ISAW is pleased to announce the research scholar roster for 2013-14. In addition to working on the listed research project, each scholar will participate in ISAW seminars and present a public lecture. Please join us in welcoming them to our community this fall!

One-year Visiting Research Scholars

Matteo Compareti (PhD, Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”)
A study of the religious iconography of Iranian peoples living in China during the Sixteen Kingdoms, Northern & Southern Dynasties, and the Sui & the Tang Dynasties

Daniel Fleming (Hebrew & Judaic Studies, NYU)
‘The Land of Benjamin’ and the Development of Israel and Judah

Anna Lanaro (PhD, Johannes-Gutenburg-University, Mainz)
Beyond Hybridism: Intercultural Connectivity in the Northern Levant During the Late Bronze Age

Francesca Rochberg (Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley)
Before Nature: Science and Ancient Mesopotamia

Ian Rutherford (Classics, University of Reading)
Hittite Texts and Greek Religion: Borrowing, Hybridity, Comparison

Thelma Thomas (Institute of Fine Arts, NYU)
Dressing Souls, Making Monks: Monastic Habits of the Egyptian Desert Fathers

Liangren Zhang (School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, China)
Prehistoric Gansu and Xinjiang in the broad context of Eurasian and Central Asian cultural movements

Two-year Visiting Assistant Professors

Emily Hammer (PhD, Harvard University) – continuing
Dynamics of Settlement and Transhumance in Agricultural Peripheries on the Fringes of Ancient Mesopotamia

Adam Schwartz (PhD, University of Chicago)
Huayuanzhuang East I: A Complete and Annotated Translation of the Newest Corpus of 13^th Century BCE Shang Dynasty Non-Royal Oracle Bone Inscriptions

The editors of the Journal of Inner Asian Art and Archaeology – Judith A. Lerner, Lilla Russell-Smith and Sören Stark – are happy to announce the publication of volume 5. Published under the aegis of ISAW the journal focuses on the archaeology and art and cultural exchanges within the vast area between the Iranian world, western China,  the Siberian steppes and Northwestern India. For the table of contents please visit the journal’s webpage.

Marja Vierros, one of the ISAW's 2012-13 visiting research scholars, has announced two book publications this fall. The first, Bilingual Notaries in Hellenistic Egypt. A study of Greek as a second language, describes the language contact situation in Hellenistic Egypt in general and in Pathyris in particular through the analysis of contracts found in bilingual family archives dating to the second and first centuries BCE.

Her second book, Variation and Change in Greek and Latin, co-edited with Martti Leiwo and Hilla Halla-aho, deals with different fractions of Greek and Latin, from the 4th century BCE to the 6th century CE and studies, both conceptually and practically, variation within these fractions using data taken from papyri, inscriptions, graffiti, and texts from manuscripts.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, with over 5000 articles in 12 volumes (plus an index volume), has been published by Wiley-Blackwell. The online version is to become available shortly at Wiley Online Library. The General Editors include ISAW Director Roger Bagnall and former visiting research scholar Sabine Huebner. The more than 1800 authors include ISAW faculty Alexander Jones and Beate Pongratz-Leisten; affiliated faculty Raffaella Cribiore, Barbara Kowalzig, Andrew Monson, Michael Peachin, and Helmut Reimitz; Senior Fellows Piotr Michalowski, Jack Sasson, and John Steele; doctoral student Zoe Misiewicz; former visiting research scholars Günter Dreyer, Jinyu Liu, Rachel Mairs, Annalisa Marzano, Maya Muratov, Mathieu Ossendrijver, Anne Porter, Giovanni Ruffini, and Karen Sonik; research associate Yehudah Cohn; and former staff member Anna Boozer, along with a number of lecturers and visitors.

Each year the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, makes about 9 appointments of visiting research scholars. ISAW's scope embraces research and graduate education in the history, archaeology, and culture of the entire Old World from late prehistoric times to the eighth century AD, including Asia and Africa. Projects of a theoretical or comparative nature relevant to this domain are also welcome. Academic visitors at ISAW should be individuals of scholarly distinction or promise in any relevant field of ancient studies who will benefit from the stimulation of working in an environment with colleagues in other disciplines. Applicants with a history of interdisciplinary exchange are particularly welcome. Scholars are expected to be in residence at the Institute during the period for which they are appointed and to take part in the intellectual life of the community.

For details about the categories of scholars, the financial support, and the application, please visit http://isaw.nyu.edu/academics/visiting-scholars. The application deadline for 2013/14 appointments is December 2, 2012. New York University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

ISAW's facilities on 84th St. in Manhattan were spared any damage from Hurricane Sandy. We are open regular hours and all public events and exhibitions are proceeding as scheduled.

On Wednesday, 31 October 2012, ISAW will be open regular hours for faculty, staff, scholars, and students, and for members of the public wishing to visit the "Echoes of the Past" exhibition. The library will not be open. When and if we are able to reschedule events that were canceled earlier this week because of hurricane Sandy, additional notices will be posted.

Due to the protracted weather threat presented by Hurricane Sandy and the associated shutdown of all New York area public transportation, ISAW facilities will remain closed on Tuesday, 30 October 2012 and all public events are canceled.

ISAW students, staff, and faculty are urged to monitor the weather situation closely and to remain alert for further communications from ISAW, NYU, and community leaders.

Because of expected weather conditions and public transportation shutdowns, ISAW will be closed Monday 29 October 2012. All seminars and public events that day are canceled.

ISAW Director Roger Bagnall was presented with Papyrological Texts in Honor of Roger S. Bagnall at a surprise champagne reception held at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris on October 16, with colleagues from France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK present to celebrate. The book will appear later this fall as American Studies in Papyrology, volume 53. It contains papyri and ostraca in various ancient languages edited by fifty papyrologists from Europe and North America.

The Fall 2012 issue of ISAW’s newsletter is now available.  Issue 7 includes  alumni news,  an exploration of our Echoes of the Past exhibition, research updates from the ISAW community, and event listings for Fall 2012 and beyond.  To download an electronic copy of the newsletter, click here.

Smithsonian.com has just published a short article on recent collaborative work to enhance online mapping of ancient sites and online linking of related archaeological, photographic, textual, numismatic, and museological resources. It highlights the role of the multi-institutional Pelagios project (for which our Pleiades project provides the geographic data) in creating a free, online base map for the ancient world and in joining together the contents of over 15 (and growing) important websites for antiquity.

In coming months, you can expect more exciting developments in the area of online ancient geography from the ISAW Digital Programs team and our extramural partners, including Pelagios, UNC's Ancient World Mapping Center, Harvard's Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilization, Tuft's Perseus Digital Library, the Alexandria Archive Institute, Johan Åhlfeldt's Regnum Francorum Online, the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, and the British Museum.

ISAW faculty have recently approved a statement on research assessment (PDF), which has been published on the ISAW website. As ISAW was founded to support research in the ancient world, this document lays out our philosophy for pursuing and rewarding excellence in research projects and in the variety of ways—in print, online, and in person—they are communicated to both scholars and the general public. As such, this statement provides context for the rich and growing spectrum of research, publication, and exhibition activities that call ISAW home.

This monograph, published in the series Ancient Art and Architecture in Context from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, considers the painted frieze on the façade of Tomb II at Vergina (ca. 330-280 B.C.) as a visual document that offers vital evidence for the public self-stylings of Macedonian royalty in the era surrounding the reign of Alexander the Great. The hunting scene on the frieze reflects the construction of Macedonian royal identity through the appeal to specific and long-standing cultural traditions, which emerged, long before Alexanders reign, out of a complex negotiation of claims to heroic and local dynastic pasts, regional ideals of kingship, and models of royal behavior provided by the East.

Hallie M. Franks is an Assistant Professor of Ancient Studies at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study and a Visiting Research Scholar at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.  She currently excavates with the American Research Center in Sofia and the NIAM-BAS at the Macedonian site of Heraclea Sintica in south-west Bulgaria. Her next project looks at the metaphorical connections between movement through architecture and travel in ancient Greece.

Hunters, Heroes, Kings: The Frieze of Tomb II at Vergina

by Hallie M. Franks

Ancient Art and Architecture in Context 3
250 pp, 62 col. & b/w figs., 1 col. fold-out
9.5" x 11.5"
Cloth, ISBN: 978-0-87661-966-7
Publication Date: Fall 2012
Retail Price $75
It will be available for sale here: BUY NOW

Roger Bagnall, director of ISAW, was one of two papyrologists asked to examine the fourth century papyrus fragment recently identified by Karen L. King, Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard University. Written in Coptic and only 4 by 8 centimeters, it contains the phrase 'Jesus said to them, my wife', sparking controversy in the scholarly world and reporting from various news media across the globe. After examining the piece with AnneMarie Luijendijk of Princeton University, Prof. Bagnall believes the fragment to be authentic.

Below find a link to the Harvard Divinity School website containing images and a translation of the text, along with a draft of Prof. King's article.

http://www.hds.harvard.edu/faculty-research/research-projects/the-gospel-of-jesuss-wife

The following article has just been published and is available online: Elliott, Thomas, Sebastian Heath, and John Muccigrosso, "Report on the Linked Ancient World Data Institute," Information Standards Quarterly, 2012 Spring/Summer, 24(2/3): 43-45 [ http://www.niso.org/publications/isq/2012/v24no2-3/elliott/ ].

Abstract:

From may 31 to June 2nd, 2012, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University hosted the Linked Ancient World Data Institute (LAWDI), an internationally attended workshop funded by the National Endowment for Humanities' Office of Digital Humanities (grant number: ht5004811). this three-day event mixed longer presentations by invited speakers with presentations by twenty applicants who had submitted statements of interest on why their work would benefit from intensive interaction with colleagues also pursuing digital publication of scholarly resources on the public internet.

ISAW is delighted to announce a one-day, public conference entitled The Reception of Antiquity: China and Europe, which will begin on Friday, 28 September 2012 at the Institute. Due to space limitations, RSVP is required via email to isaw@nyu.edu. Complete information is available on the conference website.

Description

Antiquity has its prolonged life through memories and imaginations that were shaped by textual and visual remains. Antiquarianism, which became an intellectual trend in China in the 11th century and in Europe in the 14th century, has captured much scholarly attention. Not limited to antiquarianism, this conference will explore more broadly the reception of antiquity in Chinese and European contexts. It will investigate questions such as what is antiquity? How did collections shape the notions of antiquity, or vice versa? How did the fascination with antiquity trigger new modes of cultural production? What is the role of antiquity in the modern era? This conference is intended to break down chronological, geographical, and disciplinary boundaries, bringing together a diverse and stimulating group of scholars who otherwise might not exchange ideas on the same platform.

ISAW is seeking current NYU students for part-time work as "IT Support Wizards" for the coming academic year. Eligible NYU students can view the job description and apply online via the NYU CareerNet system offered by the NYU Wasserman Center for Career Development (job id 866757). We regret that applications cannot be taken by other means.

James Cowey and Rodney Ast (Institut für Papyrologie, Universität Heidelberg) have just issued the second number in their series "Bulletin of Online Emendations to Papyri." The bulletin, which is freely available online in PDF format, lists all textual emendations that have been entered online at papyri.info and vetted by members of its scholarly editorial board. These emendations have not previously appeared in print. Fifty-one texts on papyri and ostraka are addressed in this issue.

Papyri.info is an open-access papyrological information system built and operated by ISAW and NYU Digital Library Technology services in collaboration with Duke University, Heidelberg University, the University of Kentucky, King's College London, and other institutions and scholars world-wide. In addition to institutional support and scholarly volunteer labor, papyri.info is supported by major funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.