The Roman frontier along the Lower Danube
Recent publications:
Lyudmil Vagalinski
www.naim.bg
Archaeologia Bulgarica XVI 2012 #1
ARTICLES
AAR Summer Program in Roman Pottery, 2010
NB: Deadline January 14
The Howard Comfort, FAAR’29, Summer School in Roman Pottery
Potsherds constitute the most frequent group of finds on archaeological sites in the Mediterranean. Pottery usually offers the most important evidence for dating sites. Furthermore, ceramological databases provide a good source on issues ranging from trade relations to the consumption patterns of food and questions of identity.
The Summer School in Roman Pottery Studies is a five-week program designed to present the basics of Roman pottery studies, which can be gained only through direct contact with ceramic assemblages. Since the School’s establishment in 2006 to honor the memory of Howard Comfort (a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and an eminent scholar of Roman pottery), it has gained a reputation as the premier venue for introducing aspiring scholars to the field, and its alumni are increasingly in demand on projects in Italy and elsewhere.
Photo of ‘Vargas herd’ elephants in the Rose Bowl parade. From the Buckles Blog.
There’s a piece in the Guardian about the massive slaughter of African elephants to feed a seemingly insatiable ivory export market in East Asia (but also in the West…). The story quotes Jane Goodall, who is advocating for a worldwide ban on ivory sales, as the population of wild elephants plummets from poaching, and tusks are smuggled in containers of floor tiles, sacks of dried fish, and diplomatic pouches.
Goodall is coming to DePauw University to speak this coming Spring; it will be a fantastic opportunity for our students to meet someone on the front lines of research and conservation for over 50 years. She will also be in Pasadena on New Year’s Day as Grand Marshal of the 124th Tournament of Roses. That’s where this story gets curious. Continue reading
Relative location of Vesuvius compared to the naval base at Misenum (inner and outer harbors visible at lower center). Based on GoogleEarth.
6.16.7-10: The Hero Embarks
This post belongs to a serialized translation and commentary of Pliny the Younger’s letters (6.16 and 6.20) to the historian Tacitus about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. This is the third installment for letter 6.16.
The Younger Pliny has just unfolded a detailed description of the volcanic cloud that was first spotted by his mother around noon. (Note that this just provides a terminus ante quem for the initial explosion, but because of the explosive nature of ‘Plinian eruptions’, it is unlikely to have begun too long before Plinia noticed it.) Pliny is working from three sources: his memory, notes he took shortly after the event, and conversations with other people after the eruption (as he says later in section 22 of this letter).
As the crater of Vesuvius is about 30 km. away from Misenum by direct line of sight, the Elder Pliny, his curiosity alight, decides to have a closer look. It is perhaps 2 or 3 in the afternoon (we don’t know how long Pliny took with his bath, his lunch, and his climb to a vantage point). There was as yet no sense of urgency, but that was about to change. Continue reading
DePauw University, East College, photo by Larry Ligget, 1 Oct. 2012
Last Friday our student newspaper, The DePauw (which has been in operation since 1852) published an opinion piece by a first-year student essentially arguing that professors should not require attendance of their students. Part of the argument said that if students want to waste their tuition dollars, it is up to them; another part suggested that not requiring attendance would elicit positive self-motivation to be in class. In closing, the piece said that the university should have a universal policy that students, not professors, should get to decide about the value of their class attendance. The whole piece is below (note that I am going out of my way not to advertise names). [Note: a few editorial clarifications appear in brackets]. My purpose here is to consider the dialectic that has resulted.
Continue reading
Strange Cloud: non alia magis arbor quam pinus (vintage postcard from Naples)
6.16.4-6: A Strange Cloud
This post belongs to a serialized translation and commentary of Pliny the Younger’s letters (6.16 and 6.20) to the historian Tacitus about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. This is the second installment for letter 6.16.
The Younger Pliny now begins the tale that Tacitus has asked him to share. It is critical to remember that the real subject of, and reason for, these letters, is to honor the life and memory of the Elder Pliny–not to describe a volcanic eruption and its effects–though it was the latter that the Elder Pliny was interested in recording that day, as we will see later on.
This post will also consider the date of the eruption in some detail.
4 Erat Miseni classemque imperio praesens regebat. Nonum kal. Septembres hora fere septima mater mea indicat ei adparere nubem inusitata et magnitudine et specie.
4 He (Elder Pliny) was at Misenum and he was in command of the fleet. On the ninth day before the first of September at about the seventh hour, my mother indicates to him that a cloud of unusual size and shape is appearing. Continue reading
Greetings all,
Recently I implemented some improvements to the analytical and
visualization features in the American Numismatic Society’s OCRE (
http://numismatics.org/ocre/) project. Currently all coin types (as
defined by RIC) from Augustus to Antoninus Pius are defined on OCRE.
The new feature enables one to compare, for example, occurrences of Pax,
Clementia, Concordia, and Mars depicted on coins across all emperors and
mints (http://bit.ly/SJZEcu). Continue reading
Exploring Roman food, memory & identity
DePauw Winter Term 2015-2017
TOGETHER TO THE TOP
It all begain when our family of four relocated from Vashon, WA to Canterbury for a year
Through Young Eyes
Professional Soccer Coaching Advice features free tips, tools, sessions and advice from Premier League and grassroots coaches.
Living in Italy with my family
an archaeology of landscapes, mindscapes, and playscapes
an archaeology of landscapes, mindscapes, and playscapes
Ambling through the present and past with thoughts about the future
an archaeology of landscapes, mindscapes, and playscapes
an archaeology of landscapes, mindscapes, and playscapes
The TED Blog shares news about TED Talks and TED Conferences.
an archaeology of landscapes, mindscapes, and playscapes
[quem dixere chaos] 