Newly-found naval ram in Phanagoria. Courtesy Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation
Posted on 07/27/2014 1:40:10 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
...an ancient naval ram used by the army of Mithradates VI of the Bosporan Kingdom to quell a popular uprising against him in Phanagoria in 63 B.C.
One-meter long ram and presumably made of bronze, it has an engraving of Mithradates VI, the king of Pontus from 119 to 63 B.C. who was the most powerful king in Anatolia during the 1st century B.C...
The ram was found in the submerged part of Phanagoria, the largest Greek colony on the Taman peninsula, not far from the 15-meter-long ship that was previously unearthed in 2012... and proves that the ship was a bireme, an ancient oared warship with two decks of oars that Mithradates used to quell unrest. The ship was later burned by the protesters in 63 B.C.
The Roman historian Appian and the Greek historian Plutarch mentioned a citywide uprising at Phanagoria in 63 B.C. that culminated with the incineration of a huge public building and murder of Mithradates’s children and a wife, Hypsikratia. However, there was no material proof of these events until 2006.
In 2006, scientists... found a marble gravestone inscribed with an epitaph to "Hypsikrates, wife of Mithradates VI." ...
Among the recent discoveries made at Phanagoria are remains of a palace of Mithradates VI dated the 1st century B.C., an ancient tomb with a stepped ceiling, the oldest temple unearthed on the Russian territory dating back to the 5th century B.C. and a number of submerged objects, e.g., the ancient city’s streets covered with sand, Phanagoria’s port structures, and ship debris.
The excavations cover several areas, including the 2,500-square-metre acropolis at the centre of the ancient city, the eastern necropolis, an ancient cemetery that served as a burial place from the very founding of the city, and a submerged part of the city.
(Excerpt) Read more at popular-archaeology.com ...
Newly-found naval ram in Phanagoria. Courtesy Volnoe Delo Oleg Deripaska Foundation
Ancient stuff is cool. In another millenium they’ll be digging up sex toys and wondering what the heck people were thinking.
Just a little late they have been digging up and finding ancient sex toys for a long time and leaving no doubt as to what people were thinking. Aint nothing new, it’s just that society at this time is more open about. Not that the Greeks and Romans weren’t.
I read a partially fictionalized account of the “poison king” in which he kept trying to defeat the Roman Empire. With each attempt, he learned a little more about Roman tactics and eventually came to duplicate them himself. He became Rome’s most feared adversary until his rule was usurped and he tried to commit suicide but failed due to his immunity to poison.
The naval battle scene in Ben-Hur comes to mind. Ramming speed!
Now. now....... there will be no need to wonder, they will know
Most of them, there are probably some things that would confuse them.... lol
I don’t care to watch that entire movie, ever, not merely because of the gaying-up the script rec’d from Gore Vidal, but I enjoy the entire sequence aboard the ship. That kind of panic would not have occurred in reality, the rowers (whether or not one accepts the possibility that they were indeed galley slaves and not ‘workers’) were disciplined, and didn’t have time to daydream out the ‘windows’. I hope that a sunken galley / trireme from an ancient battle is someday found and excavated, to settle this slave/worker contro once and for all.
Misinterpreting stuff later on and thinking there was a cult of cthulhu hentai led by h.p.Lovecraft until an uprising by august derleth fractured the cult..
Roman general/admieral Pompey defeated M VI, who then attempted suicide by poison, but alas had been (supposedly) acquiring tolerance by taking ever-larger doses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridates_VI_of_Pontus#Mithridates.27_antidote
lol
Years ago I read that some archaeologists found what they thought was either an ancient doll or some kind of cultic figure, but it turned out to be a Stretch Armstrong that had intruded on the find.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1379164/
“I think might be some sort of surgical instrument... or perhaps a tool used to help birthing”
Quite right — there’s an off-limits gallery at the Naples Museum, containing all the ancient naughty bits from Pompeii and environs.
“It might be an idol used in their religious ceremonies! A direct representation of the touch of their god! “
You have to figure the rowers would be well fed or the boat wasn’t leaving the dock - especially if the skipper wants to go water skiing after lunch.
***In another millenium they’ll be digging up sex toys***
Already been done.
I started to post a picture but then thought, “no”. Google it.
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