my thesis. (i doubt this entry will make me sound like i am winnie-the-pooh!!!) for all those interested, here is a brief (though typically this is me typing here, so 'brief' may not be what you consider 'brief'...) rundown on what i will be concentrating on for the next 8 months or so. but firstly, just in case some of you have forgotten exactly what i am doing here in leuven, due to my entries not really containing much information about studying, and in case you haven't noticed the link on the right of the screen that sends you directly to my course... here's a rough idea.

i am studying my master of arts in eastern mediterranean archaeology. more specifically i am studying the hellenisitic and roman period of the near east. basically the deal is, everyone is living in their own little happy towns, ocassionally fighting with their neighbours but generally in their own world, with their own culture. then alexander the great comes along around 330 B.C. and suddenly the world, from spain to india, is adopted under one ruler. alexander dies and his successors fight ferociously for the land that's up for grabs. the roman empire gets stronger and stronger and then takes over everything. all this ultimately means big changes for the people, who become subjected to new cultures, new religions, new people, new ways of governing... and these changes can be seen, not only through ancient writers, but through architecture, through sculpture, through material remains that archaeologists, like myself, dig up.

okay so what am i doing? the greeks had numerous gods. one of these was the greek goddess artemis, known for her hunting abilities and shown depicted throughout greece with her bow and arrow at the ready. i will be looking at her representation and depiction in asia minor (modern day turkey) through both the hellenisitic and roman period. even though she was a greek goddess to begin with, when greece took over the ancient world, local villages who had their own deities, would adapt their gods to that of the greeks. their gods became greek gods, and greek gods became local gods. at the moment i plan on mapping cult centres geographically and sculptural changes of her image, along with her newfound identity, across space and time.

obviously this is only a vague beginning and as things progress my topic will narrow down a lot. but my supervisor is fantastic and is so inspiring and passionate in what he studies and has already shouted me a coffee and taken me on a whirlwind trip of important journals to read up on. am a bit concerned at the amount of both german and french articles i may, or may not, have to read at some point... but i'll deal with that at the time. so i'm happy, because i had been wanting to study both hellenisitic and roman sculpture, had wanted to somehow relate it to religion, and had hoped to be able to use my geography somewhere. okay, so i'm not studying anything coastal, but maybe as i move down the track, i'll be able to find some relevance to study beach sites... we'll see.

on other news... did i mention it snowed? ;-)

and maybe as a final aside... i'm going to rome! yes, that's right. suppose that really deserved its own entry, rather than be tacked on the end. oh well. i have booked my flights and am going from november 10 to 16 i think. and i can't wait. it's so cheap to travel over here. i'm flying there with ryan air, and it is costing me 1 cent, one way to rome. funny huh? i could have returned home for 1 cent also, but i didn't want to miss too many classes so had to opt for 25 euros home instead. still, not bad!! 5 days for me to explore rome and pompei and hopefully some exotic little beach. i'm going on my own, though one of the guys visiting the canadians, is going to be in the area around the same time so we'll probably meet up and spend a couple of days together, which will be nice.