FRIENDS of HISTORY
PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY FALL 1997

 COMING THIS FALL

On November 5, 1997 the Friends will present a lecture by Dr. Bill Speck, a sixteenth and seventeenth century English history specialist, on the topic of "Guy Fawkes, the Gunpowder Plot and the Ensuing Stuart Reaction." The venue for this lecture will be the Cascade Room in Smith Center with a kick-off time of 7:00 pm.

In addition, the Panel Event is now in the final planning stages, and with Gordon Dodds serving as moderator and the panel consisting of the Honorable Owen Panner, Reverend John Rosenberg, Professors Gary Perlstein, Hugo Maynard and David Howorwitz, it is sure to be an event worth attending. The discussion of Vengeance in History will take place at 7:00 PM in the Vanport Room, Smith Center on October 23.

 The board would like to thank all of those who have so promptly renewed their membership in the Friends of History, and would like to remind those who still have their reminder letter stuck in with all their other bills, that the Friends rely solely on membership dues for funding the various programs we sponsor. Without the active support of all its members, the events, awards, grants to faculty and students and other activities which we all support and endorse can be, all too easily, reduced. So please, don't delay, send them in today.

 The Board would like to recognize retiring Board members for all their fine work over the past years: Kimberly Barta, Charles Digregorio and Charlie White, while at the same time welcoming new members; Nicholas Fish, Terri Thiesen, Julia Lay, (Phi Alpha Theta representative), Lisa Hill, (representative from the Oregon Historical Society), and Professor Noriko Aso, faculty representative.

VISITING LECTURER TO SPEAK ON JULIUS CAESAR

 Professor David Potter, a professor at the Univeristy of Michigan specializing in Roman Imperial History, will give a free public lecture entitled Caesar, Battle and the Acquisition of Empire, at Portland State on Friday, October 17. His visit, arranged by Professor Carr, provides a very welcome opportunity for History students, faculty, alumni and the public to hear some of the latest developments in classical history. Since we have (for the time being!) only one ancient historian at Portland State, Professor Potter's visit provides an excellent opportunity for both students and the general public to get a different perspective on new developments in ancient history. The lecture will take place at noon in the Browsing Lounge on the second floor of Smith Center. It is free and open to the public. We hope to see you there!

 Ever thought of going on a dig? Professor Karen Carr took one lucky Portland State senior to Tunisia with her this summer to work on an archaeological excavation there. Michael Williams, a history major, had to pay his own airfare (although the project picked up his room and board), and so he is very grateful to the Friends for their generous contribution of $150 to his expenses. Professor Carr and Mr. Williams spent three weeks in the small village of Lamta (ancient Leptiminus), in central Tunisia, sorting and analyzing about ten thousand fragments of Roman pottery found at the site. They were able to use the kind of clay, the firing temperature, the size, and the shape of each piece to determine its date and where it was manufactured. With Roman pottery, it is often possible to date even a small fragment to within 25 years, and virtually every piece can be dated to within a century, which is more accurate than any chemical or physical testing could achieve.

Why do we want this information? Well, it is already paying off in terms of our knowledge of this site in particular and the history of the Mediterranean basin in general. Combining the analysis of the potsherds with the stratigraphic (layering) data recorded at the time of excavation, Professor Carr has been able to recreate the story of the particular part of the site that she and Mr. Williams were working on: it seems to have been basically an open field at first, until about the time of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, when a large house was built. The house had a family living in it (who used ordinary plates and cups, but also had some fancy ones imported from Rome and southern Gaul), but the courtyard was apparently used for some sort of industrial activity, since it contains a large number of drains and basins. The most likely explanation is that this was a fullonica, or clothes-cleaning establishment. This would explain its location on the very edge of the ancient town, since a principal ingredient of ancient cleaning methods was the ammonia obtained by fermenting urine, and the smell made it impossible to tolerate such establishments downtown!

The fullonica (if that is what it was) seems to have stayed in business for nearly a hundred years, but then first the business and shortly afterward the house were abandoned, and the roof and walls collapsed in, preserving the remains for us to excavate. The story does not end there: good building stone is always in demand, and the house was quarried to salvage the stone in the third century and again right after the Arab conquest of North Africa, when there was a lot of construction in Lamta. The major industry of ancient Leptiminus, an important port town at the time, was the manufacture and export of good dishes. Plates, bowls, and especially casseroles and lids manufactured at Leptiminus were shipped all over the Mediterranean, and have been found from Constantinople to Scotland and at hundreds of different sites in between. One goal of the pottery analysis was therefore to work out exactly which types of pottery were being made at Leptiminus (since there were other centers) and at what dates. Accurate dating of the Lepti pottery could mean much more accurate dating of events at many other sites around the Mediterranean Sea and all over Europe. Although final answers to this question must await the analysis of the pottery from the great kilns, Professor Carr also made progress on this question during the summer. Mr. Williams' experience was not, however, limited to working with the pottery: he also had opportunities to learn archaeological drafting, drawing technical diagrams of different parts of the site. He had lessons in archaeobotany, the analysis of carbonized plant remains to see what people were eating and what the climate was like during the Roman period. He was able to crawl inside newly excavated and not-yet-excavated Punic tombs from the pre-Roman period as well. As he was already a skilled photographer, the directors of the excavation also put him to work taking photographs of different parts of the site as they were uncovered. And, last but not least, Mr. Williams was able to experience living in the very different culture of a conservative Islamic village, where he played soccer with the young men of the village and learned to buy bread and milk at the store by using sign language to overcome the language barrier.

Although Mr. Williams has now graduated and moved on to other things, Professor Carr is planning on returning to Lamta next summer, and hopes to bring at least one more student with her. If you are interested in more information about the excavation, are interested in visiting the site, or would like to contribute to its costs, please contact Professor Carr at 725-5472.

 As the fall term opens, the members of the History Department are preparing to offer their usual wide range of courses. We will have 63 graduate and undergraduate courses offered by 21 faculty members. We anticipate that enrollment will equal that of the spring term in which there were 1107 students in history classes and 6 students acquired masters degrees. One of the pleasant activities of the spring term was our annual graduate ceremony which was kindly funded by the Friends of History.

 A sampling of the activities of the faculty over the summer include the appointment of Frederick Nunn as Vice Provost for International Affairs. Susan Karant-Nunn, has won a grant from the Herzog August Bibliothek and the Land of Lower Saxony, Germany, which will enable her to carry out two months' research during 1998. Shawn Smallman was awarded a Smith-Richardson grant which will enable him to use the entire 1998-1999 academic year to pursue research in security studies. Lois Becker is on sabbatical leave in Scotland for the year. Noriko Aso has completed work for the doctorate at the University of Chicago as has Tim Garrison at the University of Kentucky. Patricia Schecter will be on leave this year to continue work on her biography of Ida B. Wells.

 As I begin my second year as chair of the department, I would like to remind members of the Friends that their suggestions to improve the efforts of the department are always welcome. Please let me know how we can work together in our common cause.

 Gordon B. Dodds

Calendar

Fall Colloquium
Thursdays 3:00 pm
447 Cramer Hall, PSU

 October 9, 1997
Debbie Rosenberg
"The Kherson Colonies: Did Russian-Jewish agricultural colonies influence the American Jewish farming movement?"

 October 23, 1997
Rachael Vorberg-Rugh
"Gender Tension in English Co-operative movement 1883-1918."

 Other scheduled dates are November 6, 13, 20, 1997

 Officers
Stephen Heard, President
Beryl Dahl, Vice-President
Erica Goodwin, Secretary
Lynn Mackenzie, Treasurer

 Noriko Aso
Gordon B. Dodds
History Department Chair
Nicholas Fish
Lisa Hill
Oregon Historical Society
Vaughn Hill
Sylvia Gray Kaplan
Danielle Larson, Past President
Julia Lay
George Nash
Dr. Richard Olmsted
Terri Thiesen
Roberta Ulrich

 Honorary Directors
Bernard V. Burke
Daniel Bernstine

 Editor: Tina Tankersley