Musings on Daily Life in the Ancient and Early Medieval Mediterranean By Sarah E. Bond
This week, The Chronicle of Higher Education published a piece (now behind a paywall) written by Prof. Timothy Brennan. In it, the digital humanities as a field is essentially assessed as a "bust." A concluding critique seemed particularly harsh: "Rather than a revolution, the digital humanities is a wedge separating the humanities from its reason to exist... 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 →
Over on the Forbes blog, I have posted a day-by-day reconstruction of the events leading up to and including the famed Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE. I did this with the help of UT-Knoxville Classicist Thomas Rose (also a ASCSA alumnus & fellow marathoner). The battle was the basis for the modern day Marathon race (26 miles... Continue Reading →
T.E. Lawrence (i.e. Lawrence of Arabia) once commented that "the printing press is the greatest weapon in the armory of the modern commander." This was as true in the 15th century, following the introduction of the printing press to Western Europe, as it would be during the Arab Revolt of 1916. During the Renaissance, the impact of... Continue Reading →
One of the foremost painters of the mid 5th century BCE, Polygnotus, was allegedly commissioned by the Cnidian people to paint a clubhouse at Delphi. One of the themes was Odysseus' ascension into the underworld, described in Book 11 of Homer's Odyssey (the so called νέκυια). However, Pausanias (10.28-31) reports that the painter took many liberties and mixed... Continue Reading →
Join us online at 10 am - 11:30 am (ET) on Friday, May 29th for a webinar broadcast from the Center for Hellenic Studies to discuss how to use the geospatial data housed in Pleiades.Stoa.org to enrich your classroom and your research. We will explore the site itself, but will also illustrate how one might make maps (for teaching or for... Continue Reading →
History From Below 