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Blogosphere ~ November 1: Proverbial Lolcat
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Blogosphere ~ Ancient curse on a cup
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This Day in Ancient History: kalendae novembres
kalendae novembres
- ludi Victoriae Sullanae (day 7) — games held in honour of Victoria commemorating Sulla’s defeat of the Samnites in 82 B.C.
- 82 B.C. — Lucius Cornelius Sulla is victorious over the Samnites at the Battle of the Colline Gate
- 36 A.D. — major fire at Rome
- 1903 — death of Theodore Mommsen
- 1993 — death of A.N. Sherwin-White (The Roman Citizenship, among other things)
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Review of Anton, Rav Hisda's Daughter
BOOK REVIEW AT THE TALMUD BLOG: Review: Maggie Anton’s Rav Hisda’s Daughter- Guest Post by Ilana Kurshan. Excerpt:![]()
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The discussions that come alive in this book are Talmudic as well as academic, which may explain why this novel will have so much appeal for readers like myself who are steeped in the Talmudic text and the scholarship about its context. For readers who do not experience the pleasure of the familiar in its fictionalized form, Anton’s novel celebrates our rich and colorful textual heritage and reminds us that feminist history is often a return to the material and the real – to the beer the scholars drank, the springs in which they bathed, the cycle of blood that dictated their most intimate relationships, and the rooms in which they studied texts that occasionally refer to wives and daughters whose lives we can at best imagine.Earlier coverage of Anton and her books is here and links
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Classical Words of the Day
- beatitude (Dictionary.com)
- agon (Merriam-Webster)
- pauldron (Wordsmith)
- psychopomp (Wordnik)
Latinitweets:
adverb: magis , indeclinable => more bit.ly/IKAclf #Latin #Vocab #LatinVocab—
(@LatinVocab) November 01, 2012
amicus: friend: noun. Example sentence:Amicus meus puellae pecuniam dat.Translation:My friend is giving money to… bit.ly/W8rvbx—
Latin Language (@latinlanguage) November 01, 2012
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Lady Sale and the Buddhas of Bamiyan
Just this morning, as I sat down to write a review of a splendid new book on The Buddhas of Bamiyan by Llewelyn Morgan, I saw this headline in the New York Times, Taliban Hits Region Seen as 'Safest' for Afghans -- a grim report on what's up in Bamiyan today. So I decided not to write a formal review after all, but rather to recount the gist of Morgan's remarkable history which turns out to be, alas, only too timely.
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The colossal Buddhas (pictured above) are, of course, no longer in their niches, having been dynamited to bits by the Taliban in 2001. But, first, let me tell you what came before -- it's a long story: the Buddhas 'lived' for over 1,400 years -- and then to the extraordinary true tale of Lady Sale.
Bamiyan is an oasis town in the centre of a long valley that separates the mountain chains of Hindu Kush and Koh-i-Baba --some 140 miles/230 km northwest of Kabul. In the late-6th and early-7th century CE, first the smaller (38 meters/120 feet) and then the larger (55 meters/175 feet) Buddhas were cut at unmeasurable cost into the tall, sandstone cliffs surrounding Bamiyan. The taller of the two statues is thought to represent Vairocana, the “Light Shining throughout the Universe Buddha”. The shorter one probably represents Buddha Sakyamuni, although the local Hazara people believe it depicts a woman (Muslims generally interpreted the two Buddhas as man and wife).
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The two colossi must once have been a truly awesome sight, visible for miles, with copper masks for faces and copper-covered hands. The outer robes (or sangati) were painted dark blue on the inside and pink, and later bright orange, on top. In their latest phase, the larger Buddha was painted red and the smaller white. Travellers as far back as the 11th century speak of one red Buddha and one moon-white.
Even an early Muslim visitor was impressed:
On The Silk Road
Behind the cliffs rise the high peaks of the Hindu Kush, perpetually under snow. Bamiyan, itself about 2500 m (7500') above sea level, is at the heart of this formidable barrier between India and Central Asia and the valley provides comparatively easy passage through it. So whoever held Bamiyan effectively controlled traffic along a major branch of the fabled Silk Road. In the Buddhist period (most of the first millennium CE), this strategic position made Bamiyan both a lucrative halt for caravans carrying goods across the vast reaches between China and points west, and a bone of contention for powers on either side of the Hindu Kush. Rich convoys and predatory armies have been regular features of Bamiyan's history.
Arabian Nights
Despite folk stories of instant conversion, Islamisation was a gradual, uneven process along the Hindu Kush. Almost a century after the first Arab soldiers reached Afghanistan, another Buddhist monk, Hyecho, visited Bamiyan in 727 CE on his travels from China to India and still found there 'many monasteries and monks'. The northern plains of Afghanistan were conquered by Arab armies by the end of that century but it took another three or even four hundred years for the eastern parts of the country to embrace Islam. Bamiyan was said to have been converted at least three times: in 754-75; or again in 775-85; then, in 870, an Arab strongman captured the city and sent as loot 'fifty idols of gold and silver' to Baghdad, so obviously the monks were still rich and thriving; finally, almost another century later, the founder of the Ghaznavid Empire was said to have done the deed. Whatever actually happened, Buddhists must have lived alongside Muslims in the valley for some time: as late as 1078, a local official still boasts the title of 'monastery keeper'.
But it was all for nought.
In 1221 Genghis Khan arrived with his Mongol hoards. Bamiyan tried to resist -- never a good idea with Genghis -- and the town was taken by force:
If any fool this high samootch [cave] explores,
Know Charles Masson has been here before.
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Visitors of an entirely different kind arrived in Bamiyan in the 19th century, adventurers and spies heading to or from British India. The antiquarian Charles Masson (actually a deserter from the British army) arrived in 1832. An early excavator of Buddhist sites, he also worked surreptitiously for the British as their 'Agent in Cabul for communicating intelligence of the state of affairs in that quarter on a salary of Rs. 250 per annum.' It didn't take long for Afghan authorities to realize -- correctly -- that English archaeologists were just another way of saying English spies.
Europe's Favourite Psychopath
What these early adventurers shared was a classical British education and one figure above all inspired their interest: Alexander the Great. As the British progressed further into the north-west of India, the more they encountered territory familiar to them from the stirring accounts of Alexander's campaigns in the 4th century BCE:
So easy to get in, so hard to get out.
British and Indian troops occupied the country. Alas, poor Alexander Burnes -- unlike his hero, this Alexander was ripped apart by a mob in Kabul on 2 November 1841, one of the events that led to an infamous massacre of British troops as they retreated from Kabul two months later.
Another visitor to Bamiyan was Lieut. John Sturt of the Bengal Engineers, who had been sent to survey the all-important passes over the Hindu Kush. He stopped at Bamiyam on his route back. The officer, suffering from 'Koondooz Fever' (malaria) camped below Zohak, the fortress perched on the red cliffs at the eastern end of the Bamiyan valley. That's where he made the charming drawing of the ruins (above, dated 1840). A little over a year later, Sturt, too, would be dead, mortally wounded during the chaotic and bloody retreat of the British forces from Kabul.
Catastrophe
Lulled into a false sense of security, the British had reduced the number of their troop in Afghanistan and brought their wives and families to join them. They went hunting, horse-racing and held amateur theatricals in Kabul. But it was not a safe place for European interlopers. The country rose against them, and the outnumbered British and Indian soldiers tried to retreat back to India. As they withdrew through the narrow passes from Kabul to Jalalabad in freezing conditions in January 1842, the British column was attacked from all sides. Few survived.
Lieut. John Sturt, who had made that tranquil drawing of Zohak at the entrance to Bamiyan, died in agony of an abdominal wound, leaving his pregnant wife Alexandrina and his mother-in-law Florentia, Lady Sale, to be taken prisoner on the very day he died. By a strange quirk of fate, their captors would take them to Bamiyan, then at the very edge of Afghan territory. They marched there along with their fellow captives, including Lieut. Vincent Eyre, who had been seriously wounded in the disastrous retreat, and his wife and young son.
Lieut. Eyre kept an illustrated diary of their ordeal. But I fear this post is already over long and so we must postpone the saga of the CABUL PRISONERS (as they were famously known in England) to another day.
The Buddhas of Bamiyan
by Llewelyn Morgan
Published in the U.K. by Profile Books
In the U.S.A. by Harvard University Press
HARDCOVER
$19.95 • £14.95 • €18.00
ISBN 9780674057883
Publication June 2012
Also Available As
EBOOK
$19.95
ISBN 9780674065383
* Mass spectrometer tests have determined the age of the organic material in the clay layers. The construction of the smaller Buddha is dated to between 544 and 595 and the larger Buddha between 591 and 644.
Sources include the website Azaranica, a news aggregator on Hazaras and Hazarajat; Hans van Roon on The Silk Road Blog;
Illustrations
Top: Buddhas of Bamiyan, from Iwan Lawrowitsch Jaworski: Reise der russischen Gesandtschaft in Afghanistan und Buchara in den Jahren 1878-79, Jena : 1885; photo credit: Andreas Praefcke via Wikipedia.
Middle: Reconstruction of colours of the Buddhas robes at the end of the 10th century. Technische Universitaet Munchen via The Silk Road Blog.
Below: The fortress guarding the entrance to the Bamiyan valley, a lithograph of Shahr-i Zohak, based on a drawing by Lieut. John Sturt, Bengal Engineers (23 August 1840). Photo credit: Leicester Galleries.
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The colossal Buddhas (pictured above) are, of course, no longer in their niches, having been dynamited to bits by the Taliban in 2001. But, first, let me tell you what came before -- it's a long story: the Buddhas 'lived' for over 1,400 years -- and then to the extraordinary true tale of Lady Sale.
Bamiyan is an oasis town in the centre of a long valley that separates the mountain chains of Hindu Kush and Koh-i-Baba --some 140 miles/230 km northwest of Kabul. In the late-6th and early-7th century CE, first the smaller (38 meters/120 feet) and then the larger (55 meters/175 feet) Buddhas were cut at unmeasurable cost into the tall, sandstone cliffs surrounding Bamiyan. The taller of the two statues is thought to represent Vairocana, the “Light Shining throughout the Universe Buddha”. The shorter one probably represents Buddha Sakyamuni, although the local Hazara people believe it depicts a woman (Muslims generally interpreted the two Buddhas as man and wife).
Even an early Muslim visitor was impressed:
The people of India [i.e. non-Muslims] go on pilgrimages to these two idols, bearing with them offerings, incense and fragrant woods. If the eye should fall upon them from a distance, a man would be obliged to lower his eyes, overawed by them.Besides the huge Buddhas, there were numerous caves carved out of the ochre-coloured sandstone cliffs. When the Chinese pilgrim monk Xuanzang visited Bamiyan in 630-631 CE, some 2,000 monks were worshipping and meditating in these caves. One must imagine hundreds of stone and wooden staircases running along the hill face, linking caves that are now inaccessible, their entrances carved and painted and festooned with fabrics.
On The Silk Road
Behind the cliffs rise the high peaks of the Hindu Kush, perpetually under snow. Bamiyan, itself about 2500 m (7500') above sea level, is at the heart of this formidable barrier between India and Central Asia and the valley provides comparatively easy passage through it. So whoever held Bamiyan effectively controlled traffic along a major branch of the fabled Silk Road. In the Buddhist period (most of the first millennium CE), this strategic position made Bamiyan both a lucrative halt for caravans carrying goods across the vast reaches between China and points west, and a bone of contention for powers on either side of the Hindu Kush. Rich convoys and predatory armies have been regular features of Bamiyan's history.
Arabian Nights
Despite folk stories of instant conversion, Islamisation was a gradual, uneven process along the Hindu Kush. Almost a century after the first Arab soldiers reached Afghanistan, another Buddhist monk, Hyecho, visited Bamiyan in 727 CE on his travels from China to India and still found there 'many monasteries and monks'. The northern plains of Afghanistan were conquered by Arab armies by the end of that century but it took another three or even four hundred years for the eastern parts of the country to embrace Islam. Bamiyan was said to have been converted at least three times: in 754-75; or again in 775-85; then, in 870, an Arab strongman captured the city and sent as loot 'fifty idols of gold and silver' to Baghdad, so obviously the monks were still rich and thriving; finally, almost another century later, the founder of the Ghaznavid Empire was said to have done the deed. Whatever actually happened, Buddhists must have lived alongside Muslims in the valley for some time: as late as 1078, a local official still boasts the title of 'monastery keeper'.
But it was all for nought.
In 1221 Genghis Khan arrived with his Mongol hoards. Bamiyan tried to resist -- never a good idea with Genghis -- and the town was taken by force:
Genghis gave orders that every living creature, from mankind down to the brute beasts, should be killed, that no prisoner should be taken, that not even the child in its mother's womb should be spared, and that henceforth no living creature should dwell therein.In time the valley was repopulated by the people who now live there, the Hazaras. They believe that they are direct descendants of Mongol troops and their families who settled there, and they are quite possibly right: recent DNA tests seem to confirm their Mongol origin. In time, these new inhabitants, too, were Islamised but, for unknown reasons, they became Shi'a -- another cause of tension with the Sunni Pashtun majority and that underlies some of their deadly confrontation with the Taliban in our own times.
If any fool this high samootch [cave] explores,
Know Charles Masson has been here before.
Visitors of an entirely different kind arrived in Bamiyan in the 19th century, adventurers and spies heading to or from British India. The antiquarian Charles Masson (actually a deserter from the British army) arrived in 1832. An early excavator of Buddhist sites, he also worked surreptitiously for the British as their 'Agent in Cabul for communicating intelligence of the state of affairs in that quarter on a salary of Rs. 250 per annum.' It didn't take long for Afghan authorities to realize -- correctly -- that English archaeologists were just another way of saying English spies.
Europe's Favourite Psychopath
What these early adventurers shared was a classical British education and one figure above all inspired their interest: Alexander the Great. As the British progressed further into the north-west of India, the more they encountered territory familiar to them from the stirring accounts of Alexander's campaigns in the 4th century BCE:
To look for the first time upon the [Indus River] that had borne upon its surface the world's victor two thousand years ago. To gaze upon the landscape he had viewed....Thrilling stuff! Another Englishman, Alexander Burnes, author of the bestselling Travels into Bokhara, and something of a sex symbol in his day, travelled to the Indus in 1831 to deliver a gift of five shire horses to the ruler of Punjab. Needless to say, he was also there to spy out the lay of the land. He had a particularly bad case of Alexander-itis:
[Alexander] has reaped the immortality which he so much desired, and transmitted the history of his conquests, allied with his name, to posterity.... And, while we gaze on the Indus, we connect ourselves, at least in association, with the ages of distant glory.A year later, Burnes was at Bamiyan writing about 'the gigantic idols of Bameean', quite convinced that this was the city founded by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ad Caucasum. Burnes would soon return to Afghanistan, this time as part of an invading army as the British played out their fantasies of regime change in Kabul. They wanted to make Afghanistan a friendly buffer state between British India and the Russians on the other side of the Hindu Kush. And so began the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1841).
So easy to get in, so hard to get out.
British and Indian troops occupied the country. Alas, poor Alexander Burnes -- unlike his hero, this Alexander was ripped apart by a mob in Kabul on 2 November 1841, one of the events that led to an infamous massacre of British troops as they retreated from Kabul two months later.
Another visitor to Bamiyan was Lieut. John Sturt of the Bengal Engineers, who had been sent to survey the all-important passes over the Hindu Kush. He stopped at Bamiyam on his route back. The officer, suffering from 'Koondooz Fever' (malaria) camped below Zohak, the fortress perched on the red cliffs at the eastern end of the Bamiyan valley. That's where he made the charming drawing of the ruins (above, dated 1840). A little over a year later, Sturt, too, would be dead, mortally wounded during the chaotic and bloody retreat of the British forces from Kabul.
Catastrophe
Lulled into a false sense of security, the British had reduced the number of their troop in Afghanistan and brought their wives and families to join them. They went hunting, horse-racing and held amateur theatricals in Kabul. But it was not a safe place for European interlopers. The country rose against them, and the outnumbered British and Indian soldiers tried to retreat back to India. As they withdrew through the narrow passes from Kabul to Jalalabad in freezing conditions in January 1842, the British column was attacked from all sides. Few survived.
Lieut. John Sturt, who had made that tranquil drawing of Zohak at the entrance to Bamiyan, died in agony of an abdominal wound, leaving his pregnant wife Alexandrina and his mother-in-law Florentia, Lady Sale, to be taken prisoner on the very day he died. By a strange quirk of fate, their captors would take them to Bamiyan, then at the very edge of Afghan territory. They marched there along with their fellow captives, including Lieut. Vincent Eyre, who had been seriously wounded in the disastrous retreat, and his wife and young son.
Lieut. Eyre kept an illustrated diary of their ordeal. But I fear this post is already over long and so we must postpone the saga of the CABUL PRISONERS (as they were famously known in England) to another day.
The Buddhas of Bamiyan
by Llewelyn Morgan
Published in the U.K. by Profile Books
In the U.S.A. by Harvard University Press
HARDCOVER
$19.95 • £14.95 • €18.00
ISBN 9780674057883
Publication June 2012
Also Available As
EBOOK
$19.95
ISBN 9780674065383
* Mass spectrometer tests have determined the age of the organic material in the clay layers. The construction of the smaller Buddha is dated to between 544 and 595 and the larger Buddha between 591 and 644.
Sources include the website Azaranica, a news aggregator on Hazaras and Hazarajat; Hans van Roon on The Silk Road Blog;
Illustrations
Top: Buddhas of Bamiyan, from Iwan Lawrowitsch Jaworski: Reise der russischen Gesandtschaft in Afghanistan und Buchara in den Jahren 1878-79, Jena : 1885; photo credit: Andreas Praefcke via Wikipedia.
Middle: Reconstruction of colours of the Buddhas robes at the end of the 10th century. Technische Universitaet Munchen via The Silk Road Blog.
Below: The fortress guarding the entrance to the Bamiyan valley, a lithograph of Shahr-i Zohak, based on a drawing by Lieut. John Sturt, Bengal Engineers (23 August 1840). Photo credit: Leicester Galleries.
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Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 75.1
minus tibi accuratas a me epistulas mitti quereris. quis enim accurate loquitur nisi qui vult putide loqui?
You complain that the letters I send to you are less carefully written than they might be. Well, yes they are, but who speaks carefully, apart from someone who wants to speak in an affected way?
Filed under: Seneca the Younger
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Human expansion from Africa comes into focus
A new, comprehensive review of human anthropological and genetic records gives the most up-to-date story of the “Out of Africa” expansion that occurred about 45,000 to 60,000 years ago.
This expansion, detailed by three Stanford geneticists Henn, Cavalli-Sforza, and Feldman presents an up-to-date version of the model. In the recent study is published in this edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences they conclude it had a dramatic effect on human genetic diversity, which persists in present-day populations. As a small group of modern humans migrated out of Africa into Eurasia and the Americas, their genetic diversity was substantially reduced.
Previous genomic projects
In studying these migrations, genomic projects haven’t fully taken into account the rich archaeological and anthropological data available, and vice versa. This review integrates both sides of the story and provides a foundation that could lead to better understanding of ancient humans and, possibly, genomic and medical advances.
“People are doing amazing genome sequencing, but they don’t always understand human demographic history” that can help inform an investigation, said review co-author Brenna Henn, a postdoctoral fellow in genetics at the Stanford School of Medicine who has a PhD in anthropology from Stanford. “We wanted to write this as a primer on pre-human history for people who are not anthropologists.”
“This model of the Out of Africa expansion provides the framework for testing other anthropological and genetic models,” Henn said
“The basic notion is that all of these disciplines have to be considered simultaneously when thinking about movements of ancient populations,” said Marcus Feldman, a professor of biology at Stanford and the senior author of the paper. “What we’re proposing is a story that has potential to explain any of the fossil record that subsequently becomes available, and to be able to tell what was the size of the population in that place at that time.”
The anthropological information can inform geneticists when they investigate certain genetic changes that emerge over time. For example, geneticists have found that genes for lactose intolerance and gluten sensitivity began to emerge in populations expanding into Europe around 10,000 years ago.
The anthropological record helps explain this: It was around this time that humans embraced agriculture, including milk and wheat production. The populations that prospered – and thus those who survived to pass on these mutations – were those who embraced these unnatural food sources. This, said Feldman, is an example of how human movements drove a new form of natural selection.
Expanding populations and bottleneck diversity
One model of human migration based on mitochondrial DNA (dates in thousands of years). Image: Wikimedia
Populations that expand from a small founding group can also exhibit reduced genetic diversity – known as a “bottleneck” – a classic example being the Ashkenazi Jewish population, which has a fairly large number of genetic diseases that can be attributed to its small number of founders. When this small group moved from the Rhineland to Eastern Europe, reproduction occurred mainly within the group, eventually leading to situations in which mothers and fathers were related. This meant that offspring often received the same deleterious gene from each parent and, as this process continued, ultimately resulted in a population in which certain diseases and cancers are more prevalent.
“If you know something about the demographic history of populations, you may be able to learn something about the reasons why a group today has a certain genetic abnormality – either good or bad,” Feldman said. “That’s one of the reasons why in our work we focus on the importance of migration and history of mixing in human populations. It helps you assess the kinds of things you might be looking for in a first clinical assessment. It doesn’t have the immediacy of prescribing chemotherapy – it’s a more general look at what’s the status of human variability in DNA, and how might that inform a clinician.”
Source: Stanford University and the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele
More Information
- B. M. Henn, L. L. Cavalli-Sforza, M. W. Feldman., The great human expansion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012;
- For a point by point discussion of this paper and why it is felt that the conclusion is erroneous, see the post by Dienekes Pontikos on Dienekes’ Anthropology blog
- Scientists use genetics and climate reconstructions to track the global spread of modern humans out of Africa- Cambridge University
For Archaeology News – Archaeology Research – Archaeology Press Releases
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Presenting Anthropology
My graduate seminar in the spring is one of my own design: Presenting Anthropology. Most of us of a certain age still remember slide decks and professors who droned on in semi-darkness to a semi-coherent audience. Both students and the public, though, expect more from a presentation these days. And people in a position to disseminate information -- journalists, scientists, media professionals -- are finding new and innovative ways to present that information.
So my seminar is going to be, in essence, Academic Project Runway. Now, this class has been germinating for a while, long before the popularity of Academic Tim Gunn and the newcomer Academic Nina Garcia. But there will be challenges every other week with themes like "kids" and "avant garde." There might be a dreaded button bag. Heck, there might even be an "unconventional materials challenge" (although I don't really want to grade a dozen macaroni pictures of a leaping Boas). And we'll discuss the pitfalls of premature interpretation/publication of anthropological topics, learning lessons from such sagas as the Gay Caveman.
Here's a quick spiel I sent out through the department listserv and a quick flyer I made up to advertise the course:
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I will likely be blogging the heck out of this course over the spring term because I'm just that excited about it. Perhaps that'll make up for my complete lack of posts this fall as I struggle to teachresearchwritepresent anthropology.![]()
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So my seminar is going to be, in essence, Academic Project Runway. Now, this class has been germinating for a while, long before the popularity of Academic Tim Gunn and the newcomer Academic Nina Garcia. But there will be challenges every other week with themes like "kids" and "avant garde." There might be a dreaded button bag. Heck, there might even be an "unconventional materials challenge" (although I don't really want to grade a dozen macaroni pictures of a leaping Boas). And we'll discuss the pitfalls of premature interpretation/publication of anthropological topics, learning lessons from such sagas as the Gay Caveman.
Here's a quick spiel I sent out through the department listserv and a quick flyer I made up to advertise the course:
Presenting Anthropology (ANG6002) will focus on the ways that we can use our anthropological training to present the subject we're most passionate about to a variety of different audiences using a variety of different tools. This class will move students beyond traditional notes-and-PowerPoint presentations and encourage them to think creatively about what constitutes a presentation of data or information. We will read book chapters and articles on the benefits of adopting new methods of presentation, as well as on the drawbacks inherent in a world where information is being published and news-ified rapidly. The major component of the course is a series of projects that will give students hands-on experience designing ways to communicate their own research or an anthropological topic - project themes will include social media (blogging, wiki, etc.), print media (e.g., poster, pamphlet), audio media (e.g., podcast, interview, parody song), visual media (e.g., iPad app, interactive website, traditional video), anthropology for kids (e.g., kids' book, board game, pop-up book), and avant garde (e.g., 3D printing, designing a lab activity, Choose your Own Adventure story). At the end of the semester, each student will turn in three projects as a portfolio. If this class sounds like the academic version of Project Runway, it kind of is!
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Sad News
Last night, after the last of the trick-or-treaters had taken away their spoils, I heard that Stu Hilwig had died. Stu went to graduate school with me at Ohio State and was one of the world’s genuinely good guys.
I was never close friends with Stu, but like so many of my colleagues, his presence in the Department of History graduate student offices and at social events was so regular that I have Stu Hilwig stories. I remember when my buddy Mike Fronda and I had a little party at Mike’s place where everyone cooked meat together. Stu was extraordinarily concerned that his grill was too small. He must have mentioned three or four times that “it is just a little grill.” For years after the event, Mike and I would repeat that line whenever anyone remembered that party.
My most vivid memory of Stu, and perhaps the most famous, was his Chris Farley imitations in the graduate student offices. All anyone had to say was the phrase “so you want to be a writer…” and Stu would leap out from behind his little graduate student cubicle and regale the room with his version of Chris Farley’s memorable “motivational speaker” skit.
While this may sound like a trivial thing to remember someone for, but during the those long years between comprehensive exams and completing the Ph.D., Stu’s humor and outgoing personality could transform a bleak Columbus, Ohio afternoon into a reason for laughter. His stories, humor, and willingness to stop and chat despite the pressures we all felt to be working at every waking moment, made the graduate school more humane. Even through I did not keep in touch with Stu (and I wasn’t even Facebook friends with him), knowing he was in the world made me feel better.
His passing in a serious loss for his family, his university, and anyone who cares about a more humane and positive world.
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Visita Guiada a Los Bañales el próximo 21 de Octubre
Como en años anteriores, la Fundación Uncastillo organiza una visita al yacimiento romano de Los Bañales para dar a conocer a todos los interesados dicho yacimiento y los resultados de la última campaña de excavación. En Facebook anuncian dicho evento con el título de "Los Bañales: Presentación Campaña de Puesta en Valor y Visita Guiada". Os pasamos toda la información:
"Desde finales de Agosto, gracias a la colaboración de la Dirección General de Patrimonio Cultural del Gobierno de Aragón, la Fundación Uncastillo ha estado trabajando en la restauración y puesta en valor de los hallazgos arqueológicos inmuebles de las dos últimas campañas de excavación en la ciudad romana de Los Bañales, especialmente los dos espectaculares conjuntos de inscripciones del foro y la parte alta del espacio doméstico-artesanal.
El próximo día 21 de Octubre, a las 10.15, tendrá lugar la "inauguración" y "presentación" de los resultados de esa campaña de puesta en valor. En ella, además de la visita guiada a la ciudad romana completa (incluyendo presa y acueducto además de foro, termas y espacios domésticos) se presentarán de un modo especial los resultados de esa campaña de adecuación y los de la campaña de excavación que, durante el mes de Septiembre, se ha llevado a cabo en El Pueyo de Los Bañales. La visita, guiada por miembros del Equipo Científico de Los Bañales, dará comienzo a las 10.15h (punto de encuentro explanada de aparcamiento de Los Bañales, acceso por Layana) y se prolongará hasta las 14.00h con un precio de 3 € por persona que se destinan al sostenimiento del proyecto de investigación en la ciudad romana".
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Los Bañales: Presentación de la Campaña de Restauración y Puesta en Valor
De nuevo, el equipo científico que estudia el yacimiento arqueológico romano de Los Bañales y la Fundación Uncastillo organizan una visita guiada a dicho yacimiento, bajo el título "Los Bañales: Presentación de la Campaña de Restauración y Puesta en Valor", tras la suspensión de la jornada anterior, prevista para el 21 de Octubre y suspendida por las inundaciones en Sádaba. Os pasamos la información, expuesta en su perfil de facebook:
"Tras los problemas surgidos como consecuencia de las terribles lluvias e inundaciones que afectaron al entorno de Sádaba el fin de semana del 20 de Octubre, finalmente, el próximo Domingo, 11 de Noviembre, a las 11horas, dará comienzo la Jornada de Presentación de la Campaña de Restauración y Puesta en Valor del yacimiento arqueológico de Los Bañales que se había previsto para el pasado día 21. Ésta incluirá una visita completa a la ciudad romana guiada por el Equipo Científico de la Fundación Uncastillo. El foro -con sus dos recintos epigráficos, ya debidamente restaurados-, el frente de "tabernae" de la parte baja de la ciudad -cuyo adecentamiento se termina estos días-, las termas, el acueducto, la presa y el poblado de El Pueyo -con los resultados de la nueva campaña de excavación llevada a cabo entre Septiembre y Octubre de este año- serán mostrados a todos los que vengáis. La visita dará comienzo a las 11h en el foro de Los Bañales (acceso por Layana) y costará 3 € por persona que se destinarán al sostenimiento del Plan de Investigación. Si el tiempo acompaña -esperemos que sí- será una jornada única para vibrar con un yacimiento igualmente único y con todas sus sorpresas. ¡No faltes!"
Domingo, 11 de noviembre de 2012 en horario de 11:00 - 14:00 horas.
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Escaneado de los hornos cerámicos ibero-romanos de Foz Calanda (Teruel)
Por la web de los Íberos en el Bajo Aragón hemos tenido noticia de que se ha llevado a cabo un escaneado de los hornos cerámicos ibero-romanos de Foz Calanda (Teruel). Os pasamos la información y foto de dicha web:
"Un equipo de investigadores de la Universidad de Burdeos (Francia), dirigido por el arqueólogo Alexis Gorgues, está realizando durante esta semana un detallado trabajo de documentación de las estructuras excavadas en el yacimiento íbero-romano de Mas de Moreno (Foz Calanda, Teruel) en el que se han localizado, hasta el momento, un total de seis hornos cerámicos cuya cronología se sitúa entre los siglos II y I a.C.
Además de los hornos se han identificado en este mismo yacimiento situado junto al río Guadalopillo una serie de estructuras y huellas de edificios y empalizadas de madera (de los que sólo queda la impronta de los apoyos excavados en el suelo) que delimitan los espacios donde se realizaban los distintos trabajos del taller cerámico.
El escaneado de estos hornos, cuya conservación en conjunto es excepcional, permite realizar reconstrucciones virtuales muy detalladas en 3D aportando una valiosa información tanto para su estudio como para su conservación. El alfar de Mas de Moreno es, sin duda, el complejo alfarero de época íbero-romana más importante hasta ahora documentado en la Comunidad autónoma aragonesa. Su excavación y estudio, dentro de un proyecto de investigación hispano-francés iniciado en el año 2005, permite documentar el proceso de cambio de producción de un tradicional taller ibérico de alta calidad tecnológica a otro, más intensivo, bajo dominio romano.
Este cambio se comprueba mediante la presencia de varios hornos de una fase antigua, del siglo II y primera mitad del I a.C. (hornos 1, 3, 4 y 5) que son sustituidos hacia el año 50 a.C. por un gran horno de 16 m² (horno 2), mucho mayor que los anteriores, que se destinó a la cocción de ánforas y grandes vasijas de almacenaje de clara influencia romana. La época del taller ibérico, que hasta entonces había producido de forma temporal excelentes cerámicas que debieron comercializarse en importantes poblados cercanos como La Guardia de Alcorisa, Cabezo de Alcalá de Azaila o Tiro de Cañón de Alcañiz, entre muchos otros, finalizaba a mediados del siglo I a.C. para dar paso a una nueva fase de producción romana de mayor volumen".
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ARTICLE: Tutankhamun-inspired Britain
Highgate Cemetery, Swains Lane, London N6 – the catacombs here evoke the monumental funerary architecture of Ancient Egypt, but were designed by a commercial cemetery company to attract wealthy customers to the more expensive burial spaces (Source: The Telegraph).
“Ninety years after the British discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, Egyptologist Chris Elliot reflects on the legacy of Tutmania with ten sites inspired by Ancient Egypt.
Now that the golden face of Tutankhamun is one of the most familiar images in the world, it is easy to forget that he was once a footnote in the history of Ancient Egypt, an obscure ruler known only from a few inscriptions. All that changed on November 4 1922, when at the bottom of a flight of steps cut into the rock of the Valley of the Kings a door was discovered, with the seals of the necropolis officials still intact” – via The Telegraph.
Read more here.
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ARTICLE: Mummy unwrapping brought Egyptology to the public
“Mummies have been objects of horror in popular culture since the early 1800s—more than a century before Boris Karloff portrayed an ancient Egyptian searching for his lost love in the 1932 film “The Mummy.” Public “unwrappings” of real mummified human remains performed by both showmen and scientists heightened the fascination, but also helped develop the growing science of Egyptology, says a Missouri University of Science and Technology historian” – via Phys.org.
Read more here.
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Picture of the Week: Treading Winepress
(Post by Seth M. Rodriquez)
Someone recently asked me, "Can you understand the Bible without understanding the culture of the people in the Bible?"
My answer was: "Yes, you can understand the Bible without knowing the cultural background. The Bible was written in such a way that anyone can understand its main message. However, an understanding of the biblical backgrounds allows you to understand that message with greater depth."
Isaiah 63 is a good example of this:
Revelation 19:15 uses the same imagery when describing Jesus returning to triumph over His enemies:
In poetic language, these passage describes a day when God will execute his wrath on the earth. That is the main message. However, an understanding of the ancient practice of treading a winepress brings a fuller understanding of the imagery used here.
Our picture of the week comes from Volume 17 of the revised and expanded edition of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands, which provides "Cultural Images of the Holy Land." Like Volume 16, which we discussed last week, this is a new volume of the PLBL. It covers such cultural images as animals familiar in the biblical world (both domestic and wild), agricultural practices, Jewish cultural practices, Jewish holidays, Christian holidays, the Samaritan Passover ceremony, various types of dwellings, sources of water, shepherding, pottery making, scribes, and more. It is a valuable resource for any Bible teacher or preacher who wants to help people understand the biblical world.
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The picture is entitled simply "Treading Winepress." It is one of a series of photos in the collection where people are reenacting the process of harvesting and treading grapes. At once, you can understand why it is called "treading" as you see the people stomping on the grapes to release the juice. (As a side note, the juice then drained out of the winepress through a hole on one end of the vat.)
You can also see why God is asked "Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?" (Isa. 63:2, ESV). If you look closely at the bottom of their robes you will see that some of the red juice has splattered up onto the people's clothes. You can imagine what this scene would look like if someone was angry while treading out the grapes, stomping and smashing the fruit violently. Even more juice would splatter and would look similar to blood ("their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel," Isa. 63:3). Such a picture brings a deeper understanding of the biblical reference to Jesus in Revelation 19: "He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty" (Rev. 19:15, ESV).
A collection such as this can be a valuable tool in the hand of a Bible teacher. Illuminating the biblical background helps illuminate the Bible itself.
This and other photos of "Cultural Images of the Holy Land" are included in Volume 17 of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands and can be purchased here. Additional information and pictures of cultural images can be found here and here on the BiblePlaces website. Those interested in this topic should also check out the many resources listed on the sister website of BiblePlaces at www.lifeintheholyland.com.![]()
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Someone recently asked me, "Can you understand the Bible without understanding the culture of the people in the Bible?"
My answer was: "Yes, you can understand the Bible without knowing the cultural background. The Bible was written in such a way that anyone can understand its main message. However, an understanding of the biblical backgrounds allows you to understand that message with greater depth."
Isaiah 63 is a good example of this:
Who is this who comes from Edom,in crimsoned garments from Bozrah,
he who is splendid in his apparel,
marching in the greatness of his strength?
“It is I, speaking in righteousness,
mighty to save.”
Why is your apparel red,
and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?
“I have trodden the winepress alone,
and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
and trampled them in my wrath;
their lifeblood spattered on my garments,
and stained all my apparel.” (Isa. 63:1-3, ESV)
Revelation 19:15 uses the same imagery when describing Jesus returning to triumph over His enemies:
From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. (Rev. 19:15, ESV)
In poetic language, these passage describes a day when God will execute his wrath on the earth. That is the main message. However, an understanding of the ancient practice of treading a winepress brings a fuller understanding of the imagery used here.
Our picture of the week comes from Volume 17 of the revised and expanded edition of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands, which provides "Cultural Images of the Holy Land." Like Volume 16, which we discussed last week, this is a new volume of the PLBL. It covers such cultural images as animals familiar in the biblical world (both domestic and wild), agricultural practices, Jewish cultural practices, Jewish holidays, Christian holidays, the Samaritan Passover ceremony, various types of dwellings, sources of water, shepherding, pottery making, scribes, and more. It is a valuable resource for any Bible teacher or preacher who wants to help people understand the biblical world.
The picture is entitled simply "Treading Winepress." It is one of a series of photos in the collection where people are reenacting the process of harvesting and treading grapes. At once, you can understand why it is called "treading" as you see the people stomping on the grapes to release the juice. (As a side note, the juice then drained out of the winepress through a hole on one end of the vat.)
You can also see why God is asked "Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress?" (Isa. 63:2, ESV). If you look closely at the bottom of their robes you will see that some of the red juice has splattered up onto the people's clothes. You can imagine what this scene would look like if someone was angry while treading out the grapes, stomping and smashing the fruit violently. Even more juice would splatter and would look similar to blood ("their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel," Isa. 63:3). Such a picture brings a deeper understanding of the biblical reference to Jesus in Revelation 19: "He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty" (Rev. 19:15, ESV).
A collection such as this can be a valuable tool in the hand of a Bible teacher. Illuminating the biblical background helps illuminate the Bible itself.
This and other photos of "Cultural Images of the Holy Land" are included in Volume 17 of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands and can be purchased here. Additional information and pictures of cultural images can be found here and here on the BiblePlaces website. Those interested in this topic should also check out the many resources listed on the sister website of BiblePlaces at www.lifeintheholyland.com.
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NEWS: Egyptian turmoil puts antiquities at risk
“Political turmoil and uncertainty in Egypt has put the country’s antiquities at risk, experts say.
At least 50 pieces were looted from the National Museum on Tahrir Square during large demonstrations there, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The stolen items include a statue of the Pharoah Tutankhamun, whose lavish tomb made him one of the best-known ancient Egyptian rulers” – via UPI.
Read more here.
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NEWS: Manchester Museum throw £1.6million party and unveil ‘Ancient Worlds’ 100 years after first exhibition
‘Ancient Worlds’ exhibition opens (Source: Mancunian Matters).
“Manchester Museum have unveiled their new £1.57million Ancient Worlds display to mark the centenary of the museum’s original 1912 opening.
Ancient Worlds is split into three different sections – Discovering Archaeology, Egyptian Worlds and Exploring Objects – each of which offers unique insight into ancient civilisations such as Greece, Rome and Egypt.
The collection has been off display for the past 14 months while the museum, who received £772,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help finance the project, remodelled its new home” – via Mancunian Matters.
Read more here.
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ARTICLE: Hidden treasures in the Delta
Entrance to the temple of Amun (Source: Daily News Egypt).
“San Al Hagar has not revealed its archaeological secrets yet.
Egypt has been the seat of different civilisations since nearly the beginning of human history. Remnants across the country bear witness of the greatness of its ancients and historical events that changed and enlightened humanity. To this day there are many areas that have not revealed their archaeological secrets and one of these spots is Tanis or San Al Hagar” – via Daily News Egypt.
Read more here.
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Provadia: The oldest town in Europe?
Type the words "oldest town in Europe" into a search engine and you will be flooded with hundreds of exited posts about how the "oldest town in Europe was recently discovered in Bulgaria, near the town of Provadia...dated between the middle and late Chalcolithic age from 4,700 to 4,200 BC".
Very nice! Cool!
But why the sensationalism? "Oldest town in Europe"?
I think not...From memory, and though this is far from my area of expertise, the names "Dimini" and "Sesklo" came uncalled for to my mind.
Both these sites are in Central Greece. Both are towns. And it would appear that both are older than the new Bulgarian site.
Dimini appears to be dated c. 5000 BC. Meaning that it is 300-800 years older than the Provadia site.
Sesklo is even older, dated tp 6850 BC with a +/- 660 year margin of error...This site was actually abandoned around 4400 BC, i.e. around the time that the Provadia site is dated...
Knossos might also be worth a mention in this context, given that the first settlement there dates to about 7000 BC, while I am sure that the Starčevo - (Körös) - Criş Culture, in the Central Balkans, dated from the 7th to 5th millennia possesses a couple of sites that could be qualified as towns...
And those examples are just the first that came to mind! Meaning quite a number of settlements that are older that the Provasia site. Unless the difference is in the term "town" and the Bulgarian team means that according to some unspecified criteria, all the other sites don't qualify as 'towns', while the new site does... [Note: Sesklo may have grown to 800 households, while the Provadia site is said to have been home to about 350 people...]
So once again, why the sensationalism? Would it not have been sufficient just to say "we made an important find: it appears to be an organised settlement, similar to others found in the region (Varna culture)"? That would have been the scientific way to go...
But then again without superlatives, how can you grab the headlines?! Not to mention the national(ist) satisfaction of saying "we have the oldest/biggest/greatest find"!
See also:
Provadia:
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| Provadia site. A two-room structure. |
Very nice! Cool!
But why the sensationalism? "Oldest town in Europe"?
I think not...From memory, and though this is far from my area of expertise, the names "Dimini" and "Sesklo" came uncalled for to my mind.
Both these sites are in Central Greece. Both are towns. And it would appear that both are older than the new Bulgarian site.
Dimini appears to be dated c. 5000 BC. Meaning that it is 300-800 years older than the Provadia site.
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| Dimini. In the center the "megaron" structure is visble. |
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| Dimini. A reconstruction. |
Sesklo is even older, dated tp 6850 BC with a +/- 660 year margin of error...This site was actually abandoned around 4400 BC, i.e. around the time that the Provadia site is dated...
 | ||||||
| Reconstruction of Sesklo |
Knossos might also be worth a mention in this context, given that the first settlement there dates to about 7000 BC, while I am sure that the Starčevo - (Körös) - Criş Culture, in the Central Balkans, dated from the 7th to 5th millennia possesses a couple of sites that could be qualified as towns...
And those examples are just the first that came to mind! Meaning quite a number of settlements that are older that the Provasia site. Unless the difference is in the term "town" and the Bulgarian team means that according to some unspecified criteria, all the other sites don't qualify as 'towns', while the new site does... [Note: Sesklo may have grown to 800 households, while the Provadia site is said to have been home to about 350 people...]
So once again, why the sensationalism? Would it not have been sufficient just to say "we made an important find: it appears to be an organised settlement, similar to others found in the region (Varna culture)"? That would have been the scientific way to go...
But then again without superlatives, how can you grab the headlines?! Not to mention the national(ist) satisfaction of saying "we have the oldest/biggest/greatest find"!
See also:
Provadia:
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