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Ditto caldrail.

It was know for several years that red squirrels were a host for leprosy. it is only recently, however, that genomic studies (looking at complete DNA sequences) of both Medieval squirrels and human skeletons of that era were examined. It showed a direct link between red squirrels and human leprosy in the Middle Ages. The consumption of red squirrel meat and using squirrel fur promoted this zoonotic (spread from animals to people) infection. It is known that in some areas of Texas and Louisiana armadillos were shown to be infected by leprosy more than 15% of the time. A recent outbreak of leprosy in Florida has been directly tied to armadillos. There is some concern that “armadillos may contaminate soil with the leprosy bacteria by burrowing and defecating, infecting humans who later handle soil.” (See article below) One study in Brazil showed that more than 60% of armadillos harbored leprosy. Here is a picture of a man in nearby Ecuador preparing armadillo meat. Brazil is known to have 11.6% of the cases of leprosy worldwide. (India by far has the largest number of cases.) https://epi.ufl.edu/2023/10/16/leprosy-in-florida-medical-experts-monitoring-unusual-new-cases-of-hansens-disease/ https://theconversation.com/humans-gave-leprosy-to-armadillos-now-they-are-giving-it-back-to-us-99915

Amazing bit of archeological work. Better living thru chemistry, as the saying goes....It's a common and wise survival strategy for a pathogen to have at least two host species to infect-- kill off one and hide in the other until the population of the first recovers. Squirrels are just rats with bushy tails....Those of us who live where hardwoods are the norm are accustomed to seeing squirrels fill the niche living in the canopy and eating nuts... In southern California (where the nuts live in mansions & sea side villas) the trees are palms and the common rat has taken over the niche of living in the canopy and eating the date nuts-- big problem in some neighborhoods in LA.

I was surprised to learn that squirrels host the same bubonic plague flea as rats. Someone recently died in NM of plague. A lot of people are attracted to squirrels and want to hand feed them etc, unlike rats. A surprising number of folks think reptiles are cute to handle. Nih.gov sez:

???? !!!!!!!!!!!

A red squirrel infected with leprosy (Hansen’s disease) causing infiltration and destruction of this animal’s ear. There is genetic evidence of M. leprae infection in Medieval English red squirrels. “The medieval red squirrel strain we recovered is more closely related to medieval human strains from the same city than to strains isolated from infected modern red squirrels.” Despite being a host for leprosy, it is uncertain whether squirrels were an animal vector for human leprosy infection during the Middle Ages. These findings support the theory that leprosy was transmitted by squirrel fur trade, however. In the Southern USA, armadillos are both a reservoir of leprosy (Hansen’s disease) and a frequent vector of human leprosy cases in the South. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(24)00446-9 https://www.sciencenews.org/article/british-red-squirrels-serve-leprosy-reservoir https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/05/240503111918.htm

There have been a few posts on either the important Tyrian purple dye or Roman excavations near Carlisle, England (see posts below). Recent excavations at Carlisle have found a soft purple mass. Recent studies have revealed that it is made of beeswax and bromine. Researchers suggest that this represents a solid sample of Tyrian purple dye, possibly a unique finding in Roman archaeology. This expensive and coveted dye was available only to the elite of the Roman world. According to the article, the rare dye was made from the glands of a marine snail and about 12,000 were needed to obtain less than 2g of pigment. https://www.newsweek.com/archaeologists-find-rare-item-worth-more-romans-weight-gold-1897206 https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjje132jvygo#

The story behind the images by Goldsworthy:

Timgad: idyllic retirement village on African frontier... P.S. don't miss my previous posted video, a mere 2.5 minute atmospheric gem.

Here are some pictures of the exhibit from Maridvnvm (from cointalk.com and forumancientcoins.com). The descriptions are from the pictures. Britain, British Museum, Exhibition 2024 - Legion: life in the Roman Army - crocodile armour Some Roman soldiers participated in local religions – Terentianus was keen to report his piety. Crocodile-worship was common in Egypt. This crocodile scalp could be a ritual headdress, or a local adaptation of the fierce lion and bear hoods worn by Roman standard bearers. The tough leather of the crocodile skin resembles the texture of scale body armour, and leather protection might have sufficed for some soldiers. Alternatively, it was perhaps worn under metal armour for cushioning, adding flexible hip and shoulder protection. Made of Crocodile leather Probably found in Manfalut, Egypt Dating to A.D. 200–400 Part of British Museum collection, 1846,0501.9 Britain, British Museum, Exhibition 2024 - Legion: life in the Roman Army - chainmail This deceptively simple looking armour is a chainmail shirt, found in the barracks of a fort on Hadrian's Wall. It probably belonged to a soldier of the 5th cohort of Gauls, an auxiliary unit raised in the area including modern France. The individual rings are 7 mm wide and were fixed by riveting alternating rows, making it painstaking and expensive to produce. Made of Iron Found at Arbeia fort, Tyne and Wear, England Dating to A.D. 200–300 On loan from Arbeia, South Shields Roman Fort https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=lastup&cat=-1262 Britain, British Museum, Exhibition 2024 - Legion: life in the Roman Army - bronze Draco By the A.D.100s, a distinctive windsock-like standard especially suited to being wielded from the saddle had been adopted from Rome's Sarmatian foes – the draco. This bronze standard head originally had a tube of colourful materials attached. Carried by a draconarius, the material trailed behind the rider, blown by the breeze and emitting a whistling sound to suggest the fearsome beast's howl. Its pole was attached through two holes on the top and bottom of the head. Found in Niederbieber, Germany Dating to 190 A.D. –260 A.D. On loan from GDKE – Direktion Landesarchäologie Außenstelle Koblenz https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=lastupby&cat=0&pid=187511&uid=618#top_display_media

Nice dissertation....But, like Marlowe. I know little Latin and less Greek, so I'll have to take your word for it. Good effort outlining the linguistic evidence of the evolution there. According to Dionysius of Halocanarsus, a Greek writing for Greeks, all of the western Mediterranean was settled by Greek colonists- even the Trojans were originally Greeks....kinda reminiscent of old Soviet propaganda history.

Ingenious..... ....but given the large number discovered there must have been huge number actually in use.....One has to wonder how many goldsmiths there were? OTOH-- there were huge numbers of lorica hamata in use for at least 600 yrs by the mi!itary. How was that chain mail manufactured?...by tedious hammering one link at a time, or by quickly weaving iron wire like this?... ...used in making chain mail, this would also help to explain the geographic distribution...iron more common to the north vs gold more common to the south. --just cogitating.

The ancients named the prevailing winds. The Weather Channel thinks we need ned to name every stinking thunderstorm. Hannibal unwisely tried to cross the Alps, losing half his men and all but one of his elephants to the cold and snow, yet still vandalized the Italian peninsula for fifteen years. I took the Romans another generation or two to recover from that activity. One has to wonder "What if..." had Hannibal his full army & menagerie?

During a discussion of the recent orange Sahara dust storm (Sirocco) that swept through Greece, Caesar Novus found this excellent map showing the various winds that impact the Mediterranean (see below). We probably underestimate the effect that climate events had on ancient history. The Bora wind storm changed the course of Roman history in September AD 394 at the Battle of Frigidus, for example. During the battle, Theodosius won the battle and defeated the usurpers Eugenius and Arbogast. A strong Bora wind impacted the battle at a pivotal point. During the battle, the hurricane-strength Bora winds blew directly in the faces of the usurpers, disrupting their lines. According to legend, the fierce winds even blew the usurper troops' own arrows back on themselves. The winds could possibly have affected the accuracy of the usurpers' pila, also. After winning the battle, the victorious Theodosius had the usurpers Eugenius and Arbogast executed. With his victory, Theodosius unified the Empire and snuffed out the dying embers of Paganism. Naturally, Theodosius attributed these seasonal winds to divine intervention. Here is a short clip of the Bora winds on the streets of Trieste a few years ago. These winds can go above 200 km/hour (124 miles/hour): A previous post on the recent Sahara dust storm Battle of the Frigidus - Wikipedia

We have had many posts on the mysterious dodecahedron (see blow). Here is a fascinating video on one theory: It was used as a tool to knit gold wire for jewelry. Well worth a watch: Note: There have been at least 116 dodecahedrons found in the Roman Empire: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Interestingly, none have been in the Roman heartland in Italy. They are always found north of the Alps. I’m not sure of the significance of this fact. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_dodecahedron

Well, now I see some icons in the lower right hand corner, a blue circle with a heart, a number 1, and some symbol that when I clicked on it, it said "Sign in", but it's a "Grow" account? I give up.

Appian uses the word Byrsa (βύρσα) to describe the hill where the citadel of Carthage stood, this is not mentioned in Strabo, instead he uses that word to describe the shape of Spain. They are three instances in Strabo of βύρσα (Býrsa) being used to describe the geography of Spain and Strabo does not use βύρσα in reference to Carthage. Then technically Spain could be called Býrsa. In Latin the word for is βύρσα is pellis; Pellis tanned hide, leather, skin, a drum βύρσα skin stripped off, hide, a drum. In Latin pelles tensa would be "stretched hide". The Citadel of Carthage is the βύρσα and the Citadel of Troy in Homer is called πτολίεθρον and πέργαμα in Euripides. cf. πύργος . Βύρσα, πέργαμος, βᾶρις, φρούριον, ἐρυμνός. πύργος in Latin is turris (τύρρις., τύρσις) and also example of dialectic exchange of the letters. In Arabic and Phoenician the letter π rarely corresponds to 𐤐 that is most often aspirated, for example in 𐤐𐤋𐤔𐤕 in Exodus 15:14 is Φυλιστιιμ in the Septuagint, Philisthim in the Vulgate, even though the correct way is Παλαιστίνα (Palestina), without an aspiration. In Arabic there is no π sound and always transliterated B or F. Another example is the word Pūnicus for Φοῖνιξ, the Φ- exchanges with the Pū- that together constitutes a single consonant. The verb ἀμφιάζω is written 𐤄𐤋𐤁𐤉𐤔 in Phoenician, the φ into 𐤁 and 𐤄𐤋𐤁𐤉𐤔 was loaned back into Greek under καλύφωνή in Latin is vox and also tonus τω, the 𐤁 into π. φ > 𐤁 > π The noun φωνή is written 𐤒𐤅𐤋𐤄 in Phoenician, the φ exchanges with 𐤒 and this letter derives φ, φωνή in Latin is vox and also tonus. Φοῖνιξ is also written 𐤒𐤉𐤍, even though 𐤒 is kin to the Latin letter Q. This is important stuff since both Latin and Greek utilise the Phoenician script.

"These are the views I get. I don’t see the log-out option, either. " Yep. That's how the page looks to me now, different than before.

There have been numerous posts about LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) technology (see post below) and its use to uncover ancient sites. Below is an article that summarizes 32 ancient and modern sites uncovered with the aid of LiDAR technology. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/times-lasers-revealed-hidden-forts-and-settlements-from-centuries-ago

These are the views I get. I don’t see the log-out option, either.

From reading info online, it seems I could try clearing cookies while clearing my history when I leave a site, but some years ago I did that and basically got locked out of some other discussion boards and had one heck of a time getting back in them. So I'm hesitant to try it again.

Here are other articles on the study; https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/ancient-egyptian-tombs-might-been-32683537 https://journalofscientificexploration.org/index.php/jse/article/view/2855 Here are two videos on the “Curse of the Pharaohs,” one recent and one a little older:

Granite & quartz are well known to be sources of radiation but the amount is too small to be of concern compared to other common environmental sources although risks could be higher in poorly ventilated spaces like tombs. We would expect lung cancer to be a bigger risk than blood problems...Leukemia/lymphoma are well known to be associated with a significantly increased risk of those blood dyscrasias after exposure to benzene.... Do archeologists often use that as a solvent in cleaning artifacts?

King Tutankhamen has been the subject of several posts in the past (see below). There has long been the myth about “The Curse of King Tut" or "The Curse of the Pharaohs." Recent studies of Egyptologists do show a high incidence of deaths associated with hematopoietic (blood cell, bone marrow) and lymphoid tissue cancers, frequently found in victims of radiation poisoning. This might be attributable to the high radiation reported in ancient tombs. https://metro.co.uk/2024/04/27/mystery-behind-100-year-old-curse-pharaohs-finally-solved-20728683/?ito=newsnow-feed https://journalofscientificexploration.org/index.php/jse/article/view/2855 Note: Of course I'm skeptical about these claims. This explanation of the "curse" would not explain the other causes of death: infection, suicide, accident, murder, etc. Nevertheless, being an Egyptologist does appear to be an occupational hazard.

Archaeologists have found a Roman-era landscaped pool and wall around a natural freshwater spring near the village of Chamborêt, about 12 miles north of Limoges, France. These ruins date from the third century AD. These Roman ruins were built on an older Neolithic period site that might date back 4,500 to 6,000 years. Roman ceramics and coins from the late Roman Empire were found at the site. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/romans/1700-year-old-roman-ruins-discovered-atop-much-older-neolithic-sacred-spring Site of find in France