New Open Access Article- A Tuscan Capital from Rusellae: Comparisons and Hypotheses

http://riviste.unimi.it/index.php/lanx/article/view/2411

A very useful list of these is here at Fourth Century.  Very useful indeed!

I’ve noted an omission from their page on Eusebius of Caesarea, tho: they do not list the translation of Eusebius Quaestiones that David Miller &c made and I published.  Unfortunately there seems to be no way to contact them!

While Aeneas hides in a cloud, an embassy comes from other Trojan ships that, it turns out, hadn’t been lost after all. Their entry to the temple of Juno is described as follows:

Postquam introgressi et coram data copia fandi,

maximus Ilioneus placido sic pectore coepit…. (A. 1.520-1)

The blending of the first three words (postquintrogresset) gives a sound-picture of the men crossing the threshold, and the quickened pace at the end of the line (vv-vv-x), carried through to the next line, entirely dactylic except for the fourth foot, reminds the reader of their haste. Once again, sound and rhythm reinforce sense. Note that the -eu- in Ilioneus is a diphthong.

LANX è il quadrimestrale elettronico open access della Scuola di Specializzazione in Archeologia dell’Università degli Studi di Milano. La rivista raccoglie i contributi di studenti e docenti della Scuola e di studiosi che vi hanno collaborato, insieme ai risultati di ricerche e scavi a essa collegati.LANX nasce dall’idea e con l’obiettivo di condividere e divulgare i risultati dell’intensa attività di studio e ricerca condotta dalla Scuola, che accanto alla didattica consueta prevede un fitto programma annuale di seminari, giornate di studio, convegni, con la frequente partecipazione di studiosi esterni. A tutto ciò si aggiungono i viaggi di studio nelle mete più rilevanti per gli ambiti disciplinari caratterizzanti la Scuola, e le campagne di scavo dirette dai Docenti della Scuola in numerosi siti italiani e stranieri.Si apre così l’opportunità tanto per gli affermati quanto per i più giovani studiosi vicini alla Scuola di far conoscere il proprio lavoro grazie alle potenzialità offerte dalle nuove tecnologie, di cui il formato elettronico di questa rivista è realizzazione concreta. Il Comitato Scientifico della rivista è composto dai Docenti della Scuola di Specializzazione in Archeologia dell’Università degli Studi di Milano, i quali approvano preliminarmente il contenuto scientifico dei contributi editi. Il singolo Docente si fa inoltre garante, presentandoli anche a proprio nome, degli interventi esterni.

See the full List of Open Access Journals in Ancient Studies.

A Roman Emperor Sojourns at the Getty Villa

Tiberius has now come to the Pacific Palisades—in the form of a huge bronze portrait statue, over two meters high. The statue is a new loan from the National Archaeological Museum in Naples (Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli), and its arrival marks another chapter in our ongoing collaboration with our colleagues in Naples. Last year we displayed the bronze Apollo Saettante in a special exhibition, Apollo from Pompeii: Investigating an Ancient Bronze. The Apollo had been off display for a number years, and we worked with Naples to investigate and conserve the statue (and it’s now back on view in Naples).

The Tiberius presents a similar project—he too has been off view, and one of our primary tasks will be to stabilize the statue for future exhibition. In doing so, we have another rare opportunity to investigate an ancient bronze, and to explore both how it was made in antiquity and what has happened to it since. The results will be presented in an exhibition at the Getty Villa next year.

Another feature on the betel and areca exhibition that has just opened in the National History Museum in Hanoi.

Lime pot from the 13-14th century. Viet Nam News, 20121026

As red as human blood
Viet Nam News, 26 October 2012

The Vietnamese custom of chewing betel and areca is being celebrated and explained at an exhibition that has opened in Ha Noi.

Entitled Betel and Areca Culture, the exhibition displays more than 100 objects and documents to provide an insight into the fascinating lore and culture of betel and areca chewing in Viet Nam.

Betel and areca are the most important offerings in traditional ceremonies, including betrothals, weddings and funerals. They symbolise love and the inseparable bond of marriage.

The habit of chewing betel has long been taken by common people, and it has become an integral part of the country’s traditional culture and custom.

Nguyen Van Cuong, director of the Viet Nam National Museum of History, said that a key aim of the current exhibition is to foster understanding and so provide a basis for preserving and enhancing the tradition.

In recent years, the custom of chewing betel-areca has gradually declined and seemly only continues to exist among the elderly generation, mainly in rural areas.

Full story here.

Got Druids? Ghastly reads on Halloween and the Ancients!

The Mummy’s Curse: The True History of a Dark Fantasy

Author: Roger Luckhurst

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (October 12, 2012)

Summary

In the winter of 1922-23 archaeologist Howard Carter and his wealthy patron George Herbert, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, sensationally opened the tomb of Tutenkhamen. Six weeks later Herbert, the sponsor of the expedition, died in Egypt. The popular press went wild with rumours of a curse on those who disturbed the Pharaoh’s rest and for years followed every twist and turn of the fate of the men who had been involved in the historic discovery. Long dismissed by Egyptologists, the mummy’s curse remains a part of popular supernatural belief. Roger Luckhurst explores why the myth has captured the British imagination across the centuries, and how it has impacted on popular culture. Tutankhamen was not the first curse story to emerge in British popular culture. This book uncovers the ‘true’ stories of two extraordinary Victorian gentlemen widely believed at the time to have been cursed by the artefacts they brought home from Egypt in the nineteenth century. These are weird and wonderful stories that weave together a cast of famous writers, painters, feted soldiers, lowly smugglers, respected men of science, disreputable society dames, and spooky spiritualists. Focusing on tales of the curse myth, Roger Luckhurst leads us through Victorian museums, international exhibitions, private collections, the battlefields of Egypt and Sudan, and the writings of figures like Arthur Conan Doyle, Rider Haggard and Algernon Blackwood. Written in an open and accessible style, this volume is the product of over ten years research in London’s most curious archives. It explores how we became fascinated with Egypt and how this fascination was fuelled by myth, mystery, and rumour. Moreover, it provides a new and startling path through the cultural history of Victorian England and its colonial possessions.

Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween

Author: David J. Skal

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA

Summary

From acclaimed cultural critic David J. Skal, an in-depth look at one of the most popular-and perplexing-holidays in America.

Using a mix of personal anecdotes and brilliant social analysis, Skal examines the amazing phenomenon of Halloween, exploring its dark Celtic history and illuminating why it has evolved-in the course of a few short generations-from a quaint, small-scale celebration into the largest seasonal marketing event outside of Christmas.

Traveling the country, Skal profiles a wide cross-section of America-hard-nosed business men who see Halloween in terms of money; fundamentalists who think it is blasphemous; practicing witches who view it as sacred; and more ordinary men and women who go to extraordinary lengths, on this one night only, to transform themselves and their surroundings into elaborate fantasies. Firmly rooted in a deeper cultural and historical analysis, these interviews seek to understand what the various rituals and traditions associated with the holiday have to say about our national psyche.

The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween: Celebrating the Dark Half of the Year

Author: Jean Markale

Publisher: Inner Traditions

Summary

A comprehensive examination of the rituals and philosophies of the Celtic holiday of Samhain, the inspiration for Halloween.

• Presents the true meaning of this ancient holiday and shows how contemporary observances still faithfully reflect the rituals of pagan ancestors.

• Explains why this holiday, largely confined to the English-speaking world since the advent of Christianity, has spread throughout the rest of Europe over the last two decades.

One of humanity’s most enduring myths is that the dead, on certain nights of the year, can leave the Other World and move freely about the land of the living. Every year on October 31, when the children of the world parade through the streets dressed as monsters, skeletons, and witches, they reenact a sacred ceremony whose roots extend to the dawn of time. By receiving gifts of sweets from strangers, the children establish, on a symbolic plane that exceeds their understanding, a fraternal exchange between the visible world and the invisible world. Author Jean Markale meticulously examines the rituals and ceremonies of ancient festivities on this holiday and shows how they still shape the customs of today’s celebration. During the night of Samhain, the Celtic precursor of today’s holiday, the borders between life and death were no longer regarded as insurmountable barriers. Two-way traffic was temporarily permitted between this world and the Other World, and the wealth and wisdom of the sidhe, or fairy folk, were available to the intrepid individuals who dared to enter their realm. Markale enriches our understanding of how the transition from the light to the dark half of the year was a moment in which time stopped and allowed the participants in the week-long festival to attain a level of consciousness not possible in everyday life, an experience we honor in our modern celebrations of Halloween.

Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook 

Author: Daniel Ogden

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Summary

In a culture where the supernatural possessed an immediacy now strange to us, magic was of great importance both in the literary and mythic tradition and in ritual practice. Recently, ancient magic has hit a high in popularity, both as an area of scholarly inquiry and as one of general, popular interest. In Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds Daniel Ogden presents three hundred texts in new translations, along with brief but explicit commentaries. This is the first book in the field to unite extensive selections from both literary and documentary sources. Alongside descriptions of sorcerers, witches, and ghosts in the works of ancient writers, it reproduces curse tablets, spells from ancient magical recipe books, and inscriptions from magical amulets. Each translation is followed by a commentary that puts it in context within ancient culture and connects the passage to related passages in this volume. Authors include the well known (Sophocles, Herodotus, Plato, Aristotle, Virgil, Pliny) and the less familiar, and extend across the whole of Greco-Roman antiquity.

Haunted Greece and Rome: Ghost Stories from Classical Antiquity

Author: D. Felton

Publisher: University of Texas Press

Summary

Stories of ghostly spirits who return to this world to warn of danger, to prophesy, to take revenge, to request proper burial, or to comfort the living fascinated people in ancient times just as they do today. In this innovative, interdisciplinary study, the author combines a modern folkloric perspective with literary analysis of ghost stories from classical antiquity to shed new light on the stories’ folk roots.

The author begins by examining ancient Greek and Roman beliefs about death and the departed and the various kinds of ghost stories which arose from these beliefs. She then focuses on the longer stories of Plautus, Pliny, and Lucian, which concern haunted houses. Her analysis illuminates the oral and literary transmission and adaptation of folkloric motifs and the development of the ghost story as a literary form. In her concluding chapter, the author also traces the influence of ancient ghost stories on modern ghost story writers, a topic that will interest all readers and scholars of tales of hauntings.

The yellowing government survey map of San Nicolas Island dated from 1879, but it was quite clear: There was a big black dot on the southwest coast and, next to it, the words “Indian Cave.”…

For more than 20 years, Navy archaeologist Steve Schwartz searched for that cave. It was believed to be home to the island’s most famous inhabitant, a Native American woman who survived on the island for 18 years, abandoned and alone, and became the inspiration for “Island of the Blue Dolphins,” one of the 20th century’s most popular novels for young readers.

The problem for Schwartz was that San Nicolas, a wind-raked, 22-square-mile chunk of sandstone and scrub, has few caves, all of them dank, wet hollows where the tides surge in and nobody could live for long.

If he found the cave, he might solve mysteries about the “Lone Woman of San Nicolas” and her Nicoleño tribe, which was left devastated by a massacre in 1814 by sea otter hunters from Alaska.

See on www.latimes.com

See on Scoop.it – Archaeology News

This article titled “Northumberland coast’s ancient secrets to be saved from sea with lottery grant” was written by Maev Kennedy, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 30th October 2012 00.01 UTC

When 4,000 years ago the people living on a windy stretch of magnificent Northumbrian coastline looked for a place to bury their dead, they chose a beautiful spot – a low hillock of dry land above marshes and creeks, in sight of the sea but a kilometre safely inland.

Now the sea is lapping at the ancient graves, and the Heritage Lottery Fund will on Tuesday announce a £300,000 grant to excavate the entire site at Low Hauxley, and rescue what remains of its ancient secrets.

Every storm gnaws away more of the boulder clay cliff and beach walkers regularly spot bits of 4,000-year-old pottery and cremated bone, or the edges of stone cist burial pits, poking out of the cliff face. A bronze blade was recently found lying on the beach, presumed washed out of the cliff but too heavy to travel any further in the waves.

Archaeologists believe at least half of the cemetery has already been destroyed by the sea, and the rest would inevitably follow – sooner rather than later as the nominal rate erosion, a metre a year, has been dramatically worse in the violent storms of recent winters.

“We know the stuff is in there, and if we’re ever to retrieve the information this site can give us about life here so long ago, it has to be now,” Steve Scoffing, the development manager at Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Druridge Bay site, said. “Listing the site would give it no protection at all. The enemy here is the sea.”

The excavation, scheduled to begin in April, will be particularly tricky because the site is also classified as a Site of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its rare plants and wildlife. The archaeologists, joined by local volunteers, will first remove the entire layer of vegetation and save it. They will remove several metres of sand and stone, then excavate a 20×30 metre site of all its archaeology, and finally put everything else back, only for the sea, inevitably, to sweep away all their careful work some day in the not too distant future.

The discoveries, expected to include cremation urns, human remains, beakers and possibly bronze age weapons and jewellery, will be displayed in the Great North Museum.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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Walter Ameling, Hannah M. Cotton, Werner Eck, Benjamin Isaac, Alla Kushnir-Stein (ed.), Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae. Volume II: Caesarea and the Middle Coast: 1121-2160. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2011. Pp. xxiv, 923. ISBN 9783110222173. $255.00.

Contributors: Additional editors: Haggai Misgav, Jonathan Price, and Ada Yardeni

Reviewed by Yaron Z. Eliav, University of Michigan (yzeliav@umich.edu)

Nearly two hundred years have passed since August Böckh launched the first comprehensive, academically standardized corpus of Greek inscriptions – the Corpus inscriptionum Graecarum – in 1815 (although the first volume was not published until 1828). The Eastern Mediterranean, originally seen as the less important periphery of the Roman world, has also claimed its epigraphic corpora – Syria’s Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie, for example, started appearing in 1929. Now, remarkably late if one considers the centrality of this region in Christian and Jewish consciousness, it is the turn of Roman Judaea, known since the second century CE as Syria Palaestina or simply Palestine, with the Corpus inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae (CIIP). Modern Middle Eastern politics has hindered the project: it does not include inscriptions from the region’s central hill or from the southern seashore plains, part and parcel of the political and cultural textures of the area’s past, but now separated by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Academic intrigue caused the leading Greek epigraphist of Judaea/Palaestina – Leah Di Segni – to depart from the team working on the inscriptions, a professional and collegial loss. Only the high quality of the series makes these hurdles somewhat more tolerable.

Werner Eck, a German epigraphist with Mommsenian authority, and Hannah Cotton, a prominent Israeli papyrologist, have assembled an impressive international team to carry out this endeavor. They plan a nine-volume series; the first, a two-book volume on Jerusalem, was published in 2010/12. The current tome, volume II in the series, offers over a thousand inscriptions from the northern parts of the Israeli seashore, a sixty-mile stretch between modern Tel Aviv and Mount Carmel. Caesarea Maritima, the central port city of Roman Palestine and the seat of its governor, dominates the region and its epigraphical output with a total of 952 inscriptions, many of which were already published and discussed in earlier corpora.1 Along with Caesarea the current volume showcases a host of other smaller cities and towns in which inscriptions survived (including Apollonia/Arsuf, Castra Samaritanorum, Dora/Dor, and Sycamina).

[...]

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