RESEARCH into the largest relic from the Roman Empire's invasion of Scotland has given historians a dramatic insight into the daily life of ordinary soldiers and the gruesome nature of ancient warfare.
Excavations of the 38-mile Antonine wall at Mumrills Fort, near Falkirk, have revealed evidence of the Romans' defensive structures, which were designed to cause the maximum damage to attackers, and even the daily cooking routines of foot-soldiers.
We often lose sight of what actual soldiers went through in ancient warfare. Warfare with spears and blades was indeed a gruesome affair, something which we have a difficult time imagining. A good reference work is Lawrence Keeley's War Before Civilization. Prehistoric warfare is an increasingly popular area of research among archaeologists in North America, especially in the Southwest. FOr many years, archaeologists were loathe to attribute violent tendencies to aboriginal North American populations, largely due (in my opinion) to guilty feelings. This has been changing, though not without resistance. Expect more popular works to come out on prehistoric warfare in North America.
More gruesome deaths THE EXECUTIONER'S MOAT
Excavations in a medieval moat around Oxford Castle have so far yielded the remains of 60 to 70 criminals, mostly men in their twenties, executed during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Archaeologists believe that dozens more await discovery. "This excavation has given us a much greater understanding of the way in which the bodies of executed criminals were treated in postmedieval England," said Andrew Norton, the field archaeologist running the dig.
The victims, all of whom are thought to have been hanged, seem to have been denied a Christian burial. They were interred in unconsecrated ground, and some 20 percent of them were buried face down or on their sides. Most were not buried in a traditional Christian east-west alignment, thus depriving them of the opportunity to rise from the dead facing Jerusalem on the Day of Judgment.
And still more stiffs Excavations bring Bern's past to life
Archaeologists stumbled across around 270 human skeletons, thought to be people of high social standing, during excavations near the parliament building last November.
Earlier in the year a paupers’ graveyard was discovered at another site in the Swiss capital.
“We are hoping to gather information on the social and economic history of the period between 1730 and 1820 when this graveyard was still in use,” excavation specialist Martin Portmann told swissinfo.
I wonder if the lack of the disease among the pooer folk was more due to higher mortality from other causes rather than from an actual absence of the disease.
Dismal Swamp may reveal secret history of escaped slaves
SUFFOLK, Va. - (KRT) - The Great Dismal Swamp is exactly what its name promises.
Its tangle of razor-tipped thorn bushes encircles a determined swarm of insects that survive on the flesh of mammals, birds, deadly reptiles and a relatively small number of humans on brief forays to see what this place is all about.
This was not always so.
Black men and women - escaped slaves - once scratched out lives, maybe even raised families, in what was once a 2,000-square-mile swamp. They took their chances in a harsh wilderness rather than spending another moment under their masters' thumbs.
Egyptian beer roolz! Scottish beer droolz! A taste for trouble
AN ARCHAEOLOGIST recently recreated a neolithic brew based on ingredients excavated in Perthshire. The resulting ale tasted unpleasant, but clearly those who drank it originally were not put off. Ever since, the production and consumption of alcohol has been central to Scotland’s culture.
It wasn’t just home-produced brew for which Scots developed a taste. Scotland did brisk international trade exporting a wide range of goods in exchange for claret, imported from France to Leith as early as the 12th century. Subsequently, wines from Spain were landed in Dumbarton, bound for Glasgow. In the other direction, export ales were developed from the late 18th century so they remained drinkable on arrival in the colonies.
More of an opinion piece, but some interesting background on drinking in Scotland. Interesting angle: "alcoholic beverages, beer in particular, were safer to consume than drinking water, particularly in the towns, and it was often not much more expensive. . ."