This weekly feature is a place to discuss new developments in fields of history and archaeology. This can be newly discovered documents and archaeological sites, recent publications, documents that have just become publicly available through digitization or the opening of archives, and new theories and interpretations.
Who was Philip II, Alexander's father, why was he important and what does the recent discovery of his tomb mean for Grecian archaeology? Is this on par with the imperial tombs being excavated in China - is it that major?
The full, un-redacted, uncensored transcripts of the J. Robert Oppenheimer security hearing were finally declassified and released last week. I had a role in it that the article hints at, at the end. (I'm not super happy with how I was described — "atomic expert" obscures the fact that I am as much of a card-carrying, PhD-having historian as anyone else quoted there — but for my first New York Times citation I guess beggars can't be choosers!)
I don't agree with the analysis given by the other historians consulted for that article (though they are lovely people and friends of mine, their analysis of how the classification decisions got made is in my view not quite right, as someone who has studied the classification process for this period in a lot of detail). I am writing up an article on this for some kind of publication in the next couple of weeks with my side of the story and my analysis of the deletions, put into their original context of early 1954.
I'm happy to answer any questions about this, if anyone has them!