likeavirgil

elliot, 23. classy classicist, nerdy herbivore, recent Harvard grad, bibliophage, absurdist antiquarian, monomaniac. i'm 50% coffee and the other 50% won't shut up about Mediterannean antiquity. ABOUT ME. ASK.

[jj51p5]

I can’t believe Sappho invented totinos

[likeavirgil]

on a Honda Odyssey, of course

[likeavirgil]

relationship goals

[likeavirgil]

is it me or do ancient iranian gazelles look like lawn chairs

[likeavirgil]

am I a JSTOR fanboy? (yes)

(500 million thanks to jstor!!!)

[hortensius-deactivated20240909]

“hey, can i use your phone for a moment?”

“sure, just wait a second”

[likeavirgil]

Rome finally abandons 'too complicated' Roman numerals

Italy to drop use of Roman numerals - which still appear on road signs and official documents - after thousands of years

[likeavirgil]

GAIUS VALERIUS CTHULHU

[likeavirgil]

fyi, I’m spending my summer in the ancient city of Sardis – capital of the Lydian empire, home of the legendary King Croesus, and multicultural urban center from the archaic period to late antiquity

[likeavirgil]

classical archaeologists often create nicknames for vase painters or vase-painting workshops that have distinctive styles but lack any other means of identification

here are some of my favorites (for more, visit The Classical Art Research Centre):

Boot Painter Brown Egg Painter Cactus Painter Cat and Dog Painter Club Foot Potter Crawling Boy Workshop Dwarf Painter Elbows Out (literally just called “Elbows Out”) Fat Boy Group Fat Runners Group Kiss Painter Long Nose Painter Long Chin Group Maenad-on-Goat Painter Maenads-on-Bull Painter Mule Painter Painter of the Woolly Satyrs Pointed Nose Painter Red Line Painter Scorpion-Fish Painter Scythian Patrol Painter Class of Seven Lobster Claws Group of Skinny Griffins Straggly Painter

[likeavirgil]

rigorous archaeological methods

[likeavirgil]

"In more personal terms, [archaeology] is a subject in which one can thoroughly enjoy one’s work, and meet or be in close touch with scores of friendly and like-minded people around the globe, particularly at conferences. Conversely, the degree of territoriality, bitchiness, backstabbing, and vicious infighting for some reason goes way beyond what is normally encountered in other disciplines. If you are planning to enter this field, you need the hide of a rhinoceros. There are inevitably a few archaeologists who are pompous, hypocritical, dishonest, pretentious, self-promoting, and unprincipled, but that does not stop them doing well in the profession. Quite the contrary, in fact. (Alas, I’m unable to name some examples here, much as I would like to, but they know who they are.)"

strong words in Paul Bahn's Very Short Introduction to Archaeology (Oxford, 1996)

[onestarbookreview]

“Legit had no idea what was going on except that they were all horny”

[likeavirgil]

a lil brag

my senior thesis, “Constructing Antigonid Kingship: Monarchy, Memory, and Empire in Hellenistic Macedonia”

 -- i.e. the reason that I’ve barely been blogging for the past 10 months -- 

received Highest Honors

and

the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize (best ~70 theses at Harvard in any field)

and

the Herbert Weir Smyth Prize (best thesis on a Greek topic)

...

so please excuse me while I cry in a corner for the next two weeks

[subwayrattata]

(Lucretius voice) Atoms and fish? I think you mean like, creative bodies or the seeds of things and the bearers of scales or scaly shiners. We don’t use the words atoms and fish.

[likeavirgil]

periodic photo update

[likeavirgil]

DTHSS THPHS SHPHRT MLKS MS LTHTHK GRLT