Department of Classics

This Thursday (Feb. 6, 4:00PM, RAND 301A) Dr. Jim Newhard will present, “Visualizing the Past: Recent Developments in Archaeoinformatics at the College of Charleston.” Dr. Newhard will address how recent theoretical and methodological shifts within the field of archaeology have introduced new processes for understanding the past. These shifts will be placed within the context of recent, ongoing, and future work at the College of Charleston that have been geared towards understanding the rural Medieval landscape of central Anatolia and prehistoric landscape of the Mycenaean homeland.

For the Schedule of Meetings and Events, see the link below. The Classics Club offers students the opportunity to interact with others who share their interest in the Greco-Roman world. Any student is welcome to join the Classics Club and play an active role in all club activities. Meetings are regularly announced in Classics courses and on Facebook.  For further information, contact the current club president or the current faculty sponsor, Dr. Kristen Gentile.

Classics Club Schedule (spring semester 2014)

Student volunteers are working with Dr. Sterrett-Krause on a new study and publication project of ancient glass from Roman Carthage (modern Tunisia). The glass, excavated in the 1980s and 1990s by American and Tunisian teams at Carthage’s Circus and the neighboring Yasmina Cemetery, has never been systematically and completely studied. Students are working to organize the material according to its excavation context before beginning the detailed study. Future steps in the process will involve examining, cataloguing, drawing, and contextualizing the glass fragments; this study will provide further information about the uses of the sites and their dates, along with the production and use of glass in Roman Carthage. Volunteers are always welcome; no prior archaeological experience is necessary. Please contact Dr. S-K for more information.

The two leading national organizations for Classics, the AIA (Archaeological Institute of America) and APA (American Philological Association), will jointly hold their annual conference from January 2 -5. This year three of our students and three faculty members will be presenting research, directing colloquia, or chairing sessions, in addition to other professional activities:

Jami Baxley:  January 3, 11:00-3:00.  AIA Poster Session.  ‘The Use of Structured Light Scanning for the Study of the Linear B Deposits from Pylos, Messenia, Greece’ (with Dr. Newhard, B. Rennison, D. Nikassis, and K. Pluta)

Craig Garrison:  January 3, 11:00-3:00.  AIA Poster Session.  ‘A Catalog of Carriage Steps in the Historic District of Charleston: Paving the Way to Understanding the Historic Streetscape of Charleston’

Noelle Zeiner-Carmichael: January 3, 1:30 – 4:30.  APA Session 24 (Epistolary Fiction and Realities).  ‘Master of Letters:  Linguistic Competence in Fronto’s Correspondence’

James Newhard: January 4, 12:30 – 2:30.  Session Chair.  AIA Session 5D (Mapping the Roman World)

Alvaro Ibarra:  January 5, 8:30 – 11:30.  Colloquium Co-organizer.  AIA Session 7E.  ‘Composing Unity and Subverting Sovereignty in Iron Age and Roman Dacia’

Jeremy Miller:  January 5, 8:30 – 11:30.  AIA Session 7E. ‘The Evolution of Roman Encampments in Southern Dacia: An Analysis of Roman Operations and Military Fortifications Along the Upper Olt River Valley’ (with Dr. Ibarra)

Congratulations and good luck over the next few days!

On November 14, 2013, 16 of our students were inducted into Eta Sigma Phi, the National Classics Honors Society. Students must have earned an overall grade point average of at least 3.0 and have completed three Classics courses (including at least one Greek or Latin course) in which they earn at least a “B.” Congratulations to our 2013 fall class of Eta Sigma Phi!

At the Classics Club meeting, Wednesday, October 30 (5:00 PM: Randolph Hall 301B), Dr. James Lohmar will be scaring us all with the horrors of Lucan in his presentation: “Snakes on a Plain: Monsters and Art Horror in Lucan’s Bellum Civile.

On Friday, November 1 (3:00 PM: Maybank 100), Professor Darryl Phillips, as part of the Honors College Faculty Lecture Series, will present a lecture entitled, “What was Agrippa’s Pantheon?”.

“The Pantheon is the best preserved ancient building in Rome and one of the most well-known. Nevertheless, the history of the building has confounded scholars for centuries, and we still don’t have a firm understanding of how the building was actually used by the people who built it. This talk will examine theories about the function of Agrippa’s Pantheon, and explore the ways that scholars go about reconstructing the use of buildings in the ancient Roman World.”

The Classics Club will meet on Wednesday, October 23 at 5:00 pm (Randolph Hall 301A). Dr. Allsion Sterret-Krause will be giving a “hands-on” demonstration of Roman materials, featuring her work with ancient glass.

Dr. Noelle Zeiner-Carmichael’s new book, Roman Letters: An Anthology (Wiley-Blackwell, September 16, 2013) ISBN 978-1444339512, is now available.

Roman Letters offers a diverse and rich selection of original translations of ancient Roman letters spanning from the 1^st century BCE to the 2^nd century CE. The wide range of selections includes translations of prose and verse letters, letters sent and received, canonical epistolary authors such as Cicero, Ovid, Pliny the Younger, and less familiar texts including papyrus letters from Oxyrhynchus, Egypt, and wood leaf tablets from the Vindolanda fort in Britain. In addition, the volume contains representative New Testament letters and some illustrative excerpts from ancient epistolary theorists.

 A valuable introduction includes discussion of the letter as a genre, as well as the practical issues of letter-writing materials and letter delivery in the ancient world, and includes maps to help readers visualize the distance many letters traveled, and an index of authors and topics. An accompanying website offers additional, complementary letters.

 “With translations that are  both true to the intent of the original and entirely accessible to the modern reader, Zeiner-Carmichael has created an engaging survey of Roman epistolography, from the most practical of daily missives to highly refined literature.” Jacqueline M. Carlon, University of Massachusetts Boston

“Lost in Translation: Finding the Words for Roman Letters”

Dr. Zeiner-Carmichael’s talk will focus on her latest book project, Roman Letters: An Anthology, a collection of original translations of letters dating from the 1st c. BCE – 2nd c. CE. She will address the challenges associated with producing contemporary, accessible translations for texts involving a broad range of epistolary type and originating from diverse cultural contexts. Additionally, Dr. Zeiner-Carmichael will consider Roman translation theory as a point of comparison in prioritizing liberal over literal (verbum pro verbo) translation practices.