Home from another fantastic Roman Festival in York, and huge thanks to everyone who made it possible - organisers, re-enactors, performers, fellow-scribes and of course to the many visitors, without whom we'd all have been very lonely. In previous years I've put up plenty of photos of men on the march, and they do look … Continue reading Eboracum 2019
To begin at the beginning...
Right. Line up, you lot. And get that hair cut! Half of you look like a bunch of girls!
It's been a busy few days - first, a long weekend in York, a city crammed with Roman activity past and present. Then down south to spend five days in search of the far more elusive Roman Devon. Finally, with all photos downloaded and all mud washed off, there's time to update the blog... The … Continue reading From Eboracum to Ipplepen
Big news in recent weeks, as Ruso and Tilla have mentioned on their Facebook page. (They must be reading my mind.) It now seems someone's found a way to read the charcoal ink on the scrolls that were burned to a crisp by Vesuvius almost 2000 years ago. There really is a chance that Herculaneum's … Continue reading The library of illegible books
I love the British Museum more every time I visit. Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed by the same volcano AD 79, in but in different ways, so that different kinds of things survived in the buried wreckage. Now the British Museum has cleverly put items from the two together to give a vivid picture of … Continue reading Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum
(I'm guessing that if you've got past the title of this piece, you have the sort of constitution that will cope with the rest. You have been warned!) "Say the word and he'll produce a fish out of a sow's belly, a pigeon out of the lard, a turtle dove out of the ham, and … Continue reading Stuffed thrush with rotted fish-guts, anyone?
Ruth Downie 