Ancient Studies Agora Africa

After nearly 3,000 years, does the “Iliad” really need translating again?

2011-10-20T10:25:00.000+02:00

BLOODY but beautiful, is there a greater poem than the “Iliad”? Depicting a few weeks in the final year of the Greek siege of Troy, Homer’s epic glitters with bronze spears and the blazing sun. Rich with his famous similes and repeated expressions, it describes a war in which men can pause from fighting in order to speak of their family lineage in terms of “As is the generation of leaves, so is that of humanity”; in which Gods can yank warriors back by their hair or cover them in a cloud of mist if it is not yet their turn to die. It is both brutally realistic (once you have heard how Phereclus died by a spear through his right buttock into his bladder, you won’t forget it) and belonging to another world—as the Greek epithet for Homer, theois aoidos or “divine singer” suggests. It is no wonder that the “Iliad” is a text that people constantly turn back to, and continually translate. . .

Read on

Alexander: How Great?

2011-10-20T10:21:00.000+02:00

In 51 BC, Marcus Tullius Cicero, who had reluctantly left his desk in Rome to become military governor of the province of Cilicia in southern Turkey, scored a minor victory against some local insurgents. As we know from his surviving letters, he was conscious that he was treading in the footsteps of a famous predecessor: “For a few days,” he wrote to his friend Atticus, “we were encamped in exactly the same place that Alexander occupied when he was fighting Darius at Issus”—hastily conceding that Alexander was in fact “a rather better general that you or I.” . . .

Read on

Libyans battle to protect ancient treasures from looting

2011-10-14T12:17:00.000+02:00

Walking along the tree-lined gravel track towards one of the Roman Empire's greatest architectural legacies, little can prepare you for what you are about to experience.
As you emerge from the shade of the tall poplars the towering stone edifice that guards Leptis Magna's approaches appears. It is simultaneously stunning and evocative. Like a blow to the sternum, it quickens the heart.
Septimus Severus's gate, a tribute to the Roman emperor responsible for much of what remains today, stands astride great Roman roadways. . .

Severus, like the country's most recent modern day ruler Moammar Gadhafi, spent lavishly on his hometown transforming it reputedly into the third greatest city in Africa, rivaling Carthage and Alexandria.

Read on

Stone Age painting kits found in cave

2011-10-14T08:57:00.000+02:00

The oldest known painting kits, used 100,000 years ago in the stone age, have been unearthed in a cave in South Africa.
Two sets of implements for preparing red and yellow ochres to decorate animal skins, body parts or perhaps cave walls were excavated at the Blombos cave on the Southern Cape near the Indian Ocean.

Alice Oswald: haunted by Homer

2011-10-10T16:48:00.002+02:00

Alice Oswald thinks The Iliad has been turned into a public school poem that glamorises war. So she has rewritten it – with the footsoldiers as heroes. The poet explains herself to Sarah Crown . . .

Pompeii shows its true colours

2011-09-23T13:56:00.000+02:00

When word spread to Britain of the sensational discovery of the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 18th century, "Pompeiian red" became the favoured colour for smart dining-rooms – as it remains today.

But, it seems, it may be time to get out the paint chart. According to new research presented to Sapienza University in Rome last week, large swaths of the vivid "Pompeiian red" frescoes in the town actually began life as yellow – and were turned red by the gases emitted from Vesuvius as it erupted in AD 79.

Experts stress conservation at Ur

2011-06-20T13:12:00.000+02:00

See this interesting blog on Minoan Culture

2011-03-29T13:17:00.000+02:00

They could be the earliest Christian writing in existence, surviving almost 2,000 years in a Jordanian cave

2011-03-29T09:23:00.000+02:00

A group of 70 or so "books", each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007.
A flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave, one of them marked with a menorah or candlestick, the ancient Jewish religious symbol.

A Jordanian Bedouin opened these plugs, and what he found inside might constitute extremely rare relics of early Christianity.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

2011-03-25T11:37:00.000+02:00

. . . a film that takes us on an eerie descent into an ancient cave to discover something strange, awe-inspiring and scary … Werner Herzog.This director has scored another remarkable success with this documentary, using 3D to accentuate the massive, sculptural forms revealed to his camera. He and a minimal crew were allowed into the extraordinary Chauvet cave in the south of France, named after Jean-Marie Chauvet, the explorer who in 1994 made a Tutankhamun-level discovery: hundreds of pictures of animals drawn with flair, sophistication and detail by Neanderthal (sic) man around 32,000 years ago.

Stone tools 'demand new American story'

2011-03-25T09:52:00.000+02:00

The long-held theory of how humans first populated the Americas may have been well and truly broken.

Visit The Museum of Cycladic art in Athens Online

2011-03-24T14:37:00.000+02:00

Battle of Algiers

2011-03-23T16:03:00.000+02:00

You are warmly invited to a screening of the Classic 1966 'Battle of Algiers' in Arts Major at 19h00 this evening Wed 23rd March. This is a small celebration of the struggle for Human Rights and life with dignity and specifically a gesture of solidarity with the people of Libya, all the people of North Africa and the Middle East and anywhere people bear the load of tyrannies, be they unjust economic structures, military dictatorship or other forms of oppression. This free screening is a special collaborative event of the International Office, Humanities Faculty and the Institute of Social & Economic Research. Come at 19h00 for 19h30 and enjoy some camaraderie and Halaal snacks before the film. The visiting Iranian academic Elaheh Rostami-Povey and Richard Pithouse of the Politics Department will say a few words of introduction.

We look forward to seeing you this evening at 19h00.

Primitive Humans Conquered Sea, Surprising Finds Suggest

2011-03-23T15:59:00.000+02:00

Surprisingly old hand axes have been found on the Greek island of Crete, at center in this composite of satellite images.

Welcome new and returning students of 2011

2011-02-10T09:47:00.000+02:00

Classics at Rhodes warmly welcomes students of 2011.

We look forward to meeting each of you and setting off on the adventure of the Ancient World together with you.

Please come and see us in the department any time:
Rooms 11-13
John Jackson
j.jackson@ru.ac.za
Daniel Malamis
d.malamis@ru.ac.za
David van Schoor
d.vanschoor@ru.acza

Wondering what you could do with Classics? Click on the title of this post to find excellent resources on careers open to Classics Majors.

Stone tools discovered in Arabia force archaeologists to rethink human history

2011-01-28T12:17:00.000+02:00

The tools found in southern Arabia date from 125,000 years ago – 55,000 years before humans were thought to have left Africa

A slidesow of some recent images from Pompeii in the Guardian

2010-11-12T09:43:00.000+02:00

Neglected ruins of Pompeii declared a 'disgrace to Italy'

2010-11-12T09:40:00.000+02:00

This week Pompeii's House of Gladiators collapsed – and the rest of the extraordinary ancient city is in a perilous state . . .

Language and toolmaking evolved together, say researchers

2010-11-04T12:08:00.000+02:00

Evolutionary advance saw stone-age humans master the art of hand-toolmaking and paved the way for language to develop

Western dominance? It's the history of geography

2010-11-02T16:01:00.000+02:00

Ian Morris explains how Europe's position on the edge of the Atlantic has shaped the west's dominance of recent history, and argues that it is geography which determines the landscape of power.

Book of the Dead: Scroll down and learn how to die like an Ancient Egyptian

2010-10-24T21:33:00.000+02:00

The Book of the Dead guided Ancient Egyptians through death and on to the afterlife, as a forthcoming British Museum exhibition will show

Bernard Knox (1914–2010)

2010-10-11T10:08:00.000+02:00

He is now the youngest and livingest dead white male in memory.

Ancient Roman helmet sells for 10 times estimated amount

2010-10-07T15:15:00.000+02:00

Christie's called the Crosby Garrett helmet -- so named for the village where it was found, about 45 miles south of the Scottish border -- an "extraordinary example of Roman metalwork at its zenith" and said it dates to the late 1st to 2nd century A.D.
"The Crosby Garrett helmet sets itself apart by virtue of its beauty, workmanship, and completeness, particularly the face mask, which was found virtually intact," Christie's says. "In addition, the remarkable Phrygian-style peak surmounted by its elaborate bronze griffin crest appears unprecedented."

Resurrecting Pompeii

2010-09-13T13:49:00.000+02:00

On an exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum on life at Pompeii.

Tibetan nomads struggle as grasslands disappear from the roof of the world

2010-09-03T08:47:00.000+02:00

Scientists say desertification of the mountain grasslands of the Tibetan plateau is accelerating climate change

Sudanese miners vie with archaeologists for desert riches

2010-08-26T11:55:00.000+02:00

. . . it is also home to ancient relics from the Nubian kingdom, one of the earliest civilisations in the Nile valley, and archaeologists and officials fear that a crucial part of Sudan's heritage is being effaced as the miners pillage or accidentally damage the sites.

Discovery of ancient cave paintings in Petra stuns art scholars

2010-08-23T09:51:00.000+02:00

Spectacular 2,000-year-old Hellenistic-style wall paintings have been revealed at the world heritage site of Petra through the expertise of British conservation specialists. The paintings, in a cave complex, had been obscured by centuries of black soot, smoke and greasy substances, as well as graffiti

Celebrated critic Frank Kermode dies aged 90

2010-08-19T08:56:00.000+02:00

"You may not have a very deep acquaintance with Hegel but you need to know something about Hegel. Or Hobbes, or Aristotle, or Roland Barthes. We're all smatterers in a way, I suppose. But a certain amount of civilisation depends on intelligent smattering."
Obituary in the Guardian

Articles by Frank Kermode in the London Review of Books

Fossilised sponges point to animal life 100m years earlier than thought

2010-08-18T11:31:00.000+02:00

Scientists have found what might be the oldest physical evidence of the existence of animals on Earth.

'Zombie ants' controlled by parasitic fungus for 48m years

2010-08-18T11:29:00.000+02:00

The oldest evidence of a fungus that turns ants into zombies and makes them stagger to their death has been uncovered by scientists.

Bone discovery pushes date for first use of stone tools back 1m years

2010-08-12T11:26:00.000+02:00

Butchered bones found near site of 'Lucy', a probable human ancestor, who lived 3.2m years ago

Plato's stave: academic cracks philosopher's musical code

2010-06-29T17:57:00.000+02:00

Historian claims Plato's manuscripts are mathematically ordered according to 12-note scale . . .

Battle for the Nile as rivals lay claim to Africa's great river

2010-06-29T08:48:00.000+02:00

With crises of population and resources upstream, there is now deadlock over who owns the Nile . . .

The Cave of Chauvet-Pont d'Arc

2010-06-17T13:17:00.000+02:00

They explored almost the entire network of chambers and galleries, and on the way back out, Éliette saw an amazing sight in the beam of her lamp: a small mammoth drawn with red ochre on a rocky spur hanging from the ceiling. "They were here!" she cried out, and from that instant they began searching all of the walls with great attention. They discovered hundreds of paintings and engravings.

The mystery of Caravaggio's death solved at last – painting killed him

2010-06-17T12:59:00.000+02:00

He killed a man, brawled constantly, rowed with patrons and fled justice while revolutionising painting with his chiaroscuro style. Now, as if to underline how dramatic Caravaggio's short life was, researchers say he may have quite literally died for his art.

This Shoe Had Prada Beat by 5,500 Years

2010-06-10T13:55:00.000+02:00

"Think of it as a kind of prehistoric Prada: Archaeologists have discovered what they say is the world’s oldest known leather shoe. . ."

A Classical Education: Back to the Future

2010-06-09T16:07:00.000+02:00

'For Nussbaum, human development means the development of the capacity to transcend the local prejudices of one’s immediate (even national) context and become a responsible citizen of the world. Students should be brought “to see themselves as members of a heterogeneous nation . . . and a still more heterogeneous world, and to understand something of this history of the diverse groups that inhabit it.” . . .'

Scars from lion bite suggest headless Romans found in York were gladiators

2010-06-09T12:43:00.000+02:00

The haunting mystery of Britain's headless Romans may have been solved at last, thanks to scars from a lion's bite and hammer marks on decapitated skulls.The results of forensic work, announced today, on more than 80 skeletons of well-built young men, gradually exhumed from the gardens of a York terrace over a decade, suggests that the world's best-preserved gladiator graveyard has been found.

L'énigme des manuscrits de la mer Morte

2010-06-03T14:51:00.002+02:00

Les manuscrits millénaires de la Bible, découverts en 1947, à Qumrân, sur les bords de la mer Morte, livrent peu à peu leurs secrets. L'exposition que la Bibliothèque nationale de France François-Mitterrand (BNF), à Paris, leur consacre, jusqu'au 11 juillet, révèle les dernières avancées dans la compréhension de ces dizaines de milliers de fragments de textes datant de 250 ans avant J.-C. à 100 ans après J.-C., et dont le quart est à l'origine de deux religions révélées, le judaïsme et le christianisme.

Wallerstein in The New Left Review on 'Structural Crises'

2010-05-18T10:00:00.000+02:00

"The term ‘crisis’ played a central role in many national political debates during the 1970s, although definitions of it varied widely. Towards the end of the century it had largely been replaced by another, more optimistic term, ‘globalization’ . . ."

‘Always historicize!'

2010-04-17T11:24:00.000+02:00

"Fredric Jameson’s pre-eminence, over the last generation, among critics writing in English would be hard to dispute . . ." An excellent review in the London Review of Books by Benjamin Kunkel of Jameson's latest work Valences of the Dialectic and of his place in the culture. Jameson contribution is extremely stimulating, we hope this piece will stir more people to read and reread scholars like this.

What is Avatar all about?

2010-04-17T11:18:00.000+02:00

"Beneath the idealism and political correctness of Avatar, in the spotlight at the Oscars on Sunday, lie brutal racist undertones. . ." Slavoj Zizek's discussion of the film in the New Statesman.

Small thoughts always lead to dull words

2010-04-15T08:54:00.000+02:00

The mistake about great oratory is to imagine it is word cleverness. It isn't. It emerges from what's being thought . . .

Werner Herzog's cave art documentary takes 3D into the depths

2010-04-14T15:10:00.002+02:00

The film-maker has taken his 3D camera among the rocky fissures and 30,000-year-old cave artwork at Chauvet in France

Fossil skeletons may belong to an unknown human ancestor

2010-04-09T10:51:00.000+02:00

The fossil remains found in a cave in South Africa could represent an evolutionary link between tree-dwelling apes and our earliest human ancestors to walk upright

Cyril Connolly, from the introduction to The Condemned Playground

2010-03-23T12:06:00.000+02:00

"The feeling of evanescence has always been with me as a critic; I feel I am fighting a rearguard action, for although each generation discovers anew the value of masterpieces, generations are never quite the same and ours are in fact coming to prefer the response induced by violent stimuli- film, radio, press- to the slow permeation of personality by great literature."

CCI La Longue Durée & Crete Tutorial 4 March 24th - 26th

2010-03-23T10:57:00.000+02:00

Week 4

Tutorial: La Longue Durée & Crete [Braudel]
Week 2: 24th - 26th March
pp 94-108
1. Discuss the significance of palaces at Crete. [5]
2. "The beginnings of Cretan urbanization had corresponded to a general improvement of the economy at the start of the second millenium BC." Describe the economic conditions from which Crete was so able to benefit. [3]
3. What were the two dramatic events that were so important in shaping the destiny of Cretan civilization and explain their consequences. [3]
4. In what way, does Braudel argue, was Cretan civilization the key to the future of the Mediterranean? [3]

CCI Assignment

2010-03-23T09:28:00.000+02:00

For your assignment on the Longue Duree section due on Friday, you choose any number of any questions from the 4 weeks' tutorials adding up to a minimum of 25 marks and preferably not more than 30 marks and submit it to your tutor.

Why everything you've been told about evolution is wrong: can lifestyle influence heredity?

2010-03-19T14:29:00.002+02:00

What if Darwin's theory of natural selection is inaccurate? What if the way you live now affects the life expectancy of your descendants? Evolutionary thinking is having a revolution . . .

Peter Greenaway's pact with death

2010-03-19T14:17:00.002+02:00

"I don't know much about you," says Peter Greenaway, sipping his mint tea, "but I do know two things. You were conceived, two people did fuck, and I'm very sorry but you're going to die. Everything else about you is negotiable."

Mayor of London describes schools secretary's comments about Latin as 'death-defyingly stupid'

2010-03-16T17:57:00.000+02:00

Greek heritage crumbles

2010-03-15T15:23:00.002+02:00

The crisis that has gripped Greece, rocked markets and rattled Europe's single currency is now enveloping the country's cultural heritage . . .

Week 3 Tutorial Questions

2010-03-15T15:22:00.000+02:00

Week 3: 15th - 23rd March
Braudel on Egypt pp 79-93
1. According to Braudel, certain social features had to be in place for an urban culture founded upon collective labour to emerge. What are they? [3]
2. What are some of the arguments for and against supposing that Egypt was influenced, directly or indirectly, by Mesopotamia? [4]
3. What was the original environmental impetus that drew communities to the Nile valley? [1]
4. What were the tasks that presented themselves to the early farmers of the Nile valley which required collective labour? [3]
5. What was the effect of the potter’s wheel on pottery? Why do you think that this was the case? [3]
6. What social implications might the introduction of the plough and the specialisation of metal-working have had? [2]
7. Why might the advent of writing and the appearance of centralised states have occurred at about the same time? [3]
8. Define: pictogram; ideogram; phonogram. [3]
9. Why might cities, and the political role they played, have developed so differently in Egypt and Mesopotamia? [5]
10. What is ma’at? How was it associated with the pharaoh? [2]

'Medal' for killing Caesar shows at British Museum

2010-03-15T10:39:00.000+02:00

A unique gold coin, minted by Caesar's betrayer, Brutus, was said to be worn as a talisman by a conspirator

Enlightenment as Mass Deception, Theodor Adorno on the Web

2010-03-12T13:58:00.000+02:00

“All are free to dance and enjoy themselves, just as they have been free, since the historical neutralisation of religion, to join any of the innumerable sects. But freedom to choose an ideology - since ideology always reflects economic coercion - everywhere proves to be freedom to choose what is always the same.” Enlightenment as Mass Deception, 1944

Essay Dates

2010-03-08T15:51:00.000+02:00

TERM 1 ESSAY
EITHER:
For Warren Snowball:
Discuss the theme of sexual fidelity in Homer’s Odyssey
Length: approx. 1200 words
Due date: 23 March 2010, 17h00
OR
For David van Schoor & Daniel Malamis:
Questions provided as weekly tutorials.
- Details available in the reader and on the blogsite
Due date: 26 March 2010, 17h00
The Department extends an apology to all students for any confusion about the Homer assignment dates and topic.

CCI La Longue Durée & Catal Hoyuk Tutorial 2 March 8th - 12th

2010-03-05T14:50:00.000+02:00

1. What are the social and economic features of Upper Palaeolithic communities which distinguish them and may partially explain their successes? [10]
2. Mellars surveys various theories for the emergence and proliferation of mobiliary and parietal art in the Upper Palaeolithic, what general features does he deduce from his brief survey of the various interpretations and what does he himself argue is the most productive approach to the phenomenon? [10]
3. Explain what is meant by the ‘Social relations of production’. [2]
4. Hodder’s interpretive strategy for understanding the material evidence at Catal Höyük is to speak of ‘four spheres of activity’. He says that these spheres are entangled, writing, for example, that: “To move the location of an oven may not seem like much, but in its entanglements such a change can have broad impact.” Explain, with examples, Hodder’s idea of ‘entanglement’. [15]
5. In Marxist historical analysis what is: Infrastructure & Superstructure. [3]
6. Define: sedentary; subsistence; demographic. [1.5]
7. In logic what do these terms mean: induce; deduce; infer; dialectic. [2]
8. Explain the difference between necessary and sufficient conditions. [2]
9. In art what do these terms mean: naturalistic and schematic; mobiliary and parietal. [2]
10. To what do these refer: Anatolia, the Levant, the Fertile Crescent. [1.5]

From Marx' Preface to 'A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy'

2010-03-05T14:01:00.000+02:00

"The general conclusion at which I arrived and which, once reached, became the guiding principle of my studies can be summarised as follows.
In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness. At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or – this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms – with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure.
In studying such transformations it is always necessary to distinguish between the material transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural science, and the legal, political, religious, artistic or philosophic – in short, ideological forms in which men become conscious of this conflict and fight it out. Just as one does not judge an individual by what he thinks about himself, so one cannot judge such a period of transformation by its consciousness, but, on the contrary, this consciousness must be explained from the contradictions of material life, from the conflict existing between the social forces of production and the relations of production. No social order is ever destroyed before all the productive forces for which it is sufficient have been developed, and new superior relations of production never replace older ones before the material conditions for their existence have matured within the framework of the old society . . . "

A good online encyclopaedia for definitions, terminology and important concepts discussed

2010-03-05T13:41:00.000+02:00

Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy

CCI Newsflash

2010-03-03T09:18:00.000+02:00

Please note that Tutorial 1 (1-5 March) Q.9-10 can be submitted with the answers for Week 2 next week . Only Q. 1-8 are due this week, though if you have already done them and wish to discuss them with your tutors this week, please feel free to do so.

Encyclopaedia of Marxism

2010-03-02T09:27:00.002+02:00

A very useful glossary of important terms can be found here.

1/03/2010 Japanese Theatre Lecture

2010-03-01T16:34:00.000+02:00

The School of Languages with the International Office and the Embassy of Japan to South Africa warmly invite you to a lecture and DVD presentation on the traditional Japanese dramatic arts, Bunraku (puppetry), Kabuki, Noh and Gagaku (imperial court music). Dr Michiko Hirama, graduate of the prestigious Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music will grace us with this very special visit. This is a rare opportunity brought to members of the university and community of Grahamstown as part of our mandate to enrich and enliven public life through the encounter with foreign and local culture and language. We encourage you to join us in this happy opportunity.
17h15 Monday March 1st, in Eden Grove Red.
We look forward to seeing you.

CCI La Longue Duree Tutorial 1 March 1st - 5th

2010-03-01T09:00:00.000+02:00

Week 1

Tutorial: La Longue Durée [Braudel, Cunliffe, Mithen & Mellars]
Week 1: 1st- 5th March
pp 1- 55

1. What is meant by (a) ‘historiography’ and (b) ‘cognitive geography’. [2+3]
2. How could Miletos be said to have had ‘a favourable position’ for intellectual innovation and discovery? [3]
3. Explain Braudel’s conception of historical time. [6]
4. In what ways may ‘the holding capacity of a particular environment […] change’? [3]
5. Explain Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory. How succesful do you think it can be in thinking about the ancient world? [5]
6. Explain the meanings and dates for Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. [4]
7. Explain (a) the factors that cause natural global warming, (b) the LGM and (c) the significance for human life of warmer, wetter, stabler conditions after 9,600 BC. [3+1+6] 29-38
8. How does Mellars account for the relatively sudden appearance of Upper Palaeolithic culture? [7]
9. What are the social and economic features of Upper Palaeolithic communities which distinguish them and may partially explain their successes? [10]
10. Mellars surveys various theories for the emergence and proliferation of mobiliary and parietal art in the Upper Palaeolithic, what general features does he deduce from his brief survey of the various interpretations and what does he himself argue is the most productive approach to the phenomenon? [10]

Water-access the first requirement of any civilization

2010-02-05T12:41:00.000+02:00

SA water demand 'will exceed supply by 2025' . . .

Ancient tribal language becomes extinct as last speaker dies

2010-02-05T09:47:00.002+02:00

Death of Boa Sr, last person fluent in the Bo language of the Andaman Islands, breaks link with 65,000-year-old culture

The population crash

2010-02-01T14:33:00.002+02:00

Across Europe, we are having fewer babies. In many places, such as the deserted town of Hoyerswerda in east Germany, the falling birth rate is already taking its toll

The Iliad and what it can still tell us about war

2010-01-30T14:16:00.002+02:00

As the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war holds the country in thrall, Charlotte Higgins reflects on the enduring power of a 3,000-year-old poem . . .

Secrets of Roman aqueduct lie in chapel, say UK film-makers

2010-01-27T16:36:00.000+02:00

Source for emperor Trajan's Aqua Traiana arose from aquifer at site used to worship water spirits, say O'Neill brothers . . .

Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda And Art

2010-01-27T16:29:00.000+02:00

Opening in April 2010, Magnificent Maps showcases the British Library's unique collection of large-scale display maps, many of which have never been exhibited before. Here the show's curators focus on some of the show's highlights – and explain why maps are about far more than geography . . .

Historian Starkey spearheads fight to save Anglo-Saxon 'gangland bling' unearthed in West Midlands

2010-01-14T13:01:00.002+02:00

Laid bare: the sex life of the ancient Greeks in all its physical glory

2009-12-10T12:35:00.002+02:00

An Athens exhibition looks unflinchingly at classical perceptions of love and lust . . .

A Gaelic longboat, and the healing power of heritage

2009-12-09T15:40:00.002+02:00

Some of Scotland's most deprived citizens are finding how liberating history . . .

India 'arrogant' to deny global warming link to melting glaciers

2009-11-10T09:01:00.000+02:00

A leading climate scientist today accused the Indian environment ministry of "arrogance" after the release of a government report claiming that there is no evidence climate change has caused "abnormal" shrinking of Himalayan glaciers . . .

Claude Lévi-Strauss obituary

2009-11-04T12:29:00.001+02:00

French anthropologist whose analysis of kinship and myth gave rise to structuralism as an intellectual force . . .

Les trésors antiques du Rhône exposés à Arles

2009-10-27T18:36:00.000+02:00

Ancient treasures from the Rhône Valley on display in Arles

Climate map shows world after 4C rise

2009-10-23T14:32:00.000+02:00

A map launched at the Science Museum in London has been developed using the latest peer-reviewed science from the Met Office Hadley Centre and other leading impact scientists. It shows that the land will heat up more quickly than the sea, and high latitudes, particularly the Arctic, will have larger temperature increases . . .

Who's the modern Cicero – Barack Obama or Peter Mandelson?

2009-10-21T09:44:00.002+02:00

The great Roman orator is a politician who speaks loud and clear to our own times . . .

Discovery Of The Oldest Adornments In The World

2009-10-19T12:18:00.002+02:00

The discovery of small perforated sea shells, in the Cave of Pigeons in Taforalt, eastern Morocco, has shown that the use of bead adornments in North Africa is older than thought. Dating from 82 000 years ago, the beads are thought to be the oldest in the world . . .

Lost Greek city that may have inspired Atlantis myth gives up secrets

2009-10-18T13:23:00.000+02:00

The secrets of a lost city that may have inspired one of the world's most enduring myths – the fable of Atlantis – have been brought to light from beneath the waters off southern Greece . . .

Mammoth remains from the Russian permafrost offer up rich bounty

2009-10-12T08:44:00.002+02:00

Discoveries give scientists insight into animals' demise as reindeer herders turn chance finds into lucrative paydays . . .

'Second Stonehenge' discovered near original

2009-10-07T09:35:00.000+02:00

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of what they believe was a second Stonehenge located a little more than a mile away from the world-famous prehistoric monument . . .

The secrets of ancient Rome

2009-10-02T11:21:00.000+02:00

The discovery of a major new archaeological site in Italy is a reminder that the world is still stuffed with secrets . . .

Fossil Ardi reveals the first steps of the human race

2009-10-01T17:18:00.000+02:00

The remains of a woman who lived and died at the dawn of humanity have been uncovered in Ethiopia, giving the clearest picture yet of the origin of our species . . .

Fresh autopsy of Egyptian mummy shows cause of death was TB not cancer

2009-09-30T10:44:00.002+02:00

The mysterious death of an Egyptian woman, whose mummy became a public spectacle in Georgian Britain, has been solved by a team of researchers in London . . .

Tutorial Week 3 Sept 28th – Oct 2nd CCI

2009-09-24T14:56:00.000+02:00

The Neolithic Revolutiuon- Childe, Cauvin, Catal Höyük: Hodder’s Entanglement
47-51 84- 120

1. Define: subsistence, sedentary, predicated on, Levant, historiography, stratigraphy, Anatolia, naturalistic, schematic, figurative; [5] dialectic [2].
2. Explain the significance of Jarmo and Jericho (47-49). [4]
3. What are Mithen’s three features of the Mesolithic (lecture) and Cauvin's definition of 'neolithisation' (93). [5]
4. “Unless knowledge is defined as the endless accumulation of factual information, it is pointless to ask of prehistoric archaeology only that it confirms what we have already ‘known’ since the middle of the nineteenth century, or one is confusing science with ideology.” (89) Cauvin argues against a merely descriptive neolithic historiography and against the limitations of the “conception, founded on unverified ‘materialist’ premises concerning human nature . . . “ (89). Explain his argument. (86-90) [10]*
5. What have researchers under Hodder’s influence sought to achieve by means of ‘symbolic archaeology’? [2]
6. "What 'characterizes' a period is almost always prefigured in the period that precedes it. The cultural blossoming of the last hunter-gatherer cultures which would contribute to the Natufian culture was the product of this continuity." (Cauvin, 93). Describe the features of the Kebaran Culture.
7. Describe the cultural and economic features of the Natufian Peoples. (93-6) [6]
8. Explain the ‘new’ and ‘unique “ideology”’ found throughout the Near & Middle Eastern Neolithic? (97-102) [7]
9. Hodder’s interpretive strategy for understanding the material evidence at Catal Höyük is to speak of ‘four spheres of activity’. Explain these. (103-117) [12]
10. “To move the location of an oven may not seem like much, but in its entanglements such a change can have broad impact.” (Hodder, 116- 120) Explain, with examples, Hodder’s idea of ‘entanglement’. [16]

Historical Materialism: The class struggle in the Roman Republic

2009-09-24T12:38:00.000+02:00

"Today we begin publication of an important new series by Alan Woods, which provides a Marxist explanation of the processes that led to the collapse of the Roman Republic. Here the method of historical materialism is used to shed light on an important turning-point in world history . . .

The whole of science is based on two basic assumptions: 1) that the world exists independently of ourselves and 2) that we are capable of understanding it. If science can explain the mechanisms that govern the social organisms of bees, ants and chimpanzees, why should it be impossible to explain the workings of human society and the forces that determine its development? Marxism rejects the view that history is a string of meaningless and incomprehensible events. Historical materialism asserts that the history of human society has its own laws, and that they can be analyzed and understood. The laws that govern social development were first laid bare by Karl Marx. In the famous introduction to The Critique of Political Economy, Marx explains the basis of historical materialism in the following terms:

“In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness. At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or – this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms – with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure.”

With these words, the founder of scientific socialism once and for all disposed of all metaphysical, idealist and subjective explanation of human history . . ."

The Fakes of Hacilar, from Time magazine 1971

2009-09-24T11:08:00.000+02:00

Few things anger archaeologists and art historians more than being taken in by fake antiquities. A recent series of laboratory tests gives them good reason to be furious. A team of British and European experts, using a new dating technique, has reported that 48 of 66 objects thought to be from Hacilar, a settlement that existed 7,000 years ago in southwestern Turkey, are forgeries . . .

Tutorial Week 2 Sept 21st- 25th CCI

2009-09-24T11:01:00.000+02:00

Braudel & Lewis-Williams 52-83

1. Where does Palaeolithic art have its source, in Braudel’s opinion? [2]
2. How does L-W define “method”? [2]
3. Explain L-W’s ideas about discovery, theory and evidence. (61-2)[7]
4. Explain the terms ‘art mobilier’, ‘parietal’, ‘anthropomorphic’, ‘therianthropes’. [2]
5. List three ways in which ‘Neanderthal Man’ differed from Homo sapiens. Why does L-W think that anthroplogists transported back in time would be at a loss among Neanderthals but not so a few thousand years later in the Upper Palaeolithic? [5]
6. Why was ‘the very idea of Palaeolithic art deeply disturbing’ initially? [3]
7. What are some limitations of the theory of explanation of ‘art for art’s sake’? [5]
8. Briefly explain the ‘problem’ Reinach created and his and the Abbé Breuil’s Totemism and sympathetic magic hypothesis. [5]
9. What did Vico think the essence of being human is and what is meant by ‘humanity created itself’? [5]
10. Explain the terms langue and parole, and synchronic and diachronic. [4]
11. Define ‘infer’, ‘induce’, ‘deduce’, ‘binary opposition’. [4]
12. Explain the difference between ‘superstructure’ and ‘infrastructure’, why would a ruling class seek to ‘mystify the social relations of production? (76-8) [7]
13. How does Lévi-Strauss explain the role and function of myth? (78) [4]
14. How can Leroi-Gourhan’s mythogram be said to be a ‘clear version of Lévi-Strauss’ Structuralism’? [3]
15. What is the ‘epistemological principle’ on which L-W’s later chapters are posited? (81-2)[4]

Largest ever hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold found in Staffordshire

2009-09-24T10:59:00.002+02:00

A harvest of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver so beautiful it brought tears to the eyes of one expert, has poured out of a Staffordshire field - the largest hoard of gold from the period ever found . . .

BBC Report 1999: First farmers discovered

2009-09-17T15:06:00.000+02:00

A preview of Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler

2009-09-17T09:00:00.002+02:00

The story of Moctezuma, last king of the Aztecs, is one of absolute power – and abject surrender. And now it is the subject of a haunting new exhibition at the British Museum.

The British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara

2009-09-17T08:57:00.000+02:00

Turkey stands at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. The lands within its borders and the surrounding Black Sea region have seen centuries of fascinating history and pre-history. Their legacy: knowledge and lessons of potentially vital importance for all our futures. The British Institute at Ankara (BIAA) is internationally renowned for over 60 years’ work supporting, enabling and encouraging world-class research in Turkey and the Black Sea region in the fields of history, archaeology and related social sciences . . .

Çatalhöyük

2009-09-17T08:53:00.000+02:00

This Web site is designed for those interested in the ongoing excavations at Çatalhöyük, Turkey. Its aim is to provide information about the activities of the Project and of the different aspects of the research being conducted at Çatalhöyük.

Museum of Altamira

2009-09-16T16:48:00.000+02:00

Lascaux Official Site

2009-09-16T16:47:00.000+02:00

Frozen in time at Britain's new Ice Age centre

2009-09-16T08:19:00.000+02:00

Britain's National Ice Age Centre in the news . . .

Find a very well designed Art History site here

2009-05-18T13:07:00.000+02:00

. . . with some excellent resources, including podcasts, for Ancient Studies.

"Smarthistory.org is a free multi-media web-book designed as a dynamic enhancement (or even substitute) for the traditional art history textbook. Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker began smARThistory in 2005 by creating a blog featuring free audio guides in the form of podcasts for use in The Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Soon after, we embedded the audio files in our online survey courses. The response from our students was so positive that we decided to create a multi-media survey of art history web-book. We created audios and videos about works of art found in standard art history survey texts, organized the files stylistically and chronologically, and added text and still images . . ."

Free Podcast of Plato's Republic

2009-05-18T13:05:00.000+02:00

Boris likes Horace. So what?

2009-05-18T12:59:00.000+02:00

The study of Ancient History and Literature has long suffered from its defenders and the ideological assumptions with which bourgeois culture is most comfortable . . .

Latin and Greek are the keys to a breathtaking intellectual playground whether you come from Eton or a state school

2009-05-18T12:55:00.000+02:00

opines Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian . . .