End-October Update I am through with the second leg of my FutureLearn course called "Radical Spirituality: The Early History of the Quakers". This is my third history course. Though this learning highway is not designed for professionals it transmits professional info and enables interesting discussions. I am not contented with writing my personal response and not always I have something ready. However, while looking through other replies, I can come up with an original approach. Before that, I finished a course, Archaeology of Portus: Exploring the Lost Harbor of Ancient Rome. These tracks are not necessarily linked to my own research but they give me an outlook of the work of historians, a glimpse of a bunch of exact sciences borrowed to pinpoint certain issues, and a chance to confront with the mainstream theories. I have reread the account of William of Rubruck and picked up a slew of citations which I need to lace together to finish up a draft of a current c...
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New Developments October 2
Not much is going on. I'm still collecting material for a new chapter about William of Rubruck. I have to describe the Mongol society as this traveler witnessed. My page on Scriggler has reached over 12 K readers. My platform is growing in spite of the fact that I don't publish new articles. My publisher advised me not to upload the whole book on the web. You can read about nine chapters at https://scriggler.com/Profile/michael_baizerman If I write some notes on other topics, I will add them to my list. I finished the fourth leg of FutureLearn course "The Archeology of Portus". Week 4 was devoted to the development of the port in the III-IV centuries AD. In 337 AD it became a town. We explored Building 5 which is supposed to be a ship shed measuring 240 m in length and 18 m in height. It had 12 bays for ships of various widths, from 4.5 m to 20 m. The researchers are sure that its initial function was to repair and build ships. The ship shed opens both on the C...
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, th...
Archeology of Portus I recently joined the FutureLearn history course centered on the archaeological dig of Portus, the marine port of Rome which functioned about 500 years from mid-I century CE. The course is presented by Dr. Graeme Earl from the University of Southampton. It includes video mini-lectures and interviews, virtual tour of the site, scientific articles, and much more. The division of participants into study groups enables to review the remarks of other members, check new links, and read the instructors' comments. Week 1 shows the reason for digging an artificial marine port by the emperor Claudian: the needs of the burgeoning population of Rome in foodstuffs, building materials, and luxury items. We take a glimpse of foreign trade across the Mediterranean and enjoy the terrific look of old buidings reconstructed by computer graphics. The map of the imperial Portus http://www.archaeology.org/issues/168-1503/features/2971-rome-portus-rise-of-em...