Judith Starkston has spent too much time exploring the remains of the ancient worlds of the Greeks and Hittites. Their myths and clashes inspire her fiction and open gates to magical realms. She has degrees in Classics from the University of California, Santa Cruz and Cornell. She loves myths and telling stories, and her novels imbue fantasy with the richness of ancient worlds. The first book in her Trojan Threads Series, Hand of Fire was a semi-finalist for the M.M. Bennett’s Award for Historical Fiction. Priestess of Ishana, the first in her historical fantasy Tesha series, won the San Diego State University Conference Choice Award. Judith is represented by Richard Curtis.
As I begin drafting the 4th book in the Tesha series, I’m deep into renewing my knowledge of the capital city of Hattusa. It turns out I’m out of date, and the new understanding of this massive archaeological site is a gift to a fiction writer. I’m reporting back from my deep-in-the-weeds research.
I’ve had inklings about the forms and role of slavery in the ancient Near East, but I was grateful for an excellent piece in Ancient Near East Today that clarified that unexpected picture. For most of us, not what we think.
How did the Parthenon marbles end up in the British Museum and where are they best viewed? My personal take and a good overview history.
Archaeologists at the dig on the island of Samothrace, home of one of the major Greek mystery cults, are applying imaginative techniques that remind me of the processes I go through as a writer of historical fiction. And then for extra fun there is the mystery behind ancient mystery cults. Read on.
The recent designation of Arslantepe, a dig in southeastern Turkey, as a World Heritage site has got me exploring this ancient city’s significance in light of my own fiction. Politics and artwork both reveal intriguing ways that this site–which I wasn’t familiar with previously–reflects the historical realities that I incorporate into my fiction.
I’m not traveling to Egypt anytime soon, but I’m happy to armchair visit to view the newly restored tomb of Pharaoh Djoser, one of the early rulers and builder of the step pyramid. Why did he build a tomb and a pyramid?
An institute’s renowned ancient seed collection, the complex history of archaeology in Turkey, and Erdogan’s government. The Smithsonian Magazine’s take on a complicated conflict.
When someone says they’ve found new archaeological evidence of powerful women in the Bronze Age, I certainly perk up. Iberian women, it turns out. With crowns.
Go to Neolithic Göbekli Tepe (11,600 years old), and you will find one of the most mysterious archaeological sites in Turkey. The huge T-shaped stone pillars carved with humans and fantastical animals form impressive circles. Evidence from the site reveals people gathered there seasonally in extraordinary numbers. One of the enduring questions about this remarkable place concerns how a hunter-gatherer culture could supply the food for the massive feasts that took place. What did they eat? There’s an intriguing new answer and it took some open mindedness and cooking to find.
The Trojan War gets a humorous treatment in the New Yorker Magazine with a spoof diary by “the guy who drove the Trojan Horse back from Troy.” For those who love Greek mythology and literature, and wish to put a smile on their faces.
