GhostOfClayton

Can we narrow it down to the Decopolis?

Getting on the internet has been very problematic recently, but hopefully I�ll manage to get this blog up posted, just to prove to you all that I�m still alive.� RIP The-Man-Who-Lived-At-The-End-Of-My-Garden I rushed home last Thursday to attend the funeral of the man who lives at the end of our garden (he wasn�t a hermit who�d moved in near my blackberry bush � it�s more accurate to say his garden can be accessed via the end of my garden.)� Anyway, I know that no-one who reads this blog knew him, but I felt I couldn�t let his passing go without marking it in some way, and this is the only outlet I have, so I�m afraid this is where I shall be doing it. I first heard about The-Man-Who-Lived-At-The-End-Of-My-Garden from a neighbour a couple of days after moving to the sleepy little village of Aquis-of-the-Romans.� They told me a large bird had found its way down their chimney, and had sadly broken its wing in the process.� It was obviously in some distress, and they had felt that merely releasing it back into the wild would leave it vulnerable to a horrific death at the hands (claws?) of a local cat, or other unsavoury predator.� The kindest thing to do, they decided, was to despatch it quickly and humanely.� However, neither of them felt they had it in them, so they called for The-Man-Who-Lived-At-The-End-Of-My-Garden.� Like many generations before him, The-Man-Who had been born in the sleepy little village of Aquis-of-the-Romans, and had been brought up working on the local farms.� He lived and breathed the countryside, and the local flora and fauna were very much woven into the fabric of his life.� He therefore was happy to perform this kindest of acts on the poor bird, with neither a flinch nor hesitation. I met him in person a few days later, and we hit it off immediately.� His knowledge of The Great Outdoors was, frankly, gob-smacking, and I lapped it up.� Many�s the hour we spent silhouetted against the dying twilight, with him imparting to me the ways of the countryside, telling me all about his love for the Animal Kingdom (and, more specifically, how to shoot at, kill and cook bits of it.)� I�ll miss those chats very much.� A big hole has been left behind him � RIP The-Man-Who. � RIP iPod It�s said that it�s every nerd�s dream to own an iPhone without giving any money to the Apple Corporation.� Thanks to an unfortunate event in a French Hotel, I�m now halfway to that dream. I had been listening to the truly excellent �A History of Rome� podcast on my trusty (and much beloved) old iPod Touch, when the time came to brush my teeth.� Unable to drag myself away from this gripping retelling of the story of Rome�s long history, I plugged in the headphones, placed the iPod on the side of the washbasin, and commenced my ablutions.� However, during the rinsing process, my hand caught in the headphone cable, and the poor iPod was knocked towards the adjacent toilet.� As it reached the length of the cord, there was a millisecond of hope that I�d saved the thing, but it only paused slightly in its descent, before the plug and socket parted company, and the iPod was left to its inevitable fate.� Splash!� Despite several nights on the radiator, it never recovered.� A big hole has been left behind it � RIP My iPod. � RIP A Big Pile of Cash Moving the story on, the above event coincided with my old mobile phone starting to play up.� Nothing too much to worry about (it only cost me about a tenner when it was new), but now I needed both a new iPod, and a new phone.� The solution was simple � combine the two devices, and buy an iPhone.� Which I did.� And I love it.� A lot!� And the device itself was around the same price as an iPod Touch (much of that the money went to the Apple Corporation, so only half of the dream was realised).� Yes, I�m having to pay twice the amount in a month that I used to pay in a quarter, but I�ll just have to tighten my belt elsewhere, I suppose.� I should have listened more carefully to The-Man-Who, when he told me how to pluck, skin and gut a pheasant. �

Yes, I know it's a programme for the kiddies, but it's still appropriate for inclusion here. Plus which, didn't the author of the books used to frequent this forum? 'Roman Mysteries' Country: UK Channel: CBBC Date: Wednesday, 21st March (and others - see below) Time: 2100 GMT for 25 mins Episodes: 5 (that I can find evidence of so far) Link: CBBC As usual, this one will be on iPlayer, but if you're living outside this green and pleasant land, you may not be able to get it. Other episodes scheduled: 21 Mar 2012 12:30

Hi Domitia. If you do any events at any of the sites along Hadrian's Wall, please could you post them on this topic. All the years I've been taking groups along the wall, I've never been fortunate enough to coincide with a re-enactment event. You could put your other events on there too.

I'll take this opportunity to expand on the process I've been using:- I use Pastscape.org.uk, and Handbook to the Roman Wall as my main sources. Plus, there's a superb (but very academic and dry) journal available on English Heritage's website detailing all the research done along the wall. These, and another couple of online documents, are all anyone needs. I would, of course, provide scans of the relevant page(s) of the handbook to anyone interested. As I mentioned before, photos are readily available. Coordinates can be had from streetmap.co.uk Anyone can do this, wherever they live.

Thanks for your interest, Melvadius. Please don't worry too much about photos - I include them when they're available on Geograph.org.uk or Wikimedia, and have only taken a very few personally (nothing annoys clients so much as a guide who seems to be there for their own, seperate purpose). Plus which, I feel they really only add value when there's something visible, which sadly isn't the case for so many of them. That said, for completeness of the record I'm probably going to spend a couple of days based in Newcastle dedicated to taking photos of the sites, purely for Wikipedia (that sounds so sad when I type it here, but in my head it seems like a great couple of days!) Good feedback on the coordinates, by the way. The British National Grid figure is available for the Milecastle (in the infobox, top right), but it's missing for turrets. I will endeavour to change the format and retrofit the coordinates.

Time has marched on. I'm now working on MC34. Why do I let this project once more raise its ugly head on these pages? Mainly because we've had a lot of new contributors to this forum, that may be interested in helping me out, so I'll re-post my appeal in the hope of attracting someone. Here goes. Please would somebody consider helping me out on my Wikipedia Milecastles project? If we all just took one each, imagine how much further we'd take the total, and it only takes about 2-3 hours per milecastle (including coffee breaks). . . . and you'd be a better person for having done it . . . . . . you could feel smug for the rest of the day, knowing you created an encyclopedia article for posterity. Your name would live on after you have gone, etc. . . . it'd be one in the eye for the Encyclopedia Britanica (and if you don't know what the Encyclopedia Britanica is, look it up on Wikipedia). . . . I'll buy you a beer when I see you in the pub.

I think rabbits may be b*ggering up that experiment somewhat. The turf wall at Vinolanda was said to have lost half a metre in height in 30 years.

. . . and for completeness of this discussion, I shall copy and paste your posting from another thread, Dickonbard. The last sentence (whilst clearly dealing with a cart rather than horse and rider) does tend to suggest that roads sometimes broke up making them dangerous for animal traffic. Also, because he says roads (plural) rather than a specific road, it does suggest a seasonal problem affecting the network. My impression of the Cursus Publicus is of a network of riders that rode to the next station and back, passing a mail bag to the next man, rather than the same man changing horses. that way, a handover can be effected more quickly, and the rider stays on roads he (and the horse) are familiar with. A side benefit of that familiarity may be the ability to ride a little further in failing light. Even then, it's still quite an achievement.

Salve, Domitia. Who do you re-enact with?

Also worth a mention, though how relevant it is, I don't know. The Military Way, which was the 3rd Century road built to run next to (and south of) Hadrian's Wall, is considered not to have been design for horse traffic at all due to steep gradients. Possibly, the surfaced road was for infantry movements, and the cavalry/horse traffic were expected to use the sides and/or the surrounding open country.

It's important to remember that the surface of most Roman metalled roads would have been flattened by mortar, or well bedded in gravel. They weren't the bumpy surfaces you see today, now that the softer materials have eroded. I'm not a horse rider, but I imagine that would be akin to a gallop along a modern road. Also, that's just the metalled roads. A significant number of major trunk roads were little more than a gravel wearing course on a compacted soil base course (with good drainage measures). In the modern UK, a horse would b*gger that up pretty quickly, but, in the Med, the ground tends to be harder, the hoses were smaller, and I can't comment on how widespread the use of horseshoes was. Anyone?

Salve, Daniel86 (and G'Day). Geophysics, eh? Nice! I found UNRV very daunting at first - I didn't really understand or know anything about most of what was being said. I'm glad I stuck with it.

Not sure how easy it would be to get hold of Stateside, but this DVD has a really first rate dramatisation of TG's story. Maybe not in the detail you need for class, but to help you understand the contexts, it would be just the ticket. It will also point you in the direction of the best primary sources.

An excuse to point you in the direction of a wonderful BBC Radio 4 programme that we just haven't talked enough about (to my knowledge) on this forum: A History of the World in 100 Objects A joint project of BBC Radio 4 and the British Museum, comprising a 100-part radio series written and presented by British Museum director Neil MacGregor. In 15-minute presentations MacGregor uses objects of ancient art, industry, technology and arms, all of which are in the British Museum's collections, as an introduction to parts of human history. From our point of view, the only Roman Artefact is the 'Head of Augustus', but they're all fascinating. Available on BBC iPlayer (if you're resident in this sceptered isle) or as a podcast on iTunes (if you're not).

Happy Birthday.

Lovely bit of telly, that. . . and was that Rhod Gilbert's voice? I'll be going to one of his gigs at Danum Domus soon.

Well reviewed, Ursus. I had my doubts, but it's now firmly on my Amazon Wishlist (if anyone would like to buy it for me!)

They were all over the wall. The best way is to plough through Handbook to the Roman Wall. It's hidden in among the detail. Make sure you don't forget Arbeia. There's also detail of the Staingate and Cumbrian coast forts.

Yes - in fact so many, that my first questions is: "Can you be any more specific?"

Happy Birthday, Klingan. Doing anything interesting for it?

Just to rub salt into the wound (I'm speaking metaphorically, but he probably did that as well) I heard the JTA's burning victims were burnt slowly, and splashed with cold water when the pain caused them to pass out, in order that they awoke to experience more pain. He was what we call in Yorkshire "a rum lad". By the way, I'd also come across execution by being hit (not too heavily) on the head with a very large mallet. The context was much, much earlier than we're talking here, but it could well have persisted into the 5C. Something to do with Charun, I think.

We've had a crack at this one before. Have a look at this thread.

In a very similar vein . . . another comdian on Radio 4's 'Now Show' this weekend, commenting on the behaviour of the Greeks due to their recent financial troubles, said it was like they'd lost their marbles! Geddit?

Have a look at Wroxeter, and you see the very simplest of boiler designs; a simple copper tank placed over the praefurnium. Being relatively shallow, this would lead to a fairly uniform supply of very hot water. If the miliarium were merely a tall copper cylinder, there would be a steady gradient of water temperatures (once the heat source had died down) from top to bottom. The miliarium narrows in two places creating three chambers within which water can convect freely, but between which there is limited convection. The result is (in all practical terms) three bodies of water at differing temperatures. The top chamber being smaller, and the bottom one being larger, helps this.