guidoLaMoto

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?

Welcome back, Neil. I can't remember you because I've only been amember here for a short time. I'm looking forward to what will probably be interesting contributions from you. That's quite an eclectic little curriculum (would that make it a curriculum-ulum?) vitae you've outlined. (Have you considered seeking counseling?) I see we share an Interest in 2-wheeling. My screen name is a play on words in Italian.

More amazing to me is how technology can allow us to read the carbonized scrolls, and the episode about slavery adds significantly to the richness of the history. Pin-pointing Plato's grave brings to mind the story of how they finally located the exact position of Mozart's grave. He was buried in a mass grave for paupers....It seems one day not long ago a groundskeeper heard music coming up out of the ground. Experts realized it was Eine Kleine Nachtmusik being played backwards.....They figured it was Mozart de-composing.

65% for worms!! Wow....and these mummies were presumably the well to do class. Imagine the rates among the poor with more crowded living conditions. Malnutrition both from lack of adequate meat intake as well as nearly universal parasitic disease is probably a problem under appreciated by modern historians. It's been suggested that Caesar's "falling sickness" was anything from primary epilepsy or CVAs (both unlikely in a non-diabetic, non-smoker in his 50s) to cystocicersis from eating pork in Egypt (also less likely given the intermittency of his attacks). Tertiary syphylis may be the best fit of his symptoms.

Interesting etymologies you've presented. Thanks... In regards transiliterations & changes in pronunciation as words evolve from one language to another, consider, for example, how the word Yankee derives from the way the American Indians pronounced the word English. One small detail-- Carthago is the nominative case for Carthage; Carthaginis is the genitive and the root for the other case declensions. And a caveat-- translations of ancient poetry put into rhyming jingle in English are often not very true to the original but just give a general idea of what's going on.

I was referrkng to D of Halacanarssus. His Roman Antiquities was published in 7 BC.

In regards the Pillars, did not Plato claim they were mountains at Gibraltar, and did he not pre-date the other authors cited above? In regards religion, don't forget we're not talking verifiable science/history but figments of human imagination (When you talk to God, you're praying. When He talks to you, you're schizophrenic.)...Notice how St Nick morphed over the years from a nice old priest leaving apples on doorsteps to the fat guy in red velvet invented by a Cocoa Cola advertising guy, eventually flying thru the air with reindeer, acquiring elves and a North Pole toy shop. Dionysus emphasized the Greek origins of the Italians. They no doubt evolved different details in the religion originally carried to Italy. Cf-- an early 20th century prayer meeting in Appalachia to High Mass by The Pope in Rome.

It looks like modern biker chicks descended from Scythian women....Tattoos were of course a customary practice from the earliest times. Otzti the Bolzano Ice Man had them 5000 yrs ago....Internalizing a vanquished foe by drinking his blood or eating his heart also is more ancient than the Scythians. It was a practice still in vogue among the Amerindians when first encountered by Europeans. We moderns should avoid judging the ancients by our own standards of morals and conduct.

I thought the common wisdom was that the Carthaginians were Phoenicians (poenus or punicus in Latin, hence Punic Wars). I should think that Dido was a poetic invention of Vergil. That whole dalliance was not mentioned by Dionysus of Halicanarssus in his history of the origins of Rome. Vergil meant the story to be a romantic explanation of the continued competition between the two cities.... He was probably looking forward to selling the movie rights to The Aeneid and figured it needed a love interest to spice it up for improved box office appeal. You know how that goes. Carthago delenda est!

Decimation was far more brutal than that. Started by Appius Claudius Sabinus in 471 BC in the Volscian War when troops exhibited cowardice, a cohort was selected and every tenth man, selected by casting lots, was condemned to being beaten to death with clubs wielded by his nine comrades....I guess old Appius never heard of the phrase "verbum sapienti sufficit." Indivuals found to exhibit cowardice were scouraged in front of their comrades and then beheaded. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0160%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D59

It's a bit of a stretch to equate charcoal found against a wall as proof that the Roman culture persisted for a long time. That sounds more like squatters seeking refuge in an abandoned building....Maybe if the fire was in a fireplace? OTOH-- logical deduction can bring us to the outline of plausible scenarios in the second half of the film. After all, when the govt fell, there was no "last helicopter out of Saigon." The Romans were left behind to fend for themselves. There is strength in numbers, so they would have organized themselves in smaller, local groups. They would not have immediately abandoned walled, better protected towns (where would they go?)...Outlying villas were selfsustaining, so lack of central govt would not effect their day to day functioning-- better for the peons to stay on with steady room &board than to venture out on their own to what?

You re on the right track, Guy, but you forget Agenda 21 and 2030 Agenda.......Why do you think they want to take away the private ownership of guns? Even the Americans, once so proud and jealous of their freedom, have fallen victim to the "frog in luke warm water" phenomenon. It irritates me when the news readers refer to the American president as "the leader of the free world."...I have to wonder what free world they are referring to? Culturally, America has a Roman Empire effect on the whole world. English has become, thanks originally to The Brits, the universal tongue, as was Latin, and Hollywood and Rock & Roll have had the same effect as CJ Caesar in spreading and homogenizing our world culture.

Welcome! In case you hadn't noticed, Aeneas' rejection of Dido in Africa sets the stage for the eventual animosity between Rome and Carthage, poetically speaking. I too would ike to see more discussion of the Latin language here myself.

Allele frequencies are subject to the "use it or lose it" phenomenon, so persistence of the HbS trait in high numbers suggests endemicity of SSD in subSaharan populations, and it's much lower frequency in Egyptians suggests any malaria seen there was more sporatic, maybe epidemic in certain years under more favorable but unusual conditions. Egypt was a major source of grain because the annual spring floods were so consistent & dependable. While the strip of fertile Nile farmland was quite narrow, it was also quite long providing more arable acres than any other region around the Mare Nostrum. Malaria was quite common in the LA Bayou area, I didn't realize it posed such a problem during The Rebellion. Thanks for that info.

Malaria = mala aria = bad air The ancients were very close to a germ theory of disease. Pliny wrote in some detail about it. The classic example of genetic adaptation to disease is the malaria/sickle cell trait so very common in the sub-Saharan population. HbS (sickle cell trait) is not very common in modern Egyptians, so it's a stretch to claim it was common among their ancients forefathers. Malaria is spread only by the Anopheles mosquito which is adapted to life in the rain forests of central Africa, not temporary wet land seen only during the seasonal floods of the Nile Valley. The Roman forum was a swampy area at The Founding. The Lacus Curtius was big & deep enough to get a horse and rider (Curtius) bogged down in the first Sabine war. It no longer exists having been drained by the Cloaca maxima. The conditions were ripe, no doubt, for any number of mosquito borne infections to be prevalent-- yellow fever, the equine encephalopathies, West Nile Virus etc etc....but viral illnesses, as we saw with the 1918 influenza and 2020 CoViD epidemics, are prone to pop up suddenly and then rapidly mutate/evolve to less devastating forms rapidly, so again, it-s a stretch to claim our modern viral diseases were common in ancient times.,. Malaria and TB are not viral. Tuberculous bone lesions are not rare among Neandertal fossils, and the prevalence of the HbS allele suggests an ancient origin. It's also a stretch to equate a club foot, usually seen as a congenital problem, with polio. Other forms of acquired neuropathy that allow for long term survival in order for bony aabnormalities to mature would be more likely than polio.

A) Correlation does not prove cause & effect. 2) Romanization, including both linguistic and social/political tendencies, exhibited a dilution/diffusion effect with distance from the center. Catholicism came relatively late to outlying areas, so, less ingrained/more easily lost. c) The obviously very successful organization of the Roman govt (emperor-senate-govenors-legionaires) translated readily to Pope/king-college of cardinals/privy council-bishops/dukes etc-priests/army. It's easier to modify/adapt an existing engine to a new application than it is to design a whole new engine from scratch. 4) The European countries that went on to build colonial empires were the ones that were organized and consolidated earlier. Italy and Germany were still fragmented along feudal lines until late in the 19th century.

Good post. I think you two have re-invented the wheel by trial and error. One of the reasons for the Romans great military success was their use of the combination of the large scutum plus the short gladius. It would pretty difficult for Errol Flynn to go swashbuckling away with grace and finesse while holding a long rapier if he also had to lug around a 30 lb scutum....In order to deliver a long thrust, the scutum would have to be moved out of the way, taking away your defense, whereas an "upper cut" short thrust of a gladius could be delivered from under a scutum tipped strategically....and as pointed out in the video, the upper cut with hammer grip is more ergonomically/anatomically efficient. We might also analyse Rocky Marciano's boxing style. He had short arms, and would concentrate on giving body blows tiring his opponent and wearing him out...as opposed to long armed M. Ali who kept his distance and danced about looking for openings to attack. That might work well in one on one combat, but not when positioned shoulder to shoulder with your comrades in acies formation.

Good article. With water plentiful and running constantly, wealthy Romans could also pipe it to flow over the roofs of their houses to keep them cool. Getting out of the city to villas in the nearby hills is a tradition started by the ancients (Cf- Nero,s giant barge on lake Nemi SE of Rome along the Appian Way) and continued to this day (Cf- the Pope s summer residence at Castel Gandolfo near lake Nemi in the Alban Hills.)

Thank you for continuing to post all these excellent topics for further study and thought. My comments were merely to point out the many pressures to change styles over the course of 1200 years. Of course the regional differences in style as the military came to rely more heavily on non-Italian personnel was a heavy pressure. Even today, it ,s pretty easy to sit in a cafe in Rome and pick out the American tourists from the European or Asian by their clothes.

Tempus fidgets, as they say. Styles change. Technology changes. Romulus, Remus et al built huts and lived a stone age lifestyle very similar to that of pre-Columbian American Indians. Over the course of the next 1200 years they adopted bronze then iron and then steel....Over the course of that same 1200 years, Europe also saw average weather change from warm to cold (Hannibal lost half his men to cold weather in the Alps) to warm (Caesar never mentioned snow or ice in the Alps) to cold again ,(poor crops contributed a great deal to the fall of the western empire). Styles no doubt changed according to weather. Methods in warfare also changed. War at The Founding was probably little more than skirmishes between small raiding parties, again, more like Indians than Grand Armies maneuvering on battle fields. Accounts often claim 1000s og casualties, but the Palatine Hill is only 63acres, and most of that was pasture for the sheep--how many men of military age could have lived there?...Early battles were disorganized clashes of gangs. Later, the Greek phalanx style was adopted, and then the Roman acies style. Each had its own best style of weapons.

Nasty and effective defense tool still in use in modern times The VC in Viet Nam rigged booby traps with spikes of bamboo that produced wounds causing Staph abscesses. Roman legionnaires each carried two sudes- 6 ft long wooden stakes-- to be used in constructing valles or used as defensive spikes. When Cincinnatus was recruited while plowing his field just across the Tiber and the Campus Martius to be dictator, he ordered his new conscriptees to each carry bring along 12 sudes-.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudis_(stake)#:~:text=The sudis ( pl. %3A sudes,were carried by each soldies. The metal spikes found represent a technological advance 500 years after Cinncinatus.

Guillan Barre is an ascending neuropathy that starts with weakness in the feet and works its way up progressively, usually over the course of weeks. It usually stops progressing before reaching the muscles of breathing, then recedes with muscle strength returning progressively in reverse order over the same time course at which it progressed. Death is due to the respiratory insufficiency it produces should it advance that far...I,m not sure why anyone would suggest it was a factor in Alex,s demise. Ancient texts are often the source of conjecture by modern diagnosticians. Eg- Sarah gave birth to Isaac in her90s-- an estrogen secreting ovarian tumor?...or Samson having a cromegally from a pituitary adenoam-- big guy with great strength and dying suddenly of apoplexy.... ...and of course it,s easy to reduce that the universe was created during a baseball game...Genesis 1: 1...."In the Big Inning, God created the heavens and earth.... It has been suggested that acute pancreatitis after a bought of serious drinking is most in keeping with the course described-- severe abdominal pain & fever leading to death over the course a week or so. Sorry...I,m still trying to figure out this tablet. I added the bible stuff and it got stuck before the comment about Alex and pancreatitis.

Congenital syphylis dental abnormalities do not include triangular/conical teeth, but rather, multicrowned teeth. You,re correct that there are over 100 known genotypes included under the rubric of ED, and the phenomena of expressivity & penetrance affecting the observable phenotypes make it even more difficult to cram the described round peg into the theoretically expected square hole. Hair like a lion-- dry & frizzy due to dysfunctional follicular sebaceous glands? Sweet smeling-- dysfunctional appocrine sweat glands? Beardless-- another example of poorly developed skin architecture?...as is... Fair skin (rare among Macedonians?)-- poorly developed. dermal melanocytes? On one ocassion, Alex felt over heated and plunged himself into a freezing cold river, subsequently developing pneumonia. An example of hypohidrosis? Of course trying to make a diagnosis based on short descriptions written centuries after the fact and usually just repetitions of earlier descriptions is little more than an amusing exercise in fantasy. But it is interesting that Alex had several unusual physical traits that line up nicely with a dx of ED. It,s much more likely to have one condition accounting for multiple symptoms than to have multiple conditions.

Alexander the Great was described as having fair skin, hair like a lion, an oddly sweet scent and conical teeth-- all things having to do with development of the ectoderm and abnormal in those with one of several possible genetic mutations grouped together as Ectodermal Dysplasia. His brother was also described as being mentally impaired-- another symptom sometimes seen in this syndrome, which is often inherited as an X-linked recessive.....These people are known to suffer from digestive problems and easily develop hyperthermia. Alex died young of some unspecified fever & abdominal problem- usually attributed to food poisoning- but maybe just a common complication of this genetic disorder? The key is the conical teeth. Ectodermal dysplasia is the only condition I know in which his appears.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, publishing just a few years before Livy, gives a much more detailed, academic version of the founding of Rome than does Livy. He states variations of the story presented by various authors, and gives a thoughtful analysis of them, admitting the difficulty in separating facts from myths about such remote times. One gets the impression from Livy that the famous wolf cared for the babies for quite a while before Faustulus discovered them, but Dion- makes it sound like Faust- & the wolf came upon them at almost the same time.... Both authors admit the story of The Wolf (Lupa in Latin) probably is more of a reference to the social behavior of Faustulus' wife Laurentia, who wound up raising the kids as her own...Cf- our use of the "B" word or more recently the term "Cougar" to describe certain women. But it does make for a nice story and a good excuse to sell cheap trinkets as souvenirs. I wonder if that brooch was made in China?