Contexts and the Contextualization of Coin Finds - An International Colloquium

The Swiss Group for the Study of Coin Finds (Groupe suisse pour l’étude des trouvailles monétaires/Schweizerische Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Fundmünzen) has announced that it will host an international colloquium on "Contexts and the Contextualization of Coin Finds" in Geneva on March 5-7, 2010. Several established and emerging scholars will present papers on a wide breadth of subjects that elucidate the value of contextual methods in numismatics. Lectures will be in English, French, Italian, and German. Abstracts are posted in the program.

The list of speakers and subjects is as follows:

Introduction

Richard REECE, Coin finds and archaeologists: past, present, and future

L’élaboration de fondements à l'aide de contextes (dans le temps et dans l'espace)

Andreas SCHÄFER, Zur Aussagekraft von Fundmünzen in latènezeitlichen Siedlungskontexten Süddeutschlands

Colin HASELGROVE, Hallaton and Leicester: rewriting the early history of the English East Midlands

Le potentiel d'étude de différents types de stratigraphies et de trouvailles

Kevin BUTCHER, Hoards, single finds and monetary circulation

Luisa BERTOLACCINI & Ulrich WERZ, Fundmünzreihen versus Dendrochronologie? Das Beispiel Grosser Hafner (Zürich)

Jens Christian MOESGAARD, Monnaies médiévales et modernes en contextes archéologiques le cas de la Haute-Normandie

Benedikt ZÄCH, Münzfunde in Kirchen: Chancen und Grenzen bei der Interpretation von Kontexten

Aires de circulation monnaies comme clé de compréhension du développement économique

Federico BARELLO, Augusta Taurinorum, archeologia urbana e rinvenimenti numismatici

Charles BONNET, Matteo CAMPAGNOLO & Marc-André HALDIMANN, L’étude conjointe des monnaies et de la céramique de contextes stratigraphiques de la cathédrale Saint-Pierre à Genève

Johan VAN HEESCH, Coins and the countryside: Coin use in Roman ‘villas’ in Northern Gaul

Vincent GENEVIÈVE, Le trésor d'argentei de Bénazet (Ariège) : un dépôt monétaire franc au pied des Pyrénées?

Degré de monétarisation ou la deuxième et la troisième vie de monnaies antiques

Suzanne FREY-KUPPER & Clive STANNARD Evidence for the importation of blocks of foreign bronze coins in the Ancient world, and their role in the monetary stock

Fleur KEMMERS, After Rome? The second life of Roman coins in Frankish settlements

Différents types de trouvailles à l'époque médiévale et moderne

Adriano BOSCHETTI-MARADI, Stephen DOSWALD & Brigitte MOSER, Bauforschung und Numismatik: Fundmünzen aus Bauuntersuchungen im Kanton Zug

Harald R. DERSCHKA, Der St. Mang-Platz in Kempten (Allgäu)

Fonctions des monnaies dans des environnements sociaux et économiques particuliers (rituels, offrandes, thésaurisation, etc.)

Günther E. THÜRY, Verlieren und Wiederfinden von Münzen in der römischen Antike

Samuele RANUCCI, San Feliciano: un caso di offerta monetale nelle acque del Lago Trasimeno

Paul-André BESOMBES, Les monnaies de l’établissement antique de Mané-Véchen à Plouhinec (Morbihan)

Other recent colloquia and conferences that addressed the application of material contexts in numismatic study include the symposium on "Coins in Context" at Frankfurt University (a collection of articles based on the conference have since been published), a panel at the 2009 AIA/APA Meeting entitled "Contextual Numismatics: New Perspectives and Interdisciplinary Methodologies," and a round table discussion with a panel of speakers at the XIVth International Numismatic Congress on "Coins in Context."| |

New Academic Program in Value and Equivalency

It has been announced that Frankfurt University and the Technical University at Darmstadt will begin their new program in Wert und Äquivalent. This interdisciplinary program will be directed by faculty from the two universities who are of international renown and active in a number of related disciplines: African prehistory, ethnology, Classical and Roman provincial archaeology, numismatics, European prehistory, Near eastern archaeology, North American ethnology, and philology.

The program officially begins on April 1, 2009 and applications for 11 doctoral scholarships with a stipend of 1200 Euro per month are being accepted until January 10, 2009. The scholarships are valid for two years and are renewable for a third year. Applications are available in both German and English.

One scholarship holder can work in archaeology and the cultural history of the Near East, one in Near Eastern philology, two in Classical archaeology (one in Frankfurt and one in Darmstadt), two in Roman provincial archaeology/auxiliary archaeological sciences (numismatics, papyrology, epigraphy), one in European prehistory, one in African prehistory, and three in ethnology with an emphasis on Africa, North America, and South East Asia.

There are also two post-doctoral fellowships for a tenure of two years. One is available in European prehistory and one in ethnology.

For further information and application details visit: http://www.value.uni-frankfurt.de/

Pompeii on Google Street View

Pompeii is now part of Google Street View. The BBC has a feature on the story (December 4, 2009).

"Giving people a chance to take a virtual stroll through Pompeii will give an extraordinary boost to Italian tourism," Ansa quoted Mario Resca of the culture ministry's heritage promotion department as saying.

•  Google Street View
  

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Post-Doctoral Scholar

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Post-Doctoral Scholar

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago invites applications for the Oriental Institute’s Annual Post-Doctoral Scholar Conference program for the 2010–2011 academic year. This is a twelve-month, non-renewable appointment. The Post-Doctoral Scholar will organize and conduct a two-day conference at the Oriental Institute on key comparatively oriented theoretical or methodological issues in the field of ancient studies (archaeological, text-based, and/or art historical avenues of research). We encourage cross-disciplinary proposals that deal with the ancient Near East (including Egypt) or that compare the Near East with other cultural areas. Applicants should take into consideration the research interests represented at the Oriental Institute. The conference will take place in early to mid March 2011. After the conference, the Post-Doctoral Scholar will work with publication staff to assemble and edit the proceedings for publication in the “Oriental Institute Seminars” series. The incumbent is also encouraged to pursue his or her own research while in residence and to interact with the Oriental Institute community.

Information on past Oriental Institute Annual symposia can be viewed at:
http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/symposia/

Qualifications: Ph.D. in a discipline relating to ancient studies must be complete at the time of appointment. Applicants should send:

1. 5-page proposal outlining nature and structure of the conference (including names and paper topics of six to eight key participants who have agreed to make presentations, should the conference be funded)
2. curriculum vitae
3. 3 letters of reference (these may be sent under separate cover)

Electronic submissions are welcome. Deadline for completed applications is Friday, January 8th, 2010. Start date is September 1, 2010. Please send applications to:

Post-Doctoral Scholar Program
attn. Mariana Perlinac, Oriental Institute
University of Chicago
1155 East 58th St.
Chicago, IL 60637

Or via e-mail to: oi-administration@uchicago.edu


The University of Chicago is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.


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Automation at the British Library

The BBC has a short video on the automated system at the British Library.

The British Library has unveiled a new automated storage facility and the BBC's Phil Bodmer has been given a look around.

Much of the sorting and carrying at the futuristic £26 million building at Boston Spa in West Yorkshire is carried out by robots.

The additional storage building will eventually house approximately seven million items from the UK national collection.

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Lost World of Old Europe Exhibition Website

The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley, 5000 – 3500 BC

November 11, 2009 – April 25, 2010

Open: Tues – Sun 11-6, Fri 11-8, Closed Monday
Free admission

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU
15 East 84th Street
New York, NY 10028

Please visit the Lost World of Old Europe Exhibition Website for complete information, images of items in the exhibition, a full public programming schedule (lectures, film series, musical performances) and more!

The Lost World of Old Europe brings to the United States for the first time more than 160 objects recovered by archaeologists from the graves, towns, and villages of Old Europe, a cycle of related cultures that achieved a precocious peak of sophistication and creativity in what is now southeastern Europe between 5000 and 4000 BC, and then mysteriously collapsed by 3500 BC. Long before Egypt or Mesopotamia rose to an equivalent level of achievement, Old Europe was among the most sophisticated places that humans inhabited. Some of its towns grew to city-like sizes. Potters developed striking designs, and the ubiquitous goddess figurines found in houses and shrines have triggered intense debates about women’s roles in Old European society. Old European copper-smiths were, in their day, the most advanced metal artisans in the world. Their intense interest in acquiring copper, gold, Aegean shells, and other rare valuables created networks of negotiation that reached surprisingly far, permitting some of their chiefs to be buried with pounds of gold and copper in funerals without parallel in the Near East or Egypt at the time. The exhibition, arranged through loan agreements with 20 museums in three countries (Romania, The Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Moldova), brings the exuberant art, enigmatic goddess cults, and precocious metal ornaments and weapons of Old Europe to American audiences.

The Lost World of Old Europe is the accompanying catalogue for the exhibition. The first comprehensive introduction to Old Europe’s cultural, technological, and artistic legacy, this superb volume features essays by leading archaeologists as well as breathtaking color photographs documenting the objects, some illustrated here for the first time. (See below for the table of contents and sample chapters to download. To purchase the catalogue from Princeton University Press, please click on the “Buy” button.)

VIEW / DOWNLOAD CHAPTER SAMPLES

FOREWORD by Jenifer Chi
THE FIGURINES OF OLD EUROPE by Douglass W. Bailey
SPONDYLUS AND LONG-DISTANCE TRADE IN PREHISTORIC EUROPE by Michel Louis Séfériadès

University of Chicago Press ebook givaway

Beginning this month the University of Chicago Press is offering a free e-book every month. It's an effort to raise awareness about the Chicago Digital Editions program, to get the uninitiated to try out an e-book on their PC, Mac, or mobile reader, and to promote their authors. This month book is:

Censorinus

The Birthday Book

Edited and Translated by Holt N. Parker
120 pages, 9 line drawings 5 x 7 © 2007

E-book Free! (about e-books)

ISBN: 9780226099774

Cloth $25.00

ISBN: 9780226099743 Published February 2007

“[Roman grammarian and writer] Censorinus distills the wisdom of several strains of philosophy, extracting whatever seems to have any bearing on births, days and birthdays: theories of the origin of the human species, the formation of the individual foetus, the principles of astrology, the ages of man, the nature of time, eons, centuries, years, months, days and hours.”—London Review of Books

Get this e-book free!

2009 Chicago Colloquium on Digital Humanities and Computer Science

Final call for participation

Conference: Full Schedule

DHCS 2009 Conference Schedule

Saturday, November 14 (Pre-conference in McCormick-Tribune Campus Center)

1:00 - 5:00 Birds-of-a-feather Workshop Sessions


Sunday, November 15 (Main conference in Hermann Hall Ballroom)

8:30 - 9:15 Breakfast & Registration

9:15--9:30 Welcoming Statements

R. Russell Betts, Dean of the College of Science and Letters, Illinois Institute of Technology

9:30 - 11:00 Paper Session 1 Text Analysis

Citation Detection and Textual Reuse on Ancient Greek texts

Marco Büchler, Annette Geßner (University of Leipzig)

Metaforager: A Pattern-Learning System for Large-Scale Metaphor Extraction

Jenny Loomis (Stanford)

On the Origin of Theories: The Semantic Analysis of Analogy in a Scientific Corpus

Devin Griffiths (Rutgers University)

BREAK

11:15 - 12:15 Paper Session 2 Visualization and Data Mining

Big See: Large Scale Visualization

Geoffrey Rockwell, Garry Wong, Stan Ruecker, Megan Meredith-Lobay, and Stéfan Sinclair (University of Alberta and McMaster University)

New Insights: Dynamic Timelines in Digital Humanities

Kurt Fendt (MIT)

12:15--2:00 Lunch

2:00 - 3:15 Keynote Address: Vasant Honavar

Humanities as Information Sciences

BREAK

3:30 - 5:30 Poster and Demo Session (Hermann Hall Alumni Lounge)

5:45 - 6:45 Reception (MTCC Lew Collins Welcome Center)

7:00 - 10:00 Banquet (MTCC Pritzker Club)

7:45 - 9:00 Keynote Address: Roger Dannenberg

The Music Technology Revolution

Monday, November 16 (Main conference in Hermann Hall Ballroom)

8:30 - 9:45 Breakfast

Posters Sessions & Software Demos (redux)

9:45 - 10:45 Paper Session 3 Stylistics

Computational Phonostylistics: Computing the Sounds of Poetry

Marc Plamondon (Nipissing University)

Features from Frequency: Authorship and Stylistic Analysis Using Repetitive Sound

C. W. Forstall (SUNY Buffalo) and W. J. Scheire (U. Colorado at Colorado Springs)

Mapping Genre Space via Random Conjectures
Patrick Juola (Duquesne University)

BREAK

11:00 - 12:30 Keynote Address: Stephen Wolfram

What Can Be Made Computable in the Humanities?

12:30 - 2:00 Lunch

2:00 - 3:00 Paper Session 4 Algorithmic Tools

Who's Who in Your Digital Collection? Developing a Tool for Name Disambiguation and Identity Resolution

Jean Godby (OCLC), Patricia Hswe (UIUC), Judith Klavans (UMD), Hyoungtae Cho (UMD), Dan Roth (UIUC), Lev Ratinov (UIUC), and Larry Jackson (UIUC)

Discovering Latent Relations of Concepts by Graph Mining Approaches

Marco Büchler (University of Leipzig)

BREAK

3:15 - 4:00 Round-Table Panel

4:00 Closing remarks

New Digital Humanities Journal: Digital Studies / Le champ numérique

Digital Studies / Le champ numérique (ISSN 1918-3666) is a refereed academic journal, publishing three times a year and serving as a formal arena for scholarly activity and as an academic resource for researchers in the digital humanities. DS/CN is published by the Society for Digital Humanities / Société pour létude des médias interactifs (SDH/SEMI), an organisation affiliated with the Association for Computers and the Humanities (ACH) and the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing (ALLC) through the Alliance of Digital Humanities Organisations (ADHO). Work published in DS/CN reflects the values of this community and the interdisciplinary diversity of those who comprise it, with particular emphasis on emerging digital humanities methodology and its application, on the engagement of that work in pertinent disciplinary contexts, and on multilinguality and complementarity with other ADHO publications (among them the journals Literary and Linguistic Computing, and Digital Humanities Quarterly).

Similarly, our publication technology, policies and practices will strive to promote and reflect the community’s best emergent and longstanding practices.

DS/CN invites contributions relating to work carried out in the digital humanities, broadly construed. In its open, thematic, and conference volumes DS/CN publishes academic articles, scholarly notes, working papers, field synopses, larger reviews, and well-documented opinion pieces. DS/CN privileges publications which explicitly demonstrate an awareness of interdisciplinary context(s) and a history of pertinent academic engagement.

- Flyer

Brill's new open access policy

Brill's new open access policy. What do you make of this?

When on Google Earth 78

Heather conceded my win at When on Google Earth 77, which was really only a guess on my part, but I guessed right and that seemed to be enough. (Though I still can't find the exact spot on Google Earth).

Moving on to When on Google Earth 78, where and when in the world is this?




If you can identify this site and its main period of occupation, then post your comment below.

Follow WOGE on the Facebook group.


The Rules of When on Google Earth are as follows:

Q: What is When on Google Earth?
A: It’s a game for archaeologists, or anybody else willing to have a go!

Q: How do you play it?
A: Simple, you try to identify the site in the picture.

Q: Who wins?
A: The first person to correctly identify the site, including its major period of occupation, wins the game.

Q: What does the winner get?
A: The winner gets bragging rights and the chance to host the next When on Google Earth on his/her own blog!

Good news on open access publication from De Gruyter

Press Release

2010 sees the launch of the series “Topoi. Berlin Studies of the Ancient World”

It is a pilot project for a combination of Open Access with publisher supervision

Berlin, 23rd June 2009

From 2010 onwards de Gruyter will be publishing the series “Topoi. Berlin Studies of the Ancient World”. It will encompass all the disciplines of Ancient Studies, from prehistory and early history through classical archaeology to antique philosophy, epistemology and theology. The series will be edited by the Excellence Cluster Topoi, with the prospect of the editorship being transferred to the projected Berlin College for Ancient Studies.

As well as being published in book form, selected titles from the series will also be available for open access as eBooks on the www.reference-global.com website. Dr Sabine Vogt, de Gruyter’s Senior Editor Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies has announced that “Our first joint pilot project for simultaneous publication in print and open access will be the volume Babylon – Wissenskultur in Orient und Okzident (‘Babylon – Knowledge Culture East and West’)”.

Since April 2009. de Gruyter Publishing has been offering an over-arching unified open access model with its de Gruyter Open Library; Topoi provides a first opportunity to apply this model to the humanities. Dr. Sven Fund, de Gruyter’s Managing Director, is confident that “The publishing model used for the Topoi series shows that de Gruyter is adapting to the changing needs and interests of authors, customers and business partners.” He continues. “With this cooperation agreement for the Topoi series we are able for the first time to do exactly what academic sponsoring institutions – including the German Research Foundation – have been demanding on an international level, namely to provide free access to research funded by the tax-payer.

The Series “Topoi. Berlin Studies of the Ancient World” presents research findings from the Excellence Cluster Topoi, a joint undertaking of the Free University of Berlin and the Berlin Humboldt University. Partners in the enterprise are the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Arts and Sciences, the German Archaeological Institute, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. The Topoi Excellence Cluster is engaged in the institutional preparations for the foundation of a Berlin College for Ancient Studies, that will provide a common institutional basis for leading-edge research in all the disciplines connected with Ancient Studies.

Contact
Ulrike Lippe
Public Relations
Telephone 030-260 05 153
ulrike.lippe@degruyter.com

Walter de Gruyter GmbH &Co. KG: The 260-year old independent academic publisher, with its headquarters in Berlin, publishes over 700 new titles each year; from the fields of humanities, medicine, life sciences and law, as well as 100 academic journals, and digital media.
http://www.degruyter.com/

Looking for a particular type of ancient hillside city

I am looking for comparative examples of ancient cities with these characteristics:

(1) Most or all of the residential settlement is on hillsides or mountainsides, and,
(2) Most or all of the civic architecture is at the BOTTOM of the hill.

At the Aztec site I'm working on, Calixtlahuaca, the housing was built on terraces and covered the sides of a small mountain (2-3 sq km total). The heaviest occupation was on the north face (the right slope in the above photo). The royal palace was built on the plain at the base of the hill, and the main temples were built on huge terraces near the base of the hill. There were also some (now destroyed) temples on top of the hill. The second photo, looking down from about 2/3 of the way up the hill, shows one of the large temples, and the palace is barely visible at the base of the hill (yellow ellipse).

Most Mesoamerican cities whose housing covered hillsides had their civic architecture on top of the hill (Monte Alban, Xochicalco, many more examples), and defense was a major consideration. At Calixtlahuaca, they put a lot of effort into living on terraced slopes and building big terraces for their temples, yet there are no defensive features (walls, ditches, caches of weapons, etc.) and the royal palace was the most exposed building in the city.

I'd appreciate hearing about comparative examples that might help me understand this strange urban layout. Someone suggested Ephesus, which seems to fit, although I can find no information about the hillside housing. The excavated "slope houses" or "terrace houses" at the site are in the civic center, not up on the hillsides. Are there other examples of ancient cities with these traits? And can they help interpret Calixtlahuaca, or do the idiosyncratic factors of each site dominate, making comparisons like this superficial and not informative?

Suggestions are welcome!

-Mike Smith

Open Access Week

Its Open Access week again. I am reminded about all the very nice online publishing efforts that get reported in this blog. As a New World archaeologist, I am envious of Old World archaeology for leading the way here.

To celebrate Open Access week, check out this entry from Jason Baird Jackson's blog:

"Last year, did you get paid nothing to work hard for a multinational corporation with reported revenues of over 1 billion dollars in 2008? [2]

If you have (1) done peer-reviews for, (2) submitted an article to, (3) written a book or media review for, or (4) taken on the editorship of a scholarly journal published by giant firms such as Springer, Reed Elisevier, or Wiley, then you belong to a very large group of very well-educated people whose unpaid labor has helped make these firms very profitable. Their profitability in turn has positioned them to work vigorously against the interests of (1) university presses and other not-for-profit publishers in the public interest, (2) libraries at all levels, (3) university and college students, (4) scholars themselves, and (5) particular and general publics with a need to consult the scholarly record."

-Mike Smith

When on Google Earth 76

So I won When on Google Earth again! I correctly identified Mike Koeth's site on WOGE 75 as Hamadan Iran. I'm pretty sure Heather will recognize the site and confirm herself as the champion WOGEr once again!



The rules of When on Google Earth are as follows:

Q: What is When on Google Earth?
A: It’s a game for archaeologists, or anybody else willing to have a go!

Q: How do you play it?
A: Simple, you try to identify the site in the picture.

Q: Who wins?
A: The first person to correctly identify the site, including its major period of occupation, wins the game!

Q: What does the winner get?
A: The winner gets bragging rights and the chance to host the next When on Google Earth on his/her own blog!

You can follow along on the Facebook group.

Dietrich von Bothmer (1918-2009)

Patricia Rubin, NYU Institute of Fine Arts director, has announced the death of Dietrich von Bothmer (statement). Lee Rosenbaum has commented on the news, and a notice has appeared in the New York Times.
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Postdoctoral position in comparative urbanism

The School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University has an opening for a post-doctoral fellowship in comparative urbanism. This position is with a transdisciplinary research project called "Urban Organization Through the Ages: Neighborhoods, Open Spaces, and Urban Life." This project has six faculty PIs, including three Mesoamerican archaeologists, a geographer, a sociologist, and a political scientist. We are gathering and analyzing data on urban life from ancient, historical, and modern studies. We are looking for a scholar with comparative interests and good resesarch skills to manage a team of student workers, and to become part of the project intellectually and professionally.

Interested scholars (and other readers of this blog) can find more information about the project at our web site, with a link to the formal discription of the post-doctoral position.

-Mike Smith

Early Jewish Monotheisms Project

Readers may be interested in the Early Jewish Monotheisms project based at the University of Goettingen. The project is directed by Nathan MacDonald of the University of St. Andrews.

Here's the project description from its web site:

The origins and development of monotheism in ancient Israel has been one of the most significant debates within the study of the Old Testament of the last thirty years. It has generated numerous books and articles and resulted in a significant shift in the scholarly consensus and added considerably to our understanding of ancient Israelite religious life and thought. Unfortunately, the discussion is frequently concluded prematurely with the exilic ‘breakthrough’ to monotheism by Deutero-Isaiah.

A significant part of the problem is that a particular account of the nature of monotheism is held by interpreters. In this account monotheism is a stage of religion, which once reached is perceived to be self-evident to its adherents. Consequently regression into polytheism has been viewed as inconceivable. Additionally, monotheism was held to entail certain consequences, including universalism, anti-superstition and magic, ethical, aniconic. Thus, when scholars determined that Deutero-Isaiah was a monotheist, who was thought to exhibit these beliefs, it was held that true monotheism had been reached. The complicated and sophisticated history of religious change in ancient Israel had reached its goal.

It is clear though that, however different early Jewish beliefs are from those of their ancestors, there existed considerable diversity in the way that Jewish belief in God and the world was conceived and articulated. In his introduction to monotheism, published in 1996, Fritz Stolz identified at least four broad categories of monotheistic thought: priestly, deuteronomistic, wisdom and apocalyptic. Representatives of these traditions show a strong commitment to the one God of Israel, YHWH, but what that means in terms of their theology and their practice can be quite different. This diversity within Jewish monotheism becomes even more apparent in the late second temple period, when we have an abundance of information about the theology and practice of the diverse groups that make up Judaism.

The Sofja-Kovalevskaja Research Group under the leadership of Dr Nathan MacDonald seeks to examine the considerable diversity in Israelite and Jewish monotheistic thought and practice during the exilic and Persian periods, particularly through an examination of the relevant biblical texts. The project consists of a small team of post-doctoral and doctoral researchers based at the Georg-August Universität Göttingen. Each of these researchers is working with a biblical book or corpus of books and seeking to re-examine them afresh for what might be learnt about the diversity of Jewish monotheism. In addition, four colloquia will take place which will see a number of advanced scholars coming to Göttingen to examine the following themes:

divine presence and absence,
eschatology, apocalyptic and power,
universalism and election, and
responses to the existence of evil.

The project has a strong contemporary resonance because of concerns expressed about the relationship between monotheism, hegemony and violence. An academic project that examines uniformity and diversity within early Jewish monotheism is important not only for the light it can shed on the history, literature and theology of the biblical texts and the second temple period, but also because it touches on issues of contemporary interest. It is a working hypothesis of the group that some of the equations of monotheism and violence are too simplistic and fail to take account of the diversity present in historical and contemporary forms of monotheism.

The Sofja-Kovalevskaja Research Group works in close collaboration with the other related research projects in the Theologische Fakultät, especially the DFG-funded Graduiertenkolleg, “Götterbilder – Gottesbilder – Weltbilder”, and with the two established Old Testament professors, Prof. Hermann Spieckermann and Prof. Reinhard Kratz. The research project runs from 2009-14 and is funded through an award of €1.65 million made by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to Dr Nathan MacDonald with the funding provided by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The project also has a blog, which already has several interesting posts on it. The lauch of this project will be formally launched with a reception at this year's SBL annual meeting in New Orleans (at 9pm on November 23rd 2009 in Orleans/Rosalie/St Claude in the JW Marriott New Orleans). There will also be a new program unit at SBL connected with this subject. The project web site also lists other ways researchers can get involved.

The main address for the project web site is http://www.monotheism.uni-goettingen.de/

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Post-Doctoral Scholar

Oriental Institute Job Posting: Post-Doctoral Scholar

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago invites applications for the Oriental Institute's Annual Post-Doctoral Scholar Conference program for the 2010-2011 academic year. This is a twelve-month, non-renewable appointment. The Post-Doctoral Scholar will organize and conduct a two-day conference at the Oriental Institute on key comparatively oriented theoretical or methodological issues in the field of ancient studies (archaeological, text-based, and/or art historical avenues of research). We encourage cross-disciplinary proposals that deal with the ancient Near East (including Egypt) or that compare the Near East with other cultural areas. Applicants should take into consideration the research interests represented at the Oriental Institute. The conference will take place in early to mid March 2011. After the conference, the Post-Doctoral Scholar will work with publication staff to assemble and edit the proceedings for publication in the Oriental Institute Seminars series. The incumbent is also encouraged to pursue his or her own research while in residence and to interact with the Oriental Institute community.

See information on past Oriental Institute Annual symposia here.

Qualifications: Ph.D. in a discipline relating to ancient studies must be complete at the time of appointment. Applicants should send:

1. 5-page proposal outlining nature and structure of the conference (including names and paper topics of six to eight key participants who have agreed to make presentations, should the conference be funded)
2. curriculum vitae
3. 3 letters of reference (these may be sent under separate cover)

Electronic submissions are welcome. Deadline for completed applications is Friday, January 8th, 2010. Start date is September 1, 2010. Please send applications to:

Post-Doctoral Scholar Program
attn. Mariana Perlinac, Oriental Institute
University of Chicago
1155 East 58th St.
Chicago, IL 60637

Or via e-mail to: oi-administration@uchicago.edu

Distressing? Distressing! BMCR is not spam!

A notice at the Bryn Mawr Classical Review reads:

Please note that Google has removed all access to our blog after incorrectly flagging it as a spam blog. We had requested a rehttp://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/view which did not happen, and on September 28 Google removed all access to the blog, which we are attempting to appeal.

I certainly hope this is a mistake!

For now the BMCR blog is blank.

Good news! Update: at http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/

Sept. 29: For the time being, our blog can only be accessed at http://brynmawrreview.blogspot.com. It was incorrectly flagged as a spam blog; Google has reversed its decision, but access to www.bmcreview.org is delayed.

ISAW Doctoral Program in Ancient World

This (and more detail) now up on the ISAW website:

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World is now receiving applications for its program in the Ancient World (2010-2011 academic year). This new doctoral program is distinctive in its flexibility and breadth, embracing the disciplines relevant to a comprehensive understanding of the entire Old World in antiquity. ISAW seeks students with sufficient preparation in at least one discipline or domain to allow them to work beyond its limits and who are committed to scholarly inquiries that cross boundaries of time, place, and discipline. Inaugurated in 2009/10, ISAW’s doctoral program offers rich opportunities for collegial learning and exposure to new perspectives within a research community.

SBL AFFILIATION WITH BIBLIOBLOGGERS: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Jim West posts a document intended "to clarify, purify, and solidify"

SBL AFFILIATION WITH BIBLIOBLOGGERS: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

The Society of Biblical Literature’s recent decision to grant affiliate status to an informal grouping of SBL members who blog on biblical studies has generated several questions and issues that the SBL would like to clarify.

1. Who are “bibliobloggers” and are they an organization?

“Bibliobloggers” is a loose term used to describe the over 300 people who blog about the Bible; half of that number are SBL members. Up until this point, these bloggers have had no formal organizational structure, but have met informally and held discussions at the SBL annual meeting. The affiliate agreement was initiated by SBL executive director, Kent Richards and Jim West, a biblioblogs site administrator and SBL member.

2. Why did SBL make the affiliate agreement?

The SBL was in the process of having internal conversations about the potential of the internet and blogs in particular to communicate scholarship and organizational info among our members, and possibly beyond. It seemed wise to look to our members who were already using the technology and savvy about its uses; perhaps there were ways to learn from them and encourage internal discussion of issues related to blogs?

It came to our attention that a group of SBL members who blog were already convening at our annual meeting, but had to go off-site for group discussions. The SBL decided to offer affiliate status so that these SBL members could meet on-site at the Annual Meeting, free of charge, just as other affiliates, such as the Homiletics or Adventist societies do.

3. Is SBL endorsing the academic quality of all ‘biblioblogs’?

Just as with any affiliate status, the SBL neither affirms nor endorses the internal content of the affiliate. What the SBL does is to provide free meeting space and the opportunity to hold sessions. However, the hope is that this affiliation will increase member awareness of blogs as a means to engage others, thoughtfully and responsibly, on the topic of biblical studies.

4. Will bloggers now make use of their affiliate status to propose sessions or section units at the Annual Meeting? And if so, who will be responsible for reviewing their proposals?

Yes, as affiliate members, bloggers who are SBL members may propose sessions. Robert Cargill is the program unit chair, and the steering committee includes, April DeConick, Stephanie Fisher, Mark Goodacre, Christian Brady, Michael Barber, and Jim West. The steering committee will be responsible for reviewing all proposals.

###

For further information
Contact: Moira Bucciarelli
Tel: 404-727-9484
Email: moira.bucciarelli@sbl-site.org

I commented on this issue a couple of weeks ago.

Blogs from Libraries Focusing on the Ancient World

Surely there are more than this small set:

• AWOL - The Ancient World Online
• Blegen Library News: News and Announcements from the Carl & Elisabeth Blegen Library of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens [Inactive. Anybody there in Athens want to take it up?]
• Classics @ UCI Libraries
• Joint Library of the Hellenic & Roman Societies / Institute of Classical Studies Library
• Oriental Institute Library, Oxford: The OIL Blog
• Thomas J. Watson Library: The Libraries of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Are you a librarian of the ancient world? Do you have a blog? Let us know about it.

5 major American universities commit to support OA journals

Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity

Overview

Scholarly publishing is going through a transformation as a result of digital means of communication, coupled with the financial predicament of libraries. With the most recent economic downturn, access to scholarly articles, so important to research progress and public advancement, will no doubt suffer.

Open-access scholarly journals have arisen as an alternative to traditional subscription scholarly journals. Open-access journals make their articles available freely to anyone, while providing the same services common to all scholarly journals, such as management of the peer-review process, filtering, production, and distribution. Since open-access journals do not charge subscription or other access fees, they must cover their operating expenses through other sources, including subventions, in-kind support, or, in a sizable minority of cases, processing fees paid by or on behalf of authors for submission to or publication in the journal.

Universities subsidize the costs of subscription journals by subscribing to them. Universities and funding agencies can provide equitable support for the processing-fee business model for open-access journals — to place the subscription-fee and processing-fee models on a more level playing field — by subsidizing processing fees as well.

The compact for open-access publishing equity supports equity of the business models by committing each university to "the timely establishment of durable mechanisms for underwriting reasonable publication charges for articles written by its faculty and published in fee-based open-access journals and for which other institutions would not be expected to provide funds."

A full account of the motivation for the compact can be found in the article "Equity for Open-Access Journal Publishing" published in the open-access journal Public Library of Science Biology.

Additional universities are encouraged to sign on to the compact at this web site.

Bibliobloggers and SBL recognition

There's an interesting and curious discussion cooking among the bible bloggers about efforts among them to affiliate with the Society of Biblical Literature. There are apparently strong opinions on both sides of the matter. Here's a roundup of opinions by Daniel O. McClellan.

Can anyone think of other instances in which a group of bloggers has sought to to affiliate with or hold blogger/blogging related sessions on the program of the meetings of scholarly societies?

"The Future of Scholarly Journals Publishing Among Social Science and Humanities Associations"

The report commissioned by the National Humanities Alliance, "The Future of Scholarly Journals Publishing Among Social Science and Humanities Associations," is now posted on the NHA website.

Bible, Blogs, Gender

During recent days the Biblioblog community has been addressing, jointly and severally, the question of why there are not more female bloggers among them, and if there are in fact more, why they do not seem to be visible.

Jim Linville's contribution this morning at Dr. Jim's Thinking Shop & Tea Room summarizes much of the discussion:

Throw Another Blog on the Fire: Gender Blender Bible Blogging.

A new blog

Steve Harvey is now blogging on Egyptology and Asian art and culture at Washing the Book. This should be fun!

What's in a Name

[Originally posted 5/29/09, updated 7/15/09, updated 8/30/09]

A lot apparently.

Steve Miller invites Classical Scholars to endorse a letter to POTUS Barak Obama about the name of the country to the north of Greece. As of today 248 scholars have cosigned the letter.

Daniel Tompkins writes another letter Responding to Professor Miller.

Some background on Macedonia naming dispute.

It reminds me of the dispute over the name of the Persian Gulf, which some call the Arabian Gulf

WHY shall I keep the old name?
What is a name anywhere anyway?
A name is a cheap thing all fathers and mothers leave each child:
A job is a job and I want to live, so
Why does God Almighty or anybody else care whether I take a new name to go by?
Carl Sandburg (1878–1967). Chicago Poems. 19. Blacklisted

And now see Mary Beard, Was Alexander the Great a Slav? [A don's life, July 03, 2009], and
Andreas Willi, Whose Is Macedonia, Whose Is Alexander? [The Classical Journal Online Forum 2009.07.02 (forthcoming in CJ 105.1)]

Steve Miller's Response to Andreas Willi, "Whose is Macedonia, Whose is Alexander?

The Antonine Wall

Here is a short video documenting the remains of the Antonine Wall at Rough Castle including one of the better preserved Roman forts.

Watch here.

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Legion Of Terra-Cotta Mouseketeers Found Beneath Disney World

Click here to see a story about an important breakthrough in Disney archaeology.

-M.E.Smith

Giving Away Academic Books: “It’s the right thing to do.”

David Wiley and John Hilton are researching the question of the impact of “free” on academic-book distribution.

They have a short report on this in the July 21, 2009 Wired Campus

Not all authors or publishers will choose the dual path of free online and paid print publishing. But for those who have a sense of moral obligation to disseminate their work as broadly as possible, there is good news. The common-sense notion that providing free digital copies of a work decreases its sales is incorrect in some circumstances. Additional research is needed to understand these circumstances in sufficient, actionable detail.

John Hilton's blog Wide Open is interesting reading.

Call for Book Proposals in Digital Classics

Gorgias Press is expanding its interest in technology and classics and welcomes book proposals regarding digital classics research, for both monographs (including revised dissertations) and edited collections (based on conference sessions or otherwise). Proposals should be no more than 4 pages pdf and include contact details and a biography of the author(s), an overview of the topic and its importance, a brief description of all chapters, and a summation of how this text will relate to other texts in the field. This is an open call. Please send proposals to submissions@gorgiaspress.com.

Job: Professor of Ancient Asian Art and Archaeology, The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University (ISAW)

Professor of Ancient Asian Art and Archaeology (Iran and Central Asia)

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University (ISAW), seeks to make a faculty appointment in the area of the art and archaeology of ancient Asia, with particular focus on ancient Iran and Central Asia, effective in fall, 2010. ISAW is a newly created, specially funded, cross-disciplinary institute for research and graduate education in the history, archaeology, and culture of the entire Old World, including Asia and Africa, from late prehistoric times to the eighth century AD. (See www.nyu.edu/isaw for details.) The rank of this tenured or tenure-track appointment is open, but we prefer to appoint at an advanced junior level. We seek individuals of scholarly distinction whose work will benefit from freedom from departmental structures and the stimulation of working closely with colleagues in other disciplines, approaches, periods, or geographical areas and who are committed to helping develop the intellectual life of such a community. Applicants with a history of interdisciplinary exchange are particularly welcome. The Institute’s graduate program emphasizes individual supervision and research seminars. The faculty is involved in choosing a group of visiting researchers each year.

Applications (letter, curriculum vitae, and list of referees) or nominations should be sent to: Professor Roger S. Bagnall, Director
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
15 East 84th St.
New York, NY 10028

Applications by fax and email are not accepted. Review of candidates will begin on September 15, 2009. Founded in 1831, New York University is the largest private university in the country, with 13 schools, 3 institutes, and nearly 40,000 students. New York University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

For additional information, please contact Ms. Kathryn Lawson by email at kel306@nyu.edu or by phone at 212-992-7860

Job: Professor of Ancient East Asian Art and Archaeology, The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University (ISAW)

Professor of Ancient East Asian Art and Archaeology

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University (ISAW), seeks to make a faculty appointment in the area of the art and archaeology of ancient East Asia, particularly ancient China, effective in fall, 2010. ISAW is a newly created, specially funded, cross-disciplinary institute for research and graduate education in the history, archaeology, and culture of the entire Old World, including Asia and Africa, from late prehistoric times to the eighth century AD. (See www.nyu.edu/isaw for details.) The rank of this tenured or tenure-track appointment is open, but we prefer to appoint at a tenured or near-tenure level. We seek individuals of scholarly distinction whose work will benefit from freedom from departmental structures and the stimulation of working closely with colleagues in other disciplines, approaches, periods, or geographical areas and who are committed to helping develop the intellectual life of such a community. Applicants with a history of interdisciplinary exchange are particularly welcome. The Institute’s graduate program emphasizes individual supervision and research seminars. The faculty is involved in choosing a group of visiting researchers each year.

Applications (letter, curriculum vitae, and list of referees) or nominations should be sent to: Professor Roger S. Bagnall, Director
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
15 East 84th St.
New York, NY 10028

Applications by fax and email are not accepted. Review of candidates will begin on September 15, 2009. Founded in 1831, New York University is the largest private university in the country, with 13 schools, 3 institutes, and nearly 40,000 students. New York University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

For additional information, please contact Ms. Kathryn Lawson by email at kel306@nyu.edu or by phone at 212-992-786

Job: Professor of Ancient Western Mediterranean Art and Archaeology, The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University (ISAW)

Professor of Ancient Western Mediterranean Art and Archaeology, The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University (ISAW)

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University (ISAW), seeks to make a faculty appointment in the area of the art and archaeology of the ancient western Mediterranean, with particular focus on non-Roman cultures, particularly Etruscan or Punic, effective in fall, 2010. ISAW is a newly created, specially funded, cross-disciplinary institute for research and graduate education in the history, archaeology, and culture of the entire Old World, including Asia and Africa, from late prehistoric times to the eighth century AD. (See www.nyu.edu/isaw for details.) The rank of this tenured or tenure-track appointment is open, but we prefer to appoint at the recently tenured or advanced junior level. We seek individuals of scholarly distinction whose work will benefit from freedom from departmental structures and who will be stimulated by working closely with colleagues in other disciplines, approaches, periods, or geographical areas and who are committed to helping develop the intellectual life of such a community. Applicants with a history of interdisciplinary exchange are particularly welcome. The Institute’s graduate program emphasizes individual supervision and research seminars. The faculty is involved in choosing a group of visiting researchers each year.

Applications (letter, curriculum vitae, and list of referees) or nominations should be sent to: Professor Roger S. Bagnall, Director
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World
15 East 84th St.
New York, NY 10028

Applications by fax and email are not accepted. Review of candidates will begin on September 15, 2009. Founded in 1831, New York University is the largest private university in the country, with 13 schools, 3 institutes, and nearly 40,000 students. New York University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

For additional information, please contact Ms. Kathryn Lawson by email at kel306@nyu.edu or by phone at 212-992-7860

Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability

Released today:

Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability

Tens of millions of dollars, pounds, and euros are invested each year by government agencies and private foundations to develop and support digital resources in the not-for-profit sector. As budgets tighten, will these digitial resources be able to survive and thrive?

This question is at the heart of the Ithaka Case Studies in Sustainability project, a multi-year, international exploration of the strategies being used to support digital initiatives over the long term. Twelve detailed case studies present the steps project leaders have taken to achieve this, with special attention paid to their strategies for cost management and revenue generation. These studies include financial data, and explore the decision-making process that project leaders undertake when experimenting with different strategies to find the best fit for their organization.

Sustaining Digital Resources: An On-the-Ground View of Projects Today, serves as a guide to the cases, outlining the stages that successful projects undertake in developing sustainability models: from empowering leadership and developing accountability structures, to crafting a strong value proposition that responds to user needs, to securing the resources needed to help the project thrive.

By highlighting the benefits and challenges of a wide range of models, this work is intended to serve as a starting point to understanding the options and obstacles facing digital projects today. We hope that they prove to be as eye-opening and thought-provoking for you as they have been for us.

Of the twelve Case Studies presented as a part of the report, note in particular:

The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae®: Specialised Historical Content for a Niche Audience
University of California, Irvine
California, United States

Why Blog? / Does Blogging Matter? (again)

Bill Caraher marks the occasion of five hundred posts on The Archaeology of the Mediterranean World with Reflecting on Academic Blogging. He makes reference to Why Blog? / Does Blogging Matter? posted here at the end on May.

MLA evaluation of digital work for tenure and promotion wiki

Geoffrey Rockwell is hosting on philosophi.ca the initial iteration of a wikiform guide to The Evaluation of Digital Work, a task undertaken by the MLA Committee on Information Technology.

The Evaluation of Digital Work

This area is for an ongoing project by members of the MLA Committee on Information Technology. We are experimenting with a wiki as a way of developing materials to assist in the evaluation of digital work for tenure and promotion.

Current content (10 July 2009) includes:

Types of Digital Work - A list of types of academic digital work with thoughts as to how they might be presented for evaluation and how they might then be evaluated.

Short Guide to Evaluation of Digital Work - A list of questions evaluators can ask about digital work being assessed for tenure and promotion.

Stories - A collection of fictional and real cases with suggestions as to how these cases might be prepared and evaluated.

Documenting a New Media Case - A section for candidates on documents to gather and language to use to prepare your case. Unifinished

Frequently Asked Questions about job seeking in digital fields. Unfinished

Links and Bibliography about the evaluation of digital work. Unfinished

To Do is a list of things to do to improve this

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Reflections in the Glass: your Opinion about Antiquities

Greetings!

I am a New York University Graduate student in the Program in Museum Studies requesting your participation in a unique survey conducted as research for my Master’s thesis. The survey should take less than 15 minutes and is completely anonymous. Your participation could affect the understanding of public perceptions of museum collecting practices and the display of antiquities. Are you aware of the issues or hold museums accountable for their acquisition policies?

Please take your time to answer each question honestly and thoughtfully. This link will take you to the survey.

The results will be posted on my NYU web blog or possibly published as an article at a later date.

If you have any questions or would like to know more, please feel free to e-mail Cherkea_Howery at yahoo dot com

Thank you for your participation and remember your opinion matters!

Sincerely,
Cherkea Howery