I like to see things for myself. It can give me a sense of place or scale that one doesn’t get from books or the internet. It also gives a chance to spot something new, that whoever might have photographed the original, wasn’t thinking about.… Read more
All posts filed under “History/Archaeology”
Time-Travel in a Time of COVID-19
What’s a guy to do during lock-down? I’ve chosen to time-travel back to around the first and second centuries AD. At that time the Roman Empire stretched over much of Europe, and along the southern Mediterranean as well. In two of its provinces, Noricum and… Read more
New Zealand’s Doggerland
Do we have a submerged ‘Doggerland‘ in New Zealand? In 1950 a boat, the HMNZS ‘Lachlan’ dredged a sample of “lignite” from the bottom of Toitoi (or Toetoe) Bay, at the far south end of New Zealand’s South Island, from a depth of nine fathoms… Read more
A Nail up the Nose, and another take on Monotheism
You’d have to really dislike someone to bash a nail up their nose. The day before Wanaka’s Alchemy Cafe closed because of the flooding, I was sitting there, watching a doco on YouTube: ‘A Troubled Island – The Minotaur’s Island’, about ancient Crete. I generally… Read more
Searching for Smyrna in Izmir, Turkey
So where the heck is Smyrna? I’d heard a little about the awful days of 1922, but despite having made a few trips to Turkey, I’d never noticed Smyrna on a map. It wasn’t until I read Giles Milton’s book: ‘Paradise Lost: The Destruction of… Read more
That Rich Woman in the Slovenian Forest
We don’t know what she looked like, because most of her upper body has vanished…. Most of you probably don’t know of my ‘secret’ ambition – to ‘time travel’ by recreating life-like images of people from long ago. I’m keen to know what those corroded… Read more
An Ottoman Treasure in Develi, Turkey
Tourism – good thing or bad? I’ve written about Develi before –a town in central Turkey, where I was based, along with my geological colleagues. It’s a culturally conservative city, where women tend not to be on the streets. Not because they can’t, it’s just the… Read more
Fifty, 500, or 5,000 years old? Ancient cultural landscape in the hills of Central Turkey
‘Fox-holes’ perhaps? Did snipers crouch in these to fire down on an enemy below? What were these little rings of rocks strategically placed high up along the edges of central Turkish gorges? (see the featured image) How old are they? Fifty years? Five hundred? Five… Read more
The Log Cabin at the Heart of St Petersburg, Russia
The most famous ‘little log cabin in the woods’ is probably the one in which Abraham Lincoln grew up in Kentucky. It was built in 1808, but unfortunately, no longer exists. However, in St Petersburg, Russia, there is to this day, a log cabin built… Read more
The Day I Walked Around the Roman Empire
When Emperor Constantine woke up on May 28, 1453, it would have been to the depressing thought that it was likely his last day on Earth. Justinian was emperor of the Roman Empire (we tend to call them Byzantine, but they thought of themselves as Romans),… Read more