Friday, April 25, 2014

New from the OI: Publications of the Oriental Institute, 1906-2014: Exploring the History and Civilization of the Near East

http://oi.uchicago.edu/pdf/oic26.pdf

This volume consists of urls to publications on the Ancient Near East from the OI from 1906-2014. The urls are not active by clicking, but can be copy/pasted onto a browser.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Digital Egypt for Universities

http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/Welcome.html

Don't let the "universities" throw you. This site by UCL is a great resource and has as its chief objective:
support for learning across different disciplines - including learners and teachers who may know nothing about, or even be interested in, Egypt. The site is aimed at you especially if your subject includes a historical dimension - architecture, art, medicine, science, religion, literature, gender studies, cultural studies, museum studies.
It contains a chronology, maps, and many links to further information.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Learning Latin

http://www.graverini.net/learning-latin/?lang=en

This will not be a "go to" source for learning the language as it only has a timeline, morphology and vocabulary drills as well as a forthcoming crossword puzzle. It may, however, be a good resource for supplementing a Latin grammar.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

WikiProject Bible

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Bible

Wikipedia does biblical studies!

From the homepage:

Some Wikipedians have formed Wikiproject Bible to better organize information in articles related to The Bible. This page and its subpages contain their suggestions; it is hoped that this project will help to focus the efforts of other Wikipedians.
As a group, we do not prefer any particular tradition or interpretation of the Bible, but endeavor that all Biblical teachings, historical accounts, and prophecy are fairly and accurately represented. If you'd like to join and become a part of this project, sign the Membership Page.
The site has tons of information, but like any online source (Wikipedia or otherwise), let the reader beware of whether the information is accurate.

One of the resources in this site is Eerdman's Dictionary of the Bible:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Bible/Encyclopedic_articles 

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Oriental Institute Museum Publications 37: In Remembrance of Me: Feasting with the Dead in the Ancient Middle East

http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/oimp/oimp37.html

From the website:

Oriental Institute Museum Publications (OIMP)

OIMP 37.

In Remembrance of Me: Feasting with the Dead in the Ancient Middle East

Edited by Virginia Rimmer Herrmann and J. David Schloen

This Oriental Institute Museum exhibit catalog looks at how the living commemorated and cared for deceased ancestors in the ancient Middle East. The focus of the exhibit is the memorial monument (stele) of an official named Katumuwa (ca. 735 BC), discovered in 2008 by University of Chicago archaeologists at the site of Zincirli, Turkey. Part I of the catalog presents the most comprehensive collection of scholarship yet published on the interpretation of the Katumuwa Stele, an illuminating new document of ancestor cult and beliefs about the soul. In Part II, leading scholars describe the relationship between the living and the dead in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia, and the Levant (Syria-Palestine), providing a valuable introduction to the family and mortuary religion of the ancient Middle East. The fifty-seven objects cataloged highlight the role of food and drink offerings and stone effigies in maintaining a place for the dead in family life.

Table of Contents

    1. Foreword
    2. Preface
    3. List of Contributors
    4. Map of Select Sites
    5. Introduction: The Katumuwa Stele and the Commemoration of the Dead in the Ancient Middle East. Virginia R. Herrmann
  1. Part I. The Katumuwa Stele from Zincirli
    1. The City of Katumuwa: The Iron Age Kingdom of Sam’al and the Excavations of Zincirli. J. David Schloen
    2. Katumuwa’s Banquet Scene. Dominik Bonatz
    3. The Katumuwa Inscription. Dennis Pardee
    4. The Katumuwa Stele in Archaeological Context. Virginia R. Herrmann
    5. The Katumuwa Stele in the Context of Royal Mortuary Cult at Sam’al. Herbert Niehr
  2. Part II. Feasts for the Dead in the Ancient Middle East
    1. Religious, Communal, and Political Feasting in the Ancient Middle East. Marian H. Feldman
    2. Feasts for the Dead and Ancestor Veneration in Levantine Traditions. Theodore J. Lewis
    3. Death Binds: On Some Rites Surrounding Death in Ancient Anatolia. Theo van den Hout
    4. Dead that Are Slow to Depart: Evidence for Ancestor Rituals in Mesopotamia. Karel van der Toorn
    5. Feasts for the Dead and Ancestor Veneration in Egyptian Tradition. Miriam Müller
  3. Part III. Catalog
    1. The Katumuwa Stele (Nos. 1-12)
    2. The Soul in the Stone: Effigies of the Dead (Nos. 13-21)
    3. The Banquet in Life and Death (Nos. 22-27)
    4. Dishes for the Dead (Nos. 28-49)
    5. Fast Food: Magical Methods of Provisioning the Dead (Nos. 50-52)
    6. Epilogue: Contemporary Commemorations (Nos. 53-59)
    1. Concordance of Museum Registration Numbers
    2. Checklist of the Exhibit
    3. Bibliography
 

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Open Access Festschriften and Gedenkschriften published by the Oriental Institute

Festschriften and Gedenkschriften published by the Oriental Institute

Baer, Klaus*For His Ka: Essays Offered in Memory of Klaus Baer. D. P. Silverman, ed. 1994.

Biggs, Robert D.*: Studies Presented to Robert D. Biggs, June 4, 2004 From the Workshop of the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, Volume 2 Martha T. Roth, Walter Farber, Matthew W. Stolper and Paula von Bechtolsheim, eds. 2007.

Braidwood, Robert J.*: The Hilly Flanks and Beyond: Essays on the Prehistory of Southwestern Asia Presented to Robert J. Braidwood, November 15, 1982. T. Cuyler Young, Jr., Philip E. L. Smith, and Peder Mortensen, editors. Originally published in 1983.

Esse, Douglas L.*: Studies in the Archaeology of Israel and Neighboring Lands in Memory of Douglas L. Esse. Samuel R. Wolff, ed. 2001.

Golb, Norman*: Pesher Nahum: Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature from Antiquity through the Middle Ages Presented to Norman (Nahum) Golb. Edited by Joel L. Kraemer and Michael G. Wechsler with the participation of Fred Donner, Joshua Holo, and Dennis Pardee. 2012

Gragg, Gene B.*: Studies in Semitic and Afroasiatic Linguistics Presented to Gene B. Gragg. Cynthia L. Miller, ed. 2007.

Güterbock, Hans Gustav*: Kanissuwar - A Tribute to Hans G. Güterbock on His Seventy-Fifth Birthday, May 27, 1983. H. A. Hoffner, Jr. and G. M. Beckman, eds. 1986.

Huehnergard, John*Language and Nature: Papers Presented to John Huehnergard on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday. Edited by Rebecca Hasselbach and Na’ama Pat-El. 2012.

Hughes, George R.*: Studies in Honor of George R. Hughes, January 12, 1977. J. H. Johnson and E. F. Wente, eds. 1976.

Jacobsen, Thorkild*: Sumerological Studies in Honor of Thorkild Jacobsen on His Seventieth Birthday June 7, 1974. S. J. Lieberman, ed. 1976.

Kantor, Helene J.*: Essays in Ancient Civilization Presented to Helene J. Kantor. A. Leonard, Jr. and B. B. Williams, eds. 1989.

Landsberger, Benno*: Studies in Honor of Benno Landsberger on His Seventy-fifth Birthday, April 21, 1963. Edited by Hans G. Güterbock and Thorkild Jacobsen. Originally published in 1965.

Oppenheim, A. Leo.*Studies Presented to A. Leo Oppenheim, June 7, 1964. R. D. Biggs and J. A. Brinkman, editors. Originally published in 1964.

Wente, Edward F.*: Gold of Praise: Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honor of Edward F. Wente. E. Teeter and J. A. Larson, eds. 1999.

Wilson, John A.*: Studies in Honor of John A. Wilson. E. B. Hauser, ed. 1969.

The Bulletin of the John Rylands Library

http://www.johncassidy.org.uk/bulletin/

From the home page:

About the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library


The John Rylands Library in Manchester, England was conceived by Mrs Enriqueta Rylands as a memorial to her late husband John Rylands, a textile merchant and manufacturer. After several years in construction, it opened to the public in 1900. Appointed as Librarian, after a period as Joint Librarian, was Henry Guppy. Among his other achievements, he founded a journal which has continued until the present day: the Bulletin, which he edited until his death, while still in post as  Librarian,  in 1948. His introduction to the first issue, Vol.1 No.1 dated April - June 1903, included what in modern parlance might be called a 'mission statement':

The primary purpose of this bulletin is to record the titles of works acquired for the library during the quarter preceding the date of each issue, in order that students, not only in Manchester, but also in other and distant parts of the world, may be kept informed of the growth of its collections. In short, it will be made a vehicle for conveying information respecting the library, its progress, and even its wants. But there are other and more ambitious designs that we have in view, and it may be well in this our first number to state that we shall hope from time to time to deal with much that concerns bibliography. When we speak of bibliography, we use the term in its broadest sense, as the science of books considered under all aspects. This will include occasional lists of works on specific subjects, in the nature of reading-lists, bibliographical and historical notes on any specially noteworthy additions, and articles on the special collections and famous books in which the library is so rich, with the object of extending the usefulness of the library and of making its resources better known.

The early issues had the title Quarterly Bulletin of the John Rylands Library but  only six issues had appeared by 1908 when publication ceased, following the death of Mrs Rylands. These six comprise Volume 1, for which a title page and frontispiece were issued for binding purposes. Vol.2 No.1, which appeared in 1914, has an explanation written by Guppy: '... by reason of the exigencies of other work it was found necessary to suspend publication until some of the more urgent claims of the Library had been relieved.' Among those pressures was the need to build an extension to the building, including somewhere for the staff to work.  A list of staff in Vol.2 has, in addition to Guppy and Sub-Librarian Guthrie Vine:  Chief Assistant Librarian Julian Peacock, Assistant Librarians Arthur W. Kiddle, Frank H. Nuttall, Bernard Tennant, Oliver J Sutton. Senior assistants Cuthbert Peach, M.H. Hunter. Junior Assistants E. Allan Maltby, Horace Crossley. Assistant Secretary James Jones. The name Bernard Tennant is of interest: his father Stephen J. Tennant (1843-1914),  was Mrs Rylands' brother, a member of the Library's board of Governors, and a director of the Rylands and Sons textile firm.

The introduction to Volume 2 also states that 'the format has been changed from the quarto of the original volume to the handier octavo size of the present issue, while changes in the arrangement of the contents have been decided upon, with the object of increasing its usefulness.' Quarterly issues were still intended, although the title was simply Bulletin of the John Rylands Library with 'Manchester' below the title in smaller type. However, Volume 2 was the only one to have four actual issues; later some pairs of issues were combined as one, and by Volume 8 (1924) publication had settled into a pattern of two issues per year, which was maintained for many years. At first, issues were dated January and July; but following a special volume 25 (1941) dedicated to Henry Guppy,  volumes spanned the year end, with issue 1 in the autumn and issue 2 the following spring. The Bulletin had become a multi-disciplinary academic journal, with contributions from Library staff, and academic staff of the University of Manchester, as well as researchers from around the world. Some authors, such as H.B. Charlton, of the English Department at Manchester, and F.F. Bruce of the Theology Department, contributed to almost every issue in their time.

After Guppy's death in 1948, his replacement as Librarian, Edward Robertson, took over as editor, although not named as such until Vol. 41 (1958-59).  Robertson had served from 1934 as Professor of Semitic Studies at the University of Manchester until retirement in 1945. In 1949 he was offered and accepted the position of Librarian. He held the post until 1960 when he was appointed as Director to relieve him of administrative duties; those passed to Ronald Hall who was given the title of Acting Librarian. Robertson retired, aged 86, in 1963 and moved to Canada where he died not long afterwards.

Ronald Hall (1900-1975), who  joined the Library in 1915 as an assistant on leaving Manchester Grammar School, was the next Librarian. In 1927 he was promoted to Assistant Librarian, and became Keeper of Printed Books in 1949. In October 1963, he was confirmed as Librarian, and remained in post until his retirement in 1970 after 55 years on the Library staff.

Ronald Hall was succeeded as Librarian on 1 November 1970 by the Keeper of Manuscripts, Dr. Frank Taylor, who had joined the Library staff in 1935 as Keeper of Western Manuscripts, a position he held until 1949, in which year he became Keeper of Manuscripts, a post which he retained after becoming Librarian.

By 1970 The Library was running seriously short of funds, despite a financial contribution from the University. In 1969 negotiations had begun with the University of Manchester regarding a possible takeover of the Library, to be managed by the University Library. The University Librarian of the time, Fred Ratcliffe, had an expansionist policy, and an ambition to create a copyright library in Manchester for the north of England, and in 1972 the John Rylands University Library of Manchester was formed by the merger of the two libraries. The John Rylands Library building became officially known as the Deansgate Building, and its staff were incorporated into the University Library's establishment and salary scales, some of them being transferred to new roles based in the Main Library building on the University campus on Oxford Road. 

Frank Taylor became Deputy Director of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, whilst remaining at Deansgate as Principal Keeper. The change is explained in the 'Notes and News' section of Volume 55(1). Taylor continued to edit the Bulletin, which changed title to Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, beginning with Volume 55 (1972-73), and he remained as Editor after retirement from his full-time post in 1977, until he resigned as Editor in September 1987. Vol.56 is the first to name him as Editor, although in vol. 70 (1988) it is stated 'This is the first issue of the Bulletin for nearly forty years not to have appeared under the guiding hand of Dr Frank Taylor' which suggests that he had been involved in the editing work since the death of Guppy in 1948.

An interesting feature of Volumes  56 to 63 is the the inclusion in the Bulletin of the 'Librarian's Annual Report', which is a useful record of events across the whole John Rylands University Library. After Fred Ratcliffe was replaced as Librarian by Dr Michael Pegg in 1981, however, the practice ceased.

Dr Ratcliffe had an interest in typography, and planned to introduce the typeface 'Optima' into all signs and publications; this eventually reached the Bulletin, which for many years had been printed in a distinctive typeface, in Vol.63. After just two volumes, Pegg authorised its replacement with a more standard serif style.  An unexplained oddity from this period is that the page numbers in Vol. 67 continue from those in Vol. 66, reverting to 1 at the start of Vol.68.

What happened after Taylor's resignation is explained in a Preface by Michael Pegg, in Volume 70 (1988):
It is entirely symptomatic of Dr Taylor's personal energy and catholicity of interest that no one individual will succeed him as Editor of the Bulletin. Rather the Bulletin will become the responsibility of an Editorial Board drawn, in the first instance, from the senior academic staff of the University of Manchester and chaired by Dr C.D. Field, the Library's Head of Publications and Promotion.
The new régime introduced a new publication strategy, under which there were to be three issues per volume:
In future the Spring issues of the Bulletin will contain a miscellany of academic articles from a variety of sources including prestigious lectures delivered within the Library or more generally within the University of Manchester. The Summer issues will focus exclusively upon the resources of the Library ... The Autumn issues will be given over to articles on a discrete, usually interdisciplinary, theme and will mostly have an expert guest editor.
Other innovations included a glossy blue-green cover, a return to volumes coinciding with the calendar year, and pagination within each issue rather than across the volume. (Unfortunately some authors when citing Bulletin papers have not noticed this change, and omitted the issue number from their references.) A casualty was the traditional 'Notes and News' item which had begin every issue since Vol.2; a newsletter was published separately, later entitled News from the Rylands, but copies are not available in digital form at present.

Clive Field left Manchester for The University of Birmingham in 1990, to be succeeded by Dorothy Clayton as General Editor; publication of the Bulletin continued unchanged until Vol.86 (2004) although some years issues 2 and 3 were combined. From Vol. 87 there has been a return to just two issues per year, one general and one dedicated to a theme. Clive Field went on to a senior post at the British Library. After early retirement in 2006, he made a return to the Bulletin in an advisory capacity as chair of the Editorial Board.

In the new century, plain covers have given way to individually-designed pictorial ones, and more pictures than before, some in colour, are included in some issues. A digitisation programme has been undertaken by the Library, in which the Bulletin has been included, from Vol.1 up to Vol. 80 (1998). Later issues have not been made available online, presumably to avoid loss of revenue from sales; I have included contents lists of these volumes on this site for completeness. Note that the actual date of publication of issues may in some cases be somewhat later than the year allocated to that volume number.

In 2013 it was announced that from 2014 the publication of the Bulletin would transfer from the Library to the Manchester University Press, and it would be available as an e-journal. Vol. 89, No.2, was the final issue produced by the Library-based team.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD)

http://www.ndltd.org/

From the home page:

Mission Statement

Welcome to the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD), an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination, and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). We support electronic publishing and open access to scholarship in order to enhance the sharing of knowledge worldwide. Our website includes resources for university administrators, librarians, faculty, students, and the general public. Topics include how to find, create, and preserve ETDs; how to set up an ETD program; legal and technical questions; and the latest news and research in the ETD community. More > >

Thesis Resources

For Researchers: Resources to find available open-access electronic theses and dissertations.
For Authors and Thesis Advisors Resources to build a multimedia thesis, to promote research using open-access repositories, and to inform about copyright and publishing issues.
For Librarians, Academic Managers, and Faculty: Resources to set up and manage an open-access repository for theses.
Share your questions, comments, and ideas with the ETD community on the ETD Forum.
Please e-mail suggestions for additional thesis resources to admin@ndltd.org.

Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft

http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/RE

From the home page:

Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE) ist die umfangreichste Enzyklopädie zum Altertum. Sie wurde ab 1890 von Georg Wissowa (1859–1931) herausgegeben und 1980 abgeschlossen. Sie führte die von August Friedrich Pauly (1796–1845) begründete Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Alterthumswissenschaft in alphabetischer Ordnung (1837–1864) fort und war als komplette Neubearbeitung konzipiert. Bis heute gilt die RE als Standardwerk der Altertumswissenschaft. Viele Artikel aus den ersten Bänden dieser Enzyklopädie sind mittlerweile gemeinfrei. Möglichst viele Artikel sollen hier sukzessive mit Hilfe von Scans digitalisiert werden.
Bis jetzt wurden 13.402 Stichwörter erfasst, darunter 1.672 bloße Verweisungen. Eine vollständige Liste der bisher transkribierten Artikel gibt die Kategorie:Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. Eine Übersicht über die Bände der RE findet sich hier (über die im Internet Archive frei zugänglichen hier), das Register der Autoren hier, Listen sämtlicher Stichwörter hier.
Hilfen zur Benutzung:
Die Mitarbeiter des Projekts RE erfüllen gerne Digitalisierungswünsche, die hier eingetragen werden können.