A slidesow of some recent images from Pompeii in the Guardian

Neglected ruins of Pompeii declared a 'disgrace to Italy'

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

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

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

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)

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

Ancient Roman helmet sells for 10 times estimated amount

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

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

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

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

Sudanese miners vie with archaeologists for desert riches

. . . 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

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

"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

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

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

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

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

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

The Cave of Chauvet-Pont d'Arc

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

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

"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

'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

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

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'

"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!'

"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?

"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

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

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

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

"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

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

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?

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

"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'

Greek heritage crumbles

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

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

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

“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

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

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'

"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

Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy

CCI Newsflash

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

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

1/03/2010 Japanese Theatre Lecture

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

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

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

Ancient tribal language becomes extinct as last speaker dies

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

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

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

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

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