Here are some posts I enjoyed this week from around the web.
This is an excellent article about Crete—not a “palace” dig like Knossos or the other famous digs, but a smaller town called Gournia. Part of what I find intriguing is that this dig started in the days of early Cretan archaeology of the beginning of the 20thC but now it’s been reopened and carried on. So the contrast of the two attitudes are presented here along with the treasures and windows into the ancient Minoan world. Click here for Archaeology Magazine “The Minoans of Crete”
My apologies if this link doesn’t work. It may only work for me because I subscribe to Archaeology Magazine, but it seems to be accessible to all, so we’ll give it a go. This is such a good article.
Great post about inserting a fictional character in a novel about well-known historical people in order to develop a side of the “real” people that would otherwise be too internal and awkward to show. Liza Klaussmann is well aware that there is an inevitable alteration in the “alchemy of the real story”. She compares this type of transforming addition to the Japanese art of mending pottery with gold—not to hide the break lines but to make them precious. Her novel is about the Murphys, Villa America.
It’s way easier to avoid accusations of changing the “real story” when inserting made up people when you write about the Hittites—there are so many gaps in what we know you couldn’t possibly make a coherent story without making people up. Hence in my current mystery-under-construction, I have a blind sister, a crafty second in command and a spiteful seer, just to name a few who probably never existed, but I’m sticking with my story.
Click here for Liza Klaussmann’s post “A Talent for Living: How the Murphy’s Inspired Villa America”
If you are a reader of Roman fiction, here’s a rave review of Ben Kane’s Eagles at War. You may remember Augustus’s famous line: “Quintilius Varus, give me back my legions!” It’s the famous ambush and defeat of this Roman general by the Germanic tribes that is the focus of this book. Kate Atherton has given you plenty to think about in her review—all positive.
Click here for Kate Atherton’s review of Eagles at War by Ben Kane
The study of Hittites and the Hittite language lost a great scholar recently. Harry Hoffner, Jr. died at age 80. Work will continue on his monumental Chicago Hittite Dictionary (which is available in its current stage online if you’re interested). He started the dictionary with Guterbock in 1976. His body of work about the Hittites is vast and deep. He’ll be missed. He was even kind enough to answer my questions when I emailed them—frequently by giving me a list of references where the full answer could be found in definitive form. He was a generous man.
Click here for the Chicago Tribune’s obituary for Harry Hoffner
The temple at Olympia in Classical Greece apparently let light in through the marble of the roof. I hadn’t thought of marble as translucent this way, but it is an intriguing when imagining this famous temple with its huge gold and ivory statue of Zeus (1 of the 7 wonders of the ancient world). With no windows and a small door, how else did all those famous visitors see the statue to leave behind the descriptions that allow us to have an idea what it looked like? Hittites did not build with marble, however, so I can’t use this immediately in my writing. I usually add clerestory windows to my fictional temples. I love listening for distinctive architecture in historical novels. What’s your favorite building created via fiction? Click here for “Marble Naturally Illuminated the Statue of Zeus at Olympia”
Since misery loves company, and this company was feeling exactly the pain I’m in the midst of, here’s my friend Donis Casey’s post “Kill Your Darlings.” It’s on getting a manuscript down to correct length and in the process making a tighter, better story. Good advice from Donis, one of the masters! So back to killing my darlings… It’s slice and dice time. Click here for Donis Casey’s post “Kill Your Darlings” on Type M for Murder
Having visited Gournia some years ago, and most of the Minoan sites, that is an interesting article. Many thanks for the link, which opened fine.
I envy you a visit to Gournia. My time on Crete was so long ago this modern stage of this dig hadn’t started yet. I’m glad the link works. Good to know I can share what’s in Archaeology Magazine successfully.
When I visited in 1982, the site was as almost grassed over with only subtle signs of excavation decades earlier. But the atmosphere was there, as it was at other sites I got to visit especially in Turkey, which were overgrown. Sometimes felt like being an early explorer stumbling on ruins in the undergrowth. At one ruin my first wife and I needed a shepherd to show us the location.
I know what you mean. In both Turkey and Cyprus my husband and I needed guidance from villagers regularly to find sites. The rock carvings along the Old Hittite Road in southeast Turkey are almost impossible to find without someone local to show you. I couldn’t have found them without my Turkish archaeology friend along with us who would commandeer some old guy sitting out enjoying his coffee and make him get in the car and show us. It was pretty hilarious, although I never was quite sure what she said to them in Turkish to convince them. I think it was a combination of local pride and curiosity about who these crazy people were who wanted to see the carvings.
Worth it in the long run. 🙂
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