Viggen

Archaeologists from TVAS have unearthed the grave of a warrior who died at around the time of Caesar's Gallic Wars, in the 50s BC. These excavations have revealed Bronze age boundary ditches and occupation, a small hoard of four Middle Bronze Age bronze axes (palstaves), an Iron Age roundhouse and a Roman building, set amongst fields. But the chief interest lies in the finding of a rich, isolated burial, which is not part of a larger cemetery and is not otherwise distinguished from the rest of the site... ...more at TVAS News

An interesting new (open access) paper in PNAS includes some new data from Crete, the Dodecanese, Cappadocia, and several other Greek (and a few non-Greek) populations, and proposes that the Neolithic followed an island-hopping migration into Europe. This is a study on modern populations that nicely complements the recent ancient mtDNA paper from PPNB which found an affinity to Neolithic Near Eastern populations among the modern inhabitants of Cyprus and Crete. ...more at Dienekes

A pair of 2,000-year-old tweezers has been found during an archaeological dig at a Roman villa in Leicester. The centuries-old artefact was part of a haul of buried treasures, including copper brooches, medieval coins, ceramics and pottery found last week in Blackfriars. The tweezers are believed to date back as far as the first century AD and would have been used to pluck stray hairs from the brows of Roman ladies – and possibly men, according to Philip Briggs, of Wardle Armstrong Archaeology, which carried out the dig. Read more at Leicester Mercury

The Vikings’ stay in Great Britain was comparatively short – but lasting. After they had first raided the Northeastern island of Lindisfarne in A.D. 793, they disappeared at the end of the 11th century. But the heritage they left in Great Britain keeps fascinating adults as well as children. These museums are the best to satisfy the knowledge thirst for information about the bearded invaders... ...more at Culture24

Spanish team find large pharaonic tomb that was probably built for a member of the royal family or a high-ranking statesman. Spanish archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old pharaonic tomb belonging to a leader from the 11th dynasty of Egypt in Luxor, the antiquities ministry said on Monday. The wide surface of the tomb showed it was that of "someone from the royal family or a high-ranking statesman," the antiquities minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, said... ....more at the Guardian

...disturbing...

...ah thanks Aurelia, was reading it wrong, so still time to sign up

...found an intriguing link at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_expeditions_to_lake_Chad_and_western_Africa These exploration were undertaken between the first century BC and the second century AD, when was created the Roman limes from Roman Mauritania to Roman Libya. There were five recorded by Roman historians: The first expedition -according to Plinius- was the one of Cornelius Balbus, who in 19 BC reached the river Niger near actual Timbouctou. He moved from Libyan Sabratha and conquered with ten thousand legionaries the Garamantes capital in actual Fezzan and sent a small group of his legionaries further south across the Ahaggar mountains in order to explore the "land of the lions": they found a huge river (the Niger) that in their opinion was going toward the Nile river [1] Indeed in 1955, many Roman coins and some Latin ceramics were found in the area of actual Mali[2] The second was done in the year 41 AD by Suetonius Paullinus, afterwards Consul, who was the first of the Romans who led an army across Mount Atlas. At the end of a ten days' march he reached the summit,—which even in summer was covered with snow,—and from thence, after passing a desert of black sand and burnt rocks, he arrived at a river called Gerj...he then penetrated into the country of the Canarii and Perorsi, the former of whom inhabited a woody region abounding in elephants and serpents, and the latter were Ethiopians, not far distant from the Pharusii and the river Daras (modern river Senegal). From the first century after Christ there is evidence (coins, fibulas) of Roman commerce and contacts in Akjoujt and Tamkartkart near Tichit in actual Mauritania.[3] The third expedition was done by Valerius Festus in 68-70 AD. He -probably by orders of Nero- repeated the travel done by Balbus, but this time he started from the Tunisian south. The forth expedition was done by Septimius Flaccus in 76 AD and reached the lake Chad through the Tibesti mountains[4] The fifth was done by Julius Matiernus in 86 AD and reached lake Chad and territories of actual northern Central African Republic. Ptolemy wrote that Matiernus did a travel of four months from southeastern Libya in order to reach the land called Agisymba, populated by rhinoceros and elephants.[5] p.s. wouldnt that be an awesome storyline for a novel? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero_expedition_to_Nile_sources

...so, how did it go, are you fluent in Latin by now?

A once-mighty coin mint was ultimately used for stone by townsfolk in Leicester, say archaeologists concluding a surprising dig at Blackfriars. Chris Wardle, a planning department archaeologist who has been part of a team responsible for a lengthy examination of the complex industrial terrain, said there was “something special” about the area during the 1st century BC.... ....more at Culture24

Loud, pounding drums; harsh, whispered vocals; unusual instrumentation; and a somewhat catchy tune buried underneath. That old-timey bit at the beginning? That's sampling. Caledonia by Cromagnon has all the staples of modern industrial music (minus the angsty lyrics), and it came out way back in 1969. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPiO_G-DEHs

Like an underwater Iron Man, a diver will fly around the wreck of an ancient Greek ship later this year, looking to shed light on the Antikythera mechanism THE world's most advanced robotic diving suit is getting ready to help search for one of the world's oldest computers. Called Exosuit, the suit has a rigid metal humanoid form with Iron Man-like thrusters that enable divers to operate safely down to depths of 300 metres (see photo). Though designed for diving in the bowels of New York City's water treatment plants, earlier this month it underwent its first trials in seawater at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts. The tests are readying the suit for a daring attempt to excavate an ancient Roman shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera in the Aegean Sea. A century ago, divers pulled the world's oldest computer – the Antikythera mechanism – from the wreck. They are hoping that they will find a second device when they go down in September. ...more at the New Scientist

Hi Kosmo, nice to see you again regarding your east asian interests; well in that case you seem to becoming our han vs rome expert

..one of the reasons why offensive is more discussed is because you have more control (or at least you think you have), humans i think like to act not react, so indeed a good defense can be extremely important. In your example of the "Battle of Britain", this defense made one thing most of all and that was change the psychology, the atack at first was all cool but eventualy when not much happend strategically the tide turned and even though Britian was at that time at the back foot they gained the psychological upperhand... p.s. even today they say in sports, offense wins battles, defense win championships, so there you have it...

Vandals have destroyed prehistoric rock art in lawless southern Libya, endangering a sprawling tableau of paintings and carvings classified by UNESCO as of "outstanding universal value." Located along Libya's southwestern tip bordering Algeria, the Tadrart Acacus mountain massif is famous for thousands of cave paintings and carvings going back up to 14,000 years. ...more at the Chicago Tribune

Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire Book Review by SemproniaOctavia In Medicus, Ruth Downie uses the tensions between Roman army and British locals to create a believable historical setting and a page-turning mystery Roman army medic Gaius Petrius Ruso is just trying to keep up appearances for his impoverished family without letting anyone know just how deeply in debt his father was. When an old army buddy, Valens, suggests that Ruso join him in a forsaken outpost of the Roman empire, Ruso jumps at the chance to make some money and maybe also to get away from his ex-wife. Of course, Valens hadn’t quite mentioned all the miserable weather, surly natives and hospital bureaucracy that Ruso would encounter in Britannia... ...go to the full review of Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire

Tom Holland is in the Oxfordshire countryside with leading classicist Dr Llewelyn Morgan the author of Patterns of Redemption in Virgil's Georgics (1999) and beekeeper Phil Sharman to find out how the Ancient Greeks and Romans would have tackled the decline if the bee population. ...fast forward to 20.30

...i am actually a bit upset i only discovered that now, application ended yesterday

currently i am watching True Detectives and i am amazed how good it is

The first free online course in the world focusing on Hadrian’s Wall has been launched. Newcastle University is bringing learners to the 73-mile long landmark, with its first ever free course on the FutureLearn social learning platform. The six-week course, entitled 'Hadrian's Wall: life on the Roman frontier’ will centre on the UNESCO World Heritage Site. ...more at The Northern Echo

A new analysis of European archaeological sites containing large numbers of dead mammoths and dwellings built with mammoth bones has led Penn State Professor Emerita Pat Shipman to formulate a new interpretation of how these sites were formed. She suggests that their abrupt appearance may have been due to early modern humans working with the earliest domestic dogs to kill the now-extinct mammoth — a now-extinct animal distantly related to the modern-day elephant. Shipman’s analysis also provides a way to test the predictions of her new hypothesis. Advance publication of her article “How do you kill 86 mammoths?” is available online through Quaternary International. more at Heritage Daily

A unique Roman sanctuary is currently being excavated at Pont-Sainte-Maxence (Oise) in northern France.The large shrine dating to the middle of the 2nd century AD was discovered during excavations prior to the building of a shopping centre. Archaeologists say the discovery was totally unexpected and has no equivalent in Roman Gaul. ...more at Past Horizons

Two men whose remains were recently excavated from tombs in western China put their pants on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us. But these nomadic herders did so between 3,300 and 3,000 years ago, making their trousers the oldest known examples of this innovative apparel, a new study finds. more at Business Insider

I added today a classic, many have seen the movie, not so many these days read the book, enjoy; Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace The Project Gutenberg E-text of Ben-Hur, by Lew Wallace.pdf