Melvadius

I would agree with the others that this is a story to keep an eye on. So far the only news reports that have been picked up in English language media at best tend to be only slight variations of the original Associated Press notice. I suppose the real test will be what precisely is meant by 'complete' I am currently assuming they are referring to the ground plan of any structures which may together make up a ludus rather than 'free standing' masonry. I somehow suspect that standing remains along the size of the Colosseum may possibly have been noticed before now

Re 'an insidious plot to prevent me discovering the lost instruction manual' have you tried approaching the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park? The last time I visited there they seemed to have aquired a large number of odds and ends of computer hardware and associated material over the years. I suppose the other alternative is GCHQ, by repute they have salted a lot of similarly out of date material in their basement. They are a lot more open to random contacts by the General Public than previously (even advertising vacancies nowadays) so their press office may be able to answer any questions you may have about such an esoteric out of date piece of equipment.

I haven't read this short work by Suzanne Dixon but if it is anything like as well researched as her book on The Roman Family then her 2007 book Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi may be worth a look.

I bow to those with the better search criteria. I missed a couple I probably should have remembered.

Why the brothels in particular - I don't think they are still open for business Seriously I don't think there is a complete map or even listing online anywhere. Not even on the Italian Pompei Scavi (excavations) website. You possibly should consider getting hold of 'The Lost World of Pompeii' book which is currently being advertised on the UNRV news page or something similar. If it is anything like the Herculaneum book by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill I recently reviewed then there will be several detailed maps and a lot of associated informaton on all of the excavated insulae in Pompeii. I doubt somehow that it can even attempt to go into as much detail as the very specific Insula of the Menander series of books by Roger and Lesley Ling.

I am not certain that I would classify anyone who has been involved in long term research into the Turin Shroud as an 'unbiased source' (including Pietro Savio involved sincve at least 1995) irrespective of which side of the 'Acheiropoietos' divide they stood on. The references you have provided look on the face of it to be worth pursuing and I would hope that somone, who from what I have read of his work I suspect is a truly 'unbiased' textile researcher like Peter Wild, could be persuaded to lend his weight to onme side or the other.

I suppose that if I had to choose my top 5 planes would fly totally in the face of the 'facts' of which were the most powerful/ adaptable/ manouverable etc of which I've never taken detailed interest. I'm not sure which I would include in the last two slots but 'Faith', 'Hope' and 'Charity' would probably come out on top since 'by repute' they formed the initial aerial defense of Malta against waves of vastly superior enemy aircraft. Now OK in reality there probably at least four Gloucester Gladiators involved in the defence and there were I believe also some Hurricanes but they provided a strong boost to morale both on Malta and in Britain and conversely amongst the attacking Italian pilots which vastly outweighed their fighting abilities during the ciritcal early defence of 'Fortress Malta' during WWII.

BBC news is carrying this story that 'Scotland's Inventory of Historic Battlefields ' will probably not be including Mons Graupius in the lsit anytime soon. I must admit that I was not suprised by this reveleation given how much uncertainty there has been about the actual battle site and how many contenders suggested over the last few centuries most of which are listed here. Note to self: I must check if the site suggested a few years back by the Wooliscroft, is included in this list and if it does what they say about it. If I find out I'll amend this post.

There are a couple of other sites carrying this story including Arab News which includes the interesting point that King Abdullah during a visit apparently urged the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities to [formally] 'publish the results of the excavation'. A more helpful comment, so far as determining what the actual evidence is, can be read in this Past Horizons article which states:

There are several relevant threads elsewhere on UNRV about the Roman military diet including: Legion rations Food in the legion In comparison relevant links to the wider Italian diet dsicovered relating to Herculaneum can be read at Giant ancient septic tank discovered -the Roman diet revealed I have come across enough referecnes to animal bone at Romano-British and Roman sites along the Rhine to be wary of anyone claiming that the Roman diet was exclusively vegetarian. Regarding evidence for the military diet in practice you may find this link to the Vindolanda Tablets online of interest.

It may not help working out differences in relative sizes but may be worth considering the fact that Vegetius, writing in the later Roman period in the 4th century AD while, arguing for a re-estalishment of ancient military traditions cited that traditionally men serving in the cavalry and the first cohort of the legions would be recruited if they were at least 5' 10" to 6' tall. OK as with much of Vegiutus writing this was probably an 'ideal' rather than 'real' regulation and we are talking Roman as opposed to modern feet so probably men 5'8" - 5'10" (modern equivalent) were considered taller than the Roman 'norm'.

I'm glad to see you agreeing on the point that 'context' is important, which neatly supports Virgil61's pointing up that everyone may have something to bring to a discussion.

Not claiming any specialist knowledge but a couple of observation; isn't there also an issue here of which version of a particular air frame is under discussion? The Spitfire is a primary example, but not unique, of a plane which went through innumerable different versions throughout it's operational life. Similarly, I believe that at least one of the US planes under discussion had different operational characteristics depending on which engine it had been fitted with. These variations are rarely considered when people start talking up one plane against another as ususally 'kill' ratios, which seem on the face of it very important, tend to be collated by plane 'frame' rather than by individual models of each plane type. Another confusing factor has been touched on already is theconsideration what combat role particular plane's and in which proportion of their different models played it; whether they spent most of their time operating at the extreme end of their range, against other fighters as the relatively fewer Spitfire's did during the Battle of Britain while the Hurricane's usual target were bombers or if they usually met inferior planes/ pilots.

Looks like my suggestion may have had a few 'faults' of its own; CBS apparently now have a section on their website explaining the reasons here

I found some sections from one of RC Bells compendium works Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations on-line which included extracts of the contents and bibliography listing references for

The BBC is carrying this report on the discovery of a major port area beside the fortress at Caerleon. The excavator's blog (including the geophysical survey of the site) can be read on the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) website here. It looks like it may have been associated with the pacification of Wales when there are suggestions that the Romans made use of its navy for sea borne landings in more remote or at least harder to access areas along the Welsh coast.

If there are any geologists visiting maybe they can provide a better answer to this question. In the interim I just had a quick browse on the web and although I couldn't find anything definitive about the geology on the sites I looked at one of the sites did mention that there is a lot of sediment in the East coast crust presumably this is not the case in the west with its relatively more recently active volcanic ranges. There was also mention of a lot of glacial outwash which is not the most stable of building surfaces compared to granite or one of the other volcanic rocks but probably not subject to major solid subterranean rock fault slips that generate quakes. The eastern seaboard subduction may not be as active as the western seaboard which is probably why quakes only happen there relatively rarely and of less intensity. When they do happen possibly it may be the old 'jelly mould' principle that once a wobble starts in jelly it takes a long time to stop wobbling. Mind you the Earthquake Hazards 101 - the Basics section from the USGS makes it clear that there is a much higher risk in the Western seaboard of damaging quakes than in the east.

Too far from the UK but the BBC picked it up 5.9 beginning to get interesting

It may be a minor point of semantics but I would only respond that rather than 'allies' I thought that your earlier suggestion of 'informal troops' was a much better choice of how to describe the use of slave/ gladiators. Particularly since for most of the Roman Imperial period, even if not so regulated during most of the Republican period, there were rigorously enforced penalties for any 'slave' who dared enroll in the military.

I know Bells' work of old and he seems to have combined an encyclopedic knowledge of board games in attempting to make reasonable interpretations for how some fairly fragmentary boards and associated playing peices could 'possibly' have been used. I say possibly since I do not believe that he really had much specific information from ancient written sources when he made those interprolations from what little was being found. Probably in addition to the various scratched patterns and fragmentary pieces, probably used as playing boards, found around the Empire at best there will only have been a passing mention of the name of a particular game played in the period including if any equipment was needed for it, such as the 'tower' I understand was used to randomise die rolls in some gambling games. Unfortunately I do not have any information on Kowalski's interpretations but presume they have similar similar problems to Bell. if you read the academic article also referenced on Wikipedia by Dr. Ulrich Sch

In case anyone is interested in knowing a little more background on this research project it can be found on the DressID website here. There is not much specific detail of the recent findings on the website, although several publications were made in 2011, so presumably these will be appearing in print soon. Glancing through the list of 'participants' on the site I recognised several names as amongst the top people carrying out research into ancient textiles (as could have been expected) so the project has some very good credentials.

In case anyone is still confused, just to clarify for the non-native English speakers amongst us, I would suggest amending one sentence in Caldrails reply above as follows: NB I possibly would also drop the final reference to 'allies' since I don't think a group of slaves and/or an assorted 'street sweepings' of the less fit, even if some were trained gladiators, quite fits the 'ideal' that the term 'allies' normally conjurs up of willing volunteers or at least foreign supplied and often also to some extent 'professionally' trained troops .

Der Spiegel is carrying this article about new research involving "Michael Tellenbach, director of the Reiss-Engelhorn Museum (Rem) in the southwestern German city of Mannheim. Together with other European researchers, Tellenbach is at work unraveling the world of Roman fashion."

So far as Tetrapylon are concerned this article may be of interest

From talking with the custodian a few years back, although Wikipedia state that buildings were reconstructed by the Royal Engineers, (IIRC) a previous Youth Employment Programme may also have been involved at some point in the excavations and reconstruction. H&S may well have been a consideration for the smooth railings given how many have visitedo the site over the years but so far as a defensive structure is concerned 'pointy' tops would make climbing the wall more dangerous so possibly a plus for the film. BTW I believe that the original intention, so far as the reconstructed turf wall is concerned, was to leave it to collapse naturally allowing the process to be recorded and so given a basic time-line for this happening in practice. This may explain sections now being cordoned off by metal barriers as seems to be the case in GOCs photograph. If anyone is considering visiting the fort; details can be found here