No News like Ancient News – Roman frescoes discovered

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Today I'm going to try/start something new. Currently I'm quite crazy about all things related to Ancient warfare and history. I'm reading a lot and again and again I'm spotting  pretty interesting things that I would like to share. So I've thought, I'm going to start a sticky on this board and post (almost) daily something.

Btw, it's not only my prerogative to post on this thread, if you find/spot anything you think it's nice and interesting about Ancient warfare or history, so feel free to post it here.

Today it's about knife handles in the shape of a gladiator. I stumbled upon one reading a Wiipedia article about Gladiators and was wondering if there were more of that sort. After some googling I've spotted several of the oldest Gladiator "miniatures".

[Paul]

This looks like fun  
On the theme of gladiators...the injuries!
Cut with Gladius

trident

head bashed in (possibly trident again)

Knee damaged with 4 pointed knife

jaw damage from gladius

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Now I feel like watching that TV-series "Bones" 

[Paul]

Now I feel like watching that TV-series "Bones" 

The TV series Rome was good (the DVD version is better,nothing cut out)...but "Spartacus, Blood and sand" is brilliant. I can´t wait for the next series "Gods of the Arena" to come out on DVD!!

[area23]

Here's an oldie site, a wealth of information on ancient germans.
I guess this thread is the best place to link it:
http://www.geocities.ws/reginheim/home.html

[Comsquare]

Hei Alex,

if you're after gladitorial stuff then check "Das Spiel mit dem Tod" from Markus Junkelmann, pretty good book, lots of information

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Just read some reviews about it, sounds very good everything, but 40 EUR..

[Comsquare]

Just read some reviews about it, sounds very good everything, but 40 EUR..

Bought my copy around 12 years ago and am pretty sure for less than that
But still worth it's prize.

[Blackwolf]

Nice thread Prof.  I ,in times past I sculpted knife handles not dissimilar to these out of balsa wood; sadly all have perished, as I used them......should have used a better wood

 For me,my ancients fascination has always been the Sarmatians (no surprise there then... ), and the idea that the Sarmatians were the inspiration for the Arthur myth (Sarmatians were stationed in Britain). An interesting book has been written 'From Scythia to Camelot' by Littleton and Malcor. Some would suggest such a premise is rubbish,I rather like it,and when one deals with Arthur,well,he is  a myth (I think?) so no harm done.

[Prof.Witchheimer]

For me,my ancients fascination has always been the Sarmatians (no surprise there then... ), and the idea that the Sarmatians were the inspiration for the Arthur myth (Sarmatians were stationed in Britain). An interesting book has been written 'From Scythia to Camelot' by Littleton and Malcor. Some would suggest such a premise is rubbish,I rather like it,and when one deals with Arthur,well,he is  a myth (I think?) so no harm done.

Fascinating, now I've learned something new

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Saudi Arabia’s Stonehenge

"On a lonely exposed hillside a few kilometers outside the capital of Al-Jouf province, Sakkaka, stand clusters of three-meter high fingers of stone.
Etched with ancient Thamudic graffiti, these monuments to a long extinct culture have maintained their lonely vigil for six millennia. Many have fallen over and others lean at bizarre random angles.
Al-Rajajil (“the men”), the sandstone stele weighing up to five tons each, is popularly called Saudi Arabia’s Stonehenge. They are possibly the oldest human monuments on the peninsula..."

read more - http://www.arabnews.com/variety/travel/article547489.ece

[Blue in vt]

 

Amazing...some how I've never hold of those!

Blue

[Paul]

From the same area as the standing stones;

http://www.livescience.com/16046-nazca-lines-wheels-google-earth.html

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Inventions in Ancient Time - Plastic Surgery
http://reconstructivesurgeryguide.blogspot.com/2011/05/history-of-plastic-surgery.html

The history of plastic surgery goes as far back as 2000 B.C. In India and Egypt, ancient physicians experienced some  forms of plastic surgery. In an article in the Washington Post by Thomas V. Di Bacco it is written that reeds were used in Egyptian nose reconstruction to keep the nostrils open as the nose healed.

In another part of the world Roman physicians, in the first century, practiced early  beginnings of surgical methods to make some changes on the body. As we all know in Roman culture beauty of the human body was  highly valued. For that reason,  ancient Roman doctors operated on former gladiators whose bodies and faces had become severely damaged. Roman medical writer Aulus Cornelius Celsus wrote "De Medicina,” which outlined some of the techniques used in the practice of breast reduction and reconstruction of the ears, lips and noses – an important early text for plastic surgery.

After the fall of Rome at the end of the third century A.D., the progress of plastic surgery appears to have stalled for several hundred years. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the spread of Christianity forbade any kind of surgical changes to the body, as dictated by Pope Innocent III.

[Paul]

Here´s another...a false toe found on a female mummy near luxor.