Thanks TXnMA for the ping, and C19fan for the topic.
Posted on 03/26/2018 7:56:36 AM PDT by C19fan
The mountainous, limestone landscape near Trieste, Italy is a wonder to behold. Slightly acidic water carves and erodes the soluble, sedimentary rock over many thousands of years, fracturing the terrain and creating jagged formations. Above ground is a garden of naturally-cut sculptures. Below ground lies a system of weathered caves. The place fosters a distinct feeling of oldness.
It is in this picturesque setting that a team of Italian and Australian scientists has discovered an ancient Roman highway. The etched lines of the archaic road are just tens of centimeters deep, but stand out clearly in exquisite images created with LiDAR mapping technology (see figure below).
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearscience.com ...
This technology was conceived by Sarah Parcak, an Egyptologist and professor at the University of Alabama Birmingham. It’s since been used to make astounding discoveries all over the world. Like the five mile long canals the ancient Egyptians dug (since reclaimed by the desert) from the Nile river to the Giza plateau to move the huge blocks of stone bound for the pyramids inland by water. And forts and other lost encampments the Romans built along Hadrian’s wall.
Once the Roman empire started to unravel, any area that (a) wasn't defended - thus open to attack; and (b) wasn't valuable - hence not rebuilt, would languish for years after being destroyed.
It's hard for people who haven't been to Europe - or even those that have only visited primary tourists zones - to understand just how incredibly vibrant & fertile certain regions (still) are. It was due to massive food surplus - combined with military technical advantages - that allowed Rome to deploy large, well trained and well supplied legions in the first place.
It is these temperate agricultural & commercial zones that the invading Germans occupied, defended and still reside & dominate. We know them by their modern names like the Po valley (Milan), Catalonia (Barcelona), France (Gaul), and London (Londinium).
Another tip off about history is the term 'dark ages'. This is phrase invented and used by promoters during the Renaissance who were advancing the ideals of art & literature. While the so-called dark ages lacked the finer arts, military technology was still advancing quite rapidly.
It's because each castle/region could deploy equal force that prevented anyone from 'running the table'. So, roads fell into disrepair and trade plummeted since no single force could ensure the peace. But it was due to ongoing military technologies that allowed nations to re-emerge as dominant players. This is turn led to stable kingdoms like France and Lombardy which them created enough foundation to once again allow the 'soft' arts to flourish.
i.e. Roman Arithmetic
Thanks TXnMA for the ping, and C19fan for the topic.
Electric motors would have been discovered 1,000 years earlier if Islam hadn’t destroyed Hellenic civilization.
Well put. After Sicily, British troops in Italy had to be put under US command which was better able to get them to fight, and even that was of limited success. Brooke knew that US support would be essential for continued fighting in Italy -- some of if not the worst terrain for combat in the entire war -- and after the southern objectives were in hand (13 airfields, putting occupied e Europe's oilfields and factories in range of British bombers) there was no further point to fighting in Italy. Churchill was unmatched in his speeches, but was always looking beyond the war, how best to position the UK at as little cost as possible, as it devolved its empire; that he was a sneaky little **** was shown during a wartime "Big Three" conference, when he slipped Stalin a note proposing a percentage division of influence over each of the eastern European nations after liberation (it was pointed out that it would be like trying to keep a woman half-pregnant), and Stalin mock-innocently brought it up in front of FDR, knowing full well that Churchill had never told him about it.
Abacus: Mystery Of The Bead — The Bead Unbaffled
webhome.idirect.com ^ | prior to 2010 | Totton Heffelfinger & Gary Flom
Posted on 10/21/2010 5:58:39 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2612199/posts
See Mohammed and Charlemagne by Henri Pirenne, which was published in the late 1930s. His thesis was that what really ended classical civilization, destroyed the unity of the Mediterranean world, and cut off West from East was the Islamic invasions of the 7th century, not the Germanic ones of the 5th.
The Romans did all right for themselves:
Good points about slavery. If the Romans had ever figured out that they needed an orderly system of succession, and that generally the political classes were their own worst enemy, the Empire might never have fallen. Good thing though for all of us that it did, else none of us would ever have been born. :^)
Use of water power to mill grain never ended, but the Romans were remarkable in use of machinery to accomplish work. One of the Roman mines in Spain used water power (via an aqueduct of some miles length) to "pan" for the gold at a high rate of speed.
Probably correct, the muzzies were causing turmoil all over the Middle East and in the Balkans (attacking Constantinople).
LiDAR’s been around since 1960; Parcak’s been around since 1979.
Her use of LiDAR in Egypt pissed off Zahi “Zowie” Hawass, so she gets props for that. :^)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Parcak
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidar
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/sarahparcak/index
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/remotesensing/index
https://web.archive.org/web/20120324182247/http://www.drhawass.com/blog/bbc-satellite-project
I couldn't find a picture, but I've seen the remains of what was believed to be a Roman water-powered saw that cut slabs of marble or limestone. They were so darned...competent. I think that is what fascinates me about them, on one hand they seem modern in so many ways (roads, aqueducts, water-powered mills), but on the other hand they're so retro with their superstitions and entrail interpreting.
Even if we had gone on Churchill's merry Balkan adventure, we would have been tied down by the mountains, just as in Italy, and the Russians would still have taken Hungary first. Salvaging Greece was the best we could do and Churchill admitted as much in his "naughty" note to Uncle Joe.
That Roosevelt "gave away" Poland and Eastern Europe at Yalta is a myth. He couldn't give away what he didn't have and would never have.
We achieved what was feasible despite Winston, by focusing on driving through France and the Low Countries and occupying the majority of Germany. Stalin wanted the US out of Europe after the war, but he failed. Not only did we establish ourselves but kept Western and Northern Europe part of the Free World.
They are boring, inartistic and stressful to live in.
.
.
The muzzies took over much of southern europe in that period.
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
