Ancient Mediterranean Historian at UC Berkeley.
Focus on the ancient Roman world, with particular interests in the political and cultural history of the period c. 200 BCE–300 CE; law and imperialism; the historical geography of the Roman empire, especially in the Roman West; and comparative ancient empires.
| Website | https://history.berkeley.edu/carlos-f-norena |
"For peoples outside Africa, the past 5000-6000 years of patriarchal dominance . . . have left historians . . . with the often unacknowledged presumption of male agency in technological advance. The history of ceramic manufacture in Africa should stand as a great corrective to that presumption, a corrective to how we think about women and men in history."
C. Ehret, *Ancient Africa: A Global History, to 300 CE* (2023), 17.
I think we forget that “reduce, reuse, recycle” is intentionally ordered.
First, reduce your consumption.
If you *can’t* reduce your consumption, reuse the things you consume.
If you can’t do either, then, *as a last resort*, recycle.
EDIT: This is not me telling you to do this. I am bad at all of these. I’m trying only to make a very small point here about this slogan. I hate viral preachy eco-scolding on Mastodon and I don’t want to contribute to that.
I am part of a team (headed up by Cliff Ando) to produce a new edition of the epigraphically preserved Roman statutes (an updated version of Crawford RS, in effect), and it has been SO GOOD to get back to this sort of super detailed, empirical research/writing after a long stretch of "big picture" and "high concept" work. Historians need to keep all of those (very different) muscles in shape!
I (finally) deactivated my Twitter account.
It has only been one week, and though I do miss the sense of community and the liveliness of the conversations there, I am glad, ultimately, to be rid of it.
I had a very productive week -- more reading *and* writing than has been the norm -- and felt focused on what I was doing. Maybe a "placebo" effect, but I suspect there is a connection.
Will probably try Bluesky, though, just to see...
Dolphin Disc ~ c. 500 BCE
This disc is thought to be a sacrificial or votive offering. It is about the size of a discus but the impressive etched dolphin suggests a purpose that may have been beyond sport.
📍 Sicily
🏛 Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Inv VI 2889 www.khm.at/en/object/66851/
#History #AncientSicily #Dolphin @histodons @antiquidons @archaeodons
"Several days of intoxication were lost or enjoyed before I could descend to a cool and minute investigation."
Edward Gibbon, age 27, on the impact of his first visit to Rome (1764).
There has been so much awful news of late, but the tragedy at the "immigrant detention center" (dystopian) in Ciudad Juárez is the one that really breaks my heart.
This is the world we have made. Can we unmake it?
Jay 🆘
The Partial Historians