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Vidi

Oct 21, 2006
6 min read

This continues to not be a carnival nor regular, though regular would be a good idea as this has been culled from a file about 150 pages big. The History Carnival is a carnival and was recently posted at Clioweb, which has a different collection of things historical. Rogue Classicism is also very good at keeping up with the news of the ancient world.

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News

John MacKay reports on the latest news of where Atlantis is. It’s in Sardinia, which is a new one to me. Don’t get too excited, as he makes clear it’s Bad science writing and an old favorite.

The news from Delphi is that Oxygen delirum may have been a source of inspiration for the Pythia.

In related news is the story Not for sale yet – the ‘cursed’ 14 pieces of silver worth £100m. Sympathy please for the Marquess of Northampton who bought some silver artefacts and failed to sell them on for $10 million when it was discovered to be looted. He sued his solicitors for £15 million and got to keep the money and the silver. Can you imagine the strain of living under that sort of curse?

Tom Goskar at Past Thinking has some well-considered words on the History Matters Campaign “Mass Blog” day. I think his idea would have been far more interesting than what appears to have happened.

In danger elsewhere, Ancient Rock Art about to be destroyed, reports Denis Wilson at the Nature of Robinson.

Back to the Stone Age – How Did the First Farmers Live? is a question pondered by Science Blog after news of excavations in Austria.

The Bering Strait land Bridge closed early reports John McKay at Archy.

Archaeological treasures a click away on Google Earth as reported more or less everywhere. Expect more discoveries as more of the world gets covered in hi-res. Will Klinger at Nomadic Thoughts has some more comments on the subject.

This would qualify as Friday cat blogging, were it about a cat and posted on a Friday. Peru seeks dog breed status for ancient llama herder reports Reuters.

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I could say John Hardy at Laputan Logic has been mooning a lot, but that could so easily be taken the wrong way. What he’s been doing is posting a lot of fascinating material about the moon such as the Rabbit in the Moon, Chang Er flies to the Moon and Hilal Spotting.

John Tracey writes on the history of public toilets, community notice boards and welfare agencies in West End, Brisbane. The title doesn’t do the post justice. It’s about the idea of creating a community space in defiance an outside agency’s attempt to define a community.

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Conflict

Fresh scars on the body of archaeology by Slobodan Mitrovic at Archaeolog is an example of what blogging can do in disseminating work which is going to be published in academic journals. If you’re interested in the archaeology of contemporary warfare then it’s a must-read.

Brett Holman at Airminded has Air control in pictures, which shows the effects of bombing in the 1920s.

Mansoura: abandoned village, occupied is at Samarkeolog reporting on the division and occupation of property in Cyprus.

LankaBuzz has a post on the destruction of sites in Sri Lanka due to the current conflict in History & Archeology of Deegavapi Sacred City.

Forensic Archaeology during World War II: Ethics and Politics is a post on a Danish television programme about mass graves at Katyn, Poland, blogged by Troels Myrup at Iconoclasm.

From Kevin Levin at Civil War Memory is This Is Not Your Grandfather’s Civil War Museum: A Review of the ACW Museum At Tredegar, which shows how war doesn’t just occur on the battlefield.

I’ve also found this article online by Nick Saunders, Trench Art: Symbols and Memories of the Great War and Beyond.

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Doug Floyd of Doug Watching comments on the Importance of History.

The Victoria and Albert Museum has some Leonardo Da Vinci animations, courtesy of Cosgrove Hall, the brains behind Dangermouse.

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Classics

Answers? What answers? asks Silver Tiger in a post on Socrates.

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Science

Don’t disrespect Vanguard 1 insists Dr Space Junk, who’s argued before that it should be considered a heritage site.

Did Lucan Understand Condensation and Evaporation? asks Eric at Campus Mawrtius. I’d agree with the comenter that it’s certainly a description, but the process of condensation was known in the Greek world with Heraclitus saying that everything was fire, which could be condensed to make air, further condensed into water and finally into earth. Which makes me wonder how he knew it was fire instead of water to begin with. But Aristotle didn’t invent logic till a long while after.

At Back to the Woom is a fascinating discussion piece Talkin’ Tut: “magic” and “Africans” which argues that, in an era where magic is confused with conjuring, Magic is a really bad word to describe ancient Egyptian practices.

There’s a big vote for the Greatest Moment in Materials Science. If we’re counting anything BC as science then I can’t help thinking that missed a really big event with stone a few million years ago off their list. Nonetheless an interesting list. via Inkycircus.

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Travel

Martin Rundkvist writes a talk in a stunningly easy way. The finished result sums up Gothenburg perfectly and it one of those ideas where you think “Why didn’t I think of that?” To which the obvious answer is “Because I’ve never been invited to talk about Gothenburg.”

Athena has more notes from Rome, parts four and five, with photos of the eternal city.

Photos of Israel has photos of the Monastery of St. George of Koziba in Wadi Kelt (Qilt). Some of the photos could be used in an illustrated dictionary for the word ‘precarious’.

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Duane Smith‘s put up a few Friday Pot Blogging posts. I’m picking this one from Megiddo. Peacay at Bibliodyssey has also posted some illustrations by Guaman Poma, which are utterly beautiful. If I had time I could cheerfully blog the whole book. Meanwhile at Afarensis there’s Friday Know Your Primate: Peirolapithecus catalaunicus.

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Reviews

Supernatural by Graham Hancock, or at least part of it reviewed Badgerminor at Orbis Quintus.

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New (to me) blogs

The Buddhist Channel has archaeological news from Asia.

Evolution of the Human Diet has lecture notes blogged for those interested in paleodiets or archaeogastronomy.

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Finally, at Respectful Insolence it’s the start of a new month and EneMan finds some Archeological evidence most unexpected. I’ll be away working for the next week, so there may or may not be another Vidi next weekend.

 
 
 

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