Here are some posts from around the web that I enjoyed this week:
Two parts to a puzzle: Roman sculpture of Antinous (Hadrian’s lover, deified when he drowned in the Nile) rejoined by ingenious detecting and modern tools. One part was in Rome, the other in Chicago. There’s a great video describing this discovery and process here on the University of Chicago site. Hadrian went a bit off the deep end when Antinous died and there are statues for the cult of said young man all over what was then the stretch of the Roman world. One of the challenges with this repair was making sure they didn’t have two different but very similar Antinous statues because there are so many. Somehow this is not the problem ancient world people usually face, an over abundance of art. I love the detecting and puzzling out that went into this restoration. Click here for University of Chicago “Egyptologist uncovers ancient puzzle”
I usually hate these marketing posts, but this one about sorting out and then finding the readers you should market to is actually pretty sensible. I’m posting it so I can find it later. Not currently in the mode of pushing a book, but that’ll return. So here’s something called Audience Segmentation which sounds like silly jargon to me, but the post isn’t. Click here for “Audience Segmentation 3 Easy Steps to Doubling your books discoverability
Fascinating photo piece in the Guardian of old woman, “whisperers,” who heal with herbs and magic words. Their practice has its origins in pagan practices but they frame it distinctly in Orthodox terms. Their rites are dying out. I hear in these brief descriptions that accompany the wonderful photos of the women echoes from the Hittite rites of healing that we find on the cuneiform tablets reflecting life in the 13th century BCE. Click here for the Guardian “The Last Whisperers of Belarus in Pictures”
I get asked about ancient Greek and Hittite music now and then. I know nothing about either, just as my modern musical knowledge is totally missing. But if you click through you can listen to a lyre rendition of a Hurrian Hymn (Hurrians were part of the Anatolian scene along with Hittites. Eventually a lot of intercultural borrowing etc kind of blended the two). The article explains how modern scholars knew to interpret the signs on a tablet and make them into this music. I do not follow this discussion with any clarity. At this point, if someone else were telling this story, they’d say “It’s all Greek to me.” But I really am tired of that line and Greek makes pretty good sense to me even if music does not, so I’ll adapt a beautiful redhead’s famous line, “You know nothing Judith Starkston.” So for those who do know something musically speaking: Click here for Classic FM.com “Oldest Song Melody”