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Giancarlo (Giancarlo)
Username: Giancarlo

Registered: 11-2008
Posted From: 85.116.228.5
Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010 - 12:09 pm:   

Albeit not a proper thread, I can't help expressing my regret for the collapse of the "Schola Armatorarum" (Fighters' School) in Pompeii due to heavy rain infiltration. It could be avoided. The famous archeological site should have been under strict observation by Cultural Property authority deputized to prevention and conservation of Italy's treasure-places. That makes me very sad and somewhat shameful of my Country's culpable inertia. Now I am even anxious about the Colosseum!
Sic transit gloria mundi.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.139.216.19
Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010 - 12:14 pm:   

Aren't they putting ads all over the Colliseum? Getting sponsors?
Could the school be rebuilt? You know our stonehenge was - shockingly - rebuilt in the forties. It feels wrong, but maybe right.
The world gets us in the end, though, doesn't it?
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Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 88.111.132.33
Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010 - 12:21 pm:   

Sorry to hear that. I was in Pompeii a couple of years back and had the most wonderful time wandering around.

The Circus Maximus needs some attention, too. It is now a park full of broken glass and nothing much else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Circus_Maximus_-_panorama_view.jpg
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Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.68
Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010 - 12:37 pm:   

Alas! We too loved Pompeii and also Herculaneum when we were staying in Naples a couple of years back (and we grew very fond of Naples as well).
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Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.176.178.44
Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010 - 12:47 pm:   

The Circus Maximus needs some attention, too. It is now a park full of broken glass and nothing much else.

Yes, we found that disappointing too, but the Forum is mightily impressive.
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Giancarlo (Giancarlo)
Username: Giancarlo

Registered: 11-2008
Posted From: 85.116.228.5
Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010 - 02:16 pm:   

After the Fall of the Roman Empire, the Circus Maximus was turned into a quarry for the building of Christian churches over the spots of old religion's temples and, later, for aristocrats' abodes. What's left is just a few "carceres" (the chariots' starting poles) and a scratch path for the four-team chariots racing, now a garbage strewn park and often an arena for musical exhibitions. The Colosseum underwent the same fate only partially because it was considered a sacred site due to Christian martyrdom, whereas the real martyring site had been the Circus Maximus itself.
It is said the Fighters' School in Pompeii may be re-constructed on the bae of archeological documents but I don't know about the mosaic themes which I suppose are completely disintegrated and then only imitative repairs could be performed.
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.139.216.19
Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010 - 02:46 pm:   

We had a documentary on Hadrian recently. What a human man, imperfect and sort of sad. His home reflected this; he lived on an island within it (it was big) towards the end of his life and hardly saw anyone.
We have a roman temple ruin near-ish to us - tiny thing, beautiful and intimate.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010 - 04:17 pm:   

Take some pics of that Tony, I'd like to see it.

Have there been any discoveries lately in the area of lost manuscripts? I'd love it to be so. I'd heard Herculaneum was a treasure-trove of such missing documents....
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.152.209.236
Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010 - 08:38 pm:   

A year ago I discovered that within 10 miles of my house was a 5,000 year old passage tomb at the top of a hill. Just leave a 5 Euro deposit with a little man who lives down the road and he gives you the key. Inside is, among other things, one of the few neolithic representations of a human face.

http://www.knowth.com/fourknocks-images.htm

It amazes me that all of this was waiting there just a few miles from me as I grew up. I'm a blip.
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Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 81.96.253.77
Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010 - 09:34 pm:   

Wow, Proto - that's pretty amazing. I'd love to have a peep inside there...
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.152.209.236
Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010 - 11:08 pm:   

It's only when your eyes adjust to the dark that those carved patterns begin to emerge. What story could be so awesome?

It was spooky, and though it must have been a trick of the light I flinched a couple of times when I was sure I saw a figure coming down the passageway (the only source of light and the only way in or out). Had the heavy iron door slammed shut and the lock clicked, the only hope would be if a passer-by heard muffled screams coming from under the earth.
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John Forth (John)
Username: John

Registered: 05-2008
Posted From: 82.24.1.217
Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010 - 11:42 pm:   

There's a similar place in the hills close to my hometown in Scotland: http://www.cyberscotia.com/cairnpapple/. I haven't been in years, but the burial chamber at the heart of the cairn is quite fascinating.
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John Forth (John)
Username: John

Registered: 05-2008
Posted From: 82.24.1.217
Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010 - 11:46 pm:   

Just realised that the URLs for every page on that site are the exact same. To get a better idea of what it's like, click on the 'gallery' link on the side, and then 'wide-angle photos'

Also worth clicking on the 'strange and surreal' link for a rare photo of a wild haggis.
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.152.209.236
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 12:04 am:   

This is my picture. Fourknocks is an Anglicised
version of the Gaelic fuar cnoc, which means cold hill. Check out the icicles!

/image{ }
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.152.209.236
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 12:05 am:   

Text description
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.22.237.21
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 05:15 am:   

Fantastic! Over here the only structures remotely resembling these are German World War II bunkers.
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Hubert (Hubert)
Username: Hubert

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.22.237.21
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 05:19 am:   

Proto, that setting looks like something M.R. James might have used in a story!
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Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.139.216.19
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 10:49 am:   

Craig - I'll try and get there some time.
I found this odd garden near us today - an enclosure with two strange hedgerows in it, nothing more. I have no idea what they're for.
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Craig (Craig)
Username: Craig

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 99.126.164.88
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 04:27 pm:   

I found this odd garden near us today - an enclosure with two strange hedgerows in it, nothing more. I have no idea what they're for.

Well, Tony, if you find a bustle, don't be alarmed now - it's just a spring clean for the May Queen.

(...ugh....)
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Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 109.79.178.248
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 05:51 pm:   

Hedge maze for beginners?
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Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 92.232.199.129
Posted on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 - 08:01 pm:   

>>I found this odd garden near us today - an enclosure with two strange hedgerows in it, nothing more. I have no idea what they're for.

Well, Tony, if you find a bustle, don't be alarmed now - it's just a spring clean for the May Queen.<<

Wow, Led Zepp! I've got that on the brain now - thanks, Craig!

Anyway, don't want to brag or anything but if you're looking for neolithic burial mounds, this place - close to my birthplace and place of up-bringing - has to be the most spectacular:
http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/england/wiltshire/featured-sites/the-west-ken net-long-barrow.html

Back to Giancarlo's original post, it's so sad to see so much of our global history going to pot. I think it's in Iraq, isn't it, where lots of ancient sites have just been bombed or ransacked? And I'm sure there are many other examples world-wide.

Closer to home (for me), even our local councils seem to be hell-bent on destroying the history of our city centres. Wonderful Victorian buildings in Bradford have been systematically pulled down to make way for new concrete and glass shopping/leisure centres, office complexes and apartments which no-one wants to visit/move into.

It makes me weep when I see wonderful old buildings being demolished for some new-build monstrosity.

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