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A lovely article about how writing a novel can be a lot like having a baby by Ann Brashares, author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Happy Mother’s Day, a bit late!

Here are two travel memories. One, a comical, pastoral memory starring an ancient spring, an irate shepherd and two college girls. The second an inspirational memory from a first visit to the Acropolis in Athens. But perhaps these can’t compete with Francis Rocca’s lyrical article describing the joys of visiting the Roman Forum, a place “Where the Ancient Past is Palpably Present”.

Archaeologists have found an 8,000 year old skeleton in Istanbul, the oldest human remains yet found in Turkey. Incredibly, the wooden cover of the coffin was found intact, preserved by black clay below current sea level.

Archaeology Magazine has a fascinating online “interactive dig” based on the Zominthos dig on the Greek island of Crete where there have been some pretty amazing Minoan and Mycenaean Bronze Age finds. Enjoy experiencing the ancient world of Crete almost first hand.

Classics professor emeritus, Erich S. Gruen, offers hope that we can overcome our ingrained impulse toward demonizing the “other” through his analysis of Greek, Roman, and Jewish thought in his new book, Rethinking the Other in Antiquity. His argument is briefly laid out in a commentary from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

1. For those of you who have stood in front of a museum case of gorgeous Greek vases and wondered what it all meant, here is a guide from the Wall Street Journal to get you started. For a more detailed version, you’ll have to fly me to your location and I’ll gladly explain all the juicy mythological details. (Just kidding, although once in the British Museum with my son perched on my shoulders, I did turn to discover I was being followed by a large group as I told him the wild tales depicted on the vases in front… Read More »In the Ancient News: “Reading” Greek pots; Israeli mosaic tours US