Daniel Wallace interview on manuscript finds

Here is a link to a short video interview with Daniel Wallace about New Testament manuscript discoveries in Albania. For more information, visit the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts.

Ancient Galilee Boat

Since my Galilee Boat post from last August is one of the more popular posts people come across through web search or other, I thought I would pass along this information I found when browsing a book I purchased in Bethlehem a couple years ago by Miriam Vamosh, Daily Life at the Time of Jesus. Here is an excerpt about the ancient boat discovered at the Sea of Galilee:

• In 1986, the outline of a wood boat was discovered mired in the mud on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee. But its shell-first, mortise-and-tenon method of construction, pottery vessels discovered with it, and the carbon-14 test, the boat could be conclusively dated to the first century CE. … The 24 by 7 foot-long craft, made of seven different species of wood including cypress and cedar, seems to have been continuously repaired over many years by a master craftsman, but in the end was apparently abandoned on the shoreline. Its burial for two thousand years in a muddy, anaerobic environment allowed for the extraordinary state of its preservation (63).

Greek Font Society returns

After a hiatus for several months the Greek Font Society has returned (actually, they simply changed from .org to .gr). If you are not familiar with their work, read the about page. I’ll let you read about it there. I’ll mention briefly that they have reproduced and made available some fantastic typefaces which are great when working in Unicode. They have updated some of the typefaces they made available previously and have also added a new section with Majescule typefaces. I highly recommend these to anyone having to write/research in the Greek language (ancient or modern).

Hadrian’s Wall

Link: http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-8248943931238297406&hl=en

(via rogueclassicism)

Jewish Amulet

This has been in the news for a few weeks now — an amulet containing the Shema, from Deuteronomy 6:4, was discovered in Austria. It dates from about the third century of our era. “This amulet shows that people of Jewish faith lived in what is today Austria since the Roman Empire.” Universität Wien has more details. The inscription is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew: ΣΥΜΑ ΙΣΤΡΑΗΛ ΑΔΩNΕ ΕΛΩΗ ΑΔΩN Α (Heb., שמע ישראל יהוה אלהינו יהוה אחד). If you cannot make out the Greek and Hebrew, see the image below.

Augustus’ House Open

News has been circulating that the House of Augustus once again opens to the public. It’s fascinating to see art and design from this period (ca. 30 BCE) with the rich colors of red and yellow (and more) in the second Pompeian style. Read more of it at BBC News: House of Augustus opens to public.

Diversity in the Desert

The University of Michigan has a Web Exhibition, Diversity in the Desert: Daily Life in Greek & Roman Egypt (332 B.C.E — 641 C.E.).

(HT: What’s New in Papyrology)

Conference: Health and Sickness in Ancient Rome

This weekend, Feb. 22-23, the Classics Dept. of Florida State University is hosting the 2008 Langford Conference. This year’s topic is Health and Sickness in Ancient Rome. For more details of the schedules and lectures, visit the FSU Classics page.

Organizer: Prof. Miriam Griffin (Langford Eminent Scholar FSU and Emeritus Fellow in Ancient History, Somerville College, Oxford)

Speakers:
Prof. Mary Beagon (University of Manchester)
Title: “Simple Gifts? The Exotic World of Roman Folk Remedies”

Prof. Glen Bowersock (Institute for Advanced Study)
Title: “Iatrosophists”

Prof. Christopher P. Jones (Harvard University)
Title: “Asclepios Mousagetes”

Prof. Vivian Nutton (University College London)
Title: “Avoiding Galen”

Prof. Svetla Slaveva-Griffin (Florida State University)
Title: “Ignore your Body: The Neoplatonic Prescription for Health”

Prof. Gareth Williams (Columbia University)
Title: “The Programmatic Value of Illness in Roman Poetry”

Prof. Anthony J. Woodman (University of Virginia)
Title: “Community Health: Metaphor in Latin Historiography”

New Pages

I haven’t been able to blog as I would like, but I do have a couple things to mention.  I’ve created two new pages (see tabs above or pages in the side menu) for Greek and Latin.  For the Greek I have uploaded pdfs for verbs and participles.  For the Latin, nouns, pronouns, verbs, and a vocabulary list section.  When these pages are updated I’ll make sure to mention it in the postings.  Enjoy!

Pliny-Trajan 10.96-97

I have uploaded a vocabulary word list for the correspondence between Pliny the Younger and emperor Trajan, letters 10.96-97, concerning the matter of Christians whom Pliny had encountered in the Roman province of Pontus-Bithynia in Asia Minor (ca. 112-114 CE). 

• For the text go to the Latin Library.
• Vocabulary word list (.pdf)
• Update: for the latest click on Latin Pages in the side menu.