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EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 29-30 -- November 26, 2000
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Editor's note: Depending on your mail software, some urls may wrap
(especially those from the Telegraph) which will require you to
rebuild the url at your end; if you get a 'file not found', check to see if the url wrapped on you. Most urls should be active for at least eight hours from the time of 'publicatio'.
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Once again apologies accrue for an unannounced hiatus (report card time!); as compensation, here's a huge issue with enough to keep you occupied at least until our friends south of the 49th parallel figure out who won their election (although I have a feeling that we Canucks will know who has won our election (tomorrow) first ...):
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gratias vobis ago for the heads up to: Jan Gabbert, Mary Reed, Danny Adams, Alastair Millar, MPSwank, Bill Kennedy, Dave Abbott, Sean Adair, and Andy Burnham (as always, hoping I haven't left anyone out!).
THE BIG NEWS
The big news this week comes from the New World, where newswires are burning up with reports of the discovery of Jamestown's long lost 'twin' colony:
OLD WORLD NEWS
Perhaps a bit 'old' for this newsletter, but interesting nonetheless, is a report that the 400,000 year-old-remains of a woman indicate she might have had capacity for speech:
A French archaeologist is claiming to have discovered the remains of a 6000-year-old civilization in Balochistan (watch the wrap)
A Czech team has discovered a 4,300 year-old-tomb near Cairo (unfortunately with an empty sarcophagus):
Last week, listland was all arage in response to Kate Spence's suggestion that star positions could be used to date the pyramids ... here's the coverage (mind the wrap as required):
Also in the world of pyramid theories, the Independent has a report suggesting the Egyptians borrowed the design from Scotland (insert editorial comment of your choice here)(mind the wrap):
Also on the 'insert editorial comment of your choice' front, the Belfast Times reports on plans to search for the Ark of the Covenant in, er, Ireland:
Returning to the Egyptian front, the Express has an article by David Rohl on the search for Cambyses' lost army:
A couple of reports on what's been found at Umm el-Marra (I think these are about the same site):
The Daily Star has a touristy/historical piece on Persepolis (scroll down quite a bit, if necessary):
'South Nexus' reports on the discovery in Iran of the coffin of a woman dating to ca. 200 B.C.:
The Independent reports on the discovery of a 3,000 year-old megalithic 'temple' bigger than Stonehenge in Wales:
Iron Age Scotland was apparently milking cows, according to a BBC report:
News24 has a brief item on the discovery of a Roman "Titanic" off the coast of Sicily -- some sort of luxury cruise ship with assorted affinities with Pompeii (I'll try to track down more on this one):
,1113,2-13-46_939109,00.html
We also have a report on conservators at the British Museum revealing one of the most detailed images (on a knife) of a Roman gladiator ever found in Britain:
King Arthur's 'round table', which supposedly resides in Winchester Castle, has turned out to probably date from the time of Edward I:
A wire report tells of excavations in Tilaurakot, home of the Buddha:
Xinhua reports on the discovery of an ancient pottery workshop in Mongolia:
A piece on the Reuters health wire suggests that evidence from teeth proves that rat-born nasties caused the big plague (and the same techniques might be used to figure out the plague at Athens, apparently) (mind the wrap):
Completely unaware of the above, apparently, other scholars are claiming that rats were 'framed' for the plague:
In the world of art history, the latest controversy is over a pile of bones which may or may not belong to Giotto:
I don't know why, but I'm always interested in discoveries of wine from shipwrecks, so here's another example:
Ananova reports on the arrest of a Bulgarian antiquities smuggler:
In a totally unrelated story, Bloomberg reports on assorted antiquities hitting the auction block at Sotheby's:
I don't know how to classify this one, but Sir Ranulph Fiennes' 'perfect adventure' has a sort of leering archaeological/relic hunter feel to it:
,6903,402901,00.html
NEW WORLD NEWS
Japan Times reports that the Japanese are going to contribute funds to help preserve some Maya monuments in Bolivia:
A spelunker has discovered some 1000-year-old cave paintings/etchings in Wisconsin (this one doesn't 'feel right' for some reason) (watch da wrap):
CLASSICISTS' CORNER
National Geographic news has a piece associated with the "Arming of Slaves from the Ancient World to the American Civil War" conference:
The Washington Post has an item on a reading of the Iliad at Howard:
USA Today has a report from someone who enrolled in a 'Roman fight club' to learn arts gladiatorial:
The Age has an article on genetically-created 'monsters' with tons o' refs to various multiple-species beasties from ancient times:
Passing mention of an Oliver Stone project setting Julius Caesar's rise to power in modern-day America:
USNews and World Report has a feature on the Loeb Aristophanes (looks like a repeat to me):
Among the interesting things that landed on my desktop this week was the url for Dana Sutton's comprehensive site of 500+ neo-Latin texts available online (dating from the Renaissance on ...):
Also on the 'interesting things that landed on my desktop' front is a freeware program called TempusFugit, which will display the time in Roman numerals and put a Latin date down there in your systray (I haven't had a chance to install it myself, but it looks like something someone amongst our readers would be interested in):
SAGAS
Elgin Marbles:
Mummy from Pakistan (now officially a saga ... check it out)(watch the wrap as required ... tee hee!):
FOLLOWUPS
Black Sea stuff:
Zeugma:
,2669,SAV-0011190449,FF.html
Fujimori fraud:
Wade and Brier's modern mummy (big time wrap on this one):
Canada's Iceman:
Miami Circle (remember that one?):
OBITUARIES
L. Sprague deCamp (technically a science fiction writer, but I'm sure plenty of us had their interest in the ancient world sparked and/or encouraged by his *Ancient Engineers*):
Sir Steven Runciman
AT ABOUT.COM
Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill has been busy turning out some interesting features on the god Hermes and the Vestal Virgins (two different pieces):
Latin Guide Janet Burns has a nice lesson plannish sort of thing for student-made vocabulary books and the connection between Sacajawea, Pomepey, and snakes (again, two different pieces):
REGULAR FEATURES
CTCWeb's Words of the Week
<url:>
Radio Finland's Nuntii Latini
<url:>
English translation (probably delayed ... hasn't been updated since August):
<url:
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EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
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EXPLORATOR is a weekly newsletter representing the fruits of the labours of 'media research division' of The Atrium. Various on-line news and magazine sources are scoured on a daily basis for news of the ancient world (broadly construed: practically anything relating to archaeology or history prior to about 1700 or so is fair game) and when a sufficient number of urls are gathered (usually a minimum of three stories), they are delivered to your mailbox free of charge! Those articles that don't expire, plus supplementary links eventually find a home at:
Commentarium (news articles)
The Rostra (audio files)
A media archive of links of files that have previously appeared in
Commentarium or at the Rostra is currently under construction.
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