The ACCLA Monthly Meeting Notice is sent to Club members at the beginning of each month. The Notices include upcoming meeting information, a recap of the prior meeting, and other items of interest. Digests of theSE Notices are provided here.
MONTHLY MEETINGS ARE NOW HELD AT SKIRBALL CULTURAL CENTER.
JANUARY 2002
The next meeting of ACCLA will take place on Sunday January 13, 2002 at 1:00 P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. We will be having our annual installation of officers and our inaugural festivities.
LAST MEETING
Elections were held for the 2002 Officers and Board Members.
Officers And Board Members
President: Ken Friedman
Vice President: Richard Baker
Treasurer: Barry Rightman
Secretary: David Stepsay
Board Members
Hugh Kramer
Ralph Marx
Paula Reynosa
Michelle Sheldon
Mark Westerline
At our last meeting Richard Baker gave another in his series of talks on countermarks. His emphasis was on the word or letters struck into the host coin and their meaning. For instance, on the Tiberius, "FCPA" means to infer that, back from exile, he was adopted by Augustus as his only begotten son. And "PRO" or "PROS", that this counterstamp was approved by the proper authority. And also on one or more coins, "DUP" means that the coin has been downgraded to dupondius. There were many more meanings revealed on his extremely good slides, too numerous to note here. Richard passed out a monograph entitled The Countermarks Found on Ancient Roman Coins: a Brief Introduction, consisting of seven pages, which purports to be a good introduction to this subject.
David Stepsay, Secretary
FEBRUARY 2002
The next meeting of ACCLA will be held on Sunday February 10, 2002 at Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills at 1:00 P.M. Ken Baumheckel will hold forth on the information contained in his recent article in the publication Shekel, which was on coins in the bible. Ken will show slides and discourse on coinage from Persian, Seleucid, Judean, and Roman times, all of which impacted on biblical history. There will also be a handout.
LAST MEETING
We had our annual installation of board and officers under the aegis of Sally Marx who graciously assented to be the installing officer. All the incoming officers were presented with symbols and tokens of their office. I personally wish to thank the club for the handsome copy of Monumental Coins, a wise choice because it contains many drawings and photos of coins and other things of interest.
David Stepsay, Secretary
MARCH 2002
The next meeting of the ACCLA will take place on Sunday March 10, 2002 at Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills at 1:00 P.M.
LAST MEETING
At our last meeting, Ken Baumheckel presented a selection of coinage found in and pertaining to the bible. Ken, one of our newest members, sallied forth on his maiden presentation with the greatest aplomb. He showed a collection of coins dating from the Achaemenid dynasty in Persia (with a picture of his siglos of Darius) to the early Roman Empire with a sestertius of Tiberius of 29 CE. Ken said that aside from one coin for which he paid $200 none of the rest cost more than $100. If that's the case, I'd like to see what his collection will look like in the future when he can actually afford the more expensive coins which will then become available to him. He said he believes that much knowledge can be gained from a cheap coin that might be overlooked by those in the habit of buying more expensive ones. I know I have been one of those to whom a coin must be in pretty good shape and hence more pricey to be appreciated.
If you are still receiving this notice by USPS and are online, please let me have your e-address forthwith.
David Stepsay, Secretary
APRIL 2002
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sunday April 14, 2002 at 1:00 P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. Michelle Sheldon will hold forth on Greek mythology. This woman of many parts is still studying various aspects of ancient history, and lately is applying her scholarly skills to Alexander of Macedon, often called "the great".
LAST MEETING
We received another $1000 contribution from the dissolution of COIN, and the check was brought to the meeting by Sally and Ralph Marx. A group purchase on the latest David Sear book Roman Coins and Their Values volume 2 is being contemplated. Further word will be forthcoming from Barry Rightman.
At our last meeting Brian Geeslin read a paper on serpentine reverses. He went into the background of snake symbolism and gave some examples, to wit for instance the Pythian serpent (Apollo slaying the Pythian dragon); Aesclapius (caduceus which represents healing vs. evil); blending of sky gods with serpents; the mysteries (reaching back to the darker corners of legend and earth's revitalization via the snake. Several other examples were given, but suffice it to say the snake has a prominent part in human history. Brian says the Celator will publish the article. He also passed out an outline of his paper, together with depictions of some of the coins he was talking about.
Roger Burry for David Stepsay, Secretary
MAY 2002
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sunday May 12, 2002 at 1:00 P.M. the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. Hugh Kramer will engage upon one of his delectable presentation/demonstrations of roman cookery.
LAST MEETING
A sign-up sheet was passed around for the group purchase of David Sears' volume II on roman coins. Contact Barry Rightman if you missed the meeting. The price is as yet unknown.
Michelle Sheldon talked on Greek goddesses, concentrating on Athena and Hera particularly. Athena was taken up by the Romans as Minerva and Hera as Juno. Athena was the goddess of cities, heroes, civilization, wisdom, crafts and skill, particularly weaving. She won her place as Athens' patron by winning a contest with Poseidon, who gave Athens the horse. However, Athena trumped him by giving Athens the olive tree. She is also famous for springing forth fully grown and armed from her father Zeus' forehead. She helped Herakles and Perseus in their labors, causing some wit to say that while she did not help women with their labor, she did help men with their labors. Hera was married to Zeus and is the model scorned wife. Her portrait is more common on roman than Greek coins. And she became sacred to empresses with her symbols, the peacock and the cow. And she was the goddess of cleanliness, good order, and child birth. The slides were great. Michelle is the Ansel Adams of our club.
David Stepsay, Secretary
JUNE 2002
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sunday June 9, 2002 at 1:00 P.M. the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. Our speaker will be Richard Baker, who will present material some but not all of us may be familiar with, i.e. legio decima fretensis, exercitus romanus. Richard is an inveterate collector of countermarked coins and this talk will have to do with the involvement of the tenth legion of the roman army in the fall of Jerusalem and Masada.
LAST MEETING
The Long Beach convention is coming up very soon. Sally Marx suffered another fracture of her leg and is currently in a nursing home. We all wish Sally speedy recovery from her fall and look forward to seeing her at future meetings.
At last month's meeting Hugh Kramer, our resident chef, gave his talk on roman cookery, with a collation of his baking in the form of libum, or offering cakes, and savillum, which is a cheesecake as the eminent Cato would have cooked it. Meat was not big with these folk because their cattle were used as work animals and their meat was perforce very stringy. They specialized in many other kinds of meat, fish, and poultry, a lot of which we do not today enjoy due to the over-harvesting of many species now scarce as hens' teeth. Or even extinct. Hugh also went into the preparation of various foods the Romans ate. And he brought up the interesting word from which we derive "vinegar": garum, or oenogarum.
David Stepsay, Secretary
JULY 2002
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sunday July 14, 2002 at 1:00 P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. The speaker will be Michelle Sheldon who will give a talk entitled The Coinage of Philip II and His Son Alexander the Great.
LAST MEETING
Ralph Marx says that Sally is now in a nursing facility and feeling much better. She should be at the next meeting.
At our last meeting we heard from Richard Baker with his interesting slide show on LFX (the tenth legion) and he did a thorough discourse on the history of it from beginning to end. It was an exciting talk and for my part I will say it was a pleasure for a change not to see all those beautiful coins mutilated with those countermarks...
David Stepsay, Secretary
AUGUST 2002
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sunday August 11, 2002 at 1:00 P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. Our speaker will be David Michaels, who works with Rob Freeman of Freeman and Sears, and he will be accompanied by two associates dressed in the garb of the Roman sixth legion. David will be speaking on Roman Arms and Armament. Let's have a really good turnout for this unusual and highly interesting presentation.
LAST MEETING
At our last meeting, Michelle Sheldon graciously stepped up to the plate at short notice to fill in for David Michaels who had to postpone. Her talk was a beautifully illustrated discourse on money and banking in Macedonia starting with Philip II.
David Stepsay, Secretary
SEPTEMBER 2002
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sept. 6, 2002 at 1:00 P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. Our next presenter will be Richard Baker, on Caligula's Failures: The Hellenization of the Roman Monarchy.
LAST MEETING
The last meeting was, according to my informant, Richard Baker, very interesting, with David Michaels, Kip Friedman, and Kelly Ramage, all showing up in Roman military garb of various provenance. The predominant material being worn, I understand, was wool and it was one of the hottest days of the year. So it must have been a lot of fun for the soldiers. The various accoutrements were explained by the wearers and a slide show was presented showing other details of Roman military armaments and clothing.
David Stepsay, Secretary
OCTOBER 2002
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sunday, October 13, 2002 at 1:00 P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. The presenter will be Kip Antonelli-Friedman, who will give a talk entitled Archaeology At Arbeia. Arbeia was a Roman fort located near the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall; Kip has recently returned from doing excavations there.
LAST MEETING
Paul Ranc is now the club historian and will keep our archives.
At our last meeting, Richard Baker showed slides and spoke on Caligula's Failure: The Hellenization of the Roman Monarchy. Caligula was born Gaius Julius Caesar and was the son of Germanicus, who was the son of Antonia of Marcus Antonius fame. Caligula's mother was Agrippina, the daughter of Agrippa, of Augustan fame. He was brought up by Antonia and Livia, along with numerous foreign royal princelings. He came under the evil influence of Sejanus, but did many good things when he acceded to the Emperorship at age 24. However, it was a strange illness that betook him at the end of 7 months that might have accounted for some of his bad deeds. He developed a distaste for the Senate. He tried to make his court into a Pharaonic institution. Isis became the official goddess of the court. Caligula had his sister deified. (She was the first woman in Roman history so honored). He dreamt of a Hellenized Rome and arranged for the mantle of the Ptolemies to devolve upon him. He ordered a statue of himself erected in holy places, although this was rescinded when he feared a revolt. Caligula had four years at the helm and then he was assassinated.
David Stepsay, Secretary
NOVEMBER 2002
The next meeting of the club will take place on Sunday, November 10, 2002 at 1:00 P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. The presenter will be Michelle Sheldon and the topic is Egyptian Medicine. She will discuss treatments for all different types of diseases and demonstrate how similar our own modern medicine is with them. She will even put together a love potion prescribed by physicians during the Ptolemaic period.
LAST MEETING
At our last meeting the presenter was Kip Antonelli-Friedman who spoke on archaeology at Arbeia. He was on a dig sponsored by Earthwatch, involving an old fort on the South Shields River in Northumberland. It was built in first century CE under Hadrian. It had a strong room where the soldiers' pay was kept, lots of granaries, and headquarters which supplied provisions to the Roman troops. On Hadrian's wall (the fort was a satellite to the wall) there was an officers' villa, and barracks which have been reconstructed. People have been living there even after a large fire in the 3rd century destroyed the site, until 1875, when it was finally abandoned. But at least it was saved from being used for Victorian houses when it was excavated in that year. There is a free museum on the premises run by the British Heritage Trust. A sister site, Segedunum, had cavalry stables, where both horses and their riders slept not far from each other. Servants slept in the attic. Walls made of daub and wattle (cow manure and straw), whitewashed with lime. The rooms had windows and 8-man bunks (4 on top and 4 on bottom). Kip showed a bit about how reconstitution of the masonry was done and rubble was recorded and he showed some of the tools used in the restoration of the site and some of the artifacts he found. All in all it was a very interesting presentation and well worth attending.
David Stepsay, Secretary
DECEMBER 2002
The next meeting of the club will be held on Sunday, December 8, 2002 at 1:00 P.M. at the Balboa Mission Town Hall, Granada Hills. The presenter will be David Stepsay and the talk will be on the Celts in ancient times and will be entitled These Are a Few of My Favorite Tribes.
LAST MEETING
At our last meeting Michelle Sheldon held forth on Egyptian medicine. Imhote was the Aesclapius of Egypt. His temple was a sanitarium. Hessy-Ra was the first recorded physician and dentist. Pesheset was the first recorded female physician or overseer of female doctors. One tomb was found to have a false door showing the specialty of the interred to be that of ophthalmology. There was a practice similar to triage of the modern day. As far back as 1825 BCE there was the practice of gynecology, fertility, birth control and obstetrics. There was something of a pharmacopoeia, showing the various treatments for various forms of trauma. Surgical tools that have been discovered reveal various types of surgery that they practiced. They had suturing and circumcision. They had drug therapies but they had few anesthetics. Michelle's presentation was most interesting.
David Stepsay, Secretary