Throughout human history in the eastern Mediterranean region, urban settlements have co-existed with earthquakes. The destructive capability of seismic activity is well chronicled by historians, and its cultural wreckage widely uncovered by archaeologists. Continue reading “The cultural significance of earthquakes in Greek antiquity – An association between active faults and ancient places”
Domestication and Agriculture in southern China
The Yangtze Valley in central China is widely regarded by archaeologists, palaeobotanists and plant geneticists as the location of the earliest cultivation of Asian rice. Continue reading “Domestication and Agriculture in southern China”
Hannibal’s crossing of the Rhone
Publius bound for Iberia with sixty ships and Tiberius Sempronius for Africa with a hundred and sixty quinqueremes. Continue reading “Hannibal’s crossing of the Rhone”
Road System in Eastern Roman (‘Byzantine’) Asia Minor on the Eve of the Turkish Conquest
The large land mass of Byzantine Anatolia was closely knit by the system of roads which the empire had largely inherited from the days of the Roman Empire.
Eastern United States region; one of the world’s independent centers of domestication
Between approximately 11,000 and 5,000 years ago, human societies in many different regions of the world brought a wide range of different species of plants and animals under domestication, marking the initial emergence of food production economies and the beginning of one of the major transitions in human history. Continue reading “Eastern United States region; one of the world’s independent centers of domestication”
Turkic influx in all strata of the Eastern Roman (‘Byzantine’) population (11th-15th centuries A.D.)
In the seventh to the ninth centuries, with some exceptions, there were three major groups of newcomers from the Muslim Orient to Byzantium: Muslim prisoners of war and hostages, merchants and diplomats, and “political” refugees. Continue reading “Turkic influx in all strata of the Eastern Roman (‘Byzantine’) population (11th-15th centuries A.D.)”