16th August 2005, 02:59 PM
My recent jolly now counts as the second time that I have worked with classics types. I have to say that I have been inspired to read Aristotle, Plato and a few other bits. Homer I still find as accessible as Avril Lavigne`s undies (sadly) but am picking up the general gist of multi-layered analogy! Without offering my own opinion, what are everyones opinion/experiences of classics types in the field?[?]
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16th August 2005, 10:31 PM
Well, Schliemann seems to have been fairly successful!
Never actually worked with classicists in the field but I am fairly convinced that most archaeologists should not be let loose with textual sources because they lack the analytical toolkit required to interpret said texts. As a result they tend to accept the texts at face value or dismiss them out of hand. One example is the Icelandic sagas. These were originally assumed to be wholly historical documents. Then there was a reaction to this and they were dismissed as being wholly fictional. I think most people have now come round to the view that they are true in part and fictional in part but also that they are important texts that, when interpreted appropriately, can enable an understanding of how Icelandic and Norse history was created. Following on from the interpretation of the sagas as fiction or fact, Icelandic archaeology has been dominated by the desire to identify saga sites on the ground, which is a fairly daft way of going about things IMO.
Cheers,
Eggbasket
Eggy by name, eggy by nature
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17th August 2005, 02:28 AM
Never had the dubious honour of digging with the aforementioned "classicists". However I have dug with some academics( a noted Avebury specialist springs to mind) who was stuck so far up his own A**E that he couldn't see daylight. Also had the dubious pleasure of going on a field trip once with a really small lecturer who went out of his way to knock all the other members of the college's academic staff, very strange!!
deep
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17th August 2005, 02:48 PM
Polybius is a good wheeze on the Punic Wars, Hannibal's invasion of Italy, and the Athenian League. Lots of other good stuff about how to be a "a historian" and how to be "an honest politician". Unfortunately a lot of the later books are fragmentary.
Plato's Republic can be a bit heavy but read Machiavelli's "The Prince" after you've struggled through it.
Heroditus, Hippocrates and Galen are also pretty good.
Little Tim
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17th August 2005, 04:50 PM
Gota go out on a limb here folks as regard rogue degrees in the feild shout me down in flames if you like but as far as im concerened no Archaeology Degree no archaeologist job. You wouldnt get an engineers job with a classics degree.
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18th August 2005, 10:56 AM
For classics you just can't beat Ovid's Metamorphisis... that guy was twisted... but it shows you that we are not that different... well in a depraved, drinking fornicating kind of way...
Another day another WSI?
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18th August 2005, 01:32 PM
Petronius, Suetonius, Julius Caesar, The 2 Plinys, Virgil, Cato are also pretty good. Ovid is good (had to learn his Metamorpheses for Latin O level).
Little Tim
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18th August 2005, 01:52 PM
A holiday in Greece is much more entertaining if you have access to Pausanias "Guide to Greece" which has all the mythological gossip about the major sites (minor sites can be trickier to find as he navigates by landscape features which aren't necessarily there any more).
As an evil joint honours person (Ancient History and Archaeology) I'm thoroughly proud of having found the Roman History bit of my degree way way way more useful than anything the Archaeology Department ever tried to teach me. At least I can identify coins...
[:0]
Body at work and mind on vacation
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23rd August 2005, 06:01 PM
Reading the classics is supreme fun, and it is surprising how evocative a site can become when you've got the historical context to fit it in! Think Tramalchio's 'Dinner Party' (the Satyricon) which was incidentially later filmed by Fellini in his own odd style - or how useful is Vitruvius and his rules of architecture when thinking about how a Roman building comes together? Or Frontinus and water management in Rome? Or even the description of Ceasar meeting the druids at Anglesey?
Any reading is good reading - maybe not to hit and miss dig - but to fill in the background info. Those funky Roman sites only get cooler when you can imagine the time from the horse's mouth.
ML (with a degree in Classics and Latin, and another in Classical Archaeology [:p]).
