From the Telegraph:

The discovery is one of the largest and best-preserved Roman villas yet discovered in the country.

Shaped like a church, the building was discovered on the Isle of Wight, and has been likened to a medieval hall.

Its remains were discovered at the site of another Roman villa in Brading, and are believed to have been constructed 150 years before the other building.

The later Brading villa's remains had disappeared from sight until 1879 when a couple of local men stumbled across them by chance.

Its ornate decorations are unrivalled in Britain and the building may have belonged to Allectus, who in AD293 murdered his predecessor Carausius, a Roman army commander who had proclaimed himself Emperor of Britain.

The discovery is comparable in scale to the Bignor Roman Villa, near Pulborough, and the hall of Fishbourne Roman Palace, near Chichester, both West Sussex.

Its remains, around 3ft below ground, are so well preserved that the standing structure, masonry and many roof tiles have survived.

Sir Barry Cunliffe, Emeritus Professor of European Archaeology at Oxford University and head of the excavation, said: "It's a very impressive building, absolutely magnificent. It could have been seen for miles around."

The residential part had under-floor heating and walls plastered and painted with mock marble patterns while the communal end would have been used for meetings and legal matters such as boundary disputes and payment of dues.

The Victorians explored this part of the site in the 1880s, although they dismissed the remains as a barn.

A team of 30 archaeologists from America and Europe are now involved in the excavation.

The new site will now have to be covered up however, with Sir Barry warning they would disintegrate in two winters.

From Voices:

A SMALL excavation team have beguns works on the ‘Sacred Road’ which runs between the ancient cities of Miletus and Didim.

Head of Excavation in Didim since 2003, German Anreas Furtuöngler said the excavations in the ancient city of Didyma and the renovation works at the Apollon Temple had restarted Monday August 4.

Furtuöngler said the renovation works at the temple would continue for about two and a half months with a team of 24 people and the excavations, which were carried out in the area of Rabbit Island and Forestry Camp last year, would focus this year on the area known as the Sacred Road.

Furtuöngler said that they were following tracks of the Sacred Road in the excavations and had not yet come across any significant findings but only pieces of ceramic.

He said the land route running and the houses on top of the sacred Road had a diverse effect on their work, while traffic on the road around the Apollon Temple was damaging the temple.

Furtuöngler pointed out that the temple was damaged by nature through earthquakes and also by humans through plunderers and undisciplined tourists.

He said there were two officers at the gate but not a single watch in the temple, which was a great defect in controlling the temple and protecting the historical works.

Archaeologist Christoph Kronewirth, running the renovation works, said undisciplined tourists had to be taken under control and believed the road running by the temple had to be closed for traffic.

Apollon Temple

God of sun, music and prophecy, Apollon is an Anatolian god whose roots go back to the Hittites.

According to myth, God Apollon comes across shepherd Brankhos one day. He likes him a lot and teaches him the secrets of prophecy.

The shepherd Brankhos builds the first temple in the name of Apollon in the laurel grove and by the water spring, where the present temple is now.

The Apollon Temple, where merchants sailing from Panormos Harbour and soldiers would seek for prophecies and sacrifice for the gods, well-known for the Medusa Head is now identified with Didim.

For more technical stuff on the temple, see the entry in the Perseus catalog ... plenty of good photos at flickr ...

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS - ST. LOUIS, MO
Washington University in St. Louis seeks an assistant professor of Ancient
Mediterranean Religions/Early Christianity. This position, which will
begin in August 2009, will be held jointly between the Department of
Classics and the Program in Religious Studies. While the precise area of
research specialization is open, we would be most interested in a
promising and productive scholar who is engaged in interdisciplinary study
of Christian literature (canonical and extra-canonical), history,
exegesis, or theology in the context of the religions of the ancient
Mediterranean world. Teaching duties will include courses in Greek and
Latin at all levels, as well as courses in early Christianity and in
Greco-Roman religions. The ability to teach an introductory course in the
New Testament would be particularly welcome. The teaching load is two
courses each semester. Applicants should have a Ph.D. either in Classics
or Religious Studies (in hand by time of appointment), a well-developed
research agenda for the future, and experience in the classroom. Please
submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae, three letters of
recommendation, and a sample of scholarly writing to: Ancient
Mediterranean Religions Search, Religious Studies Program, Campus Box
1065, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis,
MO 63130. Consideration of applicants will begin on October 25, 2008 and
continue until the position is filled; preliminary interviews will be held
at the AAR meeting in Chicago in November and the APA/AIA meetings in
Philadelphia in early January. Washington University is an affirmative
action, equal opportunity employer. Women, minority candidates and persons
with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Items of accumulation in my mailbox over the past little while:

One of the folks who will be helping people figure out their Xbox has a Classics degree (or at least studied Classics) ...

Latin teacher Scott Stephens was selected as Cobb County Teacher of the Year ...

One of the earliest uses of the interweb for 'exhibition' purposes way back in the previous century was something called Rome Reborn ... it has now been significantly enhanced, it appears; more details here but I can't see when we will get to see it ourselves ...

I can't recall whether we mentioned this 'truth about the Picts' piece from the Independent yet ...

The Marshall News Messenger has an oped piece connecting Plato's Gorgias to the upcoming US elections ...

Wanted in Rome reports on the discovery of a Roman mausoleum beneath the Stadio Flaminino ... I haven't found any further coverage, alas ...

BBC Radio 7 has been running a series of dramatizations based (it seems) on Suetonius ... the series does not appear to be online, but perhaps I'm wrong about that ...

A very nice site on the Ancient Olympics ...

Wallpaper had an interview with Bernard Tschumi about that museum ...

The Australian had a lengthy piece on the Villa of the Papyri ...

Nice abstract of an article in Archaeology on the Tomb of the Badger ...

The Dartmouth Review did just that with Alma-Tadema and Antiquity: Imaging Classical Sculpture in Late-Nineteenth-Century Britain at the Hood ...

Am I being unfair to spew coffee at reading that Tyne Daly will be portraying Clytemnestra? ....

If you've been looking for the Extant Works of Arataeus the Cappadocian online, they're now available ...

Some ClassCon in a piece at the Smartset pondering the vague notion of what the 'canon' is now ...

Folks might be interested in reading a small monograph put out by the Pentagon on Military Advantage in History, especially the chapters on the Macedonians and the Romans; definitely different reading about such things from people who are actually military folk ...

Speaking of the military, in the wake of that item on Sophocles' resonance with active soldiers last week, Nancy Reyes sent in a link (thanks!) to an online textbook on biomedical ethics which draws heavily on ancient sources ...

The Journal of Roman Archaeology website has been nicely revamped and has news of the latest monographs being put out therefrom ...

The Times and Transcript (a Canadian newspaper!) has a 'what have the Romans ever done for us' piece (I have to track down the Cicero quote it concludes with)...


Dallas News also had a piece on Dennis Miller, which included this excerpt:

During a rant on Fox News last year, for example, Mr. Miller skewered Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in part by mocking his oratory skills, which are so lacking that the senator makes "Mr. Limpet seem like Demosthenes."

Everybody get your Google on to either learn or remind yourself that a) Mr. Limpet, played by Don Knotts, was a meek, ineffectual nebbish who turned into a cartoon fish in the 1964 film The Incredible Mr. Limpet , and b) Demosthenes was a Greek statesman (384 B.C.-322 B.C.) widely considered to be the greatest of the ancient Greek orators. In a word, wow.

Haven't tried to track down claims in a while but a couple popped up this weekend to distract me long enough ... first there is this claim from the some thing different blog:

The Lydians minted the first coins in 10 BC but it wasn’t until nine hundred years later that the coin toss became a decision-maker. Julius Caesar’s head appeared on one side of every Roman coin of his time,and such was the reverence for the emperor that in his absence often serious litigation was decided by the flip of a coin. If Caesar’s head landed upright, it meant that through the guidance of the gods, he agreed in absentia with the decision in question.

Aside from the anachronism in the first sentence, and the spurious claim of the second, is there any evidence of this sort of 'divinatio' by coin? It is mentioned on scattered sites throughout the interweb (and some books in Googlebooks, none of which seem 'scholarly'), none of which have any authority.

The second item of distraction was the opening bit from a piece on superstitions in the Olympian:

If you delve deep enough into any culture, you will find a repertoire of superstitions. These beliefs and practices pass through time and space -- from one generation to the next, from one culture to another -- with ageless continuity. Take, for example, breaking a mirror. Ancient Romans believed that a broken mirror presages seven years of bad luck. This superstition is now found in North and Latin American folklore.

Again, this is found all over the interweb, and the seven-year limit on the luck does strike me as a 'Roman' number. Outside of that, a tantalizing excerpt from a tome called Mirror by Design connects this somehow with 'scrying' (and connects the latter to ancient Greece), but there do not appear to be any references available. Any refs anyone?

From Il Messaggero:

Un ninfeo o un teatro d'epoca romana sarebbero celati sotto la chiesa di Santa Maria in Forcassi, nell'antico Forum Cassii, nei pressi di Vetralla in provincia di Viterbo. Una delle ultime tappe dei pellegrini della via Francigena in cammino verso Roma. È quanto è emerso nel corso del convegno "Foro Cassio, un'occasione di sviluppo, un'opportunità per creare nuova occupazione", tenuto a Tre Croci.

Durante l'incontro sono stati illustrati gli studi condotti dalla British School at Rome, secondo i quali, tra l'attuale Foro Cassio e Tre Croci, ci sarebbero i resti di una città romana con strade, resti di terme e abitazioni databili tra il II secolo a.C. e il III secolo d.C.. Andrea Natali, docente dell'Università di Bologna ha inoltre ipotizzato che sotto gli affreschi della chiesa di Santa Maria in Forcassi, attribuiti al Masaccio, in stato di conservazione pessimo, ci siano altri dipinti murali precedenti al XIV secolo. Gli amministratori comunali di Vetralla hanno ribadito il loro impegno per la valorizzazione del patrimonio archeologico di Forum Cassii e per l'avvio di una campagna di scavi che riporti alla luce le sue vestigia

... no mention of this at the BSR site yet ...

From IOL:

Archaeologists on an Israeli-German dig south of Jerusalem have uncovered a cache of 15 silver coins dating back 2 000 years and lying in a pot hidden in a pigeon hole.

Describing the find as "exciting", Professor Manfred Oeming, co-director of the excavations at Ramat Rahel, said on Monday that "if you are lucky, you can find a treasure like this (only) every 20 years".

Professor Oded Lipschits, the head of the dig, believes the pot was hidden in a hurry, around the time the Romans destroyed the Biblical temple in 70 AD and the owner of the coins possibly intended to return for them.

Jews commemorated the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple - on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av - on Sunday.

The dig at Ramat Rahel is in its fourth season. The team at the site also found 380 coins from the Byzantine period, the fourth and fifth century AD.

Ramat Rahel is located about halfway between Jerusalem's Old City and Bethlehem, on the border between modern Israel and the West Bank.

Archaeologists believe some sort of palace may have existed there around 700 BC, which may have served as an administrative office, a summer palace, or a palace for women.

In the 5th to 7th centuries AD the site houses a Byzantine church and monastry.

A kibbutz was founded on the site in 1926.

From Hotnews Turkey:

Archeologists unearthed a 1,700-year old Apollon statue in Soloi Pompeipolis ancient city in the southern province of Mersin.

Dr. Remzi Yagci, an archeologist from Dokuz Eylul University, told AA that the statue was made up of bronze in the first half of 3rd century, and belonging to Roman period.

Yagci said that the statue of sun-god Apollon was 615 grams and 20 cm. He added that the statue would be given to officials of Mersin Museum.

Yagci said that their excavations would continue till August 20th. The ancient Roman city of Soloi Pompeipolis was founded in 65-66 B.C. and located 10 kilometers from Mersin in the district of Mezitli.

... can't track down a photo ...

I don't know if it's just me, but I have a heckuva time getting BBC videos to work on demand like they're supposed to ... there currently is, e.g., a video report on that recent pair of sarcophagi found at Newcastle which I can't get beyond the 'loading' stage. I'm curious whether it sheds any light on the state of the child burial ... the caption to the piece reads:

A second sarcophagus has already been opened and removed from the site. It contained the headless remains of a child.

The Press Association's coverage was a bit more clear:

The head of the child appeared to have been removed and placed elsewhere in the coffin, which was an unusual but not unknown practice in Roman times. It is possible the burial included the remains of an older person in the same coffin.

We've dealt with headless burials before in these pages ... here ... here ... here ... etc... they are somewhat mysterious although I personally lean toward 'execution victims' as an explanation rather than 'ritual'. A child (some reports suggest he's about six years old) is a bit of a spanner in the works, though.

From Princeton University:

For several decades, archaeologists in Greece have been painstakingly attempting to reconstruct wall paintings that hold valuable clues to the ancient culture of Thera, an island civilization that was buried under volcanic ash more than 3,500 years ago.

This Herculean task -- more than a century of further work at the current rate -- soon may get much easier, thanks to an automated system developed by a team of Princeton University computer scientists working in collaboration with archaeologists in Greece.
Princeton trio

The new technology "has the potential to change the way people do archaeology," according to David Dobkin, the Phillip Y. Goldman '86 Professor in Computer Science and dean of the faculty at Princeton.

Dobkin and fellow researchers will report on their work in a paper they present Friday, Aug. 15, in Los Angeles at the Association of Computing Machinery's annual SIGGRAPH conference, widely considered the premier meeting in the field of computer graphics.

"This approach really brings in the computer as a research partner to archaeologists," said Dobkin, who got the inspiration for the project after a 2006 visit to the archaeological site of Akrotiri on the island of Thera, which in present-day Greece is known as Santorini.

To design their system, the Princeton team collaborated closely with the archaeologists and conservators working at Akrotiri, which flourished in the Late Bronze Age, around 1630 B.C.E.

Reconstructing an excavated fresco, mosaic or similar archaeological object is like solving a giant jigsaw puzzle, only far more difficult. The original object often has broken into thousands of tiny pieces -- many of which lack any distinctive color, pattern or texture and possess edges that have eroded over the centuries.

As a result, the task of reassembling artifacts often requires a lot of human effort, as archaeologists sift through fragments and use trial and error to hunt for matches.

While other researchers have endeavored to create computer systems to automate parts of this undertaking, their attempts relied on expensive, unwieldy equipment that had to be operated by trained computer experts.

The Princeton system, by contrast, uses inexpensive, off-the-shelf hardware and is designed to be operated by archaeologists and conservators rather than computer scientists. The system employs a combination of powerful computer algorithms and a processing system that mirrors the procedures traditionally followed by archaeologists.

"We mimic the archaeologists' methods as much as possible, so that they can really use our system as a tool," said Szymon Rusinkiewicz, an associate professor of computer science whose research team led the Princeton effort. "When fully developed, this system could reduce the time needed to reconstruct a wall from years to months. It could free up archaeologists for other valuable tasks such as restoration and ethnographic study."
Tables full of fresco pieces

In 2007, a large team of Princeton researchers made a series of trips to Akrotiri, initially to observe and learn from the highly skilled conservators at the site, and later to test their system. During a three-day visit to the island in September 2007, they successfully measured 150 fragments using their automated system.

Although the system is still being perfected, it already has yielded promising results on real-world examples. For instance, when tested on a subset of fragments from a large Akrotiri wall painting, it found 10 out of 12 known matches. Further, it found two additional matches that were previously unknown.

"This showed that the system could work in a real-life situation," said Tim Weyrich, a postdoctoral teaching fellow in computer science at Princeton who is the technical lead researcher on the project and who designed many of its components. The team is planning another trip to the site this fall to permanently install the system for the archaeologists' use, said Weyrich, who in September will become an assistant professor of computer science at University College London.

The setup used by the Princeton researchers consists of a flatbed scanner (of the type commonly used to scan documents and which scans the surface of the fragment), a laser rangefinder (essentially a laser beam that scans the width and depth of the fragment) and a motorized turntable (which allows for precise rotation of the fragment as it is being measured). These devices are connected to a laptop computer.

By following a precisely defined and intuitive sequence of actions, a conservator working under the direction of an archaeologist can use the system to measure, or "acquire," up to 10 fragments an hour. The flatbed scanner first is used to record several high-resolution color images of the fragment. Next, the fragment is placed on the turntable, and the laser rangefinder measures its visible surface from various viewpoints. The fragment is then turned upside down and the process is repeated.

Finally, computer software, or algorithms, undertake the challenging work of making sense of this information. The Princeton researchers have dubbed the software that they have developed "Griphos," which is Greek for puzzle or riddle.

One algorithm aligns the various partial surface measurements to create a complete and accurate three-dimensional image of the piece. Another analyzes the scanned images to detect cracks or other minute surface markings that the rangefinder might have missed.

The system then integrates all of the information gathered -- shape, image and surface detail -- into a rich and meticulous record of each fragment.

"This in itself is extremely useful information for archaeologists," said Weyrich.

Once it has acquired an object's fragments, the system begins to reassemble them, examining a pair of fragments at a time. Using only the information from edge surfaces, it acts as a virtual archaeologist, sorting through the fragments to see which ones fit snugly together.

"Having this ability to really exhaustively try everything very quickly could potentially be quite helpful," said Benedict Brown, whose doctoral thesis, completed recently under the direction of Rusinkiewicz, is devoted in large part to the fresco project.

Analyzing a typical pair of fragments to see whether they match is very fast, taking only a second or two. However, the time needed to reassemble a large fresco may be significant, as the system must examine all possible pairs of fragments. To make the system run faster, the researchers are planning to incorporate a number of additional cues that archaeologists typically use to simplify their searching for matching fragments. These data include information such as where fragments were found, their pigment texture and their state of preservation.

However, Weyrich noted, Princeton's system will never replace the experience, contextual knowledge and "soft skills" that conservators and archaeologists bring to the table. "Reconstructing these frescoes is incredibly complex, given the condition of the fragments and the sheer number of fragments," said Weyrich. "The computer takes over the laborious parts of the process while leaving the important, intuitive decisions to the humans."

This research by the Princeton Graphics Group was funded by the Kress Foundation, the Seeger Foundation, the Thera Foundation, the Cotsen Family Foundation and the National Science Foundation.

The Department of Classics at Mount Allison University in Sackville NB will be hosting the Annual Meeting of the Atlantic Classical Association on the afternoon of Friday 31st of October and Saturday November 1st, 2008. This will take place in conjunction with the Annual Crake Lectures, to be given by Dr. Helen King of Reading University on Thurs. October 30 and Friday October 31st.

The conference's theme will be 'Quality of Life in the Ancient World'. Although Dr. King's research on Medicine and Physicians in the ancient world addresses this topic through health, we intend for the theme to be broadly construed: we hope collectively to explore 'quality of life' in the varied material conditions of living in the ancient world, as a goal of ancient philosophical and historiographical thought, and as recurring theme of ancient literature from Hesiod to Augustine.

Please submit abstracts of up to 200 words for papers of twenty minutes to Bruce Robertson by Tuesday September 30th.

XI INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON ROMAN PROVINCIAL ART
Mérida (Spain), May 18-21, 2009

As a member of the Academic Steering Committee, I would like to encourage CAC/SCEC colleagues to consider participating in the 11th International Colloquium on Roman Provincial Art, to be held in Mérida (Spain), May 18-21, 2009, at the invitation of the Museo Nacional de Arte Romano (MNAR; the National Museum of Roman Art) and the Institut Català de Arqueologia Clàssica (ICAC; the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology). (Post-congress excursions, not included in the standard registration fee, will take place on May 22-23.)

The theme of the 11th Colloquium will be: “Rome and the Provinces: Models and Diffusion”.

Proposals for the presentation of research papers or regional syntheses (20 minutes, plus 10 minutes discussion), news of recent finds (10 minutes, plus 5 minutes discussion), or posters will be welcome on the following topics:

* Metropolitan artistic models.
* Variants on urban models found in regional artistic workshops.
* Regional workshops and the dissemination of models: routes and circuits.
* Regional art and its influence on Rome.

The official Colloquium languages are Spanish, French, English, German, and Italian.

The Academic Steering Committee reserves the right to accept or reject proposals.

The Colloquium proceedings will be published.

Full details, including instructions for the submission of proposals for papers (deadline: November 15, 2008) and for registration (deadline: December 31, 2008), are now available (in Spanish and in English) on the conference’s website: http://oliba.uoc.edu/icac/merida/.

The Department of Classics at McMaster University invites applications for a new tenure-track appointment in Greek Literature at the Assistant Professor level to commence July 1, 2009. McMaster University is a research-intensive university, and the Department of Classics has an undergraduate degree program in Classics, as well as a graduate program at the M.A. and Ph.D level. The successful candidate will have a Ph.D. in Classics, with specialization in Greek language and literature, and demonstrated excellence in teaching and research, with a clearly defined research program which will result in publication. The successful candidate will be expected to teach ancient Greek language and literature at all levels (in the original as well as in translation) and to contribute to all aspects of the Department's graduate program. The ability to teach courses in Latin as well as Greek is an advantage. Applicants should send a letter of application, together with a curriculum vitae and a sample of their writing (e.g., an article or chapter of a book/dissertation) to:

Dr. Michele George, Chair, Department of Classics,

McMaster University, 1280 Main West,

Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M2,

Canada

e-mail:georgem AT mcmaster.ca;

fax: (905) 577-6930


Applications must be received by Friday, November 28, 2008, and applicants should arrange for three letters of reference to reach the Department by the same date. All documentation submitted in support of your application becomes the property of the University and is not returnable. The Department will be conducting interviews at the January 2009 meeting of the American Philological Association in Philadelphia. Applicants are encouraged to consult the departmental website at: http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~classics/

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and Permanent Residents will be given priority. McMaster University is strongly committed to employment equity within its community, and to recruiting a diverse faculty and staff. The University encourages applications from all qualified candidates, including women, members of visible minorities, Aboriginal persons, members of sexual minorities, and persons with disabilities.

The Department of Classics at the University of Toronto is soliciting applications for a tenure-stream position at the rank of Assistant Professor, to be filled by a specialist in Latin poetry with expertise in republican Latin literature and/or Roman drama. The successful applicant will have demonstrated potential for excellence in research and teaching, and will be expected to contribute to a growing and research-intensive doctoral programme and to a thriving undergraduate programme in Latin, Greek, and Classical Civilization; an ability to teach Latin and Greek literature at all levels is required. The department welcomes a wide range of methods and innovative approaches to the study of literature and is particularly interested in candidates who combine a thorough training in Classics with an interest in other disciplines in the humanities or social sciences. The Department of Classics cooperates closely with the graduate Drama Centre, the Centre for Comparative Literature, the Centre for Medieval Studies, the Women and Gender Studies Institute, and the Departments of Art, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, and Philosophy, among others.

The appointment will begin 1 July 2009; an appropriate doctoral degree must have been earned by that date. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Applications should include: a curriculum vitae, a sample of academic writing, evidence of excellence in teaching, and a short description of the applicant’s current research plans. Applicants should also arrange to have three letters of recommendation sent to: Latin Poetry Search Committee, Department of Classics, University of Toronto, 125 Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C7, CANADA.

To ensure full consideration, the application and all supporting documentation should be received by November 1, 2008.

The University of Toronto is strongly committed to diversity within its community. The University especially welcomes applications from visible minority group members, women, Aboriginal persons, persons with disabilities, members of sexual minority groups and others who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

Any enquiries about the application should be sent to chair.classics AT utoronto.ca.

... August listings up at the APA site ...

The Eighth Biennial
SHIFTING FRONTIERS IN LATE
ANTIQUITY CONFERENCE
"* Shifting Cultural Frontiers in Late Antiquity* "
Indiana University

Bloomington, Indiana
April 2-5, 2009

The Society for Late Antiquity announces that the Eighth Biennial Conference
on Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity will be held at Indiana University
and will explore the theme "Shifting Cultural Frontiers in Late Antiquity"
[ca. 200 - 700 AD]. The confirmed plenary speakers will be Professors Jas
Elsner (Corpus Christi, Oxford) and Seth Schwartz (Jewish Theological
Seminary).

Beneath the familiar political and religious narrative of late antiquity
lies a cultural history both more complicated and more fascinating. Late
antiquity was a time of intense cultural negotiation in which new religious
communities and new populations sifted through existing modes of cultural
expression, adopting many elements for themselves and turning others aside.
This conference seeks to understand how cultural transformation occurred
amidst the political and religious disruption that can seem characteristic
of late antiquity. To this end, we seek contributions that explore three
distinct areas of late antique cultural history: 1) the interaction of
"high" and "low" culture, 2) the impact of changing and collapsing political
centers on their peripheries, and 3) the emergence of hybrid literary,
artistic, and religious modes of expression. Possible contributions to
these areas may highlight the permeable division between elite and
vernacular culture, the ease with which cultural memes were transmitted
across geographic and linguistic boundaries, the adaptability of established
cultures to new political and social realities, and the degree to which
newcomers were integrated into existing cultural communities.

As in the past, the conference will provide an interdisciplinary forum for
ancient historians, philologists, Orientalists, art historians,
archeologists, and specialists in the early Christian, Jewish, and Muslim
worlds to discuss a wide range of European, Middle-Eastern, and African
evidence for cultural transformation in late antiquity. Proposals should be
clearly related to the conference theme. They should state both the problem
being discussed and the nature of the new insights or conclusions that will
be presented.

Abstracts of not more than 500 words for 20-minute presentations may be
submitted via e-mail to Prof. Edward Watts,
*shifting.frontiers.8 AT gmail.com*(Department
of History, Indiana University, Ballantine Hall, Rm. 828, 1020
East Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47405-7103, USA). The deadline for
submission of abstracts is October 15, 2008. The submission of an abstract
carries with it a commitment to attend the conference should the abstract be
accepted.

The final submission deadline for the AIA's 110th Annual Meeting, to
be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, January 8-11, 2009, is less
than two weeks away.

The full Call for Papers and submission instructions are available on
the AIA website (www.archaeological.org). Please be sure to review
these instructions prior to submitting your abstract or session. All
submissions must be made by means of online submission via the AIA
website. The program committee is particularly keen to receive
submissions on the following topics: European Prehistory; Ancient Near
East; new methods of research and analysis, and thematic papers from
any region or period that address use of sacred space, funerary art
and practices, patterns of urbanism, and identifying ethnicity in the
physical record. All submissions, of course, must pass the PAMC's
vetting process to be put onto the program. As with past meetings, all
submissions must be made electronically. The online submission forms
and supporting documents are available on the AIA website.

* View the 2009 Call for Papers -
http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10454

? Online Submission Forms -
http://www.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10193

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Southwest Texas Popular Culture Association/American Culture
Association will once again be sponsoring a session on CLASSICAL
REPRESENTATIONS IN POPULAR CULTURE (formerly entitled “Classical Myths
in Recent Literature and Film”) at the 30th Annual meeting to be held
February 24-28, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Conference Hotel in downtown
Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Papers on any aspect of Greek and Roman antiquity in contemporary
culture are eligible for consideration. Papers focused on the following
themes are particularly welcome:

Classical themes in contemporary art
Classical references in popular music
Classics and Western film
Classic sword and sandal films
Modern representations of Greek and Roman women
Roman history in contemporary literature and film
Classical references in advertising and marketing
Classics on the internet
Classical representations in popular culture and pedagogy

Other possible topics include (but are not limited to): film versions of
ancient myths; modern adaptations of Classical material in film,
television, music, or literature; the Classical heroic figure in modern
film or literature; Classical period historical fiction in modern film
or literature; Greek epic or drama in popular culture; and Greek and
Roman mythology in children's film, television, or literature.
Presentations will be limited to 15 minutes.

Submit abstracts of 500 words or fewer to Kirsten Day at
kirstenday AT yahoo.com. The priority deadline for abstract submissions is
NOVEMBER 15, 2008, and the final deadline is DECEMBER 1, 2008.
Information about the site, travel, graduate student awards, guest
speakers, special events, a complete list of areas, and other conference
matters can be found on the conference website:
http://swtxpca.org/documents/home.html.

See you in Albuquerque!

From ThaIndian:

Archaeologists have uncovered two 1,800-year-old Roman stone coffins at a dig on the site of a former office building in Newcastle, UK.

These coffins are thought to have been used to bury members of a rich and powerful family from the nearby walled fort of Pons Aelius, whose West Gate would have been sited just yards away.

While the lid of one sarcophagus will be lifted soon by Durham University experts to discover what it holds inside, the other sarcophagus has already been opened and removed from the site for safekeeping.

It was found to contain the poorly-preserved skeleton of a child, aged around six years old, which was submerged in water and sludge.

The head of the child appeared to have been removed and placed elsewhere in the coffin, which was an unusual but not unknown practice in Roman times.

It is possible the first burial included the remains of an older person in the same coffin.

The sarcophagi, about 70cm wide and 180cm long, have walls around 10cm thick and weigh up to half a tonne each.

They are both carved out of a single piece of sandstone. Each lid was fixed in place with iron pegs sealed with molten lead.

According to archaeologist Richard Annis, from Durham University, They would certainly have had to belong to a wealthy family of a high status in the community, perhaps at fort commander level or at senior level in the Roman army.

Very few people could have afforded to bury their child in such a grand fashion, he added.

Other discoveries at the site, on Forth Street, include cremation urns, providing evidence of other Roman burials on site; and, a cobbled Roman road which experts believe may have been part of the old main road from the South of England to the North.

Also discovered were a Roman well and a Medieval well; the remains of the foundations of Roman shops and workers homes, along with the remains of flint tools from Stone Age hunter-gatherers.

From the Moscow Times:

Impressionist art is hardly a rarity in Moscow. In fact, a large part of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts' original collection was made up of French Impressionist paintings. But the new exhibition of Edgar Degas' illustrations for two books, which opened this week at the Museum of Private Collections, is something special.

"This is the first time that all of the illustrations have been exhibited together," said Anna Chudetskaya, the exhibition's curator. "This is a unique opportunity to see rare and unfamiliar works by one of the most enigmatic members of the Impressionist movement."

The Pushkin Museum's large Impressionist collection was acquired before the Revolution by the Moscow merchants Ivan Morozov and Sergei Shchukin. Degas, however, is a relative rarity in Russia. By the early 20th century, Chudetskaya explained, he had become something of a classic, and thus less of a draw for the two collectors, whose great talent lay in discovering relatively unknown or underappreciated artists.

But now, 100 years after Morozov and Shchukin, the artist and private collector Yuri Petukhov is reviving the old tradition and filling in the gaps. "Over the last few years, Petukhov has been focusing on French art, and more specifically, graphic art," Chudetskaya said. Among his recent finds are two rare volumes published by the art collector and bibliophile Ambroise Vollard, with illustrations by Degas. These two works are now being exhibited in the Gallery of Private Collections.

Degas' illustrations, which were originally included with the books in loose-leaf print portfolios, occupy the walls of an entire floor of the gallery. The books themselves, Lucian's "Dialogs of the Courtesans" and Ludovic Halevy's "The Cardinal Family," are on display in two glass cases in the center of the room.

Neither book came out during the artist's lifetime, Chudetskaya said. "The prints that serve as illustrations for 'Dialogs of the Courtesans' were not actually created for the purpose," she said. They represented Paris' seedy underworld and were shown only to a few of Degas' close friends.

"They reveal a side of Degas that most are unfamiliar with," she said. Degas' "public art" had to pass "his internal censor," and so, as long as he lived, the world remained ignorant of what she describes as his "ruthless depiction of Paris' darker side."

Even after his death, the prints were rarely seen. "Many of them were destroyed by Degas' brother in an attempt to preserve the artist's reputation, and those that survived were auctioned off and scattered among various private collectors," Chudetskaya said.

It was only in the 1930s, almost 20 years after Degas' death, that Vollard published some of the prints as illustrations to Lucian's work.

According to the exhibit's catalog, Vollard was at first unsure whether he could use Degas' depictions of modern brothels as illustrations for a classical text on the same subject. He went so far as to ask an expert on antiquity if the courtesans of Ancient Greece could have worn stockings. Apparently, the answer -- that they probably did wear them, because they would have needed a place to put their earnings -- was enough to overcome Vollard's initial skepticism.

The illustrations to Halevy's "The Cardinal Family" were not published during Degas' lifetime for a different reason, Chudetskaya said. Since the story is told in the first person, Degas decided to use the author's likeness in some of his illustrations. Halevy, however, was not amused at being portrayed as a member of the morally suspect world of his characters and refused to accept Degas' contribution.

But the illustrations were finally published alongside the book after Degas' death, again thanks to the efforts of Vollard. The complex process of turning Degas' monotypes, which could only be produced once, into reproducible etchings took 3 1/2 years.

"Today, the original monotypes are scattered among various museums and private collections and some are considered to be lost," Chudetskaya said. But the prints from the books that are on display provide a fascinating insight into a little-known side of Degas' work. "One of the copies was even purchased by Picasso," she said.

I'm not sure what the evidence is for 'stocking'-wearing in Greece. We know of the Roman soccus, and a number of sites make vague reference to 'stockings' being worn by slaves in Greece ... similiter, stockings are only useful for keeping earnings of the paper variety, no? I think someone was pulling M. Vollard's leg ...

From the Times:

With the number of tourists in Rome down by 5 per cent this summer — thanks to the credit crunch and the strong euro — the city fathers have come up with a scheme to bring back the crowds: a Disneyland-style theme park depicting life in Ancient Rome, complete with gladiators and Julius Caesar.

It might be thought that Rome already has enough genuine marvels to offer, from the Colosseum, the Forum and the Pantheon to St Peter’s and countless Renaissance palaces and Baroque churches. But Nazzereno Sacchi, the head of the Roman traders’ association, said that 2008 was proving a “black year” for tourism, and that thousands of waiters, cooks and hotel staff were having to be laid off.

In response, the new right-of-centre Rome administration plans to build the Ancient Rome theme park on a site of 400-500 hectares (988-1,235 acres), yet to be chosen. Mauro Cutrufo, the deputy mayor, said: “Our model is EuroDisney in Paris.” The aim was to have the “family friendly entertainment park” open for customers within three to four years, he said.

Instead of Pirates of the Caribbean, visitors would be offered rides through a replica of the Colosseum, where they could watch gladiators fighting each other or wild animals, as the Emperor looked on. The park would offer attractions based on life both in republican Rome, ending with the murder of Julius Caesar and civil war, and the power and might of the Roman Empire.

Mr Cutrufo said that he was looking for private investment in the theme park to the tune of €700-€800 million (£555 million£635 million), and calculated that it would bring an extra three million people a year to the Eternal City. A feasibility study would be completed next month.

Giuseppe Roscioli, head of Federal-berghi, the Italian hoteliers’ association, said that he backed the idea, provided that it was accompanied by other measures, such as the expansion and upgrading of airport facilities in the Lazio region.

Claudio Mancini, head of tourism for the Lazio region — which is controlled by the Centre Left — was sceptical. He said that Lazio was using its promotion budget of €1 million to target not only the United States and Europe but also the growing number of visitors to Italy from China, Russia, Japan, Eastern Europe and the Arab world. But a Disney-style theme park was incompatible with Rome’s character and urban preservation plan.

“I say no to Americanisation,” Mr Mancini said. There were, in any case, considerable planning regulation hurdles to overcome, since “500 hectares is no small amount of land”.

The omens from previous schemes are not auspicious. Plans were mooted to transform the set of the television drama series Rome — which boasted 20,000sq metres (215,000sq ft) of streets, squares, temples and shops in Ancient Roman style — into a theme park, but a destructive fire a year ago at the Cinecittà film studios appears to have put paid to the idea.

Ten years ago a plan was announced for an Ancient Rome theme park called Roma Vetus near Orvieto, 50 miles north of the capital, with two-thirds scale reproductions of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Baths of Caracalla and the Pan theon. Originally due for completion by 2000, the park has yet to be constructed.

There are still some news reports kicking around about Roma Vetus ... here ... and here ... Variety's coverage from that time drops some more names ...

From AP:

The screams of agony from the soldier echoed through the ballroom-turned-theater, forcing a hushed whisper among those witnessing his sudden break with reality.

He was no longer with his wife, seated beside him on the stage; no longer with his comrades. In his mind, he was back on the battlefield, killing his enemy — the price of years of combat stress from witnessing war's horrors.

In this "Theater of War," the wounds date back millennia and the words spoken by actors are translated from Greek, but they speak to Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans and the doctors and therapists who treat them.

"I wanted to keep the pain to myself, son, but now it cuts straight through me. Do you understand? It cuts straight through me," the lead character in the play "Philoctetes" tells a comrade.

Those hidden wounds and their effect on family members and caregivers were the focus of the Greek readings at a three-day combat stress conference hosted by the Marine Corps that addresses post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression brought on by combat.

Just like the characters in the tragedies of Sophocles' "Ajax" and "Philoctetes," many of the Marines and sailors in the audience Wednesday night know the damage isn't always on display.

"I found that even 2,500 years ago Sophocles was using words like 'shell-shocked' and 'the thousand-yard stare.' Those are things that you hear today," said retired Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman, who fought in the fierce Iraq battle of Fallujah in November 2004.

"I know it's a bit odd to have Greek plays read to a conference of military people," said actor David Strathairn, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in "Good Night, Good Luck," who read the role of Philoctetes. "But you read these plays and you understand they are the first investigations into the condition of war in Western civilization."

Roughly 40,000 troops have been diagnosed with PTSD since 2003, making identifying and treating troops a priority. Earlier this year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged troops to get psychiatric counseling for wartime mental health problems, saying it wouldn't count against them if they apply for national security clearances for sensitive jobs.

"I don't know if the readings are going to get anyone to admit they have a problem. My goal is to open up a space for dialogue," said Bryan Doerries, who directed and translated the ancient plays.

Doerries was inspired to produce the performance by Dr. Jonathan Shay, author of the psychology book "Achilles in Vietnam," who took the position that Greeks used theater as a way to reintroduce combat veterans into society through the plays of Sophocles and others.

"We know that Greek drama was theater for combat veterans by combat veterans," Doerries said.

In the first-of-its kind readings for military personnel, Doerries said he selected the two plays because they were textbook cases of PTSD, even though the Greeks didn't have a term for it.

In Sophocles' "Ajax," the play follows the story of a combat veteran who slips into depression and attempts to kill his commanding officer only to be shamed by his actions and later have his wife and comrade try to talk him out of suicide.

"Philoctetes" tells the story of a wounded soldier left behind by his army, which then returns for him in the last year of the Trojan War. But Philoctetes struggles with the emotional trauma of accepting medical care from an army he longer trusts.

To make the plays more palatable to a modern audience, Doerries updated the language. But some of the signature lines in "Ajax" that describe his mental state translated through the ages to the more than 300 people in the audience.

Some women in the audience nodded their heads when Ajax's wife, played by stage actress Heather Raffo, intoned: "A divine madness poisoned his mind, tainting his name during the night."

Each 40-minute reading was met with a standing ovation, and a nearly two-hour discussion followed with Marines and their wives lining up to share their stories and their take on the Greek tragedies.

Kopelman, who wrote the memoir "From Baghdad with Love: A Marine, the War and Dog Named Lava," said he was also taken by a scene in "Philoctetes" where two soldiers bond over their dead comrades.

"That's something all warriors can relate to," he said.

Retired Navy Capt. Bill Nash, a psychiatrist who was embedded with troops in 2004 in Iraq, said the story of Philoctetes brought back memories of a counseling session with a Navy corpsman who suffered from PTSD brought on by a combat-related experience.

Nash said the corpsman had promised a scared, young Marine private that he would make sure to look after him during the battle of Fallujah. The private was cornered by insurgents during house-to-house fighting and killed, calling out for the corpsman as he died.

The suffering Ajax's wife endured while coping with her husband's demons moved Marshele Carter Waddell to tears. Waddell is the mother of a Marine and wife of a Navy SEAL diagnosed with PTSD in 2005 after multiple deployments.

"I don't think much has changed at all," she said of the plays' relevance today. "The war came home with my husband all four times."

FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS

9TH UNISA CLASSICS COLLOQUIUM
University of South Africa, Pretoria

DATE: October 23 - 25, 2008

THEME: Greeks, Romans, Africans

INVITED SPEAKERS:

Prof Karla Pollman, University of St Andrews
Prof John Hilton, University of KwaZulu-Natal (Durban)
Prof Jo-Marie Claassen, University of Stellenbosch.

Contributions are invited on topics related to the reciprocal relationship
between Africa and the cultures of Greece and Rome. Papers dealing with
ancient authors writing about Africa or with an African connection,
historical and archaeological issues, as well as the reception of the
classical world in Africa are welcomed. While the colloquium focuses on
classical material, we encourage proposals from related fields and of an
interdisciplinary nature.

Papers are limited to 45 minutes. Please submit abstracts of appr. 200
words via e-mail attachment to bosmapr AT unisa.ac.za by 10 September 2008.
The body of your email should include your name, institution, department,
e-mail address, and the title of your paper.

The Unisa Classics Colloquium is a pleasant and intimate conference in a
relaxed atmosphere with ample opportunity for discussion. Over two and a
half days, appr. 20 papers from scholars across the world are presented.We
avoid parallel sessions to promote unity and focus in the conference, and
attendants get to know one another properly. We also try to show guests
from abroad a little of the country during the conference.


Venue

The colloquium takes place on the main campus of the University of South
Africa in Pretoria, capital of the Republic of South Africa. Among other
attractions, Pretoria is famous for its Jacaranda trees, which are in full
bloom at the time of our colloquium
(http://www.southafrica.info/travel/cities/pretoria.htm)

Programme

We start on Thursday morning the 23th and end at lunch time on Saturday
the 25th of October. This means that you should preferably book your
flight to arrive on the 24th already. You may book your ticket out for
Saturday evening, but that might have cost implications (staying for a
Saturday night often reduces the ticket price considerably) and you will
lose out on the Pilanesberg outing (se below).

A preliminary programme will be published soon at:
http://www.unisa.ac.za/Default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=18743

Conference Fee

Full conference: R350-00 (including coffees, teas, snacks and lunches)
Per day: R120-00

You may work on an exchange rate of roughly ZAR 7.50/$ or ZAR 15/£.

Postgraduates, other students and interested parties not able to claim
their conference fees back from their institutions should please contact
me for a discount.

Transport

Transport from and to the OR Tambo / Johannesburg International Airport to
be arranged. During the colloquium a university vehicle transports
participants between the guest house and the university in the mornings
and afternoons.

Accommodation

Pretoria offers a variety of accommodation. For logistical reasons, we
prefer that all guests stay at the Brooklyn Guest Houses
(http://www.brooklynguesthouses.co.za/) situated in a safe and attractive
neighbourhood close to Unisa, the University of Pretoria, and the Brooklyn
and Hatfield shopping centres. Single rates are currently ZAR490-00
p.p.p.d. including breakfast. There are limited rooms available, so please
indicate your choice to me as soon as possible. I will make a single
booking for the group.

You are welcome to enquire about alternative possibilities.

Dinners

You are free to experience the local cuisine on your own, or join the rest
of us for an organised outing to one of the Pretoria restaurants after the
day’s proceedings.

Excursions

We plan a trip for Sunday 26 October to the Pilanesberg Game Reserve, 1½
hours drive west of Pretoria where the Big Five may be seen (if we are
lucky) in their natural habitat. Transport will be provided, and the
entrance fee for day visitors is minimal (R20 pp.)

Seminar

Prof. Pollmann has agreed to give a seminar on a topic of her current
research on Monday, 27th of October at Unisa. You are welcome to
participate should you still be around.

Possible publication

The possibility exists – should the contributions be of sufficient
quality - that we may publish the colloquium papers in an edited volume on
the theme. Inclusion of articles is not automatic, since submitted papers
will be peer reviewed. If you would consider submitting your paper to be
published, please indicate that to me via return mail for further
guidelines on style.

Further enquiries relating to the colloquium should be directed to Philip
Bosman at the e-mail and postal addresses given above.

From Villagio Globale:

A giudizio del direttore della missione, prof. Attilio Mastrocinque dell'Università di Verona, potrebbe essere il Mundus della città romana, vale a dire il tempio delle divinità infere

La campagna di scavi nell'area archeologica di Grumento Nova (Potenza), organizzata dall'Università di Verona, a cura del prof. Attilio Mastrocinque e del dott. Massimo Saracino, ha consentito di proseguire l'attività di recupero di un tempio rotondo, decorato da una cornice modanata in marmo, che, a giudizio del direttore della missione, prof. Attilio Mastrocinque, potrebbe essere il Mundus della città romana, vale a dire il tempio delle divinità infere, la porta fra il mondo dei vivi e quello dei morti.

Lo ha riferito lo stesso responsabile della campagna prof. Mastrocinque in una relazione inviata all'assessore regionale alla Formazione-Lavoro-Cultura Antonio Autilio, il quale ha espresso compiacimento per i risultati conseguiti nell'attività di scavo. Autilio ha quindi sottolineato l'impegno della Giunta regionale di affidare al Comune di Grumento Nova la predisposizione dello studio di fattibilità dell'istituendo «Parco Archeologico della Val d'Agri» e la destinazione di un fondo di 2 milioni di euro, nell'ambito del Programma Operativo Val d'Agri, per la riqualificazione di un'area più vasta, che comprende il lago del Pertusillo, di rilevanza oltre che archeologica anche naturalistico-ambientale, e che consentirà di compiere un salto di qualità negli interventi di valorizzazione dei beni culturali ed ambientali della Val d'Agri.

Quanto ai risultati della campagna di scavi, sempre il prof. Mastrocique ha detto che «una bella sorpresa è stata la scoperta di una parte di iscrizione dell'imperatore Claudio (41-54 d.C.), che si unisce ad un frammento già rinvenuto nel 2004. Uno fra i punti critici per la ricostruzione della storia di Grumento – a parere del professore dell'Università di Verona - è l'ambiente posto accanto al Cesareo, tempio del culto imperiale. Qui la dott.ssa Federica Candelato sta mettendo in luce, uno ad uno, i molteplici pavimenti, che, con gli oggetti che vi sono racchiusi, servono a ricostruire le fasi di vita del centro grumentino. La piazza del Foro viene indagata dal dott. Ugo Fusco, che ha scoperto un canale di deflusso delle acque, che correva sotto il bel selciato lapideo.

Contemporaneamente agli scavi, dal 28 luglio al 2 agosto si è svolto a Grumento Nova un corso estivo per studenti di archeologia. Il tema trattato è stata l'archeologia preventiva: argomento quanto mai attuale, vista la normativa in corso di definizione al fine della tutela dei beni archeologici nell'ambito dei lavori pubblici e delle grandi opere.
Le lezioni sono state mirate anche all'aggiornamento nelle metodologie della prospezione del sottosuolo. Geo-radar, magnetometria, resistività del terreno, tomografia sono le tecniche attualmente in uso per l'indagine preventiva delle realtà archeologiche presenti nel sottosuolo. I docenti che tengono lezione sono dell'Università di Verona, dello Iuav di Venezia, del centro di eccellenza dell'Università di Perugia, della Fondazione Lerici, della Soprintendenza archeologica della Basilicata. Il Comune di Grumento Nova ha patrocinato l'iniziativa, ospitando i corsi e gli allievi, che sono arrivati da tutte le regioni d'Italia.
All'inizio di agosto i docenti di architettura dell'Università Iuav di Venezia hanno organizzato a Viggiano un altro corso dedicato all'elaborazione informatica delle immagini dei monumenti archeologici. Il corso è stato coordinato dal prof. Francesco Guerra, coadiuvato dal viggianese dott. Dario Cianciarulo ed era destinato a far apprendere metodologie avanzate nella creazione ed elaborazione di immagini digitali, oltre che all'acquisizione di immagini a due o tre dimensioni di monumenti mediante strumenti e programmi specifici. Il Comune di Viggiano ha sponsorizzato l'iniziativa. Entrambi i corsi hanno come oggetto, prima di tutto, la migliore conoscenza del patrimonio archeologico della città romana di Grumentum, perla dell'archeologia della Val d'Agri, nel cui Foro sono riprese le indagini archeologiche da parte dell'Università di Verona. Un lavoro enorme è in corso per studiare i numerosi reperti venuti in luce negli ultimi anni. Giovani studiosi di varie Università, coordinati dalla santarcangelese Teresa Perretti, da Barbara Lepri ed Elisa Tommasella.

Nel frattempo il direttore del Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Grumento Nova sta portando in luce tombe romane, con iscrizioni e corredi di grande interesse. Gli scavi da lui condotti sono stati resi necessari dai lavori per l'ampliamento del museo, il quale si trova collocato in una zona di grande interesse archeologico: tra l'acquedotto romano, l'area sacra di epoca lucana e la chiesa medievale di S. Marco. In settembre inizieranno indagini archeologiche presso la chiesetta di San Laverio, in un'altra area di necropoli romane. Qui lavorerà un'équipe dell'Università di Bari guidata dalla prof.ssa Bertelli.

There are some very nice Roman remains at Grumentum ... some Flickr photos here ... folks with JSTOR access might be interested in A. L. Frothingham, Circular Templum and Mundus. Was the Templum Only Rectangular? American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1914), pp. 302-320

From ThaIndian:

Archaeologists in Rome have unearthed the colossal portrait head of the Roman empress Faustina, wife of the emperor Antoninus Pius, who ruled from A.D. 138 to 161.

The find comes almost exactly one year after archaeologists discovered the remains of a colossal 16 foot statue of the emperor Hadrian (A.D. 117-138) at a spot about 6 m (20 feet) away.

Both the Hadrian statute and Faustina head come from the largest room of the Roman Baths at Sagalassos, which have under excavation for the past 12 years.

This roomcross-shaped, with mosaic floors, and up to 1250 sq. meterswas most likely a cold room or frigidarium.
Earlier, the researchers though that the Faustina head probably belonged to Vibia Sabina, who was only 14 years old when she was forced into marriage with Hadrian.

But it was clear once the head, which was face down, was turned over, that it represented a woman more mature than as Sabina was usually portrayed.

The head is 0.76 m in height (2.5 feet). It has large, almond-shaped eyes (only the tear ducts are rendered, not the iris or pupils as became usual during the reign of Hadrian) and fleshy thick lips.

Its hair is parted in the middle of the front and taken in wavy strains below and around the ears toward the back.

On top of the head is a circlet, a feature typical for most of Sabinas portraits, yet in this case the whole physiognomy of the face clearly indicates it is the empress Faustina the Elder, wife of Hadrians successor Antoninus Pius.

Not sure why ThaIndian (or rather the ANI) seems to always be first off the mark on these things lately ... in the past few minutes, though, the BBC has posted their version, which includes a photo:



The i.d. seems right to me (unlike the Julius Caesar thing, which I still doubt) ... here's a comparative bust from VRoma:

Classical Association of Scotland

CALL FOR PAPERS: THE END OF ANCIENT EMPIRES
University of Edinburgh, 19-20 June 2009

The Classical Association of Scotland (founded 1902) invites offers of papers on any aspect of the above theme for its first annual conference in a new format, to be held in Edinburgh, 19-20 June 2009.

We envisage a primary focus on the fall (or otherwise) of Rome, but welcome contributions, from both experienced and younger scholars, on the decline, fall, or transformation of other ancient empires or hegemonies. The keynote speaker will be Professor T. D. Barnes (Toronto/Edinburgh).

Papers should be 20 minutes long, and will be followed by 10 minutes of discussion.

Please send abstracts (500 words or less) by e-mail attachment to the Secretary, Dr Costas Panayotakis (C.Panayotakis AT classics.arts.gla.ac.uk) by 28 November 2008.

From Il Tempo:

LONGANO Ha più di duemila anni la maschera di bronzo rinvenuta qualche tempo fa in territorio di Longano. È databile alla prima meta' del VI secolo a.C." A parlare della scoperta il soprintendente ai Beni Archeologici della Regione Molise Mario Pagano.

«Fin dall'inizio non abbiamo avuto dubbi sulla sua autenticità - ha spiegato qualche tempo fa Pagano a RaiUtile - visto che da un sopralluogo effettuato sul sito del ritrovamento sono stati raccolti numerosi frammenti, databili dalla fine dell'età del ferro all'eta' arcaica. Il contesto archeologico, il luogo, lo stile non danno dubbi sul fatto che sia vera. Questo e' stato in parte confermato dalle analisi in corso presso l'Istituto Centrale del Restauro e dai restauratori che hanno condotto gli interventi di conservazione". Rimane avvolta nel mistero la funzione della maschera. Per il soprintendente Pagano: "L'oggetto riporta dei fori praticati in epoche diverse a scopo di riparazione, che testimoniano un uso prolungato nel tempo. Quindi, la maschera doveva essere applicata ad un supporto o a un volto. Due sono le ipotesi. La prima e' che venisse indossata in cerimonie rituali da personaggi di altissimo rango della comunità sannitica locale. La seconda e' che fosse parte di uno xoanon, ovvero un immagine di culto, di fattura magnogreca e di epoca arcaica, di cui rappresentava il volto."
Gli xoana sono statue di vari materiali, come legno, metalli o avorio, di epoca arcaica, sul cui volto poteva essere applicata una maschera, come nel caso del Guerriero di Capestrano (VI sec. a. C.).
Infine sulla provenienza della maschera, Pagano ha spiegato a RaiUtile potrebbe trattarsi di un manufatto magnogreco, proveniente da Cuma o Taranto, attraverso la rotta dell'ambra che passava per l'Adriatico. L'oggetto testimonia inoltre un deciso influsso magnogreco in ambito sannitico, gia' in età arcaica.

... alas, no photo ...

From the Ambler Gazette:

Five Upper Dublin High School students won 33 awards from the National Junior Classical League Convention and Latin language competition in Ohio this month.

The convention was held at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, from July 28 to Aug. 2. More than 1,000 students from across the nation represented their schools' Latin clubs and explored their love for the language by competing in sports, Latin academic testing and the arts.
Upper Dublin students Katie Blood, Jenny Chen, Devin Kees, Charlotte Weinstein and Julie Zauzmer attended the convention. The five returned home with awards in categories ranging from photography, swimming, dramatic interpretation, academic testing, essay writing, sight reading of Latin, graphic arts projects and swimming.
The Upper Dublin Team traveled to the convention with Mary Jane Koons, Upper Dublin advisor for the Junior Classical League and Latin teacher for Upper Dublin High School.
Koons said Upper Dublin was the only school in Pennsylvania to send students to the national convention this year. The Upper Dublin team also competed in the state Junior Classical League Convention at Penn State University in May.
Koons said the students' preparation for the Latin games started with their participation at the state convention's contest in Latin related history and vocabulary testing, graphic and creative arts and athletics.
Koons has been taking students to the conventions since about 1998 and encourages them to participate because, she said, it provides them with a unique learning and bonding experience and a positive exchange of ides.
"I feel that they are able to extend their skills and knowledge beyond the classroom and learn so much by doing it. Also, at the convention itself the students are able to associate with Latin students from other states," Koons said.
Weinstein, a senior at the high school, attended the national convention for the third time. Weinstein earned fourth place in sight Latin reading poetry and won third place for dramatic interpretation of a passage from the Aeneid. Weinstein, who has been taking Latin classes since seventh grade, said she enjoys meeting other students interested in Latin.
Weinstein said each of the students who attended scored in the top five for at least one event each.
"It's really exciting because Latin is one of the smaller languages at our school, so it is nice to see a group of people who are interested in the same subject," she said.
Weinstein and Zauzmer both competed in the creative arts and won awards for oratories and dramatic interpretation. Weinstein placed 10th overall, and Zauzmer placed sixth.
Zauzmer has taken Latin since eighth grade. This was her third year attending the convention, and she won third place overall for editing a newsletter - The Keystone - for the state's Junior Classical League.
Zauzmer said she enjoys acting in Latin during the dramatic interpretation contests and looks forward to attending each year.
"Once you go you have to go back. The convention makes you see that there is no way that Latin is a dead language," Zauzmer said.

From the Press-Register:

John Shaw of Lower Fish River, Ala., was stumped by a word he found in the comic strip "Monty" in the Baldwin Register.

In the strip, Monty's intellectual sidekick is translating a conversation he's having with a dolphin, and Monty asks, "What kind of conversation could you possibly have with a stupid fish?"

In response, said the intellectual, the dolphin reminded him that it was a mammal, not a fish, and "He said something unflattering and fescennine about primates."

"I don't know what it meant, and couldn't find that word in my dictionary," said John.

Fortunately, Bubba does the maintenance on Professor Claptrap's Fiat, and the professor once accused him of using fescennine language while using a regular wrench to loosen a rusty bolt that needed a metric wrench because Homer was using his metric tools on Sherman Grant's old Yugo.

The professor's ancestors on his mother's side were Etruscans — the people who brought civilization to Italy before Rome stole the show. In the Etruscan city of Fescennia, the people developed a talent for dirty lyrics, and were famed for scurrilous verse sung at hick weddings. Maybe they developed their vernacular from cussing at their Latin neighbors.

Anyway, "fescennine" now means "indecent, especially using coarse and vulgar language."

"There once was a girl from Virginia," said Floyd, "who talked like a rube from Fescennia."

"Hush," said Bubba. "Miss Lulabelle's in the ladies' room, and she might hear you."

... alas, the comic does not seem to be online any more ...

University of Kent
11th & 12th October 2008
The Italians on the Land: changing perspectives on Republican Italy then and now

The study of Italy under the Roman Republic is currently enjoying something of a resurgence in popularity. New techniques and ideas are being brought to bear on old questions with interesting results. This conference aims to look at Italy from an Italian as well as from a Roman perspective.

However, its remit is intended to be quite broad, looking at a broad range of areas covering:

Demography.
Agricultural & Economic history.
Population movements & urbanisation
Settlement pattern trends.
Reform under the Republic.

For full details please follow the link below:
http://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/researchevents/Italians/index.html

Tip o' the pileus to Patrick Swan for passing along a link to a series of photos like this:



Trendhunter Magazine has more photos of the 'photographic sculpture' of Eugenio Recuenco which recreate (in spirit, at least) some of those Parthenon frieze sculptures ... semi-related: I'm sure there are many Queen's grads out there who remember R. Hope-Simpson's one-man creation of the pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia ...

Variety suggests some more sword-and-sandal projects are underway:

Hollywood’s latest love affair with the toga, which heated up after DreamWorks-Universal’s "Gladiator" nabbed $458 million worldwide at the B.O. and a best picture Oscar, is starting to rival the output of the 1950s when such pics as "The Robe," "Quo Vadis" and "Ben-Hur" hit the bigscreen.

Now, Zak Penn is taking a stab at Greek life. The scribe, who is best known for adapting such comicbook properties as "The Incredible Hulk" and "The X-Men" for the bigscreen, is writing and will produce "The Argonauts" for 20th Century Fox.

In the wake of the success of "300," sword-and-sandals pics have become a hot commodity.

Warner Bros. is moving forward with a "Clash of the Titans" remake, with Louis Leterrier at the helm, as well as a "300" sequel.

Joining the chariot race is Relativity Media, which has fast-tracked "War of Gods" about Greek warrior Theseus, who led a fight against imprisoned titans.

And at least three Hercules pics are in development around town, including Universal Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment’s "Hercules: The Thracian Wars," which Peter Berg is attached to direct. Meanwhile, Universal also has a "God of War" pic in the works, based on the epic Greek myth-inspired vidgame, with Brett Ratner attached to helm.

Fox’s version of "The Argonauts" is based on Penn’s original take on the classic Greek tale. In Greek mythology, the Argonauts were a band of heroic sailors who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. The Argonauts name comes from the sailors’ ship, the Argo.

John Davis ("Alien vs. Predator") is also on board to produce "The Argonauts."

The Argonauts tale has spawned a number of projects, including the 1963 film "Jason and the Argonauts," as well as a 2000 NBC miniseries. DreamWorks is developing a project, also titled "The Argonauts," about a group of treasure hunters who discover the wreck of the mythological sunken ship thought to have been captained by Jason, and are transported back in time to ancient Greece.

Penn is writing "The Avengers," which is based on the Marvel comicbook.

... still no word on Vin Diesel's Hannibal flick ...

CALL FOR PAPERS for the CAC Women's Network/Réseau des Femmes Panel
Classical Association of Canada, Annual Meeting, May 12-14, 2009 in
Vancouver (University of British Columbia).

GENERATIONS OF WOMEN

The theme for this year's Women's Network/Réseau des Femmes Panel at
the CAC is "Generations of Women". This panel explores the
construction and representation of women as mothers, daughters,
sisters and grandmothers and intergenerational connections with the
body, the family and society more broadly, as well as the legacy of
women scholars in the discipline of Classics. Suggested topics
include, but are not limited to: functional and dysfunctional familial
relationships (including both public and private contexts); women and
reproduction (within medical texts, religious rituals and demography);
women in foundation myths; feminist pedagogy; contributions of 19th
and 20th century female classical scholars. This call for papers is
meant to be suggestive rather than exclusive; we welcome papers that
consider the theme from a variety of perspectives and sources of
evidence (textual, visual, and material).

Send 200 word abstracts by January 15, 2009 to Dr. Leanne Bablitz via
e-mail: lbablitz@interchange.ubc.ca or regular mail: Dr. Leanne
Bablitz, Department of Classical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies,
University of British Columbia,
BUCH C 1866 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z1. Indicate on the
submission form and in the e-mail subject line that the submission is
"To be considered for the "Generations of Women" WN/RF panel."

See http://cac-scec.ca/eng/congres.html for the submission form.

For general inquiries e-mail Fanny Dolansky (fdolansky(at)brocku.ca),
Allison Glazebrook (aglazebrook(at)brocku.ca) or Kathryn Mattison
(Kathryn.mattison(at)utoronto.ca).

The Research Institute of Classics of the University of Wales, Lampeter
is pleased to announce the 2009 Gregynog Classics Colloquium. The
Colloquium will take place on 21-22 May 2009 in the familiar setting of
Gregynog and its theme will be 'Wealth in the Ancient World'. We aim to
gather a series of papers approaching wealth from a variety of angles:
economic and social developments, literary representations,
philosophical discussions. Archaeological and iconographical studies
will be welcome too.

We intend to offer a multi-disciplinary discussion of a complex theme,
which must necessarily rely on a variety of abilities and approaches.
The participation of graduate students is especially encouraged: we
would like to have at least one panel devoted to the presentation of
current doctoral research.

We anticipate that we would like to pursue the publication of the
Colloquium's proceedings in an edited book.

For manifestations of interest, you are welcome to email
e.bissa AT lamp.ac.uk and/or f.santangelo AT lamp.ac.uk.

The deadline for prospective papers is the 31st of October 2008.

In the latest Past and Present, which is devoted to "Superstition in a Non-Christian Context" :

Hugh Bowden, Before Superstition and After: Theophrastus and Plutarch on Deisidaimonia

Richard Gordon, Superstitio, Superstition and Religious Repression in the Late Roman Republic and Principate (100 BCE–300 CE)


... your institution may have access ...


There's also a new issue of the Journal of Early Christian Studies out ...