Over at Hyperallergic this week, I have a review of the latest chapter of the John Wick movies. Like its predecessors, John Wick: Chapter IV relies heavily on Greco-Roman mythology, classical allusion, and ancient backdrops as both framework and frame for the narrative. This time, John Wick—played by a somber yet affable Keanu Reeves—leans into the role of an assassin Odysseus alongside a newcomer: a bounty hunter played by Shamier Anderson. Along with his faithful German Shepherd, he is our “Mr. Nobody” throughout this epic take on Homer’s Odyssey, even if Reeves is the central Ulysses we are ..read more

Fasti Antiates (84-55 BCE), National Roman Museum – Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Image by Sarah E. Bond. A certain scribe was then discovered, Gnaeus Flavius, who pierced the eyes of crows [i.e. outwitted those in the know] and published the calendar of court days to the people and in this way stole the knowledge of the legal calendar from the astute legal experts.[i] Cicero, In Defense of Murena, 25. A former scriba (“secretary”) and the son of a freedman first made the Roman fasti public. Even two hundred years after Rome had become a Republic, the calendar was still the purview of a small ..read more

Inscribed iron stylus from ca. 70 CE found on the banks of a tributary to the river Thames, London (Image via MOLA). ‘ab urbe v[e]n[i] munus tibi gratum adf(e)ro acul[eat]um ut habe[a]s memor[ia]m nostra(m) rogo si fortuna dar[e]t quo possem largius ut longa via ceu sacculus est (v)acuus’ ‘I have come from the City. I bring you a welcome gift with a sharp point that you may remember me. I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able (to give) as generously as the way is long (and) as my purse is empty.’ (trans. Tomlin 2019) In 2019, an inscribed iron stilus (“stylus”) used for writing on wax ..read more

I am not an Egyptologist. My specialities are digital humanities, epigraphy, and the laws of the late Roman Empire. The beauty of academia and of journalism is that far more brilliant people than you can allow exploration of intellectual terrain through their research, writing, and excavation. This is certainly the case for my new article out now at Hyperallergic, What the “Nefertiti Hack” Tells Us About Digital Colonialism. As per usual, I wanted to use my personal blog to elaborate on the process and sources for the piece, which I began writing in 2017 and only finished in the last week. Of ..read more

minium in voluminum quoque scriptura usurpatur clarioresque litteras  vel in muro vel in marmore, etiam in sepulchris, facit. Minium (cinnabar) is employed also for writingin books; and the letters made with it being more distinct, even on gold or marble, it is used for the inscriptions upon tombs. Pliny, Natural History, 33.122 Within most medieval books of hours, there were ecclesiastical calendars that had important holy days printed in red. This was a type of textual highlighting used to call attention to ..read more

Fresco from the Bar of Salvius, Pompeii. In it, a bar maid holds a jug in one hand and a cup in another. One customer shouts “over here!”while another says “no, it’s mine!” The exasperated barmaid replies “whoever wants it should take it. Oceanus come here and drink”. (Caption and Image by Dr. Sophie Hay and used by Permission). On February 3, 326 CE, Constantine issued a legal clarification for Augustus’ Lex Julia de adulteriis, ruling that the wives of tavern owners (here labeled an uxor tabernarii) could be brought up on charges of adultery, but that the the barmaids working within the tave ..read more

Last week, my interview with Abydos Archaeology’s Matthew Douglas Adams was published at Hyperallergic. The article focused on the discovery of an industrial royal brewery dating to 3100-2900 BCE at the Egyptian site of Abydos, where Adams co-directs the excavation with Deborah Vischak, as part of fieldwork supported by New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and Princeton University. In addition to contextualizing the discovery of this large-scale brewery, the article has a number of illustrations of later Egyptian models of breweries and brewery-bakeries that da ..read more

An amazing podcast episode from Peopling the Past. Listen to and explore the whole season [here].  Peopling the Past Sanchita Balachandran On episode 12 of the Peopling the Past Podcast, we are joined by Sanchita Balachandran, Associate Director of the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum and founder of the non-profit Untold Stories. Sanchita Balachandran earned her Master’s in Art History with an advanced certificate in Art Conservation at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and is currently pursuing a PhD in Preservation Studies at the University of Delaware. Liste ..read more

 Album of “The Führer’s Trip to Italy”: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini following archaeologist & art historian Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli. here showing a fragment depicting Saturnia Tellus, a detail of the Ara Pacis. Henrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels and Joachim von Ribbentrop are visible in the group. The work was reconstructed in 1938 in celebration of bi-millenium anniversary of Augustus.© Alinari Archives, Florence What follows is my syllabus for an undergraduate history majors course on the use and abuse of history. It is an attempt to use primary sources to teach student ..read more