Black Friday? Cyber Monday? Wind back 2000 years to Ancient Rome

Campus Martius Rome, AD 300 (reconstruction)

Shopping is a national obsession in many countries and December is the peak of the frenzy. In a way, it’s a sign of the relative wealth of 21st century people, but in another it plays to the instincts of acquisition and, somewhere in the lizard brain –survival.

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Roman dishwashing

Ancient Roman kitchen (Museum of London reconstruction) Author photo

When our dishwasher broke down, we ended up washing and rinsing by hand – glass, cutlery, crockery, kitchen casseroles, pots and pans – and it provoked thoughts about Roman kitchens and cleaning the dishes two thousand years ago.

Memories of camping washing-up in my […]

An apology and light at the end of the tunnel – EXSILIUM

EXSILIUM coming soon

Underground tunnel in Naples

To my horror, I spotted that I hadn’t written a post since September. You have my apologies, my sincere ones.

But I have a good excuse. Well, I think it’s a good excuse. I’ve been in the last quarter of the 4th century (again!) but this time at the […]