NUNTII: Plumbing the Plumbing

The News-Gazette has an interesting piece on the work of Bruce Fouke ... what follows is the cull of same as it applies to what we're interested in:

In Rome, he and UI colleagues may be changing conventional wisdom on the time- line for the fall of the Roman Empire, by studying the crud on ancient plumbing, so to speak.

[...]

 Travertine is common in a lot of places, including Italy. The Romans quarried it for all kinds of uses, notably their famous aqueduct system, parts of which delivered water from Italian hot springs for the Roman baths.
   That prompted Eric Hostetter, a UI ancient art history and archaeology professor who has been studying Roman monuments for 25 years, to contact Fouke after he heard about Fouke's work from a colleague.
   When Rome thrived, the Romans gave the aqueduct system a regular cleaning. After the empire began the slip, the maintenance lapsed, and mineral deposits, deposits not unlike those at Yellowstone, built up. Think of the ring that develops in your bathtub if you get lax about scrubbing it.
   Fouke, Hostetter and UI geology Professor Craig Lundstrom have been working on dating those deposits, using Lundstrom's expertise in tracing the decay of uranium into thorium, to find out when the water stopped flowing.
   "We might be able to start saying some pretty interesting things about the collapse of Rome," Hostetter said.
   They might be able to say Rome's collapse, as reflected in the state of its aqueducts, actually happened about 500 years later than believed, a significant revision of the historical record.

::Sunday, November 02, 2003 7:50:49 PM::
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AWOTV: Weekly listings

The weekly version of my Ancient World on Television listings have been posted  ....

::Sunday, November 02, 2003 12:03:37 PM::
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THIS DAY IN ANCIENT HISTORY

ante diem iv nonas novembres

• 303 A.D. -- martyrdom of Justus of Trieste
• 304 A.D. -- martyrdom of Victorinus of Pettau
• 315 A.D. -- martyrdom of Carterius and his companions (soldiers under Licinius)

::Sunday, November 02, 2003 10:25:59 AM::
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NUNTII: Latin News from Radio Bremen

If it's the start of the month it means Radio Bremen has updated their Latin headlines too! Ecce:

       
Germania aere alieno oppressa
Res publica Germania hoc anno maioribus debitis onerata erit quam umquam antea...

       
Sinenses sidera petunt
Russos Americanosque aemulati Sinenses quoque hominem in spatium cosmicum miserunt...

Somnium Americanum
Cives Californiae Arnold Schwarzenegger histrionem civitatis suae praefectum creaverunt...
  
Vis electrica in Italia collapsa
Vi electrica in Italia collapsa maxima turba maximaque confusio erat...

Museum Bremense omnibus expectationibus frequentius
Universum, quo nomine technophysiotameum Bremense ante tres annos institutum vocatur...

Cuius sint nummi fontanae Trevi iniecti
Peregrinatoribus ex omnibus terris profectis mos est Romae fontano muneri Trevi vocato nummos inicere ...
 
MEMORABILIA: Martinus Turonensis
Undecimo die mensis Novembris memoria Martini celebratur, qui saeculo quarto p.Chr.n. primo miles...
       
NOTABILIA: Luxus antiquitatis Romanae
Verbum luxus apud Latinos primo ad herbas abunde progerminantes ubertatemque telluris pertinebat...

Lege plura ...

Audi ...

::Sunday, November 02, 2003 9:47:40 AM::
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NUNTII: Nuntii Latini

The latest headlines from YLE's Nuntii Latini:

Hodorkovski in carcerem coniectus
Mihail Hodorkovski, moderator societatis petroleariae Iukos, quae maxima est in Russia, in aeriportu ...

California incendiis vastatur
Incendia silvarum Californiam meridionalem vastantia iam prope duo milia domuum et regionem maiorem ...

De rebus Iraquiae
Proximis diebus in Iraquia funestissimi ictus terroristici facti sunt, quibus quadraginta ...

Praemium Mentoris redactioni Latinae datum
Societas Suetiae Lundensis nomine "Discipuli Mentoris" decrevit, ut "praemium Mentoris" ...

Lege plura ...

Audi ...

::Sunday, November 02, 2003 9:41:45 AM::
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NUNTII: Explorator

Issue 6.27 of "explorator" has just been posted ... ad free ...

::Sunday, November 02, 2003 9:36:45 AM::
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AWOTV: On TV Today

Apparently nothing ...

::Sunday, November 02, 2003 9:35:13 AM::
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