Free Republic

Two faculty members condemned “white ownership” of Shakespeare and the state’s manipulation of black history during an “Appropriation Series” at Arizona State University last week. The scholars are pushing for changes in curriculum and leadership that reflect more “diverse” voices. During the panel, they spoke to eleven ASU students in the audience and other faculty members via Zoom. English Professor Ruben Espinosa argued that Shakespeare’s legacy has been manipulated for purposes of exclusion and viewed through a lens of “white superiority.” He said that for the Jan. 6 “insurrectionists” at the U.S. capitol, Shakespeare represents a symbol of “white exceptionalism”...

Goodbye to ‘Marx at the Mall,’ ‘Global Transgender Histories,’ Dua Lipa Harvard has canceled over 30 fall semester courses encompassing 20 departments, but the History and Literature department took it on the chin the hardest. According to The Crimson, Hist-Lit Director of Studies Lauren Kaminsky said class offerings dropped from 19 to 13 classes after five lecturers either departed or chose to do something else. The canceled Hist-Lit courses include “British Soft Power from Shakespeare to Dua Lipa,” “Marx at the Mall: Consumer Culture & Its Critics,” “Global Transgender Histories,” “Indigenous Genders and Sexualities in North America,” “The Making of...

I was vilified for criticizing the Dewey Decimal system. We librarians need to stop perpetuating its systemic racism in our libraries. Almost a decade ago, my colleagues and I wrote an article for SLJ entitled “Are Dewey’s Days Numbered?” in which we made the argument that the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system had lost its relevance. We took a bold stance, and the backlash was swift. Fellow librarians would wait outside the rooms I was speaking in at conferences, backing me into corners to demand that I stop talking about alternative systems.

A lot of history’s famous quotes are either misattributed or were never spoken in the first place. In addition to the fact that Gandhi never said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” and no one aboard Apollo 13 ever uttered the phrase, “Houston, we have a problem,” Julius Caesar didn’t say, “Et tu, Brute?” (“You too, Brutus?”) as he was stabbed to death by a group of Roman senators that included his supposed bestie. The line comes from Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar and is followed by its protagonist’s last words, “Then fall, Caesar”...

Why is there only one firsthand account of the Vesuvius eruption? How is it possible the Romans had such well-cared-for teeth? After nearly two thousand years, there are still plenty of unanswered questions about the Pompeii eruption.Voiceover By: Tim BenschWhy ignore the warning signs? | 0:00A foggy timeline | 1:42Why didn't a water evacuation work? | 3:08How big was the eruption? | 4:21What's with the nice teeth? | 5:28Did they not understand volcanoes? | 6:24What about the refugees? | 7:28Where are other firsthand accounts? | 8:36Why blame the inhabitants? | 9:49Things That Don't Make Sense About The Disaster Of Pompeii...

The board discovered at Çapmalı, Azerbaijan. (Crist & Abdullayev, Eur. J. Archaeol., 2024) ============================================================================ The discovery of artifacts associated with an ancient board game is offering clues about how humans interacted thousands of years ago. At various sites on the Abşeron Peninsula and Gobustan Reserve in Azerbaijan, archaeologists have found six designs carved into the surfaces of rocks. Dating to around 2000 BCE, they each resemble the hallmark pattern on which the ancient board game Hounds and Jackals is based. This is contemporaneous with the previous oldest example of the game ever found, hailing from the tomb of a government...

According to a BBC News report, students discovered a message in a bottle at a Gaulish village site in northern France. Much of the 2,000-year-old fortified village has been lost to the erosion of the cliff where it is located. The message had been rolled up, tied with a string, and placed in a vial of the type that women used to wear round their necks to hold smelling salts, said municipal archaeologist Guillaume Blondel. The vial had then been placed in a pot and buried. "P.J Féret, a native of Dieppe, member of various intellectual societies, carried out excavations...

Finnish is known for its challenging grammar and vocabulary, which can be daunting for learners. It features a complex system of cases—15 in total—which can change the endings of nouns based on their function in a sentence. Additionally, Finnish is a language isolated from other European languages, so there are few cognates for English speakers to rely on. Nevertheless, Finnish is a language worth learning for its unique position in the world. Finland boasts a high standard of living, stunning natural landscapes, and a rich cultural history. Learning Finnish can enhance your experience if you plan to travel or work...

According to a Hürriyet Daily News report, excavations at the site of the ancient port of Andriake uncovered the remains of decorative millefiori panels, a glasswork technique fusing different sizes and colors of glass rods which are then cut into sections and re-fused together to form patterns. Nevzat Çevik of Akdeniz University said that each of the hundreds of small, flat glass fragments measures about one and one-half inches square. They were found in the city's agora, in a building thought to have been the port's administrative center in the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., based upon the coins and...

Hürriyet Daily News reports that an excavation conducted at the Maydos Church Hill Mound in northwestern Turkey uncovered a 3,900-year-old cylinder seal, a 3,400-year-old lead sling stone, spindle whorls, weaving tools, metal tools, and drills dated to the Middle Bronze Age, around 2000 B.C. Archaeologist Göksel Sazcı of Onsekiz Mart University said that when sling stones are found, they are usually made of stone or terracotta. "The ones made of lead are very rare and are mostly found in the Hellenistic and Roman periods," he added. "Such finds are mostly known from the Mediterranean island of Crete, its Knossos settlement,...

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Three sisters from Ohio who inherited a dime kept in a bank vault for more than 40 years knew it had some value. But they had no idea just how much until just a few years ago. The extraordinarily rare coin, struck by the U.S. Mint in San Francisco in 1975, could bring more than $500,000, said Ian Russell, president of GreatCollections, which specializes in currency and is handling an online auction that will end in October. What makes the dime depicting President Franklin D. Roosevelt so valuable is a missing “S” mint mark for San...

Researchers have finally decoded a Babylonian tablet thought to be the oldest map of the world. Created between 2,600 and 2,900 years ago, the Imago Mundi provided researchers with a unique glimpse into the beliefs and practices of the ancient civilization. The Babylonian tablet has a circular map with pieces of text written in cuneiform - an ancient writing system that used wedge-shaped symbols - which describes the early creation of the world.

The Asahi Shimbun reports that scientists from Japan's Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties have identified the function of a six-inch strip of wood unearthed in 2001 at a government workers' office in the ancient capital of Fujiwara-kyo. Infrared imaging of the object revealed that the fragment is part of a 1,300-year-old multiplication table written in kanji. The entire multiplication table with all of the equations written out was likely about 13 inches long, explained team member Kuniya Kuwata. In this section, which was likely from the upper-right corner of the document, the equations were written in five rows...

We've got an exciting new exhibition at Corbridge Roman Town on Hadrian's Wall, showing one of the most significant finds in Roman history - the Corbridge Hoard. Here you can watch this never before seen in public film footage of the excavation of the hoard back in 1964. The Corbridge Hoard is one the most remarkable Roman finds of the past century. The armour, found during the 1964 excavations, has since helped to shape Roman historians' understanding of Roman armour - definitely worth a visit to Hadrian's Wall! We've shared this great footage with the kind permission of Mrs A....

There may be some truth to the myth of Merlin. On Tuesday, archeologists in Scotland revealed evidence of the legendary wizard’s death in Drumelzier between the 6th and 7th centuries — and the findings could change the way we tell Merlin’s tale. Merlin was said to have been a loyal advisor to King Arthur amid the Dark Ages before being imprisoned, killed and buried along the river Tweed, according to Vita Merlini Sylvestris (the Life of Merlin of the Forest), a medieval manuscript of his life which is currently held at the British Library. A new geological survey of the...

In 2003 and 2004, ESAG, in collaboration with Greek authorities, conducted a geophysical survey around Paleoekklisies Hill to identify traces of buried ancient buildings. In 2006, they received a permit to dig in the area of their survey that seemed to have the greatest potential. The team uncovered ancient building material, houses, and graves; however, they were from the wrong time period. There was a long history of settlement on Paleoekklisies Hill dating back to the third millennium b.c. In fact, in the second millennium b.c., the site appears to have been called Amarynthos. A clay tablet found in the...

According to a Reuters report, 27 silver Roman coins were discovered in the ancient Greek acropolis on the remote Mediterranean island of Pantelleria by a team of researchers led by archaeologist Thomas Schaefer of the University of Tübingen. He thinks that the coins, which first surfaced in loose soil after heavy rains, may have been hidden during a pirate attack. Additional coins were later found under a nearby rock. Analysis of the coins shows that they were minted in Rome between 94 and 74 B.C. "This discovery... offers valuable information for the reconstruction of the events, trade contacts, and political...

Artnet News reports that the Euripides Papyrus, which was discovered in Egypt in 2022, has been translated by Yvona Trnka-Amrhein and John Gilbert of the University of Colorado Boulder. The papyrus was found in a clump in a corner of a pit grave at the necropolis of Philadelphia by archaeologist Basem Gehad of Egypt's Ministry of State for Antiquities, and has been dated to the third century A.D. based upon its writing style and archaeological context. The translation has revealed some 100 previously unknown lines written by the Greek playwright Euripides in the fifth century B.C. The lines come from...

An artifact described as one of the most important archaeological finds of all time will soon be on display in the US.The Tel Dan Stele, a stone inscribed with ancient Hebrew, is the earliest known archaeological evidence of the existence of King David, a king of ancient Israel.The monument fragment is being sent loaned from The Israel Museum to Oklahoma's Herbert W. Armstrong College from September 22 through November 25 as part the 'Kingdom of David and Solomon Discovered' exhibit.Exhibit curator Brad Macdonald said: 'This is a colossal honor for Oklahoma and the Armstrong Foundation. 'This artifact provides an extraordinary...

Typically, items stowed away in your attic are either Christmas decorations or maybe some old suitcases. Well, an unsuspecting attic in Camden, Maine, was recently found to contain a painting potentially created by the beloved Netherlands artist Rembrandt. Despite being shrouded in mystery and uncertainty, many art collectors viewed the painting as an authentic work when it went under the hammer on August 24th. The last known Rembrandt portraits in private collections were sold off by Christie’s Auction House last year, therefore, this newly uncovered piece in Maine provided a rare opportunity for collectors to get their hands on one...