tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2077933982323452812024-03-14T05:18:08.683+01:00Mare Nostrum NewsFred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-36590314139993137462023-12-03T21:37:00.013+01:002023-12-04T11:00:40.327+01:00Bologna's leaning tower might collapseThe famous 48 metres high Garisenda Tower (that's the smaller tower on the left in the image) is one of two towers that dominate the skyline of the Italian city of Bologna. The other, the taller Asinelli Tower, is more than twice the height (97.2 metres) and also leans, though not so dramatically, and is usually open for tourists to climb.
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis1LIr15qeJhOae_vuvTsQgRIzeQYESdtYO75GOCfRfh1GSgBVCghwRA7sAVBaw2YGpDImv-RXVswZbNW5EBjyUUsk0_dU3PiEATJkUR6p8rB50kwOhYLTslT8FOllxZkkKlGORwDSA1Y9nQI74N0bNP-0HFxN61gJKHuRpuUpRUXyypicJ6CZnEzxAH-O/s447/2023-12-03_213701.png" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="399" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis1LIr15qeJhOae_vuvTsQgRIzeQYESdtYO75GOCfRfh1GSgBVCghwRA7sAVBaw2YGpDImv-RXVswZbNW5EBjyUUsk0_dU3PiEATJkUR6p8rB50kwOhYLTslT8FOllxZkkKlGORwDSA1Y9nQI74N0bNP-0HFxN61gJKHuRpuUpRUXyypicJ6CZnEzxAH-O/s400/2023-12-03_213701.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[The Garisenda Tower is the (short) one on the left]</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><BR>
The structures were built between 1109 and 1119, though the height of the Garisenda Tower was reduced in the 14th Century because it had already begun to lean. The towers were mentioned several times by Dante in his <i>Divina Commedia</i> ('Divine Comedy'), published in 1320.
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But time has not been kind to the Garisenda Tower. The tower now tilts at a four-degree angle, and monitoring has found shifts in the direction of the tilt.
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The site was first closed in October 2023 after sensors picked up the changes in the Garisenda's tilt and inspections revealed deterioration in the materials that make up its base.
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Authorities have begun constructing a 5 meters high barrier around the 12th Century Garisenda Tower to contain debris in the event that it falls.
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It said that as well as containing debris, the barrier would protect surrounding buildings and people in the event of a collapse. Metal rockfall nets will also be installed around the tower. Construction of the barrier will be completed early in 2024, while the tower and the plaza beneath it are expected to remain closed for a number of years while restoration work is carried out.
Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-63065146826751797402023-11-21T19:42:00.009+01:002023-11-21T21:02:36.470+01:00Calcata: Where's the Holy Prepuce?Precariously nestled on the edge of a cliff, the medieval village of Calcata in Italy is not your typical picturesque Italian town. It is a small, picturesque village located in the province of Viterbo, in the Lazio region of Italy, some 50 kilometres north of Rome. It is known for its interesting architecture, stunning views of the surrounding countryside, and a rather unusual historical claim to fame: the relic of the Holy Prepuce, or the <b>foreskin of Jesus Christ</b>. Prepuce is a Latin word from <i>prae-</i> ('fore-') and <i>pūtos</i> ('penis').
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The story of Calcata’s claim to the Holy Prepuce can be traced back to the Middle Ages. According to local legend, the relic was brought to Calcata in the 16th century by a soldier who participated in the Crusades. The soldier claimed to have acquired the relic from a monk in the Holy Land. Another legend, somewhat less heroic, claims that in AD1527, a soldier in the German army was helpful in looting the <i>Sanctum sanctorum</i> (the Temple of Jerusalem). Not much of a provenance, I agree.
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The Holy Prepuce was then placed in the Church of San Pietro in Calcata, making the town a destination for pilgrims. The Holy Prepuce was considered a rare and significant relic in the Catholic Church. However, its authenticity was a subject of controversy and skepticism, and many other churches also claimed to possess the Holy Prepuce. The relic was essentially forbidden from being worshipped by a papal decree issued in 1900 by Pope Leo XIII, and eventually faded into obscurity.
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In defiance of the papal decree, Calcata continued to stage an annual procession on the Day of the Holy Circumcision to honour the relic. In 1983, however, parish priest Dario Magnoni had to announce: "This year, the holy relic will not be exposed to the devotion of the faithful. It has vanished. Sacrilegious thieves have taken it from my home."
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He had reportedly kept the sacred relic in a shoebox in the back of a wardrobe. Conveniently citing the Vatican's decree of excommunication, Magnoni refused to further discuss the event, as does the Vatican.
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As a result, theories of the crime vary from theft for lucrative resale to an effort by the Vatican to quietly put an end to the practice it had attempted to end by excommunication years ago. Its current location is a mystery.
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Nowadays, Calcata is home to a thriving artistic community. Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-58722997577588403912023-11-12T13:12:00.008+01:002024-02-26T10:55:54.412+01:00Venetian CeruseVenetian ceruse was a 16th-century cosmetic product used as a skin whitener.
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcjMrYAKRmq25pLDHsKLdoGolDlTeC7A4TC9NGDokFw2U7fE0qoF1kYFski-71FuzcL-HHxmvPaVT_CzYyCgAUUVG-FDbkjOmId6BD6F_nJ8cUPLWcuHFIUhJPupFDA6atHtSO8pXfavcy8AzyEtPrQKFYLkRVgxaSI19gniCx453DAfG5XdVkbAqBkKFx/s1077/Elizabeth_I_portrait,_Marcus_Gheeraerts_the_Younger_c.1595.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1077" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcjMrYAKRmq25pLDHsKLdoGolDlTeC7A4TC9NGDokFw2U7fE0qoF1kYFski-71FuzcL-HHxmvPaVT_CzYyCgAUUVG-FDbkjOmId6BD6F_nJ8cUPLWcuHFIUhJPupFDA6atHtSO8pXfavcy8AzyEtPrQKFYLkRVgxaSI19gniCx453DAfG5XdVkbAqBkKFx/s400/Elizabeth_I_portrait,_Marcus_Gheeraerts_the_Younger_c.1595.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[Queen Elizabeth I in her later years]</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><BR>
Not surprisingly, the Romans had already invented a similar product, which they called <i>bianca</i> ('white'). It predates ceruse by several centuries. Both <i>bianca</i> and ceruse were lead pigments. The pigment led an uneventful life for centuries. However, the Venetians found a new market it and launched an even more potent version with the highest content of ceruse in 1521.
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The recipe for basic ceruse is white lead powder and vinegar heated together in a furnace for three to four days. In Venice, glassmaker's furnaces served a dual purpose: producing glass and ceruse. The Venetian version had the highest concentration of the whitest lead powder. The resulting concoction was then mixed with the ashes of burned green figs and made smooth with a little distilled vinegar. The finished paste was opaque. When spread on the face, it made a satin finish that covered unevenesses of your facial skin, such as smallpox marks, scars or other skin problems. Women never wiped it off, but added layer upon layer.
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Over time, a woman's face took on a grey cast. The skin dried out, wrinkled, and aged prematurely. The skin changed colour from yellow, green to purple. Teeth and gums started to rot, followed by bad breath, hair loss, acute abdominal pain, <a href="https://chronic-kidney-diseases.blogspot.com/2022/12/lead-induced-chronic-kidney-disease.html" target="_blank">chronic kidney diseas</a>e, muscle paralysis, mental confusion, uncontrollable convulsions, and eventually death by lead poisoning.
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Everyone knew (or should have known) the dangers: people were warned of its evils by physicians, and the church said that women were punishing their vanity with the product. Pliny the Elder (AD24-79) already called bianca a deadly poison.
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So, why on earth would you want to have a ghostly white skin that would eventually kill you? The usage of Venetian ceruse in the pursuit of a fair complexion was largely driven by its associations with high status and wealth. This was because everyone who performed outdoor work under direct sunlight often had a tanned skin, whereas individuals in higher positions within society had the luxury of staying indoors and would not be 'tainted' by direct sunlight.
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Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603) was always depicted with fair white skin. Which was the result of Venetian ceruse, and it emphasised her nobility and high status.
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Upon her death, a post-mortem was performed. Elizabeth’s make-up was said to be more than <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/history/1750308/queen-elizabeth-i-death-professor-alice-roberts-spt" target="_blank">two centimeters</a> thick.
Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-1912631163523245302023-10-03T10:01:00.004+02:002023-11-12T21:43:20.518+01:00Tutankhamun's Meteoric Iron DaggerIn 1922, a team led by archeologist Howard Carter (1874-1939) finally discovered the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun, who ruled during the end of the 18th dynasty. The tomb revealed more than 5,000 exquisite items, that ranged from the solid gold coffin (with his body covered with the famous golden funerary mask) to fresh linen underwear (even in the afterlife you needed a change of underwear).
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But among these artifacts was an enigmatig iron blade in a stunning ornamental golden sheath. Howard Carter described the dagger as having a finely manufactured blade made from a homogeneous metal, while the handle is made of fine gold and is decorated with cloisonné and granulation work, ending with a pommel of rock crystal. On one side of the golden sheath is a floral lily motif, while on the other is a pattern of feathers terminating with a jackal’s head.
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Examples in Egypt of contemporary smelting during the 18th Dynasty to produce iron are very rare, and likely just produced low-quality iron to be forged into precious objects. As the other blades found in the tomb are relatively crude, many scholars have suggested that the ornamental dagger was imported to Egypt, perhaps as a royal gift from a neighbouring territory or kingdom.
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The so-called Amarna letters, diplomatic documents, that date from the 14th century BC mention royal gifts made of iron given to the pharaohs of Egypt from before Tutankhamun’s reign. Interestingly, one of these documents notes that Tushratta, King of the Mitanni (now identified as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medes" target="_blank">Medes</a>), sent iron objects to Amenhotep III, Tutankhamun’s grandfather. Among the lists are iron blades.
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Since the 1960’s, researchers suggested the nickel content in the blade was indicative of meteoric origin. The results from a more recent study in 2016, derived from an x-ray fluorescence spectrometer analysis, indicated that the blade’s composition is mainly iron (Fe), 10.8% nickel (Ni) and 0.58% cobalt (Co)<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[1]</span></span>.
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This study compared the blade's composition to 11 meteorites of well-known compositions and 11 certified steel reference materials, concluding that the blade composition and homogeneity, closely correlates with a meteorite composition.
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This conclusion was further supported by a study published in 2022, which conducted a non-destructive two-dimensional chemical analysis, and suggests that the source meteorite of the blade is octahedrite, one of the most common structural classes of iron meteorites<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[2]</span></span>.
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Ancient Egyptians attributed great value to meteoritic iron for the production of precious objects. Moreover, the high manufacturing quality of Tutankhamun's dagger blade, in comparison with other simple-shaped meteoritic iron artifacts, suggests a significant mastery of ironworking in Tutankhamun's time.
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<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] Comelli et al: The Meteoritic Origin of Tutankhamun’s Iron Dagger Blade <i>in</i> Meteoritics and Planetary Science – 2016.<br />
[2] Matsui, et al: The manufacture and origin of the Tutankhamen meteoritic iron dagger <i>in</i> Meteoritics and Planetary Science – 2022. See <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/maps.13787" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span>Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-85820568971148121892023-03-16T18:06:00.007+01:002023-10-29T10:22:19.195+01:00The Death of Lord Carnarvon (1866-1923)Just five months after Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamen, his benefactor, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, fifth Earl of Carnarvon, died. He was just 57. His rather unexpected death within weeks of the tomb's official opening, coupled with the fertile imagination of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, lead to speculations of a curse.
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At the time, the cause of the Earl's death was reported as 'pneumonia supervening on [facial] erysipelas'. In normal modern medical terminology, this means 'a streptococcal infection of the skin and underlying soft tissue'.
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Pneumonia was thought to be only one of various complications, arising from the progressively invasive infection, that eventually resulted in multiorgan failure.
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But Lord Carnarvon wasn't a particularly healthy man. Left a semi-invalid by a near fatal car accident in 1903, he was prone to frequent and severe lung infections. The general belief at the time was that one acute attack of bronchitis could have been the end of him.
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In such a debilitated state, Lord Carnarvon's immune system was easily overwhelmed by erysipelas. On March 19, 1923, he suffered a mosquito bite on his cheek which became infected by a razor cut. He was diagnosed with 'erysipelas and streptococcic blood poisoning'.
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After much suffering, Lord Carnarvon died in the early morning of April 5. He suffered from a high fever, severe pain, pneumonia in both lungs, and eventually heart and respiratory failure.
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Recently, however, feeble-minded documentary makers have tried to link Lord Carnarvon's death to exposure to <i>Aspergillus</i>, which is a group of fungi that produce a mycotoxin when allowed to germinate on certain food products.
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-5p2i6lWL5z1_jnHHgsrSVJFQfglgjXw7MjkA6oUxeryrXRIq8043aY7USXh47yF-DKilBPOyOwDHfUnNyI69cNI3zOex9fnAtCmLwGzHgwmb66KlizG1t6W3dyBIkwmL_7QfJUbzMeJTkEJj0mNNm1jj8kJSuYxd1H6AJXtQCy0HZp3fOI_A598uzA/s768/Aspergillus-under-microscope-768x429.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="429" data-original-width="768" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-5p2i6lWL5z1_jnHHgsrSVJFQfglgjXw7MjkA6oUxeryrXRIq8043aY7USXh47yF-DKilBPOyOwDHfUnNyI69cNI3zOex9fnAtCmLwGzHgwmb66KlizG1t6W3dyBIkwmL_7QfJUbzMeJTkEJj0mNNm1jj8kJSuYxd1H6AJXtQCy0HZp3fOI_A598uzA/s400/Aspergillus-under-microscope-768x429.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[Aspergillus under a microscope]</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>For Carnarvon to have been exposed to the mycotoxin, he would have had to have entered the tomb. The Times of London reported that he did so on the day of its official opening on February 17, 1923 - a few weeks before he became sick.
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However, Howard Carter noted in his diary that Carnarvon first entered the tomb already on November 26, 1922.
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During his first ingress into the tomb, Carter described an escape of hot air after he broke through the second sealed door and, in one instance, Carnarvon is described as having crawled along the tomb's floor.
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Exposure to mycotoxins can cause a form of pneumonia to which immunocompromised individuals are particularly susceptible, and the contact Lord Carnarvon would have had with the toxic mold, by crawling along the floor and inhaling the hot air, certainly would have proved fatal for a semi-invalid extremely vulnerable to lung infections. But there is no mention in Carter's diary of Lord Carnarvon being ill until March of 1923, four whole months after his initial entry (as well as successive entries) into the tomb.
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Furthermore, of the 44 Westerners present at the time, just 25 actually entered the tomb. Lord Carnarvon was the only one to become ill or died soon after its opening.
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That Carnarvon's death had anything to do with Tutankhamen's tomb (or curse) is, therefore, highly unlikely.
</p>Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-50604810089959814482023-02-25T20:56:00.005+01:002023-02-25T21:15:47.921+01:00Rome before the RomansThe legend of Romulus and Remus explains the origin of the ancient city of Rome. Romulus founded the city on the Palatine Hill after he and his brother had been left to die on the bank of the River Tiber by their uncle King Amulius.
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpyimgj8KGF3YurVN5jrpMSE-BKJYNJWThSquyIZZTF35dDMkWS6L0hYpoIaHyhVOnLgTl220CLDPp__vjxXW87liGKwEmeUe1aflLkdXtFlb5n4QQnRbQ4T4tdbSevtLq90uu5gekparq-WEpMkYsT6Xfs_mCn_qmas6FduE7vKBoSv9HGIliPTSASQ/s1200/Palatine-hill-credit-Lalupa-Wikimedia-CommonsCC-BY-SA-30.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="752" data-original-width="1200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpyimgj8KGF3YurVN5jrpMSE-BKJYNJWThSquyIZZTF35dDMkWS6L0hYpoIaHyhVOnLgTl220CLDPp__vjxXW87liGKwEmeUe1aflLkdXtFlb5n4QQnRbQ4T4tdbSevtLq90uu5gekparq-WEpMkYsT6Xfs_mCn_qmas6FduE7vKBoSv9HGIliPTSASQ/s400/Palatine-hill-credit-Lalupa-Wikimedia-CommonsCC-BY-SA-30.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[Ruins on the Palatine Hill in Rome]</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>But there is another legend about the origins of Rome. An even older legend tells us that there was a Greek city which existed in the same place.
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In Book VIII of the epic poem 'Aeneid', written in the first century BC by Virgil (70-19 BC), Prince Aeneas of Troy is described as sailing to Italy and visiting the region where Rome would later be established. But when he arrived in the area, there was already a Greek city on the site. It was the city of Pallantium.
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The ruler of the city was a king named Evander who 'chose (honoring Pallas, their Pelasgian sire), the name of Pallantium'. That means they honoured the Greek goddess Pallas Athena. The Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus explained that Evander grew up in the city of Pallantium (from Ancient Greek Pallántion (Παλλάντιον) in Arcadia, Greece. When he moved to Italy and founded a new city, he decided to name it after his home city. According to the same writer, Evander founded the city sixty years before the Trojan War.
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Some ancient writers did not consider Pallantium to be a Greek city that came before Rome. Rather, they viewed it as actually being the original Rome. For example, the Greek historian Strabo (64 BC-24 AD) wrote that Rome was originally founded by Arcadians from Greece. This is obviously a reference to the legend of Pallantium. Yet, Strabo does not call it ‘Pallantium’ – he simply calls it ‘Rome’.
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Another historian of the first century BC, Ateius Philologus, agreed with this view. He wrote that the city which existed on the site of Rome was actually called ‘Rome’ in Evander’s time. Interestingly, he also wrote that Evander’s Rome was not the original settlement either. Rather, a settlement called Valentia existed there first, and then Evander changed its name to ‘Rome’ when he moved there.
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As early as the fifth century BC, the reliable historian Antiochus of Syracuse referred to a Rome that existed before the Trojan War. This supports the story that Virgil presents in the Aeneid, which is based just after that war. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of written information available about the Greek city of Rome that existed before the Romans. Nonetheless, this evidence from Antiochus of Syracuse shows that the legend dates back to at least the fifth century BC.
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Archaeologists did find evidence of what might be a Greek colony just next to the Palatine Hill. The Palatine Hill was where the earliest part of Rome was founded, so this is significant. Note the similarity with the Palatine Hill, where Rome was supposedly founded. This evidence of a possible Greek colony dates back to about the middle of the eighth century BC, which is very early in the history of Rome. In fact, this is before there was any major settlement on the Palatine Hill.
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Could this have been Evander’s city, the ‘Rome before the Romans’? It is certainly possible. The earliest records of the founding of Rome usually make Romulus a son of Aeneas rather than a distant descendant. This would mean that Evander’s city would have existed fairly soon before Romulus lived, and since Romulus is usually placed in the eighth century BC, the chronology works well with these archaeological findings.
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<a href="https://greekreporter.com/2023/02/22/greek-city-rome-before-romans/?fbclid=IwAR3Az1k82FMxDZXm6E2EgfyXmp4iPI7H6xA8XiQTdINReOKdUHPGabyJfhc" target="_blank">Source</a>.</p>Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-32266795810852134852022-12-01T18:21:00.001+01:002022-12-01T18:21:13.738+01:00Alexandria is sinkingSome cities have a great future behind them and are now facing oblivience. Venice is sinking (see <a href="https://cypriotnews.blogspot.com/2020/07/venice-is-sinking.html" target="_blank">here</a>) and so is Alexandria.
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Of course, some blame the rising sea levels as a result of global warming, but, just like Venice, most of its peril is man made.
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Alexandria dates back to 331 B.C, when Alexander the Great chose to build a city surrounded by two bodies of water: the Mediterranean Sea in the north to make it a trade center, and Lake Mariout to the south, where he directed the Greek architect Dinocrat to design “Alexander’s Harbor.”
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But the location was a barren area. So the engineers needed to establish a complex, intelligent system to supply water from the Nile through canals, and then distribute water through a branched pipeline system and store it in underground tanks.
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Parts of this old pipeline system still exist but are not functioning, as the new city is built on the top of the many ancient cities that came ahead of it. And this is in itself another cause of subsidence.
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Every year the city sinks by more than three millimetres, undermined by dams on the Nile that hold back the river silt that once consolidated its soil, and the problem is exacerbated by gas extraction offshore. Add to that the unchecked building of ever larger (and thus heavier) constructions that force out groundwater.
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Even by the United Nations' best case scenario, a third of the city will be underwater or uninhabitable by 2050, with 1.5 million of its six million people forced to flee their homes. Already hundreds of Alexandrians have had to abandon their apartments weakened by flooding in 2015 and again in 2020.
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Even without a possible rise in seal levels, a third of the highly productive agricultural land in the Nile Delta could be inundated by salt water.
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Across the Delta, the sea has already advanced inland more than three kilometres since the 1960s, swallowing up Rosetta's iconic 19th-century lighthouse in the 1980s.
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All this is happening as Alexandria's population is exploding, with nearly two million more people arriving in the last decade, while investment in infrastructure, as elsewhere in Egypt, has lagged. The city's governor, Mohamed al-Sharif, weakly said that the crumbling drainage system for its roads was built to absorb one million cubic metres of rain. But with the more violent storms that have come with climate change, "today we can get 18 million cubic metres falling in a single day".
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"Yes, the threat exists and we don't deny it, but we're launching projects to attenuate it," the head of the authority protecting Egypt's coastline Abdel Qader said. A huge belt of reeds is being planted along 69 kilometres of coastline. "Sand sticks around them and together they form a natural barrier," he said.
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It all seems a bit too little too late. As the Chinese philosopher and politician Confucius (ca. 551-ca. 479 BC) once said: "A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.”
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Remember that the lost tomb of Alexander the Great must be located somewhere in Alexandria, and that <a href="https://cypriotnews.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-hunt-for-cleopatras-tomb.html" target="_blank">the tomb of Cleopatra (and Mark Anthony)</a> is possibly also nearby in Taposiris Magna. They could be lost forever.
Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-43603177156014994432022-11-28T17:22:00.018+01:002022-11-30T15:32:29.558+01:00The hunt for the tomb of Cleopatra (and Mark Anthony)Archaeologist Kathleen Martínez (1966) of the University of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) and her team are researching a temple complex in the ancient Egyptian city of Taposiris Magna. The ruined city is situated some 50 kilometres southwest of Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast. In 2022 they uncovered a vast tunnel that experts are referring to as a 'geometric miracle'. The structure runs 13 meters below the ground. The 2-meter tall tunnel had been hewn through an incredible 1,305 meters of sandstone. However, parts of the tunnel are flooded. Its purpose is currently unknown.
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Its design, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said, is remarkably similar to the 1,036-meter <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_of_Eupalinos" target="_blank">Tunnel of Eupalinos <i>(Ευπαλίνιον όρυγμα)</i></a>, an aqueduct from 6th century BC on the Greek island of Samos.
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Martínez, who has been working in Taposiris Magna since 2004 in search of the lost tomb of <a href="https://cypriotnews.blogspot.com/2019/01/was-cleopatra-really-beautiful.html" target="_blank">Cleopatra VII</a> (69-30 BC), believes that the tunnel could be a promising lead. Previously, the excavations did yield some promising clues, but no definitive proof regarding the whereabouts of Cleopatra's tomb has been found.
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The city of Taposiris Magna was founded around 280 BC by Ptolemy II, the son of Alexander the Great's renowned general and one of Cleopatra's forebears. The temple itself, the team believes, was dedicated to the god Osiris and his queen, the goddess Isis, the deity with whom Cleopatra courted a strong association. Coins bearing the names and likenesses of Cleopatra and Alexander the Great have been found there, as well as figurines of Isis.
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It is quite possible that Cleopatra and her husband Mark Antony (83-30 BC) may have been interred in one single tomb, because her last wish was that she be buried with Mark Anthony. A wish that was granted by Ceasar. It is also possible that Mark Anthony was cremated, which could mean that Cleopatra can still embrace the urn which contains his ashes.
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The next stage will be exploring the nearby Mediterranean. Between 320 and 1303 CE, a series of earthquakes rocked the coast. These caused parts of the temple to collapse and other parts were swallowed by the raging sea. In addition, excavations had previously revealed a network of tunnels stretching from the brackish Lake Mariout to the Mediterranean.
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But <a href="https://www.businessinsider.co.za/archaeologists-mummy-golden-tongue-alexandria-egypt-2021-2" target="_blank">according to</a> Zahi Hawass (1947), former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs, there's "no evidence" that Cleopatra is buried at Taposiris Magna. "I believe now that Cleopatra was buried in her tomb that she built next to her palace and it is (now) under the water," the old man claimed in 2021. "Her tomb will never be found."
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Kathleen Martínez respectfully disagrees.
Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-8106823137915703852022-04-26T17:31:00.005+02:002022-04-28T08:08:35.224+02:00Tunisia: Menzel BourguibaMost cities around the Mediterranean will proudly trace their origins back millennia. Several of them were early colonies of the ancient Greeks, while others were founded by Romans. <a href="https://yakelos.blogspot.com/2021/11/tunesie-en-hun-olijfolie.html" target="_blank">Carthage</a> in Tunisia, for instance, was a settlement that evolved into a city-state and then into an empire. It was founded by the Phoenicians in the ninth century BC, flourished and was eventually reduced to rubble by the Romans in 146 BC, who later rebuilt the city.
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But not every city can be proud of their ancient heritage. In the very north of Tunisia lies Menzel Bourguiba. It cannot trace its origins back to the remote past.
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In 1897 Tunisia was a French protectorate. France, wanting to protect its 'African province', decided to build an arsenal on a strategic and secluded location between lakes Ichkeul and Bizerte. A town, needed for non-military personnel and their families, was built on a nearby site. It was named Ferryville to honour the French minister Jules Ferry (1832-1893), the 'inspiration' of the French protectorate of Tunisia. The French expats found the city so beautiful that they lovingly called it 'Petit Paris' ('Little Paris').
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Tunisia finally achieved independence from France in 1956 and one can imagine that a city that bears the name of a French usurper was 'tainted'. For that obvious reason, its name was quickly changed to Menzel Bourguiba, which means 'House of Bourguiba'. It is named in honour of the first president of the independent Tunisia, Habib Bourguiba (1903-2000).
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These days, the arsenal has become a ailing shipyard to repair merchant ships. It saw its zenith in the 1970s and 1980s, when Tunisia had a much larger merchant fleet and the (then) Soviet Union used the shipyard to drydock its ships. At that time, the yard employed over 1,300 people.
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Now, Menzel Bourguiba is a somewhat sleepy town with more than 54,000 inhabitants. It is surrounded by <a href="https://yakelos.plugandpay.nl/r?id=gNfoFScC" target="_blank"><b>olive trees</b></a> and is hemmed in by the turquoise-coloured water of both lakes. Sometimes a city has a great future behind it.
Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-65994922698600927722022-03-02T19:44:00.002+01:002022-03-05T17:48:09.734+01:00Losing the Sea of MarmaraCan a harbour get lost? Can you misplace an entire sea?
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The Sea of Marmara connects the Black Sea to the north with the Mediterranean to the south. It has a two-layer current system made up of these compositionally very different bodies of water, flowing to and fro in opposite directions. As less salty, nutrient-rich Black Sea water flows through the Bosphorus – the channel through Istanbul that separates Europe from Asia - it meets the saline, nutrient deficient Mediterranean water in the Sea of Marmara. According to marine scientists, the coexistence of these waters - two currents stacked on top of each other – creates a unique and nutrient rich environment.
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For centuries this unique marine ecosystem has been home to a multitude of species of fish, dolphins, crustaceans, mollusks, and corals. Not anymore.
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Since the 1970s, the coasts around the Sea of Marmara has seen rapid industrialization and urbanization which resulted in intense pollution. The Sea of Marmara has been slowly filling up with polluted wastewater. Most recently, in late 2020, wastewater from the nearby Ergene River, one of the world’s most polluted rivers, also started to be discharged into the Sea of Marmara, channelled through a 59 kilometer-long pipe out into the open sea. When the local municipality in the city of Edirne studied the water, they found excessive levels of pollutants, including cyanide, nitrogen, chromium, lead, and copper.
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Toxic wastewater from factories along the Sea of Marmara’s coast is also discharged into the sea. In addition to this, waste from large ships, excessive fishing, and extensive land reclamation projects using land fill along its coasts have added to the Sea of Marmara’s burden. As a result, the Sea of Marmara has seen frequent episodes of <a href="https://strangesyndromes.blogspot.com/2022/02/burgundy-blood-phenomenon.html" target="_blank">red tide</a> and enormous blooms in green algae.
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In the summer of 2021, an unexpected explosion of mucilage, a thick substance produced by algae that has earned the nickname 'sea snot', led to the death of thousands of sea creatures. Triggered by warming temperatures and excessive levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the sea, the mucilage acted as a blanket on the shores. It prevented oxygen and sunlight from entering the water, clogged the gills of fish, and killed thousands of spawning fish, crabs, and stingrays.
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The plan to create a new waterway linking the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara will further disrupt the delicate ecological balance between them and put Turkey’s freshwater resources at risk.
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Levent Artüz, a hydrologist, says that the Sea of Marmara has hit “rock bottom.” He says that the mucilage crisis, caused by the unusually rapid proliferation of microscopic phytoplankton, is just another symptom of an ecosystem that is currently wildly imbalanced. Artüz makes the dramatic claim that the Sea of Marmara has already died, and now exists as a lifeless body of water.
Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-84317032413168860312021-12-15T20:01:00.004+01:002021-12-15T20:05:19.174+01:00The fall of Constantinople in AD 1453Constantinople was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and subsequent Byzantine Empire, founded in 330 AD by Emperor Constantine the Great at the existing Greek city of Byzantion (more commonly known by the later Latin Byzantium). Constantine named the city <i>Nova Roma</i>, meaning ‘New Rome’, later emerging as the sole capital of the Roman Empire after the <a href="https://cypriotnews.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-roman-empire-did-not-fall-in-476-ad.html" target="_blank">fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476</a>.
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The city was protected by a vast system of defensive land walls, especially by the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls, built form the 5th century AD onwards, which defended the city successfully from several lengthy sieges.
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With the advent of the Ottoman Empire in 1299, the Byzantine Empire began to crumble. Constantinople was already in decline, mostly the result of the Justinianic plague (541–549 AD) which killed almost half the population and the sacking by Crusaders during the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204).
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By 1450, Byzantine territory had shrunk to just a few miles outside of the city gates, leaving the once powerful Empire that dominated the Mediterranean a mere city state.
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When Mehmed II succeeded Sultan Murad II in 1451, he devoted himself to strengthening Ottoman forces in preparation for attacking Constantinople. The siege of Constantinople began in on April 6th, 1453. Byzantine forces defending the city totalled around 7,000 men who stood against a force of between 50,000–80,000 Ottoman soldiers.
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Attempts to attack the city from the sea were thwarted by a giant chain that blocked the entrance to the Golden Horn. Mehmed ordered the construction of a road of greased logs and circumvented the chain by dragging his ships overland, forcing the Byzantines to reduce their garrisons on the land wall to protect the city sea walls.
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Multiple land assaults against the Theodosian Walls were repelled with large Ottoman losses, resulting in Mehmed to offer lifting the siege if the Byzantines surrendered the city. Mehmed promised he would allow the emperor and the city inhabitants to leave with their possessions, moreover, he would recognise the emperor as governor of the Peloponnese.
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Constantine responded by saying: “As to surrendering the city to you, it is not for me to decide or for anyone else of its citizens; for all of us have reached the mutual decision to die of our own free will, without any regard for our lives.”
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The final assault began on May 26th, 1453 with successive waves of soldiers that overwhelmed the defenders at several points along the city walls.
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The loss of Constantinople was seen as a crippling blow to Christendom, exposing the West to a foe that could match the armies of Europe and lead to centuries of conflict. Many Greeks fled the city and found refuge in the Latin West, bringing with them knowledge and documents from the Greco-Roman tradition to Italy and other regions that helped to propel the Renaissance.
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Mehmed declared himself Kayser-i Rum, literally “Caesar of Rome”, that is, of the Roman Empire, though he was remembered as “the Conqueror”. He founded a political system that survived until 1922 with the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. Constantinople was again renamed to Istanbul in 1930.
<br />Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-23725209145235758192021-12-06T19:54:00.007+01:002021-12-06T20:17:37.200+01:00Beer in Ancient GreeceAncient Greeks mostly drank wine, but they may also have brewed beer, according to a study that describes the discovery of two (probable) Bronze Age breweries. The discoveries may be the oldest beer-making facilities in Greece.
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'Textual evidence from historic periods in Greece clearly shows that beer was considered an alcoholic drink of foreign people, and barley wine a drink consumed by the Egyptians, Thracians, Phrygians, and Armenians, in most cases drunk with the aid of a straw,' Soultana Maria Valamoti wrote in her study<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[1]</span></span>.
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This suggests that prehistoric Greeks were probably using alcoholic drinks for feasts during the entire year, instead of just on a seasonal basis when grapes were ripe.
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Archaeologists found the remains of several buildings that may have been used for beer making: some at Archondiko in northern Greece, and another at Agrissa, a site south of Archondiko on the eastern side of Greece. Both sites had been <a href="https://homeofhomer.blogspot.com/2021/06/what-caused-greek-dark-ages.html" target="_blank">destroyed by fire</a>, which turned them into veritable time capsules, Valamoti said. After the fire, the prehistoric people appear to have moved out, leaving countless burned artifacts behind, including the remains of sprouted cereal grains.
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At Archondiko, archaeologists found about 100 individual sprouted cereal grains that could be dated to the early Bronze Age (circa 2100 to 2000 BC). At Agrissa, they found about 3,500 sprouted cereal grains dating to the middle Bronze Age (circa 2100 to 1700 BC).
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The discovery of sprouted cereal grains is significant. To brew beer, a brewer needs to sprout cereals (a process known as malting), which turns the grain's starch into sugars. This sprouting process is then interrupted by roasting the grain. Next, the grains are coarsely ground and mixed with lukewarm water to make wort, which helps convert the remaining starches into sugars. Finally, the sugars in the malt are used by yeast and turned into alcohol. This yeast is potentially present in the air around the brewery, introduced by adding grapes into the liquid, or from other sources, like dates.
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In addition, archaeologists found a two-chambered structure at Archondiko that 'seems to have been carefully constructed to maintain low temperatures in the rear chamber, possibly even below 100<sup>o</sup>C,' Valamoti wrote. Given that a temperature of 70<sup>o</sup>C is ideal for preparing the mash and wort, it is certainly possible that Ancient Greekse used this structure during the beer-making process, she said.
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There were even a number special cups found near the sprouted grains, suggesting they may have been used to serve beer. However, some of these cups were difficult to drink from, so it's possible that people there sipped beer through straws, Valamoti said.
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<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] Soultana Maria Valamoti: Brewing beer in wine country? First archaeobotanical indications for beer making in Early and Middle Bronze Age Greece <i>in</i> Vegetation History and Archaeobotany – 2017 </span></span>Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-84650076285216573192021-11-05T11:55:00.009+01:002021-11-05T22:38:51.005+01:00Ancient Greek docters prescribed the Mediterranean dietThe Greek physician Hippocrates (~460-370 BC) reputed said: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food." However history cannot attribute that quote to him<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[1]</span></span>.
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Experts at the University of Exeter studied texts of ancient Greek doctors and found that they believed rich flavours could improve the food’s nutritional potency, while one of them, Galen of Pergamon (129-~216AD ), prescribed food recipes containing garlic and onions to his patients<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[2]</span></span>. Galen saw nutrition as an essential part of the medical art, along with pharmacology and surgery.”
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As Professor John Wilkins explained, "The ancient diet resembled the modern Mediterranean diet but obviously (still) without oranges and lemons from China and tomatoes from South America. The diet is largely based on regional plants, which the doctors generally preferred over imported luxuries."<br /><br />
Galen’s writings included recipes for pancakes and put under discussion the types of bread and cakes that should be eaten. The physician also warned of the dangers of milk, which, according to him, contains whey and solids that may block the narrow channels in the liver in susceptible individuals. This suggests he already understood the effects of <a href="https://pepernieuws.blogspot.com/2021/05/evolutionair-voordeel-lactose.html" target="_blank">lactose intolerance</a>. His recipes included simple cooking techniques, designed to bring out the flavour of basic ingredients and he even wrote about how snails should be boiled twice to reduce their laxative properties. Galen even recommended spices such as pepper, ginger and cinnamon to his patients, while other doctors recommended fruits and vegetables.
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Although each country around the Mediterranean presents its own food choices and traditions, recipes from each culture present a substantial overlap, therefore distinctive cuisines share nutritional attributes and ingredients.
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<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] Diana Cardenas: Let not thy food be confused with thy medicine: The Hippocratic misquotation in e-SPEN Journal - 2013. See <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212826313000924" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
[2] John Wilkins: Good food and bad: Nutritional and pleasurable eating in ancient Greece <i>in</i> Journal of Ethnopharmacology - 2015</span></span>Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-39676053213561036102021-06-28T19:10:00.004+02:002021-06-29T18:07:50.087+02:00Miltos: the elusive red pigmentAncient Greek and Roman texts tell that a red powdered mineral, known as miltos <i>(μίλτος)</i>, was used for several unrelated applications<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[1]</span></span>. Its use is attested to in Mycenaean clay tablets, inscribed in Linear B as <i>mi-to-we-sa</i> and dated around the second millennium BC.
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The variety of applications for which it was used was broad: it was used as a pigment, as a cosmetic, in ship maintenance, agriculture, and medicine. It was precisely this diversity that intrigued the scientists<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[2]</span></span>.
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The ancient texts made it clear that miltos could be found (and mined), in only three places in Graeco-Roman world: Kea in the Cyclades, Lemnos in the northeast Aegean, and Cappadocia in Turkey.
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The team examined miltos samples at source. The fact that the substance contained a lot of iron-oxide, which gave it its colour, was uncontroversial, but the researchers were keen to know what else was in each sample to see if the additives meant that different mines produced miltos suited for its different uses.
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The scientists analysed five samples: four obtained from Kea, and one originally from Lemnos that had been collected during the sixteenth or seventeenth century and is currently housed in the Pharmacy Museum of the University of Basel in Switzerland. No Turkish miltos was available.
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The results show that, yes, different samples from different mines have potentially different abilities – the result of both small amounts of various chemicals embedded with the iron oxide and the microbial communities that live in them.
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One of the samples from Kea, for example, was found to have 'exceptionally high' lead levels. This could explain a 360 BC Greek inscription decreeing that Kea miltos could only be exported to Athens because of its value not just for decoration but also because of its role in boat maintenance.
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The high lead levels mean that Miltos from Kea would make a very effective anti-fouling agent, preventing the growth of bacterial colonies and barnacles on boat hulls. Another sample from Kea had significant quantities of zinc, arsenic and copper, making it ideal as the base ingredient for a biocidal boat paint. Until very recently all marine antibacterial paints contained zinc and copper.
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There are several references in Greek and Roman literature to the presence of miltos on farms. It could be mixed with pitch or resin, and probably was used to ward off plant diseases or as a fertiliser. Key were the microbial communities that lived in them.
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The researchers found that such applications were certainly not without merit, and that antibacterial effects varied quite widely across the sample range.
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The sample from Lemnos, for instance, was found to contain traces of titanium dioxide, a known antibacterial compound. Interestingly, the samples high in lead were not particularly effective, perhaps, the scientists suggest, because lead is toxic and its effect therefore dose dependent.
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The different effects produced by the different samples supports the idea that not all miltos was the same.
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<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] Photos-Jones: <i>From mine to apothecary</i>: an archaeo-biomedical approach to the study of the Greco-Roman lithotherapeutics industry <i>in</i> World Archeaology - 2018. See <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00438243.2018.1515034" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[2] Photos-Jones et al: Greco-Roman mineral (litho)therapeutics and their relationship to their microbiome: The case of the red pigment miltos <i>in</i> Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports – 2018. See <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X1830230X#bb0130" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></span>
Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-27295746178260097292021-06-27T10:34:00.007+02:002024-01-15T10:49:44.066+01:00Porphyry: the Royal (Purple) MarbleIn Antiquity, purple was the colour of power and wealth, although both were mostly in the same hands. People went to extreme lengths (and costs) to acquire that colour.
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x-IQyxviOak/YNg2XLf5GUI/AAAAAAAAPls/EzzmOhcG2c4wfQMI_PuZCQNqT45zSASkwCLcBGAsYHQ/s612/241677e0e764a526ba265d883f75689f.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="330" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x-IQyxviOak/YNg2XLf5GUI/AAAAAAAAPls/EzzmOhcG2c4wfQMI_PuZCQNqT45zSASkwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/241677e0e764a526ba265d883f75689f.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">An imperial porphyry</span> column in the Hagia Sophia]</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>A small sea snail, today known as the <a href="https://specerijen.blogspot.com/2020/11/brandhoren.html" target="_blank">purple dye murex</a> <i>(Bolinus brandaris)</i>, produces a colourless secretion which turns into a brilliant puple dye when exposed to the air. To colour robes of dignitary purple you needed to harvest some 7,500 snails to obtain one gram of pure dye. This amount could colour just 15 cm<sup>3</sup> of cloth. Imagine the costs of a robe for a king or high priest.
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But, as always, purple clothes weren't enough to display your status. The most powerful even wanted their palaces built with the colour purple and that was a problem.
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In 14 AD, a Roman legionary, discovered hard purple rocks in what is now the Gabal Abu Dukhan quarry in the Eastern Desert of Egypt near the Red Sea. Samples were promptly brought to the Emperor Tiberius in Rome. When Tiberius saw that this purple-coloured stone was solid enough for building and carving, he decreed that 'Imperial Porphyry' would be for the use of the Imperial family only.
The term porphyry is from Ancient Greek <i>porphyra (πορφύρα)</i> and means 'purple'. <br />
</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PFNdCwgNQVQ/YNg2Q9l7cyI/AAAAAAAAPlo/7Iolb7gpdG4zT_hi_Mb6LDfPx4OjdthGQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/1280px-Carmagnola_1.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PFNdCwgNQVQ/YNg2Q9l7cyI/AAAAAAAAPlo/7Iolb7gpdG4zT_hi_Mb6LDfPx4OjdthGQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/1280px-Carmagnola_1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[Carmagnola, an imperial porphyry head in Venice]</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>Tiberius quickly established a quarry on <i>Mons Porphyry</i> ('purple mountain') and began to use the stone for the decoration of Imperial palaces and other buildings. Later emperors continued the tradition. Imperial Porphyry was used for panels, floor tiles, statues, sarcophagi, and for the pillars of official buildings throughout the Roman world.
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Perhaps most significant was the large circle of Imperial Porphyry in the centre of the floor of the Pantheon in Rome. For the next 300 years, new Emperors stood in this symbolic circle to be crowned.
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This use to convey royalty made Imperial Porphyry truly the stone of Empire, causing it to be more significant, powerful and costly to the Empire than gold.
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When the Emperor Constantine established Constantinople (now Istanbul) as the new Roman capital in 330 AD, he erected a 30-meter column of Imperial Porphyry with his statue at the top. The statue did not survive, but the pillar itself still stands. Eight Imperial Porphyry pillars also still support the niches of the Hagia Sophia, built by the Emperor Justinian.
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In 600 AD the Byzantine Empire lost control of Egypt (and thus of the Imperial Porphyry quarry) to invading Muslim forces. Even its exact location was forgotten for centuries. The ancient quarry on <i>Mons Porphyry</i> was only rediscovered in 1823 by Sir John Wilkinson. It is now a World Heritage site.
</p>Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-51452120178038718072021-04-30T16:23:00.016+02:002021-05-01T16:25:07.445+02:00Where was Mary Magdalene born?
To some, Mary Magdalene, also known as Mary of Magdala, was the wife of Jesus Christ.
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The Gospel of Philip, referred to Mary Magdalene as Jesus’s companion and claimed that Jesus loved her more than the other disciples. Most controversially, the text stated that Jesus used to kiss Mary “<span style="color: #3d85c6;">often on her ____</span>.” Damage to the text left the last word unreadable, though some scholars have filled in the missing word as “mouth.”
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Whether or not this is true, not disputed is that she was very close to Jesus.
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The question might arise where Mary was actually born. The accepted theory is that she likely came from Magdala, a village on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee that was primarily known in antiquity as a little fishing town. Its Greek name was Taricheae, meaning 'place where fish are salted'.
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It was a large Jewish settlement in the Early Roman period. At the time of the destruction of the Second Temple it served as Josephus’ main military base in his war against the Romans in the Galilee.
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However, the enigmatic name, Magdalene, causes bible critics considerable concern. Magdalene is thought to derive from Hebrew <i>migdál</i> ('tower'). Well, one can hardly imagine that a once tiny fishing village would be adorned with a considerable tower worthy of naming Maria. It is therefore quite possible that the village was named ex post facto to accommodate Mary into the Biblical landscape.
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So, why would Mary be given the epithet Magdalene?
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In the Gospel of Mark (Mark 8:10) Dalmanutha or Dalmanoutha is the unknown destination of Jesus on the shores of the Sea of Gallilee after he fed the four thousand, as recorded in Mark's Gospel (Mark 8:10). It is sometimes believed to be in the vicinity of Magdala, since the parallel passage in the Gospel of Matthew (15:39) refers instead to 'Magadan', which has been taken to be a variant form of 'Magdala'.
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Some scholars have remarked that Dalmanutha is akin to Dalmatia, located on the shores of the Adriatic Sea. The etymology of the word Dalmatia is shrouded in mystery. Some translate Dalmatia as 'deceitful lamp' from <i>dalos (δαλος)</i> 'a lamp' and <i>mataia (ματαια)</i> 'deceitful'<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[1]</span></span>. The reason is evident: Populations who inhabited the seashore, made fires, simulating false lighthouses to deceit sailors in order that they shipwrecked there, so that they could plunder the wreckage. And Dalmatia, with its rugged coastline, was a good place for that form of piracy.
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So <i>daloi mataioi</i> could have been in Greek vernacular a folk etymology of Dalmatia, meaning 'deceitful lighthouses'. Which would explain why the Evangelist, or a later amanuensis, used Dalmatia, a name concerning the Ionian See crossing of Antonius to Dalmatia, for the Mediterranean Sea crossing of Caesar to Egypt.
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Its supposed etymology will take us a step further to solve the mystery. Yes, <i>dalos (δαλος)</i> is 'a lamp', but this leads us to <i>pharos (Φάρος)</i>, the famous lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and for many centuries one of the tallest man-made structures in the world.
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The word <i>pharos</i> is of uncertain etymology, but is possibly related to <i>dalos</i>.
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So, have we found here the solution of the name of Mary Magdalene? Dalmoutha may mean 'of (the city of) the lighthouse'. Magdalene can be read as <i>megálos (μεγάλος)</i> and <i>dalos (δαλος)</i>, the '(from the city of) great lamp'. This leads us to Alexandria.
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Can we find any corroborating evidence of that discovery? Curiously, all of Mary's epithets (migdal, Dalmanutha, Magdalene) relate to towers or lighthouses.
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In the Gospel of Luke (2:39) we read '<span style="color: #0b5394;">When they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth</span>'.
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However, in the Gospel of Matthew (2:14) we find '<span style="color: #3d85c6;">So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt</span>'.
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Strange. But not if we accept that the chronology in the gospel of Matthew is garbled. Suppose that Matthew was not writing about Jesus' youth, but of an event after his death.
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Then we understand what is actually written here: Joseph escapes with Mary Magdalene with her child to safety. Her child? Well, that would be Barabbas which is simply an Aramaic phrase <i>(Bar Abba)</i> meaning 'son of the father'. Can Barabbas be the son of Jesus and Mary Magdalene?<br /><br />
<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] Charnock: Local Etymology: A Derivative Dictionary of Geographical Names – 1859 (pp. 81)</span></span></p>Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-79656832275149974382021-03-28T14:33:00.005+02:002022-05-20T22:48:28.349+02:00The origins of rice in ItalyWhen asked about rice <i>(Oryza sativa)</i> in Italy, your answer will probably be: risotto. Yes, it is a dish made with <i>riso</i> ('rice'), but where exactly did that rice originally came from? Archaeology revealed that rice was already cultivated in China some 8,000 years ago<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[1]</span></span>.
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Rice was first introduced in Greece following the Alexander the Great’s expedition to Asia, who went as far as the banks of the Indus, in about 320 BC. The Arabs introduced rice in the south of the Iberian Peninsula in the eighth century.
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Later, rice may have been introduced to Italy by early Venetian commerce, often personified by <a href="https://cypriotnews.blogspot.com/2017/07/was-marco-polo-born-in-croatia.html" target="_blank">Marco Polo</a> (1254-1324), although no written document about these possible introductions survives.
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There is evidence of <a href="https://campersmuikjegaatlos.nl/ontdek-rijst-natuur-met-nieuwe-e-reisgids-rijst-op-de-korrel/" target="_blank">rice growing in Portugal</a> in the thirteenth century and it was re-introduced by the Portuguese navigators after the opening of the route to the Indies in the late fifteenth century. Rice probably spread to from Portugal to Italy, first in the Kingdom of Naples, followed by the wetlands of Tuscany, near Pisa, in 1468, and then in the plain of the river Po, where the crop became definitively established.
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Rice cultivation expanded to ca. 20,000 ha in the area around Milan until the 1700s. At that time, the only rice cultivated in Italy was Nostrale, a variety susceptible to rice blast <i>(Magnaporthe oryzae)</i>.
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To guarantee the continued rice cultivation that was seriously threatened by this fungal disease, new varieties were introduced from China and Japan at the beginning of 19th century. These varieties were characterized by their high yield and resistance to rice blast.
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As a consequence, five novel Italian rice varieties were cultivated in Italy in 1872: Ostiglia, Bertone, Novarese, Francone, and Giapponese.
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So, where did these rice varieties originate. Did they come from China, from India, From Japan (as can be deduced from the name of the Giapponese variety), or even from another source?
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Recent scientific evidence point to a genetic affinity to China's northern provinces, such as Hebei, Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang Provinces<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[2]</span></span>. This makes sense because the climatic conditions there are relatively similar to those of Italian rice cultivation regions.
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Although the tales such as Marco Polo’s contribution to the introduction of rice from China to Italy may never be fully confirmed, results from this study provide solid genetic evidence to confirm the close linkage between Italian and Chinese rice varieties.
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<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] Qiu et al: Excavation at Hanjing site yields evidence of early rice cultivation in the Huai River more than 8000 years ago <i>in</i> Science China Earth Sciences - 2022<br />
[2] Cai et al: The Puzzle of Italian Rice Origin and Evolution: Determining Genetic Divergence and Affinity of Rice Germplasm from Italy and Asia <i>in</i> PLoS One - 2013. See <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3827184/#B15" target="_blank">here</a>.
</span></span></p>Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-11426036592406658752021-02-26T18:04:00.003+01:002021-03-01T15:06:20.760+01:00The Short History of AltinumAltinum was an ancient town of the Veneti, the namesakes of Venice. It was situated some 15 kilometers southeast of modern Treviso and on the mainland shore of the Laguna di Venezia. Being also close the the mouths of the rivers Dese, Zero, and Sile, it was perfectly situated for trade. The city developed into a major port and trading centre for timber, oil, wine and wool.
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Altinum became part of the Roman Empire and was a flourishing port and trading centre during that period. Yet its fortune turned when it was ransacked by the Huns in the year AD 452. The city recovered but the shoreline continued to silt up, eventually blocking off access to sea trade and leading to the abandonment by its inhabitants for the island of Torcello at the northern end of the Venetian Lagoon.
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The remains of Altinum were plundered for its stone for use as building materials in Torcello and the emerging <a href="https://cypriotnews.blogspot.com/2020/07/venice-is-sinking.html" target="_blank">Venice</a>, leaving very little archaeological remains above ground level. The remains have also been affected by agricultural activities since the late nineteenth century. But it also meant that Altinum was the only Roman city in northern Italy that has not been buried by medieval and modern cities.
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During a severe drought in 2007, a team led by Paolo Mozzi, a geomorphologist, took aerial photos of the site in several wavelengths of visible light and in near-infrared. Because the crops planted on the land were in different stages of ripening, thanks to differences in the amount of water in the soil. When the images were processed to tease out subtle variations in plant water stress, a buried city emerged.
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The study has also revealed numerous previously unknown associated buildings around the port area, allowing archaeologists to determine the wider extent of the Altinum port system and how other previously known structures, such as a Roman tower was positioned along the navigation route that led from the port to the sea. They discovered a complex network of rivers and canals, revealing how the people mastered the marshy environment in what is now the lagoon of Venice.Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-75315150281019557842021-02-04T17:16:00.009+01:002023-10-13T19:49:49.604+02:00Lamborghini: From wine, via tractors and cars, to wineBorn to grape farmers in Renazzo, a city in the Italian province of Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916-1993), was an ingenious and successful entrepreneur. He began by making efficient tractors from abandoned trucks after World War II and founded Lamborghini Trattori in 1948, which quickly became an important manufacturer of agricultural equipment in the midst of Italy's post-WWII economic boom. In 1959, he opened an oil burner factory, Lamborghini Bruciatori, which later entered the business of producing air conditioning equipment.
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dwKuATUoojY/YBwcjMtpZzI/AAAAAAAAO9I/hMDCxPxGfuAlr6lKdToLLHxR3VN--tTCQCLcBGAsYHQ/s352/lamborghini-in-vineyard.png" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="352" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dwKuATUoojY/YBwcjMtpZzI/AAAAAAAAO9I/hMDCxPxGfuAlr6lKdToLLHxR3VN--tTCQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/lamborghini-in-vineyard.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[Ferruccio Lamborghini]</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>His fascination for machines led him to collect luxury automobiles. Dissatisfied with his Ferrari, he complained to his friend Enzo Ferrari (1898 -1988) about the car’s clutch. Ferrari famously responded, “The car works fine, the problem is that you are only capable of driving tractors, not a Ferrari!”
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It was the sudden end of a friendship and, challenged, Lamborghini hired away Ferrari engineers and created the Automobili Lamborghini in 1963 to produce powerful, fast and sleek cars until 1974 when he sold his company.
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Though his factory was based in Bologna, Lamborghini was attracted to the beauty of the Umbrian countryside. He bought an old farm, La Fiorita near Lake Trasimeno, where after his retirement in 1974 he invested in more land and began to make wine, built a nine-hole golf course, and started agriturismo. 1975 marked his first vinification and the year of his daughter Patrizia’s birth.
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</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pfWdZnEoBc8/YBwdkLj76_I/AAAAAAAAO9Q/imfgBjJwhEI2c0uH3elqiTt1Or8UiBgOgCLcBGAsYHQ/s750/Immagine-510-750x375.png" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="750" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pfWdZnEoBc8/YBwdkLj76_I/AAAAAAAAO9Q/imfgBjJwhEI2c0uH3elqiTt1Or8UiBgOgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Immagine-510-750x375.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[Patrizia Lamborghini]</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>After his death in 1993 Patrizia Lamborghini took over the reins of the winery. Under the guidance of noted enologist Riccardo Cotarella, she eliminated the white grapes, initiated modern practices, and today produces four red wines on 32 hectares: Trescone (Sangiovese, Ciliegiolo, Merlot); Era (Sangiovese); Torami (Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo), and Campoleone (Sangiovese, Merlot).
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Though the farm is in the Colli del Trasimeno wine region, Patrizia feels that the local DOC designation is less visible internationally, and prefers to market her wines Indicazione Geografica Tipica, IGT Umbria.
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Lamborghini wines are mostly exported, but can also be found in local restaurants and wine shops.
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<b>[Update 22 June 2023]</b> Lamborghini have <a href="https://news.dupontregistry.com/the-lifestyle/wine-lamborghini-unveils-tequila-patrizia/" target="_blank">joined</a> hands with <a href="https://tequilagalindo.com/" target="_blank">Tequila Galindo</a>, a family-operated company known for its deep-rooted 19th-century origins and unwavering commitment to crafting artisanal tequila. <a href="https://tequilabylamborghini.com/pages/about-us" target="_blank">Tequila Patrizia Lamborghini Distribuzione</a> is an exquisite fusion of Italian luxury and Mexican heritage. As a proud extension of the legendary Lamborghini brand, their tequila embraces the same relentless pursuit of perfection that Ferruccio Lamborghini, their esteemed founder, envisioned for his brand.
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<a href="https://thewinegirls.wordpress.com/2015/06/10/tenuta-patrizia-lamborghini-panicale-pg/" target="_blank">Source</a>.
</p>Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-67540243695796599012020-07-14T18:07:00.004+02:002021-03-21T21:06:54.666+01:00Venice is SinkingAllegedly founded in 421 AD by a Celtic tribe known as the Veneti, Venice was the main trading hub (especially of <a href="https://medium.com/the-history-buff/slavery-in-medieval-italy-cb189ae45933" target="_blank">slaves</a>) of the known world for centuries until its long slow but sure decline after the centre of gravity shifted from the eastern to the western section of the Mediterranean in the early 15th century. When large amounts of gold entered the Iberian penisula from the newly discovered American continent, Venice found itself at the fringes of the Medival world<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[1]</span></span>.<br />
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The city was built on top of wooden pylons, called the 'upside down forrest', driven into the silt of a tidal swamp at the mouth of the Po River, subsidence (a gradual downward settling of the bottom) was inevitable. Large heavy stone buildings were built on mud, what could go wrong?
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The slow-motion sinking of the city was exasperated further in the nineteenth century by many of the early industrial projects that occurred at the time, such as offshore piers and the railroad bridge to the mainland, which all disturbed the sea floor and tidal cycles in ways that made the city more vulnerable to flooding.
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Then in the Twentieth-century, local industry made things even more dire by extracting massive amounts of groundwater from the aquifer beneath the lagoon, a situation that lasted for nearly 50 years before the government stopped the practice in the 1970s, but not before the city had sunk by roughly nine inches.
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So, Venice has been battling rising water levels since the fifth century. But today, the water seems to be winning. Several factors, both natural and man-made, cause Venice to flood about 100 times a year (usually from early October until late February), a phenomenon called the <i>Acqua Alta</i> ('High Water').
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Although tides are minuscule in the Mediterranean (the narrow, shallow Adriatic Sea has about a three-foot tidal range), when a storm approaches the city, the wind pulls the surface of the water up into a dome, causing a surging storm tide, which in turn causes flooding in the city.
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Therefore, nothing has changed: the city keeps sinking (at a rate of one to three millimeters per year), while the height of the tides remains the same.
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Yet politicians, scientists and media all try to convince us that we are to blame, because 'we' are causing global warming and thus the rise in sea levels. That's the reason Italians must have to pay more and more for their <a href="https://www.archpaper.com/2019/12/venice-failed-plan-to-protect-itself-from-flooding/" target="_blank">failed and doomed</a> project MOSE ('Moses') to rescue Venice.<br />
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<span style="color: #c27ba0;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[1] Peter Frankopan: The Silk Roads - 2015 </span></span>Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-74142508834281845572020-05-29T23:05:00.001+02:002020-05-29T23:05:43.446+02:00The early history of pastaPasta. The creation that arises out of the union of wheat flower and water. Its origins are obscure. Popular legend has it the the great 14th century Venetian traveler Marco Polo discovered pasta during his travels throughout China, where a noodle-like food has existed since 3000 BC. Popular legend is so very wrong.
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[Greek lagana]</td></tr>
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We know that references to a pasta-like pittance can be traced far back to the 1st century AD. Horace, the leading Roman poet during the reign of Augustus, mentions in his writings something called <i>lagana</i>, which were fine sheets of fried dough. The Greek rhetorician Athenaeus of Naucratis provides a recipe for <i>lagana</i> which he attributes to the 1st century Crysippus of Tyana: sheets of dough made of wheat flour and the juice of crushed lettuce, then flavoured with spices and deep fried in olive oil. An early 5th century cookbook describes a dish called <i>lagana</i> that consisted of layers of dough with meat stuffing, an ancestor of modern-day lasagna.
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The works of the 2nd century AD Greek physician Galen mention a certain <i>itrion</i>, a homogeneous compounds made of flour and water. The Jerusalem Talmud records that <i>itrium</i>, a kind of boiled dough, was common in Palestine from the 3rd to 5th centuries AD.
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A dictionary compiled by the 9th century Arab physician and lexicographer Isho bar Ali defines <i>itriyya</i>, the Arabic cognate, as string-like shapes made of flour which were dried before cooking. The geographical text of Muhammad al-Idrisi, compiled in 1154 for the King of Sicily Roger II, mentions that <i>itriyya</i> was manufactured and exported from Norman Sicily.
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Sicily may well have been the origin of a North African cousin of pasta known as <i>couscous</i>: small droplets of durum dough which are steamed and usually served with a meat stew or vegetables and sprinkled with almonds, cinnamon or sugar.
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Food historians estimate that the dish probably took hold in Italy as a result of extensive Mediterranean trading during the Middle Ages. From the 13th century, references to pasta dishes, such as macaroni, ravioli, gnocchi and vermicelli, crop up with increasing frequency across the Italian peninsula.
Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-50149901948751181322020-01-15T18:51:00.004+01:002021-01-13T14:17:19.118+01:00Mulukhiyah: An Egyptian 'Royal' VegetableMulukhiyah (or mulukhiyyah or ملوخية) are the leaves of a herb <i>Corchorus olitorius</i>, commonly known as Jew's mallow, Nalta jute or tossa jute. For millennia, these leaves have been in use as a leafy green vegetable. It is popular in Middle Eastern, East African and North African cuisines.<br />
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Mulukhiyah is rather bitter, and when boiled, the resulting liquid is a thick, highly mucilaginous (read: slimy) broth. Mulukhiyah is generally eaten cooked, not raw, and is most frequently turned into a kind of soup or stew, typically bearing the same name as the vegetable in each local language. Traditionally mulukhiyah is cooked with chicken or at least chicken stock for flavour and is served with white rice, accompanied with lemon or lime.
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The seeds are used as a flavouring. A herbal tea can be made from the dried leaves. The leaves are said to be rich in betacarotene, iron, calcium, vitamine C and α-tocopherol, which is a type of vitamin E.
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The origin of the name Mulukhiyah is obscure. In ancient Egypt, mulukhiyah was historically prepared for (and eaten) by royalty. That fact gives us a clue about the etymology of its name: <i>mlk</i> in Ancient Egyptian meant 'king', much like <i>Malik (מלך)</i> in Hebrew. So, the word <i>mulukhiyah</i> might mean '(a dish worthy of a) king'.
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Over time though, mulukhiyah became more mainstream in Egypt, enjoyed by all. However, in Egypt mulukhiyah is still eaten at special occasions, especially on those days when one has invited a large gathering of family or friends. </p><p>As is so often the case: old habits die slowly.</p>Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-974373788974850772020-01-06T20:45:00.001+01:002020-01-07T07:35:06.828+01:00Sicilian Orange and Fennel SaladEveryone seems to agree that the orange and fennel salad <i>(insalata di arancia e finocchio)</i> originated on the island of Sicily, but its history is somewhat obscure. Some say that the successive Arab conquests of the island may have introduced the recipe, but I think that it was just a local poor man's dish that didn't require any cooking and could be made with ingredients that were readily available. On Sicily, the oranges are known as <i>portualle</i>, which is where the original Italian name for this dish comes from – <i>insalata di portualle</i>. The root of this name tell us possibly more of the origin of the salad, because <i>portualle</i> means 'Portuguese (sailors)'.<br />
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Elsewhere, this salad is mostly seen as a fresh summer dish, but on
Sicily it will be served prominently during the winter months. Both
oranges and fennel are ingredients that ripen in winter.
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Similar salads are still found in nearby Algeria and Tunesia, where raw fennel is often used to create distinctive salads. Fennel delivers its aromatic anise-like flavour, which pairs so nice with the tangy-sweetness of the oranges. Today, the orange and fennel salad is known all over the world and in Italy it is served as an appetizer or as a final light dish after a copious meal.
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<b>Ingredients:</b><br />
- 3 bulbs of fennel<br />
- 3 oranges<br />
- olive oil
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<b>How to:</b><br />
- Very thinly slice the fennel<br />
- Peel and slice the oranges<br />
- Arrange on a platter<br />
- Drizzle some olive oil over the dishFred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-56272980652009225662019-10-03T22:08:00.011+02:002023-08-21T19:39:18.268+02:00Turkey's Kristallnacht in 1955Remember the <i>Kristallnacht</i>? It was a cowardly pogrom against Jews and jewish property carried out by the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazi Party's paramilitary force, plus incited civilians throughout Nazi Germany during the night of 9 and 10 November 1938. The pogrom left approximately 100 Jews dead, 7,500 Jewish businesses destroyed and countless schools, homes, synagogues, and graveyards <a href="https://alexscarfe.wordpress.com/">devastated</a>. The German authorities had looked on without intervening.<br />
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The name <i>Kristallnacht</i> ('Crystal Night') comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after the windows of Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues were smashed.<br />
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But you probably do not remember the second <i>Kristallnacht</i> on 6 and 7 November 1955, when the Polites, short for Konstantinoupolites, which were the Greeks of Istanbul, were targeted in a violent pogrom carefully fabricated by the Turkish Security Service.
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In what can be described as Turkey’s <i>Kristallnacht</i>, riots that lasted two days targeted the Greek and Armenian communities. The riots were carefully planned by the Turkish government to cleanse Istanbul of the approximately 100,000 Polites, who were excluded from the Turkish-Greek population exchange of 1923-24.<br />
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They were triggered by the <strike>false</strike> fake news that the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki, in northern Greece, had been bombed the day before. However, the bomb was planted by a Turkish usher at the consulate, who was later arrested and confessed. The Turkish press, conveying the news in Turkey, remained silent about the arrest and instead insinuated that Greeks had set off the bomb.<br />
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A Turkish mob, most of which had been trucked into the city in advance, assaulted Istanbul’s Greek community for nine hours. Overnight, 71 churches, 41 schools, eight newspapers, more than 4,000 stores and 2,000 residences were <a href="https://www.pappaspost.com/1955-greek-pogrom-constantinople/" target="_blank">looted or destroyed</a>.<br />
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The human toll and suffering were even more catastrophic, with more than 30 dead, 300 injured and over 400 women, girls, <b>and</b> boys raped.<br />
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As was the case in in 1938, the police remained mostly inactive, and the violence continued unabated until the government declared martial law in Istanbul and called in the army to put down the riots. The pogrom greatly accelerated emigration of ethnic Greeks from Turkey, and the Istanbul region in particular. In Istanbul alone, the Greek population decreased from 65,108 to 49,081 between 1955 and 1960. And it went on unabated: the 2008 figures released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry placed the number of Turkish citizens of Greek descent at just somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000.<br />
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Don't for a moment think that the Turkish government has any regrets over this ethnic cleansing. Even now, Greek schools in Turkey <a href="https://greekcitytimes.com/2019/10/02/turkey-7-remaining-greek-schools-struggling-survive-281-students/" target="_blank">struggle</a> to survive. Only Greek Orthodox students are allowed to study in the Greek schools - a requirement introduced in 1968 by the Turkish Ministry of National Education.<br />
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<a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Armenian-Genocide" target="_blank">Armenians</a>, <a href="https://armenianweekly.com/2016/12/13/jews-in-turkey/" target="_blank">Jews</a>, <a href="https://ekurd.net/genocide-kurdish-case-turkey-2018-02-06" target="_blank">Kurds</a>, and <a href="http://www.ekathimerini.com/241148/opinion/ekathimerini/comment/the-greek-genocide-forgotten-no-longer" target="_blank">Greeks</a>. Genocide seems to be an integral part of Turkey's culture and mindset.Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207793398232345281.post-84894589387601563252019-08-03T10:20:00.001+02:002019-08-03T10:20:08.584+02:00Italian pasta originated in Ancient Greece, not ChinaContrary to popular belief, which says that pasta originated in China and brought to Italy by Marco Polo, pasta actually has its origins in ancient Greece and from there moved to Italy. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus, god of fire, volcanoes, and blacksmiths, is said to have created a tool which made ribbons of pasta. Ancient Greeks prepared a dish from pasta dough <i>zimarika</i>, meaning a dough of flour and water, cut into long strips, named <i>laganon</i>.
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Since time immemorial, Greeks celebrated the life of the dead <i>makaron</i> by leaving a dish called <i>makaria</i> at the graveside. <i>Makaria</i> was made from pasta and was accompanied by olive oil and wine. A variation of this story is that a bowl of pasta dough, <i>makaria</i>, was placed in the hand of the departed to be used as payment for the ferryman Charon taking them across the river Styx on their way to Hades, the Underworld. This 'mercy meal', <i>makaria</i>, is still eaten today after Greek Orthodox funerals.
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So, it is certain that the ancient Greeks introduced pasta to Italy probably through Naples (originally called <i>Nea Polis</i>, Greek for 'New City'), once a Greek colony. Today, pasta production continues where Hephaestus left off, producing the tasty traditional Greek pasta. Each region has its favorite pasta, served with meat, vegetables, pulses, or cheese.
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Before the large supermarket chains and big pasta factories reached Greece, most Greek pasta was made at the end of the summer and dried, ensuring there was plenty of food to feed large Greek families throughout the winter months.
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Greek mamas in villages still bring their own ingredients, with which they produce their own pasta the way it was done millennia ago, with the family’s recipes. This is how it was in the olden days: each village had its own small pasta factory, and all the mamas came there to make their own pasta. It is hard to find today, but a few factories still hold on to the traditional way.
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Once the ingredients have been mixed and shaped, the mamas take the pasta home to dry it in the sun the way they used to do in the past, or they dry it for them overnight in industrial driers. In this delightful way, a wonderful, old, Greek tradition is kept alive.<br />
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<a href="https://www.tallisvacations.com/accomodation/myth-busted-pasta/" target="_blank">Source</a>. Fred de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13608234914187180377noreply@blogger.com0