Welcome new and returning students of 2011

 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

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

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.