My last trip to Rome....
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I hired a guide to take my family around the Forum, the Palatine Hill.. couple other places as well. It was a full day tour, not cheap... he was a Professor who did this as a sideline.
Anyway... you are quite right. Our guide explained that to us well, VERY well... much more thoroughly than my family wanted to hear.
Also, about the Marble.. LOT of solid Marble stuff but also... and I don't know the %... but I think most of the buildings, (of importance - palaces and such - and ALL of them on Palatine Hill) were concrete with marble siding.
It was truly amazing to me that the ground on the Palatine Hill is literally crushed Marble and Concrete from the erosion of the building. Ever pebble you pick up was once a piece of hand hewn marble, or concrete. Huge chunks, and small chunks, of solid Marble pillars are everywhere... like the grains of sand on a beach.
But back to 'time'.... here's the one that amazes me most of all. We think of the Native American's of the USA... and the famous civilizations from Mexico, Central America, South America... as similar to Greek, or Roman, or even back to the Mesopotamians.... but for the most part they are not... and some, most in fact.. Aztecs, Incan's, didn't even BEGIN until shorty before Columbus arrived. Maya's, if I remember right, are an exception... going back to I think the Egyptian era of the Pyramids.
MOSt of the Native American artifacts I find on my ranch are actually no older than perhaps 1600 a.d. Some of the tribes here in California didn't even take up residence until AFTER the Spanish had begun building missions. When our founding fathers were posting anti-British meme's in the mid to late 1700's MANY of the tribes in certain areas of Ca. were just beginning to lay down 'evidence'... petroglyphs, mortar rocks, cupules, etc.
Chaco Canyon which on one level I think of as VERY ancient, prehistoric almost, didn't even begin until approx. 900 a.d. Romans were long gone, much less the great era of the Greeks and Egyptians.
I "know" all that stuff, always have... but it just doesn't 'fit' to me. But obviously I am not the brightest bulb on the tree. - JamesJM
Anyway... you are quite right. Our guide explained that to us well, VERY well... much more thoroughly than my family wanted to hear.
Also, about the Marble.. LOT of solid Marble stuff but also... and I don't know the %... but I think most of the buildings, (of importance - palaces and such - and ALL of them on Palatine Hill) were concrete with marble siding.
It was truly amazing to me that the ground on the Palatine Hill is literally crushed Marble and Concrete from the erosion of the building. Ever pebble you pick up was once a piece of hand hewn marble, or concrete. Huge chunks, and small chunks, of solid Marble pillars are everywhere... like the grains of sand on a beach.
But back to 'time'.... here's the one that amazes me most of all. We think of the Native American's of the USA... and the famous civilizations from Mexico, Central America, South America... as similar to Greek, or Roman, or even back to the Mesopotamians.... but for the most part they are not... and some, most in fact.. Aztecs, Incan's, didn't even BEGIN until shorty before Columbus arrived. Maya's, if I remember right, are an exception... going back to I think the Egyptian era of the Pyramids.
MOSt of the Native American artifacts I find on my ranch are actually no older than perhaps 1600 a.d. Some of the tribes here in California didn't even take up residence until AFTER the Spanish had begun building missions. When our founding fathers were posting anti-British meme's in the mid to late 1700's MANY of the tribes in certain areas of Ca. were just beginning to lay down 'evidence'... petroglyphs, mortar rocks, cupules, etc.
Chaco Canyon which on one level I think of as VERY ancient, prehistoric almost, didn't even begin until approx. 900 a.d. Romans were long gone, much less the great era of the Greeks and Egyptians.
I "know" all that stuff, always have... but it just doesn't 'fit' to me. But obviously I am not the brightest bulb on the tree. - JamesJM
| Subject | Author | Views | Posted |
|---|---|---|---|
 | JamesJM | 361 | March 02, 2018 05:41PM |
| zn | 182 | March 02, 2018 06:29PM |
| JamesJM | 183 | March 02, 2018 07:38PM |
| RAMbeau | 245 | March 03, 2018 09:35AM |
| HighPlainsDrifter | 179 | March 03, 2018 11:46AM |
