GRRk

Checking in

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:52:58 GMT

I'm back from a week and a half traveling, with very little internet access - none in the hotel, and kinda weedy access in the meeting, too. Catching up.

Plus I didn't even get a tan :) since it was mostly overcast and wet despite being summer over there. The meeting was at Bondi, Australia.

Raid du Mercantour, Train du neige

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:54:58 GMT

The Mercantour National park is a scenic area of France, in the Alps, right up against the border with Italy. Actually it only became part of France in 1947. Anyway, from January to March there is a special combined train and bus ticket, the 'train du neige' to take people from Nice in sunny Cote d'Azur up to St. Delmas du Tende and then by coach on twisty narrow roads to Castorino in the snowwy mountains. Good photo opportunities, a nice ride through the mountains. And snow, which we don't get in Nice. When we got there, it turned out that there was a mountain bike (VTT) race on. In the snow. And also paragliding. And a dog sled. All at once.

Yes, all of these activities were taking place at the same time and the same location. It could have been chaos and sometimes was, but all with a relaxed good humour and tolerance that I found refreshing. Photos link to larger ones.

Here the paraglider is starting to descend while some bikers are on the flat, close-to-the-village part of the course before it heads uphill into the trees.

The paraglider ~~crashes~~ lands, just missing one of the bikers.

Biker risks a look back at what nearly hit him. You can clearly see the "WTF" thought bubble in this photo.

Just to keep things surreal, a dog sled also drives across the bike race.

Reading level

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:51:32 GMT

Apparently, according to some online test, the required reading level of this blog is 'junior high'. (If that term means nothing to you, which is likely for non-Americans, wikipedia explains that this is broadly equivalent to collège in France and, reading between the lines, it sounds like the first few years of secondary school in Scotland. I further deduce that it doesn't peek behind livejournal cuts like this one - yup that one is college (undergrad).

Just for fun and to see what it made of technical material, I gave it the SVG Tiny 1.2 spec which it said was college (postgraduate) level. I assume that means doctoral studies at university.

And even more fun, Epona distribution requires, apparently, a genius. I mean, genius? Really? Of course in an automated test the big, clear maps count for nothing; perhaps it was startled by the provision of references?

Sunset at Èze-sur-mer

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:40:24 GMT

Towards the end of a long walk down the cliffside path from Èze village to Èze-sur-Mer. Apparently Nietzsche used to take this walk while living there, and wrote some of Also Sprach Zarathustra there. Not being one of the Übermensch I did this walk in the descending rather than ascending direction :)

Here are some acorns from a holm oak, spotted on the way down.

Sunset doorway (and playing with lenses)

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:29:32 GMT

New lens, finally a sunny day 4 days later :) . Here I liked the wood tones, architectural detailing and the reflection of the sunset-lit buildings across the street.

New lens is a Cosina Voigtländer Ultron 40mm f/2, here used on a Nikon D40. This is a nicely built, manual focus prime lens (review here).

watching you, watching me

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:52:52 GMT

Last week I attended a workshop in San Jose, CA. Except that I attended from a video conference suite in Brussels (1.5 hour flight rather than 10 hour flight). It was an interesting meeting too, although it was odd working at those hours (5pm to 2am, which translates to 9am to 5pm in California).

The facilities were top-notch, with two HD cameras per site and a pair of large screens at the front of each meeting room. It was, though, a little odd knowing who to address and where to look. Here is a photo of the screen in Brussels, where a speaker (green top, in San Jose) is "looking" at the monitor, at someone asking a question (standing with mike, in black, in Brussels). You can also see myself, taking the photo!. But from the point of Brussels, we were looking at the back of their heads. Forest of laptops, typical for that sort of meeting.

Balisage in Montreal

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:19:29 GMT

I will be going to a new conference, Balisage, next year. Its located in Montréal, Canada and takes place August 12 – 15, 2008. The subject is Markup (in the technical and XML sense, mainly). Based on the track record of the people organising it I expect it to be good. Hope to see some of the EpiDoc electronic epigraphers there, for example, and hopefully some SVG people too.

The actual geographic location of folk on my flist is usually not something I pay close attention to; I wonder though who else is either going, or lives in the area?

Gaulish Acculturation

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 13:25:30 GMT

This book arrived over a week ago, but I haven't had chance to do much more than glance at it so far. Hoping to read some more this weekend. It was recommended on a mailing list I am on, and Ceffyl had expressed interest in it so I got a copy from Oxbow (Amazon is out of stock).

Watson, Alasdair (2007) Religious Acculturation and Assimilation in Belgic Gaul and Aquitania from the Roman Conquest until the End of the Second Century CE. Archaepress, British Archaeological Reports, BAR International Series, 1624. ISBN 1-4073-0036-9

(I would show a picture of the cover but its a ~~boring~~ sober, plain A4 solid red with black lettering.)

Initial impressions are promising. The book is fully referenced, adequately illustrated, and replete with ancient material (quoted in its original language). The first chapter, entitled "Presumptions and Presuppositions" immediately critiques the concept of "Romanisation" as being simplistic, one-way, colonials-improving-the natives and similarly demonstrates both flaws and lack of applicability of the Core-Periphery model which is really just a dressed-ip form of diffusionism. Acculturation implies, on the other hand, selective uptake and modification and also allows for a two-way street - Romans influence Gauls but also Gauls influence Romans. (Of course, Gauls had been influencing Romans since th 4th century BCE, the sack of Rome being an interesting way to say hello).

The maps at the start are scrappy and unreadable; I suggest getting better ones such as may be found in any atlas of Classical or European history. (Barrington Atlas, if you have access to one). The choice of Belgic Gaul and Aquitania is curious, its not yet clear why Celtic Gaul is excluded from the study. Furthermore, the boundaries used are not the Caesarian ones - in place at the start of the study period - but the later ones (Aquitania bounded by the Loire, not the Garonne; Belgic Baul extending southwards rather than being bounded by the Seine; Germainia Superior and Inferior already carved out) so a bunch of Celtic Gaul is in practice included anyway.

More when I have read more, this is just to note my first impression.

Nothing to see here

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 11:32:25 GMT

Technorati Profile

Fourrage

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 11:36:06 GMT

I just posted some thoughts on 'filling the gaps' in the archaeological or historical record, which is something that a recon sometimes needs to do. Its in gaulish_recon and was originally a response to a question posed by eydimork.

Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 21:12:14 GMT

I see that oxbow has Graf, Fritz and Sarah Illes Johnston (2007) Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets Routledge, ISBN 0-415-41551-9 on sale for £17.00 in paperback.

Edited to add: there is now a review at BMCR.

Third century Gaulish personal name

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 21:25:08 GMT

This is one of those things, you will either find this interesting, bordering on exciting, or will go "whatever" in which case, you will not click on the link. Oh and its a fairly long posting and involves multiple languages.

I was idly flicking through Speidel (1994) – which in my case was not a very fast flick, more a sort of dawdle as my level of German language competence is below minimal – when I came across and interesting and unexpected detail.

I should explain that this book is a catalogue of inscriptional evidence relating to the Imperial Horse Guard of the Roman Emperor - mainly dating from its (re)formation under Trajan to its dissolution under Constantine. Some altar dedications, mostly gravestones. In a fine piece of irony, the fact that Constantine was so keen to erase the equites (by demolishing their forts at Rome, building the basilica of St. John Lateran on the site of the newer fort, and his own mausoleum on the site of their training ground and graveyard outside Rome) meant that their remains were preserved right up to the 20th century. Oh and the book has photos of each stone, too. But I digress.

So, here is the interesting gravestone inscription (CIL 6, 3265; Speidel 1994, 312-313). If the []() stuff is unfamiliar, look at this description of the Leiden conventions first.

D(is) M(anibus)
Iulius Noemb-
er, eq(ues) s(ingularis) imp(eratoris) n(ostri),
t(urma) Fortunati,
qui vixit an(nos) XXXVI
st(i)p(endiorum) XIII curan-
te Atilius
Icorandus
f(aciendum) c(uravit).

There are three people mentioned here. First the deceased, Julius Noember, a trooper (since no other rank is given) of the equites singulares augusti; he had been in the troop commanded by Fortunatus (who would have held the rank of decurion). Lastly is the guy who held the saved money to pay for a tombstone, Atilius Icorandus.

Speidel notes that this is an unusual name and attempts to correct this by claiming a mis-spelling or mis-reading of a more conventionally Latin name, Decorandus. But this is, frankly, unconvincing; and also unnecessary. Its a straightforward Gaulish name, only the case-ending being Latin.

ico- is a common prefix (Delamarre 2003, 187) in personal names and also place names, although the precise meaning is disputed. Examples include Ico-tasgus, Ico-uellauna, Icconius, Ιχορειξ and Ιχο-ταρίον. -randus isn't listed directly, but there is a word equoranda which means either a water-border (such as a river between the territories of two tribes/nations) or an agreed border, depending on your favoured derivation of the equo- term (Delamarre 2003, 164-165). Furthermore, equo- is possibly derived from ico-! So to me, Icorandus leaps out as a Gaulish name meaning something like 'border-man'.

I was pleased to note that the recently published Delamarre (2007, 108) does indeed list Icorandus as Gaulish and lists this inscription as evidence.

Okay, so we have a Gaulish personal name (itself significant, since most of the equites singulares augustii were recruited from Germania Inferior or, in the third century, Pannonia). But then, Speidel goes on to date this inscription to the third century on stylistic grounds and the use of particular abbreviations (which seem to have changed over time, like fashions). Now, conventionally Gaulish was rapidly replaced by Latin during the first century CE, except for some isolated country-bumpkin hold-outs. But here we have someone, in the third century, at the imperial court, using a Gaulish name. And that is unexpected, and noteworthy.

Delamarre, X. (2003) Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise: une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental. Paris, Editions Errance.
Delamarre, X. (2007) Noms de personnes celtiques dans l'épigraphie classique. Paris, Editions Errance.
Speidel, Michael P. (1994) Die Denkmäler der Kaiserreiter Equites Singulares Augusti Köln, Rheinland-Verlag

Another of those social scraping things

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 18:45:13 GMT

Based on the lj interests lists of those who share my more unusual interests, the interests suggestion meme thinks I might be interested in
1. celts score: 2
2. taranis score: 2
3. polytheism score: 2
4. wyrd score: 1
5. kristalle score: 1
6. katharsis score: 1
7. silvanus score: 1
8. nachtschatten score: 1
9. musica officinalis score: 1
10. gaulish score: 1
11. disillusion score: 1
12. tiamat score: 1
13. brittonic score: 1
14. glaswald score: 1
15. silva hercynia score: 1
16. rollenspiel score: 1
17. gae bolg score: 1
18. brythonic languages score: 1
19. nietzsche score: 1
20. burchard von worms score: 1

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I'm both surprised and please that gaul is not listed as unusual, although gaulish (the language) is.

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 18:44:26 GMT

Well, I missed the deadline so yes I do suck.

Oh me miseram.

Make or break time

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 21:10:48 GMT

Well, this is it. This weekend I have to either finish the Epona paper I have been working on (each weekend for the last, er, 3 months) or write and tell the FERCAN workshop organizers that I officially suck and can't get them a paper in time for publication. And hate myself for ever.

This probably means trimming sections, accepting that some things are not as well explained as i would like, and so on. In other words, the perfect is the enemy of the good sort of story. Again. Which may be no bad thing given that this sucker is already upwards of 35 pages, without illustrations.

Oh and I'm going to leave off converting SVG graphics to EPS until Sunday, otherwise I will spend the whole time fiddling with that and not finish off the actual writing part.

Motivational encouragement, taunts, etc gladly appreciated. Oh - FERCAN is FONTES EPIGRAPHICI RELIGIONVM CELTICARVM ANTIQVARVM. They had a workshop two years ago in London, which I attended; and another in Lisbon, last year, at which I spoke. This is the write-up of that talk. Yes, its way late.

A capitulation of sorts

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 18:42:01 GMT

There are a few folks I know who have blogs on LiveJournal (and others on blogger, running WordPress, or some software they wrote themselves back in the day, etc etc). I dislike walled gardens and find blank blogs pointless so up to now, I have been commenting on those LJ blogs via my OpenID. Identity and where (or if) you post your blog should be separate. It works, but only up to a point.

Today the second class citizen status of the openID commentor irked me a bit too much, and I created this blog specifically to reply to a posting (which disallowed OpenID, and required one to be a friend, and so on). I'm not proud. I still think the principle stands. But I had to bend a little.

Way to go for an upbeat first posting, huh?