Some posts I enjoyed this week from around the web:
If you live in Arizona, here’s an intriguing lecture:
The Goddess of Wine: Sex, Politics and Intoxication in Early Etruria. Come hear a lecture about the Etruscans of ancient Italy by Amherst professor Anthony Tuck on October 27 6 pm at the Pueblo Grande Museum, 4619 E Washington St, Phoenix, AZ 85034. Click here for further information.
And for those who love all things Halloween, here’s archaeological Halloween:
A bronze age site in Ireland where excavations are ongoing may be key to the origins of Halloween, the night in Celtic belief when the spirits of those who died since the last Oct 31st pass into the spirit world—a kind of open gate night. Like so many rituals this one also seems to have been a fostering of light against the coming darkness of winter. There’s also a myth connected to this mound, of the daughter of the sun, raped by three men who gives birth to three sons before dying in childbirth. There’s now a modern festival for this mythic woman. Intriguing pieces twining together. Click here for Archaeology Magazine “Samhain Revival”
Finding the layers of production techniques that went into an ancient Athenian vase. At Stanford there’s a productive collaboration between the Cantor art center’s conservation lab and the National Accelerator Laboratory. The techniques used reveal the chemical map of the vase’s surface decoration and have led to a deeper knowledge of Athenian methods, which haven’t previously been well understood. Science and art teaming up. Why does that put a smile on my face? Click here for Archaeology News Network “X-rays reveal artistry in ancient Greek vase”
Human sacrifice is always a chilling concept. The evidence left behind for archaeologists is rarely clear cut, and such is the case on Mt. Lykaion in Greece (mythic birthplace of Zeus). But it’s certainly intriguing: In a massive ash mound where from the 16th to the 4th centuries BC animals were sacrificed to Zeus, the excavators have found a human burial dating to the 11th century BC. Plato and Pausanias among other ancient Greeks mention human sacrifice occurring on Mt. Lykaion. The 11th century is a time of upheaval in Greece as elsewhere in the Mediterranean and Near East. Nothing screams desperate measures quite like sacrificing a human being. It does catch the imagination. I’d heard over dinner a while back about this find from one of the people at the dig, so I was glad to see this write up in Archaeology Magazine, although it’s early days for interpreting what this means in its context. Click here for Archaeology Magazine “Murder on the Mountain?”