We have just added Google Translate to AHE. While it’s not perfect, it will help many of our international readers. You can find it at the bottom of every page. Did you know that you can help improve the translation? Simply hold your mouse over a badly-translated sentence for a few seconds and you can correct the translated text.
The British Museum in London is hosting the new free exhibition The Horse from Arabia to Royal Ascot (24 May to 30 September 2012) on the history of the horse. Discover the epic story of the horse in this special free exhibition – a journey of 5,000 years that has revolutionised human history. The story focuses on two breeds – Arabians, which were prized in the desert for their spirit and stamina, and the Thoroughbred which was selectively bred from Arabians for speed and is now raced at world-famous courses such as Royal Ascot. Objects range from ancient to modern and include depictions of horses in stone reliefs, gold and clay models, horse tack, paintings by George Stubbs, and trophies and rosettes.
Stanford University has just published ORBIS – The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World, an online map of the Roman world, which lets users find travel routes between different locations around the Mediterranean. The tool finds the fastest route on land and sea, as well as its travel time. There are various options, including month of the year, travel type (private on horseback, army, by land only, etc…), and cost. It’s definitely worth a look!
There’s a really interesting history podcast produced by Dan Carlin, called Hardcore History. He looks at various subjects in history, including several ancient subjects (such as the fall of the Roman Republic), in a very accessible, interesting, and captivating way. Fans of history and podcasting should definitely have a look at his site. Thanks to Felicia Day for the news tip.
We are looking for your help with our next big project, which is best described as “Google Maps of the Ancient World”. It’s a very exciting and massive project. We need help with research on ancient cities and their placement on the map, with date ranges of their existence. As with the rest of the site, we cover the world from the beginning of civilization to 700 CE. If you are a historian, archaeologist, or simply an expert history enthusiast, please help us with this project! Send an email to jan AT ancient DOT eu DOT com (or simply comment to this post) and tell us what your area of expertise is.
Scientists have used satellite images to locate previously-unkown human settlements in Syria. Harvard archeologist Jason Ur and MIT computer scientist Bjoern Menze have combined spy-satellite photos acquired during the 1960s with modern images of the Earth’s surface, and thus have devised a new method of mapping patterns of human settlements at an unprecedented scale. They recently used their new technique to map upwards of 14,000 previously overlooked settlements, distributed over 23,000 square kilometers of Mesopotamian landscape. Their method of aerial analysis relies on the detection of anthrosol, a distinctive type of soil that forms in the presence of long-term human activity. Read the full story on io9.com.
Google has just sent me an email to let me know that Ancient History Encyclopedia is now a featured education app in the Chrome Web Store! For all those Chrome users who haven’t got our app yet, go ahead and install our app, to always have it easily accessible in your browser! And for those who aren’t using Chrome yet… you should! 😉
The free-to-play browsergame Remanum has launched in English. In this massively multiplayer game the player takes the role of a Roman merchant who accumulates wealth and power, with the goal of becoming Roman Emperor. The game features a simulation of supply and demand in 20 historically important cities around the Mediterranean. Jan van der Crabben (the founder of Ancient History Encyclopedia) was lead designer on this game, so please give this free game a try!
The New York Times has published an article about recent discoveries on the cultures of ancient nomads in the Eurasian steppes. The recent findings show that nomadic societies were no less developed than their sedentary counterparts, and that they simply developed a different und no less successful strategy for survival. Also, there is an exhibition on this subject titled Nomads and Networks: The Ancient Art and Culture of Kazakhstan at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, on loan from Kazakhstan’s four national museums.
The British Museum (London) is hosting the lecture Anglo-Saxon Art: Tradition and Transformation by Leslie Webster on Fri 20 Apr 2012 at 18:30. The lecture will trace this fascinating era of art and its recurring ideas and themes, as it changed from 5th-century metalwork to the magnificient illuminated manuscripts, ivories and sculpure of the 7th to 11th centuries. Admission price is £5 (£3 for members and concessions).
