(no subject)

[scottobear]

Getting ever more nifty...

Thank you, discovery channel!

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20010212/scrolls.html

Hundreds of scrolls, reduced to lumps of coal by the 750-degree Fahrenheit cloud that wrapped the ancient Roman city of Herculaneum during Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D., are rising from the volcano's ash in what could be the most significant rediscovery of classical literature since the Renaissance.

Among the works scholars hope to read using the new technology are Aristotle's lost 30 dialogues, philosophical work by Epicurus, erotic poems by Philodemus, Virgilius's lost eclogue, scientific work by Archimedes and lesbian poetry by Sappho.

Comments

ah, eros

[ckirkman.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, erotic and lesbian poetry... now that's what I call history! ;)

Re: ah, eros

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

Sure, we've been having love for a long time now!

i suspect lust, even longer!

[i.livejournal.com]

very cool!

[chicky.livejournal.com]

Yeah, every few months they show a documentary on the city on the Discovery Channel. It's pretty interesting - lewd, gay poetry in the public baths, shore-line boathouses (cave-like places) filled with skeletons... one of the odd things about the skeletons in the caves - there were no elderly in them (I'm fairly certain that it was the elderly). So it was as though the elderly were able to escape or were sent away in the boats before the real destruction began. The stuff about the scrolls is neat as well, the difficulty being the fact that most of the scrolls were turned black, and the inks were black, and the show gave an in-depth look at how they are going about reading what was written.

(I swear my TV has 2 stations - A&E and Discovery)

Re:

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

Hey, those are 2 of the big three to pick!

:)

Re:

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was delighted to hear about it... the dialogues, especially.

Re:

[chicky.livejournal.com]

Heheh... the only other one that I watch is Bravo, but I only get that after about 8pm or so :)

Re: ah, eros

[ckirkman.livejournal.com]

Oh, for sure... prostitution isn't the world's oldest profession for nothing!

Re:

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

ah, very nice... history is a good one, too.

[dorkgirl.livejournal.com]

History, Learning, Discovery, and A&E....that's about all that I need on my cable dial! =)

Re:

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

Well, I have to admit I'll fire up cartoon network or nick at nite if the timing is right...

[dorkgirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm guilty of that, as well. Sometimes I really need to get my "I Love Lucy" fix. =)

Re:

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

Ah, for me it's mary tyler moore. :) or dick van dyke.