ROGUECLASSICIST’S BULLETIN ~ July 22, 2025

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LEGENDA
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Study translates fragmentary ancient Sumerian myth around 4,400 years old
https://phys.org/news/2025-07-fragmentary-ancient-sumerian-myth-years.html

Bronze armour discovery dates from time of Trojan War
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2025/07/bronze-armour-discovery-dates-from-time-of-trojan-war/155649

First Trilobite Fossil Amulet from Roman Early Empire (1st–3rd Century CE) Found in Spain – Arkeonews
https://arkeonews.net/first-trilobite-fossil-amulet-from-roman-early-empire-1st-3rd-century-ce-found-in-spain/

Archaeologists Uncover Rare Trojan War-Era Armor from 1200 BCE in Czechia – Arkeonews
https://arkeonews.net/archaeologists-uncover-rare-trojan-war-era-armor-from-1200-bce-in-czechia/

‘A rare find for Etruscan archaeology’: Archaeologists discover sealed, untouched tomb in central Italy | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/pristine-etruscan-tomb-discovered-in-italy-contains-more-than-100-untouched-artifacts

Archaeologists dig deep in Türkiye’s southeast
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/archaeologists-dig-deep-in-turkiyes-southeast-211718

How to defend the humanities | Blog post by Mary Beard | The TLS

How to defend the humanities

The sirens in ancient mythology weren’t the seductresses of today | National Geographic
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/sirens-mythology?loggedin=true&rnd=1753204825699

Fresh Discovery At Pompeii Sheds New Light On Power Available To Women In The Roman City » TwistedSifter

Fresh Discovery At Pompeii Sheds New Light On Power Available To Women In The Roman City

Why we need Homer’s ‘Odyssey’ in these xenophobic times – The Forward
https://forward.com/culture/books/756958/daniel-mendelson-translation-homer-odyssey-emily-wilson-peter-green/

Why Does Elon Musk Have Such a Straight View of Antiquity?
https://hyperallergic.com/1029023/why-does-elon-musk-have-such-a-straight-view-of-antiquity/

Centuripe’s imperial past shines in its Archaeological Museum
https://www.finestresullarte.info/en/travel/centuripe-s-imperial-past-shines-in-its-archaeological-museum

Teaching Tuesday: Prepping Classes | Archaeology of the Mediterranean World

Teaching Tuesday: Prepping Classes

(9) A Roman Werewolf – by Armand D’Angour
https://armanddangour.substack.com/p/a-roman-werewolf?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1877109&post_id=168939525&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=q7tlq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

(9) Aeneid VII.212-322 – by publius vergilius maro
https://aeneiddaily.substack.com/p/aeneid-vii212-322-4cc?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1678986&post_id=167466036&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=q7tlq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

PaleoJudaica.com: A fifth-century West Bank church was not burned down.
https://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2025/07/a-fifth-century-west-bank-church-was.html

PaleoJudaica.com: Biblical archaeology, interrupted
https://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2025/07/biblical-archaeology-interrupted.html

Het Rijk van Toledo (1) – Mainzer Beobachter

Het Rijk van Toledo (1)

Het Rijk van Toledo (2) – Mainzer Beobachter

Het Rijk van Toledo (2)

Is Gibbon’s “The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire” Still Relevant? | TheCollector
https://www.thecollector.com/edward-gibbon-decline-fall-roman-empire/

Aeschylus. The Persians – Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Eschyle. Les Perses

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VIDENDA
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Greek and Latin ChangeMakers | Faculty of Arts and Humanities
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanities/classics/about-us/equality-diversity-and-inclusion/greek-and-latin-changemakers

(131) Secrets of Pompeii’s Dead (Full Episode) | Drain the Oceans | National Geographic – YouTube

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NOTANDA
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The SSEA – Symposium 2025 – Call for Papers
https://ssea2020.thessea.org/index.php/events/annual-scholars-colloquium-symposium-weekend-2025/symposium-2025-call-for-papers

ROGUECLASSICIST’S BULLETIN ~ July 21, 2025

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LEGENDA
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Vounous Bowl: A 4,000-year-old basin holding 4 miniature cows and 18 people — that was buried for mysterious reasons in a Bronze Age tomb in Cyprus | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/vounous-bowl-a-4-000-year-old-basin-holding-4-miniature-cows-and-18-people-that-was-buried-for-mysterious-reasons-in-a-bronze-age-tomb-in-cyprus

War Interrupts Biblical Archaeology – Christianity Today

War Interrupts Biblical Archaeology

Riemerge la tomba di un neonato etrusco con poppatoio, scoperta nella necropoli di Sasso Pinzuto | FOTO
https://www.viterbotoday.it/attualita/tomba-neonato-necropoli-sasso-pinzuto-tuscania-21-luglio-2025.html

Big Roman shoes discovered near Hadrian’s Wall—but they don’t necessarily mean big Roman feet
https://phys.org/news/2025-07-big-roman-hadrian-wall-dont.html

Eating Salted Fish in Roman Judea – Biblical Archaeology Society

Eating Salted Fish in Roman Judea

This Ancient Greek City Was Swallowed by the Sea—and Yet Refused to Die
https://www.zmescience.com/science/archaeology/this-ancient-greek-city-was-swallowed-by-the-sea-and-yet-refused-to-die/

The First Kiss in Recorded History Took Place 4,500 Years Ago – GreekReporter.com
https://greekreporter.com/2025/07/21/first-kiss-history/

Birth of a Legend: Alexander the Great, July 20-21, 356 B.C. – GreekReporter.com
https://greekreporter.com/2025/07/20/alexander-the-great-birth-july-356-b-c/

Ancient Sunken City of Aenaria in Italy Resurfaces After 2,000 Years – GreekReporter.com
https://greekreporter.com/2025/07/19/ancient-sunken-city-aenaria-resurfaces-italy/

The Enduring Legacy of Suetonius, Rome’s Most Controversial Biographer | TheCollector
https://www.thecollector.com/suetonius-roman-imperial-biographer/

A newly discovered Late Antique port structure in Cap Corse

A newly discovered Late Antique port structure in Cap Corse

Rare intact Etruscan tomb discovered in Italy

Rare intact Etruscan tomb discovered in Italy

British Lawmakers Want to Loan Greece Stolen Parthenon Marbles – The National Herald
https://www.thenationalherald.com/british-lawmakers-want-to-loan-greece-stolen-parthenon-marbles/

[AI?]Ancient Greek shipwreck from 6th century BC found off Sicily coast | The Jerusalem Post
https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-861574

Sicily, part of a Greek marble statue found on the island of Mozia: depicts a woman
https://www.finestresullarte.info/en/archaeology/sicily-part-of-a-greek-marble-statue-found-on-the-island-of-mozia-depicts-a-woman

Project MUSE – From Trophy Towns to City-States
https://muse.jhu.edu/book/128635

Herculaneum Scrolls: title revealed – The Past

Herculaneum Scrolls: title revealed

Book review: ‘Ecstasy’ is a work of horror based on ancient Greek play, ‘The Bacchae’ by Euripides
https://www.daytondailynews.com/lifestyles/book-nook-this-is-the-same-old-story-hes-lost-control-again/E2R2PJDORVHB3FLPQK3J4US5AI/

Michael Cosmopoulos explores the origins of Greek epics in new book, ‘The World of Homer’ – UMSL Daily
https://blogs.umsl.edu/news/2025/07/21/michael-cosmopoulos-the-world-of-homer/

(9) 21 July 58 BCE: From Cicero (at Thessalonica) to Atticus (in Rome)
https://epistulae.substack.com/p/21-july-58-bce-from-cicero-at-thessalonica?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=944078&post_id=168809549&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=q7tlq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

(9) Aeneid VII.1-106 – by publius vergilius maro – Aeneid Daily
https://aeneiddaily.substack.com/p/aeneid-vii1-106-e2b?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1678986&post_id=167465613&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=q7tlq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

(9) Aeneid VII.107-211 – by publius vergilius maro
https://aeneiddaily.substack.com/p/aeneid-vii107-211-c4c?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1678986&post_id=167465694&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=q7tlq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

(9) Composing ancient Greek verse – by Armand D’Angour
https://armanddangour.substack.com/p/composing-ancient-greek-verse?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1877109&post_id=168780400&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=q7tlq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Laudator Temporis Acti: The Ritual of Greek Drinking
https://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-ritual-of-greek-drinking.html

Weekly Varia no. 139, 07/19/25 – Noodlings

Weekly Varia no. 139, 07/19/25

Apollos – Mainzer Beobachter

Apollos

New Images of P52 | Variant Readings

New Images of P52

PaleoJudaica.com: New photos of P52
https://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2025/07/new-photos-of-p52.html

PaleoJudaica.com: Crossan Festschrift (Cascade)
https://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2025/07/crossan-festschrift-cascade.html

PaleoJudaica.com: Redfield, Adventures of Rabbah and Friends (SBL)
https://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2025/07/redfield-adventures-of-rabbah-and.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Tel Kabri The 1986–1993 Excavation Seasons
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/tel-kabri-19861993-excavation-seasons.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Explorando el pasado de manera multidisciplinar: Conexiones entre la arqueología y otras ciencias y artes
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/explorando-el-pasado-de-manera.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: The lost mummy of Djedhor: Reconstructing the burial of a Ptolemaic priest from Thebes
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-lost-mummy-of-djedhor.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Archaeology of Sinai: The Ophir Expedition
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/archaeology-of-sinai-ophir-expedition.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: The Renewed Archaeological Excavations at Lachish (1973–1994)
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/open-access-pdf-open-in-new-window.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Inscribed in Clay: Provenance Study of the Amarna Tablets and Other Ancient Near Eastern Texts
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/inscribed-in-clay-provenance-study-of.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Megiddo IV: The 1998–2002 Seasons
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/megiddo-iv-19982002-seasons.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Ḥorvat ‘Uza and Ḥorvat Radum: Two Fortresses in the Biblical Negev
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/horvat-uza-and-horvat-radum-two.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Timber in Ancient Israel: Dendroarchaeology and Dendrochronology
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/timber-in-ancient-israel.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Une bibliothèque à la découverte de la Crimée
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/une-bibliotheque-la-decouverte-de-la.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Art Institute of Chicago joins the numismatic Linked Open Data cloud
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/art-institute-of-chicago-joins.html

The ancient city and necropolis of Amisos | Spartokos read

La cité antique et la nécropole d’Amisos

Cicero: De Re Publica – Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Cicero: De Re Publica

Ilias diachronica. Sprachgeschichtliche Textbearing and unitarische Analysis – Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Ilias diachronica. Sprachgeschichtliche Textbearbeitung und unitarische Analyse


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AUDIENDA
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How Phoenicians Turned Into Carthaginians But Forgot Their Genes, or, The Other Phoenician Scheme | This Week in the Ancient Near East
https://thisweekintheancientneareast.podbean.com/e/how-phoenicians-turned-into-carthaginians-but-forgot-their-genes-or-the-other-phoenician-scheme/

NT Pod: NT Pod Shorts: What is the Synoptic Problem?
https://podacre.blogspot.com/2025/07/nt-pod-shorts-what-is-synoptic-problem.html

Versus: The Cimbrian War III – Deep into History – Apple Podcasts

Anima Latina – CXCVIII – 20.07.2025 – Podcast – Radio Vaticana – Vatican News
https://www.vaticannews.va/it/podcast/rvi-programmi/anima-latina/2025/07/anima-latina-20-07-2025.html
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VIDENDA
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(107) Roman era mosaic panel with erotic theme that was stolen during World War II returns to Pompeii – YouTube

(108) Cursed Ring Lost in Roman Britain #ancientrome – YouTube

ROGUECLASSICIST’S BULLETIN ~ July 18 , 2025

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LEGENDA
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Scavi di Unipa, statua di marmo greca rinvenuta nell’isola di Mozia | Nuovo Sud
https://www.nuovosud.it/articoli/283635-cronaca-trapani/scavi-di-unipa-statua-di-marmo-greca-rinvenuta-nellisola-di-mozia

Archeologia, le «infradito» dei Romani nei nuovi mosaici di Piazza Armerina – Giornale di Sicilia
https://enna.gds.it/articoli/cronaca/2025/07/17/archeologia-le-infradito-dei-romani-nei-nuovi-mosaici-di-piazza-armerina-f6ee56f0-21c3-4616-8452-566793d75685/

Bulgaria Unearths Marble Slab Depicting Entire Family from Roman-Era Heraclea Sintica – Novinite.com – Sofia News Agency
https://www.novinite.com/articles/233461/Bulgaria%2BUnearths%2BMarble%2BSlab%2BDepicting%2BEntire%2BFamily%2Bfrom%2BRoman-Era%2BHeraclea%2BSintica

An ‘Anomaly’ Near the Pyramids May Reveal an Ancient Portal
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a65436974/pyramids-anomaly-portal/

Romans loved to wear socks and sandals — could that be the reason for the massive shoes found at Magna fort? | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/romans/romans-loved-to-wear-socks-and-sandals-could-that-be-the-reason-for-the-massive-shoes-found-at-magna-fort

Mosaic of lovers returned to the Archaeological Park of Pompeii

Mosaic of lovers returned to the Archaeological Park of Pompeii

[AI?]Negev’s Byzantine wine: A tale of boom, bust, and rainfall dependence | The Jerusalem Post
https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-861363

In London, a Roman era demolition pit yields fragments of beauty : NPR
https://www.npr.org/2025/06/20/nx-s1-5439437/roman-artifacts-london

Ancient rural settlement in Fordingbridge reveals Iron Age to Roman transition, daily life, and industry | Archaeology News Online Magazine

Ancient rural settlement in Fordingbridge reveals Iron Age to Roman transition, daily life, and industry

Geomatics for heritage preservation: Team DIRECT at the Etruscan Necropolis of Cerveteri | Politecnico di Torino
https://www.polito.it/en/polito/communication-and-press-office/poliflash/geomatics-for-heritage-preservation-team-direct-at-the

2,200-year-old Celtic settlement discovered in Czech Republic — and it’s awash in gold and silver coins | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/2-200-year-old-celtic-settlement-discovered-in-czech-republic-and-its-awash-in-gold-and-silver-coins

Italian archaeologists unearth ancient Tomb in Cyrene (Shahat) | The Libya Observer
https://libyaobserver.ly/news/italian-archaeologists-unearth-ancient-tomb-cyrene-shahat

[AI?]Archaeologists discover 6,000-year-old temple, ‘blood channel’ in Turkey | The Jerusalem Post
https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-861220

Roman bathing complex discovered in eastern Türkiye
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2025/07/roman-bathing-complex-discovered-in-eastern-turkiye/155625

Mad emperor Caligula had surprising medical knowledge, new research reveals from ancient Roman texts | Archaeology News Online Magazine

Mad emperor Caligula had surprising medical knowledge, new research reveals from ancient Roman texts

Vast marble pavement of ancient agora found in Turkey – The History Blog

Vast marble pavement of ancient agora found in Turkey

Mosaic looted by Nazi officer returned to Pompeii – The History Blog

Mosaic looted by Nazi officer returned to Pompeii

Update on sealed Etruscan tomb – The History Blog

Update on sealed Etruscan tomb

Archaeologists discover 3000-year-old stone slab that is breaking ancient ideas of gender – Scoop Upworthy
https://scoop.upworthy.com/archaeologists-discover-a-3000-year-old-stone-slab-that-is-breaking-ancient-ideas-of-gender-ex1

A Late Antiquity Port Discovered at the Northern Tip of the Island of Corsica

A Late Antiquity Port Discovered at the Northern Tip of the Island of Corsica

What the Herodion will look like after the “facelift”: The architectural masterpiece that has seen everything – From bullfights & Delphic Festivals to Maria Callas & Rudolf Nureyev – ProtoThema English

What the Herodion will look like after the “facelift”: The architectural masterpiece that has seen everything – From bullfights & Delphic Festivals to Maria Callas & Rudolf Nureyev

Ancient Greek Shipwreck Found Off Sicily Reveals Rare Artifacts – GreekReporter.com
https://greekreporter.com/2025/07/18/ancient-greek-shipwreck-sicily-rare-artifacts/

Ancient Erotic Mosaic Stolen From Pompeii During World War II Finally Returns Home
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-erotic-mosaic-stolen-from-pompeii-during-world-war-ii-finally-returns-home-180986992/

Russian Archaeologist Charged for Illegal Excavations in Crimea | Ukraine news – #Mezha

Russian Archaeologist Charged for Illegal Excavations in Crimea

Remains of Massive Ancient Feast in Greece Reveal Eating Habits From 7,500 Years Ago – GreekReporter.com
https://greekreporter.com/2025/07/18/neolithic-feast-remains-greece-eating-habits/

Dating Game: How Archaeologists Date the Biblical Past – The BAS Library

Dating Game: How Archaeologists Date the Biblical Past

Tornos News | Chios Homeric sound: Music festival with classical education and world Greekness
https://www.tornosnews.gr/en/greek-news/culture/52409-chios-homeric-sound-music-festival-with-classical-education-and-world-greekness.html

How Greece and Germany helped make the marvels of archeology modern
https://nypost.com/2025/07/12/lifestyle/how-greece-and-germany-helped-make-archeology-modern/

Isn’t It Time to Break Up with Linguistic Dating? Rethinking Hornkohl’s Method—and What Comes Next | Bible Interp
https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/articles/isnt-it-time-break-linguistic-dating-rethinking-hornkohls-method-and-what-comes-next

The Fabulous Story of Eudoxus of Cyzicus, the Greek Navigator Who Reached India and Attempted to Circumnavigate Africa in the 2nd Century BCE

The Fabulous Story of Eudoxus of Cyzicus, the Greek Navigator Who Reached India and Attempted to Circumnavigate Africa in the 2nd Century BCE

Flesh, blood, memory: Oedipus reimagined | eKathimerini.com
https://www.ekathimerini.com/culture/1275511/flesh-blood-memory-oedipus-reimagined/

(9) An ancient soldier at arms – by Armand D’Angour
https://armanddangour.substack.com/p/an-ancient-soldier-at-arms?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1877109&post_id=168637278&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=q7tlq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

(9) Aeneid VI.752-853 – by publius vergilius maro
https://aeneiddaily.substack.com/p/aeneid-vi752-853-fe6?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1678986&post_id=167465214&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=q7tlq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Collections: Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part II: Starting at the End – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry

Collections: Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part II: Starting at the End

The Feats of Hercules [Подвиги геракла] (2000) – Animated Antiquity

The Feats of Hercules [Подвиги геракла] (2000)

Caesar en het Parthische Rijk – Mainzer Beobachter

Caesar en het Parthische Rijk

OTTC: A Blog for Old Testament Textual Criticism: Diachronic Diversity in Classical Biblical Hebrew
http://oldtestamenttextualcriticism.blogspot.com/2025/07/diachronic-diversity-in-classical.html

PaleoJudaica.com: Simulations of late-antique viticulture in the Negev
https://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2025/07/simulations-of-late-antique-viticulture.html

PaleoJudaica.com: Longacre on Hornkohl on linguistic dating of biblical Hebrew
https://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2025/07/longacre-on-hornkohl-on-linguistic.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Ḥorvat Meṣad: A Way-Station on the Jaffa–Jerusalem Road
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/horvat-mesad-way-station-on.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: kinattutu ša darati: Raphael Kutscher Memorial Volume
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/kinattutu-sa-darati-raphael-kutscher.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Studies in the Iron Age Pottery of Israel: Typological, Archaeological and Chronological Aspects
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/studies-in-iron-age-pottery-of-israel.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Imagery and Representation: Studies in the Art and Iconography of Ancient Palestine. Collected Articles
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/imagery-and-representation-studies-in.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: The Alphabet at the Turn of the Millennium: The West Semitic Alphabet ca. 1150–850 BCE. The Antiquity of the Arabian, Greek and Phrygian Alphabets
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-alphabet-at-turn-of-millennium-west.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Breaking Ground: Plant Domestication in the Neolithic Levant: The “Core-Area One-Event” Model
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/breaking-ground-plant-domestication-in.html

The Sons of Remus & the Question of Western Identity ~ The Imaginative Conservative

The Sons of Remus & the Question of Western Identity

A library to discover Crimea | Spartokos read

Une bibliothèque à la découverte de la Crimée

Empresses-in-waiting: female power and performance at the late Roman court – Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Empresses-in-waiting: female power and performance at the late Roman court

Apuleius’s Metamorphoses Across Places and Ages: Receptions, Rewritings, Legacies – Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Les Métamorphoses d’Apulée à travers les lieux et les âges. Réceptions, réécritures, héritages


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AUDIENDA
===========================================================
Ancient Warfare Podcast: AWA366 – When did the classical Greek hoplite cease to exist?
https://sites.libsyn.com/91136/awa366-when-did-the-classical-greek-hoplite-cease-to-exist

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VIDENDA
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(29) Battle of Silva Arsia: The Birth of the Roman Republic #rome #fyp #shorts #history #romanhistory – YouTube

(29) Hymn to the Muse (short). Mesomedes of Crete. Bettina Joy de Guzman. Ancient Greek with lyre. – YouTube

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The Conversation: Big Roman shoes discovered near Hadrian’s Wall – but they don’t necessarily mean big Roman feet

Tim Penn, University of Reading

Excavations at the Roman fort of Magna near Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland in north east England have uncovered some very large leather footwear. Their discovery, according to some news coverage, has “baffled” archaeologists.

The survival of the shoes is not by itself miraculous or unusual. Excellent preservation conditions caused by waterlogged environments with low-oxygen means that leather, and other organic materials, survive in the wet soil of this part of northern England.

Many years of excavations by the Vindolanda Trust at Vindolanda just south of Hadrian’s Wall, and now at Magna, have recovered an enormous collection of Roman shoes. These finds have provided us with an excellent record of the footwear of soldiers and the civilians who lived around them.

The shoes from Magna stand out because many of them are big. Big shoes have also been found at Vindolanda. However, of those whose size can be determined, only 0.4% are big. The average shoe size at Vindolanda is 9.5 to 10.2 inches in length, which is between a modern UK shoe size 7 to 8.

Big shoes make up a much larger share of the shoes at Magna. The biggest shoe is a whopping 12.8 inches long, roughly equivalent to a modern UK size 12 to 14.

This shoe collection raises an immediate and obvious question: why did people at Magna have such large shoes?

The possible answers to this question raise more questions and bring to the fore a central component of archaeological research: a good debate.

Emma Frame, senior archaeologist for the Magna excavations, suggests: “We have to assume it’s something to do with the people living here, having bigger feet, being potentially taller but we don’t know.”

This idea of bigger feet, bigger people makes a good deal of sense, though it would suggest that some of the military community at Magna were very tall indeed. And, as the Roman cemeteries of Hadrian’s Wall have been little excavated or studied, we have little information about how tall people were in this part of the Roman world.


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Other ideas might be worth entertaining too, however. For example, could these be some kind of snowshoes or winter boots meant to allow extra layers of padding or multiple pairs of socks to be worn?

A letter, preserved by similar conditions to the shoes at Vindolanda, refers to a gift of socks and underpants that was sent to someone stationed there, presumably to keep them warm during the cold winter nights. We also know from other evidence that Syrian archers made up one of the units stationed at Magna. These men would not have been used to the frosty climate of northern England.

Could these large shoes be an attempt to cope with the bitter shock of a British winter? Or instead, could these shoes have a medical purpose, perhaps to allow people with swollen feet or people utilising medical dressings to wear shoes?

It’s important to note, I am not claiming to have the answers. I’m simply putting out some hypotheses which could explain the extra-large shoes based on other evidence we have and potential logical explanations for such large footwear.

These kinds of hypotheses lie right at the heart of the archaeological method. Fresh archaeological discoveries are made everyday, and they often make headlines with phrases about “baffled archaeologists.” While this language can spark public interest, it also risks giving a misleading impression of the discipline. In reality, the work archaeologists like me and thousands of my colleagues around the world do is grounded in careful, evidence-based analysis.

The challenge lies not in our lack of expertise, but in the nature of the evidence itself. Much of the distant past has been lost to time, and what we do recover represents only a small fragment of the original picture.

We’re not so much “baffled” as we are rigorously testing multiple hypotheses to arrive at the most plausible interpretations. Interpreting these fragments is a complex process, like piecing together a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle with many of the most crucial pieces (like the edges) missing.

Sometimes we have exactly the right pieces to understand the big picture, but other times we have gaps, and we have to put forward a series of different suggestions until more evidence comes to light.The Conversation

Tim Penn, Lecturer in Roman and Late Antique Material Culture, University of Reading

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

ROGUECLASSICIST’S BULLETIN ~ July 17 , 2025

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LEGENDA
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[paywalled] Why no one may ever be charged over the British Museum thefts
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/mass-theft-british-museum-peter-higgs-never-charged/

Ancient rural settlement in Fordingbridge reveals Iron Age to Roman transition, daily life, and industry | Archaeology News Online Magazine

Ancient rural settlement in Fordingbridge reveals Iron Age to Roman transition, daily life, and industry

2,700-Year-Old Rare Bronze Knives from the Early Saka Period Unearthed in Kazakhstan – Arkeonews
https://arkeonews.net/2700-year-old-rare-bronze-knives-from-the-early-saka-period-unearthed-in-kazakhstan/

[wtf?]What Ancient Greece can teach the United States about defending against cyber attacks – Atlantic Council

What Ancient Greece can teach the United States about defending against cyber attacks

The Spoon of Diocles, the Mysterious Ancient Medical Instrument for Extracting Arrows Whose Appearance Remains Unknown

The Spoon of Diocles, the Mysterious Ancient Medical Instrument for Extracting Arrows Whose Appearance Remains Unknown

Ancient Greek shipwreck from the 6th–5th Century BC discovered in Sicily – ProtoThema English

Ancient Greek shipwreck from the 6th–5th Century BC discovered in Sicily

Remains of a Sixth-Century B.C. Greek Ship Found in Sicily with Mast and Rope Fragment Perfectly Preserved

Remains of a Sixth-Century B.C. Greek Ship Found in Sicily with Mast and Rope Fragment Perfectly Preserved

Rare Intact Etruscan Tomb in Italy Discovered by International Baylor-led Archaeological Research Team – Popular Archeology

Rare Intact Etruscan Tomb in Italy Discovered by International Baylor-led Archaeological Research Team

Roman bathing complex discovered in eastern Türkiye
https://www.heritagedaily.com/2025/07/roman-bathing-complex-discovered-in-eastern-turkiye/155625

Beware of Dog! A 2,000-Year-Old Warning from Pompeii
https://www.history.com/articles/cave-canem-pompeii-mosaic-beware-of-dog

Big Roman shoes discovered near Hadrian’s Wall – but they don’t necessarily mean big Roman feet
https://theconversation.com/big-roman-shoes-discovered-near-hadrians-wall-but-they-dont-necessarily-mean-big-roman-feet-256369

[AI?]Archaeologists uncover evidence supporting reality of Trojan War | The Jerusalem Post
https://www.jpost.com/archaeology/article-861322

ANSA – Erotic Roman mosaic stolen by Wehrmacht returned to Pompeii
https://www.aman-alliance.org/Home/ContentDetail/92485

[paywalled] Feasts, board games and brawls — life as a Colosseum spectator
https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/feasts-board-games-and-brawls-life-as-a-colosseum-spectator-939bt8g5b

OTTC: A Blog for Old Testament Textual Criticism: Old Latin of Esther
http://oldtestamenttextualcriticism.blogspot.com/2025/07/old-latin-of-esther.html

Two Book Thursday | Archaeology of the Mediterranean World

Two Book Thursday

Agora of Smyrna | Turkish Archaeological News
https://turkisharchaeonews.net/object/agora-smyrna

(8) 17 July 58 BCE: From Cicero (at Thessalonica) to Atticus (in Rome)
https://epistulae.substack.com/p/17-july-58-bce-from-cicero-at-thessalonica?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=944078&post_id=168509167&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=q7tlq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

(8) Aeneid VI.679-751 – by publius vergilius maro
https://aeneiddaily.substack.com/p/aeneid-vi679-751-020?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1678986&post_id=167464901&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=q7tlq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

(8) Gold-digging ants – by Armand D’Angour
https://armanddangour.substack.com/p/gold-digging-ants?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1877109&post_id=168566575&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=q7tlq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

(8) ARTIFACT: Greco-Egyptian stele of Diphilos – by Owen Rees
https://owenrees.substack.com/p/artifact-greco-egyptian-stele-of?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=2470207&post_id=163198070&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=q7tlq&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

Sex on the floor at Pompeii | Blog post | Mary Beard

Sex on the floor at Pompeii

Reuniting the Parthenon Sculptures event

Reuniting the Parthenon Sculptures event

Remarkable Roman road found beneath Manchester streets

Remarkable Roman road found beneath Manchester streets

Commentaries by Oecumenius now online in English – Roger Pearse

Commentaries by Oecumenius now online in English

The Gluttonous Roman Emperor Vitellius of 69 CE | TheCollector
https://www.thecollector.com/vitellius-gluttonous-roman-emperor-69-ce/

Laudator Temporis Acti: Freeloader
https://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2025/07/freeloader.html

Laudator Temporis Acti: The Multitude
https://laudatortemporisacti.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-multitude.html

Hercules van Magusa? – Mainzer Beobachter

Hercules van Magusa?

Hercules Magusanus – Mainzer Beobachter

Hercules Magusanus

PaleoJudaica.com: Archaeological dating methods
https://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2025/07/archaeological-dating-methods.html

PaleoJudaica.com: On linguistic dating of biblical Hebrew
https://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2025/07/on-linguistic-dating-of-biblical-hebrew.html

PaleoJudaica.com: Reordering an Aramaic ostracon that may mention Passover?
https://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/2025/07/reordering-aramaic-ostracon-that-may.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: Village Communities of the Pottery Neolithic Period in the Menashe Hills, Israel: Archaeological Investigations at the Sites of Naḥal Zehora
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/village-communities-of-pottery.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: ipamati kistamati pari tumatimis Luwian and Hittite Studies Presented to J. David Hawkins on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/ipamati-kistamati-pari-tumatimis-luwian.html

AWOL – The Ancient World Online: The Animal Mummies of the Museo Egizio, Turin
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-animal-mummies-of-museo-egizio-turin.html

Aesop’s Fables: a new translation – Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Aesop’s Fables: a new translation

Contacts linguistiques en Grèce ancienne. Diachronie et synchronie – Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Contacts linguistiques en Grèce ancienne. Diachronie et synchronie

Epicureanism and scientific debates. Epicurean tradition and its ancient reception. Volume II. Epistemology and ethics – Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Epicureanism and scientific debates. Epicurean tradition and its ancient reception. Volume II. Epistemology and ethics


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AUDIENDA
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BBC Audio | Business Daily | Looted: the risks of buying ancient history
https://www.bbc.com/audio/play/w3ct6s2b

How an Empire Ends: Gothic Christianity – Ancient History Fangirl

How an Empire Ends: Gothic Christianity

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VIDENDA
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Why is Q so appealing? – YouTube

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Research Associate [Greek Studies/Papyrology] (m/f/d/x) | University of Leipzig | 256
https://uni-leipzig.b-ite.careers/jobposting/9ec27581f7a8e51f59e9faad61ef7d86c27ba55e0