Melvadius

Not to drift too far off topic - an interesting viewpoint but I would tend to agree with Barca on this. Possibly Hitler did build up German industry again - however a large percentage of that rebuiding was mainly aimed at building up military power with civilian development a secondary byproduct. Germany ended up with a massive military presence which was a drain on the economy which may well at least partly explain why Hitler did start invading other countries. Without that move German may well have become bankrupt again.

I'm not sure that I would put differences down totally to individual 'customer' choice. Archaeological evidence has shown that the Roman view of 'standardisation' is totally different from our own. Repeatedly at military sites, such as Vindolanda, you find differences in the size and shape of the component elements of weapons; square or diamond shaped tangs on swords and lengths of blade are only one example others include differing ways in which spears or arrows were hafted onto wooden shafts. These differences do not always relate to particular time periods or occupation by particular type of unit whether mounted or foot infantry. In my view having done a little metal work it could often be down to how easy a particular individual found it to make an object as well as or even how much metal they had to work with - if they had a smaller amount of workable metal available then one sword or spearhead may easily end up slightly shorter than others being made on a given day.

new love affair...

This is an interesting article although I do wonder, as it is from 2003, whether the new dating methods currently being used by the Research Laboratory for Archaeology at Oxford University (and increasingly other laboratories) [developed by Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit] may be in the process of changing them. The lab is currently involved in a major programme of retesting previously accepted radio-carbon dates for the spread of modern humans across Europe, using an improved calibration method which gets rids of many of the uncertainties in previous dates. Problems with previous dates include the radiocarbon 'wiggle' due to variations in the rate at which radiocarbon is produced in the upper atmosphere, which can lead to three possible dates being suggested after testing. Other issues include 'contamination' when more modern or older carbon can be included in samples when they are tested which can adversely affect the accuracy of the dates. A recent survey of Lake Taupo in New Zealand, which has an active volcanic vent below its surface actively producing degernerated (older) carbon, found a live freshwater muscle that was apparently dated to 1998 BP plus or minus 43 years, while some of the water in the lake taken from near the vent had an apparent age of 4071 BP plus or minus 65 years. Oxford apparently hope to be publishing the results of their retesting of dates in the next few months so it may well be a case of watch this space to see exactly how old modern humans are in Europe and whether they did or did not have any opportunity to interact with Neandertals when they did. [Edit] Further details of this current research by Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit is available at Dating of the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition in western Europe using ultrafiltration AMS radiocarbon

I've done some digging through my reference books and below are a couple of general points which may be of interest: Although a couple of metallurgists I have met have reservations about some of his interpretations of how Roman equipment was made; David Sim and Isabel Ridge's book Iron for the Eagles has a couple of relevant sections in it on the Roman's use of iron and steel. Page 96: Page 117: If the interpretation by Sim of the amount of carbon required in iron to create steel is correct then the use of a relatively small amount of charcoal in the manufacturing process would have created at least some steel within any sword blade even if not the entire weapon. Sim also mentions on page 117 that: [Edit (23/6/10) Sim is wrong here; he should have referred to Vegetius 'Epitoma rei militaris (Epitome of Military Science)] Picking up on your comments about using a spatha, although I don't have anything on the construction of a gladius; Simon James Excavations at Dura-Europos 1928-1937 Final Report The Arms and Armour and other military equipment does have some references to spathae. In the catalogue of military equipment on page 145 it describes an 'iron longsword with chape' found during the excavations which was 'whole except for the tip of the tang and possibly a small piece near the point' as being Regarding the general dimensions of Spathae the swords description goes on to mention I did put the reference to alloys in the above into bold to emphasise that in archaeological contexts such weapons are usually consedered 'alloys' rather than purely either 'iron' or 'steel'.

The original article I pointed to may result more from a journalists interpretation of what the reseach actually showed. There is quite a bit more information, including an abstract in English and the full dissertation, (it is over 200 pages apparently written in Swedish - any takers on the site to attempt a translation or at least a short summary/ review?) on the Uppsala University website The central section of the press release there does point out that the research was looking at the visual imagery in combination with the runic inscriptions. I know that the spelling mistakes on some Roman period inscriptions indicate that in a 'literate' culture there could be varying degrees of literacy in different areas and periods. There are suggestions that some stone carvers simply copied what was written down by someone else. So finding areas of poor Runic literacy in parts of Sweden doesn't strike me a being totally unsuprising.

Already sent and thank you. I'm only sorry that my worthy co-nominees couldn't also win

My attempts - not after they were left ina leaking garage for several years. The oldest shoe - possibly not after apparently being deliberately left under a layer of fecal matter.

I'm not aware of any problem with it but here it is in full: www.cphpost.dk/culture/culture/122-culture/49171-archaeologists-given-the-rune-around Yuo will need to put in .html at the end

There is continuing debate amongst archaeologist about the extent to which ancient societies used what could be termed 'steel': some even argue that steel was not consistently or deliberately manufactured until the industrial period. What is obvious from archaeological evidence is that the vast majority of prehistoric tools made use of relatively small amounts of iron and in the Roman period, although some tools made use of more iron, the amount of weaponary which could be considered to have any of the 'qualities' of steel seems to have been very small. A few metalsmiths in the period (but not all) seem to have spent some effort in combining different quantities and qualities of worked iron together to try and get the right balance between hardness/ brittleness and sharpness - thus the eventual development of 'pattern' welded swords. There is [however] evidence for some pigs of 'refined' metal actually containing a lot of bloomery waste which would have made them useless for producing decent quality iron work let alone being worked into the fineness of 'steel'. For which reason my explanatory sentence '...In normal items there would often only be a small section of hardened iron with many of the qualities of modern steel...'

The Copenhagen Post carries an interesting interpretation of Viking period

Nice spot, reminds me a bit of some shoes I tried to make for myself for reenactment once - it looks better made [url="http://

The issue with 'steel' as far as ancient technology is concerned as has already been mentioned ther best swords were made out of a combination of iron and steel. In normal items there would often only be a small section of hardened iron with many of the qualities of modern steel. This small section provided a sharper edge but was more brittle consequently it usually was 'hammer' welded onto a larger section of iron which provided resilience to the weapon. As Kosmo ahs indicated already the pattern welded weapons used more equal quantities of iron and steel which started as bars or long rods and were extensively worked together with the 'patterning' the result of the continual working and folding together of the metal until they formed a unified weapon with both resilience to impact and the ability to take and keep a sharp edge.

Suggestion accepted - but I'm keeping the question mark

D*mn only just read this thread - "too late, too late" Viggen cried

The Independent carries the story of the possible discovery of the remains of men who fought as gladiators in York under the headline of:

I haven't seen any opinion polls about how much support the Government currently has. However, David Cameron's latest interviews seem to be an admission of his intent to make 'cuts' so after the new Governments 'emergency' budget on 22 June there may well be a rapid decrease in any remaining popularity.

Crassus however, always....

Unless I'm mistaken this looks to be a similar (but later) report to the one originally posted by Stella: Ancient Etruscan home found near Grosseto

seems called for - have a good one

...those midget gladiators... Without whom no...

I can see that the 'price' as far as I am concerned is encouragement to submit a lot more reviews to personally feel worthy of being nominated - once I have my current dissertation out of the way of course. I have several possible books suitable for reviews on the stocks already waiting for September.

Clocia Maxia, I...