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MACQUARIE

MACQUARIE ANCIENT HISTORY ASSOCIATIONMacquarie University, New South Wales 2109

Number 4 August 1998

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Wednesday 19 August The Modern Search for Ancient OraclesDr Stuart Pickering, Macquarie University

8.15 pm Building X5B Museum Seminar Room 321

Tuesday September Stasis in a small town -the case of Telos in SporadesDr Charles V. Crowther, Research Fellow, Wolfson College, Oxford8.15 pm Building X5B Museum Seminar Room 321

Saturday 19 September Twentieth Anniversary MAHA DinnerMacquarie Staff Club

Thursday 22 October The Amazons and Athens: the Gale Amazon KylixGraham Joyner, Macquarie University

8.15 pm Building X5B Museum Seminar Room 321

Friday 6 November MAMA Annual General Meeting7.30 pm Building X5B Lecture Theatre Level 08.00 pm Lecture: Topic to be announced

Professor Kevin Lee (University of Sydney)

MARGARET PARKER'S RETIREMENT

The end of an era in MAHA's history came when Margaret Parker retired as Secretary ofMAHA at the end of June.Margaret served as Secretary for several memorable years and rapidly became the lynch-pin of the organisation. Herorganising abilities are prodigious, as are her efficiency and attention to detail. She showed her utter dedication toher work in too many ways to mention here, and the Committee is still finding, a month after her retirement, howmuch we had relied on her command of all that was happening in the variety of activities under MAHA's umbrella.What we began to discover just before her retirement was that repeatedly Margaret had seen things which needed tobe done and had quietly gone ahead and done them, despite the greater amount of time demanded and the increasedload of responsibilities that she came to bear. Since some of these things were in fact major contributions to theAssociation's work, we are left wondering how we will continue. We are gradually reforming our ways!

t-.1argaret will be very cross with the Committee forthis entry in the Newsletter. for she maintained thatwe exaggerated the significance of her contribution.Margaret's final 'official appearance' was thecharacteristically low-key item she submitted for thelast Newsletter, announcing her retirement. Since shealways submitted the Newsletter to close scrutinybefore it was sent for printing, the Committee waspreviously unable to pay proper public tribute to herfor her work. She refused several approaches fromthe Committee for an 'official' farewell whereMAHA members could thank her and giverecognition of her work, and it was with greatdifficulty that Anne Irish was finally able to persuadeMargaret to attend an afternoon tea at Macquarie towish her 'Bon voyage' for her trip to UK in July.

Margaret consistently refused to acknowledge theimportance of what she did, and rejected any notionthat the 'Margaret Parker years' would come to beregarded as a notable epoch in MAHA's history, thetime when MAHA finally became efficient. Well,not the least recognition of her enormous role is thatMargaret has been replaced by three people!

The Committee, on behalf of MAHA, thanksMargaret warmly for all that she has been to us andfor all that she has done, and extends to her our bestwishes for a long and healthy retirement in which tofulfil her urges to travel and to study. We are pleasedthat she has expressed her determination to maintainher MAHA links, and we look forward to what thefuture will hold for her.

CHANGES TO MAHA'S ORGANISATION

TheSince the last Newsletter several changes have been made, in consequence of Margaret Parker's retirement.principal change is that the Secretary's responsibilities have been divided among three people

The new MAHA Secretary is Jim Hamilton. Jim retired in 1997 after establishing himself as an institution in theUniversity Library: there are several generations of students for whom, in a Library context, "Jim Hamilton" and"Ancient History" were synonymous. His contribution to undergraduate and even postgraduate research in AncientHistory at Macquarie is untold! Jim has been a member and active supporter ofMAHA for a long time. Jim will be the'public face' of MAHA and will operate from the MAHA room (usually on Friday mornings). Enquiries, especiallyabout membership and functions, may be directed to him on 9850 9965.

The Minutes Secretary for the MAHA Committee is Bruce Stubington Mitchell. Bruce studied for his BA degreeat Macquarie as a Mature Age student; he joined the MAHA Committee in 1998. Bruce calls meetings, prepares theAgenda and attends to the Minutes.

MAHA seeks Business Manager for Journal

The MAHA Committee is searching for a volunteer to carry out the third area of the former Secretary's duties asBusiness Manager of Ancient History: Resources for Teachers. This involves maintaining the computerisedsubscription list, responding to correspondence, distributing receipts, monitoring the printing of the journal, andarranging its distribution (there are normally two issues per year). All of these have established procedures, and theload should not be onerous. If you have part of a day free on a regular basis, perhaps fortnightly, and are interested inmore information, please contact Jim Hamilton (at Macquarie on Friday mornings or at other times by leaving a phonemessage on 9850 9965), Anne Irish (9850 8833), or Graham Joyner (9874 1324).

Macquarie University was well represented at the twenty first conference of the Australian Society for Classical studies held atthe University of Queensland from July 6-10. The following papers were delivered by Macquarie scholars: Ben Brown, 'Howcan 1 live forever? K/eos and Athletics in Archaic Greece'; Dr David Phillips 'The Citizenship Debate in 5d1 Century Athens:Redefining the Po/is?'; Dr Andrew Gillett, 'Rome, Ravenna and the last Western Emperors'; Dr Trevor Evans, 'Worrying aboutthe Future: the Future Tense Form in Ancient Greece'; Associate Professor Ted Nixon, 'History from Coins? Jebel Khalid(Syria)'; Dr Ros Kearsley, 'Bilingual Inscriptions at Ephesos: the Statue Bases from the Harbour Gymnasium'; David Pritchard,'Fool's Gold and Silver: Reflections on the Evidentiary Status of Finely Painted Attic Pottery'. .-

As the titles indicate, the papers reflect the wide range of Dr Ian Plant wears two hats as the Society's Business Managerresearch into Greek and Roman history, archaeology, and Representative at Macquarie University, and Davidlinguistics, epigraphy and numismatics which is being Pritchard became the new Postgraduate Representative. Ian isconducted at doctoral and postdoctoral level at Macquarie. happy to field general enquiries about the Society (Email -It is encouraging to see that despite financial and staffing iplant@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au Phone (02) 9850 8800). Ancientcuts, the multi-faceted study of the ancient world set in History postgraduates are encouraged to send their Email orplace at Macquarie by Professor Emeritus Edwin Judge, other contact details to David so that he can keep them up to dateand continued under his successor, Professor Sam Lieu, with relevant A.S.C.S. developments. Contact David by Email:can still be maintained. dpritch@laurel.ocs.mq.edu.au Phone (02) 9660 5374)

Macquarie delegates to the conference also made theirpresence felt at the general meeting of the Society wheretwo department members were appointed to the Executive.

Associate Professor Ted Nixon & David PritchardMacquarie University

The Museum of Ancient Cultures will release (end of August) avideo on Egyptian amulets and their significance in magic andreligion. The video is presented by Dr Boyo Ockinga andillustrated from the Museum's amulet collection together withmaterial lent by the Australian Museum.

Dr Trevor Evans has recently joined the Macquarie staff.In February he took up the post of Research Officer withDr Rosalind Kearsley's Bilingualism Project on the Greekand Latin inscriptions of Asia Minor. Trevor has alreadyhad a long association with the University as a tutor at theGreek Summer School. When not reading inscriptions,he is Co-Director of the University of Sydney Latin Sum-mer School and a casual lecturer in the Department ofClassics at that institution.

Title: Amulets: Myth & Magic in Ancient EgyptLength: 25 minutes. Includes lesson worksheets.Cost: $40 (plus $5 postage) Cheques payable to Macquarie

University.Orders: Karl Van Dyke, Manager, Museum of Ancient Cul-tures, Macquarie University 2109 (Enquiries 9850 9263)

exchange, during which he will give seminars for staff andstudents. Dr Crowther's main interest is in inscriptions on theHellenistic period and in the constitutional changes in Greekcities in the period. The lecture will focus on a new Hellenisticinscription about the settlement of stasis on the island of Telosby Coan arbitrators.

Dr Stuart Pickering is a Research Fellow in AncientHistory at Macquarie University. His previous talks onpapyri have been well received and he is presently prepar-ing A Handbook to the Macquarie Papyri to be launchedon 13 November. Stuart and Dr Donald C. Barker are jointauthors of the handbook, which is a project conducted byAssociate Professor Alanna Nobbs and coordinates workdone on texts over many years by various researchers.(see below, Papyrology Evening, for further details).

Graham Joyner of Macquarie University has agreed to presenta special MAHA lecture (see Calendar) on the beautiful GaleAmazon Athenian red-figure kylix presented to the Museum byBill and Janet Gale. The exterior shows scenes of Greeks incombat with Amazons, and the interior depicts two youngathletes. The kylix dates from c.440BC and is attributed to anartist conventionally known as the Painter of Heidelberg 209. Hewas a follower of the Penthesileia Painter, one of the finestmid-fifth century Athenian vase painters.

Dr Charles V. Crowther is Research Fellow at WolfsonCollege, Oxford and is Administrator and Humanities Re-search Board Fellow at the Centre for the Study of AncientDocuments at the University of Oxford. The Director of theCentre, Dr Allan Bowman, visited Macquarie recently, andseveral Macquarie staff have visited the Centre in Oxford.Dr Crowther's two week visit is part of this continuing

MAHA GREEK DRAMA FESTIVAL

Our Sib annual Festival of Greek Drama was held on 22 Julyand once again brought our talented Ancient History andDrama students to Macquarie's City Dionysia. In addition tothe now traditional display of great tragedies, this year, come-dies were a highlight of the festival. Aristophanes' Frogs,performed by Gosford High School gained 3rd place; MonteSant' Angelo College was awarded 2M place with a movingexcerpt from Euripides' tragedy, The Trojan Women andCatherine McAuley, Westmead, for the fourth year in succes-sion, gained 151 place with a vibrant performance of Aristo-phanes' comedy, The Birds.

"The peple that were ther-at cleped this vessell that theihadden in so grete grace, the Grall"-Merlin, or the early history of king Arthur, a prose

romance (ca. 1450)

In medieval romance, knights of King Arthur's RoundTable passed through many adventures in search of the'Holy Grail' -something valuable and venerated but longlost and in need of rediscovery.

Support for the Festival is steadily increasing and this year over30 schools registered for the competition, with students from asfar afield as Tamworth, Bathurst and Wollongong participatingin the finals. It was standing room only on finals day!

Dr Stuart Pickering will conduct a Papyrology Evening on19 August (see Calendar) which will explore the nature andpotential of papyrus evidence, using examples from theMacquarie papyrus collection.

We were honoured this year that the Priest of Dionysus, DrTom Hillard could be with us to pour the necessary libation toopen the festival. Dr Hillard also enthused students andteachers alike with a stirring oration on the important rolewhich the classical Greek theatre played in the political educa-tion of its citizens and in the great legacy it has bequeathed tothe modem world.

Papyri manuscripts are so-called because most of them areon papyrus writing material (some are on parchment, os-traca, wooden tablets or other surfaces). The discipline ofpapyrology focuses on these texts, seeking to developresources and skills for the challenge of rediscovering lostworks from antiquity, especially from the thousand yearsbetween the fourth century BC and the eighth century AD.

We are most grateful to Professor Lee for officiating as Masterof Ceremonies and to his co-judges, Dr Christopher Allen, DrGae Callender and Ms Wendy Michaels.

Dr Pickering will give special attention to exploring thepossibility that the Macquarie collection may contain oneof the 'holy grails' of literature -a pre-Christian fragmentprefiguring the medieval tradition of the Sibylline oracles. Nola Thompson -Festival Co-ordinator

THE MUSEUM OF ANCIENT CULTURES

Museum Volunteers needed

weekdays (e.g. 6-8 pm) and occasionally on weekends. Thevolunteers would be solely responsible for the Museum atthese times, and would need to be'lnstructed in fire and safetyprocedures. Contact Karl Van Dyke (9850 9263) or Dr Chris-tiana Kohler (9850 8851)

The Ancient History staff have asked whether MAHAmembers would volunteer to take over from them thesupervision of students in the Museum of Ancient Cultures.Suggested times are late afternoon and early evening on

SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OFEARLY CHRISTIANITY

REDESIGN OF THE MUSEUM OF ANCIENTCULTURES

In January Karl Van Dyke, the Manager of the Museum,invited Graham Joyner to assist with the redesign of the Mu-seum, in order to incorporate twelve new display cases and toinclude in the display more material which was previously instorage. They discussed possible reorganisation of cases anddisplays, and finally settled on a proposal of Graham's, whichmade better use of the space available and which also madeadequate allowance for future expansion. All but two of thecases and every one of the 3300 artifacts had to be moved.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

SA TURDA Y 8 AUGUST 9.00 -5.00

MU Postgraduate Ancient History Mini-Conference:

Culture and Identity: Ancient and Modern Views

Six months later the basic work is essentially completed andsincere thanks are due to the following people for their gener-ous assistance in the removal, cleaning, remounting and re-labelling of the displays: Grace Jolley, Marianne Rhydderch,Celia Ching, and two undergraduate volunteers, Ainslee Kellsand Kim Valentinsig.

VENUE X5B321COST $15No

need to book, refreshments provided. Drinks at end.Enquiries: Malcolm Choat. Ext. 7561

or Email -adearn@matra.com.au

EVENING LECTURE SERIES

August 13

7.30 pmDr John VallanceMan as the Measure of Nature inAristotelian Science.

New AcquisitionsThe Museum has recently obtained a number of new acquisi-tions. Dr Boyo Ockinga has passed on to the Museum acollection of artifacts donated by Mrs C. Leask of Murwillum-bah which were collected in Egypt by her father. These arebeing registered, and include a Greek votive plaque, c.530-480BC, four Roman lamps from 1st -5th centuries AD, threeIslamic green-glazed lamps, a number of arrow heads, Egyptianalabaster vessels, glass vessels, ushabtis, bronze statuettes,amulets, beads and other items. Several of the amulets inparticular are of special interest, as they were not previouslyrepresented in the Museum's collection.

August 18 Ross Saunders7.30 pm Typical Men in the Acts

Sept. 87.30 pm

Ross SaundersLeadership Models in the New Testament

Sept. 167.30 pm

Professor Robert TannenbaumHow to Read the Gospels: the entry intoJerusalem of Mark

Venue for evening lectures: W3A 501Cost: $7 non-SSEC MEMBERS, $5 SSEC membersEnquiries: Mrs. Pat Geidans (9850 7512) Assoc. Pro-fessor Alanna Nobbs (9850 8844) or Mrs Anne Irish(98508833)

The annual Ancient History Study Day for HSC students, heldon 25 July was a great success! This day is organised forstudents studying Ancient History at all levels -3 Unit, 2 Unitand 2 Unit Personalities & their Times. Students from alloverNSW attended, with many travelling from country schoolsincluding Bathurst, Orange, Maitland, Nowra and Taree.

FORTHCOMING ACTIVITIES The lectures were given by Macquarie University staff -Dr B. Ockinga, Dr I. Plant and Assoc. Professor A. Nobbs; byvisiting lecturers, Dr H. Lindsay and Dr E. Baynham fromNewcastle University and Dr D. Hoyos from Sydney Univer-sity; and by other experts including Dr. G. Callender, Mr G.Joyner and Dr B. Marshall. Teachers with expertise in varioustopics (Jan Rolph, Teresa Noorbergen, Michael Hayes, JennyLawless and Rodna Siebels) also provided lectures for the 700students who attended.

SPECIAL DINNER HONOURING JOAN BECK'S80TH BIRTHDAY & RETIREMENT

DATE FRIDAY II SEPTEMBERVENUE Banqueting & Conference Rooms,

Macquarie UniversityTIME 7.00 pm for 7.30 pmCOST $40ENQUIRIES Leonie Donovan

Philippa Medcalf, Study Day Convenor

CONFERENCE -UNEARTHING EGYPT'S PAST

Egyptologists from Australia and overseas will present fullyillustrated lectures of their work on Egyptian excavations.Refreshments available at a reasonable cost. Books and jew-ellery will be on sale. Greetings to long-time MAHA members Bruce and Rhonda

Stubington Mitchell, who celebrated their Golden WeddingAnniversary recently. They returned to Broken Hill, the scene ofthe wedding, for the weekend celebrations on 25-261b July.Bruce joined the MAHA Committee in 1998, and is Minutes

Secretary.

DA TE SA TURDA Y 17 OCTOBER, 10 am-5.00 pmVENUE X5B, Theatre 1COST $35 (pensioners/students $25)ENQUIRIES Joan Beck (9850 8855)