Civil War Horror

When I'm not blogging here, I often do guest blogs at other sites. Recently I did a post for the Black Gate blog on The Church and Treasury of the Teutonic Order, Vienna. Black Gate is a leading fantasy magazine that runs a great blog on all things genre. Last year they published my fantasy novella The Quintessence of Absence, which you can download as a free ebook.

I'm also now the "Archaeology Expert" on the The Scout Project, a fun blog run by former Gadling coworker Libby Zay. It covers all sorts of subjects and encourages readers to go out and explore for themselves. She just interviewed me about my archaeology career.

Expect to see more from me on both these blogs in coming weeks!

AD 410: The Year That Shook Rome by Sam Moorhead
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The British Museum Press is famous for producing clear, well-illustrated books about archaeological subjects, and this volume is no exception. It focuses on Alaric the Visigoth's sacking of Rome in 410 AD, a momentous event that signaled the imminent collapse of the Western Roman Empire.

The authors go into detail about the politics that led to the sacking, especially Rome's mismanagement of the Visigoths. This Germanic tribe was fleeing the Huns from the east, and wanted only some land and food, offering loyalty and military help in return. The Romans in their arrogance spurned the Visigoths' offer and instead starved and massacred them. Alaric comes off as forgiving to a fault in this narrative and the Romans missed several opportunities to make good.

The book follows several other stories as well, including the clash between paganism and an emergent Christianity, rebellions in Africa and Britain, and relations with the Eastern Roman Empire, later to be called Byzantium.

Long quotes from several contemporary writers liven up the text, and there's a helpful Who's Who and annotated bibliography in the back. While any serious student of Late Antiquity will find little that is new, the educated lay reader for whom this book is targeted will find this an enjoyable, somewhat complex, and enlightening read.

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My travel series about Iraq continues. The latest installments include a walking tour of Nasiriyah, one of my most intense experiences in the country that included equal parts warmth and hostility; and the first of a two-part post on the archaeological sites of Iraq. The first is about ancient Assyria.

Check them out! That guy next to the Assyrian guardian spirit wants you to!

Later this week I'm flying to Baghdad. That's right, Iraq. I'll be spending a little less than three weeks traveling around the country writing a series for Gadling. My itinerary will take me to many of the country's famous monuments, like the Swords of Qadisiyah and the Ziggurat of Ur shown here. I'll also be visiting schools, markets, cafes, and meeting lots of regular people to learn about their lives.

Visiting Iraq has always been a dream of mine. Back when I was studying archaeology in university I seriously considered going into Mesopotamian studies. Then Iraq invaded Kuwait and the country was closed off. I went into European archaeology instead before ending up as a writer. I never lost my interest in Mesopotamia, though.

My series, Destination: Iraq, will start in early November. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I'll have very spotty access to email. I can't promise any posts here until the first week of November, but check back because I just might surprise you! If you want some adventure travel reading in the meantime, check out my series about traveling to Somaliland.

Photos courtesy Wikipedia. My own coming soon!

I had a busy month at Gadling in September. For military historians, check out my posts on the thousands of World War Two pillboxes in the UK countryside and an exhibition on Civil War New York.

The biggest archaeology news is that the tomb of Richard III may have been discovered, the National Museum of Afghanistan is rebuilding, and that Egypt is reopening ancient tombs at Saqqara. That comes with a cool video. Another cool video is a nostalgic look at Times Square in the 1980s.

For retro film buffs, see my post on old science fiction films that theorized what transatlantic flights would be like. Horror fans will like my retrospective of the Lake Conway Monster of the 1970s.

Other posts cover Ferris wheels in Iran, Irish castles for sale, bookstores around the world, a giant Roman mosaic discovered in Turkey, and a beautiful gallery on award-winning astronomy photos.

It wouldn't be summer at Gadling without a long-distance hike by Sean, so here's one about hiking a Roman road in England.

Oh, and you really shouldn't miss the story about a man trying to board an airplane with a primate in his pants!

I've been silent for more than a week on this blog. That's because I was exploring the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland with my family. These islands have always fascinated me because of their remoteness, Viking heritage, and prehistoric monuments. A prime example is the ring of Brodgar, an impressive stone circle on the main island. It's the third biggest stone circle in the UK, pretty impressive considering there are about a thousand in all!

Being a travel writer, my vacations are working vacations, and this was no exception. I wrote an article for an upcoming issue of Handstand travel magazine and I'm starting a series on it for Gadling this week. The scenery and history have also inspired me to write a short story. I'm teaming up with fantasy author A.J. Walker on a short story collection. He's already supplied his stories, now it's my turn!

Vampires were big in the Victorian era. Books such as Dracula and Varney theVampyre were bestsellers and adventure travelers to eastern Europe reported that the people still believed they existed.

A rare vampire hunting kit from this era is now for sale. The box contains a crucifix, pistol, wooden stakes and mallet, a Book of Common Prayer from 1851, and bottles of holy water, holy earth, and garlic paste. There's also a handwritten note quoting Luke 19:27: "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."

Vampires have been in the news a lot recently. Archaeologists in Bulgaria have just discovered two vampire graves. Hit the link to read the Gadling article I wrote about it.

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons, from Les tribunaux secrets, published in 1864.

Here's an A to Z post I'm sure nobody else is going to do!

Ichthyoelectroanalgesia, if you parse the term, is the use of an electric fish as a pain reliever. I found the word when reading an archaeological journal article about Parthian batteries, made in the 1st century AD. These mysterious objects, which generated a weak electrical current, may have been used for pain reliever when you couldn't find an electric fish to do the same job. Yes, ancient medical books actually suggested doing this!

Ichthyoelectroanalgesia was also the name of a zine I did in the mid-Nineties. It was my first serious stab at writing, a collection of travel and archaeology with some old-school art clips. I had a great time trading zines with people all over the world and at its peak the zine had about 200 readers. I'm still in touch with a few of them, including the editor of the amazing bibliophile zine It Goes on the Shelf.

While I moved on to other things and eventually became a professional writer, Ichthyoelectroanalgesia is still a fond memory for me. It's also a good word to trot out at parties. I managed to stump an editor of the Oxford English Dictionary with it!

As I mentioned last week, I've started a new travel series on Greece. It's called. . .well you can see what's it's called from the pinbox above. I spent a week in Greece interviewing museum curators, archaeologists, and regular Greeks about the problems facing our collective past. How are the strikes inhibiting access to museums and sights? How much are staff cuts reducing opening hours and the nation's ability to conserve and restore our heritage?

Five posts are already up, three of them illustrated with galleries of photos. Several more posts are on the way over the next two weeks. So hop on over and check it out!