Musings on Daily Life in the Ancient and Early Medieval Mediterranean By Sarah E. Bond
A few weeks ago, I began to ponder the ways in which Greek and Roman art is presented within the modern museum context--and to ruminate on whether we put a bit too much emphasis on the perceived front of a piece of art rather than the side or back of it. This led to a... Continue Reading →
Dura-Europos is an ancient site on the Euphrates river in modern-day Syria. The objects excavated at the site by Yale University (later famously led by Mikhail Rostovtzeff), and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters during the 1920s and 1930s provide some of the most vivid wall paintings, mosaics, and material culture from the ancient world... Continue Reading →
It has been a few days since I published a piece on my Forbes blog regarding the perception of whiteness and statues in antiquity. I knew when I started taking notes on the subject of polychromy many months ago that this column would likely cause a stir within the field, among colleagues, and online. I had... Continue Reading →
Another year of blogging is almost in the proverbial books and I must say that while 2016 was a wretched year socio-politically, it was professionally quite satisfying. My first book, Trade and Taboo was published and I even began writing for Forbes regularly. There is no doubt that I have much to be thankful for as... Continue Reading →
Over on the Forbes blog this week, I wrote a bit about how social anxiety can be viewed through magic. In the case of curse tablets involving charioteers, we see an incredible amount of energy invested in sports. The culture of athletic competition and rivalry in chariot racing is not all that different from the... Continue Reading →
Over on the Forbes blog, I talk about the history of dress codes for women. As anyone who reads this blog knows, I think a lot about clothing, color, and historical dress. This post is reacting to the recent burkini bans in towns along the French Riviera by mentioning the fact that Sparta, Rome, the... Continue Reading →
Over on my Forbes blog, I address the comments of Representative Steve King this week and explore the myths of the "Dark Ages" and of "Western Civilization." As I say, perpetuating the myth of western exceptionalism is a dangerous narrative to tell ourselves.
Nero princeps gladiatorum pugnas spectabat in smaragdo. The princeps Nero viewed the combats of the gladiators in a smaragdus. -- Pliny, Natural History, 37.16. There are many fantastical stories to be found in Pliny the Elder's Natural History. Part of the lure of this encyclopedic work is the (often misleading) conviction with which the statesman explored the objects, peoples, and places... Continue Reading →
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with collecting the signatures of the Atlanta Braves baseball players. It was a point of pride to show my friends the signatures of John Smoltz or Greg Maddux, and they provided me with a little residual cachet. Turns out that Romans had much the same reaction. The natural... Continue Reading →
It is about 43 minutes since we got out of seeing 'Hail, Caesar!', the Coen brothers' new movie about a Tinseltown film studio during the 1950s. I enjoyed the film immensely, and, well, I have some frayed, butter stained theater napkin notes about the multiple classical allusions in the film. Before we get to the allusions, let's talk... Continue Reading →
History From Below 