Turns out there are two sets of the photographs of Nemi finds taken by Lord Savile, not only the ones in the BM I’ve been trying to located but also in Nottingham. These aren’t fully digitized (yet), but the internal collections database has turned up wonderfully detailed descriptions of each print AND notes on how they correspond to photographs in the BM. So the BM photos exist clearly, and once I get the funds to go see the Nemi coins in person, I’ll also be able to study the photographs (maybe, hopefully even share them). I’ve seen one sample image and it is of high quality and the coins are legible (but only one side). I’m particularly interested that the photos seem to specify WHERE on the site the coins were found and other materials from the same find spot.
I wonder if Lord Savile kept a journal and if his personal papers are on deposit in some accessible archive…
You can get a sense of these photos from a blog post from 2013 by Pete Bounous, no coins but some low res images of votive offerings.
The 1893 catalogue of the first exhibit in Nottingham of the Nemi material is also available online. It is well illustrated for the time but alas no coin images. However, it does nicely distinguish the find spot of the aes rude from the aes grave!
The ritual foundation deposit under the entrance fits well with other similar foundation finds.
Other things in the catalogue that charmed me was the great enthusiasm of the time for the letter forms used to spell DIANA on this bronze handle.
I’m also delighted with this report of a base to go with one of the small bronze statues. So often those figures are de contextualized from their original function, I find this satisfying to know of:
I’ve been overestimating what I can get done in a day. I’m going to try to put less on the today list.
Today
BM archivist reply- Review grad student apps by Jan 19
- LETTER
- Other email correspondence as necessary
Not Today (but maybe tomorrow, or the day after)
- post conference Rome accommodation
- Teaching requests for Fall 2023
- Circle back to department about any Jan planning meetings
- Set time table for any collaborative RRDP work/publication prep that needs to happen this semester: Chicago pub, INC pub, collaboration with RACOM, etc…
- Circle back to Capito project
- Consider ask for funding from Dean’s office
- Begin Med school rec letter
- record mini myth
- find out what is on that v old harddrive and back up to cloud
- Write up Teaching Eval
- Cancel at least one more digital membership
- renew Coinarchives
Liv Mariah Yarrow 