Ancient Wonder - The Nemi Ships: Palaces of the Sea

There is a man standing at the head, just to put this into a size perspective.

The biographer (the term is used loosely) Suetonius records in his bio about Caligula,

"He also built Liburnian galleys with ten banks of oars, with sterns set with gems, particoloured sails, huge spacious baths, colonnades, and banquet-halls, and even a great variety of vines and fruit trees; that on board of them he might recline at table from an early hour, and coast along the shores of Campania amid songs and choruses. He built villas and country houses with utter disregard of expense, caring for nothing so much as to do what men said was impossible."

Suetonius, Life of Caligula (XXXVII.2)

He is referring to the ships the Roman Emperor Caligula had built at Lake Nemi in the century CE. One ship was a floating temple dedicated to the goddess Diana (Artemis Grk equivalent). The larger of the two was essentially a palace on the sea. It had marble, mosaic floors, heating, and plumbing for baths. The emperor was thought to be influenced by lavish lifestyles of the Hellenistic rulers of Syracuse and Ptolemaic Egypt.

Possible reconstruction 

The ships had technologies that many thought impossible for the Romans:

- Many thought that the Romans were not capable of building such large ships that were described in literary sources. covery proved that the Romans were capable of building large ships. Before the recovery of the

- The anchors had metal stocks in order to be heavy enough. Originally thought to be just wooden. The Nemi ships were built during the time of transitioning to metal anchors.

- The Nemi ships had bilge pumps that operated as the modern bucket dredge.

- Piston pumps gave the ships hot and cold running water through lead pipes – the hot water for baths, the cold for fountain and drinking water.

- Each ship had a rotating statue platform – one mounted on caged bronze balls and the second used cylindrical bearings. (Thought to be first envisioned by Leonardo da Vinci.)

Unfortunately these ships were destroyed in a WWII fire on May 31, 1944. Several US army shells hit around the museum causing little damage, but caused the Germans to leave the area. Two hours later, smoke was seen from the museum. There are conflicting views on which side was responsible for the destruction.

Thankfully, there are still archival photographs!

Works Cited:

Seminar Notes: Ancient Technology

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/miscellanea/nemi/nemi.html

archive.archaeology.org/0205/abstracts/caligula.html

Artifacts from the Getty Villa (Malibu, California)

I had the pleasure of visiting the Getty Villa recently in beautiful Malibu, California. I highly recommend it for anyone who is in California and has a few hours of time available.
The Villa (not the Museum, there are two Getty museums!) focuses on Ancient Greek, Roman and Etruscan civilizations. I loved many of the artifacts and have seen a few of them before in books and articles. I wasn't too crazy about the organization of the museum, by themes, rather than by civilizations/chronology, but it was neat to see how each civilization portrayed certain themes.


[My apologies for the quality of the photos. I took them with my phone, as I was nervous about using my camera with its flash. I got scolded by the staff for accidentally having the flash on for one of my pictures.]
Here's a peek at some of the artifacts:


I love painted Greek vases! This vase in particular is an amphora and was a prize given to winners in the Olympics. All the amphora were filled with the prized olive oil from Athens and would have a picture of Athena (seen here) on one side and a picture of the sporting event on the other side. There are several of these vases spread out throughout the world.

These items are Orpheus related. I thought they were pretty neat, particularly the little piece of gold, which is inscribed with a prayer to Orpheus.

Here is a replica of a Peristyle that would have been found in villa of Pompeii.

 Another Greek vase painting, with a very common subject of Ajax and Achilles playing a dice game.

A very large mosaic, which depicts a scene from the Trojan War. In this, the prize girl of Achilles, Briseis was being taken and handed over to the greedy Agamemnon (i'm not a fan of him..)

A sarcophagus that depicted scenes from the life of Achilles. This is much larger than it appears. 

This is probably my most favorite object from the museum. This is fragment from the Odyssey!

The Museum had some very early works, including this early vase painting from the Geometric period of the Aegean world. It depicts a funerary scene. 

This kouros may or may not be a forgery. I read an article about this in my archaeology course. (Here is a different article) Looking at it, and having seen other kouroi before, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a forgery. I am not an expert at all, but there was something about it that did not look authentic to other sculptures before and after this work's supposed date. 

I liked this golden wreath. 

 Second century BCE bronze shield made in present-day Turkey.

This helmet looked bizarre with its tiny eye holes.

LIVIA! I have used this image before in my first paper in grad school. Glad to see it up close and personal

I thought this Roman Egyptian mummy was fascinating. There was a video set up explaining the process. I particularly think the funerary masks were very interesting. It was nearly impossible to see in this picture, but it looked very Byzantine. 

The kids' area was excellent! I loved all the activities they had available for the children to do! 

Overall, the Museum was lovely. The artifacts were great and the views of the outside were breathtaking. I highly recommend it for anyone who is in the area. 

Dentistry in Ancient Egypt

drilled holes
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/iss/archives/dentistry/dentistry01a.html

We know from Herodotus that there were physicians who specialized in teeth, however, exactly what those practices were do not come from Herodotus, but surviving papyri. It is through those documents that we can gain some understanding into the dental practices.

From one rather random text, we learn that there was a belief that toothaches were caused by worms.

            “A mns-scribe is here with me, every muscle of whose face twitches; the wstt-disease has developed in his eye, and the worm grows into his tooth. I cannot leave him to his fate” (Leek 51).

Another papyri, this one medical, offered recipes to cure the tooth ailments. These recipes can be divided into two groups, medical and magical.

Here are a few of the recipes:

1.     Fixing a loose tooth – mixture of crushed seeds, ochre, and honey made into a paste and applied to the tooth.

2.     Toothache – paste of ground up veggies and minerals with honey.

3.     Septic tooth – cumin, colocynth, and frankincense.

4.     Treating the teeth by rinsing the mouth – two plants are chewed and spat out.

Inflammation of gums – dates and beans, which are exposed to dew, mixed with milk, and chewed and spat out, for nine days.

5.     Making teeth “healthy” – two vegetable drugs, mandrake and species of Potentilla, chewed and spat out (Leek 51-53).

The remedies are concoctions applied directly to the tooth and seem to be gritty in nature.

Interestingly enough, none of the treatments were for cavities. Archaeological evidence shows that there were very few cases of cavities, but tooth wear did exist due to coarse and gritty foods.

[Cavities were not a prevalent problem, as they are today, due to the lack of refined sugar. Foods were often sweetened using other agents such as honey. – VB]

Often times, the ailments of the teeth would be treated with the above remedies, but the medicines would often only relieve symptoms for a brief time, rather than a cure. The solution for tooth problems, which occurred rarely, was to removal of the tooth itself. Left uncured, the problems worked their way down to the jaw. The procedure would then have to be surgical.

Source: “The Practice of Dentistry in Ancient Egypt” by F. Filce Leek. Published by Egypt Exploration Society in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 1967.

 

The Shroud of Turin: Real or Fake? - A look at past articles





With the Shroud of Turin in the news again, I think it is important to look at a glimpse of the many of the articles and facts regarding the Shroud. It is the most studied artifact and yet, a decisive answer cannot be reached regarding its authenticity. While I have my opinion as to whether or not I think the shroud is real or fake, please read this collection of articles and facts regarding the shroud, do your own research, consider everything and come up with your own thoughts on the authenticity of the shroud. [ After reading this, my husband chuckled and told me my position on the shroud's authenticy is obvious. Apologies, dear readers]

Real or Fake? 

During the course of Christian history, many relics from during the life of Jesus and also during the lives of certain saints, had come to light, like pieces of the cross of Jesus and Noah's ark, part of the spear of destiny, bones, etc. The relics were important as the tourist attractions of their times. Clergy wanted to possess as many relics as possible so people would make pilgrimages their churches. The result of this is many forgeries. Forgeries are not at all uncommon in the ancient world, not just for religious artifacts. 


That being said, enter the Shroud of Turin, 1355. (For more timeline-type history of the Shroud - I know it's from the hoax museum, but it does have a good timeline).


Originally, the shroud was carbon dated in 1988 by three independent labs and the results proved that it was not made during the time of Jesus. But after much time, a study re-examined the results from 1988 and some made the claim that the Shroud had to be repaired and rewoven in the 16th century due to fire damage, while others stuck to the original results.



Only one other shroud has been found in Jerusalem dating back to the first century C.E. and this find is nothing at all like the Shroud of Turin. This national geographic [reputable source, I should think] article points to several reasons why:

Image belongs to Nat Geo.

• the weave of the linen is much different, more simple (seen left) compared to the shroud of Turin
• Made from simple woven linen whereas Turin shroud is made of a type of cloth not found in the area before Medieval times.
•  Caves in Jerusalem are known for high humidity - this linen survived because the tomb was sealed due to the fear of spreading of disease. The person buried in it had leprosy (evidence found in DNA)

The article, however, presumes that the shroud found is the norm for the time during Jerusalem.




The most recent article regarding the Shroud (see my articles of interest page) claims that the shroud is authentic due to scientists inability to recreate the same imagery using modern day technology. In order for the imprint of a body to have formed like it has with the shroud, there would have to have been a great flash of light.  

"The results show that a short and intense burst of UV directional radiation can colour a linen cloth so as to reproduce many of the peculiar characteristics of the body image on the Shroud of Turin," they [scientists] said.

For those who believe the shroud is authentic, this research confirms that there was a grand flash of light when Jesus was resurrected, a supernatural occurrence. Perhaps this light comes off of the angel's clothes who rolled away the stone (see Matthew 28:3).


How else could the shroud be reproduced, if it can't be done by our advanced technology?? Although we boast of having such advanced technologies, much of the ancient world had techniques that are lost on us today (like how the pyramids were build). Fortunately, one that could have produced the shroud has been examined by The Shroud Shadow Project. The project started by N.D. Wilson and later helped by Dr. Scott Minnich to prove that similar replica could be made. How did they do it? Glass, paint, textile and the sun. Very basically, the men had the glass painted with a man's face, placed that on the textile and exposed them to the sun for periods of time. The men would then compare the results with photographed negatives to see if they got the same results; the negative-look found with the shroud. Their results were a success. A more-detailed explanation here.

Here's a picture of their results: Looks very shroud like to me.

Belongs to ShadowShroud.com

I recommend looking at the rest of their images!!

In the July/August edition of Minerva Magazine, much of what was already mentioned was discussed in this article, but there were a few additional interesting points that researchers claimed to have seen. These, however, have been sharply criticized and have not been widely spread as other findings such as the carbon dating.

•   1985 - Prof Alan Whanger of Duke University claimed to have found 28 plant impressions on the shroud and Prof Avinoam Danin of Hebrew University identified one of those plants as a chrysanthemum, common to the region around Jerusalem. 
• Impressions of coins can be seen covering the eyes on the shroud. These coins were minted around 29 C.E. [odd, because I don't recall this being a Jewish burial practice.. pagan/Roman, yes]
• Barbara Frale in November 2009, researcher in the Secret Vatican Archives, claimed that a computer analysis of the shroud allowed her to see and decipher writing on the shroud. The writing was a mixture  of Latin, Greek and Hebrew letters which is translated to read ''In the year 16 of the emperor Tiberius, Jesus of Nazarene, taken down in the early evening after having being condemned to death by a Roman judge because he was found guilty by Hebrew authority, is hereby sent for burial with the obligation of being consigned to his family only after one year.'' 

-VB

images are not mine.