UC Classics Ancient World Podcasts

In the final interview of the 2012-2013 academic year, we hear from Morag Kersel, assistant professor of Anthropology at Depaul University, and co-director of the Galilee Prehistory Project in Israel and the Following the Pots Project in Jordan. In this discussion, Professor Kersel shares insights from her research on the trade in antiquities from the Middle East, her thoughts about looting, trafficking, and collecting ancient artifacts, and some of her experiences as a contractor for the U.S. Department of State. You can learn more about Professor Kersel’s exciting work in her new book, co-authored with Christina Luke, U.S. Cultural Diplomacy and Archaeology: Soft Power, Hard Heritage (Routledge Studies in Archaeology, 2013).

In this podcast, Christian Cloke sits down with Brian Rose, the James B. Pritchard Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and Curator-in-Charge of the Mediterranean collection of University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Professor Rose is a Trustee of the American Academy in Rome, the English-language editor of Studia Troica, former Vice President of the American Research Institute in Turkey, and former President of the Archaeological Institute of America, a position he held from 2007 to 2011. Currently he is the AIA’s 2012/2013 Joukowsky Lecturer, which brought him back to Cincinnati, where he taught in UC’s Classics department from 1987 to 2005.

In the first of a new series featuring interviews with leading scholars in the study of the ancient world, Christian Cloke sits down with Professor Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill to discuss her research on Qumran, past and present fieldwork at sites like Yotvata (a Roman fort in southern Israel) and Huqoq (a village and synagogue site in Galilee), and learn about eating donkey and camel in the desert. For more on Professor Magness, see her website: http://jodimagness.org/ To read more about the Dead Sea Scrolls online, visit the Digital Dead Sea Scrolls Project: http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/ Produced and recorded by Christian Cloke; featuring Vivaldi's Gloria.

Historian David Schwei and Archaeologist Chris Cloke (UC Classics) report live while on-site in Greece, where they discuss coins found during excavation. Learn how ancient coins were made, how the Greek and Roman economies worked, and what we can learn from coins’ images as well as where they are found. The hosts discuss how the tradition of including rulers' portraits on money began with Alexander the Great and continues even today with monarchs such as Queen Elizabeth II. They also explain how people in the ancient world hoarded their coins in times of strife or economic uncertainty, and unwittingly created some of archaeology’s most amazing finds.  Written by David Schwei; featuring Christian Cloke, David Schwei, and Sarah Lima; produced by Christian Cloke and Sarah Lima; featuring Vivaldi's Gloria; recording and editing by R. Aaron Allen Productions.

Join ancient historian Lindsey Haines (UC Classics) for “This Year in History, 1961” and learn about Yigael Yadin’s discovery of the Babatha Archives in the Cave of Letters at Nahal Hever in eastern Israel. This remarkable archive of documents, dated to the 2nd century A.D., contains the personal legal papers of a woman named Babatha. Learn about this remarkable ancient woman’s struggles to retain her property, care for members of her family, and secure her finances during trying political times when women’s legal rights were not always assured. Written and performed by Lindsey Haines; produced by Christian Cloke and Sarah Lima; featuring Vivaldi's Gloria; recording and editing by R. Aaron Allen Productions.

Professor John Kampen of Methodist Theological School in Ohio and Hebrew Union College shares his considerable expertise on the Dead Sea Scrolls and discusses the many types of writing preserved within these amazing artifacts. He explains that the scrolls contain, in addition to many fragments of Biblical books, many pseudo-Biblical writings, original compositions, and a wide array of texts in many genres, a great number of which have been defined only through the discovery and study of the Dead Sea Scrolls themselves. Learn firsthand what’s in many of the scrolls, why this matters, and why the study of the scrolls is so difficult even today. Professor Kampen is the author of Wisdom Literature, a commentary on all of the wisdom texts in the Qumran corpus.  Written and performed by Dr. John Kampen (Methodist Theological School in Ohio and Hebrew Union College); featuring Sarah Lima; produced by Christian Cloke and Sarah Lima; featuring Vivaldi's Gloria; recording and editing by R. Aaron Allen Productions.

Dr. Jason Kalman of Hebrew Union College shares the remarkable story of McGill University’s attempts to purchase scrolls from Cave 4 at Qumran in the early 1950s. Although the process was complicated, drawn out, full of international intrigue, and ultimately never brought any scrolls to Montreal, McGill Professor R.B.Y. Scott’s efforts prompted others to act and resulted in the preservation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, whose study has revolutionized our understanding of ancient Judaism. Dr. Kalman is the co-author with Jaqueline Du Toit of Canada's Big Biblical Bargain: How McGill University Bought the Dead Sea Scrolls (MQUP, 2010) and the author of Hebrew Union College and the Dead Sea Scrolls (HUC-JIR, 2012). The book on HUC and the DSS is now available and can be purchased by contacting the Klau Library at Hebrew Union College, lwolfson@huc.edu. Written and performed by Dr. Jason Kalman (Hebrew Union College); featuring Christian Cloke; produced by Christian Cloke and Sarah Lima; featuring Vivaldi's Gloria; recording and editing by R. Aaron Allen Productions.

In this exclusive interview, UC Classics Professor Barbara Burrell talks with Flavius Josephus, former general of the Judaeans, now captive of the Romans, in the midst of the first Judaean revolt in 71 CE. The subject of their interview is the Essenes, a community of early Jewish desert dwellers whom some scholars suggest were the preservers and possibly the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls. From the Essenes’ unusual dining, bathing, and social habits, to their troubled relationship with the ever-growing Roman Empire, and Josephus’ budding interest in writing, the two find plenty to discuss! Written by Barbara Burrell; featuring Barbara Burrell and Holt Parker; produced by Christian Cloke and Sarah Lima; featuring Vivaldi's Gloria; recording and editing by R. Aaron Allen Productions.

In this episode of Radio Romanus Publicus’ “Dry, Hot Air,” set in the 90s A.D., host Terry Maxima visits with author Flavius Josephus, one of our most important sources for Jewish history in the Greco-Roman period, especially during the years when the Dead Sea Scrolls were produced. Josephus wrote extensively on the Essenes, whom many scholars associate with the Scrolls and the community at Qumran. In the interview, he describes the relationship of Jews and Judaea to Rome, his own role in the recent rebellion, and how he’s found a place for himself among the court of the Roman emperors. Get an insider’s view of contemporary politics, religion, and hear about the historian’s new and future projects firsthand! Written by Dr. Matthew Kraus (UC Judaic Studies); featuring Matthew Kraus (Flavius Josephus), Desiree Gerner (Announcer), and Rachel Meeks (Terry Maxima); produced by Christian Cloke and Sarah Lima; featuring Vivaldi's Gloria; recording and editing by R. Aaron Allen Productions.

Papyri, parchment and scrolls, oh my! In this interview, UC Classics historian Andrew Connor discusses The Dead Sea Scrolls as artifacts, and provides us with some of the finer points of ancient writing. Learn how scrolls were made, what ink scribes used, and how texts are preserved. Have you ever wondered what the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Declaration of Independence have in common? Listen to this podcast to find out! Written by Andrew Connor; featuring Andrew Connor and Sarah Lima; produced by Christian Cloke and Sarah Lima; featuring Vivaldi's Gloria; recording and editing by R. Aaron Allen Productions.

Carl Blegen In 1939, University of Cincinnati archaeologist Carl Blegen was on the verge of one of the greatest discoveries of his esteemed career. The excavations he was leading in western Greece, on the Ano Englianos Ridge in the municipality of Pylos, had uncovered not only Homer’s Palace of Nestor, but also a huge deposit of clay record tablets that led to the decipherment of a prehistoric system of writing. A few short months into excavations, however, on September 1, 1939, German Forces invaded Poland. The Second World War had begun, and the astounding discoveries at Pylos had to be momentarily set aside. Drawing from Blegen’s correspondence and papers from archives on two continents, this podcast looks at his life “from the sidelines” in America between 1939 and 1942, as well as his time serving the Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. Written by Andrew Connor; featuring Andrew Connor and Taylor Coughlan; produced by Christian Cloke and Sarah Lima; featuring Vivaldi's Gloria; recording and editing by R. Aaron Allen Productions.