Archive for 2007
By: The Scribe on July, 2007
The city of Crocodilopolis was located on the western bank of the Nile, southwest of Memphis in Egypt. Known to the ancient Egyptians by the somewhat less redundant name of Shedet, this city was the center of worship for the Egyptian god Sobek, the (you guessed it) crocodile god. Ever the subtle geniuses when it came to naming foreign places, the ancient Greeks dubbed it “Crocodile City”, or “Crocodilopolis”, as it is now remembered.
Inhabitants of Crocodilopolis worshiped a manifestation of Sobek through a sacred crocodile kept at the city, named ‘Petsuchos’ – a name that means “son of Sobek”. The crocodile was adorned with gold and jewels, and was kept in a temple with its own pond, sand, and special priests to serve his food. After the residing Petsuchos died, the body would be mummified and given a special burial – and then promptly replaced with another “son of Sobek”.
Crocodilopolis never became a large city, nor developed any major political standing in the area, and in the 3rd century BC the city passed into the hands of the Ptolemies. It was renamed Ptolemais Euergetis for awhile, but was renamed again to Arsinoe only a short time later by Ptolemy Philadephus II to honor his sister and wife, Arsinoe II.
On the plus side, Crocodilopolis was located in the most fertile region in Egypt – part of the current-day Fayum – which meant that the city was a haven for farmers growing corn, vegetables, flowers, and olives. Currently, what remains of Crocodilopolis is quite minimal – there are several mounds of ruins, and a few column bases here and there, but not much has been left behind by the sands of time. There is a modern city near the ancient site, however the modern inhabitants seem to have decided against penning up a crocodile inside the church.
Want to read more?
Tomorrow: Disappearing Ocean!
By: The Scribe on July, 2007
As the only known woman from ancient Rome whose poetry has survived into modern day, Sulpicia’s poems stand out as a bold female voice in a male-dominated field of ancient literature.
Sulpicia was likely the daughter of Servius Sulpicius Rufus and the niece of Roman politician Messalla – powerful members of the Roman elite, called the patrician class. Messalla was well known as a patron of literature and art, and combined with her station of birth, Sulpicia would have been very highly educated by personal tutors.
Very little remain of her writings, however of the eight rather demure poems that have survived, at least half of them are addressed to a lover by the name of Cerinthus – most certainly a pseudonym for her real lover, if not a fictional character in the style of other Roman poets like Ovid or Catullus.
Her work managed to survive the centuries by preservation through the writings of another poet named Tibullus, and for many years, scholars attributed Sulpicia’s writings to Tibullus himself. However, they are now known definitively as written by this high-born woman, and serve as a little piece of insight into the inner workings of a woman in love in ancient Rome!
Here is one of Sulpicia’s poems, translated by Jon Corelis, where Sulpicia seems to suspect that her lover has become interested in a prostitute – and naturally, is furious at such insulting behavior.
Sulpicia 4: A Curt Reply
I’m glad you take me for granted enough to show me
what kind of man I almost let possess me.
Go chasing after hookers and spinning-girls and whores:
forget Sulpicia, daughter of Servius.
But I have friends who care, and who will spare no pains
to see that no cheap slut humiliates me.
Want to read more?
Tomorrow: Crocodilopolis (no we didn’t make that up)
By: The Scribe on June, 2007
Near Lima, Peru, archaeologists believe they have discovered the first gunshot victim in the Western Hemisphere. In a shallow grave, surrounded by a large group of ancient Incan bones, the skull had an almost perfectly round hole, leading experts to wonder at first whether it had been made by a slingshot, spear, or some other circular weapon.
The Incans who died here, however, appear to have been killed rather violently – likely as a result of the Spanish Conquistadors, who battled against the Incan empire around 500 years ago. The shallow graves seem to suggest that the victims were buried in a hurry, which usually means that the burials were conducted during a time of conflict – in this case, possibly during a known uprising against the Spanish invaders in 1536.
In order to determine what made the hole in the one victim’s skull, forensic experts looked for a trace of metal around the wound, believing there was a very slim chance that any traces would remain after this long. However, against the odds, they found minute fragments of musket ball metal stuck inside the area surrounding the hole! Further examination revealed that the musket shot was less than an inch in diameter, and was powerful enough to enter the back of the victim’s skull and exit through the top of the head at an angle.
Since identifying this skeleton as the first gunshot victim in the Americas, two more gunshot victims have also been located among the bones, with further research on their conditions still to come!
As for the hastily buried bodies, their burials absolutely did not conform to the typical Incan burial customs: they were facing the wrong direction in the graves, they were wrapped only in a simple cloth, the graves were far too shallow, and there were no burial offerings – something absolutely unthinkable in many ancient burial rites. A closer look at the Incan mummies also revealed something more disturbing – many of the bodies seemed to have been hacked up and were missing limbs, there was evidence of impalement by iron weapons, and chunks of the bodies appeared to have been torn apart, in addition to the several bodies with gunshot wounds.
Although it is still not conclusively known what occurred here, the Incans buried here were clearly victims of some horrific and extremely violent acts. Hopefully, further forensic study on the bodies from these graves will help to shed some light exactly what happened at this site in Peru.
Want to read more?
Tomorrow: Scandalous Roman poetry!
By: The Scribe on June, 2007
As one of the deadliest projectile weapons known to man, the creators of the crossbow must have had some very intense warfare in mind as they developed this weapon. In fact, there is quite a bit of uncertainty over when and where the crossbow was first created and used, but evidence for its use first appears around the 4th century BC in China.
The earliest definitive evidence for Chinese crossbow use comes from manuscripts dating to the 4th and 3rd centuries BC in China, associated with the followers of Chinese philosophy Mohism, developed by a man named Mozi. This philosophy, although it asserted a belief in universal love, also called for the development of a political structure within which there was no central authority other than Mozi’s writings. The Mohists developed many ideas on fortification, statecraft, as well as agricultural theories, and were soon hired as advisors for the leaders of warring states.
Keeping this in mind, perhaps it isn’t so unusual that the first reference to crossbows appears in Chinese philosophical writings – the document discusses the use of a giant crossbow catapult during the 6th and 5th centuries BC. Since the use of the crossbow occurred before the manuscript was written, it cannot be said for sure whether use of the crossbow originated in China – though it is certainly possible. However, Sun Tzu’s book The Art of War also refers to the use of crossbows, and this book first appeared around 400 BC.
There are also reliable records that crossbows were used in 341 BC at the Battle of Ma-Ling, and by the end of the 3rd century BC, the crossbow had been very well developed and was a standard weapon used in Chinese warfare. In fact, Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s tomb from 210 BC contained several crossbow pieces, strewn about between the Terracotta Warrior statues.
In the Greek world, the earliest documented evidence for crossbow use was during the Siege of Motya in 397 BC, described by the scholar Heron of Alexandria in his book on war machines from the 1st century BC. Of course, since the gap between the event and the book’s composition is quite wide, there is speculation over the authenticity of the report. Regardless, Alexander the Great is known to have used crossbows for the siege of Tyre in 332 BC – and his crossbows were the first to have documented use of ballista construction, which used torsion spring bundle technology to increase projectile force. Ballistae could actually the shoot lighter projectiles, providing they had higher velocities, over a much longer distance.
As improvements to the crossbow continued, the Greek world soon saw the introduction of a smaller, sniper model called the Scorpio. By the time the Siege of Rhodes came around in 305 BC, siege towers were being constructed with multiple crossbows: a large ballistae at the bottom, designed to demolish the parapet and rid it of troops, while the top of the siege towers held armor-piercing Scorpios to snipe soldiers patrolling city walls.
It turned out that these types of crossbows were so effective in ancient warfare that the basic styles and functions saw very minimal change until well into the Middle Ages!
Want to read more?
Tomorrow: So much for gun laws…
Previous page | Next page
