I was hoping that gaming and stuff might provide some distractions and instead I ended up signing up for a free class at Coursera called “Archaeology’s Dirty Little Secrets.” It looks awesome. I’ve always wanted to take classes in archaeology and never had the chance when I was in college. I’m looking forward to this class, even if I am starting about a week after the class officially started. I have some catch-up...
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Catalogs and categories of Epona artifacts
A friend of mine recently asked me if the categorization of Epona artifacts used on Epona.net was original to Nantonos and I. The short answer is that, no, every author who has studied Epona artifacts has created their own categories. It’s like organizing a pantry: each cook has a different way of arranging cans so they make the most sense to that cook. Nantonos did the majority of the analysis on the artifacts...
Continue reading...Middle English poetry
A good friend of mine and I share unusual tastes in history and music. We both like to listen to recitals of middle English and old English, for example. She shared a video of a reading of The Owl and the Nightengale, an early Middle English poem. The poem, and other works of Middle English, can be found online at the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse. Related Images:
Continue reading...ORBIS: Google Maps for Ancient Rome
The science fiction blog / news aggregate site io9 has an article today about ORBIS, a Google Maps for Ancient Rome. Want to know how long it would take to travel between Roma and Londinium and how much it might cost in denarii? ORBIS, developed by Standford University, can tell you all you want to know about travel planning in the Roman empire circa 200 AD. ORBIS looks like great fun to play...
Continue reading...The Eagle
I’m going with a friend of mine to see The Eagle, a new movie based upon Rosemary Sutcliff’s book The Eagle of the Ninth. The movie gets mixed reviews. The review site Rotten Tomatoes gives The Eagle 34%. We’ll see how it is. None of the reviews are really good, and some of the reviews are really bad. I’m seeing it with a friend so we’ll both either like it or hate it....
Continue reading...Video: The Mummy and the Archaeologst, A love story
Josh Ritter’s latest album features a song called “The Curse,” about an archaeologist who falls in love with a mummy. The music video for this song was created by the band’s drummer, who is also a puppeteer. It is so nice to hear a story-driven song with a good melody. The video is just perfect. Related Images:
Continue reading...Mice of Pompeii
The plaster cast figures from Pompeii are pretty famous. The casts are made by pouring plaster into hollows left in the ash by an item that has decomposed (like bodies, wood, etc.). The resulting figures capture the expressions and last moments of the people who were killed by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79CE. A snippet of a documentary shows the mice from Pompeii captured using the same plaster technique developed by Fiorelli:...
Continue reading...Learn Latin Online
I found a link to an online Latin immersion course, Latinum. The course provides sample tracks along with some text for studying. Sounds interesting. I started studying Latin last fall, but ended up setting it aside due to lack of time and server issues with the course. I learned a lot while I was in it. (Learning Latin using a French text was *hard*. Here’s to having friends who have taught Latin or...
Continue reading...Archaeology stories from Digg
December 23rd edition “2000 year old Bronze Horse Head Found In Germany” Frankfurt Scientists say a Roman horse head made from bronze and plated in gold has been discovered at an archaeological site in Germany. “Domestic Horse Ridden Further Back in Time” People were riding horses much earlier than previously thought, new archaeological finds suggest. “Ancient seed sprouts plant from the past – Hurriyet Daily News” A 4,000-year-old lentil seed unearthed in an...
Continue reading...Maps of War
A Twitter post today mentioned the Maps of War, a site that has history maps with time lines showing the progression of different events overlaid on a map. Two of the maps caught my eye: Imperial History of the Middle East and the History of Religion. I’ve embedded both of them here. While not much of the site deals with ancient history, the maps do provide an interesting point of view. The Flash...
Continue reading...Archaeology article links
I often post links to archaeology articles I find online using Digg. Digg used to offer a way to automatically post links from their service directly to a WordPress blog. A few months back, this service went away mysteriously. The only option I found to replace it is an integrated sidebar widget that lists the articles I did. Unfortunate, it means that those of you who subscribe because of some of the archaeological...
Continue reading...Shrine to Jupiter found at Vindolanda
Found a link to the article below on Archaeological News. Amazing find! I’d love to be able to see it. To my friend on the right side of the pond — if you get to visit the site, send me a picture? hexham-courant.co.uk — ONE of the most important artefacts ever unearthed at the Vindolanda Roman site near Bardon Mill could also be the heaviest. The 1.5 tonne altar depicts Jupiter riding a...
Continue reading...Destroying an archaeological site to build a Sam’s Club
I was reading Archaeologica during lunch and discovered an article about an American Indian mound in Oxford, Alabama being used as fill dirt for a Sam’s Club. The council members don’t seem to care about the possible historical site being demolished. Instead they are doing “what is best” for the city. Here are some articles about the destruction of this mound: “Wal-Mart and the Mound Builders,” blog post by Heather Pringle on Archeology...
Continue reading...Remains Of Gallo-Roman Winery in Burgundy
Science Daily had an article on the remains of a Gallo-Roman winery found in Burgundy. My favourite region in France is Burgundy. I should post some of the pictures I have of the grapevine-covered hill sides. It’s amazing. It would have been The Place to do a wine tasting — if I wasn’t allergic to alcohol… Gevrey-Chambertin, 12 km from Dijon, is famous throughout the world for its Burgundy wines. It is now...
Continue reading...Archaeologists Find Earliest Known Domestic Horses
An international team of archaeologists has uncovered the earliest known evidence of horses being domesticated by humans. The discovery suggests that horses were both ridden and milked. read more | digg story Related Images:
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