]|[=================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 38 -- January 21, 2001
]|[=================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[=================================================================]|[
Acknowledgements: Thanks to Bill Kennedy for the heads up this week!
OLD WORLD NEWS
What might be construed as the big news of the week, based on press coverage alone, is the theory that early bone tools reveal that early hominids chowed down on termites:
The Telegraph and MSNBC have a brief item on using DNA analysis to learn about when horses were domesticated:
Just when you thought the 'Noah's flood' thing had died down, a team of researchers from Canada is suggesting the site may have been near the Persian Gulf:
The Frontier Post has a (somewhat strange) article on the Near East and Aegean art:
Nando Times and the Macedonian Press Agency report that the FBI has (finally) returned a large number of antiquities purloined from the museum at Corinth a decade ago:
,1024,500301332-500481694-503309637-0,00.html
The Athenian News Agency has an all too brief report on the discovery of some Geometric period tombs in Cyprus:
The International Herald Tribune has a piece on the Etruscans:
I'm sure we'll hear more about this one next week ... EurekaAlert has an interesting press release on how a Classics grad student (yay!) has found proof that Homer was right about burnt sacrifices in the Bronze Age:
Techie types will be interested to learn that archaeologists have unearthed a prehistoric C compiler (sorry ... I couldn't resist including this one):
Xinhua via Northern Light reports on the discovery of a 3200-year-old noble's tomb in central China:
A number of tombs have also been discovered near Shanghai:
The same source has a wrap up of recent discoveries all over China as well:
NEW WORLD NEWS
I couldn't find any New World stuff this week!!
ON THE NEWSSTANDS
The January issue of Scientific American has an interesting commentary piece on the development of writing:
Discovering Archaeology has put up an article on the city of Aperlae (in Lycia):
CLASSICIST'S CORNER
Ekathimerini has posted an article from December 1969 (I doubt that's right ... there's a ref to 1998 in it) about the 'Cabernet Sauvignon of Antiquity' -- Phliasios wine -- with plenty of ancient refs ... interesting stuff:
The New York Times has an extended piece on Cleopatra, with refs to the exhibition in Italy, movies, etc.:
FOLLOWUPS
Baharaiya Oasis mummies:
Karachi mummy:
Ancient insoles:
,2669,SAV-0101140394,FF.html
Zeugma:
SAGAS
The Out-of-Africa vs. Not-necessarily-so debate:
AT ABOUT.COM
Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill's latest is on Hanno of Carthage's little trip:
Latin Guide Janet Burns' has a guest-written feature on Augustus:
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:
l>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[================================================================]|[
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:
The Media Archive (just going up as of January 22, 2001 -- ISP problems solved (hopefully)!):
]|[================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2001 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers,
etc., but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to
be posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either
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this list by going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[=================================================================]|[
|
]|[=================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 37 -- January 14, 2001
]|[=================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[=================================================================]|[
Thanks to Bill Kennedy and Andy Pingram for the 'heads ups' this week (as always, hoping I haven't neglected anyone)
OLD WORLD NEWS
Plenty of versions of this AP story: archaeologists have found what they believe is an insole dating to some 3000 years B.C./B.C.E.:
Just as folks were figuring out what to do with Seahenge, another was discovered (maybe):
And while we're on the subject of henges, it's big news in Britain, apparently, that much restoration work went into Stonehenge:
The Telegraph has a brief item on how the Nile is threatening inscriptions at Karnak:
Arabia.com has a feature on pyramids in the Sudan:
,1690,Life|37185,00.html
The Charlotte Observer has an item on a new permanent display of artifacts from Israel at UNCC:
There are a couple of reports on the discovery of a bust of Caesarion (in the waters off Alexandria, of course):
Other news from Abukir bay ... this seems like old news, no?:
The Telegraph reports on the impending exhibition of a Roman gold coin hoard:
... while the Independent reports on the discovery of a new one:
The Times of India reports that archaeologists have found an ancient 'idol making unit':
The Age reports on the trial of seven men accused of robbing a tomb near Beijing:
NEW WORLD NEWS
CNN has a report on the threat posed by mining operations to petroglyphs in the Dominican Republic:
The Billings Gazette has a report on how a piece of 'repatriation' legislation is working:
ON THE NEWSSTANDS
There's a new issue of British Archaeology on the webstands, with plenty of news items and features on the Bignor Roman Villa, Avebury, and Neanderthals, among other things:
CLASSICIST'S CORNER
... sorry, the search engines came up dry this week ...
AT ABOUT.COM
Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill gives us a rundown of what folks have been chatting about:
?terms=a1
Archaeology Guide Kris Hirst has an article on the Koster site:
Latin Guide Janet Burns has a selection of Roman-related January trivia:
FOLLOWUPS
Animal mummies (actually, this is one I missed):
Black Sea/Noah's Flood:
SAGAS
The "out of Africa"/maybe not debate has a new installment to complicate matters:
,4511,1594904%255E8882,00.html
... and another twist on the same idea:
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:
l>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[================================================================]|[
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:
The Media Archive (still going up as of January 7, 2001):
]|[================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2001 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers,
etc., but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to
be posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either
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this list by going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[=================================================================]|[
|
]|[=================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 36 -- January 7, 2001
]|[=================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[=================================================================]|[
Acknowledgements: Thanks for the to Sally Winchester and Bill Kennedy for their contributions to this issue.
OLD WORLD NEWS
Kathimerini has a tantalizingly brief article on a dispute over rights to dig where what is possibly the oldest human skull in Europe was found:
NG News has an item on how the receding waters of the Sea of Galilee have revealed a neolithic site:
The San Francisco Chronicle has an interesting piece on a biopsy done on a 3,500 year-old mummy:
An animal cemetery has been discovered in Egypt:
,1690,Life|36597,00.html
Also on the Egyptian front, the Independent has an interesting item on how a scholar has traced the origins of the concept of "the mummy's curse":
The Jerusalem Post has a somewhat shocking item on how the IAA treated a certain artifact:
The Sunday Times has a report on Thor Heyerdahl's theory that viking "tax exiles" settled in America:
The BBC reports on Iraq's ongoing efforts to restore its heritage:
The Sunday Times has a report on Greece's plans to destroy a huge chunk of the site of the Battle of Marathon for Olympic event purposes:
The Indian Express has a piece on the discovery of an inscription which sheds light on Hindu rule in 9th century Afghanistan:
The People's Daily reports on the discovery of a number of Shang Dynasty tombs (this one and the following items should have been in last week's issue):
The same source also has a couple of items on what excavations in Sanxingui are revealing:
Xinhua via Northern Light reports on the discovery of a pair of horse graves in China:
Science Daily has an item on how volcanic eruptions may have really made the Dark Ages 'dark' (this isn't really a new story):
Back to the BBC, which has an interesting report on excavating shipwrecks from the Zuider Zee:
NEW WORLD NEWS
The Canadian version of Discovery Channel has an interview online with David Johnson in regards to the evidence that the Nazca Lines in Peru have associations with water sources (a brief bit of text, but otherwise requires Windows Media Player):
ON THE NEWSSTANDS
There's a new issue of Biblical Archaeology Review on the stands, the highlight of which is its annual guide to digs:
Bible Review also has a new online issue, with articles on "King David, Serial Murderer" and "The Gospel of Thomas" , among other things:
And we might as well round out the BAS triad: Archaeology Odyssey has a new issue out (new to me) with an article on kingship in Sumer, another guide to digs, etc.:
CLASSICIST'S CORNER
Kathimerini has a report on an exhibit of photos of the Acropolis over time (pardon the awkward description):
I missed this one ... the Boston Globe a month ago had a report on the revival of Classical Greek in a certain county jail (!):
The Cincinnati Enquirer has a piece on the return of Latin to a high school in that city:
REVIEWS
The LA Times has a review of Finkelstein and Silberman *The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts*:
SAGAS
Kennewick Man:
Elgin Marbles (same story, different papers):
AT ABOUT.COM
Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill's latest is on Solon:
Archaeology Guide Kris Hirst's latest is on archaeology-related careers:
Latin Guide Janet Burns' lastest is on why datives and pluperfects are called that:
FOLLOWUPS
Egyptian petroglyphs:
Egyptian prosthetic toes:
Seahenge (with an excellent photo at the BBC):
Cities in Aboukir Bay
(watch the wrap ... this is the same AP story from last week)
(Not) Arthur's Round Table:
,,61-61297,00.html
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:
l>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[================================================================]|[
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:
The Media Archive (just going up as of January 7, 2001):
]|[================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2001 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers,
etc., but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to
be posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either
Commentarium or Rostra (or both)! You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from
this list by going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[=================================================================]|[
|
]|[=================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 35 -- December 31, 2000
]|[=================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[=================================================================]|[
As we enter a new year (and Millennium), your editor would just like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year. It's been a quiet week, as one might expect, but I'm still happy to report that over the past year, subscriptions to Explorator increased by 50% and hopefully the next year will bring an even greater increase! Thanks for your support!
OLD WORLD NEWS
Xinhua via Northern Light reports on the discovery of some 3500-year-old structures in Iran:
Egypt Revealed via USA Today reports on the discovery of a pile of inscriptions in Egypt (from all periods) which are threatened by road construction:
Another story suggests some recent discoveries by a British team might challenge ideas of the origins of the Egyptians:
,4273,4110040,00.html
The Bergen Record has an interesting "Antiques Roadshowish" story wherein the donation of some pots to Richard Stockton College might prove that they are actually wares from Magna Graecia:
Ananova reports on plans to possibly rebury 'Seahenge':
Business Week has an interview with Robert Vergnieux on the use of new technology in archaeology:
For what it's worth, Northern Light picked up a Reuters story on a book which describes how the Knights Templar took the Holy Grail *and* the Ark of the Covenant to some island in the Baltic Sea:
In the same department from TASS via Northern Light is a somewhat confusing report on the discovery of the tomb of St. Nicholas (a bit suspicious this one):
NEW WORLD NEWS
I couldn't find any ... told you it was a bit slow this week.
ON THE NEWSSTANDS
Archaeology Magazine has a new online issue, with a full text article on the Karachi mummy and abstracts on forging Minoan artifacts and making mummies (by Bob Brier) among other things:
CLASSICIST'S CORNER
The Lakeland Ledger has a piece on a local archaeologist's search for the historical Jesus:
Rediff Online has a report on a booklet which suggests Indians discovered the Pythagorean theorem long before Pythagoras (among other things):
FOLLOWUPS
Sunken cities in Aboukir Bay:
Egyptian prosthetic toes:
,1690,Life|36125,00.html
Thracian tomb in Bulgaria:
,3561,622736,00.html
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:
l>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[================================================================]|[
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.
]|[================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2000 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers,
etc., but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to
be posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either
Commentarium or Rostra (or both)! You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from
this list by going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[=================================================================]|[
|
Explorator delayed a bit ...
Greetings,
Because of the threat of major 'denial of service' attacks during New Year's eve (as reported both by the FBI and by increased attempted intrusions noted by my firewall program over the course of the week), I'm going to hold off on Explorator until tomorrow a.m.. It's safer not to connect to the Internet today ...
Happy New Year everyone!!!!
dm
|
[apologies if you get two of these; it would appear the first one didn't go
out!]
]|[=================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 34 -- December 24, 2000
]|[=================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[=================================================================]|[
Season's Greetings to all who have recently celebrated, are celebrating, or
are about to celebrate one or more of the many festivals associated with
this time of year!!!!!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gratias vobis ago for the heads up to: Alastair Millar and Sally Winchester
(as always, with hopes that I haven't left anyone out).
OLD WORLD NEWS
The latest news on the Oetzi front is that his last meal included goat
meat, which kind of puts a spanner in the works of theories that he was a
vegan:
Potentially big news this week (based on coverage) is a report on the
discovery that ancient Egyptians may have successfully performed
amputations and equipped a mummy with a prothetic toe (the Lancet article
is the most detailed and requires registration; it's a bit of an annoying
process, but worth tracking down):
Also potentially big news this week includes reports on recent discoveries
in Ireland's Boyne valley:
Also on the Irish front is news of recent work at Newgrange:
A fair amount of coverage this week has been devoted to the restoration of
one of the Queen of Sheba's temples (this is probably really a followup):
,1113,2-10-35_957224,00.html
There's quite a bit of brief coverage (does that make sense?) of the
discovery of a Thracian tomb:
,1113,2-13-46_956063,00.html
The New York Times has an interesting piece on what construction of Athens'
subway revealed about ancient Athens:
The International Herald Tribune has an item on 'the face of Cleopatra'
(relating to the exhibition in Italy):
Also on the Cleopatran front (sort of) is an awful lot of coverage on the
semiobvious claims that the various bits of Alexandria and other cities
which lay at the bottom of Abukir Bay were victims of earthquakes:
The Independent reports on the discovery of the 'original' Londinium:
The Scotsman has a brief item on the discovery of a Roman coin hoard:
The Japan Times has a very nice piece on the "Great Wall of England":
An amateur archaeologist has discovered the remains of a medieval village:
,,2-53249,00.html
The San Francisco Chronicle has an item suggesting that temperature changes
might have led to the demise of assorted ancient cultures:
Xinhua's weekly newsbrief on recent discoveries in China:
Other items from Xinhua include the discovery of some sacrificial implements:
... and a Neolithic site:
... and a village from the Western Zhou dynasty:
NEW WORLD NEWS
I don't think this is really new, but it appears to have hit the newswires
again for some reason: the report of the discovery of a number of ancient
canoes in Florida:
,1113,2-13-46_956763,00.html
Probably qualifying as 'big news' based on media coverage is the report
that the Mayans suffered from 'urban sprawl' a couple of millennia before
we did:
Thor Heyerdahl is raising a ruckus on the real influence of the Vikings in
Vinland:
A couple of sources are quite excited about discoveries of frescoes at the
Alamo:
The Baltimore Sun reports on findings relating to a battle from the war of
1812:
THE POLITICS OF ARCHAEOLOGY
A couple of items this week relate to global treaties/agreements in regards
to the sale of antiquities (Britain's just signing on; the Post article
outlines some of the effects of such things):
,3604,413148,00.html
CLASSICIST'S CORNER
Not a lot specifically 'classical' this week, but an awful lot related
to proving various aspects of gospel accounts true (Bethlehem Stars,
archaeological evidence for Nazareth being the birthplace, etc.):
In a similar vein is a claim by the Bible Code set that the birth of Christ
was 'codified' in Proverbs:
FOLLOWUPS
Buddha's birthplace:
Pirate Hoard in London:
Fujimura fallout (this is threatening to become a saga):
?@
AT ABOUT.COM
Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill's latest is on Cleisthenes' reforms:
Archaeology Guide Kris Hirst (to whom I apologize profusely for repeatedly
misspelling her name) muses about assorted traditions associated with this
time of year:
Latin Guide Janet Burns has a piece on the 'darkest evening of the year':
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:
l>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[================================================================]|[
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.
]|[================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2000 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers,
etc., but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to
be posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either
Commentarium or Rostra (or both)! You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from
this list by going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[=================================================================]|[
|
]|[=================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 33 -- December 17, 2000
]|[=================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[=================================================================]|[
OLD WORLD NEWS
Xinhua via Northern Light has a brief item on the discovery of a third century BC/BCE doll in Iraq:
Ha'aretz has a nice piece on what's been done lately to spruce up the site of Masada:
The Macedonian Press Agency has a brief item on the discovery of a number of tombs near Xanthi:
The BBC has a piece on various discoveries in Alexandria's harbour (nothing new, though, er old ... you know what I mean):
Discovering Archaeology has an item on a 2000-year-old Viking camp:
National Geographic News reports on the discovery of a 17th century (or so) pirate hoard in London:
The Observer has a thing advocating the giving of ancient coinage as Christmas gifts this year:
,6903,412245,00.html
The Times of India reports on the discovery of two prehistoric sites in Chittorgarh:
Xinhua reports on all sorts of discoveries in China this week (most with the headline "China discovers ..."), including a 2500-year-old tomb:
... and a 2000-year-old cache of iron:
... and an ancient porcelain kiln:
... and a group of tombs:
Another Xinhua piece, via Northern Light, talks about the activities of a Jewish mission to China in the 10th-11th centuries:
NEW WORLD NEWS
[Is Hawaii considered Old World or New World?] The Honolulu Advertiser has an interesting item on the 'big wave' theory:
This one's a bit strange to describe: a business site called Hoovers has a press release announcing a press conference announcing the intent to explore a number of Maya tunnels:
National Geographic News reports that a shipwreck found near Rhode Island is not associated with Captain Cook:
The Dominion Post has a feature on the discovery of the site of the oldest settlement in the Dupont City area:
CLASSICISTS CORNER
A brief item from the Macedonian Press Agency reports on the revival of the Delphic Games in Moscow:
The International Herald Tribune picks up a New York Times piece on the Barrington Atlas:
The Christian Science Monitor has an interesting little piece called "Everything I need to know is back on the shelf" with which many of us can identify, I suspect:
The Daily Yomiuri has an editorialish thing on history being all a matter of interpretation and how the negative has to be mentioned as well as the positive, etc.. which sounds not too unfamiliar ...
The Telegraph has a piece on what's wrong with museums today:
Northern Light has a piece on the many incarnations of Santa Claus:
REVIEWS
Salon has a review of Gary Taylor's *Castration: An Abbreviated History of Western Manhood*
THE POLITICS OF ARCHAEOLOGY
China has sent a pared down version of the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit to Taiwan, along with a not-so-subtle message, apparently (all these stories are the same):
FOLLOWUPS
Pompeii paramours:
King Tut DNA tests:
AT ABOUT.COM
Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill's latest is about various incarnations of democracy:
Archaeology Guide Kris Hurst has a feature about the technology of hunting:
Latin Guide Janet Burns has a feature on Saturnalia and other Roman winter festivals:
A somewhat quiet week ...
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:
l>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[================================================================]|[
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.
]|[================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2000 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers,
etc., but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to
be posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either
Commentarium or Rostra (or both)! You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from
this list by going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[=================================================================]|[
|
]|[=================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 32 -- December 10, 2000
]|[=================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[=================================================================]|[
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gratias vobis ago for the heads up to: George Peseley, Alastair Millar, Sujazz, David Abbott, and Bill Kennedy (as always, with hopes that I haven't left anyone out).
THE BIG NEWS
The big news this week (judged solely by press coverage) appears to be the discovery of George Washington's still:
,1079,500287227-500453881-502977445-0,00.html
OLD WORLD NEWS
Potentially big news, but losing the coin toss, is the discovery of what is apparently the oldest human ancestor:
Arabic News has a nice feature on Ugarit:
The same source also has a somewhat vague report on 'new Egyptian discoveries':
Potentially big news, but I think the journalist types are reading a bit too much into it, is the discovery of a pair of entwined lovers, supposedly master and slave, along with a pile of gold in Pompeii:
,,48958,00.html
Also on the Pompeii front, Canada's own National Post has an excellent feature on the erotic art of Pompeii:
Bloomberg has a report on the auction of a 'year 5 of Israel' shekel:
The Observer brings a report on Boudicca's nastier side:
,6903,406152,00.html
The Egyptian News service brings word of the discovery of a sunken Roman port:
The Houston Chronicle reports that a chunk of a Roman wall in Spain has collapsed due to heavy rains:
Xinhua reports on the discovery of some ancient iron plates in Central China:
The same source reports on the discovery of a rather large stone turtle:
National Geographic News has a report on the discovery of a tomb in Vietnam, which should shed light on that region's bronze age:
NEW WORLD NEWS
Also potentially big news, but I think this has been mentioned before (?), researchers have connected Peru's Nazca lines to water sources:
As with other sites of major forest fires this summer, the Sequoia National Forest conflagration has turned out to have revealed quite a few significant archaeological sites:
A fish trap near Olympia Washington has been dated to the fifteenth century:
CLASSICISTS CORNER
The Guardian has a somewhat interesting editorial about 'classism' which takes its start from Macauley's "Lays ...":
,3605,408691,00.html
An editorial in the Atlanta Constitution has plenty of Classical content as it compares the current US election difficulties to ancient Rome:
Time Magazine has a nice little article on the benefits of Latin for English instruction:
,8599,90457,00.html
SAGAS
Humans out of Africa/DNA
FOLLOWUPS
Mummy CAT scans:
,,46461,00.html
Roman luxury ships:
King Tut DNA tests:
Wisconsin Cave Paintings (I'm not sure if this one will still come up):
World's Oldest Love Song:
Cambyses' army (boy, they better find something ... they're certainly building the hype):
AT ABOUT.COM
Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill's latest is about Vincent Panella's first novel, which feature Julius Caesar's kidnapping by pirates:
Archaeology Guide Kris Hurst has an interview with Judith Winters, editor of Internet Archaeology:
Latin Guide Janet Burns has a nice little collection of Christmas-related songs in Latin:
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:
l>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[================================================================]|[
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.
]|[================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2000 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers,
etc., but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to
be posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either
Commentarium or Rostra (or both)! You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from
this list by going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[=================================================================]|[
|
]|[=================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 31 -- December 3, 2000
]|[=================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[=================================================================]|[
A somewhat quiet week ...
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gratias vobis ago for the heads up to: Bill Kennedy, Janice Siegel (a.k.a. Dr. J.), and Arnd Lis(as always, hoping I haven't left anyone out, which lately might have been the case ... I've just discovered I had an unbeknownst email problem throughout November which might be continuing!).
THE BIG NEWS
The only real 'news' of the week which is presented in any detail is about the discovery of human remains at Fort St. Louis in Texas:
OLD WORLD NEWS
Potentially big news, but really just an application of technology to already know remains, is the massive coverage of a 'virtual tour' of various mummies, which have been catscanned and reconstructed. The CNN coverage has the most to play with here (note that in some of the articles is buried info on the mummies from the Carlos Museum in Niagara Falls):
Also on the mummy front, the Washington Post has a preview/review of the 'Unwrapped' program which will be on TLC tonight:
According to National Geographic News, there's some interesting new evidence for the settlement of Micronesia:
The Daily Star has a brief notice on the discovery of an ancient cemetery in Yemen:
National Geographic News also reports on new evidence for the source of the marble used to make the Parthenon and various other things:
The Athenian News Agency reports on the discovery of a "huge marble statue of a woman" at Thera:
Also in an ANA report is a short item on the Mycenean acropolis at Midea, which apparently has much evidence of earthquake damage:
The Macedonian Press Agency has a vague report on some new finds near Philippi:
The Philadelphia Inquirer has a nice feature on various efforts to showcase Athens' archaeological sites during the Olympics:
The weekly Xinhua report on recent discoveries in China:
Also worth looking at is a brief article on ancient coinage:
NEW WORLD NEWS
According to an ABCNews report, a recently-discovered skeleton has scientists "nervous" (watch the wrap ... the ell on the end might go over):
An Alaskan newspaper has a nice wrapup on a four year excavation on an island off the Katmai coast:
,2633,217644,00.html
CLASSICISTS CORNER
The Hindustan Times has a review of a local production of Prometheus Bound:
SAGAS
Karachi mummy:
FOLLOWUPS
Welsh temple:
Jamestown twin:
Umm el-Marra:
Mesa Verde:
AT ABOUT.COM
Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill's latest feature is on various divinities' genealogies:
Latin Guide Janet Burns has put up a pile of online jigsaw puzzles which are kind of interesting:
Archaeology Guide Kris Hurst's latest is the fourth in the series in what an archaeologists' life is really like (alas, no Laras, Tias, or Harrisons ...):
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:
l>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[================================================================]|[
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.
]|[================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2000 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers,
etc., but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to
be posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either
Commentarium or Rostra (or both)! You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from
this list by going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[=================================================================]|[
|
]|[=================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 29-30 -- November 26, 2000
]|[=================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[=================================================================]|[
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:
l>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[================================================================]|[
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.
]|[================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2000 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers,
etc., but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to be posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either
Commentarium or Rostra (or both)! You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list by going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[=================================================================]|[
|
]|[=================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 28 -- November 12, 2000
]|[=================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[=================================================================]|[
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gratias vobis ago for the heads up to: Alastair Millar, Andy Pingram, Bill Kennedy, Nancy Jenner, and Sally Winchester (with the usual hopes I haven't left anyone out!)
THE BIG NEWS
My Roman bias shows again in the selection of this week's big news: excavations at that Pompeii 'hotel' site have turned up some interesting frescoes:
,1113,2-13-46_936538,00.html
OLD WORLD NEWS
Hot on the heels of last week's 'out of Africa' reports are numerous reports on how most European men can trace their ancestry back to but ten 'forefathers':
One I've missed for the past couple of weeks: the Kerryman reports on the discovery of a 4,000 year old settlement in Ireland:
Here's one we all suspected: Fox has been criticized for its claims relating to the opening of tombs 'live' a couple couple of summers ago. Turns out Zahi Hawass and crew knew exactly what was in them:
Also on the Egyptian front, with potential big news down the road written all over it, are myriad reports that king Tut's DNA is going to be tested to see if he really was of royal blood:
Still on the Egyptian front, and still with potential 'big news' written all over it, a German team claims to be very close to finding the tomb of Scorpion II:
An Italian jeweller is claiming to have rediscovered the Etruscans' secret for creating 'granulate gold':
The official word in China is that archaeology has pushed its history back some 1500 years, although many scholars seem skeptical:
The Guardian has a nice piece on assorted art exhibits which are gracing Rome in the jubilee year:
,3604,393726,00.html
NEW WORLD NEWS
Nearly qualifying as 'big news', at least in terms of coverage, is the announcement of the discovery of a 400-year-old 'fish farm' in South America:
A dig outside of El Paso is apparently providing all sorts of evidence which challenges current theories of cultural evolution:
A 500+ year-old cemetery has been found in Costa Rica:
Mother Jones (!) has an interesting article on how assorted native peoples who repatriated various artifacts can't use them because the chemicals used to preserve them are toxic:
The Maryland Sun has an interesting piece on the search for the earliest pipe kiln in North America:
The New York Times has a reviewish sort of thing on an exhibition of pre-Columbian silver artifacts at the Met:
CLASSICISTS' CORNER
A report on activities at a private school in Indianapolis should be of interest:
Also, a report on a sixth-grade teacher who took her 'Greek roots of democracy' lessons that extra mile:
USNews etc. has a nice piece on the newly-minted, unexpurgated Loeb Aristophanes:
I can just imagine classicists' reaction to reports that Andrew Dice Clay is going to star in a comedy set in ancient Rome:
SAGAS
Elgin Marbles:
FOLLOWUPS
The major followup this week has to do with the fallout in the wake of a Japanese archaeologist's admission of fraud (this is actually somewhat amazing to read through -- the first one is on another case of similar fraud):
,3604,393367,00.html
,,30550,00.html
Karachi mummy:
,1113,2-13-46_937259,00.html
Cleo's signature:
OBITUARY
Gail Burnett:
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:
l>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[================================================================]|[
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.
]|[================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2000 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers,
etc., but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to be posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either
Commentarium or Rostra (or both)! You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list by going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[=================================================================]|[
|
Explorator 3.27 (I think)
]|[=================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 27 -- November 5, 2000
]|[=================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[=================================================================]|[
Thanks to the many folks who sent me the text of the Ottawa Citizen article last week!
I've added quite a few new sources to the search stable, which have turned up quite a bit more than usual! Enjoy!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gratias vobis ago for the heads up to: Alastair Millar(as always, with hopes that I didn't leave anyone out, which is a distinct possibility since I've been migrating between a couple of computers this week! P.S. to SW ... I appear to have misplaced the Kerryman piece ... can you resend?).
THE BIG NEWS
Two stories seem to qualify as big news, although both are technically followups. The first is quite a bit of coverage on the 5,000-year-old Abydos boats (watch the wrap):
,,29499,00.html
The second bit of big news, of course, is Ballard's discovery of a 1500-year-old ship with mast intact (!), and passing mention that evidence for human structures on a shelf of the Black Sea have proven rather more recent:
OLD WORLD NEWS
On the 'Out of Africa' front, the latest news is that our genetic Eve doesn't seem to have ever met our genetic Adam:
,3604,391214,00.html
Unisci brings a story on the discovery of remains of the Sarmati people (shouldn't that be Sarmatian?):
The Guardian reports on the restoration of a Roman cavalryman's visage:
,3604,390219,00.html
In Britain, archaeologists have rediscovered a 'lost' section of Hadrian's wall:
They've also found evidence which suggests the Romans paid the Scots off to keep them out (hmmm ... that reminds me of a very bad joke about Romans and Scots ...):
Northern Light brings us Xinhua's regular wrap up of archaeological discoveries in China (watch the wrap):
A Japanese archaeologist has been accused of seeding a site:
According to UniSci, technology has revealed that the Canterbury Tales originally had a different title (but not that much different):
NEW WORLD NEWS
Sparse news from the New World this week, save for an article on the earliest evidence for plant cultivation:
CLASSICISTS' CORNER
The closest thing to 'classical content' this week is in a nice little feature on the history of Halloween (late, I know, but maybe for next year?):
My desperation to find something for this section can also be seen in my actually including a couple of articles on how a woman has decided to name her son after the lead character in Gladiator, and subsequently has not been allowed to baptize him (even though the two things aren't really connected ... sort of):
,,30274,00.html
ON THE NEWSSTANDS
British Archaeology has a new issue out with online features devoted to a Neolithic campsite in the blessed isle, the Neolithic site of Skara Brae, and the decline of Roman influence in Britain in the early 200's, along with some news links:
Current Archaeology has a new issue out with online content devoted to medieval Norwich:
REVIEWS
The Sunday Times has a review of A. Gottlieb *The Dream of Reason: A History of Western Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance." (watch the wrap)
The Independent has a review of sorts of the *Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World*
FWIW
A couple of ancient-related stories defy classification, but should be of interest. The first is that the modern 'mummy' made by Bob Brier and co. made a visit to a mortician's convention:
The second is an e-book preview on something billed as an Egyptian stone tablet which baffles scientists ... it looks kind of nutty to me:
FOLLOWUPS
Oldest Cave Paintings:
Witches' Bottles:
New Library at Alexandria:
Mummy from Karachi (this one has potential saga written all over it; just check out the diverse coverage):
,1690,Life|32473,00.html
Midas' feast:
Helike:
Ovid's Villa (note to discutants on various lists ... this discovery was originally reported back in September in the Times of London)(watch the wrap as necessary):
,2669,SAV-0011040263,FF.html
'sVilla&&news&newsflash-international
AT ABOUT.COM
Latin Guide Janet Burns' latest is a nice list of term paper starters:
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:
l>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[================================================================]|[
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.
]|[================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2000 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers,
etc., but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to be posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either
Commentarium or Rostra (or both)! You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list by going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[=================================================================]|[
|
]|[====================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 25 -- October 29, 2000
]|[====================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[====================================================================]|[
An okay week, coverage-wise, but we're still trying to get our 'lab' set up here ... hope y'all remembered the 'spring forward, fall back' thing ...
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gratias vobis ago for the heads up to: Bill Kennedy (as always, with hopes that I didn't leave anyone out!).
THE BIG NEWS
The big news this week seems to be the discovery of a major cache/horde/whatever of medieval ships off the Channel Islands, although I could find mention of it only in the Independent:
OLD WORLD NEWS
The Times of India reports on the discovery in Japan of what is apparently the world's oldest
manmade dwelling (this sounds like a repeat ...):
The excavation of a major Sumerian burial ground near Umm Al-Ajarib came in a close second for 'big news' this week (it literally lost a coin toss):
Still on the Near Eastern front, the Chicago Sun-Times reports on a mysterious regal lady of Ur named Puabi:
Arabia.com brings news of the discovery of what might be the oldest example of a pharaonic solar barge:
History Today has a brief article on Hasankeyf, another site threatened by dam construction:
I'm not sure how to categorize this one, but a BBC story tells of a murder in Pakistan which is somehow associated with an Egyptian (?) mummy; there's some followup pieces from Express India and Arabia.com on the mummy itself as well:
,1690,Life|31784,00.html
The Times of London has a report on Sotheby's sale of an Etruscan/Greek cup which was eventually shown to have been stolen from an Italian site:
,,26061,00.html
The Times of London also has an interesting piece on the matching of a head of Livia with its body:
,,24550,00.html
Xinhua (via Northern Light) reports on the discovery of more than 1000 tombs in China's Yunnan province:
NEW WORLD NEWS
The Christian Science Monitor has a nice piece on Tikal:
An AP Wire story has sparked some updates on Mesa Verde:
The Oregonian has a report on repatriation issues over artifacts associated with peoples in, well, Oregon (watch the wrap ... I suspect that final e might wander when this is sent out):
ON THE NEWSSTANDS
There's a new issue of Archaeology on the newsstand with a number of really excellent features worth checking out, including abstracts on articles dealing with Jerf el Ahmar, Arthur Evans (by Alexander MacGillvary), etc. and full text treatment of Newsbriefs. Here's the link to the TOC:
CLASSICISTS' CORNER
There's some fleeting classical content in a piece on postmodernism in the Sydney Morning Herald:
The Ottawa Citizen supposedly has a piece on the resurgence of Latin in Ontario at the following url, but I get nothing but a red screen ... perhaps others will have better luck:
The Village Voice (!) has a semi-review of Jonathan Lear's *Happiness, Death and the Remainder of Life* which might of of interest to the philosophers among us:
FOLLOWUPS:
Cleopatra's signature:
Kennewick guy:
REVIEWS
The Independent has a review of Felipe Fernandez-Armesto *Civilizations*:
OBITUARY
J.S. Morrison:
,,26052,00.html
AT ABOUT.COM
Archaeology Guide Kris Hurst's latest is a review of *Ancient Ireland Before the Celts*:
Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill's latest is on Thesmophoria in Athens:
Latin Guide Janet Burns' latest is an etymological survery of countries' names:
REGULAR FEATURES
CTCWeb's Words of the Week
<url:>
Radio Finland's Nuntii Latini
<url:>
English translation (probably delayed):
<url:>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[====================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR is a weekly newsletter (but posted every two-three days when
there's a lot going on) 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.
]|[====================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2000 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers, etc.,
but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to be
posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either Commentarium
or Rostra (or both)! You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list by
going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[====================================================================]|[
|
]|[=================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 23-24 -- October 8, 2000
]|[=================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[=================================================================]|[
Apologies for the unannounced hiatus last week folks ... the changing residences thing reared its ugly head again (we won't mention how a certain relative decided my modem cord would be an appropriate thing with which to tie a box) ... the good news is that everything should return to 'normal' for our next issue ...
So here's the big double issue ... some of the older links *might* have expired by the time you get this, but they were working yesterday ...
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gratias vobis ago for the heads up to: Sujazz, Sally Winchester, and Alastair Millar(as always, with hopes that I didn't leave anyone out!).
THE BIG NEWS
As far as I'm concerned, whenever someone discovers an entire ancient city it's big news, so imagine what kind of biweek it's been when not one, not two, but three ancient cities were discovered! Unfortunately, only one of them was given major press coverage: Helike (watch the wraps):
[n.b. also worth checking out is the Helike project page, which looks like a book ad, but has some useful linked info at the bottom:]
Last week Discovery.com reported on the discovery of a major Etruscan settlement:
Last week CNN reported the discovery of the ancient city of Apollonia:
OLD WORLD NEWS
A fair bit of coverage was given in the past couple of weeks to evidence that Neanderthals tended to splash about in the shallow end of the gene pool:
Also on the 'really ancient' front comes news of the discovery of what appear to be the world's oldest cave paintings (watch the wrap):
,3604,384670,00.html
And as long as we're talking about cave paintings, a scholar has identified what he believes to be the world's oldest lunar calendar at Lascaux:
Another potential 'lost city' story comes in reports of a 'neolithic Atlantis' off the northern coast of Britain:
More on the Neolithic front comes in a discovery.com piece on humans' early high carb diet:
MSNBC has a nice feature (hopefully unexpired) on the current threats to Masada:
The Telegraph reports on new evidence on the fate of some bones found at Stonehenge in the 1920's (watch the wrap):
Also on the big piles of stone front, the Telegraph also reports on 'the man who made Avebury's stone circle':
National Geographic news has a feature on Egyptian animal mummies:
The Telegraph also reports on some evidence that Roman surgeons were able to successfully amputate limbs (i.e. with subsequent survival):
I almost made this one 'the big news', but changed my mind (although it is important, it's more of a 'big followup') ... high tech imagery has restored the text of the Archimedes Palimpsest, which turns out to be a treatise 'On Floating Bodies' (watch the wraps):
Ananova reports on the excavation of a medieval monastery's cemetery:
The Lebanon Daily Star has a nice article on the difficulties faced by folks who find artifacts/sites on their land in Bekaa:
Northern Light brings us Xinhua's regular wrap-up of recent archaeological discoveries in China (watch the wrap):
ABCNews has a brief piece on the discovery of a seventeenth-century Portugues shipwreck:
NEW WORLD NEWS
The Christian Science Monitor has a piece on the 'who got to North America when' debate:
A sinkhole in Whyandot county is providing a glimpse into life in North America ca. 15 000 B.P.:
Archaeologists have uncovered what appears to be the cemetery for the French Fort Rosalie:
CLASSICISTS' CORNER
Lingua Franca has a very nice piece in which they ask five classicists for their opinions on the best recent tomes on Greek and Roman life:
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (right up there with the Bloom County Picayune for strange names) has a review of a travelling production of the Odyssey:
A Slate article focussing on the "Was Jesus a Vegetarian" debate has a fair bit on typical diets of the time:
The Boston Review has an interesting piece on how literary greatness/survival is largely a matter of chance (I think I mentioned this one before, but I can't find a date on the article):
Humanities magazine has a nice piece on Thucydides' appreciation for the connection between money and power:
OF POSSIBLE INTEREST?
I'm not sure whether this one really is Explorator-worthy, but it has potential; it's a review of a book of (modern) poetry called *The Tablets*, which bills itself as a collection of 4000-year-old Sumero-Akkadian texts translated and commented upon:
Also on the 'maybe' list is a column by James Burke in Scientific American, written in his typical 'Connections' style:
FOLLOWUPS
Floridian canoes:
Kennewick dude:
Thracian Temples (watch the wrap):
Cancuen:
Titicacan Temples (watch the wrap):
EXHIBITS
Antioch: The Lost Ancient City:
A review of same:
The Chicago Tribune has a review of the Oriental Institute's exhibit of artifacts from Ur (watch the wrap):
,1575,SAV-0010190227,00.html
AT ABOUT.COM
Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill's latest is on the Maya calendar:
Archaeology Guide Kris Hurst's latest is an article from Phil deLoach on symbolism in ancient art:
Latin Guide Janet Burns' latest is a timelien of Latin authors:
ON THE NEWSSTANDS
Discovering Archaeology has a nice piece on poetry from Ugarit:
REGULAR FEATURES
CTCWeb's Words of the Week
<url:>
Radio Finland's Nuntii Latini
<url:>
English translation (probably delayed):
<url:
l>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[================================================================]|[
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.
]|[================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2000 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers,
etc., but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to be posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either
Commentarium or Rostra (or both)! You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list by going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[=================================================================]|[
|
]|[====================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 22 -- October 8, 2000
]|[====================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[====================================================================]|[
Not a lot this week, but some good coverage of what there is:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gratias vobis ago for the heads up to: Sujazz, Arnd Lis, Bill Kennedy, (as
always, with hopes that I didn't leave anyone out!).
THE BIG NEWS
This week's big news is the discovery of an undisturbed, apparently royal tomb in Syria dating to about 2300 B.C./B.C.E. by a team from Johns Hopkins (watch the wrap on the Telegraph piece):
,1690,Life|30297,00.html
OLD WORLD NEWS
The big news in Britain is what bones from a Hyena den are telling researchers about the region of some 30,000 years BP (watch the wrap on the Telegraph piece):
The Andalou Press Agency brings news of the discovery of some Assyrian tablets:
Also potentially becoming big news (but discovered by a Canadian team and so not getting the exposure it might have received initially elsewhere ... there will probably be more next week), is the report of the discovery of a pre-Roman Illyrian sanctuary in Croatia:
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that an Australian has been chosen to head excavations in the Giza area:
This should probably be a followup, but there is quite a bit of coverage about the 'saving' of Zeugma's artifacts:
... a good background piece on Zeugma is in the latest issue of Archaeology Odyssey (more on this issue below):
Discovery.com has a good piece on what bone analysis from remains coming from 5th-century Magna Graecia tell us about the original owner of the bones (awk!):
On the new technology front, Science Daily reports on 'high resolution acoustic imaging', which seems to have good potential for archaeological research:
NEW WORLD NEWS
Outside of Kennewick followups, the only New World news this week comes from Inside Denver and deals with evidence for a Celtic presence in Colorado:
CLASSICISTS' CORNER
Disney.com has launched a new thing called 'Last Minute Book Reports' designed to summarize in an interesting way various bits of literature at a kid's level. The 'debut' presentation is on Homer's Odyssey and actually is not bad (if you're a teacher of kids at this level) or horrible (if you're the type to nitpick). In either case it's worth checking out ... you'll need the Flash plug in on your browser (hint: while loading you'll see a screen with a kid supposedly writing stuff; in the lower left corner of that screen you'll see the word Loading ... ... when it changes to "Skip intro", click on it or you might lose interest ... on a 56k modem expect to wait 2-3 minutes for the whole thing to load:
Some folks might be interested to know that Empire Magazine conducted a poll and Maximus the Gladiator was voted the sexiest male movie character ... of course, the same magazine voted Princess Leia as the sexiest female movie character ... go figure (there's a pun in there somewhere):
ARCHAEOLOGY HOLLYWOOD STYLE
On the Hollywood side of things, folks might be interested to know that 'The Rock' will be reprising his role as the Scorpion King (from the Mummy), and Angelina Jolie's real life dad will be playing her father when she plays the role of Lara Croft:
FOLLOWUPS
Oetzi ... cont....
SAGAS
Kennewick Guy:
EXHIBITS
The Sydney Morning Herald has an interesting feature on the 'Egypt by Touch' exhibition, which is aimed at giving the visually impaired access to artifacts from ancient Egypt:
AT ABOUT.COM
Archaeology Guide Kris Hurst's latest is her sixth installment on the Kennewick Man saga:
Ancient History Guide latest feature is on Ted Hughes' translation of the Oresteia:
Latin Guide Janet Burns' latest is on case endings:
ON THE NEWSSTANDS
Egypt Revealed has some new stuff (I'm still not sure whether it is physically on the newsstands yet), including a couple of items by Zahi Hawass on what's going on at Barhariyah:
Archaeology Odyssey has a new issue out with some really good stuff:
On ancient Carthage:
On a debate whether the Carthaginians really did sacrifice kiddies to Ba'al/Moloch:
The TOC (with links to a couple of other features):
REGULAR FEATURES
CTCWeb's Words of the Week
<url:>
Radio Finland's Nuntii Latini
<url:>
English translation (probably delayed):
<url:>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[====================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR is a weekly newsletter (but posted every two-three days when
there's a lot going on) 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.
]|[====================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2000 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers, etc.,
but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to be
posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either Commentarium
or Rostra (or both)! You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list by
going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[====================================================================]|[
|
]|[====================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 20-21 -- October 1, 2000
]|[====================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[====================================================================]|[
Our post virus issue ... plenty of news as promised, but I suspect I've missed a few items ... also thanks to the dozens of Explorator readers who wrote to comiserate/give advice/wish me the best etc. ...
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gratias vobis ago for the heads up to: Sujazz, rmhowe, Bill Kennedy, (as always, with hopes that I didn't leave anyone out!).
THE BIG NEWS
The big news of this week (although it received very little coverage ... I suspect the followups column next week will be replete with more refs) strikes me as being the discovery of a contract which has what appears to be the signature of Cleopatra:
OLD WORLD NEWS
I'm not sure whether this would have qualified as 'big news', but a couple of sources are reporting that a former "lump of rock" is now believed to be an early attempt at sculpture:
The BBC reports (a couple of times) on Egypt's plans to open various underwater sites in Alexandria to tourists (my father would say "Don't hold your breath" as an editorial comment of sorts here, but holding one's breath might be appropriate):
Researchers have 'rediscovered' a famous chair from Olympia used by judges during the ancient games:
Alabama Live has a report of sorts on the excavations at Kursi:
The discovery of a 13th-century fresco is (as always) causing scholars to rethink some basic beliefs about matters art historical:
,1690,Life|29898,00.html
The Times of London has a tantalizingly brief item which appears to be revealing the discovery of an Etruscan city:
The Times also reports on the discovery of Ovid's villa on the banks of the Tiber:
NorthernLight brings a vague report on the discovery of Roman-era shipwrecks off the coast of Sardinia:
Ananova reports on the discovery of some "ancient" skeletons (ancient being defined as loosely as it is in this newsletter) near an abbey in Scotland:
The Charlotte Observer has a brief item on some shipwrecks found off the coast of the Netherlands:
The Sunday Times has an interesting piece on the "Reigate Witch Bottle" (interesting comparative material for folks studying ancient magic):
Northern Light's/Xinhua weekly summary of discoveries in China:
The Columbus Dispatch has an interesting piece on a sort of private museum devoted to Biblical Archaeology:
The same source also has a nice piece on coinage from around the time of Jesus:
ABCNews has an interesting piece on resurgence in interest/practice of trepanation:
NEW WORLD NEWS
Spokane.net reports on a dig near the Kootenai River in Montana:
The Evansville Courier Press has a feature on a dig going on at the Hovey Lake Fish and Wildlife Area:
ABCNews has a feature on the search for the El Salvador:
CLASSICISTS' CORNER
The Olympics has brought out more coverage of the ancient Olympics (finally), and there seems to have been more interest among newsies in Stephen Miller's efforts at Nemea:
The Times of London also has a piece on the 'myth' behind the modern Olympics:
Salon's Olympic commentator managed to squeeze in a learned reference or two this week as well:
FOLLOWUPS
Thawing and removing bits of Oetzi:
Ballard and the Black Sea:
Queen of Sheba's Temple:
Midas' Feast:
SAGAS
Kennewick Man:
THE POLITICS OF ARCHAEOLOGY
This was originally part of the Newsstand section below, but it seems more appropriate here .... Discovering Archaeology has an item on the various 'ist' approaches to the discipline:
On Harvard's 'battle' with various aboriginal peoples in regards to repatriation of artifacts:
On differing views about the existence of the Temple in Jerusalem:
ON THE NEWSSTANDS
Discovering Archaeology has a number of new items:
On methods to track human migration:
On early toolmaking in India:
On some 20,000-year-old homes found near/in the Sea of Galilee:
On ancient Maltese temples:
On excavations in Giza:
On Petra (no photos!):
On the Sadana shipwreck:
On Lapita pottery and other new world types:
On Iroquois origins:
OBITUARIES
John Musty:
Robert Cook:
REGULAR FEATURES
CTCWeb's Words of the Week
<url:>
Radio Finland's Nuntii Latini
<url:>
English translation (probably delayed):
<url:>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[====================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR is a weekly newsletter (but posted every two-three days when
there's a lot going on) 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.
]|[=====================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2000 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers, etc.,
but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to be
posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either Commentarium
or Rostra (or both)! You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list by
going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[====================================================================]|[
|
Explorator delayed ... redux
Greetings,
As I feared, the reason I'm having problems is virus-related (a nasty little trojan which appears to be both wreaking havoc on my system and taking it over when I'm on the internet, apparently for spamming or dns purposes). I'll be migrating to another system over the course of the week and Explorator will return next weekend with a giant double issue.
Sorry for any Explorator withdrawal ... to keep you from cracking up here's some urls that some readers have sent which, alas, I am unable to check myself:
On Robert Ballard getting permission to raise objects from that shelf (thanks to Burcu):
<>
... the discovery of a Maya ruler in Honduras (thanks to Michael Ruggieri):
... on the classical languages of India (thanks to Sally Winchester):
... a couple of items from MSNBC (thanks to Bill Kennedy):
Bolivian find may hold Inca secrets
Re-creating King Midas' golden grog
... on China's terracotta warriors suffering deterioration (thanks to William Peck ... for the article, not the deterioration 8^)):
Enjoy ... (and I hope this gets sent out!)
regards,
dm
|
Explorator will be delayed as I work my way through some hardware/software issues (not sure which at this point, unfortunately).
sorry for any inconvenience!
regards,
dm
|
]|[====================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 20 -- September 17, 2000
]|[====================================================================]|[
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'.
]|[====================================================================]|[
A week when hype appears to have hit an all-time high ....
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gratias vobis ago for the heads up to: Alastair Millar, Bill Kennedy, SuJazz, and Sally Winchester (as always, with hopes that I didn't leave anyone out!).
THE BIG NEWS
The big news, both in terms of importance and hype, is, of course, Ballard's discovery of what does appear to be human-made dwellings on a shelf in the Black Sea, supporting the Pitman-Ryan thesis about a major flood c. 7000 B.C. ... of course, all articles make reference to Noah in some way (watch the wrap on the Telegraph piece); the final item is the National Geographic's official 'Black Sea' site, which has rather more detail on what has been found:
OLD WORLD NEWS
The CBC and National Geographic seem to be alone in telling of a major discovery in Yemen of what is being touted as the 'Queen of Sheba's palace' (personally I don't quite understand why this one didn't get the same reaction as some of the other stories this week) ... the CBC version has some nice video footage and an interview with the archaeologist (from the University of Calgary --- yay!) that are worth checking out:
Also somewhat surprising in terms of lack of coverage is a piece on Discovery.com on the discovery of pine trees in a bog which appear to confirm a date for the eruption of Thera:
The BBC has a brief item on how Jordanian police foiled the sale of a mummy:
Perhaps the biggest hype this week (especially in proportion to the evidence which supposedly supports it) surrounds the discovery of a grave of a female/woman/first feminist gladiator (what ... no one has gladiatrix?) in London (the various items from the Times are probably most worthwhile reading) (watch the wrap on the thisislondon piece; ditto for the Telegraph) :
Rediff.com tells of a discovery in India of a number of copper plates:
Northern Light brings us a number of items on recent discoveries in China, including an item on a 1000-year-old fresco, the gender of the occupant of the tomb found recently in Beijing, and a vague thing about ancient wine-making facilities:
Also on the Chinese front, National Geographic news reveals that archaeologists are claiming to have found the tomb of Genghis Khan:
The Sunday Times has a nice feature on Charles II's ill-fated ship Sovereign:
The Sunday Times also has an interesting item on one archaeologist's comprehensive theory on the development of human thought:
NEW WORLD NEWS
In the 'stupid is as stupid does' department comes news that the "hitching post of the sun" was damaged during a shoot for a beer commercial:
The Columbus Dispatch has a nice feature on how technology is being used to 'restore' images on some Hopewell artifacts:
The Sun Herald has a nice little feature on a dig in DeSoto National Forest:
ABCNews tells us "Why Archaeologists Like Forest Fires":
AT ABOUT COM
Archaeological guide Kris Hurst's latest is a review of Bonnie McEwan (ed.), *Indians of the Greater Southeast*:
Latin Guide Janet Burns' latest pair on on the various shades of meaning in agere, as well as a feature on Roman bread and grain (including recipes):
Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill's latest feature is on the Amarna pharaohs:
CLASSICISTS' CORNER
The University of Pennsylvania is going to attempt to recreate 'Midas' Banquet' as a fundraising activity:
The Christian Science Monitor has a piece on one person's efforts to read through the Harvard Classics library (passing Classical content):
On the gossip front, the Montreal Gazette reveals who a certain Classics major is the beau thereof (scroll down a bit):
The Cincinnati Post has a brief thing on a play based on the life of Alexander the Great:
In light of recurring discussions on the Classics list, some folks might be interested in a lengthy article on 'masculinity studies' courses:
ON THE NEWSSTANDS
Military History Quarterly has an excellent article by Rosemary Sheldon on espionage in Ancient Rome:
FOLLOWUPS
More on Cancuen (Guatemala) ... the pbs piece is the transcript of an interview with the archaeologist who made the (re)discovery:
Anasazi cannibalism:
More from the Barhariyah oasis (it's pretty much the same article, but both sites have short shelf lives):
Dark Age comets:
MILESTONES
This is utterly devoid of any ancient content, but since the guy is so important to the creation of this newsletter, I thought folks might like to read a nice little feature on the 40th anniversary/birthday of Juan Valdez and his donkey:
REGULAR FEATURES
CTCWeb's Words of the Week
<url:>
Radio Finland's Nuntii Latini
<url:>
English translation (probably delayed):
<url:>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
<url:>
]|[====================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR is a weekly newsletter (but posted every two-three days when
there's a lot going on) 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.
]|[=====================================================================]|[
Explorator is Copyright (c) 2000 David Meadows; Feel free to
distribute these listings via email to your pals, students, teachers, etc.,
but please include this copyright notice. These listings are not to be
posted to a website; instead, please provide a link to either Commentarium
or Rostra (or both)! You can subscribe to or unsubscribe from this list by
going to the following web page:
Or, send by sending a blank email message to:
mailto:Explorator-subscribe@...
or
mailto:Explorator-unsubscribe@...
]|[====================================================================]|[
|
]|[====================================================================]|[
EXPLORATOR
Watching the Web for News of the Ancient World
Volume 3, Issue 19 -- September 10, 2000
]|[====================================================================]|[
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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Not a lot of news this week, but a lot of coverage of a few stories:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Gratias vobis ago for the heads up to: rmhowe, Bill Kennedy, Andrew Schoenhofer and Michael
Ruggeri (as always, with hopes that I didn't leave anyone out!).
THE BIG NEWS
The big news this week is one of those 'hidden in plain sight' things ... it turns out the long-known site of Can Cuen in Guatemala was once a major palace/trading centre of the Maya folk. Most of the coverage comes from an AP wire story in various incarnations, but there are some nice things in the Washington Post, MSNBC, ABC, and the BBC:
OLD WORLD NEWS
ABCNews has an interesting piece on how prehistoric man might have shaped rocks for musical purposes:
Xinhua via Northern Light reports on the threat to the sculptures on Mount Nemrut in Turkey:
The Hindu has a brief piece on the discovery of a hoard of copper swords:
The Telegraph has a nice article on life in a Roman military camp near Hadrian's wall (watch the wrap):
Coming in a close second for 'big news' is the much-reported-on story of one paleoecologist's suggestion that a catastrophic event (i.e. a comet) ushered in the 'Dark Ages' in 540 A.D.:
Ananova tells of the discovery of a major Viking hoard in Sweden:
The St. Louis Tribune tells of the discovery of some early 11th-century wax tablets in Russia:
The BBC has an interesting piece on the discovery of what appear to be the 'secret graves' of George III's 'secret grandaughter' and daughter:
NEW WORLD NEWS
Coming in a close second for big news this week is what appears to be really good evidence (for a change) of cannibalism among the Anasazi:
The Washington Post has a nice little article on what excavations of 19th-century Annapolis are revealing about an early African-American community:
WEBSITES
The Persian Gallery at the Oriental Institute has reopened and the associated webpage has some interesting stuff to look at:
The Stoa has an interesting update ... a subsection called Metis by Bruce Hartzler which has Quicktime views of a number of important Greek archaeological sites. Definitely worth a look:
AT ABOUT COM
Archaeological guide Kris Hurst's latest is a review of William Isbell's *Mummies and Mortuary Monuments*:
Latin Guide Janet Burns' latest is on the Olympic games:
Ancient History Guide N.S. Gill's latest is on the Roman 'labour day' (a guest column by William Harris):
CLASSICISTS' CORNER
The Irish Times reveals that "Gladiator" has spurred interest in ancient history:
The University Wire has an interesting piece on the 'online notes' phenomenon:
Back in August, a British politician-type criticized universities for 'joke-majors' (like golf course management); the BBC had a sort of online chat thing and there were some interesting comments made about classics and archaeology in the process (you'll have to scroll through it a bit):
FOLLOWUPS
On thawing Otzi (watch the wrap):
Zeugma (someone's suggesting moving the whole thing!):
Thracian city:
REGULAR FEATURES
CTCWeb's Words of the Week
<url:>
Radio Finland's Nuntii Latini
<url:>
English translation (probably delayed):
<url:>
EXPLORATOR IS ARCHIVED AT:
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EXPLORATOR is a weekly newsletter (but posted every two-three days when
there's a lot going on) representing the fruits of the labours of 'media
research division' of The Atrium. Various on-line news and magazine sources
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