I had great fun “In Conversation with Terry Shepherd.” We talked for 10 mins about my upcoming release, Flights of Treason, among other topics. Terry is a pro at the interview gig, and we covered a lot of ground. Click through to listen.
Ancient sources describe Cleopatra as an amazing polyglot, but to what degree did she really speak a variety of languages and what is the significance of that knowledge? A Dutch scholar has a new “read” on the famous queen and I enjoyed it. I hope you will too.
Interpreting Neolithic carvings and buildings seems perilous at best, but lots of fun. New excavations have upturned the previous understanding of Turkey’s Neolithic monumental sites with their amazing carvings of beasts and men. What stories are they telling?
We don’t usually associate too much rain with Egypt, but there was enough that a legal papyrus instructs judges how to settle disputes over rain gutters. But did they even have gutters? You may enjoy a snippet of ancient daily life on a subject we all love to avoid dealing with.
There’s the top 10 discoveries in archaeology overall for the year, and then there’s those in Near Eastern archaeology. I find this list more interesting–a map, dating by clay, wine, and the Queen of Sheba. Does that grab you, also?
When is sliver more precious than gold, and tin most precious of all? And how far would an Old Kingdom Pharaoh send his traders to fetch silver for his queen? These are some of the questions I’m asking myself after reading about a “surprising” new trading discovery buried in Hetepheres tomb.
Why did Hittites fight from chariots rather than horseback? At least part of the answer is that they hadn’t sorted out the right kind of saddle. So this “earliest” frame saddle found in Mongolia is intriguing. Up for some horse history?
I enjoy seeing which discoveries make Archaeology Magazine’s “Top 10” list each year. I am impressed by the range of dates, geography, and types this year.
I’m participating in a pre-Thanksgiving book sale. You’ll find lots of fantasy, including Hand of Fire, my Trojan War novel and Priestess of Ishana, about the Hittite queen history forgot. (Both for less than a dollar)
I’ve been thinking about the women of Greek mythology lately. This probably explains why I enjoyed this CBC radio interview with Natalie Haynes about her nonfiction book Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths. I suspect you might enjoy it also.
