[Ancient Raptors Likely Feasted On Early Man]

A new study suggests that prehistoric birds of prey made meals out of some of our earliest human ancestors.

Since they no longer attack us, I suppose they didn't like the taste of human meal (just kidding).

[Lousy Weather]

The Sunday Times confirms ,once again, the remote and dank climate Beyond Ocean.

Why do you think the Romans left Britain?...

[Becoming An Archaeologist]

I am told that most modern archaeologists are not historians, but scientists (chemists, botanists, engineers etc).

No, these are scientists that help archaeologists; actually, archaeologists are historians, but whereas the latter spend their time with documents, the former also five attention to the material world.

 

 

Modern archaeology appears to be all about project management, scientific technique (soil science, pottery types etc), man-management, communication, analysis etc.

 

Times change...

 

What would Sir Mortimer, or Heinrich have thought??

Unfortunatelly, you're right about archaeology today: it has mostly became a dull and routine work. The earlier generations would certainly be disapointed with this shift from learning about the past through the material world to a mere record of findings.

[California Wildfires Expose Ancient Artifacts]

It's not only in California; it's everywhere in the world.

[The New Seven Wonders Of The World]

This "Seven Wonders" issue is mostly a political thing. If it pretends to create a common world community by electing wonders that belong to "everyone" it will fail since people will just be patriotic and will simply vote in the wonder of their land. In the end, it will just divide instead of uniting, with people already complaining that their land doesn't have monuments in the list. Finally, nobody knows what were the criteria followed by the "savants" to choose the final contenders. At least, I can notice one of them: pick a bit of everything throughout the world.

[Ancient Stamp Dating To 5,000 Bc Unearthed]

These so-called "stamps" certainly had nothing to do with our modern world stamps. Notice that they were found in a tumulus, which means that they were probably symbols with some sort of religious meaning.

[Neanderthal's choose seaside]

It appears that Neanderthal man chose a warm location for his first home in Britain: Torquay:-

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1965

What I find interesting in this article is the drawing that depicts the Neanderthal man as the typical

[Iberians, Celts, And Visigoths]

I have come accross several websites claiming that North West Spain and bits of Northern Portugal (Galicia) have a celtic speaking population, or at least there are people there claiming celtic descent. Is this true?

 

Northern Portugal and Galicia are today two different entities, though in the Roman period they both constituted the Roman province of Gallaecia.

 

As far as having any current Celtic-speaking populations, I can assure you that nobody in Portugal and Spain speaks any Celtic language; all languages spoken here come from Latin.

 

Regarding the Celtic descent, well, that's more problematic. When the Romans arrived to Hispania, a Northern Portugal and Spain were occupied by Celtic-speaking populations and some Celtic words still survive today. However, this does not prove that there was a large (if any) influx of Celtic migrants into this area. After all, we are all speaking English in this forum, but that is not the native language of many of us. In my opinion, I think it is more likely that Celt was a lingua franca in large parts of Europe in those days, due to a little know process of cultural transmission. It was the Celtic culture that was moving around Europe and not a people.

 

Finally, the main reason why more recently there has been an emphasis in Northern Portugal and in Galicia about their Celtic heritage is due to political reasons, that is, it is about creating a common past between both areas so that, together, they can resist better the centralisation attempts of the capital cities of both countries.

[Ancient Roman Hair Dye Based On Nanotechnology]

Big business should give more support to archaeologists in order to bring back the good ideas of the past.

[Tablet mentioning Masada's destroyer discovered]

They mention that the tablet memorializes the victory - does that imply that there wasn't a mass suicide?

As far as I know, the occupation of Masada was a victory, with or without mass suicide.

[Ancient Roman curse found]

From what I know, Magalus is one who leads, but the feminine entity Maglus is the lead hunter, both are probably Celtic or some provincial god/goddess. Nevertheless, I find these curses fun, and if you can read them in actual Latin on the actual tablet, it feels nice.

If such god was a hunter, it makes sense its invocation to track and find the robber.

[Vatican archaeologists find tomb believed to be that of Apostle Paul]

I prefer to wait first for the C14 dating of the bones and, if possible, if there are any signs of the body having been decapitated. Even if these elements are proved correct, I would accept the claim with caution, taking in consideration a well-known history of fakes.

 

No doubt that this sarcophagus will become a beacon to pilgrims. I suppose it will end up like the Byzantine drawing of Jesus and that thousands will flock to the Vatican to see it. It's a very interesting discovery, even if it isn't the tomb of Paul.

That's what I think is the main reason behind this "discovery": the Catholic Church is in crisis and nothing like a bombastic discovery to attract again some people.

[Rome and "norway"]

Such findings do not prove that Norwegians served the Roman empire since they could have simply obtained those artifacts through trade with other Germanic tribes that lived closer to the border of the Roman world. In my opinion, what would be interesting to find was th meaning given to Norwegians to those Roman artifacts.

[A new Dark Age]

Now what will the world look like in 4006? Imagine a "new" Dark Age will come, how will archaeologists assess (and misinterpret) the 20th century? Thanks to endless stacks of books, digital archives etc.. Work might be easier then for scholars, or maybe not (we don`t know if in 4006, people will understand how to use a MP3 file, maybe because it is so backward, or maybe because it is so advanced)...

 

so, hows life for an archaeologist in 4006?

 

Paper wouldn't survive all that time and in order to see the digital archives you would need the computers (which wouldn't be working).

 

All that would remain from our society to be seen in 2000 years would be remains of our skyscrapers. It's impossible, however, to say what sort of meaning would be given to them. Maybe they would just look to the material and call our society the "Age of Cement" or, if they were more religious, they might say the same thing that the Jews said when they saw the Babel tower in Babylon: humanity tried to reach the heavens and God punished them.

[Rome And Usa.]

It's impossible to compare today Rome with the USA. The latter's hegemony only has 50 years, whereas Rome's influence is still around, including in the American Republic. We need to wait 2000/3000 years to see if America's influence will be able to surpass the Roman one. For the moment, it's too early to say.

[Welcome and Introduce Yourself Here]

Hello everyone. I'm from Porto (then known as Portucale) in Northern Portugal (then the southern part of the province of Gallaecia).

 

History is one of my favourite subjects and since my knowledge of the Roman period is so-so, I decided to join this forum in order to learn more about it.

 

Finally, I must say that I find the design of this forum quite attractive and well-made. Congratulations to the designers.

[Would Rome have survived under a republic?]

Does any one here think that if Rome never had an emperor it would have lasted longer?

No. The Republican institutions were not made to rule an empire, which means that changes were needed. Notice also that when the empire started not to work well, Christianism was instituted as an official religion in order to create a more stable identity among Romans instead of the cult of the emperor. In this way, the successor of the Roman Empire - Byzantium - was able to hold for another 1000 years. Not bad, I would say.

 

Stable institutions are a chimera, since they are constantly changing according to circumstances. Actually, the "Republic" itself went through a number of changes.

[What Is Your Favorite Era Of Roman History?]

I like it all; there's always something interesting going on.

[Why Do You Like Rome?]

As most people of Western heritage I have in Rome quite a parent: murderous, proud, scientific, democratic, imperial, litterate, parasitic, forward thinking, industrious, decadent, inventive, pagan, Christian, benevolent, and cruel. Despite all, she's my parent. If I am to know anything about myself I will have to study her.

Basically, the same thing for me. It's all about understanding better our identity through history.

[What Would You Be In Roman Society....]

I'd like to be an ambassador, so that I could travel within and beyond the empire and meet all sorts of lands and persons.

[The curse of the east]

I think that the Romans were never really interested in the East. All attempts of conquest of the East were the result of men who wished to emulate Alexander and not of a united Roman effort. Thus the all the efforts were always half-hearted, never surviving its patron.