# data[].attributes.body
Means "damnation of memory" which was in the TED ED video for Pre AP World. I might get more latin moments as I have history first block.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Lunchables - Pritzel Horse | TV Commercial (2022) [15s]

# data[].attributes.body
- asmitha & harneet !

# data[].attributes.body
right attitude, wrong metaphor.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
- "mirari" means "to wonder at, to admire"

# data[].attributes.body
- Sujay

# data[].attributes.body
https://youtu.be/HYyyx2dNvPw

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
We FINALLY Figured Out The Secret of Roman Concrete

# data[].attributes.body
Shakespeare and Latin :)

# data[].attributes.body
For history, we are learning about the Protestant and Catholic Reformations, and the "index of Prohibited Books" was mentioned. I searched it up, and it appeared in Latin! (Which makes sense because Latin was used in the Holy Roman Empire - where this book was published)

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Know, this doesn't count as a moment, but I refound the latin sentence thing from last year! -Rayna

# data[].attributes.headline
Sentence with only Latin-derived English Words

# data[].attributes.subject
Sentence with only Latin-derived English Words

# data[].attributes.body
Homo sapiens possess capacity enabling conducting Latinate discourse. Conversely, solely Latinate diction renders locution abstruse.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
I was looking for synonyms of figurine and saw this!

# data[].attributes.body
-Nanaki

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
-DON'T JUDGE ME(BLAME RICHMOND GIRL WHO'S GOES TO COSBY)

# data[].attributes.body
I have a latin best friend who told me that duolingo has Latin now and all I did was type Duolingo and that question popped up. Naturally, I clicked it. Sent a screenshot to her. She told me to make it a meme. The first result is legit from the Duolingo website itself. Can't blame my train of thought. And now I made a meme that I was 97% asleep, and 2% questioning my sanity, 1% being awake.

# data[].attributes.body
Me watching other ppl post memes on this padlet.

# data[].attributes.body
The Roman fermented fish sauce is retaking the spotlight in restaurant kitchens.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Garum is a fermented fish sauce dating back to ancient rome

# data[].attributes.headline
Archaeologists discovered what they thought was an ancient synagogue. They were wrong.

# data[].attributes.subject
Archaeologists discovered what they thought was an ancient synagogue. They were wrong.

# data[].attributes.body
What was long thought to be an Israeli synagogue bears more resemblance to Roman temples from Syria.  The temple may have been erected to strengthen the Roman presence in Judaea.

Ancient structures in Israel are notoriously difficult to study because the region has been occupied by many different cultures over the centuries, most of which have worked hard to erase the traces of each other’s existence. The vandalism continues to this day.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Archaeologists discovered what they thought was an ancient synagogue. They were wrong.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For decades, a structure in central Israel was thought to be an ancient synagogue. Now, archaeologists think it was a Roman temple.

# data[].attributes.headline
Findings show that the Vikings' self-image was influenced by Ancient Rome

# data[].attributes.subject
Findings show that the Vikings' self-image was influenced by Ancient Rome

# data[].attributes.body
"Hunn is a special burial site because all periods of prehistory are represented there. It is a place that has been in continuous use for thousands of years. There are many layers of history there, but the Vikings chose to copy one particular grave, namely the most spectacular Roman-era grave in the landscape. This is no coincidence and it indicates that the Roman Age was a particular past they wished to make connections with," says Lund.
...
"When you use elements from the past, you make it exist or relevant in the present. This is how material culture affects people and vice versa. Using the past and copying a Roman-era grave indicates that they were not just trying to create something that looked old. The past also provided them with a narrative about who they were. Consequently the Vikings' use of the past concerned social relationships, self-awareness and identity," she explains.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Vikings used material culture from the past to show what they liked and thus who they wanted to be. The Vikings copied the riding spurs from Roman times, and similar spurs have only been found far down in Central Europe. Credit: Mårten Teigen/Kulturhistorisk museum, UiO/CC-BY-SA 4.0

In the Late Viking Age, a grave was built that looks very similar to one of the most spectacular graves of the Roman Age in Norway.

The Hunn burial site in Østfold is a rich cultural landscape with over 145 visible burial mounds covering a span of almost two thousand years from the Late Bronze Age, 1100 BCE, to the end of the Viking Age, 1050 CE.

The area consists of three sites. The Western Site contains graves dating back to Roman times, the Migration Period, the Iron Age and the Viking Age. On this site researchers have found detailed similarities between two graves that were built hundreds of years apart. The oldest grave of the two dates back to Roman times and has been named Stubhøj, while the grave which is similar to Stubhøj is from the Viking Age and is called Store Vikingegrav (the Large Viking Grave).
Distinguishing between the near and the distant past
Julie Lund is an Associate Professor at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History at the University of Oslo. Under a project entitled "Using the Past in the Past. Viking Age Scandinavia as a Renaissance?" she has been investigating how the Vikings made connections with the past in various graves and deposits of artifacts.

Through her research, she has discovered that different groups in the Viking Age make reference to different pasts.

"The Vikings made use of the past in a more subtle way than previously believed. For example, they distinguished between a near and a distant past. This can be seen in female graves where heirlooms such as jewelry have been laid down, while in other graves, such as Store Vikingegrav, items have been included that copy objects dating back to the Roman period 700 years earlier," says Lund.

"Distinguishing between near and distant pasts is probably not something that we regard as being particularly special. However, what we can see is that they made connections with a specific part of the past at a time when they did not have much of an idea about the past," she emphasizes.

There are not many Viking graves that copy graves from the Roman era. Researchers are only aware of two other burial sites in Norway which are similar to the graves found at Hunn. Professor Lund thought that the similarities between the Roman and Viking graves at Hunn were worthy of further investigation.

"Hunn is a special burial site because all periods of prehistory are represented there. It is a place that has been in continuous use for thousands of years. There are many layers of history there, but the Vikings chose to copy one particular grave, namely the most spectacular Roman-era grave in the landscape. This is no coincidence and it indicates that the Roman Age was a particular past they wished to make connections with," says Lund.
The Viking grave was supposed to look old
She looked at all the similarities between the two graves, both externally and internally.

"Externally, a common feature of the graves is that they were both built on the best parts of the site. The Roman grave was built on top of a ridge, while the Viking grave was built on a slope on the same ridge," she explains.

Furthermore, both graves are marked by even-sized stones encircling the graves, so-called kerbstones.

The Roman-era grave Stubhøj and Store Vikingegrav at the Hunn burial site in Østfold are marked with kerbstones. Credit: Julie Lund

These kerbstones piqued the archaeologist's curiosity.

They actually date back to the Neolithic Age and were also used in graves during the Bronze Age. However, at that time the kerbstones were incorporated in the burial mound and were part of the structure. They were thus not visible during the Bronze Age, but gradually became visible as the mounds started to wear down. In this way, burial mounds with kerbstones acquired an old look, and that was also what they were trying to achieve with the Viking grave, Julie Lund thinks. It was supposed to give the grave an old look.

"What is interesting about Store Vikingegrav is that it was built as a replica. It was supposed to look like it had been there throughout the ages," she says.
Verbal accounts which lived on
The Vikings also copied the inside of the Roman Age grave. Both graves have a full range of weapons, shields, rare drinking horns and riding spurs.

Another common feature is that they are both skeleton graves with furnished burial chambers.

"Stubhøj is the first inhumation grave that we know of today. Between the Bronze Age and the date of this Roman Age grave they used to burn their dead. So this is a departure from a thousand-year-old tradition of cremation," says Lund.

The interior similarity of the graves has left the researchers wondering, because the Roman grave was not opened until the early 1900s. In other words, nine hundred years after the Vikings copied it.

"We cannot say that the Vikings copied something they had seen. It is more likely that they copied something that they had heard stories about. Stubhøj's break with a thousand-year-old cremation tradition means that it must have been very significant when it was built. It is therefore not unlikely that stories were told about the funeral rites, about the person buried or about the relationships that were created through the alliance gifts in the grave," says the archaeologist.
Social relationships, self-image and identity
When investigating Store Vikingegrav, the researcher has focused on the impact of material culture on people.

"When you use elements from the past, you make it exist or relevant in the present. This is how material culture affects people and vice versa. Using the past and copying a Roman-era grave indicates that they were not just trying to create something that looked old. The past also provided them with a narrative about who they were. Consequently the Vikings' use of the past concerned social relationships, self-awareness and identity," she explains.

Heirlooms, such as jewelry found in female graves, were reserved for a certain type of female elite and manifested close relationships, while in other graves, such as ship settings where the stones around the grave form the shape of a ship, relationships are created with distant times and places.

"In Store Vikingegrav, alliances from a distant Roman era are re-forged in the Viking Age. Their interpretation of the Roman grave reveals what they liked and it tells us something about who they perceived themselves to be and wanted to be," says Lund.

The research was published in Archaeological Dialogues and builds upon previous work in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal.

More information: Julie Lund et al, Reassessing power in the archaeological discourse. How collective, cooperative and affective perspectives may impact our understanding of social relations and organization in prehistory, Archaeological Dialogues (2022). DOI: 10.1017/S1380203822000162

Julie Lund, Kerbing Relations through Time: Reuse, Connectivity and Folded Time in the Viking Age, Cambridge Archaeological Journal (2021). DOI: 10.1017/S0959774321000445

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Findings show that the Vikings' self-image was influenced by Ancient Rome

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the Late Viking Age, a grave was built that looks very similar to one of the most spectacular graves of the Roman Age in Norway. The Hunn burial site in Østfold is a rich cultural landscape with over 145 visible burial mounds covering a span of almost two thousand years from the Late Bronze Age, 1100 BCE, to the end of the Viking Age, 1050 CE.

# data[].attributes.headline
Suspected Roman ford unearthed near Evesham during waterworks

# data[].attributes.subject
Suspected Roman ford unearthed near Evesham during waterworks

# data[].attributes.body
Aidan Smyth, archaeology officer from Wychavon District Council, said the discovery "took his breath away".
...
Mr Smyth said the ford, which crosses a brook, carries marks to suggest it was used by carts.
"The stonework is absolutely perfect," he said. "It just ticks every box for being Roman," he said.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Suspected Roman ford unearthed near Evesham during waterworks

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The cobbled road was uncovered by engineers during routine works.

# data[].attributes.body
saw this in my history notes

# data[].attributes.headline
Found this in Outer Wilds and thought it was funny

# data[].attributes.subject
Found this in Outer Wilds and thought it was funny

# data[].attributes.headline
'Rare' Roman mosaic found in Rastan, Syria

# data[].attributes.subject
'Rare' Roman mosaic found in Rastan, Syria

# data[].attributes.body
A 1,600-year-old virtually intact Roman mosaic has been discovered in central Syria.

The mosaic, measuring 20 x 6m (65.5 x 20ft), was found under a building in Rastan near Homs, which was held by rebels in the civil war until 2018.

Showing mythical scenes including the Trojan and Amazon wars, it is said to be the rarest of its kind.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
'Rare' Roman mosaic found in Rastan, Syria

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Officials say the 1,600-year-old panel depicting classical myths is the most complete of its kind.

# data[].attributes.headline
travelbymitra: Acqueducts in department stores?! Only in Rome 🇮🇹 Go to Rinascente on Via del Tritone 61 and see for yourself

# data[].attributes.subject
travelbymitra: Acqueducts in department stores?! Only in Rome 🇮🇹 Go to Rinascente on Via del Tritone 61 and see for yourself

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.embed_code
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mitra Talarman Luxury Travel Advisor (@travelbymitra)

# data[].attributes.body
Gaius Fierus was not always immortal. He was once a normal person. However, he was informed by everyone he knew to not enter a certain horto. Nonetheless, he defied all of them and entered the forbidden horto, and said "Feirus est in horto" . SUDDENLY, out of nowhere, Caecillius appeared. He said "YOU ENTERED THE WRONG HORTO FOOL, I CURSE YOU WITH IMMORTALITY FOREVER MWAHAHAHAHAHA".
Guy fieri simply said "Thanks for the immortality" and then detonated a nuke inside mt. vesuvius, causing the eruption we know today.

# data[].attributes.headline
Researchers think a key to cooling cities lies in Naples' ancient aqueducts

# data[].attributes.subject
Researchers think a key to cooling cities lies in Naples' ancient aqueducts

# data[].attributes.body
Architects and design students in Italy and the United States are collaborating on an initiative to map ancient aqueducts and water systems in Naples. Known as the Cool City Project, the goal is to assess how this existing infrastructure — in some cases, centuries old and hidden underground — could combat life-threatening heat waves in one of the most densely populated parts of Europe and one of the oldest cities in the world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In the Italian city of Naples, some climate change solutions may be as ancient as the coastal outpost itself, according to researchers who are studying how the area's historic waterways could bring relief from extreme heat as the world warms.

Architects and design students in Italy and the United States are collaborating on an initiative to map ancient aqueducts and water systems in Naples. Known as the Cool City Project, the goal is to assess how this existing infrastructure - in some cases, centuries old and hidden underground - could combat life-threatening heat waves in one of the most densely populated parts of Europe and one of the oldest cities in the world.

"Naples is sometimes called the capital of the midday sun because of where it's located in the south of Italy,"said Nick De Pace, an architect and professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. "It's a dense city in an area that is already dealing with geothermal heating. And then on top of that, you have climate change."

Though the effects of climate change can be felt in every corner of the planet, cities are at particular risk from extreme heat because of a phenomenon known as the " urban heat island effect." Densely populated areas tend to experience higher temperatures than more rural communities because buildings, roads and other human-made structures absorb and retain more heat than natural landscapes.

Within cities, studies have shown that those most vulnerable during heat waves are children, older people and disadvantaged communities that already bear a disproportionate burden of the consequences of climate change.

In many ways, Naples lies at the intersection of these concerns, which makes it a compelling laboratory to study potential solutions, De Pace said.

"Naples is historically a relatively poor city with high levels of unemployment, and it's also a place that is expected to experience two to three months of extreme heat by the middle of this century," he said. "This is a city seriously at risk."

As part of the Cool City Project, De Pace and his colleagues are trying to tap into solutions that are hidden in plain sight.

To start, the researchers are using laser-scanning technology to map Naples' extensive aqueduct system and underground canals. The idea is to examine if reviving these ancient waterways, or resurfacing them, could counter the urban heat island effect.

"Daylighting portions of a canal could have a cooling effect in the summer, just like how you can feel a cooling effect from basements," De Pace said. "Then, you can also divert some of that water to new green spaces in the city where you have plants and other things to cool things down."

Naples is a compelling place to test such ideas because the city already has a rich history with water, said Alexander Valentino, an architect and Cool City collaborator who is based in Naples.

Many of the city's oldest aqueducts can be found today underground, hidden beneath modern buildings and roads. These waterways and streams were used throughout history to move water into and around Naples, Valentino said, but changes beginning in the 19th century significantly altered the region's water landscape.

As Naples modernized, watersheds were diverted for irrigation, some canals were built over and many properties along the coast were earmarked for private development. These decisions changed the relationship that Naples residents had with water and carried important cultural implications, Valentino said.

"It became a city on the sea without access to the sea," he added.

The Cool City Project is designed to explore new uses for Naples' abandoned or mismanaged water resources, but the lessons learned could be applied in different parts of the world, according to De Pace. A separate cohort of the Cool City Project conducted research in South Korea, investigating innovative ways to use existing subterranean waterways in a traditional village in Seoul.

While cities in North America may not have the same vast network of ancient aqueducts, the work in Naples and Seoul could help architects better understand how to design sustainable green infrastructure, including how to maximize the cooling effect of water in urban centers, De Pace said.

Valentino and his colleagues have been running workshops in Naples to raise awareness about the city's water issues and how they could be exacerbated by climate change. Early next year, De Pace and a group of his students will join him on the ground in Naples to continue work on the Cool City Project.

For De Pace, it has been a long time coming. The field work in Italy was originally set to occur in 2020 but was derailed by the Covid-19 pandemic. He said he's eager to challenge his students to integrate climate solutions into architectural design - a lesson with applications that extend far beyond Naples and its unique circumstances.

"Some of the solutions are actually pretty simple," De Pace said. "It's just a matter of rethinking what you see in front of you and finding ways to invest more in green infrastructure."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Researchers think a key to cooling cities lies in Naples' ancient aqueducts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the Italian city of Naples, some climate change solutions may be as ancient as the coastal outpost itself, according to researchers who are studying how the area's historic waterways could bring relief from extreme heat as the world warms. Architects and design students in Italy and the United States are collaborating on an initiative to map ancient aqueducts and water systems in Naples.

# data[].attributes.headline
Ancient Roman Inventions That Are Still Used Today

# data[].attributes.subject
Ancient Roman Inventions That Are Still Used Today

# data[].attributes.body
Arches, newspapers, postal service, Julian calendar, urban planning, aqueducts, Roman numerals

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Ancient Roman Empire was one of the largest and longest lasting empires in ancient history. It was also one of the most influential: Roman philosophy, technology, architecture, art, and literature have been instrumental in shaping the modern world. At its height, the Roman Empire was the largest civilization in the West, owing largely to the innovations and inventions driving its exceptional growth. Below are some inventions that were crucial to the development of the empire, and that continue to be use -in some form or another- today.

Arches

Architectural arches were probably invented by the Etruscan civilization, an ancient Italian civilization that eventually assimilated into the Roman Empire. However, it was the Romans who honed the use of these structures and perfected them into the form we see today.

The use of arches, which are a staple of ancient Roman buildings, are considered by historians and architects to be have laid the foundations for modern architecture. They allowed the Romans to build large buildings without the use of pillars, enabling them to expand their empire more rapidly and efficiently. They are also useful for their versatility, as they can be used in different structures such as vaults, aqueducts, temples, and ceremonial triumphal arches

Newspapers

Julius Cesar ordered the establishment of the Acta diurnal, a handwritten daily government "newsletter" that was published and posted for the public to read. The Acta diurnal informed citizens of official news and business, as well as marriages, trials, politics, and military affairs.

Though the newsletter was only one page long, it was an important source of information for citizens who had no other way to keep informed. Since then, newspapers, whether governmental or private, have continued to be the main source of news for the public.

Postal Service

The routes of the Curcis Publicus, the state mandated and supervised courier and transportation service of the Roman Empire

The Cursus publicus of the Roman Empire was one of the world's first postal systems to be set up in history. It was the system set up by emperor Augustus in 20 BCE to deliver mail for official and governmental correspondence, including taxes and intelligence reports. The process through which mail was delivered evolved over time. At first, postal workers would pass the mail from one person to another, but the system was changed to allow for one person to deliver a message from start to finish, allowing recipients of mail to question them for more information.

The postal service existed for around 300 years, and was powered by delivery personnel riding horses and oxen. Only one surviving map reveals the extent of the system's reach. The Tabula Peutingeriana¸ which can be seen at the Austrian National Library,shows over 500 Roman cities as delivery locations. Today, national postal services, like the United States Postal Service and the Royal Mail, are standard services in most countries around the world.

The Julian Calendar

The Julian Calendar was the dating system made by Julius Cesar and established as the Roman Calendar. Prior to Cesar's innovation, the Roman calendar was based on the lunar cycle, and had to be corrected every few years by a group of pontifices, or Roman priests. This led to severe inconsistencies and inefficiencies across the empire, with people not knowing the date or with different provinces running on different time zones. The introduction of the Julian calendar standardized date-keeping across the Roman Empire, and incorporated a leap year to correct for seasonal misalignments.

The Julian Calendar was used throughout most of Christian Europe and some parts of the Americas until around the 16 th century, when the world slowly began to transition to the Gregorian Calendar. The Gregorian Calendar is the most widely used today, and it preserved many elements from the Julian Calendar, shortening the year slightly to make it more accurate.

Urban Planning

Roads, of course, were not invented by the ancient Romans. However, it was the Romans who connected remote corners of the empire in an unprecedented network of roads, grids, and civic centers. The Roman proclivity for urban planning and infrastructure ensured the smooth flow of troops, goods, and information.

The Roman road system consisted of a hierarchy of main roads (somewhat like highways) that connected distant cities complemented by secondary roads connecting towns and villages. The roads were designed with the aim of making it easier to connect the capital to the rest of the empire, hence the phrase "All roads lead to Rome". Today, many European highways and urban grids are modelled after or are direct successors of Roman innovation.

Aqueducts

Earlier civilizations made use of simple canals and channels for their water needs, but the first aqueduct proper was built by the Romans around 312 BCE. An aqueduct is a large structure designed to transport a large amount of water from one city to another, especially over valleys and large chasms. Roman aqueducts supplied water to a vast amount of Roman cities, and were used to transport water for irrigation, drinking, and -importantly- sanitation. The Romans were known for their public baths, hundreds of which were supplied by aqueducts.

Roman aqueducts remained virtually unchanged for hundreds of years. While modern aqueducts have been greatly improved, they still rely on the same basic principles utilized thousands of years ago. In fact, some ancient Roman aqueducts are still functioning today, such as the Aqua Virgo in Rome.

Roman Numerals

As you could probably tell, Roman numerals were an early invention of the Roman Empire. The symbols currently seen on clocks and titles were the basis of a counting system that was standard across a vast amount of land. The motivation behind their creation was to establish a standardized mathematical system that could be easily adopted and taught to others. This new system provided the versatility that the Romans needed to efficiently conduct trade and communication.

Sadly (for the Romans at least) Roman numerals were not made to last, and their system proved too flawed to carry over into the modern world. For example, the Romans did not have a symbol for zero and could not express fractions. Accordingly, most of Christian Europe transitioned to Arabic numerals, which continue to be dominant in most Western languages used today.

The inventions of the Romans are a true testament to the spirit of innovation and development that brought them to power. Wherever you look, remnants of the Roman empire linger on in our cultural consciousness.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Ancient Roman Inventions That Are Still Used Today

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Ancient Roman Empire was one of the largest and longest lasting empires in ancient history. It was also one of the most influential: Roman philosophy, technology, architecture, art, and literature have been instrumental in shaping the modern world.

# data[].attributes.headline
Pietas builds a new temple to Apollo in Italy

# data[].attributes.subject
Pietas builds a new temple to Apollo in Italy

# data[].attributes.body
A new temple to Apollo was built in the city of Taranto, Italy, last month by the Italian Religio Romana organization, Pietas – Comunità Gentile.
Pietas is a reconstruction of the ancient priestly and religious rites of Religio Romana and recently received formal recognition from the Italian state.
...
The organization has also arduously and carefully reconstructed elements of Religio Romana using ancient sources that are both Pagan and Christian to gather as much historically reliable material to develop its rites.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
ROME - A new temple to Apollo was built in the city of Taranto, Italy, last month by the Italian Religio Romana organization, Pietas - Comunità Gentile.

Pietas is a reconstruction of the ancient priestly and religious rites of Religio Romana and recently received formal recognition from the Italian state. The temple is not a restoration of an existing structure or the use of an ancient site, but a brand new building built to honor Apollo.

Pietas is based in Rome and has affiliates in cities throughout Italy, including Bologna, Genoa, Milan, Palermo, and now Taranto, itself an ancient Spartan colony. The region is often referred to as Magna Graecia, which includes the present-day Italian regions of Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, and Sicily. The organization has also arduously and carefully reconstructed elements of Religio Romana using ancient sources that are both Pagan and Christian to gather as much historically reliable material to develop its rites. Pietas is now recognized under Italian law as a valid national religious community.

Temple building has been an important part of that reconstruction. Over the last two decades, Pietas has been expanding its presence over the Italian peninsula, creating a temple to Jupiter in Rome, to Minerva in Pordenone, to Apollo in Palermo, and a temple complex to Apollo in Ardea. They also re-dedicated the sacred fire of Vesta in Rome and annually rekindle the metaphysical fire of ancient Roman times that had originally been continuously lit from 2760 BCE, but ended during the rise of Christian rule.

Pietas takes tremendous physical, intellectual, and spiritual care in the construction of its temples. The new temple, while smaller than many ancient sites, has been built with the measure and proportions available from antiquity, and with the customary auguries, astrological alignments, and architectural dimensions that are required as part of a sanctuary's ritual construction. Pietas noted that the altar is a rectangle where the short side is half of the long one, corresponding to the Golden Rectangle.

Near the temple, they created an artisanal workshop, where they carve the stones to make ritual elements of the sanctuary including basins for ablutions, a holy path or via sacra, and religious imagery and other sacred items. Pietas also planted fruit trees and created a vegetable garden, to have the first fruits from the sacred gardens always available for the rites.

Pietas' leader and Pontifex Maximus, Giuseppe Barbera Hermes Helios, spoke with The Wild Hunt and explained that opening these sites must be a central mission of Pietas.

"Currently the temple of Apollo is in a simple form," said the Pontifex. "Still many decorations have to be made and assembled, but it is already functioning: rites, blessings, initiations, oracular tracts take place there, and it is already possible to celebrate ritual weddings."

Pietas' development of temple sites is central to its community. "The temple is a place of connection between the human and divine dimensions, also called 'Aedes,' which in Latin means 'house of the divinity,'" Helios said. "By erecting temples, we create places where Gentiles can meet, practice, discuss, where they can live their spiritual life thanks to the ancient rite and the sharing of the feeling of friendship.

"Even more beautiful is knowing that you have a home for the Gods, who can return to coexist with men, bringing balance, peace, health, prosperity, and well-being," he continued.

At the dedication of the temple in Taranto, Pietas said that one who attended said, "I am a practicing Catholic, and I have attended many rites in my life, but this was the first time ever in which I perceived a ritual as alive, real."

Helios noted that the individual "was very excited to have lived this inner experience, and this is precisely our goal when we erect temples: to allow anyone, regardless of religion, gender, race, or anything else, to have important spiritual experiences and to perceive. the living presence of the deities."

Helios also noted that he and his organization feel that humanity is experiencing an epochal transition. "We are all potentially protagonists of a new transformation, so the commitment must be born even more so that the reconstruction of Tradition is based on the healthiest and most beautiful values of the ancient world."

He suggested reading Marcus Aurelius to understand how applicable ancient thought and guidance can apply to modern problems. He noted that it is often uncanny "how current and useful those values are."

Pietas is also looking ahead. "A large sanctuary will soon be erected in Enna, dedicated to Ceres, where we have already erected a small temple to Hercules Victor and where we are building the largest temple built to date," said Helios. "There will be areas for theatrical activities, gymnastic games, conferences, a guesthouse for pilgrims, banquet halls, other rooms for conferences, conventions, and more.

"Our worship is mainly domestic and we do not proselytize, but we create temples as a reference point for the community," said Helios. But he also adds that the Pietas is growing rapidly. The organization has built solid relationships with its members worldwide and is open to everyone. "We accept memberships from all over the world. We have members of our community in the United States, Australia, Brazil, the list goes on."

Membership is free and those interested can join by contacting Pietas.

As for the new temple, it is open to the public and available for worship, meditation, and reflection. "Anyone who wants to visit will be welcome," said Helios. "Access is free. For those who knock, the doors are always open."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Pietas builds a new temple to Apollo in Italy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ROME - A new temple to Apollo was built in the city of Taranto, Italy, last month by the Italian Religio Romana organization, Pietas - Comunità Gentile. Pietas is a reconstruction of the ancient priestly and religious rites of Religio Romana and recently received formal recognition from the Italian state.

# data[].attributes.headline
And then passing it immediately afterward

# data[].attributes.subject
And then passing it immediately afterward

# data[].attributes.body
Caeser's Rich

# data[].attributes.headline
Latin conversation in Regular Show cartoon

# data[].attributes.subject
Latin conversation in Regular Show cartoon

# data[].attributes.body
- Sujay

# data[].attributes.headline
The Ancient Roman Origins Of French Toast 

# data[].attributes.subject
The Ancient Roman Origins Of French Toast 

# data[].attributes.body
In Apicius' text, readers were instructed to slice bread, take off the crust, soak the bread in eggy milk, fry it in oil, and smother it in honey.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Nicola Forenza/Shutterstock

The first "French" toast recipe appeared in a Roman cookbook titled "Apicius" (via MasterClass). This Roman cookbook might be the oldest in the world. Also known as "De Re Coquinaria," this cookbook is attributed to a foodie named Apicius, per Open Culture. However, there were several individuals of his name who existed throughout the Empire's long span, so the author's exact identity is uncertain. The earliest copy of his cookbook currently known to exist is from the fifth century, although its original copy is suspected to hail from the first century. Since then, the book has undergone a myriad of notating, translating, and updating.

In Apicius' text, readers were instructed to slice bread, take off the crust, soak the bread in eggy milk, fry it in oil, and smother it in honey, as translated by Project Gutenberg. There are references to toasted pieces of bread, but not explicitly in that recipe. Instead, toast is referenced in dishes like milk toast and roast suckling pig with honey. Naturally, the word "French" doesn't appear in the original text, since its etymology traces back to the 13th century, per Etymonline. Still, while this ancient Roman recipe isn't necessarily toast and obviously isn't French, it also quite clearly has the spirit of what we today call French toast: Fried bread that's eggy, milky, and sugary. When in Rome ... people ate French toast! Sort of.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Ancient Roman Origins Of French Toast - Tasting Table

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Nicola Forenza/Shutterstock The first "French" toast recipe appeared in a Roman cookbook titled "Apicius" (via MasterClass). This Roman cookbook might be the oldest in the world. Also known as "De Re Coquinaria," this cookbook is attributed to a foodie named Apicius, per Open Culture.

# data[].attributes.body
For English, we had to learn some roots and bases for vocabulary, and the teacher talked about how "am" and "amat" come from Latin! (amo, amare, amavi, amatum)

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
I took this photo! Admire the wonderful wheels of an upside down trash bin on the bottom of the frame!

# data[].attributes.body
The Washington Square Arch in Washington Square NY is based on the Arch of Titus, but rather than honoring the beloved roman emperor, this one honors the American president George Washington. The Arc de Triomphe was also modeled after the the Arch of Titus, and it took thirty years to build! (the Arch of Titus is estimated to have only taken 3-4 years to build) But those aren't the only arches designed after the Arch of Titus! Both the National Memorial Arch in Valley Forge National Historical Park, erected in 1917, and Edward Lutyens’ India Gate in New Delhi were inspired by the original Roman architectural marvel.

# data[].attributes.body
latin in a British propoganda poster from APUSH

# data[].attributes.body
The report template in google docs has a couple paragraphs completely in latin

# data[].attributes.headline
iPad Pro is revolutionizing how archaeologists preserve the history of Pompeii

# data[].attributes.subject
iPad Pro is revolutionizing how archaeologists preserve the history of Pompeii

# data[].attributes.body
“iPad is the perfect archaeology machine,” says Dr.  Emmerson, who was part of the team that pioneered its use to record data on archaeological digs in 2010. She credits iPad with revolutionizing the field.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
iPad Pro is revolutionizing how archaeologists preserve the history of Pompeii

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Archaeologists share how they use iPad Pro and Apple Pencil to capture data at the excavation site at Pompeii.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Most Distant Places Visited by the Romans

# data[].attributes.subject
The Most Distant Places Visited by the Romans

# data[].attributes.body
Ryan explains what history has recorded of “the vast range and reach of Roman merchants and adventurers,” who made it to Africa, Scandinavia, India, and even China. Some may have been motivated by pure wanderlust ... but surely most of them would have set out on such long, arduous, and even dangerous journeys with glory and wealth in mind.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Most Distant Places Visited by the Romans

# data[].attributes.body
Those detailed frescoes, which archaeologists began systematically excavating in the 18th century, are the focus of “The Painters of Pompeii,” a new exhibition at the Museo Civico Archeologico di Bologna in Italy
...
In addition to offering insights on the daily life and customs of ancient Rome, the frescoes shine a light on the at-times mysterious people who created them: the painters, or pictores. Archaeologists and art historians know very little about the pictores, who often did not sign their works but were obviously highly skilled craftspeople.
...
Curators are telling the story of the painters by reconstructing some of the rooms and conditions in which they worked. They’re also exhibiting the artists’ tools, including cups of pigment, compasses, squares, sketches and plumb lines. On display alongside these excavated artifacts are various domestic objects, such as vases, jugs and oil lamps.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 C.E., it blanketed nearby towns with a thick layer of ash and rock. As surviving residents fled in the aftermath of the disaster, the debris preserved what they left behind, including vibrant wall paintings depicting beautiful landscapes, scrumptious foods, figures from Greek mythology and erotic encounters.

Those detailed frescoes, which archaeologists began systematically excavating in the 18th century, are the focus of " The Painters of Pompeii," a new exhibition at the Museo Civico Archeologico di Bologna in Italy. With more than 100 paintings on view, the show is much larger than earlier iterations held in Oklahoma and New York; it's also unique in that nearly half of the frescoes have never been shown outside of their home at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, reports the Art Newspaper's James Imam.

In addition to offering insights on the daily life and customs of ancient Rome, the frescoes shine a light on the at-times mysterious people who created them: the painters, or pictores. Archaeologists and art historians know very little about the pictores, who often did not sign their works but were obviously highly skilled craftspeople.

"What relationship did they have with their clients?" Mario Grimaldi, the exhibition's curator, asks the Art Newspaper. "What was the difference contractually between public and private work? We can draw clues from a whole range of elements, which are like pieces of a puzzle."

Painters probably weren't very high on the rungs of the local social ladder, but they must have enjoyed some degree of economic success, as they were often responsible for purchasing their own materials and paints, some of which were very expensive, per the Art Newspaper. It's possible they worked in groups and were seen more as decorators than artists.

"Painting was relegated to the work of freedmen, slaves, women and people incapable of political and military life," Grimaldi tells the 's Roberto Serra.

Curators are telling the story of the painters by reconstructing some of the rooms and conditions in which they worked. They're also exhibiting the artists' tools, including cups of pigment, compasses, squares, sketches and plumb lines. On display alongside these excavated artifacts are various domestic objects, such as vases, jugs and oil lamps.

"We have tools and pigments that have miraculously survived the eruption, which tell us a lot about the way Romans worked, and these wouldn't have survived otherwise, if they weren't buried in the eruption," Rosie May, director of curatorial affairs and audience engagement at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, told the 's Brandy McDonnell ahead of the Sooner State's exhibition last year.

Nearly 2,000 years after Vesuvius' eruption, archaeologists continue to make important finds at Pompeii, Herculaneum, Boscoreale, Stabiae and other seaside communities buried by volcanic ash.

A recent excavation offered a window into the lives of middle-class Pompeii residents, who were "vulnerable during political crises and famines, but also ambitious to climb the social ladder," said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, in a statement. In 2021, archaeologists found what they believe to be the home of enslaved individuals living in the ancient Roman city.

Research is also revealing new information about the diets and dining habits of people living in the shadow of the volcano, as well as the types of wildlife that called the area home.
"The Painters of Pompeii" is on view at the Museo Civico Archeologico di Bologna through March 19, 2023.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 C.E., it blanketed nearby towns with a thick layer of ash and rock. As surviving residents fled in the aftermath of the disaster, the debris preserved what they left behind, including vibrant wall paintings depicting beautiful landscapes, scrumptious foods, figures from Greek mythology and erotic encounters.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Fascinating History of Mac and Cheese, America's Favorite Comfort Food

# data[].attributes.subject
The Fascinating History of Mac and Cheese, America's Favorite Comfort Food

# data[].attributes.body
The earliest mention that we have of pasta and cheese being joined together dates back as far as 160 BCE, when Marcus Porcius Cato, ultraconservative senator of the then Roman Republic, wrote his treatise on running a vast country estate, De Agri Cultura. In it, he included a few recipes for ritual gatherings and holidays that bring together what could be construed as pasta and fresh cheese.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A look at the historical fallacies, truths, and wishful thinking about the queen of comfort foods.

You're making up a macaroni and cheese casserole for the neighborhood potluck. As you stir, the plump elbows surrender to the thick, creamy orange cheese sauce. The voluptuous, squishy sound of walking barefoot through mud promises success. A top layer of grated cheese, browned to a golden crust, will add the final irresistible allure to this quintessentially American dish. But how did a combination of cheese and pasta-two European cultural exports-become one of America's best-known staples?

The most famous version of the story goes like this: Thomas Jefferson brought an enslaved James Hemings to France to study culinary arts. Jefferson not only financed the lavish crash course in gastronomy but smuggled a pasta machine back from Naples so that Hemings could introduce macaroni and cheese to the elite families of the American South. Often, Hemings is left out of the story completely and Jefferson alone is the protagonist. A Budweiser ad from 1948 shows an illustration of Jefferson himself, serving plates of freshly made pasta to fellow forefathers. But that tidy origin story is just an example of a gastromyth-a food-related tall tale that snowballed as it's been told to new generations. When it comes to macaroni and cheese history, we've got a lot more unpacking to do.

Roman party food origins

The earliest mention that we have of pasta and cheese being joined together dates back as far as 160 BCE, when Marcus Porcius Cato, ultraconservative senator of the then Roman Republic, wrote his treatise on running a vast country estate, De Agri Cultura. In it, he included a few recipes for ritual gatherings and holidays that bring together what could be construed as pasta and fresh cheese. "Placenta" (pronounced with a hard 'c') is one of those. It was made with layers of cheese packed between stacked sheets of whole grain dough. Festive recipes like these became inextricably linked with the taste of pasta and cheese and thus became embedded in the collective memory as a marker of culinary identity.

Surviving the Dark Ages

After Cato, the written record of the pasta-and-cheese combination falls off the radar, because centuries pass before we have another surviving cookbook in Italian. Both of the anonymous cookbooks from as early as the 13th century, Liber de coquina and Libro della cocina, contain a recipe for a layered pasta and cheese dish suggesting that the dish had been carried on straight through from antiquity and the Middle Ages. In these books, the pasta is again layered with cheese and respectively called lasanis and lasagne, the latter purposefully fat-laden for maximum comfort. Although not in a cookbook, we also get the first mention of macaroni in 1279 from the inventory of the belongings of a deceased military officer. Then circa 1350, Giovanni Boccacio writes of macaroni as the idealized food of the fictitious utopian town Bengodi, in The Decameron.

The 14th century was a time of unprecedented cultural exchange, dubbed the "International Gothic." Aristocratic families in Western Europe intermarried and consequently did a lot of castle-hopping, bringing their kitchen staff in tow. It was also the century of the Hundred Years War, and three Jubilee years, which flooded Rome with pilgrims.

A recipe called "makerouns" made it all the way to England and was included in the 1390 compilation The Forme of Cury (from the collected recipes used in the royal kitchen of Richard II):

Take a thin sheet of dough and cut it into pieces, place in boiling water and cook well. Take grated cheese, melted butter, and put it beneath and above like lasagna; serve.

Martino da Como, a.k.a. Maestro Martino, a renowned chef to the aristocracy and high clergy, published a cookbook in 1465 with a butter and cheese based pasta recipe called "Roman macaroni." Owing to its popularity, it became de rigueur that a chef of any standing create his own version of it. Macaroni, in this case, was cut noodles. Indeed, macaroni was a generic word for pasta, not a specific shape. In Boccacio's Decameron they were most likely gnocchi, for example. Regardless, the standard preparation for any dish called macaroni involved butter and copious quantities of cheese, usually Parmesan, with the addition of sugar and cinnamon, which was used as ubiquitously then as salt and pepper is used now.

Macaroni à la mode

By the mid-18th century, macaroni and cheese had taken root in France, but the French veered away from Italian dictates toward a creamier style, a signature touch positioning the dish in the context of their own cuisine.

Around the same time, macaroni and cheese recipes were transplanted to Great Britain's American colonies. Early evidence of pasta circulating as a highbrow standard in Virginia is first seen in Patrick Lamb's posthumously compiled and published Royal Cookery; or the Complete Court-Cook (1710), containing a recipe called "To Make Soupe Vermicelly," pasta in a butter-rich veal and chicken gravy. Over the space of 50 years, Lamb had made his way up through the ranks in the kitchens of the Stuart monarchy and overseen William and Mary's coronation. He also held the official monopoly over tobacco sales to the royal households-all imported from Virginia by strict decree.

A recipe calling for "vermachelly" from Edward Kidder's 1720 cookbook was copied into an anonymous Virginian family manuscript. In 1747, best-selling British cookbook author Hannah Glasse presented two English-style vermicelli pudding recipes as well as instructions on how to make vermicelli from scratch. Both Benjamin Franklin and George Washington had a copy of Glasse's cookbook in their home libraries and it was on Jefferson's wish list-just to say, pasta was not unknown amongst the Yankee Doodles.

However, it was in Elizabeth Raffald's The Experienced English Housekeeper (1769), another cookbook that circulated in the colonies, where we get our first proper recipe for macaroni and cheese in English. Her recipe calls for thickening the sauce with butter rolled in flour, denoting once again a predilection for creaminess.

James Hemings and the limits of speculation

By the time James Hemings began his training in Paris in 1785, macaroni had already been appropriated by the French, with the additions of a white sauce or cream and Gruyère cheese, and eventually ditching the usual cinnamon and sugar. England followed suit because, after all, the best chefs in England at that time were French. The colonies tagged along, not yet having established a culinary tradition and wanting to keep up with European trends.

It is likely that Hemings not only learned how to make macaroni and cheese, but also served it, as it was a favorite of Jefferson's and considered ostentatious enough to impress guests. In 1789, Jefferson and Hemings returned to the US and moved to Philadelphia, where Hemings was the chef. Hemings requested his freedom in 1793 and it was granted in 1796. The information we have about him thereafter is speculative. In 1801, when Jefferson became president, he attempted to contact Hemings, inviting him to assume the role of chef at the White House. Before negotiations were made, Hemings died of alcohol poisoning. His case merits further investigation into the tribulations of skilled, educated formerly enslaved peoples' attempting to assimilate into a society mired in cultural stigma. But as for macaroni and cheese, there is no corroborating evidence of Hemings as ambassador.

Making it American

By the early 19th century, "macaroni" as a form had come to mean dried tubular pasta to most people outside of Italy. Over the course of the century, the macaroni and cheese dish underwent a cultural transition, traceable in the numerous cookbooks published in England and the US. More and more often we find it as either a generic standard simply called "Macaroni" or with a Frenchified title like "To dress Macaroni a la Sauce Blanche" as featured in the iconic Southern cookbook, The Carolina Housewife (1847). Its Italian origin was quietly fading, and entries called "Italian macaroni" were no longer macaroni and cheese but pasta dishes with stewed beef and tomatoes.

The 1800s were a golden age for white American women cookbook writers, as the domestic arts was one of the few domains in which they were permitted to flourish unimpeded, and nearly all of these cookbooks contained recipes for macaroni and cheese. Yet, it was enslaved Black women who were in the kitchens, hands-on, either perfecting the recipes that would end up on the printed page, or translating heirloom recipes into reality, in one way or another passing on their craft to the next generation of cooks.

The perpetuation of macaroni and cheese became the legacy of Black women cooks. From the moment they came to dominate the workforce of the kitchens of elite families of the American South, sister to sister, wise woman to novice, they were the gatekeepers of this tradition, the authorities overseeing the maintenance and proliferation of the tradition through the skillful application of their profession. These are the cooks responsible for spreading the good news of creamy macaroni and cheese.

At the same time, macaroni and cheese began moving down from the top shelf to mainstream kitchens. As the working class grew dramatically during the second half of the 19th century, nutritionists and public policy makers grew concerned with how to economically feed the masses. Macaroni seemed to be a possible savior given recent innovations revolutionizing the manufacture of dried durum wheat pasta. Macaroni could be produced cheaply and so became more readily available. Alexis Soyer, a French chef operating in Britain and social reformer, decried in A Shilling Cookery for the People (1855), "Why should not the workman and mechanic partake of these wholesome and nutritious articles of food, which have now...become so plentiful and cheap?"

American Juliet Corson was even more explicit in her free cookbook Fifteen Cent Dinners for Workingmen's Families (1877), calling macaroni "a rather luxurious dish among the wealthy; but it should become one of the chief foods of the people. It is one of the most wholesome and economical of foods." And as for the dish itself, "It will make just as hearty and strengthening a meal as meat."

No one tooted that horn louder than nutritionist Sarah Tyson Rorer in Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book (1902). But she also points out that one of the reasons macaroni made sense both nutritionally and economically is that the quality of American pasta products had made great strides over the years.

Previously, American pasta was not made with durum wheat, the high protein grain that semolina is made from. However, in 1898, the US Department of Agriculture set out to change that, and, under the tutelage of Mark Alfred Carleton, durum wheat was successfully grown on a commercial scale in the US. The timing couldn't have been better given the events that were in store in the coming decades.

The convenience of Kraft

Two world wars and an extended economic depression made macaroni an attractive dish to cooks of all types seeking a budget-friendly and nutritious way to feed their families. Canadian cheese maker James Lewis Kraft had made a bundle selling his processed cheese to the American government during World War I. In 1937, toward the end of the Great Depression, he introduced his Kraft Dinner, marketing it from his base in Chicago. It took off like wildfire.

In the Black community, macaroni and cheese maintained multiple identities. The quick kit or ready meal version was a reliable side dish for weekdays, or could easily become the main meal with some key additions. Cookbook author Carla Hall confirms, "The baked version in all its creamy glory was for celebrations or Sunday suppers. The stovetop variety was more of an everyday dish." The elaborated Sunday-gathering macaroni and cheese has attained such a hallowed status that one must present personal references from trusted family members before being allowed to cook it for an important occasion. At the same time, mac 'n' cheese was also the stuff that filled school lunch trays and saw families through rough times.

Here was a dish that had been served on the tables of the Italian aristocracy, even to Popes. It had passed from France and England into the fine homes of the South and eased into American culinary repertoire to the point that its origin had been forgotten (even by the country where it had originated) and its history thereby rewritten. The pathway that allowed Kraft to flourish was paved by many factors, but above all by a 200-year legacy of Black and African American, primarily female, cooks to whom the scepter had been legitimately and deservedly passed. Even during WW II, when boxed macaroni and cheese became a rationed product, it maintained its status as a grand, comforting, and beloved dish, and a dignified way to feed the family.

Macaroni and cheese was not a culinary secret that sailed across the sea on a ship in 1789 to be propagated from an epicenter radiating from Monticello. It had germinated long before and, over the years, had been fine-tuned and interpreted by many hands over long stretches of time and distance. Authenticity in a recipe is not necessarily bound to a moment or an inventor. More often, it arises when authoritative hands have invested their expertise in a dish and positioned it within the folds of a tradition; as regards macaroni and cheese, that prerogative reverberates predominantly from the collective wisdom and generational experience of Black women in the United States

This reputation allowed it to be passed on with pride into the Soul Food canon, a genre that celebrates the foods that have sustained Black communities throughout American history and created a culinary identity from select dishes that bound a people through preparation rituals, food stories, festivities, and good eats, as it was in Ancient Rome, so too it is today. Foodways are the celebration of who we are, who we were, and who we would like to see ourselves as being.

Macaroni and cheese has so completely assimilated into the American foodscape that many Italians today dismiss it as a grotesquely caloric Italian American invention. Perhaps they would do well to brush up a bit on their culinary history.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Fascinating History of Mac and Cheese, America's Favorite Comfort Food

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A look at the historical fallacies, truths, and wishful thinking about the queen of comfort foods. You're making up a macaroni and cheese casserole for the neighborhood potluck. As you stir, the plump elbows surrender to the thick, creamy orange cheese sauce. The voluptuous, squishy sound of walking barefoot through mud promises success.

# data[].attributes.body
Get meme blitzed

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
I was researching the first universities in the world for history, and I found out where the word "university" derives from!

# data[].attributes.headline
Roman bathing and ancient mythology inspire design for Six Senses Rome spa, opening 2023 

# data[].attributes.subject
Roman bathing and ancient mythology inspire design for Six Senses Rome spa, opening 2023 

# data[].attributes.body
In order to create a true urban wellness retreat, the hotel will be complete with a five-treatment-room spa designed to honour the ancient Roman tradition of communal bathing.
Featuring a caldarium, tepidarium and frigidarium, the spa is being created with the intention to connect international travellers with the local community through a social contrast bathing experience.
...
The spa’s design will take inspiration from Greek mythology to recreate a bygone Roman feel and open with walls embellished with a bas-relief inspired by the myth of Daphne and Apollo.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Six Senses has announced its first Italian property and spa, Six Senses Rome, is on track to open in early 2023.

Designed to set a new level of consciousness in sustainability and wellness in a downtown setting, Six Senses envisions the hotel will become a green oasis amid Rome's urban rush.

Six Senses Rome will occupy a UNESCO-listed palazzo building from the 18th century, called Palazzo Salviati Cesi Mellini, and open nearby historic landmarks such as the Pantheon and Trevi Fountain.

In order to create a true urban wellness retreat, the hotel will be complete with a five-treatment-room spa designed to honour the ancient Roman tradition of communal bathing.

Featuring a caldarium, tepidarium and frigidarium, the spa is being created with the intention to connect international travellers with the local community through a social contrast bathing experience.

Beyond the baths, there will be a hammam, biohacking space, meditation rooms, a sauna, a solarium, an outdoor yoga deck, a fitness centre and a nail bar. Guests will also be able to learn about the therapeutic power of herbs and plants at the Alchemy Bar.

Six Senses revealed to Spa Business that skincare brands Seed to Skin, Biologique Recherche and Organic Pharmacy will power its spa menu and treatments.

The spa's design will take inspiration from Greek mythology to recreate a bygone Roman feel and open with walls embellished with a bas-relief inspired by the myth of Daphne and Apollo.

"My team and I are working with enthusiasm to translate the brand's core values of wellness, emotional hospitality and sustainability into a Roman context," says Francesca Tozzi, general manager of Six Senses Rome.

"For us, high quality and luxury include out-of-the-ordinary experiences and respect for the local community, while keeping things fun and quirky.

"I'm honoured and proud that this milestone is happening in my home city."

Thoughtful design
Interiors at the 96-key hotel will be contemporary in style with sustainable architecture and design accents, featuring imaginative planting, natural light and breezy open spaces. The concept is the vision of architect Patricia Urquiola who's celebrated for her responsible and human-centric design development.

With airy rooms, sun-filled terraces, soaring high ceilings and historic bay windows, Six Senses wants the design to help guests focus on wellbeing and a sense of conviviality.

Rustic cuisine and active excursions
The resort will be crowned with a rooftop terrace with panoramic views of Rome, complete with an organic fruit and vegetable garden from which chefs will harvest ingredients to recreate traditional Roman cuisine.

The destination will also feature a restaurant offering a modern interpretation of Italian cuisine, while following the three-part Six Senses ethos of 'natural ingredients', 'local and sustainable' and 'less is more'.

Six Senses Rome is also gearing up to take guests behind the walls of some of the most significant Roman cultural institutions, including the Palazzo Colonna and selected galleries such as the Borghese, and Doria Pamphilj.

The plan is for the hotel to be rich in opportunities for hands-on and multi-sensory art, archaeology, fashion and gastronomy experiences.

Six Senses Rome is now accepting reservations for stays in early 2023.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
products and diary dates for the worldwide spa industry from spa opportunities magazine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Roman bathing and ancient mythology inspire design for Six Senses Rome spa, opening 2023 | spaopportunities.com news

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Six Senses has announced its first Italian property and spa, Six Senses Rome, is on track to open in early 2023. Designed to set a new level of consciousness in sustainability and wellness in a downtown setting, Six Senses envisions the hotel will become a green oasis amid Rome's urban rush.

# data[].attributes.body
I took this one from the vault bc Vik made me.

# data[].attributes.headline
Palestinian Farmer Unearths Byzantine-Era Mosaic While Planting Olive Trees

# data[].attributes.subject
Palestinian Farmer Unearths Byzantine-Era Mosaic While Planting Olive Trees

# data[].attributes.body
The stunning, colorful flooring depicts 17 iconographies of birds and animals

# data[].attributes.headline
Emperors’ stress during Rome’s civil war revealed by doctored gold coins

# data[].attributes.subject
Emperors’ stress during Rome’s civil war revealed by doctored gold coins

# data[].attributes.body
“The metallurgical evidence from the gold coinage now allows us to show that the 68-69 civil wars caused significant and sustained disruption to the Roman economic system,” the authors write.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Emperors’ stress during Rome’s civil war revealed by doctored gold coins

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
-Only person who wears the hijab in 3rd block(writing my name is too much work)

# data[].attributes.headline
Atticus: The perfect pencil holder doesn't exis...

# data[].attributes.subject
Atticus: The perfect pencil holder doesn't exis...

# data[].attributes.body
As of this posting, I personally make up 3.6% of this padlet, out of over 1,100 postings.
yay

# data[].attributes.headline
To study ancient seafarers, researcher built a replica ship — and sailed it

# data[].attributes.subject
To study ancient seafarers, researcher built a replica ship — and sailed it

# data[].attributes.headline
From L.A. to Rome, Ancient Sculptures Get Hero’s Welcome

# data[].attributes.subject
From L.A. to Rome, Ancient Sculptures Get Hero’s Welcome

# data[].attributes.body
Three statues were returned to Italy after the J. Paul Getty Museum discovered they had been looted. They will be displayed temporarily in Rome before heading to Taranto, Italy, their permanent home.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
From L.A. to Rome, Ancient Sculptures Get Hero’s Welcome

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Three statues were returned to Italy after the J. Paul Getty Museum discovered they had been looted. They will be displayed temporarily in Rome before heading to Taranto, Italy, their permanent home.

# data[].attributes.headline
How Ancient Rome Fried Chicken Before Anyone Else

# data[].attributes.subject
How Ancient Rome Fried Chicken Before Anyone Else

# data[].attributes.body
In [Apicius'] texts, a recipe was discovered for Pullum Frontonianum (Chicken a la Fronto) that detailed the methods for frying chicken. The ingredients included one fresh chicken, 100ml of oil, 200ml of liquamen (fish sauce), one branch of leek, fresh dill, coriander, pepper, and saturei (a savory herb), and a sprinkle of Defritum (a fruity syrup).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Ancient Rome Fried Chicken Before Anyone Else

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
If you enjoy crunchy-yet-juicy crisp-skinned birds, here’s the story of how ancient Rome fried chicken before anyone else.

# data[].attributes.headline
Raman focal point on Roman Egyptian blue elucidates disordered cuprorivaite, green glass phase and trace compounds ???????????????????????????????????

# data[].attributes.subject
Raman focal point on Roman Egyptian blue elucidates disordered cuprorivaite, green glass phase and trace compounds ???????????????????????????????????

# data[].attributes.body
The results corroborate a monopolised pigment production site located in the northern Phlegrean Fields persisting over the first centuries A.D., this in line with statements of the antique Roman writers Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder and recent archaeological evidences.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Introduction

During the Roman period Egyptian blue was circulated throughout the Empire in the quasi standardised form of small balls of around 15 to 20 mm in diameter, thus the painter defined the respective grain size and by that the shade of blue and the covering capacity of the ground up artificial pigment himself1,2. In the first century B.C. Vitruvius provided the following guidance for its preparation in his architectural textbook De architectura libri decem (Liber VII, Caput XI), leaving out any details on quantities and processing temperature: "The recipes for [sky] blue were first discovered in Alexandria, and subsequently Vestorius began to manufacture it in Puteoli as well. [...] Sand is ground with flower of natron [...] so finely that it almost becomes like flour. Copper [ore], broken by coarse files until it is like sawdust, is sprinkled with this sand until it clings together. Then it is formed into balls by rolling it between the hands and bound together to dry. Once dry, the balls are put into a ceramic pitcher, and the pitchers are put into a kiln"3. In view of archaeological evidence and the concordant information given by Vitruvius as well as Pliny the Elder (first century A.D.)4, current research assumes a monopolised production site in the area of the ancient cities of Cumae and Liternum (Gulf of Pozzuoli, Campania, Southern Italy), whereas manufacture in Central Europe is excluded due to a very probable lack of technological abilities. According to modern laboratory experiments, Egyptian blue is synthesised from a raw material blend of quartz sand, limestone, sulphidic copper or copper carbonate ore and alkali flux in the form of either natron or ash from halophytes (salt plants) at temperatures between 850 and 1000 °C under oxidising conditions9,11,12,13,14,15,16.

Only recently, a study on a monochrome blue mural fragment belonging to the Early Medieval church of St. Peter above Gratsch (South Tyrol, Northern Italy, fifth/sixth century A.D.) by means of area-covering Raman microspectroscopic imaging resulted in the identification of 26 minerals down to the sub-permille level in addition to the chromophoric cuprorivaite CuCaSi ₄O ₁₀-an assemblage suggestive of type and provenance of the raw materials and of chemical reactions occurring during pigment manufacture and application as well as ageing of the pictorial layer17. Especially some accessory minerals attributable to the quartz sand, which survived processing without thermal alterations, were indicative of an import of the Egyptian blue in question from the northern Phlegrean Fields in Campania. As detailed below, analogous analyses of pigment balls and of a fragment of a wall painting unearthed in the archaeological remains of the ancient Roman cities of Aventicum and Augusta Raurica (Switzerland) (Fig. 1) further extended the plethora of hitherto uncovered trace compounds and revealed, beyond that, particularities concerning the formation of crystalline and amorphous phases or the thermal history of the artificial blue, respectively.

Egyptian blue pigment balls and mural fragment unearthed in the archaeological remains of the ancient Roman cities of Aventicum (top) and Augusta Raurica (bottom).

Samples

Table S1 in the Supplementary Information provides an overview of the Egyptian blue samples analysed in the present and predecessor paper17. The pigment balls under study (Fig. 1) are dated via adjoining archaeological finds, especially ceramics, to the second or third quarter of the first century A.D. (Roman Colonia Augusta Raurica) and the second half of the first century A.D. or the beginning of the second century A.D. (Aventicum, principal place of the Roman Civitas Helvetiorum). The monochrome blue mural fragment (excavated in the remains of the city of Augusta Raurica) in turn is assigned to the first half of the third century A.D.

The modern Egyptian blue used as reference material for Raman experiments is part of the range of re-enacted historical pigments of the colour mill Kremer Pigmente (Aichstetten, Germany).

Methods

Raman microspectroscopic imaging

Raman spectra were acquired using a Horiba JobinYvon Labram HR800 Raman microscope with 532 nm continuous-wave laser excitation (diode-pumped solid-state laser, 40 mW maximum power at the sample surface, reduced to 20 mW by a neutral density filter). The laser light was focused onto the sample surface and the reflected and/or scattered light was collected in upright configuration by using a 50×/N.A. = 0.55 long-working-distance microscope objective (with N.A. denoting the numerical aperture) leading to a focus diameter of approximately 1.2 µm. Dispersion of the Stokes-Raman-scattered light in a 800 mm spectrometer was carried out with a 300 mm −1 grating, and spectra were detected by a Peltier cooled (− 60 °C) charge coupled device (CCD) Syncerity camera (Horiba JobinYvon) having 1024 pixels along the wavenumber axis, resulting in spectra ranging from approx. 70 cm −1 to 3250 cm −1 with a spectral resolution of 3.7 cm −1 to 2.6 cm −1 per CCD pixel. Raman maps were gathered by software-controlled (Horiba JobinYvon LabSpec 6) stepwise movement of the sample stage through the laser focus with a step size of 1 µm. Typical acquisition time per pixel or spectrum, respectively, was 0.5 s with 10 to 40 accumulations, chosen depending on the signal to noise ratio and available measurement time. Single spectra, acquired independently of mappings, were typically measured within 1 min split into several accumulations (e.g., 6 × 10 s). See Ref.18 for further specifics of the employed instrument and an introduction to Raman microspectroscopic imaging, and Ref.17 for details on the optimisation of the measurement parameters adopted from the predecessor study on trace compounds in Early Medieval Egyptian blue. As the conditions cannot be adjusted to every mineral individually, the chosen irradiance reflects a compromise between sensitivity and non-destructiveness. Therefore, thermal conversion of coloured sulphides and oxysalts cannot be ruled out completely (see the section 'Contaminations from adherent soil minerals' below as well as the Supplementary Information of the predecessor study17 and references therein), which was considered in the interpretation of the results.

Measurement areas were randomly selected on the surfaces of the four samples. Mapping sizes were chosen depending on local sample roughness and ranged from 28 × 40 to 161 × 141 pixels. For each sample 12 to 16 Raman maps were acquired within a typical measurement time of 50 h each (when assuming 100 × 100 pixels and 36 × 0.5 s per pixel as typical mapping conditions). Altogether, 100,016 (pigment ball Aventicum forum; see top-left image in Fig. 1), 100,318 (pigment ball Aventicum insulae 15; Fig. 1, top right), 101,091 (pigment ball Augusta Raurica) and 99,885 spectra (mural fragment Augusta Raurica), respectively, were collected. These 401,310 spectra were evaluated by using own (T.S.) LabView-based (National Instruments, Austin, TX, USA) software developed for analysing Raman maps and enabling the calculation of two-dimensional distributions of baseline-corrected peak intensities of each Raman band found in a dataset and extracting their individual spectra. The latter were assigned to mineral phases by comparison with reference data from the RRUFF spectral library ( https://rruff.info)19 or from the literature (see Figs. S3- S29, S35, S36, S42, S46, S49, S50, S53 and S54 in the Supplementary Information).

Raman spectroscopy for analysing pyrometamorphic conversions

For simulating the effect of heat in an ancient furnace onto selected mineral phases, some preliminary in situ Raman measurements were carried out by employing a TS-1500 heating stage from Linkam Scientific Instruments Ltd. (Redhill, Surrey, UK) with a T96-LinkPad controller, placed under the same microscope objective with approx. 1 cm working distance mentioned above. Overall, the same typical measurement parameters were used. Such temperature-dependent experiments began with the measurement of the room-temperature spectrum of the sample in the 7 mm diameter crucible of the heating stage, followed by heating to a selected temperature with the highest possible rate of 200 K/min that was held constant for 5 min. Subsequently, a Raman spectrum was acquired for checking purposes (data not shown, as not relevant for the study at hand) and the sample was allowed to cool back to room temperature for gathering a Raman spectrum or map of the heat-treated material. The next temperature step was chosen, and the described procedure was repeated. The monitored pathways of such pyrometamorphic transformations are documented in Figs. S41- S48 and S52 in the Supplementary Information. The numbers given in Figs. S45 and S52 are based on a number of n measurements from Raman maps and represent mean values ± standard deviations.

Peak fitting procedures applied in the evaluation of Raman spectra

Synthesis conditions of Egyptian blue and heat treatment of selected minerals have shown to significantly influence the widths and in some cases the centre wavenumbers of their Raman bands. For their exact determination with a resolution of approximately one order of magnitude better than in the raw spectroscopic data, according to the procedures described in Ref.20, individual Raman bands were fitted with Lorentzian functions, usually by employing the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm provided by the software Origin 2020 (OriginLab Corp., Northampton, MA, USA). This applies to the spectra of crystalline phases shown in Figs. S32, S41, and S51, in the Supplementary Information as well as to the deconvolutions of glass spectra into individual peaks displayed in Figs. S39, S40, S44 and S48. The large dataset from mapping experiments presented in Fig. S33 was evaluated by the own LabView-based software mentioned above, enabling automated fitting within selected wavenumber range fractions of all Raman spectra of a whole map. (Only peaks with a baseline-corrected height exceeding a preselected threshold intensity were included in the evaluation). Here, the band widths were established by Lorentzian fitting using a Trust Region (Dogleg) algorithm, while for the determination of exact band positions a Gaussian Levenberg-Marquardt peak fitting was applied, because providing more stable results and because the identification of peak centres is less sensitive to the matching of the shapes of measurement data and fit functions. The Raman maps acquired for determination of the means and standard deviations displayed in Figs. S45 and S52 were also evaluated by Lorentzian fitting using the LabView software. The Raman band widths given in the Supplementary Information are intended to only show general trends and may vary when reproduced with different Raman instruments. Ref.20 provides strategies for correcting instrument-dependent band broadening; the band width data presented here correspond to the uncorrected 'Horiba 532 nm' dataset there.

Light microscopy

The micrographs shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. S1 in the Supplementary Information were captured using a Zeiss AxioScope A.1 MAT with an AxioCam MRc Rev.3 camera in upright configuration with darkfield illumination.

Darkfield light microscopy images of pigment balls unearthed in Aventicum (left; insulae 15) and Augusta Raurica (right). The left micrograph shows the green glass phase found as a by-product of the synthesis. Brown particles present in both images are due to adherent soil from the excavation sites (see Fig. S1 in the Supplementary Information for further micrographs).

Results and discussion

Mineralogy of the quartz sand

Evaluation of available descriptive literature and data provides the following mineralogical composition of the "sand on a coast of six miles in length between Cumae and Liternum", i.e. of sediments transported by the Volturno river into the Gulf of Gaeta (Campania, Southern Italy): The carbonate-bearing coastal sands are characterised by impurities in the form of feldspars (potassium feldspar KAlSi ₃O ₈, hyalophanes﻿ (K,Ba)Al(Si,Al) ₃O ₈, albite NaAlSi ₃O ₈, plagioclase), iron-rich augite (Ca,Na)(Mg,Fe,Al,Ti)(Si,Al) ₂O ₆, diopside CaMgSi ₂O ₆ (or salite Ca(Mg,Fe)Si ₂O ₆), hornblende and volcanic rock fragments, as well as natural glass and sporadic accessory minerals such as apatite Ca ₅(PO ₄) ₃(F,OH), biotite K(Mg,Fe) ₃(Si ₃Al)O ₁₀(OH,F) ₂, rutile TiO ₂, ilmenite FeTiO ₃, sphene CaTiSiO ₅, garnet (i.e. andradite Ca ₃Fe ₂Si ₃O ₁₂), magnetite Fe ₃O ₄, hematite α-Fe ₂O ₃, spinel and zircon ZrSiO ₄. Source rocks of the carbonates (predominantly calcite CaCO ₃, rarely dolomite CaMg(CO ₃) ₂) are the carbonate/siliciclastic successions of the Apennine chain. A matching assemblage of trace compounds-at this time with the exception of hornblende, dark mica, ilmenite and sphene-was detected by means of Raman microspectroscopy (Fig. 3, Fig. S2) on the pigment balls unearthed in the ancient Roman cities of Aventicum and Augusta Raurica (Table 1), this in consistency with the relevant properties of the Early Medieval Egyptian blue applied in St. Peter above Gratsch studied recently17. In Switzerland occurrences of relatively pure quartz sand are concentrated in Rhaetian successions and pockets or basins of the Bean Ore Formation in the Jurassic, in particular in the Basle, Solothurn and Bernese Jura, and in littoral accumulations of the Marine Molasse in the Central Plateau (for example near Benken and Wildensbuch in the Zürcher Weinland). Seen their mineral constituents, these deposits can be excluded as raw material source for the manufacture of the blue pigment balls under study just as river sands or sands from local moraines encompassing heterogeneous rock types outcropping in the Swiss Alps and the Swiss Plateau.

Selected Raman map of the pigment ball from Augusta Raurica (left) with chalcocite and accessories of the sulphidic copper ore. The paint layer of the mural fragment from the same excavation site (right) is contaminated with soil minerals, namely muscovite. This Raman map also contains the signature of disordered cuprorivaite, which is shown and discussed in detail in the Supplementary Information (Fig. S34; see Fig. S2 for further Raman maps).

Table 1 Plethora of minerals identified in the Roman Imperial pigment balls and fragmentary wall paintings under study as well as in the monochrome blue paint layer of an Early Medieval mural fragment originating from St. Peter ob Gratsch (South Tyrol, Italy)17 by Raman microspectroscopy.

Constituents and accessory minerals of the copper ore

The observation of remnant chalcocite Cu ₂S and chalcopyrite CuFeS ₂ points to the use of a sulphidic copper ore as copper source for the synthesis of Egyptian blue. These two most common copper minerals are accompanied as usual33 by various sulphides (kësterite Cu ₂(Zn,Fe)SnS ₄ and other members of the stannite group, cinnabarite HgS, greenockite CdS), selenides (klockmannite CuSe or umangite Cu ₃Se ₂), arsenates (arsenolithe As ₂O ₃, basic copper arsenate Cu x(AsO ₄) y(OH) 2x−3y), chromates (phoenicochroite Pb ₂(CrO ₄)O or crocoite PbCrO ₄) and oxides. Depending on the temperature resistance, in some cases only the Raman microspectroscopic detection of oxidation or (pyrometamorphic) reaction products was feasible due to the essential roasting of the sulphidic copper ore preceding the pigment production or due to the synthesis accomplished in an oxidising furnace atmosphere, though also the presence of secondary minerals originating from the oxidation zone of the copper deposit cannot be ruled out (this applies for instance to cuprite Cu ₂O and lead stannate/lead tin yellow I Pb ₂SnO ₄ or lead antimonate/Naples yellow/oxyplumboroméite (the former bindheimite) Pb ₂Sb ₂O ₇). The identified oxides of the spinel group-mixed crystals aside from the end members magnetite Fe ₃O ₄ and jacobsite MnFe ₂O ₄ -might be assigned as subordinate minerals to the quartz sand as well. In summary, the evidenced accessories do not embody any distinguishing feature for provenancing the processed copper ore.

Type of alkali flux

Usually, the ratios of Na ₂O/K ₂O, Na ₂O/MgO and Na ₂O/CaO established in ancient Egyptian blue by means of elemental analysis are employed to identify-analogous to contemporary glass or faience glaze-the type of alkali flux in the raw material mixture, as they are affected by impurities in either natron (i.e. a polyphase geogenic evaporite consisting of carbonates, bicarbonates, sulphates and chlorides of sodium) or ash of halophytes. All values are significantly lower in plant ash, although sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium originating from natural associated minerals of the quartz sand (e.g. alkali feldspar or its alteration products like kaolinite Al ₂Si ₂O ₅(OH) ₄, limestone, mollusc shells, etc.) can also influence the concentration ratios of these chemical elements (recalculated into oxidic form according to convention), thus potentially leading to incorrect conclusions. Beyond that, the composition of plant ash and glass or glaze, respectively, differs, since any sulphates or chlorides present in the flux form a separate salt melt, the so called galle, whereas more reactive (hydrogen) carbonates, sulphites, sulphides and hydroxides are more easily incorporated in the melt37,38,39,40,41. An ion exchange between coexisting salt and silicate melt and similar processes during the synthesis of Egyptian blue can be assumed on condition of melt formation39, but in contrast to the manufacture of glass, the separation of unreacted salts is not part at least of the procedure described by Vitruvius3. Notwithstanding the in the present case unfeasible elemental or phase quantification, we interpret the main detection of sulphates (arcanite K ₂SO ₄, thénardite Na ₂SO ₄ and/or aphthitalite (K,Na) ₃Na(SO ₄) ₂, epsomite MgSO ₄·7H ₂O, polyhalite K ₂Ca ₂Mg(SO ₄) ₄·2H ₂O) and particularly phosphates (bobierrite Mg ₃(PO ₄) ₂·8H ₂O, morinite NaCa ₂Al ₂(PO ₄) ₂(OH)F ₄·2H ₂O) by chemical imaging via Raman microscopy as indicative of the use of a fluxing agent in the form of soda-rich or mixed-alkaline ash derived from salt tolerant plants of the genera Salsola or Suaeda (both belonging to the so-called saltworts) from the amaranth family (Amaranthaceae) such as the glasswort Salsola kali (or synonym Kali turgidum) flourishing on the Mediterranean coasts. According to the relevant literature, variable amounts of phosphate (up to 2 wt%) in the glass phase of Egyptian blue samples originating from tombs and temples dated to the fifth dynasty﻿ of the Old Kingdom till the Roman time provide evidence for the application of plant ash fluxes rather than alkali salts-this because geogenic evaporitic natron is virtually free from phosphate (and potassium) salts, whereas phosphate forms a chemical main component of biogenic native plant ash and still a minor constituent of its extract42,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51.

Thermal history of the pigment balls

Detailed evaluation of the comprehensive spectroscopic data of cuprorivaite (see Fig. S29 in the Supplementary Information) acquired within this study revealed individual crystals with lattice disorder through comparable deviations in Raman spectra, i.e. changes of band widths accompanied by gradual peak shifts reflecting differences in crystallinity when considering only the ancient Egyptian blue, but also when confronting Roman Imperial with modern (Kremer Pigmente) sample material (see Fig. 4). Such band width effects can be explained with crystal lattice defects as well as the extent of the relative surface area, as experimentally demonstrated for the example of thermal anhydrite CaSO ₄ grains in high-fired medieval gypsum mortar by combined Raman, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) measurements52; in other words, a highly crystalline material, characterised by sharp Raman bands, consists of relatively large crystallites exhibiting only few lattice defects. A look into the crystal structure of cuprorivaite (see Fig. S30 in the Supplementary Information) enables access to the interpretation of its spectra and the monitored variations: Rings of four silicon and four oxygen atoms (O ring) are connected by bridging oxygens (O bridge) and alternatingly arranged within the sheets of this phyllosilicate. Terminal Si-O − groups (O term) coordinate Cu ²⁺ ions occupying vacancies between the four-membered rings within the layers as well as the Ca ²⁺ ions interconnecting the layers. The most prominent Raman mode of cuprorivaite at approx. 432 cm −1 (due to orientation/polarisation effects not always the strongest peak11) is assigned by Pietro Baraldi et al.14 to a combination of ring deformation modes detected at 427 cm −1 in the structural analogue gillespite BaFeSi ₄O ₁₀ by David McKeown and Michael Bell53 (see Table S3 for details on the assignments of Raman bands). (A breathing motion of the O ring atoms, which owing to the relatively weak bonds to the Cu ²⁺ and Ca ²⁺ ions also involves slight motions of the Si-O term groups, might contribute as well). The second strong band at approx. 1087 cm −1 is because of a localised stretching motion along the Si-O bridge-Si axes (see Fig. S31, Table S2 for all experimentally determined Raman modes of cuprorivaite).

Comparison of the Raman spectra of the green glass phase (intensity × 10; acquired on the pigment ball unearthed in Augusta Raurica) and disordered as well as crystalline cuprorivaite (both from the same Raman map of the pictorial layer of the mural fragment excavated in the remains of Augusta Raurica).

Disordered cuprorivaite

While in disordered cuprorivaite all Raman bands broaden, the most pronounced band shift occurs in the case of the Si-O bridge-Si stretch vibrational mode between approx. 1081 cm −1 (lowest crystallinity) and 1088 cm −1 (highest crystallinity) (see Figs. S32a, S33a). Such large band shift is far beyond the effect typically observed for strain in crystalline materials54 of < 1 cm −1 and is either due to exchange of ions having different masses or due to a significant variation in force constants. The first possibility can be ruled out, as the same peak shifts also occur when measuring modern cuprorivaite synthesised from pure starting materials (see Figs. S32b, S33a). Thus, the downshift of the Si-O bridge-Si stretch frequency in disordered cuprorivaite can be explained by a significant weakening of the interconnections within the silicate sheets. This hypothesis is confirmed by relatively strong shifts in the same direction of the bands at 473 cm −1 (shoulder of the 432 cm −1 peak) and 570 cm −1 (values corresponding to highly crystalline cuprorivaite), as the vibrations at both wavenumbers include bending motions of the Si-O bridge-Si bridges: the first represents a Si-O term/Si-O bridge rocking, the latter a O term-Si-O bridge bending mode. Furthermore, another slight wavenumber downshift indicating defects of the cuprorivaite structure was found for the peak at 114 cm −1, representing the motion of Ca ²⁺ ions relative to the silicate structure14,53, which can be interpreted as weakening of the interactions between the sheets (see Fig. S32). In contrast to these modes, the band position at 432 cm −1 is almost unaffected by cuprorivaite's degree of imperfection or Raman band widths, respectively (see Fig. S33 b). (A slight increase of binding strength within the rings in disordered cuprorivaite is the necessary consequence of the weakening of the bridging bonds interconnecting these structural elements).

In summary, these spectroscopic properties elucidate that in disordered cuprorivaite mainly the layer structure is not fully developed and characterised by weakened intra- and inter-sheet bonding due to insufficient reaction time, while the four-membered silicate rings are established like in the crystalline form. Because of incomplete conversion, a considerable amount of cuprorivaite exhibiting lattice disorder was found colocalised with remnant quartz in the Roman Imperial pigment balls (see Fig. S34). (The scanning electron micrograph of the Early Medieval Egyptian blue paint layer in Fig. 3 of Ref.17 shows such quartz grains intergrown with cuprorivaite.) Note that the present study revealed a significantly higher average crystallinity of ancient cuprorivaite compared to the modern counterpart (Kremer Pigmente), evidencing differences within their specific synthesis parameters (see Fig. S33; the Raman spectra of the Early Medieval cuprorivaite discussed in Ref.17 match the range of band widths and shifts of the Roman Imperial analogue). The interpretation of the downshift of the 1087 cm −1 band as consequence of weakening of the layer structure was further corroborated by the analysis of finely ground modern cuprorivaite; mechanically damaging the sheet structure using a mortar lead to a further spread of the Raman data towards lower wavenumbers with a minimum of 1072 cm −1, whereas the band widths (representing the overall crystallinity resulting from the process conditions) remained in the same range (see Figs. S32b, S33).

By-products of the synthesis

Wollastonite CaSiO ₃ rarely occurs as an intrinsic by-product of the Egyptian blue manufacture (see Figs. S35, S36). The pyroxenoid might be formed at the calcite-quartz interface in consequence of (local) excess of calcium, seen the temperature range of 850 °C to 1000 °C derived from laboratory experiments as appropriate for the formation of cuprorivaite9,11,12,13,14,15,16,37. (During ceramic firing wollastonite appears already at 800 °C in very low concentrations as reaction rim between carbonates and silicates). Likewise, the sporadic detection of cristobalite in the pigment balls under study arises from excessively high synthesis temperatures or at least locally high concentration of alkali flux. An alternative hypothesis would imply the presence of this high-temperature polymorph of SiO ₂ as subordinate mineral in the processed quartz sand.

Green glass phase

In the course of the rediscovery of Egyptian blue at the turn of the century and the establishment of the analytical chemistry during the nineteenth century, numerous laboratory experiments were performed to determine the optimal process conditions and the spectrum of possible reaction products to be encountered in the blue pigment. Until today, the extensive results are reflected in contradictory interpretations in particular with regard to the formation of an amorphous phase. Ferdinand Fouqué, for example, observed the decomposition of cuprorivaite in the temperature range above bright red into wollastonite, dendritic crystals of copper oxide and a light green glass phase; when white hot, wollastonite decomposed, leaving only the aventurine-green glass, embedding minute crystals of copper oxide62. Likewise, Gerhard Bayer and Hans-Georg Wiedemann as well as Detlef Ullrich reported the breakdown of cuprorivaite above 1050 °C, leading to the coexistence of copper oxides, silica and wollastonite. Pierluigi Bianchetti et al. and Ioanna Kakoulli, by contrast, depicted the presence of wollastonite, copper oxides and a light blue or pale green glass at temperature values significantly below the decomposition of cuprorivaite13,64, whereas Arthur Laurie et al. circumstantiate the formation of an olive-green glass phase at 800 °C, thus already prior to the pursued crystallisation of the blue mineral "somewhere about 830°"; this amorphous phase again predominates when the synthesis temperature is raised above 900 °C65.

We discerned a green amorphous phase on the Roman Imperial Egyptian blue balls unearthed in the remains of the ancient cities of Aventicum and Augusta Raurica (Fig. 2), which might be associated with small-scale compositional inhomogeneities, i.e. a locally high flux concentration-for example, due to transport of soluble salts towards the surface during the drying of the balls3-might have given rise to a liquid phase consuming the quartz grains, thus facilitating the diffusion of the chromophoric Cu ²⁺ ions into the liquid before the onset of solid-state reactions, which in turn lead to the crystallisation of cuprorivaite. Possibly this green glass is concordant to green particles observed by Ariadne Kostomitsopoulou Marketou et al. in pigment balls from a first century B.C. workshop of the Greek island of Kos and specified as a green Raman-silent Cu-Si glass resulting from an interrupted secondary treatment step66. Seen the case under discussion here, this spectroscopic interpretation might be explained by the broad Raman bands attributable to the amorphous phase exhibiting intensities around one order of magnitude lower than the Raman spectra gathered from cuprorivaite and thus difficult to identify within complex mixtures (see Fig. 4, Fig. S37).

The signature of the green glass phase (see Figs. S38- S40) resembles the one of ancient alkaline glasses (and enamels)34,67,68,69,70: broad and superimposed bands in a low-wavenumber range from approx. 280 cm −1 to 720 cm −1 assigned to bending vibrations of differently interconnected SiO ₄ 4− tetrahedra and an according stretch-vibrational high-wavenumber range from approx. 850 cm −1 to 1200 cm −1. Different interpretations exist for the mid-range region, which in the spectra of some (ancient) glasses contains weak bands. While a doublet with a significant intensity at > 800 cm −1 observed in some silicate glasses with high SiO ₂ content is hypothesised as due to a symmetric motion of Si against its cage of O atoms71,72, we see an obvious analogy of the mid-range bands at around 785 cm −1 (and no features at > 800 cm −1) to a peak monitored by Justyna Sułowska et al. to raise in intensity, when increasing the amount of Cu ²⁺ added to silicate glasses73. A clearly discernible peak occurs in the spectrum of a glass with the major elements Si, Ca, Mg and Cu in the molar ratio of 4:1.4:1.2:1.8, thus, not fundamentally but significantly diverging from the Si:Ca:Cu = 4:1:1 stoichiometry of cuprorivaite. We interpret these mid-range bands as bending vibrations of four-membered silicate rings coordinated with Cu ²⁺ (see Figs. S38- S40; vibrational features in the same wavenumber range of crystalline forms of such ring structures are described in Refs.53,74). This band allows a clear distinction from other glass compositions, so for example from the copper-free and thus colourless amorphous phase formed upon heating pure modern cuprorivaite up to 1300 °C, whose Raman spectrum misses bands in the mid-range region (see Figs. S41- S43; the result did not significantly change when thermally decomposing modern Egyptian blue (Kremer Pigmente) mixed with sodium hydrogencarbonate as flux, see Figs. S45- S48).

Due to the current lack of reference Raman data in the scientific literature, it is not feasible to find the equivalent of the green amorphous phase spotted on the Roman Imperial pigment balls under study in the copper-bearing glass responsible for the distinguishing green to turquoise, at times even blue hue of the likewise artificial pigment Egyptian green, characterised by the coincident presence of wollastonite and the high-temperature SiO ₂ polymorphs tridymite and cristobalite. Its manufacture from a proportionally modified mixture of the same compounds used for the synthesis of Egyptian blue in a higher temperature range and its art technological application seem to be confined almost entirely to the Egyptian territory, primarily to the New Kingdom era11,12,13,75. However, fragments of globular crucibles covered with residues of green colour witness the parallel production of Egyptian blue (in cylindrical crucibles) and Egyptian green at Cumae (Gulf of Pozzuoli, Campania, Southern Italy) at least in the course of the first century B.C.; according to Celestino Grifa et al. newly formed minerals, particularly a sodalite-nosean feldspathoid, confirm the exposure of the ceramic objects to temperatures above 1050 °C6.

Contaminations by adherent soil minerals

Fluvioglaciale sediments and uncemented rocks in the Augusta Raurica as well as Aventicum area embrace, amongst others, fragments of granite, quartzite and schist76,77. Strong autofluorescence typical for soil organic matter, hampering analyses by Raman microspectroscopy, and the Raman signature of humic substances78 provided evidence for the identification of some of the traceable minerals as inorganic components of soil, thus as contaminations of the sample material in consequence of abandonment of the ancient structures and not as natural impurities of the raw material blend for the manufacture of the Egyptian blue balls (Fig. S51).

The phyllosilicate stilpnomelane K(Fe,Mg,Al) ₈(Si,Al) ₁₂(O,OH) ₂₇·2H ₂O (Fig. S49) occurs in a large range of compositions as a common mineral of low-grade metamorphism along with chlorite, muscovite and albite in greenschists, furthermore in glaucophane-lawsonite facies (blueschists) and ironstones. On heating, it first loses interlayer water molecules and above about 450 °C Fe ²⁺ is progressively oxidised and equivalent structural OH is lost79, which makes the attribution to inorganic soil components plausible.

In addition, the ubiquitous sheet silicate muscovite KAl ₂(Si ₃Al)O ₁₀(OH,F) ₂ was detectable by means of Raman microspectroscopy (Fig. 3, Figs. S50, S51). White mica dehydroxylation, accompanied by delamination, occurs over a considerable temperature interval; the platy structure is decomposed only on firing to temperatures above 1000 °C55,56,57,58,80,81,82,83,84. As dilation of the crystal lattice and delamination should affect the Raman spectra (see Fig. S52), we conclude that muscovite-possibly just as biotite subordinate mineral of the processed quartz sand-was not involved in the synthesis of Egyptian blue and/or its presence on the surface of the studied pigment balls left in earth for centuries is due to contact with soil and cautious cleaning after excavation.

The same applies to gypsum CaSO ₄·2H ₂O (Fig. S53) seen its conversion or dehydration, respectively, into bassanite (hemihydrate) CaSO ₄∙½H ₂O and anhydrite III (soluble anhydrite)85 during the Raman measurements through the influence of colocalised organic chromophores in the form of humic substances (Fig. S54); the thermal transformation of calcium sulphate dihydrate is thus triggered by local heating-up comparable to well-known laser-induced alterations of coloured sulphide and oxysalt minerals during Raman experiments.

Conclusions: evidences for the provenance of the raw materials and therewith of the Egyptian blue pigment balls

The study sheds light on the trace compounds characterising Egyptian blue balls and mural paintings, excavated in the archaeological remains of the cities Aventicum and Augusta Raurica, dated via stratigraphically associated finds to the middle of the first century A.D., the beginning of the second century A.D. as well as the first half of the third century A.D. With regard to the question of whether the Roman Imperial pigment is imported from the northern Phlegrean Fields in Campania (Southern Italy) or manufactured on site in Switzerland, the accessories attributable to the quartz sand used embody relevant indications, in particular the clinopyroxenes aegirine NaFeSi ₂O ₆ and augite and the seldom barium-rich alkali feldspar celsian BaAl ₂Si ₂O ₈. As in the case of the Early Medieval Egyptian blue applied in the course of the fifth or sixth century A.D. in St. Peter above Gratsch (South Tyrol, Northern Italy)17, a sulphidic copper ore (i.e. chalcocite and chalcopyrite accompanied by different sulphides, selenides, arsenates, chromates and members of the spinel group) necessarily roasted to yield copper oxide, was employed as copper source. Likewise, the addition of an alkaline flux in the form of soda-rich or mixed-alkaline plant ash was reinforced due to the detection of mainly sulphate and phosphate salts of sodium and potassium as well as magnesium and calcium. Such corresponding trace constituents in Roman Imperial and Early Medieval Egyptian blue provide sound scientific evidence of a continuous production and trade monopoly in the Gulf of Pozzuoli surviving from the first centuries A.D. up to the politically turbulent period after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, this in line with statements of the antique Roman writers Vitruvius3 and Pliny the Elder4 and recent archaeological finds in the cities of Cumae and Liternum.

Beyond that, Raman microspectroscopy provided valuable insights into the thermal history of the ancient artificial blue pigment: Raman spectra of cuprorivaite exhibiting gradual peak shifts and changes of band width revealed crystal lattice disorder due to insufficient reaction time, this alongside with remnant quartz grains intergrown with cuprorivaite (also compare scanning electron micrograph of a cross-sectional sample of the Early Medieval pictorial layer in Ref.17). Intense comminution of the raw materials facilitated solid-state reactions during the manufacture of the Roman Imperial Egyptian blue; melting most likely played a negligible role, since a copper-bearing green glass phase could be observed only locally restricted on the surface as a result of the abundant availability of fluxing agents. In conclusion, Raman microspectroscopically monitored syntheses are needed for the evaluation of these hypotheses of formation conditions of the observed crystalline as well as amorphous constituents, and of the effect of parameters such as reaction time, temperature89, and annealing90 on the observed disorder in the cuprorivaite structure.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Deborah Schmid (head of the department Research and Archive of the Römerstadt Augusta Raurica, Switzerland) and Sophie Bärtschi Delbarre (head of the collection of the Site et Musée romains d'Avenches, Switzerland) for providing Roman Imperial Egyptian blue pigment balls and mural fragments.

Funding

Open Access funding enabled and organised by Projekt DEAL. We gratefully acknowledge funding of the study by the Goethe-Stiftung für Kunst und Wissenschaft (Zurich, Switzerland) and the UBS Kulturstiftung (Zurich, Switzerland).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. Bern University of the Arts, 3027, Bern, Switzerland

Petra Dariz

2. Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), 12489, Berlin, Germany

Thomas Schmid

Contributions

Both authors (P.D. and T.S.) contributed to the assignments of Raman spectra, and to the writing and reviewing of the manuscript. P.D. performed the mineralogical and art technological interpretations and according literature research. T.S. conducted the Raman microspectroscopic measurements and data evaluations. P.D. acquired the third-party funds.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas Schmid.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dariz, P., Schmid, T. Raman focal point on Roman Egyptian blue elucidates disordered cuprorivaite, green glass phase and trace compounds. Sci Rep 12, 15596 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-19923-w
Download citation

Received:

Accepted:

Published:

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-19923-w

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Get shareable link

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Raman focal point on Roman Egyptian blue elucidates disordered cuprorivaite, green glass phase and trace compounds - Scientific Reports

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The discussed comparative analyses of Roman Imperial pigment balls and fragmentary murals unearthed in the ancient cities of Aventicum and Augusta Raurica (Switzerland) by means of Raman microspectroscopy pertain to a predecessor study on trace compounds in Early Medieval Egyptian blue (St. Peter, Gratsch, South Tyrol, Northern Italy).