Where Mud Is Archaeological Gold, Russian History Grew on Trees - The New York Times

VELIKY NOVGOROD, Russia — The note, from father to son, was the sort of routine shopping list that today would be dashed off on a smartphone. In 14th century Russia, it was etched into the bark of a birch tree and curled into a scroll.

“Send me a shirt, towel, trousers, reins, and, for my sister, send fabric,” the father, whose name was Onus, wrote to his son, Danilo, the block letters of Old Novgorod language, a precursor to Russian, neatly carved into the wood with a stylus. Onus ended with a bit of humor. “If I am alive,” he wrote, “I will pay for it.”

The scroll and a dozen others like it were among the finds from this year’s digging season, adding to a collection of more than 1,000 birch-bark documents uncovered here after being preserved for hundreds of years in the magical mud that makes this city one of the most extraordinary archaeological sites on earth.

The Most Remarkable Art-Historical Discoveries of 2016

The discovery was made at a Neolithic site in Çatalhöyük where a series of ancient houses were built one on top of another, leaving behind a trove of artifacts.

How women's wisdom was lost | Bettany Hughes

How women's wisdom was lost | Bettany Hughes:

 Bettany Hughes: Papyrus shreds reveal there was a time when female deities were fundamental to popular belief. Yet ancient geopolitics caused them to be sidelined

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 Here is an unofficial snapshot of life at the birth of the modern world. Crucially, this was a time and place where Woman Wisdom, Sophia in ancient Greek, walked the streets. We find her name again and again in Jewish, Christian and pagan papyrus texts. Sophia – a mystical female presence whose appearance is only fleeting in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament – was clearly once a household name and a fixture in everyday lives.

Lion Elevator Restored at Rome's Gladiator Colosseum - NBC News

Lion Elevator Restored at Rome's Gladiator Colosseum - NBC News



ROME, Italy - An ancient elevator that carried lions and other animals into Rome's Colosseum for fights with gladiators has been restored by experts.



The manually-operated hoist was used to raise wild animals into the amphitheater in the 1st and 3rd centuries A.D.

What Is Deism?

What Is Deism?



Part of the problem with calling any of the Founders deists is the
difficulty of defining deism. What did that term mean in the eighteenth
century? Could you be a deist and somehow believe in prayer, as Franklin
apparently did, at least as of the Constitutional Convention? (Franklin
made a failed motion for the convention to open its sessions in
prayer.) Could you be a deist and say with Jefferson, “I am a real
Christian”?

Read more: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2015/03/what-is-deism/#ixzz3VcCOApP1

See how 70 Roman Emperors died, in one chart | TheBlaze.com

See how 70 Roman Emperors died, in one chart | TheBlaze.com

“Not gonna lie, natural causes was actually much higher than I expected,” one Reddit user remarked.



As other users were quick to point out, “natural causes” does not mean the emperor died a peaceful death, as many Roman rulers succumbed to plague and other debilitating diseases.

Five Historical Misconceptions

Just for a little fun…