Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Hexham Courant | News | News at a Glance | Archaeologist claims vallum was abandoned Roman road

Hexham Courant News News at a Glance Archaeologist claims vallum was abandoned Roman road
This seems to open the question of the purpose of the "vallum," the ditch that runs alongside Hadrian's Wall. This local archaeologist claims it was originally going to be a road, but that idea was abandoned. I think there is nothing to do but go see it myself.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Sitaridou

Sitaridou
Part of the webpage/cv of Professor Ioanna Sitaridou, a linguistics professor at Cambridge who is researching the Pontic Greek-speakers.
More on Pontic Greek (Romeyka)
This is an article from Cambridge Research Horizons magazine about the project that is investigating the Greek speakers of Pontus (now Trabzon).

Jason and the argot: land where Greek's ancient language survives - History, Life & Style - The Independent

Jason and the argot: land where Greek's ancient language survives - History, Life & Style - The Independent
These people live in what's now Turkey but is also ancient Pontus. Their dialect appears to be a very close cousin of ancient Greek, much closer than modern Greek. It is called Romeyka, and they live near Trabzon (Trabizond?). There are some other links to info on this subject, but it appears I have to make separate entries for them. Stay tuned.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Ancient Egyptians' (and others') math puzzlers

Ancient Egyptian Math puzzles
From NY Times, description of some cool ancient texts with math puzzles, such as how much bread (made from a certain amount of grain) should be exchanged for a given amount of beer (made with another amount of grain). Also, word problems about slaves carrying logs, the height of a ship's mast, and sacred cats chasing mice.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Italian Fashion House Gets Involved in Monument Preservation

Italian Shoe Magnate to Fund Colosseum Restoration
The CEO of "Tod's," an Italian designer house, has agreed to fund the badly-needed shoring-up of the Colosseum. The Italian government put out a call for sponsors, but none came forward for a while. The mayor of Rome promises no giant shoe ads on the outside of the monument. We'll see.