Classics, Ancient History, Linguistics, Academia and more
This term, I'm working on the translations for my Italy Before Rome sourcebook. (Among other things, I've learned very swiftly that I am not capable of translating more than one language in the same day, so I have to block out each day for different things.) The result of reading these texts so closely is... Continue Reading →
I'm very excited to announce that I have a featured article in November's History Today, out on Thursday. The title of my feature is 'Latin Lesson', and it explores the languages of the Roman empire, from its earliest history to the development of the Romance languages. It looks particularly at the Romans' attitudes to other languages,... 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 →
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 →
This Wednesday at 4.30 I'll be speaking about my new work at the Cambridge Indo-European Seminar, also known as the Philology and Linguistics Seminar. All are welcome, especially for a cup of tea at 4.15 and a drink in the pub afterwards. You can find the room details here. If you're interested, you can also download... Continue Reading →
The Cambridge Festival of Ideas rolls around again this week, with lots of great events to get involved with, including a lot of events in the Classics Faculty. As always, the Greek in Italy project has made a couple of contributions. Geoff's talk "Did Language Matter? Local Versus Imperial Languages in Classical Antiquity" has already sold... Continue Reading →
I'm very excited to announce the publication of my book Oscan in Southern Italy and Sicily. The editor very kindly dropped the first copy round to my house last night, and I'm really pleased with how it has turned out. This book started life as my PhD thesis (pictures of its journey from thesis to book... Continue Reading →
Last week was our second "Greek in Italy" project trip to the south of Italy. Like our last trip in September 2014, I'm sure that pictures and thoughts from this trip will keep bubbling up in my blog posts and articles for quite some time. But even though we've only just got back and I've... Continue Reading →
Historians and linguists of the world: you should be reading Amitav Ghosh's Ibis Trilogy - Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and the recently released Flood of Fire. (For those who have already started Flood of Fire, don't worry, there are no spoilers ahead.) I'm hoping the historians don't need too much convincing. Ghosh's trilogy... Continue Reading →
I've just finished reading James Clackson's new book Language and Society in the Greek and Roman Worlds - a book I will undoubtedly be adding to all my undergraduate reading lists before next term starts. The book offers an accessible but thorough introduction to the languages of the ancient world and how they were used across time and space -... Continue Reading →
Katherine McDonald 