Research

If I had a publication in the news right now, or I was giving a talk at a conference, I’d put up short-cuts to the relevant pages here. As it happens I don’t at the moment, but if I were giving a talk at CA2010 then the mobile version of this website would be accessible to anyone viewing from their phone. So instead here’s a list of what I’ve either published or am working on.

You can follow my Zotero account if you want to see what I’m currently noting in my bibliographic database.

Publications

Forthcoming Publications

Ongoing

  • On the Orientations of Greek Temples in Sicily
    Greek poleis made little distinction between their political and religious identity. So is there anything in the alignment of Greek temples that can tell us about civic identity? Do Greek temples face east and are there any other signs of a Greek astronomical fingerprint? This paper will present data on over forty temples and analyse them collectively, by location, by deity and by genealogy for shared traits.
    A early presentation on this is available here as Starlight Expressed. The first paper will be submitted autumn 2009 and the second winter 2009/10.
  • On Calendrical Calibration
    An awful lot of time and energy has been devoted as to whether Greek cities followed the Metonic system for intercalating months and whether or not there was a system of full and hollow months. There’s a lot of this very clever work done by very clever people who know their sources inside-out. Unfortunately their sources tend to be quite late, so this tells us little about calendars in the Archaic period. Knowing when to consult the Oracle at Delphi (see video) put forward a proposal for panhellenic and apolitical system of calibration based on what little we can say about astronomy in the archaic period. This line of research is more ethnohistorical than archaeological. A paper is almost ready to go on this with four further markers. There’s also another paper to come from this on approximate astronomy. If the loose ends tie up neatly then the first paper from this will be ready to go in Winter 2009. If not then it’s Spring 2010. I’ll be looking to place this in a Classical journal which allows pre-prints to arXiv.
  • On the Origin of Constellations
    This discusses evidence for the possible hybridisation of the Greek night sky following contact with Punic settlers in the western Mediterranean. Because the core of the argument I’m tackling appeared in an Italian journal it’s possible that this will be written in Italian in early 2010.
  • The Graeco-Roman Constellation Catalogue
    This is an ongoing wiki, intended to eventually be compiled into a book for citation. It’s only getting worked on as I work through texts, so the first edition will not be complete till 2011. POD publishing could allow for annual editions.