by A. C. Williams The Abbey Library of Saint Gall, known as the Stiftsbibliothek of St. Gallen, is one of the oldest and most illustrious libraries in the world. The Stiftsbibliothek and surrounding St. Gall Abbey precinct have together served for centuries as one of the leading cultural centers in […]
Author: patrick
Edges of Empire – the new excavations at Binchester Roman town, UK
by Gary Devore and Michael Shanks The new excavations of Binchester Roman town in the north of England, running since 2009, are seeking new answers to old questions about the Roman empire and its administration, about the character of military occupation, the life and experiences of locals and the soldiers […]
Cultural Heritage Imaging: Digital Pioneers in Archaeological Preservation
by Patrick Hunt While photography of archaeological artifacts for recording stretches back over a century plus, the needs to visually preserve a record of materials has only multiplied exponentially since the mid-19th century. In fact, archaeology was one of the first disciplines to employ the nascent medium of photography for […]
Thinking in planetary time scales: How modern technology helps us understand ancient episodes of climate change
by James Geary When did human beings start changing the environment? It’s a difficult question, since the further back in time you go the less reliable the evidence becomes. But thanks to new technologies and a new breed of innovative archeologist, the answers are becoming a little clearer. The emerging […]
Shakespeare and the Classics: Plutarch, Ovid and Inspiration
by Andrew Phillips and Patrick Hunt The authors of this article are amusingly inspired by the coincidence that in 1572 one of the Masters of Shakespeare’s Stratford Grammar School (King’s New School) was Simon Hunt and that the will of a fellow actor named Augustine Phillips bequeathed the Bard thirty […]
Electrum: from Ancient to Modern Meanings
by Patrick Hunt Historical linguistics often surprises us about how old are some of the words we use today, especially when we might expect they were coined only within the last century or so. While some of these old words, either commonplace like “star†and “mythâ€, or not so common […]
Food for Thought Ancient to Modern: Truffles and Mushrooms, Trufflemania and Mycophily
By Patrick Hunt Truffles can drive people to do funny things. Moliere’s 1664 Tartuffe, a farce about fraud, may not actually explain an iota of trufflemania. The word ‘truffle’ is an esteemed word, uttered almost religiously except to those who are suspicious of its devotees and only see the earthy […]