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.
Archaeology posts I enjoyed this week: Cycladic figurine find on Santorini and the hand of god, Roman-style from Vindolanda England. Also a video of Leonard Nimoy explaining the Jewish origins of his famous hand gesture as Spock because this Roman hand of god find got me thinking about the universality of divine hand gestures.
My new website is live! This week I’m sharing posts about Hittite dragons, the earliest use of nutmeg, the excavation that brought us the Victory of Samothrace and the new Troy Museum
Hand of Fire is back in print with a gorgeous new cover. The archaeology post I found fun this week had me daydreaming about which museum basement or storeroom I would most want to sneak into.
2018-2019 AZ Historical Novel Society Calendar
My round up of archaeology and history: a sad wolf mummy, a new sphinx and some miniature Neolithic masks and the tale they tell.
Some posts I enjoyed this week, including Babylonian omens in lunar eclipses, the true demise of the Library of Alexandria, early cultic finds at the Cretan palace of Zominthos and sleuthing out a fake cuneiform tablet.
My review of Rebecca Kuang’s The Poppy War. If you love fantasy that is enriched with a deep foundation of history and that asks the biggest questions about how human beings treat each other, then definitely read Rebecca Kuang’s The Poppy War.
Bronze Age Minoan graves uncover intriguing bling and the oldest cheese-making evidence
My roundup of history and archaeology: from a Greek helmet to uncovered Venus and Bronze Age salt mines.
My roundup of history and archaeology: On Crete a humble untouched Bronze Age tomb gives insight into the “regular” folk and in Egypt an early mummy gives up its embalming recipe
