Knowledge Commons | Henry Colburn | Activity https://hcommons.org/members/colburnh/activity/ Activity feed for Henry Colburn. Sun, 05 Apr 2026 09:19:53 -0400 https://buddypress.org/?v=10.6.0 en-US 30 hourly 2 c2fd400ecffb9c6af02ac8f214304aad Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Sotades Rides Again, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1173 Fri, 03 Apr 2026 15:50:14 -0400 To be fair, I have no idea if Sotades ever rode a horse. Probably not; they were expensive and pasturage was in short supply in Greece. Of course, if the Parthenon frieze is any indication, there was a yearly […]

]]> d7d89e20e53c5e231b6a74307d1baa2e Henry Colburn changed their profile picture https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1947222/ Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:55:11 -0400 0 d1853c304bcd08e3d5370a4e322c10cf Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Wagner Would Have Hated This, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1164 Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:20:09 -0400 I am not qualified to be an opera critic. I know what I like, and my preferences are ecumenical: so long as it was composed by anyone from Mozart to Richard Strauss, I am likely to enjoy it. I think a big part of […]

]]> 283e958e4917a932b46761fd4a6d72cf Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Jump! I'll catch you!, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1160 Thu, 19 Mar 2026 17:33:24 -0400 Giovanni di Paolo (Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia) (Italian, Siena 1398–1482 Siena) Saint Catherine of Siena Receiving the Stigmata, ca. 1447–65 Tempera and gold on wood; 11 x 7 7/8 in. (27.9 x 20 cm) The Met […]

]]> 2636a2108830f62abad71fccc8707b48 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Now that's what I call the 'Cup of Nestor', on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1157 Thu, 12 Mar 2026 16:27:15 -0400 Photographed in the Archaeological Museum of Messenia, with a hand for scale

And it was even excavated at Pylos (take that, Schliemann).

]]> 060d36fd8d36387304d4cd6af375a66a Henry Colburn wrote a new post, What does silver mean?, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1153 Mon, 23 Feb 2026 15:56:31 -0500 On the one hand, this is a dumb question. Silver is easy to define: it’s number 47 on the periodic table. On the other, as Leslie Kurke argued in Coins, Bodies, Games, and Gold (1999), metals can have specific c […]

]]> bedd5fbad6ca85c09c66caf9c5006cad Henry Colburn wrote a new post, I for one welcome our new robot overlords, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1149 Mon, 16 Feb 2026 23:02:05 -0500 This past weekend, I performed the sacred duty of all academics: peer review. I have a personal policy to always peer review articles and proposals when asked, unless I lack the relevant expertise. (I know it’s h […]

]]> 78852d92cbab356a7baf30aa2d96e35f Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Tyger Tyger, burning bright, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1144 Fri, 13 Feb 2026 15:52:07 -0500 I am very pleased to say that my research on the Yarim Tepe tiger figurine has been featured in the popular press for an unprecedented (for me, that is) second time. It was featured in the 'Artifact' section of […]

]]> fcbfc0f459f4f78275bf8888014c7661 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, What Kind of Name is 'Skerritt?', on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1136 Fri, 23 Jan 2026 15:54:03 -0500 Gaulish I should think:

Left: Tom Skerritt in The Dead Zone (1983); Right: The Dying Gaul (Capitoline Museums, Rome)

]]> ea6bd667a349c24edf3f69b147c9dcbc Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Two (sort of) New Publications, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1126 Mon, 15 Dec 2025 17:00:08 -0500 I haven’t posted anything for a while, because I’ve been busy teaching and writing (an essay and entries for an exhibition catalog; more about Tell el-Maskhuta; and lately about Arsacid roads, drawing on my Sha […]

]]> fdb4bfb0645f75d6e2837fb29c70b495 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, I'm in The Times!, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1122 Tue, 23 Sep 2025 18:10:40 -0400 The Tehran Times, that is. The (self-styled) 'voice of the Islamic Revolution' has done me the signal honor of paraphrasing my recent article "The first Hyrcanian tiger? A unique figurine from Yarim Tepe, Iran" […]

]]> dec88d5c57ba9a3fbe511d6b17119cc6 Henry Colburn changed their profile picture https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1928399/ Tue, 23 Sep 2025 10:36:15 -0400 0 26a07f657843a5ac68c3504324cef8b0 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Cervantes’ Funny Bone, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1119 Sat, 13 Sep 2025 23:31:43 -0400 I’m in China right now (about which more later), which is relevant for this post only insofar as I spent a lot of time on a plane to get here. To pass that time I started reading Don Quixote in the 1949 Samuel P […]

]]> a0ff6aff471607e166f8c16d9d7cb131 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Always Listen to Your Wife, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1116 Sun, 24 Aug 2025 22:09:23 -0400 Especially when she's talking about Greek myth. She was interviewed for the podcast Lasting Legends: Greek Myths Surround Us earlier this summer. I listened to the interview when it came out, and really enjoyed […]

]]> b0037ab7ab2f7c0d12290c47454e9188 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, The Persian Pharaohs (in Three Pages), on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1114 Thu, 24 Jul 2025 21:47:43 -0400 Have you ever wanted to read my book, but thought it was 315 pages too long? If so, I have good news. Thanks to The Egyptian Society of South Africa, I have written a three-page précis of it for their newsletter […]

]]> 4c7ee19158d3b4aa8e2b3353b4772861 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, The Number One (and Number Two) Place in Ephesus, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1109 Mon, 21 Jul 2025 18:59:26 -0400 Public latrines, Ephesus, 1st cen. CE

I assume Saint Paul was thinking of this when he wrote "speak every man truth with his neighbor; for we are members one of another" (Ephesians 4:25).

]]> 0704b5a654802c1dff7dee27201a35fc Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Hittite Ceramics, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1106 Sun, 20 Jul 2025 16:22:14 -0400 Seen along the highway between Kula and Uşak:

Now I know where to go the next time I need a gross of libation vessels!

]]> abdb86e6188fc96f323670d7e129c990 Henry Colburn's profile was updated https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1921547/ Mon, 07 Jul 2025 16:52:27 -0400 0 1217e32672635a9170b7cb6036ba6fc8 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Veritatem dilexi, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1098 Mon, 07 Jul 2025 15:12:20 -0400 As it says at the top, I delight in the truth, and I especially delight in this truth, that I'll be teaching in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at Bryn Mawr College (whose motto is […]

]]> 4193476d6e8615766f971fdb4deee66b Henry Colburn's profile was updated https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1921532/ Mon, 07 Jul 2025 13:05:06 -0400 0 96cf8905644fb99f75a3b8a07817ba9f Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Why the Humanities Are a Good Defense against AI, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1093 Wed, 04 Jun 2025 17:04:29 -0400 While being an adjunct is not a salubrious experience for anyone, it does offer one the opportunity to directly compare very different types of students. For example, there are striking differences in the use of […]

]]> 4bdaac5eb1a4f3f7649e80349197f243 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, I'm on a boat!, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1083 Mon, 21 Apr 2025 16:41:44 -0400 Photographed at ancient Corinth

I'm on a boat! I'm on a boat! Take a good, hard look at the motherf***ing boat!

]]> f5e6875787ac59eb6e9f41a4b6d14967 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Ancient Greek Firsts, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1065 Sun, 13 Apr 2025 18:47:48 -0400 As my Bard Microcollege students know, I am currently in Greece looking for great bread. (I made one comment about how good the bread is in Copenhagen, and now they think I spend my vacations traveling the world […]

]]> d19739f7e59a9bf3161537d57c7f71c1 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Persia after Alexander, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1063 Fri, 14 Mar 2025 12:51:26 -0400 Have you ever wondered what happened in Susa and Persepolis after Alexander? Then look no further than my contribution to the newly-published Oxford Handbook of the Hellenistic and Roman Near East, edited by […]

]]> 3fa1cddfec5ab1c992198f6007570482 Henry Colburn's profile was updated https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1913937/ Fri, 14 Mar 2025 12:37:03 -0400 0 07ac0af9aa590a92f1e1fc6ef3a6c84c Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Talking Heads, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1061 Fri, 28 Feb 2025 18:19:52 -0500 Just one talking head, actually: mine. Next month I'll be giving three talks. The first (at Bryn Mawr on March 3) and third (at Ohio State on March 20) are on the Tell el-Maskhuta hoard. The hoard has been a pet […]

]]> 62c5deebff9556354bf9875a68b9c62b Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Grand Theft Papyrus, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1057 Sat, 15 Feb 2025 16:38:06 -0500 I just finished reading Roberta Mazza’s new book, Stolen Fragments: Black Markets, Bad Faith, and the Illicit Trade in Ancient Artefacts (Redwood Press, 2024), which she modestly describes as “a personal mem […]

]]> 0433906e1906565c47d480569c3a7887 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, The Most Important Article on Qasr-e Abu Nasr Published This Year (So Far), on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1053 Fri, 10 Jan 2025 19:33:52 -0500 The publishing house of Messrs. Springer and Company proudly present for your consideration in their esteemed periodical Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (Volume 17) “Sasanian and early Islamic c […]

]]> 8da93b77691d046600d932077b6a06d2 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Happy World Toilet Day!, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1049 Tue, 19 Nov 2024 22:22:29 -0500 In honor of a holiday that I never knew existed, I wish to share a picture of a toilet. But not just any toilet; it's an ancient toilet from Teotihuacán, probably dating to about 250 CE.

Toilet at […]

]]> 5fb0495e52eff96da8f3c9871ca3ebea Henry Colburn wrote a new post, The Original Prairie Schooner, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1046 Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:25:12 -0400 Almost ten years ago Anna Garvey came up with a term that actually describes my generation, wedged between the Gen-Xers and the Millennials: the Oregon Trail Generation.

Any true member of the Oregon Trail […]

]]> d5013afc76812a4b172664ca9bd2bf3b Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Parthian Art and the Graeco-Roman World, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1040 Thu, 05 Sep 2024 13:12:51 -0400 Next month I'll be giving a paper entitled "Greek Style and the Problem of Parthian Art" at the conference Parthian Art and the Graeco-Roman World, the poster for which is below. (I'm very impressed with myself […]

]]> c9e2f1badbb55c703691bfd9ffcbcc27 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Death of an Email Account, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1022 Sun, 01 Sep 2024 12:03:18 -0400 As of yesterday, one of my stable of email accounts is no more: hpc4476@nyu.edu. I haven't taught there in a while, so I am hardly surprised. Never fear, though; my Michigan, Cooper Union, Hofstra and Bard emails […]

]]> 227b573d469ce626c4a216265ce93891 Henry Colburn's profile was updated https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1897648/ Sat, 31 Aug 2024 14:04:18 -0400 0 88a0ade93a20b5115284ef396b843732 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Gravitas, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1013 Fri, 09 Aug 2024 13:41:44 -0400 Today is a special day. Not just because there is a tornado warning here in northern New Jersey, but because at long last a very hefty volume entitled In Search of Cultural Identities in West and Central Asia: A […]

]]> 2dfb330cd74fc4ea83668ebf7156734c Henry Colburn wrote a new post, The Latest on Parthian Art, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1010 Thu, 20 Jun 2024 19:54:14 -0400 My latest publication Parthian art, that is, has just been published by Brepols in an open access volume entitled Palmyra in Perspective, edited by the indefatigable Rubina Raja. It stems from a conference in […]

]]> cc73c6a958b315637e47969b0dbcdbd1 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, The First Spork?, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=1000 Mon, 15 Apr 2024 18:55:55 -0400 For a number of years I have carried this handy item with my lunch:

Technically, it's not actually a spork because it's fork and spoon ends are on different sides rather than combined as is customary. […]

]]> c0114ebee1a948ec8f12b567cbe9692d Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Concerning Canine Facial Expressions in Pompeian Wall Paintings, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=995 Fri, 12 Apr 2024 15:39:00 -0400 This morning I read in the New York Times about the discovery of some previously unknown murals in Pompeii. This is exciting, of course, and not surprisingly I was especially drawn to this painting of Helen and […]

]]> 3297e17d585275c8532a40370b795479 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, A Game of Cat and Mouse?, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=993 Thu, 28 Mar 2024 20:58:11 -0400 I saw this ostracon at the Brooklyn Museum today:

Cat and Mouse, ca. 1295-1075 BCE. Brooklyn Museum, 37.51E.

According to the label, it dates to the late New Kingdom, and depicts a mouse seated on a chair […]

]]> 4f2b2d55999236a12b5ea6305bb15f3d Henry Colburn wrote a new post, A Dental Conundrum, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=990 Sun, 17 Mar 2024 12:04:37 -0400 I went to see Dune Part 2 yesterday. Like the first installment it was spectacular, a sort of Lawrence of Arabia in space. But the film raised some significant questions. Why does everyone still use swords in the […]

]]> 1360b4189cce9f99518aed9d0551a71f Henry Colburn wrote a new post, One of Herakles' Lesser-Known Epithets, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=986 Sun, 03 Mar 2024 15:09:05 -0500 (My wife came up with this one.)

]]> 0eafbbdf9df7c701580f779175731938 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Instructions for Proper Use, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=983 Wed, 28 Feb 2024 20:11:27 -0500 Today, whilst I was at the Brooklyn Museum with my students, a tourist with a British accent interrupted our discussion of Neo-Assyrian reliefs to ask why some of the Apkallu-figures had wristwatches and […]

]]> 12f3fbe6f43b44c263f7434b1686636b Henry Colburn wrote a new post, The Ugly Sister, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=981 Fri, 16 Feb 2024 16:52:22 -0500 Before anyone pillories me as a chauvinist pig on Twitter (or whatever it's called now), I hasten to point out that a) I don't have a sister, and b) I'm talking about an object that was made when my ancestors in […]

]]> 4ccfc8ebb7474a66426153f904e39641 Henry Colburn's profile was updated https://hcommons.org/activity/p/1876828/ Fri, 16 Feb 2024 16:18:33 -0500 0 1da5866db7f5ab768444a98ddd1ff87c Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Peer Reviewing Peer Review, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=977 Tue, 09 Jan 2024 19:23:42 -0500 After not attending for some time, I went to the AIA meeting in Chicago this past weekend. It was worse than I remember; almost every session was some variation on "Recent Fieldwork in Italy" or "3D […]

]]> 658681e5feacfd64d508b51c79d4bafd Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Foxy Grandpa, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=974 Sun, 17 Dec 2023 15:35:53 -0500 Before anyone gets too excited, the title of this post is a direct quote from a preliminary report on the excavations at Qasr-e Abu Nasr (in modern Shiraz, Iran) published in the Bulletin of the Metropolitan […]

]]> b57e0f36b00fc6ed9dae12a76286ae57 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Of Names, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=971 Fri, 15 Dec 2023 15:18:50 -0500 I read recently that my old graduate program, Michigan’s Interdepartmental Program in Classical Art and Archaeology, has changed its name, substituting ‘Ancient Mediterranean’ for ‘Classical.’ The new acronym i […]

]]> cd005b840776247d48bec2542ee9ea3e Henry Colburn commented on the post, The Not-So-Deep History of a Fashion Faux-pas, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/2023/11/29/the-not-so-deep-history-of-a-fashion-faux-pas/#comment-263 Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:31:51 -0500 I'm so happy to hear that!

]]> 052909aa6e34cb07a17d55109ef95229 Henry Colburn wrote a new post, The Not-So-Deep History of a Fashion Faux-pas, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=968 Wed, 29 Nov 2023 14:30:07 -0500 Anyone who has ever laid eyes on me will know that I have as much fashion sense as a medieval court jester. But even I know not to wear socks with sandals. But the other day, when I went to see the new exhibition […]

]]> 29775c5c5d8a3df9d57ec989e85db3af Henry Colburn wrote a new post, My Review of Aršāma and His World, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=966 Mon, 20 Nov 2023 20:37:15 -0500 On the whole I prefer not to review books--ever. It is a great deal of work to do well, and there is always the risk of annoying someone by pointing out the shortcomings of their scholarship. If I am going to […]

]]> 9ef07ff619c497931c688e1a4fc8a75c Henry Colburn wrote a new post, Overheard at Nimrud, on the site Henry P. Colburn https://henrycolburn.hcommons.org/?p=962 Sat, 04 Nov 2023 12:40:29 -0400 "Look out, sire! There's a bug on you!"

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