Here are some posts I enjoyed from around the web this week. Quite a mix of archaeological finds and writing advice.
“The Amazing Inventions of the Ancient Greeks” is the name of an exhibit on ancient Greek technology at the Herakleidon Museum in Athens. Alas, their info on the website is woefully abbreviated, although there is a catalogue available in English. But if you scroll down to the bottom of the museum page on the exhibit there are small photos you can click on and see the models they’ve done of an astrolabe, a “cinema”, an “analog computer”, “automatic clock”, “hydraulic telegraph” and the “robot servant” of Philo. I always loved the golden robots which scoot around in Hephaestus’s workshop in Homer, so I’m intrigued by all these inventions which are much closer to “real.” Apparently the research for the exhibit included a cross study of Greek, Latin and Arab literature along with the relevant evidence from archaeology and vase paintings. Click here for Herakleidon Museum website “The Amazing Inventions of the Ancient Greeks”
Here’s quick, practical advice: Nailing your Email Subject Line. Aimed at writers but brilliant for anyone. I prefer not to be deleted unread. You too, I’m guessing! From PR specialist Sharon Bially. Click here for Writer Unboxed “Nailing your Email Subject Line” Sharon Bially
A fun interview with Kate Quinn on a historical fiction blog I just discovered. Double bonus! This is Kate’s latest Roman book, The Lady of the Eternal City. She’s always worth reading. Click here for “Author Interview with Kate Quinn, The Lady of the Eternal City” on Historical Fiction Addicts
In Gölmarmara Lake of Turkey’s Aegean province of Manisa excavation has started on a large Late Bronze Age site in what the Hittites referred to as the Seha River Country. A “castle” larger than Troy’s has been partially dug and a large settlement is presumed surrounding it. There is always the chance with Bronze Age sites in Turkey that a building containing tablets was destroyed and burnt at high enough temps to fire and thus preserve the clay tablets and we will have another “library” of written information. Even without that, this will be intriguing in the extreme. Maybe I’ll follow up with the American archaeologist mentioned in the article, Christopher H. Roosevelt, who appears to be at BU not the Turkish University listed, and see what’s really going on. Definitely the usual Turkish to English translation issues muddling this article. Click here for “Large BRonze Age Site Discovered in Western Turkey” on Archaeology News Network
“The most talented historical novelists can immerse us in an unfamiliar culture so completely that we become part of it, gaining empathy and understanding for the dilemmas its characters face.” This is Sarah Johnson describing Shona Patel’s Flame Tree Road. Sarah’s review captures the themes and strengths of this wonderful book. Just after I’d started a draft of my own review of Flame Tree, Historical Novels Review asked me to do a feature article about this book and I reworked and expanded the scope of what I’d written, so to hear my thoughts will have to wait until the next issue of HNR comes out, but Sarah and I agree about this “rich journey toward social change in 19th-century India” Click here for Reading the Past “Shona Patel’s Flame Tree Road: A Rich Journey toward Social Change in 19th-century India”
“Digging deep into human history at Çatalhöyük.” This Neolithic village in central Turkey was discovered in the 1950’s and is so extensively dug that you can look at 20 layers at a time covering 2,000 years of inhabitation. It encompasses that fascinating moment in history when humans ceased to be hunter-gatherers and settled in villages. Extraordinary wall paintings and figures have come to light, giving glimpses of the richness of early humans’ imaginative, symbolic and religious lives. Stanford has started combining all the digital data together on a website. It’s still only partially deployed, but the video that’s in this article is interesting and I had fun exploring the website as much as is up. The goal is to facilitate integration of different areas of data—get the pot researcher thinking in conjunction with the lithic person. Sounds good to me. I’m all for the big picture conclusions. Even though the finds at Çatalhöyük are much earlier than the settings of my books, I have sometimes borrowed ideas from these incredibly evocative objects and structures. Click here for “Digging Deep into Human History at Çatalhöyük” on Archaeology News Network