Ancient World Review

The Acta Diurna & Acta Senatus

"For practical purposes, the history of written journalism can be said to have begun in Rome, with two remarkable productions - the 'acta senatus,' transactions of the senate, and the 'acta diurna,' a daily summary of current events, including law reports and human interest stories. These were handwritten news-sheets, published daily (over a period of nearly 300 years) by being posted up in public places. Copies of them, which could be bought from scribes, were widely read both in Rome itself and throughout the Roman empire." Source: New York Times (1988).

The Acta weren't originally written by hand. According to Ancient Origins, "the Acta Diurna is said to have first appeared around 131/130 BC during the Roman Republic. At this point of time, the Acta Diurna , which were known also as the Acta Popidi or Acta Publica , was carved on stone or metal ... By the time of the 1st century BC, the Acta Diurna ... was handwritten, most likely on sheets of papyri."

The Acta Diurna was originally a kind of government gazette. Posted in public places like the forum, markets, baths, etc., it just covered things like trial results, new laws and so on, but "as time went by, the range of topics reported by the Acta Diurna increased as well. The contents of the Roman notices began to include public announcements, such as military victories, and the price of grain. Apart from these, the Acta Diurna also included other pieces of noteworthy information, such as notable births, marriages, and deaths, as well as news about gladiatorial combats and other games that were being held in the city. The Acta Diurna even included a gossip column, which often contained the latest amorous adventures of Rome’s rich and famous." (Ancient Origins)

The Structure Of A Medieval Manuscript

"Most medieval manuscripts were written on specially treated animal skins, called parchment or vellum (paper did not become common in Europe until around 1450)." Source: The Getty Museum.

"... After the surface had been prepared, the parchment was ruled, usually with leadpoint or colored ink ... The scribe wrote with a quill pen made from the feather of a goose or swan. The end of the feather was cut to form the writing nib. A slit cut into the middle of the nib allowed the ink to flow smoothly to the tip of the pen. The appearance of the script—whether rounded or angular, dense or open—was partly dependent upon the shape and the angle of the nib."

"... Once the writing and illuminating had been completed, the parchment sheets were folded and nested into groups called gatherings. The gatherings were ordered in their proper sequence and sewn together onto cords or leather thongs that served as supports. Once the sewing was finished, the ends of the supports were laced through channels carved into the wooden boards that formed the front and back covers of the book. The binding was usually then covered in leather or a decorative fabric."

Why Does The Letter "S" Look LIke An "F" In Old Manuscripts?

The letter 's' is described at app 4:46. More lessons can be found here, but the playlist is all out of order.

"The long s can be traced back to Roman times, when the lowercase s typical took an elongated form in cursive writing in Latin. According to librarians at the New York Academy of Medicine, people were using the long s at the beginning and middle of words by the 12th century." Source: Live Science.

Egyptian Scribes

"It is no exaggeration to say that we owe most of our knowledge of ancient Egypt to the work of her scribes. The ancient Egyptians covered their temples and tombs with hieroglyphs, but they also employed scribes to record everything from the stocks held in the stores for workers, the proceedings in court, magic spells, wills and other legal contracts, medical procedures, tax records and genealogies. Scribes were central to the functioning of centralised administration, the army and the priesthood and in truth very little happened in ancient Egypt which did not involve a scribe in some manner." Source: Ancient Egypt Online.

Hidden Hieroglyphs In The Great Pyramid

Note: "The last great mystery of the pyramids could be closer to being found thanks to a robot built in Leeds," according to the Daily Mail (2011)

"Images captured by a new 'micro snake' camera traveling deep within the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt reveal small hieroglyphs written in red paint on the floor of a small, hidden chamber.

"Egyptologists believe that if deciphered the markings could unlock the secrets of why tunnels, doors and secret chambers were built within pyramids such as this one."

Earliest Evidence Of The Cooking & Eating Of Starch

"New discoveries made at the Klasies River Cave in South Africa's southern Cape, where charred food remains from hearths were found, provide the first archaeological evidence that anatomically modern humans were roasting and eating plant starches, such as those from tubers and rhizomes, as early as 120,000 years ago." Source: Science Daily.

Israeli Scientists Brew Beer From Ancient Yeast

"What kind of beer did the Pharaohs drink? In ancient times, beer was an important ingredient in people's daily diet. Great powers were attributed to beer in the ancient world, particularly for religious worship and healing properties. The pottery used to produce beer in antiquity served as the basis for this new research. The research was led by Dr. Ronen Hazan and Dr. Michael Klutstein, microbiologists from the School of Dental Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI). They examined the colonies of yeast that formed and settled in the pottery's nano-pores. Ultimately, they were able to resurrect this yeast to create a high-quality beer...that's approximately 5,000 years old." Source: Science Daily.

Unique Iron Age Shield Gives Insight Into Prehistoric Technology

"A unique bark shield, thought to have been constructed with wooden laths during the Iron Age, has provided new insight into the construction and design of prehistoric weaponry." Source: Science Daily.

"The only one of its kind ever found in Europe, the shield was found south of Leicester on the Everards Meadows site, in what is believed to have been a livestock watering hole.

"Following analysis of the construction of the shield by Michael Bamforth at the University of York, it became apparent that the shield had been carefully constructed with wooden laths to stiffen the structure, a wooden edging rim, and a woven boss to protect the wooden handle."

Note: This is the Enderby Shield, radiocarbon-dated to sometime between 395 and 255 BC. Discovered in 2015, the "shield was made in the Middle Iron Age when local people lived in roundhouses in farmsteads and small villages, tended fields of wheat and barley and raised sheep and cattle. Excavations nearby, have revealed a busy farming landscape along the Soar Valley, used and managed by Iron Age and Roman communities, with small farmsteads scattered along the drier high ground of the valley sides overlooking meadows and controlled grazing along the valley floor. The Roman Fosse Way road also runs close by." Source: University of Leicester.

According to Live Science, the shield "was crafted from either alder, willow, poplar, hazel or spindle bark and stiffened to withstand pressure with strips of either apple, pear, quince or hawthorn wood. It also had a woven boss, or a round piece of material that shields against blows, that protected its handle. The outside of the shield sported a checkerboard pattern in red mineral paint."

Roman Influence On The Vikings: Did Latin Influence The Creation Of The Runes?

"Many important traditions that would characterise the Viking Age were originally assimilated from Roman practices – although through cultural osmosis rather than direct colonisation. These included the concept of the Danish regions as loosely-allied, equal political units; the ‘ting’, a regularly-scheduled civic meeting; a social code balancing civilians with the military hierarchy; and an entrenched tradition of long-distance trade." Source: The Copenhagen Post (2016).

"It also seems as though those most Scandinavian of artefacts – runes – in fact resulted from Roman inspiration, since they first appear between the second and third centuries AD, after centuries of interaction with the Romans. The runic alphabet shows such striking similarities to Latin and other southern European ones that there is little possibility of it being coincidental."

Note: "[The] runic alphabet, also called futhark, [is a] writing system of uncertain origin used by Germanic peoples of northern Europe, Britain, Scandinavia, and Iceland from about the 3rd century to the 16th or 17th century ad. Runic writing appeared rather late in the history of writing and is clearly derived from one of the alphabets of the Mediterranean area." Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Wikipedia has an excellent description of the runic alphabet. The runes had magical and prophetic properties, so if you search YouTube you'll find a bunch of Wicca-ish, New Age crap with quasi-mystical (or Norwegian death metal) background music which could easily drive you insane. According to Wikipedia, "runes are popular in Germanic neopaganism, and to a lesser extent in other forms of Neopaganism and New Age esotericism. Various systems of Runic divination have been published since the 1980s, notably by Ralph Blum (1982), Stephen Flowers (1984, onward), Stephan Grundy (1990), and Nigel Pennick (1995)."

A detailed introduction which includes the names, pictures and meaning of various runic systems can be found here.

3D Animation Of Tisso In The Viking Age

"There are several excavations of Iron Age settlements around Tissø [Denmark] and in 1976 a large golden ornamental ring manufactured in the 10th century, was unearthed during a regular field-plowing. The Tissø Ring is a neck-ring with a diameter of 30 cm and at 1.83 kg (originally 2 kg), it is one of the largest gold finds in Denmark. This led to professional investigations and remains of a Viking estate was discovered at the site now known as 'Kalmargården', near Fugledegård on the western lakebrink. In 1995-2003 large scale excavations revealed, that the total settlement covered c. 500,000 m² (50 ha), centered around a 12 x 48 m hall and with several buildings and structures believed to have ritualistic purposes. In 2012 remains of another large hall measuring 8 x 35 m was discovered. The magnates residence of Kalmargården, greatly resemble the residences excavated at 'Old Lejre' in central Zealand and at Järrestad in Scania. It has been suggested that Kalmargården served as a seasonal residence for the royal family based in Old Lejre." Source: Wikipedia.