spurious piece of logic: when Johnny Tombarolo is stuffing things into a bag out of an Etruscan tomb, he isn’t thinking about how reading some scholarly paper got him into his questionable profession. He’s a criminal and he’s going to loot whether we comment on it or not.

Indeed, it struck me that all our scholarly concern about not commenting on potentially-looted artifacts has done nothing but drive collectors into anonymous land. These are wealthy people whose egos and reputations are a large part of their identity, and while they might not like that we cast doubt on their collecting habits, they’re still going to do it. They just don’t tell us they’re doing it.

With the foregoing in mind, I thought there must be some way to bridge this gap between scholars and collectors to lend confidence to the authenticity of objects and encourage practices which actually add value both from a scholarly point of view and a collector’s point of view. And so, as traffic came to a complete halt on the Burlington Skyway, I came up with what I call the ‘Artifact Peregrination Scale’.

The idea of the scale is to give an artifact a ‘confidence rating’, which scholars can make use of (and contribute to) and collectors can also use for investment purposes (which should have some appeal). It’s basically a 10-point scale, from which points are deducted for various things as follows:

So, starting by giving an artifact 10 points, we:

-1 if find spot is not a documented archaeological dig
-1 if origin is simply a country or not even that
-1 if the first step in the ownership chain is a dealer or auction house
-1 if the acquisition date is simply ‘in the 1980s’ or ‘prior to 1971’ etc. or no acquisition date at all
-1 for every anonymous owner or anonymous collection in the chain

… so essentially half of the score will relate to responsible artifact collection

Points can also be added, however, for scholarly involvement:

+2 if the artifact, perhaps within a year or two of discovery, is published by a scholar with a relevant degree in a peer-reviewed journal or other form of peer-reviewed publication
+1 for scientific reports done by reputable labs which lend confidence to dating (i.e. +1 for each type of test: C14, +1 for a mass spectrometry test, etc.). If such tests aren’t done or aren’t appropriate for an object, its score is given an asterisk.

So just to give an example of the score in action, consider the recently-withdrawn lot 92 from Christies. It’s official “provenance” notes were:

Provenance
with Perpitch Gallery, Paris.
Acquired by the current owner from the above, prior to 1991.

Saleroom Notice
Please note that this lot is withdrawn.

Pre-Lot Text
PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE COLLECTION

So starting with 10 points,

-1 no dig
-1 no country
-1 first step is an auction house
-1 acquisition date is vague
-1 anonyomous owner

… and scientific testing is probably not appropriate for this item.

So lot 92 had a score of 5* before it was withdrawn. It might be worth deducting points as well for items that are withdrawn from an auction (which must have some scholarly basis). There are probably other tweaks that can be included in the scale, but hopefully a number like this could signal to collectors that an item could have more value if, e.g., they let a scholar do some studying of it, essentially taking ‘due diligence’ out of the hands of some backroom at a gallery and putting it into the hands of the collector or degreed scholars (depending on your spin). In theory, an artifact with a higher score would also bring a higher price, which would have an obvious attraction to a collector.

Constructive comments and criticism welcome and encouraged.