Month: June 2006

They found a huge Roman villa complex in Cheddar…

Ancient

…. and that’s not even the coolest part!

Two n00b archaeologists have uncovered a large villa and bath house in the Mendip Hills area in Somerset, England. The odds of them finding mosaics and a wide range of other artifacts from the 2nd or 3rd century AD are excellent — “We only excavated a two by one meter area inside the building and every layer contained Roman materials. If we’d carried on we would have found a tremendous amount.” — and they’re even managing to keep looters out for now.

So what’s the coolest part, you ask? It’s this:

Archaeologists Glyn Wellington and Carol Hughes have been working at the location for over a year, together with John Mathews of Winscombe.

Glyn, aged 53, graduated from a part-time degree course last year.

That’s right. Part-time degree course + 53 = giant Roman villa.

Glyn Wellington: a beacon of hope to wannabe archaeologists everywhere.

Guided tours of Rome, courtesy of Palladio

Books, Roma, Caput Mundi

The 16th century architect whose revival of classic design continues to affect how buildings are built even today, was something of a tourguide in his spare time. He wrote two books on Rome — one about the ancient city and one about the churches — which have just been translated, illustrated and published in handy pocket-sized format by Mssrs. Vaughan Hart and Peter Hicks and Yale University Press.

The New York Times review has me salivating.

“It is as if Palladio — ever the architect — is rehearsing the original laying-out of the great city,” write Mr. Hart and Mr. Hicks in their helpful introduction. (They have also added dozens of period drawings and contemporary photographs, whereas the originals were not illustrated.)

Palladio spices up the tour with remarks on the history and mores of the ancients. “No citizen was considered wealthy unless he could personally finance the army for one year,” he claims in an entry on rich Romans. Two pages later, he is telling us about the three ways that men could dissolve a marriage.

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History on film

Modern(ish), Multimedia

There are some fantastic sources for documentary and historical footage out there, including my personal favorites: turn of the century films from the dawn of the cinematic era.

Thomas Edison’s company was in the forefront of filming current events — from relatively banal but riveting-in-hindsight scenes of 1900s New York City, to the wreckage of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor (see pic below). According to the Library of Congress — which has an extraordinary collection of Spanish-American War film — the demand for war footage was particularly acute, although technological limitations made actually filming battle scenes virtually impossible. Enter the bread and butter of the History Channel: the historical reenactment.

Check out the Library of Congress’ other early film collections here.

It’s a blog. About history.

Ex Cathedra

So I was sifting through reams of Google News Alerts, slightly miffed that there wasn’t some nice, handy blog that had already done all the sifting for me, when it struck me like the proverbial bolt of lightning that non-laziness is an actual option. Hell, if I’m doing it for myself, why not post the products for all my brothers and sisters in history nerddom?

My interests are primarily European ancient and medieval, but I’m quite undiscriminating when it comes to history, so I’ll pretty much blather about anything that catches my eye. I also intend to make a note of all the topically relevant books I read, and a list of all the topically relevant books sitting in a pile glaring at me.

I shall endeavor not to suck. That is all.