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Scholars of ancient history and IT experts at Stanford University have collaborated to create a novel way to study Ancient Rome. ORBIS, a geospatial network model, allows visitors to experience the strategy behind travel in antiquity. (Find a handy tutorial for using the system on the Web and YouTube). The ORBIS map includes about 750 mostly urban settlements of the Roman period

Scholars of ancient history and IT experts at Stanford University have collaborated to create a novel way to study Ancient Rome. ORBIS, a geospatial network model, allows visitors to experience the strategy behind travel in antiquity. (Find a handy tutorial for using the system on the Web and YouTube). The ORBIS map includes about 750 mostly urban settlements of the Roman period

Breaking Ground may as well have been titled "Against all Odds," as the women archaeologists whose lives and careers we remember here faced innumerable challenges and difficulties but prevailed to contribute significantly to the expansion of our knowledge of the ancient world. Most entered this male dominated field at a time when few educational opportunities or careers were open to women. They excavated in countries where traditional, patriarchal societies did not generally allow women leadership or even public roles. Yet we found English women as early as the 19th century gaining government permissions to excavate in Egypt and Greece. We found women traveling alone through deserts and mountains and gaining acceptance from Bedouin tribes. We found them directing fieldwork using male workers whose own wives held subservient roles. The women archaeologists' rewards were almost purely intellectual, as many received no (or almost no) compensation for their demanding jobs, but of adventure there was plenty. Their activities were arduous, often dangerous, and required determination, stamina, a love of adventure, and certainly dedication.

"Ancient Persians were well known for the ways they procured and supplied water. Water management in a geographical location where it cannot be found abundantly all year round is a challenge. It represents the determination of a nation to survive and thrive. There are different water-related structures and facilities in Iran for the Iranians as well as foreign travelers to visit and appreciate how water has been managed for centuries in this country."

"Oats appear to have been crop weeds for a long time before being truly cultivated. There is evidence of wild Avena species contaminating barley and wheat crops in archaeological remains in the Fertile Crescent. When the established crops such as wheat and barley were disseminated into Europe and Asia from the Fertile Crescent, the weedy oats travelled with them. Oat was developed into a crop when it out-competed wheat and barley in the cloudy and wet environment of northern Europe. Domestication of the common oat was first confirmed in archaeological remains found in Central Europe dated 1000 BC."

"Ancient Persians have always been well-known for the ways they had treated water, supplied it, preserved it, harnessed it, transferred it, redirected it and distributed it. Water management in a geographical location where it cannot be found abundantly all year round is a challenge by itself. It represents the determination of a nation to survive and thrive. "

"Adam Nicolson suggests that Homer be thought of not as a person but as a tradition and that the works attributed to him go back a thousand years earlier than generally believed."