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JGolomb

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  1. Lost Roman Law Code Discovered in London

    in Archaeological News: Rome

    Posted

    Lost Roman Law Code Discovered in London

    100126220329-large.jpg

    Part of an ancient Roman law code previously thought to have been lost forever has been discovered by researchers at University College London's Department of History. Simon Corcoran and Benet Salway made the breakthrough after piecing together 17 fragments of previously incomprehensible parchment.

     

    Corcoran and Salway found that the text belonged to the Codex Gregorianus, or Gregorian Code, a collection of laws by emperors from Hadrian (AD 117-138) to Diocletian (AD 284-305), which was published circa AD 300. Little was known about the codex's original form and there were, until now, no known copies in existence.

     

    "The fragments bear the text of a Latin work in a clear calligraphic script, perhaps dating as far back as AD 400," said Dr Salway. "It uses a number of abbreviations characteristic of legal texts and the presence of writing on both sides of the fragments indicates that they belong to a page or pages from a late antique codex book -- rather than a scroll or a lawyer's loose-leaf notes.

     

    "The fragments contain a collection of responses by a series of Roman emperors to questions on legal matters submitted by members of the public," continued Dr Salway. "The responses are arranged chronologically and grouped into thematic chapters under highlighted headings, with corrections and readers' annotations between the lines. The notes show that this particular copy received intensive use."

     

    The surviving fragments belong to sections on appeal procedures and the statute of limitations on an as yet unidentified matter. The content is consistent with what was already known about the Gregorian Code from quotations of it in other documents, but the fragments also contain new material that has not been seen in modern times.

     

    "These fragments are the first direct evidence of the original version of the Gregorian Code," said Dr Corcoran. "Our preliminary study confirms that it was the pioneer of a long tradition that has extended down into the modern era and it is ultimately from the title of this work, and its companion volume the Codex Hermogenianus, that we use the term 'code' in the sense of 'legal rulings'."

  2. Virtual and Rebuilt Experiences

    in Archaeology

    Posted

    Caldrail - all good points.

     

    However...

     

    Looking at the ruins in the Forum, for example, versus looking at the ruins and walking into a rebuilt full scale model of what one of the ruins might have been (with appropriate commentary and signage throughout) is an enhancement to the experience, no?

     

    J

  3. Virtual and Rebuilt Experiences

    in Archaeology

    Posted

    When I first joined UNRV, I posted a question about why some of the treasures of the Roman Forum weren't rebuilt nearby to give visitors an immersive experience in addition to the experience of ruins. I receive some terrificially erudite responses, the one that stuck the most was the inevitable academic disagreement over what a building or location should actually look like.

     

    At any rate, I came across this interesting article espousing the idea of live virtual experiences (in the real world as well as online).

     

    Enter the Anti-museum: Why Virtual Experiences Lead to Better Learning

  4. Italy and Getty Museum Wrangle Over Ancient Art

    in Archaeological News: Rome

    Posted

    A twist in Getty Museum's Italian court saga

    Was the J. Paul Getty Museum acting in good faith when it purchased one of the finest ancient bronze statues in existence?

     

    That will be the central question before an Italian judge after Friday's closing arguments in a long-running legal battle in Pesaro, Italy.

     

    At stake is a much-coveted work believed by some to have been created by Alexander the Great's personal sculptor and plundered by Roman soldiers around the time of Christ before being lost at sea. A regional public prosecutor alleges that the Italian fishermen who discovered the Greek statue in 1964 failed to declare it to Italian customs officials and sold it to middlemen, who smuggled it out of the country.

  9. Lost Amazon Complex Found

    in Archaeological News: The World

    Posted

    The discovery adds to evidence that the hinterlands of the Amazon once teemed with complex societies, which were largely wiped out by diseases brought to South America by European colonists in the 15th and 16th centuries, Schaan said.

     

    Since these vanished societies had gone unrecorded, previous research had suggested that soils in the upper Amazon were too poor to support the extensive agriculture needed for such large, permanent settlements.

     

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

    In general, European-borne diseases wiped out millions of indigenous populations in North, Central and South America. That's well documented. In this articles and others, I think scientists speculate that since the diseases were so wide-spread, easily spread, and did such damage in documented circumstances, that it's not a stretch to conclude that similar may have occurred in other undocumented societies from a similar timeframe.

  10. LATE ROMAN FILMS

    in Colosseum

    Posted

    Atilla with Gerard Butler and Powers Boothe. Some people hate it, but I enjoyed it - even if he did look like he belonged in Whitesnake circa 1987

    Lanista - good call on the Whitesnake referenced. Looks separated at birth to me:

    Eurofoxx____Attila_the_Hun_by_Gerard_Butler_Fans.jpg

    26_david-coverdale.jpg

  11. LATE ROMAN FILMS

    in Colosseum

    Posted

    Atilla with Gerard Butler and Powers Boothe. Some people hate it, but I enjoyed it - even if he did look like he belonged in Whitesnake circa 1987

    I saw Whitesnake on tour in 1987. They rocked and I was scared of the scary tattoo-people that were in attendance. :-)

  12. Lost Amazon Complex Found

    in Archaeological News: The World

    Posted

    I love that we live in a world where there are still undiscovered ancient civilizations...

     

    "Lost" Amazon Complex Found; Shapes Seen by Satellite

    Hundreds of circles, squares, and other geometric shapes once hidden by forest hint at a previously unknown ancient society that flourished in the Amazon, a new study says.

     

    Satellite images of the upper Amazon Basin taken since 1999 have revealed more than 200 geometric earthworks spanning a distance greater than 155 miles (250 kilometers).

     

    Now researchers estimate that nearly ten times as many such structures

  14. What the latest DVD you watched?

    in Colosseum

    Posted

    Over the weekend, I watched the original Planet of the Apes with my kids. They were rather surprised at the Ape's overuse of nets in capturing the lowly humans. hehe.

     

    We also watched an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (thank you, netflix streaming video!)

     

    what is netflex streaming video?

     

    Streaming is the coolest thing...Certain blu-ray DVD players can connect to the web and one of the features is that netflix can stream a movie directly to the blu-ray (and your tv) in realtime - instead of sending you a DVD. It's like watching movies on your computer...except better because it was high quality and on my tv. No garbled internet-like video.

     

    J

  17. Relic reveals Noah's ark was circular

    in Archaeological News: The World

    Posted

    Relic reveals Noah's ark was circular

    some highlights from this story...very interesting:

    That they processed aboard the enormous floating wildlife collection two-by-two is well known. Less familiar, however, is the possibility that the animals Noah shepherded on to his ark then went round and round inside.

     

    According to newly translated instructions inscribed in ancient Babylonian on a clay tablet telling the story of the ark, the vessel that saved one virtuous man, his family and the animals from god's watery wrath was not the pointy-prowed craft of popular imagination but rather a giant circular reed raft.

     

    The now battered tablet, aged about 3,700 years, was found somewhere in the Middle East by Leonard Simmons, a largely self-educated Londoner who indulged his passion for history while serving in the RAF from 1945 to 1948.

    "In all the images ever made people assumed the ark was, in effect, an ocean-going boat, with a pointed stem and stern for riding the waves

  24. Jesus-era Home Found in Nazareth

    in Archaeological News: The World

    Posted

    Jesus-era Home Found in Nazareth

     

    1. I'm surprised that this wasn't reported AS Jesus' home...

    2. Amazing how this discovery coincides almost exactly to Christmas Day...hmm...

     

    Some hightlights:

    Just in time for Christmas, a house dating back to the time of Jesus has been found at the town where he supposedly grew up.

     

    Days before Christmas, archaeologists on Monday unveiled what they said were the remains of the first dwelling in Nazareth that can be dated back to the time of Jesus -- a find that could shed new light on what the hamlet was like during the period the New Testament says Jesus lived there as a boy.

    "This may well have been a place that Jesus and his contemporaries were familiar with," Alexandre said. A young Jesus may have played around the house with his cousins and friends, she said. "It's a logical suggestion."

     

    The discovery so close to Christmas has pleased local Christians.

     

    "They say if the people do not speak, the stones will speak," said a smiling Father Jack Karam of the nearby Basilica of the Annunciation, the site where Christian tradition says Mary received the angel's word.

     

    Alexandre said workers uncovered the first signs of the dwelling in the summer, but it became clear only this month that it was a structure from the era of Jesus.

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