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.
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:
On a side note, it’s interesting to read the recounting of the eruption in letters from Pliny the Elder to Tacitus.
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 studied it extensively!)
Why study Latin? Because it provides an insight into the cultures that spoke it. When I learned French in college and high school, the language provided better phrases (maybe more elegant phrases?) for expressing ideas and dreams than English did. English is great for technical discussions because of its precision. My French isn’t near what it was in college, but I still appreciate the phrases and just the way it sounds. Learning Latin could provide a similar insight into the intricacies of the culture. (Besides, it would be cool to go into a museum and be able to read the inscriptions on the artifacts not to mention reading the CIL.)
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 archeological excavation has successfully germinated after being planted.
“Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?”
Resolving the dispute over authorship of the ancient manuscripts could have far-reaching implications for Christianity and Judaism.
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 files will load after the jump.
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 content I post are not seeing anything. The links are on my side bar, but I now have to manually include the links on my page.
I’ll try to get them posted here instead of just on the Digg feed.
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 bull and wielding an axe and thunderbolt. The inscription was dedicated by Sulpicius Pudens, prefect of the Fourth Cohort of Gauls.
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:
The Archeology Magazine blog article written by Heather Pringle has the best description of the archaeology of the site and of Mound Builders in general. Dan Whisenhunt’s article in The Aniston Star defines the funding and political background to the deal between the CDA and Taylor Corporation.
Do we really need another Sam’s or Wal-Mart so much that an archaeological site has to be destroyed for our shopping pleasure?
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 possible to conclude that winegrowing in this region goes back to the Gallo-Roman era, as testified by the findings of excavations by the Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives , at the spot known as “Au dessus de Bergis.”
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.
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