Pasts Imperfect

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Pasts Imperfect (9.16.21)
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Pasts Imperfect (9.16.21)

Ancient Beauty Contests, Reality TV, and More

Sarah E. Bond
,
Colin McCaffrey
, and
Stephanie Wong
Sep 16, 2021
1
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Pasts Imperfect (9.16.21)
pastsimperfect.substack.com
Detail of the judgement of Paris, mosaic of los Amores Cástulo, 1st-2ndC CE (Linares, Spain) (CC-BY-NC).

This week, Stephanie Wong discusses the gamification of romance from antiquity to reality TV, curators trace an Aztec Mirror to the Qing court, colleagues remember a titan in the field of Late Antiquity, Mai Sanadhya presents a South Asian perspective in the move to decolonize Classics, and a rare manuscript returns to Ethiopia.


What’s new from Pasts Imperfect?

In our opinion, the best break from real-life reality is TV reality. And if you need to justify your addiction to The Bachelor franchise (definitely not referring to some of the Pasts Imperfect writers, here…): look no further than Stephanie Wong’s epic essay in the Los Angeles Review of Books: “Bachelor Nation and the Ancient History of Gamifying Romance.” Give it a read and a share!

Twitter avatar for @stephanieynwongswong @stephanieynwong
wrote about how it's time to add @BachelorABC to the western canon for @LAReviewofBooks.
Los Angeles Review of BooksLARB presents the second entry in “Pasts Imperfect,” a column that explores the impact of ancient pasts on the present....lareviewofbooks.org

September 13th 2021

9 Retweets22 Likes

Museums, Reception, and Questions for Later

Over at the National Palace Museum of Taiwan, curators discovered that an obsidian mirror previously thought to be made in China was actually an Aztec mirror made in the Americas. How did this object make its way from Mesoamerica to the Qing court, and then eventually Taipei? Researchers suggest that it might have been a gift from foreign missionaries, perhaps Jesuits.

Graphic showing the appearance of ‘white’ elements in the obsidian mirror  (Photo below from Mexicolore).

This week is the last week to see Tai Xiangzhou’s exhibition “Cosmoscapes” at the Art Institute of Chicago. Tai, a Chinese scholar and artist, combines his interests in Song Dynasty realist landscapes with Chinese cosmology. The ink paintings, rendered on silk and paper screens and scrolls, are breathtaking even when viewed online (below is Autumn Waters Merge with the Heavens, 2017). If you are in Chicago, go see them in person, and if you feel inspired, a certain editor at Public Books’ “Antiquities” would love to see a pitch about them…

Tai Xiangzhou. Autumn Waters Merge with the Heavens, 2017. One of a set of 36 paintings titled Cosmic Symphonies (Collection of Tai Xiangzhou).

Seen on the Internet and Twitterverse

Manuscript repatriation is an important part of restorative justice. And over at the Los Angeles Review of Books, Philip Kurian discusses “Howard University’s 2016 repatriation of Tweed MS150 — a rare manuscript containing a 15th-century Acts of Paul and Acts of Sarabamon codex — to its place of origin in the highlands of Ethiopia.” And for Ethiopian New Year on September 11, the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library database shared another important Ethiopic MS tale as well, this one connected to the Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library (EMML) project and famed Ge’ez philologist Getatchew Haile.

Twitter avatar for @visitHMMLHMML @visitHMML
In recognition of the Ethiopian New Year, we share this story about a most precious and important Ethiopic manuscript, the subject of extensive research by the late Professor Getatchew Haile:
hmml.org/stories/the-em… #HappyNewYear #Ethiopia #Manuscripts #Eritrea #GetatchewHaile
Image

September 11th 2021

7 Retweets11 Likes

Grief and loss has seemed an all-too-regularized part the pandemic. The inability to grieve together in-person has often made it worse. Within the field of Late Antiquity and far beyond it, the digital celebrations surrounding the life of Elizabeth Clark have been incredibly moving even in a virtual space. Whether online or on campus at Duke, the outpouring is a testament to her impact, import, and her kindness. Prof. Clark passed on September 7, 2021.

Twitter avatar for @ctounsel1Christopher Tounsel @ctounsel1
Dear #twitterstorians and Religious Studies community, Please join me in honoring my former professor, Elizabeth Clark, who has passed. Longtime professor of Religion @DukeU and former @AARWeb President. A true 🐐. I hope she's enjoying a heavenly brew with Aquinas. RIP
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September 7th 2021

5 Retweets23 Likes

In case you missed it, Richard Stoneman has a new translation of Megasthenes' Indica.

This book provides a new translation of all the surviving portions of the description of India written by Megasthenes in about 310 BCE, the fullest account of Indian geography, history and customs available to the classical world. The Indica was a pioneering work of ethnography that exemplified a new direction in Hellenistic writing; India was little-known to the Greeks before the expedition of Alexander the Great in 326–325 BCE, and Megasthenes, who resided as an ambassador in the Maurya capital Pataliputra for some time, provided the classical world with most of what it knew about India. 

If you have an idea for translation that is not quite manuscript length, we’d also suggest submitting to the new journal Ancient Exchanges.

BhagavadGita-19th-century-Illustrated-Sanskrit-Chapter 1.20.21.jpg
A 19thC illustrated Sanskrit manuscript from the Bhagavad Gita, composed c. 400 BCE – 200 BCE (Image via the British Library in the Public Domain).

Over at Sportula Europe, Mai Sanadhya, Media & Communications Officer of @London_CoC, discusses decolonizing Classics—from a South Asian perspective:

Sometimes, I feel like giving up and switching to studying law. However, I am fueled and motivated by my personal vision of a decolonised Classics: an expansive field in which I can make my Sanskritic and Grecian parallels in peace, without having to justify my presence or interests. By studying all ancient cultures as equals, and by valuing the contribution of scholars with a range of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives, I believe that we will discover valuable insight into our history as people.

A new edited volume out in two weeks from Serena Autiero and Matthew Adam Cobb explores Globalization and Transculturality from Antiquity to the Pre-Modern World. Those interested in how the theory and method of globalization can help us better understand the past will surely be interested.

Conferences and Lectures we’d definitely Zoom into:

Twitter avatar for @MRECC_ClassicsMRECC @MRECC_Classics
#AncMedTwitter #ClassicsTwitter, check out the lineup for this awesome upcoming virtual conference! Register here:
gallatin.nyu.edu/utilities/even…
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September 14th 2021

6 Retweets5 Likes

Note that Amy Pistone tracks many of these lectures on the “Online Classics Social Calendar” via Google Calendar.

New Journal Issues Online through September 9th through 15th curated by @YaleClassicsLib

Anuari de Filologia. Antiqua et Mediaeualia Vol. 11, No. 2 (2021) #openaccess ARDVA QVAE PVLCHRA: Contribucions d'estudis clàssics presentades al VII Congrés Nacional Ganímede
Cahiers « Mondes Anciens »
Vol. 14 (2021) #openaccess Thalassotopies: La mer vue de la terre, la terre vue de la mer dans l'antiquité égéenne
American Journal of Archaeology
Vol. 125, No. 4 (October 2021)
Polis
Vol. 38, No. 3 (2021) Legislation and Lawgiving: Philosophical Perspectives on Antiquity
Umanistica Digitale
No. 10 (2021) #openaccess
NB: "Knowing is participating: digital public history, wiki and citizen humanities” by Deborah Paci
Variants
Vols. 15-16 (2021) #openaccess Textual Scholarship in the Twenty-First Century
Espacio Tiempo y Forma. Serie II, Historia Antigua
No. 34 (2021) #openaccess
ACOR Jordan Newsletter Vol. 33, No. 1 (September 2021) #openaccess
Aramaic Studies
Vol. 19, No. 2 (2021)
History and Theory Vol. 60, No. 3 (September 2021)
NB: François Hartog's History and Theory Lecture “Chronos, Kairos, Krisis: The Genesis of Western Time” & responses
Classica - Revista Brasileira de Estudos Clássicos
Vol. 34, No. 2 (2021) #openaccess
The Classical Review
Vol.71, No. 2 (October 2021)
Greece & Rome
Vol.68, No. 2 (October 2021)
NB: “Fiddling why Rome Burns: the Aetiology of a Familiar English Expression” by Anthony Barrett

Pitches:

The Public Books section "Antiquities" is currently taking pitches — as is our “Pasts Imperfect” column at the LA Review of Books, using this form.

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Pasts Imperfect (9.16.21)
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A guest post by
Stephanie Wong
my apocalypse skills involve looms and boats (she/ella/她)
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