When the Summer is Nearly Over

Last week was full of little "events" which gave me great relief and comfort.

I finished the draft of the first chapter of my last unit with the working title, The Witness in the Den.

My maiden witness is John of Plano Carpini. 

The full list, which I composed before doing research, enlists 14 names. However, I'm going to curtail it significantly: it should be an actual travel, which excludes fantastic travelogs. It should be penned by the witness himself, which excludes the Travels of Marco Polo. My next item is William of Rubruck. 

I completed the second leg of the FutureLearn course in Roman history, The Archeology of Portus, led by a team from Southampton University. We focused on the reign of Emperor Trajan who enlarged Portus by digging a hexagonal harbor basin fringed by new warehouses and baths. We also reviewed the absolute dating using brick stamps and spoke about the entire port network which included canals, the Tiber, and riverine ports at Ostia and Emporium, Rome. 

I took up a new course, ChinaX, introduced by a team from the Harvard University, which concentrates on medieval China, especially the Mongol and Ming periods. The topic is partially connected to my own research and will allow me to "check the pulse" of modern science.