awsm technological discovery

[stavros]

alex might get a mention in these?? http://news.independent.co.uk/world/sci ... ory=630165

[abm]

let's hope so, that would be great, but even if he's not, it will certainly increase our knowledge of the classical world and in that way maybe of Alexander

[Laura Casemir]

If I needed money, I'd also speak about a "second renaissance", but frankly - the texts they have mentioned are merely classicists' playthings. If we really want to change our perception of Antiquity, we need something else. Works, written in koin+¬ Greek or other languages. Works, dealing with daily life. Works dealing with those aspects of religion that later copyists found offensive.The scrolls of the Dead Sea were a zillion times more interesting.Laura

[abm]

Hi Laura,I don't know whether you know to Oxyrhynchus texts published thus far (some 60 volumes), but there are also a lot of documentary texts; basicly any kind aof text be in there. Sophokles and the like are of course more interestin for the newspapers and that's way these are the only ones mentioned. Moreover these literary texts also contribute to our understanding Antiquity.regards,abm

[amyntoros]

I really do hate to be a wet blanket about the idea that they have found something new amongst the papyri (or a new way to read them) because I would *love* for some lost history or even a fragment about Alexander to be rediscovered (one reason I wish they would continue with excavations at the House of the Papyri at Herculaneum). Unfortunately, I found this article today concerning the Oxyrhynchus papyri. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20 ... l?79416The above can also be found by going to:http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/index.htmlThis is a page updated daily by Archaeology Magazine, a publication of the Archaeological Institute of America. Not a bad site to bookmark if anyone is interested in new discoveries or archaeological news. (There's a piece under the heading of Recent Headlines that tells about Iran attempting to stop a sale at Christies of a stolen relief fragment from Persepolis.)Best regards,Amyntoros

[ancientlibrary]

Yes, anyone who's played with papyri knew this was being blown way out of proportion. A "20% increase" would be great indeed. Yes, papyri have given us some complete worksGÇöAthPol, Menander, Herondas, etc. But these were not pieced together from scraps; they came were big, well-preserved pieces. That sort of stuff has been long exhausted norGÇöas the water table of Egypt rose since the Aswan DamGÇöwill it be easy to find more. Places with shares of POxy still have lots of scraps, many of which no doubt match up. But most of these scraps are not dark, unreadable enigmas waiting for spectral analysis before anything can be read. Spectral analysis may help matters a lot, but we're talking about better readings on thousands of scraps.Some idea of the "curve" of papyrological discovery can be obtained by surveying POxy year by year. At first new, important and long passages from important texts come think and fast. Then more rarely, the pieces shorter and more gnarled. Now the texts are very short and fragmentary indeed. (Wierdly, the articles around the texts exhibit the exact opposite effectGÇöbloating.) Spectral imaging may give us a few fat years and put off the day when the series must cease entirely, great. To expect more would be folly.Incidentally, Obink was interviewed on NPR today. The tone of the interview was breathless, but he didn't seem to match it.

[heinrich]

I agree that Sophocles c.s. are more interesting for the newspapers, but this raises the question why we still allow classicists to hijack literary taste and set an agenda for historical research.HM