Discovering Humanities

Finding a universal language Esperanto never really caught on, and English has too much baggage to be a truly universal language. So what hope have the world’s nearly eight billion people, speaking thousands of different languages, of communicating meaningfully across cultural and linguistic barriers? Australian linguists have been grappling with this question – and they […]

Introducing microliths They’re not much to look at – just small chunks of sharpened rock – but the carefully crafted stone tools known as microliths tell us much about the social, cultural, technological and economic life of Australia’s first peoples. First discovered in Australia in 1901, microliths have been found at archaeological sites across the

A world first for a multilingual nation Spend time in any Australian city, and a Babel of languages will assail you – English, of course, but also Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, Hindi, Italian and Greek, among numerous others. Travel to Central Australia, and you’ll hear Warlpiri, Arrernte, Pitjantjatjara and a host of other Aboriginal languages. Multilingualism

A pioneering historian puts Australian research on the map Ancient Rome reached its height two millennia ago, yet it continues to influence Western civilisation, and to be a source of fascination for people the world over. Pioneering work on the ancient Roman family by an Australian historian, Beryl Rawson, transformed our understanding of this period.

The explorer & the naturalist On 12 January 1836, Charles Robert Darwin stepped ashore at Sydney Cove, towards the end of a five-year odyssey aboard HMS Beagle. Darwin had already visited the Galapagos Islands, but it was in Australia that his theory of the evolution of species by natural selection began to take shape. This

Spreading the word – sixteenth century-style It is believed to have begun with Martin Luther posting his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church, in northern Germany, and it changed the face of sixteenth century Europe, splintering Western Christianity and paving the way for individualism, scepticism, civil rights, capitalism and modern democracy.

Meet the skalds Among the most respected figures in medieval Scandinavian society was the court poet, or skald, who composed verses celebrating his king’s exploits. Other skalds operated outside the court, sometimes celebrating their own exploits. Christian skalds recorded the lives and miracles of the saints, apostles and Virgin Mary. This rich tradition of Skaldic

It was one of the darkest chapters of twentieth-century Europe: the Stalinist era in the Soviet Union, when an estimated ten million people were killed by famine, died in labour camps or during the forced collectivisation of farms, or were executed. We know much about the actions of the Soviet state and the Communist Party

Finding patterns Analysing Austen’s novels computationally in the late 1980s, John Burrows discovered strong patterns in her prose and also in the dialogue of her major characters. But it was not unusual or complex vocabulary that distinguished, say, Emma’s language from Mr Darcy’s, but the most mundane of words, such as “we” and “the”. In

Reconciling logic & paradox Paradoxes have long fascinated humans. “What a paradox!” we say, usually of something that is apparently true but contains two statements which seem to be inconsistent with each other. Paradoxes and logic are ill at ease in each other’s company. The ancient Greeks, who invented the study of logic, were also

A courtly instrument with an urban history Shaped like a guitar, and tuned like a lute, the Renaissance-era vihuela might have faded into obscurity were it not for the efforts of musicologists such as Australia’s John Griffiths, one of the world’s leading authorities on the instrument. Awarded one of Spain’s highest civil orders for his