Free Republic

Was Troy a Metropolis? Homer Isn't Talking By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD new Trojan War has broken out. In the warrior roles of Achilles and Hector are two respected professors on the same German university faculty who could not differ more fully and vehemently over what to make of the ruins at the presumed site in western Turkey of the legendary siege in the 13th century B.C. immortalized by Homer. One adversary, an archaeologist who has directed excavations there since 1988, contends that he has found telling evidence of Troy as a much larger and more important city than previously thought....

The Goths and Later Germanic Invaders Little is known about the early history of the Goths before they came into contact with the Romans. What little evidence we have indicates that they probably came from Scandinavia. In the first millennium B. C., they crossed the Baltic Sea and migrated into Northeastern Europe in the area occupied by Poland today. Later, they moved again and made their home in the area north of the Black Sea. Nobody knows for sure what caused these migrations but they became known as the Wanderings of the Peoples. Anthropologists speculate that changes in climate caused...

HP Supports Johannesburg World Summit 2002 as Technology Partner Sunday September 1, 9:03 am ET JOHANNESBURG, South Africa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 1, 2002--HP (NYSE:HPQ - News) today reaffirmed its commitment to global corporate citizenship with its support and sponsorship of the Johannesburg World Summit 2002. "We are honored to be the summit's technology sponsor and to participate in dialogue among key stakeholders that focuses on leveraging the assets of both the public and private sectors to solve critical global issues," said Carly Fiorina, HP chairman and chief executive officer. "HP's global corporate citizenship objective and e-Inclusion activities resonate strongly with the themes...

Roman villas found under playing field By Catherine Milner, Arts Correspondent (Filed: 18/08/2002) The remains of two Roman villas have been found under a football pitch in Wiltshire in what is believed to be one of the most significant archaeological discoveries since the early 1960s. The houses, which were built for Roman aristocrats in about 350AD, have 40 rooms each and feature an extensive mosaic which is thought to be one of the biggest and best-preserved Roman examples ever found in Britain. Archaeologists from Bristol and Cardiff universities, who are carrying out the excavation, have also exhumed the body of...

<p>Sometime around the year 1165, a Spanish Jew named Benjamin ben Jonah set out from his hometown of Tudela and made for the East. After reaching Constantinople, he headed south for Cyprus and the Holy Land, cut eastward through Damascus to Baghdad and Persia, then circled around the Arabian peninsula to Egypt. Six years later he returned to Europe and published an account of his adventures, known to posterity succinctly as "The Travels of Benjamin of Tudela."</p>

Thousands of years before dams or commercial fishing boats, Pacific salmon experienced huge population swings that coincided with major climate shifts, scientists report.

MUGGERS struck 190 times a day in London last year as street crime reached record levels, Scotland Year disclosed yesterday.