Classics, Ancient History, Linguistics, Academia and more
I'm still working away at my maps of the languages of ancient Italy. Going through all the examples of Greek inscriptions from Italy in the SEG, I found one from Narnia. I'd come across the ancient city of Narnia (modern-day Narni) when I was writing my book, and then kind of forgotten about it until this... Continue Reading →
Myriapod Productions have released a rather lovely video in their "Mysteries of Vernacular" series tracing the etymology of the English word hearse back to the Oscan word hirpus, 'wolf'. (This was discovered and sent to me by my friend Julia, so many thanks to her! I have included some pictures of coins below, because she likes coins.) This... Continue Reading →
Over the past few months, I've been involved with the formation of the Women's Classical Committee UK. There's been an organisation for women in Classics in the US for a long time (the Women's Classical Caucus), and there's also an equivalent organisation in Australia and New Zealand. So when Liz Gloyn (among others) suggested a... Continue Reading →
It's become a bit of a cliche for me that my academic talks tend to start with a map of the languages of Italy, followed by an explanation of why the map is dangerously misleading. The map that I normally use is from Wikipedia, and looks like this: Now, this map does the job in... Continue Reading →
I'm reviewing a book this week called Vanishing Acts On Ancient Greek Amulets by Christopher A. Faraone. It's a short monograph that's incredibly rich in detail, using magical amulets in Greek, Latin and other languages to trace developments in how healing spells were spoken and written from the first century to the sixth century AD. In particular,... Continue Reading →
hn. sattiieis. detfri segnatted. plavtad herennis. amica signauit. qando. a- ponebamus. tegila(m) Detfri of Hn. Sattis signed with a footprint. Amica of Herens signed when we were laying out the tile. Oscan/Latin inscription and four shoe prints on a large clay roof tile (0.67 x 0.94m). Pietrabbondante, c. 100 BC. Imagines Italicae: Teruentum 25;... Continue Reading →
I'm following the lead of the excellent Liz Gloyn and Ellie Mackin and looking back over the past year. It's all too easy to forget all the achievements and milestones of the past year - when I was a PhD student I was encouraged to write a list of everything I'd done at the end of... Continue Reading →
A Boxing Day walk, Petworth I'm having a lovely Christmas break with family this week, and going on lots of Sussex walks (exhibit A above). And I've had plenty of space to think about the coming year. I'm not a resolutions person exactly, but I like having some ideas about what I'd like to... Continue Reading →
On Monday I finally got to see the British Museum's exhibit Celts: Art and Identity. It's a stunning collection, and if you can still get down to see it (or can see the re-jigged version when it transfers to the National Museum of Scotland), you should definitely catch it. Laura Cumming gives a great review here, with pictures... Continue Reading →
A new book on fragmentary epigraphy (which includes a chapter written by me) is coming out today. Genres épigraphiques et langues d’attestation fragmentaire dans l’espace méditerranéen, edited by Emmanuel Dupraz and Wojciech Sowa, is a collection all about the many epigraphic languages of the ancient Mediterranean and the genres of text that are attested all across... Continue Reading →
Katherine McDonald 