Nagelfar

It seems a bit aggressive to attribute the disappearance to European diseases. Is there any evidence to support this?

It's the Council of Europe in this case. I'm not sure if they have enough power to overrule national governments, probably not. Thanks again. It seems Italy has signed, but not ratified the Valetta agreement. No luck with this then... Council of Europe - Valetta

That would be the Valletta Treaty, which calls for archaeological research whenever soil-disturbing activities are planned to make sure nothing is lost undocumented. Typically though, the treaty has been implemented unevenly among the signatory states. Thanks. Since I am totally ignorant on international law in this area; Is there any institution that supervises/control the implementation of the agreement?

Hmm. According to my Italian friends (who are already disillusionised) this will not create any problems for Berlusconi. According to them B has done similar things in the past without getting into trouble. However, this issue raised a question for me. Arguably the Phoenician graves are important (if they are) not only for the Italians. Is there protection for archaeological sites on a European level? International treaties? How do we make sure important sites are not destroyed by those who have them within their borders?

Bush was a disaster in many areas. It is actually surprising the Americans didn't stop him. He is not alone in his follies; the economic policies have been pursued for a long time. I do think he managed to avoid one thing that could have made him immortal. He never made his horse vice president... I have higher hopes for Obama, but I still think he will envy McCain in a year or so.

haha, that kind of talk might wake us up again. Favorite tribe; Suiones of course. (Wikipedia on Suiones)

'Beck' would be similair. The modern Swedish is 'b

I can't think of anything that resembles 'burns". There might be since my knowledge of old norse is very limited. In modern Swedish there are many word that could translate into stream, but the most obvious one is "str

I had a collegue many years ago who was from Sunderland. I made a joke that he was from the broken city. "S

LOL. Clearly drinking the blood of Christ is not sufficient...

Maybe the EU as a united entity prevents Russia from bullying the Baltic states and Finland as it was inclined to do in earlier times. Perhaps their NATO membership has a chilling effect on the Russian ambition. Finland did have a "friendship and assistance pact" with the Russians. However, the Finns I know never enjoyed the "friendship". The Baltic states entered both NATO and EU when there was a window of opportunity. There can be considerable Russian influence in Finland, the Baltics and Sweden (for that matter). However, Russia will have to use other methods than military to achieve this.

The Russian played very well against a poor Swedish team. The result is a bit flattering, for us. We are out of the Euro 2008... as we should be. In a few years the Russian team will be even better, but they are in for a lesson from Holland, I think. Now; forza gli azzurri!

The english go over the top with their team that usually it's not worth the excesive hype. The last time that they played something nice Maradona's hand-of-god interfered (oh, how I hated him for that! But his fall from grace made me realise what a brilliant player he was). Gary Lineker was a different breed from the likes of Beckham and Owen. He played the ball not the media. Liverpool and Everton of the early 80's..."Come on reds" still gives me a thrill. My feelings towards the italians (french and dutch also) are at a low point now. Anyway, I still like more Italy over France as I can not forget the World Cup that the french hosted ... Italians trashed the romanians some years ago in a very unpolite manner but I hope our team will show now some tactical brains for the first time in history instead of relying on natural gifts that seem to be absent today. Romania does better with the best South American teams while against europeans, even boring teams like Sweden in 1994 , they don't seem to know what to do with the ball. Let me just start with admitting that Sweden never plays good football. Sometimes it is effective and we have performed well above what should have been possible for us as a small nation. (Ask the English when the last time they won against us!) As to the Sweden - Romania game... thanks for reminding me!

My chosen avatar for the duration of the Championships will show you that I too am one of the tifosi, Silentum. And, yes, bitterness still abounds about 2000 and that damned Golden Goal. However, it's not quite as bad as the bitterness of the 2002 Mondiale and South Korea! I will never, ever, forgive them, or that damned referee! I think that now Canna has been lost to injury, we have something to fight for, and I can see us winning this. Before Fabio's injury my money would have been on Germany, to be honest. Beh - speremo.... FORZA AZZURRI Haha, nice =). You're right about the 2002 mondiale, If you REALLY want to annoy an Italian all you have to say is "arbitro Moreno" XD. Or you could refer to the 2004 Euro - "Due due Nordic victory" :-) [sweden and Denmark did what had to be done to qualify in the last game, at the expense of the italians]

Sweden of course! However, we will not stand a chance in our group (Russia, Spain and Greece). I think the Swedish team has done very well in qualifying again (we haven't missed qualifying for a championship in ten years). We have a population of 9 millions...

Most probably not a good place for a bath in those times (either...), but the romans could have been interested in amber, like egyptians and Greeks before them?

Thanks for the interesting thoughts on this issue! The pollution (water quality) and the distribution aspects are as you say important. Still, it should be feasible to raise water from the Tiber, but I guess that the capacity would be nothing like the gravity based aqueducts. Considering the huge investment in capital that was required to build the aqueducts, and think of alternative systems. You could probably have many slaves or oxen occupied to raise water to match the building costs. Now, there are huge economies of scale in the aqueducts, so the volume of water needed probably plays into the equation. Further, I guess the aqueducts were monumental constructions to glorify their "builders".

Interesting topic! One thing kind of puzzles me. Probably the answer is well known to the scholars of the field. Rome has an ample supply of fresh water in the Tiber. Was the Tiber so polluted that it was necessary to make the huge investments needed in building the aqueducts? Was the supply from the aqueducts better in quality or was the water pressure an issue?

I am happy if the myth(?) of curses on the grave robbers work, since it might curve thefts. However I can not understand why there should be other then very minor causality (fungus etc). People believe in the myth since they only hear about the people who have been "cursed". People never hear about the thousands who got away with items and lived happy ever after.

Sadly you are correct. On a brighter note, the 15th is not far off.

It is a fact that Hannibal brought with him elephants across the Alps. Now, not being familiar with ancient warfare, I guess elephants were not roaming around in Spain at the time. So where did Hannibal get his elephants? Having skimmed the topic of elephants on this forum it seems they were useful against less developed armies, so perhaps the elephants were regularly employed in the Spain? Did Hannibal breed elephants, or did he get them from Carthage before his Italian campaign? Moving 35 (?) elephants from Africa must have been a huge undertaking.

"More modern monuments (for instance, Keats' house at the Spanish Steps) carried a charge for upkeep, but the ancient ruins did not." But the upkeep on ruins is for free :-D

Strange, Bush II Imperator was not granted a triumph in Washington by the senate? What has the world come to... On a more serious side I agree with spittle "On a personal level I felt sorry for an old man being surrounded by masked men and legally murdered....and I know if anyone deserved it it was him." Besides the humanitarian aspect, Saddam probably had a lot of information that is now gone forever.

This find is extra interesting since it was found in a non cultivated area. Most findings on Gotland are done in fields and any other remains are typically lost. It had only been disturbed by rabbits (they dug up the first coins). I hope to see more when they have excavated, since there might be clues as to where and why the inhabitants of Gotland burried their treasure. As a curiosity, one of the guys that found the coins had already planned on being an archeologist. I guess this didn't discourage him. The guys will get a good price for the find as well. /Viking ramblings There are written references to trading and war expeditions in the east on runic stones. A favorite quote is from a stone at Gripsholm which translates (freely) into "Tola rasied the stone after his son Harald, brother of Ingvar. They left in large numbers for distant gold in the east and fed the eagle. They died in S

Are you sure? There's a few learned gentlemen who might disagree with you there. But lets be positive. Why do you believe that? I'm sure there are many learned gentlemen who disagree. Maybe you can substantiate why they are so sure? However, just to name a few theories on the origins of the word; - From the word "vik" which translates to bay in English. The idea here is that it is a description of pirates who can raid through shallow bays. - From the word "avvika" which translates to deviate. The ones who left their homes. Similar to the "a-viking" explanation of Pertinax. - From a naval term on changing rowers (or oarsman). - the word is much older than the "Vikings", but the label stuck to them. As for a description of ethnic orgin, sure but that does not help in the meaning of the word.