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.
A man’s last meal, 2400 years ago during the Iron Age in what is now Denmark, undergoes a fascinating analysis, but I also want to know the circumstances of his mysterious death. Culinary history meets murder mystery. Read on!
Air pollution is a modern problem not an ancient one—or at least at first glance you’d think so. But maybe the lungs of the Neolithic inhabitants of Çatalhöyük would beg to differ.
Have you ever wondered where the pharaohs got the idea of representing power and identity with an Egyptian cartouche? The answer involves both magical rituals and propaganda, according to David Lightbody.
The archaeological mystery of the City of David and the sharks’ teeth. Grabbed you? I certainly took the bait and had fun.
How does a Bronze Age Hittite pay for something when barter isn’t an option? Coinage wasn’t around yet, so he or she couldn’t use the obvious means that would occur to a modern person. In this post, I look at some new evidence to answer this question.
Hierapolis is a place in Turkey I’ve never been, but I want to see the amazing hot springs and a gate to the underworld. Who can resist a city with a temple to Pluto that spews the poisonous breath of Cerberus?
This week I’m attending and speaking at the Historical Novel Society NA Conference. It’s virtual this year, of course. The conference designers have cleverly exploited the benefits of that online existence to make up for some of the downsides. I’m enjoying the new ways to interact that the conference has created.
Seals and their impressions on clay play an important role in my novel Priestess of Ishana. So I was intrigued by an article about a particularly old seal impression—7,000 years old—excavated in Israel that indicates it was used for “business security.”
Understandably, contemporary historians often bemoan the lack of women’s voices from the past amidst the male-centered records of events. Fortunately, the clay tablets containing letters from Assyrian women (about 1860 BCE) provide a refreshing exception. They are full of business savvy, a range of concerns for the well-being of their households and, unlike the male business correspondence of this place and time, strong emotions.
Glass first appears in the Late Bronze Age in Egypt and the Near East, and its beauty was highly valued–even viewed as having magical powers. But you have to forget the boring clear sheets of glass we surround ourselves with.
