Showing posts with label Umbrian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Umbrian. Show all posts

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Umbrian Roundup

Todi in context

The XXVII Convegno di Studi Etruschi ed Italici will run from October 27 to 31 in Perugia, Gubbio, and Urbino, on the topic 'Gli Umbri in età preromana'. More information, and the program (pdf).

Back in the beginning of September, in Perugia, a Roman kiln for roof-tiles was discovered. (link)

News from the Soprintendenza for Umbria:
- 2nd century CE Roman tombs discovered at Gubbio (link).
- The Museo Archeologico in Orvieto is revamping its exhibits to display little-known and unpublished material from the Crocifisso del Tufo necropolis, and by the end of autumn will have an area devoted to research on the Campo della Fiera (link).
- In Perugia, the exhibit "Mira et Magica," which focuses on ancient inscribed gems, runs from September 25 to December 31, 2009 (link).
- In Spoleto, the Archaeological Museum has opened a second new gallery, "Dal Municipio all'età Imperiale" (link).
- The Museo Civico in Todi has opened a new display of local stone artifacts dating from antiquity to the present day, including a sundial and an Augustan altar (link).

Sunday, September 13, 2009

September 13, 2009


(I'm more or less settled in here at Michigan; now that I've got enough work to need distracting from, blogging will continue...)

From a journal you might not follow (I don't): Mangone et al., "Technological features of 'gnathia' pottery." X-Ray Spectrometry 38.5 (2009), 386-393 [abstract].

The Università degli Studi di Lecce has digitized Studi di Antichità and four monographs published by the Dipartimento di Beni Culturali dell'Università di Lecce - Settore Storico-Archeologico, available here (once you've clicked on the number you want, you have to click on "Contents..." in the left-hand column). Also possibly of interest: Gli Album del Centro di Studi Papirologici, Papyrologica Lupiensia and Kronos; you can see the full list of scanned journals and monographs here (don't miss the E-Prints down at the bottom of the page).

We are looking forward to Michael Weiss' forthcoming (2009) books Language and Ritual in Sabellic Italy (Leiden: Brill) and Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin (Ann Arbor: Beech Stave). His 2009 article "Umbrian erus" is available as a pdf on his website (above).

As for books that have already come out: Josh Katz (favorably) reviews Rex Wallace, The Sabellic languages of ancient Italy (2007) in Language 85.2 (June 2009), 490-492. Katz writes, "W rightly reminds us that the corpora of ‘dead languages’ are not always closed. It is exciting when a new inscription turns up..."

...and there are, apparently, a few new inscriptions, published by Adolfo Zavaroni and Giancarlo Sani, "Iscrizioni nord-umbre del bellum sociale nella Valle di Ospitale: prime indicazioni." Klio 91.1 (June 2009), 69-103. I think I will have more to say about this article and these inscriptions, but for now I'll simply copy the summary since it doesn't appear to be publicly available:
In two sites of the Valle di Ospitale (Modena province, near the border between Aemilia and Etruria) many inscriptions written on rocks during the bellum sociale (90–89 B. C.) by rebels against Rome have recently come to light. The rebels define themselves as Umbrians, but their dialect has several particularities which drive us to distinguish it from the Umbrian of the Iguvinian Tables. The alphabet contains some special letters, but it is above all the frequent use of ligatures that characterizes these inscriptions and makes their reading often difficult. Most of them contain exhortations to revolt against Rome and form an Umbrian League. A few writings have an erotic content; others are illuminating on the main gods worshipped by the rebels. Here we present a selection of the inscriptions whose reading is more easy.
[!!!]


(The leppard in the picture above is found on Gnathia-style cup from Rudiae, now in the Museo Archeologico Provinciale 'S. Castromediano' in Lecce. )