Volunteers encouraged to make Comfort Caps for cancer patients who have lost their hair

Volunteers interested in helping cancer patients are invited to sew Comfort Caps on Sept. 13 anytime between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The nationwide event will be held locally at the Cotton Boll in Chapel Hill, which is the only event site in the Triangle. Some of the caps will be distributed to the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Patient-Family Resource Center.

The Comfort Caps will go to patients who have lost their hair due to cancer treatment. Volunteers may stop by and make as many caps as they wish at the event.

Sewing expertise is not necessary to participate. Members of the Triangle chapter of the American Sewing Guild will be on hand to assist in the crafting of caps.

The event is sponsored nationwide by Viking Sewing Machines. For more information, contact Rosemary Hargrove, owner of the Cotton Boll, at (919) 942-9661.

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UNC classical historian honored by University of Cambridge

Dr. Richard J. A. Talbert, the William R. Kenan Jr. professor of history and classics at UNC, has

been awarded a doctorate of letters by the University of Cambridge in recognition of his distinguished contributions to the field of ancient history.

The degree will be conferred during a ceremony in England in December.

In addition to being an expert on the Roman empire and its government, Talbert is the editor of the "Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World," recognized as the most comprehensive collection of maps of ancient lands available anywhere. The atlas, which includes more than 100 full-color maps recreating the classical geographic landscape, has been acclaimed in reviews by major national and international news media.

One reviewer for the National Endowment for the Humanities called it "quite simply the most important and most complicated project to be undertaken in classical studies this generation."

Talbert was responsible for the establishment of the Ancient World Mapping Center based in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. The center promotes and facilitates cartography and geographic analysis within the field of ancient studies and has been producing and archiving digital versions of maps of ancient lands, for use by scholars and students.

He has been a member of the university faculty since 1988.

Photo url: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/talbert_richard.jpg

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UNC religious studies professor wins archaeology book award

A book written by a distinguished religious studies professor at UNC has been named the Best Popular Book on Archaeology for 2001-2002 by the Biblical Archaeology Society.

Dr. Jodi Magness, the Kenan distinguished professor for teaching excellence in early Judaism and a leading expert on the archaeology of Palestine, received the award for her book "The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls."

The award, which includes a $100 cash prize, will be announced in the October 2003 issue of Bible Review and the November-December 2003 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

"Jodi Magness has written a superb account that summarizes the available evidence for the archaeology of Qumran and integrates it with the Dead Sea Scrolls," wrote the judges for the Biblical Archaeology Society. "She discusses in detail such issues as the nature of the site and its occupational history, the presence of women at the settlement and the relationship of the sectarians there to the Temple priesthood in Jerusalem."

Magness, who joined the UNC faculty last fall, teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on early Jewish history, literature, religion and archaeology through the department of religious studies in the College of Arts and Sciences

Her other books include "The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine" and "Jerusalem Ceramic Chronology, Circa 200-800 C.E."

The Biblical Archaeology Society is a national, nondenominational educational organization dedicated to the dissemination of information about archaeology in the area known as the Bible Lands.

Photo url: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/magness_jodi.jpg

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News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu