Roundup of Archaeology and History June 23-June 29

Here are some posts I enjoyed this week:

Found: A hidden message under the paint of 5^th C BCE red figure Greek vase reveals the design process. Apparently, the potter scratched directions about the subject and placement of the painted figures which the painter covered over while following the instructions. Interesting that the potter had the overall design lead on the whole process. I suppose this relationship didn’t have to hold for all potters and painters. Researchers want to study a wide sample of Greek vases for their hidden instructions. This vase depicting Oedipus listening to the Sphinx’s riddle is from the Vatican collection. Think about modern design processes—book covers, for example—and where the overall design comes from and why. Given that many Greek pottery shapes are fairly “set” and so much of the unusual/unique design goes to the painting, this is so intriguing. Click here for Archaeology News Network “Beyond the Image: Hidden inscriptions on Athenian vases”

Ever wondered when maps were invented? I have. Maps are not an obvious given in human life. Abstractly portraying great expanses with little lines etc. doesn’t strike me as a sure fire early thing. But I’ve put into the mouths of my Bronze Age characters discussions of lands and empire that pretty much require some abstract conception of the layout of their kingdom. I had one go so far as to drawn in the dirt with a stick to demonstrate the layout of areas under conflict. I knew the Egyptians of the period used terms like north and south, so I decided this was okay. But now I know I was fine. Here’s a post about Mesopotamian maps going back to the very early Bronze Age on forward, from the area of the Hittite Empire and elsewhere in the Near East. One map, when laid over the modern map made of the archaeologically dug city matches remarkably and shows the ability to get the proportions and relationships right. Some of the maps are more philosophical in nature as they portray the whole world as conceived by people at the time. One of the questions the post looks at is why people made maps. Apparently early European maps were all about tax collection not navigation, but that does not explain Mesopotamian maps, which seem often to have been purely intellectual endeavors to practice math just for the fun of it. Now those are some people that would be fun to meet. What’s your favorite map-related story? Click here for the Ancient Near East Today “The Origins of Maps in the Near East”

Sumerians are famous as the founders of civilization via agriculture. It turns out that they also were seafarers. The remains of a harbor dating back 4,000 years and carnelian beads and other artefacts from India and other far flung locations that had to come by sea point to a previously unknown aspect of this foundational culture. The extensive written records focus on agriculture, so why no mention of seafaring? This article suggests that’s because agriculture takes organization, but seafaring doesn’t. Hmmm. I’m thinking that’s a pretty lame answer. Anyone want to offer a guess at why Sumerian written records leave out the sailors, ships, etc? Click here for Archaeology Magazine from the Trenches “Seaworthy Sumerians”

Here’s a thought-provoking deep review by Jenny Bhatt of a historical novel set in Bangladesh and the US. I haven’t read The Storm yet, but I enjoyed this review for what it got me thinking about in terms of good writing. She prodded my writer brain into a lot of great self-editing. As an argument for historical fiction this is as clear and concise as it gets: “If we want to know how people in that time lived and thought and felt, if we want to seek out the individual, personal stories from the larger communal stories, we turn to fiction.” Similarly illuminating, her analysis of two pitfalls hist fic writers have to avoid, “That said, beyond that, the language throughout is not descriptive enough for the richness of the settings and events being depicted. Sometimes, there’s the odd anachronism in dialogue with western phraseology that simply would not occur to someone from a village in East Bengal.” Her point about insufficient payoff of withheld details is also well taken, and I particularly liked the way she showed the tricky balance that involves by first noting the ways the author did a good job of withholding details until the reader really needed them and thus keeping up the pacing, and then looking at the problems. There’s a similar kind of balance to achieve with backstory, setting, and all historic details, not just withheld details of plot/character. Reviewers don’t usually get me thinking about reading and writing so richly. Click here for PopMatters “‘The Storm’ brings heart, urgency and ambition”