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Computing a Rosetta Stone for the Indus script (Rajesh Rao)
http://www.ted.com Rajesh Rao is fascinated by "the mother of all crossword puzzles": How to decipher the 4000 year old Indus script. At TED 2011 he tells how he is enlisting modern computational techniques to read the Indus language, the...
Video
Ancient wonders captured in 3D (Ben Kacyra)
http://www.ted.com Ancient monuments give us clues to astonishing past civilizations — but they're under threat from pollution, war, neglect. Ben Kacyra, who invented a groundbreaking 3D scanning system, is using his invention to scan...
Video
The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting (Anupam Mishra)
http://www.ted.com With wisdom and wit, Anupam Mishra talks about the amazing feats of engineering built centuries ago by the people of India's Golden Desert to harvest water. These structures are still used today — and are often superior...
Video
Sarah Parcak: Archeology from space
http://www.ted.com In this short talk, TED Fellow Sarah Parcak introduces the field of "space archeology" — using satellite images to search for clues to the lost sites of past civilizations. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of...
Video
Revealing the lost codex of Archimedes (William Noel)
http://www.ted.com How do you read a two-thousand-year-old manuscript that has been erased, cut up, written on and painted over? With a powerful particle accelerator, of course! Ancient books curator William Noel tells the fascinating story...
Video
2600 years of history in one object (Neil MacGregor)
http://www.ted.com A clay cylinder covered in Akkadian cuneiform script, damaged and broken, the Cyrus Cylinder is a powerful symbol of religious tolerance and multi-culturalism. In this enthralling talk Neil MacGregor, Director of the British...
Definition
Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall (known in antiquity as the Vallum Hadriani or the Vallum Aelian) is a defensive frontier work in northern Britain which dates from 122 CE. The wall ran from coast to coast at a length of 73 statute miles (120 km). Though the...
Article
The Fullers of Ancient Rome
The fullers of ancient Rome were launderers who washed the clothes of the city and also finished processing fabric later made into clothing, blankets, or other necessary items. They were looked down upon for their use of human and animal...
Definition
Fenrir
Fenrir is the great wolf in Norse Mythology who breaks free from his chains at Ragnarök, the twilight of the gods, kills Odin, and is then killed by Odin’s son Vidarr. Fenrir is the son of the trickster god Loki and brother of the World Serpent...
Definition
Iliad
Homer's Iliad describes the final year of the Trojan War, a legendary conflict between an alliance of Greek cities and the city of Troy in Anatolia. It was probably written in the 8th century BCE after a long oral tradition. The Greeks themselves...