Melvadius

hey bud, hvng a blast on italy vacation. took yr advice abt not dressing lk tourists, chkd out

Hopefully my joining the forum had nothing to do with your three year absence Welcome back.

Not so much

I have to guess as well; the sequence of photographs seem to indicate that the stones with the markings are on a slope. If they are then possibly the stones have been cut asymetrically with one end thicker than the other so they can be placed in a particuar orientation to provide the correctly angled slope. An alternative guess is that they may have been replaced several years/ decades ago as part of a renovation project and have been marked so they can be differentiated from the original stones. I'm afraid this is a question you really need to address to whoever is the current Superintendent for Archaeology in Rome.

Personally I have no objection to reasoned extrapolation BUT I strongly believe that the sources used for such an exercises need to be precisely quoted and any discussion really needs to move beyond apparently the same two or three points, which cannot be completely proven one way or the other, being repeated ad infinitum. Without new evidence being presented to support any of the suggestions made about these bodies it may be time to draw this thread to a close.

All I said was

What do they mean "we don't care what Vegetius say's; we are an Equal Opportunity employer now"? Have they seen these new recruits? Look even with one of his slave's whispering about his mortality into his ears during the triumph - we are NOT going to get the Emperor into one of those strange carts! I don't think the populace will go for this new 'i-arena' ap.

I ordered concaedes! You are not going to believe what they sent me!

Thisisexeter quote a story from the Express and Echo that archaeological excavations may be providing evidence of two Roman forts built one on top of the other in Exeter.

National Geographic is currently carrying a story which, by comparison with recent archaeological discoveries, provides an alternative theory about the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Like several previous theories the Roman Empire appears as the instigator of the scrolls collection BUT crucially the new theory suggests that rather than a single sect writing the scrolls there may actually have been several different groups involved in their writing. Although obviously already stirring controversy amongst some sectors of biblical reasearchers; this disparate source theory may go some way to explain some of the internal differences previously noted by biblical scholars in what the scrolls relate.

I've beeen passed another suggestion Exactly how does this tell me if the greens or the blues won?

I like GhostofClayton's "Don't call me, I'll call you" but I've also had the following suggested to me for inclusion so am passing them on: I

I understand one of the archaeologists I've worked with had steel pins in their legs removed and replaced with titanium a few years back for that very reason. The Roman temple complex I've recently been helping excavate is interesting on several levels not least the fact that is appears to have been a religious site with continuity of use from at least the Iron Age through to the Late Roman period. The Roman aspect includes what appears to be 'semi-amphitheatre' as it includes a round rather than elliptical sunken feature that is similar to a type of structure usually only found at rural religious sites in Gaul. The current suggestion is that they may have combined religious/ theatrical and possibly gladiatorial functions which is why they are called semi-amphitheatres. The main problem with the site is that despite 10 years of excavation, unlike Vindolanda, we have no form of documentary evidence from the site and finish there next year so we when we finish we may still not know the name of the deity or deities worshipped there

Alternatively: OK we've got the cones but where's the ice cream?

How do you spell plastic in Latin?

Welcome to the forum Em. I've never had the time to get up to Vindolanda to excavate there myself but I've met both Andrew and Justin Blake who also works there several times and they seem good people to work with. Regarding 'graft'; having done some excavation myself as well as some more academic work I have to say that to get the best out of the 'graft' of archaeology you do really need the science in a number of areas; from the initial use of 'geophys' to help identify targets for excavation right through to helping identify what has been found and eventually putting things into perspective and enabling some of the more fragile finds to go on display

Looking at the (very small) photograph included in the article apparently showing one of the tablets it seems that, as far as the tablets are concerned, either: - they are amongst the smallest tablets in creation, - the original authors wrote very, very small or else, - the archaeologists have currently only found a few fragments of the original tablets. I wonder which it is

Quite correct Stella, as you will see from the 'now' merged thread above the separate Daily Mail article makes clear that there is both a book and TV documentary tie in to this speculation.

I'm sorry but that does not necessarily follow. I don't know where you got the idea that wide feet is a gladiatorial indicator - size of feet (with the exception of the old Japanese habit of binding girls feet to keep them small) like many other physical attributes is inherited and not something you can 'train' for. To play the Devil

BBC news Mid Wales has announced the recent discovery of what is now the most north-westerly Roman villa known in Wales.

It seems that Dr Chris Gidlow has a book to sell which may explain the documentary this article refers to. One of several Iron Age hillforts is usually touted as a possible Camelot but the alternative suggestion of it being the remains of an old ampitheatre, in my recollection, has been circulating for at least 20 or 30 years so it isn't really a 'new' idea. Like Caldrail I have my doubts about the validity of much of the modern interpretations Arthurian legends. As far as I know; the earliest complete version of the tale is by Geoffrey of Monmouth in the 12th century although Malory's 14th century interpretation is better known there are a numbeer of references dating back to att least the early 9th century which have been linked to the tale. Not having seen the documentary I can only point out that unless the core elements of this 'new' research has made use of the older version(s) of the legends which have been documented, it probably doesn't amount to a 'real' advance in research into the period.

An interesting piece of speculation but I suspect you really need to provide specific evidence to back it up as you seem to be going against our resident 'experts' opinion.

Digital Journal has a photo strip article showing several images of recent excavations, in advance of the construction of a new hospital, which uncovered an area of ancient Ludunnum which was burnt and then rebuilt. The article has several paragraphs of general background but then a few photographs of the site with good descriptions of what the archaeological features depicted indicate about the history of the area excavated, I've removed most of the general background in the extract below where the photostrip really starts.

I'm not sure that I would go as far as that. Yes as far as the Eastern Empire was concerned there was a sustained Greek presence so much so that Greek eventually became the dominant language after the fall of Rome. I think a truer comparison would be to consider two different aspects; military and civilian. For the military consider the case of the 'modern' French Foreign legion where when you join you have to learn French irrespective of your native language. The Roman auxilliaries appear to have also had to learn Latin military commands even if they probably could continue to speak their own language when off duty. In civilian life administrative documents would have been completed in Latin. This happened in more recent Empires where French, English or Portugese became the default language of the respective central administrations for their foreign 'possessions' irrespective of what the native language(s) were. From the viewpoint of any imperial power it makes much more sense to use only one language (your own) rather than trying to translate everything into numerous local languages especially if they did not have a written form when the Romans arrived. Therefore in the same way within the Roman Empire, when dealing with central administrations, if you couldn't read and write Latin you would have had to get someone to translate and/or write the documents on your behalf. One of the standard phrases found in numerous letters and documents from Roman Egypt, where someone else signs documents on behalf of an individual (male or female), is 'since he/she does not know their letters'. Grubbs Women and the Law in the Roman Empire sees this phrase as an indicator of literacy although in my view rather than general literacy it may simply be an indication that the individual concerned was not literate in Latin. Obviously as 'Romans' or people attempting to fit in with their foreign rulers in the local population could in most cases only have formed a very small percentage of the overall population, local languages would probably have continued in use pretty much as before although with the occasional 'loan' word added from Latin if it was more appropriate for the current conversation.

BBC news is carrying the story of the discovery of a new Henge at Stonehenge. This is the result of the latest collaboration between the archaeologist project leader Professor Vince Gaffney, from the University of Birmingham and his brother Dr Chris Gaffney, from the University of Bradford who is renowned for his GIS work on Time Team as well as numerous other sites archaeologically related. Apparently Chris has managed to get his multi-GIS sensor equipped Quadbike fully operational again after it got drenched during a previous Time Team project.They previously were involved in the study of Wroxeter reported on the ASPROM site (the Association for the Study and Preservation of Roman Mosaics). A bit more detail of the current project was announced by the BBC a few days ago as a Virtual Excavation of Stonehenge. Newspapers are also starting to cover the story including the Independent and the Telegraph.