BHR-69
Brit-Am Historical Reports
8 April 2011 4 Nissan 5771
Contents:
1. Migration Period: engines of change
2. Archaeology; Brit-Am Version of Explorator 13.50
3. Diodorus Siculus on the British.
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1. Migration Period: engines of change
http://dna-forums.org/index.php?/blog/2/entry-133-migration-period-engines-of-change/
Posted by Jean M
So often when discussion turns to the movements of the Slavs and Germani in the Migration Period, the questions of "why" and "how" come thick and fast. What were the engines of change? This has been a hot topic of debate ever since Gibbon's magisterial Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I can't claim any novel insights. But I have pulled together some of the thoughts of recent scholars in The Great Wandering: Engines of Change .
Naturally they don't all agree. Peter Heather feels that the main cause of the collapse of the Western Roman Empire was the barbarian attacks. Ulf B?tgen and his colleagues point to the climatic switchback in the centuries of Imperial decline. Lester K. Little felt so strongly that the effects of the Justinian Plague had been ignored that he organised a conference on the topic and published the resulting papers in 2008.
But why were the barbarians on the march in the first place? It has been commonly asserted that incursions into Eastern Europe by waves of steppe nomads were the driving force. Their role was complex, pushing other peoples before them, absorbing the conquered into their advance, and depopulating territories that could later be colonised by a different group.
Other factors deserve a mention. I have given more than a mention to the flooding of the North Sea coast, since it is crucial to understanding the very first dash into Roman territory by "barbarians" from the north, and the peopling of the Low Counties. However in trying to sum up a very big story, I have inevitably missed out a lot of interesting detail.
Peter Heather, Empires and Barbarians (2009)
Ulf B?tgen, Willy Tegel, Kurt Nicolussi, Michael McCormick, David Frank, Valerie Trouet, Jed O. Kaplan, Franz Herzig, Karl-Uwe Heussner, Heinz Wanner, J?g Luterbacher, and Jan Esper, 2500 years of European climate variability and human susceptibility, Science, vol. 331, no. 6017 (4 February 2011), pp. 578-582.
L.K. Little (ed.), Plague and the End of Antiquity: The Pandemic of 541-750 (2008).
See Also:
New Vistas on the Distant Past
http://www.buildinghistory.org/distantpast/migrationperiod.shtml#engines
2. Archaeology; Brit-Am Version of Explorator 13.50
From: david meadows <rogueclassicist@gmail.com>
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EARLY HUMANS
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A study suggests Europe was populated by "Kashmiris" 40 000 years b.p. (!):
http://www.calcuttanews.net/story/764364/ht/Europe-was-populated-by-Kashmiris-around-40000-years-ago-Study
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/2011/Apr/1/kashmiris-populated-europe-40-000-years-back-study-44.asp
Humans and dinosaurs did not live side by side (and yes, I checked the
date):
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110329/sc_livescience/discoveryrockscreationistsclaimthathumanslivedwithdinosaurs
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/29/scitech/main20048405.shtml
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ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND EGYPT
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They've excavated the 'dog catacombs' and found millions of dog mummies:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1371492/Catacomb-secret-tunnels-packed-mummified-remains-EIGHT-MILLION-dogs-excavated-Egypt.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42342086/ns/technology_and_science-science/
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/30/millions-mummy-puppies-revealed-egyptian-catacombs/
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/articles/dog-catacomb-beneath-the-desert-6533.html
http://www.livescience.com/13473-mummified-puppies-egyptian-dog-catacombs.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110330/sc_livescience/millionsofmummypuppiesrevealedategyptiancatacombs
I think we've had this 5-items-returned story already (?):
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/44/8731/Heritage/Museums/More-missing-Egyptian-museum-stolen-artefacts-foun.aspx
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?col=§ion=middleeast&xfile=data/middleeast/2011/March/middleeast_March448.xml
The removal of mines is allowing digging to resume at Karkamish:
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=0318114349461-2011-03-18
Using nanotechnology to restore and protect some 2400 years b.p. rock
tombs in Turkey:
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=0330102759200-2011-03-30
An interview with Peter van der Veen, looking at Egyptian Chronology, and
the roots of ancient Israel:
http://www.foundationstone.org/LandMinds10/downloads/files/LM-230311.mp3
A Jewish woman in the Elephantine archives:
http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishFeatures/Article.aspx?id=214678
The BBC picked up the lead codices story, and it exploded all over the web:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12888421
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1371290/Could-biggest-Dead-Sea-Scrolls-70-metal-books-cave-Jordan-change-view-Biblical-history.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110330/ts_yblog_thelookout/could-lead-codices-prove-the-major-discovery-of-christian-history
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0331/Could-new-discovery-trump-Dead-Sea-Scrolls-Scholars-intrigued-but-cautious
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/christopherhowse/100052444/discovered-a-picture-of-the-crucifixion-from-the-time-of-jesus/
http://www.skynews.com.au/world/article.aspx?id=595573&vId=
http://www.patheos.com/community/bibleandculture/?p=478
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/03/31/are-ancient-books-the-diaries-of-jesus-the-messianic-mystery-of-metal-texts-found-in-cave-in-jordan-115875-23027043/
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/237570/-Books-find-could-alter-history-of-Christianity
http://www.sify.com/news/70-books-2-000-years-old-found-in-jordan-news-international-ld4t4hiefdi.html
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/ipad/uproar-over-tiny-ancient-books/story-fn6t2xg9-1226031131628?from=public_rss
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700123230/Ancient-metal-plates-found-in-Middle-East.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110330/ts_yblog_thelookout/could-lead-codices-prove-the-major-discovery-of-christian-history
... over the course of the week, a number of blogs pointed out problems:
http://clayboy.co.uk/2011/03/staying-with-the-sceptics-about-jordans-lead-books-and-early-christian-writing/
http://larryhurtado.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/more-on-the-lead-codices/
http://neilsilberman.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/breaking-news-emergency-authenticity-alert/
http://rogueclassicism.com/2011/03/30/lead-codices-silliness/
http://rogueclassicism.com/2011/04/01/lead-codices-followup/
... but today, we get even more coverage:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1372741/Hidden-cave-2-000-years--portrait-Jesus.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8423689/Could-this-couples-Bible-codices-tell-the-true-story-of-Christs-life.html
Interesting feature on 'The Archaeology War' in Israel:
http://www.jewishideasdaily.com/content/module/2011/3/31/main-feature/1/the-archeology-war
http://www.jidaily.com/8d0/t
... speaking of which, tombs from Jaffa are apparently not Jewish (I think
this is a repeat):
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/experts-tombs-found-at-jaffa-excavation-site-not-jewish-1.352218
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=214011
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=214081
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4048318,00.html
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/207078
Dr Leen Ritmeyer's Blog:
http://blog.ritmeyer.com/
Paleojudaica:
http://paleojudaica.blogspot.com/
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ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME (AND CLASSICS)
================================================================
Feature on Caria:
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=karia-the-garden-of-the-sun-2011-03-28
That Atlantis story still has some legs:
http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/03/28/atlantis%E2%80%94in-a-swamp/
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EUROPE AND THE UK (+ Ireland)
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Review (by Henry Kissinger!) of Jonathan Steinberg, *Bismarck*:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/books/review/book-review-bismarck-by-jonathan-steinberg.html?ref=books
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ASIA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC
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New Zealand Archaeology eNews:
http://www.nzarchaeology.org/netsubnews.htm
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NORTH AMERICA
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Humans were altering North American landscapes before Europeans arrived:
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-european-settlers-american-landscape.html
Feature on how slavery really ended:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/magazine/mag-03CivilWar-t.html?hp
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CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA
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Evidence of the chocolate trade:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110401/sc_livescience/sweettradingchocolatemayhavelinkedprehistoriccivilizations
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/110329-chocolate-turquoise-trade-prehistoric-peoples-archaeology/
Investigating why the Maya liked to build cities near swamps:
http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=13335
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-03/uoc-upr032811.php
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110328101327.htm
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OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST
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Last week I sent out a bad link to an item on historical tsunamis in the
Mediterranean (sorry!):
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/tsunami/tsunamis-revealing-abyss-deep/20110320
Google Street View now has tours of assorted historical sites:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/when-in-rome-new-street-view-imagery-of.html
http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/30/google-street-view-invades-historic-landmarks-makes-it-unnecess/
Another study on humans' pre-industrial-revolution climate impact:
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/03/29/Study-Ancient-peoples-had-climate-impact/UPI-85411301441367/
On estimating weight based on skeletal remains:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/29/science/29obfemur.html?ref=science
Review of Robert Greene, *You Are What You Speak*:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/books/review/book-review-you-are-what-you-speak-by-robert-lane-greene.html?ref=books
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TOURISTY THINGS
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Archaeo-tourism in Israel:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/travel/27journeys-israel.html
Caesarea:
http://www.jpost.com/Travel/AroundIsrael/Article.aspx?id=214121
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EXHIBITIONS, AUCTIONS, AND MUSEUM-RELATED
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Heracles to Alexander the Great:
http://www.ashmolean.org/exhibitions/heracles/
http://www.ana-mpa.gr/anaweb/user/showplain?maindoc=9705183&maindocimg=9763822&service=144&showLink=true
Six Ancient Cities of Mesoamerica:
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=46063
Human Connections:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/nyregion/03artct.html
Afghanistan:
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2060968,00.html
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HUMOUR
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Social media origins:
http://www.creators.com/comics/6/75193_thumb.gif
3. Diodorus Siculus on the British.
The Library of History by Diodorus Siculus, Book 5 chapter 21 (Oldfather Translation):
Opposite that part of Gaul which lies on the ocean and directly across from the Hercynian Forest, as it is called, which is the largest of any in Europe of which tradition tells us, there are many islands out in the ocean of which the largest is that known as Britain. In ancient times this island remained unvisited by foreign armies; for neither Dionysus, tradition tells us, nor Heracles, nor any other hero or leader made a campaign against it; in our day, however, Gaius Caesar, who has been called a god because of his deeds, was the first man of whom we have record to have conquered the island, and after subduing the Britons he compelled them to pay fixed tributes. But we shall give a detailed account of the events of this conquest in connection with the appropriate period of time, and at present we shall discuss the island and the tin which is found in it.
Britain is triangular in shape, very much as is Sicily, but its sides are not equal. This island stretches obliquely along the coast of Europe, and the point where it is least distant from the mainland, we are told, is the promontory which men call Cantium, and this is about one hundred stades from the land, at the place where the sea has its outlet, whereas the second promontory, known as Belerium, is said to be a voyage of four days from the mainland, and the last, writers tell us, extends out into the open sea and is named Orca. Of the sides of Britain the shortest, which extends along Europe, is seven thousand five hundred stades, the second, from the Strait to the (northern) tip, is fifteen thousand stades, and the last is twenty thousand stades, so that the entire circuit of the island amounts to forty-two thousand five hundred stades. And Britain, we are told, is inhabited by tribes which are autochthonous and preserve in their ways of living the ancient manner of life. They use chariots, for instance, in their wars, even as tradition tells us the old Greek heroes did in the Trojan War, and their dwellings are humble, being built for the most part out of reeds or logs. The method they employ of harvesting their grain crops is to cut off no more than the heads and store them away in roofed granges, and then each day they pick out the ripened heads and grind them, getting in this way their food. As for their habits, they are simple and far removed from the shrewdness and vice which characterize the men of our day. Their way of living is modest, since they are well clear of the luxury which is begotten of wealth. The island is also thickly populated, and its climate is extremely cold, as one would expect, since it actually lies under the Great Bear. It is held by many kings and potentates, who for the most part live at peace among themselves.
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