Viggen

Great stuff Kama, glad you enjoyed, and don't forget to keep us up to date! :-) cheers viggen

Memorial University of Newfoundland Classics 1200 Roman Civilization

After withstanding a Roman assault 2,000 years ago, the Masada desert mountain - where Jewish rebels chose suicide over capture - has begun crumbling under the forces of nature. Masada, the Judean mountain promontory overlooking the Dead Sea, is the site where a last group of holdouts sought refuge from Roman legions who had already destroyed the biblical Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. full article at journalnow

IT

Families who have lived in the English-Scottish Borders for generations could be descended from African soldiers who patrolled Hadrian's Wall nearly 2,000 years ago. Archaeologists say there is compelling evidence that a 500-strong unit of Moors manned a fort near Carlisle in the third century AD. Richard Benjamin, an archaeologist at Liverpool University who has studied the history of black Britons, believes many would have settled and raised families. The unit was probably mustered in the Roman province of Mauretania, in modern-day Morocco, by the emperor Septimus Severus and arrived in Britain in the second or third centuries AD. Aballava lay at the western end of Hadrian's Wall in Cumbria. full article at the Telegraph

Aquila Fortis A Roman Legion Player Guild for the Roma-Victor MMORPG.

Dealing with bug infestations, normal wear and tear and even the occasional thief, keepers of the 15th century Vatican Apostolic Library face an ever-challenging task. Their latest step to keep their invaluable collection intact has been to employ some 21st century technology. Officials have started implanting computer chips in the 1.6 million books in the Vatican's collection. The chips communicate via radio wave with hand-held monitors, so librarians can tell if a book is missing. One of the library's most important pieces is the "Codex B" -- the oldest known complete Bible, which dates from about 325 A.D. and is believed to have been one of the 50 bibles Emperor Constantine commissioned. The library also is home to 300,000 medals and Roman-era coins, although many of the most valuable pieces were lost when Napoleon took them to France. full article at silive.com

For 138 years, a shallow, unmarked trench held the bodies of six Confederate soldiers cut down in one of the more futile battles of the Civil War. Then, a road building project cut through the ground above them. The field where the Battle of Helena was fought July 4, 1863, is part of the city now, and as urban sprawl encroaches on battlegrounds nationwide, it becomes more and more likely that additional forgotten graves will be uncovered.

As far as i know, the oldest known manuscripts of Matthew and Mark are written in Greek. I believe those fragments have been verified as dating from as early as the 60s A.D. There is no evidence that the Gospels were written originally in any other language but Greek. If there were versions of Matthew or the other Gospels originally penned in Aramaic, they were very quickly translated into Greek so that they could be utilized throughout the Roman world. cheers viggen

More tidbits about the upcoming film; screenindia

After a decade of painstaking cleaning, Berlin's Pergamon Museum has unveiled the restored marble frieze of the Pergamon Altar, the second century B.C. centerpiece of its collection. The 371 foot-long frieze decorated the outside walls of the altar, which was built between 197 and 156 B.C. in the present-day Turkish town of Bergama. A German engineer discovered fragments of the frieze, which had been taken apart and incorporated into the walls of a fortress, in 1864. It displays mythological scenes of gods fighting giants, snarling lions and coiling snakes, with the muscular bodies of Artemis, Zeus and Athena clad in delicately sculpted folds of fabric. found at Highbeam.com

thanks moon, hopefully i will manage this summer to get to another place or two... cheers viggen

I think for the Romans Octavian was the "ultimate Good Emperor", synonym for peace and prosperity... cheers viggen

A priceless 1,500-year-old Byzantine-era artifact was stolen early yesterday from an archaeological park near Herzliya, police said. The thieves took a part of the floor of a glass kiln, one of only three still in existence in Israel. Police suspect the theft had been commissioned by a private antiques collector. "This was a part of the glass kiln that served the Byzantine city of Apolonia 1,500 years ago," said archaeologist Hagi Yohanan, director of the Apolonia park built over the ruins of the city. full article at Haaretz

Archaeologists have dug up a thousand-year-old padded bra in Inner Mongolia, China, a news report said on Thursday. The gold-coloured bra was found in tomb in the province's Aohan region, according to the South China Morning Post. Archeologist Shao Guotian said the bra dated back to China's Liao dynasty and described it as made of fine silk with shoulder and back straps. "It is just like brassieres of today," he said. "It's a pity most of the cotton padding in the cups has already decayed." - Sapa-dpa via IOL

Archaeologists working at a construction site in Elgin have uncovered a perfectly-preserved 14th-century oak-built well. The find has been described as "phenomenal", and is being hailed as a rare glimpse into life in mediaeval Elgin and Scotland. The well was discovered last week, at the site of a planned Marks and Spencer food store on the west end of the High Street. full article at press and journal

TotalWar.org The Unofficial Total War Site

Research has overturned centuries-old theories that the Dark Ages came soon after the turbulent decline of the Roman Empire in the 4th century AD. Dr Sean Kingsley, a British archaeologist, has drawn up a new map of 222 shipwrecks dating from the 4th to 10th centuries AD, which shows the emergence of a consumer revolution with an epicentre in the Holy Land. The conclusions are dramatic, he said:

The archaeological excavation of an important Roman site begins in Swindon on Wednesday. The work is taking place at Groundwell Ridge in the north of the town. Previous digs have unearthed evidence of well-preserved Roman buildings, pottery and coins dating from the second to fourth Century AD. This year's activities will focus on one of the buildings damaged when the site was discovered by construction workers in 1996. The seven-week dig is funded by English Heritage. Archaeologists say the site is of great historic importance. via BBC

continued from Websites that link to us Part II Allen Middle School> > > The Rides of March A WebQuest for 7th Grade Social Studies

Ont thing that hasn't been mentioned here is the lack of support Hannibal received from his own politicians, I believe if the phonician senate would have stood full behind him, he had a much better chance.... cheers viggen

The best preserved example in Wales of a medieval track, which dates back 1,000 years, has been unearthed by archaeologists in Ceredigion. The small team claims the structure, made up of thick wooden beams, has been protected by a peat bog which has covered it for centuries. Students from the University of Birmingham, lecturers from Lampeter University and experts from Cambria Archaeology, from Llandeilo, have been working on the project for six days. Carbon dating carried out on fragments of wood from the site date back to 900 or 1020AD. full article including photographs at the BBC

There you go, the day was not so bad, and i also got a chance to make some photos, i hope you enjoy them... http://www.unrv.com/roman-events/magdalensberg.php cheers viggen

Hello Zeke, Not sure about the gods, i read that lead poisining wasn't really a factor as not much has been found in the bodies of ancient romans, I dont't think (apart from the Goths) the romans actually let them in, i believe they just went without asking. Poor leadership was often a problem, and as stated elsewhere logistics was always a problem too.... The impact of christianity however was huge, not only on Rome but the whole world. The roman pantheons were dwindling in importance long before christianity, and many foreign cults and religions were happyily absorbed by the Romans, but christianity was just the only monotheistic one i believe, while the other religions had room for more then one, chrisitanity was either or.... cheers viggen

Egypt is about to begin the painstaking five-year task of cataloguing and restoring some 90,000 pharaonic and other artifacts which have lain almost forgotten for decades since they were dug from ancient ruins. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities, said Sunday that work started about three weeks ago to move the artifacts, now in the basement of the country's main museum, into storage elsewhere. From there the artifacts will be recorded, photographed and restored if necessary -- a job that will take about five years. full article at Reuters