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COIN (NEW CONCEPTS)
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Mick Harper
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THE BRITISH IMPERIAL POUND AND THE THIRD GEODETIC FOOT OF LAGASH

Just as the French chose the polar circumference of the Earth to establish their Meter and Kilometer, the citizens of the ancient city of Lagash did the same thing. They had discovered that 360 of their yards (Steps) was just a little longer than 1/360 degree on the polar circumference of the Earth. Rather than change the length of their Step to make the correction, they established the polar circumference at 1000 x 360 x 360 or 129,600,000 geodetic Feet. This distance was within 100 km of the modern value, measured with satellite data at the latitude of Lagash 5000 years later.

As with their earlier Lunar Standard, the citizens of Lagash chose a pendulum timed by a celestial object to establish its length. A method which would retain its accuracy throughout the passage of time. This new pendulum was adjusted to provide 366 swings in the time it took the Sun to move one degree in the sky. Its length was 307.25 mm. The exact length can be derived from the weight of the magnicent Octopus Talent of Babylon, which was discovered in Knossos, Crete, in 1901 by Sir Arthur Evans. This magnicent 29,000-gram talent weight from circa 1650 BCE may well have been commissioned to celebrate the thousandth anniversary of the building of the Great Pyramid at Giza.

Much to our surprise, we found that this geodetic foot, 1000 years earlier, had been used in the design of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Its perimeter at the base is almost exactly 3000 of these geodetic feet or 30 arc seconds on the polar circumference of the Earth. This Geodetic Foot was the basis of the Etruscan measures of length, volume and weight. The Etruscan wool pound of 453.074 grams, or 6,992 grains, became the French wool pound used by British sheepherders.

Queen Elizabeth I selected this pound in the sixteenth century as a prototype for the 7,000-grain British Imperial Pound. Strange as it may seem, the length of a 64-pound cube of water today, is that ancient Geodetic Foot, and 129,600,000 of them is still the circumference of the Earth when measured at 32 degrees north Latitude.
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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Very thoughtful of you.

It is indicated in a statue of Guda, the governor of Lagash circa 2175.It appears that Gudea's Foot traveled to Europe where it became the Anglo-Saxon foot of 335.28 millimeters.


I think not. It appears by following Boucher you have overlooked the distinctly Christian contribution of the Anglo Saxons to measuring. For example, you might not have been aware that the Rod was scientifically measured by the total length of the left feet of the first sixteen men to leave church on a Sunday. I am of course willing to cocede that Gudea had an average length of left foot, but it most certainly was not Christian. I am sorry but this rules it out.

Good try though.
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Wile E. Coyote


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The Bank of England has changed its logo. They want to reflect their current mission and values. Cripes, they want to change Britannia. Oh NO!!!! Mass hysteria.

Britannia is a "Roman" personification of the British Isles, commonly thought to be based on the coinage of Hadrian who wanted his coins to have a "provincial" element on them. It hasn't really changed since then, and depite the outcry now, the new seal/logo design is an instantly recognisable replica. Still, folks are now trying to read, decypher this replica in the way they would tackle a Dan Brown novel, looking for clues and signs of Wokeness. "The chariot has squarer wheels", "the hoard of coins" are gone, etc. "Britannia looks as though she is transitioning," etc

Guys, it's a Replica, things are just the same as they always were, because they must. Coins are a store of value. If the paradigm had changed I would let you know. Honest I would.

AE Rule 495 (Newbie) most coins/emblems/seals are replicas, you really should not read too much into them.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10574015/Bank-England-goes-woke-BROKE-New-logo-changes-Britannias-flag-gets-rid-coins.html[b]
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Mick Harper
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Or as one of our leading AE-ists put it

Coins are second only to pottery for establishing the age of historical and archaeological finds, but historians and archaeologists are not ordinarily trained in numismatics. It is a question of caste. If the masses go in for it, scholars don’t. The masses don’t go in for the Classics so it has proved fortunate that many Dark Age coins are copied from Classical designs. Neither historians nor archaeologists have identified the precise mechanism whereby coins can survive for five hundred years in order to be copied so it may be that coin-collecting was a high caste pastime in the Dark Ages.
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Wile E. Coyote


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The whole IE creation myth of Battle Axes, Metallurgy, and Horse Riding of the Arian super-race was a prequel to the the Classical Civiliasation foundation myth of the Armoured Hoplite/Legionaire, Chariot riding, Hero/Emperor/God etc, as there was a need to create a fictionalised metal prehistory in the 19th century to help describe the existing coin evidence.

There is no evidence that heavy armour or chariots could be militarily functional at all, the use of these symbols on coins was by showing an indestructible armoured hero emperor, metal coins could signify a store of value over increasingly large trade areas which were widely accepted by all.

Most Ancient battles did not take place. Areas were coinquered by trade, not conquered by Heavily armoured heroes.
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Wile E. Coyote


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I should have added that the oared galley serves a similar mythic function to that of the chariot. Galleys, eg triremes are represetations of what a "warship" should look like to the ancient mind, they could not have functioned as warships.
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Hatty
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Wile E. Coyote wrote:
There is no evidence that heavy armour or chariots could be militarily functional at all, the use of these symbols on coins was by showing an indestructible armoured hero emperor, metal coins could signify a store of value over increasingly large trade areas which were widely accepted by all.

Most Ancient battles did not take place. Areas were coinquered by trade, not conquered by Heavily armoured heroes.

Funnily enough I was looking at a report about an excavation of an Iron Age chariot in Pocklington, East Yorkshire which turned out to be 'the most extensive square barrow cemetery found in 30 years'.

Burials of this form are associated with a particular Iron Age culture, known as the Arras tradition after a cemetery excavated in the early 19th century. The phenomenon first appears in the late 5th century BC, and remains distinctive down into the 1st century BC. In Britain, such burials are concentrated in eastern Yorkshire, but they closely resemble funerary rites practised in parts of northern France, suggesting a connection of some kind between the two regions. Traditionally, the rapid appearance of this new mode of commemoration is linked to invaders settling in Yorkshire. Previous Iron Age cemeteries in the region containing dismantled chariots or carts have been found up in the low chalk hills forming the Yorkshire Wolds, however.

Parisi chariot burials were discovered two hundred years ago, when archaeology was a relatively young academic subject. This seems to be the first find since then of an 'Arras culture' burial ground complete with horse and cow burials, but I wonder how archaeologists tell the difference between a 'chariot' and a plough, or 'cart' as they say perhaps because it sounds more like chariot.

There really doesn't seem to be any evidence of Parisiis being invaders though the article glosses over this by making sure we know they had 'settled' in the area and the people are thought to have lived (peaceably) in a nearby village called Hayton ('hay town'). Would there be much diff between implements used to farm on chalk in northern France and eastern Yorkshire?
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Mick Harper
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This business of the 'idealised warship' is germane to our quest to abolish the Vikings. Modern Scandis are very fond of making replica long ships but I wouldn't fancy crossing the North Sea in one and nor do they except with great circumspection. Modern Gleeks are just as fond putting out to sea in trireme replicas but concede the oar angle is all wrong. When I say triremes I mean biremes (is that right?) because getting three banks (never mind the five of the legendary quinqeremes) is not something modern Olympic rowers can manage.

Galleys though were the favoured warship of the Italian Renaissance vide Lepanto. Ho! Ho!
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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This is a very good. It's a seminar on an academic's 40 year search for the Battle of Actium, arguably the most famous of all ancient maritime battles, of course he devises all sorts of projects and reconstructions and arguments along the way. The battle map they produce, the size of a basketball court, is a particular must see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaAEHFeWads

Anyway, a wealth of information for The Boys Book of Imaginary Battles.
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Mick Harper
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Sailors always say it's unlucky having women aboard warships. Being commanded by one was going just that little bit too far. For our list of world records, Wylie, is this the only one you know of? Imaginary or real, we're easy. Like Cleopatra from what I've heard.
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Wile E. Coyote


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Artemisia I of Caria commanded ships at Salamis, according to Herodotus.
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Mick Harper
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You mean there was an Artemisia II. Who'd a thunk it?
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Mick Harper
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I watched (most) of your Actium steer, Wylie, and while I didn't quite have the stamina to reach the discussion of the battle site, I was very impressed by the bronze ram material.

One thought did occur to me. If Renaissance writers wanted to splice in some colourful Cleopatra water sports they would likely have chosen somewhere near Nicopolis, because of the well known Roman military memorial there (the clue is in the name). I didn't catch any news of whether excavators of the site (the guest lecturer being one such) had turned up anything specifically Octavian, Antonine or Cleopatrian.
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Wile E. Coyote


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I did pick up from the seminar that regular games were held at Nicopolis. The Actia were established by Augustus in 27 BC in Nicopolis, "the city of the victory", to celebrate his victory against Antony and Cleopatra.

The games consisted of a musical competition, athletic games and horse races (chariot?), along with a a boat-race (in some refs it's described as a sea battle).

I struggle with "ramming" - (behave...don't titter)- you have to imagine mighty fleets 6 miles across sailing towards each other with the objective of sailing their ship into another ship at speed so that the bronze ram penetrates - (ooh)- the other's hull, you then have to disengage -(stop tittering)- to avoid sinking along with the enemy you have just holed, to do that with 3 layers of oarsman is I would hazard a guess a tad difficult. In fact if you then attempt to board, you are going to go down -(stop it)- with the enemy's sinking ship. No doubt the practitioners of experimental archaeology, having shown that a trireme can sail, will now show ramming feasible, if you have the right size of crew member (enough).
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Mick Harper
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I did pick up from the seminar that regular games were held at Nicopolis. The Actia were established by Augustus in 27 BC in Nicopolis, "the city of the victory", to celebrate his victory against Antony and Cleopatra.

And, he said, in competition with the Olympic Games. It occurred to me that showbiz impresarios putting on such events will seek to link them with a hoary tradition (as is the case with our own Olympic impresarios) so

(a) the original Olympic Games might be spuriously linked back to 776 BC and the birth of Classical Greece
(b) the Nicopolis Games might be spuriously linked back to Augustus and the birth of the Roman Empire.
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