Archaeology Blogs

Week One – Your Questions Answered

Fossa Traiana (on Flickr) As part of Week Six we are today concentrating on answering questions raised on Week One. As a starting point Simon and I have created a video. We have also added a video by Katherine where she introduces her research at Ostia and how it relates to Portus. We have also added some additional cross-references to Hadrian’s Wall course both on the platform and on the blog for those of you who are registered on both. Continue reading →

Build your own Portus in Sketch Up and share it with us

Following upon last’s year discussions initiated on Twitter via #buildyourownportus and in the course and summarised in a post by Matthew Tyler-Jones on “The Portus MOOC and modelling“, I have found extremely interesting how many people wanted to build their own Portus model and experience modelling as interpretative process. Continue reading →

The Van Dyke Vanishments

Last weekend I went to Games Expo, East Kent, or GEEK as it’s more commonly known, in “London’s Famous Margate”. What drew me there was The Van Dyke Vanishments. Billed as an immersive experience through “art, theatre and gaming” how could I not go? With limited availability we snapped up the last tickets for Saturday and drove across to Margate after lunch. Continue reading →

Between the Desert and the Nile. Theban Harbours and Waterscapes

The West Bank of Thebes Back in 2011 the Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Survey (THaWS) started with a field season of geophysics. This Egypt Exploration Society project (www.ees.ac.uk), directed by Dr Angus Graham, was established with the aim of using different techniques to study the settlements and temples on the east and west banks of the Nile, and how they relate to the changing floodplain and river. Continue reading →

Hadrian’s Wall Cross References

Hadrian’s Wall: Life on the Roman Frontier On the last run of the course we cross-referenced it to the Archaeology’s Dirty Little Secrets course and also to the Roman Architecture course. This time we have provided some suggested links between the Portus and Hadrian’s Wall courses. We will update this page as we create additional cross-references. Continue reading →

Sensing Portus

Inside the Castellum Aquae – a dark, damp, musty, resonant and chilly place I have become fascinated with the ways in which we all imagine the site of Portus today and as it was in the past. Continue reading →

Versu

A couple of weeks back, I read about “the rise of emotional agents” in the Guardian. One of the games mentioned was Blood and Laurels, a work of interactive fiction (or if you like) a text-based adventure set in ancient Rome. Which seems appropriate as the Portus Project MOOC is running again I’ve played it through a couple of times now. Continue reading →

Summary of week four in Italian

It has been a busy journey from looking at the whole Roman Empire in the Claudian period to thinking last week about the later second century hinterland of Portus. Eleonora has posted a summary of the topics in Italian on the Italian version of this blog. As ever you can contact her via twitter or posting comments on the blog. Continue reading →

Logo Competition

Dear All, Do you like shoving bits of cocoa-flavoured goodness in your mouth? Maybe you like to share, maybe you don’t – we won’t judge! The only thing we will judge you on is whether you’ve earned said chocolatey delights, by creating the most eye-catching,memorable and cheaply reproducible logo for this years Postgraduate Research Archaeology Symposium! Don’t like chocolate? No worries! You can just use your logo-inspired influence upon us to give you the most convenient... Continue reading →

Take a tour of the Insula dell’ara Coeli

The fly-though of the Roman Apartment building that we scanned in July. It really brings to life the scale and complexity of interior spaces, and we are now working with the Sovraintendenza Capitolina on studying the structure and its phases. Continue reading →

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