Historical Archaeology in the Ancient Mediterranean

Penn State University: Call for Papers

I am taking a page out of my buddy Eric Welch's book by posting this call for papers for the Penn State Graduate History Conference.

CALL FOR PAPERS “Death and Dying: Human Experiences of the End of Life”

A Graduate Conference Saturday, October 25, 2008 Department of History and Religious Studies Program The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA

Historical scholarship – even with its manifold interest in human activities – has sometimes overlooked the social and cultural relevance of the end of life. However, recent inquiries into the historical development of science, as well as the widespread popularity of Drew Gilpin Faust’s most recent work on death during the Civil War, perhaps indicate a turn toward more focused and multifaceted considerations of end of life issues. What function has the experience of death played in human societies, ranging from its role in social change to its impact on individual lives? How have human beliefs and cultural practices concerning death changed through time? How have people confronted, prepared for, or attempted to delay the end of life? What can we learn from human attempts to cultivate memory in the face of death, from efforts in historical preservation to social commemoration?

Interest in end of life issues transcends methodological and disciplinary boundaries, and we invite submissions from diverse perspectives relating to the subject of death and dying. Subjects may include but are by no means limited to: burial practices and rituals, cultural memory, political and legal ramifications of death, death and geography, wartime death, religious beliefs on death and the afterlife, death in literature, the killing of animals, medical and scientific explorations of death, and so forth. Studies of any geographic region or historical time period are welcome.

Guidelines for submission: Papers should be based on original research and offer a unique intervention. Accepted papers will be organized into thematic panels. Papers should be about 20 minutes in length. Some funding may be available to help defray travel costs for participants.

Deadlines: Please submit abstracts up to 500 words by September 1, 2008. Abstracts should include name, affiliation, and contact information. Notification of acceptance will be made by September 20, after which point full papers must be submitted. Submissions may be made by email to Kevin Lowe at kml293@psu.edu.

Fall 2008 Coursework

I finally finalized my class schedule.  On Mondays and Wednesdays I have Intro German from 2:30-3:20.  Tuesdays will be fun as I TA classical myth from 9:45-11:00 and have ancient Greek from 11:15-12:30, German 2:20-3:20, and Latin epigraphy 6:00-9:00.  Thursdays will consist of the same classes as Tuesdays minus Latin epigraphy. 

After consultation with my PhD committee, I decided to take Greek instead of Latin.  My Latin is much better than my Greek and I would like to attempt to elevate my ancient Greek close to my proficiency in Latin.  This semester we will be reading Plato's Symposium.  The course will consist of in-class translation, four quizzes, a course project, and a final exam.  The classical myth class will benefit me greatly.  My TA responsibilities are primarily grading with little or no teaching.  The myth course along with Plato will help me prepare for my Classical and Hellenistic History/ Military History comp exam.   

As I noted in a previous post Intro German is a typical 100-level language course.  Students are required to attend class, take six quizzes, participate in two "spontaneous discussions," take a midterm exam, take a final exam, and construct a portfolio.  Latin epigraphy is a graduate seminar on, you guessed it, Latin epigraphy.  Assignments include a major research paper, an in-class presentation on the research paper topic, and an in-class test on reading inscriptions.  For the test students will be given a few inscriptions to translate and write a commentary.  The major research paper will provide me with an opportunity to do some dissertation work.  I am either going to examine Latin inscribed sling-bullets to compare to Greek forms or comb the CIL for inscribed military equipment and write an interpretive piece. 

A few side notes.  First, my Facebook account has been reactivated!  Second, I will be out of town until Tuesday.    

Fall 2008 Begins

Today marks the first day of the fall 2008 semester here at Penn State.  I have only one class on Mondays, Intro German.  It is your typical 100 level language course, full of quizzes, a couple of tests, and a few oral exams.  My other classes include a graduate seminar on Latin epigraphy and either a Latin language class on Book V of Livy or an ancient Greek class on Plato, I have yet to decide which ancient language class I will take.  I will provide descriptions of the courses throughout the week.

As a side note my Facebook account was disabled.  Apparently someone hacked into it and sent out a bunch of spam.  Sorry to those who received spam from my account.  At some point I will create a new page but it's not too high on the priority list.

Four Days Off

It's August 20th and my summer vacation finally began, well sort of.  I do not have any papers, language tests, archaeological projects, or coursework to worry about until Monday!  I am going to be a bum for the next four days.  I'll be back Monday... 

Studying French and a PKAP Update

Just a quick post today.  I have spent the last four studying for the French language exam on Wednesday.  I just received an email from Dr. R. Scott Moore notifying me that the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project's website has been redesigned.  I suggest checking it out at http://www.pkap.org/   

New TA Assignment

After TAing Egyptian Civilization for a year, I now have a new assignment.  For the Fall 2008 semester I am assigned to CAMS 045 Classical Mythology.  The class size of Classical Myth is much smaller than Egyptian Civ and there are no Friday discussion sections.  I am not sure of my TA duties but I look forward to the experience.

Issus Draft Done!

Now that a draft of the Issus paper is done, I do not have to touch it until Thursday and turn it in until Friday!  Rather than present the outline and abstract, I will discuss a few of my arguments and observations.

1.  Scholars interested in identifying the exact location of the Battle of Issus have focused on three rivers Deli Çay, Kuru Çay, and the Payas River. There are four passages utilized by scholars to identify the Issus battlefield. The first is Callisthenes’ description of the terrain surrounding the Pinarus River as preserved by Polybius. Polybius stated, “the river running obliquely across this space, with gaps in its banks just where it issues from the mountains, but in its whole course through the plain as far as the sea passing between steep hills difficult to climb” (Polyb. 12.7.5). Although rivers change their course through time, traits such as an obliquely running river, gaps in river banks, and steep hills will have left some trace in the river plain. The remaining three passages note specific distances where one can measure from a known benchmark. Callisthenes noted that the distance of the coastal plain from the foothills of the Amanus Mountain to the shore by way of the Pinarus River was 14 stades (2.59 km) (Polyb. 12.17.4). Callisthenes then noted that when Alexander heard Darius’ position at the Pinarus River from Myriandros, the two armies were 100 stades (18.5 km) apart (Polyb. 12.19.4). The final distance Callisthenes presented concerns Alexander’s approach to the battlefield. When marching north to meet Darius at the Pinarus River, Alexander deployed his army 30-40 stades south of the river (Polyb. 12.20.1).

2.  Even if the ancient sources presented an accurate description of the terrain around the Pinarus and gave accurate distances, a river running obliquely across with gaps in its banks 14 stades wide, 100 stades from Myriandros that can accommodate a 30-40 stade approach in extended order does not exist. Therefore, scholars have quibbled, accepted, and rejected each of these points to present their arguments.

3.  Of the three rivers/tributaries under consideration, Deli Çay, Kuru Çay, and the Payas River, the mostly likely location for the Battle of Issus based on an analysis of the ancient sources and secondary literature is the Payas River. An archaeological survey combined with a coring scheme will prove whether the ancient coastline near the Payas River was indeed as far inland as Hammond (1980) and Ozaner and Çalik (1994) suggested.

4.  Here is a draft of a map (I'm still working on the title) for my proposed archaeological methodology for the environs of the Payas River.

Even More Issus Work

Just a short post today.  Work continues on the Issus paper and it looks like I will have a solid draft by Friday.  When the draft is finished I will provide an abstract and a brief outline of the work.

Issus Research Continues

Aside from the four sources I placed an ILL request for a few days ago, I have finished reading for my Issus paper. I am currently in the process of putting the final touches on my notes and composing an outline. First thing tomorrow morning I will start typing. Over my graduate school career I have developed a system for writing seminar papers. I will be the first to admit that there are faster and more efficient systems out there but mine works for me. So I would like to discuss that system with the hopes of possibly helping out other students and hopefully receiving a little feedback to improve mine. I seek to achieve two things in each paper I write. The first is obvious, write a good solid, well-researched paper and second improve my knowlege set of the subject matter.

1. The first thing I consider before beginning a seminar paper for any class is a time frame. For the majoirty of the papers I write for a graduate seminar I allow about two weeks for composition. Then after proof reading the paper at least twice I sit on it for a week. After a week I do a final proof read. I am always amazed how much better each paper is after a final proof read a week later. I stick to the two-week schedule unless the paper has larger implications for my dissertation or independent research. Multiple language classes, TA duties, and multiple graduate seminars combined with family time necessitate a strict schedule.

2. The second consideration is to schedule a time to do the paper. Obviously the worst time to write a seminar paper is the last two weeks of classes. The culmination of final exams, due dates, and grading make for a stressful end of the semester, especially with a seminar paper or two breathing down your neck.

3. The first thing I do when starting a paper is collecting sources. Depending on the subject I ask profs for potential sources, hit up the OCD, do a basic JSTOR search, and use my library search engine. Then the collecting begins.

4. After securing a sufficient set of sources I begin reading. In most cases I speed read through the sources, ie I do not read every word or page. I only pull out the information necessary for the paper topic. For example, I did not read all 11 volumes of Plutarch's Lives when I knew he discussed Alexander in volume 7. Furthermore I did not read all 78 books of Alexander when I knew Plutarch discussed the Battle of Issus in books 18-20. I was able to direct my readings of both primary and secondary sources by reading other works and paying attention to footnotes, endnotes, and in-text citations. One last thing about reading, the initial set of sources always brings a seemingly endless string of more sources. I always find it difficult to determine when I have hit all the major sources. This is when I find the schedule comes in handy.

5. While reading I take extensive notes on the computer. In these notes I try to identify the author's argument, establish how they use their sources to prove their argument, strengths of the work, and weaknesses of the work.

6. After reading I compose an outline. In the outline I compose my thesis and define each section in the paper. Each section is a dataset that I use to support the thesis. Then of course is the conclusion. With a good solid outline and notes in hand I begin typing.

7. Time for typing. I find with a good set of notes and a solid outline I can type a 15-20 page paper draft in 2-3 days. I know my limitations and the first is I cannot work after 11:00 pm and the second is that I cannot sit and type in one place for more than 3 hours. Though my BA, MAs, and current PhD work I pulled one all nighter in my life and will never do it again. So I usually get up early go to the gym and start typing by 8:00 am and type, depending on classes that day, off and on until 11:00 pm.

8. The final and in my opinion the most important stage is proof reading. Like I said earlier I always let a paper sit for at least a week before the final proof read. I cannot stand stupid little mistakes in seminar paper, but in blogs it’s ok!

So there it is, my system for writing a seminar paper. As always comments and critique are welcome.

Payas River = Ancient Pinarus = Battle of Issus?

While working with the Mopsos Survey I enrolled in two courses associated with the project. The first was GIS for Archaeologists and the second was an independent study. I have discussed in previous posts my assignment for the GIS class. Using ArchGIS I created a map outlining a proposed survey of the Payas River, which some scholars argue is the location of the Battle of Issus. Having completed that assignment, I am left with the major research paper for the independent study.

For the major research paper I was asked to write up a proposal for an archaeological survey of the Payas River. In other words if I wanted to potentially prove or disprove the Payas River as the site of the Battle of Issus through archaeological survey (something that has yet to be done in a systematic way), how would I do it. The paper will have the typical sections of any research paper dealing with ancient history, that is a critique of the ancient sources and a historiography section on the various modern arguments for the location of the infamous battle. The section I am eager to write is the survey proposal. There are many issues that must be considered when surveying the Payas area. Modern development, changes to the coastline, alternations (both natural and cultural) to the river, sedimentation, and access will all affect the survey and subsequent results. I have at least two more days of solid research before I will construct an outline and begin writing. I will provide updates as I progress.