Medieval mural's tales of sorceryDec.28.2004, Guardian Unlimited
Link via Mirabilis.ca
A mural which has come to light in Tuscany has been identified by a British university lecturer as the earliest surviving representation of witchcraft in Christian Europe.
Everything is peculiar about this article. Everything. Start with the opening sentence. When you read more, you'll discover that what is represented is not so much a case of "witchraft in Christian Europe" as it is a scene of "medieval Christian Europe's fears and frustrations projected onto women." I guess that is what's so bizarre about this article -- the sets of assumptions and biases worked into the artefact.
Women warriors from Amazon fought for Britain's Roman armyDec.22.2004, Times Online
Link via Archaeology in Europe
The women are thought to have come from the Danube region of Eastern Europe, which was where the Ancient Greeks said the fearsome Amazon warriors could be found.
A must read. The burial, funeral, and military details are fascinating. And then there's the A-word: Amazon. In this case, they've found some graves of high status women warriors working as part of an "irregular" Roman army unit, raised in the Danube and attached to a legion sent to Britain. Hmmm. If they keep coming up with evidence that Amazons really existed, we might just have to start believing in their existence. Radical.
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