Xenophon Ten Thousand - Week 8

[CianColgan]

Progress Report:

Overall a good, albeit very slow, week for progress. Lots and lots of things to talk about in our meeting. Technically my last week (per the Furman research stint), though I still have plenty to do.

• Spent a considerable amount of time combing through even more sources on Xenophon's route, the cultures he encounters, and their respective history as relates to the Urartu, as well as all of the numerous points of misinterpretation, textual ambiguity, and strong disagreements between scholars
• Resolved/Reevaluated most (though not all) of the problems I discovered on the final day last week
• Decided that, for this section in Armenia, it's necessary to reconstruct four routes based on two different criteria:
  • 1. Whether Xenophon's Euphrates is the Murat river or the Karasu river (not to be confused with the Karasu Stream)
  • 2. Whether they march for seven days to the Phasis (Aras), or seven days along the Phasis [the Greek in the passage can be read either way]
• With this decision above made, I began mapping the routes, starting with the Murat as the Euphrates, then seven days to the Phasis

After all this is finally done, it should hopefully be much smoother (and faster) sailing on to a polished and presentable end product

[ChiaraPalladino]

Good work. We'll discuss the four routes in our meeting, although I sympathize (!) with the need of having them, I really want to make sure this is necessary work.

We may also talk about how to support you in bringing this project to the article writing stage. There is an option we may explore with the Furman Humanities Center.