Saturday 18 January 2014

Roman Archaeology Group Free Lectures: Saturday, 8th February.

The Roman Archaeology Group has arranged for two illustrated lectures to be presented on Saturday, 8th February. All are welcome.

2 Free Illustrated Lectures on: The Emperor Justinian and Petra, Jordan.
Saturday, 8th February 2014.

1:30pm: "Justinian's Empire" presented by Dr. Michael Champion.

2:30pm: Afternoon Tea.

3:00pm: "Western Travellers to Petra in the 19th Century" presented by W/Prof. David Kennedy.

N.B. Lectures are FREE, however there is a small charge for the refreshments served at the mid-session break: $7pp (RAG members) / $10pp (non-members)

Booking for catering purposes is ESSENTIAL.
Please RSVP by Wednesday 5th February to Norah by telephone 9281 4613 or by email: coopsathome@optusnet.com.au

For more details please see the events page of the Roman Archaeology Group blog here.

Friday 10 January 2014

Website: Monuments of Syria

http://monumentsofsyria.com/
The eyes of the world seem fixed on Syria presently, it is a tragedy that it could not be for different reasons than those of the conflict currently destabilising the lives of so many.

Ross Burns, author of 'Monuments of Syria' and 'Damascus- a history', has recently launched an accompanying website to his published work on Syria. 'Monuments of Syria' provides an index of historical places and sites with photographs. It provides a valuable insight to many sites of historical interest that few currently are able to visit. Here, so many periods, civilisations and faiths are represented.
"Few countries can match Syria in the richness of its historical remains. In the zone west of Aleppo, for example, over 600 Byzantine-era villages survive, often with multiple churches with walls up to their rooflines. There is practically no era not represented in Syria. Palmyra, the great caravan city at the westernmost point of the Silk Road, still slumbers in the desert, its beautifully carved limestone as crisp and dramatic as 2000 years ago. Magnificent reminders of the folly of past confrontations, including the Crusades, survive in the great fortifications that are scattered across the country — the Krak des Chevaliers; the great Islamic citadel that crowns Aleppo; the refuges of the ‘Assassins’ hidden away in the coastal mountains; or the Damascus Citadel that sustained the long Muslim resistance to the Crusades. Not to be overlooked are the many mosques and madrasas, often tucked away quietly in backstreets or buried within the busy suqs (markets) of the major centres."
Through efforts like this much knowledge is kept alive, for Syrians and the world alike. Hopefully when the spectre of war departs from the land the corpus will be expanded and studied further.
Visit http://monumentsofsyria.com/

Wednesday 8 January 2014

Flickr Archive: Search issues

Users of our archive hosted on Flickr may have noticed that the interface has gone through some changes recently. Unfortunately this has included what seems a serious glitch in the search tool- basically that you may not get any results at all even if a photograph is named exactly with what you search for (such as 'Umm es-Surab' as I recently found).

My basic experimentation with the problem indicates that a search will find items 'tagged' with the search terms, but not if they are named with that term. If you are having trouble finding a site as a temporary solution I advise that people search for photographs of their site using the georeferenced search tool at www.flickr.com/apaame/map
You can find instructions on how to do this on our YouTube channel: http://youtu.be/rFEF4Vjdo00
If you still have difficulty finding your site, please contact us directly.

Thank you for your patience as we adjust the archive to the changes occurring on the Flickr interface.