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Expanding the Archive: The Creation of the Salmon Pueblo Archaeological Research Collection (SPARC)

By Carolyn Heitman, Salmon Pueblo, and Paul Reed

In this paper, we discuss the goals, collaborations, and methods associated with the creation of the Salmon Pueblo Archaeological Research Collection (SPARC). The primary motivation for this project is to preserve and make accessible incomparable legacy data from the important excavations of Salmon Pueblo. Built around 1090 CE, this ancestral Pueblo site was the first major colony outside of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico and was a cultural center on the north bank of the San Juan River 45 miles north of Chaco.

Online Coins of the Roman Empire: An Open Resource for Roman Numismatics

By Andrew Robert Meadows

Abstract: This paper will present the Online Coinage of the Roman Empire (OCRE) project based at the American Numismatic Society, funded under a three-year NEH Preservation and Access grant awarded in 2014. The project aims, using principles of Linked Open Data to provide a multilingual reference and cataloguing tool aimed at curators and archaeologists, while at the same time providing the framework for amalgamation of specimens of Roman coinage from a distributed set of numismatic collections.

Who Owns the Past? Evidence, Interpretation and the Use of Digital Archaeological Data

By Jon Frey

While the move to digital collection and storage of archaeological evidence is generally seen as a positive development, the transformation of pre-digital records into an electronic format has raised a number of significant issues for many traditional projects. The question of open access is particularly problematic. In this presentation, I discuss three specific areas of concern that have been raised in conjunction with the development of the Archaeological Resource Cataloging System (ARCS), an open source digital asset management system for archaeological legacy data.

The Giza Project at Harvard: Consolidated Access to the Pyramids

By Peter Der Manuelian

The Giza Project, a collaborative international initiative based at Harvard University, has as its ultimate goals the collection, electronic preservation, study, and presentation of all records from the world’s most famous archaeological site: the Giza Pyramids and their surrounding cemeteries and settlements (3rd millennium BCE–present). Giza’s archaeological and historical contexts, including an artifactual record of tens of thousands of objects and the decorated, inscribed walls of Giza tombs, provide glimpses into every aspect of Egyptian culture.

A Liberal Art for the Future

By Nigel Nicholson

“What does a Classics degree prepare you for?” There can be few of us who have not been asked this question by a student interested in Classics, but anxious about where it will take them and unsure what a Classics degree represents. Indeed, we may have been asked a version of this question by any number of stakeholders: a parent of a student set on Classics, a hotshot dean brought in to balance the budget, a different dean seeking to compile an accreditation report, a trustee, or an employer or faculty colleague from a different education background.

Nondum Arabes Seresque rogant: Classics Looks East

By Kathleen Coleman

Statius, using rogare in an bold elliptical construction, imagines that sooner or later the Arabs and the Chinese will sue for the benefits of Roman rule, a scenario designed to massage Domitian’s imperialist ego (“nondum Arabes Seresque rogant,” Silu. 4.1.42). The reality was undoubtedly somewhat different. Tiridates may have come to Rome to be crowned king of Armenia, but even an emperor as impractical as Nero did not, apparently, dream of colonizing the far East. Trade between Rome and the orient was of mutual benefit; military and ideological conquest was not on the agenda.

Trends in Teachings the Classics to Undergraduates

By Mary Pendergraft

The economic volatility of the last decade has taken a toll on education at every level; the humanities in general and language studies in particular have suffered far more than STEM subjects; and among languages, Greek and Latin, which offer no immediately profitable benefits, are especially vulnerable.

This presentation will look at examples of the strategies small to medium sized undergraduate programs have used to keep up enrollments and improve pedagogy for their students. These strategies include the following:

Classical Education in the UK: Boom or Bust?

By Arlene Holmes-Henderson

This paper will outline the current state of Classical education in the UK and will highlight areas of both growth and decline. At a time when funding for Classics in schools and universities is being scaled back, what is the prognosis for the study of Latin, Greek, Classical Civilisation and Ancient history?

A Letter of Claudius, the Boundary Between Tymbrianassos and Sagalassos, and the Via Sebaste

By Paul Iversen

In the summer of 2014 as a part of an expedition around Lake Burdur in southwest Turkey to discover the route of the Via Sebaste (a major Roman road built by Augustus in 6 BCE that passed through this area), the author discovered at Yarıköy an unpublished inscription that demarcates the boundary between the imperial estate containing the village of Tymbrianassos and the territory Sagalassos. Yarıköy itself is a small village that sits a few kilometers south of the southwestern tip of Lake Burdur.