No News like Ancient News – Roman frescoes discovered

[Patrice]

Be careful to explore this shipwreck: these tiles look like Alien's backbone! 

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Female Gladiators of the Ancient Roman World

read more - http://www.coloradomesa.edu/shared/facprofiles/documents/FemaleGladiatorsoftheAncientRomanWorld.pdf

In September of 2000, the Museum of London announced a surprising archaeological discovery that garnered world-wide media attention and subsequently sparked intense debate within the academic community. Scholars revealed that the grave of a purported gladiator, dating back to the first century A.D., had been unearthed in the greater London area. The museum’s scholars suggested that only one other similar gravesite, in Trier, Germany, had ever been found,1 making this a very special find indeed. However, it was not the rarity of the find that captured the world’s attention nor the fact that the grave was supposedly that of a gladiator. To the surprise of all, the broken and burnt remains of this grave proved to be those of a woman. Accordingly, the Museum of London suggested that these remains were the first ever found of a female gladiator. The discovery was unprecedented, both in terms of its physicality and interpretation. Classical scholars have long known that female gladiators existed because of selected references in the ancient texts and inscriptions; the literary and epigraphical evidence is quite convincing. However, if the museum’s scholars were correct, the world now had the first human forensic evidence supporting the existence of female gladiators

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Peter Connelly died yesterday. To say it's sad news, would be an understatement. Too many hours I've spent reading his books, enjoying his illustrations and deriving inspiration from your work. At the moment there are five books on my bedside locker, two of them are Connelly's books. His Greece and Rome at War and Ancient Rome. These are my longtime companions and friends. Now that great man is gone. Rest in peace, Mr. Connolly, thank you for all. Your books stay with us.

Connolly's friends post - http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat.html?func=view&catid=26&id=312037&view=entrypage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Connolly

[Mad Doc Morris]

Thanks, Prof, for posting it here. I think it's the best place to honour the man's achievements, not just mourn his untimely death. For I assume almost everyone in the hobby has heard of Peter Connolly, read some of his books and drew inspiration and pleasure from it.

Personally, he's probably to blame for me getting hooked on history in the first place, with his books on the Roman soldier sparking my interest in reenactment and finally academic studies of the Roman period.

Et lux perpetua luceat ei.

[joroas]

Wow, so sad.. I have loads of his books on my shelves, he made ancient history easy to understand, but without dumbing down.  Some of the best books on Roman and Greek military history were his!

[Steve F]

But on the bright side, exegit monumentum aere perennius.  Thank you, Mr Connolly.  Ave atque vale!

[Prof.Witchheimer]

found that at Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/#!/Romeinenfestival

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Zombie Attack at Hierakonpolis
Weighing the evidence for and dating of Solanum virus outbreaks in early Egypt

Hierakonpolis is a site famous for its many "firsts," so many, in fact, it is not easy to keep track of them all. So we are grateful(?) to Max Brooks for bringing to our attention that the site can also claim the title to the earliest recorded zombie attack in history. In his magisterial tome, The Zombie Survival Guide (2003), he informs us that in 1892, a British dig at Hierakonpolis unearthed a nondescript tomb containing a partially decomposed body, whose brain had been infected with the virus (Solanum) that turns people into zombies. In addition, thousands of scratch marks adorned every surface of the tomb, as if the corpse had tried to claw its way out!

read more - http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/hierakonpolis/zombies.html

 

[joroas]

Soooooooo, now I know there are zombies and Egyptian vampires and wolves, I can use all the Hollywood bad guys in Cairo!!!!!!! 

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Ancient language discovered on clay tablets found amid ruins of 2800 year old Middle Eastern palace

Archaeologists have discovered evidence for a previously unknown ancient language – buried in the ruins of a 2800 year old Middle Eastern palace.

The discovery is important because it may help reveal the ethnic and cultural origins of some of history’s first ‘barbarians’ – mountain tribes which had, in previous millennia, preyed on the world’s first great civilizations,  the cultures of early Mesopotamia in what is now Iraq.

Evidence of the long-lost language - probably spoken by a hitherto unknown people from the Zagros Mountains of western Iran – was found by a Cambridge University archaeologist as he deciphered an ancient clay writing tablet unearthed by an international archaeological team excavating an Assyrian imperial governors’ palace in the ancient city of Tushan, south-east Turkey.

read more - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/ancient-language-discovered-on-clay-tablets-found-amid-ruins-of-2800-year-old-middle-eastern-palace-7728894.html

[joroas]

Wow!  No matter how much we discover there is far more that is undiscovered.

[Prof.Witchheimer]

As Spartacus gears up for a third epic season, the cast and stunt performers completed their toughest boot camp to date. And it all started with military-based training to get into Gladiator shape and prepare for the extensive action sequences featured in every episode.

http://www.facebook.com/spartacus.starz

[LeadAsbestos]

Love this show! Lots of inspiration to be found there! It even convinced me to get my fat ass back to working out, before its too late!

[Prof.Witchheimer]

[Steve F]

Are you sure that isn't Red-Plastic Age Man?