Musings on Daily Life in the Ancient and Early Medieval Mediterranean By Sarah E. Bond
My latest for Hyperallergic looks at the new, alleged gladiator cemetery found near the amphitheater in the town of Anazarbus. I have written on gladiators quite a bit over the years, since my PhD research focused so heavily on the legal stigma of infamia. Gladiators were one of many professions who endured this infamy in... Continue Reading →
This week over at Hyperallergic, Sean Burrus and I published a co-written article on the use of variegated marbles (which have particolored and mottled veins that give it color) in order to orientalize and illustrate Roman ideas of the "barbarian." As per usual, I like to take to my own blog to discuss new essays, since it is... Continue Reading →
Over at Hyperallergic this week, I had an essay come out that was about four months in the making. It discusses how and why museums should use labels--those little tituli to the side--in order to engage with America's history of slavery. The piece was inspired by a trip to the Worcester Art Museum (Worcester, MA) over the December... Continue Reading →
One of my favorite reflections on the act of writing was written by a late Roman historian, poet, and rhetorician from modern-day Bordeaux named Decimius Magnus Ausonius. Among many other works, he penned a treatise called the Fasti. In a note to his son, the author reflected on the act of picking and choosing historical events, and... 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 →
Over on the Forbes blog this week, I explore the new publication of an interactive 3D model for a mid-Republican house from the site of Gabii. The University of Michigan Press and the Gabii Project were kind enough to let me read the new e-publication, which links together maps, 3D models, an archaeological object database, and... Continue Reading →
Since last's week accusation by Alex Jones that Hillary Clinton and President Obama were demons that smelled of sulfur, I had begun to think about the role of demons, exorcism, and demoniacs in early Christian texts. Over on the Forbes blog, I discuss how the subject of demons has a rich past in the religion, but... 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 →
History From Below 