ante diem vii kalendas junias

17 A.D. -- Germanicus celebrates a triumph for his victories in Germany

106 A.D. -- martyrdom of Zachary in Gaul

107 A.D. -- Trajan arrives in Rome and celebrates a triumph for his victories over the Dacians

303 A.D. -- martyrdom of Felicissimus, Heraclius, and others at what is now Todi (Umbria)

5:50:22 AM    

The OpenText project was mentioned at NT Gateway ... here's the intro:

The OpenText.org project is a web-based initiative to provide annotated Greek texts and tools for their analysis. The project aims both to serve, and to collaborate with, the scholarly community. Texts are annotated with various levels of linguistic information, such as text-critical, grammatical, semantic and discourse features. Beginning with the New Testament, the project aims to construct a representative corpus of Hellenistic Greek to facilitate linguistic and literary research of these important documents. These annotated texts will be made freely available to the scholarly community on the understanding that they will in return contribute any additions or alterations made to them. Further, it is anticipated that scholars will be involved in the text annotation process and in the use and development of analytical tools.

Interesting ... and I notice the project is housed at one of my almae matres (McMaster) ... so ... do Classicists know about this initiative?

5:35:25 AM    

A few people have sent this one in ... an interesting, well-funded project to map shipwrecks in assorted environs of the Mediterranean around Italy:

The "Archeomar" project has started, which is a census project for the total of archaeological goods submerged in four southern regions, Campania, Basilicata, Apulia and Calabria. The initiative, which began 1 April and will last until October 2005, was presented to the Roman National Museum in the presence of Minister Urbani, on the occasion of the week of culture. The project, for which 7.5 million euro has been invested, will create an important instrument of knowledge of the archaeological wealth submerged in deep in the southern seas, with the aim of knowing archaeological treasures, which have never been heard of and to protect and control goods entombed in the coastal waters of four of the regions most at risk in this field. The initiative proposes to systemise figures and information gathered over the past decades in limited projects dealing with the deposits sunk along our coasts, with the aim of building an immense data bank of the submerged wealth, completely up-to-date.  [more from AGI]

I seem to recall Robert Ballard mentioning that pretty much the whole Mediterranean has already been mapped by the U.S. Military ... he had access to such maps when he did some of his work ...

5:31:47 AM    

Interesting piece via Radio Nederland (which I found via Archeologica ... my newsfeeds have dried up this a.m.!) on the ongoing 'de Bloemert' excavation. An excerpt:

Two things make it exceptional. First, the location has clearly been a good place to live since prehistoric times; one of the more spectacular finds was a grave dating back to the Stone Age, 2800 BC. Also the remains of late iron-age farms have been found, dated to 200 BC. After the Roman period from 0 to 400 AD an early medieval village existed on the spot. Dr Nicolai and his colleagues are delighted to be able to trace back human habitation here over a period of almost five millennia.

Famous finds
But the aspect of the dig that has made the Bloemert instantly famous among archaeologists is the finds from the Roman period. They prove without a doubt that at the time this place was more than just a hamlet - it was a big village and centre for farmers and craftsmen, with an industrial area and international contacts.

What is special about this is the fact that the village stood outside the Roman Empire – 150km to the north of the border formed by the Rhine, in fact. In those days that represented many days of travel, and yet the finds from the Roman period indicate that there was a lot of contact with the Romans. To the locals these foreigners may have been intimidating - representatives of the Superpower of their time - but were also people with whom one could deal.

As the excavation continues a fairly complex society appears. There were big, permanent farms, not the semi-nomadic type of the late Iron Age. Crops were grown for more than just local consumption, they were traded, exported even - the proof of that is the Roman money that has been found on site. Also there were big workshops, which produced goods for trade. The village's set-up is very modern; farms and houses were separated from workshops, the people went to work in the morning in a special "industrial" area.

It's worth listening to the (English) program which this is a teaser for (awk!); it's at the beginning of a program called Research File.

5:27:20 AM    

T. Hägg & B. Utas, "The Virgin and Her Lover. Fragments of an Ancient Greek
Novel and a Persian Epic Poem."

A. Stramaglia, "[Quintiliano] La città che si ci cibò dei suoi cadaveri
(Declamazioni maggiori, 12)."

[both reviews are .pdf]

4:58:45 AM    

5.00 p.m. |DCIVC| Ancient Warriors: The Legends of Rome
dna

9.00 p.m. |HINT| Lost Civilizations: Maya: The Blood of Kings
Explore the archaeological ruins of the amazing Maya, reclaimed from
the jungles of Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala, in this episode of
the Emmy Award-winning series narrated by Sam Waterston.
Reconstructions present a plausible view of what the strange and
sometimes frightening Mayan civilization must have been like--with
its baffling pyramids, life-and-death ball games, inscrutable glyphs,
and its enigmatic decline.
 
10.00 p.m. |HINT|Time Team: Beauport Park, Sussex 
A Roman bathhouse unearthed near a huge mound of iron slag near the
golf course at Beauport Park, Sussex, England, leads host Tony
Robinson (Baldrick in "Blackadder") to ask: "What is a Roman
bathhouse doing here completely on its own, 40 miles from the nearest
Roman town?" The search for other Roman buildings is on. There could
be a lost city or forgotten fort, and Time Team, aided by surveyors,
geophysicists, and even a dowser, have just three days to find it.

Channel Guide

4:54:47 AM