This chapter examines the ways in which the Linear B ‘extra’ signs – syllabograms which can in certain circumstances replace the ‘core’ signs of the Linear B syllabary – are often used as evidence for the process by which this writing system was created from its parent writing system, Linear A, and thus, by extension, for reconstructing aspects of…[Read more]

In the winter of 476 A.D. the Ostrogoths, hungry and exhausted from wandering for months along the barren confines of the Byzantine Empire, wrote to Emperor Zeno in Constantinople requesting permission to enter the walled city of Epidaurum and just kinda crash and charge their phones. Closer to home, Orpheus walks Eurydice through a suburban…[Read more]

This essay explores how and why three early Christian figures–Epiphanius, Romanos the Melode, and Ambrosiaster–have, at various times, been imagined as former Jews. By applying a hermeneutics of conversion, this essay argues that the significance of these three Christians’ ex-Jewishness lies not in its historicity (or falsity) but in the way…[Read more]

A description and edition of a fragment of the early rabbinic work Sifre Numbers, miscatalogued as a different work, found in the university library, Wrocław.

Review of a collection of papers on variation in historical writing systems. The review focuses particularly on chapters on Linear B, Anatolian alphabets, and Hittite cuneiform.

Review of the most recent edition of Linear B inscriptions painted onto transport stirrup jars.

It is often claimed that the mortuary traditions that appeared in lowland Britain in the fifth century AD are an expression of new forms of ethnic identity, based on the putative memorialisation of a ‘Germanic’ heritage. This article considers the empirical basis for this assertion and evaluates it in the light of previously proposed ethnic con…[Read more]

This chapter explains the process by which the Linear B writing system was deciphered and shown to record a form of the Greek language, discussing the contributions of Emmett L Bennett, Alice E. Kober, Michael Ventris, and John Chadwick.

This article re-examines the evidence for the value of the Linear B sign pu2, in particular its appearance in the term da-pu2-ri-to- ‘labyrinth’, and demonstrates that it stands specifically for the value /phu/ (contrary to the usual assumption that it represents both /phu/ and /bu/). It then discusses the further implications of this con…[Read more]

This is the accepted version of the paper; the published version is available at doi.org/10.1075/wll.00025.jud (or by contacting me). This paper investigates the issue of orthographic variation in the Linear B writing system in order to explore ways in which studying a writing system’s orthographic conventions may shed light on the history of i…[Read more]

Focusing on the use and abuse in the study of Byzantine archaeology and Urbanism of the idea of the “Invisible Cities” as introduced in literature by Italo Calvino, this article attempts to set a framework for understanding Byzantine cities within clear and scientifically defined analytical categories as part of a modernist agenda. At the same tim…[Read more]

A work-in-progress, this is an extended bibliography on Messene covering the period from 1831 and up to today. It includes the excavation reports and archaeological/historical publications of ancient and byzantine Messene in Messenia, SW Peloponnese. Please send via mail or message any corrections, suggestions and additions.

Document contains the text of the Hōm-Yašt extracted from the TITUS database together with a line-by-line English translation and grammatical notes, sporadically with additional comparative Indo-European etymological information. This translation was originally made as part of MA course work undertaken in the Department of History and Classics a…[Read more]

Das vandalische Afrika gilt als Musterbeispiel des „Kirchenkampfs“ zwischen
homöischen Barbaren und katholischen Römern. Kronzeugen sind Victor von Vita,
Fulgentius von Ruspe und Quodvultdeus von Karthago. Etwa 50 Jahre nach dem Ende
der Vandalenkönige inAfrika 533 kam es dagegen in Spanien zum Ausgleich zwischen
Katholiken und Homöer…[Read more]

Book review of new edition and translation of the poetry of Maximianus.

Book review of a recent book on the reception of late antiquity.

“The Microcosmic Imaginary in Rabbinic Midrash,” BeDarkhei Shalom, Studies in Jewish Thought Presented to Prof. Shalom Rosenberg, B. Ish-Shalom (ed.), Jerusalem: Beit Morasha, 205-207 (Hebrew

This is the regular issue of the journal INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TAMIL LANGUAGE AND LITERARY STUDIES (E-ISSN: 2581-7140), VOL – 2: ISSUE – 2, JANUARY 2020. There are 21 scholarly articles in English, 21 of them in Tamil Language and one in English.

This is the Vol – 2, SPECIAL ISSUE 3 : VOL – 2, FEBRUARY 2020.

Review article on five recent books relating to late Latin poetry