One new book and several new inscriptions

Some new things from around the internet today – only one of which directly involves me.

The first is this wonderful new open-access book, which I have a very short response chapter in. If you just read one chapter, I highly recommend Rebecca Redfern’s chapter on the archaeology of human suffering. It’s just as devastating and fascinating as it sounds, and it will absolutely change your perspective on the kinds of things that the people of Roman Britain went through under the Roman Empire.

Now, I am not a specialist in Roman Britain by any means, and I was very flattered (though a bit concerned) to be asked to write a response chapter. In the end, though, I thought this approach was really great. There were several experts in different fields who wrote responses, not just me, and all of our takes were a bit different. This ‘response’ model has started to be more common in archaeology books, and it would be nice to see it spread further into other fields as well. My response picked up on some possible links to linguistics and onomastics, particularly looking at the Lanchester diploma.

My second new thing on the internet this week is the announcement that an unspecified number of new Venetic and Latin inscriptions have been found near Este during the construction of a new road. The Soprintendenza responsible has released initial pictures, which look extremely promising. The Venetic text in the photograph looks incredibly clear, and it seems like someone will be able to get a really good reading from it. The Soprintendenza suggests the team may have uncovered a previously unknown cult site which continued from the fifth century BCE into the Roman era. I’m eagerly awaiting the publication of the texts to know more!