Ancient History Ramblings

Firefox Turns 5 and Cambyses II

The Firefox browser turns five years old today. It now accounts for nearly 25% of browser usage today. Its fairly steady growth as an alternative to Internet Explorer has slowed with the release of Google's Chrome. It will be interesting to see how Firefox changes as Chrome grows - Firefox 4.0 is around the corner and the browser competition can only benefit users.

Italian researchers have announced that they believe that they have found the missing army of Cambyses II. This army, supposedly 50,000 strong, was lost in a huge sandstorm in 525 B.C. The team of researchers have discovered a mass grave with hundreds of bones and skulls. Their discovery hinged upon a hypothesis regarding the path the army took:

In the following years, the Castiglioni brothers studied ancient maps and came to the conclusion that Cambyses' army did not take the widely believed caravan route via the Dakhla Oasis and Farafra Oasis.

• "Since the 19th century, many archaeologists and explorers have searched for the lost army along that route. They found nothing. We hypothesized a different itinerary, coming from south. Indeed we found that such a route already existed in the 18th Dynasty," Castiglioni said. According to Castiglioni, from El Kargha the army took a westerly route to Gilf El Kebir, passing through the Wadi Abd el Melik, then headed north toward Siwa. "This route had the advantage of taking the enemy aback. Moreover, the army could march undisturbed. On the contrary, since the oasis on the other route were controlled by the Egyptians, the army would have had to fight at each oasis," Castiglioni said.

RSM

Least stressful jobs

CNN.com has a list of the top 10 least stressful jobs and number three is college professor.I am stunned by this opinion. The paragraph on college professors refers to:

"Professors' low stress levels reflect the flexible scheduling and intellectual freedom that come with careers in academe. Add in the summer vacations, long holiday breaks and near total job security for tenured positions, and it's no wonder college professors have such high job satisfaction."

I really do not know what to say. I would never argue that being a college professor is more difficult than other jobs, but it does bring a different set of stresses - trust me.

RSM

Graffiti in Rome

When I was in Rome back in September, I noticed a lot of graffiti on the walls of buildings. A recent article by BBC News "Historic Rome marred by graffiti" expands on this idea. It has been suggested that there is as many as 3,500 graffiti artists at work in the city while the city has a team of 16 at work cleaning up the graffiti - a losing battle. I really liked the ending of the article which tried to balance the art versus disfigurment argument.

• "One famous book on the subject of graffiti is entitled Vandals and Crusaders. It depicts the street sprayers as modern artists whose work needs to be appreciated as much as conventional imagery committed to canvas. But is it mainstream, or merely a maintenance headache? The best graffiti sells for thousands of dollars; the rest, like those on many Roman walls, seems alien in such beautiful surroundings. Italy gave the world the word "graffiti", but it does not always like to be reminded what that can mean. "

RSM

Cleopatra's Tomb

The possible discovery of Cleopatra's tomb has been in the news a lot lately. I first noticed an article on the BBC news website about a project to examine 3 areas near a temple outside of Alexandria for the possible tomb of Cleopatra and Antony, CNN.com also had an article "Researchers may have found Cleopatra's final resting place." It will be interesting to see what is turned up in the next few weeks.

RSM

Last week before Semester

It is the last week before my semester begins so I am frantically trying to get ready. It is always amazing how quickly time flies over the holidays. Two items that caught my attention in the news:

• On the digital front, there is a Twitter phishing scam circulating through Twitter designed to steal login information. It is evidently working well enough that someone was able to hack into CNN anchor Rick Sanchez's Twitter account and post a false message.
• On the ancient history front there was an article about a 3rd century Roman battlefield discovered near Hanover Germany.

RSM

New Pyramid Discovery in Egypt

It was announced recently that a new pyramid has been discovered in Egypt at the site of Saqqara. The pyramid might have been the tomb for Queen Sesheshet, mother of the Pharaoh Teti - a pharaoh of the 6th dynasty. There have been a few stories on the web, most of them saying the same thing - MSNBC, BBC, USA Today, Fox, etc. - but it is worth checking out.

RSM

A Strange Thing Happened in the Forum

I was recently sight-seeing at the Roman Forum during my stay in Rome. And let me say it was amazing. I was super impressed. Anyway, I was sitting down and resting, I am not young anymore, and took the moment to listen to a personal tour guide talk to her 2 clients. She certainly knew her facts, she kept citing names, dates, lineages, etc. It was one fact after another for 5 minutes. She also periodically quizzed her clients on things she had said earlier in her trip - bet they weren't expecting that and they did not look like they enjoyed the quizzing. It certainly made it clear to me that facts are important, but you also need analysis and  interpretation. I am sure that these 2 people retained very little of what she said, other than random facts.She needed to provide perspective.

After a while she ran them off to another area of the forum and I was left alone to contemplate. It was very peaceful, I was in a deserted area under a tree and looking across the forum and trying to imagine what it was like in Roman times. Then, in the back of my mind I heard music and realized it was the opening song from the Daniel Day Lewis film, Last of the Mohicans - as played on the pan flute no less. I will admit that I am a big fan of the movie and soundtrack, but it was bizarre hearing it in Rome surrounded by Roman antiquities. It turns out that street performers using large speakers had set up on the street above me, but until I realized that it was a surreal moment.

RSM  

Aging

Today was a very interesting day. This morning I was teaching my medieval history class and somehow found myself talking about East Germany (I often find myself on tangents). This discussion made me feel very old since one of the students mentioned he was only 5 when the Germanys reunited. Nobody else, except for one non-traditional student, remembered East Germany as a country. Then when I returned to my office and checked my email I found a copy of the email message that circulates at the start of each school year that talks about the new freshman class and what they know/don't know. Anyway, needless to say, this left me feeling old. But then when I attended a meeting later in the day, everything switched. A fellow IUP colleague on the committee turned out to be my former high school band teacher from the early 80s. I found myself thinking how weird was it that we were now colleagues at IUP. It also made me feel a little like when you move from the kids' table to the adults' table at Thanksgiving. I also realized that he was not a lot older than me, but that my perception of him back in high school was that he was old man, even though he was only in his 20s. It is amazing how a small change in scenery can change our perception of things.

RSM

4 Day School Week

CNN.com has a short article by John Zarella entitled "Four-day work week gets A+ at college." The article examines how Brevard Community College went to a four day work/school week and saved $267,000 in energy costs. This also saved students money and improved attendance in class and at work (at the college). Augusta Technical College is employing a similar tactic by having students attend classes on campus for 4 days, but then attend class on Friday via computer (Chronicle article).  I remember an article from last year, or the year before, in the Chronicle that looked at how students preferred a four day week - no Friday classes is always popular. In fact, many students I know already participate in a 4 day school week, even if they are registered for Friday classes. What I enjoyed most about the CNN.com article was the fact that Brevard hired 10 more full-time faculty members. I have to applaud this action by a college at a time when other schools are looking for ways to reduce costs and the choice they always make is to reduce the number of faculty and correspondingly raise class sizes.

RSM

On the subject of cheating......

Since I am on the subject of cheating, I also saw a story about "Test-Answer Site Removes Professors' Ability to Block Their Tests." I was intrigued to see this story, about which I knew nothing beforehand, concerning a site for students to post test questions they had received on exams. I have to admit I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, people should be allowed to do what they want to do within the limits of free speech. I certainly appreciate the use of technology. On the other hand, I am concerned that students would use this not as a study aide, but as a shortcut. It also raises the question concerning ownership of material from a class - handouts, readings, lectures, and tests. I had a student once tell me about another professor who made (in the eyes of the student) a big deal concerning the professor's view that she held the copyright to her class materials. I tried to explain that professors were usually concerned over companies or individuals trying to profit from the materials. I don't see this as much anymore (but I am not at a huge school anymore), but I can remember in grad school a company paying students for their notes so they could sell them to other students in the class. I looked on the site and did not see many questions, it will be interesting to see if it grows over the next few weeks notw that the site has gotten some publicity from the Wired Campus.

RSM