Musings

That’s the Theater of Marcellus* off to the left, with ruin fragments scattered about this area, framed by later buildings to the right, still in use.

As to wifi, we’re on the TIM team (both words pronounced the same)—with an Italian SIM in our hotspot, so we have data even when walking around (until the battery discharges). Anyway, kudos to the Guru for making technology serve us….

We hear a lot about how much cheaper phone and data packages are in Europe vs the USA, but it seems to me that they pay considerably more for devices and peripherals. SIM card was something like 15€ (that’s high)…, and, geeze, the unlocked phone prices, whew.

* Julius Caesar set aside space for the building and construction began, then he died, and it was five years before the building was formally dedicated, by Augustus. Like other monumental architecture in this city, it was repurposed as a fortress in the Middle Ages. Now apartments are jammed in the upper stories, with the lower sections being…ruins stabilized sufficiently to be foundations. We only walked around the back of the theater this evening; we’ll see what the other side looks like another time.

Posted at 2:27 PM | Comments Off on Old, newer, and new

World’s largest unreinforced concrete dome, invisible, to the left….

We looked at two round buildings today. We got to enter the Pantheon, along with several hundred folks in tour groups, small groups, and couples. Wow! Whatta space! Loved the shapes built into the surfaces, all the gaudy treatment down low and pure architectural simplicity up high. Oculus was spell-binding, along with its huge light-dot.

I suppose I am rather rude here by just showing you the close-up of how the rectangular porch attaches to the famous round central room, and the remaining bits of exterior horizontal architectural detail.

We didn’t get in this one, the Mausoleum of Augustus. Like pretty much every bit of architecture from the ancient days that’s survived in this city, it has been robbed of building stone and decorative elements, and rebuilt and repurposed. This one is amidst another revival phase, which looks like it’s been stalled for several years judging by how robust the grass and weeds are, although it was charged with being finished this year. Ah, yes, Italy’s current financial crisis?

The lower level we see now, that was street level when this was finished in 28 BC. Augustus did not die until AD 14 (making the current architectural revitalization timed with 2K yrs after his death), and several decades before that Strabo described it as a great mound. See, it had a checkered history before the guy it was built for even died! Much of what we see is the 12th–C remodeling into a fortress by the Colonna family. In the 20th C it was for a time a concert hall, including hosting Arturo Toscanini leading a concert here.

The Pantheon (hall of all gods) was commissioned during the reign of Augustus, in 27 BC. Recently examined bricks, however, indicate that construction of this version dates to Trajan’s time (he ruled 98–117). Two intermediate versions burned (hence the Trajan replacement), although the building has remained in use since it was built. The whole north porch has been re-conceived and rebuilt several times, including that the porch extended several meters farther north, and the open garden that was to the north is long gone. The piazza there looks like its surface has been raised by several meters, as is typical across the old city.

Posted at 10:56 AM | Comments Off on Round building musing

Oh, that Gitche Gumee is formidable, and continues to maul this wreck. Water levels higher than I’ve seen for some years, I’m pretty sure. We read 57° and 59° as we drove along the shore, with a wind that made it…chilly. But the brilliant sun compensated….

Posted at 10:16 PM | 1 Comment »

Did a wee (and I mean wee) bit of thinking about the power of the Internet in connecting people who otherwise would not encounter one another. Not ground-breaking, that thought, but worth contemplating for several reasons. I was considering how/whether it makes for a significantly different dynamic when considering how civilizations and societies function.

Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, is this broad, empty hallway in a busy well-populated office building this size mostly to satisfy fire regulations? That’s a lot of square footage that can never be rented….

Posted at 7:44 PM | Comments Off on Connections

I’m back to slogging through the details of Rome’s architectural history (mostly before about AD 400). I find that I have to parse the details first and get them close to “right,” then I try to step back and see…patterns. This afternoon it finally hit me that two ancient shrines were adjacent—shrines to water and fire. The legends place both in very ancient times, so they probably pre-date Rome-ness in some form.

The water shrine (and pool) is the Lacus Juturnae, and the fire-shrine is the Aedes Vestae (usually termed temple in English, blurring the difference between shrine and temple to the Romans). An everyday nymph honored by the first, Vestal Virgins tending the second….

The ancient histories record that there was a sacred grove around the Temple of Vesta, so the Lacus, only a few meters away, must also have been in the grove…. To me they seem like they were paired, at least symbolically, in early times. As Rome grew, the importance of the Lacus must have waned, based on its small footprint and reduced ease of access—plus the insertion of a ramp between the two (attributed to Emperor Domitian, b.51–d.96; it connected the Imperial palace atop the Palatine with the Forum).

Anyway, when I finally put this all together, the fire-water neighborhood seemed especially important, culturally loaded, and… ignored in the literature that I’ve peeked at…so I’m probably just taking meaning when there was none. Ah, can’t be the first time that’s happened (sarcasm). 🙂

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Archaeos and patterns, again

I like the lighting very much, but what I notice most is the mold seam to the left.

Posted at 10:13 PM | Comments Off on Yes: flash

Love outdoor statuary you can walk right up to. Thank you, Booth Museum.

Posted at 6:44 PM | Comments Off on Friendly or fighter?

Tristán de Luna y Arellano statue, Pensacola, Florida.

Hard to imagine what this area was like when Tristán and his crews arrived in 1559, without the high-rise beach housing, planted pines, roads, vehicles, master-planned communities, signage, drainage ditches, fast-food joints, and putt-putt mountains.

Posted at 10:49 PM | 1 Comment »

Baptist Church.

The high points of Cedar Key are staked out by various civic-ceremonial structures. The Baptists and Episcopalians got two of them.

The community got one, and put the water tower there. After all, drinking water is a scarce and valued commodity in these—and many other—parts.

The final peak (such as it is) is capped by an “Indian Burial Mound.” Much of it has been borrowed away, and what’s left looks rather eroded. So you understand what you’re looking at, the retaining wall label clarifies….

Note that an easy stroll around the Key’s streets gave me several flights (registered by the Fitbit), unlike the flats we explored around Crystal River yesterday.

Posted at 6:25 PM | Comments Off on Closer to…heaven, etc.

I experimented with That Lens Thingy again. I love these dots on this Gail-cup. Punctates I’d consider calling them, if I were in an archaeology lab. Or maybe not, since the vessel is glazed.

Is punctation situational?

Backnote: I’ve been looking at (drawings of) Copper, etc., Age pottery from I guess you’d call it Southeastern Europe lately. More tall vessels than I’d expect.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Philosophy of decoration