Last year I sat down with a guest and we chatted about stories from ancient history and how they track against modern day horror. It turned into a two-part podcast called #NightoftheLivyDead (you can listen to them below) This year it’s #NightoftheLivyDead2 where I pick up some of the older points and add some …
In this podcast I’m discussing how the Romans and Greeks bathed, probably. I start with the development of bathing, what made Menelaus the Liberace of rubber-ducky time and finish with a chat about what went on in the Roman baths. Content is clean but there is some adult references, thanks to Martial.
Ever wonder what this would sound like? Check out this YouTube video.
Recently I have been expanding my collection of ancient history themed t-shirts and I thought I’d post about where I bought them from. It’s great to support the artists behind these, so get your history nerd on and in the words of Ru Plato “start serving ancient history realness”. Please note that all the t-shirts were …
Recently I stumbled upon a few unusual, if not downright quirky clashes of superheroes and antiquity. After tweeting out a few and noting the use of #classicsandcomics by @tophocles I decided to have a more in depth look and found quite a few instances of this. I’ve selected a few, if you have found any …
From Germany to the UK. In 1847 Sir Charles Isham journeyed back from Germany and returned with 21 smaller friends. These were small figures which themselves had evolved from what the Italians had called Gobbi. The garden gnome had arrived. It wasn’t until the 1930s that the term ‘gnome’ entered usage in England and after the …
Between the rockery and a hard place. Priapus and the garden gnome. Read More »
Those more familiar with my blog may notice a pattern of the more bizarre and unusual topics or objects from antiquity appearing here. So this continues with a stele found in Edessa in Macedonia and dating to the Hellenistic period (though some point to a Roman date). The exact time this piece appeared is perhaps …
Hirsuite Hellenes. For the ancient Greeks the beard was a cornerstone of masculinity. To be in possession of a full beard marked you out as a fully adult male and in the societies of the Classical period (and earlier) this was not to be taken lightly. Presuming that you were a citizen male the growing …
Taking it on the chin: The beard in Greece and Rome. Read More »
As we have seen in the previous article, apiculture had become a sophisticated industry by the time Homer was composing epithets and gruesome deaths. The Mediterranean and its trade routes facilitated an easy exchange of ideas and technologies. One civilisation, the Minoan may well have passed on technologies or offered alternatives to those already used …
A cave in southern Spain carries a simple image depicted on a wall. At first glance it might seem difficult to work out what is occurring. The picture is of a figure collecting honey and given the bees swarming around, he or she is certainly working hard for it. The image dates to approximately 8,0000 …
