Nearest book

I'm now hemmed in by this meme, so I'll purge it:

Σα[μί]ων·

Nora M. Dimitrova, Theoroi and Initiates in Samothrace: The Epigraphical Evidence, Hesperia Supplement 37, American School of Classical Studies in Athens, Princeton, NJ, 2008, no. 22, l. 20.

This was selected according to the following viral criteria, which I now inflict on you gentle readers:

• Grab the nearest book.
• Open it to page 56.
• Find the fifth sentence.
• Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
• Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

The fifth line on page 56 (line 20 in the inscribed text) was the best I could do since this inscription is a long and fragmentary list of names and doesn't really have sentences.

Adoption, Fostering, Abortion and Marriage

Recent events impel me to depart briefly from the customary DH geekery here to say, as calmly, respectfully and as earnestly as I can:

If you think that this country or one of its states should inhibit medical and legal opportunities for its citizens to obtain safe abortions and/or prohibit the fostering or adoption of orphaned children on the basis of the marital status or sexual orientation of the prospective parents, but you do not already have an adopted or foster child in your loving home, I urge you to search your heart and ask it this question before you hoist another placard, pen another letter to an editor or vote on another ballot initiative: "Why not?"

BAtlas Grids in KML (some of them)

Would you like to have simple polygons of the Barrington Atlas map grid squares? Maybe for munging an existing placenames list up against BAtlas IDs?... We're using them to help keep you updated on Pleiades content digitization status.

We've started putting the grids up on the web in KML 2.2 under a cc-by-sa license. We'll keep you posted as we add more. Meanwhile, get them here: http://atlantides.org/batlas/grids/

synergy: THATCamp 2009 + DH2009

Just announced: a 2009 reprise of CHNM's successful THATCamp (27-28 June 2009) will follow Digital Humanities 2009 (22-25 June 2009). I'm looking forward to attending both this year, I hope.

William Adams: Nubia's Other Civilization: the forgotten glories of the medieval kingdoms.

A lecture in New York:

William Y. Adams
Nubia's Other Civilization: the forgotten glories of the medieval kingdoms.
Date: November 20
Time: 12:00 pm
Location: ISAW, 2nd Floor Common Room

Mario Liverani: The History of the Sahara in Antiquity: Mirage or Scientific Project?

A lecture in New York:

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World Annual Leon Levy Lecture
Date: November 13
Time: 6:00 pm

Lecturer: Professor Mario Liverani, University of Rome "La Sapienza"
Topic:"The History of the Sahara in Antiquity: Mirage or Scientific Project?"
Please RSVP to liverani.lecture@nyu.edu

Sabine Huebner: Household and Family in Past Time: The Roman East and West

A lecture in New York:

Sabine Huebner (Columbia University)
Household and Family in Past Time: The Roman East and West
Date: November 12
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: ISAW, Salmon Room on the 2nd Floor

Beate Pongratz-Leisten: Astralization of the Gods and the Concept of the Divine in Ancient Mesopotamia

A lecture in New York:

Beate Pongratz-Leisten (Princeton University)
Astralization of the Gods and the Concept of the Divine in Ancient Mesopotamia
Date: November 11
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: ISAW, Salmon Room on the 2nd Floor

Anne Porter: Of Bricks and Bodies: Integrating history, archaeology and an anthropology of art in the study of the ancient Near East

A lecture in New York:

Anne Porter (University of Southern California)
Of Bricks and Bodies: Integrating history, archaeology and an anthropology of art in the study of the ancient Near East
Date: November 10
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: ISAW, Salmon Room on the 2nd Floor

Daniel Potts: East of Ur and west of Meluhha, or what Elam, Ansan, Dilmun, Magan, Marhasi and Simaski were up to in the late 3rd millennium BC

A lecture in New York:

Daniel Potts (University of Sydney and The Institute for Advanced Study)
East of Ur and west of Meluhha, or what Elam, Ansan, Dilmun, Magan, Marhasi and Simaski were up to in the late 3rd millennium BC
Date: November 6
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: ISAW, Salmon Room on the 2nd Floor

CNRS-NYU Inaugural Workshop on Early Mathematics

This just in:

CNRS-NYU Inaugural Workshop on Early Mathematics

November 24 and 25th, 2008

New York University's new Institute for the Study of the 
Ancient World (ISAW) has made a major commitment to the study of the mathematical sciences in antiquity through the appointment of Alexander Jones as Professor of the Exact Sciences in Antiquity. The CNRS research group REHSEIS (Recherches épistémologiques et historiques sur les sciences exactes et les institutions scientifiques) has from its beginnings developed research on mathematics in ancient Asia (China: K. Chemla, India: A. Keller, Mesopotamia: C. Proust).


Within the context of the recently set up NYU—CNRS Center for International Research in the Humanities and Social sciences (UMI 3199), ISAW and REHSEIS intend to join forces and develop a joint research program on the mathematcal sciences in antiquity. The workshop marks the beginning of this collaborative effort. It aims at exploring the hypothesis that resituating mathematical developments in the context of distinct professional groups is an essential goal if we are to restore the variety of mathematical practices in the past and thereby to identify more easily instances and modes of transmission between professional milieus and geographical regions of the ancient Old World.


If you wish to attend the workshop, please contact Alexander Jones (alexander.jones@nyu.edu, 212 992-7816). Space is limited.

Program

Monday, November 24, at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, 15 E. 84th Street

9:00 A.M.: Coffee

9:30 A.M. - 1:00 P.M.

• Karine Chemla (REHSEIS, CNRS & University Paris Diderot P. 7)
  Introductory words
• Christine Proust (REHSEIS)
  Structure of series texts: a new approach of cuneiform mathematical corpus
• John Steele (Brown University)
  Shadows in Babylonian Astronomy
• Agathe Keller (REHSEIS)
  Reflecting on the different social groups that produced mathematical knowledge and texts in ancient India: different research perspectives, with a special emphasis on the history of versified problems and the perspective they open.
  

1:00 P.M. - 2:30 P.M.: Lunch (buffet)

2:30 P.M. - 6:00 P.M.

• Toke Knudsen (SUNY)
  The Direction of Down and Adhesive Antipodeans: Tradition and Innovation in Medieval Indian Astronomy
• Michio Yano (Kyoto Sangyo University)
  Buddhist astronomy and astrology
• Karine Chemla (REHSEIS)
  Writing down texts for algorithms: views from ancient China
  

Tuesday, November 25, at the NYU/CNRS International Research Center, 4 Washington Square North, 2nd floor

9:30 A.M. - 1:00 P.M.

• Alexander Jones (ISAW, NYU)
  Introductory words
• Markus Asper (NYU)
  Narratives in Greek Mathematics?
• Joe Dauben (CUNY)
  Archimedes and Liu Hui on Circles and Spheres
• Alexander Jones (ISAW, NYU)
  Parapegma puzzles: reconstructing Greek documents on stellar risings and setting

•