Were the Ancient Greeks and Romans Colour Blind?

A recent piece doing the rounds at the moment looks at famous phrases in Classical Literature, like 'the wine-dark sea' to describe the Mediterranean in the Iliad. Sea's are not red so what this points out is a difference in how ancient people compared to modern people viewed the world. One difference is probably not so much how they perceived colours they saw, but how they described them. It's quite common across ancient languages to describe things more generally and context fills in the layers of more specific meaning, and terms for colours often refer to a hue eg a modern dictionary will tell you a word means say 'red' but in another language that may refer not to a specific shade but a spectrum of shades bronze like orange, brown-reds to crimson to burgundy or purplish-red colours. There can also be a range of symbolism with a colour as well eg green with envy. It seems there is a tendency for modern languages, and especially in English to try and classify everything more specifically just think how many specific terms there are today for every form and sub genre of music or dance etc.

Another thing worth noteing is then, as now, metaphors, allusions, kennings and poetry may be employed for a powerful emotional and symbolic effect. You cannot assume everything was intended literally, especially when browsing snippets of colour descriptions from a range of ancient texts, and quoting them outside of their original and intended context.  

http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.be/2014/02/were-ancient-greeks-and-romans-colour.html

An Ancient Greek Symposium

I quite enjoy going to cultural festivals and events. With Melbourne's diverse and vibrant multiculturalism there are many such free events throughout the year where you can experience the sights of various cultural performances, the sounds of various kinds of folk music and dance, and the smell and taste of foreign cuisine in the heart of your own city. Over the past couple of months I was able to enjoy the Scandinavian Christmas Bazaar, a Mexican Festival, Chinese New Year celebrations, Maslenitsa Slavic Pancake Festival and the (modern) Antipodes Greek festival. And the turning of the wheel of the year will I'm sure bring many more such enjoyable events.

Another event I attended to was not only a cultural but also living-historical experience. Athanasios of the Ancient Hoplitikon of Melbourne Inc invited me to the Ancient Greek (and Roman) re-enactment group's annual symposium. All of the attendees were clad in Classical costume, myself in a white a knee-length Ancient Greek chiton, with a black swirling trim (which always reminds of the waves on the Aegean Sea at night), Grecian sandals, a pair of metal cuffs and my gold snake ring, a replica from Pompeii.

Upon arrival and a warm welcome we were taken for a tour around the group's grand new palatial white canvas tent. Everything was handmade to period pieces made with lavish detail, skill, patience and a passion for the past. Within the tent was a sumptuous feast for both the stomach and the eyes, with a plethora of traditional Greek foods. One end was open at the sides to catch the summer breeze, while the other was enclosed with several replica wooden Ancient Greek klinoi lounges. From the wooden support columns hung olive oil burning lamps, spears, a standard and a Hermes' caduceus staff were near the entrance, and arms, bronze armour, the accutraments of an ancient Olympic athlete and pottery. Outside club members moved about a the artillery of a Roman scorpion.

After that we held a re-enactment of an Ancient Greek holocaust style sacrifice and libation , our gracious host conducting the ritual in Ancient Greek. Naturally, the only thing sacrificed in this re-enactment was some of the finest red wine present. Then the guests grabbed small votive objects from a table and left them on the altar. In historical re-enactment, as a hobby there is often a trade off between safety and modern sensibilities vs period practises, either because ancient practises are only partly understood or obviously in combat, for safety of the participants and public. But one aspect that is often overlooked is the actual culture, ritual and lifestyle of people in the past. So it was great to see and experience this part of the re-enactment which is sadly all to often overlooked by other groups. Then we drank a small portion of a sweet wine to wet the appetite and continued on to enjoy our feast, watered down wine from a krater, our fine company and exquisite surrounds.

A modern symposium is an academic conference for presenting papers, while an ancient symposium was a sort of house party with food, music, entertainment and  plenty of wine, but it would have had other aspects to it other than just a party. It would have had some kind of ritual element to it, as well as being sociable, holding serious debates and discussing philosophy and making important political contacts and making business deals all rolled into the one kind of function.

 I must say I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed sipping my wine from a metal kylix, a replica of one thought to date back to 300 BC, while reclining on a kline. A kline might at first appear unusual, it is not quite a couch or a bed, and is quite high. Yet, when you actually use one you can fully appreciate what you have seen on vase paintings, it is the perfect height to let you socialise while another person standing can talk to you face to face, not to mention the comfort of a posture that allows for digestion and rest while still being upright and active enough to engage with those around you and your surroundings. Even the simple oil lamp lighting, when placed appropriately and reflecting off the white canvas, with the glint of bronze in the background, created a warmly lit environment as if near a campfire.

It was the unexpected ingenuity and simplicity of carefully considered things like this, both in terms of designs from Antiquity and their re-creation in the present by Athanasios and the Ancient Hoplitikon that reveals the civilised art of holding a symposium.   

http://www.ancienthoplitikon.com/media_recognition_and_events.html

The link between the Space Shuttle and the Roman Chariot

There is a well known argument that has circulated the internet that claims that the measurement for the width of the Roman chariot and the solid rocket boosters on the back of NASA's space shuttles are the same unusual measurement of 8 feet 4 1/2 inches (around 1.4 metres). What an intrigueing idea. It goes a little something like this:

• 8 feet 4 1/2 inches is the standardised (internal) railway gauge in the USA


• this is because the early railway tracks in the US were built and designed (at least in a substantial part) by British ex-pats, and, because that was the gauge the trains ran on


• because that was the railway gauge in Britain where the early trains were built.


• The trains in Britain were built to run on track this guage because railway lines followed old trolley cart/tram rail lines


• The tram lines were this gauge because they were built along pathways horse darawn carriages and carts went along


• The carriages and carts were the same measurement (from wheel to wheel) bcause they ran along ruts used by old wagons


• The medieval wagons wore ruts this size because they were standardised so they could run along the old roads between main towns


• Those old roads were mostly old Roman roads still in use


• The Roman roads were standardised to that size to accomodate Roman war chariots


• Roman chariots were standardised to this size because....


• that was the size of two (Roman?) horses's rear ends!

The twist in the tale follows, that the solid rocket boosters of the space shuttle are assembled in Utah (I heard Canada in the first version I came across) and need to be the same size to fit onto a railway carriage and be transported by rail, onclueding through a few rail tunnels, to Florida. Hence the need for an unusal size. Dah daaah! Thus one of mankind's most advanced machines owes part of its design deminsions to an ancient machine, linking the Romans to space flight!

The story spread virally around the net, and s still readily in circulation, although I have not come across who first wrote it. It is often taken prima facie as fact. There are also a number of "counter articles" out there attacking the story, although the critiques vary a lot, and are sometimes, well simply not very interesting, effective and in the worst cases - not factual either.

Contrary to the story, it is true that railway gauge, not to mention carriage, cart and wagon widths have varied over time. Another obvious critiscism is that Roman chariots were not used for warfare, and surely if anything more carts carrying upplies, pack animals and infantry would have been on those Roman roads in Britain, with few if any Roman chariots, and certainly not war chariots. Horses too vary in size and larger and larger horse breeds than the Roman had have been developed through the Middle Ages and into the early Modern draft horse breeds, which are considerably larger than the more pony-like breeds from antiquity.

The NASA Technical Standards Program has produced a good critique in response to the widespread story, here: standards.nasa.gov/documents/RomanChariots.pdf

‎

 Another thing not given much consideration is actual Roman roads. Sure, there are many in Britain but these have often had some changes over time. There are 4 main kinds of Roman roads:

Roman roads could be of four types:

i. "viae publicae" - public roads built at public expense (taxpayer's money or war booty)

ii. "viae militares" - military roads, built by the army at their own expense but would eventually fall into the first category of public roads.

iii. "actus" - minor roads, built and maintained by local councils

iv. "privatae" - yep, private roads built by private individuals at their own expense within their private property.

Most Roman roads were consierably wider than 8 feet 4 1/2 inches to allow two horse drawn carts to cross past each other in different directions, although this wasn't always possible in some kinds of terrain. About 9 f/3m was the most common road width.

 

It is interesting to note:

 

'The width of the road would be planned to allow horses and cariages along it or where it was too narrow such as on a mountain pass, regular side-stops would be planned to allow transit.The width of roads varied with the importance of the road: A width of 3m or over (9ft) was normal for roman roads to allow to carts to drive past each other in opposite directions although road widths as great as 7m (21ft) have been found. The edges of the road would be closed off by stones placed lengthways, which in city centres would act as the step for pavements. In cities such as Pompeii and Osita the roads have been found to be a relatively consistent 4m (12ft) in width for major roads, with a further 4 meters worth of pavements ie 2m either side). Minor roads in the city were anywhere between 2 and 4m (6-12ft).

It is interesting to note the ruts worn into Roman roads by the regular passage of carriages which were evidently built to standard width in the region of 1.3m (4 ft). It also seems that the ruts were not always worn by use but at times actually applied in instances such as steep or very tortuous mountain roads, rather like laying tram lines to render the roads more secure for the carts which might otherwise slip over the edge.'

 

http://www.mariamilani.com/ancient_rome/rome_building_roads.htm 

 

Of course, like many stories, myths or legends, there is sometimes a bit of truth to the basis of them. A very good break down of what is truth, what is fiction, and what could be a bit of either or niether can be found here by Cecil Adams:

 

 

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2538/was-standard-railroad-gauge-48-determined-by-roman-chariot-ruts  

He also notes:

'I have heard tell of certain wheel ruts having a gauge of you-know-what at the gate to an old Roman fort called Housesteads on Hadrian's Wall in the north of England. Legend has it that George Stephenson based the gauge he used for his locomotives on the width of these ruts. Here's what Housesteads by James Crow (Batsford, London, 1995, pp. 33-34) has to say on the subject:

"The gauge between the ruts is very similar to that adopted by George Stephenson for the Stockton to Darlington railway in 1837 and a 'Wall myth' developed that he took this gauge from the newly excavated east gate. There is a common link, but it is more prosaic and the 'coincidence' is explained by the fact that the dimension common to both was that of a cart axle pulled by two horses in harness (about 1.4m or 4ft 8in). This determined both the Roman gauge and Stephenson's, which derived from the horsedrawn wagon ways of south Northumberland and County Durham coalfields."

So then, while there may not be a direct unbroken chain, nor will it have been the same in all cases, but there is a link there that seems to be far more than a quirk of history. Admitedly there are some errors in the original story, some facts that are simply wrong or misleading, and while railway track guage, not to mention wagons and carts have varied somewhat over time...there is nonetheless a link, not so much to the Roman chariot per se but a link between Roman horse drawn veichles, railways and the space shuttle.

The Romans Have Been Hailed as Pioneers of Nanotechnology

A lot of the monuments of Classical civilisation stand as testament to the ingenuity and sophistication of ancient people, which still captivates us with a sense of awe to this day. Just think of the Colosseum in Rome or the Parthenon in Athens. Either of which would be sensational if built today, let alone being constructed centuries ago. Sometimes though, it is not the largest monuments, but small artifacts that can astound us - and in this case the sophisticated design goes all the way to a nanoscopic level!

This  Roman glass cup dates back to the fourth century A. D. and today resides in the British Museum. It is known as the Lycurgus Cup, depicting King Lycurgus of Thrace being ensnared in the grasp of tangling grapevines  for incurring the wrath of Dionysus, the god of revelry and wine. It is a detailed work of art in its own right and would have been a valuable prestige gift between or from Roman elites. My seriously, it appears jade green when lit from the front, but when illuminated from behind it appears crimson.

When a some tiny broken chips were found and sent away to researchers they could not believe what they found. When viewed through a microscope it was realised that the glass was embedded with a fine peppering of metal grains. The glass contained particles of gold and silver around 50 nanometres in diameter spread evenly through the glass. To put that size into perspective, that is less than one thousandth the size of a grain of ordinary table salt that you might have in the saltshaker on your kitchen table! The change in colour is caused by electrons in the metal grains vibrating when hit by light, and the angle on which the observer sees this.

The chalice was far too valuable to be experimented on, so to further research it's properties a plastic plate was embedded with tiny wells containing glass embedded with a nanomixture of gold and silver grains of a comparable size to those found in the Lycurgus Cup. The researchers found that these wells changed colour depending on the different solutions contained, turning green when containing water and red when containing oil. It also produced a range of colour changes indicating whether a solution was sugar or salt based. Amazingly this prototype based off an ancient wine cup was more than a 100 times more sensitive to saline levels in solution than current commercial techniques!

I wonder if, it may also have been used originally to detect poison in drinks. Many early poisons were either relatively local plant extracts that tended to colour water (but may not have been as easily seen in wine) or were salt-based and easily added to an unguarded cup at say a feast. There is a well known set of special porcelain  in Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, which reportedly was specially acquired by the Ottoman Sultans because of its ability to change colour in reaction to poisons contained in food or drink. Whether the Lycurgus Cup was intended to actually detect poisons...or even sold on this as a false pretence I cannot say, although it is a tantalising thought.

Remarkably this 1600 year old cup has shown that the Romans were effectively pioneering nanotechnology by deliberately employing techniques that would produce this glass. This (re-)discovery may pave the way for future highly sensitive kits or sensors that could detect drugs or pathogens in bodily fluids, or detect dangerous liquids at checkpoints, borders or airports. Interesting isn't it, how the investigation of an ancient artifact can reveal unexpectedly modern applications.

To read more about the Lycurgus Cup, see:
http://master-mc.u-strasbg.fr/IMG/pdf/lycurgus.pdf