Greece Archives - Page 33 of 34

Wednesday Roundup

The theft of dozens of antiquities from Eleusis (Eleusina, Elefsina) has been solved and the items recovered by Greek police.

Nearly 2,000 artifacts smuggled out of Turkey have been recovered and returned this year alone. The article notes that the country has almost 200 museums.

The Israeli government approved a plan to rehabilitate the polluted Kishon River. After the three-year process is complete, plans call for converting the area into a park with bicycle and walking paths.

Leen Ritmeyer comments on Israel’s largest underground stream, discovered recently in construction of the railway under Jerusalem.

Wayne Stiles explains the historic significance of Beth Shean and its attraction to archaeologists. The article also includes a two-minute aerial fly-over of the ancient city.

The NY Times profiles the full-size replica of Noah’s Ark being built in Holland. One consideration the original builder did not have: making the boat fire-proof. The article mentions the possibility of the ark visiting London for the Olympic Games next year as well as interest from Texas and Israel. A photo shows how impressive the boat is.

After raising $3 million for the replica of Noah’s Ark in Kentucky, an updated webpage now provides details about various sections of the theme park. Visitors will enjoy seeing reconstructions of the Tower of Babel, a walled city, and a first-century village. The children’s area will include zip lines.
Yuval Baruch, Jerusalem District Archaeologist, is interviewed on the LandMinds radio show.

An article in Popular Archaeology reviews the excavations of copper mines in the Aravah and the possible implications for our understanding of the time of Solomon.

Israel is celebrating today “Jerusalem Day,” and the unification of the city in 1967 is remembered in the return of Jehuda Hartman to the Western Wall to “update” an iconic photo. Hartman comments on some of the great changes to the Western Wall area in the last four decades.

HT: Explorator, Jack Sasson

Tagged Greece, Jerusalem, Weekend Roundup

An Ancient Lego from the Island of Cos

The official Lego website claims that their special building blocks were first created in the year 1932.

Evidence to the contrary comes from the island of Cos, where this object was uncovered in the temple of the Asclepium. One can only wonder if native son Hippocrates was the first inventor of these wonderful toys.

Tagged Greece

Maps for the Ancient World

Routledge Wall Maps for the Ancient World, edited by Richard Talbert, is available as a set or individually.

From the publisher’s website:

Routledge Wall Maps for the Ancient World provide both students and scholars with detailed and exacting geographic information of the ancient world. Using the world renowned geographic data from the Ancient World Mapping Centre, the sweeping views of the ancient world allow students to understand important concepts such as trade, movement, spatial and cultural relations and to consider how the ancient terrain would have affected them. The maps provide a powerful tool for comprehending how the ancient world worked and also to help re-evaluate out-dated theories in light of precise geographic information.
Those students who are new to the discipline of ancient history will find them invaluable in orientating themselves within the world of the past. How far is Athens from Sparta, what type of terrain did Alexander have to cross on his journeys, how did the valley of the Nile look in 500 BC? Such questions and many more are answered by the maps within this series.

Egypt and the Near East 3000-1200 BCE
Wall Map: 978-0-415-58500-2: $64.95 [$21.80 at Amazon]

Egypt and the Near East 1200 – 500 BCE
Wall Map: 978-0-415-58499-9: $64.95 [$38.35 at Amazon]

Greece and the Aegean in the 5th Century BCE
Wall Map: 978-0-415-58441-8: $64.95 [57.94 at Amazon]

Greece and Persia in the Time of Alexander the Great
Wall Map: 978-0-415-58498-2: $64.95 [57.94 at Amazon]

Italy in the Mid First Century CE
Wall Map: 978-0-415-58440-1: $64.95 [57.94 at Amazon]

The Roman Empire around 200 CE
Wall Map: 978-0-415-58439-5: $64.95 [57.94 at Amazon]

The World of the New Testament and the Journeys of Paul
Wall Map: 978-0-415-58501-9: $64.95 [57.94 at Amazon]

Professors may request a complimentary examination copy via a link at the Routledge website. As I write, the publisher’s website is painfully slow, but the links to Amazon work quickly. In many cases, the maps are available from the Amazon Marketplace for even less than the prices listed above.

HT: Jack Sasson

Tagged Egypt, Greece, Italy, Resources

New Blog: Corinthian Matters

A relatively new blog that may be of interest to readers here is Corinthian Matters. Focused on “the history and archaeology of Corinthia, Greece,” the site is the creation of David Pettegrew, Assistant Professor of History at Messiah College near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His dissertation was entitled Corinth on the Isthmus and was completed in 2006 at the Ohio State University.

Recent posts include links to recent scholarship, news articles, new digital resources, a new section of maps, and even a music video. Links in the top navigation bar lead to a photo gallery, bibliographic resources, and more maps.

Students and teachers of Acts and the letters to the Corinthians will find this a very useful resource.

HT: Gordon Franz

Tagged Greece, Resources

The Colors of Ancient Marble Statues

A free exhibition at Stanford University reveals the bright colors that once covered the ancient sculptures of Greece and Rome. From the Stanford Report:

With the silent attentiveness of a physician, Ivy Nguyen passes her hands over the recumbent white lady in the darkened lab. She cradles a handheld black light in her fingers.
Under the Stanford sophomore’s skillful watch in the Cantor Arts Center lab, long-dead colors on marble come alive after two millennia.
The results of Nguyen’s painstaking efforts are on display in “True Colors: Rediscovering Pigments on Greco-Roman Marble Sculpture” at the Cantor. The exhibition runs until Aug. 7. Admission is free.
Though we still think of ancient Greece and Rome in terms of white marble sparkling under a hot Mediterranean sun, the new exhibition shows at least one Greco-Roman lady as she was meant to be seen – in Technicolor. Not everyone may take to Stanford’s painted lady, but first impressions can change. “It’s very different – some have called it kind of garish,” admitted sophomore Nguyen, but she confesses that she’s gotten used to it.
We’ve always known that ancient statues were painted: The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a vase, circa 360-350 B.C., depicting a man painting a statue of Herakles. The most important evidence is on the statues themselves – traces of paint that time did not wash from the creases and crevices in porous marble.

The full story includes a photo and a video.

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Greece, New Exhibits, Technology

Skeleton Wrapped in Gold Foil Discovered on Crete

This tomb in Crete dates roughly from the time of Kings Manasseh and Josiah. From the AP:

ATHENS, Greece — Greek archaeologists have found an ancient skeleton covered with gold foil in a grave on the island of Crete, officials said Tuesday.
Excavator Nicholas Stampolidis said his team discovered more than 3,000 pieces of gold foil in the 7th-century B.C. twin grave near the ancient town of Eleutherna.
Cemeteries there have produced a wealth of outstanding artifacts in recent years.
The tiny gold ornaments, from 1 to 4 centimetres (0.4 to 1.5 inches) long, had been sewn onto a lavish robe or shroud that initially wrapped the body of a woman and has almost completely rotted away but for a few off-white threads.
“The whole length of the (grave) was covered with small pieces of gold foil — square, circular and lozenge-shaped,” Stampolidis told The Associated Press. “We were literally digging up gold interspersed with earth, not earth with some gold in it.”

The full story is here. I have not seen any photos yet.

The archaeologists have produced a few videos of the excavation before this latest discovery:

The ruins are on the north slopes of Mount Ida, the mythical birthplace of the god Zeus.

Mount Ida from Phaistos, Crete

HT: Joe Lauer

Tagged Discoveries, Greece