Mary Beard judges the new Acropolis Museum good

Read it on The Times site. Just an brief excerpt:

Actually it was, in all sorts of ways, a very nice surprise. The top
floor where the Parthenon Marbles are to be displayed worked especially
well – looking directly at the temple on the Acropolis itself and, as
the jargon goes, having “a conversation” with it (though one of my
Greek friends did mutter darkly about it being a rather one-sided
conversation).

Excavation at Birnie near Elgin next month

Archaeologists are to return to an Iron Age “power centre” to further investigate the influence of the Romans on the north of Scotland.

Dr Fraser Hunter, of the National Museums of Scotland, will lead the dig at Birnie, near Elgin, next month.

Roman coin hordes have previously been found in the area.

Dr Hunter said he hoped the work would further uncover clues to an Iron Age community there and the emergence of ancient people known as the Picts.

The archaeologists will look at a number of key target sites in what will be the final phase of excavations at Birnie.

Dr Hunter, principal curator of Roman archaeology, said it had been a “power centre” going back 3,000 years.

He said: “Around the Roman Iron Age it really flourished and was a place with Roman connections.”

Read the rest

Job vacancy

We have a part-time vacancy for a Latin teacher. We are a 3 – 13 co-ed prep school on the outskirts of Ripon.

Latin is taught to ages 8 – 13.

They follow the Minimus course leading on to Common Entrance.

At present the job is 2 hours on a Thursday morning and 3 hours on a Friday morning.

We need someone to start in September 2008 and the salary is pro-rata.

Further details can be obtained from the school secretary at
Ripon Cathedral Choir School
Whitcliffe Lane
Ripon
North Yorkshire
HG4 2LA
Telephone: 01765 602134
email: admin@cathedralchoirschool.co.uk

Date of Caesar’s landing in Britain

The Times had a brief notice yesterday of a topic that has been running on line for a week or more, the date of Julius Caesar’s landing. Scientists have worked out the tides for 55 BC, and reckon the landing must have taken place four days earlier than the received date.

Might be interesting if anyone is reading de Bello Gallico.

Vomitorium – the word used correctly?

A pleasant little exchange in The Times about Eric Pickles’ use of the word ‘vomitorium’ in parliament.

Ross Anderson picked up the word, assumed that Eric Pickles was misusing it (as people commonly do) to mean the supposed place where people vomit. Eric Pickles wrote in reply that the pubs spewing out drunken youth are like the amphitheatre spewing out its clients.

At least that’s how I interpret the exchange. Eric, MP, may well have assumed more education in his fellow members – and reporters – than he found.