Rowing machine and ancient naval warfare

I was at the gym the other day, and I decided to mount the rowing machine.  I managed to row 2000 meters in about 12 minutes (not my best time, by any means), but while I was huffing and puffing away, I couldn’t help but think that being a rower used to be an instrumental part of ancient naval warfare (I know, I am a real history geek). I had a good workout after this short 2000 meter rowing, but I can’t imagine how much it would take to actually push an ancient warship to ramming speeds!  The ancient Athenian warship, called a trireme, had 3 banks of rowers with a full compliment of 170 rowers.  I decided to look into ancient rowing a bit, and I found out that there are a few ancient  literary references to a cushion, which aided the Athenian rowers.   I fould an article that discussed the advantages of this simple device, and I can say that after rowing for just a few minutes, having a cushion would have helped me endure the grueling workout.  Perhaps one of the most important battles between East and West was the Battle of Salamis, which took place in the narrow straits between the Greek Mainland and the island of Salamis. The maneuverable triremes defeated the Persian (combined Persian, Egyptian and Phoenician ships) fleet, and led to the Greek victory over the Persian invaders.

So the next time you sweat and toil on the rowing machine,  think about this centuries-old tradition of naval warfare!

Satellite Imagery Reveals Roman City of the Veneti

Ever since I first visited Venice in the Summer of 2005, I have been amazed and captivated by Venice, and it’s martime tradition.  It was one of the most important cities of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, though it is often left out of the textbooks.  My poor students this year will have to hear all about it. Anyway, in archaeology news last week, the remains of ancient Altinum have been spotted using satellite imagery along the northern coast of the lagoon, near the airport.  I did some searching of my own just on Google Earth, and sure enough, you can see outlines of roads, city blocks and even a large Roman amphitheater.   I would absolutely love to get involved with excavation on this site to learn more about the ancestors to the Venetians. The Veneti Romanized and lived in cities like Altinum and Padova (Padua) and fled to the more remote and defensible islands in the lagoon during the invasions of the Huns and the Lombards in the 5th and 8th centuries.   Read more about it here.

Ancient wall unearthed in Jerusalem

A new archaeological discovery found remains of the southern defensive wall of Jerusalem dating back to the time of the Second Temple, which was constructed under the direction of the Hasmonean Kings, who ruled the kingdom of Israel between 167-37 BCE.  The wall was discovered during the construction of a new promenade, which will now run along side some exposed areas of the ancient wall.  The wall, constructed without any mortar, has survived quite well, and parts of it still stand as high as three meters (a little over 9 ft. tall).  You can read more about it here.

The cave of Romulus and the Lupercalia

For those of us classicists, this is a very exciting discovery (even if a few months old now). I’m just disappointed that somebody else found it, and not me. An article in the New York Times talks about the discovery of the cave sacred to the Romans. According to Roman myth, two twins, Romulus and Remus, were rescued by a she-wolf and suckled back to health in this cave. Whether or not this myth is true, the cave itself was probably the cave associated with this myth, as well as the Roman festival of the Lupercalia. celebrated on February 13-15. This old yet strange festival involved the sacrifice of dogs and goats. Then, after getting their foreheads smeared with blood, young boys would wear the goat skins, run around the Palatine Hill and hit women with strips of leather (called Februa, thus the naming of the month) thereby insuring fertility.

What else is exciting about this cave is its location under the house of the first emperor, Augustus. This confirms the notion that Augustus saw himself as the new founder of Rome by constructing his house on top of the sacred cave and connecting himself with Romulus and the festivals surrounding it.

I’m sure you all are thrilled.

Choosing a career in this modern world

Last night I was reading in Thomas Cahill’s latest book, The Mysteries of the Middle Ages, and he was talking about the different world of the Middle Ages.  People did not get to choose their profession. It was chosen by their parents, and it usually involved following the family trade or business.  “shoemakers remained shoemakers, and duchesses duchesses and fishwives fishwives, and no one entertained even a whisper of hope for an improvement of status.”

Cahill does, however, point out the possible advantage of this system.  “We fail to acknowledge, on the one hand, how full of anxiety our own society is, how its lack of assigned roles leaves so many individuals woefully isolated, permanently nervous about the random fluctuations of their fortunes. If, on the other hand, one could say, ‘I am the shoemaker of Trier, as was my father before me, as will be my son after me; I am an integral part of my community, even necessary to it; my neighbors respect me and depend on my skill,’ one could own an abiding peace that eludes all but a very few children of twenty-first century.”

I couldn’t help but see my own personal anxieties about what I was going to do with my career. I have often asked questions like these: “What am I going to study in school?  How am I going to make money?  How am I going to be respected for what I do?” et cetera.  I still often ask myself these questions, and I do have considerable anxiety on whether or not I have chosen the right path.  This is a difficulty of our own age.  Certainly, there are many things about our own time that make life easier than those of the twelfth century, but having ones own career given to oneself made other things much easier than today’s open field.  I can’t say that I truly want my career chosen for me, but this passage in this book made me think about my career anxieties, and, for a moment, I wished that our society made it clear our own destinies.

Oldest City of the Americas in Peru

Last night as I was tending bar, I had a customer ask if I had heard of the latest discovery: the oldest city in the world in Peru. I asked him if it was older than Jericho, Jarmo, or ‘Ain Ghazal, but he didn’t know what I was talking about. Obviously he wasn’t schooled in archaeology, but I was flattered by his attempts to connect with my interests. I decided to browse and see what he was talking about. Sure enough, there was a discovery, but it wasn’t as old as the neolithic sites in the Near East.  Last month, German and Peruvian archaeologists discovered a very old Plaza in the ancient city of Casma. Carbon dating puts the ancient site around 5500 BP (Before Present, which is about 2,600-2,500 BC).   If this is true, this part of the city would make it one of the oldest cites in Peru and also in the New World (Caral is proabably slightly older, but is probably contemporary with these new findings).  The findings here and at Caral mean that there were complex societies in South America contemporary with the Old Kingdom of Egypt and the Sumerians in Mesopotamia. These settlements even have their own pyramids.  The Associated Press put out this article on the discovery.