Tag Archives: rome

Fantasy before Reality

I stumbled on 5 Ancient Acts of War That Changed the Face of the Earth. The history is accurate, though the style and vocabulary are …. not what I used when writing papers for History 10 at Carleton 40 years ago. Also interesting are the parallels used to describe historical events. Mildly NSFW language behind cut

Archaeology and the Druids

Possible Druid Grave Enchants Archaeologists. Via Archaeology in Europe

Unlike a lot of sensational reports, this one is properly cautious about the dangers of interpreting a society from physical evidence alone:

There’s a joke among archaeologists: Two of their kind, in the future, find a present-day public toilet. “We’ve discovered a holy site!” cries one. “Look, it has two separate entrances,” says the other. “This here,” he says, pointing to the door with a pictogram of a woman, “was for priests. This is evident by the figure wearing a long garment.”

This reminded me of Digging the Weans (excerpt here), and Motel of the Mysteries.