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Author Topic: FOR HISTORY BUFFS  (Read 118483 times)

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Offline SANDRO43

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #175 on: August 15, 2019, 05:46:01 AM »
Look forward to seeing the Venice book shop's top 10 sellers
You should consult the Zornale (Journal) kept by Francesco de Madiis, a Venetian bookshop owner, from 17 May 1484 to 23 January 1488: it contains 11,100 entries with their prices, involving 6,950 sales, sometimes gifts or barters, and over 25,000 copies ;).




It is stored in Venice's Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana.
« Last Edit: August 15, 2019, 05:55:45 AM by SANDRO43 »
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Offline SANDRO43

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #176 on: August 21, 2019, 06:37:02 PM »
CARMINA BURANA

Before printing was invented, in Europe texts were manuscripted on parchment (vellum) - mostly in monasteries - and were of religious nature.

A notable exception was Carmina Burana (Latin for Poems from Benediktbeuern) -  an illuminated manuscript containing 254 poems and dramatic texts of a bawdy nature, mostly in Latin from the 11th or 12th century, found in 1803 in the Benedictine monastery of Benediktbeuern - a small Bavarian town.


The Wheel of Fortune - The Benedectine abbey

Carl Orff used 24 of those poems for his 1936 work of the same name. Here its initial and best known part, O Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (Oh Fortune Empress of the World):

« Last Edit: August 21, 2019, 06:52:47 PM by SANDRO43 »
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #177 on: October 09, 2019, 05:59:06 PM »
MACHINE vs. HUMAN TEXT EDITORS

Nowadays many publishers appear to rely on spell-checkers rather than human editors to proof-read the text of their books before a final print.

The result may be almost grammatically correct, but wrong - or occasionally uwittingly funny. A few examples from a book I just finished reading, grinding my teeth occasionally :(:

- made no effort to take evading action when the slop (:D=sloop) approached.
- Silenced had been ordered...
- It is only a temporary name it will not matter if it is changed latter...
- The ship settled lowered in the water...
« Last Edit: October 10, 2019, 05:57:37 PM by SANDRO43 »
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Offline Grumpy

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #178 on: October 18, 2019, 08:42:15 PM »
Lost in combat? A scrap metal find from the Bronze Age battlefield site at Tollense
A decade ago, archaeologists discovered the site of a Bronze Age battlefield in the Tollense Valley in north-eastern Germany. Dated to the early thirteenth century BC, the remains of over 140 individuals have been documented, along with many associated bronze objects. Here, the authors present a new assemblage of 31 objects from the site, including three bronze cylinders that may be the fastenings of an organic container. The objects are similar to those found in Bronze Age burials of southern Central Europe, and may represent the personal equipment of a warrior from that region who died on the battlefield in Northern Europe.

http://www.cambridge.org/core/product/9984BB85B2126C139E5ACA5111236307/core-reader
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Offline SANDRO43

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #179 on: October 19, 2019, 08:36:33 AM »
A pity that article does not hazard a guess on who was involved in that epic battle of ca.2000–1200 BC. Germanic and Scandinavian tribes?
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #180 on: October 19, 2019, 11:25:32 AM »
I have been following this for a couple years, so far nobody has made a definite determination as to the involved parties. Some speculate south central Europeans vs. locals. Similar relics have been found in France and eastward as far as the Carpathian mountains.
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #181 on: October 23, 2019, 07:44:52 AM »
ROCK ENGRAVINGS IN VAL CAMONICA

Val Camonica is an Alpine valley some 100 miles NNE of Milan - in an area now frequented for mountain sports like skiing, rock climbing, etc. - with several smaller tributary valleys hosting National Parks and Reserves. In 1979 it became is the first Italian UNESCO site due to its abundance of rock engravings - estimated in 200,000 or more, the largest in Europe -  dating from the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age.

- Old Stone Age (ca. 8,000-5,000 BC): the first engravings appear a few millennia after the retreat of the ice cap that covered the valley in the Würm Ice Age, probably made by local hunters and depicting large wild animals like deer and elks. The ice retreat left several smooth rock surfaces and fallen boulders, ideal for engraving.


Smooth engraved rock surface at Naquane - Deer hunt scene

- New Stone Age (ca. 4,000-3,000 BC): agriculture reaches the valley, and engravings now show human figures ploughing, geometric shapes and "maps".


Ploughing scene - Map of local villages?

- Copper and Bronze Ages (ca. 3,000-2,000 BC): warriors, arms and geometric shapes.


Typical local daggers with triangular blades

- Iron Age (ca. 1,000 BC): 70-80% of all engravings, with duelling human figures showing their manly attributes, huts, footprints, hunting and mating scenes.


Duel scene

The succession of different petroglyph subjects through the ages shows the transition from hunter-gathering to farming, and marks a major change in human lives: it means leaving an often nomadic life for settled villages, from practically equal status in small clans to a society with layered classes, at times in conflict between them.

The engraving activity lessens and gradually disappears with the Roman conquest of the area.

In 1975 the Rosa Camuna - probably representing the solstice and equinox sun cycles - became the official symbol of our region of Lombardy.


Rosa Camuna and "astronaut" (bottom right)


Lombardy's emblem
« Last Edit: October 25, 2019, 12:20:21 AM by SANDRO43 »
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #182 on: October 23, 2019, 10:54:40 AM »
I would love to go to Lombardy: Lake Como; Milan - Galleria Vittorio Emanuele.   My only problem is that I'd come back weighing an extra ten pounds with all of the good food there.
Kissing girls is a goodness.  It beats the hell out of card games.  - Robert Heinlein

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #183 on: October 26, 2019, 06:01:09 PM »
WAS "BEN HUR" HISTORICALLY CORRECT?

Not much, but then the 1959 blockbuster, which won 12 Oscars, was the 3rd movie from a novel written by Union General Lew Wallace in 1880.

An enslaved Juda Ben Hur (Charlton Heston) is freed and adopted by General Quinto Arrio after saving his life in a sea battle against the Carthaginians, and becomes a successful chariot racer in Rome's Circus Maximus.


THE LOCATION
What remains of Rome's Circus Maximus is still visible today next to the Coliseum.


Initially built of wood in the VI century BC, it later became the largest open-air stadium of the world with a length of 600 m. and a width of 140 m. It could accomodate - for free - up to 200,000 spectators on its 3 tiers on both sides. The exterior was lined with shops and taverns - an early version of shopping centre :D - where the devastating fire started in 64 AD, the fault wrongly blamed on Emperor Nero.   

It was still in use until 549 AD after the fall of the Empire. Its marble structures were "borrowed" off for later Roman churches and palaces.

ROMAN CHARIOT RACES
This was the sport most loved throughout the Roman Empire, well documented in the mosaics of Villa del Casale at Piazza Armerina in Sicily, a Roman villa of the IV century AD also famed for its "bikini" scenes.


Victorious charioteer with a palm branch - Girls engaged in a ball game

Races were held daily. A race meant 7 complete turns of the Circus around the central spina, adorned with statues, small temples and 2 Egyptian obelisks.

The start of a race was signalled by an official dropping a white piece of cloth, which caused the Circus carceres (gates) to be opened to let the chariots enter and run the first lap without jockeying for position, in a sort of parade for the spectators' benefit.
 
Racing chariots - 4, later up to 12 - were lighter affairs than those in the movie - the latter more like war chariots - and the drivers did not hold the horse reins but wound them around their belly, trained to be more concerned with keeping their balance on the jolting vehicles. Whipping an opponent driver meant being disqualified, while hitting his horses was allowed.

Drivers and horses belonged to 4 teams identified by their colours: green, blue, red and white. Team support - and illegal betting 8) - was more vociferous than in today's team sports.

THE CHARIOTEERS
The drivers of 2-horse chariots were called aurigas, while those of 4-horse chariots were known as agitators ;).


Above is Lusitanian-born Caius Apuleius Diocles, 1.462 victories in his 24-year career, earning a total 35.863.120 sesterces ($15 million)

During the reign of Emperor Domitian (81-96 AD) Scorpus/Scorpius was the most famous and richest charioteer.


Supposed statue of Scorpus

He is celebrated by poet Martial in his Epigrams (10.53):

 I am Scorpus, the glory of the noisy Circus,
 the much-applauded and short-lived darling of Rome.
 Envious Fate, counting my victories instead of my years,
 and so believing me old, carried me off in my twenty-sixth year.


As most of his colleagues of the time, Iberian Scorpus was a slave in a provincial school for charioteers, whose owner guessed his potential and started his instruction, eventually bringing him to Rome and fame.

After some victories there, he was made a libertus (freed slave). He died in 95 AD in the naufragium (shipwreck) of his chariot in the Circus Maximus, after 2,048 race victories.
« Last Edit: October 26, 2019, 06:50:12 PM by SANDRO43 »
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #184 on: October 27, 2019, 06:53:48 AM »
Other historical inconsistencies in the film:

1. Chained slaves as galley rowers: Greek and Roman galleys were rowed by seamen. Slave rowers were a later solution preferred by the Barbary pirates, the useful employment of captured ship passengers awaiting a possible ransom hopefully sometime in the future.

2. Galleys hitting enemy hulls at right angles: this could cause the rostra to become stuck and both ships to sink together. The favoured tactic in old naval battles was hitting the opponents diagonally to smash their oars, thereby immobilising them for a later boarding.



Above on display are some of the 11 Roman galley rostra recovered in 2015 from the seabed at Favignana, where the sea battle of the First Punic War took place in 241 BC: 200 Roman ships defeated the more massive Carthaginian fleet, marking the beginning of Carthage’s decline and of Rome’s rise to Mediterranean power.


Island of Favignana, off the western tip of Sicily
« Last Edit: October 27, 2019, 11:25:30 AM by SANDRO43 »
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #185 on: October 31, 2019, 09:34:35 AM »
100 YEARS OF MILAN'S PANETTONE

In 1919 Angelo Motta, a humble Milanese baker, invented the Panettone, a sweet-bread loaf that became an Italian tradition for Christmas.


He founded the company that bears his name and, since his Panettone was a limited season product, he later developed its Easter variant, the Colomba (Dove):
A hundred years of sweetness :D.
« Last Edit: October 31, 2019, 09:42:38 AM by SANDRO43 »
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #186 on: November 02, 2019, 08:16:35 AM »
DEEP WRECK OF US DESTROYER FOUND

Destroyer USS Johnston (DD-557) was sunk by Japanese gunfire on 25 October, 1944 off Samar Island (red in map below) in the Philippine Sea during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.


Its wreck, lying on the seabed at a depth of 20,400 feet, was found by Paul Allen's R/V Petrel a few days ago. See video here: http://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2019/10/31/wwii-vessel-deepest-shipwreck-orig-vstan-bdk.cnn
« Last Edit: November 02, 2019, 08:21:07 AM by SANDRO43 »
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Offline jone

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #187 on: November 02, 2019, 08:24:16 AM »
Famously known for Crossing the T and Taffy 3 in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. 
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #188 on: November 02, 2019, 08:38:54 AM »
Crossing the T .

Only we Navy boys would understand this.
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #189 on: November 02, 2019, 08:46:20 AM »
One of the most heroic stories of the war.   It is said that when the Johnston finally went down, the sailors in the water could see the captain of the Japanese cruiser saluting it to honor it as a worthy foe.  Lt. Commander Evans, who commanded much of the fight from the aft steering linkage because the bridge was blown away, was never found.  When last seen he had part of his hand blown away and was directing help for his sailors from the fantail of the ship as it went down.   That ship and its captain is legendary in the US Navy.
Kissing girls is a goodness.  It beats the hell out of card games.  - Robert Heinlein

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #190 on: November 02, 2019, 09:20:25 AM »
Only we Navy boys would understand this.
For the benefit of non-Navy boys ;):


A classic naval battle tactic used from the late 1700. The blue ships can fire their broadsides on the red ships, whose smaller bow chasers only can bear on the opponents.
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #191 on: November 02, 2019, 09:57:25 AM »
One of the most heroic stories of the war.   It is said that when the Johnston finally went down, the sailors in the water could see the captain of the Japanese cruiser saluting it to honor it as a worthy foe.  Lt. Commander Evans, who commanded much of the fight from the aft steering linkage because the bridge was blown away, was never found.  When last seen he had part of his hand blown away and was directing help for his sailors from the fantail of the ship as it went down. That ship and its captain is legendary in the US Navy.
Lt. Commander Evans was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor for his gallant actions as part of Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague's Task Unit 77.4.3 (Taffy 3), defending the helpless transports off Samar and blowing the bow off the Japanese cruiser Kumano with a torpedo attack at the suicidal range of only 4.4 nautical miles.

Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita had succeeded in luring Adm. William Halsey, Jr.'s 3rd Fleet away after a decoy fleet. Leading a surface force of battleships and cruisers (red in the map below) already battered earlier (the super-battleship Musashi sunk by air attacks), he struck at the US Navy ships off Samar.


After the unsuccessful attack, the Japanese fleet retreated to their home ports and was no longer a threat for the rest of WWII.
« Last Edit: November 02, 2019, 10:01:12 AM by SANDRO43 »
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #192 on: November 02, 2019, 10:02:11 AM »
Lt. Commander Evans was awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor for his gallant actions as part of Rear Admiral Clifton Sprague's Task Unit 77.4.3 (Taffy 3), defending the helpless transports off Samar and blowing the bow off the Japanese cruiser Kumano with a torpedo attack at the suicidal range of only 4.4 nautical miles.

Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita had succeeded in luring Adm. William Halsey, Jr.'s 3rd Fleet away after a decoy fleet. Leading a surface force of battleships and cruisers, already battered earlier (the super-battleship Musashi sunk by air attacks), he struck at the US Navy ships off Samar.


After the unsuccessful attack, the Japanese fleet retreated to their home ports and was no longer a threat for the rest of WWII.

Taffy 3 saved the landings in the Philippines.  Halsey acted with the bravado he was known for and chased empty carriers (they had no planes) while leaving his landings exposed.   He should have been demoted for his actions.  'The World Wonders'.
Kissing girls is a goodness.  It beats the hell out of card games.  - Robert Heinlein

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #193 on: November 08, 2019, 06:07:22 PM »
NOVEMBER 9, 1989...AND THE WALL CAME TUMBLING DOWN

30 years ago the Berliner Mauer, a-k-a the Antifaschistischer Schutzwall, separating West from East Berliners was overrun by the latter, and eventually demolished except for a few memento sections.


This marked the end of the Cold War and heralded the political demise of the Soviet Union, creating high hopes that our world would at last become a peaceful and better place for its inhabitants.

Alas, that was not to be :(.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2020, 06:51:48 AM by SANDRO43 »
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #194 on: November 25, 2019, 06:40:25 PM »
OUR CARABINIERI


The Arma dei Carabinieri was established in 1814 as Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali (Corps of Royal Carabineers) by King Vittorio Emanuele I di Savoia, returned to Turin after his Sardinian exile in Napoleon's times, as a miltary unit mainly with MP duties.

After Italy's reunification in 1861, manning the large territory newly acquired by the Savoy kingdom was a problem addressed by giving the Police forces duty in large to medium Italian towns, while the Corps was assigned similar duties in smaller towns and large villages, where the local Tenenza post became a trusted point of reference, commanded by a Lieutenant or a Marshal (their highest non-commissioned rank - Army Marshals were created by Mussolini in imitation of German Wehrmacht ranks).

After WWII, the Corps was a safe state employment sought by many not-too-brilliant country youths who eventually became Appuntati. Every nation has special areas of humour, in ours the butt of popular jokes were dumb Appuntati, like in the following that I remember:

- Marshal, mounting a patrol car: "Appuntato, check if the blinking light on the car roof is working prorperly". 
- Appuntato: "Yessir. Now it does, now it doesn't, now it does, now it doesn't, now it does, now it doesn't..." :D

Some years ago I could verify that they are no longer as dumb as we portrayed them. The apartment just below mine was once located by a short South American woman with a Jordanian DJ ::) boyfriend, who quarreled frequently. One late night their quarrel was particularly loud and persistent, so I called a Carabinieri patrol to intervene.

The lieutenant in charge first visited me to inquire about the problem, then descended downstairs. He rang the doorbell and asked the DJ who had opened the door:

- Sir, do you live in this apartment?
- Yes.
- Please show me where you keep your clothes.
- I keep them in my car.
- Then please follow me to our station for verifications.


I never heard or saw that DJ again ;D.

The Carabinieri do not report to the Ministry of Interior but to the Ministry of Defence, like the French Gendarmerie Nationale and the Spanish Guardia Civil. Until 2000, the Corps was commanded by an Army General. Then it became an independent force alongside our Army, Navy and Air Force.

The structure of the Corps was modified several times over the years. In 1978 their Gruppo di intervento speciale (GIS) was our first Special Force, and in 2016 it absorbed the Corpo forestale dello Stato (CFS), a bloated institution of 7,563 forestry guards of dubious usefulness and reputation.

It also includes Nuclei Antisofisticazione e Sanità (NAS) investigating food and health crimes, the Reparto investigazioni scientifiche (RIS) (Scientific Investigation Group) and the Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale (Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage), responsible over the years for recovering thousands of illegally exported items of our antiquity.


GIS - Forest Guards - NAS - RIS - Heritage - "Flaming bomb" hat decoration

The Carabinieri use several modes of transport in addition to patrol cars: airplanes, helicopters, boats...and horses, featured yearly in their Carosello storico ending with a simulation of the charge at the 1848 Battle of Pastrengo.
 
 

Here they wear their parade uniform and the typical "lantern" hats with blue-red plumes. The white bandoleer holding a cartridge pouch is rather anachronistic nowadays and some complained it could be a hindrance in a scuffle with miscreants, but it is a traditional part of their looks.

Since the 1855 War of Crimea, they were entrusted with 46 police and military missions abroad.
« Last Edit: November 26, 2019, 05:27:11 AM by SANDRO43 »
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #195 on: November 26, 2019, 04:33:27 PM »
CONCRETE ROMANS

The Romans were great builders also because they invented the opus caementicium (concrete) during the late Roman Republic (ca. 146 BC-31 BC) as the material of choice to build walls, also recommended by the Roman architect and military engineer Marcus Vitruvius Pollio in his 10-book treatise De architectura.


A 1521 edition in Italian

Vitruvius dwelt on the types of aggregate appropriate for the preparation of lime mortars. For structural mortars, he recommended pozzolana (pulvis puteolanus), the volcanic sand from the beds of Pozzuoli, brownish-yellow-gray in color in that area around Naples, and reddish-brown near Rome. He specified a ratio of 1 part lime to 3 parts pozzolana for cement used in buildings and a 1:2 ratio of lime to pozzolana for underwater work, essentially the same ratio mixed today for concrete used in marine locations.

By the middle of the first century, the principles of underwater construction in concrete were well known to Roman builders. The city of Caesarea maritima, built by Herod the Great during c. 22–10 on the Mediterranean shore of Palestine,  was the earliest known example to have made use of underwater Roman concrete technology on such a large scale.


The opus caementicium was the structural part of walls, that were then decorated in various ways, for example with opus reticulatum, diamond-shaped bricks of tuff, referred to as cubilia (small cubes):


The opus reticulatum was finally spread over with plaster and decorated by frescoes for wealthy house owners, of different nature depending on taste and purpose ;):

 
Pompeian frescoes: from the Villa dei Misteri and from a lupanare (brothel)

Less costly were the opus isodomum (work of equal height) and the opus quadratum in which squared blocks of stone of the same height were set in parallel courses, most often without the use of mortar, and least of all the opus incertum (irregular work), using irregularly shaped and randomly placed uncut stones or fist-sized tuff blocks.


Opus isodomum - Opus Incertum
« Last Edit: November 26, 2019, 04:43:52 PM by SANDRO43 »
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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #196 on: November 26, 2019, 07:03:36 PM »
ROMAN TEMPLES

The Romans built their temples following the example of Greek temples, as well as the gods they celebrated - the same but with Latinised names. They were awed by Greek culture, and the male children of wealthy families were taught by Greek tutors.

The Greeks influenced the Etruscans as well, who however were more concerned with their afterlife like the Egyptians, and devoted their wealth to the construction of tumulus (hillock, mound) tombs in large necropoleis as at Cerveteri and Tarquinia, richly decorated inside but unadorned externally:


Etruscan mound tombs

The classical structure of a Greek temple exterior includes (bottom to top):

- A base with crepidoma (multilevel platform with steps and maybe an access ramp)
- A peristilos (colonnade) at the entrance and sides, resting on the stilobate (top step)
- An epistílos (architrave) to support the roof
- A frieze decorated with tryglyph metope
- A triangular tympanon decorated with statues or frescoes
- A wooden roof


Temple of Harmonia/Concord at Akragas (Agrigentum, Sicily)

Above the kianòikravoi (capitals) are in the simpler Doric style.

The interior of the temple may have different arrangements, but basically consists of:

- A pronao (ante room)
- A nao (cell, dwelling) with the statue of the god/goddess at the end
- An opisthodòmos (rear room) holding the temple treasure


A notable exception to Greek temple structure is that of Rome's Pantheion, commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus, completed by Emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated about 126 AD, having a circular floor plan and the tallest known cupola of antiquity. 


A sphere with a diameter of 43.3 metres (142') could fit under the dome

Its long survival for almost 900 years is due to its concrete cupola structure and to several construction features:

1) The concrete is thinner at the top, and thicker near the base.

2) The concrete near the oculus (eye) is of lighter than normal density, while that near the base is heavier. This was achieved this by using variously lightweight volcanic stones, and heavy granite stones, and the aggregate in the concrete.

3) The bottom of the dome is made heavier by the use of brickwork built up on top of it, as a counterbalance.

4) The dome is lightened, while maintaining its stiffness or rigidity, by its ceiling being relieved or made thinner in rectangular sections, called coffering.

« Last Edit: November 26, 2019, 07:10:01 PM by SANDRO43 »
Milan's "Duomo"

Offline ML

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #197 on: November 26, 2019, 07:27:40 PM »
CONCRETE ROMANS

The Romans were great builders also because they invented the opus caementicium (concrete) during the late Roman Republic (ca. 146 BC-31 BC) as the material of choice to build walls, also recommended by the Roman architect and military engineer Marcus Vitruvius Pollio in his 10-book treatise De architectura.


Sandro, did you know the Roman formula for concrete was lost during the dark ages?

A new formulation wasn't concocted until the 18th century.
A beautiful woman is pleasant to look at, but it is easier to live with a pleasant acting one.

Offline SANDRO43

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #198 on: November 26, 2019, 08:30:47 PM »
Sandro, did you know the Roman formula for concrete was lost during the dark ages? A new formulation wasn't concocted until the 18th century.
No, I did not. But then temple (church) building was mostly done with bricks (Romanic style) and later stone (Gothic Cathedrals).


Another Romanic church is interesting for a different reason. The Chapel of San Galgano (echoes of Gowayn?) at Montesiepi near Siena, contains a stone-embedded sword :o:



The Chapel is near the Cistercensian Abbey of the same name, built in the XIII century, in ruins since the XV century and finally deconsecrated in 1789.


Legend has it that Galgano Guidotti, born at Chiusdino aboutl 1150, was a loose youth given to excesses. While soldiering as a knight, he sees twice Archangel Michael who invites him to embrace the militia Christi. The Apostles teach him how to build a round hermitage to be dedicated to the Virgin Mary and Archangel Michael. The site will be decided by his horse. Travelling in the area, the horse stops twice at a certain place and refuses to proceed. Galgano thus concludes that it is the destined place, and plants his sword in the ground, marking the beginning of his new life as a hermit.

So the legend goes ::).  However, I visited the Chapel in 1993 and was disappointed by a sort of X-Ray photo which showed that the sword had only some 3 inches under its hilt, and therefore could probably be easily extracted from/inserted into the rock ;).
Milan's "Duomo"

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Re: FOR HISTORY BUFFS
« Reply #199 on: November 30, 2019, 06:14:53 PM »
The World's Oldest Shipweck

Not Noah's Ark ;), but the wreck of a Greek merchant ship dating back more than 2,400 years has been found lying on its side off the Bulgarian coast of the Black Sea by an Anglo-Bulgarian team.

Quote
The 23m (75ft) wreck, found in the Black Sea by an Anglo-Bulgarian team, is being hailed as officially the world's oldest known intact shipwreck. The researchers were stunned to find the merchant vessel closely resembled in design a ship that decorated ancient Greek wine vases. The rudder, rowing benches and even the contents of its hold remain intact.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45951132


Computer-rendered image of wreck

The find was an unexpected result of the Maritime Archaeology Project (MAP), investigating the effects of sea-level change on early human societies, detected by a team’s ROV from MAP’s research vessel (a former oil-industry craft called Stril Explorer).

At a depth of 150 m, the Black Sea contains insufficient oxygen to support most familiar biological life forms.
« Last Edit: November 30, 2019, 06:24:01 PM by SANDRO43 »
Milan's "Duomo"

 

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