Top 10 Color Classical Reproductions

From the listverse.com site:
When we think of statues and buildings of the classical period, we tend to imagine white marble; scientists in recent years have discovered that it is in fact most likely that many of the buildings and statues were painted and probably adorned with jewelry. The Vatican Museum has recently put on an exhibition of some of the most famous antiquities from the era with reproductions painted as close to the originals as they can – this is possible because many statues contain trace amounts of pigment from their original coats of paint. This is a list of ten spectacular reproduction statues from the Classical Period. As usual, click each image to view a larger version.

See more comparison pictures here.

Columbus Day

From the wikipedia article:
Christopher Columbus (c. 1451 – 20 May 1506) was a navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere. With his four voyages of exploration and several attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola, all funded by Isabella I of Castile, he initiated the process of Spanish colonization which foreshadowed general European colonization of the “New World.” Read the rest here.

Mini-Colosseum Excavated in Rome

From the discovery.com article:
Beneath Rome’s Fiumicino airport lies a “mini-Colosseum” that may have played host to Roman emperors, according to British archaeologists.

The foundations of the amphitheater, which are oval-shaped like the much larger arena in the heart of Rome, have been unearthed at the site of Portus, a 2nd century A.D. harbor near Ostia’s port on the Tiber River.

Read the article here.

Agora, The Movie

I found out about an upcoming (December 2009) historical movie that looks interesting from N.S.Gill’s Ancient History Blog.

Go here to see a trailer and other related stuff.

Timeline of Ancient Greece

7250 BCE to 30 BCE

See the timeline here.

A skull that rewrites the history of man

From the independent.co.uk article:

It has long been agreed that Africa was the sole cradle of human evolution. Then these bones were found in Georgia…

The conventional view of human evolution and how early man colonised the world has been thrown into doubt by a series of stunning palaeontological discoveries suggesting that Africa was not the sole cradle of humankind. Scientists have found a handful of ancient human skulls at an archaeological site two hours from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, that suggest a Eurasian chapter in the long evolutionary story of man.

The skulls, jawbones and fragments of limb bones suggest that our ancient human ancestors migrated out of Africa far earlier than previously thought and spent a long evolutionary interlude in Eurasia – before moving back into Africa to complete the story of man.

Experts believe fossilised bones unearthed at the medieval village of Dmanisi in the foothills of the Caucuses, and dated to about 1.8 million years ago, are the oldest indisputable remains of humans discovered outside of Africa.
Read the article here.

Newgrange

Older than Stonehenge in England and the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

More info:
Wikipedia
Knowth

The Strangest Things Pulled Out of Peat Bogs

From the wired.com article:
A few thousand years ago, someone living in what is now Ireland made some butter, stuck it into an oak barrel, wandered out into a bog about 25 miles west of Dublin, and buried it.

Somehow, that someone lost track of it, which two lucky archaeologists discovered when they dug up the stashed loot earlier this year in the Gilltown bog, between the Irish towns of Timahoe and Staplestown.

But that wasn’t the first keg of butter that’s been preserved by the strange chemistry of the bog. Or the 10th. More than 270 kegs of bog butter have been retrieved from the wetlands, along with dozens of ancient bodies, swords, and ornaments. Here, we run down some of the strangest things that scientists and citizens have pulled from the peat.

Read the article here.

Vespasian’s Villa Found

From the discovery.com article:
The summer villa of Roman Emperor Vespasian has been found in the Sabine hill country northeast of Rome, Italian archaeologists announced today.

Titus Flavius Vespasianus is known for rebuilding the Roman Empire following the tumultuous reign of Emporer Nero. Vespasian changed the face of Rome by launching a major public works program, which included the construction of the Colosseum, the structure that arguably defines the glory of ancient Rome.

Dating back to the first century A.D., the massive villa, adorned with mosaic floors, baths and marbled halls, has emerged following four years of digs near the town of Cittareale, in the province of Rieti.

The villa not only is located near the place of Vespasian’s birth at Falacrinae (Vicus Phalacrinae), but also may be the site where he is said to have died.

Read the article here.

Most Important People in Ancient Classical History

Most Important People in Ancient Classical History

From the ancienthistory.about.com article:

When dealing with Ancient/Classical History, the difference between history and legend is not always clear. Evidence is scant for many people from the start of writing to the Fall of Rome (A.D. 476). With this reminder, here is my list of the most important people in the ancient world. In general, I exclude Biblical figures before Moses, legendary founders of Greco-Roman cities, and participants in the Trojan war or Greek mythology. Also, note the firm date 476 is violated by “the last of the Romans,” Roman Emperor Justinian. The order is thematic.

See the list here.

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/basics101/tp/061308famouspeople.htm

From the ancienthistory.about.com article:

When dealing with Ancient/Classical History, the difference between history and legend is not always clear. Evidence is scant for many people from the start of writing to the Fall of Rome (A.D. 476). With this reminder, here is my list of the most important people in the ancient world. In general, I exclude Biblical figures before Moses, legendary founders of Greco-Roman cities, and participants in the Trojan war or Greek mythology. Also, note the firm date 476 is violated by “the last of the Romans,” Roman Emperor Justinian. The order is thematic.

See the list here.