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Under Notre Dame, a 'dig of the century' unearths 1,700 years of history

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Re: Under Notre Dame, a 'dig of the century' unearths 1,700 years of history

#11

Post by arethuza »

vasco wrote: post #5
make3 wrote: post #2

It's surprising that they're not doing that systematically around the building, but then again I guess that applies to a large part of the city as well. One always wonders which incredible books we lost, from amazing mysterious old philosophers. The burning of the library of Alexandria is such an incredible sadness

> It's surprising that they're not doing that systematically around the building, but then again I guess that applies to a large part of the city as well. In some places in Italy, Greece, Malta, probably others I don't know, people always joke that you shouldn't try to ever do any renovations lest you end up finding something and lose your house. Some places you're almost guaranteed to find stuff if you just dig once…

There is a wonderful museum it the Italian city of Lecce that started when someone went to fix some plumbing in their house and ended up finding so much amazing historical stuff that they ended up opening the house as a museum:

https://www.museofaggiano.it/en/home/

And that's just one house in one city in one country!

Edit: I strongly recommend the museum, Lecce and indeed all of Puglia!

Re: Under Notre Dame, a 'dig of the century' unearths 1,700 years of history

#12

Post by Insanity »

damnitbuilds wrote: post #8

"Twenty centuries are stacked in 4 meters (13 feet) of earth — or about the height of two-and-a-half Napoleon Bonapartes standing on top of one another." Way to get history wrong in your story about history.

I actually was about to post this quote for another reason as well. Usually you make these references to “known sizes” so people can relate. But no one has seen Napoleon in the flesh _and_ they underestimate his size. This was a useless comparison.

That said, the dig itself is pretty cool and I’m excited to see what they’ll unearth. I’m pretty interested in Roman history but haven’t gone as deep into the history of the provinces.

Semi-related to that, if someone reading this is in the Toronto area, the bata shoe museum has an exhibit (Vindolanda) about unearthed Roman footwear in England

Re: Under Notre Dame, a 'dig of the century' unearths 1,700 years of history

#13

Post by rubzah »

throw0101c wrote: post #10

The book Paris, 1200 is pretty good read for anyone interested in 'point in time' history: > Paris in 1200 was a city in transition. The great cathedral of Notre Dame was halfway through its construction and walls were being built to enclose the new, larger limits of the city. Pope Innocent III ordered all French churches closed to punish King Philip Augustus for his remarriage; the king himself negotiated an unprece…

> the students of Paris threatened a general strike

Paris in 1200 was at least somewhat recognizable.

Re: Under Notre Dame, a 'dig of the century' unearths 1,700 years of history

#14

Post by Zardoz84 »

vasco wrote: post #5
make3 wrote: post #2

It's surprising that they're not doing that systematically around the building, but then again I guess that applies to a large part of the city as well. One always wonders which incredible books we lost, from amazing mysterious old philosophers. The burning of the library of Alexandria is such an incredible sadness

> It's surprising that they're not doing that systematically around the building, but then again I guess that applies to a large part of the city as well. In some places in Italy, Greece, Malta, probably others I don't know, people always joke that you shouldn't try to ever do any renovations lest you end up finding something and lose your house. Some places you're almost guaranteed to find stuff if you just dig once…

Spain, in some cities like Merida, hapens.

Re: Under Notre Dame, a 'dig of the century' unearths 1,700 years of history

#15

Post by Zardoz84 »

cubefox wrote: post #3
make3 wrote: post #2

It's surprising that they're not doing that systematically around the building, but then again I guess that applies to a large part of the city as well. One always wonders which incredible books we lost, from amazing mysterious old philosophers. The burning of the library of Alexandria is such an incredible sadness

> One always wonders which incredible books we lost, from amazing mysterious old philosophers. You might be interested in The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, a historical novel about such a lost work.

Also, the movie was good. And the 8-bit era game was very popular.

Re: Under Notre Dame, a 'dig of the century' unearths 1,700 years of history

#16

Post by gom_jabbar »

make3 wrote: post #2

It's surprising that they're not doing that systematically around the building, but then again I guess that applies to a large part of the city as well. One always wonders which incredible books we lost, from amazing mysterious old philosophers. The burning of the library of Alexandria is such an incredible sadness

[dead]

Re: Under Notre Dame, a 'dig of the century' unearths 1,700 years of history

#20

Post by cubefox »

Zardoz84 wrote: post #15
cubefox wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One always wonders which incredible books we lost, from amazing mysterious old philosophers. You might be interested in The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, a historical novel about such a lost work.

Also, the movie was good. And the 8-bit era game was very popular.

I didn't know there was a game. The movie is great, but it focuses on the crime plot and unfortunately leaves most of the historical/philosophical/linguistic meat out, which is not surprising when you compress a 500 page book into a 100 page screenplay. I guess an adventure game would actually be more suitable for incorporating some of the things the film left out.
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